How many of you can remember the "old" schools that were built before 1950, say? Can you picture the ones I mean? Not the single story ones. Probably built of brick, though not necessarily.

The school that I started my career in had high ceilings . . . twelve feet high or more.

There were also very tall windows that went from near the floor to near the ceiling.

And, these windows opened at the top and at the bottom!

You know what else? There was another window, a "transom" window, over the door that opened into the inside hallway.

The hallways helped move the air through the building. There was excellent natural ventilation.

There was excellent ventilation because our grandparents and ancestors new the importance of good ventilation and because they really cared about us.

As I recall, there were five maybe six rows of desks. Do you remember the wooden desks with the hole for the ink bottle? The desks in each row were connected together on two rails. I believe that there were six or seven desks in each row.

That means there were probably a minimum of 30 students per room and perhaps as many as 40 or more.

I also recall that these class rooms were spacious. There was room at the back for activities. There was room for bookshelves, and I believe remembering a side chalkboard in addition to the one in the front of the room.

SO WHAT?

Well, I do have a "so what," but first we came here to answer a question:

Remember? Why were the ceilings so high in those old schools? (answer)

I suspect you have heard the school teachers, or more accurately, some one claiming to represent the school teachers, complain about class size.

Of course "their" translation deals with the number of children the teacher has.

But, wait a minute! Couldn't the real complaint be over room size, over class room size?

Over very small rooms? Over very small rooms with low ceilings? Over very small rooms with low ceilings AND WITH POOR, SOMETIMES VERY POOR VENTILATION?