Josh Bell is a New York City public schools parent. He wrote this article for the New York Daily News. The article reminded me that New York City public school officials in the early 20th century conducted outdoor classes for students with tuberculosis.
He writes:
Last weekend, the city started closing down sections of dozens of busy streets for several blocks in all five boroughs so that restaurants could set up more tables outside. If the city can do this for dining, surely it can do the same for learning. Schoolyards and athletic fields, of which there are hundreds, could be repurposed as well.
It’s really not that complicated. Put up tents — the big ones used for weddings, with sides that roll down for bad weather — add desks, chairs and a whiteboard, and boom: you just made a classroom. The bonus is that air circulation would be much better than indoor classrooms, a major concern for teachers and parents alike.
For schools with already adjacent outdoor space, and there are many, a big part of the solution is already on their doorsteps. And just think of how much street space there is on one block with no parked cars: It’s thousands of square feet. The classrooms could be separated with simple dividers.
In parks and elsewhere, we had field hospitals when we thought we needed them to treat a coronavirus surge. Why not field schools?
Brilliant.
Outdoor classrooms would be a snap in regions with mild weather. As Josh Bell points out, they would work anywhere.
The healthiest place to be is in the open air.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Sounds good but add sides to the tents and propane heaters when the weather turns in the fall and you have a similar air quality environment as the indoor classrooms.
It might be a solution to spreading students out but air quality is questionable.
We have space on our blacktop with the sun beating down. The city can’t put air conditioners in regular classrooms – how do you think they’ll do with a bunch of tents sitting out in the blazing sun?
Put up a tent.
Battery-operated fans?
Or maybe– nothing. The kids on my suburban block are outdoors most of the day, sans tents [much less fans].
In 85 humid degrees.
I think students and teachers should have the same conditions to work in as Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg, our congressional representatives, et.al. have when they go to work.
Mamie Krupczak Allegretti: Years ago, I had a friend who was high up in a bank in Chicago, international division. He invited me to lunch in the exclusive executive lunch room.
I saw what they were given and my thoughts were, “Teachers have made it when our teachers’ lounges look like this.”
Teachers’ eat their lunch too often at their desks. The teachers’ lounges in schools have rusty left over tables and folding chairs that must have been cast offs from some past era.
Good morning Diane and everyone,
Good idea but I have to laugh a little thinking about how I would actually conduct class outside not to mention all the other things I would have to do to PREPARE for teaching. I don’t think people realize what teachers actually DO in school. First, if we were teaching in a strictly oral way, it might be ok. But kids need to have books, papers, laptops, art supplies, instruments, etc. How would I get their books and supplies to them? How big of a cart would I have to push? What about students who don’t bring their materials? How big of a backpack would they need? Kids’ backpacks are huge enough already! Where would I get copies made and WHEN? Most of my time NOT teaching would be spent doing a myriad of things. Talk about stress. Some kids need to take medication at school Where would the Nurse’s office be? Do I just let kids leave my tent and go to the Nurse’s tent without supervision? How would they get their meals? Would a big truck roll up? We would need portable bathrooms and who would clean them? How would you be able to ensure student safety since they could just leave the tent and go anywhere. I mean, in schools now, kids have to have passes in the hallways so staff can know where they are and where they came from. I’m sure there’s much more I haven’t thought of. This would take a lot of logistical thought as well. It’s not just a matter of dumping students and teachers in a tent and saying, ‘LEARN!!!”
The security/ wandering-off bit is the only one that resonates w/ me. But I think could be addressed by hiring one aide per class devoted to monitoring wandering-off.
The portapotty-cleaning issue can surely be addressed somehow. Probably via enough janitors so somebody can be sanitizing every one, every 1/2-hr.
Nurse’s tents would have to be staffed w/aides who rotate to each class, pick up & return kids to class tents.
The rest is jettisonable. Don’t require more supplies/ books than can be carried by each stud in a pre-supplied backpack: you wouldn’t be able to hand back& forth/ re-use for another group in an indoors class, anyway, right?
Each tent will need electrical hookup, & perhaps wifi… Or not. I am cavalier about that, as a special who rotates from one PreK to another w/a rolling cart containing battery-op boombox/ CD’s, plus big-books, poster-sized visuals, & a lightwt homemade display stand.
I used to sub at Sub Center South in Chicago on days when suburban schools were on vacation.
One time, I subbed in a special education room for middle school students. I had heard that the last time a sub came, all the students had walked out the door and gone home. A Black student teacher came into the room and put his chair by the door and sat down so that nobody could leave. He proceeded to have a discussion with the children on what they knew about happenings on the streets. I heard all sorts of stories of drug usage and relatives or friends who had been shot and some killed.
This is/was inner city Chicago.
I seriously doubt that these outdoor eating places will be open when the temperature reaches 32F.
Classrooms are sometimes freezing in the winter because of faulty boilers in old schools. it’s not recommended.
I haven’t had much experience with cold weather. Where I taught the greatest danger was the heat. We had “heat storms”. When it’s between 100 and 120 degrees, it’s dangerous even in the shade. Everyone feels sick. No one learns. Do the tent advocates suggest night school as well? That would not solve the baby-sitting/economy problem that is really behind all this rush back to classrooms.
Ooh you are right: night school. You may be onto something there. In your climate, restaurants and bars and even shops might want to be doing biz in cooler night hours. I’ve just read a study showing that air-conditioned spaces are not “well-ventilated” in the coronavirus sense, in fact almost certainly proliferate spread…
32deg F bothers you? ROFL as one raised in upstate-NY during much colder winters than are now experienced there. 32deg F is quite doable for eating, as well as physically-active learning, providing one is properly dressed. Whole lotta learning could take place if accompanied by moving around.
Close school/ dismiss if it’s precipitating, or if a wind whips up.
“32deg F bothers you?”
I knew another teacher who went to Japan to teach and he wrote that the classrooms had no heating or cooling. In the winter, it was freezing inside and no one complained.
For anyone, if you grow up in an environment without HVAC, you are used to it, and if you did grow up with HVAC, you can adjust.
I welcome all these retired teachers who have creative ideas and still have their license, fingerprints and SCR clearance to come model how it should be done for us. I need a two week long demo-lesson please. I will observe while I guard the periphery of the outdoor tent (only half kidding).
Sorry, I wouldn’t go back in the classroom if someone held a loaded pistol to my head and said they would shoot me if I didn’t do it. I’d die first.
When I retired, I decided if I had to get a job again and couldn’t find out, I’d volunteer to become a walking bomb in Afghanistan and blow myself up to kill as many Taliban leaders as possible before I’d return to teaching.
I already spent thirty years in that battlefield. Teaching was tougher than the Marines and fighting in Vietnam, and I came back from Vietnam with a severe case of PTSD. I think teaching just made the PTSD worse.
If I was given a chance to live my life over, I would not return as a teacher in this effing country. Too bad, there isn’t a way to let children decide what country they get to be born in. If I had that choice, I think I’d pick Finland as my birthplace and grow up there. I can’t be born again, so oh well.
No more 60-to-100 hour work weeks for me and all those long nights correcting papers and planning lessons seven days a week during the school year until my vision blurred and I stumbled off to bed for three to five hours of sleep before the next long day of teaching started.
No more unpaid summers for me and working second jobs.
No more parents accusing me of being boring causing their child to refuse the work that was assigned even though most of the kids did the same work with the same me as their teacher.
No more parents accusing me of losing their child’s homework. And when I asked the kid to open their notebook, the unfinished work she or he never turned in was there. Those kinds of parents never apologized. They’d storm off.
No more parents bullying me to accept their child’s work late weeks after it was supposed to be turned in. And when I refused to accept it that late, they went to the principal or even to a district administrator to put pressure on me.
In August, I will have been retired for 15 years, and I like it that way.
Did I work with great kids? Yea, and every morning when I parked in the school parking lot, I reminded myself that I was there for them. That is what I did for their years. I gave my all for the great kids and put up with the lying politicians and manipulating billionaires and lousy district administrators and parents that were bullies or horrible parents.
But, when I retired in August of 2005, I walked away from that world never to return. I served my time. Never again.
? Not retired. Nor are many of the frequent commenters.
But not a public school teacher either: I salaam regularly to you in those trenches, & glad to have another onboard.
I love this thinking. If we are back full time I hope to spend a lot of time outside in September in October. Having a wedding tent, white board etc., would be amazing (especially if we had portable bathrooms nearby). This kind of brainstorming is what we need. Teacher’s anxiety spikes when we think about small, crowded rooms with kids in masks and a spray bottle to disinfect. We need creative thinking and planning like in this article.
Thanks for seeing that it’s possible to think outside the four walls box.
In my last teaching post, I taught theater and film (and English and debate). I often took my theater kids outside (we didn’t have an actual theater) where there was room enough for them to work on individual monologues or in small groups on scenes, until, that is, my administration shut this down. The outside venue was perfect for this work.
Utah is hotter than Hades for the first few weeks of school–over 90 degrees until late September. Then, by late Ocotber until March, it’s freezing. This does not work for where I am, note for a lot of other climates either. Kids can’t learn if they are roasting or freezing.
The DOE could never pull off the logistics for this.
The DOE could not pull it off for 1.1 million students. But they could try and it would work for some. Time for creativity.
So that’s an equity issue.
I’m skeptical it could be done for many. No available outdoor space at most schools, so it would require shuttling kids all over the place outdoor space. Shelter in rain would be a big problem. Wind blowing stuff all over the place. Just seems fanciful.
I’m very skeptical that NYC schools are going to be functional for a long time. People with money are organizing tutoring-centered education for small groups. Private schools will find a way to function because those parents will demand in person schooling. NYC has absolutely crushed “the curve” and teachers are terrified of coming into school buildings. Will they be less afraid in the winter, when flu season starts up? I think not. I think NYC public schools are basically finished until a vaccine comes out. They’ll do their part-remote learning plan, there’ll be some spike in infections, and the whole thing will tumble down.
If I can hang on long enough, and if I can sell my apartment, I will leave this city next year after 25 years here. My son deserves a high school education (I’m writing off the rest of his middle school education). He deserves to live somewhere where he can walk out the door without being intimidated by street criminals or the mentally ill, or seeing heroin use, public masturbation, and open drug trade.
O, I am so sorry, FLERP.
My hubby was born & bred NYC, & I’d already lived there 15 yrs before giving birth to the 1st of 3 in a row (we left 5 yrs later). We LOVED our Bklyn brownstone, & our block & our nghbrs, & left very reluctantly. Hubby had already been reverse-commuting to NJ for 2 yrs by then. And that wasn’t the trigger. It was the late-’80’s/ early-’90’s, the height of the crack epidemic. A lot of theft/ muggings: you had to look over yr shoulder & listen for footsteps. And, though the nearby primaries were excellent, the playground of the local middle-school was strewn w/ vials & spent needles every morning– & we knew we couldn’t afford priv midsch for 3. That’s what did it.
Best of luck.
Ah, yes, the needles are everywhere. Lot of knives on the street. I carry a mini baseball bat with me when I go out. It’s really sad stuff.
Melissa: everything is an equity issue, no? Schools cannot solve baked-in US economical/ racial inequality, but they can help. For example, reserving the 35-50% in-person [safe, socially-distanced etc] seats for the poor & SpEd, & reqg those w/a parent working at home (or w/a babysitting household member) to learn remotely.
I work in a school with 99% poverty and 20% sped 60% ELL population so that won’t work at most Title One schools.
Going back to the “Eskimo blankets” “warming stones” and tents in the context on NYC schools, we can not open the schools under the assumption that some schools have access to outdoor space and some don’t. My husband teaches at a 700-student middle/high school near Union Square in NYC. There is absolutely no where within walking distance to ha e outdoor space. So this is cuts across socioeconomic status in our city because even historically well-resourced schools may not have outdoor space.
Right you are, Melissa. I lived in MH & Bklyn 20 yrs, & w/ few exceptions, the PS’s near me had zero outdoor space, regardless of degree of nghbd wealth. And frankly the idea of closing blocks so kids can set up chairs on the smelly hot street sounds disgusting. Maybe in the parks?
But you raise an important point, & thanks for the reality check. I was imagining a solution for towns like the one where my sister teaches (in low-pop-density upstate-NY). Title I schools have no flexibility in this regard. Any action along those lines would have to be organized by sharing bldgs across borders, & then what about safe transportation, & are there even enough lower%-poverty bldgs to make a dent. Residential segregation by SES creates big problems w/ or w/o a pandemic.
I made a little video for my co-workers of what a Phonics lesson would look like in these conditions. I would love to send it to you Diane.
We had a K student this year run away from his para at recess and he made it all the way over the pedestrian bridge on 10th before they caught him. His PT said “Goals met….student graduated from PT.” 🤣🤣 No way this will work in any level. Too many hazards. nYC isn’t Little House on the Prairie. The DOE can not do this on an operational level.
What about students who have orders of protection against a parent? What about allergies? The air quality where I live and work in Upper Manhattan is terrible for asthmatics.
No single remedy works for all.
Time for creativity.
Hello Melissa,
“nYC isn’t Little House on the Prairie.”
This line was good enough to give me my belly laugh of the day!
And another thing… Schools have a lot of security measures in place – one entrance for visitors, locking doors, lockdown drills in case of school shooters, cameras in the hallways, regulations for people who can visit the school and pick up students and on and on. If these are things schools do now to protect students and staff in buildings, how would we translate that to outdoor tents????? We have to have some kinds of protective measures if we are outside and open to a lot of different situations that could happen. Has anyone thought of that????
You raise a serious point here Mamie that could be a clincher: what about security??
There is almost zero security in outdoor tents from a child-stealer [custody battle – or worse], let alone god forbid a school shooter. You could ring the area w/ a few SRO’s, but that doesn’t compare to the security of a locked, limited-access bldg. The statistical chances of such incidents are low– probably lower than the covid-infection risks to studs/ staff inside bldgs– but who would send their kids into such a situation even given the low odds?
I like it. If I were to go back, i would probably have real reservations about using the window unit in my room. It cools at about a C-. Running it would not be worth the cost of keeping six large windows closed. Industrial fans might be better, at my expense of course. AZ, FL, HI, heck even WA and OR are at an advantage here, as half or more of their year could be tented. Materials for instruction would be limited, certainly no chromebooks or ipads. You would need some assistance for shuttling stuff while classes in session. Also this option provides no relief for communities plagued by gun violence.
in our city the district now says “no fans or window units” — one more reason why going back to class will simply not be an option
I am peri menopausal and need my personal fan at all times. Not sure how I will work with a mask, shield, anxiety and hormonal flop sweats. Sounds like fun times.
RE: window AC units: don’t use them even if they cool to “A+.” Study just out of China, on indoor-cooled restaurants, shows they amplify coronavirus spread. They recirculate exhaled air w/o viral filtering. Coronaviral spread was to those directly under unit and in path of its cooling air.
I agree it wouldn’t work everywhere and each district is unique. But it’s a start to thinking outside the box – if we are going to have to go back anyway. Maybe kiddos who are flight risks (we have them too) would have a different plan? Using coaches and literacy teachers differently to support those kiddos who wouldn’t work in the outdoor setting…..not having to teach the typical phonics lesson . . . . . .
It’s at least a thought beyond masks, sanitizer and plexiglass.
Those literacy teachers have job descriptions and contracts. If the DOE is going to be “Creative” then they need to write us a news memorandum of understanding. A literacy coach is not a special educator and a child has an IEP guaranteeing education in the least restrictive environment. Having a literacy coach babysit the runners is not fair to anyone.
I honestly apologize and should have thought longer before pressing “send” on that comment. I was not thinking of every district or meaning to offend. We may not be able to let our students leave the classroom for one-on-one instruction this year and that just came to mind. Believe me I get it. I was a literacy teacher too.
Strike that suggestion off my comment.
Melissa, I truly apologize and didn’t mean to offend. I replied to apologize about 20 minutes ago too – but it didn’t post – so you may eventually get two apologies. In my district we may not be able to have literacy intervention groups outside the classroom this fall and thought I would love to either have a class outside or be a teacher to a group of 2-3 students learning creatively indoors – keeping everyone in a learning environment that fits their needs and rises to the challenge we are facing. I was a literacy teacher too and value the position. And I would never suggest not supporting an IEP.
My reply was written quickly and not meant as a completely thought out policy or solution for all schools or individual children. It was meant only as a start to brainstorming ways that we can learn outside. It would require a more thought out process to actually become a reality…. if it’s even possible.
Here’s a message Joe and Dr. Jill Biden on opening schools.https://www.facebook.com/joebiden/videos/276349643816782
Thank you for sharing this. It’s hopeful. Maybe a silver lining is the understanding by many that public schools are underfunded and we need to re-think and re-imagine what education looks like……including, like Diane said “school outside the 4 walls of a classroom” and play and outdoor learning for children under the age of 8 (and older).
‘Alarming’: Trump Blocks CDC Officials From Testifying to Education Panel on School Reopenings
“It’s imperative that we listen to the experts… the president is barring them from the room.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/18/alarming-trump-blocks-cdc-officials-testifying-education-panel-school-reopenings?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Weekly%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Weekly%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email
Yes in this situation, the teachers are the experts at what it would be like to transfer their work to outdoor space. And also me, a school occupational therapist, who has expertise in task analysis and the many components that make up teaching and learning in schools on the level of person, environment and task.
So many questions with this idea…restrooms, water fountains, lockdown drills, security? Within 3 weeks it would be too cold. Running a safe source of power would be difficult. Technology would come to a halt maybe a good thing). No guarantee the air quality would be any good especially for kids with fall allergies. Noise could also be a problem. Also how do keep supplies in order when the wind picks up? My suggestion, let’s keep treading water until January and hopefully a vaccine
This outdoor thing is going to be DOA because no insurance company is going to provide a liability policy to school systems with a ragtag mix of outdoor teaching space.
Also, sleep away camps have nothing but appropriate outdoor space and most of them didn’t open. The majority of camps that did open are closed again because of outbreaks.
Decades ago, my high school needed to temporarily expand [baby boom]. Instead of expanding with a brick and mortar addition, four big “mobile home” structures were purchased. They had electricity and heat. Class size was about thirty students. Whenever there was a tornado warning, we had to shelter in the brick and mortar part of the school.
Hopefully, COVID immunity will be life long. If it is short lived, affluent districts will likely spend the money to increase classroom space to provide lower density classrooms. “Mobile homes” and tents won’t work for all, but are options to help reduce classroom pupil density.
Lots of districts still use thoes “temporary” classrooms. My school alone has eight of them, some of which have been around for 2 decades and were built in the 70 s or 80 s. The ceiling tiles sag, holes in the roof, insect
infestations, you name it. Some schools in my district have 17 or 18 of these rooms. The walls in mine are carpeted: huge fire hazard.
Francis Kelly Fan: how’s the ventilation in those mobile-home supplementary bldgs for their 30 students? Doesn’t sound any safer than brick&mortar counterparts, & probably less so.
Bethree5, I don’t think it is safe to open schools now in the U.S. given the prevalence of COVID. The different plans are just differing in being less unsafe than others. More classrooms just gives the administrators more ability to have fewer students per room. When the students go to the bathroom and are inhaling the aerosol from all the flushing, they will likely be breathing in abundant viral material.
A lot of middle class and affluent families will stick with online learning at home because they are afraid of sending their children to in person schools. They may hate online only at home, but it is less terrifying than sending them to school.
Unless the Internet testing industry can have the children take their useless, meaningless but profitable high stakes tests outside, they will not support outside education. People like David Coleman don’t give a damn about children getting sick or dying as long as they are taking his test and he is still getting that high six or seven-figure annual income.
Didn’t Coleman say once no one cares about what you say so why should he care about keeping kids safe?
Yes, and just think of the MILLIONS of $$$$$ that have been–& will continue to be–wasted on testing that could, instead, be put to good use to help us solve at least some of this crisis.
But…noooooooo…
Just think of all the Eskimo blankets, tents and warming stones we can buy with that money. Sorry, the insanity of that idea never stops being funny. 😉
NYC dwellers, please report: have any of you dined in the street as described here? Street– not sidewalk. Unless the sweeper-machines have started using something besides plain water, I can’t imagine it. My street if anything stunk worse right after the cleaners came through.
I live at the corner of Broadway and Dyckman, which is a Manhattan bar hotspot. The amount of garbage in the mornings and the smell is disgusting (my Two dachshunds love it though….we have to dig chicken bones and lemon wedges out of their throats daily now) Also, I can’t look out the window past 10 PM because mask wearing and social distancing is Absent at the outdoor bar across the street.
Dachshunds! Such sweet doggies!
Are you gonna let you kid sit in a tent in 0 degree weather? -20 degrees? This is not a practical option for northern climates
Amen!!!! I have been saying the same thing. I can’t understand why this is a problem since they would not be permanent structures. They could be taken down and put back up daily.