Thursday, May 17, 2007

comfort or discomfort at school by Tebianne

Going to school everyday for more than seven hours, shouldn't it be a comfortable environment for everyone? Our school is uncomfortable sometimes, because of the heating and cooling system. In order to learn to the best of your ability, you need to be comfortable. Sometimes the classroom temperatures are uncomfortable either being too hot or too cold. The different classroom temperatures can cause kids to get sick, teachers not doing their best to prepare for the next class, and kids not able to do their best to focus.
You always have to wear your jacket when you're a classroom that's too cool, but then there are also some classes that are too hot in the same day. About 50% of the students in team 7-2 agreed that some of the times they have to wear their jackets to keep warm in class. Switching from a cold environment to a hot environment causes people to catch colds. A little less than ¾ of the students are sometimes uncomfortable and only 6% are always comfortable in classrooms, according to our survey. Colds are like a domino effect, if one person catches a cold then someone else is most likely to catch it, which then causes the students to have to leave school for a day or two. Missing school causes you to sometimes fall behind on your class work if you are absent for a long time, which then lowers your grades. A consistent indoor environment helps to prevent catching a cold.

Classroom temperatures don't only affect students, but also teachers. If a teacher catches a cold, than that teacher would have to go home and suffer from having a substitute. Substitutes sometimes don't teach the lesson as well as your classroom teachers would and sometimes don't get all of the work out to the students. This delays the learning of new things and causes lessons to take longer than they are expected. Some kids have to stay after school to get their work done, but if the teacher was in a cold room than she would be tired and want to go home, which leads to the students not being able to stay after school and getting their work done. One of my teachers in Francis C. Hammond Mrs.Hamburger had this problem and had to leave because of the classroom temperatures.

Keeping a place healthy is necessary for any building, especially a school, because many people go there to learn and the schools have to make sure that the kids are learning to their best ability. More than half of the students on team 7-2 said that they would learn better in a comfortable environment. In a place where you go 5 days a week for more than 7 hours, you should be in a comfortable environment. So why shouldn't our school get newer and improved heating and air conditioners?

No comments: