air conditioning

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Home : 2002 : July : 29

air conditioning
By Carolyn

I sympathize with those of you where there is no air-conditioning in your school. When I taught in PA, we had no air-conditioning except in the newest schools. When it got hot, we did everything we could to get cool: pull
down the blinds, install heavy curtains to keep the sun out, have class outdoors under the shade of a tree (not much comfort there, but at least it wasn't stuffy like a classroom), and turn off the lights. In addition, we had children keep water bottles at their desks. Of course, we had head-related sickness within our schools.
I now teach in the sunny South where air-conditioning

is not a luxury or an option, especially since we have year-round schools. Here in North Carolina, we have had 23 days of 90F degrees and above, and today is expected to be 98F (34C). Even our 10-month students will be returning to school on August 9. I would expect that the local health officials would close any school with non-functioning air-conditioning.