Report of Committee on school inquiry, Board of estimate an apportionment, city of New York .. . ek, and but nine months in the year. They lie idle inthe evenings, the late afternoons, on holidays and Sundays, and areused to not more than 50 per cent, of their possible efficiency. The in-terest on this investment is $5,000,000 a year, and measured in moneyterms, the loss to the community in interest and sinking fund chargesalone, through failure to use these facilities up to their capacity, is inthe neighborhood of $2,500,000 a year. To the school buildings the children are accustomed to come.
Report of Committee on school inquiry, Board of estimate an apportionment, city of New York .. . ek, and but nine months in the year. They lie idle inthe evenings, the late afternoons, on holidays and Sundays, and areused to not more than 50 per cent, of their possible efficiency. The in-terest on this investment is $5,000,000 a year, and measured in moneyterms, the loss to the community in interest and sinking fund chargesalone, through failure to use these facilities up to their capacity, is inthe neighborhood of $2,500,000 a year. To the school buildings the children are accustomed to the life of the children activities of the adolescent and theparent can be easily grouped. There is little inertia to be overcome bythe public schools: no racial, religious or political prejudices to be de-stroyed. Round about the schools the dance hall plies its trade, as dothe saloon and other shabby places of recreation. Outside of the doorsof the inhospitable school children play in the street; they have noplace to go after school hours; no place in the evening, on holidays, or 432. THE ECONOMIC UTILIZATION OF SCHOOL PLANT 433 on Sunday. They are demoralized by the street, by the unregulatedinlluences of gang life, and by the commercialized agencies of recrea-tion which flourish upon them. The existing commercial means of recreation disintegrate the fam-ily; the school center will bring the family together. Lnder presentconditions the father goes to the saloon, the daughter to the dancehall, the boy to the pool room, the dance hall, or the gang. There isno place in the great city for the whole family but the school. It is theonly agency that can bring the family together by reason of the varietyof entertainments that can be offered. The experience of the Board of Education, as well as of the volun-tary activities described elsewhere, indicates that the people are eagerto use the public school properties in a great variety of ways, if theyare open to them on more gener
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