Windows of Learning

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When I was in elementary school (longer ago than I wish to admit) the buildings were old and classic in their architecture. The design of the buildings included a lot of brick, columns and big, bright windows. At the time I really didnt notice the windows. Except when I was daydreaming. But as my school years progressed and I went to different schools in newer and newer buildings, the windows shrunk in size. By the end of my high school years the windows were just tall slits that looked more like something from a prison than a school. Then once in college, the windows were big and bright again because the buildings were older and traditional.

I didnt think much about the different windows until years later when I took my own kids to their first school. The new classrooms barely had any windows. And posters, bookshelves and other light blocking paraphernalia covered what windows they had. The classrooms felt closed and confining. When I asked administrators about it, they felt the concept of keeping kids focused without windows to distract them was goal.

Then along comes Legacy Traditional School. The architecture of the buildings are traditional and the classrooms are warm, inviting, yet state-of-the-art. And they have big bright windows with blinds that can cut off those daydreamers yet still let in studious amounts of daylight. Legacy Traditional School’s building design and particularly the window size was not a random choice.

A study by the University of Salford School of the Built Environment in Manchester, England looked at student success and physical elements in their classrooms to see if there were any correlations. They looked at several different parameters including the amount of natural light in the classroom. In short, they found that students did better in classrooms that had more natural light and bigger windows.

Natural light and window size seems like a small thing to consider. But this is the level of detail Legacy Traditional School looks at to help our students learn and succeed.