My middle school had a weird thing where it was an outdoor middle school, and each building consisted of four classrooms in the corners attached by a central plus shaped hallway in the middle and the interior hallway had two sets of bathrooms male and female. And there were like 10 or so buildings like this on campus so 40 classrooms and 20 bathrooms. It was a neat little arrangement, but it didn’t prevent me from being bullied because as said above that happened between classes.
Maybe I’m mistaken, but this seems like an utterly massive undertaking. Just so I’m sure what you’re suggesting, but you’re suggesting adding dozens of new rooms that require specialized plumbing to every school in the country? In the middle of current classrooms where there may or may not be rooms for a bathroom anyway?
If I’m mistaken, can you clarify?
Maybe I lived a sheltered life. Maybe the world USA really has gone to hell in a handbasket in the last 50 years since I finished high school.
From grade school through high school I rarely went to the bathroom during class; nearly never had that level of urgency. And I cannot recall ever using a bathroom whether during class, between classes, during recess, or during lunch where there was smoking, bullying, or other illicit activities. You went in, did your business alone or with a couple others doing similar, and you left. Boo-oooring.
IIRC our kindergarten class had washrooms directly off the classroom. The other grades of that school, plus the other 3 schools I later attended, did not.
Most of the classes we had already had sinks. Sure, spatial issues are real. Plumbing costs would add up. But it’s not like it couldn’t be done by professionals in a few months if so many homeowners manage it. It should be compared to the costs of not doing it, if it actually provides benefit. Maybe it isn’t the biggest impact on teacher stress and cheating is not the biggest problem. But psychological health? Ability to better learn with decreased smartphone on me use? I’m not saying it would definitely help. But I do want to discuss why it might, or might not.
I also rarely went to the bathroom. But it was largely because the bathrooms were smokey morasses, so i avoided them unless it was really urgent. So, mostly only on the day i got my period. (I have never been regular.)
It sounds like a great idea to me, but expensive enough to need some evidence before widespread adoption.
I’m not at all sure that’s usual. In addition to the schools I attended , the schools my children attended and the multiple schools I took SATs and service tests in, there has been one classroom with its own restroom. It was the pre-K classroom in my kids grade school. The only rooms with sinks were science labs. I don’t think it will solve any problems. It might move them but that’s not the same as solving them. Additionally, are we getting rid of the existing restrooms ? Because teenage me would never have used a restroom that was in the classroom unless I had no choice - and I’m sure I’m not the only one.
Same. 1980s-1990s.
Like building on the greenbelt? Remember who is running our province.
My kids went to the same public, middle, and high schools my wife attended. Little had changed in 30 years. Designs for new schools should change - single occupancy washrooms, proper ventilation for airborne illness, air conditioning - but new schools, especially in established areas, are few and far between.
Okay, let’s put aside the difficulty of funding renovations and focus on whether this theoretical intervention would help.
I’m not sure why it would help in most cases. I don’t see a lot to justify that belief.
The problem being solved doesn’t appear to be major.
The idea seems to be that, if there’s a single-occupant washroom or two in the classroom, they are more easily monitored. Students never are in the less monitored hallways. Hence it prevents the bullying and/or smoking culture that often seems to arise in school restrooms. (Even my high school, which didn’t really have the bullying stuff, would have smokers in the restrooms occasionally–to the point they started just locking all but one.)
I note that this was the norm at my elementary school, which was a Montessori schoolhouse. But do note that they have a higher teacher per student ratio, having 2 or 3 teachers per normal classroom size. (Such is necessary since students work at their own pace with individualized lessons.)
I think it’s a great idea and I would be in full support of it. It eliminates the lack of supervision in a centralized washroom, the time in the halls delaying return to the classroom, all the issues around access to washrooms for gender non-conforming kids, etc.
The down side is the cost of both building and maintaining the washrooms. A caretaker would take significantly longer to clean 2 washrooms per class for 12 classrooms than two 6 stall washrooms (assuming 2 gendered washrooms) for those same twelve classrooms.
While I can see the benefits there with regards to smoking/drugs/bullying, I’m really not a huge fan of treating kids like prisoners and monitoring them every single second of the school day. Yes, I know they are on school grounds. I do care about the safety of other kids. But it’s all a matter of balance, and the balance being “there are eyes on you every second you don’t have your pants down” doesn’t exactly sit right with me. I’m not really a fan of the trackers/badges used in some schools, either, for the record. I don’t deny utility - I’m just not a fan of the privacy trade offs. Or, I guess, the type of privacy (after all, this would mean no one else in the room when you’re crapping). Where it’s increased monitoring by authority figures and less ability to have any sort privacy from them or interact with anyone in any way they don’t see.