Modern Schoolroom Acoustics

Abstract

Many teachers are faced with conducting classes in buildings that were obsolete thirty years ago. Others are or soon will be teaching in new schools which are in no way modern in some of their basic construction details. A classroom, laboratory, or auditorium is fundamentally a shelter in which the basic functions are seeing and hearing. Daylight provides satisfactory seeing a large part of the time. In spite of this, about $1.50 per square foot is the average investment for auxiliary lighting, while satisfactory acoustics is often completely overlooked or is the target of severe economy measures. Architects today are often eliminating or seriously compromising on the acoustical treatment expenditure while spending lavishly for less important materials. Eighty-five percent articulation will usually result in satisfactory hearing for adults because the context supplies the transitional ties. For children, however, especially the very young, each word and every syllable is important. Excessive reverberation time or poor sound distribution may create conditions which seriously handicap the students and teachers alike. Modern medical methods have shown that poor eyes and poor hearing are often responsible for backward children who are really average or above average in mental ability. It is inexcusable to add to their natural handicaps those of poor architecture and poor engineering. Good acoustics is as fundamental as lighting and ventilation, and much more attention should be paid to this phase of school design.