Cooling Off in School
Most of Spain has been in an intense heatwave this week. Today, it just started to touch us here. Temperatures of well above 100ºF/38ºC have created one of the earliest heatwaves in recent memory. Normally, the first heatwave hits around the end of June, but this year it decided to show up early to the party. As a result, school is still in session. The last day is still a week away, on the 23rd of the month. Children are having a hard time of it in school.
They're having a hard time because the powers that be have decided schools do not need air conditioning. The regional head of health services in Madrid, when asked about the lack of air conditioning, and how students should fight the heat, answered that air conditioning was not a solution for everything, and that the children should use hand-held fans to cool off, suggesting making them from paper as an "important occupational therapy." This after giving advice on combating the heat. Yes, the man is a doctor.
This past Thursday, the same day students were advised to fold paper to make paper fans, forty-seven students from a high school in Valdemoro, to the south of Madrid, had to be evacuated to a nearby funeral home. The school was broiling, the kids were showing signs of heat stroke, and the funeral home was the closest public building with air conditioning. An ambulance was called, and five students were taken to the hospital for further hydration. But the regional director of Education decried the measure, saying the situation was not unusual, and the students should have been treated inside the school. This from a person who works inside a building with climate control, and then goes home to another climate controlled building. Afterwards, he decreed that the school day could be cut short to avoid the heat of the afternoon.
This heat is not something new. Central and southern Spain have always gone through heatwaves like this one, but not so early in the season. With each coming year and with increasing global warming, these heatwaves will become stronger and come earlier. Knowing that, schools should be prepared and install appropriate climate control systems so that students can worry about studying and not about fainting from the heat.
One of the good things in Spanish public schools, though, is that there isn't a strict dress code. The only inviolate rules are wearing footwear and t-shirt or tops. Girls can wear bandeaux as tops, and short-shorts. Boys can wear tank tops and shorts, as well. When it's as hot as it is these days, that clothing style is understandable. When I was in high school back in Boston, the dress code at our public school was not as strict as it is now in certain school districts. We could wear almost anything, except shorts. Shorts were not allowed. If you showed up wearing them, you were sent home to change. It was a strange rule, though, because girls could wear miniskirts without any problem, and it stemmed from when our school was boys-only.
One June, in my sophomore year, we had a heatwave in Boston. It was an early one, too, and our school back then was old, built in the 20's, and our cooling system functioned by opening the large windows, those that could open. People complained, but shorts were still not allowed. So, the junior boys pinched, borrowed, or begged from sisters, cousins, friends. One morning, a large number of them showed up wearing miniskirts. It was interesting, walking down the halls and seeing tall, muscular boys swagger in the little, flouncy skirts in fashion then. Truth be said, some legs were made to be covered, while others were quite well-shaped.
School that day was fun, and the protest was supported by just about everyone. But the administration was adamant. No shorts allowed.
At least we had miniskirts for 90ºF/32ºC degree heat. Spanish kids only have paper fans for a 100ºF/38ºC degree heatwave. Perhaps, if public money were better administrated, and less money was lost to speculation and corruption, there would be more money to invest in our schools' infrastructure. But then, why have an educated hoi polloi?
They're having a hard time because the powers that be have decided schools do not need air conditioning. The regional head of health services in Madrid, when asked about the lack of air conditioning, and how students should fight the heat, answered that air conditioning was not a solution for everything, and that the children should use hand-held fans to cool off, suggesting making them from paper as an "important occupational therapy." This after giving advice on combating the heat. Yes, the man is a doctor.
This past Thursday, the same day students were advised to fold paper to make paper fans, forty-seven students from a high school in Valdemoro, to the south of Madrid, had to be evacuated to a nearby funeral home. The school was broiling, the kids were showing signs of heat stroke, and the funeral home was the closest public building with air conditioning. An ambulance was called, and five students were taken to the hospital for further hydration. But the regional director of Education decried the measure, saying the situation was not unusual, and the students should have been treated inside the school. This from a person who works inside a building with climate control, and then goes home to another climate controlled building. Afterwards, he decreed that the school day could be cut short to avoid the heat of the afternoon.
This heat is not something new. Central and southern Spain have always gone through heatwaves like this one, but not so early in the season. With each coming year and with increasing global warming, these heatwaves will become stronger and come earlier. Knowing that, schools should be prepared and install appropriate climate control systems so that students can worry about studying and not about fainting from the heat.
One of the good things in Spanish public schools, though, is that there isn't a strict dress code. The only inviolate rules are wearing footwear and t-shirt or tops. Girls can wear bandeaux as tops, and short-shorts. Boys can wear tank tops and shorts, as well. When it's as hot as it is these days, that clothing style is understandable. When I was in high school back in Boston, the dress code at our public school was not as strict as it is now in certain school districts. We could wear almost anything, except shorts. Shorts were not allowed. If you showed up wearing them, you were sent home to change. It was a strange rule, though, because girls could wear miniskirts without any problem, and it stemmed from when our school was boys-only.
One June, in my sophomore year, we had a heatwave in Boston. It was an early one, too, and our school back then was old, built in the 20's, and our cooling system functioned by opening the large windows, those that could open. People complained, but shorts were still not allowed. So, the junior boys pinched, borrowed, or begged from sisters, cousins, friends. One morning, a large number of them showed up wearing miniskirts. It was interesting, walking down the halls and seeing tall, muscular boys swagger in the little, flouncy skirts in fashion then. Truth be said, some legs were made to be covered, while others were quite well-shaped.
School that day was fun, and the protest was supported by just about everyone. But the administration was adamant. No shorts allowed.
At least we had miniskirts for 90ºF/32ºC degree heat. Spanish kids only have paper fans for a 100ºF/38ºC degree heatwave. Perhaps, if public money were better administrated, and less money was lost to speculation and corruption, there would be more money to invest in our schools' infrastructure. But then, why have an educated hoi polloi?
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| The language of fans. "They are spying on us." " Follow me." "Climate-controlled classrooms, please!" |
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