It expands the mind.
According to The Telegraph, a 12-year old boy "wore a girls' knee-length skirt to classes" at a school near Cambridge to protest "against a school uniform policy which bans boys from wearing shorts during the summer months. He also addressed 1,368 pupils at morning assembly wearing the black skirt, which boys are permitted to wear due to a loophole in the policy." The boy "believes that forcing boys to wear long trousers during the sizzling summer months affects concentration and their ability to learn." He is right. Keeping cool helps concentration, expands the brain and will improve any school's academic performance.
Lee Kuan Yew, effective founder of the Singapore economic miracle, "hailed the air-conditioner as one of mankind's great inventions, and likes to live his entire waking life at 22 degrees C" reported Time. Lee understood the value of keeping cool. So much so that he insisted on every government building, factory or educational establishment being air-conditioned. He realised that workers would increase output and productivity, and students would learn faster.
In New Zealand, a friend of mine who lectures at a privately-funded college complained to the principal that his thirty students couldn't concentrate in a boiling hot classroom. Windows had been welded shut and the air-con wasn't switched on as bosses attempted to boost profits by reducing overheads.
The point made by 12-year old Chris Whitehead at Impington Village College near Cambridge should ring loudly in the ears of every school governor in the land. Keeping cool reaps dividends.
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