单选题
School buildings themselves can reflect liberal or conservative views about what should go on in a classroom. The earliest schools built to accommodate large numbers of children had separate classrooms for graded groups. The rooms were laid out formally, with pupils' desks bolted to the floor in straight rows facing the teacher's desk. Clearly, the school itself reflected a teacher-and subject-centered view of education. Schools of the next generation, built after 1940, were lighter and airier and had more open space, and most had movable desks. They also often provided special rooms or areas for science, art, music, and physical education. There were still separate rooms for different grade levels, however, and the desks still were likely to be formally arranged in straight, rows. That is, the schoolroom was still largely designed to implement the old school program, which involved grade levels, uniform time blocks, uniformity of instruction, and absorption of subject matter. Newer subjects, not newer teaching methods, accounted for most of what was new in school design. The first school buildings specifically to facilitate liberal teaching methods began to appear in the mid-1950s. Folding interior walls — or no walls at all — permitted the flexible use of space to encourage large-group, small-group, or individual instruction. Some provided carrels for individual study, areas designed for team teaching, centers for programmed instruction and a language laboratory. In the newest buildings — called open schools — the use of space is even more flexible. Since so much of the space is undifferentiated, areas within the buildings can be readily expanded, converted to accommodate program changes, and used for many kinds of functions. As a reflection of a conservative or liberal attitude toward education, the physical layout of a school can either facilitate or hinder conservative or liberal teaching practices. But it cannot determine what those practices will be. It may be difficult for a conservative teacher to operate in a physically open classroom or for liberal teacher to operate in formal classroom. But it is not impossible. What determines whether the classroom is liberal or conservative, in terms of the education the students receive, is the spirit and attitude of the teacher.