Part 21 (1/2)

It is central It is the property of the district During term-time it is visited daily by members from perhaps every family in the district

There may, and should be, a time fixed, at least once a week, when the library will be open, the librarian or his assistant being in attendance, at which time books may be returned and drawn anew For this purpose, and on all accounts, no place can be so appropriate and free from objection as the school-house The library s in the week, and especially during the winter, when evenings are long, as a district reading-room Moreover, should a District Lyceum be established, the use of a well-selected library, which will always be at hand, and of appropriate apparatus for the illustration of scientific lectures, will contribute greatly to increase both the popularity and the usefulness of the institution

With such an arrangement, the children of the district would most assuredly be much more benefited by the instructions they would receive

The school would also possess many attractions for adults of both sexes, and by the co-operation of the wise and the good, its refining, purifying, and regenerating influences ht effectually to bear upon every family and every individual within the boundaries of the district Then will the idea of Cousin be realized, who says, ”A school ought to be a noble asylum, to which children will come, and in which they will remain with pleasure; to which their parents will send the influence both children and parents will constantly feel

Such a room as I have described will also be found important for various other purposes, as a commodious place for retirement in case of sudden indisposition, a place where a teacher may see a patron or a friend in private, should it be at any tireat service in giving the teacher an opportunity to see scholars in private, for various purposes, as well as in affording a convenient room for scholars to retire to, with the permission of the teacher, for mutual instruction

That able and judicious advocate of popular enlightenment, and eminently successful school officer, the Honorable Henry Barnard, does not over-esti of the benefits they confer upon a community, he says, ”Wherever such libraries have existed, especially in connection with the advantages of superior schools and an educated ministry, they have called forth talent and virtue, which would otherwise have been buried in poverty and ignorance, to elevate, bless, and purify society The establishhty instruood books to act more directly and more broadly on the entire population of a state than it has ever yet done; for it will open the fountains of knowledge, without money and without price, to the humble and the elevated, the poor and the rich”

APPURTENANCES TO SCHOOL-HOUSES--There are, perhaps, in the majority of school-houses, a pail for water, a cup, a broom, and a chair for the teacher So I need hardly say, every school-house should be supplied with them all In addition to these, every school-house should be furnished with the following articles: 1 An evaporating dish for the stove, which should be supplied with clean pure water 2 A therulated 3 A clock, by which the ti all its exercises, s 5 An ash-pail and an ash-house For want of these, much filth is frequently suffered to accumulate in and about the school-house, and not unfrequently the house itself takes fire and burns down 6 A wood-house, well supplied with seasoned wood 7 A well, with provisions not only for drinking, but for the cleanliness of pupils 8

And last, though not least, in this connection, two privies, in the rear of the school-house, separated by a high close fence, one for the boys and the other for the girls For want of these indispensable appendages of civilization, the delicacy of children is frequently offended, and their morals corrupted Nay, more, the unnatural detention of the _faeces_, when nature calls for an evacuation, is frequently the foundation for chronic diseases, and the principal cause of per not unfrequently in premature death The accommodations in this respect provided by a district in a country village of the Northwest, whose schools have becoonal privies are provided--one for each sex--each of which has seven apartularly, and oftener, if necessary

Mr Barnard, in treating upon the external arrange sensible re should not only be located on a dry, healthy, and pleasant site, but be surrounded by a yard, of never less than half an acre, protected by a neat and substantial inclosure This yard should be large enough in front for all to occupy in common for recreation and sport, and planted with oaks, elroups and around the sides In the rear of the building, it should be divided by a high and close fence, and one portion, appropriately fitted up, should be assigned exclusively for the use of boys, and the other for girls Over this entire arrangement the most perfect neatness, seclusion, order, and propriety should be enforced, and every thing calculated to defile the mind, or wound the delicacy or the modesty of the most sensitive, should receive attention in private, and be made a matter of parental advice and co-operation

”In cities and populous districts, particular attention should be paid to the play-ground, as connected with the physical education of children In the best-conducted schools, the play-ground is now regarded as the _uncovered_ school-room, where the real dispositions and habits of the pupils are more palpably developed, and can be more wisely trained, than under the restraint of an ordinary school-roos, and are large enough for various athletic games To protect the children in their sports in inclement weather, in some places, the school-house is built on piers; in others, the basement story is properly fitted up, and thrown open as a play-ground”

A good and substantial room, well fitted up, and properly warmed in cold weather, in which children may conduct their sports, under the supervision of a teacher or monitor, is of the utmost importance; and especially is this true of all schools for small children Such a room is, indeed, for these, hardly less is, it should be supplied with duhts and measures of various kinds, etc, etc These are iirls; but, as they are unco thees they confer

[70] Dumb-bells are usually made of cast iron, and soure, and should weigh froth of the person using them [Illustration]

_Dumb-bells_ may be used, in connection with the sports enu the chest and i the health I would refer any who question the fitness of such exercises to what has been said on the subject at the 77th and following pages, and especially to the testimony of Dr Caldwell there introduced

_See-saws_, in addition to the benefits that result frohly instructive For this purpose, the plank or board used should be well hung and properly balanced The distance froraduated, and ht of one scholar, the weights of all the others may be ascertained by their relative distances from the fulcru experiments round rules of arithmetic, and the simple fact that, for two children to balance, the product of the weight of one multiplied into his distance froht of the other into his distance froled with sports, andchildren, serve the double purpose of attaching the in their minds the habit of observation and experi the why and wherefore, which will be of incalculable service to thehts and eneral purpose, and h as useful as slates and black-boards Thousands of children recite every year the table, ”four gills allon,” etc, month in and ill or a quart, or even knohich of the two is the greater But let these measures be once introduced into the experimental play-room, and let the child, under the supervision of the teacher or ills reater pleasure than he otherould, and in one tenth the tieneral reht and measure, to experimental philosophy, and to nearly every branch of study pursued in the coeneral remark to make on this subject, and that is in relation to the

INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL-HOUSES--Cicero observes that the face of a ed by the sun, for whatever purpose he walks abroad; so, by daily associations, the minds of all persons are influenced, and their characters permanently affected, by scenes hich they are fa the impressive periods of childhood and youth Many persons seem to think that school in our schools But it is not so

Fellow-students, neighbors, and citizens teach by precept and by example; and especially do _school-houses teach_ And oh! what lessons of degradation, pollution, and ruin they sometimes impart! as he can not fail to be convinced who remembers the testimony already introduced in relation to their condition

I have seen the fond parent accompany his lovely child of four summers to the school the first day of its attendance The child had seen pictures of school-houses in books Pictures, if not always pretty, usually please children It was so in this case The child, anxious to go to school, talked of the school-house on the way There arrived, the parent passed his innocent little one into the care of the teacher, with a few re to hietically, ”Pa! pa!! I don't want to stay in this ugly old house; I ao ho away from his child, leaves it in tears, with a sad heart How cruel to do such violence to the tender feelings of innocent children! And how baneful the influence! The school, instead of being a cohtful place, as it should be, is to the child positively offensive, and the school-house a dreary prison ”Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined” The child learns to hate school, to hate instruction, and all that is good He soon becomes the practiced truant

In a few years he arrives atto his fas out a wretched life, in ignorance and penury, dividing it between the poor-house and jail, and terallows

It needs the pen of a ready writer duly to portray the influence of neglected school-houses Parents seeotten that, _while ood school-houses do not _elevate_, neglected ones will _pollute_ their children I have already alluded, in the language of others, to the representations of vulgarity and obscenity that meet the eye in every direction But I a the intermissions, and before school, ”certain lewd fellows of the baser sort” soenerally, boys and girls, large and sar delineations

But why are these things so? And how may they be remedied? Different persons will answer these questions variously But e bear in mind that, in architectural appearance, school-houses have very generally more resembled barns, sheds for cattle, or mechanic shops, than Temples of Science; that s are broken; that benches are mutilated; that desks are cut up; that wood is unprovided; that out-buildings are neglected; that obscene iar delineations meet the eye within and without; that, in fine, their very appearance is so conteed to occupy thes, and then consider that the impressive minds of children are necessarily and permanently affected by scenes hich they become familiar, we can not wonder that they yield theradation bythe abominations hich they are surrounded And especially shall we cease to wonder at the existence of these things, e consider that scholars are very often unfurnished with suitable eed on by the example and influence of the older ones; and that teachers are sometimes employed who are so far lost to sha practices by engaging in theests the remedy Let, then, the school-house be co in its appearance, and elevating in its influence Let every member of the school, at all ti and profitable e influence of bad example be at once and forever removed And, finally, let the services of a well-qualified teacher, of good morals, correct example, and who is scrupulously watchful, be invariably secured

But if the mean appearance of our school-houses is one reason why they are so defaced, it may be asked, why do not our _churches_, which are frequently aant specimens of architecture, escape the pollution? The reason is evident The foul _habit_ is contracted in the unseemly school-house, and it becomes so established that it is very difficult to suspend its exercise even in the Temple of God Were our school-houses, in point of neatness and architecture, equal to our churches, the evil in question would soon becoht safely predict its early extinction

I would not suggest that too much pains are taken to make our churches pleasant and coreat and unwise disproportion in the appearance of our churches and school-houses It is frequently the case in villages and country neighborhoods, that the expense of the forhty times the value of the latter The _appearance_ of our school-houses is an important consideration If ould cultivate the _beastly_ propensities of our youth, we have but to provide the the _hovels_ which our cattle occupy, and the work is well begun On the contrary, if ould take into the account the whole duration of our being, and the cultivation and right development of the nobler faculties of our nature, while the animal propensities are allowed to remain in a quiescent state, and _adapt means to ends_, our school-houses should be pleasant and tasteful Every thing offensive should be separated fro aspect and an elevating influence

It is easier to ood than to reform wicked men It is cheaper to construct commodious school-houses, with pleasant yards and suitable appurtenances, than to erect nue B Emerson, in a lecture on ard to the lower animal propensities,” says he, ”the only safe principle is, that nothing should be allohich has a tendency, directly or indirectly, to excite the and criminal indifference upon this point It is one tohich the attention of the teacher should be carefully directed No sound should be suffered froure, or mark should be allowed to reach the eyes, to deface the wall of the house or out-house, which could give offense to the most sensitive delicacy This is the teacher's business He lect it He can not transfer it to another He, and he only, is responsible[71] It is impossible to be over-scrupulous in this matter And the committee should see that the teacher does his duty; otherwise all his lessons in duty are of no avail, and the school, instead of being a source of purity, delicacy, and refine out poisonous waters, and rendering the moral influence more pestiferous than that fabled fountain of old, over which no creature of heaven could fly and escape death”