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poor, and the scholars attend irregularly; the house was built by one man in low circumstances, who has a large family of boys to educate; a noble act.' No. 15 has a frame house, in a good, warm, and comfortable condition, with a pleasant and retired location and a play-ground. No. 16 has a log shanty for a school-house. No. 17, 'no regular school-house other than some old log house.' No. 18, no school-house. No. 19, a log shanty. No. 20 and 21 are new districts. No. 22 has a frame school-house, in good repair and pleasantly situated. Thus, out of twenty-two schoolhouses, not more than five are reported as respectable or comfortable; none have any proper means of ventilation; eight are built of logs; and but one of them, according to the visiters, has a privy.-Report (1840), p. 142.

It is also a subject of frequent complaint in these reports, that the seats are too high (too high, say the visiters in one case, for a man of six feet, and all alike), and are, therefore, uncomfortable for the children, as well as productive of much disorder. We have found,' says the report from one town, 'except in one school, all the seats and desks much too high, and in that one they were recently cut down at our recommendation. In many of our schools, a considerable number of children are crowded into the same seat, and commonly those seated beyond the entering place have no means of getting at their seats but by climbing over those already seated, and to the ruin of all regard to cleanliness.'

'We have witnessed much uneasiness, if not suffering, among the children, from the dangling of their legs from a high seat, and, with the one exception, have seen them attempting to write on desks so high that, instead of the elbow resting to assist the hand in guiding the pen, the whole arm has, of necessity, been stretched out; for, if they did not this, they must write rather by guess than sight, unless some one may have the fortune to be near-sighted, and, from this defect, succeed in seeing his work. This is a great evil, and ought to be remedied before we complain of the incompetency of teachers.'-Report (1841), p. 38.

These specimens will serve to show how far many of the schoolhouses, in this state, are pleasant places of resort, or study, and in what degree they are likely to inspire a respect for education, or a desire to enjoy and improve its advantages. The condition and aspect of the building, with its appendages and surrounding landscape, are inseparably associated, in a child's mind, with his first day at school, and his first thoughts about education. Is it well, then, that these earliest, most lasting, and most controlling associations, should be charged with so much that is offensive? Is it to be expected, that the youthful mind can regard that as the cause, next to religion, most important of all others, which is upheld and promoted, in such buildings, as the district schoolhouse usually is? Among the most comfortless and wretched tenements, which the pupil ever enters, he thinks of it with repugnance; the tasks which it imposes, he dreads; and he at length takes his leave of it, as of a prison, from which he is but too happy to escape.

This seems to me to be the greatest evil connected with our schoolhouses. But their deleterious effect on health, is also to be considered. Air which has been once respired by the lungs, parts with its healthy properties, and is no longer fit for use. Hence a number of persons, breathing the air of the same apartment, soon contaminate it, unless the space is very large, or unless there is some provision for the introduction of fresh, as well as the exclusion of foul air. This ventilation is especially important for school-houses, since they are usually small in proportion to the number of scholars; the scholars remain together a long while at once, and are less cleanly in their personal habits than adults. Yet, important as it is, probably not one common school in fifty, in this state,

will be found supplied with adequate means to effect it. The cracks and crevices, which abound in our school-houses, admit quite enough of cold air in winter, but not enough of fresh. What is wanted at that season, for both health and economy, is a constant supply of fresh warm air; and this is easily obtained by causing the air, as it enters from without, to pass through heated flues, or over heated surfaces.

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It is also important, to the health of scholars and teachers in common schools, that the rooms should be larger and have higher ceilings; and that much more scrupulous attention should be paid to the cleanliness of both the rooni and its inmates. An evil,' say the visiters of one of the towns, 'greater than the variety of school-books or the want of necessary apparatus, is having school-rooms so unskilfully made and arranged. Of our 13 school-rooms, only 3 are ten feet high, and of the residue only one is over eight feet. The stupidity arising from foul, oft-breathed air, is set down as a grave charge against the capacity of the scholars or the energy of the teacher. A room for 30 children, allowing 12 square feet for each child, is low at 10 feet, and for every additional ten children an extra foot in elevation is absolutely necessary, to enable the occupants of the room to breathe freely.'-Report (1841), p. 38.

Are common schools so conducted, as to promote habits of neatness and order, and cultivate good manners and refined feelings?

From the quotations already made from the reports of visiters, it appears that the school-rooms, in many cases, were not clean; and the same thing is often alleged of the children. I will add but one other passage, to which I happen to open on p. 39 of the Report (1840). It relates to a town containing 24 school districts, of which 16 were visited. Of these 16, one quarter are represented to have been almost entirely regardless of neatness and order, viz.: No. 4 has a dirty school-room, and the appearance of the children was dirty and sickly.' No. 2 has a dirty school-room, inconveniently arranged, and ventilated all over;' the children rather dirty,' and no means of supplying fresh water except from the neighbor's pails and cups. No. 3 has an extremely dirty schoolroom, without ventilation, the children not clean, and no convenience for water.' No. 24 'has a school-house out of repair, dirty, and inconvenient in its arrangements.'

It is also a subject of almost universal complaint, that the school-houses are without privies. On an average, probably not more than one in twenty, of the school-houses throughout the state, has this appendage; and in these, it was almost invariably found, by the visiters, to be in a bad state. This fact speaks volumes, of the attention, which is paid at these schools, to delicacy of manners, and refinement of feeling. None but the very poorest families think of living without such a convenience at home; and a man, who should build a good dwelling-house, but provide no place for retirement when performing the most private offices of nature, would be thought to give the clearest evidence of a coarse and brutal mind. Yet respectable parents allow their children to go to a school where this is the case; and where the evil is greatly aggravated by the fact, that numbers of both sexes are collected, and that, too, at an age of extreme levity, and when the youthful mind is prone to the indulgence of a prurient imagination. Says one of the visiters (Report, 1840, p. 77), 'In most cases in this town, the scholars, male and female, are turned promiscuously and simultaneously into the public highway, without the shelter of so much (in the old districts) as a stump' for a covert to the calls of nature. The baneful tendency, on the young and pliant sensibilities, of this barbarous custom, are truly lamentable.' So the visiters of one of the largest and oldest counties: 'We regret to perceive that many of the districts have neglected to erect privies for the use of the children at

school. This is a lamentable error. The injury to the taste and morais of the children which will naturally result from this neglect, is of a character much more serious than the discomfort which is obviously produced by it.'-(Report, 1840, p. 131.)"

VERMONT.

EXTRACT from the "First Annual Report of the State Superintendent (Hon. Horace Eaton,) of Common Schools, October, 1846," made to the Legislature.

"It might occur to any one in travelling through the State, that our school-houses are almost uniformly located in an uninteresting and unsuitable spot, and that the buildings themselves too generally exhibit an unfavorable, and even repulsive aspect. Yet by giving some license to the imagination it might be supposed that, notwithstanding their location and external aspect were so forbidding, the internal appearance would be more cheerful and pleasant—or at least, that the arrangement and construction within would be comfortably adapted to the purposes which the school-house was intended to fulfil. But an actual inspection of by far the greatest number of the school-houses in the State, by County Superintendents, discloses the unpleasant fact, that ordinarily the interior does but correspond with the exterior, or is, if possible, still worse. A very large proportion of these buildings throughout the State must be set down as in a miserable condition. The melancholy fact is established by the concurrent report of all our County Superintendents, that in every quarter of the State they are, as a class, altogether unsuited to their high purposes. Probably nine-tenths of them are located upon the line of the highway; and as the geographical centre of the district usually determines their situation, aside from the relation with the road, it is a rare chance that one is not placed in an exposed, unpleasant and uncomfortable spot. In some cases-especially in villages-their location seems to be determined by the worth, or rather by the worthlessness of the ground on which they stand-that being selected which is of the least value for any other purpose. Seldom or never do we see our schoolhouses surrounded by trees or shrubbery, to serve the purpose which they might serve so well-that of delighting the eye, gratifying the taste, and contributing to the physical comfort, by shielding from the scorching sun of summer, and breaking the bleak winds of winter. And from buildings thus situated and thus exposed, pupils are turned out into the streets for their sports, and for other purposes still more indispensable. What better results could be expected under such a system than that our girls should become hoydens and our boys blackguards?' Indeed it would be a happy event, if in no case results still more melancholy and disastrous than this were realized.

But this notice of ordinary deficiencies does not cover the whole ground of error in regard to the situation of school-houses. In some cases they are brought into close connection with positive nuisances. In a case which has fallen under the Superintendent's own personal observation, one side of the school-house forms part of the fence of a hog-yard, into which, during the summer, the calves from an extensive dairy establishment have been thrown from time to time, (disgusting and revolting spectacle!) to be rent and devoured before the eyes of teacher and pupils-except such portions of the mutilated and mangled carcasses as were left by the animals to go to decay, as they lay exposed to the sun and storm. It is true the windows on the side of the building adjoining the yard, were generally observed to be closed, in order to shut out the

almost insupportable stench which arose from the decomposing remains. But this closure of windows could, in no great degree, abate the nuisance; for not a breath of air could enter the house from any direction but it must come saturated with the disgusting and sickening odor that loaded the atmosphere around. It needs no professional learning to tell the deleterious influence upon health, which must be exerted by such an agency, operating for continuous hours.

Such cases, it is hoped and believed, are exceedingly rare. But it 18 much to be feared that the usual exemption enjoyed by teachers and pupils, from even such outrages upon their senses and sensibilities, as have been detailed, is to be attributed to the fact that such arrangements are not ordinarily convenient, rather than to any prevailing conviction of their impropriety, or any general and settled purpose to avoid them. The case is named as at least strong evidence that the pertinency of considerations, involving a regard either to taste, comfort, or even health itself, is generally overlooked or disregarded, in fixing upon a site for a school-house. At all events these purposes are all exposed to be violated under the prevailing neglect of districts to secure the possession of sufficient ground for a yard around the school-house. But it would seem unnecessary to urge, beyond the bare suggestion, the importance of providing for school-houses, a comfortable location, a sufficient yard and play-ground, a wood-house and other out-buildings, a convenient access to water, and the surrounding of the premises with shade-trees which might serve for shelter, as well as delight the eye, and aid to render the school-house--what it should be--one of the most attracting and delightful places of resort upon the face of the earth. It should be such, that when the child shall have changed into the gray-haired man, and his memory wanders back through the long vista of vanished years, seeking for some object on which it may repose, this shall be the spot where it shall love to rest.

In the construction of the school-house-embracing its material, style of architecture, and finish-as little care and taste are exhibited, as might be expected from the indifference manifested in regard to its location and surrounding circumstances. Cheapness of construction seems, in most cases, to be the great governing principle, which decides upon its materials, its form, and all its internal arrangements. No complaint on this score could justly be made, if the general condition of these buildings were clearly and fairly attributed to want of ability. But while our other edifices, both public and private, have improved in elegance, convenience, and taste, with the increasing wealth of our citizens, our schoolhouses linger in the rear and bear the impress of a former age. In this respect.

"That which in days of yore we were

We at the present moment are.'

Low walls might be instanced as one of the prevailing defects in school-house architecture. The quantity of air contained in a schoolroom of the usual height, is so small as to be soon exhausted of its oxygen; and the dullness, headache and depression which succeed to this result, are but too well known and too often felt, although they may fail of being attributed to their true cause. And why should our children be robbed of a comfortable supply of that pure and wholesome air, with which our Creator, in the largeness and richness of his bounty, has surrounded the earth and filled the sky? But if the condition of the house is such, as in part to prevent the injurious effects arising from a deficiency of pure air, by means of broken windows and gaping crevices--then colds. coughs and as the ultimate and crowning result-consumption—

(and of this disease, what thousands of cases have had their foundations laid in the school-house!) must be the consequence of this sort of ex posure. This is true in regard to all classes and conditions of pupile. But it should be distinctly kept in mind, although it is ordinarily overlooked and forgotten, that children accustomed to be comfortably protected against cold or vicissitudes of temperature, at home, will inevitably suffer the more when exposed to them in the school-house. And here is an additional reason why these structures should be improved, as our dwelling houses are generally becoming more comfortable.

But there is not room here for details-not even to exhibit this topic in all its important bearings. And it has been thus hinted at only to prove that the general charge of faulty construction is not wholly unfounded. It was the purpose of the Superintendent to discuss at some length, the pernicious influence exerted, both upon the health of pupils. and their progress in learning, by the miserable structures in which the State abounds, but the extent of the remarks already made precludes it.

One cause of the prevailing fault in regard to the construction and internal arrangement of school-houses, doubtless, is the want of proper models. Districts, when about erecting a school-house, cannot well do more than follow the examples before them. To form the plan of a proper school-house-one well adapted to all the various ends which should be sought, such as the convenience, comfort, and health of pupils, convenience for supervision and conduct of the school, and facilities for the most successful prosecution of study-would require such an extent of observation and so full an acquaintance with the laws of health, of mind and morals--and then such a skill in designing a structure in which all the necessary conditions should be observed and secured, that it would be unreasonable to expect that a district could command them, without an opportunity to avail itself of the experience and observation of others. And districts have almost universally felt this lack of guidance. But it is believed that hereafter, information on the subject of school-house architecture, will be more accessible; and if, as a first step, some one district in every town in the State would avail itself of the necessary information, and make a vigorous effort to secure the erection of a well located, well planned, and well constructed school-house, they would perform an act of high public beneficence, as well as confer upon themselves an inestimable blessing. And shall not one or two years realize the accomplishment of this noble purpose? What district will lead the van?

NEW HAMPSHIRE.

EXTRACTS from the "Report of the Commissioner, (Prof. Hators of Dartmouth College) of Common Schools, to the Legislature of New Hampshire, June Session, 1847."

"The success of our whole system depends as much on a thorough reform in the construction and care of school-houses as upon any other single circumstance whatever.

It is wonderful, and when their attention is called to it, strikes the inhabitants of the Districts themselves as really unaccountable, that careful and anxious parents have been content to confine their children for so many hours a day through a large part of the severest and most trying seasons of the year, in houses so ill constructed, so badly ventilated, so imperfectly warmed, so dirty, so instinct with vulgar ideas, and so utterly repugnant to all habits of neatness, thought, taste, or purity. There are multitudes of houses in the State, not only inconveniently located, and awkwardly planned, but absolutely dangerous to health and morals.

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