The star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, 1855-12-06
GOOD SCHOOL HOUSES.

The close connection of good houses with
good schools, is now conceded by every in-
lelligent friend of popular education.
Indeed, tits hardly possible to have good
school with good school house and the
Ultimate success of our whole system of Com
mon Schools depends as much on thorough
reform in the construction furniture and care
of school houses, as upon any other single
circumstance whatever
The people should bear in mind, and be
encouraged by the fact, that when each dis
lrlct shall be provided with suitable school
house, the expense will not recur for gen.
GRAFTON. Parents should also remember that
the interest which their children take in their
studies, aud the progress which they make
in the acquisition of leaning, most material
ly depend npon the condition, location and
general arrangement of the school house
which they occupy. II it is located wthou,
reference TO the taste, health, or comfort of
the teacher or pupil il it stands on the pub
lie highway, on the border OF swampy moor,
on the top of barren knoll, in the middle of
bleak plain, or in any other exposed, un-
pleasant, uncomfortable spot; if it is destitute
OF playground, enclosure, shrub, or shade
ttee, ana everything else calculated 10 render
ii pleasing and attractive; if lis ceiling is on.
iy eight or len feet high, ins,e ad Of twelve or
fourteen; if lis dimensions are so contracted
as TO afford, on an average, only forty or City
feet OF cubic air 10 each pupil, instead Of one
hundred and fifty or two hundred; if no pro.
vision is made for a constant supply of that
Indispensable element OF health and life, pure
air, except The rents and crevices which time
and wanlon mischief have made if it is so
utterly destitute Of internal conveniences and
external attractions, as to resemble a gloomy
prison or an Indian wigwam if it stands in
disgraceful contrast with all the other edit.
ces in The aeigbborhood, public or private if
the only plan or principle which determined
ills size and furniture, was the minimum
scale of expenditure; f,he pupils, while d.
tending school in it, should suffer from heat
or cold, too much or too little light; if the
qG5ttstAitg Qf-air contsined in il is SO small as
10 be soon exhausted ef i its oxygen, and TO
cause the pupils TO suffer from dufRess, de-
preston and headache il, in short, is SO
badly constructed, so imperfectly venlif lated,
so repiete with vulgar ideas aud SO utterly
repugnant 10 all habits If nealness, thought, |
;a,io, q i,aIty, 40 10 cause ,le pupl lu regard
it as the most comfonless and wreched ten>
ment which he ever entered, to think of it |
with utter repngnance, TO dread instinctively
the tasks which it imposes, and, finally, 10
take his leave of il as a prison, from which
he is bn, too happy 10 escape; ii such is the
condition of their school house, then, surely,
parents ought TO remember that if their chill. |
dren attend school in such an nconvenient, |
repulsve, 6isparaging, unhealthy tenement,
their lives will be endangered. their physical
powers injured, their iptellects impaired, their
love of learning deadene6, their moral sensi-
bilties blunted, their manners become vu
gar, and every impression connected with the
school deepened into The most irrepresslble !
antipa,hy Midi. Jour Of Education.