The Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, Ohio) 1853-1861, 1856-10-16

EDUCATIONAL.
GOOD SCHOOL HOUSES.

The close connection Of fgood school houses
with good schools, is now conceded by every
intelligent friend Of popular education.
Indeed, 1t is hardly possible to have good
school without good school house and the
ultimate success of our whole system of Com
mon Schools depends as much on a thorough
reform in the construction, furniture and caro-
oi school houses, as upon any other sinple
circumstance whatever.
The people should bear in mind, and be en-
couraged by the fact, that " hen each district
shall be provided with suitable school house,
the expenses will not recur for generation.
Parents should also remember, that the inter-
est which their children take in their studies,
and the progress which they make in the &C.
| QUESTION of learning, most materially de-
pend upon She condition, location and gener4
al arrangement Of the school house which
they occupy. If it is located without refer.
ence to the taste, health OF comfort of the
teacher or pupil if it stands on the public
highway, on the border of swampy moor,
on the top of a barren knoll, in the middle Of
a black plain, or in any other exposed, un-
pleasant. uncomfortable SPOT il il is desti-
tute of play ground, enclosure, shrub or
shade tree, and everything else calculated to-
P'SShS ahN III llS CBll-
ing is only eight or ten feet high, instead of
twelve or fourteen if its dimensions are so
contracted as to afford, on average, only for
" or hity feet of cupic air to each pupil, in
stead OF one hundred and fifty or two hun
dred II no provision is made for a constant
supply of that Indispensable element of health
and lte, pure air, except the rents and crew.
ces which time and wanton mischief have
made if it is so utterly destitute of internal
convenlences and external attractions, as to
resemble gloomy prison or an Indian wig
wan If it stands in disgraceful contrast with
all the other edi6ces in the neighborLood,
public or private if the only plan or princi-
pie which determined its size and furniture,
was the minimum scale of expenditure if
the pupils, while attending school in it, should
suffer from heat or cold, from too much OF
too little light; if the quantity of air con-
tanned in 1t, is so small as to be soon exhaust
cd OF its oxygen, and to- cause the pupils to
suffer from dullness, depression, and head
ache it, in short, it is SO badly constructed,
so imperfectly ventilated so replete with vul-
gar ideas, and so utterly repugnant to all
habits ofneainess, thought, taste or purity, as
to cause the pupil 10 regard it as the most
comfortless and wretched Il n, ment which he
ever entered, 10 think of it with utter re-
pugnan'e, to dread iHstinctiseTy the tasks
which it imposes, and. finally, to take his
leave OF It rs prison. from which he is but
too happy to escape if such is the condition
OF their school house. then. surely, parents
ought to remember that if their children at
tend school in such an incon,enient, repul
sive, disparagng. unhealthy tenement, their
lives will be endangered, their ihteects inn
paired, their love OF learning d, adened, their
moral sensibilities blunted, their manners be-
come vulgar. and every impression connects
ed with the school, deepnned into the most
irrrePr,esSible antipathy. Michigan Journal
of Education.