Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1856-01-24
From the Baltimore Patriot
PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION--RURA
SCHOOL HOUSES.


While Maryland has been content to al
low the inhabitants of the counties to choose
whether they would establish district schools
or not, and has left it optional with all to
provide school-houses at the expense of the
several districts, or 90 without them, Penn
sylvania has not only adopted a system of
popular education on a scale commensurate
with the greatness of the State and adequate
to the wants of her people, but has also pass
ed a law authorizing the superintendent of
common schools to publish work on the
construction Of rural school-houses, and to
distribute, gratuitously, one copy of it to
the Secretary of each Board of Directors
throughout the State This volume, when
completed, will comprise some three hun
dred and fifty pages, and will contain plans
and specifications for school building of
every size and description, from the hum
blest primary school-house to an imposing
three story structure. We are indebted to
the kindness of some unknown friend for
specimen sheets Of the work, in pamphlet
form, which have been issued in advance by
the Department of Common Schools at Har-
risburg, to meet at once, SO far as it was
possible, the pressing and importunate de-
mand from the rural districts for a guide Of
some kind in the erection of houses suitable
to the population and locality.
In this admirable pamphlet, with it's ac-
companying illustrations, there are certain
leading principles enunciated which will be
found Of general application in the construc-
ton of buildings designed for educational
In school-house intended to
accommodate fifty persons, including the
teacher, the ground plan of the building
should be twenty-five broad by twenty-eight
feet long, and the walls, from floor to cell
ing, thirteen feet in height ''This gives
about twelve square feet of floor space and
one hundred and sixty cubic feet of air space
to each scholar. Less should never be al
lowed, and it would be better if more were
given"
''No school should be erected with less
height Of ceiling than from twelve to fifteen
feet"
s*In determining the size of school bull
ding, allowance should always be made for
entries and vestibules for hats and cloaks,
closets for apparatus and books, sufficiently
wide passages, and full space for classes at
recitations'
s'The form of a school room is of less mo-
ment than it's size; probably the best form
is that Of room whose breadth is one fourth
less than it's length, with the teachers desk
at one end; the latter should be movable and
on raised platform of sixteen inches Or two
feet high, and four feet wide, extending en-
tirely across one end of the room. This
platform will also serve for defamation and
other uses. A black board, or other dark
surface, commencing three feet from the
platform and extending four feet high, should
be placed across the end of the room behind
the Teachers desk. If extended all around
the room, so much the better. It will add
very little to the cost of the building if pro-
vided for in the original contract, and will
vastly facilitate the competent Teachers in
struction."
'The position of the pupils with regard
to light is of much Importance. They should
face the north wall of the room, which should
be without windows. Thus the light will
fall agreeably on their backs, or sides, with
out that straining effect ON the eyes which
front light produces. The windows of
school house should reach near to the cell