Mineral Point tribune. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1854-1858, 1856-04-01
esntatioual Department.
For the Tribune.
OUR SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL HOUSES.

ing commonly known as the :. Brick School
House, for the purpose OF attending the Teach
ers Institute, which meets every Saturday NOR
ming at 10 o'clock to devise WAYS and means for
carrying on the work of popular Education in
this /" benighted" community We had horod
to find a goodly number of citizens there to
ease the burden of the Teachers. but. besides
the latter, only four persons were present
VOW we had no business to expect any such
thing, for people generally love comfort and
avoid pam and most persons who take the least
interest In Common Schools in this town. know
full well that there is not decent School room
In / room IN which they might pass two or
three hours with even tolerable comfort. Why.
many persons think the School a most admira
BILE place 10 send their unruly children to pun
ish them, and they not in error about the
TACT Peep in at any of the Schools in town ::
see the I5tless faces of the unfortunate children
crammed INTO room one-half too small for their
numbers, lily ventilated and worse lighted ::
watch their longings for free snuff of pure
fresh AR, IN short, watch them through one
whole days agony at School, and then Judge if
1t be not real punishment to send children to
School taught in such sh.,mtf full School houses
as disgrace our village.
A short while ago, in the city of New York.
neighborhood horror-stricken to learn that
their children Were burning to death in the
flames of their District School house Does
any enc doubt that they all did their utmost to
rescue their children from the jaws of Death p
So would it undoubtedly be here, if Immediate
danger threatened the lives of the numberIess
urchins strolling about our streets and fire.
quently supposed to be at School such a com
motion would ensue as would demonstrate that
great interests were at stake But talk to these
same parents about the dangers to the life and
health of their children, from their almost Grim
NAL neglect of hygienic rules and even of the
dictates Of common sense, in falling to secure
commodious and heathrul School room, and your
warning is as UNDECIDED as the wind. 1t seems
little matter to many folks that their children
are daily sowing the seeds of premature de-
struction, while getting what they are pleased
to call an education, and yet they would be
frightened out of their wits at the announce
ment of
500 CHILDREN BURNED TO DEATH
Don't be startled, gentle reader, nobody is
hurt and, Judging from appearances, we would
say that neither parent scholar is in any
danger Of spontaneous combustion from excess
i've zeal in the cause of education
Now, why do we not have a respectable School
House in Mineral Point Simply because ii
costs money to build School houses There are
respectable citizens in this town, who claim
a good degree Of intelligence and even public
spirit, who nevertheless affect to believe at least
: who maintain that our dcns," called School
rooms, are good enough! Our patience is gone
when we attempt to argue the question with
such individuals. There are persons who hold
$ dime so close to their eyes that they are un-
f able to sec dollar beyond and these men who
, Object TO having commodious and artistic
School House in the town, seem to belong to
that class. They seem willing that large sums
of money shall be annually dissipated IN car
rying on what a, best is but a poor excuse for
a School, with nothing adequate to show for it
with each returning year; when with the same,
or trihing greater annual expenditure, We
might secure al! the permanent advantages of an
Academy, in a well conducted Union School
As to Academies, we care not how many are
built in town, on what sccts, they may
rely for support, but first let US have a good
Common School, such an one as every town in
this State, of any public spirit, may have, with
our ample School fund. But Mineral Point
looses several hundred dollars annually Of the
School fund alone, because all of her children
are not brought to School, and many eff them are
not at School because there is no room for them,
a after all the packing, iamming and slowing that
o is practiccd by the several teachers 1t is a
; significant and suggestive fact, brought out in
S the last annual report of the Superintendent of
= Public Instruction that the town of Dodgeville,
with population little over half as numerous
as ours. drdcs nearly hundred dollars more pub
lie money than Mineral Point, and can it in truth
: be said that Mineral Point, with all her motor
ous juvenile proclivities, is actually out-done
in the way Of children by Dodgeville
The great want in Mineral Point then, is a
u good School house and Union School, where
c children may be trained into habits of thought
and study, and acquire incidentally knowledge
: that viii tit them for the realities Of life These
y Schools are necessary stepping stones to iusti-
: tutions OF higher grade, and so on up till you
: reach the University, where the more reconcile
truths of Science and Philosophy are taught
The idea, however, of putting person, iguor-
II ant of the rudiments of an education, into al
e institution properly called College, or even
J. an Academy, is simply preposterous Common
q Schools being thus indispensable, why not have
- 4 reputable one here without delay as well a.
in every other town in the State, and thereby
n free institutions of higher grade, of sucl
~ difficulties as now cluster around them ST
long as they retain the character of Common
Schools, by being obliged to teach the Elemen
Of tary branches, just long will Colleges fai
n to exercise their proper influence as such.
g If we have Academies they must retain, 70
&c some time yet, the character of Common Schools
le although more exclusive, and as it is conceded
a. that they would derive their principal supper
from sectarians and none from the School fund
they cannot meet our present wants. Now w
3 believe that Academies and Colleges may grow
y IL :.