Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1856-06-06

De In several respects.
Second. School Furniture-The num-
Der of desks is sufficient to ccommodate
forty eight pupils. They are of differen:
heights the lower are placed nearest the
platform occupied by the teacher, and those
that are higher: back farther. They are
arranged in tiers, fronting towards the
south, with an aisle between each tier.
There are five tiers, and two pupils can sit
at each desk in three of them, but the
desk in the tiers along the walls are calcu-
lated for one pupil only. The desks in
tended for the smaller pupils, are high
enough for the talIest. They are made of
white pine boards, planed smooth, but
they are not painted. They have no lids,
but there is board under them where the
scholar can keep his books, &c. The tea
cher's desk is situated at the south end of
the house, on small platform which is
about eight inches high. The black board
is about ten feet in length, and three in
width, and Is nailed to the wall b. mind the
teachers desk. There is not map, globe,
chart, or anything of the kind belonging
to the school furniture At the distance
of six feet from the floor there is strip
of board nailed on each wall, in which
nails are driven, and on these nails the
hats, cloaks, shawls, &c, are hung. This
is poor arrangement, for the scholars
must always get on the benches with their
feet when they wish to hang up their
clothes, and then do the same to get them
again.
Third. Tile .School-TLis is not a gra-
ded school, but all lawful scholars are ad-
mitted. (Wbst l understand by graded
school, is, one where no pupils are admit
ted, except they have made certain de-
gree of advancement, which degree shall
be determined by the Board of Directors.) }
The whole number of scholars last winter
was forty five, while the average per day
was only twen,y-one. The scholars are
we'll classified. The branches taught are,
Reading, Writing, Orthography, Spelling,
Arithmetic written and mental, English
Grammar, Geography, Music, and Book
keeping. The books used, are Porter's
Rhetorical Reader, Sanders Readers Nos.
and 2, Sanders Spelling Book /; Zone Of
the scholars had Adams Arithmetic, and
another had Greenleaf's,) Davies Arith.
metic, Colburn's Mental rithmetic, Smiths
English Grammar, Slorse'. Geography,
"The Shawn" and Crittenden's Book.
keeping. The New Testament is also used
daily, but not as text book The pun
ishments are not corporal. Government.
is maintained chiefly by appealing to the
nobler natures of the pupils, and to their
sense of duty. Three intermissions are
given each day. First one commencing at
l04 o'clock, A. NJ, and lasting twenty
minutes-that is, the boys have ten min
utes, and the girls ten; second, at noon
there is an intermission of one hour and,
third, commencing at q o'clock, P. NJ,
twenty minutes more are given. The at
tention paid to study by the pupils, is not
as great as it should be, still some of them
made good degree Of Advancement, but
the degree of advancement Of the ajority
of the pupils is poor, considering what it
might have been, had they been more
careful to improve their privileges. Their
attendance is regular during the latter part
of December, the month of January, and
part of February, but the rest Of the time
it is very irregular.
Fourth. The Tedcher.-The teacher of
this school is nineteen years of age, and
was educated principally at Mifflinburg
Academy. He has been teaching school
three winters. He does not know yet
whether be will be permanent teacher or
not The School and Schoolmaster, Pages
Theory and Practice of Teaching, the
Pennsylvania School Journal, and the
New York Teacher, are the principal edu-
cational books and periodicals be has read
Fifth. M,sceilaneow-At the close of
the term, there was an examination and
exhibition, and the number Of visitors on
that occasion was quite large. The visits
of the Directors we're not very frequent
During the five months that l taught, only
one Director visited the school, and he
was there only twice. The President of
the Board and the Secretary were on the
way to visit the school at one time, but it
so happened that there was no school that
day. Most of the parents visited the
school once, and some of them twice, but
had to invite some of them pretty often
before they did SO. All the inhabitants
of this district, with very few exceptions,
are engaged in agriculture. The district
is thickly settled by persons of German
descent, who are nearly all very wealthy.
The prevailing sentiment with regard to
education is favorable, and the common