Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1860-08-23
School Houses.
Towanla, Aug. Il, 1850.

Perhaps there are to be erected, this sum-
mer and fall greater number OF school houses
in this county than has been before for several
years The people, in several of the towns are
waking up to the Importance of having CON-
Portable houses for their children to spend their
school going days in.
A good substantial edifce, we'll built and
properly taken care of, will last and be com
Portable for twenty-five or thirty years. This
being the case, it is important that those hav-
ing the charge of building these houses, should
see to it that they are properly constructed;
and made so that teachers and pupils can be
comfortable in thcu
Let not PenurOus, penny actse," policy
prevail, and buld just as cheap houses as pos
sibly can be erected for the honest tax you
dare to levy, but do as meu 10 in their own
business, build as large houses as are required,
and make them every way suitable for the
purposes for which they are erected. Because
the school in n certain neighbOfhoOd is small
now, it is not certain that it will be ten, or
even five years from this time The relative
size Of the schools in q district is continually
changing, it is not good policy or good eCCno-
n.y. then, to put up q house only large enough
to accommodate twenty or thirty pupils, be-
cause there are 70 more than that number who
will attend the school at the present time.
Let the directors look we'll TO the internal
arrangements of their new houses Many
school houses look we'll ont side but within
they are most miserable appearing as though
directors and builders had exerted their ut
most ingenuity to devise machines of tortur6
for the children, and the teachers.
Children require comfortable seats and con-
yeuent desks, and why should they not have
them, astead of benches so high that not one
hall of them can touch their feet 20 the floor,
and desks mere slabs or rough boards stuck up
against the walls Teachers want some ac-
commodatons about the houses in which they
are to spend a portion of their time, and why
should they not have them, as well as other
people
What wond be thought of farmer, who
should build house and pay no more atten-
ton to the inside arrangements, than we find
in some of our school houses, even some Of
our new ones, merely because it costs a little
more to have things comfortable and convent
eht
Let the directors see to it that there is .
great amount of black board in each school
house, there cannot we'll be too much our best
teachers use the black board in teaching al
most every thing there is taught in school,
Bind the contractor to put one or more in the
wall and bind him too top put in good ones that
will last.
Black wall is to be preferred. il it can we'll
be put on but the materials of which the
plaster is composed are not easily procured in
The country, and it is only once in great
while that mason can be found who under
stands putting them on, so perhaps a good
board had better be used. In the last num-
Der published we gaTe recipe for making
this plaster black board.
We will make but one more suggestion at
prerent, and it is this. provide yonr school
houses with suitable out-houSeS procure good
sized lots, and put upon them, besides tho
school house. such out,buildingS as every per-
son in the neighborhood will say ought to be
provided for any school house whether new or
old. 1t surely is not very much TO the credit
of any neighborhood, to have the public school
honse standing on one of the corners where
four reads cross, or rather standing in the road
with no out house of any kind around it.
,N.'.o