Tama County Republican. (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1867-1872, 1869-05-06

Ieet, with twelve teet storv--th;s
not including cloak rooms and hall
The Superintendent Of Building IN tho
Cincinnati schools makes a room 81
= feet to accommodate fifty six pu.
pills, and that OF the st. Louis schooIe,
one 30 2i feet TO accommodate
thirty five pupils. may be safe
enough in saying, that we are not in
any great danger OF building them too
roomy.
| see no place, in the boilding of
school houses, so suitable for exercis.
ing spasns of economy, as in building
the walls and fitting the doors AMI
windows SO as to make the honse ea.,.
" heated without waste Of fuel. Brick
walls should be built hollow, and wood
ones, back -plastered, to avoid cold an
dampness. \ plan for rendering wood
en- houses warmer and the walls fir
mer, is something like the following
Groove the studding on the inside
face, or nail on strips of board, form.
ing grooves, and cut Stats OF wood 10
pass down between them, eyteniing
from studding to studding. AS the
Stats are put in, let them each be bed
ded in stiff clay mortar which can b,
finished up..smooth to the level of tb,
studding. II the mortar is carefully
mixed with little short straw or ex.
crement from the horse-stable, it will
become quite bard, and may receive
the plaster witno~t lathinr Th,s
method has the three-fold a1.anta,a
OF making the walls Of a frame hoas.
firm for Black Board purposes, of
giving ar passages between the siding
and piastering, and making a wooden
house as warm as brick.
Our country school house with one
loom must have double porch, fir.
ished in two separate cloak-rooms
which serve as entrances for boys and
girls and prevent the possibility of
improper communications between the
sexes while passing in and out. And
this remark brings me to the outside
of the house.
We are often told that we cannot
Judge man by the clothes he wears,
all Of which l most powerfully and
potently believe" And yet We do
not altogether Incorrectly either
judge men by external appearance, at
first sight. Shall we judge our schools
in the same way: Imagine an individ.
ual who has been educated in some of
our unsightly houses, but whom ns-
turo has brushed up into a polished
man, singing:
"How dear TO my heart are the scenes Of
my childhood
When fond recollection presents them to
view
and you can almost believe YOU hear
him say, iii an undcrtone, Il don't
mean to include the school-house." 1t
is not my intention to recommend
costly embellishments. Nothing would
be more improper but l do claim
that our school-houses should present
a becoming neatness and republican
simplicity i'll their exterior. Every.
thing is educational, the sights we see,
the thoughts We think and the emo
tlons we feel. But what shall be said
OF the tiresome monotony of country
school architecture. Why you can
designate school-house almost as far
as you can see it. 1t is said "there is
no accounting for taste I am sure
there is no accounting for bad taste. >
However cheaply our districts may
feel compelled to build, there is no ex.
euse tor building ent of all taste and
proportion.
"A country school house should
first, be we'll situated conveniently ar
ranged in Its interior, have a neat and
gracetnl exterior which shall harmon.
lze with its immediate and general
surroundings, and be painted with a
light co.or,-n white, should saw
and never be masked SO as to pretend
e be better. or OF more costly material
1t is. For truth and nature may al.
ways be permitted to so hand in hand.
Under "The General Structure of
schooll1ouses,' | trust may not be
too far out Of my field, when assume
to speak of provisions foS supplying
the school with water A casual a
observer cannot fail to have noticed
how rarely our schools are provided
with wells or cisterns. In countries
wkere springs are abundant it often
happens that the house can be placed
near one. 1t is otherwise on our
prai-ies. The school is left to tho
mercy of the summers heat, and ''the
hot sunbeams fall scarcely aslope
upon their heads,' but do nos make
the water bubble and smoke in the
trough under their nose," for there is
neither trough nor water there. They
must SHIFT for themselves, like the cat.
tie OF the prairles,-ay, worse,-for
the cattle can feed in the cool of the
day, or choose a feeding place near
the water where they can go, at will,
To nanl tEaaa, caI..xas. a..l l,cl,