Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-07-17
written for the Heral6.l
discipline Parents ana thr1r
schools.
NO. XIII.

tant to the welfare of the children in our
schools, that may properly dwell upon
it for few moments.
No fact is more evident, even to COM
mon observation, than that pure air IS
indispensable to health, and yet, there
are but comparatively few school-houses
in any community in which pure air can
be breathcd for three hours duringa win
ter's day.
Modern methods of heating school
rooms. already alluded to, have added
much to the evils resulting from almost
universal neglect in the matter of venti-
lation. The facts before us are alarm
ing.
We may give our children the hard
fare at home which was the common
rati0ns of other days; we may provide
further the hard benches and uncom-
Portable arrangements of old-tash-
toned school-houses, if we will give
them also also the fresh air there
in provided by loose windows and
spacious open freplaces. But we can
not, without guilt, shut them up for six
hours, each day, in small, tight room
warmed by close box-stove. Such an
atmosphere poisons the blood, drains the
vitality, and lays the foundation OF
hundred forms of sickness and suffering.
Without pure air the circulation OF the
blood, instead of a current of life, be-
comes a current of death, diffusing itself
through a million of channels into every
part of the system. Would parents buy
a solution of arsenic at the druggists, and
inject it into the veins of their children?
This would prove no more fatal than to
inhale the poison of bad air which they
are compelled to breathe in most of our
school houses, day after day and week
after week. The only difference is, one
is rapid and the other is a slow process
of poisoning.
When the school room is first opened
the air is comparatively pure, but in a
short time, the fifty pairs of lungs have
consumed nearly all the oxygen,
and the vicious compound that remains,
Supplies the intellect, and by slow de-
grees saps the very life-blood. These
statements are not theory, but facts
| the evils resulting are not imaginary,
but real, as illustrated in the history of
a large majority of the public schools in
| our country.
But how can this evil be remedied !?
[ answer, only by making special pro-
vision for the circulation of fresh air in
every school room. Perfect ventilation
cannot be secured, except by scientific
arrangements in connection with heat
ing the apartments. The circulation of
the atmosphere is effected through the
agency Of heat and when the building
is so finished as to admit constant sup
ply of fresh air from without, and to
eject that which is impure, through ven
tilators prepared near the top and bot
tom of the upright ceiling, heat becomes
the controlling power to keep this cur
rent in circulation. In the absence of
any special arrangements of this
| kind, resort must be had to open
windows and doors. These used
skilfully by parties who understand
the laws of health and life will, in a
measure, secure the object in view. Yet
there is danger in trusting a matter of
such vital Importance to arrangements
so imperfect, and circumstances so vari-
able
l wish here to urge another point
which has been alluded to in this con-
nection, viz: The Importance of school
apparatus to enable the teacher to work
successfully. Apparatus is designed to
illustrate and enforce the facts in sci
ence, and its great utility is seen in the
well established fact that instruction
| no of
sight is much better understood and
much longer remembered. The child
sees the representation of number on his
"Numeral Frame :" he sees the shape of
the earth in the artificial globe, and is
able to trace out the ranges of noun
tains, the courses of rivers, and the fig
ure of continents upon the outline maps
which hang before him and he under
stands the definition of a cube in distinc
ton from square surface when he seei
and handles the block which bears tina
name.
Every school-room should have ;
blackboard, as long as the unoccupieC
space between the windows, on every
side. This will enable the teacher t.
represent to the eye, many objects anC
subjects which would otherwise be eithe
lost or imperfectly understood by TIN
pupils, and will enable them to solv
: problems and explain principles in tn
presence of the class and teacher, great.
, to their benefit.
No school-soom is properly furnished
which has not in it a thermometer, t
enable the teacher to regulate the TEN
perature. And an unabridged diction
, airy of the English language is indispens
able, to be consulted daily and hourly b
the school, as they prosecute thei
} studies.
! Thorough instruction cannot canno
be given without these helps. And tn
.. more advanced departments should b.
provided with cabinet, library an
: philosophical apparatus, more or less3eS
{ tensive, as circumstances require.
I PARENs.