Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1873-12-27
SENSIBLE SUGGESTIONS.

lowing appropriate illusions to subjects
Of vital interest in the management of
country district schools. Our own OBJ
servation has been sufficient to demon
strate the necessity Of vigorous prodding
from some source, and we are glad that
it comes from so eminent an advocate.
We hope twill serve to awaken a lit
tie more decided interest upon this i'm
portant subject, especially in Olympia
district, the inhabitants of which, with
all the intelligence and liberality they
are usually accredited, own but n wreck
of a building devoted to this object.
Mr.. Beechel says:
1. What kind of school house have
you in your district q? 1t is as good as
the means of the neighborhood will al
low? OF course, in newly settled re-
gions, where men live in rough houses;
we do not expect expensive school
houses. But where the people live in
comfort, and have in their houses the
appliances of civilization, it is shame
to suffer their children to be herded to-
gether in school-room scarcely fit for
a stable, or pen.
Too often, after enough disputing as
to the location, place is chosen Which
has no other merit than that it is CEN
trail, or near to the great majority of
pupils. Bleak in winter, torrid in sum-
mer without trees to break the wind,
or shield from the sun; a wretched
room is arranged, with wretched seats
along more wretched desks. Nothing
attractive is seen in or about the build
ing. To the little children it is a pris-
on, and to the larger ones not better
than barn.
Now there should be good sense and
good taste employed in selecting site
for children's schools. A woody knoll
a shaded nook in meadow, place by
some shallow brook, overhung with ven
cradle trees; a sequestered spot large
enough for children's sports, should be
selected. One ought not when grown
up to shudder at the very memory of
q district school-house, as we do now.
2. The warming, lighting and VEN
tilation of school-houses should be
carefully attended to. In old times,
when people lived without furnaces,
and went to meeting with the thernom-
eter at zero, and the wind going like
mad, without q stove or fire of any kind
in church, there was no need of vcntila-
ton. In many modern churches, where
only fifty people attend, in a room cap
able of holding several hundred, the
evils of differentiation are not felt.
But, usually, the district school is the
most crowded of any meeting in the
whole region. The ceiling is low. A
huge box stove is playing dragon in the
midst of swarm of first shivering
and then sweating children. Colds and
racketing coughs soon break out, and
the health of the whole school is i'm
perilled. Parents ought to care enough
for their children to look after such
things.
3. Everything ought not to be left to
the school committee and to the school
master Parents should visit the school
and look after their own interests. In
this way the teacher ill be encouraged,
and the school committee will be in
spired to perform their duties. No
good farmer would let his pigs, his
colts, and calves, go through winter
without looking carefully after their
keeping. 1t is only his children that
he packs off to school and leaves to the
care of whatever teacher may chance to
hold the place, without taking pains to
know whether the children are neg
lected or abused; or whether they are,
on the other hand, caref ally ;nstructe |
and under circumstances that do not
impair their health or demoralize their
manners.
4. Schools should be kept open all
the year round, if possible; and if that
cannot be, then as long as possible.
Two or three months schooling may
be better than nothing; but only just
that.
Greater pains should be taken to
procure efficient teachers. And when
one has been secured, he should be
paid SO literally, and treated with such
consideration, that he can be pursuaded
to remain. It must be good thing to
have a generation of boys and girls
brought up under the same master.
No relation but the parental has in it
such possibilities of influence, respect
and affection, as that of school-teach-
er in country town, who casts in his
lot with the people and devotes himself
to the welfare Of the young.
Nothing could be better for any
neighborhood than to inspire in it an
enthusiasm for the common schools.
Good buildings and good teaching
make the citizens proud of their schools.
This is right kind of pride. And if
it cures meanness and stinginess in
dealing with teachers, and school COM
mittees, and schools, it will go far not
only to ennoble the young, but to con-
vert the old, and make them better
parents and better citizens.
e An insane mother in Portland