The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1874-07-15
SCHOOL HOUSES, SCHOOLS
AND TEACHERS.
By HENRY WARD BEEcuER.

1
To tn Editor of the Morristown Gazette:
1 know of no greater service
could just now ask you to do the in.
telligent readers of the GAZETTE,
than to give them the opportunity of
reading the following thoughts oil
the distinguished author, whose
name stands at the head of this col.
umn. Good school houses. well
furnished, good, permanent. well
paid teachers, and schools in every
district from six to ten months an
nually," are the most pressing wants
of our country. w. A. G.
"What kind Of school-house have
you in your district? Is it as good
as the means of the neighborhood
will allow? OF course, in newly set
| tied regions, where men live in rough
houses, we do not expect expensive
school-houses. But where the peo-
pie live in comfort, and have in their
houses the appliances Of civilization,
il is a shame to suffer their children
to be herded together in a school
room scarcely fit for a stable.
Too often, after enough disput-
ing as to the location, place is cho-
sen which has no other merit than
that it is central, or near TO the great
majority of pupils. Bleak in winter
torrid in summer, without trees to
break the winds, or shield from the
sun, wretched room is arranged,
with wretched seats along more
wretche desks. Nothing attractive
in or about the building. To the lit
tie children it is a prison, and to the
larger ones no better than barn.
''Now there should be good sense
and good taste employed in select
ing a site for children's schools. A
woody knoll, shady nook in mead
ow; a place by some shallow brook,
over-hung with venerable trees; a
sequesteied spot large enough for
children's sports, should be selected.
One ought not when grown up to
shudder at the very memory of a
W.
"The warming, lighting, seating
and ventilating of school-houses
should be carefully attended to and
provided for. In old times, when
people lived without furnaces, went
to meeting with the thermometer at
zero, and the wind going like mad,
without stove or fire Of any kind
in the church. there was no need of
ventilation Inmany modern church.
es where only fifty people attend in
room capable of holding several
hundred, the evils of iil-ventilation
are not felt. But, usually the dis
trict school is the most crowded of
any meeting in the whole region.
The ceiling is low. A huge box
stove is playing dragon in themfdst
of a swarm of first shivering, then
sweating children. Colds and rack
citing coughs soon break out, and
the health of the whole school is im-
periled. Parents ought to care
enough for their children to look af.
ter and remedy such things.
Everything ought not to be left
to the school committee and the
school master. Parents should visit
the school, and look after their own
interests. In this way. the teacher
will be encouraged, and the school
committee will be inspired to per-
form their duties. No good farmer
should let his pigs, his colts, and
calves 60 through the 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
neglected or abused; or whether
they are, Ton the other handy care
fully instructed, and under circum-
stances that do not impair their
health or demoralize their manners.
s'Schools should be kept open all
the year round, if possible and if
that cannot be, then as long as pos
sible. Two or three months school
ING 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 persuaded to remain.
1t must be a 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, re-
spect and affection, as that Of a
school-teacher in country town,
who casts his lot with the people and
devotes himself to the welfare of the
young
Nothing could be better for
than to inspire in it an
enthusiasm for the common schools.
This is a right kind of pride. And
if it cures meanness and stinginess
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