The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1874-04-25
COMMON SCHOOLS.
BY HENRY WARD BEECHER.

BY HENRY WARD BEECHER.
The season for district schools has come.
1t behooves every good citizen to consider
the matter.
1. What kind of sch DOL house have you
in your district Is it as good as the
means of the neghborhood will allow? Of
course, in newly settled regions, where
men live in rough houses, we do not expect
expensive schoolhouses. But where the
people live in comfort, and have in their
houses the appliances of civilization, it is
ed together in school-room scarcely fit for
stable or pen.
Too often, after enough disputing as to
the location, place is chosen which has
near to the great majority of pupils
Bleak in winter, torrid in summer, with
out trees to break the winds, 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 building. To the little children
it is prison, 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,
shaded nook in a meadow; a place by some
shallow brook, overhung with venerable
trees; sequestered spot large enough for
children's sports, should be selected. One
ought not when grown up to shudder at
the very memory Of district school-house
as we do now.
2. The warming, lighting and ventila-
tion of school houses should be carefully
attended to. In old times, when people
lived without furnaces, and went to meet
ing with the thermometer at zero, and the
wind going like mad, without a stove or
fire of any kind in church, there was no
need of ventilation. In many modern
churches, where only fifty people attend,
in a room capable OF holding several hun
dred, the evils of liberalization are not
felt. But, usually, the district school is
the most crowded of any meeting in the
region. The ceiling is low; huge box
stove is playing dragon in the midst of a
swarm of first shivering, and then sweat
ing children. Colds and racketing coughs
soon break out, and the health of the
whole school is imperilled. 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 schoolmaster.
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 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 neglected or
abused; or whether they are, on the other
hand, carefully instructed, and under cir
cumstances 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 moth
ing; but only just that
Great 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
good thing to have generation of boys
and girls brought up under the same mas
ter. No relation but the parental has in it
such possibilities of influence respect and
affection, as that of school-teacher 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 neigh
borhood 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 stin-
giness i'll dealing with teachers, and school
committees, and schools it will go far, not
only to ennoble the young but to convert
the old, and make them better parents and
better citizens.-N Y. Ledger.
rY-The educational sins are six, to-
wit: 1. Placing faulty copies on the black
board for children to follow; 2. allowing
expressionless reading to pass uncorrected;
3. overlooking the first act of disobedience
in child; T. neglecting the art Of compu-
tation in the lower grades; 5. OBTAINING
children after school hours; 6. failing to
close recitation when the time for closing
it arrives. The educational sins are all
mortal that is, they kill the soul of in