Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1875-04-16
For the VERMONT FARMER.
Parents Relations to Schools. No. 8.


Still further the Scholastic should be n
beautiful location where Nature has display
ed her romantic wildness and quiet grandeur.
Children are taught uuOouscously by the OBJ
jects thatsurround them and hence the place
where they are gathered for the study Of
books should always afford opportunity for
them to study the book of Nature. They
should be able to gaze upon the towering
mountains, the peaceful valley, the shaded
forest, and the cultivated field and to lis
ten to the music of the running brooks, and
the songs of the birds that frequent the
shade-trees under which they play.
The pleasantness and attractiveness Of the
location and surroundings of the schoolroom
serve TO make school-life pleasant, and to
cultivate taste for the beautiful in nature
and art,-both extremely desirable as means
to the end in view.
Schoolhouses should not only be properly
located, but constructed with great care.
Under the town system which has been here
recommended, the town school board would
have all these matters in hand and they
should see to it that the site is we'll chosen,
aud that each house is adapted in size and
finish, to the number and grade of the pupils
to be accommodated.
The room for the primary department will
need different internal arrangement from the
intermediate, and the intermediate from the
academic. The benches must be Of suitable
height to enable each pupil to rest his feet
upon the floor, and so inclined as to allow a
natural and easy posture; the desks must be
constructed to suit the size and convenience c
Of their occupants /; and all school houses
should have rooms especially for hats bon
nets, shawls, overcoats, umbrellas, dinner
baskets, &C., that the children may acquire
the habit Of neatness and order, and learn to
take care of whatever is ntrusted to them,
Recitation rooms should be furnished with
blackboards and brushes, and an ample sup
ply of apparatus suited to the character of
the school; if a primary school, apparatus
especially saited to illustrate object-teach-
ing.
Lighting and heating the school house is
of the first Importance. Light is necessary
to health and good supply Of pure sun
light, controlled by shutters and curtains, is
needed not only for healthful study but also
to render the schoolroom more cheerful and
inviting. The common mode of heating
schoolrooms is very objectionable,-much
more so than the old method by the open
fireplace. The tin box.stove, without the
means of evaporating water, in a room not
suited to the purposes OF ventilation, is the
worst and the most dangerous arrangement
that could be made. 1t creates an uneven
temperature, deadens the air, and fills it
with smoke, rendering it wholly unsuitable
for the purposes of life. 1t is believed that
more cases OF fatal disease are contracted in
the unventiated and improperly heated
schOOlrooms of the present day than anywhere
else; and it becomes matter of great i'm.
portanco to all parents who seek to prepare
their children for long and useful life, tC
understand this subject, and to provide
against the evils contemplated.
School house ventilation is so important to
the welfare of the children in our schools
that may properly dwell upon it still fur
ther. No fact is more evident even to COM
mon observation than that pure air is indis-
pensable to health aud yet there are but
comparatively few school houses in any COM
munity in which pure air can be breathed
for three hours during winters day.
PARENs.