Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-02-04

bering that from the ranks of oul
school children are to become the
fathers and mothers Of another gen.
Grafton, the eloquent men who bca,
the messages of God, the orators, the
/ physicians, the inventors, the scien
fists, the merchant princes and the
masters Of skilled labor, the men III.
to whose hands shall fall the govern
mcnt Of this commonwealth, and
greater, aye, far greater, the future
mothers Of the republic.
What great changes have been
wrought in our school system since
the days Of the Pauper schools; what
huge strides of advancement and
progress. And we shall not, cannot
stop here, but must 90 on in that ad
rancement to still further achieve
ments, still higher plans, still greater
work.
How different the character OF the
teaching and the teacher. There
was 4 time when scholars were watch.
ed and trapped into misdemeanors.
and then punished with a severity
only palliated by the ignorance OF
the teacher; when to smile was a
crime, aud childhood the wickedest
period of ones life; when ferulcs and
rods and fists were the instruments
with which knowledge was driven III
to the pupil, and the school-room
was to the scholar what the prison
cell is to the convict, without a
single ray OF sunshine to smile i'll on
the darkness. The time has gone by
and we now see the morning Of a
brighter and happier day, both for
ourselves and our scholars. Squcers
and Dotheboy's Hall have passed
away, and we have no need for a
Nicholas Nickleby, and we may
hope that the tyranny Of the past
pedagogue has given way to the
kindly liberality Of the present.
To help you in your sunny teach
ing, | would give you sunny sur
roundings. My school-house should
be as perfect as experience and in
genuity could make it, for | do not
wonder at all that 50 many scholars
prefer to stay at home rather than
spend their days in the barns, hardly
fit for beasts, so often selected for
them as school-rooms. The grounds
should be laid out in walks and fields
varied by flowers, trees, and fount-
aims. The outside should be the
perfection of architectural skill, the
inside model Of health and beau
ty. Every room should be carpeted
Singing birds and blooming flowers
should hang at every window, the
walls be filled with the finest pro-
duction of the painters art, and the
corners with the grandest ofthe sculpt
or's conceptions. Heat, light, and
ventilation, properly applied. should
make each room bright and happy
place. My scholars should assemble
in one assemble-room, and depart to
the several classes to the strains of
sweet music. They should be Of
both sexes, that 4 generous rivalry
should exist, the one to strengthen,
the other to refine. There should
not be sombre color, but all should
be as bright as youth ought to be.
Always clean, | would thus develop
cleanliness in the classes There
should be gymnasiums for the boys,
and calisthenics for the girls, that
mind and body, growing together,
should develop IN the stature of per
feet maturity. Libraries and phil
osophical instruments should be dis
tributcd wherever needed, that edu-
cation should take the place of cram
ming.
Thus | would not only make my
school happy, but there would be a
grand and good effect on the minds
Of the children by these pleasant and
happy surroundings. For Of the re,
tining influences of art, as represent
ed by paintings and statuary, and
nature, as represented by flowers,
taste is born; and taste develops by
cultivation into refinement, and the
rough lad or hoyden gill is thus inn
bued with the high and noble ambl
tons resulting theretrom.
This idea is not of Utopian birth,
but capable of practical develop
ment, and will one day be recogniz-
ed and practiced, to an extent salts
factory to even its most ardent add
vocates. True, advances are slowly
made in every great cause, but they
are made, and so will my idea be
realized. Utopian as it may seem to-
day, the present century will see its
successful development
have talked much; 1t may be
said little; but the object | have in
view, poorly as may have treated
1t, is a high, and, | think, y noble
one. My plea is for childen; and
happiness in their schools, We
often hear others, and have often
ourselves sighed, for the careless,
happy days Of our childhood, and
in our wisdom we have deemed the
school-days the happiest of lite. |
do not believe it. The SORROWS and
griets of children, are rs great and
hard for them to bear rs our own Tor
us. They are 50 patient i'll their
suffering that we know not how
much they do bear. Our battles are
greater and our struggles longer, but
our weapons are stronger. We light
with the well-tricd steel of age and
cxpericnoe-they, only with the tin
swords from the toyshops.
My plea is for that bright and
CHEEKY teaching that would convert
the dreariest class room into sun
shiny place Of cosy love; and :: !. , nad
,ne power, I would stand on the up
permost peak of our highest noun
tain, and as the champion Of these
children, trumpet forth this plea, In a
blast SO loud, that it would reverber-