The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1878-12-05
Hlsborougb Highland County, Ohio, Thursday, December s.
Country SchOOl.HOuses.

OVuAAbL DCAAVOA-4AOAoNoe
Public architecture is not our strong.
hold, nor is it likely to be so long as the
first impressions of the building art are
gained, as a rule, from structures so
Wretchedly unartistiC as the average
schOOl-hOuse. However Just may be our
pride in our common schools, the hOus-
ING of them rebounds very little to our
credit. This fact was made painfully
apparent at the Paris Exposition, few
wears ago, where a model of an American
SchOOl-hOuse was exhibited. A grand
idea was probably never more pitfully
represented. 1t was an ugly little
wooden schoOl-house, sent all the way
from the interior of Illinois to the
Champs de Mars, to show the assembled
world our high regard for popular educa-
ton. A Webster's spelling-bOok would
have been as feliCitOus q representation
of the results of national effort. Yet,
bad as it was, the sample-to use a com
mercial figIIre-was far too good to rep
resent fairly the character of the stock.
It was new and clean; and happily it
was impossible to transport the forlorn
and unsightly surroundings of the aver
age schOoi-hOuse.
Many of the lower order of creation
exhibit, individually, quite as much in
| dependence in the construction Of their
houses as man does in his. Men go on,
! from generation to generation, copying
inherited models as blindly as birds and
| beavers. The bees that lead civilization
westward are not more conservative IN
/ their building instincts than the Carpen-
! ters who follow.
The impressions received upon the
mind at school are retained through life /;
whether they are pleasant and agreeable,
! or the converse, depends very materially
IupOn the schOol-hOuse and its surround
! ings. And this brings us to the question,
| why are not school-houses fashioned so
! as to present an attractive appearance
! inside and out? At roadside crossings,
/ from Maine to Minnesota, the traveller
will find the same nOndesCrpt structure ;
too small for barns, too ill-prOpOrtiOned
/ for dwellings, too much neglected and
desolate for outlying farm buildings,
indeed too repulsive in all respects, and
| exhibiting too many marks OF parsl'
mony TO be anything observation-disclosures
Undoubtedly every man or woman,
who has ever been a sChOol-bOy or girl,
remembers Just how the old sChOOl-hOuse
looked. Despite the riffs of time and
intervening miles, it is there memory
goes for pleasant or unpleasant retro
sDection. Suppose the schoOl-hOuse IS
made an attractive feature in some rare
bit of landscape? It may occupy space
upon a gently sloping hillside, so that 1t
be embOWered in shade, or it may be
situate in the depths of glen, where the
babbling brook goes ripping and purllng
over rocky bed and through grassy
banks; but wherever situated, it should
harmonize with the scenery Immediately
surrounding it, and be the first object to
attract the eye Of an artist.
It may be argued that so desirable a
result is scarcely attainable. We sub
nit that it is, without a single exception
There is no landscape so rugged that It's
Iroughness cannot be modified and pic
turesuue beauty fashioned from the very
uncouthness of the surroundings, and
this at a mere trifling outlay-in point
of fact, without any expense. For once
enlist the pupils in the cause, and they
will plant the trees and shrubbery, tran
the vines and take pride in the work.
But anything is good enough for
schOol-hOuse That IS the accepted
idea: and so we 60 on, copying the
blunders of our great-grandtathers, and
. fixing blots upon the face Of nature
wherever a school-house is needed. II
the site selected happens to be in the
) midst of primeval grove, down 1t goe,
, to the last tree, within the full limits OF
, the lot. Just why this should be deemed
necessary is not an altogether incom
) prehensible mystery. The school
houses where we were taught the ele
, ments looked just so, and any lnnoya
{ ton might induce wayfarers to mistake
5 the structure for a church building, o
one intended for some other purpos
than school-house, and that woul'
t never do.
5 How to induce a reform, not only Il
the architectural construction of on
/ school-houses, but also in the entire SUI
r roundings, is a question which canno
be too soon presented, or too PERSISTENT,
+ urged. The farming community ar
especially sensitive upon this point
Able and Independent, they canno
: brook interference with affairs whicI
concern themselves alone; and thu
, any suggestion, looking to school-hous
9 improvements, usually falls upon pre-
2 iudiced and unwilling ears. AnOthe
) generation may be more artistic, les
s practical, and willing to sacrifice a httl
|, time, and even little money, to max
? IschooI-houses attractive to youth, and tn
t dearest spot in memory's waste.
{ Dora