The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1883-05-12
BRIEF EDUCATIONAL ESSAYS.
The Shortcomings of our School System
Observation-Disclosures SchooI-houses.
DoNAIDsONyIILE NAV Z 1993

Inc shortcomings OF our School SysteIn
Reviewed-Defective school-houses.
DoNAIDsoNvILLE, May Z, 1888.
| EDITOR CHIEF:
In the cities the school-houses are among
the best Of the public buildings; in the coun-
try they have neglected and desolate ap-
pearance beyond any thing of the building
kind intended for the occupancy of human
beings. Yet, no reason can be assigned
why the city school-houses should be more
comfortable or more healthy than those of
the rural districts. We can easily see why
they should be larger, because they are in
| tended for larger number of children, but
in other respects the children of the country
schools require that their houses should be
! adapted to their convenience, comfort and
health to the same extent as those of the
city. And SO they might. be, for there is
fair proportion of wealth to supply the
funds for their erection. Whenever school
house is needed by reason of the number to
be educated, there is property enough to
meet the expense of good one without
making the taxation SO heavy as to be per-
ceptibly burdensome.
A school-house should be planned not
only with reference to the occupation for
which it is intended, but also to the nature
and necessities of the persons who are to be
engaged in that occupation. The children
must have not only room to move in, but
room to breathe in. Most of the school
houses, however, appear to be constructed
with little regard to the last demand. If
there is superficial area sufficient to allow
the scholars room to write without being
jostled by each other, it is all the plan of the
building contemplates; while, perhaps, the
ceiling is as low as the deck of ships fore
castle. But many houses have not enough
of superficial space to accommodate health
fully the scholars crowded into them. The
pupils are therefore obliged to sit in uneasy
positions, to sit in cldsscontact with each
other, imbibing the animal heat and in
haling the breath of each other; to sit so
squeezed from either side rs to interrupt
the free circulation of the blood. To say
nothing of study in these circumstances,
how the little fellows live is marvel enough
to stagger our conception. And then, be-
sides this mechanical pressure on the chest,
preventing the easy expansion of the lNngs,
the air that does find its way into them is
vitiated and rendered unwholesome by hav-
ing been breathed over too many times al
ready. Such is the chemical composition
of the air we breathe, that when it has once
been drawn into the lungs, it is fit for that
purpose no more. To inhale the very air or
gas which we breathe out of our lungs, un-
mixed, would prove Immediately fatal to |
us. Hurtful, then, it must obviously be to |
have this noxious air largely mixed up with !
that which we breathe. And besides this |
particular gas which is thrown out from the |
lungs, the insensible perspiration throws off !
other fetid and nosioups particles which, ill.,
corporated with the air in close and crow
ded room, are drawn into the lungs, instead |
of the clear, unadulterated air which health |
and nature call for.
When rooms are small and ceilings low,
and large numbers of children are crowded |
into them and kept for hours their health |
must be injured unless there is some method
employed for supplying them with fresh
air. Nay, if they are not supplied with
fresh air, they will as certainly, though per
haps not so speedily die there, as if they
were immersed in water and hello in it. Often
does the school-room show the bad effects
Of a vitiated and scanty atmosphere within
its walls. The children are restless, drowsy
"a slight degree of apoplexy-sic1 at the
stomach, dizzy. and they have headaches,
bleeding at the nose, and give many other
Indications of suffering from want of plenty
IF pure air to breathe.
The teacher, the sovereign of the place,
le is tougher than the little population of
lis realms, and is not located between two
stout men, pressing his aching ribs, yet as
lie is flesh and blood, soon he feels the
eject of breathing the "vilainous COM
pound" and then resorts to natures wide
gorld-pill of healthful air for supply. He
opens the door, and the heated air, loaded
IS it is with vapor, is instantly chilled, and
,very scholar finds himself in a cold bath,
With fair chance of pleurisy Or consump-
ion, by the check of perspiration;
or the teacher raises the window the length
If ruler, Or the height of an inkstand, by
which the room is eventually ventilated;
out in the meantime, the strong current of
odd air striking on the boys Or girls who
it near the window, has distributed among
hem more than their fair proportion of
oothaches, headaches, rigid muscles and
glands.
But, after all that has been said, I admit
hat it applies to only part of the school
louses of our State, and in particular to
'ur rural districts. The exposure of health
or the unhappy children doomed to spend
tx hours per day in such houses, is too evi-
lent to require proof. There are few family
in our land that are as comfort
ess as many of our school-houses are;
mall, poorly lighted without shade from
ummer's sun Or protection from winters
,lasts, and irregularly ventilated by kind
# aperture known to no order of architec-
ure. Did time permit, I should like to
prosecute this subject until parents were
of the Importance of having for
heir children school houses of sufficient
ize and of such construction that the tenn
'erature and supply Of air shall be subject
0 the control of teachers, and of such
Interior arrangements that healthful pos
ures can be maintained by the scholars.
'ut with these imperfect and hasty glances
t the subject, have to leave it. G. {