The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-10-05
BARB WIRE AROUND suHooL.HousEs.


The last General Assembly Of Iowa passed
a law compelling school directors throughout
the State to remove, before the 1st Of Septem-
Der, all barb-wire fences inclosing in whole or
in part any public school grounds and max
ing it criminal act to use such fence for
any purpose within ten feet of any public
school property.
This laudable action is only indicative that
in the future equal attention will be given to
the physical comfort and mental growth of
youth There is a growing demand among
the people for better care of children's bodies
in our public schools. This is due in part to
the greater attention now given to sanitary
matters by the public at large. Boards of
health and sanitary associations, aided by the
press, are impressing the necessity of preserv-
ing health, and medicine itself is becoming
preventive rather than curative. The in
quiries made by the Indiana State health
board as to the ventilation, lighting, heating,
drainage and condition of the out-buildings of
the ten thousand school buildings Of the
State show that in many cases school-houses
have no adequate provisions for either health
or comfort. The barrenness and desolation of
the average country school-house is proverb-
ial. "Stll stands the school-house by the
road, ragged beggar summing" The trees
set out last Arbor Day have mostly
persisted by the summers drought
the blinds are off, the windows
broken, the door ajar, and all through the
summer the country school-house has been
the home of vermin and Migrants. The
Struggling fence that skirts the way admits
the neighborhood hogs and cattle to the
scanty grass grown since the spring term
The pump is old and rotten, the waters foul
and unwholesome, There are exceptions to
this picture, but every county has score or
more of wretched and unhealthy school build
ings. There are greater dangers than the
fangs of barbed wire besetting the children
who attend school in such structures.
In the larger towns and cities the evils are
as a rule, of another class. The buildings are
usually creditable structures and the sanitary
conditions favorable, but the hours of attend
ance are, as a rule, too long. In the country
districts school ''takes up" at 8 and closes at
10. with twenty minutes or a half hour recess
at half past 10. The afternoon session is from
| holt ,act1 holf
long afternoon recess. These hours are neces-
sary for the numerous classes Of the I'M
graded country schools but the work of the
city graded schools can be done in twot thirds
of the time, and as well. As it is, school be-
gins nominally at 8, but actually half hour
earlier. Half past l on the programme means
l o'clock to the pupil. Children who walk far
must be away from home from eight to nine
hours daily in the ward schools. There is, we
learn more in two sessions of three hours each
than in two of two hours each, and if the
schools were to close the LIST of June and
open in the middle of September it would,
more than likely, be a benefit to both the
minds and bodies of teachers and pupils alike
A child that rises at 7, dresses and Grams
hurried breakfast, and then walks half
dozen blocks in an hour is doing more than
the average child should do. The conditions
are the same at noon, with the distance
doubled.
We would advise our school authorities to