Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-09-07
ROOM FOR MANY THOUSANDS.
The New School Buildings to Be Opened
This Year.


NEW FEATURES TO BE INTRODUCED IN TIE PUBLIC
scHooLs-HHALTHE xKncIsEs ON THE pxrsAprT
sYsrEN-rHR EXTENSION OF INDUSTRIAL. TEACH.
Mc-PnooaAMoFT THE OPENING OF rH1 SCHOOLS,
The days OF vacation are slipping BY and the
time is coming, all too rapidly for some, when
the school bag win be slipped down from its
hook in the store closet, old books win be
turned over to the younger brother and sister,
and visits will be made to the stationer for the
materials for another campaign in the field of
knowledge. At the Franklin school building
Superintendent POWELL is busy with his Nrstprep-
arations for the opening Of the public schools
OF the District, which will occur September IS,
two weeks from next Monday. The schools are
at LAST shaking themselves free from their old
sheils-the rented buildings, rookeries novels,
shanties-and are for the first time about to
appear in an entire new suit With the first
day OF school eleven new school houses will be
thrown open, and by Christmas time ten more
will have been completed. This will give
accommodations, 1t is expected, for every child
in the District who desires to attend the public
schools, obviates the disagreeable feature Of
Portable, safe. healthful and convenient
quarters possible.
THE NEW BUILDINGS
are the result of years Of study in the field of
school-house architecture. They are perfectly
well ventilated and 30 arranged that danger
from fire or panic is almost an impossibility
1t has been the case in this city when a pupil
ran the risk of sitting for hours in low
ceiled, stuffy school room, breathing foul air,
contracting all sorts of disease, but now things
are different, and the large well-lighted, airy
rooms provided for the reception Of the pupil
are attractive and induce to good work and good
behavior.
1t was also the case in former years that
pupils gravitated by the law of taste to the
were miles away from their homes. There was
no means OF smoothing the inequalities, and
thus the better schools prospered at the expense
of the poorer ones. Changes in the system,
however, aided by more liberal appropriations
for increased school facilities have wrought
change in this feature also, so that to-day the
natural tendency of children is to the nearest
school building. Formerly the better buildings
were overcrowded, while now the pressure Is
the same on all
THE ADDITIONAL ROOM.
The addition Of these twenty-one new struct-
ures this year will practically wipe out all
pressure" There were last year about 81, 900
pupils attendant upon the public schools Of the
District, and by reason of the increase OF the
poPuidtiOu LILLE hummer ls expected 10 20 over
5000 and possibly reach 40, 600 this year. The
addition Of the eight new buildings that will be
opened in the city this month will alone ac-
comodate 5000 pupils, or probably more than
enough to provide for the increase, while the
other structures to be completed later in the
season will swell the capacity of the schools to
a generous margin. This will permit the
vacating of sufficient rooms in some of the old
buildings to give better quarters to the various
manual training schools, and will afford space
for other purposes
THE MANUAL TRAINING SCHOOL.
The manual training feature Of the school
system has come to stay and its progress in the
District has been on a par with the advance
made in other cities. Supt. Powell began it's
introduction year after his appointment,
which occurred four years ago. This operation
was somewhat like stirring corn meal into boil
ing water to make hasty pudding. 1t has to
be done gradually, evenly, slowly, or the prod
uct will be blotchy, uneven, unpalatable. Mr..
Powell began in a small way, starting at both
ends. He put a few tools into the high school
building and gave instruction in their use to
small class of the most advanced pupils, and at
the same time he started kindergarten methods
in the lowest grade. The next year saw this
spreading out over the second and third
the second and third years at the
high school. Last year the kindergarten idea
was still further expanded and the manual
training was given to the entire high school
and the eighth grades. He will make the sys-
tenn complete this school year by bringing the
kindergarten methods up to the seventh
grade, which viii be given the first course in
the use OF tools. The process Of ENGRAVING the
two systems together has been somewhat like
the boring Of tunnel, with two gangs at work
atboth ends and finally meeting In the middle,
and now Mr.. Powell has the satisfaction of see
ing the central membrane Of material pierced
and q continuous hole created
There will be quite q force Of new teachers
in this line-three of manual training, three of
cooking and two OF sewing. There will be
new manual training school established in the
Force building, one at the corner Of 7th and G.
streets southeast, one at Bennings, another at
Anacostia, one at Hillsdale and still another in
the Mott building. The last two are for colored
pupils and that at Rennings for both white and
colored. New cooking schools are to be started
in the Thompson, Seaton, Wallach and Force
buildings The instruction in sewing, which
was last year confined to the girls of the fourth,
NTH and sixth grades, will be extended to those
in the third grade.
DELsARTE "HEALTH HxKRc1sxs."
Superintendent Powell has also secured the
services Of three teachers to direct the in
struction Of all the pupils in what he terms
'heaith exercise" This is not to be calls
themes, or gymnastics, or the old breathing
exercises, he explained, but Q combination Of
muscular and facial movements for the pur-
poses Of health and culture. It win be mod
eled after the Delsarte system Of expression
and will be given to every pupil. The new
teachers are merely to direct the course,
leaving the actual instruction to the teachers
Of the individual schools.
WHERE THE NEW BUILDINGS ARE.
The new buildings to be opened in time for
the first days Of school are as follows: First
division, the Adams, corner Of r street and New
Hampshire avenue, and the Berret corner of
Q and l4th streets; second division, the Arthur
on Arthur place near the Baltimore and Ohio
depot; third division, the Lenox, on 9th street
southeast, and the Madison, corner of 10th and
G streets northeast; fourth division, the Small
wood, on I between Sd and ~ streets south
west; fifth division, the Corcoran, 28th between
NJ and N streets northwest; sixth division, at
Brightwood and in the county, at Good Hope
hill, Hillsdale and Bennings. ALI Of these but
the last four are eight-room brick houses; that
at Brightwood is . four-room brick and that at
Hillsdaie a four-room frame and those at Ana
costa and Bennings two-room frames.
EouALrzINa THE SCHOOLS.
It has been the policy Of the management Of
the schools more and more each year to make
the teaching force balance ITSELF There is a
vast difference between teachers; some Of them
are strong in their abilities and are perfectly
able to run their schools efficiently out Of their
own resources, while others with less indie
pendence and ability need the constant advic.