Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-01
OUR MAIL POUCH.
School Desks and Their Reformation-Dan-
gers Pointed Ouf.

School Desks and Their Reformation-Dan-
gers Pointed Ouf.
To the Editor Of The Dispatch;
In your issue of the 26th find three columns
devoted to Danger in the Desk" matter not
unworthy the prominence you have given it.
Your reporters who inspected and measured"
the seats in many of the schoolrooms in your
triple city to find the cause of crooked legs
and stopped shoulders among the children Of
to-day are doing laudable work for our suffer-
ing innocents. But the half has not yet been
told. If the subject is still open for discussion
have you room for statement from one who
has spent lifetime in the schoolroom and
knows whereof he speaks?
ANY teacher Of varied experience could give
instances of mal-fttings and other blunders in
the seating of pupils that would surpass any
produced by your reporters. But let theirs
suffice. 1t is too humiliating to think that our
iusty youth must be deformed, or otherwise in
]ured, in order to gain either fitness for busi-
ness or cultured life; not because of any neces-
ity for such malpractice in our system of edu-
cation, but because of sheer indifference on
the part of the on cials specially charged with
the duty of providing suitable seats and
healthful accommodations. When they build
such expensive houses for the instruction Of
the children, why not look after the comfort
and convenience of the pupils as well! Every
teacher knows those conditions are not usually
provided. Let your reporters step into the
same vacant rooms when filed with occupants
and watch them at their work. More than that
of the short boy reaching too high or the tall
boy with his long limbs blocking up the aisle
for lack of space beneath his desk will be seen
the frequent rack-and-roll from side to side,
or hip to hip, in the vain endeavor to find an
easy place and posture, or a natural fit in
which to rest on an unnaturally shaped seat
Who has not seen this painful performance in
school has not observed closely.
Faulty desks are too frequently found that
do much toward lmpairing the health OF the
little ones confined for hours each day in un-
comfortable positions made so by those lily ar
ranged desks. For all this torturiDg of the
body for the benefit Of the mind there is nof
the shadow of an excuse The fault is In the
pattern; the fiat seat is false from the bottom
up. The first principle of a strictly hygienio
seat is ease and comfort through protracted
sittings. The essential condition of this is first
seat spherically depressed in the center. Civ
ing perfect fit tupon which the muscles press
equally, and thus avoids all interference with
the circulation that gives the limbs that "ting-
ling sleep sensation" Let your reporters try
1t and be convinced of the luxury of the perfect
ease attained.
To avoid the contracting of tnat ..stoopins
habit" at desk let the second principle of the
hfgienic seat be complied with, viz: adjust the
desks to fit the pupils instead of cramping up
Lu6 pupl6 10 nj Ino Q6SkS. 'craQQaLlng' Ln6
furniture by Nos. from i to 6. according to
grades doesn't meet the necessities of varying
heights at all. Unequal Nos. in the same
room won't accommodate all according to
height. There will always be somebody in
wrong desk, as your reporter found: 'six-foot
boys in three-foot boys Seats" and 80 1t will
ever be until the only proper remedy is unlver-
sally employed. viz: Use the adjustable hygienic
desk and seat. This alone meets this emer-
geucy; 1t is the only seat that solves that
problem; it is better than or l6 graduated"
sizes In the same room. Let the good
mothers" continue their "indgnatiou meet
ings' until the furnishing committee rectl-
f1es the evil of ''little feet dangling in air."
causing CROOKED legs' and distorted limbs"
Room for Improvement Yes, In respect to
height. until every sitting in our schools is
hygienic adjustable seat.
But why did your observing reporters pars
by the more prolific source Of mischief in
school life that Of myopy or of sUgmatlsm.
caused mainly by the wrong angle at which the
desk lids are set. Did the pupils, when they
went to school, wear glasses as they do nouf
cs How can @ we ignore this alarming defect In the
large share Of the nervous headaches and neu-
ralgia Of the students of to-day Is due to the
strain upon the eye when viewing the page at
desk that gives any angle desired is the only
natural corrective for this growing evil; better
than glasses even, after the damage Is done.
Here is the third principle Of a perfect by
gienic desk, viz: A lid easily set to any angle
TO suit the charged position OF the eye OF the
pupil. Nothing short of this can save, unim-
paired, the sight of the children at school. 1t
IS high time some philanthropic Howard or
Kennan would visit the schools, as well as the
prisons, and effect muoh-needed reform.
have presented three essential principles
that must enter into the structure of every
perfectly hygienc desk, but which are sadly
tabooed for our schools. am not interested in
any particular make, but claim that all should
comprise those sef-evident conditions, a COM
bination Of the hygienic seat. the adjustable
desk, the optical top for any angle Such a
convenience is a combination of all In one will
bring comfort to many weary ones, make study
delight ana school place of unalloyed pleas
ure. would hail it as the latest, best boon of
all modern improvements for the Advancement
of learning. j. NJ.
CosHoCToN, o., July 80.