The Somerset reporter., 1899-11-09
School Rooms and Grounds.

5CnOOl NUO"b anu oAounOS'
Following Is a paper upon decorate on
OF school rooms and Improvement of
school grounds, read before the Somer-
set Educational Association at Plttsfield,
October "a, by +. J. Hersey, superinten-
dent of schools of Cambridge, Me-:
The public schools and their improve
ment, is a subject which should lie near
the heart of every man and woman who
go to make up the millions of people
who inhabit the vast territory included
n our great republic; because without
dispute these small institutions are the
corner stones that make the strong
bulwark of our mighty nation. In this
country during the past ten years, more
attention than ever before, has been
paid to the welfare of common schools,
to their improvement and advancement.
And let me hear say, that the first In the
way of outward improvement which
ought to precede the inner, the state of
our school yards ought to be attended
to. The establishing OF day called
Arbor Day has led in many places to the
planting of trees in school grounds and
following, leveling of the turf and beds
OF flowers introduced and all debris re-
removed and the smoothness of lawB
taken place. The spreading maple, the
graceful elm, the shady bass, and other
forest beauties, which with the flowers
give interest and beauty to the land
scape, and to the pupils whose time Is
so largely passed within the walls of the
house.
This will surely lead, by the same
love Of the beautiful, to the decoration
of those bare walls seen In the old school
buildings of former years. The photo
graphic art so fully developed in modern
times, makes 1t not only possible, but
very easy to obtain pictures to fill the
spaces in the walls, not occupied by
black boards, which instruct and please
alike.
Not long since l visited some of the
school rooms in the city of Bangor. and
il gave me great pleasure TO observe the
decorative art covering the walls Of the
rooms. Portraits of our heros, both
naval and continental, whose deeds
nhame our love of country and our
patriotic pride. Pictures of our authors
and poets, as Longfellow, Bryant,
Lowell and Holmes, with the beloved
Whittier, sympathizer of the worker
and who voiced the Injustice done to the
slave. These portraits besides pleasing
the eye and satisfying our aesthetic taste
teach the great lesson of their lives, and
naturally lead to a desire in the young
TO emulate their greatness of life and
usefulness to the world. Written on
the blackboards over which the por-
traits hang In fine vertical script, were
quotations from authors, lines from the
poets, or some sayings from the heroes
represented above. All these fill the
childrens' sense of beauty with their
surroundings, and love for the place
where so much of their time Is spent,
and by their silent teachings lead them
to higher plane Of thought. Even the
little primary mites were eager to gather
groups of little heads, copies in nina
ture of the larger portraits OF men and
women Of renown. | saw that these
decorations were an education In them
selves.
Ia the history class the actors them
selves present looking down upon them.
In literature they seemed to be listening to
the music Of their own songs. In black
board drawing the birds that twittered
and sang outside were finely executed
to the life as part of the school adorn-
ment. Our national emblem the eagle
king, spread his broad pinions over the
flag which decorated the wall and thus
he pupil was taught his first lesson In
citizenship. viz: love OF country as
represented by her glorious ensign.
When we speak of the necessary SAM
tary conditions of the school house, we
must concede that decorative art prop
erly belongs to a branch of the same
necessity, promoting healthful natures
In children which shuts out every kind
of vandalism so often seen in the school
buildings of gone by years, so well
delioeated by Whittier in his description
of the place of his early youth, around
which THE blackberry vines were still
running on the outside and