The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1899-06-02
Appendages That Are Required
by the School Law

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believe my address is to be gwen t.
the school officers of the county.
do not come with theories or higl
sounding phrases clothed in flowery
language, but / do wish to speal
plainly and practically relative to tn,
needs of our rural schools to those who
have their care intrusted to them.
think the district school teacher has
as it were, been standing between two
fires. On one hand the educators of the
day are continually urging them tC
bring the rural school up to high
Standard on the other, people who
make deprecating remarks, and officer:
who do not comply with the school,
law.
Section twenty.one of the school law
OF Michigan makes it the duty of the
director of each school district to pro.
vide the necessary appendages for the
school room, and keep the same in good
condition and repair during the time
school shall be taught therein.
Necessary appendages are defined to
be set of wall maps consisting of the
grand divisions, United States and
Michigan, globe, dictionary, read
ing chart, and case for library books
Also lookingglass, comb, towel, water
pail, cup, ashpail, poker, stove shovel,
broom, dustpan, buster, washbasin,
soap, and by more recent act of the
Legislature, a United States flag is
made a part of the necessary APP
pendages
The Importance of loyal and ready
compliance with these provisions of the
school law, on the part of the district
authorities, can scarcely be over
rated and yet it is an ever present and
saddening thought that in many of the
rural districts such compliance is with
held and the necessary appendages are
much more conspicuous for their
absence than for their presence.
But the noncompliance with the law,
in the case is, l apprehend, more the
result of apathy or a misunderstanding
of what the law really requires than OF
any fixed purpose to defy or evade the
law
But from whatever cause, the absence
of these necessary appendages from the
school room is none the less prejudicial
to the highest educational and social
development of the pupil.
II would be impossible to even trace
in paper of ordinary length, all of the
benefits derivable from the presence of
these most helpful accessories of the
school room, but l may state as a
general proposition, that as no good
business man or farmer would think of
investing large sum of money in his
business and then operating it with in
efficient means and thus incur loss on
his invested capital by not securing the
best possible results; so no director
having the educational interests of his
district at heart should think of operat-
ing the school, placed temporarily
under his control, without supplying it
with all those aids to the highest social,
intellectual, and moral development
that the law requires, reason dictates,
and reasonable expenditure will secure
A set of wall maps constitutes a very
important aid in fixing the chief fea-
lures of the country on the mind of the
pupil. Placed on the wall of the school
room where it must necessarily meet
the gaze of the pupil many times each
day of his school life, the map be-
comes an ever present object lesson;
and the young mind, being in its plas-
tic stage, all the outlines of the country
its contour, bays, chief harbors, and
other coast indentations, as well as the
relative position of places, become in
delibly impressed upon it. In this re-
spect the wall. map is an invaluable
complement of the text book and re-
pays many times its cost. By all means,
let every director of the school district
see to 1t that set of wall maps is pro-
vided for his school,
1t seems unnecessary for me to go on
and relate the beauties and benefits of
a we'll selected library No one will
attempt to deny but that reading from
such library will give scope to the
mind, improve conversational powers,
and will secure respect and apprecia
ton in social and literary circles.
How often in our daily recitations we
see and feel the need of farther knowl-
edge of the subject at hand thanis give -
en- in the text book, or new materiall
How often, what is dull and uninter-
esting lesson for the pupil, can be made
attractive by outside material! If there
is no library in the school, what is the
teacher to dor Send the pupil home to
inform himself upon the subject. He
that can do so is most favored child |
For, alas most of their homes are as
void of library as ia the school |