The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1904-06-16
OK. N. G., THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 1904.
THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
They Play an Important Part in a
Towns Progress.

| Selected.
A town or village may have good
streets, good water end good record
for health, but if it lacks good schools
the defect is one to tell against it's pros
perity. People may be inconvenienced
for lack of churches, but it is demand
ed on behalf OF their children that they
be provided with facilities for securing
an education, and this demand is be
coming more positive all the time. As
matter of fact, good schools alone
have pulled many town up and given
| it a reputation, while, on the contrary,
the lack OF them has Kept many town,
enterprising in other directions, from
being heard from outside of Its own
county. In discussing this matter re
Gently, DR.. Edward Brooks, superin-
tendent of schools of Philadelphia, said !:
"The crowning feature of modern
civilization Is the public school. The
church, the state and the library have
existed for all ages. The public school
is the product of the nineteenth centu-
ry. For the education OF the people
the state provides not only for the in-
struction, but suitable place for such
instruction, by erecting the buildings
In which they are gathered.
"A century ago public school was
a curiosity to-day they dot the rural
landscape and adorn the streets of our
cities. Fifty years ago it was the
courthouse and the church that attract
ed the attention OF the visitor to
strange city; to day the public high
school building vies with the church
aud courthouse in the city's architect
ural attractions.
"The most of our children are edu-
Gated In the elementary schools, and
these buildings, therefore, should be
especially adapted to their purpose
They should be we'll lighted, heated
and ventilated and equipped with the
most modern Improvements in steel
ceilings, hardwood floors, wide corri-
dors, inclosed tower fire escapes OF
brick: and slate and every facility for
assuring the safety. health and comfort
of scholars and teachers.
"The school building is the home OF
the pupils for five or SIX hours of the
day. To many children in towns and
cities 1t is the only place that may be
really called home, and it ls recog-
nized that this school home should be
bright, cheerful, healthful, safe and in
every way adapted to that p urpose.
"In Belgium the location, construct
ion, drainage, closets, ETC.. OF school
houses must be examined and approx
ed by the bureau of hygiene before
they can be occupied for school pur-
poses. In Vienna and some of the
other cities and towns of Europe a
physicians certificate is necessary in
determining the location of a school
building. Experts say that the class
room should afford about two hundred
cubit feet OF air space to each pupil,
and this is what the board of educa-
ton endeavors to attain in our modern |
school buildings as we'll as to assure by
proper ventilation a constant flow of
pure air.
"A sunny, cheerful bedroom affects |
the spirits of the pupils and tends to
promote cheerfulness of feeling, atten-
tion to studies and amenability to dis |
cipline, and the reverse, which can be
found in SO many of our old school
buildings, violates nearly every law Of |
hygiene.
"The schoOlroom should be made |
beautiful as well as healthful. Che |
furniture should be neat, the walls a
color agreeable to the eye and all the |
surroundings in accordance with the
demands Of the time. It should be a |
place of taste and Eeauty and thus ex-
ercise refining influence upon its pu-
pills. A taste for beauty and love OF
the right should go hand in hand, for
1t is the mission OF the beautiful to |
aid in cultiyating love OF right con-
duct. There Is thus strong pedlgog- |
lcal reason Tor beautifying our schools |
and keeping them so, which some peo-
pie unfortunately regard as one of the
fads of the times. Let the child drink |
in, day by day, the beauty which sur
rounds him In the schoolroom and he
will instinctively turn from that which |
is ugly, coarse and unrefned. Learn
ing to love the beautiful in school, he
will carry this taste into his home and
endeavor 70 surround himself there
with the same conditions that he has
found in school," /
STARTLING EVIDENCE.