St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1911-10-04
More Use For schoolhouses.

More Use For Schoolhouses.
Among monuments of progress the
schoolhouse in village, town and
city occupies a prominence that is
indicative of the regard for the fact
that mental culture enters into the
very foundation of material advance
ment. Education is more than the
mere hand-maiden of religion-it is
the twin sister; and in the develop
ment of both there has been evolved,
not a mere theory, but the conviction
that both religion and education in
volve care for the body as well as
for the mind and the soul. The old
Latin proverb to the effect that
sound body is requisite to soundness
of mind receives more and more q
practical recognition of it's truth.
That this is especially true in the
evolution of educational science is
made evident in the extent to which
manual training and physical culture
enter into the public school systems
of the period. To many observing
people this suggests much larger
possibility of use for public school
property than has yet developed. Not
many years ago nearly every city
and town closed the doors of its
schoolhouses at the end of the days
session, and kept them closed on
Saturdays, Sundays, holidays and
through the vacation seasons. In
other words, a great amount of
and needed for the use of the people,
was allowed to remain unused dur
ing a very large proportion of the
year. In many places the establish
ment of evening schools and OF
courses of public lectures has di-
minished the vast wastage of useful
property This has been the case in
nearly all of. our big cities; it can
be done in every city and town and
in every considerable village.
In Rutland for instance there could
be larger and beneficial use made of
school properly without imposing
upon the municipality, as such, the
additional expense that would
be involved in the maintenance of
evening schools or popular courses
would be possible through the action
of citizens associations. 1t is to such
associations that there appears to be
an appeal for devising ways and
means for constant use of school
property for purposes of physical
culture, mental enlargement, ration
al amusement and the development
of social spirit which would be pos
sible without interference with it's
ordinary employment during the
comparatively few hours of the
school day and year.
So far as these, which may be re-
garded perhaps as extraordinary
uses of school property, are concern
ed they are results of feeling enter
tanned by many people that the pub
~ hoe iOhf 70 a a nOSCihlR
use of all the property purchased
and maintained by means exacted in
the form of taxation. The child de-
velops into the man or the woman,
and thereafter the schOOlhOuse is d
thing of the past to him or her-a
memory only, and an object OF in
terest only when the responsibility
of parentage in due course of time,
may arrive. But men and women,
as often has been said, are but child
rem of a larger growth; and it is pos
sible to make of our schoolhouses
social as we'll as educational centers,
places of healthful recreation for
body and mind, and for those of ma
ture years as we'll as for the young.
The problem suggested is a large
one; it is susceptible to a variety of
practical solutions; and these solu-
tions involve public spirit rather
than public expense. 1t has present
ed itself to the minds of people ia
the city, and it may be worked out
satisfactorily if there can be devel-
oped a popular sentiment that would
| lead the authorities to concede the
use of school property during GER
tain hours of the day and evening
for the carrying out of any well con-
sidered plan that promises to make
for the physical, intellectual, social
and moral advancement of the COM
munity. Rutland Herald.