Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-12-12
THE COUNTRY SCHOOL.

m a period Of memory that runs
back nearly forty years the editor OF
\ the Manson Democrat says he has
seen many changes in the things that
70 to make up the life and comfort OF
the rural population. He has seen the
old fashioned things relegated to the
past, one by one, until today the
farmer can afford and enjoy nearly all
the comforts and conveniences OF city
life. Among the conveniences men
toned are electric lights or gas plant
to Night the home, power to run the
farm machinery and tighten the bur-
dens Of the farm, the automobile for
pleasure and profit as we'll, steam, hot
water or furnace heat, the telephone
and daily mail delivery. But there is
one institution, the Manson editor
says, that has not kept pace with the
progress Of the farms and that is the
country schoolhouse. He finds 1t "just
us neglected, just as tattered, just as
lonely and Just as generally uninvit-
ing" as 1t was nearly forty years ago
when he took up his studies within
its dingy walls" OF course there are
& country schools that are different but
he says it is only local pride that
makes them different and the average
country school house has not adj
yanced any. 1t has stood still. Sum-
marizing what he thinks the country
school needs the Manson editor says:
The country school house should be
built ON more pleasing and artistic
architectural lines : It should be built
for warmth and comfort, too. and not
entirely to save expense. It should
have nice trees around 1t and some
shrubbery and plenty of green grass
in the summer time. The birds will
come where there are trees and the
study OF bird life and the companion
ships of birds will never hurt any
child. It should be heated with fur
mace and there should be every com.
fort and convenience that is possible
for the teacher and pupils. There
should be an absolutely sanitary well
for drinking water, for children are
always thirsty and the pail Of stale
water brought, some times, a distance
OF mile from some farm house, Is not
at all inviting or refreshing or health
full to the little bodies. There should
be q telephone in every school house
It seems impossible to believe that
telephones are not in every rural school,,
for they could often be used to adj
vantage in many ways and sometimes
they could save life. The necessity
OF telephone in the rural school is
SO obvious that there does not seem to
be any valid argument against it.
The country school house should be
a meeting place for the people Of the
district for all meetings along moral
lines. It should be kept clean and sani-
tary at all times, so that any kind Of
neighborhood; meeting could be held
In it on short notice. Everything
should be done to make the country
school house inviting in the smallest
detail. The teacher and the school
board should constitute themselves a
special committee to see that nothing
of an unclean nature should be placed
on any of the school property by. de-
generate children. Above all things
the country school house should be
clean to the smallest possible detail, in
a moral as well as a physical sense.
Capitalization of country schools is
a long way off. 1t is not the ideal
solution Of the country school problem
at ALL It never will be. The country
school must i've 1t must be cherished
as the bulwark of liberty and patriot
ism and intellectual and moral cleanli-
ness. It should be the object Of the