The Weekly Ottumwa Courier

School Houses.

The subject of common Schools is just now attracting peculiar attention throughout the State. It is of the utmost importance that it should be so, for the subject of education is perhaps the most interesting and responsible of all those with which a free and sovereign people have to deal. The safety of our republican institutions depends upon the proper instruction of the masses. In order that the elective franchise may be safely exercised, and maintained in its purity, there must be intelligence in those who exercise it. Briefly, we think no one will deny that the common school system is the bulwark of our Constitution. It is well therefore that the people of our great State should not delay, in bestowing that degree of attention to the subject, which it demands.

Among the many branches of the subject, there is one, by no means the least important, which in our country is apt to be overlooked, and that is School Houses. We are sure that we shall do a good work if we can induce the people of this section to turn their attention to this subject. Well then, we feel at liberty to make the very modest assertion, that a poor School House, and there are thousands of them in the land, is an obstacle to the teacher, an impediment and cruelty to the scholar, a detriment to the interests of education, and a disgrace to any community, which will tolerate it. We shall not take much time to substantiate this, as any man who will take the trouble to reflect upon it two minutes, will see its whole truth.

No teacher, however well he may be qualified for his office, can govern a school, unless he has a good house, to teach in. It should be properly arranged, so that every scholar may know his place, and then he can be made to keep it. Unless there is a good house, no regular system can be kept up, but all will be confusion. Beside this, the teacher should be comfortable, in order that he may preserve that equanimity of temper, so necessary to success, in the government of a school. If any reader desires to have this matter more minutely explained, we would refer him to the most convenient pedagogue, who will doubtless, be able and willing to give him the requisite instruction.

In order that a scholar may make anything like respectable progress in learning, he must be comfortable. Narrow and round seats, houses either uncomfortably cold, or uncomfortably close and hot, are utterly inconsistent with careful study, and good lessons. The body must be at ease, or the mind cannot work well, is applicable to men, and of course, much more so to children. But besides being an impediment to the scholar's advancement, it is a gross cruelty. It is cruel to shut a child up in an uncomfortable house, on uneasy and narrow benches, for six or seven hours a day, and we do not wonder that so many a boy or girl, goes "unwillingly to school." Aside from temporary discomfort, it too often sows the seeds of future disease. We confidently believe that one half of the round shoulders, crooked backs, and sunken chests which we see on all sides of us, are traceable to the wretched seats which are to be found in so many of our school houses. Only think of it! To be compelled to sit for six hours a day, five days each week, for five, ten or a dozen years, and that too while the child is growing, and the body receiving its proportions! We do not wonder at the results. If any parent desires anything more to be said on this point, let him ask his children to explain it to him. Or if that does not satisfy him, let him take their place, and sit for only a single day on a bench six inches wide, with no desk in front of it, and no back. If he will do this, he will need to be no further enlightened.

And now, Parents, allow us to make a practical suggestion. Many of you are building school houses, or are about to build them, and many more ought to be so. Well if you have not yourselves the necessary experience in such matters, go straight and consult some one who has, and get all the latest improvements in school house building, and having got them, make good use of them. Until you do this you had better not lay a brick or drive a nail. For a poor and ill constructed house is worse than none at all. If you build a poor one, you will always have occasion to regret it, while if you take pains, and build a good one, you will have the approbation of your own consciences and the blessings of your children.

Are you appalled by the tax? We hope not for your good name. You have rich farms, good crops, well filled granaries, and pockets well lined. You are blessed with abundance by a merciful Providence, and shall you withhold your reasonable contribution towards this most worthy object. We do not believe there is one man among all our readers, whose soul is so small as to grudge his children the blessings of a common school education, and a fit place in which to acquire it.

We earnestly commend this subject to the attention of all. Now is the time for action in reference to it.