No. 5. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 169 



lated. The plainer the better; little or no carving or anything that 

 will catch and accumulate dust, and make trouble. 



What size shall the school room be? Not large enough to accom- 

 juodate more children than one teacher can handle. The law require.s 

 twenty square feet for each child, and also thirty square feet of air 

 space. Twenty by thirty by twelve and a half or thirteen feet will 

 accommodate twenty children very nicely, with a little more than 

 the exact amount of air and building space required by law. 



Then the subject of lighting the school room, which is a very im- 

 portant question. The law forbids that the light should come from 

 the front. Unfortunately we find it does, in a good many cases, 

 and the child sits all day with the light shining directly into its 

 eyes. The light should not come to the right, because then the child 

 works all day in the shadow made by its hands, and we know that 

 a shifting or moving shadow increases the accommodation of the eye, 

 and is therefore injurious. The light should never come from the 

 back, but there should be five or six windows beginning far enough 

 back not to throw the light in the eyes of the child. If, for any 

 reason, it is impossible to get enough light from the left, some light 

 may come from the right, but never enough to overcome the light 

 from the left. It should not be low enough to strike the eye, but it 

 should go up to the ceiling, where it shines on the ceiling and falls 

 as a diffused light. There should be no arches, because valuable 

 light space is lost. Then, use large panes; small panes throw shad- 

 ows, and the loss in light space is equal to 20% of the entire light 

 space. 



The walls should be plain, or painted with an unglazed paint. 

 Wall paper absorbs gases ; paint is cleaner and more sanitary. There 

 should be plenty of blackboard space, but nothing between the 

 windows, so that the child will get the reflection in the eye. 



What about the furniture of the room, and the desks and seats? 

 The seats and desks should always be adjustable. The child spends 

 many hours each day sitting before the desk. If they are too low or 

 too high, we get a position that will, in time, spoil the health of the 

 child. If they are too high, the shoulders are up, and the head in 

 a bad position, and it is hard on the eyes. When the desk is too low, 

 the body leans forward, the spine is bent, the chest is cramped, the 

 stomach is cramped, the circulation is interfered with, and the diges- 

 tion more or less stopped, and we wonder why the child does not 

 thrive, and we begin to look at home for the cause, when it is due 

 to the position that the child holds for several hours at school. If 

 the chair is too high, we have the same position as if the desk is too 

 low. Your desk and your chair should be made so as to be made or 

 lowered so as to suit the child. The top should be made so that the 

 incline can be changed. There are several desks now so made, and 

 they are not expensive. One of the dangers of the poor desk is to 

 the eyesight. Dr. Cohen finds that at nine years 3.5% of the chil- 

 dren are near sighted; at ten years, 20%; at eighteen years, 30%. 

 The longer the time spent at school, the more of them become near 

 sighted. The majority of children are born far-sighted. 



Another question for us to take into consideration, is the plan of 

 heating. How should our room be heated? Some of our rooms are 

 under-heated, some are over-heated. It depends somewhat upon the 

 age of the child, but an average temperature of 68 to 70 degrees 



