394 



A CHAPTER ON SCHOOL-HOUSES. 



disgraceful as the externals of our country 

 school-houses themselves. 



A traveller through the Union, is at once 

 struck with the general appearance of com- 

 fort in the houses of our rural population. 

 But, by the way-sides, here and there, he 

 observes a small, one-story edifice, built of 

 wood or stone in the most meagre mode, — 

 dingy in aspect, and dilapidated in condi- 

 tion. It is placed in the barest and most 

 forbidding site in the whole country round. 

 If you fail to recognize it by these marks, 

 you can easily make it out by the broken 

 fences, and tumble-down stone walls, that 

 surround it ; by the absence of all trees, 

 and by a general expression of melancholy, 

 as if every lover of good order and beauty 

 in the neighborhood had abandoned it to 

 the genius of desolation. 



This condition of things is almost univer- 

 sal. It must, therefore, be founded in some 

 deep rooted prejudices, or some mistaken 

 idea of the importance of the subject. 



That the wretched condition of country 

 school-houses is owing to a general license of 

 vphat the phrenologists would call the organs 

 of destructiveness in boys, we are well aware. 

 But it is in giving this license that the great 

 error of teachers and superintendents of 

 schools lies. There is, also, God be thank- 

 ed, a principle of order and a love of beauty 

 implanted in every human mind ; and the 

 degree to Avhich it may be cultivated in 

 children is quite unknown to those who 

 start leaving such a principle wholly out of 

 sight. To be convinced of this, it is only 

 necessary to inquire, and it will be found that 

 in the homes of many of the pupils of the 

 forlorn looking school-house, the utmost 

 propriety, order, and method reign. Nay, 

 even withiii the school-house itself, " hea- 

 ven's first law" is obeyed, perhaps to the 

 very letter. But to look at the exterior, it 

 would appear that the " abbot of unreason," 



and not the " school-master," was " abroad." 

 The truth seems to be simply this. The 

 school-master does not himself appreciate 

 the beautiful in rural objects ; and, content 

 with doing what he conceives his duty to 

 the heads of his pupils, while they are 

 within the school-house, he abandons its ex- 

 ternals to the juvenile "reign of terror." 



Nothing is so convincing on these sub- 

 jects as example. We saw, last summer, 

 in Dutchess Co. , N. Y., a/ree school, erected 

 to fulfil more perfectly the mission of an or- 

 dinary district school-house, which had been 

 buili by a gentleman, whose taste and bene- 

 volence seems like sunshine to warm and ir- 

 radiate his whole neighborhood. It was a 

 building simple enough, after all. A project- 

 ing roof, with slightly ornamented brackets, 

 a pretty porch, neat chimney tops ; its color a 

 soft neutral tint ; these were its leading fea- 

 tures. But a single glance at it told, in a mo- 

 ment, that the evil spirit had been cast out, and 

 the good spirit had taken its place. The ut- 

 most neatness and cleanliness appeared in 

 every part. Beautiful vines and creepers 

 climbed upon the walls, and hung in fes- 

 toons over the windows. Groups of trees, 

 and flowering shrubs, were thriving within 

 its enclosure. A bit of neat lawn surround- 

 ed the building, and was evidently an ob- 

 ject of care and respect with the pupils 

 themselves. Altogether, it was a picture 

 of a common district school which, compared 

 with that we before described, and which 

 one every day sees, was a foretaste of the 

 millenium. If any stubborn pedagogue 

 doubts it, let him come to us, and we will 

 direct him on a pilgrimage to this Mecca, 

 which is only eight miles from us. 



It appears to us that a great error has 

 taken deep root in the minds of most pa- 

 rents and teachers, regarding the influence 

 of order and beauty on the youthful mind. 

 Ah ! it is precisely at that age — in youth — 



