EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X. 683 



nize a country school house at sight and turn in without any guidance. 

 Inside is found many times an old stove standing in the center of the 

 room that roasts the children sitting near by, while those farther away 

 are nearly freezing; windows on opposite sides lighting the room by 

 cross lights, which are occasionally raised or lowered to supply a little 

 fresh air. These are the common provisions made for the heating, light- 

 ing and ventilating of the school room. 



At a very little extra expense a jacketed stove, a double flue, one for 

 smoke and one for an outlet for foul air, and high windows on one side 

 and rear of building could be provided, which would add much to the 

 health and comfort of teachers and pupils. I think the time has come 

 when a law should be placed on the statute books fixing the maximum 

 requirements in the construction of a rural school building, and making 

 it mandatory that some provision be made for the proper heating, light- 

 ing and ventilating of the building. 



"Cleanliness is next to Godliness" is an old maxim and measured by 

 this standard I am sorry to say that many, if not most, of our country 

 schools have wandered far away from Godliness. Some of the schools, I 

 am sure, have not had a thorough scrubbing and cleaning for years. 



What we need today is not so much additions to the course of study 

 as we do more attention to the simple things connected with the everyday 

 life and experience of the pupils in the schools. It has been truthfully 

 said: the public school is the place to which we should turn our chief 

 attention in the effort to promote a more beautiful public life in America. 

 The school house and the school grounds should be as beautiful as any 

 home in the country, and the child should be surrounded with neatness 

 and beauty from first to last. Trained in the habit of seeing the good 

 and beautiful and knowing it, he will come instinctively to hate ugliness 

 and deformity wherever he sees it, whether it be physical or moral. 

 Dozens of our school houses present unsightly appearances. Many of the 

 future citizens of this republic are getting their education under most un- 

 favorable conditions. I do not know of anything that needs the attention 

 of the country people more today than the healthfulness, cleanliness and 

 beautifying of the school house and its surroundings. It is within the 

 power of pupils, parents, teachers and all friends of education to change 

 these conditions until we shall have everywhere attractive buildings, 

 standing on attractive grounds, leading attractive pupils and attractive 

 teachers to higher ideals of beauty and order. 



Have the advantages for the education of the farm boy and girl kept 

 pace with the advancement in all other lines of society? Is the little 

 schoolhouse with its poor equipment — in some places I have found only 

 one map to aid in the teaching of geography and that a map of Iowa 

 furnished by the' railroad commissioners, no dictionary, no chart, a few 

 painted boards across one end of the room the only blackboard, with the 

 poorly brained teachers in many instances, with very poor work in the 

 common branches — are these sufficient to meet the demands of today for 

 the common school education? 



Have you not reached the period where nothing short of a well-equipped 

 schoolhouse, a first-class teacher and a course of study to meet the de- 

 mands of the times are a necessity for your children? 



