1852. 
THE CULTIVATOR 
75 
A Country School House. 
No one can journey through any section of the coun¬ 
try without being impressed with the fact, that school- 
houses are. generally, constructed without taste, con- 
venience, or even comfort. Located in the geographical 
centre of the district—be that on a bleak hill-side or in 
a frog.pond—erected at as little cost as possible, with 
nothing without or within to make it attractive,—with 
no grounds save the public highway belonging to it,—like 
some relic of the past, stands the school-house. Popu¬ 
lar sentiment demands better schools and more highly 
qualified teachers, than it did twenty years since; but in 
few instances, has a corresponding improvement been 
made in the edifices devoted to the primary, and almost 
the only education of children. 
We present above a design for a School House, taken 
from the Horticulturist for January—a work designed 
to form and cultivate a correct taste in rural architecture. 
11 It has at least the merit (says Mr. Downing) of 
simplicity in the plan, and as it is a parallellogram, of 
economy in its construction. An entrance hall or lobby, 
opens into a large school-room for boys upon the one 
side, and one for girls upon the other. Between these 
two rooms is a recitation room, which may contain a 
book case for the school library. The exterior is bold 
and picturesque—the style a modification of the Swiss 
—and well adapted to many sites in our varied rural 
scenery. The widely over-hanging eaves afford a species 
of veranda shelter round the whole building. The style 
is exceedingly well adapted for a wooden building, and 
its details are so simple that any country carpenter of 
intelligence could construct such a school house without 
any further working drawings.” 
Now, we ask, does not such a building commend itself 
to the taste of every person, and contrast favorably with 
the rude structures so common everywhere? The Ar¬ 
chitect of Nature has not failed to scatter locations of 
beauty thick over our land, and scarce a school district 
can be found where a proper site for a model building 
does not invite attention. The additional expense of 
erecting a building in this style, is not worth a moment’s 
consideration in comparison with the results, growing 
out of the change. The love of the beautiful is instinc¬ 
tive in childhood, and only the narrow prejudice of self- 
seeking man can see nothing to admire in the loveliness 
of nature, or in the fair proportions of art. Next to the 
attractions of the home fireside, the school should be 
the most desirable and inviting place. Here does mind 
receive its first impressions and form its tastes and cha¬ 
racter. Here does the boy fix his standard of attain¬ 
ment, acquire his notions of gentility and propriety, 
and first learn to compare himself with others. 
An air of neatness and elegance should be given the 
school house, and in point of finish, decoration and furni¬ 
ture should equal the best apartment of a private resi¬ 
dence. Children would respect such a building, would 
love to be in it, and what is more, would form there, 
habits of propriety which would save the man many a 
bitter lesson of mortification. Children imitate the man¬ 
ners of those around them, and rudeness is no more 
natural than politeness. This is not mere speculation. 
We have seen a school house which had been in constant 
use for three years, upon whose carpet there were no 
marks of the gormandising tastes of scholars, whose 
neatly stained desks showed no signs of the Yankee pro¬ 
clivity to whittle, whose walls were disfiguaed with no 
semi-barbaric artistic designs; yet there had been no 
blows struck in that school, there were no rules to pre¬ 
vent injury to the building. A gentleman had taught the 
school, and as naturally as effect follows cause, gentle¬ 
manly and lady-like scholars were in attendance. It is 
needless to remark that intellectual improvement was in 
perfect keeping with advance iu other respects. 
Thousands of dollars are wisely laid out every year 
in erecting churches after the best models, and decorating 
them according to the most approved standards of taste; 
and why should not equal pride be taken in combining 
beauty and fitness in the district school house? If archi¬ 
tecture be the expression of ideas of beauty, if it has a 
meaning, will not six days in a beautiful school house 
do more in impressing the mind with a correct taste, 
than one in a beautiful church? Each has its appropriate 
place, is associated with its peculiar ideas, but in point 
of importance are so nearly allied that they should not 
widely differ. 
