SCHOOL-TEACHERS.

Chap. 44, sect. 28, of the statutes requires the school committees to contract with the teachers of the public schools.

The committees are to require full and satisfactory evidence of the good moral character of all instructors employed by them; and they are to ascertain, by personal examination, their qualifications for teaching and capacity for the government of schools.

It is required of every instructor of a town or district school, that he obtain from the school committee a certificate in duplicate of his qualifications, one of which shall be deposited with the selectmen before any payment is made to such instructor on account of his services. Then, if the teacher keeps his register according to the forms prescribed, he shall be entitled to his

wages.

The school committee may dismiss from employment any teacher whenever they think proper, and such teacher shall receive no compensation for services rendered after such dismissal.

The schools must be supplied with good teachers, or they will be failures, notwithstanding all that external agencies may do for them.

Once it was thought that almost any one could teach school, especially a primary school, because the teacher's work is so simple and so easily done.

Now it is beginning to be known that one must have had a successful experience or a thorough professional training before he can teach in a satisfactory manner.

The country is not full of perfect teachers. We may think it is; but, when a necessity compels us to look for one, then we discover, to our surprise, that there are almost none to be found.

To teach well requires an extensive and accurate knowledge. of the branches to be taught, a knowledge of the human faculties, and of a method of teaching based on this knowledge.

It requires also the power of self-control, a cultivated taste, a good common judgment, a successful experience, and an unlimited enthusiasm.

A good teacher should be retained quietly and for a long time in his place: -

1. Because there are so few good teachers to be found.

2. Because a good teacher is a necessary element of a good

school.

3. Because waste will always be caused by any change that can be made, except it be from a poorer to a better teacher.

A skilful, faithful teacher is one of the richest blessings that can be granted to any community. It should be remembered, that, in choosing a teacher for our children, we are choosing the characters we would have them possess.

The teacher should be trained to a good methodof teaching, and it should be his special object to communicate to his pupils a good method of study.

At a recent meeting of the Education Society in England, a discussion on elementary science teaching ended in these conclusions that natural knowledge, or a knowledge of natural . objects, should be taught, not from books, but from things themselves; that the lessons should not consist of information committed to memory, but of knowledge acquired by the child's own observation and experience; that by object-lessons he should be led to observe the natural facts around him, and to exercise his own powers of observation and comparison, and in this way to acquire his own knowledge and the true method of learning. The ends to be secured by study are three:

Knowledge, mental training, and a method of thinking.

These ends are to be occasioned by such a method of teaching as will bring the true object of study into the presence of the pupil, and will require him to study it by an exercise of his own active power.

SUPERINTENDENCY.

"The school committee in each city or town where there is no superintendent of schools, or some one or more of them, for the purpose of organizing and making a careful examination of the schools, and of ascertaining that the scholars are properly supplied with books, shall visit all the public schools in the town on some day during the first week after the opening of such schools, and also on some day during the two weeks preceding the close of the same; and shall also, for the same purposes, visit, without giving previous notice thereof to the instructors, all the public schools in the town once in each month; and they shall at such examinations inquire into the regulation and discipline of the schools, and the habits and proficiency of the scholars." This act of superintendence of the schools is a most important one for their welfare and good conduct.

It requires learning and experience and time to organize a school, to make out a good course of studies for its use, to select good teachers, to introduce them into their office by a proper examination, to plan out a good method of teaching, to select good school-books, and to be able to direct the internal affairs. of the schools to the best results. That this may all be done, the school committees of the Commonwealth should be supplied with educated men to act under their authority, as their agents in doing that which is properly implied in school supervision. Such a change would save us from a vast amount of waste now caused by a want of experience and philosophy in the administration of our educational interests.

In organizing the schools the first means to be provided are properly constructed schoolhouses. If we compare the ancient schoolhouses with those of modern times, we shall find in the difference a good expression of that change in public sentiment which shows a growing appreciation of the wants and the value of our public educational institutions. The ancient structures made no pretensions to comfort or to architectural beauty. They were generally small, imperfectly lighted, and utterly without ventilation, except through open windows and doors, and through the cracks which the forces of nature had opened in their loose coverings. They were wholly exposed to the fierce rays of the summer's sun, and they were warmed in winter by methods which put the different parts of the body of every child into widely different temperatures at the same time. They were frequently located on the top of some high barren hill, or crowded into some narrow waste place in the valley just wide enough to receive them. Not much attention was paid in their construction to proportion or to ornament. Nothing was added without to break up the monotony of stiff outlines, or within to relieve the sobriety of barren walls. A plain enclosure was constructed, and the schoolhouse was ready for the children.

The school furniture was of the same character as the building it furnished. It was constructed without much reference to . comfort or to health. The growing bodies of the young pupils were warped out of shape as they sat day after day on their poorly contrived seats; while the purity of their blood was disturbed by the bad air they were compelled to inhale, and the health of their eyes was destroyed by the glaring light that fell

direct upon them, or by the darkness in which many of the old schoolrooms were enveloped. Our modern schoolhouses are improvements on the old; but still they are defective in their means of ventilation, lighting, and heating, and in almost all those contrivances that have reference to the physical well-being of the pupils.

It may not be out of place to give a few hints concerning the points that should attract attention in building and furnishing schoolhouses.

SCHOOLHOUSES.

Situation. The schoolhouses for the public schools should be in pleasant places, away from every thing that can disturb the quiet activity of the mind or the health of the body. "The very place of instruction should be rendered as attractive as possible, on account of the educating influences of external things." The school-grounds should be elevated somewhat above the general level of the surrounding country, and they should slope towards the south. If elevation and slope are observed in the selection of school-grounds, they can be easily drained, and the schoolhouse will be exposed to currents of fresh air, and to the more direct rays of the sun. The soil of the grounds selected should, if possible, be sandy or composed of loose gravel. In either case the water that falls upon it and does not flow off will be quickly absorbed or evaporated. It would be well carefully to avoid building on grounds formed by earth deposited over low and swampy places; for the gases that would work their way from below to the surface would endanger the health of all exposed to their effects. The grounds should be of sufficient extent to allow ample room for the healthful exercise of the pupils. In the case of mixed schools, the play-grounds should be divided by enclosures into two parts, and one assigned to the boys, the other to the girls.

Building-Material. - Economy and comfort are more fully secured in building schoolhouses by the use of either stone or .brick than of wood. The first cost of stone or of brick buildings may be more than if constructed of wood; but when durability is taken into account, as it always should be in the construction of public buildings, economy favors the use of the more solid materials. Comfort is more fully secured also by the use of such materials, as they are better adapted to furnish the conditions of an even temperature both in summer and in winter.

Size. The size of the school-building must be determined by the number of pupils that are to occupy it. The best authorities are of the opinion that at least two hundred and fifty cubic feet of space in the schoolroom should be allotted to each pupil. This amount would allow to each twenty square feet of surface in a room twelve feet and a half in height. Very large schoolrooms are not desirable. If the school contains a large number of pupils, it is better to arrange them in separate rooms under the supervision and instruction of teachers who may hold the relation of assistants to the principal.

Form. The shape of the main schoolrooms should be that of an oblong whose width should bear to its length the proportion of two to three.

The teacher's desk and platform should be on the north side of the room, the latter being elevated about eight inches above the floor. The door through which the pupils enter the school room should be on the south side, and open outwards, as should all the doors of the building.

Windows. If the teacher's desk is on the north side of the schoolroom, and the entrance doors for the pupils are on the south side, the pupils can be easily arranged so as to face the north as they are seated at their desks. There should be no windows in the room opening towards the north, as they would allow the light to fall directly on the eyes of the pupils. Light from windows at the right side or at the back of the pupil will be obstructed, in the first case by his hands and arms when used in ciphering, drawing, or writing; and in the second case by the intervention of the whole body between the direct light and the pupil's books. In so far as the pupils are concerned, light from the left and the back does not harm the eye, and that from the left will fall properly on their work.

The windows of a schoolroom should open directly upon the outer air, and the light passing through them should not be obstructed by projections of any kind on the outside of the building.

The bottom of the windows should be about four feet from the floor, while the top should reach as near to the ceiling as possible. A transom window should be placed over each door. The amount of light admitted may be regulated by the use of inside blinds. The amount of window surface must be equal to three hundred and fifty square inches of glass for each pupil,