SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE.

Photographs of school houses were shown in nearly all of our State Exhibits at Philadelphia. New Jersey displayed over four hundred photographs of school buildings. Next to New Jersey in the proportion of her school houses represented was Connecticut. No city of its size in America can show better school edifices than Hartford, nearly all of which were finely represented at the Exposition. There has been of late great improvement in school architecture in Connecticut, and throughout the country. In this respect we need not shrink from comparison with any European country.

In anticipation of the International Exposition of 1873, not to say as a part of it, Austria erected two or three magnificent school edifices in her capital which, though excellent, are exceptional in that country. They did not seem to me to justify the glowing picture of "Austria's splendid school architecture" by an enthusiastic visitor of the Vienna Exposition, who was equally eloquent on "the superb Swedish school house there erected, which was a perfect gem, a genuine model, and altogether unrivalled in America." This wonderful Swedish school house reappeared in Fairmount Park, and however unique and interesting as a specimen of Swedish style and workmanship, it did not furnish a single new suggestion of any value to us, for the poor specimens of ill-ventilated school houses still found in many of our country districts have long since been condemned by the friends of education, and are fast disappearing. The Swedish house, while not by any means extraordinary, is a good one, and it is exceedingly gratifying to learn from the Swedish Minister of Public Instruction, that "the school law prescribes that every school house shall hereafter be constructed substantially in accordance with this plan. The rooms must be large, light, lofty, cheerful, provided with fireplaces, and generally arranged with strict regard to the health of the scholars and necessary conveniences of instruction."

In connection with her general Exhibit in the Main Building, Belgium showed a much better model school house, reduced in size. When visiting a large number of schools in that

country, I found nothing like this beautiful model, but on the other hand, many proofs of their great need of it. This model illustrates not what is, but rather what is to be in Belgium. The plan has lately been devised by the Central Commission of Primary Instruction and the Superior Council of Hygiene, and was adopted by the government in 1874. Nothing offended me more in visiting hundreds of schools in Europe, than the bad air one was compelled to inhale. But in this plan a thorough system of ventilation is adopted, which is well described by Hon. E. A. Apgar.

"There is a three-fold arrangement for the supply of fresh air. (1) The surbase is set off from the wall about four inches and covered with perforated zinc. This forms an open space completely around the room. This space communicates with the outside by several openings, each about eight inches in diameter. These communications may be closed or left open at the will of the teacher. The air enters these openings, but instead of passing directly into the room it strikes the surbase and is reflected upwards into the room through the perforated zinc. (2) The lower sash of the window is intended to remain closed, the upper sash is hung on hinges on its lower edge, and so arranged that it can be opened by drawing the upper edge within the room. The angle it can make to the vertical wall is thirty degrees. The air in entering this opening comes in contact with this inclined sash and is reflected upward against the ceiling and down into the room. Thus the force of the current is here spent before it reaches the children. (3) The stove, instead of depending upon the air of the room for the oxygen it needs to support combustion, receives its supply directly from out of doors through an opening or passage way under the floor. Thus there is an abundant supply of fresh air into the room, and the children are all secure from draught. There is a double arrangement for the exit of foul air: (1) There is a register in the floor in each corner of the room, from each of which there is a passage way or flue under the floor. These flues come together and unite under the stove and there communicate with a flue in the stove that leads out of doors through the roof. This passage way for the foul air is along side the hot-air flue, it therefore becomes heated and draught

is produced, which tends to draw the foul air, which finds its place near the floor, from the room. (2) A passage way around the edge of the ceiling is made with perforated zinc similar to that around the room below. This communicates with the outside by four pipes, one at each corner. These pipes are about eight inches in diameter and are capped with an elbow and vane so arranged that the mouth is always turned in the direction the wind is blowing. This has the effect of causing a draught also, and the foul air that finds its place near the ceiling is drawn from the room."

It is an encouraging fact that the school houses recently erected in this State have been built in accordance with the carefully prepared plans given in our late Reports. Our new school houses in the rural districts, though inexpensive, are generally well planned and ventilated, and adapted to their purpose in regard to health and convenience.

SCHOOL FURNITURE.

The school furniture shown both in Swedish, Belgian, and Canadian Exhibits, and in the photographic representations from other countries, was far inferior to ours. This is true of the furniture found generally in the schools of Europe. The very best I found abroad was called "American school furniture." Manufacturers in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and France, copied the school furniture exhibited by Americans in the Paris Exposition in 1867. Hence originated a new style widely used in European countries, which though a great improvement on their old seats and desks, is not yet equal to the best in use here.

The improved seats are recommended mainly because they favor erectness of posture. But it must be admitted that with poor seats, sometimes only deal planks, the posture of pupils in the French, Swiss and German schools is far better than that of American youth in our best furnished houses. The admirable attitude of foreign scholars, even when sitting on plain boards, was a mystery to me, till I discovered that the military spirit was all-pervasive. Every boy in Germany expecting to spend at least two years in camp, is early trained

at school to be "erect as a soldier." "SIT UP," is the oft-repeated command. "Sit up--a pretty officer or soldier, you would make, bent up like half a keg hoop." Well would it be, if American youth, so often enervated by stooping, would imitate this example in European schools. No words need to be so often repeated by the American teachers as "sit up." Nothing will tend more to improve our national health, for comparatively we are a stooping people. Our youth should learn that they will live the longer and be the stronger if they sit erect, walk erect, run erect, work erect, and sleep-at least straight, always keeping the form in position to breathe deep and full, and at every inhalation take in the fullest amount of air.

SCHOOL APPARATUS AND APPLIANCES.

The Educational Exhibits made by our States consisted mainly of scholars' work, those of European countries, chiefly of school apparatus and appliances, in which they greatly excel, and teach us a much needed lesson. The contrast between European and American school rooms in their equipments is striking. With superior buildings and more elegant and costly furniture, our bare school rooms have far less provision for illustration. This was admirably shown in the complete outfit of the Swedish School House, the walls of which were nearly covered with charts for teaching every department of natural history, physiology, and botany; maps, drawing copies, and charts for teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic. Their charts in natural history were of such rare excellence, that I tried to procure them for our Normal School, but found that they were already sold to Japan. I secured two large volumes containing many hundred species from their grand herbarium. Here were eight cases containing their ordinary species of moss, lichen, and fungi. In other cases were stuffed specimens of mammals, birds, fishes, reptiles, and preserved molluscs; and minerals, shells, corals, fossils, grains, seeds, nuts, woods, and insects. As illustrating a plan I have long recommended to teachers, I purchased the large case of native woods here shown, such as any teacher might procure for his school without any cost. Our youth need to be taught the beauty of

our native woods, and to discriminate the different kinds of wood by the grain. There were maps showing the geology as well as the geography of Sweden, and also the rainfall, temperature and density of population of the different sections of the country. Besides a small set of philosophical and chemical apparatus, there were shown geometric forms and Metric Weights and Measures. The latter is an appliance usually found in the schools of the Continent, and just beginning to be introduced into the schools of America. Notation is taught in the Swedish schools by bundles of small sticks like long matches, tied together in packages of tens, hundreds, thousands, and so on, placed in a board with holes in the unit place for single sticks, in the tens place, for the packages of tens, and so on. A clock face with movable hands served to show how to read the time, the teacher setting it and the scholars reading the time, or the scholars each in turn both setting and reading the time. Upon the school organ was a blank musical staff, on which by an ingenious contrivance the notes instantly darted into place as the teacher played the instrument, so that the notes were sounded and shown at the same instant.

In the Belgian school house were shown most of the same appliances as in the Swedish, especially the specimens in natural history, and samples of woods, minerals, insects, and other objects found in the vicinity of the school; also, celestial and terrestrial globes, geometric forms, a printed programme of study, and a thermometer for each room; a library of reference books, copies and models for drawing and for lessons in architecture, and a set of Metric scales, weights and measures, also a variety of fabrics of leather, linen, woolen, silks, and the like, arranged in connection with the material out of which they were made, and this material shown in various stages of growth or preparation. The crucifix and a bust or portrait of the king are usually found in the Belgian schools. The apparatus for light gymnastics are also common. Gymnastics are widely practiced in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and some other European countries.

Switzerland showed most of the same appliances and besides some excellent needle and worsted work done by girls. Advocating industrial schools for girls as well as boys, I endeavored