Rnrik - C y.j H t-f - 
 
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 5TATL OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 OFFICE SUPERINTENDENT PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 AND ~ ' 2- 
 
 SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 TWENTY-THIRD BIENNIAL RLPORT 
 
 EDWARD HYATT 
 
 SUPE.RINTLNDE.NT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 
 
 PREPARED AT THE REQUEST 
 
 TAHOE CONVENTION OF SUPERINTENDENTS 
 
 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 
 I 909 
 

 
 Printed at the State Printing Office, Sacramento, Cal. 
 W. W. SHANNON, Superintendent 
 
 D.Of D. 
 
 DEC 30 1209 
 

 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 TO THE SCHOOL TRUSTEES OF CALIFORNIA: 
 
 Ladies and gentlemen, in your hands lie the purse strings of the 
 public schools in all this great State. Therefore, to you must be 
 addressed any plea for the future improvement of our school property, 
 as a whole. You and your successors are the only ones who can translate 
 good ideas into good schoolhouses and beautiful school grounds as time 
 goes on. 
 
 If I had you all together, so that I could talk to you face to face, I 
 should try to say very earnestly something like this: 
 
 11 My friends, it is almost as cheap to build a beautiful schoolhouse as 
 an ugly one — if we know how. California, like old Greece, is a land of 
 beautiful things. Sun and sea and mountain, streams and trees and 
 flowers conspire to make it a place delightful to mankind, inspiring to 
 the painter, the poet, the musician, attractive to all the world. This 
 beauty is a practical asset of vast importance to the State. Our Cali- 
 fornia landscapes must become famous for their tasteful and harmonious 
 schools, everywhere, and not outraged by dreary stables for school- 
 houses, slovenly barnyards for school grounds. Prosperous people find 
 it profitable to have tidy and well kept houses, fences and grounds. Our 
 schools, supported by the public, should certainly carry an air of pros- 
 perity. We must not allow our little girls to absorb slatternly lessons 
 at the school. We must not allow broken windows and unkempt sur- 
 roundings at the school to infect our little boys and make them grow up 
 shiftless, ne 'er-do-weels. ' * 
 
 I am anxious for every school trustee in the State to get this message 
 in one way or another. We have many examples of splendid schools up 
 and down the State ; but there is many a one yet of the other kind, that 
 needs to be born again. The responsibility rests with the School Trus- 
 tees. Teachers, parents, and people can help the thing along by creating 
 good public sentiment; and certainly they should study, talk, write, 
 
— 4 — 
 
 work, to that end without ceasing. But finally it all comes up against 
 the Trustees ; without their interest, their active, intelligent, self-sacri- 
 ficing work, it can come to naught. 
 
 Therefore, we have tried to get together some material that will be 
 helpful and encouraging to you who wish to add to the glory of the 
 Golden State by improving the public school. I hope it will interest you 
 to see some of the latest ideas of our best school architects, some thoughts 
 from enterprising superintendents, some idea of the best modern school 
 buildings, some feeling for the adornment of school grounds. I beg you 
 everyone to read all this, think about it, and try to find the best way 
 for you to help in the work of making our public schools really worthy 
 of California. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 EDWARD HYATT. 
 
 This is to record a full measure of gratitude to the superintendents, archi- 
 tects and other persons who have helped to write this book. No one has 
 received a penny for his service, and each has made it a labor of love. And 
 it is to record no less of appreciation and gratitude to the officers and work- 
 men of the State Printing Office, without whose careful and artistic crafts- 
 manship all would have come to naught. Mr. Shannon, Mr. Alexander, Mr. 
 Cuthbert, Mr. Mauricio, Mr. Burns, Mr. Galvin, Mr. Atkins, Mr. Sullivan, 
 Mr. Higgins, and the workmen under their direction, have been assiduous 
 and untiring in their efforts to produce the best possible results. 
 
SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 An original article prepared for this purpose by F. S. Allen, a school architect 
 of Pasadena. The pictures illustrate some of his own work. Observe his idea 6f a 
 large opening in the ceiling or near the ceiling to draw off the hot air in warm 
 climates. The attic into which this opening leads should be freely open to the outer 
 air through screens under the eaves. 
 
 The colored outside cover of this book, designed by C. A. Rothe of Sacramento, 
 shows a bit of Mr. Allen's work, the high school at National City, in San Diego 
 County, one of the best examples in the State of the pure Mission style. Doesn't 
 it have a fine, distinctive, California flavor? 
 
 My Deae Sir: 
 
 Replying to yours of recent date would say that in my opinion the 
 first thing to be done for any school, whether in city or country, is to 
 procure large grounds, never less than one acre, while five acres are 
 preferable. 
 
 Grounds. — The grounds should be high and rolling, so that a student 
 <an rise up a slight incline on approaching and look up to his seat of 
 learning. Large grounds afford space for ample playgrounds, lawns, 
 gardens, etc. All these things come in time to a school in an advancing 
 community. 
 
 Large grounds afford a chance for one-story schools, avoiding the 
 climbing of stairs. In cities where High Schools have to accommodate 
 from 1,000 to 1,500 students, they should never be more than two stories 
 high, with the first floor not over three feet from the ground — base- 
 ments are not the place to educate the next generation. 
 
 Size of rooms. — The ordinary grade room, 24 by 30 feet, contains 720 
 square feet of floor space and will seat 48 High School pupils at single 
 desks, allowing 15 square feet per pupil. If they are built larger, they 
 will sooner or later be overcrowded, to the injustice of the pupil, teacher, 
 and taxpayer. In a 10 or 12 room school one or two rooms might be 
 made large enough for 60 or 65 pupils in emergency cases — but better 
 not. 
 
 In High Schools the recitation rooms should vary from 16 by 20 to 
 24 by 30 ; about one half being 20 by 24. Rooms that are used for such 
 special work as bookkeeping, drawing, domestic science, manual arts and 
 science laboratories must of course be larger, and should vary in size 
 according to the size of the school. 
 
 Lighting. — The lighting schould always be from the left side of the 
 pupil, and the window nearest the teacher should be about eight feet 
 from the end. while the last window at the other end might come as near 
 
— 6 — 
 
 the rear wall as practicable. This rule, however, can not always be 
 followed rigidly without seriously affecting the external design. 
 
 In the ordinary one-room school often found in the country districts, 
 with three windows on each side and perhaps two in the rear, the defect 
 in lighting can be remedied fairly well by painting the glass of the 
 windows on the pupils' right and rear a solid black, thus receiving all 
 of the light from the pupil's left. If this is insufficient, the light can be 
 increased by the introduction of prismatic glass in the upper sash of the 
 
 CLOISTERS. 
 
 Mr. Allen highly recommends cloisters for California schools, tempering the light and 
 
 affording sheltered places for play. 
 
 windows at a very small cost. If still more light is needed, leave the 
 black paint off the rear window nearest the left side and cover it with a 
 white Holland shade, which diffuses the glare of light from the window. 
 
 Where fan ventilation is used all rooms would be best lighted from 
 the north, but where there is no means of mechanical ventilation, the 
 windows should be so placed as to admit sunlight into all rooms at some 
 time of the day. 
 
 The best light for a schoolroom is north; next best, northeast; then 
 south, then east, and lastly, west. 
 
— 7 — 
 
 In schoolrooms lighted from one side only there should be two or three 
 high transom panels on the opposite side above the blackboards, which 
 could be opened for direct ventilation across the top of the room, in hot 
 weather, when the windows must be open. These panels should be 
 hinged at the bottom and be of wood or very dark glass that would 
 admit no light. 
 
 Never put any windows in the rear of the room — they only throw the 
 shadow of the pupil's head and shoulders on his desk and make a strong 
 glare in the teacher's eyes. The bottom of the windows should be three 
 or four feet from the floor, and the top as near the ceiling as possible. 
 The proper amount of glass surface in the windows in relation to the 
 floor space often varies according to the height and width of the room, 
 but from 20 to 25 per cent is usual in a well-lighted room. 
 
 : &m&8&xa* 
 
 *•?** 
 
 -'&£ j 'i*? I.vXV?i; <^aa. ■.W.-:-^^ 
 
 School at Claremont, built in the California style. 
 
 Venetian blinds are the best window shade to equalize the light ; they 
 should always be clear down and tilted at such an angle as to exclude the 
 sun's rays only — then they will reflect the light on to the ceiling, which 
 will re-reflect it to the far side of the room. They catch dust, it is true, 
 but if let alone by the pupils and teacher, as they should be, this is no 
 objection as they can be easily cleaned by the janitor. 
 
 The windows should never be opened when the ventilating fan is 
 running, except by the engineer or janitor who has charge of the venti- 
 lating plant. No ventilating plant will ventilate all out of doors. 
 
 Ventilation. — In cold climates gravity ventilation works fairly well, 
 but its efficiency is always more or less affected by the varying outside 
 temperature and winds. 
 
 In mild climates, such as the southern part of California and the coast 
 country, mechanical ventilation is absolutely necessary. This is accom- 
 
— 8 — 
 
 plished best by a fan to drive the fresh air into the rooms. The fresh 
 air inlet of a room should always be about one fourth larger than the 
 foul air outlet ; this keeps a slight pressure of air in the rooms and more 
 or less goes out through window and door cracks, which prevents their 
 letting in cold air. All foul air flues should take the air from the floor 
 of the schoolroom, but in warm climates they should also have a large 
 opening near the ceiling, which should be opened only in hot weather, 
 to take off the hot air of the room. The ventilating fans may be driven 
 
 Entrance of Claremont School. 
 
 by steam or gas engines, electric or water motors, electricity being pref- 
 erable. 
 
 Heating. — The heating may be done by anything that will raise the 
 temperature of the fresh air taken from outside to the proper degree of 
 heat, steam or hot water coils, cast iron or sheet steel furnaces. But this 
 heat-radiating surface should always be placed in the heating chamber, 
 which is usually in the basement, but could as well be on a level with the 
 schoolrooms where mechanical ventilation is used. 
 
 In the small one or two-room country school, where mechanical venti- 
 lation is not feasible, very good results can be obtained by a large cast 
 iron stove with a sheet iron inclosure, say 3 or Zy 2 feet in diameter, and 
 extending from the floor to a point about seven feet high. There should 
 be a fresh air duct with a damper, 12 by 24 inches, from the outside, 
 
— 9 — 
 
 passing under the floor and opening around the bottom of the stove, 
 thus affording fresh heated air to the rooms. There should also be a 
 foul air duet about one foot in size built into the wall near the stove, 
 with an opening at the floor; this duet, however, should be provided 
 
 Towers of the San Diego High School. 
 
 with a damper that could at times be closed to prevent back draughts 
 when the fire is low. 
 
 The foul air flues from the schoolrooms can exhaust into the attic 
 providing it is well ventilated, or can be run out through the top of the 
 roof with practically equal results. 
 
— 10 — 
 
 Wardrobes. — The wardrobes for grade schools are often arranged in 
 different ways, but one of the best systems is to place them in the rear 
 of the room in sections about two feet deep and five feet wide, with a 
 rolling front to each, and leave a few small openings in the wardrobe 
 ceiling so that some of the air from the room may pass out to a vent flue 
 or the attic. This will dry the wet clothing when the fronts are closed 
 to within an inch or two of the floor. These rolling fronts can be had 
 with blackboard surface so as not to decrease the amount of blackboard 
 in the room. 
 
 This type of wardrobe, while being ventilated, also takes less space 
 than any other, is always under the teacher's eye, and avoids the temp- 
 tation of thieving. 
 
 Blackboards. — A schoolroom should have blackboard space on all 
 sides and be from three to four feet high for pupils and five feet for 
 teachers. For the first ^nd second grades it should -not be over 18 or 20 
 inches from the floor, but for the seventh and eighth grades about 30 
 inches is best. 
 
 Regarding the kind : there is a very good kind of liquid slated paper 
 or wood fibre brand that comes under various names from the factory, 
 in sections about twelve feet long, and is tacked or glued upon the wall 
 on a board back. It is very good for cheap or temporary buildings, but 
 owing to its absorbent nature it often swells away from the wall in 
 damp weather, or when placed upon a brick wall in a new building 
 which contains more or less moisture. The most expensive blackboard is 
 made of natural slate, and if it could be had equal to the samples shown 
 would be very desirable, except for the joints which must occur and the 
 bad spots which often come in part of the slabs. A good cheap board is 
 made by glueing two or three thicknesses of a good quality of Manila 
 paper upon a smooth plastered wall, and giving it two or three coats of 
 liquid slating. Some artificial blackboards are made of ground slate, 
 sand, cement and steel filings mixed into a mortar pulp and put on 
 about one-eighth of an inch thick with a trowel. But this board, while 
 it has no joints, is not satisfactory unless put on by an expert who can 
 get a soft velvet surface to it. 
 
 There is a wide difference of opinion among teachers as to the best 
 color for a blackboard — black, gray, green or brown. Plate glass, sand 
 blasted on one side, is sometimes used ; secured to the wall the same as 
 natural slate and backed with any desired color of paint. 
 
 Tinting of Walls. — The walls and ceilings of a schoolroom should be 
 colored in very soft tints — the creams are the easiest on the eyes, using 
 nearly white for the ceiling, a darker shade for the walls, and a light tan 
 for the wainscoting. Great care should be observed in using blue or 
 
— 11 — 
 
 green that they be not very strong, and never get a dark color above 
 & lighter one. 
 
 Plastering. — The plastering should always be a very fine sand finish 
 that will not reflect a glare of light, but if the plaster is a smooth 
 troweled finish the tinting or painting of the walls should be done in flat 
 colors to obtain this result. 
 
 A schoolroom should not have wood wainscoting or baseboard; they 
 should be of hard plaster or cement, troweled smooth and painted in flat 
 colors or enamel, and may be marked off for tile if desired. 
 
 Drinking Fountains. — There is one made, known as the artesian 
 fountain, that has a small stream constantly flowing upward where one 
 can, by placing the mouth over the stream, soon learn to drink easily 
 without using a cup which is likely to be contaminated by disease. The 
 State law should enforce their use. There should be drinking fountains 
 placed in the halls and playgrounds, easy of access. 
 
 Toilets. — The toilet rooms are a very important feature of schoolhouse 
 construction and had best be outside when there is no means of mechan- 
 ical ventilation. The best plan is not to supply them with fresh air, but 
 to have an ample foul air flue in which is placed a small electric fan, 
 with the switch governing same located in the janitor's room, thus 
 giving them positive ventilation even when the ventilating plant is not 
 running. This foul air flue should extend up through the roof and 
 have no other connection — the supply of fresh air will then leak into the 
 toilet room from the rest of the building. Individual water-closet bowls 
 are the best but quite expensive. The long range are largely used, but 
 are disgusting. The dry closet has been used quite successfully when 
 well ventilated, but is not desirable owing to the likelihood of being 
 neglected. The dry earth closet is not desirable, where largely used, 
 owing to the great amount of unpleasant work connected with it. 
 
 Where water and sewerage are available it is a good plan to have a 
 "service" room two or three feet wide behind the toilet stalls in which 
 all of the flush tanks and pipes can be placed entirely out of sight and 
 reach of the pupils. A small register, say six inches square, placed in 
 the wall behind each bowl will take all foul odors of the toilet room into 
 the service room where the foul air flue and electric fan draw the air 
 from the latter. It is desirable to keep the windows and outside doors 
 of toilet rooms always closed, so that the fan will have to draw its supply 
 of air from the school building proper as it passes through the toilets. 
 
 Urinals are the hardest things in the world to keep sweet and clean, 
 but there are some makes of patented urinals that are very satisfactory. 
 However, a great deal of the success of any kind largely depends upon 
 the janitor in keeping them clean. The secret of ventilating them is to 
 
— 12 ™ 
 
 take the foul air off at the floor, either through the trough at the bottom 
 or through ventilators at the ends, into a service room or ventilating 
 flue supplied with an electric fan and connected with the flue from the 
 toilets. Never try to ventilate a toilet room from any place but at the 
 floor line. 
 
 Toilet rooms should have a smooth cement floor, walls and ceiling, and 
 as little wood work as possible. The stall partitions should be made of 
 cement plaster ; each stall should have a 2 by 4 foot double acting door, 
 but no lock. The walls and ceilings should be given five or six coats of 
 white enamel — and then kept clean. Never paint and sand a toilet room. 
 The janitor should stay about the toilet rooms when they are most in 
 use and see that they are properly treated. A child should be taught to 
 take the same care of the school toilet room as he would take of the one 
 at home. 
 
 Baths. — Every school should be supplied with one or more shower 
 l»aths, both for boys and girls; they can be built at little expense and 
 can be located in the same room with the toilets or in separate rooms. 
 They should have two small dressing rooms, 3 by 5 feet, to each bath, 
 and should be built and finished the same as above described for toilet 
 stalls. Very truly yours. 
 
 F. S. Allen. 
 
 Oak tree in the middle of the road. 
 
 See this fine old tree, that has been preserved in spite of the march 
 of improvement. It does not damage the appearance of this beautiful 
 boulevard, but adorns it and adds to its charm. There is a lesson in this 
 to hustling boomers who are eager to dig out trees to make room for 
 sidewalks, gutters, curbs, fences, buildings. The trees are of more 
 value than the improvements. Build around the trees, not through 
 them ; and they will give distinction to your neighborhood. Beautiful 
 surroundings are an asset and they have a cash value that grows greater 
 as time goes on. 
 
13 — 
 
 HOW TO HIDE UGLY THINGS. 
 
 Here is a hint for screening the stables and outbuildings of a school. 
 These two pictures show a shed on the grounds of the California Poly- 
 
 technic School at San Luis Obispo before and after it was covered by a 
 wonderful growth of the Australian pea vine. This vine is a perennial, 
 
— 14 — 
 
 with evergreen foliage and clusters of rose-pink blossoms. Young plants 
 may be secured around the base of the old ones by layering, or they 
 may be grown from seed. The growth shown in the picture is four 
 vears old and it is still a thing of grace and beauty. 
 
 THE INTERIOR DECORATIONS OF SCHOOLS. 
 
 This keen and scholarly article is by Walter J. Kenyon, a California schoolmaster. 
 It is taken from the School Review, November, 1906. 
 
 Our graded school requires of its pupils a classroom attendance of 
 eight thousand hours. This is a heavy tribute to levy upon the period of 
 childhood, arid it may well purchase other things for the pupil than an 
 acquisition merely of those weapons of traffic dear to the utilitarian's 
 heart — the so-called rudiments. It is the present purpose to discuss 
 some of those silent influences which, without interference with the tra- 
 ditional purpose of the school, make for a richer childhood and a better 
 community. 
 
 The first of these concerns the color effects of the classroom. When 
 a competent architect plans a schoolhouse, he presumes of course that, 
 given due time for drying out, the plaster walls will be appropriately 
 tinted or papered, and in such tones as will give a harmonious color unity 
 to the whole room. It is noticeable, however, that in the average Amer- 
 ican schoolhouse this ideal is seldom consummated. "We rush our 
 furnishings in, and the painters and plasterers have hardly packed up 
 their tools before the classes are settled in an established school routine. 
 And as for those glaring white walls, we ' ' first endure, then pity, then 
 embrace, ' ' finally forgetting that the plan was ever otherwise. 
 
 There are reasons, however, beyond a mere Eesthetic preference, why 
 the schoolroom walls should not be left white. It is the common testi- 
 mony of physicians that the glaring whitewash aggravates nervous afflic- 
 tions and injures the eyes. Many a mother diagnoses her girl's nervous 
 headache as a case of overstudy, when it is in reality a product of five 
 hours' exposure to the harsh, blinding glare of the schoolroom walls. 
 And many a boy is condemned as a wickedly disposed nuisance, when he 
 merely exhibits a nervous irritation which a proper color scheme will 
 abate. A well-known Massachusetts physician, Dr. Myles Standish. of 
 Boston, says : 
 
 I have often seen children immediately and permanently recover from a persistent 
 recurring diseased condition of the eyes when removed from a schoolroom with white 
 walls, and sent elsewhere to school or kept at home, where the walls are tinted. The 
 principal color of the walls should be of an even tone, so that the amount of light 
 
— 15 — 
 
 reflected will be the same from all parts of the surface, as waving or clouded effects 
 are very trying to sensitive eyes. Any color may be placed in its proper position with 
 regard to its safety for schoolroom walls by remembering the general rule with regard 
 to the sensitiveness of the eye to the colors of the spectrum, which is, that the nearer 
 the color is to the red end of the spectrum, the more irritating it is to the eyes ; and 
 the nearer the color is to the blue end of the spectrum, the easier it is to the eyes, 
 with the single exception that the extreme violet rays also are irritating. 
 
 From this it will be seen that red and all its derivatives should be rigidly excluded, 
 and orange also is nearly as bad, while yellow should never be taken by preference. 
 Greens and blues are absolutely safe colors, and it is not at all necessary that the 
 colors should be pronounced ; the depth of the color should be made dependent upon 
 the amount of light coming in at the windows, and upon its quality, as, for instance, 
 whether the windows have a northern or southern exposure, whether the sun's rays 
 can come directly into the room when the sun sinks low in the heavens in the middle 
 of a winter afternoon, and other surrounding circumstances of each individual room. 
 
 The color of the ceiling of a schoolroom is fully as important as the color of the 
 walls, particularly when there is any amount of reflected light. 
 
 All I have said with regard to the color of the walls is doubly true when applied 
 to the window shades, and this fact should always be taken into consideration in 
 furnishing and decorating a schoolroom. 
 
 Medical science is constantly finding new and positive evidence of the 
 pathological effects of color. And it rests with any of us to make simple 
 experiments which will show conclusively the influence of color upon the 
 emotions. Look through a blue glass, and we see a sad, unhopeful pros- 
 pect, in the midst of which only the utmost exertion of will-power can 
 sustain a cheerful mood. Look through a red glass, and the reverse feel- 
 ing is aroused. The outlook is one of exaggerated sunshine, which stim- 
 ulates the imagination, induces a sanguine mood, and suggests action. 
 The blue-glass craze of the seventies was an incident which fore- 
 shadowed the wide employment of color as a remedial agent. 
 
 We are thus in possession of a more or less definite knowledge of the 
 pathology of color. "We know that red is stimulating, irritating, unrest- 
 ful. We know that blue is quieting, but also depressing. Since the 
 pupil of the elementary school spends eight thousand hours in actual 
 attendance in the classroom, it is of the highest importance to give him 
 a color environment which will not, on the one hand, be a source of 
 depression and melancholy, nor, on the other, an agent of excessive 
 nervous stimulation. 
 
 We have such a color in green of the quieter sort. There is a whole 
 gamut of greens, running from light apple down through the stone- 
 greens, or ' ' dried pea, ' ' to the deep, rich olives. This series is perfectly 
 adapted to the requirements of interior tinting, either for home or for 
 school. The distinction is often made between a north and south room, 
 reddish buffs and terra-cottas being recommended for the former. This 
 distinction is not vital, however, and we always approach the danger 
 line as we move toward the red end of the spectrum. One of the most 
 delightful school buildings it has been my good fortune to visit is tinted 
 throughout, north and south rooms alike, in low stone-green. Another 
 
— 16 — 
 
 building in the same city is tinted in blue ( !) — the relic of a former 
 regime — and the effect is so depressing that one experiences a sensible 
 feeling of relief and renewed joy on once more regaining the outer air. 
 
 A combination beyond further desire is to be had by coloring the 
 wainscoting and woodwork a deep olive, the walls up to the molding a 
 middle sage-green, and, above that, the walls and ceiling a lighter and 
 neutral stone-green; this combination, of course, with the real slate 
 board. It goes without saying that this coloring shall be "dull finish." 
 
 A striking fact is to be noted just here. The blackboard, the recipient 
 of endless obloquy at the hands of the aesthetic, ceases to offend where 
 the walls are rightly tinted. Indeed, the real slate "blackboard" is 
 never black at all, but a pleasing, quiet gray that has no quarrels. It 
 is only a glaring white wall that thrusts the blackboard into undue 
 prominence, and thus makes it a scapegoat for a fault not its own. 
 Speaking of blackboards, the various experiments in tinting the board 
 have proved anything but satisfactory. The logical and satisfactory 
 combination is a tinted wall and a board of natural slate-gray. A room 
 thus finished is fundamentally beautiful, and is not in urgent need of 
 any further decoration. Speaking generally, we may say that a room 
 properly tinted is nine tenths decorated. 
 
 I remember one school particularly, in Andover, when George E. 
 Johnson was in charge. It had not exactly the "dim religious light," 
 but a quality of air and color which one's home has, if he has a home. 
 Its rooms were as cool as the aisles of the woods, and as mellow ; rooms 
 that seemed to have, in themselves, a personality, and to be sociable 
 when empty. I used to think that not even a Jukes would play truant 
 from such a school as that ; and that no teacher, be she ever so mediocre, 
 could quite annul the beneficence to the pupil of such a surrounding. 
 
 Regrettably, in the much-discussed topic of school decoration, this 
 matter of wall-tinting has been rather slighted, the emphasis falling 
 more upon pictures. This is partly due to the mad overproduction of 
 the penny prints. With many a teacher the problem of law decoration 
 seems to lie in how many penny pictures she can arrange on her white 
 plaster wall, in friezes and borders, diamonds and circles. There is a 
 principle in composition, very easily understood, which will serve us as 
 a guide upon this point. It is that an aggregation of small, unrelated 
 spots is distressful to the eye and scattering to the attention. It would 
 be disastrous to one 's equanimity to try to listen to a score of people, all 
 shouting at once messages of unlike import. The nerve-racking effect of 
 such a babel is precisely comparable to that produced by a motley collec- 
 tion of picture spots, scattering over the wall in a "promiscuous 
 arrangement," as an old text-book writer used to say. In composing 
 his picture, an artist is governed by certain principles of composition, 
 
— 17 — 
 
 the chief of which is what Ruskin calls ' ' principality, ' ' whereby all the 
 elements of the sketch fall into an obedient relation to one dominant 
 feature. The minor color spots in the composition do not exist for and 
 in themselves, but rather as organic parts of the entire sketch. In a very 
 rough and general way, we are to conceive our wall just as the artist 
 does his sketch, and every picture that goes upon it is to be subordinated 
 in an arrangement having in view the appearance of the entire wall. 
 
 The first step in this direction is to gather up most of the small 
 pictures and set them together in panels of two or three, instead of 
 hanging them singly, each competing with all the rest. Three penny 
 prints which are merely a vexation to the spirit when pinned up sep- 
 arately, become a genuine contribution to the decorative scheme of the 
 room when they are grouped upon a single panel of mounting-board, first 
 having their margins cut away.* And even in the grouping of these 
 separate pieces on their mount we are yet answerable to the laws of 
 composition. The intervals between the pictures must be less than the 
 margins around them. Otherwise a centrifugal effect is had, and that 
 is weak composition. 
 
 If now we have two or three panels of the sort just described, together 
 with a larger print or two of a kind referred to later, we have ample 
 material for our wall decoration. By all means refrain from overcrowd- 
 ing your walls. Remember that, while in a salon exhibit the problem is 
 to get all the pictures up, ours is a distinctly different one. It is to regard 
 our wall as a unit, whose hangings must only confirm its unity. And let 
 us rid ourselves, at the outset, of the prevailing didactical idea that we 
 are ' ' decorating ' ' for the purpose of instruction. Nothing can be more 
 ruinous to the decorative scheme than to start out with this purpose 
 uppermost. The underlying need is that the pictorial embellishment of 
 the wall shall present a few simple and well-asserted claims upon our 
 attention, rather than many and divergent ones. A scattered rabble of 
 small claimants results in a dissipated attention, and this means nervous 
 headaches and kindred things. It is a common experience to leave an 
 art gallery with a backache or headache, or both ; associated with aching 
 feet and a general nervous depression. And this condition is not a mere 
 physical fatigue resultant upon walking, but a nerve exhaustion follow- 
 ing upon a sustained attention to a great number of hangings, diverse 
 in size, shape, color, and subject, and having no mutual reference. 
 
 The subject of frames is not so easily traversed. We may say, how- 
 ever, that, for school purposes at least, it is safest to avoid guady and 
 heavily gilded frames. The small passe partout framing is all that is 
 
 * For these mounts a material called "cover paper" Is to be had at the wholesale 
 paper houses. It costs about two cents a sheet (22 x 28), and offering every variety of 
 delicate gray, neutral green, etc., is both cheaper and better than the regular mount- 
 ing-board. 
 
 2— SA 
 
— 18 — 
 
 needed for prints and for most color pieces. And there is the argument 
 for economy in its favor in that it may easily be done by the teacher 
 herself, or by the more skillful pupils. 
 
 As to frames and mats in general, it is well to remember, with Ruskin, 
 that the frame is "a little space of silence" — between the picture and 
 the wall behind it. Where the wall presents one uniform tint it is not 
 really so necessary that the frame should be neutral and "silent" as in 
 cases where patterned wall-paper is used. But the general rule is to be 
 held in mind that the frame is subservient to its picture and should not 
 be too clamorous in its own right. Those ornate golden halos that are 
 given away with pounds of tea are by all means to be avoided. The 
 frame, in all ordinary cases (such as ours), should be exceedingly quiet 
 and say little for itself, remembering that it is but frame, after all. 
 
 We are now confronted with the problem of the selection of our 
 picture. First of all we perceive the danger of hanging colored chromos, 
 or paintings. Because only cheap ones are within our means, they are 
 tolerably certain to be bad. And, good or bad, their color schemes will 
 more likely than not quarrel viciously with our wall tint. Thus limiting 
 ourselves mainly to black and white, we may go a step farther and say : 
 Throw out the half-tones, as far as we can afford. A half-tone is the 
 style of print seen in the penny pictures and in most of the ten-cent 
 magazines. It is just what its name implies — it is a print that has lost 
 half of its tone, or virility of light and dark, in the process of reproduc- 
 tion. Examine any penny print under a hand-glass, and we perceive 
 it to be cut up into microscopic dots. Compare it now with an etching, 
 a photogravure, or a pen-and-ink, and this loss of tone is instantly 
 appreciated. 
 
 Fortunately there are better things within the reach of the poorest of 
 us. Most of the big art publishers issue, under various names, photo- 
 gravure-like prints of the world's finest pictures. These are large, fine 
 productions, generally on plates 22 by 28 inches, and they have all the 
 depth and richness of tone of the photogravure. They are had in either 
 black or sepia at the remarkably low price of fifty cents apiece. Such a 
 picture, with its white border cut away and suitably matted, even in 
 passe partout, is good hanging for the king's audience chamber. The 
 generous size of these productions makes them especially appropriate 
 for the schoolroom wall. One or two such pieces, well selected as to sub- 
 ject and reinforced by half a dozen smaller things, etchings or pen-and- 
 ink drawings preferably, are enough for any classroom. By all means 
 avoid overloading your wall and making the onlooker strabismic with a 
 motley display. 
 
 But the most important consideration of all is as to the subjects we 
 select. Let us avoid reading our own preferences too unreservedly into 
 
— 19 — 
 
 the children, and becoming their self-appointed proxies. The children 
 have not that sense of historical values which is always in danger of 
 giving their seniors a bias. We have not quite learned to distinguish 
 between that which is imposing, from the art curator's standpoint, and 
 that which is inherently beautiful, regardless of its niche in the Lore of 
 art. It is one thing to stock a museum of art with the conspicuous mile- 
 stones of art history. It is quite another to decorate a children's room 
 with things intrinsically beautiful — and beautiful from the child's view- 
 point. Imagine, for instance, dutifully hanging "Mona Lisa" in a 
 grade-room, simply because Leonardo did it ! The pedagogical rush for 
 Italian women, particularly madonnas, has developed into a craze, on 
 the perfectly logical basis that the mother-and-child sentiment is appro- 
 priate to our purpose. "We have merely been guilty of a little oversight 
 in not directly perceiving that the mature and more or less ascetic con- 
 ceptions of the Renaissance Italians, catering directly to the churchly 
 ideals of that period, are not very well calculated to provide acceptable 
 mamma pictures for twentieth-century American babies. A sentiment of 
 mother-love — yes, but it must be a mother-love that he can recognize. 
 He draws a keen line between sanctity in a niche and a genuine, unpose- 
 ful motherhood. And so I say again, if our purpose is decorative rather 
 than didactic, let us gather intrinsic, and, if necessary, unsigned, beauty, 
 rather than the melange of the art museum. 
 
 Then again, the masters, who spoke first of all in color, can not be 
 represented in the remotest degree by printer 's ink — particularly in the 
 half-tone; and all this bowing and scraping before "penny prints of 
 the masters ' ' is about as near the real spirit of art as idol- worship is to 
 genuine religion. Supervisors of art and students of any sort who 
 address themselves to the educational problem are fearfully apt to mix 
 up their academic acquirements with their native appreciation until they 
 mistake one for the other, and so disqualify themselves for the work in 
 hand. A while ago an inquiry was sent to several dozen artists, teachers, 
 presidents of civic clubs, etc. — men and women who presumably had the 
 matter most at heart — as to what pictures they would recommend for 
 school decoration. The answers, invariably cordial and enthusiastic, 
 almost with one voice placed the ' ' Sistine Madonna ' ' at the head of the 
 list ! No stronger evidence could be presented of the incubus of hope- 
 lessly academic bias under which the subject rests. "The best in art 
 is none too good for the children, ' ' wrote Dr. Klemm. While everybody 
 must agree heartily with this sentiment, what a curious miscarriage of 
 ideas it is to set up the subjective and subtle as the one antithesis to the 
 mediocre! Mr. Vickery, of San Francisco, sounded a hopeful note in 
 declaring that "a good poster is infinitely better than a mediocre engrav- 
 ing." Ellen Gates Starr said: "Almost anything of Millet's is good;" 
 and then, endorsing the mother-and-child sentiment for primary rooms, 
 
— 20 — 
 
 she shortly mentioned Millet's "First Step," where others had chosen 
 the "Sistine Madonna." 
 
 If we must have madonnas, why may we not take those three or four 
 in which the mothers are in love with their babies and the babies them- 
 selves are kissable? Name over Feruzzi, Murillo (that one in the Pitti 
 Gallery), Froschl, and, above them all, Courtois, and, I take it, we have 
 about finished the list. And yet, of these incomparable painters of 
 mother and child, three out of the four are unheard of in the levels 
 where they would win their deserved appreciation if introduced. Add 
 St. Anthony, with his strong natural appeal to adults and children alike, 
 and the rest of our wall we need for less exalted subjects. 
 
 If we can once bolster up our common-sense with enough moral 
 courage to leave off this indiscriminate goose-marching after madonnas, 
 even the penny prints, which have come in for such ill-usage in this 
 writing, will have their uses. Just think of Millet, Breton, and Dupre, 
 with their fine realities ; Adan and Meyer von Bremen, with their rollick- 
 ing German sunshine, a ten minutes' bath in which is as good as a day 
 in the country; Sir John Millais and Sir Joshua Reynolds with their 
 galaxy of matchless little maids ; and finally Jacques with his sheep, and 
 Barber, Carter, and Adam with their household pets. Think of this 
 diverse and all-satisfying company being put out of countenance and 
 being thrust against the wall, so to speak, by an undifferentiated group 
 of pallid and poseful madonnas, scarce a quartet of whom could either 
 love or be loved, by the most amiable stretch of the imagination ! Rather 
 let us be at once exoteric and generous, and give the madonnas over to 
 the sophisticated and tempered academician, to have and to hold for his 
 very own. 
 
 Summarizing, let us leave out the mawkish pictures, on the one hand, 
 and the too subtly religious ones, on the other, and make our choice 
 among the sane, joyous, lovable things that are so readily to be had. 
 The principles which nowadays guide us in the selection of children's 
 literature have only to be applied in this question of children 's art. 
 
 In every schoolroom there are jogs in the wall, narrow intervals 
 between windows, etc., which are not adapted for the hanging of 
 pictures, but are just right for the placing of plaster casts. Since these, 
 even of the Delia Robbia order (which have always been chosen with 
 the madonnas), do not carry a particularly emotional significance, as do 
 jnctures, we shall have to base our selection upon somewhat different 
 values. Their first utility is purely decorative, having in view the gen- 
 eral scheme of the room ; so that the shape, size, and general appearance 
 of the piece have perhaps as much to do with our selection as the subject 
 itself. The beautiful "Flying Mercury," for instance, is altogether too 
 fragile to introduce into any schoolhouse. And any statuary for the 
 classroom, however robust in its lines, should invariably be placed above 
 
— 21 — 
 
 the six-foot level. Busts of authors and statesmen are as suitable as 
 any others, not with the idea that many children will exhibit an intelli- 
 gent affection for them, but that they will pleasantly finish the appoint- 
 ments and the color scheme of the room. To do this these casts must, 
 of course, have the ivory finish, which costs no more. Nothing (save a 
 blue wall) is quite so persistently ugly as a plain plaster cast. Even the 
 inevitable dust of seasons does not soften its harsh unfriendliness ; and, 
 on the other hand, there are few color spots in the room more grateful 
 to the eye than the embalmed sunshine of a bit of ivory-finished statuary. 
 
 Vying in importance with the pictures in the schoolroom are the 
 plants. A sage-green room with a table full of growing things by the 
 window is an abode of joy, pictures left out of the question. And the 
 effect is greatly enhanced if there be, beside the plants, or embowered 
 among them, a little aquarium with a goldfish dawdling in it. 
 
 A clever device for the purpose is in use in Stockton. The potted 
 plants are set upon an ordinary cheap table, except that the top is zinc- 
 lined and sunk in for an inch ; or, in other words, the edges of the top 
 are raised that inch, making a shallow, zinc-lined trough. The flowers 
 can thus be watered without any danger of leakage, or of unsightly, 
 warped table-tops. 
 
 Draperies in the schoolroom — except window curtains, periodically 
 washed- — are universally condemned by all who have given the matter 
 thought. 
 
 There is some diversity of opinion concerning animals in the school- 
 room. Much is urged against caged life before the children. A corre- 
 spondent covers the question thus : "I object to having animals confined 
 for entertainment of young or old, at home or at school. But this allows 
 us some latitude, inasmuch as we may have much animal life about 
 which is not, in a strict sense, confined. It requires an overwrought 
 imagination to commiserate a well-tended canary, for example." A 
 letter on the subject refers pleasantly to "a tame, comfortable kind of 
 animal, or goldfish in a globe, in which is a water plant growing." I 
 knew one class in which a dog or two were in fairly good attendance. 
 They were orderly in deportment, and gave silent and continuous appro- 
 bation to the whole programme. True enough, the teacher, in her fre- 
 quent rounds, had to step over an occasional barrier, but I do not recall 
 any schoolroom, before or since, where the spirit was more homelike, 
 wholesome, and perfectly conducive to study. 
 
 To School Teachers: 
 
 Have you ever talked with your pupils about keeping the schoolroom neat 
 and clean and the grounds attractive? Are there any pictures on the walls of 
 your schoolroom? Does the floor need scrubbing? Are there any piles of 
 rubbish in the yard? 
 
— 22 — 
 
 ROOF PLAYGROUNDS. 
 
 The crowded misery of our cities grows still more crowded as time 
 goes on. It is becoming more necessary all the time to utilize every 
 opportunity for getting a little more sun and air for the children. City 
 schools are coming to be built so as to use the house tops. Roof gardens 
 and roof playgrounds are coming in vogue. 
 
 In New York City, during the summer vacation of 1907, there were 
 eleven roof playgrounds which were open every evening save Sunday. 
 In her report to Superintendent Maxwell, Miss E. E. Whitney, the 
 
 ■ fe 
 
 
 1 13 d M 
 
 H H 
 
 1^ j%^j 
 
 1 J^^^m 
 
 • Ww.^JU 
 
 "Say, mister, can't you give us a chance?" 
 
 Department Superintendent in charge, says, "A competent director 
 clothed with a schoolmaster's authority was in charge of each roof, and 
 but little disturbance occurred. Parents and children alike were wel- 
 comed, but when there appeared any danger of overcrowding, the mas- 
 culine element was excluded ; this rule always applied to the class desig- 
 nated as 'toughs.' With rarely an exception, these guests were of 
 foreign birth (many could not speak a word of English), and it was 
 a pleasure to watch their sad faces grow bright under the influences of 
 fresh air and good music. The following program is a typical one of 
 the entertainment provided : 
 
 1. Star Spangled Banner. 
 
 2. March— Old Faithful (Holzman) 
 
 3. Folk Dances. 
 
 4. Waltz — Loveland (Holzman) 
 
 5. Folk Dances — Concert. 
 
 G. Overture — Apollo (Laurendean) 
 
 7. Cornet Solo — Holy City (Adams) 
 
 8. Selection — Bohemian Girl (Balfe) 
 
 9. Folk Dances. 
 
 10. Polka — Tata (Laurendean) 
 
 11. Folk Dances. 
 
 12. Selection — Mile. Modiste (Herbert) 
 
 13. Lanciers. 
 
 14. March — Dress Facade ( Lantz) 
 
 15. Finale — America. 
 
— 23 — 
 
 Commenting upon the influence of this work upon the young people 
 Miss Whitney makes the following very significant statements: "A 
 marked improvement was noticeable in the behavior of the young 
 women ; there was less boisterousness and more regard for the rights of 
 others. A large percentage of girls attending roof playgrounds, work 
 either in sweat shops or at some kind of drudgery; they come to these 
 playgrounds for change of scene and thought, and no old country 
 maidens on the village greens enjoyed dancing more than did these girls 
 under the starry skies. They certainly carry a great deal of good cheer 
 to their homes, doubtless dispelling gloom that otherwise might merge 
 into crime. As the years pass by, the conviction deepens that happiness 
 is a safeguard which can not be ignored." (Ninth Annual Report of 
 City Superintendent of Schools to the Board of Education of the City 
 of New York. 1907, p. 522/. ) 
 
 To School Trustees: 
 
 How many years have elapsed since your schoolhouse has had a coat of 
 paint? Is the building a credit to your community? Do you know that it does 
 not cost a very large sum to paint the ordinary country schoolhouse? 
 
 WORK-ROOM FOR RURAL SCHOOLS. 
 
 Here is a good idea, from the Report of State Superintendent Stetson of Maine. 
 
 In every rural schoolhouse there should be a room about nine feet 
 wide and twelve feet long, in which should be placed a small workbench 
 and a few of the common tools used by carpenters. There should also 
 be a limited supply of lumber suitable for making the implements, 
 utensils and apparatus needed in the home, on the farm and in the 
 school. 
 
 The room should also be provided with a small cook stove, a few of the 
 utensils used in the ordinary kitchen, a sewing table and such other 
 apparatus as are needed in making the plainer articles of wearing 
 apparel. 
 
 This room should be furnished by the people of the community in 
 which the school is located. 
 
 The teacher should encourage the children to make use of this work- 
 room in constructing the material needed in the school and the home, 
 and in preparing simple articles of food and in making some of the 
 garments worn by the school children. 
 
 It will be much better if the teacher does not attempt to be severely 
 scientific or technical. Most of the teachers do not and many of them 
 
— 24 — 
 
 can not act as expert instructors in this work, but they may give general 
 directions and, to an extent, oversee what is done. There will always 
 be members of the school who will have an aptitude for the things in 
 which the teacher has no special skill. 
 
 Let it be distinctly understood, from the start, that the teacher is not 
 an instructor in manual training and does not pretend to be ; but that 
 she and the children, working together, can provide many necessary 
 articles. 
 
 Many blunders will be made and much material will be wasted, but 
 neither of these items should be discouraging. Perhaps there is no 
 better way of learning how to do a thing than by the mistakes one makes 
 in doing it. The knowledge and skill thus acquired develop taste, judg- 
 ment, ability to meet emergencies and at the same time stimulate orig- 
 inality and invention. Best of all, these activities furnish an oppor- 
 tunity for the children to train their hands while they are using their 
 heads. They also develop self-reliance, independence and love of manual 
 labor and a desire to be physically useful in the world. 
 
 A room provided with the material described above and used by 
 intelligent teachers and ambitious pupils will help to give us a student 
 body that will be industrious, enterprising, skillful, self-supporting. It 
 will help solve not a few industrial problems and will furnish a satis- 
 factory answer to many troublesome moral and intellectual questions. 
 It will help to keep the boys and girls in school and aid them in becom- 
 ing intelligent and worthy citizens when they leave school. 
 
 There is a great opportunity for usefulness in this work and it is 
 sincerely hoped that parents, school officials and teachers will appreciate 
 the situation and make use of the advantages which such training will 
 surely give. 
 
 To the County Superintendent: 
 
 Do you stand up for the Children when a new school is being built, even 
 when you make an enemy of the contractor and run counter to an influential 
 trustee? Do you refuse to allow windows wrongly placed, insufficient light, 
 Ineffective ventilation, improper heating? Do you make a study of these 
 things, so that you can guard the Children's interests? 
 
 All that is part of your Job. 
 
25 
 
 THE GENERAL ARRANGEMENT AND REQUIREMENTS OE MODERN 
 PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
 
 An original article by Louis S. Stone, of the firm of Stone & Smith, school architects, 
 San Francisco. Some of the finest school buildings of California have been planned 
 by this veteran firm. 
 
 The Site. — The first consideration on the part of the school board 
 should be to secure an ample site for their new building; one that is 
 elevated sufficiently to insure good drainage, and so situated that the 
 building can get the best facings for light. 
 
 Lighting. — In California it has been considered by authorities on 
 light, that the easterly exposure for classrooms is the best. It has also 
 been satisfactorily proved in practical work that school buildings facing 
 
 High School at Berkeley. 
 
 east or west can be more economically built than ones facing north or 
 south if it is desired to obtain the east or west light. 
 
 The new school buildings in Oakland, recently completed, all face 
 west, with a majority of their classrooms on the east side of the build- 
 ing, thereby obtaining what is considered the best lighting. 
 
 Arrangement of Windows. — The windows should be arranged on the 
 long side of the room to the left of the pupil and massed together with 
 very narrow mullions. The whole group of windows should start close 
 to the rear wall, and should not come closer to the front wall of the 
 schoolroom than seven feet, the window sills being from three and one 
 half to four feet above the floor, and window heads as close to the ceiling 
 as construction will permit. The heads of the windows should be square. 
 There is quite a tendency on the part of architects to put in arched and 
 round-headed windows to conform to some architectural effect desired 
 
— 26 — 
 
 on the exterior. While it is desirable to have the exterior architecturally 
 a thing of beauty, it is much more important to obtain correct lighting 
 first. The round headed or arched windows invariably interfere with 
 the best light and should not be permitted. These windows should be 
 devoid of transoms, as the transom bar and additional space is an inter- 
 ruption to the full and complete lighting of the room. Sometimes for 
 architectural effect it is advisable to place windows in the wall at the 
 rear of the pupil. This is permissible, provided that the windows are 
 
 County High School at Sonora, Tuolumne County. 
 
 kept above the blackboard and provided with heavy shades, but they 
 should never be placed in the wall facing the pupils. 
 
 Prismatic glass which increases the light 25 per cent and diffuses it 
 evenly has been used very successfully, but unless there is some exterior 
 interruption to the admission of the light, or if the rooms are much wider 
 than the ordinary width of 24 by 26 feet, prismatic glass will not be 
 necessary. 
 
 Doors. — There is a simple rule that classroom doors should open out, 
 but this rule is very often broken. Care should be taken in planning to 
 show the swing of the doors and see that when the door is open fully 
 
it does not interfere with other doors, projections or run into the stair- 
 way. In the designing of the schoolroom doors a very great improve- 
 ment has been made in the use of either single panel doors or flush doors, 
 the latter having absolutely smooth surface without mouldings or pro- 
 jections of any kind. This door collects practically no dust and simpli- 
 fies the work of the janitor very materially. If single doors are used 
 they should be not less than three and one half feet wide. If there is a 
 tendency toward darkness in the halls, it is permissible to put transoms 
 over the doors, but transoms are not necessary in the modern school 
 
 High School at Richmond, Contra Costa County. 
 
 buildings to help light or ventilate the schoolroom, in fact they are 
 rather a detriment in these matters. 
 
 Heating and Ventilation. — There is only one thoroughly successful 
 modern system of heating and ventilating, and that is the modern 
 plenum blower system which insures an absolute supply of fresh air, 
 warmed to the desired temperature and giving perfect ventilation. It 
 is not always practical to put this system in smaller buildings only on 
 account of the matter of cost. 
 
 A modern plenum system of heating and ventilating means that the 
 heating plant is placed at a central point in the basement or in a sep- 
 arate building outside. Large heavy cast iron furnaces or steam coils 
 are installed to heat the air. Then a blower of sufficient capacity to 
 operate it at not over two hundred revolutions per minute blows the air 
 from the fresh air room through individual ducts to each classroom, 
 
— 28 — 
 
 the air coming in about eight feet above the floor. Similar ducts allow 
 the egress of the air from the base of the room, and a continual inflow 
 and outflow of fresh air is the result, if the ducts are properly propor- 
 tioned. This can be obtained without any inconvenience of draughts. 
 To complete a plenum system, automatic temperature control should be 
 installed which regulates the temperature of each room without the aid 
 of the teacher. 
 
 "Where ventilation is not desired, a system of direct steam heating is 
 probably the next best thing. This means the placing of steam radiators 
 in the classrooms and will warm the air more evenly than any other 
 cheap sj^stem, but for ventilation the windows will have to be depended 
 upon. 
 
 Plumbing. — Too much care can not be given the proper sanitary 
 appliances for school buildings. AVith a modern self -flushing and ven- 
 tilated type of closets, similar to the ' ' Morgan System ' ' or the ' ' Lewis & 
 Kitchen Range System" or the "Individual Lewis & Kitchen Self- 
 Acting Closet, ' ' placed in the basement of a building with a large ven- 
 tilating stack furnished with a stack heater or electric exhaust fans, to 
 induce good ventilation, no difficulty should arise from sanitary appli- 
 ances. All of these methods mentioned are absolutely successful and 
 require very little care. The stationary tank closet that is put in private 
 residences should not be used in public school buildings, as there is no 
 ventilating system attached to them and they get out of order too easily. 
 
 Sanitary drinking fountains are used very successfully in modern 
 school buildings. These should be placed in convenient places and can 
 be so regulated that a continual water jet is obtained from which the 
 pupil drinks without a cup. Another kind has a foot valve which 
 requires to be pressed down to obtain the water jet. These sanitary 
 fountains do away with the necessity of cups, and lessen the danger 
 from infection in school buildings very much. 
 
 Arrangement of Classrooms. — It has been already stated that the 
 easterly light is considered the best. A good size for a classroom in a 
 grammar school is 26 by 32 feet. This can be cut down to 24 feet in 
 width. The standard size adopted by the new schools in Oakland is 
 24 by 32 feet. In grammar schools each classroom should have an indi- 
 vidual hat and coat room at one end of the room opening only into the 
 classroom, with a door at each side. These hat rooms should be five feet 
 wide and as long as the width of the classroom, and should have an out- 
 side window. Where a modern plenum system of heating and ventila- 
 ting is installed the outlet of the air from the classroom should be 
 through the hat and coat room, thus preventing contamination of the 
 air from the coat room to the classroom. 
 
— 29 — 
 
 In the finishing of the interior of the schoolroom, greens for the walls 
 have been found very satisfactorily used, with cream colored ceilings. 
 If Oregon pine finish is used a very pleasing effect can be obtained by 
 staining the wood work brown oak, and finishing with a dull wax finish. 
 
 The floors of school buildings should be of maple, which will cost 
 considerably more than Oregon pine flooring, but will save money in five 
 years to the department, in additional wearing qualities. 
 
 Every classroom should be equipped with a bookcase built in the walls. 
 The best location for this bookcase is on the outer wall between the 
 group of windows and the front wall of the room. This space is the 
 least available for blackboards. 
 
 Regarding the blackboards, there is a great difference of opinion. 
 The author has found green Hyloplate blackboard very satisfactory, 
 after ten years use, and then again where the Hyloplate has been poorly 
 put up there has been trouble. 
 
 In every school building there should be a retiring room for each sex, 
 placed on the first and second story and a room for the teacher, inde- 
 pendent of the principal's office. 
 
 Every two-story school building should have at least two broad stair- 
 cases, broken by landings considerably wider than the staircase. These 
 staircases should be well separated so as to give the best opportunity 
 for use in case of fire. 
 
 There are a great many other features about modern school buildings 
 which the author has met in his experience, but the points touched upon 
 in this article cover the principal features that should be closely looked 
 after to obtain a successful plan. 
 
 I will say in conclusion that it is just as necessary for a one classroom 
 school building to be arranged properly for light and heat, as a fifty 
 room building. 
 
 In many cases the small cost of the building is an excuse for per- 
 petuating mistakes which are absolutely unnecessary. 
 
 To the Teacher: 
 
 Is your school library fit for a visitor to see it? Is the trash cleared out and 
 burned? Are the books neatly arranged? Or is it a wilderness of torn charts, 
 dog-eared books, ragged maps, kindling wood, dictionary holders, feather 
 dusters, broken desks, all tossed into inextricable confusion? 
 
3U — 
 
 SCHOOL GARDENS IN LOS ANGELES. 
 
 School gardens probably produce their greatest results in the crowded life of the 
 cities. It is of wonderful interest to the children of the slums to see things grow. 
 It stirs within them new instincts of life and beauty. These photographs illustrate 
 some of the work done in the Utah Street School in the city of Los Angeles. 
 
 Result of school garden upon a home In the slum districts. 
 
 Prize winners in raising flowers. 
 
 To the School Trustees: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 What 
 
 do 
 
 you 
 
 see when 
 
 you 
 
 visit 
 
 the 
 
 school? 
 
 Are the f 
 
 oors and walls 
 
 unclean? 
 
 Is 
 
 the 
 
 furniture 
 
 old, 
 
 worn, 
 
 ink 
 
 splotched, unvarni 
 
 shed? 
 
 Are 
 
 the 
 
 curtains 
 
 and 
 
 maps 
 
 raggedly 
 
 flapping in 
 
 the 
 
 wind? 
 
 s the stove propped up 
 
 by 
 
 a brick? 
 
 Does the 
 
 stovepipe sag 
 
 hopelessly? Is the 
 
 plastering 
 
 falling 
 
 off? 
 
 
 If so, 
 
 how 
 
 long 
 
 O Lord, 
 
 how 
 
 long? 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
— 31 — 
 
 Prize winners in raising vegetables. 
 
 Working in the school garden. 
 
 To Any One who visits the School: 
 
 Do the windows extend up to the ceiling? Are the windows all to the left 
 of the pupils? Is there a space of at least 8 feet In front of the pupils with- 
 out windows entirely? Is there any way for fresh air to get In? Is there 
 any way for foul air to get out? 
 
 If not, there Is something rotten in Denmark. 
 
32 
 
 SCHOOL PLAYGROUNDS. 
 
 This is an original article, prepared for this purpose by J. H. Reed, the Tree 
 Warden of Riverside. Mr. Reed has spent a long and useful life in the teaching of 
 schools and in the adornment of a beautiful city by the culture of countless thousands 
 of trees. 
 
 A Place for Larger Playground. 
 
 There is a lot of outdoor room in this country yet, and our boys and 
 girls, housed five or six hours a day in the schoolroom, should have their 
 fair share of it, for their playgrounds. The equipment in physical 
 strength and general health, after the real battle of life commences, as 
 well as while this mental furnishing is going on, to say nothing of the 
 good times due these children in the mean time, is certainly of equal 
 importance with the mental equipment being sought for. And during 
 this school day portion of life, the facilities and management of the 
 school playground may have very much to do with this physical equip- 
 ment. 
 
 The scientific gymnastic training or formal exercise that may be 
 carried on in limited space does not serve the purpose for boys and girls. 
 It is frolic and fun-producing games, requiring plenty of room, that 
 they demand and their needs require. 
 
 To turn several hundred children on to a patch of ground so limited 
 that as many score would barely find room for their games, their fun 
 and frolic, is as serious a wrong as to overcrowd their study and class- 
 rooms. 
 
 Our country schools of one or two departments, should have at least 
 an acre for the playground, and not but a little patch for the school 
 building, the children being forced to the street or adjoining fields for 
 their games and frolic. 
 
 In many of our young, rapidly growing towns, a location for the 
 school building is selected, with grounds barely adequate for the needs 
 of the few score of children to be first provided for. In a few years an 
 addition to the building is required for increased numbers. New con- 
 ditions prohibiting extending the grounds, save at large expense, the 
 original ground is often made to serve several times the number for 
 which it was first intended. Either the playground should be increased 
 in proportion to the increased capacity of the building, or a new build- 
 ing where ample grounds are available should be provided in place of 
 an addition to the old. Even at material increase of cost, and even con- 
 venience of location. 
 
 The additional few thousand dollars and some inconvenience can not 
 be set off against the health and physical building of the succeeding sets 
 of hundreds of children, as they come and go during the many years the 
 building will be occupied. 
 
— 33 — 
 
 No better investment can be made by a town than the money spent hi 
 providing ample playgrounds for the successive generations of children. 
 to whom they will minister health, strength and gladness. 
 
 Playground Supervision. 
 
 should there be some appreciative direction of sports, games, and con- 
 « I act on the school playground, or should the children be let loose like a 
 lot of young colts in their corral to have their fun out in their own wild 
 way? Certainly there should be no formal rules or harsh strictures that 
 would repress the freedom of the sports of the children. But it seems 
 
 A corner of the grounds at the Victoria School, in Riverside County. Surely It is 
 better for little children to breathe and grow in such a place as this than mid 
 scenes of squalid desolation. James Mills is the school clerk who is responsible for 
 these beautiful grounds. 
 
 to me some judicious direction may be given to games and frolic, if done 
 wisely, by one thoroughly in sympathy with fun-loving children, and 
 whose business it is to look after this part of their education. 
 
 Among boys and girls, as well as men and women, there are always 
 masterful spirits who insist on ruling, often in an overbearing way. 
 Then there are the timid spirits and physically weak, who need the bene- 
 fit of cheerful play the most. A wise supervision that would hold the 
 former in check, and encourage and urge on the latter, from day to day, 
 week in and week out, I am sure would be of real and great value. 
 
 3— SA 
 
— 34 — 
 
 Besides, there is the opportunity of suggesting new or improved games 
 and exercises, and in a quiet way of encouraging fair play. 
 
 I believe the average boy and average girl, when starting to school, 
 is honest-minded and well-intentioned, but we well know that in large 
 companies there are exceptions, whose evil influence is gradually insin- 
 uated into the minds of the naturally good, like a poison. Much of this 
 baneful influence on the playground I think may be prevented if it is 
 somebody's business to be advised of these bad characters, and discreetly 
 manage to prevent the contamination. 
 
 It seems to me that some wise supervision on the playground, beyond 
 what is practicable for the teachers to give, may accomplish much for 
 both the health and morals of the children, especially when assembled in 
 large numbers. In the country and other isolated and comparatively 
 small schools, the teachers can manage the matter very well, but in our 
 large town schools it seems to me that this department of school work 
 is of sufficient importance to demand special service — a professor or 
 directress of playgrounds, if you please — chosen with direct reference to 
 his or her special fitness for the delicate and important duties. 
 
 The School Playground Should be Beautified. 
 
 I recently visited one of our southern California towns somewhat 
 noted for its beauty, because in the "well to do" portion the streets 
 margins and residence frontages are adorned with trees, flowers and 
 well-kept lawns, with a beautiful little park near by where visitors go 
 and exclaim, "What a beautiful city." In another part of the town, 
 where the work-a-day people live, where most of the children are raised, 
 I found street after street with scarcely a tree to relieve their barren- 
 ness, with but here and there a cheerful frontage with lawn and flowers. 
 In the midst of this dreary section I found a children 's playground — a 
 good-sized lot, surrounded by a homely board fence, utterly unrelieved 
 by tree, shrub or flower. It reminded me more of a corral where mules 
 are kept over night rather than what a children's playground should be. 
 
 It is in such neighborhoods that the school grounds should be made 
 bright and attractive by plant and tree adornment — so easily secured in 
 our California climate. The lack of this on so many school grounds has 
 no little to do with the bare, uninviting surroundings of so many of the 
 homes made by the grown up scholars when their school days are over. 
 The taste for the beautiful things nature has so lavishly provided for us, 
 and which should be a joy and inspiration through life, needs to be culti- 
 vated during the school years. 
 
 These playgrounds may be adorned without interfering with their 
 special purpose. The trees should be chosen intelligently with reference 
 to their adaptation to this special use. Short-lived trees should not be 
 7>lanted, nor such as require special care. 
 
— 35 — 
 
 The margins of the grounds may be planted to tall growing trees. 
 "Where not too cold some of the eucalyptus family serve well for this pur- 
 pose. Farther north some conifers make beautiful borders ; the Cedrus 
 deodar serves the purpose especially well where the lower branches 
 can remain. 
 
 Small clumps of shrubs or small growing trees may be placed in corners 
 or on division lines between playgrounds. Some of the acacias do well 
 for this purpose. There are spots in all reasonably large grounds where 
 
 A fine pepper tree near the Victoria School, in Riverside County. The pepper is the 
 best school tree wherever it will grow. It stands drouth and forgives neglect; and 
 if it has half a chance, it grows into a magnificent old tree, that weaves itself into 
 the landscape and into the traditions of the school. 
 
 single trees can be placed without interfering with games — some of our 
 native trees, as the Sequoia or the common redwood, a beautiful tree 
 when young, and stately when grown — can be placed to advantage. 
 Then there are trees that will bear pruning high that can be grown on 
 any part of the grounds, giving grateful, shady resting places without 
 interfering with play. Of these the pepper, our most graceful, beautiful 
 shade tree of the south, should be utilized. It will quickly grow up out 
 of the way and in a brief time protect a large space from the hot sun. 
 Farther north the slower growing oak can be used for this purpose. 
 Where climatic conditions allow some of the poplars should find room in 
 some of the out of the way spots. 
 
— 36 — 
 
 The playgrounds should by no means be cumbered with trees. But 
 a few properly selected and wisely placed will wonderfully transform 
 the appearance of the ordinary bare school playgrounds, without, to any 
 material degree, interfering with children's sports. 
 
 The bare feature parts of the school grounds should not reach to the 
 building. A narrow border of grass, a bed of flowers, or low growing 
 shrubs should surround the house except at the entrances. 
 
 Outhouses and sheds should be covered with some sort of climbing 
 plant. 
 
 A little intelligent effort, with a very moderate expense, will give 
 attractive premises for the children's play hours, and add to their 
 pleasure when these glad days are but a memory. 
 
 AN OLD-FASHIONED SCHOOL. 
 
 Old-fashioned, yes; but how cosy and comfortable it looks. The children who grew 
 up here will look back at their old school with pleasure and delight. Some one has 
 i been caring for it. It has a homelike atmosphere, making strong contrast to the 
 forsaken, barnlike aspect of so many rural schools. 
 
 All public-spirited and intelligent people will agree with Dr. Draper, 
 in his plea for more beautiful schoolhouses and school grounds, when 
 he says: "If we see a building that is attractive, with trees about it, 
 and with some green sod and flower beds in the summer time, and with 
 a whole and bright American flag floating over it, we shall be likely 
 to find that things are about as they should be inside. If the buildings 
 look ugly and the grounds unkempt and the flag ragged, we shall be likely 
 to find that the schoolhouse is dirty and unhealthful. We shall also be 
 likely to find that the teacher is lazy and the pupils listless and the work 
 of little account." (See Youth's Companion for February 14, 1901.) 
 
o/ — 
 
 SMALL SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
 
 By Walteb H. Takkek, 244 Kearney street, San Francisco, Cal. 
 
 Mr. Parker is a School Architect of San Francisco. He has been kind enough to 
 prepare this article with its illustrations for this special purpose. 
 
 Apparent disagreements may possibly be detected in the articles by the various 
 architects and school men who have written for this volume. This is quite natural. 
 Different individuals have different viewpoints and varying opinions. The book does 
 not undertake to prescribe some arbitrary and dogmatic set of rules, but rather to 
 show the present ideas of some of our people who ought to know. 
 
 Any building, especially a public building, should indicate the use 
 for which it is intended. It should be an example of good taste to the 
 community, and by combining utility and beauty of design should have 
 
 Frame building', one-room school. 
 
 an educational effect upon all who enter it. School trustees often ,say : 
 "We can not afford a building combining those qualities," but the fact 
 is that good proportion and good lines in a building do not depend on 
 cost. It may harmonize with its surroundings, yet be built with the most 
 available material. It may be attractive without being expensive. 
 \Yood, the most common building material, is the most natural one for a 
 rural school on account of low cost and ease of obtaining it, and in using 
 it even rough boards may be put together practically and gracefully. 
 In some localities stone, brick, plaster, and cement may be used cheaply 
 and made very effective, if property handled. 
 
 One of the important problems of school boards is the planning 
 of a new building, and mistakes are often made, both in the external 
 appearance and by bad lighting, heating, and sanitation. This may be 
 
— 38 
 
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— 39 — 
 
 A building in the Mission style, always one-story. 
 
 A {food type for a three-room school. 
 
40 
 
 A four-room building. 
 
 First floor plan, four-room school. 
 
— 41 — 
 
 due to financial limitations, but is more often through lack of knowledge 
 of the rules and principles of modern school construction. 
 
 In choosing a site, the selection should be made with a view to natural 
 drainage, east and south exposure if possible, and ready accessibility 
 from the main thoroughfare. If there are trees on the ground, so much 
 the better, but they should not be allowed to obstruct the windows, as 
 the great factor in any hygienic room, "good light," also often means 
 "good air." Having secured a suitable site, the building is the next 
 problem. 
 
 In a one-room school, a good arrangement may be found in the above 
 plan, which has a combination entry and cloakroom. In addition to the 
 schoolroom proper, there should be a small teacher 's room. In any com- 
 
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 Second floor plan, four-room school. 
 
 mon school building, the classroom should be twenty-five feet wide and 
 thirty-two feet long. A greater length is undesirable as being too far 
 for the voice to carry readily, or to read writing on the blackboard with 
 ease. The width of twenty-five feet is not too great to interfere with 
 proper lighting of the side of the room farthest from the windows. This 
 size, 25 by 32, makes a room large enough to seat forty-eight pupils in 
 the grammar grades (eight rows of seats, six in each row), or fifty-four 
 
— 42 — 
 
 primary pupils (nine rows, six in each row), all that one teacher can 
 properly handle. If the room is built with a 12y 2 foot ceiling, this size 
 allows 16% cubic feet for space to each pupil, with forty-eight in the 
 room, or 14.8 cubic feet, with fifty-four pupils. Aisles should be eighteen 
 inches wide. 
 
 In the economical expenditure of public funds for education, the 
 physical welfare of the children should be considered a matter of impor- 
 tance. Defective lighting of a schoolroom, which may impair the eye- 
 sight of a number of pupils, should not be tolerated for a moment in this 
 enlightened era. Authorities agree that the light should come over the 
 left shoulder of the pupil, and that the glass area should equal, approxi- 
 mately, one fifth the floor space. "Windows should not be located with 
 view to the exterior architectural effect, but should be closely grouped, 
 forming as nearly as possible one large window. Occasionally win- 
 dows are placed elsewhere than on the left side of the room, but in 
 such eases their use is not to supply light for the pupils, but to be used 
 in flushing the room with sunlight and air when the pupils are outside. 
 
 The requirements for a two-room building are similar to those for a 
 one-room building, as described above. It will be found desirable to 
 arrange the floor plan so as to locate the teacher's room between the two 
 classrooms. The furnace and fuel room can be in the basement, which 
 need not be large. 
 
 The accompanying plan for a three-room building is suitable for 
 localities where the climate is hot during the school year. The cloistered 
 court provides ready communication between all the rooms, and allows 
 the best ventilation, as well as adding to the looks of the building. 
 
 Blackboards should be slate, where possible. If for any reason com- 
 position boards are used, the preparation should be put over a well-sea- 
 soned board backing, and no time should be wasted with manufacturers 
 who will not guarantee their boards for at least two years. A dull black 
 is the best color. 
 
 Windows should be about three feet from the floor and extend to 
 within one foot of the ceiling, where possible. Transoms are not desirable, 
 though sometimes introduced for architectural effect. 
 
 In a four-room school, a two-story building makes for economy in con- 
 struction, and basement playgrounds for inclement weather may be 
 included in the plan. 
 
 The rooms should have a sand finish, with cove ceilings. The walls 
 should be tinted a light color, and the woodwork stained in natural 
 color, or light brown, with dull finish. The floor will wear better and be 
 most easily kept clean if oiled or coated with floor preparation. 
 
 Toilets are not usually placed in a rural school building, though they 
 may be, by putting a storage tank in the attic, or a pneumatic tank 
 underground, near the building. If used, they should be of some first- 
 
— 43 — 
 
 class make, with good plumbing installed throughout. A cesspool or 
 septic tank for sewage disposal in rural districts may be cheaply 
 installed and give good results. 
 
 A simple and inexpensive heating system will provide admirably for 
 a small school. The use of heaters having an intake of air piped from 
 the outside is recommended. Such an intake should be sheltered from 
 strong winds, which otherwise will interfere with the uniform working 
 of the draft. 
 
 In planning the building, the surroundings should be well considered, 
 and the final general appearance of the whole held to be of greatest 
 importance. A lawn in front of the school always adds a pleasing 
 feature, and is entirely practical if sufficient acreage has been secured 
 for ample playgrounds. As a final word, the author makes a plea for 
 better buildings, as he frankly believes their influence for good is greater 
 than the average citizen realizes. 
 
 JUDGING SCHOOLHOUSE PLANS. 
 
 An original article by Superintendent Mark Keppel of Los Angeles County. If 
 superintendents will carefully read this and put it in practice and STICK TO IT — the 
 schoolhouses of the State will grow better. 
 
 In considering plans for schoolhouses I consider, first, the relative 
 areas of the building and of the total inside area of the schoolrooms. If 
 the total inside area of the schoolrooms is not above 50 per cent of the 
 entire area of the schoolhouse I refuse to approve the plans. 
 
 Second, I consider the size and shape of the schoolrooms. The 
 smallest acceptable schoolroom should have an inside floor area of 750 
 square feet and the largest rooms should have 864 square feet. The 
 preferable dimensions for the smaller rooms are 25 by 30 feet inside, 
 and for the larger rooms 27 by 32 feet inside. 
 
 Buildings of two or more rooms may have an equal number of rooms 
 containing 750 and 864 square feet of floor space. 
 
 Third, I consider the lighting of the rooms. I insist upon having 
 windows upon the left side and at the rear of the room. I realize that 
 this rule is out of harmony with the views of many teachers, and con- 
 trary to the practice of many architects. However, I believe that even- 
 tually architects and teachers will revert to the bilateral system of 
 lighting. Except for rooms with a northern exposure, unilateral light- 
 ing seems difficult to justify. The windows serve the two purposes of 
 lighting and ventilating. 
 
 Rooms having any exposure except the north one, receive the full 
 flood of the sunlight at some hour of the day. At that time the admis- 
 sion of light from that particular exposure is impossible, if comfort is 
 to be considered. 
 
— 44 — 
 
 If the room has a side and a rear battery of windows, a full flood of 
 high light can be had from side or rear at every hour of the day, and 
 a wise use of window shades Avill protect the pupils from the direct rays 
 of the sun as it journeys past the first and second rows of windows. The 
 ventilation of schoolrooms is seldom satisfactory except when attained 
 by a forced draught system, or by having the windows open on two 
 sides of the room. 
 
 The forced draught system is necessary in cold or stormy weather, 
 and the window system is most highly desirable whenever the weather 
 permits. 
 
 The position of the windows is vital. Each row should be grouped 
 as nearly solid as is possible. The piece of wall between two windows 
 should not exceed twelve inches in width and a less width is better. 
 
 The rear battery of windows should be placed equidistant from the 
 side walls. The side battery of windows should begin within two feet 
 of the rear Avail and should not approach nearer the front wall than 
 eight feet, and the front wall, i. e., the wall which the children are to 
 face, should not have windows, transoms or glass doors. The children 
 should face the softest light of the room. The windows should be high, 
 preferably without transoms, but if transoms are used each of these 
 should not exceed one foot in total width. 
 
 Fourth, I consider the sanitation of the building by sunlight, and 
 insist that as far as is possible every closet, hallway, room and office 
 shall be open to direct sunlight at least once daily. 
 
 Fifth, I consider the heating plans. The furnace must not be under 
 exits unless the furnace is in a fireproof chamber. The furnace arms 
 must be short and direct and should never exceed 50 feet in length. If 
 greater length is necessary more furnaces is the only safe remedy. 
 
 Sixth, I consider the provisions for the school's right-hand, the dis- 
 trict library. It must have adequate space, good ventilation and light- 
 ing and heating facilities, and should be easily accessible. 
 
 Seventh, I consider the provisions for the comfort of the teachers and 
 of the public in dealing with the school and wish for an office, a rest 
 room, etc. 
 
 Eighth. I consider the plans for the toilets and refuse to approve any 
 plans until the toilet plans are satisfactory. This is necessary even for 
 a house of one room. The reason for much of the vicious condition 
 which prevails in school toilets is due to the uninviting, even sinister, 
 influence of the toilets themselves. These seem to say to their users, 
 "evil conditions are desired here, be sure you do your part in making 
 conditions worse." 
 
 Ninth. I consider the question of beauty with regard to the building. 
 Other things being right, the more beautiful the building, the more its 
 
— -45 — 
 
 chance of being approved. However, I refuse absolutely to sacrifice the 
 purpose of the house, i. e.. the work of a school, the life, the comfort, the 
 happiness of its children and teachers, to any so-called law of symmetry 
 or insistent plan of so-called beauty. 
 
 GOOD USE OF PUBLIC MONEY. 
 
 It is perfectly legitimate to use school money in helping little children 
 to play. Their plays are quite as important to their future as their 
 
 studies — probably more so. Do not hesitate to fix swings, teeter boards, 
 tennis courts, ball grounds and everything else that will encourage the 
 children to play, not because it pleases them, but because it is necessary 
 to their health and development. The above is a view of a school ground 
 in Napa County. 
 
 To the Parent: 
 
 Do you look at the water-closets of your school? Are they well kept, whole- 
 some places, fit for modest and decent children to use? If not, go right after 
 the Trustees and the Janitor and the Teacher and ask why. 
 
46 
 
 SUGGESTION FROM THE DESERT. 
 
 A teacher from the Colorado Desert makes the following recommendation. 
 
 You ask in the December Journal for hints on the construction of 
 schoolhouses. I have but a small one to make, but one I should like very 
 much to see tried. Wherever blackboards corner in a schoolroom, there 
 should be set diagonally across the corner a plate-glass mirror, such as 
 was formerly seen in the Pasadena electric cars, about ten inches across, 
 and the height of the blackboard. It would serve two purposes. It 
 would contribute much to neatness of person among pupils, by allowing 
 them to see their reflection frequently, and most important of all, it 
 would allow a teacher, who might desire to work a little at the board, 
 an opportunity to see almost any part of his room without turning 
 around. It would also be a handsome ornament to the schoolroom. 
 
 * 
 
 F. S. Hafford. 
 
 PRELIMINARY OUTLINES. 
 
 City Superintendent James A. Barr of Stockton makes some good 
 suggestions for cities having schoolhouses to build and school grounds 
 to improve ; and then goes on to illustrate them, as below. This will be 
 of interest and value to city school boards. He says : 
 
 My experience leads me to believe that in calling for schoolhouse 
 plans it is well to submit to competing architects a carefully drawn out- 
 line giving a definite idea of just what is wanted. This standardizes 
 the competition, places all architects on the same basis, relieves the 
 school officials from going over matters in detail with each architect and 
 secures better results. 
 
 I enclose such an outline that has been used in Stockton with very 
 good effect. 
 
 Office of the Secretary of the Board of Education 
 of the City of Stockton. March 1. 1900. 
 
 The Board of Education of the city of Stockton, desiring to erect a 
 building for the accommodation of pupils in the First ward of said city, 
 invites architects to submit competitive plans, specifications and esti- 
 mates for the erection of said building in strict accordance with the 
 following conditions : 
 
 A one-story building with the Spanish-Mission architecture through- 
 out, including tile roof, is desired. 
 
 The building to be erected on the southeast quarter of block M west, 
 said quarter block having a frontage of 151% feet on Monroe street 
 ( faring east) and of 151% feet on Washington street (facing south). 
 
— 47 — 
 
 The drawings of the floor plans and elevations to be upon white paper 
 or tracing cloth, to be rendered in black ink at a scale of one eighth (%) 
 of an inch to the foot, and to be only in straight lines, the drawings to 
 consist of the following : 
 
 (1) Front elevation. 
 
 (2) Side elevation. 
 
 (3) Perspective showing front and side elevations (to be taken from 
 the southeast corner). 
 
 (4) Basement plan. 
 
 (5) Floor plan. 
 
 (6) Longitudinal section. 
 
 The lettering of the plans to enumerate only the dimensions and 
 names of the various rooms and apparatus and names of architects. 
 
 The specifications to describe in outline the materials to be used in the 
 construction of the building, and the apparatus to be made a part of the 
 building, which apparatus must include a system of sanitary water 
 closets and urinals, and a full modern system of heating and ventilating 
 the entire building, including playrooms in the basement. 
 
 The specifications to be accompanied by an estimate of the cost of the 
 building complete. 
 
 The building is to be constructed of brick. The inside finish to be in 
 natural wood, so finished as to be without shining and reflecting surfaces. 
 
 The basement is to be 8% or 9 feet in the clear above grade level of 
 yard (which is to be graded, approximately, 2 feet above street grade). 
 The basement to contain all the necessary water closets and urinals, the 
 heating apparatus, fresh air room or rooms, fuel room or rooms, lav- 
 atories, small room for janitor's supplies, and two rooms to be used as 
 lunch and play rooms. 
 
 The building to contain four classrooms, each 27 by 36 feet. Each 
 classroom to contain (in the walls) a closet for specimens to be so 
 arranged, in part with sliding glass doors, as to have a pleasing effect 
 in the room. Each classroom to be provided with a teacher's wardrobe, 
 having a floor space of about twenty square feet and furnished with a 
 stationary wash basin and with a closet in the wall for supplies and 
 books. Each wardrobe is to be provided with a window for outside 
 lighting. Each classroom to be provided with picture molding. 
 
 Each classroom to be lighted (a) from the long side and as much to 
 the rear as possible, or (&) from the long side (and toward the rear) 
 and back (and to the left) ; in either case in such a manner that the 
 light will fall over the left shoulders of the pupils. The windows to 
 extend to as near the ceiling as construction will permit. The bottoms 
 of windows to be not less than three feet from the floor. The window 
 surface to be not less than one fifth of the floor surface. 
 
 All classrooms, offices, halls, recitation rooms, wardrobes and closets 
 
— 48 — 
 
 throughout the building (including basement) to be provided with a 
 "cove" ceiling. 
 
 The building to be provided with an office for the principal. Prin- 
 cipal's office to contain ample closet room for supplies for building, for 
 general library of building, for school exhibit and for collections, and to 
 be well lighted, so that it may be used as a reading room. 
 
 The building to be provided with cloakrooms, which must be well 
 lighted, heated and ventilated. 
 
 The halls and stairways to be broad, ample and well lighted. The 
 main hallway should be at least 12 feet in width. Entrances from base- 
 ment to main hall are desired. Risers should not exceed five and one 
 half inches. 
 
 Blackboard (kind to be approved by the board) to occupy all avail- 
 able space around classrooms, the vertical width to be not less than 48 
 inches, provided that on the side of the room behind the teacher's desk 
 the board shall be 72 inches wide. 
 
 While architects must keep the cost of the proposed building within 
 the prescribed limit, and while the conditions laid down must be fol- 
 lowed, they are to have full liberty in planning and in adding such 
 conveniences as they may desire. 
 
 The building ready for occupancy, complete in every particular, 
 including all necessary heating apparatus, water closets, sanitary and 
 other appointments throughout, with the exception of movable furni- 
 ture, must not exceed in cost the sum of $15,000, excluding the archi- 
 tect's commission and cost of superintending the construction of said 
 building. 
 
 The author of the plans, specifications and estimates first in merit (if 
 any such be so considered by the board) shall be paid the sum of $150, 
 which, in the event of the plans, specifications and estimates not being 
 used, shall be final payment for the same, the said plans and specifica- 
 tions to become the property of the board. 
 
 The author of the plans, specifications and estimates second in merit 
 (if any such be so considered by the board) shall receive the sum 
 of $100. 
 
 If any of the plans be used at any time in the construction of a build- 
 ing in the city of Stockton the architect shall be paid the usual com- 
 mission of Zy 2 per cent for working plans and complete specifications 
 and detail drawings, or 5 per cent for complete services, including 
 supervision, if the successful architect be selected by the board to 
 supervise the construction of the building ; in either case less the amount 
 previously paid, providing, however, that no additional compensation 
 shall be allowed the architect if the lowest and best bid for the construc- 
 tion of the building complete exceeds the sum of $15,000. 
 
— 49 — 
 
 The Board of Education reserves the right to reject any and all plans, 
 specifications and estimates submitted. 
 
 The Board of Education reserves the right to employ a superintendent 
 of construction. 
 
 All plans, specifications and estimates submitted will be received by 
 the Board of Education, room I, High School Building, up to 7:30 
 o'clock p. m., April 19, 1900. 
 
 THE PROBLEM OF THE RURAL SCHOOL. 
 
 An original article prepared for this purpose by Prof. I. P. Roberts, who was for 
 thirty years Dean of the College of Agriculture in Cornell University. He is now 
 professor emeritus of Cornell, and resides in California. 
 
 As one visits the rural schools of California he is at once struck by 
 the youthful appearance of those who attend them. The teachers are 
 generally young ladies of tender years, often just trying their pinions 
 to see if they can fly; the pupils, few in number, are almost always 
 very young, and the lads and lasses of middle youth are conspicuous by 
 their absence. Wherever the income of the farmer will permit the 
 adolescents have been sent to the higher schools in the cities and 
 villages ; where it will not they are often at home at work because their 
 services are necessary to help secure the family living. But not infre- 
 quently they have dropped out because of lack of interest, and some- 
 times they have even learned to hate the schoolroom actively just at the 
 most critical period of their lives. This is not surprising, for the rural 
 schoolhouses are generally unattractive, their surroundings barren and 
 depressing, and the young people, unconsciously craving something 
 more inspiring than the routine grammar school studies, are discouraged 
 and repelled by what is offered them. 
 
 To discover the cause of this condition of things we do not need to go 
 far afield. The income of the farmer in a large majority of cases is so 
 small — especially of those engaged in raising cereals — that their natural 
 interest in education is obliterated by the never-ending struggle to keep 
 the farm from the sheriff and food on the table. In 1900 the average 
 yield of wheat in California was a little less than fourteen bushels per 
 acre and the average price a trifle over fifty-five cents, which yields an 
 average income per acre of seven dollars and seventy-three cents. The 
 yield per acre has probably not increased since 1900, but the average 
 price per bushel has increased about ten per cent. This would make the 
 average income from an acre of wheat in this State about eight dollars 
 and a half at the present time. 
 
 4 — SA 
 
— 50 — 
 
 The other cereals and hay make scarcely a better showing - . Although 
 those engaged in growing fruits, berries and nuts received a far more 
 liberal reward for their labor and investment, their total product in 
 1900 constituted only about one quarter of the value of all farm 
 produce ; while the cereals and hay yielded more than 40 per cent of the 
 total value of all farm crops. The fruit-growers are to a very large 
 extent a suburban class and are able to send their older children into 
 town to school ; but the children of the general farmer and of families 
 in the mining and lumbering regions must get their mental training and 
 stimulus from the district school. 
 
 It is evident, therefore, that the support of the country schools, not 
 only by taxation, but by the interest and intelligence of the parents, will 
 depend chiefly on the profits of those engaged in producing hay and 
 cereals. If the farmers were sufficiently prosperous and intelligent they 
 would settle their own school question by demanding and securing more 
 experienced teachers, a better equipment and a more rational curric- 
 ulum. That a large section of them can not be prosperous is clear when 
 we remember that eight dollars and a half is an average income per 
 acre and therefore one half of the acreage must yield less than this. 
 
 They have robbed and are robbing the land of its productive power. 
 While those lands which still retain much of their pristine productive- 
 ness are yielding forty bushels per acre over large areas, the average of 
 the State is less than fourteen bushels — that is, one half of this acreage 
 is yielding much less than fourteen bushels. This is, in fact, starvation : 
 the crops are starved and inevitably the population on the land is starv- 
 ing too. These people may not be facing physical hunger as do the 
 desperate poor in the cities — for the farm can always be made to yield 
 the last necessary shelter and food — but since there is no margin of 
 profit they must lack many of the ordinary comforts of life and be starv- 
 ing for the deeper necessities of the mind and spirit. 
 
 This state of a considerable section of the rural population in Califor- 
 nia is the direct result of a lack of knowledge of the fundamental prin- 
 ciples of successful agriculture. Thus we have a fatal round : ignorance 
 has led the farmer to rob the soil of its fertility ; waning productiveness 
 has made him poorer and poorer; and poverty prevents his children 
 from going to school and the farmer from taking that vital and intelli- 
 gent interest in the rural schools which would keep them up to the 
 standard of the progressive town school. In such a dilemma there 
 seems to be only one practicable remedy : the Government should come 
 to the aid of the rural school as it came to the assistance of the institu- 
 tions of higher learning forty-five years ago. The Universities and 
 colleges did not and could not then provide instruction in agriculture, 
 the mechanic arts and allied technical subjects. Under the Morrill land 
 grant state agricultural and engineering colleges have been established. 
 
— 51 — 
 
 either as separate institutions or in connection with state universities 
 already in existence, and the result has been a marvelous development 
 of the higher scientific education. 
 
 By some such state or Federal aid the rural school may be reorganized 
 and revivified so that it will hold the country children at home instead 
 of letting them drift away to the congested centers of population, and 
 — what is of even greater importance — so that it can keep the interest 
 of the youth who are now dropping out because of uninspiring methods 
 and the lack of application of the things which they learn to the vital 
 practical problems about them. 
 
 A second remedy, which may be applied in some measure at once, is 
 the broadening of the ideal of the country school until it shall become 
 the social center of the whole countryside. In my dreams I see this 
 rural center housed in a large, plain, attractive building, fitted with 
 kitchen and assembly hall for public meetings — social, recreative, edu- 
 cational and religious; a building which will furnish conveniences for 
 carrying on all those activities which the country people desire and 
 need ; a place in which any one who has anything to say or do which will 
 improve any phase of rural life or which might stimulate to noble 
 endeavor, should find a rostrum and a welcome ; a central meeting place, 
 perhaps for two or more districts, where agriculture will be taught the 
 young and old, and where handicrafts and domestic economy will be 
 taught alongside the three R's. 
 
 The social schoolhouse will be located in an ample area, with sheds for 
 teams, with trees and flowers, with athletic grounds, with a kitchen 
 garden, and with good roads leading to it from every part of the district. 
 This center will be presided over by a graduate of one of the agricul- 
 tural colleges who will give all his time and energies to the public 
 welfare and who will be the leader in all things helpful. He must 
 receive a living salary and his position will be a permanent one, for he 
 should live near by in a cottage set in the midst of a small holding 
 where he can illustrate some of the methods and the value of the sub- 
 jects taught. 
 
 It has taken forty years to establish firmly the agricultural and engi- 
 neering colleges, but it should not take so long to revive and socialize the 
 rural schools. Certainly the solution of the country school question is 
 not in sending country children long distances to the town schools, but 
 in making the district schools as good as the city schools ; their course of 
 study more applicable to the problems of country life; and in making 
 the farmer himself prosperous and intelligent, so that he can keep 
 abreast of modern educational progress. 
 
— 52 
 
 CALIFORNIA SCHOOL NECESSITIES. 
 
 Shade to play in, seats to eat lunches on, swings and playthings — 
 they are necessities to children nowadays, no less than books and desks. 
 The picture above shows the grounds of the Longfellow School in River- 
 side County. 
 
 Sometimes a stingy or a narrow man will say, ' ' What 's the use of all 
 
 Seats and Shade Trees at the School. 
 
 this fuss about the school? The school grounds are as good as at any 
 home in the district, and that's good enough. It's better than the place 
 I went to school in, and I 've got along all right. ' ' 
 
 This is bad argument. There's nothing in it. The community 
 builds the schoolhouse, and it should build as an example of prosperity 
 and right conditions to the future, not revert to the misery of «the past. 
 It is a great opportunity for a community to advance. 
 
53 
 
 THE ARRANGEMENT OF WINDOWS. 
 
 We have attempted to show, in part, by the following cuts, some defects in the 
 lighting of schoolhouses, and how the windows are arranged to get the best results. 
 Both good and bad are printed, in order that these points may be brought out with 
 emphasis, by the contrast. The criticisms were written by a competent architect, 
 who prefers not to have his name printed as a public critic of his competitors, but 
 who has written with impartial judgment. It should also be noted that these cuts 
 of exteriors can show only the lighting arrangement, and possibly some of the exam- 
 ples of good lighting shown here may have badly planned interiors. 
 
 Public school, No. 153, New York. C. B. J. Snyder, Supt. of School Buildings. 
 
 This is one of the best arrangements of windows. Note that the 
 light enters from only one side of a room, and the windows are so close 
 together that the piers between them do not cast heavy shadows. 
 
 Public school, No. 127, Brooklyn, N. Y. C. B. J. Snyder, Supt. of School Buildings. 
 
 Another good piece of work by the same man. A well-lighted building. 
 A pity it is so high. Stairways are a curse to growing girls. 
 
54 — 
 
 Tenth Ward School, Milwaukee, Wis. Van Ryn & De Gelleke, Architects. 
 
 An excellent example of bad lighting. The windows are simply holes 
 punched in all sides of the building, at regular intervals. This sort 
 of a thing is not by any means confined to Milwaukee, however. 
 
 Too high. We should afford enough land in America for our chil- 
 dren to get sunshine and air space. Ought to have a roof playground. 
 
 Join IT' . L \t ,, 
 
 f 1 I Si ■? F- ■ 3 : 
 
 New Thirteenth Ward School, Oshkosh, Wis. E. E. Stevens & Co., Architects, 
 
 Oshkosh. 
 
 In the same class as the preceding one. Bad, very bad ! 
 
 It will be comforting for rural trustees to observe that the architects 
 sometimes fall into the same errors found in the little red schoolhouse 
 with equidistant windows on four sides. 
 
00 
 
 
 ra 1 
 
 p pi p "inrTFTiE 
 
 Long-fellow School, Boise, Idaho. Wayland & Fennell, Architects. 
 
 Ideal; light from the left side only, and as little space as possible 
 between the windows. 
 
 South Boston Hi^li School, Boston, Mass. Herbert P. Halo. Architect. 
 
 Abominable for study purposes, and too high, loo many stairs to 
 climb. Big city schools that can't afford room for children to live 
 healthfully, that find it necessary to pile up so many stories, they should 
 sell their high-priced land and go further out where the sun shines 
 and where a decenl space may be obtained. 
 
— 56 — 
 
 New Interlake School, Seattle, Wash. James Stephen, Architect. 
 
 This shows that the architect knew how to arrange his light. It is fine. 
 
 Observe the blank wall. When the skilled architect of a great city- 
 school is not afraid of blank walls, why should the rest of us shy off at 
 the idea ? 
 
 New Cascade School, Seattle, Wash. James Stephen, Architect. 
 
 Another splendid one by the same man. See how he avoids the fault 
 pointed out on page 57. A magnificent roof garden, for gymnasiums 
 or playgrounds, could have been made on this huge building. 
 

 
 New High School, Plainview, Minn. Chandler & Park, Architects, Racine, Wis. 
 
 This arrangement is very good indeed, but would have been improved 
 by leaving off the small high windows at the rear of the room, and would 
 have been about perfect had the side windows been placed as close 
 together as in the buildings shown on opposite page. 
 
 s *2§W ** - ----- :x= - 
 
 
 New High School, Berlin, Wis. Van Ryn & Pe Gelleke. Architects. 
 
 This is in the same class as the preceding one; perhaps a little worse. 
 
ob 
 
 The Hazelton School, Flint, Mich. Clark &Munger, Architects, Bay City, Mich. 
 
 This picture indicates that neither the architect nor the school board 
 had ever heard of the right way to light a schoolroom. 
 
 Saginaw Street School, Flint, Midi. Clark & Munger, Architects, Bay City. 
 
 Exactly similar to the one shown above. Avoid these types as you 
 would a pestilence. 
 
59 — 
 
 New Public School, No. 61, Buffalo, N. Y. Howard L. Beck, Architect. 
 
 This has the light from one side only, but has large piers in the center, 
 which cast big shadows. Compare this with the cuts on page 56, and 
 notice how the defect could have been obviated. 
 
 New Grammar School, Pasadena, Calif. Slum' t <.- Smith, Architects, San 
 
 Francisco, Calif. 
 
 A good California example. More and more the Mission style is com- 
 ing into use. It is usually one story ; and is well adapted to California 
 landscape and climate. 
 
— 60 
 
 Fifth District Primary School, Milwaukee, "Wis. Ferry & Clas, Architects. 
 
 This would be improved if the windows were closer together. Heavy 
 shadows are cast by the large piers between. Notice the blank wall. 
 Why shouldn 't it be blank if no light is needed there ? 
 
 WATER-CLOSETS IN RURAL SCHOOLS. 
 
 To improve a thing we must reform its worst points. Unquestionably, 
 the worst point about the rural school is its water-closets. As a, rule, 
 these closets, particularly those of the boys, are in a filthy and shameless 
 condition — and for a very good reason — because they are not cleaned 
 and inspected properly. It seems to be a self-perpetuating nuisance — 
 the boys of to-day continually see these buildings in a wet, unwholesome 
 condition, marked by every obscene device and thought that can be made 
 by knife or pencil or chalk. They become familiar with these things 
 and expect them to be so — and they are so, and continue so when the 
 boys grow to be the men. 
 
 Ft is a bad thing for our small children to come in constant contact with 
 u n cleanness and immorality on their school grounds. This condition 
 is not found at the homes ; why should Ave tolerate it at the school ? If 
 we can clean up the school closets and keep them clean, it will be a fine 
 piece of work, one that we shall have a right to be proud of — no less 
 praiseworthy than floating the American flag from the sehoolhouse or 
 planting it about with trees. 
 
— 61 — 
 
 The way to accomplish this reform is this : 
 
 First, put the closets into thoroughly good condition — clean, new, 
 brightly painted, with no suggestion of their old rottenness to be seen 
 at all. Hinged seats should be provided, or urinals of wood or iron. 
 Sanded walls are a good thing, too. Everything should be made of 
 double strength, so that rough and heavy use can not damage it. 
 
 Second, turn the clean closets over to the teacher and janitor, and 
 insist upon their having the same attention as other school property — 
 daily sweeping and scrubbing when necessary and constant watchful- 
 ness. The teacher will be able to manage the children if she is held 
 responsible for it; and if outside trespassers offend, bring them to 
 justice if possible, but let the school repair the injury at once. Furnish 
 the janitor with paint, disinfectants, tools, when he needs them. Have 
 a distinct understanding with the janitor as to the things to be done. 
 Let the trustee inspect the closets whenever he goes near, and make 
 somebody smoke for every neglect — and they will stay clean ! 
 
 Some of the leading superintendents of the State have been asked to 
 briefly reply to the question "What kind of a water-closet do you advise 
 for a rural school ? " 
 
 Their answers follow herewith. Observe that nearly every one pre- 
 scribes inspection and care as the essential points. 
 
 ADVICE FROM COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS. 
 
 A closet in the country school district should be of sufficient size to 
 accommodate the needs of the school, neat in appearance, well ventilated, 
 thoroughly painted and most important of all regularly cleansed and 
 disinfected. 
 
 Yours very truly, Frank C. Wells, 
 
 Of Calaveras County. 
 
 I advise an ordinary water-closet six feet by six feet, and seven feet 
 high. There should be not more than two openings, with a bar or board 
 just above them to prevent boys from getting on the seat with their 
 feet. There should be a galvanized-iron or porcelain lined urinal in one 
 corner of the boys ' closet. 
 
 But no closet will long remain in a decent condition unless the teacher 
 will constantly inspect the place. I urge constant and close inspection. 
 
 F. E. Darke, 
 Of San Luis Obispo County. 
 
 Walls of monolithic concrete, rough. 
 Dry vault. 
 
 Cottage roof, eighteen inches above walls thus providing light and 
 ventilation. 
 
— 62 — 
 
 Sunk urinal for boys; opening into vault directly. 
 Seats slanting from small to large. 
 Seats sloping to prevent standing on them. 
 Building proportioned to size of school. 
 
 S. B. Wilson, 
 Of El Dorado County. 
 
 A water-closet with pit, or vault, and no means of drainage, should 
 have no door, but rather a screen, extending across the opening, and per- 
 haps around the corners of the building, far enough away to leave a 
 reasonably wide passageway. At the rear of the building, a ventilating 
 tube should lead from the pit up through the roof, projecting far 
 enough to carry away all gases. All this tends to free ventilation and 
 the admission of sunlight. 
 
 W. B. Philliber, 
 Of Lassen County. 
 
 The best water-closet for a country school, where a flush-tank and good 
 cesspool are not available, is a dry earth closet. The seat should be 
 built over a large box partly filled with loose earth and supplied with 
 stout wheels. The equipment of the building, which should be of a fair 
 size and well ventilated, would be the school ash can and an iron shovel. 
 The children should be instructed to spread a liberal shovelful of ashes 
 over the excrescence. 
 
 The contents of the box must be buried at least once every two weeks 
 and at each removal fresh earth should replace the old. The closet must 
 be swept frequently. This sort of a closet is sanitary and it will be 
 found to be remarkably free from odors. 
 
 Roy W. Cloud, 
 Of San Mateo County. 
 
 One of the most satisfactory toilets for rural schools is the self-evap- 
 orating, built on the same lines as the ordinary toilet, with the exception 
 of a flue extending from about ten feet above the roof to the vault below, 
 so arranged that most all the effete matter evaporates ; all that is neces- 
 sary to keep it perfectly sanitary is to put some disinfectant in the 
 vault about once a month. 
 
 Toilets for the boys and the girls should be as far apart as possible, 
 and if possible there should be a toilet for the smaller boys and one for 
 the larger. I believe that the unclean, unkept toilet is one of the great- 
 es1 sources of evil in the schools. 
 
 W. H. Greenhalgh, 
 Of Amador County. 
 
— 63 — 
 
 The matter of a suitable water-closet for rural schools is to-day one of 
 the most serious problems that present themselves to school people. The 
 fact that everywhere there is so little attention paid to the proper sani- 
 tary conditions, as well as an almost utter neglect of the coarse, immoral 
 tone that surrounds nearly all water-closets, demand from school officials 
 earnest thought and very close attention. For the betterment of the 
 present conditions, I would recommend that in all cases of old buildings 
 made unsightly by the use of knife and pencil that the structure be 
 destroyed entirely and in its place a new, substantial, well arranged 
 building be erected. This structure should be made of corrugated iron, 
 something to resist the small boy with the knife. Every year this 
 building should receive a coat of paint — the very effort to keep it fresh 
 and sightly would command respect. The old buildings, if not de- 
 stroyed, should be papered and painted; then plant trees and vines 
 around them so as to lend some degree of privacy. As for vaults, let 
 them be deep; and, to improve the sanitary conditions, let them receive 
 a liberal sprinkling of lime, ashes, or dust from the road, every week, or 
 better, each day. Add to these conditions regular, thoughtful super- 
 vision on the part of the teacher, and the serious difficulties surrounding 
 water-closets of the rural schools will fade aAvay. 
 
 L. W. Babcock, 
 Of Mendocino County. 
 
 The location, construction and care of the water-closet, in rural dis- 
 tricts, are matters that should receive much more consideration than is 
 usually given them by either boards of trustees or the public generally. 
 
 Too often this building is placed in some conspicuous part of the 
 school yard, the entrance in full view, not only of every child on the 
 grounds, but often also of passersby along the road. Not one thought of 
 the child's right to privacy has been shown. We expect the children to 
 grow up modest and pure, and yet we compel them, by our thoughtless- 
 ness and carelessness, to action that must blunt the sense of modesty of 
 the most refined among them. 
 
 The water-closet is often built to accommodate but two persons when it 
 should be built for ten. In some cases, on the boys' side of the yard, no 
 separate urinal has been constructed. Such conditions can but educate 
 in habits of filthiness. The smooth white walls are an invitation for the 
 expression of vulgar, and, oftentimes, vile thoughts. 
 
 Now for ideal conditions. Two buildings, one in each of the remotest 
 corners of the yard, of ample room to accommodate the children. 
 
 No expense should be considered too great in insuring privacy on the 
 way to and in the building. Walls covered with a preparation that will 
 resist knife, pencil, or chalk. On the boys' side, a urinal that will 
 absolutely serve the purpose for which it was constructed. 
 
— 64 — 
 
 With a little care, in most rural districts, arbors of vines could be 
 constructed leading to the closets, the closets themselves being screened 
 by a lattice covered with vines. 
 
 If, then, the closets are kept supplied with a generous amount of 
 chloride of lime, conditions would be more nearly ideal. 
 
 E. W. Lindsay, 
 Of Fresno County. 
 
 I advise the best possible type of water-closet obtainable. I prefer 
 toilets which flush automatically. However, I presume the discussion 
 is to apply to the really rural school, where only one schoolroom is 
 used and the water supply is insufficient. For such schools I advise 
 simple wooden structures built over deep cesspools. The house itself 
 should be made of lumber of the quality used in the schoolhouse. Its 
 frame should be made of timbers at least 3 by 4 inches in size, and 
 should be strongly put together, so that the pranks of the wind or of 
 boys will not wreck the building, and so that it can be moved if neces- 
 sary without injury to the structure. The boys' water-closet should be 
 provided with a urinal whose drain pipe is large enough to permit the 
 passage through it of a baseball. Small-sized drain pipes have rendered 
 most urinals worse than useless. The seats should be arranged so that 
 the seat board can be taken out. The building should be ventilated 
 scientifically, and the fumes from the cesspool should escape outside of 
 and not through the toilet-room. The building" should be well painted 
 and should be thoroughly sanded to a height of six feet. Each outhouse 
 should be protected by an L-shaped fence-shield six feet in height, so 
 that the entrance to the toilet-room shall be hidden from view. The 
 shield-fence should be well built and well painted. As soon as nature 
 can do the work, a fast growing creeping vine should be trained over 
 this shield-fence, thus making a beauty spot of what is usually an 
 eyesore. If there is an ample water supply, and waste must drain into 
 a cesspool, there should be separate cesspools for the toilets and for the 
 waste from other sources. The cesspool abomination is often due to the 
 oversupply of water from drinking waste and from washrooms. The 
 matter of water-closets ought to be determined by the superintendent 
 when he approves plans for schoolhouses. 
 
 Mark Keppel, 
 Of Los Angeles. 
 
 It is difficult to determine the kind of water-closets which should be 
 built at rural schools. That rural schools should have better accommo- 
 dations in this line all will agree. 
 
 If all rural schools were supplied with flowing water piped to the 
 grounds flush toilets and a septic tank should be used. Most of our rural 
 
— 65 — 
 
 schools, however, have no such water supply. In such districts the 
 water-closet becomes a much harder problem to solve. 
 
 The great defects of the rural water-closet are its size, appearance, and 
 the manner in which it is constructed. It is such an unsightly build- 
 ing, as a rule, that no one ever thinks of keeping up its appearance. 
 
 The water-closets at rural schools should be made much larger than 
 they now are. They should be artistically designed and finished inside 
 and out even better than the schoolhouse itself. The toilets within 
 should be at least modestly located. They should be well constructed 
 and properly adapted to the sizes of the children. 
 
 The vault is the important part of a non-flush toilet. It should be 
 located in such a way as not to interfere with the corners or foundation 
 of the building, should be of ample size and should extend some dis- 
 tance beyond the rear line of the foundation. As in the case of the 
 septic tank or vault, it should have concrete sides or walls, and a drain 
 pipe. The projecting surface should be closely covered or have a vent 
 pipe or chamber, of equal sectional area and air-tight in construction, 
 extending upward beyond the roof. The whole vault should be air-tight 
 in its construction, allowing no air to enter excepting that which passes 
 through the seats. Every opening or hole should have a cover so 
 hinged that when out of use it would, by the action of gravity, be closed. 
 A good supply of dry earth — loam or vegetable mold — should be kept 
 in the building and freely used when necessary. These vaults should 
 be cleaned out, through the projecting opening, every summer vacation 
 and the contents removed from the school grounds. 
 
 One great difficulty in keeping toilets clean arises from the boys' 
 urinal, or more properly from the absence of it. The want of a urinal 
 results in rendering the seats unfit for use, and this in turn leads to 
 devices which make the whole closet unfit for occupancy. Every water- 
 closet should have a urinal constructed out of lead or enameled steel, and 
 be connected by a lead pipe with the septic tank or the vault drain pipe. 
 
 Wherever the water supply of the school comes from, the urinal should 
 be flushed out every night and thoroughly washed once a week. 
 
 The bad condition of water-closets is not due to bad construction 
 alone. Much of it can be laid at the door of the school janitor, and not 
 a little belongs to the teacher. The janitor is often a janitress — a girl 
 or a woman. They always feel that the full round of duty is ful- 
 filled when the floor is swept and the desks dusted and the teachers are 
 often too modest to mention the closets. 
 
 The teachers should put the care of the closets on the first round of 
 daily duty and see that they are kept clean and fit for use. 
 
 James B. Davidson, 
 Of Marin County. 
 
 5 — SA 
 
66 
 
 HORIZONTAL BAR. 
 
 Every school ought to have a turning pole for the children. Here 
 is one at the St. Helena School, in Napa County. The posts should be 
 heavy, 4 by 6 or 6 by 6, with square holes at varying heights for the bar. 
 The bar should not be made of iron pipe, for that is slippery and 
 
 dangerous ; but of hickory wood, with square ends. It should be 6 feet 
 long, with a diameter of 1*4 inches. The ground beneath should be 
 spaded up now and then to keep it soft. If a foot of sawdust or coarse 
 manure is kept under it, so much the better. That will avoid broken 
 bones. 
 
67 
 
 THE VALUE AND NEED OF LARGER SCHOOL 
 PLAYGROUNDS. 
 
 By Dr. F. B. Dresslar, formerly of the University of California, now of the Uni- 
 versity of Alabama. The accompanying pictures are by the courtesy of the Playground 
 Association of America. 
 
 The instinct for play is one of the most urgent demands of child 
 nature ; and the proper equipment of playgrounds is a necessary duty 
 of all parents and school authorities. If children, and in fact, the young 
 of all the higher animals, were not endowed with the instinct for play, 
 were not led into a life of activity through the solicitations of this 
 natural impulse, normal development of their physical life would be 
 
 ,r We like to play. Don't you?" 
 
 impossible, and the most important phases of their educational progress 
 permanently hindered. 
 
 No gymnasium, however adequate its equipment,, can take the place 
 of ample playgrounds where children may play freely, undirected and 
 unhindered. The gymnasium, under the wise direction of one who 
 knows what is needed, is in the case of defectives of great importance. 
 But the necessary restrictions of a well-ordered gymnasium are in the 
 main uncongenial to the normal play-loving child. It is very rare 
 indeed to find the zest and spirit of play permeating the work of gym- 
 nastics for school children, even when a full supply of apparatus is at 
 hand. Those calisthenic exercises, which are prescribed in the lower 
 grades of our public schools, are too frequently carried out under a 
 silent protest and with the mark of the tedium of it in every movement 
 
— 68 — 
 
 and feature of the children. About all the fun derived from this work 
 is gotten by the mischievous boy, who makes it the occasion for clownish 
 contortions or roguish drives at some unsuspecting neighbor. 
 
 However, it is neither my purpose nor my desire to say aught against 
 physical culture as practiced in gymnastics, for I heartily approve of 
 this work when it is adjusted to its proper task ; but there is a desire 
 to emphasize the fact that free, unhindered and undirected plays are 
 more potent as exercises for normal children than any prescribed work- 
 fun ever devised. Children who from the first have had proper oppor- 
 tunities for play need very little or no direction in their games ; but it 
 
 "Barrels of Fun." A swimming pool in Chicago, with sand court ©n the margin. 
 What a glorious thing this would be, attached to any big California school! Cost 
 too much? Oh, no. It is impossible to spend too much on the children. 
 
 lias been found that those who have been prevented from engaging 
 regularly in free open-air games do need direction when they are later 
 given access to playgrounds. They seem not to know what to do. 
 They have acquired no game lore from their fellows, and hence have to 
 1)0 taught by some one. Some, because of the early loss of opportunity, 
 lose the desire to play, and take to bullying. For these reasons super- 
 vision is needed. Mr. Lee of the Boston Civic League says, "The most 
 striking fact, and the one of cardinal importance in the whole play- 
 ground question, is, that apart from skating, our unsupervised city 
 playgrounds are apt to be mere disorganized running about — different 
 in no respect from what the boys are doing in the neighboring street — 
 varied by shooting craps and other gambling games. In short, the 
 unsupervised city playground has so far not been a success ; and — what 
 is especially surprising — it is the playground in the crowded districts. 
 
— 69 — 
 
 where one would expect them to be of the greatest value, that have been 
 least successful." (See, Constructive and Preventive Philanthropy, 
 by Joseph Lee; page 170. MacMillan.) 
 
 Such an anomalous condition as this seems to me to illustrate very 
 forcibly what loss of proper play facilities will lead to ; and such experi- 
 ences should urge us to strive more strenuously for practical relief. 
 This lack of play-initiative on the part of city children has been noticed 
 in connection with practically all of the municipal playgrounds thus 
 far established. On this point the Committee on Permanent Vacation 
 
 This is what California children should have — large playgrounds, so that they can run 
 and play real games out of doors, in the sun and the air. Contrast this ground 
 with the cramped city lot, covered with huddled multitudes of repressed children. 
 
 Schools and Playgrounds for Chicago said: "Perhaps it is well to 
 explain that one of the most noticeable characteristics of all children is 
 the entire lack of initiative in play. It is for this reason that custodians 
 are necessary in order to endeavor to lead them into such play as they 
 can develop themselves, to teach them, in short, what the child of the 
 village and the country seems to know by instinct — to depend upon 
 himself for play, to turn to materials about him to furnish him with 
 toys and means of amusing himself. That the children very quickly 
 respond to suggestions was rather amusingly shown in the fact that 
 when they were being told to bring in horseshoes to play quoits a more 
 than sufficient number was furnished by them, and they all preferred 
 to play with these rather than with regular quoits." 
 
— 70 — 
 
 That children should not know how to play because they have had 
 no opportunity to learn is more than pathetic. It is downright civic 
 dishonor. 
 
 The ardent normal desire for fun of a wholesome sort is an unfailing 
 symptom of vitality. Individuals as well as nations are in danger of 
 decadence when they stifle and starve this inborn and essential yearn- 
 ing. As a counteracting or corrective impulse to the urgent sort of life 
 Americans are gradually fastening upon themselves, there should be 
 developed in our boys a permanent craving for healthful outdoor exer- 
 cises; and for the older ones there should be preached the gospel of 
 
 Beautiful tennis courts at Hartford, Connecticut. 
 
 in California. 
 
 A suggestion for large schools 
 
 fun. In our intense desire for the education of our children we are 
 likely to forget that our chief duty consists in furnishing natural and 
 wholesome opportunities and then of keeping out of the way. We are 
 in these latter days in danger of giving too much theoretical and 
 manufactured direction. 
 
 It seems to be a very difficult matter to get parents to realize how 
 important to the comfort, pleasure, and welfare of the children are large 
 and well-situated school grounds. They can readily see that cattle and 
 horses will not thrive and remain healthy when kept in small inclosures, 
 but somehow they do not extend the same consideration to their chil- 
 dren. Hundreds of towns and villages, and even many larger cities, 
 could have large school grounds well located instead of cramped quar- 
 ters in the midst of noise and dust if the people could be persuaded that 
 
the hardship that would be imposed ou children in walking a longer 
 distance to school is far less serious than that of being housed in build- 
 ings situated on small lots hemmed in by other buildings and immersed 
 in foul air, much dust, and the din of the hurrying multitudes. The 
 small children in the primary classes could be accommodated closer in 
 with some show of reason, but those in the intermediate classes and high 
 schools would be almost invariably better and more rationally cared 
 for. even at the expense of a long walk, if upon arrival at the school- 
 house they had before them a day's work uninterrupted by outside life, 
 and a purer atmosphere from every point of view. 
 
 An outdoor gymnasium in Chicago. Under the clear skies of California a gymnasium 
 is better outdoors than in. Make it strong and rough, so that the elements nor 
 hard usage can seriously damage it. It is good to have such things as this in a 
 sheltered spate on a school ground, where the children can climb and jump and 
 swing. It gives them more courage and strength, deeper lungs, better muscles. 
 Observe the poor physical condition of the boys in the front row above. Whose 
 fault is it? 
 
 In addition to the physical well-being resulting from open-air sports, 
 it must never be forgotten that the playground furnishes a most pro- 
 ficient exercise for that sense of justice, fair play, and unselfishness 
 absolutely necessary in any worthy character. It is my observation 
 that there is here afforded a very considerable part of that drill in 
 democratic ways of thinking and acting essential to the proper training 
 of every American boy. Class distinctions on the playground grow out 
 of cleverness and courage, not the financial or social standine; of a bov's 
 
— 72 — 
 
 father. There the guiding spirit is he who inspires fair play and suc- 
 ceeds best under the limitations thus agreed upon. Then, too, "team 
 work" is vital in this country, and those who participate in the pre- 
 vailing games at school are early impressed with the fact that if a 
 team is to be successful there must be cooperation and unified action. 
 Here, as elsewhere, unequal endowments and skill lead to inequality 
 of poAver : but perhaps under no other condition do boys of the same age 
 meet on more common ground than they do when physical prowess and 
 endurance represent the talents in question. Those boys who are 
 mentally handicapped, or those who have been deprived of the proper 
 early advantages, and consequently make an inferior showing in their 
 studies, on the playground have a more equal opportunity to shine 
 before their fellows and win that stimulating recognition which brings 
 
 Here is a larger and more ambitious outdoor gymnasium in the city of New York. 
 What a fine adjunct a spacious enclosure like this would be to any large city 
 school. How it would add to the strength and ability of future citizens. 
 
 a feeling of worth and higher self-respect. The leveling process here, 
 as in all kinds of education, is not due to the degradation of those 
 above, but to the elevation of those below. 
 
 A large and well-equipped playground with many tennis courts, hand- 
 ball courts, baseball diamonds, running tracks, and opportunities for 
 all sorts of well-established field games is a necessary and a vital equip- 
 ment for the natural and normal education of our children. For every 
 thousand children ten acres of playground is not too much. No trainer 
 of horses would be satisfied with even this relative amount of space. 
 
— 73 — 
 
 You say "this is impossible in cities." Then transport all the chil- 
 dren above the fourth grade into the country and back each day, free 
 of charge, and see that it is made possible. One hour each day, when- 
 ever the weather permits, should be spent at play, and all children to 
 take part as in their lesson work. Of course, I know the objection will 
 be made immediately that this is a visionary and impossible scheme. I 
 reply that child nature and its nurture demand nothing less, and all 
 objections must be set over against our values of children. No normal 
 child has ever existed who did not crave opportunity for free play, 
 and no child to whom it is denied will ever grow into the fullness of 
 his normal possibility. If Groos is right when he says ' ' childhood is for 
 play, ' ' then this emphasis is not only just, but vitally necessary. 
 
 The other day some high school lads of California were warned by 
 a board of education to keep away from cigar stores and billiard halls 
 during intermissions, for it was urged that they would certainly acquire 
 bad habits in such places. The leader retorted by saying : "Where shall 
 we go? You give us no playground, we are not allowed any freedom 
 in the schoolhouse, and we are in serious need of some unhampered fun 
 and fellowship with each other. Tell lis of a better place. ' ' The school 
 authorities felt for the first time, I think, something of the significance 
 of this almost inhuman treatment of vigorous boyhood in our cities. 
 If they had dared to answer honestly, they would have been obliged 
 to say : " It is the people 's fault, not yours. ' ' 
 
 I therefore insist that if you call this plan for providing larger 
 grounds visionary and impossible you do so because you undervalue our 
 children. Play is not simply for fun and health; it is demanded by 
 nature as the most natural and helpful process looking toward physical 
 and spiritual enlargement and unification. 
 
 But I am sure Mr. Barnes of Kansas hit the nail on the head when 
 he said: "I long ago discovered that the real reason why they (school 
 grounds) are not made more attractive is their limited area. Our peo- 
 ple in the West, notwithstanding the lovv value of land, brought with them 
 the idea that a quarter-acre or half -acre was enough land to waste ( ?) 
 around a schoolhouse. Outdoor exercise is an essential part of an 
 education. * * * In the West, where the land is cheap, we should 
 have taken five acres for grounds (make it ten) about each schoolhouse." 
 
 We have not yet developed the habit, as have the English people, of 
 making due provision for sports a necessary part of the equipment of 
 even our secondary schools. And it will require much effort on the 
 part of those who appreciate the national significance of sports to 
 awaken the public mind to a realization of their importance. In making 
 this assertion I am not unmindful of the great whoop-and-hurrah of 
 modern college athletics. But it must be remembered that there are 
 more than one hundred and fifty children in the elementary schools, 
 
where there is one young person in college. Besides, it should not be 
 forgotten that even in colleges usually not one student in ten takes any 
 active and direct part in college athletics. The "rooters" are much 
 more numerous than the runners. 
 
 It is to be feared that many of our school boards would conclude that 
 the authorities of Eton College are poor business managers, were they 
 to wander over the forty-acre cricket field of that famous English public 
 school, and see the opportunity for hundreds of boys to play simul- 
 taneously. But against such a possible conclusion could be marshaled 
 the testimony and enthusiasm of the rulers of England. Wellington's 
 well known remark that Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton 
 expresses the belief in the value of games held by most Britishers. 
 Moreover, our school boards might get a new idea of the practical if 
 they knew and considered the fact that, in order to get a place in this 
 school for his boy, a father must make an application years in advance 
 of the date when he expects his son to enter. Of course, there is no 
 desire to make it appear that this long waiting list is due alone to the 
 opportunities offered for athletics, but Eton's record in this particular 
 is no small element in her great popularity. The large majority of the 
 masters serving in the great public schools of England owe their posi- 
 tions to their athletic cleverness as well as to their attainments in lines 
 of scholarship. 
 
 There was a time in the development of our country, as has been 
 said, when almost every village and town had in immediate proximity 
 ' ' commons, " " fields, ' ' or vacant lots where boys met, and where ' ' three 
 old cat,'" 'town ball," "bull pen," and many other spunk-begetting 
 games were engaged in ; but the conditions have changed, until in most 
 of our cities nothing remains worthy of the name of a playing field. 
 
 From a study of the measurements made by the principals of the 
 various schools of San Francisco, as they existed before the fire, I have 
 found that the average amount of playground furnished per child in 
 that city was 17.3 square feet. This means that if all united into one 
 common ground, and all of the children had attempted to play on it 
 at the same time, they would each have had less room than all author- 
 ities agree should be furnished per pupil inside a schoolroom. A closer 
 study of the data thus secured reveals the fact that 91 per cent of all 
 the children then in the San Francisco schools had access to play- 
 grounds, which, if combined, would have allowed but 14.5 square feet of 
 space to each child. The same degree of crowding in a schoolroom 24 by 
 32 would allow an average attendance of fifty-three children; a condi- 
 tion which ought not to be tolerated in any intelligent community. 
 The last statements are made possible by reason of the fact that large 
 schools in the most populous districts had less space to devote to play- 
 
— 75 — 
 
 grounds than the smaller outlying schools. There was here then not 
 only the suggestion of continued encroachment, but also the plain 
 truth that those children who have the least opportunity for outdoor 
 sports at home are also those who are denied it most effectually at 
 school. The figures given, while actually stating the average allowance 
 of space to each pupil, exaggerated the usefulness of such grounds ; for 
 the measurements included not only the playgrounds proper, but all 
 of the space in the school lots outside of the buildings. It must be held 
 in mind, therefore, that a considerable amount of this space represented 
 narrow passageways and unused corners where children can not play 
 with any degree of earnestness. These facts concerning conditions as 
 they existed in San Francisco have been presented not for the purpose 
 of finding fault, but for the sake of illustration. It is my impression 
 that San Francisco was better off in this particular than most cities of 
 her class in our country. And, although she made a very sorry showing 
 before the fire, the immediate future will probably see worse conditions. 
 
 Recently the writer tried his best to join unreservedly into the sports 
 of some school boys who were eagerly trying to have fun in a school lot 
 of the prevailing size ; but he soon found his attention so distracted with 
 balls flying in all directions and often in such close proximity to his 
 head that he could not develop enough interest in his part of the game to 
 do it with any zest. And he noticed that most of the boys played in a 
 guarded way. The fact is, had they allowed themselves any sort of 
 abandon, neighboring windows and many small boys would have suf- 
 fered, and then the teachers would have stopped the game. 
 
 For the most part, these boys were unconscious of what they were 
 missing, for they had never had room to let themselves out. The street 
 or some unwholesome alleyway had furnished them their only play- 
 ground, and consequently their play had never been free, easy, and 
 complete. At many schools nowadays, the boys are permitted to use in 
 the school grounds no other ball than the soft gas ones originally made 
 for the nursery. Neither are they allowed the use of a bat with which 
 to strike the ball, but must content themselves by striking it with their 
 half -closed hands. Not long since I watched a game of baseball played 
 in this way, and, during my observation, the ball was not handed (I was 
 about to say batted) at any time more than forty feet from the striker, 
 despite the fact that many supposedly vigorous hits were made. As I 
 looked on, I could not help wondering how much more those boys would 
 love their school, and how much greater would be their sense of personal 
 power, could they be allowed to scatter out properly on a level turf, and 
 with a shapely ash club do their unhindered best to knock the very cover 
 off a real boy 's ball. 
 
 I venture to say that no normal boy can ever reach his highest and 
 most fortunate development whose life is denied the invigorating stim- 
 
— 76 — 
 
 ulus and corrective guidance of the playing fields and the associations 
 of his fellow playmates. Parents and teachers need to look upon play 
 as nature's exalted method of preparing body and soul to enter upon the 
 sterner duties of life without fear, but with faith and eagerness. All 
 this football and baseball and tennis and cricket and hunting, so dear 
 to the hearts of our youth, are unmistakable blessings, and the only 
 sorrow to me about it all is that we are too neglectful of the great 
 majority, and put too much stress on the overtraining of a few. Have 
 you heard that digging in the garden is better exercise for youth than 
 tennis or football? Then know that such a statement emanates from 
 one who has lost the joy of youth, and whose wisdom is thereby limited 
 to a partial view of life as it really exists. All good things can be 
 endangered by intemperance. But we are told that ''wisdom resteth 
 in the heart of him who hath understanding. ' ' No one can understand 
 a boy and direct him wisely who forgets what fun is, or who would 
 make this world all over to toil and serious demeanor. 
 
 The heartful and vigorous development of the basal and fundamental 
 motor power is of great value to the future health of our young people, 
 and there is nothing that will give us poise and steadiness of control if 
 back of it all there are flabby, undeveloped muscles, and the hearts of 
 weaklings. You can not cure children of the fidgets or give them a safe 
 and sane grip on themselves unless you base your training on the 
 strength and steadiness which comes from the proper development of 
 the body. 
 
 It is but a reasonable service for us to make better provisions for 
 our children's education than we received at the hands of our fathers. 
 Anything short of this would be a necessary failure. A community 
 dominated with any other notion will in the long run prove an unsafe 
 dwelling place. If, as Mr. Carnegie has said, "an honest day's work 
 well performed, is not a bad sort of prayer," then wholesome and life- 
 giving recreation after toil is not a bad sort of thanksgiving. 
 
 To the Busy Man: 
 
 Have you no time to visit your school? 
 
 But you owe that to the future. You can afford to put aside such playthings 
 as stores, factories, and farms for a day to go and assure yourself that a 
 more important matter — the training of the children of your neighborhood — is 
 in good condition. Indifference on the part of the people makes for a slovenly, 
 neglected school. 
 
77 
 
 TO IMPROVE THE NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOL. 
 
 By Edward Hyatt. 
 
 Every working superintendent knows a dozen schools or more where 
 the growing children of the neighborhood are steeped in slovenliness, 
 filth, and immorality during a large part of their waking hours. 
 
 Now there's a dragon worth our fighting — slovenliness, filth, and 
 immorality are foes to progress, to civilization. Do they seem like 
 strong words to apply to our beloved schools ? 
 
 But look ! Can 't you put your finger on a schoolhouse that is a fright, 
 unpainted, desolate, a blot on the landscape, fences smashed, windows 
 broken, stove-pipe wabbly? Well, that's slovenliness, and it's bad 
 because it tends to make the men of the future satisfied with such con- 
 ditions. 
 
 And look ! Don 't you know schoolhouses in your bailiwick where the 
 transoms are whiskered with cobwebs, the windows plastered with fly- 
 specks ? Where the floors have not been scrubbed for a year, the wood- 
 work not washed for five years, the desks cleaned and varnished, never ? 
 That's filth, and it's bad because it tends to make slatterns and poor 
 housekeepers of the girls who breathe that atmosphere. 
 
 And look once more ! Don 't you know some school water-closet that 
 you are ashamed to enter ? Where the floors are wet and filthy, the air 
 pollution, the walls putrid with every obscene device that can be made 
 with knife and pencil and chalk ? That's immorality. It's bad, bad for 
 the modesty and the morals of the little children who must frequent 
 them. 
 
 Would you dismiss all this with a shrug, as something hallowed by 
 time and endeared by tradition as a necessary feature of the American 
 rural school ? 
 
 But it isn't a necessary feature. People don't want their children 
 raised in such conditions. They will support the man who gets out and 
 bangs away earnestly at the solar plexus of this dragon. A superin- 
 tendent can do the world more good by going out among these actual 
 abuses in his schools than he can by sitting at his desk writing letters. 
 He is, or ought to be, too valuable a man to be cooped in an office. 
 Typewriters are only worth twenty or thirty dollars a month. 
 
 To go directly to the heart of the matter, how shall a school improve 
 its bad condition? Of course, when just the right man gets to be the 
 leading trustee, and stays so for a term of years, the thing adjusts itself 
 without any trouble to any one else. But there are not enough of "just 
 the right men" to go around — men of intelligence and determination 
 who have time and energy to spare for the school. 
 
And I'm not sure, even if there -were enough such men. that that 
 would be the best solution of the difficulty. It is worth while, if we can 
 so work around as to have the improvement come from the heart of the 
 people of the district rather than from one man. It is not well for the 
 people to put in a trustee and then wash their hands of the whole 
 business. Indifference is worse than active crime. For the whole 
 neighborhood to think about school improvement and learn about it 
 and do some of it is far better than for one strong man to do a great 
 deal more in a shorter time amid the indifference, or perhaps the oppo- 
 sition, of the others. That strong man will do a better thing, a more 
 lasting thing, to work up public sentiment for the improvement of his 
 
 BEFORE IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 Isn't this desolation and hopelessness? Look at the closets! What kind of children 
 would you expect to raise in such a place as this? 
 
 school, to get everybody interested in it, to let everybody have a hand 
 in it. Man is a gregarious animal — he likes to do what the others are 
 doing — a popular enthusiasm has wonderful power in doing work and 
 in overcoming obstacles. There is no limit to what may be accomplished 
 by it. Moreover, when you stir up a healthy public sentiment among 
 the people, it lasts — there is always some one among children and grown 
 folks to insist on things being kept up to the standard, always some one 
 who doesn 't want things to drop back, always plenty of people interested 
 and watching the school property afterward. It is accounted more 
 skillful, more powerful, more worthy of human ingenuity, to harness 
 the wind or the cloud or the lightning when we have great loads to 
 lift, rather than to tug at them with our own unassisted strength. 
 Hercules was a foolish fellow when he took the Augean stable job not 
 
— 79 — 
 
 to talk it up among all his neighbors and have some help — and the 
 stables wouldn't have been dirty so quick in future. 
 
 Well, you see my idea. Go out among the people and talk it up. 
 Have public meetings. Send out circular letters. Get the interest and 
 the help of the neighborhood leaders. Appoint a day for a grand Im- 
 provement Bee at the schoolhouse, to be attended and taken part in by 
 all the people and all the children of the district. 
 
 Get a committee of the thriftiest and most energetic men of the 
 neighborhood to see what is wrong with the grounds, to determine how 
 to remedy it and to remedy it. The men and boys can bring teams and 
 plows and scrapers and wagons — and picks and shovels, hammers and 
 
 AFTER IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 This is the same schoolhouse, but it has been born again. Who will say that these 
 improved outward conditions will not make inward changes in the children who 
 must frequent these grounds? 
 
 nails. Probably there will be a carpenter and a painter and a paper 
 hanger among them. Certainly the school can afford some money to 
 buy materials. Surely people would be at hand pleased and proud to 
 donate trees, shrubs, flowers, seeds. "What a transformation could be 
 wrought by a dozen or a score of willing workers in a day! Fences 
 built or straightened up, repaired, painted. Trees pruned, replaced, 
 cultivated. Grounds graded, tennis court or croquet ground laid out. 
 Foul outhouses torn away and replaced by new, clean, and wholesome 
 ones. Walls papered, desks stained and varnished, ceilings calcimined. 
 Steps repaired, hitching posts put in. A flagstaff put up and a fine flag 
 floated to the breeze. Window panes put in, weeds chopped down, trash 
 
— 80 — 
 
 gathered and burned. Not all of these in one year, perhaps, but some 
 of them. 
 
 And similarly have a committee of the best housewives of the district, 
 and see if they don't have some ideas about the interior of the school- 
 house that they can express with cogency and effect. They can come 
 with their daughters and hired girls, and soap, hot water, scrubbing 
 brushes, and brooms — and what a change in one day will come o'er the 
 spirit of that doleful schoolroom ! Cleanliness is next to godliness. It 
 is positively criminal to allow the waking hours of childhood to be 
 spent mid dirt, untidiness, filthy neglect. 
 
 Probably the occasion would be graced by a picnic dinner, and the 
 
 GOOD SCHOOL CONDITIONS. 
 
 This is a photograph of a California school, with orderly, attentive children, tasteful 
 decorations, and well-kept equipment. Which is the better atmosphere for young 
 people to breathe? 
 
 children would have a program, and the minister or the trustee or the 
 teacher or the solid farmer would give a talk. It could be made a great 
 day in the history of the district. The people would go home pleased 
 and proud — nothing pleases people better than to do some self-sacri- 
 ficing thing and to be appreciated for it. Even if they have to be 
 dragged into it, they will be delighted over it afterward. And all the 
 people will feel a sense of proprietorship in that school afterward, and 
 will be easier to rouse for a similar occasion next year. They will watch 
 the school and raise a row about it if the new closets are not cared for 
 or the trees are allowed to die or the house is allowed to get dirty. There 
 will be a public spirit behind the trustees and teacher that will make 
 
— SI — 
 
 them more active and vigilant than before. Every year the people could 
 meet in this way. Every year they would read more, observe more, talk 
 more about the care and adornment of school property. Every year 
 they would add some neAV feature and bring the old ones up to fine 
 condition. And what would be the natural result, sure and certain? 
 
 Wouldn 't that school premises be famous all over the country ? Indeed 
 it would. Travelers would look at it with admiration. It would have 
 the best natural situation afforded by the district, a gentle slope over- 
 looking the country round. Tall trees standing in groups around the 
 
 POOR SCHOOL CONDITIONS. 
 
 Another school, with broken blackboard, ragged blinds, sagging stovepipe, general 
 disorder. See the teacher struggling for attention, and how much attention 
 she gets! 
 
 outside boundary, making large shaded areas for the quieter games of 
 the children and for social gathering of the neighborhood — nothing is so 
 fine as the grateful shade of big trees — it is a benediction to all who come 
 that way. These trees are grouped to conceal unsightly things and yet 
 to let the finest and widest prospects show through. Strong benches and 
 seats are built among the trees, and perhaps there is a swing or two. 
 Within the lines of trees are clumps of roses and lilacs — and probably a 
 garden of showy annuals in full bloom, all divided off in little beds and 
 each bed cared for by one of the children. One corner of the school- 
 house is sheltered by a honeysuckle or jessamine, or a moon-vine has 
 6— SA 
 
— 82 — 
 
 climbed to the gable. A neat fence or hedge or border is in front, and 
 perhaps the entrance to the grounds is over a rustic bridge across a 
 stream of water. Somewhere there is a shed for horses, and a long row 
 of hitching posts and a water trough — with shade near by. 
 
 Why, this will be the center of the social life of the community — 
 every picnic from far and near will be there — Fourth of July, "Washing- 
 ton 's Birthday, big meetings of the people will gather there — it will be 
 the rural park for all to go and recreate themselves. Passers-by will 
 say: "This must be a good neighborhood. I'd like to live here. I 
 wonder what 's the price of land ? ' ' And in the course of twenty years 
 what would be the effect of all this on the people? Would it not have 
 a strong tendency to improve the homes of the neighborhood? Would 
 not a superior lot of young folks be growing up and passing out into 
 the community? Would not these young people go away to distant 
 lands and leaven many a sodden lump? 
 
 Could not a good teacher do better work with children in such sur- 
 roundings as these, rather than mid poverty, desolation, and dirt? 
 Would it not be a good thing from every point of view ? Could any one 
 be the worse for such an effort in the district ? It could be worked up 
 and managed in a neighborhood perhaps by a teacher or a trustee or a 
 citizen; but the one, par excellence, to do it is your county superin- 
 tendent. His are the fingers closest to the pulse of the schools. He 
 can press the button in more ways than any one else. He knows the 
 whole country, he can use the printing press, he is listened to with 
 attention, the newspapers help him. He has a great opportunity. Why 
 shouldn't a vigorous superintendent appoint a day for school improve- 
 ment all over his county, and use all his energy, his knowledge of human 
 nature, his friends in making it go? His official visits can be made a 
 powerful auxiliary. A regular, formal inspection of school property 
 with results made known to teachers, pupils, and people; little talks to 
 schools and school officers; inquiries and comments, praise and disap- 
 proval ; these things will make it go ! 
 
 Oh, yes ; in some districts you 'd accomplish nothing, perhaps, because 
 some chronic wet-blanket lives there, or some soured political friend 
 teaches there. But what of that? Do you want the earth? Wouldn't 
 it be reward enough to see even one ugly, desolate, God-forsaken school 
 blossom out into something of grace? To see even one tight-fisted, 
 narrow-minded community grow, willing to give its children pictures 
 and shade trees? Well, you '11 do more than that. You '11 see your worst 
 schools come up to the line as years go on, and your best ones forge 
 ahead as models of taste and beauty. You'll see filth and indecency 
 becoming rarer, and better ideas of architecture and landscape garden- 
 ing growing up among the people. And you'll know more yourself. 
 And the world will be a little better for your efforts. 
 
— S3 
 
 A BEAUTIFUL SCHOOL. 
 
 The house shown in the picture is located at Sierra Madre, in Los 
 Angeles County. It is a one-story five-room house, situated on the 
 slope of a hill overlooking the San Gabriel Valley and with the Sierra 
 Madre Mountains looking in at its north windows. 
 
 The five rooms are each 27 by 32 feet, inside dimensions, and form 
 an E, with the fifth room in the middle. The five rooms open on to a 
 
 court, with a cement floor and a fountain in the center and a beamed 
 structure overhead. The beams are being covered with growing vines 
 and in a short time the school will pass through a court fairly well 
 shaded by the vines. Each of the five rooms has a separateness and 
 independence that is delightful, and yet each dismisses its children into 
 one general assembly, thus making the yard supervision problem an 
 easy one. 
 
 The windows are shaded by Venetian blinds. This house is considered 
 one of the model schoolhouses of Los Angeles County. 
 
84 — 
 
 THE BEST SCHOOL IN MARIN COUNTY. 
 
 Superintendent Jas. B. Davidson sends a picture and floor plan of 
 the Tamalpais Park School, with the following remarks : 
 
 It is a good, substantial building of eight rooms. Only four of the 
 
 rtlLL YALLty CAl. 
 >A^> rRA/lCI5<-0 - • • • 
 
 rooms will be built, furnished and equipped at present. The remainder 
 will follow as soon as increase of population demands. The rooms are 
 large, commodious and well lighted, heated and ventilated. Each room 
 has, as part of its construction, a large wardrobe and a bookcase. The 
 
— 85 — 
 
 building is one-story, with an eight-foot basement, hence all the rooms 
 are on the same floor. The toilet is located on either side of the shorter 
 hall, opposite the teachers' rooms. It is well constructed and well ven- 
 tilated to the roof and the untrammeled air beyond. It will be, when 
 completed, the best building in the county in point of convenience and 
 condition affecting the well-being of its inmates. 
 
 MONTEREY COUNTY. 
 
 Superintendent Duncan Stirling sends this picture of the Old and 
 the New ideas of school architecture in Soledad District. Observe the 
 difference in the arrangeinent of windows and the insufficient lighting 
 of the old building. Note that Architect Weeks was not afraid of a 
 blank wall in the handsome new Mission building. This book will have 
 been printed in vain if any one who reads it ever permits a schoolhouse 
 to be built in his district with windows scattered on all four sides or 
 even three sides of the schoolroom. A blank wall is beautiful when it 
 is necessarv. 
 
— S6 — 
 
 FRESNO COUNTY. 
 
 This is a picture of a school of different type — a Parental School, in 
 the city of Fresno. It is built as a home and a detention place as well 
 as a school. The teacher and his family live in it, and it contains one 
 or two strong-rooms with iron barred windows in case of need. It cost 
 about $10,000. It is provided with several acres of land for gardening 
 and farming purposes. It would be a good plan to extend the scope of 
 this school to include the whole county. It is a most interesting and 
 useful enterprise — profitable, too — saves money on jails ! 
 
 Fresno Parental School. 
 
 Of course this school is doing its greatest good when it is nearly or 
 quite empty. When all its inmates have been so brought up to grade in 
 their studies and so improved in moral attitude that they can be put into 
 the regular classes again, conditions are ideal. But right there is where 
 the narrow man, the unthinking man, will register his kick, raising a 
 mighty uproar about maintaining a school when he can hardly see the 
 pupils. 
 
 But remember that if this school saved only one boy from a criminal 
 career, that alone would more than pay the whole cost of the building 
 to the people ! 
 
— S7 
 
 THE KERN COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL. 
 
 This is a view of a very fine example of the modern type of school 
 building — the County High School at Bakersfield, Kern County. It 
 was sent by Superintendent R. L. Stockton. The schoolhouse is built 
 of white sand bricks. 
 
 How different this, from the traditional schoolhouse, with tall towers 
 and equidistant windows. 
 
 It is better to put money into classrooms and equipment than into 
 great, useless towers. A schoolhouse is sometimes a monument to a 
 prominent trustee or a boom for the town rather than a convenient, 
 healthful place for children to live in and to study in. Ornamental 
 chimneys, turrets, spires and minarets are a danger when built of heavy 
 masonry. 
 
 To the Janitor: 
 
 How do your school grounds look to-day? They SHOULD look as if some- 
 body cared for them. The woodpile doesn't look prosperous when distributed 
 all over the front yard. Sticks, weeds, old papers, tin cans, broken boxes, 
 brickbats are not cheerful or decorative in general effect on a school ground. 
 
A SPLENDID GRAMMAR SCHOOL IN SAN DIEGO. 
 
 Superintendent Duncan McKinnon furnishes the following pictures and descriptions 
 of a twenty-roomed school building in San Diego. 
 
 The Board of Education of San Diego has just completed for the sum 
 of $87,000.00 a schoolhouse, designed by John C. Austin, Los Angeles, 
 California, that in all its appointments, in their opinion, is as near 
 perfection as it is possible to build. 
 
 to be >*> x-t-o v/rrn x.'z^ -rs* .rev I-"..-. . ' wi*0 I 
 
 CVKtt 
 
 MLi- v^naoDBit gj-ati td pse. '^itrn-t 
 
 A3 3«C**/rt AT<D T*> EXTEnT) r"a^« TCP - 
 
 Of vjukscct tc cwuna 
 
 for d-c»3ET3 irt wAanaorr-a ske anravr 
 
 i •■; :•" 
 
 First-floor plan, Sun Diego Grammar School. 
 
 It is situated on a block of ground, at the corner of Twelfth and E 
 streets. It is classical in design, the Doric order of architecture having 
 been used. All of the walls are of either brick or concrete. The base- 
 ment story is built entirely of reenforced concrete, and all of the walls 
 above that point are faced up with pressed brick of a light cream color 
 and artificial stone of a deep buff. 
 
 All of the stairways on the interior of the building are of reenforced 
 concrete, the only wood that is used in connection with the stairway 
 being the hand rail. The first story porch floor and the balcony on the 
 
— 89 — 
 
 second story are of reenforeed concrete. The rooms containing all of 
 the machinery and heaters are absolutely fireproof, the walls and ceil- 
 ings beina' of reenforeed concrete. 
 
 Front view, San Dieg'O Grammar School. 
 
 Rear view. San Diego Grammar School. 
 
— 90 — 
 
 The building contains twenty classrooms, each classroom being 24 feet 
 by 32 feet in the clear. There is an assembly room capable of seating 
 seven hundred people, in addition to those that can be accommodated 
 on the stage. On each side of the stage there is a dressing room acces- 
 sible from the corridors and from the stage. There are rest rooms and 
 teachers' rooms on first and second stories, also lavatories. In the base- 
 ment (which is not really a basement, as it is three feet above the 
 natural ground in the rear of the building and only extends into the 
 ground two feet in the front) on the southeast corner of the building 
 there is a large kindergarten room complete in itself, having toilet 
 accommodations especially adapted for this branch of the school work. 
 
 In addition to the kindergarten in the basement there is a manual 
 training room, domestic science room, separate lunch rooms for girls and 
 boys, lavatories for girls and lavatories for boys, janitor's room, two 
 bicycle rooms, engine and boiler rooms, fresh air rooms and fan room. 
 All of the stalls for toilets and urinals are of selected pink Tennessee 
 marble. The wash basins and drinking fountains are of cast iron with 
 porcelain linings. 
 
 The blackboards are of real slate one quarter of an inch thick. 
 
 The heating is by an indirect steam system — using distillate as a 
 fuel. The classrooms are kept at a uniform temperature of seventy 
 degrees b} r an automatic heat-regulating device. The fan driven by a 
 five-horsepower motor completely changes the air in each room every 
 eight minutes. 
 
 DONT FORGET THE FLAG. 
 
 Let us not forget that the laws of California require the United States 
 flag to be displayed at every schoolhouse every day. A flagstaff in 
 the yard is easier to manage and is better for ceremonies and public 
 occasions than one on the top of the building. The summit of the build- 
 ing is a more impressive location as seen from a distance, perhaps ; but 
 the flagstaff racks the building in a gale and the roofs are often injured 
 by people's tramping over them while adjusting the flag. 
 
 Of course, we will use common sense in complying with the statute 
 above referred to. The law does not expect the flag to be kept out 
 night and day, nor to be allowed to whip itself to rags in a storm. A 
 ceremonial hoisting and lowering of the flag, intelligently and rever- 
 ently done, complies with the spirit of the law better than, to fly it at 
 the beginning of the term and then never look at it again -until it Avears 
 out. 
 
— 91 — 
 
 A FIVE-ROOMED SCHOOL IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY. 
 
 From Superintendent Mark Keppel. 
 
 The building shown here is the Sixth Street School at Glendale. The 
 house contains five rooms, all on one floor, and arranged for massing 
 or separating the children when passing. Two rooms occupy each end, 
 
 one occupies the center, and the office and library room oppose the room 
 in the center. 
 
 The center room, which faces the north, has unilateral lighting, the 
 other rooms are lighted from rear and left. This five-room house is the 
 pride of its patrons and one of the show schoolhouses of Los Angeles 
 County. It is as good as the five-room house at Sierra Madre, and is 
 of a different type. 
 
 A community should not be satisfied with a schoolhouse as good as 
 the homes of the district— it should be better than the homes, so that the 
 homes may have an example and a model for future improvement. A 
 silent example exerts a wonderful influence. 
 
92 
 
 A RURAL HIGH SCHOOL IN THE NORTH. 
 
 This fine building is in the midst of a lovely orange grove. Ripe 
 fruit can be seen through the windows and fragrant blossoms perfume 
 
 the breezes that blow over the studious youngsters. Although it is a 
 two-story building, it is ingeniously arranged to avoid any long flight 
 of stairs. It is built of stone and brick. It is the county high school at 
 Colusa. 
 
 What a fine thing it is for any community to have a good building 
 like this, with an auditorium, to use as a neighborhood center for social 
 and educational work. It should he a common tie, to draw people 
 together. In union there is strength. 
 
— 93 
 
 A GOOD SCHOOL IN COLUSA COUNTY. 
 
 From County Superintendent Liixie L. Laugexour. 
 
 The Williams schoolhouse is located in a block surrounded by a fence. 
 The entrance to the grounds is over a cement stile from which leads a 
 cement walk to the porch. 
 
 The east side of the yard is given to the boys for their playgrounds 
 and their baseball diamond; the west, to the girls and their basket-ball 
 
 grounds. A buggy shed and barn are in the northeast corner of the 
 yard for the protection of the vehicles and horses used by the pupils 
 who come from the country, and nearby is the woodshed. 
 
 In the school yard are growing walnut trees, some of which have been 
 grafted with English walnuts ; eucalyptus, umbrella, orange, and olive 
 trees. The grounds and schoolhouse are supplied with water from a 
 large tank filled by a windmill. 
 
 This one-story house of four- recitation rooms was substituted for a 
 two-story building with the same number of schoolrooms. The trustees, 
 after spending some thought upon the subject, called to see the Super- 
 intendent of Schools before any definite plans had been drawn. During 
 a discussion of several hours each one expressed himself quite freely 
 
— 94 — 
 
 from his own particular view-point. This consultation ended by the 
 trustees arranging to visit some school buildings, one of which had four 
 recitation rooms on the same floor. After this tour of inspection, the 
 plan was discussed again. It was finally decided to build a one-story 
 building of brick on a cement foundation. The schoolhouse has four 
 rooms and a hall running through the building. The floor of the hall 
 is cement and in the center of it is an octagon court, which extends to 
 the top of the building. In this octagon court is the library Avhich is 
 well lighted by the double glass doors at each end of the hall and the 
 eight windows at the top of the octagon. 
 
 Each classroom has two entrances from the hall, one door being near 
 the teacher's desk, the other near the rear of the room leading from a 
 large anteroom which is fitted up as a lavatory and a place for coats 
 and hats. There is an outside window in each anteroom. There is a 
 large sized closet opening off of each schoolroom for the teacher's 
 exclusive use. The windows are high and grouped so the light can come 
 from the rear. 
 
 In addition to the doors and windows, patented ventilators are used 
 for ventilating the building. Air-tight stoves are the only means for 
 heating the rooms. 
 
 A TWO-ROOMED SCHOOL IN AMADOR COUNTY. 
 
 Superintendent Greenhalge sends this picture of the Oneida school- 
 house. It is built of stone, plastered on the outside, and cost $5,000. It 
 is located on a beautiful slope covered with oaks, and is the handsomest 
 school in the county. 
 
95 — 
 
 TWO-ROOMED RURAL SCHOOL IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY. 
 
 From Superintendent Mark Keppel. 
 
 Laguna schoolhouse is a structure of two rooms, each 27 by 32 feet, 
 inside dimensions, and has its cloakrooms at the front and its library at 
 the rear. The two schoolrooms are separated by rolling partitions. 
 The windows shown in the picture are those of the cloakrooms and of 
 
 the classroom in the foreground. In that room the children face toward 
 the rear of the building and get light from the front two windows, or 
 from the left five windows. 
 
 The windows for the second room are arranged precisely as in the 
 first room, and are located at the rear and left of that room, so that the 
 second room has no windows in front. This arrangement seats the 
 children facing the front of the second room, and when the two rooms 
 are thrown together the sets of desks face in opposite directions. This 
 is taken care of by screwing or bolting the desks in groups of three to 
 strips of wood 1^ by 4 inches in thickness and width, and of the neces- 
 sary length for the particular size of desks, instead of bolting the desk 
 to the floor. It is a matter of only a few moments to rearrange the seats 
 
— 96 — 
 
 in one or both rooms. The steps for the approaches to this house are 
 made of cement and the risers are low. 
 
 If the vestibule in front had been omitted, the fact that there are 
 two windows on one side of the entrance, at the front of the house, and 
 not any windows on the other side would be very prominent, but as it 
 is, that lack of symmetry is not obtrusive. This house cost less than four 
 thousand dollars all complete, including the windmill and tank and 
 two pavilions. 
 
 MODEL SCHOOL IN ORANGE COUNTY. 
 
 Superintendent R. P. Mitchell sends a picture of the Garden Grove 
 School, an eight-room building costing $15,000. The grounds have since 
 been planted and adorned. 
 
 To the School Clerk: 
 
 Are your school grounds neat and tidy, free from weeds and trash, suitably 
 adorned by trees, well improved and well kept, so that little children will 
 absorb lessons of thrift and care while they are young? 
 
 If not, why not? 
 
Tia«Wi 
 
 IDEAL FOR RURAL SCHOOLS OF PLACER COUNTY. 
 
 C. N. Shane of Placer Comity, a practical, working superintendent, 
 gives his ideas of the right kind of rural schools for a foothill region 
 in the following way. When a superintendent has a definite, clear-cut 
 notion of what a school ought 
 to be, his ideal will in time 
 shape the schools of his 
 county. 
 
 • My experience in school 
 architecture has been mostly 
 along the line of one-room 
 schoolhouses. and therefore 
 I will confine myself to these 
 largely. 
 
 Lighting. — The lighting is 
 from six windows, 3 by 7, 
 placed close together on the 
 east side of the room when 
 possible, and well to the rear 
 of the room. They are 
 placed about 4% feet from 
 the floor. Light space is to 
 floor space as 1 to 3 or 4 
 square feet. Each window 
 has four panes of glass. 
 Common roller window 
 shades, two to each window, 
 one in the middle and one at 
 the bottom. 
 
 Doors. — Main outer doors, 
 double, opening outward. In- 
 side doors, common wooden 
 doors, all to swing outward 
 as far as possible. 
 
 Stoves. — Placed at the rear of the room, and pipe running overhead 
 to the front of room over the teacher's desk. This enables the cold air 
 coming from the outside through the doors to pass over the heated part 
 of the room and thus mellows it. 
 
 Ventilation. — Mainly through the windows and doors. Windows 
 lowered from the top. In some cases patent ventilators, placed at top 
 and bottom of same side of room. The ones letting in the cold air as 
 near as possible to the stove. 
 
 7 — SA 
 
 Sink 
 
 FUo^ PL 
 
 OckooL Hpui 
 
 i, l"\ock Oprintfs 
 ,1 LacefCou.nl 
 
— 98 — 
 
 Water. — Supplied from springs, wells, and the South Yuba Ditch 
 Company. The latter is far preferable in the lower part of the county, 
 while in the central and northern parts the springs are best. When 
 possible, we try to have a jet of water thrown up and have the children 
 drink from that. Some carry individual drinking cups. Most, however, 
 use a common drinking cup. The drainage, as a rule, in a foothill and 
 mountainous country is a simple matter. 
 
 Closets. — Always two, and as far as possible from the schoolhouse, and 
 if possible in among some bushes or trees for the purpose of being more 
 secluded. Usually good deep vaults. In the Placer County High 
 School, Auburn Grammar School and in the Lincoln School there are 
 patent closets. Where vaults are used, they are disinfected with ashes,, 
 lime, and in some instances prepared disinfectants. 
 
 Walls. — Generally ceiled with oiled paper and painted a soft gray, 
 yellow or light brown. The soft yellow with a tinge of green seems to- 
 be best. Ceiling from 11 feet to 14 feet in height. 
 
 Blackboards. — Slate preferable. Hyloplate, green, is giving good 
 satisfaction. Should be low enough to accommodate the smaller children 
 in the room. Chalk trough should be plenty big enough to keep erasers 
 from dropping to the floor. 
 
 Cloakrooms. — To accommodate 20 children should be two at least, 
 6 feet by 8 feet, one for boys and one for girls. Should each have at 
 least one window and two doors. Should be placed on each side of main 
 entrance. 
 
 Grounds. — Get all the grounds possible. Land is cheap now. House 
 should be set so that there is drainage all around if possible. At least 
 there should be good natural drainage. Let the ground be long and 
 narrow. The playground at the back, and a pleasant spot in front for 
 the cultivation of flowers, shrubs, grass, etc. Have some natural trees 
 when possible. 
 
 Rooms. — Should be long and not too wide. Be sure that the sun's 
 direct rays get into the room for quite a good part of a half-day at 
 least. Germs don't like sunlight. No raised platform for a teacher's 
 throne. Every schoolroom should have a little private room for the 
 teacher, that she can have for her own individual use. There should be 
 a good big porch when possible. And when it can be afforded, a good 
 large shed for rainy days ; a shed for horses, and a woodshed. 
 
 Decoration. — This can be overdone. A few choice pictures on the 
 wall, and some groups of small instructive ones, are far better than a 
 thousand chromos that have neither moral nor aesthetic value. Well 
 chosen shrubbery, boughs, flowers, bunches of long grass, etc., tastily 
 displayed, but not overdone, will add greatly to the general appearance 
 of any schoolroom. 
 
99 — 
 
 SCHOOL GROUND IN MENDOCINO COUNTY. 
 
 Superintendent L. W. Babeoek sends a picture of a six-roomed Ukiah 
 grammar school set in the center of a ten-acre lot. Natural shade 
 trees and shrub- 
 bery abound 
 here, oak and 
 madrofia; while 
 wild flowers 
 bloom in won- 
 derful variety 
 and profusion. 
 This large play- 
 ground helps 
 very much to 
 give ideal con- 
 ditions to the 
 young people of 
 
 a liberal and public-spirited town. Observe ! Ten acres ! Compare that 
 generous domain with the constricted, pinched, and stingy location that 
 so many communities put up with for their schools in this land of sun- 
 shine and fresh air. 
 
 ^i&L 
 
 • *j$& 
 
 r~~' # n 
 
 ?:~~ *£ftilt #»~ 
 
 
 V-\ :'* n » - ' - 
 
 ~ ^0^^^"- ^gjS^ i3ili*3l 
 
 SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY. 
 
 Here is a school afar on the desert, at Needles, in San Bernardino 
 County. It was built for the High School, together with the lower 
 grades. It cost $21,000, is made of brown sandstone and brick, and is 
 thoroughly up-to-date in its equipment. 
 
— 100 — 
 
 RURAL SCHOOL IN SHASTA COUNTY. 
 
 The Superintendent of Shasta County is Lulu E. White. She regards 
 the Lone Pine School as the ideal rural building, and sends the archi- 
 
 cscsmmiijiiin 
 
 fflCEtMEETj™ 
 
 mmcEEEimciD 
 en ram cot a 
 
 ID 
 
 teet's sketch of it. It was built in 1908 at a cost of $2,300. The 
 furniture cost $700 additional. 
 
 A CLEARING HOUSE. 
 
 The office of the county superintendent of schools should be a clear- 
 ing house for good ideas about school buildings and school grounds. 
 There should be a table there, covered with plans, drawings, and photo- 
 graphs. When trustees think of building, they should go and talk the 
 thing all over with the superintendent at length. They should find in 
 his office photographs showing what other schools are doing and what 
 is possible to be done. They should find sample plans and specifica- 
 tions. They should find out who are the reliable architects and con- 
 tractors of the county. They should get sound notions of heating, 
 lighting, ventilating a schoolroom. Of course, all this entails some work, 
 some alertness, some responsibility on the superintendent; but that is 
 fairly a part of his job. 
 
101 
 
 The water line. 
 
 IMPROVEMENT UNDER DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 The Dunbar School, in Sonoma County, is perched on top of a steep, 
 bare, and rocky hill. At the base of the hill flows a nice stream, Vvith 
 beautiful trees along its course. One picture shows the "Water Line" — 
 
 the children of the 
 school carrying 
 water for the 
 shrubs and plants 
 that grow with 
 difficulty in the 
 stony soil of the 
 schoolyard. The 
 other shows a 
 flower bed among 
 the rocks, that has 
 been made pos- 
 sible by the labors 
 of the water line. 
 These pictures are 
 sent by Miss Novilla Davidson, the enthusiastic teacher of the school. 
 The moral of this is that where there's a will there's always a way. 
 The teacher who can undertake and carry out such an enterprise 
 with her school — 
 something requir- 
 ing real work and 
 lasting a long 
 time — teaches a 
 very valuable les- 
 son. It is genuine 
 exeprience. It re- 
 quires the highest 
 gifts of leadership. 
 In some such way 
 as this a great 
 teacher gets a 
 deep hold on his 
 pupils, teaches 
 them morals and manners and real religion, affects their characters 
 for all time. 
 
 No teacher can do this kind of work by staying only a single year 
 in the school. A good teacher's influence is not an annual plant. It 
 
 Result from water line. 
 
— 102 — 
 
 requires several years to bloom. When trustees find just the right 
 teacher they can afford to pay any sum necessary to keep her. When 
 a teacher really wishes to serve a community well, she should stay long 
 enough to see the results of her work. 
 
 SONOMA COUNTY SCHOOL. 
 
 What an artistic picture, this beautiful California school, in its 
 setting of natural trees ! It is the Windsor School, in Sonoma County, 
 and has just been completed. It has three rooms, and cost $9,000. Its 
 
 Windsor three-room school 
 
 exterior is shingled. The grounds are adorned by fourteen splendid 
 oak trees. Not one of them should ever be disturbed. A big tree should 
 never be destroyed because it is "in the way" of some "improvement," 
 Walks, roads, sidewalks, buildings, should give way to the trees, go 
 around them, not through them. Trees like this lend themselves to the 
 landscape and link themselves into the traditions of the school and the 
 community. Here the little children have their little games; here the 
 older ones assemble beneath the cooling shade. The building itself 
 could be spared as well as the trees, almost. 
 
103 — 
 
 JACKETING STOVES. 
 
 Every school trustee in the State of California should have an 
 intelligent idea of the jacketing of stoves, how it is done and why it is 
 done. There is a widespread idea nowadays that the only proper way 
 to heat a schoolroom is by means of a furnace in the basement. Nearly 
 every new school of more than one room, in the country, as well as the 
 city, installs a furnace as a necessary improvement. But as I travel 
 about the land, I find the rural school people dissatisfied with their 
 furnaces. The rural janitor usually is no mechanic — and he can not 
 attend to it all the time. When it gets out of order, it is difficult to 
 have it repaired. "When it is 
 broken, there is no plumber within 
 reach. It is expensive in its use 
 of fuel. It does not work well 
 in unusual weather. It is suited to 
 city conditions, not to the country. 
 It is a chronic nuisance. 
 
 Wherefore, the rural school will 
 usually do better to pin its faith to 
 the plain, old-fashioned stove. A 
 well-known authority on schools 
 said to me the other day, "Every 
 rural school of six rooms of under 
 should use stoves, not furnaces." 
 
 But these stoves should always be 
 jacketed — that is, they should be 
 surrounded by a sheet or plate of 
 some kind, set a few inches from 
 the stove; so that the air between 
 the stove and jacket may be heated 
 to make it rise and circulate 
 through the room instead of scorch- 
 ing the faces of the youngsters 
 who sit nearest. 
 
 This jacket may be a wooden frame covered with sheets of asbestos ; 
 it may be of tin or galvanized iron. It may be put around any stove, no 
 matter what its size and shape, and may be done by a tinner, a carpenter, 
 a blacksmith or any ordinary handy man. It is very greatly improved 
 when a hole is cut through the floor under the stove, so as to draw in 
 fresh air from out of doors to pass up between the stove and the jacket. 
 This hole should be large, and should be controlled by a slide or register 
 of some kind. 
 
 Smith Ventilating Stove. Observe per- 
 pendicular pipe open a few inches 
 above the floor, to draw off foul air. 
 
— 104 — 
 
 When connected with the outdoor air in this way, the jacketed stove 
 is a ventilating as well as a heating device, bringing in fresh air, warm- 
 ing it, and distributing through the room. It should be balanced by 
 providing a large outlet for foul air, at the floor level and near the 
 stove. This foul air outlet may be a small fireplace. Or, a large pipe 
 going into the chimney and up the chimney ; thus it is surrounded and 
 heated by the smoke from the stove, which produces an upward suction 
 in the pipe, drawing off bad air from the room below. 
 
 Waterman-Waterbury Ventilating Stove. Observe pipes for fresh air, for foul air, 
 
 and for smoke. 
 
 A number of patented devices are manufactured for schools, using 
 the principle of the jacketed stove. The Waterbury is made at Min- 
 neapolis, Minn. ; the Smith at Indianapolis, Ind. ; and the Grossius is at 
 Cincinnati, Ohio. These cost something less than $100 apiece and are 
 apparently a very good thing. Catalogues on application. But an ordi- 
 nary stove with a jacket can be made to give entirely satisfactory 
 results. The essential features are: (1) A jacket. (2) A connection 
 between the pure outdoor air and the inside of jacket; and (3) a vent 
 that will draw off the foul air. 
 
105 
 
 Outside and inside views of the Grossius Ventilating' Heater. 
 
 The proper heating and satisfactory ventilation of the school build- 
 ing, together with ample lighting, are items of first importance in school 
 architecture. The ability of the teacher to manage and instruct, and of 
 the pupil to observe proper deportment and to study are influenced 
 greatly by the temperature and purity of the air and the clearness of the 
 light in which they must work. An English authority has estimated 
 that good ventilation, heating and lighting will add to the capacity of 
 attention of pupils at least one fifth as compared with that of pupils in 
 imperfectly constructed schoolrooms. Not only are the mental capacity 
 of the pupil and efficiency of the teacher lessened by improper heating 
 and ventilation, but the health of both is impaired, and the power to 
 resist disease is weakened by living or working in impure air or in a 
 temperature too high or too low, while many, if not most, of the cases 
 of defective vision are due to imperfect lighting. 
 
106 — 
 
 HIGH SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Good common sense from the pen of Professor T. L. Heaton, reprinted from the 
 Western Journal of Education, April, 1900. 
 
 Your letter making inquiry regarding high school organization and 
 the plan for a new building has been received, and its contents care- 
 fully considered. I send you sketches of plans and such suggestions 
 as I think may be of value to you. 
 
 Ventilating and heating should be combined in the same system, so 
 that warm fresh air is supplied to the rooms. If hot water or steam 
 coils are placed in the rooms, they simply warm the air that is there 
 already, but do not in any manner purify it. If cold air is then intro- 
 duced from outside for ventilation, it must unduly chill some parts of 
 the room before it can come in contact with the coils and be warmed 
 Warm, fresh air may be supplied to the rooms by a warm air furnace, 
 or by passing fresh air over hot water or steam coils in the basement. 
 Hot, or super-heated air should never be used. Of these three methods, 
 the warm air furnace is cheapest in the end; hot water or steam soon 
 rusts out iron pipes. Furnace or furnaces should be of sufficient size 
 to supply a large amount of moderately heated air. At least thirty 
 cubic feet per minute is needed for each occupant of the room. This 
 should enter above the blackboard from a register at least two by three 
 feet ; being lighter than the air of the room it will rise to the ceiling and 
 disperse over the entire room, and make its exit at the foul air duct 
 below. 
 
 There should be two fresh air shafts for each furnace. These should 
 come from opposite directions and be supplied with "shut-off," so that 
 the one may be used which gives the best results for the wind prevailing 
 at the time. If there is but one duct and a strong wind is blowing into 
 it. so great is the draught forced through the heating apparatus that 
 cold air will be furnished to the rooms. But if there are two ducts, 
 open the one away from the wind, a sufficient quantity of warm air 
 will be supplied. 
 
 The difference in weight between warm air and cold air will generally 
 give enough ventilation with such a furnace. Yet there will always be 
 some days when direction of wind, or other causes, will interfere with 
 air currents. For such occasions a fan (plenum system) should be 
 used to drive the air. This fan can be run by an electric motor at small 
 cost. It will as often be needed in warm weather as in cold. In hot 
 weather the air in the schoolroom is about the same weight as that out- 
 
— 107 — 
 
 side, so that little change will take place on account of gravity. If 
 there is a good breeze, ventilating will be effected by doors and windows, 
 but on a still day the air in crowded rooms will become very impure, 
 even with all the windows open. On such days the fan will force a 
 draught. If the fresh air room in the basement is divided by a burlap 
 screen, kept moist by a perforated water pipe, the air drawn through 
 this by the fan will be cooled, moistened, and freed from dust. The 
 rooms will thus be supplied with air several degrees lower in tempera- 
 ture than that outside. 
 
 The cloakrooms need ventilating as well as warming. Damp wraps 
 should be dried and the odors from them carried out of the building. 
 Halls should be warmed from registers in the floor, so that children, 
 especially girls, may dry damp feet or clothing. 
 
 The light should be from the left of the children and from the long 
 side of the room. If on dark days still more light is needed, it should 
 be admitted from the rear. Windows should extend as nearly as 
 possible to the ceiling, and window area should be one fifth the floor 
 space. In your climate, canvas awnings should be put on all windows 
 facing east, south and west. They shut out the glare of the sun, but 
 permit windows to be opened so as to get the benefit of the breeze that 
 may be blowing. Inside blinds, in shutting out the glare of the sun, 
 shut out too much light ; at the same time prevent ventilation by open 
 windows. Windows should be supplied with translucent shades, run- 
 ning up and down from about one third the height of the window. The 
 shade, thus divided, permits the lower portion to be pulled down so as 
 to moderate the light for those near the window, while those sitting 
 farther off get sufficient light from the upper portion of the window. 
 Window shades should never be drawn past an opening of the window, 
 as the wind soon whips the shade to pieces. Translucent shades should 
 be light green. Windows are sometimes put into a building for the 
 architectural effect which are not ordinarily needed for lighting. Such 
 windows should be provided with heavy opaque shades, and draped 
 with heavy cloth curtains, thus shutting out all the light. On a few very 
 dark days, such windows may be needed for the lighting of the school- 
 room. In the sketches here given the barred windows are to be so 
 darkened. 
 
 Walls should never be pure white, but of a light .shade of gray, blue, 
 or green, rough finish is better than smooth. Wood work should not be 
 varnished, as reflection from such surfar-e is nearly as bad on the eyes 
 as strong light from windows. School desks, also, should have a dead 
 finish. 
 
 I should recommend the assembly room for a small high school. In 
 this room each pupil has a separate desk where he keeps his books and 
 
— 108 — 
 
 does his studying. From this room classes are sent out to smaller rooms 
 for recitations. At the close of recitation they again return to the 
 assembly room. This passing of classes gives a little relaxation and fits 
 them for taking up the next work. If a school is arranged on the 
 assembly room plan the classrooms may be rather small, as they are 
 needed for recitations only. They should, however, be provided with 
 desks, as written work is often an essential. An assembly room is par- 
 ticularly important in the management of the school. Here the prin- 
 cipal may talk to all at once, arouse in them a proper pride in their 
 school, and develop the esprit de corps, which is the most important 
 factor in government. The morning exercises, consisting of singing, 
 remarks by the principal, or reading of some choice selection of litera- 
 ture, puts the pupils in proper spirit for the day's work. All general 
 exercises, such as lectures, rhetoricals, and debates, will be conducted 
 in the assembly room. With a school of four or more teachers, the pro- 
 gram may be so arranged that one will always have a vacant period to 
 take charge of study in the assembly room. With fewer teachers some 
 of the smaller classes will be heard in the assembly room. As far as 
 possible, however, this room should be quiet for study. A room forty 
 by fifty-five feet will be sufficient to seat one hundred and sixty pupils, 
 and leave space for reference table and book shelves. Here should be 
 kept all that portion of the library which the pupils will consult during 
 school hours. These books are then used only under the eye of the 
 teacher. The assembly room should be fifteen to twenty feet high and 
 face the north, as this gives the best light for study. The windows in 
 this room should extend to the ceiling, as the high light carries farthest. 
 It is doubtful if an assembly room can be successfully used for study 
 in a large high school. Such room, however, may be compactly seated 
 and used for those occasions when it is desirable to bring the whole 
 school together in a body. 
 
 The recitation rooms should be so placed as to consume the least time 
 in the passing of classes. For hygienic reasons, as well as for economy 
 of time, it is best to have the assembly room and recitation rooms on the 
 same floor. The walls between the rooms should be so deadened as to 
 prevent the passing of sound. There should be abundance of black- 
 board in the classrooms, and windows so grouped as not to waste 
 blackboard space. Stone slate makes the best blackboards, requires no 
 repair, improves with each year of use, will last as long as the brick 
 wall, and costs but little more than imitations. It should have uni- 
 formly smooth surface, and be not less than three eighths of an inch in 
 thickness. 
 
 The laboratories may be in the basement or in a small building out- 
 side, connected to the main building by a covered walk. There is per- 
 
— 109 — 
 
 haps less danger of fire if the chemistry laboratory is outside the main 
 building. This danger is, however, largely removed if the laboratory 
 has cement or bitumen floor, and the gas for the laboratory is so 
 arranged that it can be shut off at the close of each day's work. The 
 greater danger of fire here is that the blue flame of the Bunsen burner 
 is easily overlooked and a jet may be left burning, in time heating the 
 burner, melting off the rubber tube, and then setting fire to adjacent 
 wood work. The laboratories should be large and tables arranged 
 around the sides next the windows. The chemical laboratory should 
 
 FLOOR 
 
 JCK.A^tL 
 
 Suggested floor plan for high school of 160 pupils. 
 
 have raised seats for recitation purposes, and a supply room. A dark 
 room is a great convenience. Each two students should be provided 
 with water, and a small ventilating hood. In addition there should be 
 a large ventilating hood under which to perform experiments producing 
 noxious fumes. The physical laboratory should be supplied with water 
 and gas. The lecture room should have raised seats facing the teacher 's 
 demonstration table, and contain cases of apparatus not used in the 
 laboratory. This room should have solid inside blinds, or very heavy 
 shades, so that it may be darkened. It should be provided with gas, 
 water and electricity. There should be blackboards in the lecture room 
 and chemical laboratory. 
 
— 110 — 
 
 With good sewer system the closets may be in the basement of the 
 building. The vault of the closet should be ventilated with a down 
 draught, and the upper part of the vault connected with a flue contain- 
 ing a small heater. When there is fire in the heater, all the odors will 
 be drawn up the flue. The vault should be made of cement, and either 
 self -flushing, or be flushed noon and night by the janitor. 
 
 The central portion of the building being higher than the wings, will 
 admit of two good rooms being built above the office, library and hall. 
 The inner hall is lighted by a skylight. This building will accommodate 
 one hundred and sixty pupils and five or six teachers. In a small high 
 
 Plan- 1- 
 
 rTAHtin 
 
 Suggested basement plan for high school of 160 pupils. 
 
 school chemistry and physics may be taught to the two upper classes 
 alternate years. Plan II is a much smaller high school, all on one floor. 
 There is but one laboratory, and chemistry and physics should alternate. 
 This building may be heated by jacketed or ventilating stoves. Plan II 
 will accommodate one hundred students and three or four teachers. 
 An additional classroom would be secured by having a separate build- 
 ing for the laboratory. 
 
 In calling for plans, issue full instructions to architects, telling what 
 size and arrangement of rooms will be required, the material for con- 
 struction, the site of the building, cost, manner in which plans are to 
 
— Ill — 
 
 be prepared, and all necessary information in regard to heat, light, and 
 ventilation. 
 
 A sehoolhouse should be planned from within, out; not from without, 
 
 Front elevation for high school for 160 pupils. 
 
 /Assembly Room 
 3 8, 30 
 
 Class Koor 
 
 20. 2.5 
 
 D 
 
 Class Room 
 
 5 
 
 1 Office 
 
 /Oi20 
 
 
 £ 
 
 
 IZZI 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 FLOOR PLAN. 
 
 P/an- M. 
 
 Suggested floor plan for small high school of 100 pupils. 
 
 in. Inside, the building should be arranged for school use and school 
 hygiene. Outside, it should please the eye by good proportions, and 
 not offend the taste by extravagant and superfluous ornamentation. 
 
— 112 — 
 
 THE OUTDOOR GYMNASIUM. 
 
 The right place for a gymnasium is out of doors. There are great 
 possibilities in this direction in California. This picture shows a class 
 
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 of boys going through their exercises outside the Polytechnic High 
 School at Los Angeles. An outdoor gymnasum does not cost much — a 
 smooth piece of ground and some simple apparatus is all that is neces- 
 sary. No physical training is so beneficial as that done outdoors. 
 
113 — 
 
 CONSOLIDATION OF SCHOOLS AS A MEANS Of SECURING 
 BETTER SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
 
 An original article, prepared for this use by Prof. Ellwood P. Cubberley, of Stanford 
 University. 
 
 Closely related to any effort to improve rural and village school 
 architecture is the problem of the consolidation of schools in order to 
 secure larger schools and more effective instruction and supervision. 
 Rural school architecture is only a part of a larger problem, — that of 
 improving the rural school itself and of improving the conditions under 
 
 Consolidated school starting for home. 
 
 which rural school work is done. The past forty years have seen 
 wonderful changes in American education, and in these changes the 
 rural school has been left far behind. In the cities the concentration of 
 wealth has made it possible and the concentration of population has 
 made it necessary that a class of schools should be developed capable of 
 meeting greater exigencies and more advanced needs than those in the 
 country. It has accordingly happened that the cities have provided 
 better and more liberally for their schools. They have built larger and 
 better school buildings, paid salaries that would draw the best teachers 
 from the surrounding districts, developed supervision and paid liberally 
 for it, organized high schools, provided equipment for laboratory 
 instruction, organized kindergartens, added manual training, cooking, 
 
 8— SA 
 
— 114 — 
 
 drawing and nature study, and provided for the supervision of the 
 instruction in these subjects, and done many other things which have 
 made city schools attractive to parents who are solicitous as to the edu- 
 cation of their children. Cities of ten to fifteen thousand inhabitants 
 have made similar progress, and even the village has a graded school 
 and often a high school, good teachers, a system of supervision, teaching 
 equipment, a course of study which includes some of the special 
 branches, and a social spirit pervading the school which is of fine quality 
 and of the first importance in the education of children. 
 
 The country school, on the contrary, is little ahead of where it was 
 forty years ago. In many states it has been graded, to be sure, and 
 uniform text-books and a uniform course of study have been introduced. 
 
 School wagon made by the Delphi Wagon Works at Delphi, Indiana, 
 cost from one to two hundred dollars. 
 
 These wagons 
 
 With the better preparation of the teachers in general the quality of 
 the country teacher has been improved. But, even in our own State, 
 where we pay good salaries, comparatively speaking, and where we have, 
 thanks to a wise law, probably the best rural schools in the United 
 States, — even here we must admit that, except in a few instances, the 
 country school is poor compared with a good town school, and this due 
 to its numerous classes, its overburdened program, its lack of equipment, 
 its lack of any adequate supervision, and, above all, to its isolation and 
 to the lack of that stimulus that comes only from numbers. In most 
 schools the average daily attendance is small, say fifteen or twenty. The 
 children come from the same locality and have the same interests. A 
 majority are from the same or related families. They bring no new 
 
— 115 — 
 
 interests to the school, there is little impulse to activity of any kind, and 
 the school suffers from lack of new ideas and impulses to action. What 
 the school is it is because of the teacher and in spite of its limitations. 
 In less favored states the country school, lacking financial support, is in 
 a most pitiable condition. No wonder parents are willing to live by 
 miscellaneous day labor in a town or city rather than on the farm in 
 order that their children may have the advantages of a better education. 
 
 Typical one- teacher school. 
 
 Typical one-teacher school. Such schools suffer from 
 isolation, lack of numbers, lack of enthusiasm, and lack 
 of impulses to action. 
 
 It will probably always be true that the city will attract the ablest 
 men which a community produces. The prizes worth working for are 
 larger there, — are much more worthy of the energy of a man who feels 
 within himself the ability to do and to master large things. The oppor- 
 tunities, too, are greater for the man of ability, though the struggle 
 for existence is much more fierce. But, while the town and city may be 
 
— Ill) — 
 
 the best places for men of brains and energy, they are not the best places 
 in which to educate the great majority of the children of a future 
 generation of our people, and the premium ought not to be on that side, 
 as it is now. Whatever can be done legitimately should be done to 
 encourage people to remain in the country. 
 
 The last decade has witnessed the introduction of many new things 
 which have tended to make country life more attractive. Sural postal 
 
 Wagon used in Springfield Township, Clark Connect" Ohio, 
 for transporting children to school. Good weather dress. 
 Route of this wagon, 6 miles; time, 1 hour 10 minutes; 
 capacity, 28; transport, 18. The township owns the wagon, 
 which was built for the township by the National Wagon 
 Works, Chillicothe, Ohio. Cost for transportation, $1.66 2-3 
 per day. 
 
 
 
 <L. 
 
 m^M 
 
 
 : . ' v 
 
 
 ' J^ 
 
 
 jjHH 
 
 
 
 The same wagon in stormy weather. 
 
 routes, daily rural paper routes, the general introduction of the bicycle, 
 suburban trolley lines, lines traversing the country carrying cheap 
 electrc light and power, barbed-wire telephones, rural delivery routes 
 of many kinds, bringing to the homes of the rural residents the products 
 of hundreds of labor-saving machines, — these any many other things 
 have tended to make country life more desirable and to free the farmer 
 from much of the drudgery of life. Even a few of these comforts and 
 conveniences have made their way into communities somewhat sparsely 
 settled and somewhat remote from centers of civilization. 
 
— 117 — 
 
 But, despite all of these changes, the little country school continues 
 about as it used to be. An attempt has been made to enrich the course 
 of study, but this has only increased the burdens of the teacher and 
 decreased the time given to the individual classes. The schools have 
 been graded and the uniform examination introduced as a test of effi- 
 ciency, but this has too often served as a temptation to the teacher to 
 neglect the younger children for the sake of the older ones. 
 
 Whenever the number of children has risen to a number sufficient to 
 make possible the employment of two teachers the desire to have "a 
 school close to home ' ' has led to the division of the district into two. 
 
 The quality of the teacher has been improved, but even the best 
 of teachers can make little progress against such tremendous odds, and 
 the good teachers leave at the first opportunity. Under present condi- 
 tions the country school realizes but a small per cent of its possibilities. 
 
 In regions where it is possible to change this condition there is no 
 longer any excuse for failure to do so. The remedy is to concentrate a 
 number of these small, scattered, inefficient schools into a three or four 
 room union school, provide a good principal, good teachers, and trans- 
 port the children from their homes each morning and to their homes 
 each night, paying the expense for transportation out of the district 
 funds. The remedy is neither new nor untried. One half of the states 
 of the Union already have such a permissive law. In Massachusetts, 
 Connecticut, Ohio, Indiana, "Wisconsin, and Iowa the plan has been tried 
 for some time with great success. The plan, in brief, is as follows: 
 Two, three, four, five or more existing school districts, acting on the 
 advice of the county superintendent, a teacher, or a group of residents, 
 vote to unite their schools into a union school. A three or four-room 
 schoolhouse, built on modern lines and well heated, lighted and venti- 
 lated, is erected at a central location. The old schoolhouses and sites are 
 disposed of. Arrangements are made for the transportation of all 
 children living at a distance. ' One of the teachers is usually a person 
 of some experience, often a man, and is designated as supervising prin- 
 cipal. Often three or four of these union schools unite in employing a 
 superintendent, who devotes such time to each school as may seem 
 necessary, and is paid in proportion by each union. In a number of 
 places the stimulus to better schools has been such that the same unions 
 which have united to employ a superintendent have united to form a 
 union high school, thus providing higher education for all the children 
 of the region. The result has been the perfecting of a city school system 
 in the country, consisting of a high school, graded elementary schools, 
 superintendent, principals, teachers, and janitors. Instead of a city 
 school system on a small area it is a city spread out, — a city on a large 
 scale. The graded schools of the small towns of the Santa Clara and the 
 
— 118 — 
 
 San Gabriel valleys, with their well arranged and often artistic school- 
 houses, their supervising principal, their graded school system, and 
 their favorable school conditions, are types of the schools which might 
 be formed here and there in each of the valleys of the State by the union 
 of a number of adjoining rural schools ; while the school system of that 
 large area known as the city of Riverside, with its scattered elementary 
 schools, its central high school, and its city superintendent, with an area 
 to supervise almost as large as an Eastern county, is a type of what 
 might be developed in twenty or thirty different rural districts in this 
 State. 
 
 Of course such unions can not be formed everywhere. Schools in 
 mountain districts, or where the roads are impassable, or where the 
 population is very sparse, can not well be united. These will have to 
 remain about as they are until conditions change. But in all the valleys 
 there are certain natural concentrating centers, and what is needed is 
 the formation of a few of these unions so that they may demonstrate 
 their efficiency to the people of the county and to the school men of the 
 State. The future will then take care of itself. If the present law is 
 too cumbersome and too difficult to put into operation, which I am 
 inclined to believe it is, then let us revise and simplify it so as to make 
 it workable. Cooperation of communities for greater effectiveness is 
 the central principle, and the advantages are those which come from 
 organized cooperation. The new element which makes this cooperation 
 possible is transportation, — the carrying of the child to the school. 
 This is only an old idea in a new form. For sixty years we have main- 
 tained that it is the duty of the State to provide each child with the 
 opportunity to secure an education. In doing this we have carried the 
 school to the child. This has led to the division of districts and the 
 multiplication of small schools and poor schoolhouses. Such schools 
 have been found to be expensive and inefficient. We now propose to 
 reverse the principle and carry the child to the school, — even more, to 
 carry the child some distance to a much better school. While doing 
 this we will save him the exhaustion of a long walk, protect his health, 
 eliminate tardiness, increase his attendance at school, and provide him 
 ' with better school facilities and a better school building in which to go 
 to school. 
 
 Now what are some of the advantages of and objections to such a plan. 
 The first and most important point in its favor is that such concentration 
 means better schools. Fewer teachers will be needed, but better ones 
 will be demanded and can be retained. The union school will be such 
 as to offer many inducements to good teachers. With two or three 
 grades to a room far better teaching can be done than with eight or 
 nine. Primary children need not be neglected that older ones may be 
 
— 119 — 
 
 prepared for the annual examination. Due to the larger number of 
 pupils in each grade, there will be present in the recitation work that 
 stimulus that comes only from numbers. Due to the large number of 
 pupils in the school as a whole and the new interests which this larger 
 number will bring, there will be a social spirit present on the play- 
 ground and in the school which will contribute greatly to the value of 
 the education given. Due to the presence of a number of teachers in 
 the school there will be a professional enthusiasm which is almost 
 unknown to the isolated country school to-day. Finally, due to the 
 presence of the supervising principal and eventually an effective rural 
 superintendent, there will be a close and a careful supervision of the 
 work which will be most valuable for all. 
 
 A second advantage will be a partial equalization of opportunities and 
 advantages as between the boy in the city and the boy in the country 
 by bringing an approach to a well organized city school within reach of 
 the boy on the farm. The division of labor in such a school will make 
 possible the introduction of lines of special work which will make the 
 instruction more suited to the needs of the country child. This, in con- 
 nection with the other improvements in rural life which I have previ- 
 ously mentioned, will do much toward making the country a more 
 desirable place in which to live. 
 
 A third advantage is that such a combination of schools for greater 
 effectiveness is also cheaper, though this of course can not be made a 
 chief argument for the union. The experience of every Eastern state 
 has been that, in general, a better quality of education and a longer 
 term of school, as well as transportation, can be provided at no greater 
 expense than the aggregate cost of maintenance of a number of separate, 
 inefficient schools. In many unions a decided saving has been effected, 
 even after providing a better school. But let me repeat that greater 
 efficiency, not saving in money, is the real argument for the union. 
 
 Another great advantage of the plan is the greatly increased interest 
 taken in the school by the people of the union district. The larger and 
 better school develops a broader and a better educational spirit. More 
 interest is taken in the larger school, better men are selected as trustees, 
 and the attitude of the community toward it is changed. The school 
 becomes a matter of community pride, instead of community indiffer- 
 ence. The testimony on this point is almost universal. The oft repeated 
 question of how to improve the school trustee may receive a partial 
 answer here. 
 
 In districts where the plan has not been tried it is often bitterly 
 opposed, while districts which have given the plan a fair trial are strong 
 in its support. In Massachusetts, Connecticut, Ohio, and Illinois the 
 most vigorous opponents of the plan at the time of its introduction are 
 now often among its strongest supporters. 
 
— 120 — 
 
 Let us consider a few of the objections advanced. It is argued that 
 the plan is impracticable; the experience of a dozen states disproves 
 this. Some parents dislike to send children "so far away from home," 
 but what difference does it make whether the distance is one mile or five 
 miles, if the children are well cared for ? The ride is objected to by some, 
 but is it not better to take the child from his door and deliver him at the 
 schoolhouse in the morning and return him each night, safe, protected 
 from the wind and rain, and with dry feet and clothes, than to have 
 him walk a mile each way and miss school whenever the weather is bad ? 
 The argument that the exercise is good for him is no argument; we all 
 know that the country child has more than enough exercise at home, A 
 common argument against the plan is that the removal of the little local 
 schoolhouse causes a depreciation of farm property in the immediate 
 neighborhood, with a corresponding increase in the value of property 
 about the concentrating center. This is a hard argument to answer, as 
 it appeals to local jealousy and touches the pocketbook. Once get this 
 idea started in the community and it takes hard work to eradicate it. 
 Experience elsewhere, though, is all on the other side. A schoolhouse on 
 the farm does not necessarily make land valuable. What is wanted is 
 that the opportunity of attending a good school be within easy reach of 
 the children, and the better the school which may be attended the more 
 it adds to the value of the farm. A good school six miles away with 
 transportation will add more to the value of a farm than a poor school 
 brought to within a quarter of a mile. Such, at least, is the experience 
 of every Eastern state. 
 
 The newness of the idea is to many an objection. Many communities 
 think and move slowly. They are those which are content with things 
 as they are, and are willing to live and die without an effort at improve- 
 ment. With many there is a certain amount of sentiment connected 
 with the little old country schoolhouse, and they object to its removal 
 even though they get a better one. All such people need education, and 
 no amount of argument is so effective as a successful union in an adjoin- 
 ing section. In northern Ohio the first centralized schools were hard to 
 start, and the movement began slowly ; now centralization is in process 
 throughout the entire region. 
 
 The country school problem of to-day is, How to materially increase 
 the efficiency of the schools and develop a better school spirit in the 
 community, without unnecessarily increasing the cost of the schools. 
 Any increase in the efficiency of the rural schools means an increase in 
 the desirability of the country as opposed to town or city life. For 
 sparsely settled or mountainous districts there is as yet no remedy, but 
 for the valley regions of our State the remedy lies in centralization and 
 transportation. The great success of the plan elsewhere should warrant 
 the formation of more such union schools in California. 
 
— 121 — 
 
 A few such unions have been formed in California, but the number 
 could be counted on the fingers of one hand. The people seem to be 
 afraid of the idea ; the apportionment of trustees has been an obstacle 
 when it has been proposed to unite with a town ; and doubts as to the 
 legality of such unions have been raised by some. These difficulties are 
 purely local, are capable of remedy, and are not inherent in the plan 
 itself, which has been tried and tested. Our law probably needs revision 
 and simplification to adapt it better to local conditions. 
 
 To illustrate the possibilities of such a union of districts I reproduce 
 a drawing and some figures made for a possible union in Riverside 
 County, and published in 1903. The figures as to funds are no longer 
 exact, due to changes in the apportionment law and in the local school 
 census, but the amounts are sufficiently accurate to illustrate the method 
 of calculation and to show what might be done in many places in Cali- 
 fornia by a consolidation of properly situated groups of local schools. 
 
 TYPE OF A POSSIBLE UNION. 
 
 This illustration shows a group of four districts suitably situated for 
 consolidation. The region is comparatively flat and level, and the 
 schools are only about three miles apart. Winchester is a natural con- 
 centrating center. The appended table shows the financial status of the 
 schools as they were at the time the calculation was made. 
 
 Items. 
 
 Benedict. 
 
 Winches- 
 ter. 
 
 Harmony. 
 
 Helvetia. 
 
 Totals. 
 
 School census 
 
 13 
 
 11 
 
 7.5 
 
 8 mos. 
 
 21 
 
 19 
 
 18 
 
 8 mos. 
 
 19 
 
 23 
 
 14.5 
 
 8 mos. 
 
 24 
 24 
 16 
 
 8 mos. 
 
 77 
 
 Total enrollment 
 
 77 
 
 Length of term 
 
 56 
 
 
 
 Apportionment on census [1903] 
 
 Apportionment on average daily 
 
 attendance 
 
 $400 00 
 75 00 
 
 $500 00 
 180 00 
 
 $400 00 
 145 00 
 
 $500 00 
 160 00 
 
 $1,800 00 
 560 00 
 
 
 
 Total apportionment 
 
 $475 00 
 
 $680 00 
 
 $545 00 
 
 $660 00 
 
 $2,360 00 
 
 Teachers' salaries per month... 
 
 $50 00 
 
 $55 00 
 
 $55 00 
 
 $50 00 
 
 ....... t 
 
 Teachers' salaries per year 
 
 Library fund 
 
 $400 00 
 10 00 
 65 00 
 
 $440 00 
 15 00 
 50 00 
 
 | $440 00 
 10 00 
 95 00 
 
 $400 00 
 
 15 00 
 
 161 00 
 
 $1,680 00 
 50 00 
 
 Repairs, census, fuel, etc 
 
 371 00 
 
 Total expense for year. . . . 
 
 $475 00 
 
 $505 00 
 
 $545 00 
 
 $570 00 
 
 $2,101 00 
 
 If these four schools were to unite to form a union a great economy 
 could be effected, as well as a great increase in the efficiency of the school 
 secured. The school could be managed with two teachers if confined 
 to the primary and grammar grades only, but as there is no financial 
 reason why this need be done, it would be best to put in as a third 
 
— 122 — 
 
 teacher a strong person who could act as principal of the school and 
 teach some ninth and tenth grade work to those boys and girls who want 
 to go farther than the grammar grades. Such a school ought to do the 
 first year of high-school work well, sending the pupils on to the larger 
 central high schools for further work. With three teachers, one teacher 
 would teach the first, second and third grades ; another would teach the 
 fourth, fifth, and sixth grades ; and the principal would teach all grades 
 from the seventh up. This would permit a degree of specialization in 
 
 Scale of Miles 
 12 3 4 
 
 — ==- "Wagon Roads 
 ^ School Houses 
 
 
 Q - CENTRAL SCHOOL 
 s ABANDONEO SCHOO 
 | - SCHOOL HOUSES INU! 
 
 FARM HOUSCS WITMCWii 
 
 Diagram ShowtDg the ConRoiidatfd Schools of Buffalo Cent* r 
 Township, Winnebago County, Iowa. 
 
 The figures by ih* x indie*!* Ihp immbw of children »t each faro bou«. 
 
 the work which would be of great benefit to all the children of the school. 
 Instead of sehools of from seven to eighteen pupils, there would be a' 
 school of about seventy, with from twenty to thirty in each room; and 
 instead of classes of one or two there would be classes of from six to ten. 
 The recitation periods could be made three times as long as at present, 
 and the increased interest in school and the stimulus to action which 
 would come from the increased numbers in the school and in each class 
 would be an educational factor of great importance. 
 
 The better school would keep pupils in it longer than at present. At 
 present only about two thirds of the enrollment is in average daily 
 attendance. With a strong union school and transportation of pupils 
 the average daily attendance ought to be increased from 56 to at least 
 70. This increase of fourteen in the average daily attendance would 
 have meant an increase of $140 in income for the union school. 
 
 Let us now see what would be the financial aspect of such a union : 
 
123 
 
 INCOME. 
 
 Total apportionment [1903] $2,360 00 
 
 Increase for 14 in average daily attendance 140 00 
 
 Total income after consolidation $2,500 00 
 
 EXPENSE. 
 
 One principal at $70.00 for 8 months $560 00 
 
 Two teachers at $55.00 for 8 months 880 00 
 
 Library fund as at present 50 00 
 
 Repairs, census, fuel, etc 210 00 
 
 Total expense of maintenance $1,700 00 
 
 Left for transportation of pupils $800 00 
 
 Four o'clock at a consolidated school. 
 
 After maintaining a far better school, with better-paid teachers, 
 better teaching, better supervision, with the first year of high-school 
 instruction provided for free, there still remains $800 to provide for the 
 transportation of the children. Three different routes would be 
 required. Judging by prices paid elsewhere, this ought to be sufficient, 
 though transportation is likely to cost more the first year than ever 
 afterward. The distances are short, and the maximum number to be 
 transported would 11, 23, and 24 — a total of 58 if all enrolled attended. 
 Considering the short distance, the good roads and the dry climate, it 
 ought to be possible to get each route contracted for at a rate of $30 a 
 month; this would be a total of $720 for the year for the three routes. 
 This would leave a net surplus of $80 for other purposes. 
 
— 124 — 
 
 These four districts are types of many other possible unions which 
 might be formed in this State, with great gain in the quality and 
 quantity of the education provided for the children of these favorably 
 situated districts, and with no additional expense to the taxpayers of 
 the districts. 
 
 The improvement in school architecture that would result would be 
 no small advantage of the plan. In place of the usual wooden box, a 
 good, modern, well-planned schoolhouse would be found at the central 
 point, and the provision of such a schoolhouse would be an important 
 element in the education of our children. 
 
 SAMPLE CONTRACT FOR THE TRANSPORTATION OF PUPILS. 
 The following sample contract, bond, and rules for transporting pupils in an 
 Ohio consolidated school will perhaps be of interest, since our law now authorizes 
 transportation. 
 
 This Agreement made by and between tbe Board of Trustees of 
 
 , party of the first part, and 
 
 , party of the second part. 
 
 Witnesseth, That said party of the second part agrees to transport the pupils 
 to and from district hereinafter specified for the full school year, in accordance with 
 
 the specifications which form a part of this contract for the sum of $ 
 
 payable bi-monthly, which sum said party of the first part agrees to pay for services 
 well and truly rendered in accordance with the specifications of this contract. 
 
 Specifications. 
 
 1. Said party of the second part agrees to transport all pupils of 
 
 district to 
 
 2. To furnish a good covered spring wagon or vehicle which can be closed or open 
 at sides and end as the weather requires, and with sufficient seating capacity to 
 accommodate the pupils of said district without crowding. Conveyance to be accept- 
 able to the Board of Trustees. 
 
 3. To furnish the necessary robes or blankets to keep the children comfortable, and, 
 in very cold weather, shall provide an oil stove or soapstones to heat the interior of 
 the vehicle. 
 
 4. To provide a good team of horses to haul said vehicle and children. Said team 
 must be gentle- and not afraid of the cars, and must be driven by the contractor or a 
 good trusty person of adult age, said team and driver to be acceptable to said Board 
 of Trustees, and said driver shall have full control of the children while under his 
 charge, and shall be responsible for their conduct. No profane or immoral language, 
 quarreling or improper conduct shall be allowed in the conveyance. 
 
 5. To cause conveyance with pupils to arrive at the schoolhouse in 
 
 district not earlier than S : 45 a. m., nor later than S : 55 a. m. (sun time). 
 
 6. To collect pupils on the following described route : 
 
 . , President of Board. 
 ., Clerk of Board. 
 
 Bond. 
 
 Know All Men by These Presents that we, , as 
 
 principal, and * and as 
 
 sureties, are held and firmly bound unto the Board of Trustees of 
 
 , in the sum of one hundred dollars, for the payment 
 
 of which we jointly and severally bind ourselves. 
 
— 125 — 
 
 The condition of the above obligation is this: That the said contractor has this 
 
 day entered into above contract to transport pupils from 
 
 to Now, if the said contractor shall well and truly 
 
 perform the conditions of said contract on his part to be performed, then this 
 obligation shall be void; otherwise it shall remain in full force and virtue in law. 
 
 Bond approved this day of , 190. . . A. D. 
 
 , Clerk. Surety. 
 
 , President. , Surety. 
 
 Rules and Regulations. 
 
 1. All pupils shall be ready in the morning at the usual time for the hack to 
 arrive at their respective homes or at the place of meeting, if hack does not pass their 
 home. Drivers shall reach said homes and meeting places the same time each day 
 and shall not be required to wait more than two minutes for pupils. 
 
 2. The first to enter the hack in the morning shall be seated in front and the 
 others next, in the order in which they enter, and shall occupy the same places in 
 the hack at night in order that there may be no confusion in entering and leaving 
 the hack. 
 
 3. There shall be no profane or immoral language, quarreling or improper conduct 
 in the hack. 
 
 4. Pupils shall not be saucy or disrespectful to the driver of the hack or those 
 whom they may meet while riding in the hack. 
 
 5. The right of pupils to ride in the hacks is conditioned on their good behavior 
 and the observance of the above rules and regulations, and the drivers of the hacks 
 are hereby respectively authorized and empowered to enforce the same. 
 
 6. If any pupil persist in disobeying any of the above rules, the driver shall 
 notify said pupil's parents or guardian of his or her conduct and the result of the 
 same if continued, and if the same be not corrected at once the driver shall thereupon 
 forbid such disobedient pupil the privilege of riding in the hack until such a time as 
 the matter can be brought before the Board of Trustees. 
 
 7. A copy of these rules and regulations shall be posted in each hack anil also in 
 the several school buildings to which pupils are transported. 
 
 By order of the Board of Trustees of District. 
 
 Adopted 
 
 Equipment for a class in cooking at the California Polyt. 
 
 School. 
 
126 
 
 THE SAN JOSE HIGH SCHOOL. 
 
 From City Superintendent Alexander Sherriffs of San Jose. 
 
 The San Jose High School is constructed on the university plan. It 
 consists of five separate and distinct buildings so grouped and connected 
 as to form one general whole. The Administration Building, with its 
 massive towers, is the central feature; on either side are the Classical 
 and Science buildings; at the rear of these are the Domestic Science 
 and Manual Arts buildings. They are all of the same type of architec- 
 ture, with rough cement plaster exteriors and red tile roofs, and are 
 connected by three cloisters. One of these runs through the towers 
 between the east and west entrances and is crossed by the other two. 
 
 San Jose High School. 
 
 which extend from the Classical and Science buildings to the rear end 
 of the group. Each of these two side cloisters lead to the side entrances 
 of the Assembly Hall in the main building. The east cloister also passes 
 an open court around which are located the various departments of the 
 Manual Arts Building. 
 
 In the Science Building the first floor contains the departments of 
 Biology and Physiography, with their aquarium and bivalve troughs, 
 herbarium cases, windows arranged with darkening curtains, and elec- 
 tric connections for lantern work, and metrological recording instru- 
 ments, connected by cables with the weather vane on the tower, the 
 thermometer, barometer, and rain gauge. The Chemistry and Physics 
 departments are located on the second floor, where there is also a large 
 science lecture hall. The demonstrator's tables in these three rooms are 
 equipped with all the various forms of electrical energy, water, gas, and 
 compressed and vacuum air for experimental purposes. The students' 
 chemistry tables are each provided with glass closets ventilated by an 
 
— 127 — 
 
 electric fan in the attic. The laboratory also contains one large fume 
 closet for long time experiments; a large steam still with a distilled 
 water reservoir, and an electrical hot plate for slow evaporation. The 
 students' physics tables are supplied with gas, compressed aid and elec- 
 trical connection. In the instructor's laboratory there is an electric 
 transformer. The plate glass switch board in the physics department 
 is 5 by 6 feet in size and one inch thick; and has the advantage of 
 showing clearly all the electrical connections and apparatus and their 
 operation. 
 
 The Manual Arts department has a room thoroughly equipped for 
 woodworking, with benches, turning lathes, a circular saw, a band saw, 
 a planer, and a grindstone, all operated by electric power. Another 
 room in this department is being equipped for arts and crafts work. 
 The Domestic Science Department has a circular table equipped for 
 twenty-four students, and has a kitchen, pantry, storeroom, and dining- 
 room atttached. The Commercial Department is equipped with the 
 most modern furniture suitable for this class of work. 
 
 The building has electric program clocks and telephones in each room, 
 the latter operated by a telephone exchange. There are shower baths 
 for both boys and girls, and a steel locker for each student. The 
 Assembly Hall is seated with opera chairs and will hold 1,200 students. 
 
 How the whole theory of our schools is changing! Here is a class engaged in making 
 grape cuttings at the California Polytechnic School in San I.uis Obispo. 
 
128 
 
 BUILDINGS FOR SCHOOLS. 
 
 An original article prepared for this handbook by J. W. McClymonds, the veteran 
 City Superintendent at Oakland. The schools of Oakland under his management have 
 taken high rank among the cities of the State. It will be of interest to every one 
 to read his latest ideas on school buildings, after twenty years of activity in run- 
 ning the schools of a big California city. The article was prepared in 1909. so that 
 it is up to date. 
 
 Modern education is more and more recognizing the value of the 
 playground. Just how many square feet or rods should be allowed for 
 each child is largely to be determined by the funds available and the 
 price of the land. The cities are more in need of extensive grounds for 
 schools than is the country. It is a wise precaution in every center of 
 increasing population to provide extensive grounds for each school. 
 These grounds should be selected carefully in reference to drainage and 
 with regard to the points of the compass. The school buildings, 
 wherever possible, should be placed on the west frontage of the grounds 
 so as to place the playgrounds in the warm and sheltered section of the 
 yard. This will give an eastern exposure to more classrooms, this being 
 especially desirable in the bay region. 
 
 In selecting grounds in thickly populated districts, care should be 
 taken that they be removed from the noise of lines of travel (noise being 
 one of the greatest drawbacks to successful school effort), and yet. the 
 grounds must be easy of access. 
 
 Building Materials. — In my judgment only two types of buildings 
 should be considered for school purposes — one a first-class wooden struc- 
 ture, the other a strictly class A building. If the buildings are to be 
 constructed from the proceeds of the sale of bonds, the type erected 
 should be largely determined by the date of maturity of the bond issue. 
 That is, if the bonds are to run for forty years, class A buildings should 
 be considered. It is not honest to posterity to construct wooden build- 
 ings with the proceeds of forty-year bonds. 
 
 The Schoolroom Unit. — Whether a school building is to contain one, 
 two, or more rooms, the classroom unit should be approximately the 
 same in each. The length of a classroom is determined by the distance 
 at which ordinary sized figures or writing on the blackboard may be 
 read by the average eye. The extreme width of the room is determined 
 by the distance that light will extend into the room. It has been found 
 that 32 feet is the extreme length of the room, and with the ordinary 
 height of the ceiling 12 feet 6 inches, 24 feet is the greatest width of 
 the classroom. The best authorities agree that light should enter the 
 schoolroom from the side at the left of the children, and as near the 
 rear of the room as possible. 
 
— 129 — 
 
 There should not be less than one square foot of glass surface for each 
 five square feet of floor surface — the glass at the left of the pupils oply 
 being considered (for it may be necessary sometimes, for the sake of 
 outside appearances of the building, to place the windows on two sides 
 of the room ; but the windows on the one side should always be darkened 
 when the room is occupied by the pupils). 
 
 Schoolrooms should be grouped in a building so that the length of the 
 room is exposed to the light. 
 
 For a room 24 by 32, the window space, exclusive of mullions, should 
 be about 8 feet by 20 feet. The windows should be placed about 3y 2 feet 
 from the floor, and should extend to within 4 or 6 inches of the ceiling. 
 This will give a window 8 feet in length. The windows should be 
 grouped with as narrow mullions as possible between them, and indeed 
 the mullion should be so constructed as to throw as little shadow as 
 possible inside the roomi The glass should be perfectly clear, and should 
 be set in large panes. The space through which the light comes should 
 be as near the rear of the room as possible — say within 3 feet of the 
 rear. The window space, including the mullions, will occupy about 22 
 feet of the length of the room, thus leaving a space of about nine feet 
 in the front of the room without any window opening. This will give, 
 in the front of the room where the teacher works, a restful light for the 
 eyes of the pupils. 
 
 The window casings should be designed for the purpose of hanging 
 window shades. Each shade should lap at least three inches on the 
 window casings so as to prevent any light from entering when the shades 
 are drawn. In my estimation the light is best governed by translucent 
 shades, two, placed about one third of the way up from the bottom, 
 being used for each window. 
 
 The wood finish of the room should be plain and so designed as to 
 catch the least possible amount of dust. No unnecessary woodwork 
 should be put in the room. 
 
 The chalk rail for primary pupils should be not less than 30 inches 
 from the floor, and for grammar grade pupils not less than 36 inches. 
 
 Connected with the classroom should be a cloakroom at least 6 by 24, 
 from which there should be a window opeuing to the outside. The cloak- 
 room should not be connected directly with the corridors. Entrance to 
 and from the cloakrooms should be made through the schoolroom. The 
 cloakroom should be placed as far as possible back of the teacher. The 
 exit from the schoolroom to the corridors should be made through a 
 door 4 feet wide, this door being located as near the teacher's desk as 
 possible. Even if it is necessary to place the cloakroom at the rear of 
 the classroom, and it sometimes will be for the sake of exterior effect, I 
 would insist that the exit from the schoolroom be made at or near the 
 
 9— SA 
 
— 130 — 
 
 front of the room. This will give the teacher better control of her class 
 at all times. 
 
 Blackboards. — All available wall space should be covered with black- 
 boards at least 4 feet in width, the blackboard back of the teacher 's desk 
 being at least 6 feet in width. 
 
 In large school buildings, in order to make the corridors light, the 
 space above the blackboard in the corridor walls should be filled with 
 prism glass. For purposes of ventilation two large transoms should be 
 placed in this glass at each end of the room. I think it a serious mistake 
 to place glass in any door connected with a school building. 
 
 Each schoolroom should be provided with a teacher's locker. 
 Wherever possible, this locker should be large enough to contain a desk, 
 and should serve as a small office for the teacher. In no case should the 
 locker project into the schoolroom. Where a heating and ventilating 
 apparatus is used, the air should be taken into the room at the center 
 of the partition between the cloakroom and the schoolroom, and about 
 eight feet from the floor. Openings, covered with iron grills, should be 
 made in the bottom of the doors leading to the cloakroom, to allow of 
 the free exit of foul air. The cloakroom then becomes a part of the 
 ventilating system, the air passing from the schoolroom to the cloak- 
 room, and through the cloakroom to the outside. Of course the exit 
 from the cloakroom to the outside should be at the ceiling of the cloak- 
 room. 
 
 The teacher's desk should be located in the center of the front wall 
 of the schoolroom, or to the left of the center. Never to the right, as 
 this would throw the light of the windows too much in the eyes of the 
 pupils. 
 
 We have now given in detail the schoolroom. Success in planning a 
 school building rests largely in the arrangement of these schoolroom 
 units so as to get the best sunlight and air, and in providing in the best 
 possible way for the incoming and outgoing of the pupils with safetv 
 and with the greatest economy of time. 
 
 The corridors of the schoolroom, especially where rooms are to be 
 placed on either side, should be at least 14 feet wide, and should be free 
 from obstruction. 
 
 Two stairways in different parts of the building should be provided 
 for in two-story school buildings, and should the number of pupils 
 housed in the upper story of any school building exceed two hundred, 
 then an additional stairway should be provided for each additional one 
 hundred pupils. 
 
 In my judgment the safest stairway is the one that turns on a plat- 
 form at the center. The platform should be at least one and a half 
 times the width of the stairs. Authorities somewhat disagree in refer- 
 ence to the width of the stairs in school buildings. Personally I am 
 
— 131 — 
 
 a believer in a good wide stairway, but a stairway over 6 feet in width 
 should have a handrail in the center. Every stairway leading from a 
 school building should have a handrail on either side. As stairways in 
 school buildings are for the use of children, care should be taken that 
 no risers exceed 5% inches. For economy in getting children in and 
 out of the building, it is well to have at least 33% per cent more 
 stairway leading from the ground to the first story than from the first 
 story to the second. 
 
 Doors. — All doors should open outward and should contain no glass. 
 Each door should swing in its own frame. Locks for outside doors 
 should be of a type that can not be locked from the inside, so that every 
 door in the school building at all times is free for exit. 
 
 In addition to the regular classrooms for ordinary school purposes, 
 the school building should contain rooms for manual training, rooms for 
 kindergarten classes, an assembly room to be used by the pupils, and at 
 times for general meetings of the neighborhood. 
 
 School buildings are now becoming the centers of neighborhood 
 activity. Consequently, in each building there should be provision made 
 for a room to be used for neighborhood meetings exclusively. 
 
 In many cities a public bath is considered an essential, and provision 
 is made in the school buildings for the same. 
 
 All lavatory conveniences in school buildings are to be used by 
 children, and should be constructed with this end in view. In many 
 school buildings no thought has been taken of the children, these con- 
 veniences being arranged for adults. 
 
 Heating and Ventilating. — Pure air is an essential for every school- 
 room. It costs something to provide pure air, but it is not nearly so 
 expensive as it is to attempt to educate and develop children in rooms 
 containing vitiated air. At least thirty cubic feet of air per minute 
 should be provided for each pupil. This will necessitate the furnishing 
 of from 1,400 to 1,600 cubic feet of air per minute for each classroom. 
 This can be done only by the plenum system. 
 
 The cheapest method of regulating temperature is by an automatic 
 heat regulation. There are two or three successful systems now in use. 
 The air may be heated by steam, hot water, or by air warmers. The air 
 warmer will be found much more economical in climates like that of 
 California. 
 
 Plastered Walls. — The walls and ceilings of school buildings should 
 be covered with a smooth coat of hard plaster, finished. No sand coat 
 finish should be used in schoolrooms. The hard wall coats should be 
 tinted to some soft color, and being hard walls, it will be possible to 
 wash these when the next coat of tint is necessary ; whereas, with the 
 sand coat, the washing is impossible. For hygienic reasons the sand 
 coat .should be condemned. 
 
132 
 
 A PRACTICAL SCHOOL. 
 
 The Arroyo Grande School, in San Luis Obispo County, has done a 
 practical and interesting thing. The trustees have planted some fine 
 walnut trees about the grounds, and these are now in full bearing. 
 The windfall nuts belong to the children; but at stated intervals the 
 trees are shaken and the resulting product is carefully cured and 
 
 Walnut trees at Arroyo Grande School 
 
 Handsome front yard at Arroyo Grande. 
 
 marketed. Last year the trees yielded $30 profit in this way. This was 
 spent for baseball materials and for graveling the walks. 
 
 This calls to mind the courthouse grounds at Merced, which were 
 planted to orange trees. The supervisors distributed the crop each year 
 to the schools of the county. Two or three boxes of luscious oranges 
 make a nice present for a school of real youngsters, with earthly 
 appetites. 
 
133 — 
 
 SAN JOSE GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. 
 
 The schools at San Jose are fine types of modern school architecture. They are 
 built according to a comprehensive plan, and are all new. having been built since 
 1906. Trustees who have building to do will do well to take a day or two in exam- 
 ining these splendid buildings. It is well worth while to travel about among some 
 of the progressive cities of California before deciding upon your own schoolhouse. 
 This picture and its description is from City Superintendent Alexander Sherriffs. 
 
 San Jose has recently constructed four new grammar schools costing 
 $55,000 each. The inside plan of all the buildings is practically the 
 same, the exterior being "Mission," though representing different 
 
 Lowell School at San Jose. 
 
 Mission types. Each school has 16 classrooms besides an assembly hall 
 seating 600, a Manual Arts room and a Domestic Science room. The 
 teachers have a room fitted up as elaborately as is the principal's office, 
 and is provided with a dining table, a kitchen, wardrobe, etc. The class- 
 rooms are 24 by 30 feet in dimensions, and are provided with artificial 
 slate blackboards, and, except on the north side of the buildings, with 
 Venetian blinds. The assembly hall and four classrooms can be dark- 
 ened, and are provided with electric connections for lantern work. 
 In the seventh and eighth grades the rooms are fitted up for the special 
 lines of departmental work. For example, one room is fitted for draw- 
 
— 134 — 
 
 ing, one for music, one for arithmetic, and so on. Each building, like 
 the High School, is heated by hot air pumped in by fans, and each room 
 is provided with an automatic device which keeps the temperature at 
 68 degrees all the time, while not diminishing the amount of air. Fire 
 apparatus, fire escapes, and drinking fountains are also provided, and, 
 in all, the buildings are quite suitable for school purposes. 
 
 A HOMELIKE SCHOOL. 
 
 The Bryant School. 
 
 Here is a picture of a regular, graded city school, the Bryant School 
 in Riverside. But see what a "homey" look it has. It might be the 
 handsome residence of a prosperous business man so far as appearance 
 goes. None of the conventional school earmarks are visible. Notice 
 also that blank wall ; it is there because it needs to be there. The build- 
 ing contains four rooms and cost about $14,000. "When it becomes 
 crowded, wings will be added, separated from the main building by 
 cloisters. 
 
 There is a danger in erecting buildings that can be readily doubled or 
 quadrupled when the need arises; the danger of insufficient grounds 
 and overcrowding. A generous piece of land becomes stingy and dis- 
 graceful when we put four times as many children on it. 
 
— 135 — 
 
 A GENEROUS CALIFORNIA SCHOOL. 
 
 The following description of the Polytechnic Elementary School at 
 Pasadena was written by Mr. Hunt, the architect : 
 
 ' ' There is little that can be said about the scheme that is not obvious 
 on the face of the plan. It is well adapted to the warm climate of 
 California. Its picturesqueness and the flexibility of the parts making 
 it possible to add to the school as it grows seem to be features that might 
 be of interest to school boards having a similar problem. ' ' 
 
 This plan ought to be usable in many parts of California where a 
 school of moderate size starts under conditions that indicate a possible 
 future growth. You can easily see that the advantage of having sun- 
 light in all rooms and having the entire building on the first floor is 
 worth considering. The actual working out of the system in the school 
 for the past two 3'ears has been a great success. When we have some 
 money we just add another room. The broad covered porches make a 
 place for the children to play in rainy weather, stuffy corridors are 
 eliminated. We are having no trouble at all in heating the building, 
 using a system of forced air. The .whole thing as it stands cost less 
 than $25,000. We figure that it cost about $1,000 per room, everything 
 included, and no doubt could be done for less if it were simplified. 
 
 The building is in every way adapted to ideal school conditions in 
 this climate. It is of one-story in the so-called California style. A 
 unique feature of the arrangement is the extension of the broad cement- 
 floored colonnade which surrounds the front or north patio entirely 
 through the building as a sort of hall and around two sides of a patio 
 on the south. This leaves the assembly room, which is in the center of 
 the building surrounded on three sides by roofed out-of-door passage- 
 ways upon which the classrooms open. 
 
 These broad open air passageways hum with the life of the children. 
 They play there whenever they wish ; and thus, the colonnade is the 
 scene of much of the social life of the school. 
 
 The lines of the building are broad and simple. The interior is 
 finished in Oregon pine; and various tones of brown provide the color 
 scheme. 
 
 A large brick fireplace is one of the beautiful features of the assembly 
 room, and a cheerful wood fire is kindled there on dark days. 
 
 The building contains ten classrooms in addition to the assembly room, 
 offices, dressing rooms, janitor's room and storerooms. 
 
 The rooms are planned to admit as much light and fresh air as pos- 
 sible. The windows, of which there are an unusual number, are broad, 
 and the sunlight penetrates to every corner of the building. 
 
 Special attention is paid to the heating and ventilation of the rooms. 
 The whole building is heated by hot air furnaces with a forced draught. 
 
136 
 
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— 137 
 
 Assembly Room, Pasadena Elementary School. Note the fireplace, the 
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 Polytechnic. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
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— 13S 
 
 THE OLD ONE 
 
 NEW SCHOOL 
 
 Nothing could better illustrate the passing of the old and the coming 
 of the new than these two photographs of successive schoolhouses in the 
 village of Fowler, in Fresno County. The old one was considered a 
 splendid building when it was built, fewer than a score of years ago. 
 But how our ideas have changed ! Observe the windows in the old 
 school, equidistant and far apart. Note the waste of materials in build- 
 ing a cupola — a useless appendage. 
 
 See how different in idea, in type, is the new building just com- 
 pleted. It cost $30,000. The architect was E. Mathewson, of Fresno. 
 
 It is in the poor, dilapidated, dust begrimed, filthy schoolrooms that 
 the spirit of vandalism asserts itself, for there is nothing there to com- 
 mand the respect of the children. We believe it is as much the duty of 
 the school to cultivate the aesthetic side of the child as it is to teach the 
 multiplication table, or the single rule of three. 
 
139 
 
 AND THE NEW. 
 
 AT FOWLER. 
 
 
 Old school at Fowler. 
 
140 
 
 COUNTRY SCHOOLHOUSES. 
 
 An original article prepared for this manual by Henry F. Starbuck, School Archi- 
 tect, No. 4 McDonough Building, Oakland. Mr. Starbuck has had a long experience 
 in building schoolhouses, both in northern and in southern California. 
 
 Perhaps no branch of school architecture has been so much neglected 
 in California as that of the rural or country district schoolhouse. This 
 is not surprising when one realizes the general conditions which exist in 
 the case of such buildings, usually located at long distances from the 
 business centers, and in many cases without convenient facilities for 
 getting materials of suitable character to even make the building modern 
 in detail, to say nothing of the difficulty of procuring anything orna- 
 mental, which in an ordinary neighborhood would be considered a 
 necessary adjunct to the building. Then, too, the good citizens to 
 whom are intrusted the care of these buildings, are generally of the 
 busy, practical, hard working class, whose education has been along the 
 lines of other requirements, and who are not in touch with the artistic 
 side of life. Buildings of the class I describe are very rarely designed 
 by an architect, or even copied from such designs, and few architects 
 of any ability could afford to give the time and trouble to look after 
 them, unless actuated by a philanthropic public spirit. I have often 
 thought, as I pass through the State and see the rude and ungainly 
 structures which have been built to supply the demand for a small and 
 inexpensive school building, that I would gladly offer my services to 
 assist in starting a line of buildings which should express something of 
 an architectural idea to the young child, whose first impulse in this 
 direction may come from the building in which he learns the rudiments 
 of his future education. Coming, as many of these children do, from 
 homes barren of the least suggestion of art or architecture, how full of 
 inspiration would be a school building neat, artistic, comely, and attract- 
 ive. I believe it should be the duty of those having the general charge 
 of schools to insist on these features as not only proper, but absolutely 
 necessary to the best interests of the children of the State. That they 
 should be authorized to see to it that these buildings are made monu- 
 ments of education, and to impress on the local school trustees that a 
 liberal allowance for this feature is money as well and as properly 
 invested as if spent for apparatus or school books. 
 
 What an educator for the fathers and mothers of the district would 
 such a building be, if designed on lines both practical and architectural, 
 for true architecture is a silent, but a persistent teacher, and never 
 sleeps, and it is a surprising fact that a truly architectural building is 
 an inspiration even among the uneducated. 
 
 Take the working classes of the old world; surrounded by artistic 
 monuments of all kinds, as they grow to manhood they are unconsciously 
 
— 141 — 
 
 educated by their surroundings, and while as citizens they do not 
 approach our working classes in this country, as workmen they excel in 
 all matters calling for artistic rendering or finish. 
 
 In designing the class of buildings required for the rural districts 
 there is a great range of ideas which can be adapted. In the first place, 
 the location should be considered. California contains within her 
 borders every kind of climate and all kinds of country. The architect 
 can properly use in some place every style of architecture which has 
 appealed to the artistic sense of the student. And in the country school, 
 where we are not likely to be handicapped by want of room, and where 
 we may allow the fancy some play, we can design with free hand, keep- 
 ing always within the line of practical common sense. And architecture 
 is always common sense. 
 
 The next feature of this class of buildings to be developed is the 
 material. All kinds of material offer themselves to the true architect. 
 In our mountainous sections, what better or more architectural material 
 than the stone which abounds on every hand. If the demand were 
 created men could be found who would build such work so that it would 
 be scarcely more expensive than ordinary wood construction. Under 
 the direction of some intelligent master workman much of this work 
 could be done by the people of the district, and thus a general interest 
 be aroused which would be the beginning of better things. 
 
 In the redwood districts, what would be more truly architectural than 
 a log cabin effect of natural logs. I can imagine the most pleasing- 
 results from this line of suggestion. In fact, it is the only real American 
 style of architecture, and is worth developing for general reasons. 
 
 In other locations, the broad bungalow effect is suitable, and it is 
 somewhat strange that this style has not been more generally adopted. 
 It is peculiarly adapted to California, and is economical in construction 
 and attractive in effect. 
 
 For the portions above the reach of the hands of mischievous pupils 
 a most excellent finish for the exterior is cement plaster, on either wood 
 or metal lath ; the latter preferably in locations at a distance from the 
 ocean. In the vicinity of the coast it is short lived, and has been known 
 to rust out entirely in a short time. 
 
 In the matter of technical detail, the same rules should be followed 
 as in the larger city buildings, and in this article it is not necessary to 
 go into this fully. I am not a faddist in matters of light, heat, and 
 ventilation, but these should be considered with careful study, having 
 in mind the means at hand available for the purpose. 
 
 Light should be plenty, and on both left and rear, the greater amount 
 on the side. While unilateral light is very strongly advocated by many. 
 I do not believe it the best for the average rural school building. The 
 location, however, may determine this to some extent, and if the amount 
 
— 142 — 
 
 is sufficient it may be the best in some cases. My own observation is 
 that the main point is to have plenty of light, and, of course, not in the 
 face of the pupils. 
 
 Ventilation is a most important point, also, but in the small buildings 
 of the outside districts it is not always possible to have anything like 
 
 
 re.f?sPex.-riV*£- . ; -V-. ."No- 1 
 
 a ventilating system or apparatus, consequently the only thing to do is 
 to make such provision as can be without too much expense. 
 
 Probably the best and simplest plan in a building of this sort is the 
 open fire. Of course it has its objections, but in the localities where it is 
 not too cold, the room can be well heated before the pupils assemble, and 
 a moderate fire after school is opened will keep up the heat, and the 
 ventilation from a good fireplace is one of the best systems known. This 
 may sound heretical, but I think it can be proven. In the open country, 
 
143 
 
 where the air is uncontaminated, there is nothing better than the pure 
 outside air, and I make use of easement windows which open outward 
 in both directions, thus enabling the air to be drawn out or injected, as 
 the sash are opened toward the wind or opposite. 
 
 Where the cost can be afforded the best and most effective mode of 
 heating these small buildings is a hot air furnace, which in a pit under 
 the building can be made to heat thoroughly all the rooms, and as the 
 heat is carried by a flow of warm air through the furnace, ventilation 
 
 is also fur- 
 nished by the in- 
 flux of this into 
 the room, which 
 can be allowed 
 to pass out by 
 the windows, or 
 through open- 
 in g s prepared 
 for the purpose. 
 I have in this 
 paper made sug- 
 gestions only. 
 The local con- 
 d i t i o n s, the 
 amount of 
 money avail- 
 able, and the 
 particular re- 
 quirements of 
 the case, deter- 
 mine many of 
 the points un- 
 der considera- 
 tion and what I 
 have laid down 
 
 is open to these modifications. This applies as well to the sketches 
 of buildings which accompany the article, and which are not intended 
 to be perfect or complete plans, but only to form a basis for exemplify- 
 ing the above ideas. 
 
 As such they will explain themselves. I have shown as one of the 
 designs for Plan No. 1 a conventional style, which would be appropriate 
 in a village or small town, and a rustic design in which I have intro- 
 duced the local stone and shingle finish more suitable for a rougher 
 country, and peculiarly adapted to the mountainous sections. 
 
144 — 
 
 ; 
 :■■ .< 
 
 
 "3ee>t 
 
 Pla,^J hi 0.2 
 
 y i 
 
 CnfL V n i 
 
 
 Plan No. 2 shows what could be done in the redwood country, and if 
 neatly finished in a similar style on the interior would be appropriate 
 and artistic. I would suggest the roof to be of the local "shakes," as 
 addinsr to the architectural effect. 
 
145 — 
 
 EAOlE^ 
 
 few rs^s^ 
 
 Asa. Arf 
 
 Pl-v^I N'o 5 
 
 
 T 
 
 fefV-b 
 
 PoRXM , 
 
 
 PeRSPfCTV^ FL\M Nio O. 
 
 Plan No. 3 is in the simple bungalow style, and is appropriate for any 
 of the flat country of the State. The broad eaves give a sheltered effect, 
 and are practical in the protection of the windows from the strong sun- 
 light, and the simple lines of construction make the design one which 
 will give the greatest value for the cost of building. 
 
 This handbook belongs to the public school. It should be catalogued and 
 stamped as belonging to the district library, and should be kept and issued 
 in the same way as other library books. It will be needed as a book of refer- 
 ence by Trustees in the future as well as by those of the present. There- 
 fore, since it will soon be out of print and impossible to duplicate, this copy 
 should be preserved and carried on the school records. 
 
 10— SA 
 
— 146 — 
 
 REMODELING FAULTY BUILDINGS. 
 
 Often it is possible to remodel a faulty building so as to get rid of its 
 worst features at small expense. County Superintendent Stirling of 
 Monterey County has been working on this problem along with Archi- 
 tect Weeks, and has produced some excellent results, at expenditures 
 ranging from $200 to $600. For instance, the Jolon School, a typical 
 rural building, has been regenerated by shifting the windows and doors, 
 
 Jolon School, remodeled. Originally it was similar to the ordinary rural type shown 
 
 at the top of page 14S. 
 
 adding a partition and a good porch, into quite a smart and hygienic 
 school. The floor plan before and after remodeling is given, and an 
 outside view of the remodeled building. Observe particularly the 
 improvement in the lighting, and the added comfort of the roomy porch. 
 Superintendent Baldwin, of San Diego County, reports that he has 
 had good success in improving the lighting of rural schools by changing 
 windows, at small expense. 
 
147 
 
 ' JoZow School, he-fore. rcw oc!e.(i'iia 
 
 vJoloTi . School <xf-l-*.T Tern eel e I \inq 
 
 l=--^ = ---1 
 
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 I 
 
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 V 
 
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 J 
 
 P>1 cc Hit «W<« Mcr^ 
 
 -/V~C w 
 
 -P^i.-ticrr 
 
 CLASS 'Room 
 
 
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 N^w'Pokch 
 
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 f.', (.' Rail »<r«/-a.A<l»*nt> 
 
148 
 
 REMODELING IN MISSOURI. 
 
 The following pictures and plans are from a pamphlet on school 
 building issued by Superintendent Gass of Missouri. 
 
 Picture of the ordinary schoolhouse of the older type — windows all around 
 at regular intervals. 
 
 Same building remodeled, with windows banked on one side. See floor plans on 
 opposite page for detailed changes. 
 
149 
 
 i(,cr 
 
 ! 
 
 J. H Felt-Architect 
 k/\ MSASC ity 
 
 PL AM OFORDiNAPY ONE 
 
 room school- building 
 
 3/\me: px^m remodeled, 
 The old buildins: has been turned around and a small addition has 
 
 been placed on one side for cloakrooms, closets, etc. 
 
 MODEL RURAL FLOOR PLAN. 
 
 This floor plan and the remarks accompanying it are from a pamphlet on school- 
 building issued lately by H. A. Gass, the State Superintendent of Missouri. Note the 
 reference to supplying water from a pressure tank in the basement. By this plan the 
 pressure is obtained through a force pump, operated nights or mornings by the 
 janitor. This compresses the air in the tank to any desired force; and this, in turn, 
 sends the water through the pipes. It seems to be a better thing than a windmill 
 in climates where the water pipes freeze in winter. 
 
 The plan shows a one-room school building laid out along modern 
 lines, and is given as a suggestion. It will be noticed, first, that there 
 are separate entrances for the boys and girls. Opening off of each vesti- 
 bule is a cloakroom and toilet room, thus completely separating the 
 sexes. There is a built-in bookcase with spaces for storage of supplies 
 below, and also a receptacle for the coal scuttle, so it can be set out of 
 the way and not be kicked about the room. In front of the pupils, and 
 in front of the teacher is a conservatory, with ample glass surface, for 
 flowers and plants. The fuel room is so arranged that the fuel can be 
 put in from the rear of the building, and by means of slats on the 
 inside the coal can be taken out at the bottom, and thus prevented from 
 
150 
 
 r E l_T. /Vt?C M I TECT 
 KAN5A5CiTt 
 
 scattering about the 'room. The schoolroom proper is 23 feet by 30 feet, 
 and seats forty-eight pupils in single desks, with ample aisle space 
 between and all around the desks. The light is brought from the left 
 of the pupils only, the windows being set within about 6 inches of the 
 ceiling. The heater is set in a brick receptacle, and immediately back 
 of it is the smoke flue and vent flue. The air intake marked just to the 
 left of this flue is supplied with fresh air through the circular lower 
 windows in the gables, thus insuring pure air at all times. It is taken 
 down under the heater and exhausted directly across the room towards 
 the cooling surface, which is the windows, and by means of the vent flue 
 the lower strata of air is constantly being taken out at the floor line and 
 exhausted out above the roof, thus causing the pure warm air to descend 
 
 equally all over the 
 room. It will be no- 
 ticed that the toilet 
 r o o m s have outside 
 windows opening di- 
 rectly into them, and 
 that one waste and sup- 
 ply pipe do for both 
 toilets. One great advan- 
 tage of this arrange- 
 ment, in addition to 
 separate entrances for 
 the sexes, is the fact 
 that there is but one ex- 
 posure of the schoolroom 
 to the weather, and that 
 is on the rear where the 
 light is brought in, as 
 the cloakrooms, vesti- 
 bules, etc., protect the schoolroom on three sides. This will make 
 the room very much easier to heat in severe weather and effect a very 
 great saving in fuel. The stairway opening into the boys' vestibule 
 goes down to a small basement which contains the compressed air tank 
 which furnishes the water supply for the plumbing. Should it be 
 desired to have a small manual training room, it could be easily accom- 
 plished by lengthening the building, thus enlarging the cloakrooms, one 
 of which could then be used as a manual training room, and the other 
 one divided and used for the two cloakrooms. Whether this building 
 is built of brick or wood, the heater should be set as shown by the plan, 
 in a brick receptacle, which very much lessens the danger of fire. 
 
 aPL^M OF/^OMC ROOM3CHOOL 
 IBl — ?BUILDIMG.i 
 
— 151 
 
 A PROPHECY. 
 
 Here is a picture of a special school car that is run on one of the 
 surburban electric roads in northern Ohio, near Cleveland. It is a 
 shadow forecasting the future in our own State. The time is coming 
 when all California will be a gridiron of electric roads, operated by the 
 power from our Sierran streams. Consolidated schools and rural high 
 schools will be made populous and powerful by reason of convenient 
 universal transportation. A new law has just been put on our statute 
 books authorizing trustees of rural schools to arrange for the transpor- 
 tation of their children. Our schools must keep pace with the great 
 economic changes or be left behind in the procession. 
 
 fa J A |f 
 
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 r^ 
 
 
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 jffllfc Mttk t 
 
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 1 
 
 in 
 
 
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 It 
 
 I 
 
 '■'■ J» * "» 
 
 
 fIF'- "'v.s^jiJjF 
 
 
 . . — . 
 
 
 
 
 ^J 
 
 Special school trolley car. 
 
 And now. hark ye. If the people who are here when all these 
 myriad future railroads are projected will attend to business and look 
 into the future, they can confer a wonderful blessing upon genera- 
 tions of California children as yet unborn. 
 
 Let them grant no franchise in all the future that does not contain 
 a vigorous proviso for all children on their way to school to be for- 
 ever carried free! 
 
 Does this seem strange ? 
 
 But it is right. Why shouldn't a public service corporation, seeking 
 a great privilege from the people, agree to help in this way to educate 
 the children of the State? Why should a boy or girl ever be kept out 
 of school for lack of railroad fare ? The thing has been tried, too ; and 
 it works all right. There is an idea here for every one to think about, 
 to spread abroad, to act upon — for a hundred years to come ! 
 
— 152 — ^ 
 
 THE PLAYGROUND MOVEMENT. 
 
 One of the great educational movements of the day is that for free 
 playgrounds in our big cities. The congested centers of population 
 are finding it necessary to provide safety valves at any cost — to let in 
 sun and air, to provide recreation places, breathing places, even when 
 it is necessary to spend millions in clearing away big buildings, destroy- 
 ing property that yields fortunes in rentals. It is cheaper to do this at 
 once, before property grows too valuable. 
 
 Chicago is the leader in this great movement. Los Angeles has done 
 more than any other Pacific city. The accompanying picture shows a 
 view of the Echo Park playground, with the children at their games. 
 The recreation center, or neighborhood center, is shown in the rear. 
 
 
 Echo Park playground at Los Angeles. 
 
 Space forbids going into details of the matter here, but any one inter- 
 ested in the training of the young will find it a most interesting and 
 comprehensive thing to investigate. 
 
 Luther H. Gulick, president of the Playgrounds Association of 
 America, says: "A fundamental condition for the permanent develop- 
 ment of a free people is that they shall in childhood learn to govern 
 themselves. Self-government is to be learned as an experience, rather 
 than taught as a theory. Hence in a permanent democracy adequate 
 playgrounds for all the children are a necessity. ' ' 
 
 Elmer E. Brown, United States Commissioner of Education, and a 
 former Californian, says : "Nothing will take the place of a playground 
 near at hand to which the children can run on short notice, and from 
 which they can quickly return, so the playground becomes part of the 
 daily life. 
 
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