our * *S? Issued By DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTS OF VIRGINIA JOS. D. EGGLESTON, Superintendent CO-OPERATIVE EOUCATION ASSOCIATION OF VIRGINIA Mrs.B.B.MUNFORD President \ 1< Beautifying Our Schools MORE ATTRACTIVE GROUNDS AND EXTERIORS " I believe in all that makes life large and lovely — in beauty in the home, in the school, and in the common walks of life." The Co-operative Education Association of Virginia OFFICERS MRS. B. B. MUNFORD President GOV. WM. H. MANN 1st Vice-President J. STEWART BRYAN 2nd Vice-President J. P. McCONNELL 3rd Vice-President HENRY W. ANDERSON Treasurer J. H. BINFORD Executive Secretary- State Capitol, Richmond, Va. MRS. L. R. DASHIELL Director Citizens Leagues State Capitol, Richmond, Va. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE J. D. Eggleston, Chairman Murray Boocock Bruce R. Payne E. A. Alderman Chas. G. Maphis S. W. Fletcher Jackson Davis H. B. Frissell Jas. H. Dooley George H. Denny F. W. Darling Rosewell Page DEPARTMENTS Public Health Dr. Allen W. Freeman Pren T. S. Settle Demonstration Farms T. O. Sandy Libraries G. Carrington Moscley Taxation Bruce R. Payne (Jood Roads P. St. Julien "Wilson Industrial Work Miss E. G. Agncw Field Work Robert Frazer Legislation Rosewell Page l\ . NOtf/iv JUL ^ (E0mmntuii£altij of Hfrgfnta. GOVERNOR'S OFFICE, Richmond, January 23rd, 1911. It would be very delightful in going through the State to find well -painted, well-kept schoolhouses, surrounded by beauti- ful grounds, planted with trees and flowers. Such schools would show the care of teachers and pupils, would leave more pleasant memories of the old school in years to come, and would make better pupils and citizens of our children. Not only so, but beautiful schools would have an influence for good upon the entire community. If the school is to become a social center, let us see to it that it is a beautiful spot, and let all citizens help in the good work. I wish that the year 1911 could see the last poorly-kept schoolhouse and bare school ground in Virginia. Ttr&^Th Governor. Page three The steadily growing movement in Virginia to beautify the exteriors and interiors of school buildings, and to improve and beautify sehool grounds, is one of the most hopeful indica- tions of our progress. Preventable ugliness is a sin, and most of it, like most ill- health, is preventable. The schoolhouse and schoolyard make a decided impression on children who are very impressionable. If the school and schoolyard be ugly, the impression is not a good one. If beautiful, the impression is pleasing and ele- vating. One of the main lines of the Co-operative Education Asso- ciation is the beautifying of schools and school grounds. The Executive Secretary of this Association, Mr. J. H. Binford, is making a specialty of this work, and he is meeting with great success, not only because he can give excellent advice in such matter, but because the friends of education are responding to his efforts. This essential feature of educational progress has my unre- served approval, and I trust that pupils, teachers, superin- tendents, trustees, and people will keep Mr. Binford busy answering questions, giving advice, and visiting communities that like wholesome and pleasing schools rather than ugly ones. Sup't Public Inst. "The school, adjusted to neighborhood needs, is the seed corn from which shall spring first the blade, then the ear, and finally the full corn in the ear of the new conception of country life." /*U-y. C lirf& Pres't Co-operative Education Ass'n. Page five The great majority of our grown people never enter the school of to-day. Their estimate of it is obtained from the un- painted building and neglected yard. Is it strange that so many parents send their children irregularly to such schools, and place a low estimate upon education? In a State wonderful in natural beauty, and dotted here and there with attractive homes, you find everywhere the same type of school grounds — bare, unkept — without a single element of beauty or attractiveness. Is this to continue forever? What about the children who attend these schools? Does it mean nothing that they spend all their school days amidst surroundings .so unlovely? We must be the leaders in this work of school improvement. You spend all your working hours in the school. It is your school as well as the childrens'. Why be content to spend your time in an unattractive place, when just a little thought and a little effort will work a transformation? Let's stop dreaming about beautiful schools, and do just a few definite things to im- prove conditions. What are you going to do to make you? school more attractive ? Will you not encourage the teachers in this good work? When possible will you not give them a little financial aid from the school funds? In some parts of our State we are erecting a better type of one-room school, and are making more attractive the ones erected in years gone by. The expenditure of a very small sum will work a remarkable change. What about the schools in your district ? Will you not try to make them more attractive? B>rij0ol ilmprofcmtttt iGrarjiwa. Every league should have a Committee on Grounds and Buildings, and the close of each year should see some definite things accomplished in the way of beautifying the school. Let us all go to work with a will and it will soon come to pass that all over the State the school will be the most attractive place in the community , Page six " The dirty, smoke-begrimed schoolhouse, with its cracked and broken plaster, warped floor, rusty stove, and dirt-stained windows, can no longer have a place in modern country life, if we wish to re-establish it as the rallying point in rural life — a place where we shall hope to save the country boy and girl for the farm and farm life. The beauty and dignity of the modern building must be such that people will point to it as our building, and emulate its architecture in the construction and arrangement of their own homes. The grounds must be made attractive with plots of velvety grass, with trees, shrubs and flowers. Such sur- roundings exert a marvelous influence over the children. The children who come from homes where culture and refinement are unknown will enter a new life in the school ; children from homes abounding in modern comforts and conveniences will find the new school atmosphere homelike and congenial." — Foght's " American Rural School." WHO UARES? IT'S ONLY A COUNTRY SCHOOL If children are daily surrounded by those influences that elevate them, that make them clean and well ordered, that make them love flowers and pictures and proper decorations, they at last reach that degree of culture where nothing else will please them. When they grow up and have homes of their own they will have them clean, neat, bright with pictures, and fringed with shade trees and flowers. — Henry Sabin. Page seven 1. Is your school painted and in good repair? 2. Has it two sanitary closets? 3. If in a field or town lot, are there a few good trees on the lawn? 4. If in a natural forest, have the unnecessary trees and the undergrowth been cut out? 5. Has your school a well kept lawn ? 6. Is there need of a good wire fence to protect the grounds from roving stock ? 7. If in a city or village, are flowers growing in your schoolyard? 8. Is it desirable to have at your school a hedge, climb- ing vines on the building, some of our native shrubs and wild flowers grouped on the lawn ? 9. Is there a School Improvement League at your school? 10. What will you do to improve you? school? Page eight AS IT IS AS IT OUGHT TO BE jjjofa to Mukt a Jtettg ICaum. Kentucky Blue Grass forms the basis of practically all of the lawn mixtures, and the chief reason for adding other grasses is to occupy the ground until Blue Grass becomes established, which takes about three years to make a perfect turf. But it will not thrive in an acid soil, which must be corrected by an ap- plication of lime, at the rate of one ton to the acre, or smaller quantity, at an interval of two or three years. The making of a lawn depends upon thorough preparation, rich soil, and sowing plenty of seed. The ground should be broken fully eight inches, and made perfectly smooth and thoroughly pulverized. Sow a mixture of fourteen pounds of Kentucky Blue Grass and four- teen pounds of Red Top to the acre. This formula is well suited to all of the general types of soil. For shady places add to the above formula five pounds of Wood Meadow Grass, five pounds of Various Leaved Fescue, and five pounds of Crested Dog's Tail, and sow at the rate of thirty pounds to the acre. For sandy soil, add to formula number one five pounds of Creeping Bent, five pounds of Rhode Island Bent, four pounds of Fine Leaved Fescue, and sow at the rate of twenty-eight pounds to the acre. Rake the seed in lightly. If the land is dry, roll it. Sow early in the fall — the earlier the better. In the western half of the State by the middle of August. Getting a good stand, put the lawn mower at work as soon as the grass is two or three inches high in the spring, and mow off about every ten days, leaving the cut grass to decay and mulch the lawn. Do not rake it off ; neither mow in very dry weather. Make a good application of good Raw Bone Meal at seeding and every spring thereafter. One hundred pounds of Nitrate Soda can be sown to a good ad- vantage, which will encourage a rapid growth, and this should be put on as a top dressing, and when the grass is dry. Sheep and hog manure will also be a fine top dressing ; but do not use stable manure on account of weed seeds. Clover can be added if fancy dictates. There is no such a thing as universal lawn grass mixture. The exercise of judgment with the above sug- gestions will bring better results than conforming to special mix- tures. Commissio?ier of Agriculture. Page ten Very often we hear teachers say : "I should like to have as pretty lawn, but where are the children going to play? In many instances where this question is asked the school grounds are too small for a playground. The pupils simply stand around in' groups, and trample the grass out, or else they play such games as jumping rope, that could be played elsewhere. This should not be allowed. Again, where the grounds are large, we have at work seen a basket-ball court immediately in front of the school, instead of off to one side. In another instance, where the school board spent several hundred dollars beautifying a yard, the boys were allowed to make a base-ball diamond on the front lawn, while just across the street was a vacant lot, that might have been used. Have a small lawn in front of your school, and compel the pupils to keep off it. It will be a valuable training for them. Page eleven In planting trees and shrubs the main features to observe are — plant trees on or near the boundary lines, not less than thirty feet apart ; hide the foundations of the building, and cover the corners with shrubbery ; preserve wide, open spaces of lawn, avoiding scattered planting. The plants selected for school grounds should be the kinds commonly grown in the neighborhood, and known to succeed without special care. It is not necessary or desirable to buy rare and expensive sorts from a nurseryman. Avoid the quick-grow- ing, short-lived and cheap-looking trees, as the willows and pop- lars. These may be planted among the more desirable kinds, for immediate effect, and cut out later ; but they should never be used for permanent trees. Fruit trees, especially the common apple and the crab apple, are decidedly ornamental. Some of the bor- der planting may be of fruit trees, which will also be useful in class work. In rural communities all of the trees, and most, if not all, of the shrubs, may be dug from the woods and fields. That is the best way to spend Arbor Day. Trees from the wild do not usually grow as well the first two years as trees from a nursery, chiefly because the latter have a more compact root system ; but with good care wild trees should do equally well in time. The selection of plants is a local problem. The following lists in- clude only a few of the many sorts that have been found quite generally adapted for planting on school grounds. Trees. — Sugar maple, Norway maple, American white elm, basswood or American linden, American sycamore, white oak, pine oak, Norway spruce, white spruce, white pine, common apple, crab apple. Shrubs. — Red-twigged dogwocd, Japanese quince, flowering currant, snowball, golden bell, (Forsythia), lilac, mock orange or syringa, panicled hydrangea, California privet, weigela, rose, hibiscus or althea, vibernum, dentzia, Tartarian honeysuckle, spiraea, (three-lobed and Reeves.) Page twelve Sanitary (iutbmlbtttga. The school beautiful and the school sanitary should be and can be synonymous. The great advances in construction and beautification have been accompanied by even greater advances in sanitation, ventilation and lighting, without which no school is now suited or fit for the reception of pupils. At least four things are to be considered in securing the sanitation of the school : First, the building should be well ventilated, according to the system tested and approved in many States ; second, the school should be well lighted, as required by law ; third, each room should be provided with drinking water, and each pupil should have his own drinking cup ; fourth, the school should be equipped with sanitary outbuildings. It is difficult to decide which of these is the most important. Without ventilation, diseases are spread and minds are clouded ; without proper lighting, eyesight is irreparably damaged ; without sanitary outbuildings, typhoid fever and like diseases may be scattered through a hundred homes. The construction of sanitary outbuildings is in no sense dif- ficult or expensive. Such buildings have to be constructed. They cost little more if well-built and sanitary than if made of old boards nailed together in the most insanitary fashion. Each school should have two of these buildings, for pupils of the dif- ferent sexes, separated as widely as possible. They should be water-tight ; doors and windows well screened, and be provided with the simple sanitary arrangements necessary for the health of pupils. Full specifications for these buildings will be furnished by the State Department of Health, at Richmond, upon request. Inexpensive boardwalks should be constructed from the school exits to these outbuildings. At a very small cost trellised screens can be placed around these buildings with entrances in front and to the rear. If these screens are planted with running vines during the early spring, they will present the appearance of arbors, and, if properly placed, may really add to the beauty of the school. No investment in the school will be more profit- able than such buildings. t #l\ 7 . l^i/CCtX. &^L*st^> ~1 Page fourteen Commissioner of Health. These attractive young people have determined to lead the rest of the pupils in the work of beautifying ttieir school grounds. Some of the schools are organizing Junior Leagues. Why not have one in your school ? I know of nothing that will add more to the appearance of school grounds than symmetrically laid out roads and walkways kept in good condition. While some of the agricultural students are getting valuable experience in grass culture while keeping the school grounds covered with a green sod, others might learn important lessons in road construction by laying out, building and maintaining the roads and walkways in the school grounds, and at the same time add materially to the appearance of the grounds. State Highway Commissioner. Page fifteen Here's the plain story of what one teacher accomplished : Was she young or old, pretty or homely ? You may picture her as it suits your fancy ; neither age nor looks nor name has aught to do with the facts here related. The truth to be emphasized is that the work was done and that a similar work may be done by you . Our teacher — our heroine, really, for that is what she is — took charge of a country school — just an average one-room school. Nobody was interested in it. It had never been painted. One of the rude blinds had fallen off its hinges ; the lock to the door had been broken ; and the window panes were dirt be- grimed. Did you ever see such a school ? Within this cheerless place were bare walls, a broken stove, and a few rough desks, and a floor literaly covered with dirt. Our teacher was not accustomed to such surroundings. There came to her at first a feeling of repulsion ; but the next moment there came the fighting spirit, that's why she was a heroine. After taking the names of the fourteen pupils who registered the first day, she appealed to each of them. "Boys and girls," said she, " we are going to work and study here to- gether for the next seven months. We want things neat and clean ; we want a pretty school. Which of you will help me right now ? All agreed. Buckets were quickly borrowed from the neigh- borhood, and in less than two hours floors, desks, and window panes were shining. The next morning, when the children arrived, they found muslin curtains at the two windows. The whole place was so transformed that a little later, when one of the trustees dropped in, he was loud in his praise of teacher and pupils. After that it was an easy matter to get this trustee's help in improving the school. Our teacher had a hard task before her, but in the course of time, by holding an entertainment and by gaining the support of the trustees, she had the building painted inside and out, hung a few pictures on the walls, and had the yard cleaned up. Another entertainment brought in enough money to establish a school library. Page sixteen All this time the good old studies — reading, writing, andl arithmetic — were being well taught, the children were happy, and the attendance had more than doubled. And the teacher? Why, she was as happy as could be, for nothing brings happiness like success. Her varied interests ex- alted her above many of the petty annoyances of the class-room. She was giving her community a new and inspiring idea of the school as an institution, and she was shaping in a larger mould the lives of her children. We need in Virginia just such teachers as the one described in this brief narrative. We must improve the neglected one-room school. Teachers in these dear old schools, look around you as, you teach to-day. Is your school cheerless and unattractive? Will you not make some effort to improve conditions? THE NEW TYPE OF VIRGINIA SCHOOL FOR TOWN AND VILLAGE Page seventeen *P Ian for jpive acre School Grounds flamilion fti^h School. Garters viiL^ Va, COUNTY ROA.D Plan ^or ^txxjo acre, School Grouncl cPan Rivep H\^h SahooL AS IT IS AS IT WILL BE 030 218 050 7 *