with verge enough to receive the children of industrious, thoughtful and religious families, who are sure to be attracted to a district which is blessed with a good school-house and a good school. 5. At least one spare room for recitation, library, and other uses, to every school-room, no matter how small the school may be. 6. An arrangement of the windows, so as to se ure one blank wall, and at the same time the cheerfulness and warmth of the sunlight, at all times of the day, with arrangements to modify the same by blinds, shutters, or curtains. 7. Apparatus for warming, by which a large quantity of pure air from outside of the building can be moderately heated, and introduced into the room without passing over a red-hot iron surface, and distributed equally to different parts of the room. 8. A cheap, simple, and efficient mode of ventilation, by which the air in every part of a schoolroom, which is constantly becoming vitiated by respiration, combustion, or other causes, may be constantly flowing out of the room, and its place filled by an adequate supply of fresh air drawn from a pure source, and admitted into the room at the right temperature, of the requisite degree of moisture, and without any perceptible current. 9. A desk with at least two feet of top surface, and in no case for more than two pupils, inclined toward the front edge one inch in a foot, except two to three inches of the most distant portion, which should be level,-covered with cloth to prevent noise,-fitted with an ink-pot (supplied with a lid and a pen-wiper) and a slate, with a pencil-holder and a sponge attached.-supported by end-pieces or stanchions, curved so as to be convenient for sweeping, and to admit of easy access to the seat, -and of varying heights for small and large pupils, the front edge of each desk being from seven to nine inces (seven for the lowest and nine for the highest,) higher than the front edge of the seat or chair attached. 10. A chair or bench for each pupil, and in no case for more than two, unless separated by an aisle, with a seat hollowed like an ordinary chair, and varying in height from ten to seventeen inches from the outer edge to the floor, so that each pupil, when properly seated, can rest his feet on the floor without the muscles of the thigh pressing hard upon the front edge of the seat, and with a proper sup port for the muscles of the back. 11. An arrangement of the seats and desks, so as to allow of an aisle or free passage of at least two feet around the room, and between each range of seats for two scholars, and so as to bring each scholar under the supervision of the teacher. 12. Arrangements for the teacher, such as a separate closet for his over-coat, &c., a desk for his papers, a library of books of reference, maps, appa ratus, and all such instrumentalities by which his capacities for instruction may be made in the highest degree useful. 13. Accommodations for a school library for consultation and circulation among the pupils, both at school and as a means of carrying on the work of slf-education at their homes, in the field, or the workshop, after they have left school. 14. A design in good taste and fit proportion, in place of the wretched perversions of architecture, which almost universally characterize the district or public school-houses. 15. While making suitable accommodation for the school, it will be a wise, and, all things considered, an economical investment, on the part of many districts, to provide apartments in the same building, or in its neighborhood, for the teacher and his family. This arrangement will give character and permanence to the office of teaching, and at the same time secure better supervision for the schoolhouse and. premises, and more attention to the manners of the pupils out of school. Provision for the residence of the teacher, and not unfrequently a garden for his cultivation, is made in connection with the parochial schools in Scotland, and with the first class of public schools in Germany. 16. Whenever practicable, the privies should be disconnected from the play-ground, and be approached by a covered walk. Perfect seclusion, neatness, and propriety should be strictly observed, and can easily be done wherever water is supplied. 17. A shed, or covered walk, or the basement story paved under feet, and open for free circulation of air for the boys, and an upper room with the floor deafened and properly supported for calisthenic exercises for the girls, is a desirable appendage. In 1857, Mr. Burrowes, who had been State superintendent of schools in Pennsylvania, after trying in vain to obtain an appropriation for the distribution of Dr. Barnard's "School Architecture," to every district in Pennsylvania, prepared a similar work, which was circulated extensively in that State. In 1858, Mr. James Johonnot published a very good treatise on Country School Houses, with numerous illustrations, and in 1872 another with the simple title of "School Houses,' the architectural designs in which were drawn by 8 E. Hewes, architect, and which contained, as an appendix, Messrs. J. W. Schermerhorn & Co.'s Illustrated Catalogue of School Furniture, Apparatus, and Appliances, unquestionably the largest and most complete in the country. In 1861 or 1862, Mr. George E. Woodward, architect and publisher, who had previously published many designs and plans of school-houses, issued a large and elaborate work, Eveleth's School-house Architecture. Several other architectural writers have also published many designs for school-houses very pleasing to the eye, but occasionally defective in their internal arrangements from want of knowledge of the actual requirements of the school. On the subject of ventilation, partly with reference to school-houses, there have been several special treatises by Reid, Gouge, Leeds, &c. Upwards of $100,000,000 have been invested in the construction and equipment of school-houses in the dif ferent States since 1838 * X. BENEFACTORS OF EDUCATION. scope that object may be. The following table, prepared by Dr. Brockett, gives a list of the principal donors of money, in sums No nation, by itself or its citizens, ever exceeding $20,000, to educational purposes dealt so. munificently for educational within the past hundred years. The list is purposes as our own, especially within necessarily imperfect, for there are no data the past fifteen or twenty years. Prof. for a complete one, and in many instances Tyndal, in his speech just before his de- donors of large sums have so guarded them parture from our shores, said: "The willing- with restrictions and conditions that they ness of American citizens to throw their are unavailable, or the amount can not be fortunes into the cause of public education ascertained. When we consider that all the is without a parallel in my experience." In 375 colleges and universities, so-called, at our early history our people were poor, and least 350 of the schools of secondary inthe gift of large sums for this purpose was struction, and about 300 professional schools, impossible unless the donor lived abroad. have been endowed, some of them largely, Moreover, a moderate sum at that time, with and all to some extent, and that in most inthe cheapness of land and the low price of stances these endowments have been raised labor and building materials, went farther by contributions varying from $100 to $20,than a much larger endowment would now; 000, we shall realize that this table does not and if the endowment was in lands, and cover half, perhaps not a third, of the eduthey were retained for many years, there cational benefactions of the last hundred was a greatly enhanced value in the gift. It years. Thus no part of the $500,000 subis not within the limits of our space to name scribed for the endowment of Syracuse Uniall the early, even, much less of the multitude versity; of the $305,000 additional endowof later benefactors to education who have ment of Tufts College; of the $300,000 addone so much to benefit and bless their coun-ditional for Brown University; of the $500,try; we can only enumerate the more conspicuous among them. 000 now raising by the Alumni of Yale college toward its endowment; of the $500,Of the earliest benefactors of education in 000 for Union Theological Seminary; of the this country, such men as John Howard, $260,000 called for by Harvard in consewho gave £750 ($3,750) to convert a feeble quence of the Boston fire; the $600,000 and ill sustained grammar-school into the added to the funds of Trinity College, first permanent college in America; Thomas by Hartford; the $300,000 or more for Hopkins, whose £2,800 ($14,000) founded Hobart College, Geneva; of the $250,000 three grammar-schools and helped to endow for Lewisburg University; the $200,000 a college; Elihu Yale, whose gift of £500 for Georgetown College, Ky.; the $300,000 ($2,500) laid the foundations of Yale col-now nearly raised for the endowment lege: Bartlett and Dummer, and Whitfield, of the Southern Baptist Theological Semand the long list of worthies who, in colo-inary at Louisville, and scores of other nial times, gave from their moderate means college and school endowments, which what was perhaps as truly a bounteous gift might be named. Yet the benefactions as the hundreds of thousands or millions of named in this table form an aggregate of our merchant princes of to-day, we do not over $40,000,000, and we are certainly propose here to speak. The entire en- within bounds if we state the aggregate endowments, except lands, of Harvard Col-dowment, including real estate, of our lege up to 1772, were not over $120,000, and a part of these had been destroyed by fire. Yale College had received from 1701 to 1780 from the State and individuals only about $29,000. But the present century has witnessed a constantly swelling tide of educational donations and bequests, whose magnitude is scarcely computable by ordinary figures. The mind takes in only a very imperfect comprehension of the idea of mil lions of money expended for a particular object, however grand and magnificent in its schools, colleges and professional schools, including the State and national grants to them, as exceeding one hundred and fifty millions of dollars; of which not less than one hundred millions is the gift or bequest of individuals. With such abundant liberality on the part of our citizens, we ought to have all the material conditions of the best schools of secondary and higher instruction; and when we are as well supplied with able and specially trained teachers as with money, we shall have an educational system to meet the maintenance of which he would devote the demands of the age and the country. At sum of $500,000, and two hundred acres of present we have too many colleges whose land, with buildings, as a farm to be atinstruction is not above that of good second-tached to the agricultural department. The ary schools, and too many secondary proposition was accepted, trustees appointed schools whose principal work is elementary. and the institution opened in 1868, under Were the present endowments concentrated the name of the Cornell University, with on one-half the number, and these thus enabled to give such salaries as would command the highest order of talent, we should see a rapid improvement in our colleges, and out of the dead level of half-manned and half-equipped institutions would rise a few Universities in fact as well as in name. There are many lessons to be drawn from the history of endowments, as well in this country, as in Europe, some of which will ere long suggest appropriate legislation to protect the principal, and at the same time admit of such application of the income as to promote and not defeat the evident in tention of the donor. While benefactions are useful in providing for educational wants, not generally felt, they not unfrequently prove hindrances in the progressive development of institutions, by being placed beyond the control of their natural guardians, who should be at liberty, under proper restrictions, to apply the same to such studies as new discoveries in science, or new developments in art may require. The contrast between the slow but gradual accumulation of educational endowments, begun early and continued from year to year, and the recent rapid growth of the funds of of an institution under the joint liberality of the State and a few individuals, is shown in the following statement taken from Barnard's Educational Biography, VOLUME III., Benefactors of American Schools and Colleges-Ezra Cornell, and John Howard: ! 3 Hon. Andrew D. White as president. In 1872, there were 525 college students (exclusive of over 400 in the introductory department), classified in various courses of science, literature, arts, agriculture, architecture, chemistry, engineering, mechanic arts, natural history, and optional studies, under 54 professors, assistant professors, and special lecturers; realizing the idea of the founder'an institution where any person can find instruction in any study." Cornell University, in 1873, possessed the avails, realized and to be realized, of the State appropriation of the Congressional land grant estimated at present prices, at over $2,000,000, and, These amounts, with thirty benefactions in small sums, make an aggregate of $1,402,614, in less than ten years, since the first announcement of Mr. Cornell's intention. John Harvard was one of the earliest The rapid growth of Cornell University, both in pecuniary resources, cabinets, profes: sorships, and students, is one of the marvels of educational history. In 1865, on tlie failure of the attempt in 1856 to establish a State College of Agriculture at Ovid, on Seneca Lake, and of the "People's College" to realize a great State Industrial University at Havana, Mr. Cornell proposed to the legislature of New York, to devote the State share (989,920 acres) in the Congressional land grant of 1862 for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanie arts, to an institation in Ithaca, to the endowment and [N. B.-Table referred to on preceding page is not printed.] benefactors of American education. Hartard College, to which he left half his property (1750), has been the recipient of more benefactions than any similar institution in the country, a list of which will be found in Barnard's Benefactors of American Schools, and in his History of Superior Instruction in the United States. We give on the following page the condition of the property as it stood on the treasurer's book, Ang 811872, amounting to $2,508,256. The grounds, building, museum, apparatus, &c, represent not less than $3,000,000.” |