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the capital sunk in land and buildings, a still further sum of 5s. 6d. per scholar must be added, making a total of 40s. per annum, of which the State provides 17s. It is to be observed, however, that if schools receiving annual grants were as full as they might be, the number of children in average attendance at them might be 900,000 instead of 748,164, and that this increase would not entail a proportionate increase either of the direct or indirect charges.

Whatever may be the shape in which popular education may hereafter be established, and whether or not the age of daily attendance at school can, or ought to be, materially prolonged, it is evident that attention should be paid to the following points, under any system, and under all circumstances :

1. Parents may make their children attend regularly, even if they must withdraw them soon. The age for remunerative labour cannot, perhaps, be postponed; but mere truancy, and the odd jobs of home, need not anticipate it.

2. The work of instruction, under judicious conditions, may begin early.

3. The first result demanded of the elementary day-school is, that the generation passing through it shall begin the world with the power to read, write, and cipher. With that power, every thing is open to them; without it, nothing. If it be not acquired before work begins, the chances are greatly against its ever being acquired afterwards. It may well be acquired before the end of the tenth year. The process of acquiring it should be so ordered as to impart both information and discipline. But parents are much more alive to the imperative necessity of the power itself, than is always the case either with teachers or managers; and the frequently just disappointment of parents explains irregular attendance, or seemingly capricious removals.

CODIFICATION OF MINUTES.

It has long been felt by teachers and managers of schools that there was occasional difficulty in referring to the several rules and minutes of the Privy Council, owing to the manner in which they were scattered through the volumes of different years. This difficulty has now been wholly removed. The entire body of Minutes, Rules and Regulations, issued from the first down to the present year, has been reduced into the form of a code, which can be obtained in a form most convenient for reference at a cost of fourpence-halfpenny. We are informed that in future correspondence it is intended by the authorities at the Council Office to make constant reference to this document; and we are sure that all such correspondence will be greatly facilitated if the secretaries and managers of schools generally will possess themselves of a copy of it. It may be obtained, like all other parliamentary papers, through any bookseller, either of the Queen's Printer, or Messrs. Longman; and its title is, "Copy of Minutes and Regulations of the Committee of Council on Education, reduced into the form of a Code. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 27th April, 1860."

VENTILATION OF SCHOOLS.

WE desire again to call the attention of our readers to the absolute importance of better provision than is already made in schools for due ventilation. The action of confined and bad air on the health of children is so mischievous, and at the same time so silent and insidious, that it constantly needs to be pressed upon the attention of all who are concerned in the management of schools. Recently published testimony on this point proves but too painfully that, in spite of all that has been said and done concerning ventilation, many school-rooms are sources of disease to teachers and children. On entering a school it is often apparent that the air is charged with impurity, that in consequence the children are languid and depressed, the discipline is relaxed, and the teacher feverish and excited, ready to impute the inattention and restlessness of his pupils to every cause except the true one. This is, indeed, the worst

feature of the case. In nine cases out of ten the teacher is unconscious that anything is wrong. He goes on inhaling the noxious gases, without suspecting the fact. The process by which the atmosphere has become vitiated has gone on since he entered the room, and he has been insensible of it. In many schools which are seldom visited by managers or strangers, the evil remains undetected, and the mischief done is enormous. It is therefore especially desirable that teachers should be reminded by the experience of those who have viewed their work ab extra, of the very great need which exists for a closer watchfulness on their part. Thus, Mr. Watkins, in speaking of the schools which he has visited in Yorkshire, says :—

"It must be acknowledged that ventilation of the school-rooms in Yorkshire, as, indeed, in almost all rooms, public or private, elsewhere, is very imperfect. In some of the latest buildings I have found no provision made for the escape of foul air, except by windows, which are closed for nearly half the year; and it is very unusual to meet with any arrangement for supplying the room with fresh and warm air. Cold air in the heavy draughts is plentiful enough, and mischievous enough. The blame of this should, I think, be shared between the architect of the building and the managers of the school."

This is a true picture, but the evils arising out of such a state of things are still more clearly pointed out by Mr. Mitchell, who, in describing the schools of the Eastern Counties, says :

"I invariably take particular notice when the teachers or pupil-teachers suffer from ill-health; this almost invariably happens when the rooms are improperly lighted, or imperfectly ventilated. Thus :

1. "At one school, lattice windows; mistress had a brain fever.

2. " Imperfect ventilation; pupil-teacher's health failed.

3. "Bad ventilation; two pupil-teachers failed in health.

4. "Bad light and ventilation; mistress has constant headaches.

5. Bad light and ventilation; mistress complains of the effects.

6. "One pupil-teacher in consumption, and one has Vitus's dance; very defective light.

66 Fressingfield; bad ventilation and diamond panes ; pupil-teacher broken down in health.

"Some managers tell me that, of course, girls and boys will sometimes be ill. But if a room can be proved to be unhealthy, according to known principles of lighting and ventilation, it is in vain to insist that this has nothing to do with the fact of illness. It is impossible to swallow poison, even in very small doses, without feeling the effects; and I fear that, constituted as many of our present school-rooms are, the effects produced upon the rising population will be very detrimental. In any case bad air is most injurious. How much more when the present methods of teaching demand all the intellectual and physical faculties of both teachers and taught! "The high-pitched roof is a cause too often both of wretched light and ventilation. There is no ceiling reflection to throw the light down into the room, and as there are often no ventilators, and mostly very inefficient ones, the whole space beneath the roof becomes a mere reservoir of foul air, which is constantly descending into the room. To remedy these defects the only plan is a skylight. One at Thorpe Hamlet School is very well contrived; it opens upwards from the top instead of the bottom of the frame, and the hot air consequently rises to nearly the roof, and so escapes. It is placed also close alongside the whitewashed wall, which reflects the whole light into the room, acting much in the same way as the ceiling in ceiled rooms. I recommend this plan."

Mr. Stewart's experience is to the same effect:—

"I very seldom enter a school-room of which I can say that the air is without taint; and I find that in many instances the teachers know it, suffer from it, but yet shrink from the only alternative within their reach, viz., doing their work in a

thorough draught. I cannot omit to mention that a great amount of illness among the school-teachers of this district has come to my knowledge during the year. Three teachers are dead, one mistress is still unable to take a school, several have suffered from fever or ulcerated sore throats, and the health of some students in training, who have been apprenticed in schools remarkable for want of ventilation, has broken down. "If it can be shown that the conditions under which adult teachers work are prejudicial to their health, it may be taken for granted that the school children have suffered quite as much, if not more, although the fact is not readily got at. I say that it may be taken for granted, because it is well-known that young children suffer more than adults from confinement in close rooms.

"It often happens, and especially in towns, that a particular school acquire- an amount of popularity which attracts to it a crowd of children, filling up every available seat till there is literally no room left for real work. When a room is thus overfilled, very little real teaching is done, and yet the managers, from a variety of causes, will not make up their minds to limit the number of admissions."

The same gentleman adds some suggestions respecting the best modes of ventilation and warming, which we commend to the notice of our readers.

"With regard to the modern schemes for warming and ventilating rooms, the general object seems to be to supersede an open fireplace and chimney, to economise fuel, and to supply air previously warmed by a variety of devices. A great many rooms are heated by Arnott's stoves, others by stoves with descending flues; and both possess the same feature, viz., that either no chimney exists, or the chimney is bricked up and the stove-pipe made to pass through the roof, or a hole in one of the walls. Another modification of the same principle is to make a current of air from without enter a room behind, or below some stove which displaces the common fireplace; and lastly, there are rooms heated by hot-water pipes, or by heated air supplied from furnaces in outbuildings.

"It is necessary to bear in mind that these plans are adopted for rooms which do not present the conditions of a common sitting-room, which is amply supplied with fresh air from the crevices of the doors and windows, or from the occasional opening of a door, without any personal inconvenience to its occupants. These are schemes applied to rooms built to hold as many children as possible, and therefore requiring an unusually regular supply of fresh air. But besides the absence of chimneys, as it is the prevailing fashion to mediævalise modern school-rooms, only a small portion of the window is made to open partially, and the greater portion of the glass is cemented into the glass groove in the jambs and mullions.

"In a room with a common fireplace, the heat radiates from the fire and warms the cool air which enters and supports combustion, while the chimney acts as a ventilating shaft, and draws off a large amount of the air which has been used for respiration; but rooms such as I have described, in which this common arrangement is set aside, which are filled with children, and heated by stoves or hot-water pipes, become in a very short time loaded with poisonous carbonic acid gas, which has no sufficient means of rapid escape. Those who are shut up in these places are soon depressed and exhausted, and those who attempt to enter from without are almost overpowered by the sickening odour which acts as a warning of the mischief which is going on. Whenever the vital powers are depressed by breathing this impure air, a great susceptibility of cold is produced. Hence it is that teachers prefer a warm air, though ill fitted for respiration, to exposure to draughts of cold air.

"Where rooms are heated by air from flues, as some of the schools in this district are, the risk of injury to the health of those who live in them becomes still greater. In the first place, I have observed that the air supplied to the rooms is always loaded with a fine dust, which is irritating to the lungs; and in the next place, air heated by passing over hot iron becomes so attenuated as to lose a large amount of its power to sustain life. This objection is based upon the observations of a physician."

Such evils as are the result of defective building or drainage are not always in the power of a teacher to remedy; but wherever they exist, it is at least his duty to urge the matter upon the consideration of the school managers, until the needful alteration is made. But there is one partial remedy for confined or imperfect ventilation which is almost always accessible. It may be found in the practice, now very generally adopted in good schools, of marching the whole of the school children into the play-ground for ten or fifteen minutes at about the middle of the school-time; and causing the windows and doors of the school-room to be thrown open meanwhile.

The time thus given may be devoted to marching and drill, or to simple collective exercises of a gymnastic character, adapted to strengthen the limbs and improve the carriage of the children. Any teacher can acquire the power of conducting such exercises with very great ease and rapidity. The only movements required are the simplest "extension motions" and "facings" which drill-sergeants use. If these are promptly and well done, they will prove very interesting to children, healthful and animating to the school-work generally, and will, in a well-disciplined school, not be found to involve any real loss of time, even when the quarter of an hour is not made up, as it should be, by keeping the school at work until a quarter past twelve. The advantage of thus purifying the air of the school-room, instead of allowing it to be gradually deteriorated during the long period of three hours, will be very manifest;. and will more than compensate for any trouble which it may give to the teacher. Incidentally, also, it is to be observed that whatever gives cheerfulness and life to the school-work is of itself of great value. A grave adult teacher, whose movements are habitually slow and decorous, can often scarcely understand the restlessness of children. He puts it down as a fault, when it is, in fact, a physical necessity. He ought to remember that the nature of a growing child rebels against close confinement in a constrained attitude for three hours at a time. The little one wants movement and activity, and he is not necessarily naughty or disobedient because he shows that he wants it. If teachers more frequently recognised this necessity and made provision for it, by considering that occasional cheerful exercise in the fresh air was a useful part even of school-work, offences against discipline would occur less frequently; and what is of still more importance, the health of the children would be less likely to be injured by the confined and foul air which is so often to be found in school-rooms.

TESTIMONIALS TO TEACHERS.

LONDON, SOHO.-The half-yearly soirée of the Ship-yard School, in connexion with Oxendon Chapel (Dr. Archer's), was held on Tuesday, May 29th; the chair was occupied by W. S. Lindsay, Esq., M.P. The meeting was addressed by Dr. Boaz, of Calcutta, Joseph Payne, Esq., the Rev. Messrs. Ritchie, Redpath, Stratten, M'Gill, and Dr. Archer. During the evening a very pleasing incident took place, in the shape of the presentation of a testimonial, by old scholars, to Mr. Lawrence, who has been master of the school for fourteen years. The testimonial consisted of Bagster's large Comprehensive Bible, most elegantly bound in morocco antique, and also a beautifully finished walnut writing-desk, with a suitable engraved inscription; these were accompanied by a very feeling address, written by the old scholars, to which Mr. Lawrence replied in appropriate terms.

EBLEY. An exceedingly interesting meeting has lately been held here, under the presidency of S. S. Marling, Esq., to present a testimonial to the teachers, Mr. Webb, and Mrs. Bruton, in acknowledgment of their long and faithful services. Mr. Webb has been the indefatigable master of this school for nearly twenty years, during which time upwards of a thousand children have received, at his hands, the blessings of a useful education and sound moral training.

The testimonial consisted of a purse containing £80, which was the contribution of the managers of the school and of persons in the neighbourhood, to whom Mr. Webb's character and services were well known. The "old scholars," represented by Mr. Richard Smith, next presented a clock-a very handsome chimney timepiece, in black marble-to which a silver plate was attached, bearing the inscription, "Presented to Mr. H. Webb, Ebley, by his old scholars, as a mark of affectionate regard." The next presentation was made by scholars now in the school, and consisted of "Scott's Commentary upon the Bible," in six volumes, which were carried by six little children—three boys and three girls-all under four years of age, and by them handed to the master, after the reading of a letter by Henry Herbert, on behalf of his schoolfellows.

The presentation to the mistress then followed, the testimonial consisting of a very elegant skeleton time-piece, under a glass shade, and inscribed as follows:"Presented to Mrs. A. Bruton, by friends who have long admired her patient perseverance in the cause of education."

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Subscriptions and Donations will be thankfully received by Messrs. HANBURYS and Co., Bankers to the Society, 60, Lombard-street; and at the Society's House, Borough-road.

Printed by GEORGE UNWIN, of No. 8, Grove Place, in the Parish of St. John, Hackney, in the County of Middlesex, at his Printing Office, 31, Bucklersbury, in the Parish of St. Stephen, Walbrook, in the City of London; and Published by THE SOCIETY, at the Depository, Borough Road.-MONDAY, JULY 2, 1860.

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