10
THE CHEMAWA AMERICAN
of pure water, that the buildings are well painted, that the architectural
plan is such that it will be comfortable and convenient, that windows,
floors and walls are clean are some of the important features that have
become fixed in patrons’ minds. And, also, perfectly blank walls are
no longer tolerated. They realize that a bare school yard is not attrac
tive to the child who has a shady well-kept lawn at home, and no more
attractive is a school wall that is void of everything in the way of taste
ful decorations. Pictures, statuary and ornaments of various kinds
fill up the vacant space on the walls.
Compare the modern school building with the bust of Washington,
a picture Longfellow, copies of several of the World’s best paintings
neatly framed and tatsefully arranged. A well-polished stove with a
jacket around it, a building so constructed that the lights do not cross
on the child’s book, a drinking fountain, a lunch or cloak room, and
the entire building well painted. A neat yard with here and there a
shade tree, perhaps a flowering bush is to be seen; compare all of this
with the school some of the obstinate members of the school board at
tended and one will see school walls with names and initials all over them
as high as the tallest boy can reach, when standing on a desk, and dates
so far back one would be amazed to think that a wall could exist so
long without a fresh coat of whitewash. The ceiling perhaps will have
mud balls on it, shot there by that some obstinate director when he was
a boy. The desks carved with pocketknives until a level space is hard
to find. There is nothing to say about the paint on the building be
cause the building has had no paint since the prime coat it received
when first erected. The school yard abroad stretch of earth, dirt and
rubbish.
After the comparison has been made it can easily l)e seen which
school will attract the children and hold them under its helpful influence
until they have finished the eighth grade. More than the mentioned
improvements has been accomplished in some districts, while others
have done nothing But the work of beautifying the school has been
started and will be finished.
Consolidation of Rural Schools is one of the vast strides the rural
districts are beginning to take. The idea is not to copy the city school,
but to make the rural schools better, make them reach the needs of the
rural people and educate the farmer’s children at home.
One of the strongest objections that has been offered when several
districts attempt to form themselves into one was the extra expense.
In some instances it has been founnd necessery to raise the taxes at
first and sometimes they have remained at the figures to which they
were raised. Considering the advance in prices of all kinds this is not
a strange fact. In some districts the tax rate has lowered after the school