SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE.

In all well directed efforts of an enlightened people for the improvement of their Schools, the location, size, and construction of the Schoolhouse itself, will claim and receive early attention These local habitations of our Schools are themselves important agencies in the work of instruction. And though silent, they often speak more eloquently and persuasively than the living Teacher. Too much attention, then, cannot be given to the pleasantness and healthfulness of their location; to the comfort and convenience of their arrangements; to the facilities for rendering the School attractive, both as relates to its internal construction and its outward surroundings; to the furniture of the house itself, to the apparatus employed to render the instructions of the Teacher more attractive and impressive; and to the means of securing a genial temperature even during the severity of our winters, and a pure and healthful atmosphere where numbers are con gregated. For no proposition can be more apparent than that, if there is one house in the District more pleasantly located, more comfortably constructed, better warmed, and more inviting in its general appearance, and more elevating in its influence than any other, that house should be the Schoolhouse.

LOCATION OF SCHOOLHOUSES.

In looking at the location of Schoolhouses through the country at large, it cannot have escaped the attention of the ordinary observer, that they are usually located with

Academy in every county, and private Schools to supply the want, are too expensive for the masses-a great portion of those who wish for their aid, being persons of limited means. It were cruel mockery for the State to proclaim free University to its youth, and at the same time remind them that they can reach it only by a heavy preliminary expense. The Union School has established one department additional to the highest ordinary advantages of the old system--why not add another, and meet this great want in our otherwise admirable educational system, and give our young men and women all the advantages of the Acad emy, in their own immediate vicinity?

But one possible objection, it is believed, can be urged against this plan; and that is not valid, because the assumption is not true in fact. That is, that such a department would add to the expense of the Primary School. This is on the supposition that whatever one person gains, some other person must lose; but this is not always true. Two farmers may exchange horses, and both make a good bargain. Much more may this be the case, in business arrangements relating solely to moral and intellectual

means.

It is not here proposed or recommended to admit stu dents to this department absolutely free, or subject only to their share in the rate bills. It is probable that a moderate tuition should be charged them. They might, pursu ant to the provisions of sections 141 and 142 of the School Law, be charged such tuition as the Boards shall deem just, and those residing within or without the District be received on the same terms. The burden of expense in attendance at a High School, is not in the tuition, but in the payment for board, where the student is required to go from home. But here, where the greater number would board at home, a small tuition, and yet more than sufficient to meet the increased expense of the School, would be a

very small consideration with those availing themselves of so great advantages.

By these means, the number of persons who will pursue the higher branches of science, without reference to a University education, will be greatly increased, and thus the blessings of education be more widely extended, and the number of competent School Teachers increased. The Primary School will be dignified in the minds of the young, and their desire for higher advancement stimulated. Thus it would seem to be in every way expedient and beneficial to all parties concerned, to establish such a department wherever it is called for in our Union Schools, under such regulations as the several District Boards may determine.

SCHOOL BUILDINGS, AND THEIR APPENDAGES.

The style and expense of Schoolhouses will of course be in conformity to the taste, ability, and enterprise of the citizens of the District. There are few Districts in the town or country, where the ability of the inhabitants is not sufficient for the fitting up of a building and grounds, on a scale co-extensive with the demand, and in a style equal to the taste they should cultivate, and the interest which they should have in the subject. Wherever the subject of education is properly appreciated, as much regard will be had to the style of the Schoolhouse, as there is to that of the church. Our Creator could be worshipped by the "great congregation" in a rude structure designed for secular use; and our children may bow at the shrine of knowledge in a log hovel; but neither is desirable, if it can be avoided. As a man, in view of towering mountains, the mighty cataract, or an ocean storm, realizes more sensibly, the majesty and power of his Maker, so the child in a beautiful Schoolhouse, surrounded by verdant shade, and blooming flowers, will more fully realize the dignity of his own nature, and the desirableness of its im

little reference to taste, or the health and comfort of Teacher or children. They are generally on one corner of public roads, and sometimes adjacent to a cooper's shop, or between a blacksmith's shop and a saw-mill. They are not unfrequently placed upon an acute angle, where a road forks, and sometimes in turning that angle the travel is chiefly behind the Schoolhouse, leaving it on a small triangle, bounded on all sides by public roads.

At other times the Schoolhouse is situated on a low and worthless piece of ground, with a sluggish stream of water in its vicinity, which sometimes even passes under the Schoolhouse. The comfort and health, even of innocent and loved children, are thus sacrificed to the parsimony of their parents.

Scholars very generally step from the Schoolhouse directly into the highway. Indeed, Schoolhouses are frequently one-half in the highway, and the other half in the adjacent field, as though they were unfit for either. This is still the case, even in some of our principal villages, though many of them have, within the last few years, nobly redeemed themselves.

Schoolhouses are sometimes situated in the middle of the highway, a portion of the travel being on each side of them. When scholars are engaged in their recreations, they are exposed to bleak winds and the inclemency of the weather one portion of the year, and to the scorching rays of the meridian sun another portion. Moreover, their recreations must be conducted in the street, or they trespass upon their neighbors' premises. Such situations can hardly be expected to exert the most favorable influence upon the habits and character of the rising generation.

We pursue a very different policy in locating a church, a court house, or a dwelling. And should we not pursue an equally wise and liberal policy in locating the District Schoolhouse?

In this State six hundred and forty acres of land in every

township are appropriated to the support of Primary Schools. Suppose there are eight School Districts in a township: This would allow eighty acres to every School District. It would seem that when the general government has appropriated eighty acres to create a fund for the support of Schools, that each district might set apart four acres-which is but one acre in twenty-as a site for a Schoolhouse.

Once more: one School District usually contains not less than twenty-five hundred acres of land. Is it asking too much to set apart four acres as a site for a Schoolhouse in which the minds of the children of the District shall be cultivated, when twenty-four hundred and ninety-six acres are appropriated to clothing and feeding their bodies?

I would respectfully suggest, and even urge the propriety of locating the Schoolhouse on a piece of firm ground of liberal dimensions, and of inclosing the same with a suitable fence. The inclosure should be set out with shade trees, unless provided with those of nature's own planting, and ornamented with shrubs and flowers. Scholars would then enjoy their pastime in a pleasant and healthful inclosure, where they have a right to be, protected alike from the scorching sun and the wintry blast. They need then no longer be hunted as trespassers upon their neighbors' premises, as they now too frequently are.

SIZE OF SCHOOLHOUSES CONSIDERED IN CONNECTION WITH THE PHILOSOPHY OF RESPIRATION.

Some of our principal cities and villages can now boast as noble structures for Schoolhouses as can any of the older States of the Union, as will appear from the plans and descriptions of those hereto appended. And the work of improvement, in this respect, is perhaps now going on as rapidly in the State of Michigan, as in any of the older States. But as yet, in view of what remains to be done, it can hardly be regarded as more than well begun.