Excerpt from Public Schools: Their Construction, Heating, Ventilation, Sanitation, Lighting and Equipment

The people of this country are waking up to the realization, that education is the fundamental need of the growing generation, that our country can be sustained in its upward progress only by the proper development of the intellectual, moral and physical, in the growing child. More and more, we realize that our greatest debt and most sacred obligation is to our children, and that no expense is too great, no tax too heavy to bear, if it means their betterment; and in order to obtain this result, it is necessary to have modern improved facilities in keeping with the advancement of the age in which we live.

A glance backward over the wonderful progress made in all lines of endeavor dur ing the past twenty years should convince any right thinking person that the schools of twenty years ago are inadequate for the needs of today. As we discard the scythe for the modern mowing machine, or the old fashioned cradle for the new improved binder and reaper, so, in like manner, we must discard the old methods of teaching for the improved, broadened and more adequate methods in keeping with the needs of the pupils. We must also discard the old wornout, unsanitary, unventilated, poorly lighted school buildings, which have more than served their purpose. We must, carefully examine our newer buildings, as we become acquainted with our needs, and improve them as they lack the essentials, and build new, if need be, to provide sanitary, well lighted, well heated, well ventilated, well equipped modern school buildings if our young people are to do the best they are capable of.

The average business man of today would no more think of running his business in the fashion of a hundred years ago than he would think of discarding the automobile for the antiquated ox cart, yet many intelligent people are still blind to the fact that a school house as erected twenty years ago, is as totally inadequate for present school purposes, as the ox cart is inadequate compared to the automobile for present day travel. It therefore becomes necessary to draw some comparison as a means of enlightenment for the average taxpayer and as an assistant to the School Boards in their endeavor to provide the essential features of an efficient economically operated school. We will therefore illustrate some of the conditions that prevail to a greater or less degree in all parts of our country, these are not extreme cases but the average condition in buildings erected for fifteen to twenty years.

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