plan, and, as a rule, without care or repair.
Frequently it stood for years without being repainted, and in the midst
of chaotic and ill-cared-for surroundings. The contract for building it
was usually awarded to some carpenter who was also given _carte blanche_
to do as he pleased in regard to its construction, the only provision
being that he keep within the amount of money allowed--probably eight
hundred or a thousand dollars. The usual result was the plainest kind of
building, without conveniences of any kind. If a blackboard were
provided in the specifications (which were often oral rather than
written), it was perhaps placed in such a position as to be useless. In
the course of my experience as county superintendent of schools, I once
visited a rural school in which the blackboard began at the height of a
man's head and extended to the ceiling, the carpenter probably thinking
that its one purpose was to display permanently the teacher's program.

=No System of Ventilation.=--No system of ventilation was provided in
former days, and in some schoolhouses such is the condition to-day.
Nevertheless, within the past fifteen years, there has been a gratifying
improvement in this direction. It used to be necessary to secure fresh
air, if at all, by opening windows. In some sections, where the climate
is mild, this is the best method of ventilation; but certainly, in
northern latitudes where the winters are long and cold, some system of
forced or automatic ventilation should be provided. It may not be amiss
to assert that it would be an excellent plan to decide first upon a good
system of ventilation and then to build the schoolhouse around it.
Without involving great expense there are simple systems of ventilation
and heating combined which are very efficient for such houses. In
former times, and in some places even yet, the usual method of heating
was by an unjacketed stove which made the pupils who sat nearest it
uncomfortably warm, while those in the farther corners were shivering
with cold. With new systems of ventilation there is an insulating jacket
which equalizes the temperature of the room by heating the fresh air and
distributing it evenly.

It is strange how slowly people change their habits and even their
opinions. Many are ignorant of the fact that in an unventilated
schoolroom each child is breathing over and over again an atmosphere
vitiated by the air exhaled from the lungs of every child in the room.
Th