this village to
the sea-coast, where they were opening the new Rotterdam canal. At
Naaldwijk, thanks to the politeness of an inspector of schools who was
with me, I gratified my desire to see an elementary school, and I will
state at once that my great expectations were more than realized. The
house, built expressly for the school, was a separate building one
story in height. We first went into a little vestibule, where there
were a number of wooden shoes, which the inspector told me belonged to
the pupils, who place them there on their entrance into school and put
them on again when they go out. In school the boys wear only stockings
which are very thick, consequently their feet do not suffer from cold,
especially as the rooms are as hot as if they were a minister's
cabinet. On our entrance the pupils stood up and the master advanced
toward the inspector. Even that poor village master spoke French, and
so we were able to enter into conversation. There were in the school
about forty pupils, both boys and girls, who sat on opposite sides of
the room; all were fair and fat, with plump, good-natured faces; they
had the precocious air of little men and women, which I could not
observe without laughing. The building was divided into five rooms,
each separated from the other by a large glass partition, which
enclosed all the space like a wall, so that if a master were absent
from one class the teacher of the next class could overlook the pupils
of his colleague without leaving his post. All the rooms are large and
have high windows which reach from the floor to the ceiling, so that
it is almost as light inside as it is outside. The benches, walls,
floors, windows, and stoves were as clean as if they had been in a
ball-room. Having a lively recollection of certain unpleasant places
in the schools I attended as a boy, I asked to see the closets, and
found them such as few of the best hotels can boast. Afterward on the
school-room walls I saw a great many things that I remember to have
wished for when I sat at the desks, such as small pictures of
landscapes or figures, to which the master referred in his stories and
instruction, so that they should be stamped the better on the memory;
representations of common objects and animals; geographical maps
purposely made with large names and painted in bright colors;
proverbs, grammatical rules, and precepts very plainly printed. Only
one thing seemed to me lacking--personal cleanliness.