e fact that twenty to forty pupils are often housed in
poorly-ventilated schools accounts for much sickness and disease among
country children. Whatever it is that makes air "fresh," and healthful,
that factor is not found under the conditions described. Changes in the
temperature and movement of the air are, no doubt, important in securing
a healthful physiological reaction, but air contaminated and befouled by
bodies and lungs has stupefying effects which cannot be ignored.
Frequent change of air is essential.

=The Surroundings.=--The typical country schoolhouse, as it existed in
the past, and as it frequently exists to-day, has not sufficient land to
form a good yard and a playground appropriate for its needs. The farmer
who sold or donated the small tract of land often plows almost to the
very foundation walls. There are usually no trees near by to afford
shelter or to give the place a homelike and attractive appearance. Some
trees may have been planted, but owing to neglect they have all died
out, and nothing remains but a few dead and unsightly trunks. There is
usually no fence around the school yard, and the outbuildings are
frequently a disgrace, if not a positive menace to the children's
morals. If a choice had to be made it would be better to allow children
to grow up in their native liberty and wildness without a school
"education" than to have them subjected to mental and moral degradation
by the vicious suggestions received in some of these places. Weak
teachers have a false modesty in regard to such conditions and school
boards are often thoughtless or negligent.

=The Interior.=--Within the building there is frequently no adequate
equipment in the way of apparatus, supplementary reading, or reference
books of any kind. There are no decorations on the walls except such as
are put there by mischievous children. The whole situation both inside
and out brings upon one a feeling of desolation. Men and women who live
in reasonably comfortable homes near by allow the school home of their
precious children to remain for years unattractive and uninspiring in
every particular. Again this is the result of ignorance,
thoughtlessness, or negligence--a negligence that comes alarmingly close
to guilt.

=Small, Dead School.=--In many a lone rural schoolhouse may be found
ten to twenty small children; and behind the desk a teacher holding only
a second or third grade elementary or county certificate. The whole
institu