PART III.

THE PRIMARY SCHOOL SYSTEM;

SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE;

SCHOOL FURNITURE ;

SCHOOL APPARATUS ;

SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS;

WARMING AND VENTILATION;

SCHOOL AND LITERARY BOOKS.

THE PRIMARY SCHOOL SYSTEM.

ORIGINAL DESIGN.

The original legal provisions for the support and management of the Primary Schools of Michigan were of a general character, and made no distinction between the different circumstances of the most sparsely populated settlements and the growing towns or villages. At the time of the passage of the first Primary School law by the Territorial government, and even when the State Constitution was adopted, and the first State School law enacted, there were very few villages large enough to furnish more scholars than could be accommodated in a single School. house. Had it been otherwise, it is probable that the legislation would have been the same; for the reason that the defects of the system, copied from older States, had not been considered, and no remedy was of course sought. The legislation seemed only to provide for, or to anticipate for the future, single Districts, to include no more territory than would furnish scholars sufficient for a single Schoolhouse, and one Teacher. This was probably the only system adapted to the necessities of sparsely settled sections, where to obtain the required number of scholars for a School, some must travel perhaps two miles, with bad roads, to reach a common centre.

The only system thus adapted to the necessities of the case in the country, was given also to the towns; and in many instances, the small villages, with the territory im mediately adjacent, furnished no more than enough scholars

1

41.

it was all that could be done; but in three or four years, perhaps, the increase of population was such, that one Schoolhouse was not large enough; and the first, and probably the only thought was, to divide the District and build another house; naturally leaving the old one badly located, in reference to its new relations. But soon a swarming of both hives was necessary, and another division was made, and a third District created. Thus in many villages there were created, in a very few years, two, three, and four School Districts, with as many enclosures. dignified with the name of Schoolhouses, within pistol shot of each other, and most of them badly located.

One section of the village, perhaps, had a School eight months in the year, another six, and another three-or none at all. Each acted independently of the others, as Districts; one may have had what was called a good School, (good by comparison,) and another, a wretchedly poor oneand sometimes the only rivalry seemed to be, to prove which could have the most objectionable School appliances, and the worst management, and acquire the reputation of sustaining the name of a School with the least expense. In some instances it may be, a District might be found, where a few citizens of enlarged and liberal views, were able to infuse a similar spirit into the hearts of their neighbors, and in their District a Schoolhouse was built and furnished in a style that was the delight of the children, and the pride of its patrons; while the children of an adjoining District-the every-day playmates, out of School, of the favored ones-were required to assemble at the miserable hovel, built with less taste, and attended to with less care, than was the horse-barn of many of the fathers of the injured pupils. Two lads might leave home from opposite sides of the street, walk together for a time, and one turn one way to his pleasant School, with joyous assa ciations, while the other went another way to his School,