Now, in a general way let me summarize the conclusions reached by correspondence in Ohio and in other states. No attempt at accurate statistics is made. There is too much detail, and this is not the time or place to give figures. A committee of careful and judicious educators. appointed by the National Educational Association can get much valuable information by compiling available material gathered from all the states of the union. Ohio will contribute its full share; so will Massachusetts, Indiana, and many other states. The movement toward centralization is generally approved in farmers' conventions and by the Grange. The farmers of America wish their children to be well educated, and once thoroly convinced of the practicability of the new movement they will give it a fair trial and respond to all demands put upon them. In closing let me summarize : 1. Centralization encourages the growth of high schools, thereby giving the country boys and girls an equal opportunity of receiving advanced training with those that live in cities and villages. 2. Centralization encourages supervision and inspection of all work done, thereby encouraging definiteness of aim and securing full return for money spent. 3. It permits better grading and classification. 4. It encourages an enrichment of the work, often giving to the pupi's of the township music, drawing, and other special branches under special teachers elected by the township board of education. 5. It fosters township libraries and provides ready means for the distribution of good literature to both young and old. 6. It invariably insures better teaching, and generally it brings to the teacher more and longer terms of employment. 7. It invariably operates to keep the larger boys and girls in school, when otherwise they would be content with meager preparation for life. 8. It brings to the people of a township a certain community of feeling, a certain companionship and charity, which otherwise would hardly. be possible. Sectarian and political differences are not so noticeable under the new as under the old régime. The people get better aquainted; and frequently the same wagons which transport the children to school in the daytime will at night transport their parents to lectures, concerts, and other social gatherings. 9. The improvement in apparatus, laboratories, charts, blackboards, desks, furniture, heating apparatus, toilet arrangements, and matters of like kind is quite apparent. The board of education having but one building to paint, or shingle, or repair, naturally also there is saved much current expense. 10. The school attendance is invariably much more regular, is of longer continuance, and teachers are very little annoyed with truancy and tardiness. 11. The cost of maintaining the school, including transportation, differs according to local conditions, and reports are made sometimes showing more expense than under the old plan, and sometimes less. One of my enthusiastic friends reports that he would rather have one month under the new conditions for his children than a year of the old. 12. The health and morals of the children usually are guarded better by the new method than by the old; the children are happier; they are better taught, and the people get larger returns for their money. SCHOOLROOM TEMPERATURE AND HUMIDITY WILLIAM GEORGE BRUCE, EDITOR "AMERICAN SCHOOL BOARD JOURNAL," MILWAUKEE, WIS. We have reached a period where the schoolhouse has become more than a mere gathering center or a shelter against the elements. We have come to recognize that its very walls are a factor in the educational growth of the child. We regulate its appointments in order that they may bear the largest educative influence upon the inmates, and also protect their physical welfare as a prerequisite to intellectual advancement. Until a few years ago the essentials of a schoolhouse were few. Today we discriminate among a variety of systems of heating devised by able engineers. Ventilation has been reduced to an exact science. Schoolroom lighting is thoroly understood and correctly applied. In drawing comparisons between the old and the new schoolhouse some school-board members are apt to lapse into the belief that the crude structure of former days, with its meager equipment, will suffice for today. Others reason that the modern schoolhouse is too expensive. One might as well argue that the wooden plowshare of ancient times will serve as well as the steel plow of today, or that a tallow candle will shed as much radiance as an electric light. The boy of today requires a better mental equipment for the battle of life than did his forefathers. The general progress in all lines of human activity will make greater demands upon the young man of the future. Thus, not only the modern school, with its well-devised courses of study and educational methods, but the schoolhouse as well, is the result of advanced conditions. One of the peculiar features which have developed in my inquiry on temperature regulation in schoolhouses is the tendency to confound it with another subject. It would seem unnecessary to explain that heat regulation pertains entirely to a system by which temperature is con trolled against excessive heat or excessive cold. It would seem equally unnecessary to explain specifically that ventilation pertains to the induction of fresh air and the removal of foul air. While everyone knows this, we find many school officials who do not differentiate temperature regulation from ventilation. No doubt, if asked point blank to define the difference between temperature regulation and ventilation, a correct answer would be received in each instance. It is not ignorance, but thoughtlessness, that causes the misconception. It is one thing to provide a class-room constantly with fresh air; it is an entirely different thing so to regulate the air that it is neither too warm nor too cold. Thus, let us bear in mind the wide difference between ventilation and temperature regulation. A discussion of the subject of temperature regulation can only result in beneficial results. If school officials have hitherto occupied their minds with the various kinds of heating systems to the exclusion of temperature regulation, it is because the latter has not been urged upon them with any considerable pressure. Busy men-busy in their several vocations in life- do not always find it convenient to give the time necessary for a thoro study of all the things that ought to go into or about a schoolhouse. In the modern schoolhouse artificial heat need no longer be measured out extravagantly or penuriously to discomfort or danger. It can be placed under automatic control by simple devices-insuring economy and protecting the health of the pupils. An even temperature at a certain degree is conducive to the growth of plant and animal life. Vegetable and animal foods owe their prolonged preservation to an even temperature. An apple picked in October of last year and found in fine flavor and juice in the month of June this year owes its wonderful preservation to nothing else than an even temperature. The qualities of the apple have been prolonged by the control of natural elements. In the same manner has the growth of the strawberry which reaches the market in the month of January been hastened by surrounding it with a temperate atmosphere. Temperature extremes hasten the death of both plant and animal life. It may be claimed that a variation of temperature is conducive to hardihood. Under certain conditions, yes. A child may withstand extreme cold while engaged in healthful exercise. Under certain conditions extreme heat may be borne without injurious effects. When the body, however, is inactive, a variable temperature is harmful. Thus an overheated as well as an under-heated schoolroom may do incalculable injury to the child. The automatic control of schoolroom temperature involves primarily the question of finance. The great majority of schoolhouses in the United States require artificial heating during seven months in the year. The fuel expense in cities and towns, where large buildings must constantly be kept warm, is a heavy one. The consumption of fuel is steady and constant during certain periods of the year-continuing year after year. Thus any slight daily reduction in fuel consumption may prove a considerable saving at the end of a month or a year. The saving of a few hundred dollars in the purchase of a school site or the erection of a school building offers no comparison with the aggregate saving accomplished in a daily reduction of the fuel expense. Every degree of excess heat represents that much waste. Temperature regulation in the schoolroom, however, is a simple proposition. It requires no expert mathematician to measure its material advantage, nor a medical expert to determine its hygienic qualities. A few things only need be considered. If the outdoor temperature is fifty degrees, and the school temperature should be seventy degrees, only twenty degrees of artificial heat is required to make the schoolroom comfortable. Consequently the fuel expenditure should cover twenty degrees only. That which goes above this is waste, and consequently extravagance. An open window to cool off an overheated room is an unwarranted exposure of the school occupants to coughs and colds, which may lead to serious results. No school board has the right to endanger the physical comfort and welfare of pupil or teacher. The fuel expenditure should cover only the difference between the outdoor and indoor temperature. This may vary all the way from zero up. Variation may be constant. The most attentive janitor may miss his firing by several degrees of the temperature desired or required. In the forenoon the outdoor temperature may be forty degrees; in the afternoon, fifty degrees. Consequently thirty degrees of artificial heat are required in the forenoon, and only twenty degrees in the afternoon. The janitor may anticipate the changes in temperature. The chances are that he will not. The surplus heat has either escaped thru the chimney with. the janitor's aid, or thru the schoolroom window with the teacher's aid. A well-adjusted mechanical device would regulate the temperature from minute to minute without human aid, and regulate the fuel consumption accordingly. Even a few degrees of excess heat will make a vast difference in the aggregate of fuel consumption for the year. Therefore an accurate adjustment of fuel consumption must effect a saving in the fuel expense. The physical welfare of the teacher and pupil cannot be treated as a secondary consideration. In fact, if it is admitted at all that hygiene is a factor in schoolroom temperature, it follows that it is one that must preclude monetary considerations. Therefore, if a system of temperature regulation will effect an actual saving in dollars and cents, sufficient to pay its installment in a few years, the advantage is a double one. Were this not the case, the hygienic proposition involved would alone be sufficient to warrant a recognition of the advantage derived from a heatregulating device. The subject of atmospheric humidity, or air moisture, and its relation differentiate temperature regulation from ventilation. No doubt, if asked point blank to define the difference between temperature regulation and ventilation, a correct answer would be received in each instance. It is not ignorance, but thoughtlessness, that causes the misconception. It is one thing to provide a class-room constantly with fresh air; it is an entirely different thing so to regulate the air that it is neither too warm nor too cold. Thus, let us bear in mind the wide difference between ventilation and temperature regulation. A discussion of the subject of temperature regulation can only result in beneficial results. If school officials have hitherto occupied their minds with the various kinds of heating systems to the exclusion of temperature regulation, it is because the latter has not been urged upon them with any considerable pressure. Busy men-busy in their several vocations in life-do not always find it convenient to give the time necessary for a thoro study of all the things that ought to go into or about a schoolhouse. In the modern schoolhouse artificial heat need no longer be measured out extravagantly or penuriously to discomfort or danger. It can be placed under automatic control by simple devices- insuring economy and protecting the health of the pupils. An even temperature at a certain degree is conducive to the growth of plant and animal life. Vegetable and animal foods owe their prolonged preservation to an even temperature. An apple picked in October of last year and found in fine flavor and juice in the month of June this year owes its wonderful preservation to nothing else than an even temperature. The qualities of the apple have been prolonged by the control of natural elements. In the same manner has the growth of the strawberry which reaches the market in the month of January been hastened by surrounding it with a temperate atmosphere. Temperature extremes hasten the death of both plant and animal life. It may be claimed that a variation of temperature is conducive to hardihood. Under certain conditions, yes. A child may withstand extreme cold while engaged in healthful exercise. Under certain conditions extreme heat may be borne without injurious effects. When the body, however, is inactive, a variable temperature is harmful. Thus an overheated as well as an under-heated schoolroom may do incalculable injury to the child. The automatic control of schoolroom temperature involves primarily the question of finance. The great majority of schoolhouses in the United States require artificial heating during seven months in the year. The fuel expense in cities and towns, where large buildings must con stantly be kept warm, is a heavy one. The consumption of fuel is steady and constant during certain periods of the year-continuing year after |