EDITORIAL.

SCHOOL-HOUSEKEEPING.

"She is an excellent housekeeper, she is," remarked a friend of Mrs. Pleasanthouse. A higher compliment could not have been paid that lady.

Now, this language implies more than that Mrs. P. is a good cook, and a good manager of her children. Indeed, it scarcely relates to these qualities at all. A lady may be perfect in the theory and prac tice of the cuisine art, and a model in the way of instructing and disciplining her children, and still be a sorry housekeeper.

Mrs. Pleasanthouse has the faculty of keeping her home in good condition, as to convenience, cleanliness and taste. Furniture and fixtures are so arranged as, to give her house an air of comfort. And how cleanly is every thing. Sweep her rooms from attic to basement, and you will not get dust enough to cover a grain of mustard-seed. Enter her house at any time, and you will be struck with the cheerful, home-like aspect of things. House and furniture are neither splendid nor costly. Indeed, they are rather plain and common; but their arrangement has been made with such good taste, that they make a show of respectability far superior to that of many residences of ten times the cost and pretension. And this is what is meant when it is said that she is a good housekeeper.

But of housekeeping on the part of Teachers-school-housekeeping - we propose writing. To be a good school-teacher is a good thing; to be a good school-governor is a better thing; but to be a good schoolkeeper, is the best thing that can be said of one who has charge of a school. To possess the talent and tact to put and keep the school-room in a condition to make it cheerful and home-like in its appearance, a place to be loved by Teacher and pupil, is, we think, of the first, the highest importance. We would sooner place a child under the care of a Teacher who has very inferior qualifications as to learning, and who has next to no ability to teach the prescribed studies of the school, but whose example and habits are adapted to teach the value and beauty of order, neatness, good manners and taste, than of one who is a very genius for imparting instruction in literature and science, but who neglects the care of the school-room, who suffers it to be in an uncleanly

condition, and who thinks lightly of matters of order, taste and refinement. It is not Grammar and Arithmetic, more than habits of order and respectability, that children and youth need to acquire. Young America, and his sister too, are rather inclined to show their superiority to restraint, and their contempt for law, by practices neither conformed to the rules of propriety, nor to the principles of true gentility. And mere intellectual training and teaching will have no tendency to mend their manners. Indeed, we think they make the matter worse; for a slovenly philosopher, and a slattern blue-stocking, are far more objects of disgust than are the men and women whose minds are as low as their manners. And if our Teachers would be faithful to their high trusts, true to their sacred mission, let them make the condition and arrangement of their school-rooms no secondary consideration, in estimating the duties which their office binds upon them. This will not only promote present convenience and respectability, but will also bias the habits of their pupils to thoughts and practices which will bless them forever. Not half so influential are preaching the rules of etiquette, and expounding the laws of good behaviour, as are the EXHIBITION and PRACTICE of these essential virtues. And when the doors and floors, and walls and seats and desks of our school-rooms, teach cleanliness, order, and beauty, it is little that the Teacher need say to the pupils on these subjects. Our tongues may be silent, when our works teach and preach.

But of school-housekeeping we must speak with more particularity. Go with us to that fine edifice. It is the village school-house. It contains two apartments, and in each a school is taught. The rooms are precisely alike as to size, form, fixtures and furniture. The Teachers are graduates of the same seminary, and are equals as to scholarship, the faculty of teaching, and ability to govern. Meet them away from their schools, and which of the two to choose might be no easy matter to decide.

Now we will enter their rooms; and first, that occupied by Miss A. Well, those classes recite well. The children are quiet, and studious, though some of them look as though they would rather be out doors, or at home. Miss A. conducts the recitation admirably, and evidently understands the branches which she teaches. This is rather more than it would be proper to say of some Teachers. She uses no text-book while before her classes. That is greatly to her credit.

Well, you like the Teacher, and the children; but, after all, you do not quite like the school. How is this? Let us look about for the

cause.

The room does not seem pleasant. There is an air of neglect,

a manifest want of attention to appearances. The Teacher's desk is not well arranged. Her books are thrown together without any regard to size or subject. The desk stands askew upon the platform, and it is spattered over with ink, which Miss A. does not blush to have you see. One pointer to the blackboard lies in the trough, half covered with chalk dust, and the other—a broken one-lies on the floor. The seats are not tastefully arranged, and the children are seated without much regard to size or classification. And the floor- would you think it possible?is speckled over with ink drops, and there an inkstand has been upset, and its contents have stained the floor for many inches around. And scores of bits of paper, with here and there an apple core and a nut shell, are strewn over the floor. Two of her window-blinds are wide open, and one is closed. There are two maps in the room, but one of them, loosely rolled up, stands in one corner, though it would greatly improve the looks of the room if it were suspended upon some portion of that bare wall. Not a single engraving or picture of any kind ornaments the room. Though it is June, not one flower wastes its sweetness on that desert air. On the window casings, on the doors, and elsewhere, pencil marks are too numerous to mention.

Miss A. is a miserable housekeeper. That is why her school is no more attractive and pleasant. With all her talents, learning, and many excellent traits as a lady and a Teacher, she ought never to have charge of a school. That Teacher who can keep her room in no better order than this, ought, in conscience, to betake herself to some other calling than that of moulding the character and forming the habits of children. Heaven save our little ones from the influence of her example.

But we have seen enough of this room, quite enough; let us pass to that occupied by Miss B. We are in the entry, and must look around a little. How cleanly are the floor, the walls, the doors. Every hat, and shawl, and basket, hangs in its place. Over them all there is upon the wall this card,-"SACRED TO NEATNESS AND ORDER." Here are wash-basin, towel, brush, and looking-glass. You look in the glass, straighten out your collar, dust off your clothes, and are half ready to repeat the words found in Exodus iii. 5. But we enter, and are seated. As regards recitations and general management, there is no manifest superiority to what we saw in Miss A.'s room. But there is a cheerfulness here, a happiness which glows in every countenance, a pleasant, home-like air, of which we saw nothing there.

Look at the floor. Not an ink-drop, not one bit of paper, not one shaving of pen or pencil, can be seen. There are a few spots which may once have been covered with ink, but soap and sand have so nearly removed them, that they seem only as witnesses of Miss B.'s energy and neatness.

Look at the Teacher's table. She requested the "Board" to furnish her a table instead of a desk. A desk has a stiff, hard, professional look; while a neat little table, with a cheap spread, or cover, is social and home-like. It costs less than a desk, is quite as convenient, and a thousand times more tasteful. And look at that table. Do you see on it the stub end of a whip, a half-eaten apple, a book without a cover? No, sir! Miss B., if even she uses a rod, has sense enough to keep it out of sight when she has no use for it. She does not keep a grocery, and therefore fruit and nuts are never displayed in her room. Her books and other table articles are arranged with taste, and her example is imitated in every pupil's desk.

The window-blinds are so arranged as to admit the air and light, and exclude the sun. The walls are hung with maps, so arranged as to show relative positions, and make a good appearance. The children, catching the irit of their Teacher, have bought engravings and various pretty pictures, all of which go to render the room more pleasant. Some of the older pupils have drawn maps of States and Countries, and the best of these lend their aid in furnishing the room. Upon portions of the blackboard, not needed for every-day use, there are seen drawings of men, animals, birds, trees and flowers.

But the flowers, more than everything else, contribute to the pleasantness of this school-room. Upon the table is a beautiful vase, a present from the children to their Teacher. Large tumblers, and various other receptacles of flowers, are placed in the windows; and every morning the children bring fresh flowers, which, under the direction of their Teacher, are arranged in tasteful and beautiful bouquets. On the stove stands a pitcher, filled with wild flowers and rare grasses. The sight and fragrance of these sweet flowers add immensely to the happiness of the school. The children love the place, and their parents love to visit the school. Miss B.'s praise is in every family, and it is no wonder that her salary is soon to be increased $5 per month. So much for being a good school-housekeeper.

Now, all this neatness, order and beauty, at the outset, cost the Teacher no little effort, but soon her pupils caught her spirit, and now

it has become a habit with them, and they are happy in helping to make their school the pride of the village.

REMARKS.

1. SCHOOL-HOUSEKEEPING should be made a prominent branch of instruction in Normal Schools, and in all other places where youth are trained for the profession of teaching.

2. Boards of Education and Examiners, should make this qualification a sine qua non in selecting and licensing Teachers.

3. Every Teacher, whether gentleman or lady, should imitate Miss B.'s example, or quit the profession. Unless you can keep your floor clean, and give your rooms a pleasant aspect, quit, O Teacher! quit teaching. You are a reproach to the profession, and a woe to the rising generation.

Do you say that your school-room was in a bad condition when you

entered the school; that neither Directors nor Parents take an interest in its condition? That is bad, we acknowledge. But put it in order, as best you can. Make them whitewash the walls. Rub off and scrub out old marks and stains. Go about it with a WILL, and you will succeed. The age of miracles has not passed away, and nobody is fit for a Teacher that can not work miracles. What though the streets are muddy, and there is no scraper at your door, no mat on your floor, find out a way to keep your school-room cleanly. You can do it if you WILL; you WILL do it, if you deserve to be entrusted with the charge of a school.

4. There are Boards of Education who ought to be put upon the chain-gang for not affording their Teachers more encouragement in this matter. They send Teachers into old, rickety, filthy shanties, which are hardly fit for boarding-houses for swine; doors broken, windows out, plastering off, walls smoked, and all things else to match. Such Boards are nothing but slabs, and bass-wood at that.

5. All readers are solemly enjoined to take no offense at our want of greater plainness of speech.

A young Irish girl, who was rendering testimony against an individual in a court of law, said: "I am sure he never made his mother smile." There is a biography of unkindness in that sentence.

"What's whisky bringing?" inquired a dealer in the poison. "Bringing men to the gallows," was the reply.