the foul air which passes from the room through the ventilators, thence out the ventilating shaft, which is fixed in the chimney, marked (a). Roof-Self-supporting, shingle-constructed, with slopes extending the long way of building; a neat belfry on the south end of the comb. Rooms-Three; main school-room about 30x30 feet in the clear. A partition wall cuts off eight feet from west end of entire building; this is again divided into two rooms, known as entrance or ante-room and cloak-room; entrance-room, 8x12 feet, and cloak-room, 8x17 feet. Doors-Four, known as entrance door, (No. 1); cloak-room door, (No. 2); pupils' door, (No. 3); and teacher's door, (No. 4). Entrance door, large; others, common size; transom over each door. Windows-Six; two in each end, and two in south side; each 52 feet from nearest inside corner. Arched windows, with weights and cords, contain twelve lights 24x12 inches. Blackboard-All available space of school-room, commencing two feet from floor and extending up five feet. Stove-Between teacher's door and first south window; under stove is the mouth of cold-air receiver; teacher's platform and desk between pupils' and teacher's doors. All round the top of school-room is a moulding from which to suspend pictures. Teacher's closet in corner by chimney. There are eight ventilators which allow the warm foul-air to pass from the room, between the floors, thus avoiding cold feet. This building was planned by the following committee of Delaware county: H. S. McRae, L. G. Saffer, D. H. H. Shoemaker, and James Maddy, trustee of Center township. P. H. D. Bandy, of Muncie, was the architect. Two houses like this were erected in 1877, and they so pleased the people that six others have since been constructed upon the same plan. All these houses are seated with single desks, with the largest arranged to the teacher's left, and smallest to his right. Cost of building ranges from one thousand to twelve hundred dollars. At a meeting of the county superintendents of eastern Indiana, this building was visited by those attending, and it was pronounced by them the best they had seen for convenience, light, and ventilation. In order to comply with many requests, I hereby submit this hurried description for publication in the SCHOOL JOURNAL. A. W. CLANCY, Sup't Delaware County Schools. LAZINESS is premature death. To be in no action is not to live. C THE BEGINNING WORK IN COLLEGE. JOHN E. EARP. OLLEGES are the outgrowth of a system of education which had in view almost exclusively preparation for the learned professions. The universities of Italy, France, Germany, and England were not intended to develop a well balanced culture such as all men need, but to prepare certain classes of men for their respective vocations. The American college does not do university work, and does not have in view the same objects as the university. Its object. is to do a work which shall be equally useful to the farmer, tradesman, artist, lawyer, doctor, clergyman. There would be no impropriety in establishing a college for training professional men exclusively; in such case, however, the institution should not invite other classes of students to its halls. The first requisite of all schools is honesty; particularly, they should do what they claim to do, and not claim to do what they do not do. There is an evident tendency on the part of nearly all colleges to attempt university work; just as there is an attempt in many high schools to do college work. To this there can be no objection, providing the college has the ability to develop in that. direction, and is doing with the highest degree of efficiency possible, the legitimate work of the college. The first duty of the college, however, is, manifestly, to do its legitimate work, namely, to provide that general culture which shall be equally adapted to all classes of persons. Until this is done, it indicates a failure to appreciate the proper sphere of the college to undertake higher or other work. College education should attend equally to physical, moral, and intellectual development. Confining our attention at present to the intellectual training, it would seem reasonable to say that first of all every youth should be made acquainted with the qualities, relations, and uses of the things with which he comes. into daily contact; that is, the elements of science, which may be made to include mathematics and keeping accounts. Secondly, every youth ought to be taught how to comprehend and express the thoughts of others as found in books. In other words, he should be taught to read. Thirdly, every youth should be made able to express intelligibly, and even attractively, his own thoughts; that is, he should be able to write and speak-composition and elocution. If the present age is developing any new idea, it is the importance of an acquaintance with the simple things about us— natural history, geography, physiology, botany. Yet the time has not arrived when the average youth, applying for admission to college, has even a superficial knowledge of them. These, therefore, should be taught by the college among the first things it teaches at all. With equal propriety, it may be said that the average applicant for admission to college does not know how to read. He knows how to pronounce, in an imperfect manner, words, but he does not know how to write them according to any recognized standard, and he does not know what they mean; much less does he know how to get at the meaning of a piece of composition. The average applicant for college could not, after studying two hours, give you the points made, in one-tenth of the selections found in Appleton's Fifth Reader. I will venture to say as much, indeed, of the average student who has been a year in any of the preparatory schools of our colleges. As to expressing the meaning contained in ordinary books, as in oral reading, I do not overstate the truth in saying that, of the two hundred sophomores in the Indiana Colleges, most of whom have been at college for four years, not one-half of them would be able to read the Sermon on the Mount, or Thanatopsis, with any credit to themselves. As to composition and public speaking, certainly every one can see their importance. We need not think now of writing like Addison, or speaking like Webster, but it would look reasonable that every youth should be able to describe a fine edifice, a journey, personal experience, opinions of books, and similar themes intelligibly and attractively, both in writing and in extempore or prepared speech. I scarcely need say that this can not be done by the average applicant for college.. The fact is patent to all familiar with colleges. It will be held that this kind of work belongs to the high schools and graded schools, that it is below the legitimate col lege work, that the college has not time for these things. This INDIANA ASBURY UNIVERSITY, Dec. 6, 1879. A FEW SUGGESTIONS ON SPELLING. TH BY W. H. T. HE subject of spelling, especially reform in spelling, is demanding the attention of many of our leading educators. But while they are discussing the feasibility of such a reform and the various methods in which it should be brought about, the spelling of the language as we have it should not be neglected. How to teach spelling, is a question that often perplexes the teachers of the ungraded schools in our rural districts. "Variety is the spice of life." So in teaching spelling, variety is essential to continued interest. If one method is pursued constantly, it becomes monotonous, interest lags, lessons are not learned, and the pupil falls into a careless way of spelling. To keep the pupil interested then, we must have something new to put in the place of the old as soon as there seems to be a lack of interest or attention. A few suggestions are given below which may prove beneficial to some of my fellow workers. For the older scholars in |