INTRODUCTORY. TO THE SCHOOL TRUSTEES OF CALIFORNIA: Ladies and gentlemen, in your hands lie the purse strings of the public schools in all this great State. Therefore, to you must be addressed any plea for the future improvement of our school property, as a whole. You and your successors are the only ones who can translate good ideas into good schoolhouses and beautiful school grounds as time goes on. If I had you all together, so that I could talk to you face to face, I should try to say very earnestly something like this: "My friends, it is almost as cheap to build a beautiful schoolhouse as an ugly one-if we know how. California, like old Greece, is a land of beautiful things. Sun and sea and mountain, streams and trees and flowers conspire to make it a place delightful to mankind, inspiring to the painter, the poet, the musician, attractive to all the world. This beauty is a practical asset of vast importance to the State. Our California landscapes must become famous for their tasteful and harmonious schools, everywhere, and not outraged by dreary stables for schoolhouses, slovenly barnyards for school grounds. Prosperous people find it profitable to have tidy and well kept houses, fences and grounds. Our schools, supported by the public, should certainly carry an air of prosperity. We must not allow our little girls to absorb slatternly lessons at the school. We must not allow broken windows and unkempt surroundings at the school to infect our little boys and make them grow up shiftless, ne'er-do-weels." I am anxious for every school trustee in the State to get this message in one way or another. We have many examples of splendid schools up and down the State; but there is many a one yet of the other kind, that needs to be born again. The responsibility rests with the School Trustees. Teachers, parents, and people can help the thing along by creating good public sentiment; and certainly they should study, talk, write, |