9 ¢ H i ¥ Wak County rele of the > Woman's Association for the Betterment of Public School Bouses Mm Porth Caroltna:: :: ENP Na Na NIN NI NIN NS ND NR IR re NON Na. Nant nae Ne Raleigh Wiraver & Lpuch, Printers and Binders SAS oe my THE LIBRARY THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA 379.4 Lp UNG AS0eO Any one wishing aid in organizing a Local Asso- ciation in Wake County is invited to write to Miss Daisy BatLEY WAITT, RALEIGH, N. C. OR TO Miss Epiru Royster, RALEIGH, N. C. WAKE COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION. Mr. THOMAS JOHNS, Chairman. Mr. B. S. FRANKLIN. Rev. J. S. FOSstTer. Mr. ZEBULON V. JUDD, Superintendent of County Public Schools. WAKE COUNTY BRANCH OF THE WOMAN’S ASSO- FOR THE BETTERMENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOL- HOUSES IN NORTH CAROLINA. Miss Epirn Royster, President. Miss FANNIE WS. HECK, First Vice-President. Mrs. S. W. THOMPSON, Second Vice-President. Miss MINNIE FRANKLIN, Secretary. Miss Daisy BAILEY Walrt, Treasurer. THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE consists of the officers and ‘ Mrs. E. E. Moffitt, Miss Ada V. Womble, and Mrs. F. L. Stevens. PAL To the Teachers and School Committeemen of Wake County: You have already done much for the upbuilding of school © interests in your communities. You are urged to make this year still greater efforts to enthuse every person not already actively at work, and to organize all into local Associations to improve schools, school-houses, and grounds. You will find the Betterment Association of great value in such undertaking. This Association receives heartiest approval and commendation from the Board of Education and from me. We consider this volunteer service of great value in advancing the educational interests of the county. All reports to the officers of the County Betterment Asso- ciation will be filed in my office. Very truly yours, ZEB. V. JUDD, Superintendent of County Schools. THE WAKE COUNTY BRANCH OF THE WOMAN’S AS- SOCIATION FOR THE BETTERMENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOL-HOUSES IN NORTH CAROLINA. Now that well-planned and well-built school-houses are being erected in all parts of the county, the co-operation and support of the women of the county are sought in order that these schools shall mean to the community all that well-taught, comfortable schools may mean. To make this help of the women most effective, the people of a school district may organize into a local Association, whose purpose is the improvement of that particular school. To beautify and make homelike the place where children spend at least six hours of every school day, is certainly our duty. The local Association can also establish libraries ; supplement the library, where there is already one; lay off and plant grounds properly; look after sanitary conditions; and in many other ways supplement the larger work being so well done by the men. Immediately after organization, the Association should offer its services to the School Committee. Whenever the Association wishes to make any change in the school-house or grounds, the School Committeemen must be consulted before any steps are taken. The thirteen local Associations in Wake County have made most creditable reports, and much has been done by individual effort. If every woman in Wake should feel called from her “little isle of safety to the larger ways of service” for the children’s sake, the good done would be beyond our reckon- ing. Correspondence is invited. A member of the County As- sociation will assist in organization whenever such service is requested. . THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 4 THE STATE ASSOCIATION. The Woman’s Association for the Betterment of Public School-houses was formed in March, 1902, at the State Nor- man and Industrial College. The originator and organizer of this Association was President Charles D. McIver. The object of the Association, as told by its name, was to arouse public sentiment and enlist the energy of our citizens at large in improving and beautifying our public school- houses and grounds. The plan was one of lessening circles. The State Association was to organize County Associations, and these, in turn, to organize Local Associations. When an organization grows out of a need, its future is assured. In a remarkably short time after the organization, a number of County Associations had been formed, and Local Associations began to spring up all over the State. The present officers of the State Association are: President, Mrs. W. R. Hollowell, Goldsboro; Vice-President, Mrs. HE. E. Moffitt, Raleigh; Recording Secretary, Miss Mary K. Apple- white, Raleigh; Corresponding Secretary, Miss Mary Taylor Moore, Greensboro; Treasurer, Mrs. L. E. Powell, Whiteville, North Carolina. It would be too long a story to even name the results of the Association’s work attained in four years. How County Associations have been formed; how the energetic and wun- tiring president, Mrs. Hollowell, has met and inspired the women of every part of the State in this worthy cause; how an officer of one County Association travelled six hundred miles by private conveyance from school-house to school- house, leaving in his wake Local Associations; and how shortly after, through their efforts, the ere-while bare walls of public schools were hung with beautiful pictures and the grounds began to bloom with newly-planted flowers; how city schools, through whose halls passed some five or six hundred children daily, from being bare temples of learning began to be homes of beauty; how teacher after teacher be- : came ambitious to make her school-house the most attrac- tive in her county, or how, best of all, the children grew interested, and, as might be expected, interested their par- ents, until to modernize, to ventilate, to enlarge, to beautify 5 the public school, to make it the center, not only of the educational, but of the social life of the community became the ambition of the choicest spirits of the neighborhood—all this would make far too long a story. A Betterment Bulletin of great interest may be obtained upon application to Mr. R. D. W. Connor, Raleigh. THE WAKE COUNTY ASSOCIATION. ‘Knowing the deep interest in educational affairs in Wake, it goes without saying that she was not long in falling into line. August 8, 1902, only three months after the organiza- tion of the State Association, Mrs. BE. EH. Moffitt, of Raleigh, presented the matter to the Teachers’ County Institute. Again the deeply-felt need assured a ready response. The Wake County Association was at once organized. At present there are local Associations at Wake Forest, Mount Moriah, Garner, Hagle Rock, Reddish School-house, Auburn, Oakwood School, Rolesville, Leesville, Wilbon, Fu- quay, Neuse, House Creek School, No. 3, besides three in the Raleigh District. Tuer Locar ASSOCIATION. Whatever method the County Association may pursue to teach its end—letters, visits, leaflets, scholarships—the end is the organization of an active, aggressive, progressive, and untiring Local Association for the betterment of its own school-house. We venture to say that there is not a single school-house in Wake County, either in town or country, which, inside and out, in point of health, convenience and beauty, is as good as it ought to be, or as it might me. They range from the one-roomed, unplastered, ill-lighted school, without desks, and where the children sit on the floor to write, to the newest school buildings, well-built and well-furnished. None were quicker to see the lack than the citizens of the capitai, and there are now three Local Associations in Raleigh—one for each white public school. Each Local Association has the privilege of making its own constitution, the following being offered only as a sug- gestion. Membership is open to men, women and children. CONSTITUTION OF THE LOCAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE Betterment of the. eT Public School ARTICLE I. Section 1. The name of this organization shall be the Association for the Betterment of the ........c.ccceecees Public School. ARTICLE II. The purpose of this Association shall be: 1. To arouse interest in education, especially in the im- portance of every child being in school every day of the school term. 2. To unite all the people of this community for the im- provement of our public school (1) by placing in the school facilities for health, comfort, and education, together with objects of beauty; (2) by the proper planting of trees, shrubs and flowers in the school grounds; (3) by encouraging the establishment and circulation of a public library; (4) by making the school the center of wholesome and instructive amusements—in a word, to improve the physical and intel- lectual environments of our future citizens. ARTICLE III.* Any one interested in the objects of this Association may become an active member by the payment of an annual fee of twenty-five cents for adults, ten cents for children. Any one unable to give active service may become an honorary member of this Association by the payment of an annual fee of fifty cents. ARTICLE IV. The officers of this Association shall be a President, Vice- president, Secretary, Treasurer and Librarian, who shall be elected at the annual meeting. * Bach Local Association shall decide for itself on the advisability of changing or including Article III. ARTICLE V. This Association shall meet regularly once a month or oftener at the call of the President. ARTICLE VI. That this Association may be in touch with the general work for the Retterment of Public Schools throughout the State and County it shall enroll itself with the Secretary of the County Association for the Betterment of Public Schools, and send to her an informal report of its progress at least twice a year. ARTICLE VII. This Constitution may be amended at any annual meeting by a two-thirds vote of the members present. DUTIES OF OFFICERS. The duties of the President shall be: To preside over all the meetings, keep order and preserve good feeling, and to cali special meetings when necessary. The duties of the Vice-President shall be: To preside over meetings in the absence of the President and to aid her in every way in making the Association useful. The duties of the Secretary shall be: To call the roll at each meeting, to write the minutes of each meeting, and to keep the County or State Secretary informed as to what her Association is doing. She shall also write to these for in- formation desired by her Association. The duties of the Treasurer shall be: To keep a strict account of all the money received and paid out by the Asso- ciation, and to give a report of the same when called. The Executive Committee shall consist of the officers of the Association and one or more members, and shall have power to act on any question when it is not convenient to call a meeting of the Association. Mvery teacher in the county will be requested to send in not later than April 15, 1907, upon blanks furnished by the 8 Betterment Association, a report modeled upon the outline below. Where there is a Local Association, an additional report will be send by its President or Secretary to Miss Daisy Bailey Waitt, Raleigh. REPORT FOR SESSION 1906-1907. I, ORGANIZATION. Year beginning. . settee » 190. EO ENEGING «on sae seme , 190... 1. Name of township and district. 2. Name and post-office address of teacher. 3. Names and post-office addresses of President and Secre- tary of the Betterment Association for your school. 4. Number of members of Betterment Association. Il. INTERIOR IMPROVEMENTS. * Amt. spent Numoer. this session. 1) Library) (DOOKS) (Gi RN Ls Pee, . Papers and magazines, .......... fs os A 4s Untramed picturesa oo... eek ss SCM Tamed.) (Pictures; Me. Vo. Se kes . Curtains and shades, ............ WASH WDaASINS iG sim co sce eee ae POW CTR 0007 totcies co tile AM ouete v's, 0 tauusens Cees {DOOR SIN AUS iii... skes GR Elie ce = seaene 5 eet, BES TOOUIS: | Wei i. ies WIR SMES is. 6) AM io UCHEREN's . Square feet of kalSomining, ..... . Square feet of interior painting, . rie . Mention full all other interior improvements. fk HFOoDpMAaOMRwNye fd ja GO Ill. ExtTrerRion IMPROVEMENTS. 5 SOULE Ts Ua SAR ON A Reena reid Poe . Square feet of exterior painting, ...... bes wWindows:tnvasheds ios i ea nee pees: . Window-panes put in, ........... . Window-blinds hung, ........... OP OO be *If any articles named were donated, please mark ““Donated’’ and give estimated value if possible. P10: Amt. spent Number. this session. . Wells dug or cleaned out, ........ PUCK OEAY RL. BOL ORISSA EE REN G", BP VV ETCIERULATIS. OL ck a le cisls ad ceke BW WeLGMPPSUAMUS, A). ek side we babe 6 RMP Sr ePR ary ETY 6 a Sete id el aide oles, wits fam SUIS (TEMOVEG), i he ee ee Pe RUD bISh TeEMOVEds Oe. ety tlle? LARC OUES ee ee e's 14. Ditches or drains made, ......... oo. ,Grass-plots laid off, .........06.. PPL POCS DIATE, foe. eee a ts Mie SHrups Planted, fo ..5 cee ie.vr lowers DIANE, os sis 19. Write fully of all other exterior ip tovelvontal oOo MN IV. FunNps RAISED. Amount, Pres vserrerment, ASSOCciaAtion,?),. isi. ik 6) feidie sfelele beth late eta e's MORTEM TER MPO LOTS a 200 6.0083 ile os a MRS LR a eae ane aS rare MMe TIME CREASIYVOTI ESS fal nf oka tg a!h io Geet ml aie cla He aieitt' late of bh . By other methods (itemize methods), ......... ...... Hm OO bd ee One of the best reports which any Association can make is a photograph of the house and grounds before improve- ment and a photograph after improvements. Include in this list only such improvements as were made by private contribution. No improvements made by use of public school money shall be enumerated in this list. IMPROVEMENT OF SCHOOL GROUNDS. MRS. F. L. STEVENS. Often, as we pass through the country, we see a home that has a look of special attractiveness. The house rests peacefully amid trees, shrubs, and flowers. The place in-— vites us, and looks restful because there is a scene. There is something to look at. We remember the picture long after it has passed from view. There has been purpose and method in the arrangement and planting of the grounds. 10 The neglected conditions of many of our school-houses and the uninviting appearance of the school grounds have brought about a general movement in this State toward improvement of these conditions. A movement of this kind is likely to encounter many obstacles. To be of permanent value the beautifying of school-houses and grounds must be a matter of concern to the whole neighborhood. 'The teacher and the school cannot accomplish the work unaided by the parents, neither can the parents accomplish it with- out the aid of the school. Only when all work in unison are best results obtained. Our first consideration is the location of the school. It is not too much to ask that four acres of well-drained land be devoted to the school grounds. Too often a bit of swamp, a sand hill, or a barren hillside is set apart for school pur- poses. Let us assume that our school-house stands upon a well- drained knoll of not less than four acres in area, and that the school-house is to some extent in accordance with the laws of sanitation and modern civilization. These conditions do not prevail generally throughout the State, and while the suggestions given here are based upon an ideal location and conditions, the aim has been to suggest plans that may be carried out in less favorable locations. Whatever may be the conditions, then, our next step is to beautify the spot. There should be both purpose and method in school- ground planting. The design or plan for improvement should - be carefully worked out before hand, etherwise the grounds — will have anything but a pleasing effect. And we are .Striving for the restful, inviting picture that sometimes at- tracts our attention in home grounds. First, then, the place should mean something. It should be a picture, not a col- lection of trees and bushes. It should be homelike, retired, and cosy. The school grounds should be set off from the surrounding fields, and should be open enough to admit of play grounds; and certainly a space should be set apart for a school garden. With the school-house as the main feature of the picture, it will be well to plan the walks first. The chief point to be 11 considered is the front door. If the school-house stands very near the highway, a direct walk from road to front door is possible. If the house stands at some distance from the road, and has two or more points of approach, join these points by the simplest curved line possible. Next comes the planting. Plant foliage in masses at rear and sides of school-house, keeping the space in front of the school-house open. Here you will have space for a nice grass plot, with possibly a rose bed in one or both corners of the grounds, but this can be a later consideration. Do not plant this front space with trees or shrubs. In planting keep the fundamental principles in mind: (a) Keep middle space open; (0) plant in masses; (¢c) avoid straight lines. Trees, then, must be our first consideration. The trees must be arranged to serve both for protection and ornament. Follow nature in planting first trees, then shrubs, and then flowering plants. Plant trees then in groups. Do not dot the grounds here and there with trees. Such planting robs the place of all picturesqueness. More than that, trees so planted are much more difficult to care for, and are much more liable to accident. Solid border planting should be the rule. By so doing, the school-house will be protected on all sides from the wind, and shade will be provided during the heated period of the year. Instead of being continuous the border may be broken in places to preserve attractive views of exterior landscapes. Select those trees and shrubs which are commonest, be- cause they are cheapest, hardiest, and most likely to grow. These may be found in the woods, old yards, and along fences. Use maples, oaks, ashes, birches and hickories, with quite a sprinkling of overgreens. If the country is blank, a rather heavy planting of evergreens about the border is excellent. As a rule, there is little to be gained by planting large trees. If only a few are to be planted, and the best of care can be given, then trees from eight to ten feet high or even larger may be used. But if a number are to be planted, Smaller trees are safest. In this climate autumn planting 12 is safe, and often advantageous. If possible, planting should be done on a cool, cloudy day. Unless the day is moist the trees should be carried to the planting site in a barrel half filled with water or in a think mixture of earth and water. Even a short exposure to dry air will injure the roots. Trees should be planted neither in very wet nor very dry soil. The hole that is prepared for the trees should be dug large enough to contain the roots fully spread out, and deep enough to allow the tree to stand about three inches lower than it grew as a seedling. The roots should be extended in their natural position, and carefully packed in fine soil. As the hole is filled, the earth should be pressed about the roots and around the stem in order to hold the tree firmly in place. The last two inches of soil should be very fine, and should lie perfectly loose. It will serve as a mulch to retain soil moisture. Do not water at the time of planting, since this method is apt to wash away soil particles adhering to fine roots, thus de- stroying the source of food supply by leaving open spaces about the roots. Care of trees after planting is necessary, that is, to protect the young tree from encroachment of weeds and grass, and to keep the soil in good condition. This can best be done by keeping the soil thoroughly broken around the tree. In this way the soil moisture is conserved, and watering will not be necessary. The practice of cutting away the top of the tree and all the young branches is to be discouraged, since by this practice the leaf surface is seriously dimin- ished. . Let the young trees grow at least two years before extensive pruning is undertaken. In all pruning cut close to the trunk, so that no jagged wounds are left to carry decay into the tree. Do not plant trees too near together. This will result in an unnatural and one-sided growth. From eight to twelve feet apart will be a suitable spacing distance. For shrubs nothing can be more charming than willows, forsythia, dog-wood, crape myrtle, snowballs, and dentzias, — with Amoor river privet for screens. 13 Vines may be used to excellent advantage on the out- buildings, and on the school-house itself. The wild honey- suckle, Virginia creeper, clematis, and morning glory will be found most suitable. ; I should not advise a great outlay of labor with flowering plants. These may, however, be used effectively for borders along the denser foliage masses in the corners of the steps, and about the bare corners of the buildings. For flowering plants the hardiest are the most effective—cannas, holly- hocks, zinnias, marigolds add a delicious bit of color to the foliage mass. Every effort should be made to do the work well in the beginning. If all preparations are thoroughly considered, and the details carried out with care, the prem- ises should become more attractive year by year with almost no annual outlay of labor. The school grounds when once set in order should be able to take care of themselves. It is surprising what excellent results can be secured with almost no attention from year to year. The lines of improvement suggested in this paper are, as I said at the outset, very general in character. I may add, therefore, that if there are any who wish to take up this matter in a more definite way and will send a plan of school premises that is in formation, as to size, location of the grounds, together with size and location of the buildings, I shall be glad to give detailed direction for the improvement of such grounds. at Pa iy & ve { aia Ht AE LAS) are OL CUNT play tony BARA TARR aie ath ln 4 RN eit ann ‘ wa elut i (Ah ne Natl Dan se pats i ra POE Be any ip Tylh sy 7 teh Ti awe Is f i Ve MTGE ae aia) eID a ea Vea iA TAR Oa MC a 4, Wk tf Rae Sieh i Wh: A fi ie ul Riss) i i} De We! Wit) thy OAR ETA HUN THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLECTION ——eveoosSSSSSSSS