USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Newburyport > City Officers and the Annual Reports to the City Council of Newburyport 1908 > Part 12
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To further interests along this line the teachers were able to purchase this year over two hundred dollars worth of pic- tures for the different schoolrooms with the proceeds of the art exhibit. These pictures were distributed as follows: To
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SCHOOL COMMITTEE
the Jackman School, Stratford-on-Avon, The Grand Canal, The Sistine Madonna, A Distinguished Member of the Hu- mane Society, By the Riverside, The Madonna of the Arbor, Hiawatha, The Castle and the Bridge of Saint Angelo, the list price of all of which was sixty-eight dollars and fifty cents.
To the Kelley School : Taking a Pilot, A Distinguished Member of the Humane Society, The Spirit of '76, Sunset on the Meadows, The Fog Warning, and Oxen Ploughing. List price, forty-three dollars.
To the Currier School: Concord Bridge, The Scratch Pack, and The Capitol at Washington. List price, fifteen dollars.
To the Training School: A Distinguished Member of the Humane Society, Can't You Talk, Saved, and Sir Galahad. List price, thirty-two dollars.
To the Bromfield Street School: The Village Choir; to the Johnson School, The Helping Hand; the Curtis School, The Village Choir ; the Temple Street School, Pilgrims Going to Church; to the Moultonville School, Mother and Daugh- ter; to the Davenport School, Hiawatha and Baby Stuart ; Storey Avenue School, The Deer in the Forest; Purchase Street School, Mother and Daughter; and to the Ward Room School, Sir Galahad. The total list price of the entire collec- tion of pictures was two hundred and twenty-nine dollars. By this effort on the part of the teachers every school building has received some addition to its interior. decorations which is in every case a work of art. The influence that these pic- tures may have on the youthful generation now enjoying them, we can only surmise. It is safe to say, however, that it will be in the right direction and that it will extend through- out their whole lives.
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SCHOOL COMMITTEE
THE COURSE OF STUDY
Up to the present time the teachers have for the most part been following the outline of work mapped out by my predecessor and printed in 1900. Some changes have been made, however, in the details of the work. All definite work in numbers has been omitted in the first grade. In the fall of 1906 the teachers were advised to make the work of the first year emphasize particularly a knowledge of the Mother ton- gue. Accordingly reading, writing and spelling were the topics on which nearly all the energy of that year's work was expended. Some knowledge of numbers and their relations was taught incidentally, some was acquired accidentally as it was thought would be the case, but no organized effort was made in that particular line.
The results have been what we had expected, that at the end of the second year, there would be in the average pupil as advanced a knowledge as had previously been the case under two years of definite instruction. Teachers of the sec- ond grade, with a single exception, all inform me that this year they will be able to bring their classes up to the custom- ary standard for the second year's work without any difficulty. The one exception attributes her fear that she may not be able to do so to her feeling that hers is a particularly dull class. Children at home, on the street, in the fields, in the woods, under every circumstance of life, in fact are having the relation of numbers forever thrust into their conscious acts. They could not help acquiring some knowledge of those relations if they so desire. As it is they do acquire much of what we would teach in the first year of school work, naturally, easily, thoroughly and without the wear and tear of conscious effort. The greatest gain, however, is in the additional time and energy we have, both in the pupils
14
SCHOOL COMMITTEE
and the teachers, for the work in English. This gain is import- ant as English is the basis for the acquisition of knowledge in all other common school studies.
The work in reading with the Ward Method has pro- gressed in much the same manner as heretofore. That method has served its day and generation and has served it well. Under it the pupils have acquired the ability to take up new material easily. The chief merit of the system, so it seems to me, is the vast amount of phonic drill which it gives to the pupils of the first, second and third grades. As to the material itself contained in the books themeslves, there is lit- tle or no literary merit. On account of the recent purchase of the Aldine Readers for the use of the Training School, there have been no new Ward books bought this year. The time has come, however, when purchases of books for the lower grades will have to be made in order to supply their needs. The use of the Aldine Readers in the Training School has demonstrated their worth. The progress which the first and second grades have made with these books has surpassed anything ever accomplished by the use of the Ward Method in an equal length of time. The Aldine Readers have the hearty endorsement of the Principal of the Training School and there is a strong sentiment in their favor among the pri- mary teachers throughout the city. Aside from the fact that these books have a great deal of merit as a method of teach- ing the art of reading the English language, there is the ad- ded attraction in the mechanical makeup of the books them- selves and the wealth of material which they contain.
In view of the foregoing statements, I would suggest that the Aldine Readers be adopted as the standard and that such of the Ward books as are in stock and in the schools at the end of the summer term next June, be given in exchange for the Aldine books.
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SCHOOL COMMITTEE
The Gilman System of Penmanship has now been in use somewhat more than a year. The change of method, which also involved a change in the slant, wrought havoc with the handwriting of most of the pupils for a time. Instructions from the author were carefully adhered to however, and the results are now beginning to be apparent to all teachers. Great im- provement has been manifest in the penmanship of the pupils of each of the grammar schools and in several of the primaries. The chief difficulty has been in acquiring the free arm movement. The improvement in the schools where the teachers have been more persistent in these exercises has been less rapid than in the other schools, but there is every probability that in another year, the handwriting of pupils in former schools will show the wisdom of adhering strictly to the directions given by the author of the system we are now using.
Aside from the changes which have already been men- tioned the course of study has been changed more or less in the details of work in each of the subjects. For this reason and also because the stock of the 1900 edition is entirely ex- hausted, it is necessary to ask for permission to print the course as revised to date.
We are still confronted with the question of what we are to do with the boys in our schools, particularly those who are likely to leave them as soon as they are fourteen years of age. In the sewing and cooking we are doing far more that is practical and helpful to the after life of the girls than we are for the boys. Neither in the grades nor in the High School have we anything in the nature of mechanical or industrial work which will enable the boy to better earn an honest living. What are our schools for if not to fit for life ? How do we fit boys for life is a question every thought- ful citizen ought to ask. We are doing something for the
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SCHOOL COMMITTEE
girls but what about the boys? Our High School is obliged to fit for college. Its courses of study are governed by that fact. The college course is the chief course. All others are secondary to it. The time has come when this should not longer be the case. There should be some attention paid to the boys and girls in the grades as well as in the High School who are looking forward to earning their living in the arts and crafts.
There is no logical reason why a boy who has attended schools should not be a better mechanic, a better artisan, or even a better farmer than he otherwise would have been. There is also no logical reason why a girl who has attended our schools should not be a better housekeeper, a better seamstress, or better cook for having done so. More work along practical lines whether it be manual training, indus- trial work, or in the line of work in the trades must be had here in Newburyport, or the schools must fail to fulfil nine- tenths of their mission.
In an article which he designates, "Fine Terminals, No Sidetracks," Dean Davenport says, "The greatest trouble with our educational system today is that it is laid out too much on the plan of a trunk line without side switches or way stations, but with splendid terminal facilities ; so that we send the educational trains thundering over the country quite ob- livous of the population except to take on passengers, and these we take on much as the fast trains take mail bags from the hook. We do our utmost to keep them aboard to the end and those who leave us are fitted for no special calling, and drop out for no special purpose but roll off like chunks of coal by the wayside." "I would," he says further, "reconstruct the policy of the system by making all trains local, both to take on and leave off passengers, and I would pay as much atten-
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SCHOOL COMMITTEE
tion to the sidings and the depots, and their surroundings at the way stations, to the end that those who do not complete the journey may find congenial surroundings and useful em- ployment in some calling along the line. This is education for efficiency, whether it ever earns an academic degree or not."
The writer recently received a letter from the president of the National Association of Manufacturers. After stating that we were all proud of our American schools and arguing that we ought to live up to our reputation by making our public schools better fit our boys and girls for the require- ments of their later life, he said, "I am not an educator, but I am a father and a practical manufacturer. I have had thousands of boys under my observation, and I have care- fully observed which boys are most successful in life's strug- gle, particularly in manufacturing establishments." The re- mainder of his letter went on to show that those boys who had had the opportunities of a training which was along the lines which they were following in later life were far more ex- pert and successful in work. The letter closed with this ap- peal : "Tell me what you are doing in your city at the present time in the direction of industrial education. Tell me your future plans, for the sake of our boys and for the sake of the rising American generation." Rather than tell the truth as to our condition I have purposely refrained from making any reply to the communication.
Our schools fit boys for the clergy, the law, for medicine and for teaching, simply because they fit pupils for those higher institutions which have those professions as their defi- nite aim. But for the ninety out of every hundred who go to make up that great class of artisans and tradesmen which is the bone and sinew of our American life, we here in New- buryport do nothing.
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SCHOOL COMMITTEE
Are we proud of the fact and satisfied that nearly all of our skilled and high paid mechanics are foreigners? Yet we are told over and over again by those who have investigated it that it is a fact.
This appeal for something in the line of industrial work in our schools is made year after year in the hopes that sooner or later the citizens may answer it with a demand that the need may be met.
SIGHT AND HEARING TEST
The reports of the different schools on the examination of the eyesight and hearing is as follows :
Number Defective Enrolled Eyesight
Defective Parents Hearing Notified
High School
367
68
Per cf. 18
8
26
Currier
163
18
II
26
Jackman
387
92
23
15
90
Kelley
20,5
54
26
8
45
Bromfield Street
.IIO
21
1g
8
20
Curtis
I34
6
5
0
6
Davenport
108
14
I3
2
12
Johnson
I13
24
21
3
I3
Purchase Street
28
4
14
2
3
Temple Street
91
IO
II
6
I6
Training School
151
20
I3
2
12
Moultonville. .
63
IO
I6
7
17
Storey Avenue
22
2
9
I
I
Ward Room
39
IO
25
8
IO
-
-
1981
353
18
81
297
A comparison of these figures with those of last year will show that seventy-two fewer pupils were examined than last year, due for the most part to the organization of the
1
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SCHOOL COMMITTEE
French Parochial School; that fewer parents were notified of defects by eighty-one; that there were sixty-six fewer cases of defective eyesight than last year; that there were forty-six fewer cases of defective hearing than last year; and that while there were twenty per cent. of all the pupils in the schools last year with defective eyesight, this year is reduced to eighteen per cent. According to the examinations the Curtis School heads the list with only five per cent. having defective eye- sight. The Kelley School is at the other extreme with twen- ty-six per cent.
MEDICAL INSPECTION
The law regarding the appointment of a school physician has been of no effect in many communities, because of the section which its opponents were able to insert providing that no expenditure for that purpose should precede the appropria- tion, in cities by the city council, and in towns by the town meeting.
Our experience has been that of the appointment of a school physician who served the city well for a year or more .
without expense.
Section 7, Chapter 502 of the Acts of 1906 reads as fol- lows : "The expense which a city or town may incur by virtue of the authority herein vested in the school committee or board of health, as the case may be, shall not exceed the amount appropriated for that purpose in cities by the city council and in towns by a town meeting. The appropriation shall precede any expenditure or any indebtedness which may be incurred under this act, and the sum appropriated shall be deemed a sufficient appropriation in the municipality where it is made. Such appropriation need not specify to what sec- tion of the act it shall apply and may be voted as a total ap- propriation to be applied in carrying out the purposes of the act."
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SCHOOL COMMITTEE
Acts of 1908, Chapter 412, Section I, is as follows: "Sec- tion seven of chapter five hundred and two of the acts of the year nineteen hundred and six, limiting the expenditures for medical inspection in the public schools, is hereby repealed."
Section 2. "This act shall take effect upon its passage." (Approved, April 17, 1908.)
By the provisions of the law as it now stands relating to medical inspection it becomes mandatory on either the board of health or the school committee to appoint a school physi- cian. The stumbling block which up to last April prevented the spirit of the law from being carried out, has been removed.
The need of a careful inspection of the conditions sur- rounding the school life of our children has been demon- strated this year in the prevalence in certain schools of conta- gious diseases.
During the year there have been fifty-seven cases of measles among the children in the schools; thirty-nine cases of diphtheria; twenty-six cases of scarlet fever; nineteen cases of whooping cough; and fourteen cases of typhoid fever.
It is reasonable to suppose that some of these one hund- red and fifty-five cases of contagious diseases might, with the knowledge possessed by a physician, who was daily in the schools, have been prevented. One fourth of all the typhoid cases reported for the year were among the school children. Closer attention to the sanitation of the school buildings is necessary in order to ward off recurrences of these diseases.
TEACHERS.
Most of the changes in the teaching force have occurred in the High School. On May 22nd, Miss Ethel V. Z. Sullivan requested a year's leave of absence which was granted by the Committee at the regular May meeting to take effect at the close of the school year. Miss Eleanor J. Little of this city
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SCHOOL COMMITTEE
was elected as a substitute to fill this position during Miss Sullivan's absence. Miss Little has had a good preparation for the work, has entered into it with a zeal and devotion which augurs well for a very successful year of work in the English department.
At the meeting in June the resignations of Miss Bonart and Miss Goldsmith were received and accepted. This left the departments in French and German without teachers. The long term of service of these two teachers and the high qual- ity of that service made the filling of these positions more than ordinarily difficult. No school can lose such teachers without serious detriment to the work.
Mr. John A. Backus a graduate of Tufts College, Miss Maude B. Randall who had been teaching for four years in the High School at Turner's Falls, and Miss Ella W. Burn- ham of Gloucester were chosen to fill the several positions ; the last named after the resignation of Miss Chilcott had been received during the summer vacation.
By the resignation of Miss Sherman, lately received and accepted by the Committee to take effect on January 29th, the High School will lose another of its strongest teachers. Miss Sherman will go to her home city of Providence on leaving here. The three teachers whose resignations were spoken of above all found employment in Boston at greatly increased salaries while their hours per week of teaching were substantially reduced.
We cannot hope to compete in the matter of salaries with Boston and other larger and richer cities. It is a recommen- dation for the teachers we lose and for their work with us that they always go to better positions.
Outside of the High School the only resignations were those of Miss Ruth Sargent and Miss Adelena W. Sargent,
-
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SCHOOL COMMITTEE
both of whom were in the Currier School. In these the city has lost two faithful, efficient and eminently successful teachers. Committee, parents and pupils all regret their leaving the work and the places which had known them for so many years.
The closing of the Purchase Street School left Miss Roaf free for one of the positions in the Currier School and she was elected to the fifth grade. Miss Marr who had served for several years in the Ward Room on Congress Street was transferred to the position in the seventh grade. Miss Dix- on was transferred from her position in the Davenport School to the Ward Room and Mary I. Fernald, a graduate of the Training School with a year of experience in New Hamp- shire, was elected to fill the place formerly held by Miss Dix- on in grade one in the Davenport School.
These indicate all the changes which have occurred in the teaching force during the year. Outside of the High School the disturbance has been the slightest that has occurred in recent years.
The teachers are, without exception, loyal to the best in- terests of the schools, zealous in their work and for the most part peculiarly successful in their chosen calling.
An organization has recently been set on foot amongst the teachers, the object of which is to see to it that no boy or girl in the city shall find it impossible to attend school be- cause of lack of proper clothing. The prevalent irregularity in the attendance in some quarters of the city, the dire need that was found in many cases when they were investigated, have caused the teachers to take the matter up with the deter- mination that the need shall be met. No better illustration of the real spirit of the teachers of the city than this could be found. I look for much good coming to the schools as a re- sult of this movement. Schools and teachers, homes and schools will be in closer touch because of it.
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SCHOOL COMMITTEE
THE EVENING SCHOOL.
Probably no part of the money spent upon our schools pays a better dividend per dollar of investment than that upon the work in the evening schools. As a recent editorial in the Leader well says, "Here we can witness the future America in the making, a sight without parallel in the history of the world. We have more variety of tribes and peoples ming- ling with ourselves than were found in the old Roman Em- pire. These are to be made citizens and they will greatly change the character of our people making it more cosmo- politan and less narrow and provincial. The English lan- guage, and love of liberty and the English institutions will pre- vail, but the British stolidity and contempt of everything for- eign will disappear."
At the present time the school is well patronized the largest attendance on any one night being one hundred and twenty-nine. This record considering the fact that the mills in the lower part of the city are running with small forces of help is significant. It goes to show that the foreign element in our community are eager to secure the best education available for them; that they are trying to become intelligent American citizens, and that the efforts and expense which this city is making are not in vain.
Several of the pupils who attended the school last winter continued their work throughout the spring, summer and autumn months, up to the time of the opening of the school this winter under private teachers. Their interest had been kindled to such an extent that they have been willing to pay for instruction in order to continue it. As a result of this kind of work, one young man, an Armenian has secured ad- mission to a private academy and is to enter it next April.
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SCHOOL COMMITTEE
We cannot place too much emphasis on this line of our school work, because in it we are reaching those of our com- munity who need most to be reached. Let us do more of it rather than less.
THE FINANCIAL SIDE.
A comparison of the expenses of the department this year with those of last year will show that there has been an increase in two of the three lines into which they are divided. The salaries for this year amounted to thirty-eight thousand eight hundred ninety-seven dollars and thirty-nine cents an increase in the salary account over that of last year of twelve hundred and fifty-eight dollars and two cents. There were expended for supplies this year four thousand two hundred eighty-five dollars and sixty-five cents, an increase of five hundred thirty-five dollars and sixty-nine cents. For fuel three thousand twenty-seven dollars and sixty cents was the cost this year as against three thousand four hundred forty- seven dollars and eighty-two cents last year a decrease of four hundred and twenty-seven dollars and twenty-two cents.
The entire net increase of the expenses connected with the maintenance of the public schools outside of the cost of repairs and alterations, this year over last, is twelve hund- red and ninety-six dollars and forty-one cents. The total cost, not including the repairs was forty-six thousand two hundred ten dollars and sixty-four cents. The total appropria- tion for this department was as follows: Salaries, thirty- eight thousand nine hundred dollars, supplies, nine hundred dollars and the income ($2574.86); fuel three thousand dol- lars. Total appropriations, forty-five thousand three hund- red seventy-four dollars and eighty-six cents. There is therefore an overdraft of eight hundred and thirty-five dol- lars and seventy-eight cents.
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SCHOOL COMMITTEE
It is interesting at this point to notice the figures which were submitted to the City Council at the time the appropria- tions were made and which represented the request of the Committee as to their needs for the year which has now closed. They are as follows :
After a careful estimate of what the needs of the depart- ment would be for the next year the City Council, on Febru- ary 19th last were asked to appropriate forty-six thousand five hundred and thirty-three dollars and twelve cents, less an estimated income of twenty-four hundred dollars. In other words the amount asked for was what it was thought the department would cost for the year. That amount was only two hundred dollars from what it did cost. Had it been appropriated there would have been no overdraft.
On the following pages will be found the reports of the principal of the High School, the principal of the Training School, the principal of the Evening School, the supervisors of music, drawing and domestic science.
EDGAR L. WILLARD,
Superintendent of Schools. December 28, 1908.
26
SCHOOL COMMITTEE
REPORT OF THE PRINCIPAL OF THE HIGH
SCHOOL.
To Mr. E. L. Willard,
Superintendent of Schools.
In reviewing the work of the school for the past year, two things are brought forcibly to mind; the rapid increase in the number of pupils and the great change in the teaching force.
This year the school opened with 394 pupils. Last year the number was 361 and the year before that 318, an increase of over 70 in two years. This increase has added greatly to the work of the teachers and made it difficult to do individual work with the pupils.
The capacity of the building is taxed to the utmost. An additional room was finished in the basement, increasing the seating capacity by fifty-five seats. This increase was insuffi- cient and we are still compelled to accommodate some pupils with chairs at tables in the front of the room. Another room and another teacher will be needed at the opening of next year. Permanent seats should be put in the room now used as a dressing room and a teacher placed in charge.
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