USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Melrose > City of Melrose annual report 1903 > Part 10
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III. School Property: In addition to the current repairs that have been required upon the school property consider- able has been accomplished during the year in the line of special improvements.
For some time repairs had been needed upon the exterior of the Whittier School building, while the appearance of
Chapman
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SCHOOL REPORT.
the grounds about the building through gradual erosion and disintegration of the concrete walks had become a disgrace to the city. During the summer vacation, the front roof of the building was re-shingled, gutters and leading-pipes were placed around the entire building; the steps at the entrance were rebuilt; the exterior of the building was thoroughly painted; the grounds were sub-drained, graded and seeded; an inside stone curb was placed along the sidewalk on Franklin street; a retaining wall of stone was built along the westerly side of the grounds to prevent further washing down in that direction, and also to enlarge the area of the playground; and, to protect the children in their play, this wall was capped with a fence.
The cost of this work was considerable, but the best interests of the city seemed to require it.
Further special improvements were made during the summer by painting the exterior of the Horace Mann build- ing, by finishing the grading and seeding of the grounds at the Washington school, and by the introduction of new and improved sanitary arrangements at the Warren school. The last mentioned work was done under a special appro- priation made by the City Government as the result of a report to the School Committee by the Engineer and Super- tendent of Public Works ..
IV. Decoration of School Buildings: Considerable has been accomplished during the year in the decoration of our school rooms. As the result of the Horace K. Turner art exhibit, which was held in the High school hall for four days during the latter part of January, 1903, under the joint auspices of the School Department and the Women's Clubs of the City, and through the generosity of individual citizens, the earnestness of the High School Alumni Decorating Committee, and the special efforts of the pupils and teachers in different schools in the way of fairs, entertainments, and class gifts, the following pictures, casts, etc., have been secured.
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HIGH SCHOOL.
"Choosing the Caskets" Barth
"The Cologne Cathedral''
"'Queen Louise and Her Sons"' Steffeck
WASHINGTON SCHOOL.
Bryant
Lowell
Holmes
Longfellow
Mount Vernon
"Christ and the Doctors "
"Sir Galahad "
"Christ and the Fishermen"
. Hofmann Watts Zimmerman
"The Windmill"
Ruysdael Von Marche
"The Water-Gate"
"The Holy Child" Murillo " Norman Sire" Bonheur "Sunset Glow " Riecke Willard
" Spirit of '76"
" The Meadow Pool" Pierce
"Fog Warning"
Homer
Niagara
" Madonna"
Derfregger
"Cherub Choir "
Reynolds
"At the Fireside"
" Flight into Egypt" . Plockhorst
"A Little Child Shall Lead Them " Strutt
"Cornered " Louyot
"Christ Blessing Little Children . Plockhorst
" A Distinguished Member of the Humane Society"
Landseer
" Madonna" Michael Angelo .
" Bambino " .Andrea Della Robbia
" Mother and Daughter"
Douglas
"St. George and Dragon "
" Baby Stuart " . Van Dyke
"Music Lesson "
Wunch
Triumph of Alexander (cast)
Thorwaldsen
Lion's Head (cast)
Dontello
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SCHOOL REPORT.
LINCOLN SCHOOL.
"Christ and the Doctors"
" By the Riverside" .
.
" Mother and Daughter" .
" After the Storm"
Hofmann Lerolle
Douglas
FRANKLIN SCHOOL.
"' Spirit of '76"
Willard
"Fog Warning"
Homer
Colombo Breakwater, photographed by H. G. Peabody
D. W. GOOCH SCHOOL.
"Song of the Lark"
Breton
"' By the Riverside "
. Lerolle
"The Lake" .
Corot
HORACE MANN SCHOOL.
" A Distinguished Member of the Humane Society" Landseer
"Song of the Lark"
Breton
"Sunset Glow"
Riecke
MARY A. LIVERMORE SCHOOL.
"The Lake" . Corot
" Dawn " Eggleston
"The Windmill"
Ruysdael
"Fog Warning"
Homer
WHITTIER SCHOOL.
"Shoeing the Bay Mare" Landseer Homer
"The Lookout"
"Child Handel "
Dicksee
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CITY OF MELROSE
JOSEPH WARREN SCHOOL.
"The Divine Shepherd" Murillo
" Little Dutch Girl"
"Golden Autumn Day" Marcke
A Boy's Head (cast)
SEWALL SCHOOL.
"Sistine Madonna " Raphael
"' Golden Autumn Day" Marcke
"Distinguished Member of the Humane Society" Landseer
WINTHROP SCHOOL.
"Distinguished Member of the Humane Society" Landseer
"Sistine Madonna" Raphael ·
RIPLEY SCHOOL.
" Pharaoh's Horses "
" Baby Stuart" . Van Dyke
CONVERSE SCHOOL.
"Gerettet"
V. Music, Drawing and Penmanship: The supervisors of these special subjects were requested to report briefly with respect to the work done along these lines and I invite the attention of the Committee to their statements which follow.
REPORT OF SUPERVISOR OF MUSIC.
MR. F. H. NICKERSON, Superintendent of Schools :
I have the honor to submit to you the following report for the year's work in music.
Two principal ends are to be held before us in carrying on the work in music in the schools. (1) It should be our aim to lead the child to appreciate and enjoy what is best in music in order that his aesthetic nature may be aroused and cultivated thereby. (2) We should endeavor, through exercises and sight reading, to develop the child's understanding so that the page of music shall tell to him its story as plainly as the page of printed words.
The work along these two lines should never be divorced. The purposes are mutually helpful. The child first loves music for itself. Later he enjoys quite as much his increased power and skill in render- ing it.
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SCHOOL REPORT.
Our course of study in music is definite and progressive throughout. The following is a condensed plan of the work.
GRADE I.
(a) Rote Songs. Walker & Jenks Book. Child Life and Song. Mrs. Blow's Kindergarten Book Froebel's Finger Plays.
(b) Technical Work. Tone matching, oral dictation, illustra- tions of scale from blackboard, elimination of monotone element, sing from first half of chart A.
GRADE II.
(a) Oral and written dictation.
(b) Charts A and B.
(c) First half of primer.
GRADE III.
(a) Oral dictation.
(b) Care for monotones.
(c) Teach divided pulsation.
(d) Chart C.
(e) Second half of primer.
(f) Two part music.
(g) Flat seven and sharp four.
GRADE IV.
· (a) Review equally divided pulsations.
(b) Teach unequally divided pulsations.
(c) Minor scales.
(d) Two-part music.
(e) Chromatics.
(f) Chart D.
(g) Book One.
GRADE V.
(a) Chart E, which involves more difficult examples in melody and rythm.
(b) Book, Second Reader (complete).
- GRADE VI.
(a) Chart F.
(b) Book, Third Reader.
GRADE VII.
(a) Half of Chart G.
(b) Book, Fourth Reader.
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CITY OF MELROSE
GRADE VIII.
(a) Finish Chart G.
(b) Begin Fifth Reader,
(c) Last half of year teach the bass clef.
(d) Finish book.
GRADE IX.
(a) The Advanced Reader, or
(b) The Cecelian Songs, Book IV.
HIGH SCHOOL.
The work is elective.
Study songs of various composers.
The length of time assigned for lessons varies in the different grades ; twenty minutes in the primary classes ; thirty minutes in the grammar classes ; and forty-five minutes in the High School.
Every grade school is visited once in two weeks. In the High School there is a lesson every week, and in addition to this the music for the devotional exercises on Thursday mornings is under the direc- tion of the supervisor. The Glee Club has a lesson every week, one hour, outside of school time. Every lesson in the grade schools in- cludes vocal exercises, chart work, oral and written dictation, exer- cises from the book, and songs. The teachers are frequently requested to conduct part of the lesson while the supervisor observes. We have found this an important factor toward efficient teaching. It helps the supervisor to understand the teacher and this makes it possible for him to be of more assistance to her.
During the year, we have had frequent teachers' meetings for instruction and informal talks, usually given by the supervisor. At one of these meetings Mr. Samuel W. Cole of the New England Con- servatory delivered a lecture on "The Value of Music as a School Subject." Whenever it has been discovered that there was need, individual instruction and assistance have been freely given to the teachers.
In conclusion I wish to bring to your attention the conditions that exist in the High School. Since coming to Melrose I have done all in my power to encourage the boys to take part in the music. In the grammar schools I found that many were excused merely because they thought that they could not sing. By insisting that none should be excused, all have become interested and are now able and eager to take part in the weekly work. In consequence we have, this year, the best " bass" in these grades that we have had since I began my work here. The boys are interested and are able to read their music from the bass staff fairly well. This has been the result of great perseverance. It seems a pity that these boys should not have at least one year's work in music in the High School, that they may
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SCHOOL REPORT.
become more efficient in understanding and reading music by note upon the bass staff. It has been my experience that boys are willing to do in music what they are able to do well, and the reason why we have so few basses in our High School chorus is, simply, that the boys cannot read the music readily.
Therefore I would suggest that the first year's music in the High School be made compulsory instead of elective, those only being excused who are practically tone-deaf. I believe that this would insure better High School music and would enable the pupils to understand the printed page of music much better than heretofore.
Respectfully submitted,
A. C. SAUNDERS, Supervisor.
REPORT OF SUPERVISOR OF DRAWING.
F. H. NICKERSON, Superintendent of Schools:
At your request I submit the following report on drawing for the past year. In writing this report perhaps it will be well to give a general idea as to what our aim in this work is, and also of my work of supervision.
The aim of elementary instruction in art is not the making of an artist or even beautiful drawing sheets. The work in drawing in our schools should tend, as some one has rightly said, "to the making of broad-minded men and women."
There are many pupils who have talent, but with the rank and file, our aim must be a cultivated eye that takes pleasure in refinement of color and form, and the ability to express ideas by drawing as well as by language; and these results come through patient effort on the part of the pupil.
In each grade the pupil is taught color, object drawing, mechanical drawing and design. Beginning with the first year progress is made each year in these lines of work so that at the end of the school course the pupil has been taught to appreciate good color and form whether in nature, dress, decoration, or design.
My general plan of supervision is to give a lesson of one half hour in the grammar grades every two weeks, and to visit one primary room every two weeks to inspect the work. We have grade meetings to plan the work and many teachers visit me during my office hour on Monday afternoons for special help. This hour is for all teachers who require extra assistance in their work.
The time allowed for drawing is one hour each week, which is short compared to many places. The course will be changed a little next year to conform with Manual Training, which requires more mechanical work and construction. This introduction of Manual Training into our schools is a great addition to our course and should, if possible, include every grade.
The High School work in drawing is a continuation of the grammar
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CITY OF MELROSE
course but we are so very short of models and casts that our drawing has not the variety it should have. I certainly hope that in the near future we may have an addition to those we now have.
In closing this report I wish to say that the work this year has been, on the whole, better than in any previous year.
Thanking the Committee and Superintendent for their support in my work and the teachers for the good work they have done, I remain,
Respectfully,
WILLIS S. CARTER, Supervisor.
REPORT OF SUPERVISOR OF PENMANSHIP.
MR. F. H. NICKERSON, Superintendent of Schools:
When I began in October to supervise penmanship in the lower grades, the first step I took, of course, was to examine the writing of the pupils.
I learned during that examination that pupils wrote entirely with the finger movement; that in several of the rooms they sat in unhealthful positions; and that most of the pupils held the pen so awkwardly, and gripped it so firmly as to prevent freedom and control of the writing muscles.
I immediately planned work to overcome these defects. In the three succeeding weeks I had meetings of the fitth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth grade teachers. At these meetings the plan of work was outlined. The defects in position, pen-holding, and movement were carefully explained. The teachers were shown from the standpoint of health and good penmanship the importance of having pupils sit at the desk in an easy, healthful position, and of holding the pen easily and naturally without any tension on the writing muscles.
The subject of movement was treated at length, because good move- ment is the foundation of good penmanship. The movement used by the best penmen, and the one taught by all teachers of penmanship is a combination of finger and arm movement, technically called the con- bined movement. The teachers were instructed how to conduct writing lessons with special reference to the development of this movement, and they received the necessary copies and exercises to be used for this purpose.
I fully realized that to train pupils to develop a new set of muscles, so as to bring them sufficiently under control of the will to write well, would require much time and patience. I therefore instructed the teachers not to break up the finger movement so abruptly as to inter- fere with the pupil's writing in the other branches. We arranged that half of the writing lesson should be devoted to movement exercises, and half to the copy book writing with the old movement. In this way the pupils are gradually changing finger movement for the combined movement, and it does not interfere with the writing they have to do in their regular work.
Since October I have spent on an average two afternoons a week
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SCHOOL REPORT.
visiting the different grades, and ten honrs in teachers' meetings. Six of the afternoons were spent in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades; the remainder in the ninth grades.
Taking into consideration that this work was begun only last Octo- ber, that the pupils practice penmanship only one hour a week, and that I have only two afternoons a week to visit thirty teachers, I believe we have secured excellent results. The pupils' work during the writing lessons, and the specimens exhibited in the different class-roo.ns speak for themselves. Respectfully submitted,
G. WALTER WILLIAMS, Supervisor.
VI. Manual Training : In my annual report for the year ending January 31, 1903, it was suggested "That the Com- mittee take under consideration the desirability and possi- bility of making manual training part of the work in Melrose."
This suggestion was immediately referred to a special committee for investigation.
After careful consideration this sub-committee submitted the following report :
"To the School Board :
"The Special Committee appointed to consider the suggestion of the Superintendent of Schools in his annual report to the effect that manual training be made a part of the work in the schools of Melrose, finding itself in accord with the above-mentioned sugges- tion, would recommend that manual training be introduced into our schools as soon as the necessary means for carrying on such work are available, and that the Superintendent of Schools be authorized to visit the Horace Mann School in connection with the Teachers' College in New York City at his earliest opportunity to observe the system of manual training in use there, and that the necessary expense of such visit be paid from the contingent fund of the School Department."
Signed : GEORGE H. HILL, BESSIE B. DEARBORN, SARAH A. DAY, Special Committee.
This report was approved unanimously by the full com- mittee and measures were adopted that made it possible during the latter part of the year to purchase the necessary benches and tools to equip a room for wood-working in the
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CITY OF MELROSE
basement of the High School building. Following this action and at the first regular meeting subsequent to the organization of the present Committee in January, Aimee C. Ferson was elected Director of Manual Training in our schools.
The work carried on at present under this head includes wood-working for boys and sewing for girls in grades VII, VIII and IX and cardboard work for both boys and girls in grade VI.
It is fortunate for the best interests of the City that the School Committee has seen its way clear to take the neces- sary steps to provide an opportunity for boys and girls to secure training in a manual line in our public schools.
My reasons for advocating the introduction of this line of work into our schools were given briefly in the annual report for the year ending January 31, 1903, and need not be re-stated at this time. The following quotations from the utterances. of prominent educators upon this subject set forth fairly, I think, the prevailing opinion among school- men regarding the value of manual training as a school subject.
Fabian Ware, a celebrated English student of social, economic and educational questions, in discussing the man- ual training idea in his work on "Educational Foundations of Trade and Industry" says : "The manual training schools of America are an attempt to prove that 'learning by doing' is the best means of promoting natural development."
President Thompson of Ohio State University says of the educational value of manual training : "Observation, com- parison, accuracy, judgment, are the alphabet of manual training. ... There is as much of any of these in shoving a plane as in shoving a pen. From the view-point of train- ing or discipline one may be as useful as the other. . . . It is confidently affirmed, therefore, that manual training is justified from pedagogical considerations. Nothing stimulates and quickens the intellect more than the use of mechanical tools, when used under the direction of competent teachers. The boy who constructs is the boy who thinks, deliberates, reasons, and concludes."
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SCHOOL REPORT.
Dr. MacAlister, President of Drexal Institute and former- ly Superintendent of Schools in Philadelphia, said in con- nection with the introduction of manual training into the Philadelphia Schools : "The conviction is gradually obtain- ing ... in the public mind, that every child should receive manual training; that a complete education implies the train- ing of the hand in connection with the training of the mind; and that this feature must ultimately be incorporated into the public education."
Superintendent Seaver of the Boston Public Schools says: " Manual training is essential to the right and full develop- ment of the human mind, and therefore no less beneficial to those who are not going to become artisans than to those who are."
Professor James of Harvard University in an article in the Atlantic Monthly for March, 1899, expressed himself thus with regard to the educational value of manual training : "The most collossal improvement which recent years have seen in secondary education lies in the introduction of the manual training schools; not because they will give us a people more handy and more practical for domestic life and better skilled in trades, but because they will give us citizens with an entirely different intellectual fiber. Laboratory work and shop work engender a habit of observation, a knowledge of the difference between accuracy and vagueness, and an insight into nature's complexity and into the inadequacy of all abstract verbal accounts of real phenomena, which once wrought into the mind remain there as life-long possessions."
It appears from the foregoing statements that the action of the Committee in making manual training part of the work of the Melrose schools is in harmony with the best educational thought of the day.
Objection to manual training as a school subject is some- times made from a failure to grasp the real purpose for which its advocates wish it taught. One who fails to look beneath the surface to the fundamental principles involved in the education of an individual is likely to think of manual training as having a place in the schools to train principally for skill in handiwork. Such is not the proper conception.
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CITY OF MELROSE
Regarded simply as a means for the development of tech- nical skill, it is questionable whether a community would be justified in incurring the expense necessary to maintain manual training in its schools.
Regarded, however, as ministering to an educational need in securing the complete development of the child, and carried on with reference to this larger purpose, manual training seems not only a proper but a necessary part of any well-planned school system.
SOME WAYS IN WHICH PARENTS MAY HELP THE SCHOOLS TO BECOME MORE EFFICIENT.
During the past school year it cost Massachusetts some- thing over $14,500,000 to maintain its public schools. Prac- tically 30 per cent. of the total tax levy throughout the Commonwealth is devoted annually to the support of the public schools.
Such an expenditure suggests that the public believes that an efficient school system supported at public expense and open to all is a vital element in the existence of a democratic state. It is true, undoubtedly, that, on the whole, the public does place a high value upon education; but it is also true that the average citizen is strangely neg- lectful and alarmingly ignorant of the actual work that is done in the schools.
I am confident that the citizens of Melrose follow the work and administration of the schools as closely and as intelligently as in the average community at least, but reports which I have received indicate that practically seventy-five per cent. of the parents having children in our schools do not visit the schools in their regular work from the beginning to the close of the school year. It is not an uncommon thing, also, to find parents who not only are unacquainted with their children's teachers, but also are unable to recognize them by sight. I have even had a parent come to me with a complaint regarding the manage- ment of his child in school who knew neither the grade in which the child was, nor the teacher's name.
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SCHOOL REPORT.
Such apathy regarding interests so vital as those at stake in the schools cannot be atoned for by furnishing fine school buildings, trained teachers, and skilled supervision. It is useless to expect the best results from our schools unless through more frequent visitations to the school-room fathers and mothers get into closer contact with school work than they are as a rule.
I am well aware that there are many difficulties in the way of more frequent visitation to the schools by parents; nevertheless, if fathers and mothers had a keen realization of the value of such visitation, I believe that the majority would find it quite possible to do vastly better in this respect than they do.
The following are a few of the benefits from frequent visits to the schools by parents.
First, frequent inspection of school work by fathers and mothers, if done in a sympathetic spirit, helps both teachers and pupils.
No one thing will do more to encourage a teacher to more faithful effort for a child than to have the parents manifest their interest in her endeavors by an occasional visit and an appreciative word. Such manifestations of interest in the work of the schools tend, also, to develop in the child a higher idea of the importance of school work; and this higher valuation which the child comes to put upon the work in which he is engaged is likely to result in better effort on his part.
Again, through this closer contact with the home, teach- ers are able to learn much regarding the physical weak- nesses, the temperamental peculiarities, and the home life of the pupils that is distinctly helpful in teaching and in management.
Another possible result from more frequent visitation to schools by parents is a better understanding, on their part, of the spirit of the teacher, the purpose of school officials, and the character of modern education. If parents under- stood these things better than they do as a rule, I feel certain that there would be less fault-finding about teachers and school officials and less unintelligent criticism of the inefficiency of the modern schools.
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I recall an intelligent citizen of Melrose who had vigor- ously criticised the poor character of the reading of young people trained in the public schools of the present day. It was my good fortune to be one of the company to whom the criticism was made. Later I took my friend through several grades in one of our schools and let the children read to him from material selected at random. At the close of the inspection he acknowledged the error of his criticism and confessed freely his admiration for the readi- ness with which the pupils grasped the ideas from the printed page and the pleasing manner in which they expressed those ideas. His criticism had been made hon- estly. The trouble was that he had insufficient knowledge of the facts in the case. The basis of his judgment was the stumbling effort of his own child -- a poor reader, natur- ally-when asked to read aloud occasionally at home from the evening paper.
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