USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Fifty years of Boston; a memorial volume issued in commemoration of the tercentenary of 1930; 1880-1930, Pt. 2 > Part 9
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HOSPITAL CLASSES
There are always, of course, some children who are physically ill and who, unless special concern were exercised in their behalf, would be deprived of an education while undergoing treatment. These children are temporarily or permanently confined in institutions, and the School Committee provides instruction for them there.
SPEECH IMPROVEMENT CLASSES
In the spring of 1912 speech improvement classes were organized experi- mentally. Since October 28, 1912, they have been conducted as a permanent
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FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
agency for the correction of flagrant speech difficulties, stammering, tongue-tie, lisping and the like. All grades of the Boston school system, from the kinder- garten to the college, are represented in the speech improvement classes. Work- ing boys and girls, as well as adult students from the professional and business world, arc also admitted.
THE DISCIPLINARY DAY SCHOOL FOR BOYS
Habitual truants and school offenders are no longer committed to a semi- penal reformatory but are sent to our Disciplinary Day School. The humane treatment accorded these children in this institution is a tribute to our whole school system. They are regarded as mentally sick, and it is presumed that with the right sort of treatment they will recover. In fact, a great majority of these boys, as a result of their training in this school, have been sent along the road to health, success, happiness and good citizenship.
CONSERVATION OF EYESIGHT
In 1913 the first class in this country for the conservation of eyesight was established by the Boston School Committee at the urgent request of Mr. Edward E. Allen of the Perkins Institution for the Blind. For three or four ycars the work was in charge of two teachers who had been associated with the Perkins Institution. Gradually regular grade teachers of the Boston schools became interested in the work, and at the present time all the teachers of these classes have had experience in the regular grades.
The work has grown slowly but steadily. One class of eight or ten pupils has increased to eleven classes, with a total enrollment of one hundred and thirty-six. The average number of pupils to a class is twelve. The results of this work have been highly beneficial. Seemingly dull and listless pupils have proved to be merely myopic or weak-sighted. Ocular defects, treated early, have been lessened or removed. Those whose eye conditions were more serious have been saved from the mental retardation that would have followed neglect.
11. Adult Education
One of the significant developments in Boston since 1880 has been the development of adult education. One reason for this development in recent years is that many adults find themselves replaced by automatic machines and labor-saving devices. The public schools have assumed the burden of retraining these adults and preparing them to fit into new fields of occupation. Others, the great majority, wish to take advantage of opportunities which for one reason or another they missed in early life. Still others are foreigners preparing for citizenship or studying our language. This has necessitated diversified educational and vocational courses given in the evening and suitable for maturer minds.
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EDUCATION
EVENING SCHOOLS
The curriculum of the evening schools extends from simple work, corre- sponding to that of the elementary schools, to the more intricate subjects taught in the high schools. Elementary classes are provided so that illiterates aspiring to citizenship may secure suitable instruction. (A Day School for Immigrants also provides for these.) Special classes are organized for those who are preparing for civil service examinations. The evening high schools offer general courses comparable with that of the day high schools. They also offer complete instruction in commercial subjects. In addition to this, some evening high schools specialize in the preparation of high school candidates for college or other university work. Many evening school pupils are enrolled because they seek advancement in their present positions. Accordingly they elect the subjects that will eliminate the deficiency that is retarding their promotion. Others attend evening school in order to prepare for entirely new fields. The Trade School, as we have pointed out, has large evening classes for men at work in the trades.
Even as late as 1880 there was no express legal provision for evening classes, although in that year Boston maintained eleven elementary, one high, and four evening drawing schools. As late as 1881 the newly authorized evening high school was denied the use of the English High School Building. As the Superintendent of Schools remarked in his report, "It was an indication of the low estimation in which evening schools were still held in 1881."
Today, however, the standing of the evening schools of Boston is unques- tioned. In 1930 there were twenty-one evening elementary schools and eleven evening high schools. Over 15,000 pupils attend the schools annually. The ages range from sixteen years to sixty-five, the majority being over twenty- five. The teachers have to meet the same requirements as those established for day school teachers in the same grades and nearly all of them are, in fact, regular day school teachers. The student body is serious-minded, self-con- trolled and self-disciplined. The result is one of the most practical and effective phases of applied education extant. The public evening schools, like the day schools, are free and open to all.
THE EXTENDED USE OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Adult education is further promoted in Boston through what is called the extended use of public schools. In 1912 the School Committee petitioned the Massachusetts Legislature for additional funds with which "to promote the use of school property for such educational, recreative, social, civic, philan- thropic and similar purposes as the School Committee may deem to be for the best interest of the community."
At the present time the department in charge of the extended use of the public schools conducts the following activities:
1. Recreational and Social .- Calisthenics, gymnasium games, basketball, volley ball, dancing of all kinds, orchestra, choruses, dramatics, concerts and entertainments, with an aggregate annual attendance of 325,000.
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FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
2. Educational .- Forums, lectures, debates for men and women, with an aggregate annual attendance of 185,000.
3. Industrial .- Dressmaking, lampshade making, cooking, basketry, china and oil painting, embroidery, waxcraft, papercraft, home nursing for women and girls, with an aggregate annual attendance of 10,000.
PARENT-TEACHERS ASSOCIATION
One of the important functions of the Department of Extended Use of Public Schools is its co-operation with the various Home and School Asso- ciations of the city. These organizations have as their aim the interpretation of the school to the parents and the enlistment of home influences to supple- ment more effectively the work of the school.
During the past year some forty-five local associations, including Mothers' Clubs, have been affiliated with the Boston Home and School Association, which is governed by a board composed of elected executive officers and the presidents of the local organizations and which has the assistance of a special manager, appointed by the Boston School Committee. The bond of unity between the local groups and the central body has been greatly strengthened, and an interest has been created in the work of the schools and of other allied community activities.
These gatherings constitute a valuable forum wherein citizens interested in the public welfare may discuss important subjects, educational and social, and establish direct contact with the schools which their children attend.
12. The Kindergartens
In 1888, at the invitation of Mrs. Quincy Shaw, the Boston School Com- mittee made an investigation of the educational value of the kindergarten, which resulted in the taking over, as a part of the public school system, of the fourteen kindergartens in Boston which were supported by her. From this small beginning the kindergarten system has been extended until at the present time there are 227 public school kindergartens with an average total enrollment of about 10,000 children.
The kindergarten was the first social and educational center connected with the schools; its teachers were the first social workers and visitors who went from the school into the home. Mothers' meetings and parents' clubs originated in the kindergarten, these activities having been carried on since the kinder- garten became a part of the public school system.
The kindergarten has justified its worth and importance in many ways, but chiefly, perhaps, in helping the children of pre-school age to find themselves, emotionally and socially. The informality of the kindergarten makes it possible . to establish those attitudes of co-operation, fair play and joyous participation which tend to social adjustment.
13. Citizenship Through Character Development
The appointment in 1922 by the Superintendent of a council of Boston principals to prepare a course of study in citizenship through character develop-
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EDUCATION
ment and a program for carrying it into effect marked an epoch in public school administration. This council was thoroughly representative of various schools of thought and it assumed its duties in all seriousness and sincerity. It soon arrived at a conviction that a fundamental defect in our public school system is the inadequacy of moral instruction. This condition the council sought to remedy.
After a long period of research and deliberation, the council brought forth a course of study that embodies very definite fundamental guiding principles. The adoption of this course of study elevated education in character and in citizenship to a position of super-eminence in our school system. No longer is such training ignored or tolerated; rather, it is assigned a place of dignity in the daily program of every schoolroom throughout the system. The whole child, regarded as a moral, mental and physical being, becomes the object of attention from the school authorities, who believe that to lay the foundations of character is fully as important as to form the mind and to train the body.
THE EDUCABILITY OF THE EMOTIONS
No program of character education is complete or justifiable which does not strongly emphasize the important role played by the emotions in the shaping of human life and conduct. . And it is not sufficient that teachers merely recog- nize in a vague and indefinite manner the existence of desires, impulses or pas- sions. Teachers must study the emotions, analyze and classify them, observe their various manifestations in child life, learn to distinguish between the positive and the negative emotions, and exercise infinite care in encouraging those that are good and in checking those of evil tendency. How to do all this is the most difficult and perhaps the most important problem confronting edu- cators today, and challenges most thoughtful investigation and experimentation.
Although in its mere beginnings, the movement toward the training of emotional life is, in the council's opinion, now well established in the Boston schools. The work is a vital guidance movement in personality adjustment. Its method is both direct and indirect. Progress in the movement is reported in the school documents appearing at appropriate intervals.
14. Statistics of Attendance and Cost
In the preceding pages we have endeavored to indicate in broad outlines, with many unavoidable omissions, the progress of the Boston public schools during the last fifty years. In order to suggest the scope of the system admin- istered by the school authorities we subjoin a classified enumeration of the enrollment and attendance of pupils in the various public schools during the year ending in June, 1930. The number enrolled in the high and Latin schools" is noteworthy. So also is the high average of attendance. We add a financial statement taken from the Report of the Business Manager of the Boston School Committee for the financial year ending December 31, 1929, in which the liberality of the citizens of Boston toward their public school system is silently, but eloquently, recorded.
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FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
ENROLLMENT AND ATTENDANCE
SCHOOLS
Total Registra- tion
Average Number Belonging
Average Attend- ance
Per Cent of Attend- ance
The Teachers College of the City of Boston ..
High and Latin ..
767 26,943 101,556 11,628
754 24,720
740 23,278
94
Elementary Grades.
93,102 9,720
7,962
82
Totals.
140,894 2,341
128,296 1,923
119,507 1,742
93
Special Schools.
All Day Schools (except the Continuation School and Day School for Immigrants) . .
143,235
130,219
121,249
93
Evening High.
7,571
4,356
3,437
79
Evening Elementary
5,638
3,265
2,697
83
Opportunity School.
429
257
207
81
Boston Trade School (Evening Classes).
1,561
812
644
79
Totals.
15,199
8,690
6,985
80
Continuation School.
6,130
4,033
3,876 419
97
Day School for Immigrants.
965
515
81
Total of all Day and Evening Schools ...
165,529
143,457
132,529
92
FINANCIAL STATEMENT
The following table, copied from the Report of the Business Manager, summarizes concisely the expenditures for the maintenance of the public schools; for repairs and alterations of school buildings and for the cost of land and new buildings (exclusive of interest and sinking fund charges), for the period begin- ning January 1, 1929, and closing December 31, 1929.
Salaries of principals, teachers, members of the supervising staff and others .. $11,652,433 49 Salaries of administrative officers, clerks, stenographers, supervisors of attend- ance, and other employees. 386,281 50
893,557 32
Salaries of custodians and of matrons
Fuel and light (including electric current for power). 465,734 49
1,008,017 68
Supplies and incidentals.
3,276 12
Pensions to supervisors of attendance and to custodians.
Physical education (salaries of teachers, members of the supervising staff and others, and supplies and incidentals - day schools and playgrounds) .... 285,644 28 Salaries of school physicians and school nurses, including members of the supervising staff. 209,507 69
Extended use of the public schools (salaries and supplies and incidentals)
85,370 73
Pensions to teachers.
127,599 50
Alteration and repair of school buildings, etc.
1,668,532 96
Lands, plans and construction of school buildings.
2,650,259 55
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Total
$19,436,215 31
87,527
94
Kindergartens
91
98
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EDUCATION
The number of employees of the School Department at the last official enumeration, June 1, 1931, was 6,723. The vast majority of these were teachers. The three chief items of expenditure, as the table shows, are salaries and pensions (principally for teachers), school buildings and supplies.
PART II - THE CATHOLIC FREE SCHOOL SYSTEM
No account of the progress of education for the last fifty years in Boston would be complete without mention of the Catholic parochial schools. From a humble beginning the parochial schools have become an outstanding factor in the educational life of Boston. Their growth has been steady and persistent. The Catholic free school system of Boston is making a veritable educational contribution. The following brief description of the parochial schools is submitted by the Diocesan Supervisor of Schools. Further details will be found in the article in this volume on the Roman Catholic Church by the Reverend Edward J. Campbell.
Catholic Education in Boston
Previous to the year 1880, Catholic schools in Boston were few in number and poor in equipment. Until the year 1840 there were very few Catholics living in Boston. The period just before the Civil War, from 1840 to 1860, marked the coming of many Catholic immigrants from Ireland and Germany to the United States. Many of these immigrants, especially those from Ireland, came to New England and settled in what is now the City of Boston.
Deeply loyal to their Catholic faith, these sturdy immigrants lost no time in erecting churches and chapels where they might practise their religion. Once this was accomplished their next aim was the establishment of religious schools. The Catholic immigrant did not have to be convinced of the need of religious education. The religious school was for him simply the concrete practical expression of an educational ideal which was an integral part of his religious and national inheritance.
In spite of the desire of the Catholic immigrants for religious education, their initial efforts to establish schools met with little success. The poverty of their resources and the opposition existing at this time to denominational schools made the establishment of Catholic schools almost impossible in the years which immediately preceded the Civil War. Thus in 1855 there were in all of Massachusetts but five free Catholic schools for girls taught by Sisters and only a few schools for boys taught by lay men and women. The progress of Catholic education in the years following the Civil War continued to be slow. The Catholics, like their fellow-citizens of other religious beliefs, felt the eco- nomic depression which resulted from the disastrous struggle between the North and the South. In the year 1872 there were in the territory now comprising the dioceses of Boston and Fall River only thirteen Catholic schools, eleven for girls and two for boys. Eight of these schools, six for girls and the two boys' schools, were located in the City of Boston. In 1880, the number of schools in the diocese had grown to sixteen, eleven of which were in the City of Boston. The Boston schools at this time included seven schools for girls, two for boys
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FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
and two which admitted both boys and girls. Not more than 5,000 pupils were enrolled in the eleven Catholic schools which were in existence in the City of Boston in the year 1880.
The last two decades of the nineteenth century marked the turning point in the growth and development of the Catholic Church in the City of Boston. The Catholic population had grown in numbers and in influence. New parishes were established. Diocesan and parochial organization was perfected. The remarkable progress of the Catholic Church in Boston in these years naturally resulted in the growth and development of Catholic education. At the close of the school year 1899-1900 there were in the City of Boston twenty-two parochial schools with an aggregate enrollment of 13,030 pupils.
The past thirty years have recorded continued growth and development in the progress of Catholic education in the City of Boston. At the present time, there are forty-two parochial schools. There are also three academies for girls, one preparatory school for boys, and six institutional schools. In addition there is one college for women and a diocesan seminary for the training of young men for the priesthood.
On October 1, 1930, 30,784 pupils were enrolled in the parochial schools of the City of Boston; 721 girls in the academies; 1,035 in the one preparatory school for boys and 589 boys and girls in the six institutional schools. Emmanuel College, the one Catholic college in the city proper, had an enrollment of October 1, 1930, of 322 young ladies. The total enrollment of all Catholic schools in the City of Boston on October 1, 1930, was 33,451; 860 teachers were required to direct the education of these 33,451 pupils. These figures do not include the statistics for Saint John's Seminary at Brighton.
The continued growth of the enrollment in the Catholic educational insti- tutions of the city has necessitated the construction of many new school build- ings and the enlargement of existing accommodations. Today in all parts of the city there exist Catholic school buildings which represent the best modern thought in schoolhouse construction. From 1907 to 1930 thirty-two new modern parochial school buildings, containing in all 355 classrooms, have been erected in the City of Boston. During this same twenty-three-year period, 113 new classrooms were added to existing school accommodations.
A striking evidence of the development of the Catholic school system in the City of Boston may be seen by the fact that today there are 3,244 boys and girls attending Catholic high schools in the City of Boston. In 1900 there were but 650 boys and girls enrolled in all of the high schools of the entire archdiocese.
Another striking evidence of Catholic educational expansion in Boston has been in the field of higher education. Boston College and Emmanuel College are described in some detail in later sections of this article. Saint John's Ecclesiastical Seminary, which has already been mentioned, exists for the training of young men for the priesthood. It was established in 1884 and has been gradually enlarged to meet the growing need of additional priests to care for the spiritual needs of the large Catholic population. At the present time, 252 young men are being educated at this institution under the direction of fourteen professors.
WASHINGTON IRVING SCHOOL, COOKING CLASS
JOHN MARSHALL SCHOOL, KINDERGARTEN
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FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
Generous devotion and self-sacrifice have made possible Boston's Catholic educational system, which aims, in the words of the present Cardinal Arch- bishop of Boston, "to train up minds and hearts to the knowledge and service of God and to give to the Church and the State what both have a right to expect - faithful hearts grounded fixedly in Catholic faith and devotion, and citizens who, next to God, will love their country so well that to serve it faithfully and loyally will be to them the greatest of carthly honors."
PART III - COLLEGES AND OTHER INSTITUTIONS
Boston has many educational institutions of state-wide, nation-wide, even world-wide reputation. Unfortunately, owing to the limited space avail- able, the descriptions of these institutions in the following pages are neces- sarily brief. Several of them, it should be said, have been prepared by repre- sentatives of the institutions themselves.
Harvard University
It seems unnecessary to recite here the origin and early history of a uni- versity so well known as Harvard, but its growth and changes during the last fifty years form an indispensable part of our story. Indced, they have con- stituted a vital element in the cultural life of Boston.
Since 1867 Harvard has had only two presidents, Charles W. Eliot and A. Lawrence Lowell. Each was born in Boston. Each has been the author or the advocate of bold educational experiments. President Eliot's principal achievements, perhaps, were the introduction of the elective system, based on the recognition of individual differences among students, and the develop- ment of the graduate and professional schools, with the resulting integration of the entire university into a compact unit, harmonious in its type and stand- ards. President Lowell has modified the original elective system, replacing it by the present group system with faculty advisers, tutors, reading periods and general examinations. He also inaugurated the freshman dormitories and has strongly favored the housing of the students in the new Harkness Halls, modeled somewhat on the English colleges. The leadership of both men has effected a transformation in the life and aspect of the university and their ideas, particularly those of President Eliot, have profoundly influenced educational policies throughout the United States, extending down even into the elementary schools.
Meanwhile, the student membership at Harvard has grown to about 8,500, besides 3,000 who take the summer courses, and is more and more national, rather than regional, in origin. It is so large that it strains the accommodations and in some departments the crowding has necessitated a limit on the number of admissions. The faculty numbers about 1,250.
Many benefactors have come forward in the last fifty years,- Gordon McKay, Higginson, Rockefeller, Widener, Baker, Vanderbilt, Mallinckrodt, DeLamar, Harkness and others,- from whose gifts the endowment has been increased to more than $100,000,000. The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, with over a thousand students, has assumed the character of a higher
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university. The Law and Medical Schools have attained a standard not surpassed in this country and perhaps not in Europe. The new Graduate School of Business Administration, filled to its capacity with students repre- senting (in 1930-31) every state in the Union and no fewer than 211 colleges, is already a signal success. The great collections of the Peabody Museum of American Archeology and the Agassiz Museum have been enriched. The Astronomical Observatory, the Bussey Institution, the Botanical Garden, the Petersham Forest, the Blue Hills Meteorological Station and the Subtropical Garden in Cuba, may be cited as examples of the far-ranging activities of this great university.
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