USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Reading > Genealogical history of the town of Reading, Mass., including the present towns of Wakefield, Reading, and North Reading, with chronological and historical sketches, from 1639 to 1874 > Part 75
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On receiving the keys from the chairman of the selectmen, Rev. Mr. Bliss, in the subjoined excellent address, delivered the keys to the prin- cipal of the High School.
It is with great pleasure that the school committee accept, for the purposes of education in Wakefield, this beautiful edifice. They con- gratulate the people of the town that a need that was beginning to be deeply felt has been supplied. Though they are not as a body to be credited with any active participation in the work of planning or rearing this building, having been wholly relieved of that responsibility by the labors of another committee appointed by the town for the purpose,
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they yet have watched the progress of the work, and believe that it has been carried forward with great skill and care. They hope that the building, so beautiful both without and within, will be found in its use to be fully adapted to all the purposes for which it has been reared.
The liberality shown by the town in the erection of this house has been very great, so great, indeed, as to have provoked the remark that it has been excessive ; and there are, perhaps, some who would have preferred a less imposing and expensive structure. Far shall it be from me to defend extravagance, whether it be in school-houses or dwelling-houses or churches ; and yet there seem to me to be good and sound reasons why a building devoted to the uses of education should be one of the most commanding and comely in the town. Taxes are indeed sometimes onerous ; debts are generally curses, whoever have them to pay: nevertheless, good buildings are educators of no mean power ; and when devoted not to purposes of folly, nor yet to purposes of gain, but to the noble end of educating the young, they can hardly be too good. Without discussing the question whether a few thousand dollars less might not have sufficed for this building, I yet count upon the agreement of all present when I say, that it is altogether fit and proper that the finest architecture which any town is able to display should be that devoted to the twin purposes of religion and education. Those things which we prize most, as the sources of our prosperity and our strongest safeguard, should receive the most emphatic expression. There is an incongruity in building for ourselves fine private dwellings and then erecting a cheap and uncomely church, - and were this the place, we would congratulate our Baptist brethren upon the elegant structure with which they have graced our street. They have taxed themselves heavily, but the cause is one worthy of being taxed for. It deserves an adequate expression of the regard in which Christian men hold it. The same is true of education ; it is important enough to. receive at the hands of any community the acknowledgment contained in handsome and costly structures. A house like this is an emphatic public declaration that good learning is held in very high esteem here; and many persons, children among the rest, will have higher ideas of the importance of education from the fact that old people have given this proof of their judgment concerning its legitimate requirements. Besides, there is an imperceptible, perhaps, but none the less powerful influence, constantly exerted by a tasteful public edifice. A great many valuable lessons are continually being derived from it. It is true it may be a source of self-flattery, as too many of our possessions unfor- tunately are ; for it is seldom that we can look upon any excellent
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object, if it be our own, without spreading a little more widely the wings of our pride ; but if used as it ought to be, it is a source of much instruction and of many incentives. An evil which is very perceptible in our busy lives is that we cannot stop for details, but content our- selves with general impressions, and I think are more apt to be vain in consequence. Many persons, in looking at a fine building, will be con- tent with a single glance, and be unable to give any account of the architecture of it; or if they glance at it will speak in general and per- haps contemptuous terms of the gingerbread work about it, being quite unable to see the study and taste that were employed in producing the general effect which they feel and acknowledge. But there is a change in prospect in this respect ; object teaching will do much to remedy this bad habit. When children shall be taught, not less from books, but more by external observation, and learn accurately to notice and describe everything about them, they will derive from nature and from paintings and from architecture many of the most valuable lessons, and lessons which we, who have been taught by the old methods, never learned. For that day this edifice will be an excellent teacher. It is the desire on the part of many of us that our High School should be developed into a school of greater influence and usefulness than it has hitherto been. It should, we think, have a larger number of scholars, a wider range of studies, and should reach a position of so much evi- dent importance that parents will not be content to suffer their children to go into the shops and factories till they have enjoyed its full advan- tages. Hitherto it has labored under great difficulty in the narrowness of the quarters assigned to it, in the want of suitable recitation rooms, and in the lack of various facilities for the prosecution of school duties. That much excellent teaching and much hard study have been per- formed are facts which many before us can affirm by direct testimony ; and all honor to the teachers who in remote and recent years have used to the full extent all possible facilities that the old building afforded. They have their reward in the consciousness of having done their duty, and in the gratitude of their pupils.
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But we have come to a new era. The town has passed beyond its old boundaries. New streets, new stores, and new dwellings say very plainly to us that new responsibilities rest upon us, and a new career is opening before us. The schools already feel the impulse. Though three new ones have already been established within one year, yet some of the old ones are now overcrowded, and admonish us that still more ample accommodations will soon be required. From this greatly in- creased number of scholars in the lower schools, we shall certainly
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gather a larger number for the High School, and we shall doubt- less find that it was wise to have anticipated our wants in providing beforehand these greatly enlarged accommodations. One reason for the early withdrawal of scholars from the High School has, perhaps, been the fact that the teaching force of the school has not been sufficiently great to perform the labor required by the course of study the com- mittee thought it wise to lay down.
Two teachers have had neither the time nor strength to give to the pupils that thorough drill upon the studies of the course which was necessary to fix their interest in the school. Hence the scholars of less studious habits were willing to leave school, and too often, perhaps, their parents were willing to have them, and hence the school has suf- fered both in its usefulness and reputation. Therefore, no sooner was there a near prospect of transferring the High School to this building, than the committee decided to add another teacher to the force already employed upon this school. In other words, they took the younger and less proficient of the pupils, who, under the old arrangement, would have entered the High School, and made a separate school, and placed them under an experienced teacher for a year's thorough drill. It will be no small advantage to the scholars of the school to have three com- petent and faithful teachers where they had but two before. And with this additional teaching power, coupled with the attractiveness of this building, the committee believe this school can and will enter upon a new career of usefulness.
The natural sciences have been very faithfully and successfully taught in the school during the past year, but with the new facilities afforded by this building, a still larger degree of success may be ob- tained. The languages and mathematics have also been thoroughly studied, but with the opportunity for longer recitations, and with the more direct personal care of the teachers, these branches can and doubtless will be more fully acquired.
The new apparatus which the school has in part purchased, and for which the town has made an additional grant of money, will add to the facilities of the teachers for imparting, and the advantages of the scholars for acquiring knowledge, and the committee are confident that the school may become far more proficient and useful than ever it has been, and that an increased conviction of its value will obtain a place in the minds of the people of the town. And that a school in order to be useful must have the hearty sympathy of the people, is a fact of prime significance. A school cannot thrive upon money alone; it must have something else ; it must rest upon the good will, and to some
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extent, upon the warm solicitude of the community. It must be per- vaded with the feeling that not a few pairs of eyes are upon it, but hun- dreds of them ; that not a few persons, and they perhaps officials, are anxious for its prosperity, but that all its patrons and all the town are so likewise.
Teachers need such support ; for however conscientious in the dis- charge of their duties they are, and however deeply they may love their calling, yet if they tax their invention to find methods to interest their pupils, and work, in school and out, for their benefit, and then gain no recognition of their faithfulness from the parents of the children, who perhaps are too inattentive to their efforts even to know that they have been thus at work, they will be very likely to lose heart, and cease special effort. Indeed, it often seems to me that parents are too little acquainted with the peculiar difficulties of a teacher's profession, and do not estimate at its true worth the labor which a teacher expends upon their children. Greater familiarity with the working of all the schools, on the part of parents, would inevitably greatly increase their efficiency. It would make the judgments of parents more discriminat- ing and more just, and would stimulate both teachers and pupils in the most effective and healthful manner. Pupils need this manifested sym- pathy of their parents. The want of this has been the secret influence that has paralyzed the efforts of many a teacher. It is too much to ask of teachers that they, unaided, shall put the fire of enthusiasm in study into the hearts of pupils. They can do it often, but had they the co-operation of parents, they could do it almost always. Let schol- ars know that every step of their progress is noted by the parents, and that there is an actual understanding between the teachers and their parents, and frequent consultation, and let them often see their parents in the school-room and witness their open pleasure in their advance- ment, and this advancement would be far more satisfactory than it sometimes is. And perhaps there is no school in town upon which such attentions would have more direct and palpable effect than upon the two that are to occupy this building. The pupils have arrived at a sensitive age ; they are having more and more self-respect ; they would be pained by paining their friends, and they would be pleased in pleas- ing them, as a few years ago they would not; and the effect which parents by their frequent presence in the school-room, and by their con- stant interest in the progress made might produce, would be very marked and powerful.
The School Committee, then, would take this occasion, so auspicious for these schools and for the interests of education among us, to urge
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upon the acceptance of parents the privilege and the duty of giving the decided help of their sympathy to these schools. They are a posses- sion of which any town might be proud ; and it is for us, with these additional facilities, to make them foundations of increased usefulness and power.
It but remains for me, in behalf of the School Committee, to pass the custody of this building into the hands of the efficient Principal of the High School. We are glad to do this, for we are confident that you, sir, and your trusted assistant, will spare no pains to preserve its finish and beauty, and use it well for the purposes. which you labor to advance. We bid you use, use it carefully, of course, but use it, every part of it ; let this room witness to the hard work and good conduct of this school. Let these other rooms, these halls, the apparatus you will have, also bear evidence to the good quality of your work; and you will be sustained not only by this Board and the people of the town, but by the higher authority and the more satisfactory approval of your own conscience.
Mr. M. J. Hill, the Master of the High School, on receiving the keys, ably and happily responded as follows : -
These keys, sir, mean for me a double responsibility. I refer not simply to the duty of caring for this beautiful building, the finest school edifice of wood in the State, if not in New England, but to that higher and more difficult duty of guiding those who shall henceforth study within these walls. Upon the first I enter with some measure of con- fidence. Surely this elaborate and graceful structure will wellnigh protect itself ; so cheery, spacious, and elegant, it cannot fail to invite the kindest treatment from all those whose good fortune it shall be to use it.
I believe, too, in its educating power. We readily enough appreciate the influence of a truly noble man. He need not act ; he need not even speak. His very presence is a power for good. His nobility beams forth from his countenance, it cheers with its warmth, it illu- mines with its splendor. True, the warmth is not always present, and the glory of the illumination may vanish like the tints of evening. But the memory of such a man will live. Should all our memories be as exalted as that, we would be stones did we not lead better, purer, and nobler lives.
There is a companion truth, whose force some realize more than others. I think those to whom we owe this structure fully comprehend it. It is this: Things may be powers for good as well as persons.
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Things that are voiceless and soulless may educate. A beautiful statue, or painting, or model of architecture, works upon the mind, awakes emotions such as beauty only can kindle, makes it more susceptible to other beauties, and hence, with great power or little, but always with some, it promotes that rich culture essential to a well-rounded educa- tion. But more precious than the building and its surroundings, is the school itself, whose highest success will depend in large measure upon the manner in which the parents and the scholars shall perform their respective duties. I am impressed more and more with the magnitude and importance of my calling the longer I labor in it. Say what you will of the great questions of the day, political, social, and others, I know of none greater than the problems that concern the human mind. Surely if the best intellects fail to solve them, I may be pardoned if, in spite of attempted solutions, some of them to my mind continue mys- teries as before.
It will be my aim, however, to merit the confidence you have reposed in me. In this aim I ask your sympathy, your charity, and your cordial co-operation. In behalf of the Wakefield High School, I thank the town for its munificence. With thanks equally hearty for this token of renewed trust, I accept these keys and the burden of duties they sym- bolize. And, scholars, as these keys are the means whereby I am en- abled to unlock the various apartments of this temple of learning, so may the training and culture you can acquire in your early years (if so disposed) become, as it were, keys to Nature's vast store-houses of un- limited knowledge.
The principal address of the day, by Prof. B. F. Tweed, of Charles- town, was then delivered, and by his courtesy we are permitted to give it below.
MR. CHAIRMAN : I confess it was with a feeling akin to pride that I received an invitation from the School Committee of my native town to take part in the exercises of this interesting occasion. And it is not without emotion that I now stand in this presence, surrounded by the scenes and associates of my childhood and youth, and looking into the faces of so many of my life-long friends. My thoughts naturally revert to the little brown school-house in which I took my first lessons in scholastic lore, and the faces of my early teachers rise before me, idealized as seen through the vista of lengthened years, and hallowed by the affection with which I ever regarded them. I don't know that my early teachers were especially handsome, using that term as young men usually employ it in speaking of young ladies ; from the fact that
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most of them were never married, I might presume it to be otherwise. But (begging pardon of the ladies present for any seeming want of gallantry) I must say that I don't see any such young ladies now- adays as appear to my mind's eye when I think of Miss Symonds, Miss Bancroft, Miss Newhall, and Miss Evans ; and here I may say, inciden- tally, to the young ladies teaching in Wakefield, that they have it in their power so to impress themselves on the plastic minds committed to their care, that in after years, when whatever of beauty they may now possess shall have faded, it will still exist as " pictures in memory, not changed, but translated."
Nor can I deny myself the privilege of referring to those who visited our schools at the stated examinations, and watched over their interests. Could I summon them in fact, as in fancy they appear before me, with the venerable form of him at their head who for so many years minis- tered at the altar in yonder church, and whose interest in our schools never flagged, it would afford me unmixed pleasure to express to them personally, and through them to the good old town, which, under what- ever name, has always been liberal in support of schools, my heartfelt gratitude. Nor must I forget the public-spirited men, through whose influence and liberality the South Reading Academy was established, which furnished opportunities for a higher course than our public schools then provided. For the ability to occupy a responsible, and I hope useful position in life, I feel indebted more to these schools, and to the self-denial and wise foresight of parents who appreciated their value, than to any effort of my own ; and I am glad that you have given me an opportunity thus publicly to acknowledge my obligation. But, sir, not to dwell on what is, in some sense, personal to myself, though equally applicable to hundreds of others, I will pass to what I hope will be regarded as an appropriate theme for this occasion. It is this : The influence of our school system on New England character and on great public interests.
It has been said, and with some show of truth, that the only natural production of New England is ice, but that its manufactures include every conceivable thing, from wooden nutmegs to brains. Anything combining utility with cheapness, from an apple-parer to a sewing-ma- chine, is known, the world over, as a Yankee notion, and I wonder that no biblical commentator has found a special reference to the universal Yankee in the text, " Man has sought out many inventions."
It is true that, by dint of industry, the scanty and sterile soil does yield some other products than ice, yet it is only by the most persistent tickling with a hoe that it is made to smile with a harvest. Or perhaps
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I should rather say, using Yankee phraseology, it is only by swapping a full equivalent of labor and dressing that the farmer secures a scanty return. The resources of New England, therefore, and those to which she is indebted for her prosperity, are not in the soil, but in the strong arms and fertile brains of her people. Nay, even in the case of the one natural production, it was in the alembic of the Yankee cranium that ice was first converted to gold. What had remained insoluble for the purposes of pecuniary liquidation, from the beginning, yielded only to the alchemy of the Yankee brain. Notwithstanding the transparency of ice, it was only the keen sight of our Tudors, Gages, and Hittingers that could see money in it.
That climate, soil, and other physical conditions should have pro- duced marked peculiarities of character might have been anticipated, though what they would be could hardly be foreseen. A weaker race than our fathers might have been discouraged, and yielding to what seemed a necessity, might have dragged out a miserable life of poverty. In them, however, it stimulated to industry and perseverance, and developed a fertility of resource in an inverse ratio to that of the soil.
Somebody has said that in certain parts of our country a whiskey- shop and lager-beer saloon only are necessary as the nucleus of a village. With our fathers it was a church and a school-house. Around these two institutions clustered the settlers, and the germ there planted has developed into our present liberal system of public education. From these spring material wealth, our social and political institutions, and the patriotism, public spirit, and intelligence requisite to preserve them, and to advance the interests of a progressive civilization.
Humboldt has said that " science and manipulative skill must be wedded together, that national wealth must be based on an enlightened employment of national products and forces." Our fathers may not have had this in view as the prime object in founding our school system, but the results of New England thrift have abundantly proved that educated labor pays, regarded even from a pecuniary point of view ; that by utilitizing all our material, - the brains of the masses, - we increase indefinitely national wealth. And here we have a fine illustra- tion of the fact that the highest and truest interests of society are best promoted by providing for the welfare of its individual members ; that justice to all, even the weakest, is, like honesty, the best policy, not only of the individual, but of the state.
From time immemorial, and everywhere, the greatest waste had been that of humanity. The great mass of mankind had been little better
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than mechanical implements or tools directed by the intelligence and for the benefit of the few, - mere hewers of wood and drawers of water, - all the elements of a distinctive humanity, that which constitutes the image of God, undeveloped, lost to themselves and the world. The Reformation, making every man directly responsible to God, and carry- ing with it, as its correlative, the right of private judgment, tended to a system of education qualifying every man to exercise this right.
But the world is slow to admit the logical consequences of a propo- sition which disturbs time-honored institutions ; and there were not wanting those who supposed that such a consummation would work a social revolution, threatening the very stability of the state. It was only after the lapse of many years, and in a new country, that the experiment was inaugurated and developed. It is, then, a problem first solved in New England and by our school system, that the education of the whole people is the most important element in the material pros- perity of a nation. It has become an axiom in political economy. There is no one question now exciting so much interest among educa- tionists, both in this country and in Europe, as the inquiry how to bring our school systems into more direct relations with the industry of the people ; and though we may justly claim to have taken the lead in a general educational system, we are forced to admit that some of the nations of Europe have outstripped us in the practical character of the instruction imparted.
At the World's Fair in 1851, the palm of excellence in manufac- tures was, in nearly every department, awarded to England. Sixteen years later, when the nations again displayed the results of their skill and labor, England excelled only in ten of a hundred departments. This excited so much alarm among the manufacturing interests of Eng- land that Parliament appointed a committee of investigation, and the report of the committee is equally instructive to us as to England. It is this, " That the success of the Continent was owing to its admirable technical schools ; that no nation can excel in manufactures unless it provides facilities for scientific education for all that converts the mere workman into the artisan." It was this report, and the fact that so many of the foremen in our manufacturing establishments were foreign- ers, that led immediately to legislation in behalf of industrial drawing, under which technical schools are springing up in all our cities and large towns.
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