USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Hatfield > Hatfield Annual Town Report 1945-1950 > Part 4
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Dorothy Boland, B.S., Radcliffe College 2
*Figures in parenthesis indicate number of courses pursued at each institution.
Superintendent of Schools
January 17, 1946.
To the School Committee of Hatfield :
I present herewith my annual report as superinten- dent of the Public Schools of Hatfield.
The Guidance of Child Development
One of the most promising trends in recent years has been the ever increasing number of parents who have sought to understand the physical, emotional, and mental growth of their children in order that such growth be in- telligently guided. And the fact of the matter is that such intelligent guidance of the growth of the whole child can hardly begin too early in life. Even the prenatal period in the development of a child has so great an in- fluence upon post-natal growth that those of us without medical training can hardly begin to appreciate the sig- nificance of it.
Parents are really beginning to arm themselves with some knowledge concerning child development, and it is in this. knowledge, coming from authoritative sources, that I see some healthy changes in the attitudes of parents both toward the child and toward the school as an institu- tion in a democratic society.
One indication of this trend toward the intelligent. guidance of the whole child is seen in the increasing num- ber of parents attending courses in child guidance and in the number of books and periodicals concerning child train- ing which are purchased by them. In this connection, I
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have been particularly interested to note the circulation figures released by Parents Magazine in their October, 1945 issue. In January, 1927, this magazine had a net paid circulation of approximately 20,000 copies and has climbed at a steady annual rate to the present announced paid circulation of over 750,000 copies.
Another indication of the trend is the increasing num- ber of parents, both fathers and mothers, who find their way into the rooms of our elementary schools to learn about the activities and behavior of their children.
The only deplorable part of this trend to become bet- ter acquainted with the school and the problem of child development is that the higher the grade, the less parents come to visit, until we note that the high school frequently has to get in contact with parents either by telephone or letter. It is highly important that parents keep close contact with the school.
Principals Larkin and Jenness are always happy to confer with parents concerning the problems of individual children in their schools.
The superintendent can be conferred with by appoint- ment to suit the convenience of parents, and he is always happy to consider problems of the individual child and ways in which the school can be of assistance.
Transition from Home to School
It is very hard for most persons to realize what a great change is the change from home to school. Teach- ers very often find it hard to realize this because they do not see enough of the "home child". Parents do not real- ize the change between home and school because they do not generally see enough of the "school child".
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Any sharp break between the relative security of the home and the new situation at school is likely to produce fears, inhibitions and other unhappy consequences.
Parents should help to prepare pre-school children for the school experience emphasizing that there is nothing unhappy about the school situation. Concerning this, it is in order for the school to make some suggestions as to how parents ought to prepare children for school. These, in general, are as follows:
1. Be sure the child is physically fit to attend school.
It avoids inconvenience on the part of a parent if a child who is not physically up to par is kept at home for observation and treatment.
2. In disciplining the child at home, do not use the school as a threat. (Parents have been known to tell their children that the school will punish them and change their behavior).
3. In talking about school, emphasize that children are happy there in that they work and play to- gether.
4. Plan for visits to the school during the year be- fore the child is to enter school. (He should become acquainted with the school building, the room, and, above all, with his first grade teacher).
5. Help the child to grow into the field of reading, but do not attempt to teach him to read.
a. Encourage the child to look at picture books.
b. The reading of simple stories to children is one of the natural approaches to reading.
c. Encourage the child to repeat or tell the important parts of stories he is well ac- quainted with.
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6. The use of crayons and coloring books by the child at home will develop skills that will be use- ful to him when he enters school.
7. If the child shows disposition to wish to learn, parents should help him to learn to count.
a. Relate the counting to objects, i. e., count fingers, pennies, etc.
b. Help the child to a quantitative vocabulary by relating quantity with his everyday ex- periences. In other words, help him to un- derstand big objects vs. small objects, tall vs. short, near at hand vs. far away, etc.
8. Above all, do not force children into any of the activities mentioned here; it is better for each child to grow into the activity to the point where he shows an interest in it.
9. Most young children are of short endurance, therefore, it is wisdom to cease an activity before they become tired of it.
These suggestions have been offered by way of ex- ample to show that Hatfield Schools can be helpful to parents.
It is my recommendation to the school committee that a small booklet, embodying such suggestions together with other information about our schools, be printed for the express purpose of securing contact with the parents of pre-school children.
Hatfield Schools Are Schools of Growth
Education in Hatfield schools is based upon a develop- mental philosophy of growth.
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The idea of a democratic form of government has its roots deep in the spirit of liberty. Liberty is really the life-blood of democracy in the school as well as in the home and the community. The school, like the state, has its problems of government and must give, in varying de- grees, controlled scope to the spirit of liberty which is inherent in every growing child. Children, like adults, enjoy all of the liberty that they can safely be given, in fact, it has been shown that, early in life, the child must be given an opportunity to develop purposes and respon- sibilities which will strengthen his own personality.
The abstract idea that, "Obedience to Law is Liberty", will not be understood by the child until he has reached mental maturity, yet the consistent guidance of his ac- tivities upon this basis will give him a growing awareness of its consequences in everyday living.
In Hatfield schools we are concerned with allowing individual liberty in proportion to the maturity of each individual pupil. Some privileges are withheld from in- dividuals who indicate that they are too immature to handle them. Obviously the school must provide many activities in which there is opportunity to develop re- sponsibility and self-reliance.
To guide the growth of the whole child in our school program the following factors must be considered :
1. Children differ greatly in physical maturity.
2. Children differ greatly in environmental and cul- tural extraction.
3. Children differ greatly in emotional and social adjustment.
4. Children differ greatly in mental content and ability.
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Only by considering these individual differences be- tween children can any school hope to develop each in- dividual child to the full extent of his ability.
The Problem of Reading Readiness
For a long time, teachers have known that some of their beginners were not ready to learn to read. Even with every possible encouragement and help, some of the little ones simply did not "catch on" as the others did. That is, they were not ready to begin to learn to read. In schools, we adopted the term "reading readiness" to refer to this problem.
This situation was studied in a number of school sys- tems and the results seemed to indicate that a state of readiness to begin reading, on the part of a child, seemed to correspond to a mental age, as determined by intelli- gence tests, of six or six and a half years. Some children five years old had this mental age, more children six years had it, and some did not seem to reach it until seven years old or later.
All school administrators, today, realize that reading readiness can be developed or hastened by the proper kind of experience. Hence, part of the work of the first grade in Hatfield schools is definitely to develop reading readiness.
No cause for Parental Alarm
All parents and teachers should remember the fun- damental notion that each and every child presents, be- cause of his own make-up, individual educational prob- lems.
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In judging the school work of their own child, parents should disregard the school progress of their neighbor's child or children in the same grade of school. In report- ing pupil growth, the school is concerned with the indi- vidual growth of the single child rather than a comparison of his growth with that of other children.
The school looks for growth in personality and atti- tudes rather than high achievements in marks. Teachers know that excellent attitudes will result in excellent marks. Once again, I reiterate that a child usually does the best work of which he is capable, therefore, it is wise to com- pare him only along lines of his own growth.
When the school authorities accept the child for en- trance to the first grade at five and a half years, they com- mit themselves to the problem of providing for his indi- vidual differences then and thereafter.
School Health
School Lighting
I am happy to report that practically all of our class- rooms now have adequate lighting. The School Commit- tee of Hatfield and the Trustees of Smith Academy have co-operated in a venture designed to save the eyesight of children attending our schools.
There remain, however, three rooms in the Smith Academy which need attention, and I feel sure that the trustees will care for these rooms as soon as it is feasible to do so. These rooms are: (1) the typing room; (2) the foreign language room; and (3) Miss Ryan's class- room.
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Chest X-ray of School Staff
On December 4, 1945, the School committee voted to request all school personnel, including school lunch work- ers and janitors, to submit to a chest X-ray examination.
In taking this action, the school committee co-operated with the Massachusetts Department of Education and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, both depart- ments co-operating in the following statement:
"We believe this procedure is a sound one. Pro- tecting children in school against tuberculosis by seeing that they are surrounded by school per- sonnel who are free from the disease, is of vital importance to their welfare".
All of the staff of our schools co-operated willingly in this venture, and all received satisfactory reports on the result of their X-ray examinations.
No School Signals
It is the policy of the School Department to have our schools open every day, regardless of the weather. Par- ents are therefore assured that when they send their children to school there will always be someone there to care for them. On extremely stormy days parents are encouraged to use their own judgment in keeping the chil- dren home, if this is in the best interests of the child's health. In case a storm develops in to a hurricane, flood, or blizzard, announcement will be made over radio station WHYN. Request is made not to call to determine whether there is school, but rather to determine whether conditions are suitable to send your child to the school building.
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Education of Veterans
Long before V-J day, the Massachusetts Department of Education considered, with the educational representa- tives of the various cities and towns of the Commonwealth, the problem of providing necessary educational facilities for returning veterans.
It was early recognized that, in most instances, it would be neither educationally efficient nor economically sound for each local community to try to care for the educational needs of service men. Accordingly, the State Department of Education set up nine regional high school centers which were opened on October 15, 1945. These nine regional high schools are located at the State Teach- ers Colleges in Bridgewater, Fitchburg, Worcester, Fram- ingham, Salem, Lowell, North Adams, Westfield, and the Massachusetts School of Art in Boston.
According to announcement made from the State De- partment, courses may be commenced at any time, with one or fifty veterans enrolling. Instructors will be pro- vided for frequent consultations with the students if they are "snagged" in the correspondence course study ..
Since this original announcement, the January, 1946 issue of the Massachusetts Educational News advises us that additional centers were opened during December at Pittsfield, Fall River, Gardner, Norwood, Springfield, New Bedford, Somerville, and Lawrence. Of particular inter- est to Hatfield veterans is the further statement that plans are also under way to open a regional high school in Hol- yoke.
Hatfield veterans interested in pursuing individual courses or in completing their high school education should consult Principal Clarence J. Larkin for further informa- tion leading to contact with the regional center.
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Arrangements may be made to complete work for a Smith Academy Diploma, or the High School Equivalency Certificate issued by the Massachusetts Department of Education.
School Enrollment
Center Elementary Schools-By Grades
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
1943
32
27
24
33
23
38
32
36
1944
27
27
32
27
25
32
27
36
1945
30
24
29
28
29
26
32
21
Comparative Totals for Center Schools
Year
1945
1944
1943
1942
1941
Total pupils
219
233
245
264
279
Smith Academy Enrollment-By Classes Freshmen Sophomores Juniors Seniors Total
1941
42
27
20
. 16
105
1942
40
28
16
19
103
1943
35
26
22
20
103
1944
36
26
22
20
104
1945
30
29
21
19
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Totals for Hatfield Public Schools
Year
1945
1944
1943
1942
1941
Total pupils
318
337
348
367
384
Community School Lunch Program
With the opening of school in September, 1945, we lost another very able school lunch supervisor, Mrs. Jennie Yarrows. Mrs. Yarrows was a very capable manger who enjoyed her work, but she found it necessary to resign the position because of her health.
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Mrs. Minnie Brennan was subsequently appointed to supervise the preparation and serving of lunches; hence the high quality of our lunch program is still being main- tained.
There were many trying circumstances in 1945 which, on occasions, seemed to indicate the closing of the lunch operation. Fresh meat and canned goods of various sorts were so short that we were at times operating on a day to day basis.
In this connection our local ration board was more than once our "life saver". The board members co-oper- ated in every way to insure adequate supplies of the things we needed to keep going. Mrs. Margaret Cantwell de- serves high praise for her assistance to and her co-opera- tion with the school lunch supervisor.
The following statistics concerning the operation of our school lunch program are submitted for examination :
Number of Days and Number of Meals Served
Month
No. Lunch Days
No. Meals Served
January
23
4881
February
17
3970
March
19
4335
April
10
2252
May
22
4962
June
6
1143
September
15
3466
October
21
4715
November
19
4114
December
15
3241
167 days
37,079 meals
The expenditures were made partly from the town appropriation and partly from the Commodity Distribu- tion Fund.
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Financial Summary
Expenditures :
Wages
$3,109.50
Food
Fuel
4,241.77 101.00
Ice
20.04
Misc. supplies and repairs
206.22
Misc. equipment
175.60
Total expenditures
$7,854.13
Income :
Receipts from sale of lunches
$4,645.35
Reimbursement from Common-
wealth
3,470.20
Total income $8,115.55
The Elementary School Elementary Course of Study
Pending the printing, by the Massachusetts Depart- ment of Education, of the new courses of study for ele- mentary schools, we have re-organized our elementary courses of study in reading and arithmetic.
The obvious advantages of our revised courses can be enumerated as follows :
1. Each teacher has a typewritten manual of the complete outline for all grades, one through eight, thus she more clearly envisions the place of her work in the total picture.
2. The work of each grade is clearly organized and dovetailed into the work of the preceding and succeeding grades.
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3. There is provision for individual differences among children.
4. The latest revisions of basal readers and arith- metic books are used as a basis for the courses.
5. This course of study provides for the acquisition of basic skills and information.
Elementary School Library
In June of 1945, we started to make provision for a library of reference materials with a particular view to the use of such by the intermediate and junior high school grades of the Center Elementary School.
This project, carried out entirely under the leadership of Principal Jenness, has been carried on almost complete- ly from funds raised through the efforts of Center School pupils. It seems to me that additional educational benefits accrue when pupils themselves have an active part in pro- viding for betterments in the school.
The library room has been painted and bookcases have been built to house the collection of books we hope to have. We now need library furniture such as tables and chairs to complete the project.
The Massachusetts Division of Public Libraries now has a specialist in elementary school libraries, Miss Sarah Beard, and we are consulting with her in order that we may profit from her experience in setting up our library.
There is much value to be derived from an elementary school library. To enhance the accumulation of study- skills by the pupil, the library should be a constant source of information. Specifically, he should know how to make use of dictionaries, atlases, encyclopedias, the better news- papers, magazines, and glossaries of technical informa-
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tion. Thus, our pupils may assume greater responsibility and initiative for self-directed work which can be cor- related with carefully planned units by the classroom teacher.
The High School
Harvard Report
In the past two years, two highly significant reports, concerning curriculum revision in the American high school, have appeared in print.
The first of these two documents entitled, "Education for All American Youth", was the report of the Educa- tional Policies Commission of the National Education As- sociation, and the second document appeared as, "General Education in a Free Society", by members of the faculty of Harvard University.
Both reports were based upon highly significant changes in the high schools of our country. Such changes, over a seventy year period, have altered the objectives of the secondary school. Between 1870 and 1940, while the population in the United States slightly more than tripled, the high school population was being multiplied 90 times and that of colleges about 30 times.
In 1870, three-fourths of those who attended high school went on to college, but in 1940 only one-fourth went on to college.
On the basis of these and other more detailed statis- tics, it is concluded that the high school has ceased to be a preparatory school in the old sense of the word. It now prepares pupils for life rather than for college.
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The problem facing the high school educator of today is : How can the interests of terminal pupils be reconciled with the equally just interests of the one-fourth who go on to further education ? And more important still, how can these two groups, despite their different interests, achieve from their education some common and binding understanding of the world they will share in common.
Recommendations from the Report
1. For the high school student the committee rec- ommends that 75 per cent and in no case less than 50 per cent of the student's time be devoted to a study of general education.
2. The general education should be built around English, science, mathematics, and the social studies.
3. Each student would be required to take at least half of his total program in those areas.
4. Such a program, the report states, would help the schools to develop more intelligent citizens for, "A sound people and a sound society".
It is generally conceded among educators that this report is significant as the report of a very careful study by the Harvard men. However, it is also generally con- ceded that the authors have shown a more penetrating insight into the deficiencies of college students than they have into the problem of providing proper courses for the wide range of ability within the non-college group.
We can only hope that, if this general criticism is valid, further study will offer practical inplementation of the actual high school curriculum for both terminal and college preparatory groups.
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Conclusion
The old order has changed and has given way to an entirely new era.
The use of atomic energy for destructive purposes has placed upon religion and upon education the grave responsibility of seeing to it that such energy is never again used to reduce cities and human beings to dust.
How atomic energy will be used, and to what extent the United Nations Organization will succeed in maintain- ing peace through their "Charter", will be determined by the character and integrity of the men in whose hands these instruments rest.
Upon churches, upon parents, and upon schools de- volves the responsibility for the character and the integri- ty of future world citizens.
Respectfully submitted, GILBERT D. BRISTOL,
Superintendent of Schools.
Principal of Smith Academy
To the Superintendent of Schools and the School Committee of Hatfield :
I herewith submit my report for the year of 1945.
The 1945-46 enrollment at Smith Aacdemy is as fol- lows: Freshmen, 30; Sophomores, 29; Juniors, 21 ; Seniors, 19. Inasmuch as this is our first post war year, I repeat for your comparison the enrollment figures as stated in my 1941 report: 16 Seniors, 20 Juniors, 27 Sophomores, 42 Freshmen.
These figures indicate that, among other deductions, our enrollment has decreased six per cent. This is small compared to the average decrease in high school enroll- ment during the past four years.
Our enrollment will most probably not exceed one hundred for the next seven or eight years. Although the current eighth grade has an abnormally low enroll- ment of 21, the principal of the Center School estimates that the average enrollment throughout the grades is ap- proximately twenty per cent below normal.
Mr. John F. Symancyk of Springfield joined our fac- ulty this fall as teacher of history and science, and as coach. He was graduated from Westfield High School where he excelled in all sports. After leaving high school he played 'Semi-pro' football until he was put under con- tract by the New York Yankees and given an athletic scholarship to New York University, from which he was graduated in 1933. He has had much experience in boys' club work. He is married and has two children.
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Mr. John Jakobek who resigned to accept a similar position at Essex, Conn., was very successful with his soccer and basketball teams, having won two soccer cham- pionships and last year's basketball championship.
Because of this latter accomplishment, it was our privilege to entertain the Hampshire League at a banquet which was held at the Memorial Town Hall, March 20th. This banquet was put on entirely by our Household Arts Instructor, Miss Margaret Connelly, and the girls of her department. They did an excellent job.
There has been no important change in our course of study the past year, nor is there any unusual trend in the choices of courses. All classes seem to be functioning normally and progressively. If any one thing seems more apparent to me than another, it is the universal realiza- tion on the part of all students that the responsibility for their own success rests entirely within themselves. It becomes increasingly less necessary to warn pupils of the importance of assuming responsibility for their own aca- demic success.
We have this past fall effected a rearrangement of home rooms, providing for the housing of each of the four classes in separate rooms, in contrast to the previous ar- rangement of two home rooms. The anticipated advan- tages have materialized and fully justified the change.
Education Week was celebrated again this fall with an open house night. Although this was held on a night free from other distractions, the number of people who attended did not justify its continuance. Those who came were sincrely interested in the welfare of their children and were anxious to discuss many things with the teach- ers, often delaying them between classes. It was evident that the parents were more concerned with an opportunity to talk with the teachers than to observe classes. In con-
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