USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Quincy > Inaugural address of the mayor, with the annual report of the officers of the city of Quincy for the year 1899 > Part 15
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Discipline.
Judging from the interest shown by visitors, one of the marked characteristics of Woodward is the method of discipline. How often people exclaim, " No system of marking deportment ! How can you make the girls behave ? What keeps them so still ? Are there no punishments ?" Come and visit them. Do they not behave? It is satisfactory to note that they are at their best, not in public, nor before visitors, but when teachers and pupils together are pursuing their class-work.
There are no formal rules of behavior. The pupils are al- lowed liberty, but they are taught that LIBERTY IS NOT LICENSE ; liberty is merely freedom to do right. Each girl is taught also that only under law is there liberty ; that every action must be decided by the law of righteousness, and decided by her- self.
Her aids to this development of character, aside from good home training and the influence of the church, come from the daily ethical instruction of her teachers, given both directly and indirectly. How can we expect a girl to leave school ready to assume responsibility, unless she has been trained to re- sponsibilities as faithfully as she is educated in Latin verbs or mathematical problems, by the daily practice of-Shall I? or Shall I not ?
To mention all the efforts put forth for the successful teach- ing of this most important and most difficult part of a girl's education would be to describe minutely the daily work of Woodward. The morning Bible lesson and, practical talks, the manners of the instructors, the very teaching of any lesson, the passing to and fro, the games and amusements at recess, the study hour, in which the girls take care of themselves either in the library or study-hall, the friendly association with their teachers both in and out of school hours, whatever is done and said, -all these are used as means to the desired result.
The girls usually pass through the successive stages of feeling no restraint and trying to do whatever they may wish followed by the feeling of not knowing exactly what to do, ("There are so many things to do," said a little girl) and then reaching the period when reason asserts itself, the judgment
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grows, and there slowly develops an appreciation of the exact- ness of their training, both as to its necessity and its benefits. Then are they as happy and contented and amiable as girls can well be. Conscience does not make cowards of them, for " the truth has made them free."
As one can readily see, this method of discipline requires patience, skill, and great diligence. The results justify the requisite expenditure of time and energy.
Individual Training.
It need not be said that this system demands much individual training which is of the greatest benefit to the larger number of pupils.
Among other subjects of importance to our girls is that of
Dress.
From the opening of the school, every girl has been taught that simplicity of dress in the school-room is not only most appropriate, but is a necessity for comfort and cleanli- ness.
Nearly every stranger remarks upon the plain, but neat appearance of our girls.
A woolen skirt with woolen blouse in winter, and cotton dresses in summer, constitute the "dress " at Woodward. As in other matters, any personal need is attended to in private.
Elective Course of Study.
Six years ago we aroused the wonder, and incurred the censure, of many for our departure from long-established custom in the arrangment of our curriculum. We began early to solve one of the problems that are now most agitating the educational world. It was a matter of great importance,-the placing this new school upon a sound and broad basis at the very beginning of its career : and to those members of the Board of Directors who so generously and courageously allowed the "experiment," as it was called, to be tried, the pupils of Woodward owe a debt
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of gratitude. The opportunities offered in all departments are in the line of the best recommendations of our most distinguish- ed educators, varied to suit the special needs of our community. We trust that this curriculum may not be narrowed, and that no backward steps will ever be taken by the school that must be, our Founder declared, " As perfect and as well-conducted as any in the State."
Instead of three or four "Courses," called " Classical," " English " or " Business," the arrangement of studies is such that a large variety of courses is possible.
Each girl's course of study is arranged with the Principal at the beginning of each year, and planned with reference to her avocation in life. Although young to make such a choice, the elective system is so elastic that most blunders can be remedied before the close of the five years. Occasionally a girl is able to finish her course in four years; this is rarely advisable; but at present there are three young women ambitious to succeed in such effort, to whom the Faculty has voted the privilege.
The few restrictions are as follows :
The lowest class (first year) is obliged to pursue the course as planned for them, being allowed as extra studies a choice of either French, Latin, or both.
College preparatory study must begin with this first year.
English is required throughout the five years.
The same is true of Gymnastics, Music, Art, and News of the Day.
The requirements for graduation are somewhat severe, no pupil is allowed to enter the Senior class "conditioned; " and no one is allowed to be graduated who does not reach a passing rank of "Fair" in each study. A " general average " is not accepted as satisfactory rank.
The following table will show that our pupils do not elect as little as possible. The courses represent, in general, about the same amount of work in five years; and therefore our diplomas can truthfully state, when the required rank in scholar- ship be gained, that " Woodward Institute awards this Diploma to -, in testimony that she has honorably completed her course of study."
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TABLE I.
Class.
No. in class.
No. of different courses.
Class of 1900,
21
16
Class of 1901,
14
14
Class of 1902,
13
10
Class of 1903,
14
11
Class of 1904,
18
*
*Not allowed sufficient choice to be counted.
Thus it can be seen that with 62 pupils there are 51 differ- ent combinations of studies.
TABLE II.
No. of Pupils.
Recitation-periods. a week.
7
have
21
11
have
22
4
have
23
2
have
24
13
have
25
11
have
26
6
have
27
1
has
28
5
have
29
20
have
30
A minimum of twenty-one recitation-periods is required. The school week has in all 30 recitation-periods.
We do not try to recommend our system to others ; it might not be adapted to their needs ; but it suits our school in training " the varied capacities amid varied environments."
We receive frequent inquiries concerning our "experiment," and requests for " literature bearing upon the subject;" per- mission to study our methods by teachers and those pursuing college courses in Pedagogy is frequently asked and gladly granted.
Although our pupils are limited to those girls born in Quincy, we are pleased to have our methods known and in- vestigated whenever interest is aroused.
Our own citizens have been more and more appreciative, and have encouraged us in many ways. Letters of kindly interest
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a continued large attendance upon our public exercises, and substantial gifts for the adornment of our school-room, have testified to the esteem felt by many of our public-spirited men and women. During the year we have received the following
Gifts.
An autograph copy of " America,"
Presented by Mr. Henry H. Faxon.
Two reliefs from the balustrade of the temple Nike Apteros,
Landscape (Corot),
Mrs. John O. Hall, Jr. Mr. L. Dowley Williams.
Sir Galahad (Watts),
Dutch Scene (Ruysdael),
Land's End (Photograph),
Abend,
Mrs. S. B. Hoyt. Classes of '96, '97, '98.
Morning (Corot),
Evening (Dupre),
Stratford-on-Avon (Photograph),
Diana and the Fawn (Louvre),
Class of '99. Mr. Harry L. Rice.
To Parents.
We are also grateful to a large degree for the willing cooperation of the parents and guardians of our pupils, for the betterment of the scholarship and deportment of the school, and in numerous helpful ways for our comfort. Not only does this word apply to the mothers, but also to the fathers who have given of their busy days to aid their daughters in behalf of Woodward.
Public Days.
As we have frequently stated, the time that can be devoted to public entertainments is limited. However, we have cele- brated Thanksgiving Day, Forefathers' Day, Founder's Day, and Decoration Day. We have presented a German play, given basket ball games in our gymnasium, and held exhibitions of the work of the Art Department.
Every Tuesday, each class devotes one recitation-period to rhetorical exercises. We should be pleased to receive those interested in this or any other department.
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Our class-work is never varied for visitors; you will find no " show " classes ; each girl has her appointed work for each hour of the day, and that is the work performed. The letters written in French, the work in Botany and Biology, Com- positions, the note-books in English and History, the written translations from or into foreign languages, the exercises in type-writing and stenography, are always ready for inspection.
The time of recitations is given in the daily programme.
Twice on Founder's Day, and at the conclusion of the school year, we have listened to noted speakers. Although two years have passed since Mrs. Livermore spoke to us on the subject, "Earthly Immortality," yet our girls today can give the sub- stance of her remarks. In reading Ruskin to the school one morning, not long ago, I remarked, " But you do not know about the education of women in those early days, do you ?" Im- mediately came the surprised denial from the upper classes, "Oh yes ! Mrs. Livermore told us."
These addresses have been of great benefit to the young people themselves ; and the school is for the pupils, is it not ?
At the time of Commencement, many students are prepar- ing for and taking entrance examinations for higher institutions; this, especially for girls, is a severe nervous strain, however well prepared for such a test; morever, the final closing of school life is wearing ; it is a period of trial for both teachers and pupils, usually in the most uncomfortable of weather.
Unless one has a " double " he would hardly care to listen to exercises, even though each be brief, from each of twenty-one graduates, with the thermometer in the nineties. Who shall be chosen to appear upon the stage ? That question always in- volves many difficulties. Strange as it may seem, our experience shows that those girls least fitted for public appearance ofttimes most desire it, while we are often requested to omit pupils whose ability is marked. For these and other reasons, we have chosen such exercises as have hitherto been presented.
Alumnae Association.
We have an active and enthusiastic Alumnæ Association. How helpful is such an organization !
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The annual meeting was held last June, during Commence- ment week. Every girl came or sent a message.
The words of greeting, recollections of the past, and orig- inal suggestions for future needs of the school, gave promise that our graduates will not easily forget their Alma Mater.
Their independence of thought and vigorous action recalled to mind another happy expression in the first report of the Sec- retary of the Board : "The time will come when its graduates will be the best annual report that can be sent forth."
We are even now realizing that prophecy.
What Woodward Girls Are Doing.
Our graduates number 43. Some of them have excellent positions as stenographers, typewriters, or book-keepers. Of them comes the satisfactory report, "She does her work with intelligence."
A large number (nearly 50 per cent.) have entered higher schools with excellent admission papers, and their work is main- tained at the same standard of excellence.
Other girls have taken college entrance examinations, but the following list represents the actual attendance for higher instruction :
Radcliffe,
1
Wellesley,
1
Vassar,
1
Bryn Mawr,
1
Boston University, .
2
Mass. Institute of Technology,
1
Bridgewater Normal School,
1
Hyannis Normal Sohool, .
1
Dr. Sargent's Gymnasium,
2
Miss Symond's Kindergarten,
1
N. E. Conservatory of Music,
1
Business College,
4
Thayer Academy,
1
Woodward Institute,
6
Training as Business Teacher at Woodward, . .
2
.
.
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Our Aims.
Our girls are expected to reach a good standard of scholar- ship; but facts of knowledge are not everything; our girls are educated to be and to do, as well as to know; at least, that is our ideal. We say this in no boastful spirit, but rather with thankfulness for what has been accomplished, and with humility that it has fallen so far short of our aims.
But we who have watched the steady progress of Wood- ward, and there are many who have done so, we who have looked with the eyes of Faith, we who feel that this school be- longs to Quincy and should be made an honor to this historic city; we who are loyally fond, let us trust not blindly fond of this Woodward Institute for Girls, we say that we are striving earnestly for the best things ; we are learning how to be strong to live; for we believe that " character is higher than intellect," and that " a great soul will be strong to live as well as to think."
We cannot better express the ideal aims of this school since its beginning than in the words of, President Eliot of Harvard University in his address at the inauguration of President Hazard of Wellesley College :
" Everybody knows that the influence of women depends more than that of men on bearing, carriage, address, delicate sympathy, and innocent reserve; that manners, in short, are much more important to the influence of women than they have been to the influence of men in the actual world-not that they ought to have been but that they have been."
" It remains for the colleges for women to show how this admirable effect can be produced on young women by the hun- dred and the thousand with some degree of certainty. It is a question of the best household arrangements for cultivating good manners ; of the best individual instruction in that deli- cate subject; of the means of providing good examples for imi- tative youth; of the means of uniting in the individual student the physical training, which gives elasticity, alertness, and grace, with the moral training, which strengthens sympathy, courage, and self-respect, and consideration for others, and the intellectual training which developes discernment, discrimination, and truthfulness."
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Gentlemen, this is a report of the inner life at Woodward. To some it may seem optimistic. That the writer, through love for the school, may not seem to look through rose-colored glasses, this report has been read to both teachers and pupils for their criticism.
If it be incorrect, it is said to be in a failure to present our real enthusiasm, rather than a statement of an excess of interest ; but the attempt has been made to state conditions fairly, in all modesty and truthfulness, hoping that thereby the good of our school may be promoted, and that Woodward as it is may be known to a constantly increasing number of our citizens.
Respectfully submitting this report, I would express to the members of the Board of Directors my hearty appreciation of all co-operation for the upholding and upbuilding of Woodward Institute.
CARRIE E. SMALL, Principal.
Woodward Departments.
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH (Required). Teacher, Isabella S. Foote. FIRST YEAR,-Four Periods a Week.
Class Work :-
Holmes : Selections.
Bryant : Selections.
Whittier : Snow Bound; Selections.
Longfellow: Hiawatha; Selections.
Patriotic Airs.
Myths.
Prescribed Home Reading : - The Arabian Nights. Dodgson : Alice in Wonderland. Grimm: Fairy Tales. Hans Andersen : Fairy Tales.
De Foe : Robinson Crusoe.
Old Mother Goose's Rhymes and Tales. Æsop : Fables. Browning : Pied Piper of Hamelin. Hawthorne : Wonderbook. Thackeray : The Rose and the Ring. SECOND YEAR,-Four Periods a Week,
Class Work :- Homer : Iliad (Pope), Books I, VI, XXII, XXIV. Homer: Odyssey (Bryant), the Phæacians. Tennyson : Ulysses. Virgil : Æneid (Cranch), Books I, II and III. Scott : The Lay of the Last Minstrel. Ballads,
290
Bulfinch : Age of Chivalry (Holy Grail Legends). Tennyson : Idylls of the King. Lowell : Vision of Sir Launfal. Prescribed Home Reading :-
Bulfinch : The Age of Fable.
Cox : Tales of Ancient Greece.
Macaulay : Lays of Ancient Rome.
Scott : Marmion ; Ivanhoe ; Rob Roy.
The Boys' Percy (selections).
Malory : The Boys' King Arthur.
THIRD YEAR .- Four Periods a Week.
Class Work :-
Cooper : The Last of the Mohicans.
Hawthorne : The House of Seven Gables.
Irving : The Alhambra.
Emerson : Selected Essays.
Thoreau : Selections.
Burroughs : Selections.
Goldsmith : The Deserted Village ; The Traveller.
Gray : Elegy.
Addison-Steele : De Coverley Papers.
Macaulay : Essay on Addison.
Prescribed Home Reading :-
Cooper : The Spy.
Hawthorne : The Scarlet Letter ; The Marble Faun.
Irving : Selections.
Goldsmith : The Vicar of Wakefield ; She Stoops to Conquer.
Sheridan : The Rivals ; The School for Scandal.
Gray : The Bard.
Addison-Steele : Selected papers from the Spectator.
Austen : Pride and Prejudice ; Sense and Sensibility.
FOURTH YEAR,-Four Periods a Week.
Class Work :-
Burns : The Cotter's Saturday Night; Songs. Carlyle : An Essay on Burns. Lamb : Selected Essays.
Coleridge : The Ancient Mariner.
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Wordsworth : Selections.
Mrs. Browning: The Cry of the Children ; Sonnets.
Browning : Selections.
Shelley : Ode to a Skylark.
Keats : Ode to a Nightingale; Ode to a Grecian Urn.
Tennyson : The Princess; Selections.
Eliot : Silas Marner.
Prescribed Home Reading :-
Barrie : The Little Minister ; Auld Licht Idylls.
Stevenson : David Balfour; Kidnapped ; Treasure Island.
Carlyle: Selected Letters.
Lamb: Selected Letters.
De Quincey : The Flight of the Tartar Tribe.
Dickens : Christmas Stories; A Tale of Two Cities; David Copperfield.
Thackeray : Pendennis; The Newcombs; English Humor- ists.
Eliot : Scenes from Clerical Life ; Romola ; Adam Bede ; Middlemarch.
FIFTH YEAR,-Five Periods a Week.
Class Work :-
Shakespeare : Macbeth.
Milton : Early Poems ; Paradise Lost, Books I and II.
Macaulay : Essay on Milton.
Burke : Speech on Conciliation with America.
Anglo-Saxon Fragments : Beowulf ; War Songs.
Chaucer : Canterbury Tales : Prologue, Knight's Tale, Nun's Tale. Spenser : Faery Queen : Britomart Episode.
Prescribed Home Reading :-
Pollard : English Miracle Plays.
Peele : The Arraignment of Paris.
Marlowe : Faustus. Goethe : Faust, Part I.
Goadby : Shakespeare's England.
Clark : The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines. Shakespeare : Hamlet; Julius Cæsar ; Sonnets.
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Lessing : Nathan the Wise.
Aeschylus : Selections.
Sophocles : Selections.
Milton : Comus ; Hymn on Christ's Nativity ; Sonnets.
Lecky : American Revolution.
Webster: Bunker Hill Oration.
Langland : Piers the Plowman.
Chaucer : Canterbury Tales.
Spenser : Shepherd's Calendar ; Colin Clout's Come Home Again.
Throughout this course the aim has been to take up the works of standard authors in the order of their increasing diffi- culties ; to stimulate the imagination ; to train the critical facul- ty ; to secure definite, logical thought; to cultivate a love for the beautiful ; in short, to gain the broadest mental development.
GRAMMAR.
Grammar is taught incidentally during the first two years. The work is based principally on Meicklejohn's Grammar.
RHETORIC,
Rhetoric is taught incidentally during the last three years. The work is based on Genung's Rhetoric, and on Wendell's English Composition.
COMPOSITION.
Each pupil is required to write one composition a week; this composition is rewritten after correction. The subjects for the compositions are drawn from life ; the pupil is urged to write about her own experiences. In addition to these weekly compo- sitions, frequent papers are required in connection with the work in literature. The aim of this work in composition is to enable the pupil to express her thoughts clearly and definitely in simple, idiomatic English.
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY. Teacher,-Mary L. Westgate.
It is the aim of the earlier courses in history not only to make the students familiar with the leading facts of ancient history, but to teach them skilful handling of books. It is
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desired in the more advanced courses to point out historic prin- ciples and to show how the practical working of these precon- ceived theories develop modern constitutional governments.
REQUIRED.
First year .- English history. Three periods a week. Topics from prehistoric Britain to reign of Victoria. Individual work in biography and anecdotes. Books as bases : Montgomery's Leading Facts in English History, Lingard's English History, Lancaster's English History, Guest's Lectures, Dickens' Child's History, Green's English People, Gardiner's.
Second year. - Greek history. Three periods a week. From prehistoric times through empire of Alexander. Text books : Myer's Larger Greek History, References to Oman's Greek History, Smith's Greek History, Holm's Greek History, Bots- ford's History of Greece.
Third year .- Roman History. Three periods a week. Topics from Allen's History. References to Leighton, Liddell, Meri- vale's General History, Merivale's Fall of Republic, Schuckburg's History of Rome, Epoch Series, edited by Cox and Sankey, Mommsen's History of Rome.
ELECTIVE.
Fourth year .- Two periods per week. Lecture course in Modern Constitutional History of England and continental countries, or French History from French Revolution to the fall of Napoleon. References to Gardiner's Constitutional History of England, Bright's English History, May's Constitutional His- tory, Macaulay's Lives, Lecky's XVIII Century, Fyffe's Modern Europe, Duruy's France, and Gardiner's French Revolution.
Fifth year. - United States History. Two periods a week. Text book : Channing's Students' History. Topics by students. Reference constantly to Fiske's Histories, Frothingham's Rise of Republic, Schouler's United States, McMaster's People of United States, American Statesman Series, Parkman Histories.
DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL SCIENCE.
Teacher,-Margaret E. Dodd.
First year .- First half year: Physics, 5 periods per week.
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Second half year : Physics, 3 periods; later, Chemistry of Air and Water, 2 periods. Botany, 3 periods.
Second year .- Biology, until March; then Physiology, 4 periods per week. The botany will serve as an introduction to biology, this through the study of a few animal forms will lead to the Physiology.
Third year .- Physiography, with mineralogy and elementary astronomy, 4 periods a week. This will give an opportunity to correlate the studies of the first two years.
Fourth year .- Chemistry, 4 periods per week. Elective, College Physics, 4 periods per week. This course is recom- mended to all as excellent scientific training.
Fifth year .- First half year: Domestic science, 4 periods per week. Second half year: Astronomy, 4 periods per week. College Physics. Two years is really required for this course in preparation for the Harvard physics.
The scientific department seeks to develop patient, pains- taking students, independent in observations, and in the conclu- sions drawn from them : to give them experience in manipu- lating apparatus, and to train them in concise and accurate statement by the preparation of note books. As a final result of the course, the pupil should have a knowledge of the great laws that govern natural forces, and a delight in an intelligent appre- ciation of all natural phenomena.
DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS.
Teachers .- Mary L. Westgate, Margaret E. Dodd, Adella W. Bates, Carrie E. Small.
First year,-Inventional Geometry. Four periods a week. Second year,-Algebra. Four periods a week.
Third year,-Algebra. Four periods a week.
Fourth year,-Geometry. Four periods a week. Algebra. Two periods a week.
Fifth year, - Solid Geometry. Three periods a week. Mathematical Reviews. Four periods a week.
AIM: To train the pupil's powers of observation and reasoning ; to procure accurate as well as rapid work.
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GERMAN (Elective : Three Periods a Week.) Teacher, Adella W. Bates.
The aim of the department is twofold: to furnish the students with a thorough knowledge of the elements of German grammar and to enable her to speak and write the language cor- rectly, idiomatically, and as fluently as may be; and to intro- duce her to German literature, classic and modern, so that she may pursue the study of this subject by herself after graduation. The memorizing of German lyrics is a part of each year's work throughout the course.
First year .- Pronunciation drill. Phonetics. Poetry. Gram- mar : declension and conjugation. Harris' German Lessons, I-XVII, or equivalent. Class-room conversation from beginning of course. Translation work in Reader.
Second year .- Grammar : Through Harris, with general re- view, and accompanied by prose composition. Short, idiomatic fairy tales or other simple stories read and related. Translation of Baumbach's "Im Zwielicht." Poetry.
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