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 1905 > Part 18
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To be sure it will cost a few hundred dollars a year to maintain the proposed room but the relief of the schools will be a sufficient compensation, to say nothing of the ines- timable benefit some, at least, of these boys will receive from the isolation and special training. Two things are clear, these boys should not be kept in the regular classes and they should not be turned out upon the street. They should be cared for either by special arrangement here or by being sent to the truant school.
Defective Children
There is another class of children which demands the early and thoughtful consideration of this Board, the chil- dren so abnormal or mentally deficient as to require train- ing very different both in kind and in method from that given in the public schools. Some of them who have been regular in attendance for three years or more have not been able to learn even the simplest parts of the primary work. They can neither read nor write and seem as far from the mastery of these arts as when they first entered school. Others after several years have learned to write their names, to copy more or less legibly a few words and to make most of the numerals but can read only the simplest sentences and
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can do no reckoning with certainty. A few can do a little bet- ter, being able to copy from the board either words or figures and to read, write and reckon a very little. These children have been in school from three to seven years, certainly long enough to prove their incapacity for ordinary school work.
Such children are a serious and discouraging tax upon the. teacher's time and an unwarranted drag upon the progress of the class. They get little or nothing themselves to com- pensate for the labor and loss they occasion others even when they are quiet and tractable. But the burden of their presence is largely increased when they develop irascible and disorderly traits as some of them do.
Parents are usually very slow to see defects in their children, are inclined to resent any suggestion that such de- fects exist and to hold the teacher responsible if they fail to make satisfactory progress in school. Even when aware that their child is too abnormal to profit by his attendance many parents insist upon sending him to school in order that he may be safe and they be relieved of his care. They seem rarely to think of the other children or whether there may not be a better course for their own child. They are so anxious for him to be like other children that they continue to hope he will somehow become like them if taught in the same way. But the public schools can never meet his needs and it is not only unwise but wrong to send him there until the years in which he might he benefited by a different kind of training are past. He would be decidedly better off at home and at play. But this would not fulfill the obligations of the parents and of the community to such a child.
There are institutions and methods of training adapted to the peculiar needs of mentally deficient children and most of those children who enter the public schools could be pre- pared for partial or entire self-support if they could only have this training in childhood. The state institutions for such children are overcrowded and have long waiting lists so that present help for all our needy ones is not likely to be found in that quarter. These children must continue to be neg- lected unless the city provides a place for their appropriate
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training. A teacher prepared for this special work, a room equipped with means for various kinds of simple manual training and a little piece of land for playground and gardens are the agencies required. If these children are to be taught anything it must be the use of their hands. Their mental development can be secured only through manual or physical exercises They cannot learn from books but they can learn to use their hands and to do many useful things. Is it not about time to take these unfortunate children from the schools where they are getting almost no benefit and are a great hindrance and to place them where they may get the best and only kind of education they are capable of receiv- ing? There are usually in the schools ten or twelve whose mental condition is such as to demand this change.
Reception to Miss Julia E. Underwood
On Friday evening, May 19, occurred in the High School hall one of the most interesting events of the year connected with the public schools. It was a public reception to Miss Julia E. Underwood to celebrate the completion of her fiftieth year of continuous and remarkable service as a teacher in the Coddington school. Arrangements for the reception were in charge of a committee appointed by the Quincy Teachers' Association. The hall was very prettily decorated with apple blossoms and potted palms and plants contributed by Florist Patterson of Wollaston. Miss Un- derwood was assisted in receiving by Miss Mary E. Dear- born. for rearly thirty years the highly respected Principal of the Coddington school, Superintendent Frank E. Parlin and his predecessors in office, Superintendent Herbert W. Luil of Newport, R. I., and Superintendent George I. Aldrich of Brookline, Mass. The masters of the grammar schools and the teachers of the Coddington served as ushers. Music was furnished by members of the High School orchestra, and refreshments by the Teachers' Association.
The attendance was so large that it was nine o'clock before the literary part of the program was reached. Super- intendent Frank E. Parlin, after a few words of welcome to
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the many friends of Miss Underwood, read a letter of re- grets from Edwin W. Marsh, Esq., who was a member of the School Committee of 1855 which first elected Miss Un- derwood teacher.
Mr. Parlin then called upon the following named per- sons each of whom responded briefly upon the unique char- acter of the occasion, reminiscences of old school-days, the significance of the "New Departure" in the Quincy schools or the notable record of the honored guest of the evening.
Hon. Charles Francis Adams of Lincoln, formerly a resident of Quincy and for several years a very influential member of the School Committee, Hon. Charles H. Porter, the senior member of the present School Committee, Dr. Henry C. Hallowell, Chairman of the School Committee, Mr. Edward Southworth, Master of the Mather school, Boston, and the oldest living ex-principal of the Coddington school, George I. Aldrich, member of the State Board of Education, who was Superintendent of Schools in Quincy from 1883 to 1892, Herbert W. Lull, Superintendent of the Quincy schools from 1892 to 1900, and His Honor, James Thompson, Mayor of Quincy.
Upon Frank F. Prescott, Editor of The Quincy Daily Ledger, and a former pupil of Miss Underwood devolved the pleasant duty of presenting a purse of two hundred dol- lars in gold from her old pupils and friends in and out of town.
Thomas B. Pollard. Principal of the Washington school and President of the Quincy Teachers' Association. pre- sented her another purse of gold from the present and former teachers of Quincy.
Miss Mary E. Dearborn. Principal of the Coddington school, responded for Miss Underwood in a very pleasing manner.
Resignation of Teachers
During the last year twenty-three teachers, including three principals, have resigned. While this is not an un-
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usually large number to lose from our corps in a single year, it is exceptional to lose so many principals.
Miss Mary E. Dearborn, who resigned in June to take a well-earned rest and to indulge a long-cherished desire to travel, was the senior and doubtless the best known prin- cipal in the city. Her long and remarkable service calls for more than ordinary notice.
Miss Dearborn came to Quincy in 1876. soon after Col. Parker began his famous work here, and was placed at the head of the Coddington school in 1880. She enjoys the dis- tinction of having been the only woman who ever held the position of grammar school principal in this city. It re- quires a rare combination of qualities to meet successfully all the many difficulties which come to a principal of a large school, to secure the confidence of the community, and to re- tain for twenty-nine years not only the respect but the high esteem of pupils and parents. That Miss Dearborn pos- sessed in large measure such qualities has been fully demon- strated. During these years she devoted unsparingly her best thought and energy to the welfare of her pupils. Not satisfied with the mere assignment and hearing of lessons she taught her boys and girls a thousand things not laid down in the textbooks, but which, nevertheless, have a most important bearing upon life-personal habits, good man- ners, patriotism and moral integrity.
Those who have seen her at work with a class agree that she had a remarkable mastery of the art of teaching. Her method of correlating her irstruction and of reaching the understanding of her pupils was as unique as it was effective.
Few principals secure such a controlling influence and such a hearty co-operation in their school as Miss Dearborn always did. Her pupils and graduates are her enthusiastic champions. Harmony, loyalty and pride in the good work and in the good name of their school always characterized the Coddington teachers, qualities inspired in no small de- gree by their veteran and esteemed principal. Vigorous in body, rich in mind, strong in character, masterful in execu-
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tive power she impressed all who came under her influence and made the Coddington school what it is.
Mr. Charles E. Finch who came to Quincy from Meri- den, Conn., in 1895, resigned in June to accept a very re- sponsible position in Rochester, N. Y. He was first elected principal of the Wollaston grammar school but in 1898 the principalship of the Massachusetts Fields school being va- cant, he was made supervising principal of the two schools in which capacity he served with good success up to the time of his resignation.
Although social in his habits he never allowed outside interests to dissipate his energies or to distract his attention from his school duties. As a principal he proved himself to be a good organizer and of excellent executive ability. His administration during the ten years of his service gen- erally meet the approval of both parents and the school au- thorities. The last year was especially successful and Mr. Finch is to be congratulated not only upon his promotion but upon closing his work in Quincy in such a satisfactory manner.
Winthrop N. Crocker came from the superintendency of the Dartmouth-Westport Union to the supervising principal- ship of the Hancock-Lincoln district in January 1903. Soon after he was also elected principal of the Adams evening school. Last November he resigned to take charge of a large grammar school in the city of Waltham. When Mr. Crocker came to Quincy he was placed in a very responsible and try- ing position where a man of less ability, tact and good judg- ment would have failed. He soon proved himself master of the conditions, and, by quiet, persistent but well-directed effort, organized his schools for more effective work. Under his direction they gradually but constantly improved until they ranked among the best in the city. During the three years he was in Quincy Mr. Crocker both by his personal qualities and by his professional ability established an en- viable reputation.
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Evening Schools
The #sual number of evening schools was opened on Monday evening, October 2 and, after forty sessions were closed on Tuesday evening, December 12, 1905. They were in session from seven to nine o'clock on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evenings of each week, except the week of Thanksgiving in which there were but two sessions. There were two elementary schools for the study of the common English branches, one at the Adams, the other at the Willard building, and one evening drawing school for both free-hand and mechanical classes at the Old High school building.
During the first six weeks the attendance was unusually large and regular but as the winter season approached some found -stronger attractions elsewhere and after Thanksgiving there was a decided falling off. The attendance on Thursday evening has been somewhat smaller than on either of the other three, due perhaps to religious or social meetings on that evening. Most of the classes made good progress. Many persons come simply to learn to read and write English and, as soon as this end is attained sufficiently to meet the demands of the labor laws, have no further ambi- tion and drop out of the school. There is one serious dis- advantage in holding these schools in the grammar school buildings. The seats and desks are not adapted to full grown men and women and when, on account of the large numbers, it becomes necessary to put these persons in the fifth grade rooms, they find themselves physically very un- comfortable before the end of the session.
The Adams school during the first six weeks was in charge of Winthrop N. Crocker as principal but when he re- signed to accept a position in Waltham, Charles H. Taylor, who was serving as first assistant in the Willard evening school, was transferred to the principalship of the Adams.
The following named persons were employed as teach- ers in this school :- Samue! D. Thompson. Elizabeth Hiscock, Elizabeth Garrity, Josephine Kelley. Jennie F. Griffin, Min-
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nie E. Donovan and Ida J. Cameron. The number of ses- sions was 40, and the total enrolment was 286-251 men and 35 women. The average attendance was 74.7, and the aver- age number of teachers was 5.8.
The Willard school was in charge of Austin W. Greene, principal, assisted by Charles H. Taylor, Frances C. Sullivan, Catherine C. McGovern, Augusta E. Dell, Annie E. Burns and Mary B. Keating.
The number of sessions was 40, and the total enrolment was 188-173 men and 15 women. The average attendance was 59.3 and the average number of teachers was 5.3.
The above statistics do not include those persons who were in attendance but one evening.
The number of curious or disorderly persons who came for a single session was unusually large this year. Some change in the requirements for admission should be made in order to protect the schools against the annoyance and ex- pense due to the presence of such persons. A deposit of fifty cents or a dollar at the time of registration as a guarantee of good faith is required in most cities of this state, the deposit being returned at the end of the term to all who have com- plied with the prescribed conditions. The establishment of such a rule has always resulted in the improvement not only of the attendance but of the work of the evening schools.
The Evening Drawing school was in charge of Samuel E. Gideon, an instructor in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This was his first season with us but he has proved himself unusually well adapted to the work and an excellent teacher. The Free-hand and Mechanical classes met on alternate evenings. The whole number of sessions was 40. The enrolment in the Free-hand class was 43, in the Mechanical class 18, making a total of 61,-all men. The average attendance was 21.5 in the Free-hand class and 10.2 in the Mechanical class.
Gifts to the Public Schools
It is with appreciation and sincere gratitude that we ac- knowledge in behalf of teachers and pupils the following
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very generous and appropriate gifts to the public schools during the last year. Nothing can be more helpful and in- spiring to young minds than to be surrounded by works of art and, especially, by the portraits of persons who have been great in worthy achievements or have demonstrated the vitality, strength and beauty of a noble character. Our boys and girls need the silent tuition of these things during their school days.
Mr. Charles E. Goodspeed and Mr. Fred B. Rice gave to each school in the city copies of Marshall's portraits of Lincoln and Grant neatly framed.
The Trustees of the Thomas Crane Public Library pre- sented to each school a large portrait of Thomas Crane, the generous donor of the beautiful building bearing his name.
The friends of Miss Julia E. Underwood, who secured one of the Herald art collections last summer, handed it over to the School Committee with the request that the pieces be distributed among the schools. This was done ac- cording to the suggested plan and expressed wish of their representative, Mr. Frank F. Prescott.
Relief-Boys Singing and Playing, Lucca della Robbia, in Florence, to the Adams school:
Bust-Child Laughing. Donatello, in Paris, to the Washington school:
Statue-Lorenzo de Medici, after Michel Angelo, to the Quincy school;
Relief-Parthenon Horsemen, in the British Museum, London, to the Wollaston school;
Bust-Young Augustus, in Rome, to the Massachusetts Fields school:
Statue-Venus Genetrix, in Paris, to the High School;
Bust-Jupiter Otricoli. in the Vatican, to the Cranch school;
Bust-Niobe. in Florence, to the Willard school.
FRANK E. PARLIN.
December 30, 1905.
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Elijah S. Brown
Born in Jay, Maine, August 20, 1837.
Died in Quincy, Massachusetts, March 9, 1905.
The faithful and respected janitor of the Coddington school for twenty-two years.
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QUINCY HIGH SCHOOL
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Mr. Frank E. Purlin, Superintendent of Schools :
It gives me pleasure to submit, in accordance with cus- tom, the following report of the Quincy High School for the year ending December 31, 1905.
No radical changes have been made during the year in the organization and administration of the school. Teach- ers and pupils have tried to maintain the highest grade of scholarship and efficiency possible under existing conditions, and to make up for losses due to shortened sessions, the use of corridors and laboratories for recitation purposes, and the restriction of more than one hundred and twenty-five pupils to an afternoon session of three hours. And yet, in spite of all that the teachers could do, the quality of work has been impaired and the quantity reduced. Considering the lack of accommodations and the unfavorable conditions for handling so large a school, the work has been creditable.
The number of pupils continues to increase rapidly, al- though the statement is often heard that the period of growth is past. A comparison of the average daily attend- ance for this month with that of a year ago shows an in- crease of forty-nine pupils. If satisfactory accommodations had been provided in September, this number would doubt- less have been somewhat larger, for many strongly object to the afternoon session and to the old building.
The average daily attendance continues high. For the year it is ninety-five per cent. This is due in a large measure to the continued use of the regulation, introduced two years
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ago, which requires work lost by absence from recitation to be made up in writing within a limited time. The majority of the pupils prize their study periods so highly that they are unwilling to use them for making up work except in cases of necessary absence.
The quality of the work of many pupils would be much better, if carefully planned hours for regular home study were kept. In some homes, no study is required outside of school hours. Sometimes this neglect is excusable, where the home needs financial or other aid; more often, however, it is due to the fact that parents fail to realize the full mean- ing of marks given on report cards and do not enforce home study until it is too late to earn promotion.
An excellent school spirit has prevailed. Teachers and pupils have worked together to offset as much as possible the lack of proper facilities for handling so many pupils. Two of the reasons why it has not been necessary for this school to consider the evils of football are the desire of the pupils to keep the name of the school free from disgrace, and their unwillingness to countenance unsportsmanlike conduct on the part of their representatives.
Frequent conferences of the teachers of the English de- partment have been held for the purpose of discussing the subject and of determining how to secure the best results. Experimental outlines in grammar, rhetoric and composition have been made and lists of books for reading and study pre- pared. These are being thoroughly tested, the progress of the pupils carefully watched, and such changes made as ex- perience seems to dictate.
Pupils cannot now secure all the advantages to be de- rived from broad courses in drawing. In a city where s many people are engaged in pursuits which require trained hands as well as trained minds, manual expression should re- ceive much greater attention. At present the elementary' schools demand so much of the time of the supervisor that the High School can have only ten periods a week for the seven hundred pupils enrolled. This means that about two hundred pupils can receive only one period of work each
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week. To keep the number small enough for the supervisor to handle in so little time many restrictions are placed upon those who elect the courses. Pupils and parents are asking for greater opportunities to learn drawing. This request can best be met by introducing courses which require full time, demand outside preparation, and count towards the number of points for graduation the same as courses in other sub- jects. This would not require an additional teacher, but an assistant equipped and trained for the work. As the growth of the school demands more assistants, it would be wise to include such a teacher in the number. Even if this is done, it would be wise to continue to offer special opportunities for those who do not wish to take full courses.
The movable desks and chairs are a source of disorder which can easily be avoided in the addition. Where they are used, it is difficult to have an orderly room, because the least push disturbs the alignment of seats and desks and gives the appearance of disorder even where, as far as the pupils are concerned, there is none. Some form of fixed ad- justable desks ought to be provided so that pupils can as- sume positions at study which will not injure their health nor counteract whatever benefits they may receive from physical training. This change would not necessitate new furnishings for the whole building, but simply the purchase of enough adjustable seats to be used with the present ones to furnish all rooms with desks adapted to the pupils.
During the summer vacation all the furniture ought to be repaired and varnished; for nothing of this nature has been done since its purchase and it is badly worn and scratched. Two causes have brought about this condition; the regular wear of the classroom and the extra wear that comes from placing the desks one on top of the other when- ever the hall is used for other than regular school purposes.
When the addition is completed, all the school grounds should be graded. For many years the unsightly condition of the land at the rear of the building has annoyed the neighbors and exerted an unfavorable influence upon the pupils. How environment influences the character can be
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easily learned from a comparative study of the pupils of the old and new buildings. There is room at the south of the building for an excellent playground or school garden, and these uses should be considered in grading.
The present bookcases are very far from satisfactory. The shelves are not deep enough for large books and the large sliding doors have always been a cause of annoyance and a source of expense. Small swinging doors arranged in pairs would make the cases more valuable and serviceable. Attention should be given to the cases to be built in the ad- dition to see that they are free from the defects that have rendered those in the present building of so little use.
The school is greatly in need of a modern system of clocks and telephones. At present, the individual clocks do not keep correct time and all signals are given by bells rung by separate push buttons. This system divides the attention of the teachers, prevents the prompt movement of classes, and wastes valuable time for study and recitation. Where schools are equipped with secondary clocks and bells con- trolled by an automatic program and master clock, teachers are not obliged to watch for the time to close periods ; teach- ers and pupils are relieved of the responsibility of giving the signals: and pupils are more attentive to school work be- cause they gain an appreciation of intervals of time, form habits of working for periods of definite length and move promptly at regular signals.
There should also be installed some system of com- munication between office and classrooms other than speak- ing-tubes. These are unsatisfactory because they are often placed in positions awkward for use and because the teacher is obliged to speak so loudly that the pupils hear what is said and are disturbed. The modern method is a system of desk telephones which connects the various rooms with the office and places the head master in instant communication with the whole building at all times. Its value is apparent when one considers how often it is necessary to send messages throughout the building, to call pupils to the office, or to confer with teachers or janitor on matters needing imme- diate attention.
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