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 1918 > Part 17
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The Committee desires again to bear witness to its interest in the work intrusted to it and to the cordial relations existing among those who are responsible for the welfare of the schools and school children in our city.
The foregoing report, presented by a special committee consisting of Mrs. Alice M. Arnold and Dr. N. S. Hunting, was adopted as the Annual Report of the School Committee of 1918.
ALBERT L. BARBOUR,
Secretary.
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REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS.
Mrs. Arnold and Gentlemen:
Herewith is submitted my tenth annual report as Super- intendent of Schools of this city, it being the forty-fourth in the series of such reports.
A BRIEF RETROSPECT
The past ten years have been years of rapid growth and change. There has been expansion and educational progress. This expansion has been so marked and progress has been so broad that it may not be amiss for me to sum up the most note- worthy features of this period.
Briefly the advances may be listed as follows:
A. The building of the Lincoln addition, the Adams, Ather- ton Hough, Daniel Webster, Francis W. Parker, Montclair and Wollaston schools - a total of eighty rooms.
B. Better attention to physical conditions of children in the way of:
1. Appointment of school nurses,
2. Clinical arrangements with hospitals for eye and ear, tonsil and adenoid and other cases,
3. Opening of a school dental clinic,
4. Appointment of a special teacher to remedy speech defects,
5. Appointment of a physical director for girls at the High School,
6. Change in the work of attendance officer to a full- time basis,
7. Raising the age of admission to six.
C. Extending the scope of the city's school activities by opening:
1. Day Industrial School for Boys, offering several trades,
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2. Day Home-Making School for Girls, successful in numbers and influence,
3. Co-operative classes for ship-building instruction with the Fore River Company, classes which served as a model for the National Government and which were dupli- cated by the Government in several other shipbuilding centers,
4. Evening Trade classes for men in any trade where a group could be found wishing trade instruction,
5. Evening classes for women in any branch of home- making desired.
D. Broadening and vitalizing the scope of the common school work in the following respects:
1. High School:
a. Establishment of Manual Arts courses with in- tensive instruction in drawing and mechanical training,
b. Establishment of Household Arts courses with in- tensive instruction in dressmaking, millinery and cooking,
c. Opening of Lunch Room providing nutritious foods at cost,
d. Making music a serious High School study, with courses in Harmony and Appreciation and the organiza- . tion of orchestra and glee clubs,
e. Providing opportunity for afternoon study,
f. Recent acquisition through the Adams Academy Trust Funds of means whereby an adequate High School library may be maintained with trained librarian; more skilled teachers may be secured and a lecture course may be arranged for the purpose of bringing before the pupils of the school persons of national prominence to speak on inspira- tional and vocational subjects.
2. Elementary Schools:
a. Change from annual to semi-annual system of promo- tions, inducing greater flexibility and reducing retardation; lengthening the school day,
b. Opening of prevocational classes for both boys and girls who were not profiting by the ordinary type of instruc- tion,
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c. Appointment of elementary school supervisors or "helping-teachers" to assist in making the schoolroom instruction more profitable and the teachers more efficient,
d. Bringing the home and the school in closer relation- ship by means of Parent-Teachers' Associations and com- munity meetings,
e. Endeavoring to secure and in many cases securing the "socialized school," i.e., the school in which the child learns to bear responsibility,
f. Developing a spirit of solidarity and esprit de corps in the teaching force, evidenced by the several organizations of teachers now existing for professional purposes.
In the above summary are sketched only the larger, more vital changes that have taken place in the schools.
The reader will take it for granted that in the narrower field of classroom method, or the details of instruction, the teach- ing corps have kept closely in step with the best that modern research and experiment has brought to light.
THE PROSPECT
While it is in a certain sense a pleasure to recapitulate what the School Committee has been able to do in the past ten years, our serious thought should be forward and our responsibility lies in the future. We have just closed the greatest war in history; our young people, schoolboys of only a few years back, have borne themselves victoriously and well. They have proved as nothing else could the value of the public school education of recent years in evolving a patriotic, intelligent manhood filled with the spirit and the initiative of democracy, capable of meeting and defeating the best that autocratic Germany with its much vaunted system of education could produce. The war tested American public school education as nothing else could, and the youth who had been trained by the American public schools met the test suc- cessfully.
On the other hand the war has taught us several important lessons from which we may well profit and which are to become the concern of school administrators in the years just ahead. Speaking briefly, the following is some of the work that lies before us:
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a. Closer attention to the physical side of childhood and youth from infancy to manhood. Our present achievements are only scratching the surface of the great need lying below,
b. A longer supervision of education, through the medium of continuation schools in all lines, to the end that public over- sight may continue in the case of all young people till at least the age of eighteen,
c. Adaptation of education to all types of children. This will involve the recognition of the fact that children are not uni- form mentally or physically, and that instruction must be adjusted to the child and not the child to instruction. The opposite pro- cedure is at present causing much unhappiness and disaster. This will also lead to skilled vocational advice and general voca- tional education,
d. A recognition of the fact that the first business of the com- munity is " Americanization," a term much abused, much defined and little understood. In general the aim of the movement is to bring all members of the community into intelligent, enthusiastic citizenship. A tremendous problem lies ahead with the adults who at present do not know our language. There is the greatest danger if we do not succeed. Up till now the problem has not been even attacked with any seriousness or realization of its import.
There will be little disagreement as to the importance of the problems stated above or with the prospect that they must be taken up immediately. Moreover, they are so vital that most of us will be impressed with the fact that local effort working in separate communities will be insufficient to achieve results of any broad value. The time has come to agree upon the fact that education is a state and national affair and that state and nation must exercise a greater control and must grant more liberal support.
The present movement to establish a separate national department of education should succeed; the present state effort to secure uniform support of public schools, compulsory continua- tion schools and proper physical education should also succeed. Ultimately, of course, they will.
We are on the threshold of tremendous educational expan- sion and it is a safe prediction that when a recapitulation of achieve-
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ment is made ten years from now it will far overshadow the past ten years.
THE PAST YEAR.
The schools of the city have had a more than usually event- ful year. The war had its inevitable effect in causing numerous changes of teachers, a large expansion in school population, and a decrease in High School enrollment. After the schools re-opened in September, the influenza epidemic became so severe that for nearly four weeks all sessions of the public schools were omitted. This time cannot wholly be made up. By prolonging the elemen- tary school year to the last of June one week may be gained, but it would be unwise and unprofitable to attempt to offset the loss by omitting the periodical vacations which are prescribed as much by hygiene as by custom.
The rapid growth of the city and the consequent gain in school population already mentioned, together with prospects of continued growth, make the problem of providing for this increase an annually recurring one. It will be noted from the statistical table that the Daniel Webster and the Francis W. Parker Schools, built one year ago, are already filled to capacity. The Atherton Hough School made the largest gain in attendance of any school in the city, and is already overcrowded, while of the remaining schools very few have much seating space un- occupied.
The High School suffered a loss of practically one hundred pupils, but as the mid-year entering class will bring in two hun- dred or more, and the class of next September will far more than offset the graduating class of June, no time should be lost in providing additional accommodations for the years that are ahead when we shall be faced with High School classes steadily increasing in size.
For the current year, in connection with the housing opera- tions which the United States Government is carrying on in Ward 2, the Government has been requested to provide eight new schoolrooms as an addition to the Daniel Webster School and an addition of a new school building at the Washington School of at least ten rooms. There should be no delay in making
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further provision for the pupils at Houghs Neck, where the school grounds are ample to allow for further expansion. The need of taking up this matter of school accommodations at once can- not be too strongly emphasized.
HIGH SCHOOL
The decrease in attendance at the High School has already been mentioned. This was solely a war condition. With the coming of peace we should have a return of pre-war enrollment almost immediately. For the first time next February we shall have a mid-year entering class, the system of semi-annual pro- motions having gone up gradually grade by grade from the first year of school. With this system fully completed we shall have an eight-class High School instead of four, as in the past, with entrance and graduations occurring semi-annually. This sys- tem is very common outside of New England and prevails in a number of large New England cities. While it entails some administrative difficulties and adjustments of the course of study, its results in securing greater flexibility and fewer eliminations from school should well repay for the added difficulties.
As soon as conditions become normal after the war, it is hoped that we may begin to increase the number of male teachers in the school; securing in some cases by the help of the Adams Trust Funds superior teachers at salaries the city could not ordi- narily afford to pay. It is also planned to have periodic lectures before the school at which the High School students may be privileged to hear eminent lecturers of national reputation ..
With High School quarters ample for our needs and the assistance of this fund, the school should be able to secure results of commanding excellence.
The report of the Head Master, Mr. Ernest L. Collins, follows:
MR. A. L. BARBOUR,
Superintendent of Schools:
I have the honor to present to you my seventh annual report as Head Master of the High School. Perhaps the question most frequently asked regarding the school is the number of pupils
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in attendance. Statistics following will show that there has been a decrease in membership during the past year. This is due to two principal causes: first, the industrial situation, which has offered many profitable positions to our older boys and girls, and, second, the fact that a considerable part of the beginning class will enter the school in February instead of September. Because of the latter reason, the statistics at the end of the school year will show as large, if not a larger membership than in former years.
1918
1917
1916
Whole number enrolled,
1,004
1,100
1,116
Whole number at date,
930
1,018
1,038
The next question always asked is about accommodations. It has been found possible with the fewer numbers by using the assembly hall continuously to find room for all classes. With the coming of additional classes in February, in spite of possible concentrations and combinations of small classes, it will be neces- sary to use additional teachers, and this means additional class- rooms. The only solution will be to start partitioning off the assembly hall into such classrooms. It must be seen that this is an unsatisfactory makeshift which simply puts off for a little time the day when our present accommodations must be con- siderably enlarged. In fact, it is probable that no later than next September we shall see our present building unable to accommo- date in one session the numbers which we shall have.
ยท While the present building is under consideration, I should like to make a plea which, I believe, I have never made before. It is that, when the proper time comes, the interior of the present building may have some attention. The fact has been lost sight of, I am sure, that several of the rooms and the assembly hall still have bare white walls without a suspicion of tinting. The whole interior has become dingy and stained and scarcely conveys to the pupils ideas of refinement and beauty which ought to be one of the aims of any school building. It would not be an especially costly matter to furnish the building with an attractive interior, and the money thus expended would be certainly serving the cause of education.
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The energies of the school for the year, as in the case of other organizations, have been mostly devoted to helping win the war. For this reason there are few new activities to report. It has been found wise, however, to introduce the study of Spanish into the school. Other schools in the country have found the study of this language profitable and, doubtless, we shall find it increasingly popular and desirable, particularly for commercial classes.
A year ago, I mentioned the school library as a new depar- ture for this school as well as for other schools. At the time, I could only state what we hoped to do, but now after the library has been in operation for a year we can speak of what has actu- ally been accomplished. The equipment now consists of about two thousand volumes of reference and other books, together with three daily newspapers, eleven monthly magazines, seven weekly magazines and a variety of maps. All this equipment is available for pupils and teachers all day, and much of it may be borrowed for use at home. That these facilities are being fully appreciated and utilized is indicated by the fact that an average of nearly two hundred pupils a day have made use of the library during regular hours, and an average of thirty pupils a day through- out the year have taken books from the library to their homes.
But the library is not simply a depository for books, nor is the librarian simply a custodian of these books. It is a well known fact that the facilities of our public libraries are not by any means used to their fullest extent. There are at least two reasons for this: One, that the public in general is not acquainted with the resources of such libraries, and the other, that most people do not know how to find in a library the information which they may be seeking. The work of the school library, therefore, includes such instruction as will remove from pupils the above difficulties and gradually build up a body of people who will make good use of the large amount of valuable information which lies close at hand in our public libraries. Accordingly, regular instruc- tion is given to all pupils by the school librarian on the makeup and care of books, use of dictionaries, encyclopedias and the usual indexes, also on library classification and card catalogues. To test the efficiency of this instruction, each pupil is given prob-
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lems in library practice to solve, credit for which is given in his English course. In order that this instruction may really accom- plish its purpose locally, the pupils will be taken in groups to our public library where they will be shown the location of the various classes of books and will be made familiar with the card catalogue.
It is of interest to note that the library, as a gathering place of pupils, has also been a place where exhibitions interesting to the school could be displayed. Loan collections of pictures and books have been shown, the Domestic Science Department has displayed war foods, posters on war drives and war litera- ture have been given prominent position, and several times a collection of war relics has attracted large numbers of pupils. In a word, the library has proved to be a gathering place for large numbers of pupils and teachers where they are all brought in close touch with what is happening in the world at large, where they are intelligently directed to the information which is afforded by our limited facilities and thence to the greater resources outside which are available for all who have learned to make use of them.
In closing, may I express to you and to the School Com- mittee my sincere appreciation of your unfailing interest in the efforts of the school and your loyal support in all we have under- taken.
Respectfully submitted,
ERNEST L. COLLINS, Head Master.
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EVENING SCHOOLS
The evening school situation has been about the same as in 1917. Industrial prosperity and ample opportunity for over- time work still keeps the evening school attendance well below normal. This is particularly true so far as it concerns the illiter- ate non-English-speaking men and women. An effort was made to arrange for the organization of classes for such persons to be held in the Fore River Company's buildings, but without success because of the indisposition of the Company to co-operate with us. Experience has proved that when the co-operation of the great industrial establishments can be secured, the results are many times more satisfactory than can be achieved in a public school building without the stimulus that comes from the alliance of interests. For reasons which should be quite obvious with- out elaboration there is no greater national problem before our American people. It is absolutely essential that barriers be- tween social groups, caused by lack of knowledge of English, should be broken down. Learning the English language is by no means synonymous with Americanization, but American- ization cannot begin except on a foundation which a knowledge of that language supplies. A great increase of interest in the problems of Americanization is unquestionably developing and should have the hearty encouragement of all factors in the com- munity which are interested in the public welfare.
PHYSICAL WELFARE
Fundamental to all classroom work is the physical well- being of the children. Communities generally recognize this fact; conservativeness and undue fear of expense are the chief deterrants from putting our impulses and judgments into prac- tice. That the State of Massachusetts should decline to put a progressive physical education law on its statute books is scarcely believable but true.
Quincy has kept several strides in advance of the law in this respect, but it is plain that more should be done for the chil- dren than we are now doing.
We already have two school nurses; next year we should add another to our corps.
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The dental clinic, which was temporarily discontinued in September because of Dr. Farren's entrance into national army service, was re-opened in November on half time. As soon as competent dentists are available we should not only put the clinic on full time but employ an additional dentist so that the whole situation may be met.
The medical side of the school work, always inadequate in scope and plan and too often unsatisfactory in achievements, has fallen flatly to ground this year as one of the consequences of the war. To make this service satisfactory it should be made first of all a School Committee function, instead of a Board of Health duty. Under such conditions the School Committee could engage a competent medical man who would give his entire time to this highly important service.
To transfer this function to the School Committee a legis- lative act would be necessary, and I recommend that such an act be introduced into the legislature of the next year.
Work was begun in September looking toward the correc- tion of speech defects among school children. A large number of children needing attention were found, and Miss Mary McLean, one of the primary teachers, who had been making a study of this phase of corrective work, is giving a part of her time after- noons to the management of such cases. The excellent results already obtained urge the extension of this work so that all cases of this description may have adequate attention. This can be arranged for very shortly.
The need of facilities for intelligent attention to children who are mentally atypical is increasingly great. The same state- ment applies to children who need open-air schooling. Reference has been made to these needs almost annually. Unfortunately there are no centrally located rooms available in which such classes could be opened, and until our building programme is sufficiently well in hand that we may obtain such rooms these very essential functions of a city public school system must wait.
CONCLUSION
In closing this report, I cannot refrain from expressing my appreciation to the schools for the way in which they have risen to all the difficulties which the war brought up.
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Circumstances have conspired to make the past year most trying to pupils and teachers. All have united in meeting these problems, and all have joined to work for the common good. The future will be all the brighter because of this unity of pur- pose and action.
Respectfully submitted, ALBERT L. BARBOUR.
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REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT ON THE STATE-AIDED INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS
The work of the State-aided classes has continued along the same paths blocked out the previous year.
No advance, or enlargement has been made, as the uncer- tainties of war conditions have made it difficult to plan ahead.
In the face of the greatest wage temptations ever offered to boys, we have kept our Day Industrial School open and run- ning with numbers only a little below normal.
The summer vacation took the Principal, Mr. J. G. Spofford, away into war work and the greater number of department instruc- tors also left to return to their trades. These places were ade- quately filled in September, and with Mr. Elijah P. Barrows acting as Director, the school opened with increased numbers. On Mr. Spofford's resigning later, Mr. Barrows was elected prin- cipal.
It is advisable this year that a small lean-to addition be constructed on the east side of the present woodworking shop so that our stock of lumber and material under construction may be kept under heat. This will make available for better use a classroom adjoining the machine shop and here should be installed a few more lathes and some other machines for which there is much demand.
The school as a whole is doing a very large amount of repair work on the school buildings of the city, which not only affords much useful practice but saves the city a considerable sum of money.
The Home-Making School completed its second year of life, has held its first graduation and opened its third year with a class as large as its limited accommodations would allow.
When the High School is enlarged, room should be provided for this school as well, as I feel there will be a growing demand for the type of work this school affords and the present quarters will soon be outgrown. The constant development of this school
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in the face of industrial conditions which have caused similar schools to close during the war is most gratifying.
The Evening Trade classes have been continued as in previous years, the present enrollment and attendance being greater than heretofore. The Fore River Shipbuilding Corporation is co- operating with us in the maintenance of these classes, paying half the expense, and some of the classes being held in the ship- yard. Part of this work has been done afternoons as well as evenings, as we have planned to accommodate any group that might be formed in any subject at any time.
Although many classes have been maintained, a large num- ber of the pupils have been non-residents for whom tuition is collected. This, with the support received from the Fore River Corporation, has reduced the cost to a modest sum.
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