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 1932 > Part 24
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The situation in this school is that we now have 1,835 pupils where the school was designed for 1,450, with an entering class coming in September, 1933, the size of which is estimated to be between 400 and 500 pupils.
The addition to the Quincy School was completed during the year and readjustments made of pupils in the Francis W. Parker and Massachusetts Fields Schools, which relieved the situation in these districts.
Various school grounds have been improved by ameisiting and in some instances we have, through the cooperation of the Welfare Department, improved the grounds by grading, seeding and put- ting in some shrubbery.
There are at present about twenty-seven unoccupied rooms in various sections of the City. This condition, to a great extent, is due to a shift in population. We feel that we shall not have to ask for additions to the grade schools, wtih possibly one excep- tion, for some little time to come.
Your Committee is gratified to be able to report that of the thirty-nine cities in Massachusetts, Quincy has absolutely the low- est cost per pupil of any City and this has been attained we feel without impairing the efficiency of the system. It is well to note in this connection that the cost of our schools is really considerably lower than shown on the report for the reason that the School De- partment turned back to the City Treasurer the sum of $150.285.14 from revenue derived from state-aided schools, renting of halls, etc.
We also wish to make mention of the fact that the School De- partment employees contributed from their salaries two weeks' pay to the Welfare Department of our City. This sum amounted to $51,836.26.
In the interest of more economical administration of schools the sessions of the evening schools have been changed from three per week to two per week.
356
CITY OF QUINCY
During the year it became more difficult to give satisfactory "no-school" signals through the Electric Light Company, and we are now using the radio with fairly satisfactory results.
Your Committee has this year tried an experiment of engaging a corps of student teachers who serve as assistants without pay, thus giving them an opportunity to observe and to be trained in our system, and from these student teachers we are taking as far as possible, the substitute teachers. We believe this system will work out to the great advantage of the City.
It is a pleasure to report that we have an excellent corps of teachers in our schools who are performing excellent work, and Quincy graduates stand as high certainly as any and above a great many communities.
In the belief that the health of the children is of equal impor- tance to their mental development, we have continued Professor Frederick Rand Rogers of Boston University in his advisory capacity and hope to make further developments on that line.
During the year we have lost through death Mrs. Helen M. West who served continuously at the John Hancock School from her appointment in January, 1890, until 1932, a long and honorable service. We also lost Miss Florence M. Brown, teacher at the Wol- laston School, who had been with us only about a year. Among the custodians, Mr. John J. Barry of the Gridley Bryant School was killed by accident after several years of service.
The School Committee has received throughout the year the finest cooperation from the Superintendent and the entire school staff and the results attained we believe testify to their efficiency.
We wish to express our appreciation of the cooperation of the Mayor and City Council during the year just closed.
The foregoing report was prepared by a special committee of Mrs. Esther Purcell and Col. Warren E. Sweetser, and was adopted as the annual report of the Committee for the year 1932.
357
REPORT OF SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
In Memoriam
JOHN J. BARRY
Died January 28, 1932
Custodian 1928-1932
FLORENCE H. BROWN
Died April 15, 1932
Teacher 1931-1932
HELEN M. WEST
Died August 8, 1932
Teacher 1890-1932
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CITY OF QUINCY
REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS
To the School Committee of Quincy :
The year's administrative problems have been many and varied. Dealing with my annual report, it is my sincere endeavor to pre- sent to the Committee, and through the Committee to the citizens of Quincy, such salient facts as will enable them to judge the efficiency with which the personnel has discharged its very great and unusual responsibilities. The difficulties that have been met have served to strengthen the school system. Adversity is a hard master but it exerts the greatest possible urge towards higher standards and better performance. So it has been in the schools during the last year. Thus the foundation is formed for better records of achievement than ever before.
Quoting from my Annual Report of 1930, page 10: "I want to emphasize at the beginning of this report a paragraph taken from the conclusion of my last year's report. I might say that it sums up very briefly and in simple words what has grown to be a philos- ophy of education with me:
" 'What I should like to emphasize more than any other thing during the year 1930 is more attention to the indi- vidual. What is required is a system of education which shall encourage boys and girls to teach themselves; a system calculated to foster the child's curiosity; to make the desire for knowledge an habitual desire; and above all, to familiarize each child with the best methods of ac- quiring it by his own efforts.'"
The Spirit of the Teachers
The professional attitude of the teachers as a group is high. The interest on the part of the great majority to keep and main- tain a high standard of excellence in scholarship in the schools is manifest.
Of the five hundred and thirty-six teachers now in service, twelve have obtained their college and four their master's degree at the various colleges while in service during the past few years. Twenty- two teachers have been employed who obtained their master's de- gree before entering the service. In addition to this a great many teachers with college degrees are working for their master's. Dur- ing the year of 1932, one hundred and twenty-nine teachers have taken professional work at some of the higher institutions of learning. During the last semester ninety teachers have taken advantage of Professor Donald D. Durrrell's course on the study of Individual Differences, given at the Central Junior High School. The attendance was practically one hundred per cent.
Four years ago the School Committee raised the standard of scholarship, making it mandatory that the minimum require- ments for elementary grade teachers be a three-year normal school course, and for junior and senior high school teachers a four-year approved college or normal school course, or its equivalent. This higher standard of scholarship training required by the School Committee has been reflected in the higher scholarship standards of the pupils. The schools demand more at the present time than college graduation. A candidate should have received professional training for teaching.
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REPORT OF SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
Many profitable meetings have been held with the principals during the year. Several general meetings for all teachers for inspirational and instructive purposes have been held. Dr. Howard Griggs and Dr. George Vincent may be considered the high water mark. Conferences were held during the year with the various groups of the junior and senior high school teachers to discuss the work of the special committees appointed to revise the subject matter in the curriculum from the seventh to the twelfth years inclusive. These meetings were highly instructive. Teachers took part freely in the discussion. The purpose of these conferences was to see whether those teaching the various subjects had any additions or subtractions or emendations to make to the syllabus that the committees had worked out. These conferences were pro- ductive of great good as they gave solidity and general agreement to the new syllabus.
It should be remembered also that the length of the school day was increased from 1:30 to 2:30 a few years ago in the junior and senior high schools, and today the teachers in Quincy in the sec- ondary schools are carrying a greater load than is being done in the various school systems of the State. This is a great con- tributing factor in placing Quincy the most economical of the 39 cities of Massachusetts during the year 1931-32.
In addition to the five per cent contribution the teachers gave to the city, the teachers have done a fine piece of philanthropic work. Each teacher contributed five dollars toward a fund called the "Quincy Teachers' Permanent Relief Fund." The total amount raised was $2,635.18. Of this amount $2,232. 59 has been expended. The committee of teachers, of which the superintendent is chair- man, have administered that fund as follows:
Loan to a deserving teacher $200 00
Welfare Association
725 59
Quincy Employment Service Bureau
300 00
School Nurses 1,000 00
Deserving pupil in High School 7 00
$2,232 59
The nurses spent their money on deserving pupils for eye glasses, X-rays, and removing of tonsils. One hundred and ten dollars was spent in June to send children to the tuberculosis camp during the summer. The Quincy Employment Bureau spent the three hundred dollars for the employment of the parents of school children.
To summarize, this contribution of the teachers was spent for tonsils, X-rays, eye glasses, medical treatment, medicine, teeth, tuberculosis camp, milk, food, clothing, fuel and employment.
If further evidence were needed to show the unanimity and har- mony that exists with the entire personnel and their desire to co- operate with the school authorities in their endeavor to meet per- plexing problems, I would cite the resolution adopted at the gen- eral meeting of the teachers on January 19th, without a dissenting voice, placing their confidence in the School Committee. It reads as follows:
"RESOLVED: That the teachers of the City of Quincy offer to the City, as their contribution to meet the eco- nomic needs of those less fortunate than themselves, that portion of their salaries which seems reasonable to the School Committee and promise whole-hearted, earnest
360
CITY OF QUINCY
service to the boys and girls of the City in this period of stress and turmoil."
I doubt very much whether you will find a school system in America in which closer harmony prevails with the entire personnel of the school system, the superintendent and the School Com- mittee.
Teaching Aids
More than four years ago I called a teachers' meeting at which an exhibition was given of some educational films. At that meet- ing I said: if we did anything on visual education in Quincy it should be made simple, direct and helpful to pupils and to teach- ers; that I was opposed to the so-called educational moving picture film as an entertainment for the children in school, and a release or a rest period for the teacher; and if the moving picture film was to be of its greatest value it must function in the lives of both teachers and pupils-that is, it should stimulate and inspire a desire for further growth and interest and knowledge in the sub- ject at hand on the part of both teacher and pupil; that it would fall short of a real stimulas and purpose if it did not inculcate a keener desire to study further in the particular subject that the teacher was endeavoring to teach. It should be an aid to exact knowledge and illuminate the problems presented to the pupils. Years of experience with educational films and other teaching aids have demonstrated effectively that visual aids are not to supplant but to aid the teacher.
There is a great danger of presenting so much material that it will result in a confusion of knowledge to both teacher and pupil. There are permanent performances that should be exacted of every teacher and of every pupil. The best trained minds with the most discriminating judgment should be at work on this problem. For instance: In the study of the geography of Africa, what differen- tiation will be made from the facts or generalizations that must be or should be learned as you would learn the multiplication table ? What are the things that we should study only for appreciation, or as you read last Sunday's newspaper? The same distinction should be made in history and in general science. The visual aid department in Quincy is of the greatest help in determining these relative values.
It is possible for the moving picture film to be a great teacher's aid to educate the pupils in superior appreciation in a very wide range of subjects, a great many varieties of literature, the photo- drama, hygiene, nature study, history, geography, practical arts, architecture, landscaping, general science, good taste in dress and scores of other subjects.
We have always had visual aids in one form or another in the classroom; therefore, visual aids are not few. Modern science has worked out many, many excellent films and splendid devices and aids for our classroom work and we must accept these aids if they can help us elucidate and make clearer the subject matter to the pupils. We are endeavoring to sift out those things that will be most helpful and further aid the pupil in his work.
It is generally conceded that we learn more through the eye than through any other of our senses. It is, therefore, possible to bring into the classroom and make the unknown known and the difficult more plain, and to present information in its natural state, to motivate and correlate the problems before us, to rouse the learner to a point where he will want to know more about the sub-
361
REPORT OF SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
ject presented; that is, it will help him to think more clearly, sense more keenly, know more definitely, and will to know more about his subject.
Everything that is being done in the City of Quincy is done with the high hope to help the pupil.
Needs of the Schools
While much has been accomplished, much remains to be accom- plished.
Three years ago I came before the School Committee and said that we could expect at least 1,800 pupils in the North Quincy High School, September, 1932. This forecast is true for at the present time there are 1,835 pupils at the North Quincy High School. This is 350 pupils more than the capacity of the school at the present time. We must provide for at least 425 additional pupils in the North Quincy High School, September, 1933, making a total of 2,260. There are two solutions to the problem. One is the two- platoon day for the pupils, and the other is the completion of the building. On a two-platoon schedule. the program will be some- thing like this: 1,260 pupils assemble in the morning from 8 to 12.30 o'clock, and 1,000 pupils from 12.30 to 5 o'clock in the after- noon, giving each group four and one-half hours in school. This, naturally, will hamper the work of the teachers and the pupils.
We employ teachers professionally minded and professionally trained to teach children. We expect them to discharge their pro- fessional obligations toward the pupils and the city. The old state- ment that no chain is stronger than its weakest link is as true in the schools as it is out of the schools. Teachers cannot discharge their professional obligations toward pupils. neither can pupils fulfill their obligations toward the work that they should do under such conditions as will prevail in a double session plan at the North Quincy High School.
The program of studies in the junior and senior high schools needs revision. The Home Economics department should be re- organized and extended. New courses should be added to provide for the varying abilities of the pupils and to meet the ever- changing social and economic conditions. There is need for greater emphasis on the social studies. We should include such subject matter as the management of personal economic affairs, vocational information. We should provide more training for worthy home membership, worthy use of leisure, character and citizenship.
We need closer contact between the school and the home. Each must understand the other if we are to work together for the good of the child. From the viewpoint of society, the child who is poorly adjusted is a potential problem.
Closely allied to this and paramount to it is the problem of guid- ance in its various ramifications. As I see it, guidance is the out- standing problem confronting the school system. I feel that guid- ance is the heart and core of our secondary education program.
Guidance is an economic necessity. A study was made by Mil- dred R. Frye of those pupils in the tenth year of the Senior High School who had failed the previous semester. She began her work in January and continued about five months. While the work done in the classroom was largely remedial, her study offered valuable suggestions as to possible preventive measures.
The correct thing to do is to find out the cause of failures and endeavor, with all the mentality and ability we have at our com-
362
CITY OF QUINCY
mand, to remove the cause as far as possible. Such work is pre- ventive and constructive.
One direct result of the study was that, in addition to the usual promotion list sent to the Senior High School, there was a complete history of individuals making up the entrance class. This gave the principal an opportunity to work out a more effective and, at the same time, a more efficient program of pupils' studies. An- other result of the study was the giving of standard achievement tests to all pupils in grades 6 and 9.
A second study was made of those pupils who failed in one or more subjects at the North Quincy High School. There we have made a special effort to put into operation the preventive plan. It has resulted in a very hopeful showing.
At the beginning of the present school year the pupils of Grades 10 and 11 were placed in homogeneous groups on the basis of their ability and previous achievement. Each pupil was given individual guidance in his choice of subjects, and his program made out to give him every possible advantage. As a check-up on the effective- ness of the plan a study has been made of the recent progress of these pupils. It has shown that among those who were failing in one or more subjects last year, there has been a decrease in failure to the extent of 38 per cent. In other words-the achievement of this group at present is 38 per cent more efficient than it was last year. This means that the school program by virtue of its guid- ance program, which provided for homogeneous grouping. better programming of pupils' studies, and placing pupils in divisions better adapted to the individual needs, is 38 per cent more efficient to this particular group.
This special attention given to the individual pupil is nothing more or less than human accounting. The principle underlving this procedure is that every child will be permitted to work to the maxi- mum of his several abilities. The public school is a democratic institution. Each child is entitled to the same rights. prerogatives. and privileges of every other child but no more. This principle will grant him that right. Therefore. any appreciable per cent of failures that can be corrected is. first. a great monetary saving to the City of Quincy, but greater than the monetary saving is the building up of stronger, better men and women fit to take their places in society.
This gives rise to more complex problems within the schools and demands a new set-up. Non-promotions and failures are the great- est waste in the school system at the present time. Three of the factors that enter into the non-promotions and failures are:
1. The results of poor teaching;
2. Insufficient offerings or courses, and courses not adapted to the needs of the several abilities;
3. And chief among them is inadequate guidance.
A year ago, January 26. Mildred B. Harrison. Dean of Girls at the Senior High School, submitted a report to the Superintendent of Schools. which was read and carefully discussed, approved and accented by the School Committee. In the report, specific recom- mendations were made by the dean of girls. Several of the items that were recommended have been carried out and have accom- plished much good. A decided advance has been made for the girls in the Senior High School ir
1. Home Economics and Home Management.
2. The health work among the girls.
3. By rearranging the dean's work and giving her more help, she has been able to do very much better work in the guidance field.
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REPORT OF SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
The dean went to all the junior schools last spring to work with the girls in their choice of senior high school courses. It is evident that more guidance of this kind is necessary in the junior schools and earlier. GUIDANCE WORK, TO BE EFFECTIVE, MUST BE PREVENTIVE RATHER THAN REMEDIAL.
A tentative plan for an organized guidance program was sub- mitted last spring to the Superintendent of Schools. Since then the dean has been working more and more toward a definite pro- gram of guidance for the City of Quincy. It would seem advisable to have her concentrate on this work at this time because of its great importance. The immediate need at present is a further study of the situation with a view to determining what the first steps should be in establishing and carrying out a definite program.
The superintendent looks forward with every degree of faith in Quincy's citizenry, and with full confidence in their desire for effective and efficient education for their children. The future of our schools and the future intelligence of our citizenry depend upon the courage and the intelligence with which the problems of today are met.
It is particularly appropriate at this time to record appreciation of the efforts put forth on the part of the entire personnel of the school system during the year, and their loyalty and faith in the work that they have undertaken.
It is indeed high praise to have Quincy's schools held in such high regard in and out of the city and particularly by higher insti- tutions of learning. This reflects great credit on the legislative body, the School Committee, who have served so long and faithfully without money and without price.
Respectfully submitted,
JAMES N. MUIR, Superintendent of Schools.
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CITY OF QUINCY
The Day Trade School
The costs of the Quincy Trade School for the school year ending in August, 1932, were decreased by $2,511.15 to $50,744.59, and the net cost to the City of Quincy was reduced as follows:
Tuition for non-residents $8,315 00
Cash for products made in the school 1,213 79
Aid from the State of Massachusetts 19,074 90
Aid from the Federal Government 1,972 11
45 57
Total receipts Net cost to City of Quincy
$30,621 37
20,123 22
In addition to actual cash turned into the city as shown above, the school has saved a considerable sum of money for the School Department by the work done by the boys in and for the various schools. Such work is done primarily to give the boys training on real jobs and is a vital necessity if the boys are to be properly trained in certain trades. At the same time there is a saving of money to the city and the School Department has the use of things which they would not have had if payments for the articles had been required. This is well illustrated in the field of visual edu- cation. At the present time no manufacturer is making many articles of furniture needed by the Director, Mr. Krasker, in his work. Mr. Krasker sketched his ideas for storage cabinets, portable film boxes, etc., and the cabinet making department produced the finished article to the benefit of the School Department and the boy in training.
The decrease in cost was largely due to a decreased enrollment and a change in the type of enrollments. The machine department, an expensive department to run, has been greatly reduced while the auto mechanics department has been increased. The auto me- chanics department costs the city less to run because the automo- biles repaired are furnished by private owners and all replacement parts are furnished by the owner.
The enrollment for the past five years is shown below:
1927-28
1928-29
1929-30
1930-31
1931-32
Enrol.
Av.
Men.
Enrol.
Av.
Mem.
Enrol.
Av.
Mem.
Enrol.
Av.
Mem.
Enrol.
Av.
Mem.
Auto Mechanics.
41
43
48
29.3
37
30.85
54
42.79
Electrical
38
35
38
32.5
37
32.64
37
31.12
Machine
40
40
31
25.7
38
24.95
16
12.96
Machine (Co-op-
erative)
Plumbing
36
36
39
29.1
29
1. 23.76
31
24.28
Sheet Metal.
21
20
18
16.3
18
16.67
21
15.38
Woodworking
80
76
68
47.1
56
40.99
53
36.57
Special
1
....
....
....
....
....
....
250
246
220
214
Total Enrollment 257 Total Average Membership .;
190.6
192.6
182.0
170.86
164.10
2.
5
2
1.
....
4
Miscellaneous receipts
365
REPORT OF SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
The average membership of 164.10 for 1931-1932 is the lowest since coming into the new building. Apparently the decrease has ended for the membership for the first four months of this school year, 1932-1933, has been 190.6, within two of the highest enroll- ment the school has ever had. Every department but the machine and sheet metal departments are at capacity and the machine and sheet metal departments are at capacity for one teacher in each department.
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