USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Norwood > Norwood annual report 1942-1944 > Part 57
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6. The increased or aroused consciousness of the importance of nutrition in healthful living.
7. The ever-increasing opportunities in the business world for students with varying amounts of training in Home Economics.
8. The tendency in general education to educate toward the lasting things in life and the values which make for happiness and satisfaction in living.
General Home Economics Education Serves on the Front Lines
Directly behind the War Front is the Home Front and there the American homemaker takes her place as a vital combatant. Many problems brought about by war conditions must be solved on the home front and it is the homemaker's part to maintain the health and vigor of her family unit despite all restrictions of wartime economy. Homemakers, therefore, need help as never before as they try to plan intelligently, both nutrition-wise and budget-wise.
Home Economics is exerting a great influence in this crisis through its own circle of students and their families. By providing expert guidance Home Economics is influencing and helping a majority of the nation's homes. In many homes family life is abnormal with various members employed in war industries or in the armed services. All these irregularities mean that family life and indi- vidual morale need to be strengthened. Home Economics is continuously assisting youth in meeting these trying personal problems. In addition to drawing the attention of classes to all new wartime problems besetting homemakers, Home
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Economics Education is placing proper concentration on basic principles of per- sonal, home and family living. In this age of uncertainty we find reassurance in one certainty - that in the world of tomorrow as in the world of today there will be homes. We are, therefore, directing our attention in all our teaching toward the building of lasting foundations for the future homes of America.
Present day educators believe that education for personal and family living is vital and that Home Economics is the essential medium for presenting such knowledge. They also see Home Economics as an important part of the general education of all youth as well as a field of study for those with specialized interests. Home Economists see General Home Economics training as contributing most to personal and family life, having values for social, civic and vocational orienta- tion. Therefore, in building the several curricula for our schools we must view Home Economics in terms of its broadest and richest values for all, as well as its specialized values for some.
General Home Economics training reaches the largest number of pupils, for all pupils need knowledge to meet their personal needs, to use their time and money and energy to make life rich and satisfying, to achieve poise and self- confidence and to acquire skill in human relationships. It is to this area of per- sonal and home living that General Home Economics training makes its major contribution. Although General Home Economics Education does not have gainful employment as a specific objective it should be noted that it has much to offer in providing instruction which leads to the general employability of young people. Home Economics-trained pupils have the training and characteristics required by employers and which lead to personal happiness and success on the job. Also, General Home Economics has value in developing service courses for pupils preparing for work in other fields and in distributive occupations, for these pupils have knowledge of the products they sell and the homemaker's point of view in selling - a valuable asset in serving the public and holding a position.
Home Economics is unusual in that it has value for both general and vocational education. It can prepare students to earn a living and teach them to use the benefits of their earning and their time and energy to make life richer and more enjoyable. Because of the expansion of the Junior College and the more recent proposed Area Vocational Schools and other specialized schools one may well become confused in attempting to understand the difference between the long- standing General Home Economics field of education and the various types of Vocational courses now being developed. Leaders in the Home Economics field state that up to the present time no satisfactory answer to this question has been given. It will be seen, however, that General Home Economics and Vocational Home Economics do not serve the same group of pupils; that General Home Economics is essentially basic training, essential to a well-rounded general edu- cation for living, for all pupils plus provision for work experience in all home- making activities, while Vocational training serves those who aim to specialize in the maintenance aspects of homemaking or in sub-professional branches of homemaking and related trades with learnings carried to a skill or employment level.
Home Economics in Post-War Education
The status of Home Economics has not been altered by the war, rather the benefits of this field of education have been accelerated. The objectives which we have always stressed are now generally recognized as paramount in import-
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ance. In this respect the war has brought victory to Home Economics Education. Who will not agree that homemaking is a profession in which the majority will spend the greater part of their adult lives and therefore the most important pro- fession in the world for developing those principles of understanding and democ- racy basic to our very existence?
Home Economics objectives and goals may now be stated briefly as "the im- provement of home and family life throughout the world by every means at our command." We must prepare men and women to be better adjusted in matters of living with themselves, their families, their communities and their work. We must go beyond training for homemaking. We must teach in terms of prepa- ration for living, both in the homes and outside the homes. The type of Home Economics education needed in the future will be less technical and more func- tional. The knowledge we impart should carry with it a sense of spiritual values. We will want our pupils to discover efficient practises but, more important, to acquire worthy concepts and values which they will attempt to realize as home- makers. We want our future homemakers to acquire a faith in the supreme importance of human relations. In seeking to select suitable and specific teach- ing material we must attempt to conserve the best of the past while we explore the possibilities of the future in respect to formulating ideas for better living. We recognize physical well-being as basic to all well-being but we also know the great importance of mental well-being. We know that it is not enough to pro- vide alone for personal comforts and physical needs and that the home stands for much that is not tangible or measurable. We must contribute directly in our teaching to those aspects of human well-being for which homes appear likely to continue to be responsible. Men and women of the future, although citizens and wage-earners, will still depend upon the home for much of their. happiness.
Our contribution to the education of students must be seen in the development of the pupils themselves and noted in improved home and family living. Our teaching should exemplify the scope of the vast amount of instruction for "liv- ing" included in our educational field. We must teach a strong school and home experience program. Since we do not know what the future holds, there will be need of flexible programs and quick adjustment to conditions of the moment. This will call for careful thought and planning for tomorrow. We will need clear vision of life for our young people and a sympathetic understanding of them. In some way we must convey to them the present need for holding to that which is good and so conducting themselves that they are veritably building homes for tomorrow on the foundations of their faith in today.
Home Economics well taught makes the usefulness of all knowledge so very evident and can correlate all knowledge relevant to the worldwide problem of better standards of living. Much will have been accomplished when pupils discover that through their Home Economics teaching all knowledge may be applied to the day's activities or is of use in making saner judgments. Since homemaking well done demands the best abilities of the most capable, all pupils should be guided and directed toward this training, the bright as well as the handicapped, in order that the best and fullest potentialities of Home Economics Education may be realized.
The School Lunch Program
The attention of the whole world is focused on food for armies, for war-workers, for children. There is wide awareness of the need for education concerning food and nutrition. Hence the school lunch has become an important part of a school
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program. A successful school lunch which provides the service for which it has been organized, viz., the serving of nutritionally adequate noon meals daily to school children, is essentially a democratic and community affair. It is a co- operative effort and should function as part of the educational program of the entire school. Students realize that the cafeteria belongs to them, is an integral part of their school life and that its success depends largely upon their patronage and cooperation. This knowledge leads to a spirit of good citizenship which prevails at all times. One glance at the rush when the lunch bell rings is proof of the response of pupils to this project and a closer look into the cafeteria will show a happy group of future citizens relishing their food and appreciating this activity.
In spite of wartime restrictions, attractive and nutritious food combinations have been available throughout the year. Our standards demand that the food served be nourishing, well-prepared and attractively served under inviting and friendly conditions. All the extra problems of rationing, viz., scarcity of foods, increased patronage, longer time required for preparation, change in recipes, supplying nutritional substitutes, keeping within point allowances, finding food for prices we can afford to pay, learning about new food products and grades, processes and packs, taking advantage of market surpluses on low point or point- free foods, extra time required for all these duties and extra supervision of prepa- ration, etc., plus the many additional duties of keeping records required by wartime conditions and measures, add to managerial problems, but the great effort brings satisfaction because of the fine spirit of those served by this project. Because of excellent and increased patronage which is at a high peak we have been able to hold our prices to orginal price levels. This feature alone has been much appreciated by the pupils.
Through Mr. Corcoran's interest and cooperation an experiment in providing hot soup for pupils who remain at school during the noon recess at Junior High School was undertaken by the Home Economics Department. Mrs. Malcolm White has been in charge of the project and through her untiring effort in giving graciously of her time the undertaking has been very successful, proving that pupils appreciate this service in their behalf. It is hoped that this beginning may lead to further attention to the matter of providing other nourishing food to Junior High School pupils as the need seems evident.
Conclusion
In conclusion: the test of the value of General Home Economics teaching in our schools is in the continued interest and happiness of our pupils who find in this branch of their education the personal satisfaction which comes from at- tention to teaching related to their everyday personal life problems. They find themselves in natural situations which they enjoy. They are happy in their practice and creative work, are eager for all knowledge leading to self-improve- ment as well as for information which will be helpful in their homes. There is every evidence that our basic, elective and orientation courses are functioning to a high degree and are much enjoyed and appreciated by our pupils. Our department enrollment has remained high and in Senior High School has in- creased in production with pupils showing an active interest in obtaining a high quality of work. There is a marked tendency toward doing a more thorough piece of work than for some time past.
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The School Committee voted to re-establish the position eliminated in this department at Junior High School last year, and Miss Eleanor Sline of East Walpole was elected to fill the position. The result has been increased accom- plishment for pupils and much happiness in their work. If some way could be found to extend the Homemaking training to the elementary children who have none of this training through the Home Economics Department, as formerly, we would be supplying instruction which by its very nature must benefit children in the formative periods of their lives. They come out of their homes as little children and the adjustment and break from their homes to group training in school could be tempered with instruction close to their hearts. They would be very happy in, and very much helped by, instruction in Homemaking. I wish to make this suggestion as a recommendation for consideration for the immediate future.
I wish to take this opportunity to express my grateful appreciation to my co- workers and to all those with whom I am associated in carrying on the work of the department for their cooperation in bringing about another year of satisfying and successful accomplishment.
AGNES M. BRIDGES.
REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND BOYS VOCATIONAL SCHOOL
I herewith submit my annual report of the Vocational-Industrial Arts De- partment for the year ending December 31, 1944.
Prospects of Post-War Education
After the war is fought, the schools of this country will get down to a firm and solid foundation and begin to make some changes that have been needed for a long time.
This is the consensus of opinion among educators who are charged with the educational program of our school-age children. They are studying and shaping the future now.
Most of these educators agree that the schools, before the war came, failed badly in many important respects. They feel that a major part of the schools' job is to prepare children to earn their living, and to teach them how to live with 'others. They are blue-printing a future designed to avoid the mistakes of the past.
One point agreed upon and emphasized by all is vocational education. All secondary school postwar programs will call for a workmanlike, specific curriculum of vocational training to equip our youth to take their places in this great indus- trial area. Norwood is looking into the future and preparing for this period.
Vocational Education
In September our first unit of trade training was made ready to receive its first full class in cabinet-making. All machines were electrically connected, and bench sections refinished.
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A total of eighteen boys applied for admission and were accepted. This group constituted our first year class and inaugurated the real beginning of our Boys Vocational School.
It is well to keep in mind the trends with respect to the type of student who attends this school. It is not unusual for the vocational school to enroll students to whom the academic program of the high school is not challenging. We have taken boys from the eighth grade, and started them on their training that eventu- ally will fit them for profitable and worthwhile living.
We look now to the time when the Vocational School offerings will appear more attractive and more students will apply for admission. Under such condi- tions, our school would become selective, and would, through guidance and placement, enroll pupils in those courses for which they are best suited and which would assure for them success. Thus, with more students of varying degrees of talent and abilities the school could promote greater variety in its curriculum, especially the related subjects field.
Additional units of trade work would have a decided effect on increased en- rollment and success for this type of training in the postwar period to come. Units such as Automobile repair, Airplane motor repair, Electrical appliances, Printing and Plumbing all suggest opportunities for employment in the industry of this area. Through employment needs, cooperative trade training would be possible. This type of vocational training would be beneficial to the student because he would "earn" as he "learns" on the job.
Shop Accomplishments
Many requests were received from outside the school for cabinet work. Most of this work we completed to the entire satisfaction of the individual.
Through cooperation with the Henry O. Peabody School for Girls, many articles for home consumption were made. They were finished, decorated by the girls and sold at that school.
Perhaps the outstanding accomplishment was the planning and constructing of the partition placed in the school library. For a group of first year boys, the work of making the book shelves and partition showed work of a superior quality and high standard of workmanship.
Vocational Technical Training
This field of vocational technical training, vocational in objective, and techni- cal in content, is rapidly coming into prominence. The rapid expansion of technology is creating new needs for training. New materials, new processes, and new products are being developed. Demands of the war for trained techni- cians have stimulated new training programs. These factors affect the need for vocational technical training. It is a vocational program of less than college grade in which both youth and adults will have an opportunity to prepare for employment on jobs calling for high degrees of skill in the use of their hands, trade judgment in industry, or an upgrading in such jobs after employment.
Senior High School Industrial Arts
In line with last year's program, one period per day was permitted boys of the high school, interested in industrial work, to enter the cabinetmaking shop for instruction. It was a heterogeneous group, with a majority of sophomores.
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Enrollment was limited to twenty-four boys. Instruction was rather difficult because of the scarcity of materials. We are able, however, to provide training in specific skills, and proper machine operation. Projects had to be small to conserve our lumber supply, but all training was of commercial quality and high standard of workmanship.
Mechanical drawing continues to be a popular course and we have large classes. The refinishing of the room improved the lighting effects tremendously and added to its appearance.
There is a noticeable increase in the number of girls participating in this program. They are finding this work much to their liking and of definite value to their educational experiences.
Industrial Arts in Junior High School
Training in industrial arts for seventh, eighth and ninth grades was organized to present these pupils with a comprehensive and broadened program of activity.
During the summer all machine shop equipment that was installed last year was connected with power and put into operation. We now have a metal shop comparable to any shop of its kind, where our seventh grade boys are provided experience in many grade activities. This period of exploratory offering in the metal and machine work is given for one-half year.
Mechanical drawing, formerly taught by an art teacher, was this year assigned to Mr. McAuliffe. A new modern drafting textbook was introduced, giving the boys of the ninth grade a well-balanced course, and stimulating interest in this technical subject.
Woodwork, as an elective in the ninth grade, failed to attract many students. Those who would normally have elected this work, transferred to the vocational school.
In November, Thomas Bowler, who conducted our woodworking shop for eighteen years, resigned to accept a similar position in Brookline. His loss is keenly felt, especially at this time when emphasis is being placed on the training of boys for this type of work. Mr. Petitto is carrying on the work at the present time.
Guidance and Industrial Arts
Our students must have sound advice and assistance in their selection of train- ing, particularly vocational training. The Junior High School should serve as a feeder school, from which students will enter the vocational field. Work experi- ences in that school should determine the student's abilities and aptitudes for future training.
Conclusion
Organizing a new system of training presents problems that require support and cooperation and an assurance of success. I wish to express my appreciation to you, Mr. Lynch, for your fine leadership, and also to those with whom it was my privilege to be associated.
CLIFFORD H. WHEELER.
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REPORT OF SUPERVISOR OF ART
I herewith submit the annual report of the Art Department for the year ending December 31, 1944.
Realizing that our present pupils are to be the future citizens who will enjoy the benefits and help plan and carry on the activities of the post-war world, our aim in all Art education of today is to help prepare these pupils to adjust them- selves to their environments, both now in school and home and later in adult situations.
Prospective architects who may be engaged in planning commercial air-fields and hangars, as well as the new homes of the future; potential painters, sculptors and advertising artists, as well as craftsmen for new post-war industries; the larger number of consumers whose taste and discrimination will help determine the kind of world they will live in; - all these are present in the schoolroom of today. In order that all these types, and many others, may be given the right foundation, the complete Art program aims to develop, - a sensitive, intelli- gent way of looking at natural and man-made things, - a quick, direct language of expression, - power to design and create an orderly and beautiful environment, - and finally, a philosophy of life in which order and beauty take their rightful place.
The planning and making of more articles for the Junior Red Cross than ever before has undoubtedly furnished an incentive in handicrafts. This Junior Red Cross Art work serves a twofold purpose. First, objects are produced which can actually be used by those in the armed forces or in some connection with the war effort, thus making the children feel that they have done their part on the home front. Second, the pupils' education is furthered, since originality and creative ability are developed. Experience is had in handling new materials and application of Art learning to practical problems is made.
As last year, several hundred small picture booklets, small cardboard toys and stuffed animals to send in Christmas boxes to children of other lands, games and scrapbooks for hospitals, many posters at appropriate times and favors and cookie baskets for the children's ward of our local hospital, were among the objects made for the Junior Red Cross. The outstanding project, in which every school in Norwood participated and which was started the first week of school in September and sent to Boston before October first, was the planning and completion of one unit of Christmas decorations, to be sent overseas for use in some camp or hospital there. We were especially commended by the Boston headquarters because our unit was the only one of the twenty or more sent from Boston in which elementary schools had a part, all others being made by Junior and Senior High Schools. The unit consisted of five hundred ice cream decora- tions with original designs by Grade Six pupils, two hundred and fifty standing tray favors by Grades Four and Five, fifty large three-dimensional cut-outs by several Junior High Clubs, five hundred Christmas cards which could be used for menu covers, designed and printed in Junior High, fifty Christmas posters painted by Art classes in Senior High and a large folding centerpiece made by an Art class in the Peabody School.
Elementary Schools
The same system of supervision, application of principles and working out of projects in correlation with other school subjects has been in force, as reported for several years. However, more large class and group murals and friezes were
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made this past year, some in chalk, easel paint, cut paper or crayon, while others were a combination of several mediums.
In the first and second grades, Pilgrims, Indians, Eskimos, Santa Claus with his sleigh and reindeer, large Christmas trees with toys and ornaments, town and farm life, birds, flowers and Spring, were all successful subjects for murals. In grades three and four, several large group pictures showing Winter sports or Spring games, China, when studied in Social Studies, Bethlehem and the shep- herds and a frieze of imaginary and fantastic dinosaurs, were highlights of our Art periods, while grades five and six concentrated on transportation, Winter sports, patriotic symbols of all kinds combined in gay red, white and blue murals, and friezes showing the history of architecture, from the primitive man's home to modern Norwood buildings.
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