USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Norwood > Norwood annual report 1951-1953 > Part 39
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Course
Enrollment
Non Residents
Left School **
Under Graduates
Certificates Granted
Placements
PT*
FT
Beauty Cuture
29
12
4
21
4
4
Business Education
30
15
5
15
10
10
Trade Dressmaking
35
21
10
20
5
- I
2
Commercial Foods
47
18
8
32
7
21
5
Total
141
66
27
88
26
22
21
* Part-time placements Full-time placements
** Reasons for leaving:
To go to work
7
Moved to another town
3
Returned to High School
6
High School Graduates
3
To be married
3
Ill Health
2
Joined Armed Forces
1
Suspended
2
TOWN OF NORWOOD
-
1
-
-
:
DISTRIBUTION OF NON-RESIDENT PUPILS
Canton, 1; Dedham, 7; Foxboro, 6; Franklin, 6; Mansfield, 2; Medfield, I; North Easton, 3; Norfolk, 4; Plainville, 2; Sharon, 1; Sheldonville, 1; Walpole, 25; Westwood, 3; Wrentham, 4.
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REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE
award is granted to a Norwood resident and graduate of the Peabody School for further training in any branch of her particular trade upon the recommendation of the Director and faculty. Julia completed the two-week course in Professional Cake Decorating conducted by the Wilson School, of Chicago, at the H. A. Johnson plant in Brighton this summer. Julia is now employed by Mrs. Ruth Wakefield at Toll House and is making a fine record for herself and the school. We wish to express our thanks and deep appreciation to the Norwood Rotary Club for their generosity and interest in the Peabody School.
The success of our graduates continues to bring much recognition to the school. The following graduates received certificates this year:
Catherine Bilotta
Beverly Lewin Joan Lucas
* Myrtle Bosselman
* Julia McCarthy
* Janice Cameron Yolanda Campisano
* Marilyn McDargh Albert Natoli
Janet Conroy
* Mary Crimmins
Lourine Cyr Margaret Danahy
* Marjorie O'Donnell Kathleen Parlee Marie Potenza
*Virginia Dorsey Dorothy Griffin William Hart Ellen Higgins Eva Jurgevich
* Josephine Pungitore Helen Robbins
Sodira Sideropoulos
* Eleanor Slaney Anne Smith
* These graduates received a Certificate of Proficiency.
Each year we seek new placement opportunities and attempt to fill the demands of our present employers. The following are representative placements for the current year:
Business Department:
First National Bank of Boston Children's Medical Center, Boston Boston University School of Education Estabrook, Boston Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
Beauty Culture Department:
Elizabeth Arden's, Boston Plotkin's, Boston Russo's, Newton Centre
Dressmaking Department:
Leed's, Boston Worth's, Boston
Foods Department:
Belcher's, Caterers, Wellesley Hills Salmagundi, Boston Toll House, Whitman Deaconess Hospital, Boston
Several new members were added to the Advisory Boards this year. Because we are now training a number of boys and look to hotel placement as a possibility
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TOWN OF NORWOOD
for them. it seemed advisable in the Commercial Food Department to invite an outstanding chef and hotel manager to serve on our board. Mr. Charles L. Banino, General Manager and former chef of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Boston, has graciously consented to serve in this capacity for the ensuing year. Anticipating better oppor- tunities for our students in dress manufacturing, we decided to invite a leading representative in this field to join the Advisory Board of the Trade Dressmaking Department. Mrs. H. B. White, Advertising Director of the Puritan Dress Company, Waltham, has become a member of the Board this year. Miss Eleanor E. Simpson, Assistant Personnel Manager, Kendall Mills, Walpole, joined the Advisory Board of the Business Department, and Miss Margaret T. Murray, Department Manager of the William Filene's Sons Company Beauty Shops, will serve on the Advisory Board for the Beauty Culture Department.
The School was well represented at the American Vocational Association Convention in Boston from December 1 to 6. Many photographs of the several departments of our school were included in the special brochure entitled "Our Massachusetts Vocational Schools" which was published for the occasion by the State Department of Vocational Education. The Peabody School Exhibit at the Hotel Statler was judged as outstanding. Miss Ruth Page, our art instructor, received well-deserved recognition for this project in Related Art which cleverly portrayed the whole school program. Credit is also due Mr. Lewie Lugton and the boys of the Cabinet Making class who assisted Miss Page by building the booth. Students of the Social Studies classes, representing each of our departments, and accompanied by their teacher, Mrs. Helene Goepner, presented a panel discussion before the Women's Trade and Industrial Group on the subject of "The Junior employee experiences the latest in trade techniques." This contribution met with much enthusiasm, and it was recommended to the Executive Committee that a pupil-participation offering of similar nature be presented at a general meeting of the next convention.
The results of last year's placement survey indicate that the school is doing a creditable job of training for initial employment and laying the foundation for future advancement. Our graduates reveal that they are able to make contributions to the job which frequently result in recognition and advancement. They express personal satisfaction in their ability to compete favorably in their areas of training with graduates of private schools.
This year, in our Business Department, a local survey is being conducted to determine the necessity of a revision in our machines program, as the original machines survey is now ten years old. In compiling the information received from 100 firms, it will be possible for ns to know where the various batteries of machines are located, which firms should be contacted for graduates with specialized machine training, as well as the degree of skill demanded by the employing firm.
It is with satisfaction that the director and the faculty review the school's progress over the first decade, and it is interesting to note that the newer trends in education stress many of the procedures that we have been following for a number of years. Despite the fact that our school is terminal in nature, primarily designed to prepare students to earn their living, the program has always emphasized the valuc of cultural education and esthetic appreciations.
Statistics indicate a greatly increased secondary school enrollment which will
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REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE
necessitate a broadening of the whole secondary school program. We feel that the knowledge and experience gained from our first ten years will enable us to make a practical contribution to this rapidly changing educational picture. The Peabody School may be at last appreciated in its proper perspective and may well be the nucleus of further development as the future makes demands upon us-a virtual blessing in disguise.
Again, I wish to thank all those who co-operated with us in serving this community another year.
Respectfully submitted, BLANCHE L. MARCIONETTE, Director Henry O. Peabody School for Girls
REPORT OF THE PRINCIPAL OF THE NORWOOD JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL
It is with pleasure that I submit my thirteenth annual report as principal of the Norwood Junior High School.
In schools today, the problem of space for the pupils is perhaps the most difficult. However, in the Junior High School, we are not yet concerned with crowded conditions. Space is used in four classrooms for elementary pupils from kindergarten through grade six. At least three more rooms can be made available for the same purpose next year, but after that we shall begin to need the space for pupils of the intermediate grades, who will be coming from the elementary schools in continually increasing numbers.
During the summer months, sixty-two pupils were transferred to us from the ninth grade of St. Catherine's Parochial School in order that more room be made available to first-grade pupils in that school. The services of two additional teachers were needed when the transferred students entered our school.
It is, perhaps, difficult to realize that changes are gradually and continually taking place in our schools so that the curriculum will include that which is best suited to the needs, interests, and abilities of the pupils. Thus our "Try-Out Course", comparable to a modified elective course in many schools, has again been altered in Grade Eight. Mcchanical Drawing as an elective for all the boys has been discontinued. An introduction to General Business Training, and an Introduction to Algebra are no longer in our curriculum. Instead, all boys have two periods a week of shop training, which includes Woodwork, Sheetmetal Work, and Printing, while the girls have two periods a week of Home Economics. This has resulted in one cxtra period a week, but the time has been added to Mathe- matics. The change was made because it was felt that Mechanical Drawing for all boys was not the wisest use of time, particularly since it could be elected as a minor subject in Grade Nine. The readincss for Algebra will be ascertained by progress in Mathematics, by Prognostic Testing, and by Guidance. The need for
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TOWN OF NORWOOD
an Introduction to General Business Training no longer exists at this particular time since that subject has already been changed to Business Arithmetic in our Ninth Grade.
Our Club Program, as a result of a study by a committee of teachers, has been somewhat changed in an attempt to allow cach pupil to use the club period to foster or continue a worthwhile interest under proper guidance, or to use the period for study, if that is a greater need. Since relatively smaller groups are necessary in clubs, and since special hobbies or handicrafts are needed on the part of the teacher, the changes have not yet eliminated all the problems, so that further revision in our club program will be effected next year.
Our Guidance Program has been reduced in the two upper grades to one period a week instead of two periods of formal guidance. This change in no way minimizes the importance of Guidance, but instead is an attempt to transfer part of the load of the guidance teacher to a place where it has always been with superior teaching, in the classroom and in the homeroom.
Our student publication, "School Scoop", was issued five times during the past school year, under the direction of Miss Mary O'Neil. It has served as an excellent medium for carrying school news into the home, as well as providing valuable experience for the editors and staff who have done the work essential to such a publication. The cost of the school newspaper has been defrayed mostly by a school fund, the greater part of which is the profit from the annual sale of maga- zines by the pupils. As long as the substantial amount of money continues to be raised in this way, "School Scoop" will be published by our pupils.
The school building is in good shape, especially when one considers that it has been in use since 1919. Interior painting and modern lighting are still needed, but will undoubtedly be done when funds are made available. The gymnasium should be renovated, as the red curtain on the stage has for some time needed to be replaced, while the seats in the balcony are in need of some repair or replacement.
May I take this opportunity, Mr. Lynch, to thank you for your cooperation and for your advice, which has always been most helpful to me.
Very truly yours, JOHN J. CORCORAN Principal
REPORT OF THE ART DIRECTOR
This the annual report of the Art Department for the year ending December 31, 1952.
Three-Dimensional Materials
An achievement of special interest since our last report is the attention that teachers and I have given to the problem of making more effective use of three- dimensional materials. For many years the general type of art work done by our
217
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE
students has consisted mainly of illustrations and designs created on a flat surface -usually a piece of paper. Though this process still remains a basic approach we have sought to emphasize the necessity of including more three-dimensional activ. ities, i.e., activities which use materials having the dimension of depth as well as height and width-as a block of wood compared to a piece of paper, for example.
The attention given to this type of work was brought about for several reasons. First of all many children respond much more rcadily to a construction in space (paper sculpture, clay modeling), since it seems more "actual" to them than the usual process of imitating space in a picture drawn on a flat surface. Secondly; this type of work involves the use of a variety of tools and materials contrasted to the simple crayons and paper of flat work which serves to increase the child's interest and helps him develop manual dexterity. Thirdly; the visible result often seems more interesting since it does include another creative aspect-namely that of space.
To give you an idea of how this works out in practice here are some typical classroom uses of this form of art expression.
Our kindergartens have successfully used firing clay in the modeling of candle holders and "thumb" bowls which have subsequenty been fired and glazed in our Junior High kiln.
Many elementary grades have introduced more three-dimensional table displays in correlation with their regular subjects-the pioneers trek toward the great West; the farm; the topographic description of islands, harbors, etc .; the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony; an Indian village. In the study of art these displays have been used to make comparisons between the well planned home and community against the poorly planned one.
Bulletin board display areas have much more educational significance when part of the material so displayed projects from the flat surface of the board. For cxample-the display of a pioneer stockade utilized this important point by having the material which represented the stockade wall placed edgewise against the board in the manner of an aerial view. By so doing it much more graphically expressed the protection this stockade afforded the pioneers who occupied it.
Many teachers have put new materials to work to help their children make better use of this three-dimensional art concept. Indian drums, for example, made from tin cans with old inner tube pieces for the top and bottom express more graphically to the child the color, purpose, and even sound of an Indian drum than if he had merely made a picture of one. Imaginative modeling in sawdust mixed with paste has been accomplished by the upper elementary grades. Paper mache' has been used for puppet heads. Cardboard and construction paper, along with wood scraps and string are the most readily available material and are the most commonly used.
In the fifth grades, as part of their unit of work on Art in Dress, actual pieces of cloth, buttons, thread, leather, and other materials have been used on cardboard figures to illustrate the various problems concerned with good and practical taste in costume.
The appeal to the childs imagination has flourished as our teachers have seen
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TOWN OF NORWOOD
the possibilities of mixing three-dimensional materials on the flat drawing surfaces and they realize how much it can add to the art quality of their classroom teaching.
A Review of Our Program
The elementary teachers have been most responsive to an art outlook which has tried to remain fluid and forward looking even though it must submit to an outline specific enough to keep each child working.
The general art quality has consistently improved in each grade. Worthy of special attention has been the more effective use made of bulletin board display areas. Rather than using these merely for decorative purposes information related to the regular class work has been regularly displayed and in many cases class lessons have been conducted using these visual aid displays as a reference.
The Junior High School, in addition to its regular program as outlined in previous reports, has introduced a very interesting study of contemporary design as applied to automobiles, homes, and related objects. The purpose of this work is to show the pupil the relationship between the design of a product and the function such a product performs. Mr. Lindgren has made excellent use of the visual aids and other three-dimensional demonstration materials to convey this knowledge.
In view of the great interest in puppetry inspired by the Salzburg Marionettes and television, one 9th grade class completed a set of 18" puppets with costumes.
The art of ceramics which we introduced two years ago has been tremendously popular with children of all ages and has tasked our ability to properly fire and glaze pieces for the lack of adequate equipment. I hope, however, to improve this situation by acquiring a larger and more efficient kiln. The enthusiasmn we have received from art work in this media I feel has justified the expense, time, and effort that has been expended to make it an integral part of our art program.
At the Senior High School Mr. Schultz has consistently maintained a high standard of art excellence. His contemporary viewpoint has brought to his classes an appreciation of the problems of line structure, experimental color, texture, symbolism, and modern painting that is far superior to the art work of the average high school.
Art Week Exhibit
To commemorate National Art Week and National Education Week, which fall on the first two weeks in November, this Department, in cooperation with the Art Committee of the Norwood Women's Club, held an exhibit of art work in the windows of three Norwood stores-Parke-Snow, Callahan Furniture Company, and Bakers'.
The High School display at Callahan's featured not only a representative collection of class work but through the use of a visual aid device which constantly changed a set of color slides invited the viewer to observe typical classroom situations. The Peabody School displayed costumes, hand-weaving, and table settings in the opposite window.
219
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE
The window at Parke-Snow displayed Junior High and Elementary work. The Baker store exhibited Elementary work only.
In addition to these stores the Women's Club held a comprehensive display at their meeting and the South Norwood Branch Library exhibited work done at the Balch School.
We have finished a very busy and productive year and I wish to thank each of the teachers and principals who have been associated with us.
I would also like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to Mr. Lynch and the Norwood School Committee for the assistance which has reflected our success.
WALTER E. LUNSMAN Art Supervisor
REPORT OF THE VOCATIONAL INDUSTRIAL ARTS
The annual report of the Vocational-Industrial Arts Department for the year ending December 31, 1952 is herewith respectfully submitted.
Vocational Education
Vocational education as an integral part of our public education has for the past eight years fulfilled a basic need and a desire for boys to receive the opportunity of a trade training. While our offering is restricted to only one unit (cabinet making) with an enrollment of thirty students, we have had no difficulty whatsoever in maintaining a capacity enrollment each year.
This past year we had many more requests than usual for application to enter the school. Many of these came from residents of nearby communities, who have recognized the fact that our school offers to a boy something of value in the way of earning a worthwhile living after leaving school. Unfortunately for many of the applicants we could not offer them the type of trade training they sought. Many requests were for automobile repair and body work, one or two were interested in electric appliances, and their repair, and some wished to learn car- pentry and building.
It is my hope that in the near future our school can comply with these requests and maintain units that can serve as "cooperative courses". These are carried on in conjunction with dealers and manufacturers in the neighborhood. In such cases the company shop, or building projects, serve as a substitute for school shop on a part time basis. Students are paid apprentice wages and our school gives the related instruction in the classroom. This type of education is strongly urged by the State Department of Vocational Education.
At the graduation exercises in June we once again had seven boys receive diplomas. Two of these graduates were from Dedham, one was from West Medway,
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TOWN OF NORWOOD
and the remaining four were our own local boys. A recent follow-up on placement of these boys in industry shows that only two followed their trade training, two emered the armed services, and the others engaged iu work not allied to the trade for which they trained. It is exceedingly difficult to place our boys in cabinet shops iv and around Boston, due in part, no doubt, to the existence in this area of other vocational schools training boys in the same trade.
Last winter we received a call from the Public Works Department in regard to the construction of equipment that could be used to safeguard children on streets set aside for coasting. We gladly accepted this assignment, made the coasting signs (unpainted), tripod sign holders, and thirty-six street horses. Materials for these projects were supplied by the Public Works Department and our first year boys were assigned the entire work.
In December the American Vocational Association held its annual convention in Boston. This was an outstanding event, for it attracted vocational educators from every state in the union. Each school was asked to exhibit some of its products. Our school exhibited several outstanding pieces, in cooperation with the Peabody School, whose main exhibition background was constructed and set up by our boys, in the Bay State room at the Hotel Statler.
Our academic and related work classes, which have suffered somewhat in past years because of changes in teacher personnel, have this year assumed a brighter outlook with more of our related work being taught by one teacher. To look ahead for the future of our school, I believe if we were assigned a trained related work teacher, who could handle all our required related work, a smoother program could be initiated.
Industrial Arts
As part of our public school system there is the department of industrial arts, located in our Junior High School. Shopwork here is a function of the department, designed to develop the student in his general education to better understand the scientific -- industrial -- atomic age in which he lives and must accomodate himself.
Work in the shops, which involves wood as a material, is first encountered in the seventh grade. This is an introductory course telling of industry. Our students are taught the proper names and uses of woodworking tools, and produce according to their natural abilities.
Metal work follows the same procedure as woodwork in the seventh grade, so that each boy has double periods once a week for one-half the year, in which he learns about a specific shop routine.
grade eight the pupil partakes of experiences in other activities, such as printing and a continuation of woodwork, correlated with mechanical drawing, allowing one-half year in each unit.
In the ninth grade a pupil may elect a definite shop and spend his allotted time, five periods a week, for one-half the school year, in either woodwork or printing and sheet metal. For most of the boys, shopwork in the ninth grade is terminal, for industrial arts ends here. Those pupils electing vocational education
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REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE
in our high school have proven that an industrial arts background is advisable preparation for trade training.
Conclusion
In concluding this report, an expression of gratitude is extended to those who have given me such splendid guidance and advice on many administrative problems. To you, Mr. Lynch, much credit is due for your wholehearted support in making our past year so successful.
CLIFFORD H. WHEELER, Director Norwood Boys' Vocational School
REPORT OF HOME ECONOMICS EDUCATION
I herewith submit my report on Home Economics Education in the Norwood Public Schools for the year ending December 31, 1952.
Home Economics is taught in Norwood in grades seven to twelve inclusive. In Junior High School Home Economics is a required subject for 7th and 8th grade girls and an elective subject for 9th grade girls. In Senior High we require an orientation course called "Youth Problems" in the Junior year. All other courses in Senior High are elective. Both major (full) and minor (short) courses may be elected in each of the three Senior High Years. The work in Junior High is essentially basic. Here fundamentals and certain skills for building more advanced courses are presented to the degree of the pupils' understanding and age ability. All phases and branches of homemaking education are included in our prescribed courses.
In consideration of the great areas of activities and ideals which comprise home and family life it is impossible to outline specifically in a report the varied subject matter which must be included in building a homemaking program. However, it is our problem and our challenge in presenting Home Economics as a part of the pupil's general education to (1) reach and touch the heart of America-the home (2) to cherish and preserve American traditions and (3) to live and grow with our pupils.
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