USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Randolph > Randolph town reports 1901-1906 > Part 11
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64
GRADING AND PROMOTION.
At the beginning of the year five grades were maintained in school No. 1 and six grades in the school at West Cor- ners. Some of these grades consisted of only one or two pupils. After doing all that was possible to combine two or more classes in certain subjects of instruction, it was still necessary to make the recitation periods so short as to seri- ously cripple the work of the teachers. This year (since September, 1902) the upper grades have been transferred to other schools, leaving only four grades in each of these schools, greatly to the improvement of the work. It is hoped that still further reduction in the number of grades can be made another year. If it is deemed desirable on the whole to continue these little schools, they should be made so far primary in their work that one teacher can do justice to the pupils. It is not right to sacrifice the children to a mistaken theory or to an attachment for an outgrown institution. The district school is in most localities a thing of the past. Throughout the country, pupils are conveyed to central build- ings. Where this is not done, in the case of the younger children, we should take care to give them sufficient instruc- tion, that is, to so far reduce the number of classes that the teacher can give adequate time to each.
At the opening of the schools in September, 1901, the committee placed all matters relating to promotion of pupils in the hands of the superintendent. The subject was dis- cussed at several teachers' meetings, and a system of bi- monthly reports to the superintendent was established, giv- ing, first, the pupil's averages in test exercises and all other written work in each subject, and second, the teacher's esti- mate of each pupil's oral work in each subject. On the basis of this two-fold record, all promotions, above the third grade, are made at the end of the year. In the three lower grades,
65
promotions are made on the recommendation of the teacher. Undue importance is often attached to written examinations. The test of fitness to advance to higher studies should de- pend, in part, at least, on the pupil's faithfulness and suc- cess in his ordinary daily work. His progress in schools, as in after life, will depend on his daily performance of the duties in hand rather than upon special tests. The school should teach him this great lesson.
Time and opportunity lost today cannot be regained to- morrow. Each day should bring its proper share of pro- gress. No moral training is more effective than that which aims at the formation of habits of industry and self control. Not by precept but by action are such habits established. Thoroughness and perseverance are the products of right daily work. Neither of these sterling virtues is the result of cramming for examination ; both are developed by daily application. The teacher, if wise, takes note of fidelity and worthy effort ; the examination measures only results. No pupil can complain that his promotion or his failure to secure it is unfair when his complete record is thus taken into consideration. It is greatly to the credit of teachers and principals that so important a change has been effected without friction or misunderstanding.
The subject of promotion in its more general aspects is receiving widespread and earnest consideration by educators at the present time. Pupils are not all alike ; they differ in mental ability and development as much as in bodily growth. Some are much more mature than others at a given age. It is not necessarily to the discredit of a child that he requires more time than another to complete the work of a grade. The classification of the school should be elastic enough to meet his needs. Still more important is it to provide for the pupil who is able to outstrip his class. Such children should be assisted to advance more rapidly and should receive indi-
66
vidual promotion whenever they are ready for it. It is hoped that individual promotion will become more frequent.
DRAWING.
In my last annual report I recommended that drawing be introduced into the schools. I am glad to report that the suggestion met with the approval of the committee, and that Miss Katharine Woodbury, of Milton, has been appointed to supervise the work. Miss Woodbury received her art training in the Massachusetts State Normal Art School, and has been for several years the supervisor of drawing in the Milton schools. As her work in Milton required only a por- tion of her time, she was able to assunie the care of our in- struction in drawing.
The importance of this progressive step can be readily seen. Drawing is one of the most practical of the school- room branches, and stands in intimate relation to many arts and industries. Every mechanic needs to be able to under- stand the working drawings of his trade, and, as occasion requires, to be able to draw details himself. Inability in this particular places a workman at a great disadvantage. Mani- festly the school ought to do what it can to lay the founda- tion for successful industry and remunerative employment.
· The hand and the eye are pre-eminently the instruments of the mind. They are its means of expression. The pub- lic school should train these instruments as well as the mind itself. It may not be able to undertake in all localities as much manual training as is desirable, but we need no argu- ments to convince us that it should at least enhance the ser- viceability of the hand and the eye by teaching its pupils the elements of drawing. Much more than this may be success- fully undertaken in many places. But even the course in drawing which we have adopted, pursued through the twelve years of the grammar and high schools, will help very much
67
to lay the foundation of industry and self-support. If artists and artisans are to become superior and do the best work which is possible for them, they must begin in early life to acquire dexterity and skill.
Moreover, the education of the eye and the hand, the in- struments of the mind, reacts vigorously upon the mind itself. It furnishes the best means of training the observing powers and helps to form the habit of looking at all sides of a subject and seeing all its features and details. The child who attempts to draw the simplest object, as a leaf, a twig or an apple, is surprised to find how much he discovers which he had never seen before, and he quickly learns to look more closely, not only at the objects all about him, but also at the problems of every kind which arise in his daily experience.
Still more important is the development of the taste and the love of beauty in the child. How much children need this esthetic development every teacher knows. Few pupils have any real appreciation of beauty when they enter school. Nature has provided the latent possibility, but unless pro- perly guided and developed the love of beauty becomes a mere fondness for extravagant ornament with no sense of harmony or proportion. It is sad to see in how many per- sons the faculty has been so completely lost that they evince no true appreciation of all that is most beautiful and impres- sive in nature and in art. It is one important function of the school to train these higher elements in the life of its pupils, to enable them to recognize real art and to love that which is highest and most expressive in beauty.
From the first, the drawing as taught in our schools appeals to the child's sense of beauty. He tries to represent the flower, or the leaf, which lies before him. He studies pictures, learns to interpret them, and becomes familiar as he advances with the great masterpieces of painting, sculp-
68
ture and architecture, and knows something of the great artists who produced them.
He puts his drawing to immediate use in the schoolroom. He makes a little picture of the object which he describes in his nature study or language work. He applies it in his arithmetic or geography lesson and, as his skill increases, he illustrates his history exercise and embellishes his written work in every subject. He thus learns that drawing is sometimes a better mode of expression than language and forms the habit of making clear to himself and to others that which cannot be expressed in words.
THE WORK IN ENGLISH.
The work in English includes reading, spelling, penman- ship, oral and written composition, grammar and analysis in the elementary grades and rhetoric and literature in the High School. The details presented by each of these topics are very numerous and the instruction makes large demands upon the teacher's skill and patience. Too often this work has been indifferently done. Three or four years have been largely wasted in learning to read, and a still longer period in learning to spell. Much has been gained in this elemen- tary work in education in recent years and much more will no doubt be done to improve and expedite primary educa- tion. All other school work must be done at a great dis- advantage until the pupil has learned to read ; indeed it can scarcely be done at all. The years of childhood are too precious to be frittered away on these preliminaries.
Teachers realize as never before that it is a serious failure on the part of the schools if pupils go out into business and industrial occupations unable to speak and write good Eng- lish. The work of the schools relates largely to the expres- sion of thought. While language is not the only means of expression, it is of such pre-eminent and practical importance
69
as to demand a central place in our educational system. Training in fluent and refined English should begin for each pupil the day he enters school and should be steadfastly con- tinued throughout each school year.
The pupil who is well taught in English is practically self-taught. He must learn to talk by talking and to write by writing. He will not learn these things by committing rules to memory or studying a text-book. The text- book and the teacher may be helpful guides, but nothing will take the place of self-activity. Abundant practice is indispensable. We might as well expect a boy to learn to skate by studying the construction of a new pair of skates, as to learn to speak and write good English by studying a grammar or reading a masterpiece. The analysis and parsing and literary study all have their place, but they will never give the ability to speak and write fluently and correctly.
The practice should be both oral and written. Often it has been given under unfavorable conditions and has been utterly inadequate. Pupils have been required to write compositions or language exercises when they had nothing to say- no ideas on the subject assigned. Naturally they have disliked such work and have received little benefit. They have been asked to write once a week or once a month when they should have had a written exercise every day. Pupils are often slow and hesitating in speech because they have no thoughts which they desire to express. Let them be- come really interested and thoughts and wishes will spring to eager utterance. If facts and suggestions are supplied they will write with interest and pleasure. The language waits on the thought and the surest way to improve the expression is to stimulate the thought. Hence, in the elementary grades ceaseless effort must be made to interest pupils in the ob- jects about them, to excite their imaginations and sympathies
70
by stories, songs and memory gems and in all practicable ways to supply them with the materials from which language is formed. The first and most difficult thing in language training is to give the pupil something to say -to arouse his thought and stimulate his interest. Well considered conversations between the teacher and pupil should always precede written work.
A new course in language study has been adopted and an effort has been made in all the schools to give emphasis to this fundamental subject. The child's thought determines the form of expression. At first it is simple and will naturally be expressed in short disconnected sentences. The punctuation and capitals for such sentences are very simple. When new difficulties arise they should be met with the proper explanation and practice. New rules and explanations should be given when they are needed, not before. To give rules and then compose exercises to illus- trate them before the pupil has need of them is to begin at the wrong end and work backwards. Good English and careful penmanship should always be required. Every reci- tation, whatever the subject, should be a language exercise. The crude and half-formed sentences of the street and play- ground must gradually give way to complete and intelligent statements. The pupil must learn to think, as well as speak, correctly.
Such are some of our aims in elementary language work. Without in any way diminishing the importance of other branches of study, we are trying to give proper emphasis to this, not only on account of its own fundamental importance as a preparation for life, but also because progress in this subject facilitates the work and promotes progress in all subjects.
ATTENDANCE.
In my report a year ago, the necessity of regular atten-
71
dance was emphasized. Its importance can hardly be over- estimated. I am glad to report earnest effort on the part of teachers to secure it. Various methods and devices have been adopted by them to increase the interest of their pupils in the matter and prevent absence. In most of the school- rooms, the names of pupils who have not been absent for a month or a longer period are kept upon the blackboard; in some the pupils are divided into two groups and a competi- tion is established between the two sides ; in some an early dismissal is given once a month as a reward of perfect atten- dance. The subject is worthy the best ingenuity of every teacher. It is earnestly hoped that parents will do their part in the matter.
In this connection, attention is called to the "Roll of Honor" which is appended to this report, giving the names of pupils who have not been absent or tardy during the year - a few pupils, but deserving the highest commendation - together with a larger number who have not been absent or tardy during shorter periods. Not only these pupils but also their parents and their teachers are to be congratulated on this record.
USE OF THE LIBRARY BY THE SCHOOLS.
Reference was made in my report a year ago to the bene- fit which the schools ought to obtain from the use of the li- brary, and in particular to an arrangement for sending books in sets of ten to the various schoolrooms where desired. I am happy to report that many teachers have availed them- selves of this opportunity.
The annual report of the librarian of the Turner Library has just been rendered. He states that during the year 1901, 790 volumes were thus drawn from the library, but that during the year 1902, 2,010 books were so drawn. These books are for the most part, histories, biographies, travels,
72
etc., not stories. They are circulated in the various school- rooms and used in teaching. Two schoolrooms have raised money and purchased small libraries for their own use. It is gratifying to report these facts, for an education which does not lead to a love of books and discrimination in their selec- tion and use is defective in an important particular.
In an address on the uses of the public library, Hon. John D. Long said :
" In the town in which I live we have a public library, founded by the munificence of a citizen. Walking from it one perfect September day, I overtook a child slowly saunter- ing before me. In her dress was the evidence of that pa- thetic poverty which seeks to hide its destitution with the mother's midnight needle and the prudent patch. Her broken and over-crushed shoes, a mile too large, were the evident gratuity of charity. But under each arm was a library book, and in her hand a third, held wide open, which she read as she walked. Passing, I caught, under the torn hat brim, that intelligent child face, which is so often seen among the children of the poor. Apparently my salutation woke the blue eyes, which trembled up, from a dream in which all con- sciousness of the actual time and place had been lost, and in which the soul was living in the transcendent ranges of an upper world -of the aspiring imagination - the world of its literature and mind - the world in which all the good and wise and lovely are our society. Is it nothing to have con- ferred such a blessing on one of God's little ones, - to have made such an one the messenger of glad tidings to some humble household, which, under the gifts she was bringing, would gladden into happiness and instruction ?
" Measure the value of your public library ! Suppose for one moment that its contents were blotted out; that the world of books were consumed ; that the records of history, science and fiction - the vehicles of fact and event, discovery
73
and truth, imagination and poetry - were a lost art. Why, we live less in the present than in the past ; less in ourselves than in the atmosphere and society which history and litera- ture have created ! "
CARE OF SCHOOLROOMS.
New blackboards have been supplied where needed, the North Grammar and Prescott schoolrooms have been calci- mined, additional ventilation and electric lights have been put into the Stetson High School and the buildings have been otherwise freshened up and improved. Exterior re- pairs somewhat more expensive than the above have also been made. I wish especially to commend the calcimining and painting of the schoolrooms as often as it becomes necessary, first, for sanitary reasons, and second, because these rooms should be made as pleasing to the eye and otherwise attrac- tive as possible for the educational influence of such things.
In this connection I am glad to note the skill and good taste and resourcefulness of many teachers in supplying their schoolrooms with pictures and various decorative devices. The influence these tasteful surroundings have upon the pupils is most valuable ; many of the pictures and other objects are useful from time to time for purposes of illustration and a direct means of instruction. In the study ball of the High School valuable pictures of a high grade have been gradually accumulated.
Other features and details of the work of the schools can- not here be discussed. Parents and all friends of the schools are invited to visit them, to see the spirit which pervades them and observe the methods and the results of the teaching. " Parents' Visiting Days " were appointed in February and March in some of the schools and a large number of visitors were present. Written work of the pupils was displayed and the regular program of school exercises was carried out
74
in each room. In most rooms brief special rhetorical and musical exercises were added. Similar opportunities will be given from time to time in the future, but it is earnestly hoped that parents will not wait for such days but will take occasion to visit the schools at their own convenience. Atten- tion is called to the statistical tables and record of perfect attendance which are annexed to this report ; also to the re- ports of the Principal of the Stetson High School, the Super- visor of Drawing and the Truant Officers.
Thanks are due to the members of the committee for their devotion to the interests of education which have been placed in their hands. Personally, I wish to acknowledge my obligation to them for their hearty support in my work.
Respectfully submitted,
JOHN E. BRADLEY, Superintendent.
75
ROLL OF HONOR.
The following are names of pupils who were neither ab- sent nor tardy during the school year, 1901-1902.
· PRESCOTT SCHOOL. Eighth Grade. Eileen Dolan. Seventh Grade. George Nolan. Sixth Grade. Kathleen Uniac. Fifth Grade.
Mattie Dench.
Gertude Bowen. Nora Dempsey.
Frank McAuliffe.
Cossette Dooley, Edward Morgan. Gertrude McMahon.
NORTH GRAMMAR SCHOOL. Seventh and Eighth Grades.
Elizabeth De Neill. Gertrude Pierce. Lester Payne. Clifton Stetson. Roger Willard. Fifth and Sixth Grades. Harold Wilbur.
TOWER HILL INTERMEDIATE. Helen Mallevski.
TOWER HILL PRIMARY.
Victoria Mallevski. John Carroll. William Carroll.
76
Not absent nor tardy during two terms :
Ellen F. Gill.
Ruth Hilton.
Thomas F. Holden.
Isabelle G. Pope.
Eileen Dolan.
George Nolan.
Mary Ainsley.
Charles Cahill.
Herbert Foster.
Joseph Kiley.
Blanche Meaney.
Marguerite Shepard.
Arthur Burrell.
Lena Morgan.
Mattie Dench.
Kathleen Uniac.
Frank Hazney
Mary Brady
Matthew Tierney.
Josephine Walsh.
Kittie Shepard.
Francis Cahill.
James Mulligan.
Gertrude Bowen.
Cossette Dooley.
Nora Dempsey.
Frank McAuliffe.
Edward Morgan.
Gertrude McMahon.
Jesse Beal.
Joseph Mahoney.
Nora O'Neil.
Ellen Desmond.
Carlton Hatchfield.
William Phipps.
Michael O'Neil.
Leo Dench.
James McDonald.
Joseph Murphy.
Bernard Scannell.
Mollie Deane.
Abbie Lyons.
Mary Rooney.
Frances Brady.
Henry Mullins.
Frank Dolan.
Elizabeth De Neill.
Gertrude Pierce.
Lester Payne.
Clifton Stetson.
Roger Willard.
Robert Dunn.
Norman Baker.
Elmer Poole.
Harold Wilbur.
Frances Hayes.
Helen Malevski.
Victoria Malevski.
John Carroll.
William Carroll.
The following have not been absent or tardy since the beginning of this school year, that is, from September 8 to December 19, 1902 :
77
STETSON HIGH SCHOOL.
Persis S. Kingsbury.
Lena Grace Langley.
Elizabeth S. Linnehan.
Hugh A. McMahon.
Katherine E. Schraut.
Roger B. Willard.
PRESCOTT SCHOOL.
Charles J. Dolan. William R. Long.
Eighth Grade. Joseph P. Kiley. Lena E. Morgan. Mary F. Mulligan.
Seventh Grade.
Joseph Brunt. Francis Cahill. Marguerite Hayes.
Mary Brady. Mollie Dench. James Mulligan. Josephine Walsh.
Sixth Grade.
Gertrude Bowen. Martha Gill. Mary McMahon. Charles Hand. Edward Morgan.
Cossette Dooley. Geraldine Kennedy.
Joseph Clark. Willie Kiley. Joseph Mahoney. Frank McAuliffe.
Ethel Brunt. Arthur Hagney.
Fifth Grade. Patrick Gill. William McCue. John Brady. Fourth Grade.
Genevieve Dean. Mollie Dean.
Joseph Rudderham. John Rooney. Leo Sullivan.
Lester L. Payne.
Roland R. Tileston.
78
Third Grade.
William Brennan. Charles Kiley. Rosamond Hagney.
Ralph Cartright. Francis Woodman. Anna Morgan.
Leo Kelliher. Second Grade.
George Dolan. Malcolm McNiel. Blanche Farrell.
Henry Mullins. Frances Brady. Estelle Jordan.
Annie Lyons.
First Grade.
May Morgan. William Leahy. Elmer French.
John King. John Walsh. Joseph Mulligan.
NORTH GRAMMAR SCHOOL. Seventh and Eighth Grades.
Arthur C. Baker.
Norman F. Baker.
Bessie De Neill.
Ray F. Hayden.
B. Arthur Reed.
Walter Billingham. Frank Coleman. Arthur Hayden. J. Walter Ordway. Samuel Swindells.
Fifth and Sixth Grades.
Ernest R. Baker.
Clarence L. Poole.
William A. Connell.
Harold W. Wilbur.
Third and Fourth Grades.
Alice Hayden. Warren Scott.
First and Second Grades.
William Grattan. Levi Holbrook.
Lillian Converse.
79
TOWER HILL INTERMEDIATE.
Helen Mallevski.
Victoria Mallevski.
TOWER HILL PRIMARY.
John Carroll. William Carroll.
Walter Coddens.
WEST CORNER SCHOOL.
Ellis H. Mann. George Carlton Eddy. J. Clifford Henderson.
SCHOOL STATISTICS FOR THE YEAR COMMENCING SEPTEMBER 2, 1901, TO AND ENDING JUNE 20, 1902.
TEACHERS.
SCHOOL.
GRADE.
Number enrolled.
Average
membership.
Average
attendance.
* Per cent of
attendance.
Pupils neither
absent nor tardy.
Promotions.
F. E. Chapin ·
Stetson High
108
96.20
90.31
93.87
0
78
Nellie G. Prescott
·
.
.
.
Prescott
8
39
34.29
32.67
95.30
1
28
Katharine A. Kiley
7
41
38.60
36.20
93.00
1
33
Mary A. Molloy
.
6
37
36.10
34.66
96.00
2
34
Katharine E. Sheridan
·
.
5
46
44.00
42.00
94.00
6
42
Mary E. Wren
4
34
33.60
32.00
94.00
6
29
Ellen E. Mclaughlin
3
45
41.01
38.79
94.00
0
36
Fannie A. Campbell
2
33
30.40
27.90
91.10
2
27
Kittie R. Molloy
·
North Grammar
·
7 and 8
55
49.42
45.87
93.00
6
45
Ellen P. Henry
·
·
·
.
5 and 6
40
37.50
34.32
92.00
1
35
Sarah C. Belcher
·
.
.
3 and 4
38
34.00
31.00
91.00
0
30
Clara A. Tolman
·
·
.
1 and 2
46
38.00
34.00
89.00
0
33
Hannah F. Hoye
Tower Hill .
4, 5 and 6
23
20.00
19.00
95.00
1
12
Katharine J. Riley
·
·
1, 2 and 3
23
21.30
18.65
87.50
3
21
Emma D. Stetson
Number 1
1-5
24
23.00
21.00
91.00
0
23
Lucie W. Lewis
West Corner
·
1-6
36
28.00
24.00
86.00
0
22
APPENDIX TO THE REPORT OF SUPERINTENDENT.
* Per cent of attendance is based upon average membership.
80
·
·
.
.
.
.
1
47
40.00
37.00
94.50
0
34
Joseph Belcher
.
·
.
,
.
.
Alice R. McGann
Nelson Freeman
·
Grade
·
.
.
81
SCHOOL STATISTICS, SEPTEMBER 8 TO DECEMBER 19, 1902.
TEACHERS,
SCHOOL.
GRADE.
Number enrolled.
Average
membership.
Average
attendance.
* Per cent of
Pupils neither
absent nor tardy,
F. E. Chapin .
·
Stetson High
96
92.80
87.30
94.10
8
Nellie G. Prescott
·
·
66
Prescott
.
·
7
44
41.70
39.40
94.00
7
Katharine A. Kiley
.
66
.
·
5
36
34.00
33.00
95.00
5
4
41
39.00
35.56
91.00
5
Mary E. Wren
·
.
.
3
33
31.79
30.07
94.50
7
Ellen E. Mclaughlin
.
.
.
2
36
35.30
33.60
95.00
7
Kittie R. Molloy
·
·
1
44
41.00
38.00
93.00
6
Joseph Belcher
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