USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Randolph > Randolph town reports 1901-1906 > Part 29
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During the period which has intervened, the possibility of shortening the course of study not only in the public schools. but also in the college has been widely discussed in the edu- cational journals and in meetings of teachers and educators. The last annual meeting of the New England Superintend- ents' Association, held in Boston last November, gave nearly a day to the consideration of the subject, and it was found
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that opinions in favor of an eight years course largely pre- dominated. The nine years course was not found to be as general as had been supposed, and many superintendents thought that all the work which it calls for could be done in eight years. Outside of New England and in a large por- tion of the New England towns the course below the High School is eight years. Greater New York has recently adopted an eight years course, and some towns and cities in the Middle West have even reduced the course to seven years. It does not appear that the eight years courses or even the seven years courses require less than is required in the nine years courses. The crowding of the course of study arises usually from attempting to teach large masses of unnecessary details, not from too many subjects. These details have found their way into the text books, children learn them without any discrimination as to their compara- tive importance, and sometimes the teacher fails to lay the needed emphasis on that which is fundamental. No doubt much time is wasted or worse than wasted on these details. They not only retard the progress but deaden the interest.
Although new subjects have been added to the course of study, improved methods of teaching have made it possible to accept them and also to extend the work in the old sub- jects. In some branches, as, for example, in geography, the work has been greatly, perhaps unduly, expanded. But better teaching has made it possible to carry this additional work without pressure and with little of the anxiety and dis- couragement which were so common in the schools twenty years ago. If improvement in methods and in the ability and training of the teacher have enabled us to do so much more in a year, it ought to be possible to gradually shorten the course. At least, we should be able to send pupils to the High School better fitted to take up the work in advanced subjects than was possible a few years ago.
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Considerable sentiment exists in some places in favor of lengthening the High School course by shortening the course in the grammar school. The organization and methods of the High School are different from those of the grammar school and better adapted to train the pupil to habits of self-reliance and independence when he has reached sufficient maturity. In the early years of school life, the child needs to be directed and assisted by his teacher in almost every detail, but as he grows older he should learn to do his own work and depend less and less upon personal instruction. This change must come gradually and to some extent while the pupil is in the grammar school, but his promotion to the High School is intended to throw him more upon his own resources and thus help to develop his manliness and force of will.
In the High School each teacher has a limited number of subjects to teach in which he can usually become somewhat expert.
Just at what age a pupil should make the transition from the more dependent and closely guided work of the grammar school and be thrown upon his own responsibilities and re- sources in the high school it is not easy to decide. It is thought, however, that high school teachers will generally advise that it should not be made too young.
On the other hand it is a great thing to save a year in the life of a boy or girl. It is dreadful to see how these pre- cious preparatory years have sometimes been thrown away. There is so much that the child needs to master, so many particulars in which he needs to be trained, so many powers and functions, - physical, intellectual, social, moral, esthe- tic, spiritual, - which need to be developed, that every year of childhood and youth ought to yield its full measure of progress. It is nature's seed-time. During these years the capacities and powers of the child are springing, one after
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another, into active effort and growth. Each demands its appropriate nourishment and exercise. Nature seems to realize, if we do not, that there is much to be done and the time is short. So we find the child intensely active ; every muscle is called into exercise. The impulse to play is strong. Nature demands incessant activity and change. The result is seen in the enormous acquisitions of the first five years. During these tender years the child has learned to walk, to talk and to know many things about his environ- ment, and has made no small progress in mastering the use of his powers of body, mind and heart. This growth and development should continue without interruption until he reaches maturity. Each year should bring improvement and progress. Pupils who have become too old for their grade are at a disadvantage. So also are those whose interest is not readily secured in what we are trying to teach them. It is a mistake, ordinarily, to postpone sending a child to school until he is seven or eight years old. At that age, the best time to learn to read and much other elementary work has past.
Consider, too, how wide and how numerous are the fields of knowledge which we wish the pupil to begin to cultivate. There are many things of which he must know something - not a few, of which he should know much. It is true, of course, that one's school days, be they long or short, are merely preliminary, that intelligent men and women must be learners all their lives ; still, the ever widening field of human knowledge calls for earnest effort to make school acquisitions as large as possible. The science and learning of one generation become the familiar, every day informa- tion of the next. There are many subjects of which a well informed man or woman must know something. Ignorance now discredits a person as never before in the history of the world. The boy who should learn in school today no more
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than his father knew at the same age would start out in life at a tremendous disadvantage. Thoughtful parents see this and are anxious to give their boys and girls better educa- tional advantages than they themselves enjoyed. The schools must meet this demand by affording wider and wider oppor- tunities. It cannot be by lengthening the course of study ; it must be by improving and strengthening the work.
ARITHMETIC.
After careful comparison and inquiry a new outline in arithmetic has been prepared and was introduced into the schools at the beginning of this year. The study of arith- metic has been deemed for many years of peculiar importance in the public schools, partly because of its uses in business and every-day affairs, and partly because it has been con- sidered a good intellectual tonic and instrument of mental discipline. One of the results was the introduction into the text-books years ago of many long and intricate problems, together with mathematical demonstrations and discussions suitable only for adult minds. In the reaction which fol- lowed, there was a tendency to undervalue the subject of arithmetic and to permit pupils, without mastering it, to take up algebra and other studies in its place.
Of late the feeling has been widespread that while too much was often attempted in arithmetic, too little in the way of practical results was really accomplished. Much of this disappointment has been due to attempting to teach children things which they were not mature enough to comprehend. The mental powers and capacities of the child unfold slowly and follow one after another in a fixed order. Nothing is gained, and much may be lost, by appealing to a mental faculty before it has gained sufficient strength. The powers of analysis and reasoning are among the last to be developed in the child ; they are constantly called into exercise by the
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problems of arithemetic. In no other subject is more caution needed, therefore, not to anticipate the undeveloped powers of the child. If we try to teach him things which he is not yet prepared to learn, we work at a disadvantage and may do him harm: Real progress can best be secured by recognizing the limitations which nature has established. A long series of mental processes must become familiar and many facts must be learned before the child can do much reasoning. Sufficient time must be taken to make sure that the foundation is well laid, that the facts of number, the combinations and separations are perfectly familiar. The child may not learn them as a table, but he must have them perfectly in his memory. There is no lack of capacity in the child to learn these combinations; he will not learn them more easily when he is older. The mistake has been in asking him to reason about them. "Thought problems" are premature. The failure, so far as there has been one in teaching number work, has been in not fixing firmly in men- ory the simple little facts of the addition and multiplication tables. Even in advanced work in arithmetic, pupils' stun- bling-blocks are the childish little mistakes which they make in their arithmetical operations -mistakes which ought to have been rendered impossible by patient and gentle drill in the elementary processes. Even later in the course there should be a large amount of practice on simple, easy work.
The disciplinary value of the study of arithmetic depends largely on the facility and ease which are attained in the various processes. There is no discipline in hesitation and blunders. Chronic discouragement and defeat are an irre- parable injury to a child. The pupil's mind must be aroused to interest and alertness. The practical ends aimed at in the study of arithmetic are accuracy and rapidity in the ordinary computations of business, and these are identical with those of mental discipline.
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With the hope of attaining somewhat more fully to these great ends, the new outline in arithmetic has been prepared. It should make the work in arithmetic more practical and should yield greater facility and accuracy in the number work of the intermediate grades. Our pupils enter school at five years of age and the new outline calls for no formal number work during the first half year, and but little before enter- ing the second grade.
But, from the first, an effort is made to train the children's perceptive powers and to make them familiar with numbers by objects. Later, they take the easier portions of the vari- ous subjects, recurring to them again and again as they become more mature, to carry the mastery of each subject, with all its new difficulties, a little further.
THE WORK IN ENGLISH.
In the course of study in English adopted two years ago, considerable change was made in the arrangement and assignment of the work. In general the elementary work, both in Language and in Grammar, was assigned lower in the grades than before.
There is so much to be done that it is important that each grade should do its proper share. Most of it is very simple and easy ; any child can understand it if properly taught. And yet almost every branch and feature of the study reaches out into intricacies and difficulties which are perplexing to both pupil and teacher. Thus the correct use of capitals, proper punctuation, and the spelling of ordinary words should be learned in the first five grades, to a considerable extent in the first three grades, and yet each of these branches leads to questions which involve difficulties and upon which the best authorities differ. These more difficult features have led many teachers to think that the whole sub- ject should be postponed until the pupils are more mature.
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and better able to grasp them. But the same fact holds true of all studies.
The elements of all subjects are easy ; a child can under- stand them. Why not let him learn them? The more obscure or difficult portions can be deferred. Indeed, in comprehensive subjects, like language and arithmetic, the pupil needs to return again and again to the same topics, or divisions of the subject and carry his knowledge a little further each time.
In this connection I quote from Superintendent James M. Greenwood, of Kansas City : " If, in nature study, the object be a tree, a clear distinction is drawn in regard to root and trunk and branches, leaves and leaflets, even down to the venation of the leaves.
" Why should we not carry the child along a similar process in sentence structure where material is so abundant ? Instead, he is kept using words and sentences as things not to be studied, and his language work is chiefly confined to copy- ing sentences and paragraphs - simple, careful work which cultivates attention and penmanship, but exceedingly dull work.
" Writing from dictation is a grade higher in value, especially if the pupil is put to correcting his mistakes by use of the book from which the dictation was made.
" In the second and third grades various advances may be made, and in the fourth grade it is time to commence syste- matically to teach the four different kinds of sentences, to teach sentence structure and then to pass to the elements that compose a sentence. Even before this the child can be taught to tell the parts of speech in all plain sentences and the properties of the same.
" Any intelligent teacher who is able to organize the ma- terial in English grammar and composition on a rational basis can do all I have indicated and much more, and the work should be commenced in the third or fourth grade.
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" If the children in the public schools of France have, beginning at seven, acquired by the time they are nine, or, at the latest, when they are ten, a good, working knowledge of their mother tongue and a fair understanding of techni- cal grammar, including the nicer shades of meaning in the ' subjunctive mode ', I should like to know why our children cannot grasp in the fourth grade some of the essential prin- ciples underlying the use and syntactical structure of sen- tences and paragraphs of the Engligh language - one of the simplest of all languages in its structure. Too many teach- ers do not discriminate between essentials and non-essentials in teaching."
PRIZES IN ENGLISH.
In the effort which we are making to stimulate and strengthen the work in English, prizes were offered by the superintendent in December for the best Christmas stories written by the pupils of the seventh and eighth grades. These stories, many of which were excellent, were submitted to a committee, who awarded the prizes as follows :
North Grammar School.
PRIZES. Eighth Grade, Charles Proctor. Seventh Grade, Dora Daly.
HONORABLE MENTION.
Eighth Grade : Louise Bromade. Julia Dunn,
Nellie Henderson.
Edward Proctor.
Seventh Grade :
Grace Bustard.
Mabel Scott.
Corinne Tileston.
Emma Kelley.
Prescott School.
PRIZES. Eighth Grade, Norman Jones. Seventh Grade, Harriet Kingsbury.
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HONORABLE MENTION.
Eighth Grade :
Nellie Desmond.
Willie McAuliffe.
Geraldine Kennedy.
Kittie Meaney.
Marie Kinnier.
Stella Nolan.
Seventh Grade :
Alice Dowd.
Ruth Rudderham.
Sarah McDonald.
Irvin Smith.
FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION.
Much prominence was given to the schools in the Fourth of July celebration, held under the auspices of the Citizens' League. Pupils from the various schools marched in sep- arate bodies to the Central Square, where they formed in. line, headed by the Selectmen, School Committee, other town officers, the president of the day and the orator, and marched, with the veterans of the Horace Niles Post of the G. A. R. as an escort of honor, to Alden Field. As they marched, accompanied by music and carrying flags and other patriotic emblems, through the principal street, they elicited admira- tion and cheers. At Alden Field, where a speakers' plat- form and grand stand had been erected, the following pro- gram was carried out :
1. INTRODUCTION OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE DAY, John E. Bradley, LL. D., Chairman of Committee on Literary Exercises.
2. RESPONSE BY THE PRESIDENT, Mr. Henry A. Belcher.
3. SONG, " Columbia", School Children.
4. SELECTION, Weymouth Band.
5. READING, "The Declaration of Independence ", Mr. Joseph Belcher.
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6. SONG, "The Star Spangled Banner", Mrs. William F. Barrett, Soloist, Chorus by School Children.
7. ORATION,
Representative Guy F. Ham, of Boston.
8. " America ", Band and Audience.
Athletic contests between pupils of the schools followed, with a banner and prizes for successful contestants, and re- freshments were served to the school children, who gave ample proof that they gratefully appreciated the delightful day which had been given them. Thanks are due to the League for undertaking so pleasant and appropriate a cele- bration, and to the various committees who arranged the details and carried them out so successfully. The addresses by Mr. Henry A. Belcher, the president of the day, and Mr. Guy F. Ham, the orator, and the other exercises were well adapted to teach the children the lessons of patriotism.
THE NORTH GRAMMAR SCHOOL BUILDING.
I am happy to report that the recommendation made in my last annual report that an addition should be made to the North Grammar School building was approved by the School Committee and subsequently by the town, at the annual town meeting. During the summer vacation, the addition was erected and has since been occupied, affording welcome relief to an overcrowded school. I am glad to express the thanks of the teachers and pupils of the North Grammar School for this prompt action of the School Committee and the town.
STETSON HIGH SCHOOL.
The report of the principal of the Stetson High School is appended, setting forth the strong and earnest work of this
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school. The development of the new departments of draw- ing and of typewriting and stenography is very gratifying. The work is still in its early stages in each of these subjects, but I see no reason to doubt that it will attain high ex- cellence.
In my report a year ago I referred to the need which has long been felt of better provision for the accommodation of this school. It occupies a few rooms on the lower floor of the Town Hall. As is well known, they are dark, incon- venient and entirely inadequate to the needs of the school. What shall be done for the proper accommodation of the High School has long been a burning question in this town ? It has resulted in driving many pupils away and preventing some from receiving the benefit'of a High School education. In his annual report of a previous year, the principal of the school says :
"It is essential, if there is to be effective teaching, that our High School pupils be provided with a study room which shall be properly lighted and ventilated ; our present rooms are very dark even on pleasant days, while in cloudy or stormy weather they are absolutely unfit for purposes of study by young people. The windows are so arranged as to give, in the main room, a cross-light, which is the worst light possible for a school-room. The bad effects of this cross-light are intensified by the fact that the ceiling is very low, so that the light comes ahnost horizontally across the room.
" Under these conditions very little of the blackboard surface of the room is visible from any one point, and pupils soon give up the attempt to follow demonstrations of work on the blackboard ; only by continually moving from one part of the room to another is the teacher able to see work written on the board.
"A better room for work in science, adapted in some
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degree at least to modern requirements, is a necessity. At present our physics and chemistry are taught in the girls' cloak room, an arrangement which is open to criticism ; besides, there are few facilities at hand such as ought to be provided in a modern course in science. We are obliged to omit botany and astronomy."
In the same report from which the above extract is taken, the principal recommends that typewriting and drawing be added to the course. These have since been introduced, but there are no rooms available for them, and the instruc- tion has to be given under great difficulties and disadvan- tages. Space is greatly needed for other work, as indicated in the report of the principal for the present year.
A properly equipped laboratory is a necessity in a high school at the present day. With the progress of modern science and its applications in the industries all about us, it is placing our boys and girls at too great a disadvantage to limit them for their science to a few laboratory articles placed many years ago in the girls' cloak room.
In view of these facts, I recommended a year ago that more suitable provision be made for the High School and mentioned three plans which had been proposed. First, the erection of a new building; second, the erection of a one-story study hall in the rear of the present building, and third, such changes as will give the school the use of the whole Stetson Hall building. The trustees, in their report, said that they felt that the time had come when the town must take action with regard to more comfortable and com- modious quarters for this school. An article was placed in the town meeting warrant for the erection of an addition to the Stetson Hall building and was referred with other articles to a committee consisting of Messrs. John V. Beal, James E. Blanche, John H. Field, Rufus A. Thayer, Thomas J. Kiernan, Edward H. McMahon and Frank C. Granger. This committee reported unfavorably upon the plan pro-
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posed, but said that " in the minds of the committee there was no doubt that our High School should be provided with rooms affording better light and other qualities conducive to the comfort and healthfulness of its pupils ".
From the able report of this committee, discussing the various aspects of the subject, I quote the following passage :
" We live in an age in which we are expected to keep pace with the times.
" We therefore support water works and street lighting and a fire alarm, and much more that increases the rate of taxation, not wholly because of the advantages to be received therefrom, but partly because our neighboring towns afford such facilities. But in providing school-houses we may be regarded as having fallen in the rear. For a period of nearly fifty years we have built but two school-houses, namely, the Prescott in 1867 and the West Corner in 1892.
" That the town by comparison may measure its doings in the direction of providing school-houses, your committee have thought that it might prove profitable to present what some other towns have done in the last twenty-five years. A partial list is as follows :
Abington
$67,800 00
Avon
1896
7,500 00
Braintree
1892-'00
78,000 00
Canton
26,000 00
Cohasset
51,200 00
Foxboro
1887-'03
53,600 00
Franklin
1880-'93
39,300 00
Holbrook
1882-'02
28,800 00
Needham .
18,700 00
Norwood
1884-'03
72,000 00
Rockland .
25,100,00
Sharon
1898-'00
20,500 00
Stoughton
1892-'03
41,500 00
Walpole
1885-'04
37,000 00
Weymouth
1881-'02
128,900 00"
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In view of this report of the Committee on Appropriations and in view of the recommendations of the Trustees of the Stetson High School a year ago, I feel that I should respect- fully renew my request that more adequate and suitable pro- vision be made for the High School. While the teachers and every one concerned will cheerfully abide by the decision of the town and do the best they can with the facilities pro- vided, the fact still remains that the town is suffering in its most important interests for lack of a suitable High School building. The neighboring town of Stoughton has recently erected a new building for its High School at a cost of $15.000. The expense may, of course, be distributed over a term of years. Every interest in Randolph will feel a thrill of new life if she determines to provide for herself a new and appropriate High School building. What can more surely tend to her growth and prosperity, to give her honor at home and credit abroad, to attract suburban residents, bring new life and afford the best educational advantages to her boys and girls than a fitting abode for the school which stands so near the popular heart? And what could more surely tend to her discredit and financial loss than to decide that she cannot afford a suitable home for her time-honored Stetson High School?
CONCLUSION.
That our schools may constantly improve from year to year, affording to our boys and girls the best possible pre- paration for the opportunities and duties which await them, is the desire of all who are interested in the highest welfare of the community. Thanks are due to the members of the School Committee and to the teachers for their unceasing efforts to this end.
Respectfully submitted, JOHN E. BRADLEY,
Superintendent.
APPENDIX
TO THE REPORT
OF THE
SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS.
SCHOOL STATISTICS,
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