USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1875 > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12
32 37
31 50
Nathan Prentice, for wood,
15 30
C. H. North & Co., for salt,
12 70
Hamblen & Mathews, for coup- lings, 33 60
Brine & Clark, for fuel,
16 14
Charles Maguire, blacksmithing,
19 30
Charles Holmes, labor,
7 37
R. A. Vinal, Clerk of Water Board, 250 00
Union Glass Co., for lanterns,
7 00
J. E. Parsons, plumbing, 4 48
W. L. Snow & Co., plumbing,
4 75
Amounts carried forward, $24,676 65
$1,364,766 87
93
Amounts brought forward, $24,676 65 $1,364,766 87
Paid G. W. Shaw, labor, 5 15
Chaffee & Cummings, for charcoal, 6 00
J. H. Brooks, for cloth, 4 48
Sundries, 7 35
24,699 63
Water Services.
Paid laborers, 1,622 07
Thomas Cunningham, for pipe, etc., 1,024 73
Boston Lead Pipe Co., for lead pipe, 418 10
Union Water Meter Co., for coup- lings, etc., 1,210 20
Hamblen & Mathews, for coup- lings, etc., 215 66
Walworth Manufacturing Co., for pipe, etc., 45 82
Cook, Rymes & Co, for picks, etc., 68 00
H. Wellington & Co .. for cement, 16 00
J. Leland, for wagon,
186 00
C. Maguire, blacksmithing,
52 70
James Bartley, for grain,
21 45
Chaffee & Cummings, for char- coal, 13 50
Aiken & Woodward, for charcoal,
12 00
GeorgeWoodman & Co., for stop- cocks, 24 34
McFarland & Hicks, for hardware,
10 00
George Myers, for hardware,
6 82
Wellington & Hunnewell, for cement, 15 50
R. W. Shattuck & Co., for pipe, 28 10
A. J. Wilkinson & Co., for pad- locks, etc.,
41 60
J. A. Cummings & Co., printing,
11 00
Amounts carried forward, $5,043 59
$1,389,466 50
94
Amounts brought forward, $5,043 59 $1,389,466 50
Paid Parker & Gannett, for shovels, 10 13
9 08
Dennett & Gilson, for plumbing, Benjamin Almy- (Superintend- ent of Water Works,)-1 mo., 125 00
Braman, Dow & Co., for pipe, etc.,
172 58
Farrar, Follett & Co., for iron,
8 47
J. H. Hanley, for charcoal,
7 50
Sundries,
40 37
5,416 72
Total disbursements,
$1,394,883 22
ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
SCHOOL COMMITTEE
OF THE
CITY OF SOMERVILLE,
AND THE
ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS, 1875.
CITY OF SOMERVILLE.
IN SCHOOL COMMITTEE, Dec. 11, 1875.
The following named gentlemen were appointed a Committee to prepare the Annual Report of the School Committee for the year 1875 : Rev. H. H. Barber, Reuben Willis, M. D., Messrs. Samuel M. Pennock, S. S. Woodcock and James E. Whitney.
Attest : J. H. DAVIS, Secretary.
IN SCHOOL COMMITTEE, Dec. 30, 1875.
Rev. H. H. Barber, Chairman of the Committee appointed the 11th inst., having presented the subjoined Report, it was unani- mously adopted as the Report of the School Committee for the current year.
The Superintendent having presented his Annual Report, it was unanimously adopted.
It was voted to request the City Council to print five hundred copies of these Reports, independent of those printed with other Reports.
Attest :
J. H. DAVIS, Secretary.
1
SCHOOL COMMITTEE FOR 1875.
HON. WM. H. FURBER, Mayor, ex officio. SAM'L M. PENNOCK, President of Common Council, ex officio.
WARD ONE.
S. S. WOODCOCK, Term expires Dec. 31, 1875.
HENRY M. MOORE,
66
1876.
S. HANSCOM, M. D.,
66
66
1877.
WARD TWO.
M. F. FARRELL,
Term expires Dec. 31, 1875.
66
66
1876.
DANIEL E. CHASE,
REV. H. H. BARBER,
1877.
WARD THREE.
REUBEN WILLIS, M. D.,
. Term expires Dec. 31, 1875.
66
66
1876.
JAS. E. WHITNEY,
HENRY F. SPENCER,
66
66
1877.
WARD FOUR.
CHAS. F. KING, Term expires Dec. 31, 1875.
BENJ. G. BROWN,
66
66
1876.
HORACE CHAPIN, M. D.,
66
18.77.
Chairman, Secretary and Superintendent, JOSHUA H. DAVIS.
HON. WM. H. FURBER.
SUB-COMMITTEES.
On Examination of Teachers - Messrs. CHAPIN, HANSCOM, BARBER.
On Text-Books - Messrs. BROWN, WHITNEY, MOORE, BARBER.
On Music - Messrs. WILLIS, KING, CHASE.
On School Furniture - Messrs. CHASE, KING.
On Heating Apparatus - Messrs. MOORE, FARRELL.
On School Supplies - Messrs. SPENCER, HANSCOM.
On Drawing - Messrs. WILLIS, WOODCOCK, BROWN.
On Fuel - Messrs. CHASE, WHITNEY.
On Finance - Messrs. SPENCER, CHASE.
On Repairs - Messrs. WOODCOCK, CHAPIN, WILLIS, FARRELL.
13
SCHOOL COMMITTEE FOR 1876.
HON. AUSTIN BELKNAP, Mayor, ex officio. STILLMAN H. LIBBY, President of Common Council, ex officio.
WARD ONE.
HENRY M. MOORE,
Term expires Dec. 31, 1876. 66 66 1877.
SANFORD HANSCOM, M. D.,
JOHN H. BUTLER,
66
1878.
WARD TWO.
DANIEL E. CHASE,
Term expires Dec. 31, 1876. 66 66 1877.
CHARLES S. LINCOLN,
MICHAEL F. FARRELL,
66
66 1878.
WARD THREE.
HENRY F. SPENCER,
Term expires Dec. 31, 1876.
JOSEPH P. WILLIAMS,
66 1877.
ALBION A. PERRY,
66
66 1878.
WARD FOUR.
PROF. BENJ. G. BROWN,
Term expires Dec. 31, 1876.
HORACE CHAPIN, M. D.,
66 1877.
COL. CHARLES F. KING,
66
1878.
Chairman, Secretary and Superintendent, JOSHUA H. DAVIS.
HON. AUSTIN BELKNAP.
SUB-COMMITTEES.
On High School-Messrs. BROWN, SPENCER, CHAPIN, LINCOLN, BUTLER.
On Schools in E. Somerville Dist .- Messrs. HANSCOM, MOORE, BUTLER.
On Schools in Prospect Hill Dist .- Messrs. CHASE, FARRELL, LINCOLN.
On Schools in Winter Hill Dist .- Messrs. SPENCER, WILLIAMS, PERRY.
On Schools in Spring Hill District-Messrs. CHAPIN, KING, LIBBY. On Schools in W. Somerville Dist .- Messrs. BROWN, KING, CHAPIN. On Evening Schools -- Messrs. MOORE, WILLIAMS, CHAPIN, FARRELL. On Examination of Teachers-Messrs. LINCOLN, BUTLER, BROWN. On Text-Books-Messrs. BROWN, HANSCOM, KING.
On Repairs and School Furniture-Messrs. MOORE, CHASE, LIBBY, PERRY.
On School Supplies-Messrs. SPENCER, PERRY.
On Fuel-Messrs. FARRELL, WILLIAMS.
On Music-Messrs. KING, HANSCOM, LINCOLN.
On Finance-Messrs. SPENCER, CHASE.
On Heating Apparatus-Messrs. CHAPIN, WILLIAMS.
On Drawing-Messrs. HANSCOM, PERRY, LIBBY.
REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
The General Statutes of Massachusetts require of the School Committee of the several towns and cities of the Commonwealth, that they " shall annually make a detailed report of the condition of the several public schools, which report shall contain such state- ments and suggestions in relation to the schools as the Committee deem necessary or proper to promote the interest thereof." The School Board of Somerville have of late met this requirement by adopting, with such emendations as seemed to them desirable, the report of the Superintendent of Schools to the Board, as their own statement of the condition and needs of the schools. Some members of the Board have felt that by this method the Superin- tendent was unduly hampered in the statements and suggestions he would think it best to make in a report embodying his own ideas and convictions, and that, on the other hand, it is due to the citizens of the town, that a more direct statement be made from the Board itself. In accordance with this feeling, the retiring mem- bers were appointed a Committee to draft a report which, having been duly approved, is presented as follows :
The public is referred to the accompanying report of the Super- intendent for statistics and details of the condition of the schools during the past year. We would also commend to the careful perusal and attention of the people of this city, the suggestions which he makes concerning their possible improvement in methods and results. The experience, patient investigation and fidelity in the service of our schools, which the Superintendent brings to the
100
discussion of these topics, give deserved weight to his suggestions, and ought to insure to them serious and careful consideration.
An essential condition of the successful working of the public school system is the intelligent interest and cordial co-operation of parents and of the community. Nothing is more needful at pres- ent for the increased efficiency of our schools, than a general revi- val of public interest and a renewal of the sense of obligation in regard to them. 6 Were the minds of all the people awake to their importance and inestimable value, in their present and possible re- sults, to the support and advancement of our civilization, there would be little question of the general support or of the constant improvement of the public school system. There is always danger that the schools will grow routinish and mechanical when divorced from watchful home interest, or neglected by the active intelli- gence and the best culture of a community. The only serious
peril to our school system would be, that large and intelligent sections of the people should lose their faith and interest in it. Sweeping condemnation of present methods and results by persons who have little knowledge of the difficulties involved, or of the work actually accomplished, is as unfair as it often is depressing. Defects, failures, attendant evils, are easy to see and to exagger- ate ; the actual good accomplished is sometimes overlooked and unappreciated.
Vigorous and trenchant criticism is to be courted as one of the needed agencies of progress ; but we regret to see it assume as it sometimes does the form of suggestions which are narrow and short-sighted, and which, if adopted, would tell unfavorably on the utility of the schools and the general intelligence of the commu- nity. We cannot be surprised that in a time that calls for general retrenchment, complaints should be made of the cost of public schools ; nor is it to be regretted that the public should hold the School Board to a strict accountability for the expenditure of every
101
dollar of the public funds. Any lavish outlay for mere luxury or display should be entirely forbidden. Prudence, even in making provision for the necessary enlargement of school accommodations or the supply of needed conveniences, may be properly insisted on. But it would be false economy that should jeopardize the thorough instruction of all the children, or limit in any measure the present efficiency of the schools. We are persuaded on the other hand, that it would be profitable to even increase their teach- ing force and diminish the numbers placed under each teacher, giving a larger opportunity for thorough training and separate in- struction. It is late to say in New England, that whatever adds to the wholesome intellectual life of a community is one of its su- preme interests. President Eliot of Harvard University, well said in a late address, that "it is just as true of the State and the town as it is of the family that the very last place to save money is in the education of the children."
Nor could it be other than calamitous to truncate our present school system at the upper end, by abolishing or in any wise low- ering the standard of the upper Grammar and High Schools. There are occasional proposals to do this, or to open the latter only to such as can afford to pay for the privilege of attending it. We have little fear that these counsels will prevail, for apart from the undemocratic nature of the latter proposal, making the towns the disbursers, and in some degree the providers, of class-privileges, it will probably be sufficiently evident, as a distinguished educator has remarked, that in this regard "the most liberal policy is the most economical, since it has saved the great majority of those who pay the bulk of the taxes from the heavy expense of private tuition for their children." The working of our present system is substantially equitable, and its policy as related to the general intelligence of the community unquestionable. It may be difficult to say just how far free education at the public expense should be carried, but it surely is not safe to offer freely to all any less or
102
lower measure of intellectual culture, than we are willing to have the level of the community in which we live.
We may well ask ourselves the question whether the lives our children are to live will be happier, fuller, richer in all the ele- ments of character, in all the resources for true success, for possi- ble misfortune and gathering age, whether they will be more fruitful in real usefulness and honor by adopting any more narrow, tech- nical, and so-called practical, course of study in our public schools. And the State in training its children for its service, to be its pillars of support, and bulwarks of defence, and the impell- ing power of all its future progress, will surely need to take heed not only that they shall be educated beyond peril of becoming a public charge, but so that they may bring to its service not alone self-supporting hands, but mental powers trained to discrimina- tion, invention and judgment, and fixed in those sound intellectual principles and moral habits which will make them equal to meet- ing the issues that rest at last in a republic on the intelligence and virtue of the people, and productive in that higher and more ideal range of life, which alone can save a people so rich and pros- perous as ours in material resources and pursuits from grossness and sure decay.
The law of supply and demand which is so sure in its workings, though so hard and often so unjust, in material interests, cannot be depended on in forwarding the intellectual and moral progress of the race. Compulsory education is our necessity. The out- come of our public schools will be one of two things. Either the system must furnish what the great mass of our people want, and all they want for the training of their children ; or they must sink into eleemosynary institutions and become a part of the system of pauper charities, abandoned by all who can afford to furnish pri- vate instruction for their children, and also by all who while unable to furnish it, are yet so proud as to prefer that their children should grow up in ignorance rather than bear the stigma of
103
pauperism. It is easy to see that compulsory education would in this case become impossible, and that class prejudices would be fostered which would ultimately undermine republican institu- tions. It is to the last degree important, therefore, that the free school system should be so broadly and efficiently administered as to command the confidence of all the people, and the attendance of the great body of the children of every class in the community.
COURSE OF STUDY.
The Committee have during the past year revised the course of study prescribed in our schools. The complaint is often made that too many things are attempted, that the attention of the pupils is unduly distracted by the multitude of subjects, and called away from the matters of primal importance. We do not know, how- ever, in what direction to turn in attempting to simplify further the course of study. It will be seen on examination that save in the High School, in which there are several courses of study, the classes are occupied upon a very few subjects, and these almost entirely fundamental in any system of education.
We call attention to the following extract in relation to this topic, from the last report of Mr. Philbrick, lately and for many years Superintendent of the public schools of Boston :
" During the past year I have made a thorough study of the systems of elementary education in all the most advanced countries of the world, and I find nothing in this investigation to justify the flippant criticisms which we hear about the multiplicity of studies in our elementary courses of instruction. If our programmes are wrong in this respect, then all the most approved systems in foreign countries are also wrong, systems which are the result of generations of experiments and profound study. No, there is not a single subject of study that can safely be stricken out of our grammar and primary schools."
104
MUSIC AND DRAWING.
We hear these subjects mentioned more frequently than any others in connection with the complaint of the multiplicity of studies. In regard to them it may be said that they occupy much less space in our schools, than is given them in most of the best schools in this country and abroad. Music may be held to be mainly an accomplishment; but there can be no doubt that wherever properly taught in our schools it is a welcome and whole- some change in the routine of school, making more room than it takes ; and that considering the pleasure it affords, its refining influence, and its value in after life-a value that is constantly in- creasing as the knowledge and enjoyment of it becomes more gen- eral-the instruction in music imparted in our public schools is worth many times its cost in time and money. It only becomes a waste when perfunctorily and shabbily done.
As to drawing, we regard it as one of the most directly useful of all branches pursued in our schools. The old copying of castles and waterfalls was little but an accomplishment, if it could be called that ; but the system which has been adopted in our schools, if thoroughly taught, will help to train the eye and the hand for any handicraft, besides going far to lay the foundation for skill in the arts of draughting and designing, which in almost all occupa- tions will be found of frequent use. In technical designing skill, our country cannot begin to compete with those communities where drawing has been taught in the common schools for many years. There is no more reason for objecting to the general instruction of our children in drawing because all do not become artists or designers than there would be for excluding arithmetic because they will not all become astronomers or accountants. There is almost as constant necessity to represent objects as to compute them, and the practical training involved in the former is of even wider general application. The results of what has been already
105
attempted in this department in the few years since instruction in it has been required, is very satisfactory, considering the fact that at the outset a majority of the teachers were unprepared, and some of them unwilling to undertake it. The Committee found at the last annual examination that the schools where drawing was well taught, were generally the schools where everything was well taught, and that especially, as was to be expected, such schools excelled in writing and in neatness in black-board work.
METHODS OF INSTRUCTION.
Certain drawbacks and disadvantages must always exist in con- nection with the teaching of large numbers, and there is always peril in our graded system that teachers will feel themselves to be parts of a great machine without opportunity for the exercise of indi- viduality, or personal accountability for results. There is constant temptation to be satisfied with the mere routine of hearing lessons recited, urging the classes through the appointed curriculum and getting them decently by the pass-examinations. Teachers mis- take, however, when they are content, or fancy the public to be satisfied, with any measure of such mere routine success. It is necessary to have a system of examinations and promotions, and a programme of topics to be studied leading up to them. But it is the purpose of the Committee to insist on the largest measure of individual freedom and individual responsibility, that are consist- ent with the working of a common plan. Within such limits there is ample scope for the exercise of invention and original teaching power. The best furnished teachers strive to banish the mechani- cal routine of school not by departing from the prescribed topics, but by infusing interest into them and studying how to present them in new and attractive lights. We would not be understood to say that there is too thorough class-drill in our schools, or too urgent insistance on individual study by the pupils ; but we are
14
106
persuaded that the giving of instruction, teaching proper, does not occupy some of our teachers sufficiently, as compared with giving out lessons and ascertaining the pupils' work upon them. The teacher thus becomes an exactor, not enough an inspirer and guide. He is occupied too much with finding out how his pupils stand, and what they already know, instead of helping to clear up the tangles of their imperfect apprehension of a subject, or leading them to new understanding of its relations. Careful drill is neces- sary to fix knowledge already gained, but the interest and vigor of a school are mainly due to the teaching ability of the instructor. Some place for class teaching-exercises should be made, and for individual instruction. This suggestion, perhaps, is of special im- portance in regard to the lower grades of our Grammar Schools. Nor do we apprehend that any teacher who has but a single class, can reasonably complain of being too busy to find such a place. The teacher must not be too busy to do his most important work. Brief, brisk recitations accomplish more than long ones. The teacher will then have time to come near to the individual pupil and learn something of his special aptitudes and meet his special difficulties. The same end is advanced by breaking large classes into divisions or sections, parallel or otherwise. It takes no longer to examine fifty children in regard to their knowledge of a lesson, when heard in two divisions, than when reciting together, and the attention is likely to be very much better. And while teaching- exercises may profitably be given to the whole school sometimes, there is much greater opportunity to ascertain and meet individual difficulties in small than in large classes.
We desire to emphasize our conviction that the most important element of success and efficiency in our schools is thoroughly good teaching. No machinery of organization, no perfection of system, no ability nor thoroughness of supervision, can go far to make up for the lack of competent instruction. We are glad to quote again 'from a recent address of President Eliot-all the more that we have
107
expressed earnest dissent from his proposal to limit instruction in the higher grades of our schools to pupils paying tuition :
" A good school is not a grand building or a set of nice furniture, or a series of text-books selected by the Committee, or a programme of studies made up by the Superintendent ; and all these things put together, though each were the best of its kind, would not make a good school, for a good school is a man or a woman."
The mind of the teacher pervades the school. His methods of discipline, the totality of his influence, are toned and determined by the quality of his intelligence, judgment, character. The vigorous and well-furnished teacher will do more to develop the pupil's intelligence and quicken his faculties and enlarge the sphere of common sense in his school, than the pupil will gain from his own study and class recitation. And such a teacher will make the recitation alive, instead of letting it become the parrotry it some- times is. The public school is lifted out of routine and depressing tread-mill sameness just so far as the teacher has intellectual re- sources, and through experience and clear perception of the pupil's need, knows how to apply them to quicken, strengthen and keep in play the various faculties of the child. A child's interest is often deadened for life as to special studies, and all his faculties dulled more or less by the unskilful and bungling way in which his first essays in them are supervised and directed. Worse than that, crudeness of mental judgment in the teacher may often prolong, if not perpetuate, mental childishness in the pupil.
The external appliances of our schools have been largely im- proved of late. Buildings, furniture, conveniences, may be pro- nounced in many cases well-nigh complete. All this will not make up for an ounce less manhood and womanhood in the work of in- struction, for an impulse less ardent, for work any less devoted and thorough. The first-rate teacher will bring forth better results in a barn than any other in a palace. "The quality and quantity of education imparted in school," says Superintendent Philbrick,
108
" depend upon the character and qualifications of teachers more than upon all other educational means and appliances combined." This being true, it should not be reckoned a hardship that those persons who have received special and thorough training for their work should be preferred to those who have received no direct preparation for it. The chances of success and efficiency are greatly increased, the resources for instruction and government are multiplied by such training. Mr. Philbrick's further statement is not too strong, that "usually the trained teacher, of whatever native ability and general education, would be worth during the first year of service twice as much as the same teacher would be worth without any special training." Teaching as an occupation belongs first to those who enter upon it seriously, with thorough training for it; and the community will be wise in so far as pre- ferring such persons, by adequate remuneration, it helps to lift the work of instruction into the ranks of the most honored professions.
MORAL INFLUENCE AND INSTRUCTION.
We earnestly call the attention of teachers and of the commu- nity to those sections of the Rules which refer to this subject. The statutes of the Commonwealth, no less than our own school regula- tions, are explicit and emphatic in regard to the duties of teach- ers in this respect. And rightly ; for to what end does the commu- nity tax itself for public education ? It is not, primarily, for the good which learning is in itself to the individual ; it is not mainly because intelligence is an important agent in the material develop- ment of our civilization. It is in large part at least for the pro- tection of society and the security of the State. The State is bound to provide everything, otherwise left unsupplied, for the adequate training and furnishing of American citizens. I do not think we shall ultimately be satisfied with anything less. This surely includes the inculcation of moral principles and duties ; and
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.