USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1888 > Part 10
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The experience of recent years has convinced the teachers, the school board, and the citizens of Philadelphia that manual training from the kindergarten, which is the foundation, to the Manual Training School, can be engrafted into the schools, and is an essential feature of a complete educational system. It is necessary as a means of developing expressive powers, the representative faculty of the child, and in giving him executive ability.
The teachers have demonstrated that this principle can be applied in many of the ordinary branches of school work, notably form-study, number, drawing, geography, elementary science, etc. All the girls are taught sewing from the fourth year of school, and soon learn to make and mend garments for themselves and their brothers and sisters.
The following information in regard to the Manual Training School will be interesting. The course covers three years, which is about equally divided between mental and manual exercises, one hour a day being given to drawing, two to shop work, and three to study. The course follows these lines. 1. Language. 2. Pure Mathematics. 3. Applied Mathematics and Science. 4. Drawing. 5. Tool Instruction. The object of the school is to educate all the faculties. Pupils do not enter for the purpose of becoming mechanics. It is not a trade school. Boys who graduate from the grammar schools may enter the Manual Training School, or the High School, at their own option. Strange to say, the sons of well-to-do people, professional men, and those who appreciate the value of an education, attend the former, while the sons of people who have had to struggle and toil all their lives enter the latter. The statistics show that the attendance at the Manual Training School is better, and the boys stay longer than in the High School. The former is increasing in numbers every year. Graduates of the Manual Training School obtain situations at once, or go to higher professional or technical schools. Every boy knows what he is best fitted for,
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and finds something suited to his tastes. The course provides for the development of every talent, and each boy finds some feature of the work that meets his every want. Consequently the principal is able to tell just what line each boy should follow and will best succeed in.
Hebrew Technical Institute. - This institution is situated on Stuyvesant place, in New York City, and is supported by sub- scription. Boys from ten to twelve years of age are received without examination. Some come from primary schools. The course of study embraces the English branches, drawing, and construction, including clay modelling, wood carving, turning, pattern making, carpentry, and metal work. The course is similar to the Philadelphia Manual Training School, but differs in grade according to the needs and ability of the boys. The school is for a certain class of boys, and provides just the training they need and are capable of. Three hours are devoted to study and three to drawing and shop work. One hour is given for. the noon recess, when every boy is given a good substantial dinner, the serving of which affords opportunity for instruction and culture.
Your committee saw boys engaged in all kinds of work and in recitation, in which it was evident that the lads had clear conceptions and were able to express themselves accurately. We found a room full of boys, staying, voluntarily, after school, till six o'clock, to learn carving. The principal says he has to drive them away, and many want to come on holi- days.
The school has demonstrated that the Hebrew child, of a race supposed to be destitute of all mechanical or manual ability, is capable of the highest possible development in this direction, and may go out to take positions of responsibility in industrial and scientific occupations. We saw specimens of the most delicate workmanship, that would have done justice to older hands and maturer intellects. If such results are attainable by boys of these antecedents, what may not be expected of the sons of the most ingenious and skilful people on the face of the earth ?
The Industrial Education Association. The limits of this report will not enable your committee to do justice to this impor-
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tant Institution, which is recognized as the head-quarters of Industrial Education.
The association occupies the old Union Theological Building, No. 9 University Place, New York City. It was established to collect and spread information, to cultivate public sentiment, and help to establish Industrial Education. It has a museum, where are displayed specimens of work from the leading manual training schools of the country, representations of the gifts and occupations of the kindergarten, drawing, and construction work from primary and grammar schools in many cities, and collections of specimens. The association has established a college for the training of teachers, with a faculty of distin- guished educators, at whose head is Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, the President of the association, who is at the same time one of the professors in Columbia College.
In connection with this college are departments established as model schools, representing all grades. There are the kinder- garten, the primary classes, grammar classes, sewing, freehand drawing and modelling, domestic economy and cooking, mechan- ical drawing, carpentry and wood-work, chemical and philo- sophical laboratories, etc. The equipment of these departments is perfect ; all the best and newest appliances are in use. A beautiful hall for chapel exercises and public lectures occupies a part of the first floor. Here are given each year to teachers courses of free lectures upon educational subjects.
In this report your committee do not present these institutions as the first or only ones of the kind. We simply report upon what we saw and learned, with conclusions to be drawn from it. We must not overlook the fact that all and perhaps more of this kind of work can be seen in Boston, and much of it emanated from Boston. The School of Technology is the father of manual training in this country. But we feel repaid for the time and expense of the visit to Philadelphia, and saw in one collection what would have taken weeks to have seen in visiting separate schools.
In view of all the work seen and information gathered, your committee are convinced that the establishment of manual training as a feature of the Somerville schools is practical and expedient, being an essential part of a complete educational
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system, and they respectfully recommend that the school com- mittee inquire further into the subject, and take into considera- tion the advisability of inaugurating such features of the system as can be introduced.
MARK F. BURNS, M. W. CARR, Committee.
C. E. MELENEY,
When it is possible for the Board to appropriate the money, I hope to see a beginning made in a systematic course of tool instruc- tion in wood-work, including carving, sawing, and carpentry, to be supplemented at some time by turning and metal-work. Ex- periments in other places have proved that Grammar School boys of fourteen years and upwards are capable of taking such a course. The need of it has almost passed beyond the debating point. The whole subject is so large that I hope the Board may make especial inquiry into it, and decide upon a plan for its introduction.
So much has been written upon this subject that an extended discussion here seems unnecessary. There are some considera- tions that have occurred to me why it is more necessary to intro- duce manual training into our schools than in places where the tendency of the youth is towards mechanical pursuits. I believe such a system is just as necessary for a boy who is to take a professional course as for one who is to be a mechanic, and per- haps more so. If such training develops the man, the boy who is to take up his father's trade will some day receive the benefit of it, while the youth who is to study a profession may never have the opportunity. In a city like this, situated as it is under the shadow of three colleges or universities, and within the sound of great commercial enterprises, the pupils of our schools look forward either to a college course and a professional life, or to the inducements offered by the pursuit of commerce. The am- bition of the young man goes out in one of these two directions, and his inclination is not the result of experience, not influenced by a knowledge of his fitness for either one or the other; it is a mere notion. The result is that many take a professional course who should enter the marts of trade, while others drift about from one store or office to another, not knowing what to do, and some would better succeed in other industries.
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REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS.
It is impossible for a young man to know what he is fitted for in life unless all his powers have been tested, all his faculties ex- ercised, all the germs of life and character allowed to grow and develop. Our education should so develop every child that it may enable him to see himself as he is, that every latent power may be excited, awakened, and energized into a potency, that he may at once choose his specialty and fit himself for his natural calling.
It should be so broad as to reach all the elements of power and of character. It should not be so narrow that any one could get through and amount to nothing afterwards, or that any one may fall out by the way because he does not feel the benefit of the instruction ; nor should it consume the time and energy of the student, and leave other and greater opportunities unutilized. It should be a training suitable for every one who takes it, no matter what his calling may become, as suitable for the coming farmer as the future doctor or clergyman, as necessary for the rising politician as the mechanical engineer, builder, or scientist. Let technical and special training be private.
DRAWING.
The drawing in our schools has been unsatisfactory for some time, and a change of system and method has been desired by my predecessor and many of the principals and teachers. The Board considered the subject at the meeting in May, and voted to em- ploy a director of drawing, and the Superintendent was requested by the committee to recommend a candidate. Inquiries were immediately instituted, information was solicited from all good authorities on the subject, and all available candidates were in- vestigated. The following qualifications were set as the standard : 1st, a teacher possessing a complete art education, if possible a graduate of the Massachusetts Normal Art School; 2d, one who comprehends the value of drawing as an element in public-school work and its relation to education, and who is a student of the principles and methods of teaching; 3d, a teacher of experience in public-school work and in teaching or directing teachers. We were fortunate in finding such a candidate in Miss Herrick, but could not obtain her services before November 1st. At that
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time we were ready to begin. In considering the question of the adoption of a system, the committee considered the follow- ing statement of principles and outline of a course : -
In consideration of the establishment of a system of drawing on a broad educational basis, I deem it important to lay before you an outline of the course which I believe we ought to pursue, and present some considerations bearing upon the principles upon which it is founded, and the methods by which it can be carried into effect.
I. As to the course. In inaugurating a new work, you can appreciate the fact that it would be impossible to apply the per- fected course to all the grades of our schools, as much of the work depends upon the foundation, which must first be laid. It would be useless, therefore, to adopt a course at present, because such a scheme must be built up year by year. I do submit to you, how- ever, the outline of the Course of Study in Form and Drawing prepared under the direction of the State Board of Education, and by them authorized for use in the schools of this State, which, I am sorry to say, has not been followed by our teachers, nor, so far as I can learn, adopted by this Board. Accompanying this, I also submit the course prepared by a committee of the National Teachers' Association, which committee was composed of Superintendent MacAlister of Philadelphia, and a number of other distinguished educators, a course accepted and adopted by the National Teachers' Association at their meeting in Madison, Wis., in 1884. I have for your inspection at any time the courses pursued in several cities, which have been recognized as being correct in principle, and practical in every respect.
These courses we propose to follow in our work in Somerville. We intend to commence in the first grade with the little children. As color makes an earlier impression than form in the mind of a child, educators place the study of color first in the curriculum. In many places, the subject is presented in connection with draw- ing because it is naturally associated with it, and is an important feature of industrial education. It is one of the first lessons of the kindergarten, to which we are accustomed to look for first principles. We hope to give it more room in the future.
We shall next put into the hands of the child the models of the first set, that known in the kindergarten as the second gift, the
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sphere, cube, and cylinder, and the accompanying modifications. These they are to study by the exercise of all the senses through which the mind receives the impressions of form. Subsequently other type forms are to be used and also the forms of nature.
In the process of learning and in developing the faculty of reproduction or representation, these type forms and their coun- terparts in nature are to be made of clay and to be drawn on paper. This, being fundamental, will constitute the work of all the primary grades at present, and, to some extent, of the gram- mar classes as well, the time spent upon form-study depending upon the ability of the children to master it, and their fitness to proceed to advanced work.
It is, therefore, necessary to supply each building with a box of models, from ten to twenty pounds of artists' clay, lead pencils, cheap manila drawing-paper, and manuals to guide the teacher in the use of the models.
The kindergarten system furnishes us the principles of the study of Form and Drawing. All geometrical solids are taught fromn the type forms; the plane figures from the faces of the solids tablets, and paper ; and the lines from the edges of the solids and sticks, strings, or rings.
These forms are studied in the kindergarten first as " Forms of Knowledge." The form and the ideas obtained by the child from these objects are expressed through the occupations of the kinder- garten, clay modelling, paper folding, paper cutting, sewing, and drawing. This underlies and is a preparation for the study and expression by drawing of the facts of form, which leads to Con- struction.
The study of these forms in nature, by elementary zoology and botany, and the modelling, making, and drawing of the objects is based on the kindergarten gifts and occupations treated as " Forms of Life" (animal and vegetable). The drawing in this connection concerns the " appearance of form," which, however, includes also the drawing of type forms as to their appearance. The representation of "Forms of Life " includes curved and straight line figures. Almost everything in nature is graced by curved lines. The kindergarten, however, chooses to include whatever the child is familiar with. This feature of the drawing. therefore, deals with curved and straight line drawing.
-
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ANNUAL REPORTS.
The symmetrical arrangements of the material in the kinder- garten, whether solids, planes, or lines, curved or straight, are there called " Forms of Beauty or Symmetry " and is the basis of decorative design.
This shows how important the kindergarten system is as a pre- paration for Drawing. The courses adopted by the National Teachers' Association, and our leading cities, make due allowance for these three phases of primary drawing, which lead directly to the practical application of drawing in the higher classes in the three subjects, Construction, Representation, and Decoration. We hope to do the same.
As all the knowledge imparted in the kindergarten may be classed under some division of Form, except, of course, those qualities or attributes of objects which are incidental, so all elementary knowledge depends upon form as its first and most important characteristic. This is true of natural history, botany, geography, and every elementary science. Children acquire these elements through the senses. Form is primarily perceived by touch, secondarily by sight. ] How important it is, there- fore, that children have typical forms in their hands, and be brought into contact with the real things so abundant in nature. Following out the lines of the kindergarten, we find that Form underlies science, art, and the industries. We perceive by the senses of touch, sight, hearing, etc., and we express thought and knowledge by the hand, in making, drawing, and written lan- guage, and by the tongue in oral language. Clay has been found to be the most convenient and simplest means of expression in form. It is capable of practical use in intermediate as well as elementary grades in the High School, and in the artist's studio.
Drawing is related to form, as a means of expression by de- lineation. From the outset, children should be taught to make pictures of what they see, to draw what they know, and, later, what they can imagine. The drawing should represent what is in the mind, whether a form, a fruit, or a continent. The exercise of drawing should tend to perfect the concept and develop the faculty of expression. The drawing, when done, should convey to the mind of the teacher the knowledge or thought of the little artist, or it should be a pattern by which something can be made. Thus it may be a picture of the object, as it looks, or it may be a draw-
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ing of the actual facts of the object, by measurements, if you please. In addition to the former, the object-drawing, it may include also the embellishment, or the adornment, of the object, leading to the æsthetic in art.
All the public-school drawing which is in accordance with the above principles, is the outgrowth of the system established in the Massachusetts Normal Art School, under the direction of Walter Smith, and other directors of drawing, employed by the State Board of Education. The present Prang system conforms to these principles, and has matured from the developments of scientific teaching in all grades and kinds of schools. It is the embodiment of the ripe experience of skilful and thoughtful teachers in various parts of the country, and it represents the most recent and the best results of superior teaching in this country. It is founded upon the fundamental principles of education, grows up naturally from the kindergarten, and furnishes all the steps in Drawing of a manual training course. The Prang system is used in many cities where good results can be shown, and, in adopting it, the Board has been guided by the experience of the best educational centres in the country.
SEWING.
At the first regular meeting of the present Board, it was voted to ask for an appropriation for two sewing teachers, and the necessary material for commencing the work in the grammar schools. During the Spring term, the members of the Committee and the Superintendent spent considerable time in visiting schools, collecting information on the subject of sewing, and looking up teachers. In September, two teachers were appointed, and the work was inaugurated in the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh, and since extended to the eighth grades. While the girls are sewing, the boys of the same class are engaged in other exercises. The course adopted is to teach the various stitches in order, using practice cloth, and to train the girls in the proper handling of material and implements. No time is spent in making garments. The results are most satisfactory.
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ANNUAL REPORTS.
EXAMINATIONS AND PROMOTIONS.
This subject is of the highest importance, and is one which is occupying the careful attention of educators in all parts of our country, and of eminent men in other lands.
The special committee to which the question relating to Examinations and Promotions was referred, have had meetings on the subject, and the Superintendent and principals have also discussed the methods employed in our schools.
It would be out of place for me to formulate any propositions in advance of the conclusions which may be reached by the com- mittee; but I may presume to express my convictions to the effect that some modifications of existing rules should be made. I regard oral and written examinations as very important. The only precautions to be taken are in the amount and the manner of conducting them and the objects for which they are carried on. Examinations by the Superintendent should be for the purpose of calling the teacher's attention to the important topics of the course, and suggesting methods of conducting the work. They should ascertain the degree and kind of development re- sulting from the instruction, and should tend to unify the sys- tems of teaching. Such examinations may be given at any time, but should not enter as an element in determining the promotion of pupils.
Oral and written tests may be made by the principals and teachers, from time to time, to ascertain the efficacy of the in- struction and to exercise the pupils in the expression of knowl- · edge. Briefly stated, promotions should be made from the record of the pupil's work, during the year, or term, determined by the success of his efforts, the diligence, application, and perseverance manifested in study, in recitation, and in all the exercises of the school.
TRUANCY.
The report of the Truant Officer will be contained among the statistics. I have not had occasion to enquire particularly into this department of the school work, and hope the truancy may be so insignificant as not to require my attention.
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REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS.
EVENING SCHOOLS.
The Prescott, L. V. Bell, and Highland School-houses were opened for registry of evening scholars the last week in Septem- ber, but there were not registered pupils enough to warrant the opening of the Prescott and Highland. The Bell school has been conducted with marked success, keeping up the attendance creditably. The session commenced Oct. 1, and closed last week. The usual course has been followed with the addition of readings in elementary science, which has occasioned some practical think- ing, and readings in history, which will direct the young people to an interesting and profitable field for future study.
The evening drawing schools which opened in October have not yet finished the course. The Mechanical Drawing class has occupied a part of the hall of the high school, and has been very largely attended by an interested class of young men, - some beginners and others advanced students. The success of the undertaking is gratifying.
The free-hand classes are also very large. The advanced work is in light and shade, and the elementary class are now at work on object drawing. This is too early for a report on this impor- tant department of our schools.
The names of teachers, statistics, etc., will be found in the appendix.
CONCLUSION.
The present week terminates the first six months of my con- nection with the public schools of this city. I experience some ' little difficulty in formulating a report of their condition and the work being accomplished, much of which you know as well as I. In looking upon my work here, I am sensibly conscious of failings in many particulars, and suffer keen disappointment in not becoming as thoroughly conversant with all the schools as I hoped to do by this time. This I expect to make up during the remaining months of the school year. In conducting the work of the secretary, I have encountered difficulties that can easily be remedied by a few changes in methods and the establishment of a system which, partaking more of machinery, is yet neces-
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ANNUAL REPORTS.
sary in managing business of such a miscellaneous chaarcter as is carried on in this office. In the responsible and continuous duty of furnishing supplies, I owe great obligations to the Com- mittee on Supplies, who have unhesitatingly advised and assisted in this laborious task. During the coming year, I shall hope to inaugurate some changes, with their help, that shall facilitate matters. I am also greatly indebted to the Committee on Draw- ing for their patience and consideration of the business that has been transacted, for their cordial indorsement of my policy, and their fidelity in carrying out the recommendations establishing the system now used, and securing the services of an experienced and trained director. Allow me also to express my appreciation of the courtesy and support of the committees on text-books, industrial education, and the special committee on courses of study, in establishing new features of work in our schools. To the other committees, and to the Board, I express my sincere thanks for their forbearance, for their advice, co-operation, and encouragement. I hope to receive suggestions at any time that will aid me in carrying out the orders of the Board, executing the rules and regulations, or making such changes in the work of the schools as will enable them to accomplish the highest possi- bilities attainable.
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