USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1893 > Part 12
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$103,552
$150,101
45
Cost per pupil .
18.87
20.80
10
Estimated value of school property
$428,554
$636,725
49
Valuation of the City
28,765,400
41,820,700
45
A comparison of the numbers in the preceding table shows that during the last five years the increase of school accommodations, with the noteworthy exception of the High School, has just about kept pace with the increase of children. Forty modern school- rooms, well ventilated, well lighted, and well adapted to use, have been added by the construction of the Knapp, Glines, and Pope school-houses, and by the enlargement of the Morse, Highland, and Edgerly buildings. Four rented rooms occupied in 1888, have been abandoned, the Brastow school-house has been converted into an engine house, and the Union school building has been sold, making a net gain in the five years of thirty-seven school-rooms, containing sittings for 1,946 pupils. The increase in the number of pupils has been 1,729.
This comparison also shows that the rate of increase in the value of school property slightly exceeds the increase in the asses- sors' valuation of property in the city, while the expense of sup-
239
REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
porting the schools has increased in exactly the same ratio as the. city's ability to pay as indicated by the value of real and personal property in the city.
We observe furthermore that the gain in the number of graduates. from the High School, is greater than the gain in school population, and this, too, notwithstanding all the disadvantages of its crowded condition. And finally, we may notice that the rate of increase in the number of grammar school graduates is strikingly dispropor- tionate to the gain in any other direction. This doubtless is owing in part to the less rigorous requirements for promotion, graduation, and admission to the High School.
In his farewell report, published in the spring of 1888, Super- intendent Davis says :
Just now we are passing through a transition period. The old order of things has passed away, and new conditions, with. their numerons demands are upon us and we are not fully prepared to meet them.
Committees are demanding that the public schools, supply not only what was formerly furnished by the apprentice system, but also such additional industrial and art training as the exigencies of the times require.
The School Board of Somerville, recognizing the truth of these words, with the wise and prudent conservatism that refuses to. accept the new simply because it is new, but leaves to others the task of wasteful experiment and adopts only what has passed the tentative stage and proved itself to be of substantial and permanent educational value, under the leadership of a courageous and enthu- siastic educator, gradually introduced into our schools during the five years that we are reviewing, new forms and methods of de- velopment and training fully in accord with the general trend of education in these latter days. In this way, while our schools may not have been always in line with the more venturesome skirmishers .. that open the way into the enemy's country, they have been kept: abreast the solid column that with firm and steady step, advances to. possess and occupy the land.
The first movement in advance, was the adoption of a systenn. of Industrial Drawing that experience has proved to be based on sound educational principles. To train teachers and to direct the:
240
ANNUAL REPORTS.
work, a skilled supervisor of drawing was employed. Under this expert direction, seconded by the enthusiastic co-operation of teach- ers and the growing interest of pupils, the system in all its details has become firmly established in our schools, and its value is to be seen to-day in the increased knowledge, judgment, skill, taste, and power to observe correctly and to reproduce accurately which our pupils display.
Following this, came the introduction of manual training for girls, in the form of Sewing, an exercise approved alike by those that clamor for "practical results" in education and by those that demand training for the mental, through the development of the child's physical powers. Two teachers of sewing were employed and a systematic method of instruction adopted, which has since be- come widely known as the "Somerville System", and which com- petent judges declared to be the best exhibited at the World's Fair. By unanimous consent sewing now ranks both practically and ed- ucationally, among the most valuable of our school exercises.
Although, mainly on account of what has thus far seemed the unwarranted expense of securing suitable rooms, teachers and ap- pliances, it has been impossible to give the boys in our schools, manual training with the use of tools, yet during the sewing hour they have had exercises in Mechanical Drawing, which is a form of manual training that prepares the way for other forms that will come in the not very distant future.
On the principle that education includes and compels the har- monious development of the child physically, as well as intellectu- ally and morally, in 1889 the miscellaneous calisthenic exercises given in some schools, were replaced by the form of Swedish gymnastics known as the "Ling System," which was regularly introduced into . all grades. A competent supervisor was employed to direct the work and instruct the teachers, who quickly caught the spirit and method of the system and cheerfully gave time and effort to perfect themselves in it. Since then a due proportion of time has been given to physicial training in all our schools, and its salutary effects are seen to-day in the improved physical condition of our children.
Kindergartens, long looked upon as an educational luxury, de- signed only for the children of the well-to-do, have come to be con- sidered in these modern days almost a necessity-alike profitable to
241
REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
the poor and to the rich. Many cities and towns have already in- corporated them as an integral and vital part of their school systems. During the last five years, here and there in our own city, Kinder- gartens have been opened, and their educational value tested and acknowledged. Three are now in operation among us, and yet the kindergarten has not been formally recognized and provided for by the Committee. It is hoped that, when our more urgent school needs are met and means are at hand, these most valuable auxiliaries will be made a part of our educational system, permanently founded and so distributed that all sections of the city may enjoy their advantages.
The introduction of the Normal System of Music into the pri- mary schools, and the employment of a special director to supervise the work in them, marked an important advance in musical in- struction in our city. The new method supplanted an old one, which for several years had been nominally used by the regular class teachers. It has since been extended to the fourth and fifth grades with results that thus far have been very gratifying and that augur well for the future.
Another modification of our school work that helps to put Somerville in step with other municipalities, is the introduction, to a limited extent, of Nature Study, designed to put the child in touch with "mother nature," teaching him to observe and analyze the beauties and wonders of plant and animal life and to understand something of the physical forces surrounding him, the chemistry of common things, the phenomena of earth and air and sea. In this way, not only is power developed and knowledge widened, but love of nature is refined and strengthened, and a desire begotten for farther research and information and experiment, and the child brought under in- fluences that may brighten and control his future. But little time, comparatively, has been spent upon this line of work, no definite, specific course for each grade has been formulated, and not yet, as in many places, has a special teacher been employed. An excel- lent beginning, however, has been made, the importance of the study recognized, and a desire for a wider reach and farther attain- ment has been created.
One other improvement has characterized the period we are ยท considering. It is the extension and systematizing of Supplemen-
242
ANNUAL REPORTS.
tary Reading. The day of the ordinary school-reader has passed its meridian. The old books still serve a useful purpose, but they are fast being displaced by cheaper books that contain, not fragmentary and insipid bits of a heterogeneous character, but either generous extracts or complete selections of the best literature, ancient and modern, in prose and verse. Our school reading now runs defi- nitely along four lines, extending and supplementing the work in history, geography, science and literature. Books adapted to each grade are supplied, not in abundance perhaps, and yet in a way to serve practical uses, and to lead to the desire and expectation of future increase, both in number and variety.
A statement of what has been accomplished during these five years would be incomplete without some allusion to the efforts that have been made to secure Additional Accommodations for pupils that wish to pursue a high school course. It is not needful to recite in detail the crowded condition of the present building, the urgent demand for more room, the difficulty in deciding what would better be done, the stringency of the financial situation, or the anxieties and labors of superintendent and sub-committees. Suffice it to say, that at last, all these labors have been crowned with success. Within a few months a location has been agreed upon, an appro- priation of $80,000 made, plans perfected, contracts awarded, and ground broken for a new English High School building, which, in due season, will afford accommodations commensurate with our needs.
Not to prolong this retrospect, mention only is made of the formation of historical class-libraries, which raise the study of his- tory above the plane of merely memoriter excrcises, and of the ex- tension of history study downwards into lower grades ; of changes in methods of teaching geography, which require less time and compel observation and thought and secure expression in its various forms- words, maps, and drawings ; of attempts to co-ordinate language- study with work in geography, history, science, and literature ; and of the complete revision of the course of study, adapting it to the new lines of work.
The inauguration and establishment of all the changes and im- provements thus outlined, together with provision for the rapidly increasing numbers, have been no easy task. The question of
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REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
expense, doubt as to expediency, conservative tendencies, the per- plexities incident to the rearrangement of courses of study, these, and other obstacles have been encountered and overcome ; and, through the persistence and energy of school authorities, the co- operation of teachers, the generosity of the City Government, and the determination of the citizens of Somerville to secure the best educational advantages for their children, the present measure of success has been attained.
IV .- SCHOOL BUILDINGS.
PRESENT ACCOMMODATIONS.
Somerville now has 23 school-houses, containing 148 school- rooms :-
One High School building.
Seven 12-room buildings for primary and grammar grades.
Three 8-room 66 66
Three 6-room 66 66
Seven 4-room 66
Two 2-room
grades.
Two 1-room
6 6
The High School building was made to accommodate 250 pupils, and is of course wholly inadequate for the 625 pupils that have been obliged to crowd into it. The building is substantial, well located, and convenient, and, when the new English High school- house is completed, will suffice for the use of the Classical depart- ment that remains, for many years. Before being set apart for that purpose, however, it should be modified somewhat in the arrange- ment of rooms, thoroughly renovated, and provided with some effective system of ventilation.
The seven twelve-room school buildings are comparatively modern structures, well adapted to school purposes. Two of them, the Prescott and the Bell, are without sufficient means of ventila- tion, a defect that should be remedied at an early day.
244
ANNUAL REPORTS.
The three eight-room buildings have quite recently been erected and serve school uses as well as any eight-room buildings can. With our division of schools into nine grades, a house with eight rooms is decidedly unsuitable, being too small for a fully graded grammar school and too large for exclusively primary purposes.
The single six-room school-house, the Prospect Hill, is an old, wooden structure that has been in use fifty years. Considering its age, it is in fair condition, wholly unventilated to be sure, but, with this important exception, usable. The erection of other buildings, designed to supersede it, has complicated the question of how best to utilize it. It may answer, however, for primary school uses, to which it should before long be wholly devoted.
Of the seven four-room buildings four are creditable to a thriv- ing city. The other three, the Bennett, the Jackson, and the Franklin serve very well to show what was considered sufficient thirty years ago, and illustrate by contrast the advance made in school-house architecture in recent years. They are not only old- fashioned and inconvenient, but they are heated by stoves, they are wholly destitute of means of ventilation, and their sanitation is de- fective. They have been endured because the demands of our rapidly growing city have been so urgent in other directions. Their abandonment or replacement by modern buildings, would be a gratification to every citizen that has the reputation of our city at heart. Each of the two first-named now has a vacant room. As long as these buildings must be used, no pains or outlay should be spared to render their sanitary condition unobjectionable.
The two two-room houses are the Beech-street and the Cedar- street. Both have very properly been condemned years ago. No one claims that they are suitable for school purposes, but their use is enforced by the exigencies of the situation.
The two single-room buildings are the Spring Hill and the Harvard. The former is now closed and should remain so. The Harvard school-house, however, contains sixty unfortunate children for whom some relief should at once be afforded. The country school district that would tolerate such a building, lies remote from Somerville. The house is small, old, unventilated, poorly heated, inconvenient, and overcrowded, while the sanitary features are
245
REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
deplorable. The condition of this school urgently demands imme- diate attention. At least its name should be changed, out of respect to the neighboring university. "The Harvard school on Beacon street" suggests the antithesis of the reality.
OUR IMMEDIATE AND FUTURE NEEDS.
In discussing the question of what additional school accommo- dations Somerville needs, the following controlling facts or princi- ples should be borne in mind :-
1. The population of Somerville in 1900 will probably be not less than 60,000. This means that 2,000 additional children are to be school-housed within the next seven years. This will require, at least, forty new school-rooms. Ten new rooms are needed to-day, to accommodate our present number satisfactorily. Hence fifty new rooms, or the equivalent of twelve four-room buildings must be provided within seven years. This may seem an extravagant demand, but "we have no means of judging of the future but by the past."
2. Our efforts must be constantly directed towards the grad- ual reduction of the number of pupils assigned to a single teacher, to the teachable maximum of forty.
This means more school-rooms, more teachers, larger expendi- tures, but in the language of President Eliot, "to instruct fifty or more pupils to the best advantage, in all the various directions required by the newer education, is beyond the powers of mortal woman." The number of pupils assigned to a teacher must be smaller, or we must be satisfied with slower progress and more limited attainment, -- we must be content with something less than: the best.
3. We should plan to reduce the number of primary pupils now found in our large buildings, and devote these buildings, as far as possible, exclusively to grammar grades.
A four-room building will conveniently accommodate the three primary grades, the lowest grade being generally large enough to fill two rooms. Smaller buildings may be so located as to be easily accessible by little children, while the concentration of grammar grades renders the work of supervision and special teaching easier,.
246
ANNUAL REPORTS.
justifies the employment of sub-masters and thus secures the greater desideratum of more men as teachers. At present one-third of the rooms in our seven largest buildings are occupied by primary grades. In this respect Somerville is exceptional among cities.
4. We should avoid the construction of more eight-room buildings.
They are too small to accommodate the nine grades which must be provided for by our system, and too large for primary school use exclusively. The Knapp school may serve for an illus- tration. This school now contains more primary than grammar classes and pupils. Its fifth and sixth grades are relegated to a building a third of a mile distant, thus destroying the unity of the school and lessening greatly its efficiency. If, instead of an eight- room, a twelve-room building had been erected here, it would now be fully occupied by pupils living within its radius. The same dis- advantages may be experienced within three years in the Glines and Bingham, our other eight-room school-houses. If small buildings must be erected, with a view to future enlargement, let them be sc constructed that they can be readily converted into buildings of twelve, or, at least, of ten rooms.
In the East Somerville district, there has been an increase of forty- seven children since December, 1892. During three months of the year 1893, about fifty primary children attended school on "half- time." This very undesirable plan must be adopted with exten- sions for 1894. The membership of the eleven primary schools of the district is now, -December, 1893 - 627, an average of fifty- seven to a room. Reduce this average to forty-five and add the April contingent, and enough primary children remain to fill a new four- room building at once, with no provision for the natural and inevi- table increase of the year. In these eleven primary schools, beside the regular teachers, six assistants are employed, two of whom are serving without pay, and the others receive $1,550 per year. It will be seen that, in a new building, the increased annual outlay for instruction would be less than $1,000, even if the maximum salaries were paid. The employment of assistants in primary schools is simply the "less of two evils." It is our best available substitute for new school-houses, but it should not be forgotten that it is only a makeshift, to be abandoned at the earliest moment. Sixty chil-
247
REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
dren, sometimes seventy, crowded into a poorly ventilated room, two teachers-one an apprentice-working with suppressed voices and repressed enthusiasm in opposite corners, the attention of all more or less distracted, the exercises often of necessity ill-adapted to a portion of the class,-how far all this comes from the ideal primary school !
Relief from these adverse conditions should come at once from the erection of a four-room building on Broadway, between Union street and Benedict avenue, or on Myrtle street near the Prescott school-house. It would be filled from the Prescott, an eastward movement of pupils, relieving the Edgerly. The Davis school should at once be made exclusively primary, its fourth grade being transferred to other buildings. This will provide another gram- mar grade room in each large building, and distribute among four- teen rooms the primary pupils now crowded into eleven. The
exigency cannot be met by an enlargement of the Davis school- house. More eight-room buildings are undesirable for reasons already given. It would result in more primary children, rather than fewer, in the Prescott and Edgerly schools, and thus retard the conversion of our large schools into purely grammar schools. Besides, the location of the Davis school is such as very poorly to meet the needs of the district. Primary children cannot be turned away from the centres toward which they naturally tend and asked to pass one school-house containing their own grade to reach another at much greater distance.
A little later on, another four-room building should be erected on Walnut street, opposite Sunnyside avenue to relieve the Edgerly school, and possibly the Glines and Forster, all of which will need relief in 1895.
In the Prospect Hill district there has been an increase of six per cent in the school population during the year. This gain, how- ever, has been much more than offset by the withdrawal from the public - schools, mainly in this district, of 500 boys for the St. Joseph's Parochial School. There are now two vacant rooms in the district, so situated, however, as not to be available for the relief of other schools.
The destruction of the Webster school-house by fire on the night of December 14, compelled the transfer of its classes to the
248
ANNUAL REPORTS.
Prospect Hill building. The distance is too great for small chil- dren, but the arrangement was the best that could be made. The enlargement of the Knapp building by the addition of four rooms. to the rear, rendered immediately imperative by the loss of the Webster, will accommodate all the children of the district of which it is the centre. It will permit the transfer of the grammar classes now in the Prospect Hill school-house, and make the Knapp a full grammar school. This will leave the former free for primary school purposes. To it should be transferred primary classes from the Pope and the Bell, leaving room in each of those buildings for the fourth grades now in the Jackson and the Cummings, and mak- ing those schools exclusively primary. Such a movement would greatly increase the efficiency of all the schools affected.
The Winter Hill district has grown more rapidly during the year than any other section of the city, the increase being eight per cent of the school population. The addition to the Bingham school-house, which will probably be ready for occupancy in March, will relieve the crowded condition of the schools of the district, but will not close the Cedar-street school. The relief, however, will be but temporary, and in the not distant future other buildings will be needed.
The pressure in the Spring Hill and West Somerville districts, was relieved somewhat in September by the eastward movement of about one hundred pupils, the Bell school being in condition to receive the surplus. The completion of the Kent-street building will give needed additional relief to the Morse, Beech-street and Franklin schools. It must also close the Harvard school, although the pupils of that school and its vicinity would be better accommo- dated in a building located, as one must some day be, on Washing- ton street, near Calvin. The needs of the locality will before long require a school-house on Highland avenue, near Belmont. Will it not be well to consider this in planning for the future?
The increase in the West Somerville district in 1893, has been nearly seven and one-half per cent of its school population. All three of its schools are badly crowded, and their relief presents one of the most urgent of our immediate necessities. The remedy seems to lie in the addition at once of eight rooms to the Burns school-house. Here is the place for another grammar school centre,
249
REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
in a rapidly growing district and at a proper distance from other schools. A twelve-room building here will take the surplus ninth grade scholars from both the Morse and the Highland, and afford them all the relief in other grades needed at present ; and it will make the Lincoln what it ought to be, distinctively a primary school. Ultimately, another twelve-room building will be needed farther to the west, perhaps on Broadway, opposite Irving street.
Reviewing then the situation given in detail in the preceding pages, we find the essential requirements for 1894 to be :-
1. A four-room primary building in Ward One.
2. The immediate enlargement of the Knapp school-house, by the addition of four rooms.
3. The closing and abandonment of the Harvard school building, and a re-adjustment of classes in the Spring Hill district, incident to the completion of the Kent-street school-house.
4. An addition of eight rooms to the Burns school-house.
An early movement in the right direction will complete these improvements in September of 1894, and place all our schools on a good working basis for another year.
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