USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1893 > Part 13
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 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34
As for the High School, it must struggle on for one year more, when the completion of the English High school building will. bring the long-looked-for and welcome relief.
V. TEACHERS.
There are now 189 teachers employed in our schools, twelve men and 177 women, as follows :-
GRADES.
MEN.
WOMEN.
AMOUNT PAID.
High
3
11
$14,700.00
Grammar
8
80
64,350.00
Primary
60
33,025.00
Kindergartens
3
1,700.00
Special
1
4
3,933.00
Assistants
19
4,150.00
12
177
$121,858.00
250
ANNUAL REPORTS.
Of the 170 regular teachers, 104, or sixty per cent, have been appointed within five years ; 130, or seventy-five per cent, have been elected during the last ten years, while the remaining twenty- five per cent have been in the service of the city on the average between seventeen and eighteen years each. The average term of service for our entire corps of regular teachers is six years.
These statistics show that the majority of our teachers have somewhat recently begun their work in our city; that changes among them are of frequent occurrence ; that our teaching force is constantly being recruited with teachers, fresh from other fields, bringing new life and methods, and full of the enthusiasm and am- bition of those with fortunes to make; that there is a gratifying permanency in a good teacher's position in Somerville ; and finally, that the work of securing new teachers that shall maintain our high standards, must of necessity require much time and sound judgment on the part of those charged with the duty.
Of these 189 teachers, sixty-eight are graduates of normal schools ; seventeen are college graduates ; eleven are graduates of training schools ; fifty-two are graduates of the Somerville High School ; twenty-seven are graduates of other high schools; and fourteen were educated in private schools, academies, etc.
It will be seen from these figures that thirty-six per cent of all our teachers have had the professional training given by normal schools ; that nine per cent are college graduates ; that six per cent have supplemented a high school education by a year in some training school ; and that forty-eight per cent, about one half of all of them, entered upon the work of teaching with the education which an ordinary high school gives. Some of the latter have come to us, however, after considerable experience elsewhere.
The changed conditions and constantly increasing requirements in our schools demand in teachers wider culture, broader knowl- edge, and professional education. Many are meeting the demand through private instruction, university lecture courses, and summer schools. Our normal schools will soon close their doors to all but high school graduates. In some quarters the call is already for college graduates for grammar schools. Elsewhere the demand is met either by special teachers or by the departmental plan of in- struction. The day has passed when a high school graduate has
251
REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
the boldness to offer herself as teacher without some form of pro- fessional training.
How to supply our new schools with teachers and to fill the places of those whom larger salaries allure elsewhere, is a question of increasing perplexity. It is more and more difficult to attract the best teachers from other cities and towns where we have for- aged successfully in the past, for in self-defence they are raising salaries to keep the teachers we want.
Our plan of employing assistants is well enough when they are normal graduates, but the training which a high school gradu- ate thus receives, is limited in its range and often obtained under such unfavorable conditions as to be of little value. Teaching is now everywhere recognized as a profession, and it will not be long before it will be as rare to see a man or woman begin to teach without a normal or training-school certificate, as to see a physician practising without the endorsement of a reputable medical school. No quacks will be tolerated in either profession. Teachers, besides possessing native ability, good character, and the requisite amount of knowledge, must know the laws of the mind, how it grows, the complex nature with which they are called to deal, the methods most likely to help them in developing every side of this nature, and the successive steps through which the individual, like the race, must pass in its progress towards the highest attainment.
The conversion of one of our largest schools into a training school seems to be a necessity forced upon us by the situation. At its head should be a master of the art of teaching. One half of its teachers should be experts in one department or another, the sala- ries being sufficient to attract the best talent. Here twenty inex- perienced normal graduates might be received and given opportu- nity to observe the best teaching, and under the direction of per- fectly competent instructors, to have abundant practice in the art in every grade. This student corps would furnish the other half of the teaching required in the building. Those that displayed no aptitude for the work should be dismissed. All should receive such salaries as are now paid to assistants. These teachers in training would be excellent substitutes. In such a school the pu- pils would be decidedly the gainers, and the expense attending it would be no greater than at present. Other cities have such
.
252
ANNUAL REPORTS.
schools, and their success is multiplying their numbers. The plan is respectfully urged upon the attention of the committee.
This portion of the report cannot be closed without bearing witness to the character of the teachers now employed by the city. In the main they are well equipped either by training or experi- ence or both. They are conscientious, hard working, enthusiastic, faithful. Their lot is not an easy one, notwithstanding the popular impression. They are expected to make the school. They have heard ten thousand times, "The teacher is the school." They know that the plastic material will forever bear the impress of their own characters. They must be what their pupils should become. Preparation to teach the lessons of the day ; search for methods new and fresh ; effort to know intimately the personal traits and qualities of each one of half-a-hundred children ; solicitude as to how best she may reach the heart and move the will of some troublesome boy or girl ; the exhaustive physical labor of teaching ; the difficulty of keeping fifty active, enquiring minds in restless bodies occupied and thus under control ; time to examine in detail the visible product of her pupils' work ; anxiety to reach and in- fluence the child in his home life, his reading, his amusements ; constant worry as to how to accomplish ten days' work in a week's time ; the desire to please the powers that be, and to do all that is expected of her ; reading to keep abreast the times and to supply anew the fountain of her own knowledge ; study in preparation for enlarged requirements ; oftentimes the care of others dependent upon her for loving service ; the depression of feeling that when her best has been done the results, to her, at least, are unsatisfactory- all these things involve a nervous strain and a tax on strength and enthusiasm and energy that demand for recuperation and rein- forcement all the time and opportunity that the vacations furnish. Teachers are assured that their fidelity and labor are appreciated, not only by school officials, but by the public, who realize their in- debtedness to them, the most useful members in any community.
VI. THE WORK OF THE SCHOOLS.
The kind of work done in our primary and grammar schools has been quite fully indicated in a preceding portion of this report.
253
REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
An examination of the following table will show the various studies and exercises of our primary and grammar schools, together with the relative amount of time spent upon each during the nine years of the course, according to the schedule now in force.
PER CENT OF TIME SPENT UPON EACH STUDY
STUDY OR EXERCISES.
DURING THE THREE PRIMARY YEARS.
DURING THE SIX GRAMMAR YEARS.
DURING THE ENTIRE COURSE OF NINE YEARS.
Reading
29.22
15.06
19.78
Arithmetic
14.78
17.50
16.58
Language
6.66
11.78
10.06
Penmanship
7.56
8.00
7.85
Drawing
9.33
6.66
7.56
Opening Exercises and Recesses
8.22
6.67
7.18
Physical Training
6.67
6.67
6.67
Geography .
2.67
8.22
6.37
Physiology and Elementary Science
5.33
5.33
5.34
Spelling
5.56
3.67
4.30
Music
4.00
4.00
4.00
History
0
3.78
2.53
Sewing and Mechanical Drawing
0
2.66
1.78
It will hardly do to consider the apportionment of time as shown in the foregoing table as a measure of the educational value of the different studies, nor of their practical value, nor even of the sum of these values. Some allowance must be made for the diffi- culties, or the limitations of a subject, or its adaptability only to the child's maturer years. When we say, for example, that one day in every five throughout the child's entire primary and grammar school course of nine years, is spent in reading, let us remember that reading is the essential basis of all other studies. Let us not forget that while there is a constant gain in this direction, his time is not wholly spent in learning how to read, in simply securing possession of the key to the world's great storehouse of knowledge without unlocking and entering it to gain a little, at least, of what it contains. No ; the child reads in school, as we hope he may when he leaves it, for information in the realm of history, of travel,
1
254
ANNUAL REPORTS.
of science, of nature. He reads to cultivate a taste and a desire for what is beautiful and worthy in literature, for the uplifting influence which comes from intercourse with the good and great who speak in the silent language of the printed page.
It may be thought by some critics that an undue proportion of time is given to number-work, one hour in every six for each of the nine years. But if the testimony of business men as to the ability of the average grammar school graduate to meet the demands of the counting-house is a criterion, the time spent is much too small, or, more probably, the methods of inst.uction are at fault. Others still may claim that music is subordinated to other exercises, physical training, for example.
It is probable that our present time schedule will need modifica- tion in the near future, and it is presented in this form that the whole matter may receive due consideration. Every teacher feels that the demand upon her is incommensurate with the time allow- ance. This is particularly true of the special teacher, who, having but a single subject in hand and but one end to secure, may forget the true correlation of studies, and feel that the claims of the special branch he has in charge are ignored or minified. As the impor- tance, now of one subject and then of another, is urged upon the attention of teachers, the temptation is very strong to overstep time limitations and emphasize one study at the expense of others. The best that teachers can do is rigidly to adhere to the time prescribed, using it to the utmost advantage, and leaving the responsibility of success or failure to those who have thus prescribed it.
Prominent among the questions now agitating the pedagogical world, is the one that has reference to changes in the grammar school curriculum. Extended college courses have led to increased demands upon fitting schools, and they, in turn, are enquiring whether some of the work done by them may not be done in gram- mar grades. Discussions upon the true educational value of different studies have given expression to widely differing opinions. Here manual training is supplementing if not superseding mental training. There the "three R's," so long deemed of paramount importance, are being subordinated to other things of assumed greater value. Experiments are making with a view to the evolu- tion of what is best. Educational empiricists are advocating the introduction into the grammar schools of Latin, French, German,
255
REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
algebra, geometry, physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, geology, etc. The incoming of the new involves the exclusion of the old, for no one advocates lengthening the time by either daily or annual increase. Indeed, there are some that, with all the so-called enrich- ment, clamor for a reduction of the time spent in education. The various exercises of the schools are being tested to ascertain their relative educational and practical value,-their value in strengthen- ing and training the intellectual faculties as distinguished from their value in informing and equipping the student for some specific em- ployment in the future.
Out of all this discussion, and investigation, and experiment, good will come, and the fittest will survive. It would be strange indeed if, in the onward march of human progress, out of the research and thought and discovery of this wonderful age, there should not come changes in the lines of school work that may seem to the conservative well nigh revolutionary. Meanwhile, those of us whose purse or wisdom restrains our ambition to lead in this empirical procession, would better be content to wait until the best is revealed, incorporating into our schools, one by one, the changes that may appear wisest under existing conditions.
Not all communities have similar educational needs. Where wealth abounds and opportunity for collegiate or professional train- ing offers freely, provision should be more abundant for facilitating the pupil's progress toward the college. Where the young are early thrown upon their own resources for a livelihood, and the demands of the situation force pupils out of school before graduation, the course of study should be so arranged as to do the most for the non- graduates. Of course, in all our cities the latter class predominates, but not in equal degrees.
The great majority of children do not go through our schools, but drop out all along the way. To show to what extent this is true, the graphic illustration on page 256 is presented. Each of the thirteen grades now in our schools is represented by a column whose length shows the relative number of children in it. It will be observed that more than one-half our children are in the four lower grades, while but one-twelfth of them are in the High School, and one sixty-sixth in the highest, or graduating class.
The second illustration on page 257 shows the numerical his- tory of the class that was graduated from the High School in 1893.
256
ANNUAL REPORTS.
PRIMARY.
GRAMMAR.
HIGH.
1st Year
2d Year
3d Year
4th Year
5th Year
6th Year
7th Year
8th Year
9th Year
10th Year
11th Year
12th Year 94
13th Year
112
160
246
435
545
575
634
733
798
823
921
This diagram shows the number in each grade of the Public Schools of Somerville, December 15, 1893.
The Primary Schools contained 41 per cent, The Grammar Schools contained 51 per cent, The High School contained 8 per cent of the whole number.
1360.
257
REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
1880.
1889.
1893.
1894. 40
82
281
The diagram at the left shows the numerical history of the class that graduated from the Somerville High School, 1893.
In the 1st Primary grade in 1880 it numbered 781 mem- bers. During the nine years of the Primary and Grammar course 500 fell out, and 281 graduated in 1889 from the Grammar Schools.
Of these, 187 entered the High School, but during the four years of the course 105 dropped out leaving 82 to graduate.
Of these 82, 40 are now, December 15, 1893, in college or scientific schools.
781
258
ANNUAL REPORTS.
From these facts and illustrations it is evident that in Somer- ville, at least, the course of study should not be controlled by col- lege requirements. Our pupils leave school to engage in commer- cial or industrial pursuits, and what we do for the great majority of them must be done below high school grades. To show how well they meet the requirements demanded by the commercial world, the recent utterance of a clear-headed business man is given :-
"I will state what a business man has a right to expect, when. he seeks a young man just from your grammar or high school to. fill an important position :
First, fair penmanship and reasonable orthography.
Second, ability to quickly learn how to properly express the wishes of his employer in business letters.
Third, diligence, honesty, and interest in the success of the work he is expected to perform.
Fourth, quickness in figures, so far as relates to plain, practical. arithmetic.
Fifth, habits of neatness in dress, and manly deportment.
Sixth, self-reliance and ability to state facts and opinions relat- ing to his occupation.
Seventh, the habit of close observation, and a mind so disci- plined that it is an absorbent and retains what comes within its. observation.
Now, what does the business man find in nine-tenths of the boys whom he takes from the school for the purpose of making them useful in his business and enabling them to gain a better living than by digging ditches or driving teams? He finds poor penman- ship and absolute inability to write properly a very simple business- letter, even at dictation ; listlessness, and little interest in his occu- pation, but a great desire, however, for more money than he is- worth ; inability to cast up a column of figures, and inaccuracy even in counting money, though the youth may have been at school an adept in solving arithmetical puzzles ; lack of politeness and manly deportment ; difficulty in expressing clearly his thoughts ; no habits of close observation or of reasoning, and perfect oblivion as to what he ought to observe, even in matters closely relating to. his duties ; as for correct orthography, as a matter of course, he cannot spell."
This may be an exceptional experience and not characteristic of this latitude, but without stopping to question whether our critic's employees were typical boys, we must admit that the demands he makes are not extravagant, and should be supplied by our schools.
259
REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
If we fail to secure expected results, may not the cause of failure lie in the attempt to do too much, both in variety and in quantity ? The conscientious and faithful teacher feels that the re- quirements of the course of study must be met. Telling is quicker than teaching. Inciting the pupil to self activity is a slow process. Fifty listless, or mischievous, or waiting children demand her care. There is no time to study the individual and meet his wants. But the prescribed work must be done, and so the perplexed and har- assed teacher takes the shorter road, does the child's work for him, and he, poor fellow, continues to depend on educational crutches. Let us remember that courses of study, like text-books, are a means, not an 'end. They are suggestive, and not to be blindly followed. What is taught is far less important than how it is taught. One thing done by the child for himself is better than ten that he sees another do for him. The good of the individual child must control the teaching. But, alas ! what is one teacher among so many !
A distinguished educator gives this sound advice to teachers : "Simplify your methods as much as possible ; distrust the artificial aids that complicate the process of learning ; bring your pupil face to face with reality ; connect symbol with substance ; make learn- ing, so far as possible, a process of personal discovery ; depend as little as possible on mere authority ; adapt teaching to the suc- cessive stages of development of the child ; and [above all], make haste slowly."
IMPROVEMENTS IN GRADING.
The question of the best method of grading schools is now under discussion, and confronts us for consideration. The opening of the English High School in 1895 will necessarily change the re- lations of the grammar schools to the high schools. The depart- ment of college-bound pupils will be mainly fed from the eighth grade of the grammar schools, while the other departments will re- ceive their supply from the graduating classes as heretofore.
Our schools as now organized contain three primary and six grammar grades. Each class-room contains fifty children all of one grade. During the year they are all expected to do the same
260
ANNUAL REPORTS.
amount of work, complete one-ninth of the course of study, and at the end of the year be ready to move on into the next grade. This would be well enough were they all equally capable, similarly cir- cumstanced, equally regular in attendance. But this is never the .. case.
Every class of fifty pupils contains a few bright, active minds capable of doing rather more than the assigned work. It also con- tains the opposite extreme, a few pupils of slow mental develop- ment and perhaps some others who have fallen behind through sickness or other misfortune. These two extremes constitute about a third of the class. The remaining two-thirds, the great body of the class, are children of average powers just about able to accomplish what is required. Of course this average two-thirds set the pace for the entire class. But if a uniform rate of progress is attempted this pace will prove too rapid for the dull and slow, some of whom at the end of the year must inevitably drop behind, the course for such being practically seven years or more. The bright and active portion, however, have hardly work enough to keep them busy and must either wait for the majority or move on inde- pendently of them.
This defect of the graded school system has long been acknowledged, but, having been assumed to be inherent, no rad- ical attempts to apply a remedy have been made until recently. The problem to be solved is,"How shall we give each pupil the opportunity of working and progressing to the extent of his ability without holding back one or unduly urging forward another ?"
Its solution has been attempted in various ways. Hitherto in our own city competent pupils have been allowed to jump into a higher grade at any time during the year. In this way, in 1893, 285 pupils, an average of three to a class, have received a double promotion and gained a year. This plan is used in the city of Newton, where it gives satisfaction.
The chief objection to it is that it is only half a remedy. It provides for the bright ones but does nothing for the slow. They are still obliged to repeat their year's work, while a slower rate of progress or a few months of review would suffice. There are now in our city 553 of this class, an average of about four to a room, who are now going over the work of the year a second time. This
261
REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
is necessary for some but not for others. Another objection is that it involves passing over some portions of the course super- ficially or omitting them altogether. It frequently entails vacation study and extra labor for the teacher and often proves too severe a strain for the delicate but ambitious child. In Cambridge, where the grammar school pupils are massed in a few large buildings, the work to be done has been arranged in two courses, one to be com- pleted in six years and one in four. At two points in either course the pupil may pass from one into the other and so get through in the intermediate period of five years.
In other cities grammar schools have been re-organized with the six-year course divided into twelve grades five months apart. Two of these grades are placed in a room and promotions made semi-annually. In this way a jump from one grade to another covers but a half-year's work, while those that retrograde fall back only half as far as under the old plan. This system, however, still encourages superficial work, though to a lessened extent, and affords only a partial relief.
In our own city this plan has been tried to a limited extent, with the exception that the principle of two grades in a room has been extended downward to include primary schools.
Two obstacles stand in the way of the adoption of this plan in our city, however desirable it might be on the whole.
The most serious difficulty arises from the impossibility of our moving classes semi-annually from room to room. We admit to the High School but once a year, and our rooms are so crowded that it is not possible to reserve room in the master's grade for mid- year promotions. Another obstacle is the inapplicability of the plan to schools already having two grades in a room.
In the settlement of any question of school organization the con- ' trolling principle should be the greatest good of the greatest num- ber. It will not be wise to make a violent change in the gradation of our schools simply to accommodate the bright or college-bound children without due regard to what is best for the great majority whose education ends in the grammar school. Our aim should be not to shorten our school course or to hurry children through it, but rather to improve the quality of the work within present time limits, and if need be, to add to its quantity for the benefit of those"
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.