USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1893 > Part 14
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capable of doing more. A pupil entering school at five years of age, and passing through our schools without interruption will be graduated from our grammar schools at fourteen or fifteen, and be ready to enter college or technical schools at eighteen. This is early enough for all girls and for most boys, though an exception- ally strong and bright mind may gain a year to advantage. Let us then provide facilities for the more rapid progress of the very few. Let us not discourage the slow by useless repetitions. Let us give to the great majority of average pupils thorough and careful in- struction in those studies that have the greatest educational value and best equip the child for the future. Let us awaken the interest and kindle the enthusiasm of all our pupils, making our schools so valuable and so attractive that they will retain all who enter them to the end of the grammar school course at least.
Careful consideration of the problem of gradation leads to the following recommendations of what seems on the whole best for the present :-
1. Let the grading of the primary schools remain as it is.
The three primary grades are already divided into from two to four sections each, according to ability and attainment. This affords sufficient flexibility to permit the promotion of pupils whenever age or other circumstances render it wise.
2. Let the ninth grade also remain as it is.
A year in this grade is worth as much as two years in previous grades. The instruction is the best afforded in the course. It is given by men and by the ablest women in our entire corps of teachers. It is important that the largest possible number should receive this superior instruction, and that they should have it all the year round. Hence the ninth-grade rooms should be filled at the beginning of the year and kept so till its end. The class may be separated into two sections that all may be occupied to the best advantage. If more work is needed for the brightest pupils the course can be extended as may seem wise.
3. The remaining five grammar grades, from the fourth to the eighth, inclusive, should be divided into two independent sections, according to ability. Each section should advance as rapidly as possible, the second section completing one-sixth of the grammar course during the year, and the first doing as much more as can be done thoroughly. At the end of the year the entire class should
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REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
move on together, each section beginning work where it closed the year, and advancing according to ability. The gap between the sections will widen from year to year, but not necessarily at a uni- form rate. If, at any time in the year, or in the course, it shall appear to the principal that it will be better for any pupil to be transferred into a higher or a lower grade, he should have the power to make the change.
A departure should be occasionally made from our hitherto almost invariable custom, and teachers be promoted with their classes whenever it seems to the principal and superintendent to the advantage of the class. It should be understood by teachers that they may be called upon to do the work of one grade this year and that of a higher or a lower grade the next year.
The rate of progress of the advanced section of any class may not be the same from year to year. It may not be uniform in all sections of the city. Classes differ, schools differ, teachers differ, children differ, and the system should be elastic enough to be readily adjusted to these differences.
The plan here recommended will do no sudden violence to our present system of classification, the transition being gradual. It will apply equally well to all schools. It will not disarrange the work in drawing, music, penmanship or sewing by compelling omissions or repetitions. It will secure all the advantages of the sub-division of classes. It will keep all pupils busy, giving the capable ones an opportunity to move on and gain time. It will lessen the disadvan- tage of those that are obliged to remain more than a year in a class. It will demand of the slow only what they can do. It will increase the pupil's time for study, and develop in him the power of abstrac- tion. It will throw him more upon his own resources. It will encourage his self-activity. It presents to the individual a goal to be reached independently of his companions. It affords the teacher more opportunity to study the child. It lessens the number whose attention is to be fixed and retained, bringing it nearer the ability of the average teacher. It secures the best instruction to the largest number. It stimulates both the teacher and the taught to do their best work. If a teacher retains her class two or even three years, no time is lost in learning the disposition and abilities of new pupils and the attainment of the class. What has been taught the previous
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.
year is well known. Instruction can be adapted to future require- ments. Discipline is made easier. The teacher broadens as the field enlarges. These, and other considerations lead to the conclu- sion that on the whole the plan recommended is better adapted to our schools and their present condition than any other.
VII. MUSIC.
One twenty-fifth of our school time is devoted to the study and practice of vocal music. The time is the same in all grades. Two systems of instruction are in use, designed to secure the same gen- eral results but differing radically in their methods. These differ- ences have so often been set forth and the claims of each have been so fully presented that repetition here is needless.
The National, or old system, is in use in the four upper grades, the Normal, or new system, in the five lower grades. In the upper grades a special music teacher is employed who gives weekly half-hour lessons, an equal time having been previously spent by the regular teacher. In the lower grades a supervisor of music directs the work, visits each class once in five weeks, spends twelve minutes in giving instruction to the class or help to the teacher, who gives practically all the instruction the class receives. To many of the teachers in the lower grades the system is new. It has had but a single year of trial in the fifth grade. The report of the supervisor, which is given below, presents fully the success and the difficulties which have thus far been met.
In the sixth grade the old system is substituted for the new. It is yet too early to judge whether this is to be done without loss of time. There are radical differences in the two methods, but if one is to continue to supplement the other these differences should be so minified and adjusted that classes can pass from the one into the other without loss in any direction. If this cannot be done, it is only a question of when one shall give way, and the bet- ter remain. Each system is on trial, and their relative merits will be largely decided by the results attained.
Attention is earnestly called to what the supervisor says in her report concerning the lack of time to accomplish what she desires and what is expected of her. There are now ninety-seven classes
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REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
that demand her supervision. The work required and the time afforded are wholly incommensurate. Another day should be added to the time used by the supervisor. Three days will allow of monthly visits and a longer period of instruction. The recom- mendation is elsewhere made that ten per cent of the time now given to physical training,-ten minutes weekly,- be added to the music time.
VIII. DRAWING.
Whether considered from the educational, the utilitarian, or the æsthetic point of view drawing deserves the important place in our course of study which it has gradually won during the last ten. years. It furnishes manual training, industrial education, the de- velopment of the artistic sense. It trains the hand, the eye, the judgment, the sense of proportion and harmony. It creates and develops a correct taste and the love for what is beautiful in nature and in art. It is intimately related to other studies. Our methods. are progressive and an effort is being made by our enthusiastic and. efficient supervisor, Miss Balch, to extend and develop our work. along industrial and artistic lines. Attention is called to her report and suggestions.
She says :-
"Everybody has noticed, doubtless, that little children naturally incline to express themselves by drawing, and that they are not afraid or ashamed to talk with the pencil, even though a critical eye may not always be able to understand readily this language of in- nocent childhood. Why is it that after a few years this inclination so completely disappears? Is it possible that nature has implanted in the baby's mind the germ of a growth intended just to spring above the ground and then wither away leaving no trace behind?' Is it not just possible, on the other hand, that the tender shoot dies; from lack of fostering care? Perhaps the food provided may be wanting in some element essential to the thriving of this little plant. Perhaps the sunshine of loving appreciation is withheld ; or it may be that the gentle rain of instruction, which helps to put the food in proper form for absorption, forgets to fall.
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ANNUAL REPORTS.
It has been hoped that this natural inclination of the child to draw, be the expressions in the beginning never so crude, might re- ' sult in something of real value and pleasure to the boys and girls of older growth. It has been hoped that the child would not only be encouraged to give expression to the images, however imperfect, with which his little mind is peopled, but that he might also grad- ually be led to feel that drawing has something to do with seeing, and that the better he sees the more fully he is able to express him- self.
To aid in bringing about these results the little ones in the lower grades are occasionally asked to illustrate, in their own way, stories or poems told or read ; and in all grades the pupils are en- couraged to bring in, each week, drawings from real objects in which they are interested at home.
It is hoped, that, with this work to supplement the regular course of instruction in school, we shall take a decided step towards placing drawing where it ought to be, and towards making it a means of ready expression of individual thought and feeling.
To aid in the teaching of the history of ornament, we need in each grammar school several good books of reference upon this subject, and also a few casts and photographs or prints illustrating the different architectural styles. There is no study which possesses a stronger fascination for children of all ages than this of historic ornament, and certainly none can claim a higher culture value than this.
The teachers are working with earnestness and often with en- thusiasm, and in many cases are encouraging the pupils to use drawing in connection with other studies and to bring occasional sketches from home."
IX. SEWING.
Our progress in this very practical branch of industrial in- struction is well set forth by the sewing teachers themselves.
Miss Boyd writes :--
"Sewing is taught at present in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh grades in our schools.
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1
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REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
The first five months are devoted to practice work, while dur- ing the last five, the pupils bring material from home and are taught to cut out and make some garment or article that will in- clude the stitches and lessons taught in the practice work.
I have found more time to devote to teaching since the yearly exhibitions have been discontinued. The pupils make more im- provement as all can now receive equal attention.
The interest in the work seems undiminished, and pupils are nearly always present on sewing day."
Mrs. Coffin's report is as follows :-
"The introduction of sewing in 1888 was an experiment, but its steady growth in favor and in practical results, shown particularly in home work, proves its success, and gives it a permanent place in the school-room. Much of this success is due to the careful grading of the work, under what is known as the "Somerville Course of Sewing." This course covers a period of four years, corresponding to the first four years of the grammar school, and the work of each year is adapted to its own grade, the teaching being largely class instruction and the work of the class uniform. The results have been very satis- factory, and the gain in time unexpected and gratifying. Judging from this year's work, we shall accomplish the schedule set down for three years in two. It is not easy to give a definite reason for this. The gain has been gradual, but two causes are evident. At first, the scholars were entirely ignorant of the manner of teaching, and of what was expected of them; the teacher had no definite course of instruction ; it was in process of making. To-day the children are perfectly familiar with the methods and requirements, the teacher is equally familiar with the work and tries no experi- ments, and so, much time is gained by teacher and scholar.
Since our last report two exhibitions have been called for, one at the High School, June 17, 1892, where each pupil was represented by a garment of her own making, and one for the World's Fair at Chicago. The Chicago exhibit consisted of thirty-five "Teacher's Models," each representing one step in the graded work, and of numerous articles, including a wardrobe for a child one year old, made by pupils of each grade and showing the combined results of teaching by models in a single garment. Each year was repre-
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ANNUAL REPORTS.
sented in such a way as would best show the gradual develop- ment from the foundation stitches which make a pillow-slip, to the more elaborate work required for an infant's dress. The "Teacher's Models" were small pieces of cloth, six inches by four, made by the teacher to show her especial manner of systematizing and teaching the work year by year. The whole work was condensed as much as possible, and was intended to dis- play.a method of teaching which trains mind, eye, and hand, and gives far greater results than the mere mechanical setting of fine stitches. The exhibit was handsomely mounted on cards twenty- two by twenty-eight inches enclosed in fifteen boxes with glass fronts. It was not entered for an award and of course received none. The Director of the Massachusetts exhibit, Mr. George E. Gay, writes as follows :-
'I have written to General Eaton, the Chairman of the Board of Examiners in this department, as strong a letter as I could, call- ing his special attention to the excellence of the Somerville exhibit in drawing, in color-work, and in kindergarten, and saying that in my judgment the Somerville sewing exhibit was the most satis- factory exhibit in its form, quality, and arrangement of all the ex- hibits in this department that I saw.'
In June upwards of one hundred pillow-slips made entirely in school as part of the regular instruction were sent to the Somerville Hospital, a voluntary contribution from the children of the fifth grade. These results combined with the steadily increasing inter- est of the scholars in the work and the gratifying reports from the homes prove that much is done in this line of work for the per- manent good of the pupil.
The necessity that compels a teacher either to crowd all the pupilsof one building into five classes, often combinining two dif- ferent grades, or to cut short the allotted time, in order to visit other buildings, is to be deplored. A class of thirty-five beginners receives forty-five minutes' instruction while a similar class of twenty elsewhere receives an hour. A class of fifty-three, combin- ing two grades is given one hour, while a single grade of seventeen girls in another building receives the same time. This is an
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obvious injustice as the results plainly show by comparison, but no remedy at present appears."
X. PHYSICAL TRAINING.
Nearly seven per cent of our school time is taken for physical exercises under what is popularly known as the Ling System of Swedish gymnastics. Several years ago when the system was in- troduced a director was employed for a single year and instruction given to teachers. Under her supervision the work was begun and enthusiastically carried to a certain point. Since then the regular teachers have continued the exercises with varying success, as is the case with any kind of school work. Some have taken private les- sons in extension of the course and have applied them in their schools. On the whole there has been a diminution of interest on the part of both teachers and pupils. The repetition of exercises without material change or addition has become somewhat monot- onous. Interest, enthusiasm, spirit, vim are essential to the best results. The least portion of the value of these exercises is found in their effect upon the general physical condition of the children, although this is considerable. They develop the power of close and fixed attention, they demand prompt obedience, they bring the body under the immediate control of the will, they improve the morale of the school. They are the poorest where the teacher's power to discipline is the weakest.
A revival of interest in this line of work is needed, and may be secured with an outlay small as compared with results, by a series of lessons to teachers given by a competent instructor in extension of the course. Not only the teachers who have more recently been employed, but the entire corps would be greatly benefited thereby. It is also recommended that the time given to physical training be lessened ten per cent and that the time given to music be correspondingly increased.
XI. PENMANSHIP.
Of all the branches taught in our schools Penmanship has the least educational value. It is purely a mechanical process. It is one of the "three R's", however, and is an essential
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ANNUAL REPORTS.
practical element of a common school education. It consumes eight per cent of our time, and yet the results are in general unsatis- factory. After all the direct instruction and the abundant practice that children have, it is a justifiable expectation that a grammar school graduate shall be able to write legibly, rapidly, and in pleasing form. The few do, the many do not. The secret of the failure lies n the fact that twice as much time is required to uproot as to form a bad habit. In the lower grades much writing is re- quired and executed in cramped and unnatural positions. Bad habits then become fixed, which the upper-grade teaching and practice have thus far proved powerless wholly to remove and replace.
Teachers are not at fault. The pressing demands of the situa- tion, which require a large amount of written work of the child be- fore he has been sufficiently trained to write with proper position, movement, and form, are responsible.
An attempt at radical reform is now making in all our schools. The twigs are being bent in the right direction. Under the author- ity of the Committee on Industrial Education the "Natural Move- ment Method of Writing " was introduced into the schools in Sep- tember last and its author, Mr. Charles R. Wells, was employed to direct and instruct teachers. Thus far the success of the system has been gratifying. Cramped and unnatural handwriting is being re- placed by that which is legible and graceful and produced by a natural, easy movement of the hand and arm that promises to break up old habits and establish new and correct ones in their place. There will be grave disappointment on the part of teachers and superintendent if excellent permanent results are not secured.
XII. DISCIPLINE.
It would be difficult to find disorderly schools in Somerville. As a rule the children are well-behaved, industrious, courteous, and contented. It is no easy task to secure these results with large classes. It requires patience, tact, skill, resources, the power to interest and keep busy. There are unruly, disobedi- ent, and truant boys in our schools just as there are lawless, cor-
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rupt, and criminal men in our communities. Neither the boys nor the men can be wholly controlled by moral influences. Hence the occasional appeal to force, always reluctantly made, but required for individual and general good. During 1893 the instances of final resort to corporal punishment have happily diminished twenty per cent. Eighty per cent of all the punishments were almost equally distributed among the grades between the second and the sixth, inclusive. This gratifying diminution shows an increase of moral power in teachers and inspires the hope that the use of force in our schools may gradually lessen until the absolutely necessary minimum is reached.
XIII. ECONOMY OF TIME.
Nominally our school year contains forty weeks. In 1893 the schools were in session thirty-seven weeks lacking a half-day. This loss of seven and a half per cent of the time was occasioned as follows :-
School holidays
12 half-days
Stormy weather .
.
8
66
Last half-week in June
.
5
Thanksgiving recess
Middlesex County Teachers' Association
2
66
Ex-Mayor Pope's funeral . .
.
1
.
Total . . 31 half-days
Six per cent of these thirty-seven weeks was lost by the absence of pupils, much of it doubtless necessary and much avoid- able. Children are often kept from school for trifling reasons, and thus incur the loss of school advantages and form the habit of neglecting business for what is unimportant. Schools of the same quality in different localities exhibit marked contrasts in this respect, showing that the influence of the teacher may make itself felt to secure regularity of attendance.
There have been 3,375 tardinesses during the year, a slight decrease over 1892. While this is less than a single tardiness
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3
.
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out of 700 opportunities, the number is needlessly large. The loss of time is considerable, the interruption to school work and the attendant trouble are much more, but the fixing of a bad habit is worst of all. Experience proves that the evil of tardiness may be reduced to a minimum, and the general habit of punctuality in the discharge of school duties be made to replace it. An improvement in this particular is predicted for 1894.
Additional loss of time is occasioned by the custom of dismiss- als of which there have been 2,852 during the year. If parents realized how seriously the dismissal of children may interfere with the work of the school, requests for such favors would be made only in cases of urgent necessity.
In these days of pressure every moment of the school day should yield its full value. Some schools waste by littles ten minutes daily. This is the loss of a week per year. In some buildings the majority of pupils will be found at their desks and at work fifteen minutes before the hour. They gain two weeks of time annually in this way, besides being freed from exposure to the frequently pernicious influences of the play-ground.
In the ideal school every moment is utilized. The teacher comes early ; her own preparation of the day's lesson is previously made ; every exercise has been planned ; ink, paper, pencils, books, slates,-everything is in its place ready for methodical distribution ; promptly on time the doors are opened and pupils are seated and begin work, the blackboard furnishing ample directions ; with the stroke of the clock, school is opened ; each exercise begins and ends at the appointed time ; the transition from one line of business to another is quickly and noiselessly made; there is no delay, no dawdling, no hurry. The silent influence of such a school for good is incalculable. Why should it be exceptional save that it requires energy, system, life, tact, ability in the teacher ?
XIV. SCHOOL SUPPLIES.
The cost of text-books, stationery, and other supplies for 1893 is $10,157.88. This is $1.41 for each one of the 7,217 children in regular attendance. One of the evils of the free text- book system is that it teaches children to undervalue books and
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to be careless and wasteful in the use of the material furnished them. Valuable lessons in thrift may be taught, a suitable regard for the rights of property-owners may be inculcated, the proper treatment of books may be learned, provided teachers insist on what is right in these directions. Doubtless not only pupils but teachers themselves grow to feel that whatever is free costs nothing and may be freely used. Economy in the use of supplies besides teaching profitable lessons, will save the city money needed for other purposes.
As far as practicable a child should use the same books throughout his entire course. Even with good care, after this has been done the books are of comparatively little value to the city. They may be of great value to the child, however, for future use and reference. It would be well to establish a rule that every grammar-school graduate should be allowed to retain certain of his books provided no injury has been wilfully done them while in his possession.
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