USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1896 > Part 13
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263
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
The increase in the cost of High School instruction is per- manent; indeed, it will be a little greater another year. This is to be expected when the increased facilities and extended courses of the schools are considered. It must not be forgotten that the Manual Training shops alone, which State enactment obliged us to open, add more than $4.00 to the annual per capita cost. The cost of the schools is a measure of their value, and it must be borne in mind that these increased expenditures are more than offset by the grand results they are accomplishing. No one can visit our High schools and see the enthusiasm of teachers and pupils and examine the excellence of the work done without being convinced that a full equivalent is being given for all that is received.
Each of the 126 kindergarten children in attendance dur- ing the year has cost the city $17.11, the total being $2,155.35. The 253 pupils who have been present at each one of the 45 two-hour sessions of the evening elementary and drawing schools have cost $11.81 each, more than four times as much pro rata as the day-school pupils, the cost being 13.1 cents per hour in one case and 3 cents in the other.
ADDITIONAL ACCOMMODATIONS REQUIRED.
1. Seventeen new schoolrooms have been supplied this year by the Glines enlargement and the completion of the Hodg- kins schoolhouse. These rooms will accommodate eight hun- dred and fifty pupils, and supply the needs of the districts in which they are located for the present. There is one vacant room in the Lincoln School, which will be occupied in Sep- tember next. The westward movement of children in the fourth ward failed to afford the expected relief to the schools in the Spring Hill district. These schools are crowded to-day. In April one hundred children in them will be on half-time. It is impossible to foretell how the requisite accommodations will be supplied next September. The time has come when the construction of the long-talked-of twelve-room building on Beech street can be postponed no longer. It is needed for the relief of the Burns and Morse schools. It will replace the dark,
264
ANNUAL REPORTS.
dismal, unventilated old chapel that for a quarter of a century has masqueraded as the Beech-street schoolhouse. It will en- able us to close the Franklin building, which has faithfully served its generation for just fifty years, and should be relieved from further duty. It will give the residents of that vicinity what they have long been denied, school accommodations ade- quate to their needs and equal in character to those furnished the more fortunate residents of other parts of the city. The city now owns the lot, containing 11,000 feet of land, to which as much more can readily be added. It is hoped that imme- diate steps may be taken to begin the work at the earliest pos- sible day, in order that the building may be occupied by Jan- uary 1, 1898.
2. The recommendation made in the annual reports of the last two years for a four-room building south of the Fitch- burg railroad on Washington street, near Calvin or Dimick street, is here urgently renewed. It is needed to relieve the westerly portion of the Prospect Hill district and lessen the pressure upon the Knapp School. It will prevent the crossing at grade of the railroad by little children, and it will enable us to abandon that relic of a by-gone age, the Harvard schoolhouse. If the building is ready by September, 1897, it will be filled at once.
3. When the architect's plans for the English High School were presented in the fall of 1893 they showed a building with a seating capacity of about seven hundred, and on this basis they were adopted. The building was constructed accord- ing to the plans, but when the furniture came to be set it was found that the fifteen class-rooms would contain only five hundred eighty-three seats. A portion of one room being needed for biological tables, as a matter of fact only five hundred sixty-five seats were put down. The only possible way to realize the architect's estimate is by halving the number of aisles and placing two rows of seats close together. In this way an additional row can be placed in each room, thus increasing the capacity of the building to six hundred fifty-eight. This, however, would savor of a return to the old-fashioned double desks of our childhood, and would prove but an unsatisfactory
265
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
and temporary expedient. We must then call the capacity of the building as now arranged five hundred sixty-five.
The number of High School pupils has increased twenty per cent. within two years, from causes which have already been given in previous pages of this report. In the English School more pupils have been present at one time this fall than could be accommodated with seats, the surplus being provided for by extra chairs in lecture or recitation rooms. We are thus reluctantly brought face to face with the fact that the English School building, although so recently constructed, is too small to accommodate the school.
Has the school reached the limit of its growth? By no means. During its first year the two lower classes fell off one- fifth in number, eighty per cent. of each class returning in Sep- tember of this year to continue the course. The third class lost only ten per cent. of its numbers. Taking this rate of loss as a basis for the computation, and taking into the account the natural growth of the city, we find that the school will number 625 in September, 1897, 700 in September, 1898, and 743 at the beginning of the school year in 1899. How shall these numbers be provided for?
There is only one way, and that is by an enlargement of the building. Without injury either to the utility or the archi- tecture of the present building, it is perfectly feasible to add a wing projecting towards the rear from each end. These ad- ditions would each furnish seven rooms, and being independent of each other in their construction, could be erected at different times. In one of these wings the existing Manual Training plant could be established, and provision made for the exten- sion of the work to the full course, now impossible in the present quarters. Being practically independent of the main building, the noise of the shops would interfere with no other department. The basement could be devoted to forging and foundry work, the first floor to iron work, the second floor to wood turning and carpentering, and the upper floor to drawing. The other wing would furnish a room for domestic science, six class- rooms accommodating two hundred and fifty additional pupils and a much-needed storage-room for bicycles.
266
ANNUAL REPORTS.
Should some such plan as the one here briefly outlined be thought wise, the addition could not be completed before September, 1898. Some provision, however, must be made for the six hundred and twenty-five pupils that will be enrolled in September of 1897. To meet these needs I suggest that the rooms now occupied by the Superintendent of Schools be changed into a classroom by the removal of partitions. This will furnish seats for forty pupils, and the remainder of the in- crement can be accommodated in temporary seats placed here and there in existing classrooms.
In any event, the Superintendent should be provided with other quarters. In some respects the present rooms are not convenient, but the chief objection to them lies in the fact that the building must be heated and kept open not only when the school is in session, but during afternoons, holidays, and vaca- tions, thus entailing needless expense and inconvenience. It would be an easy matter to provide suitable rooms in the me- morial building, the construction of which is now under con- sideration. Or, if it should be decided not to erect such a building, the proposition to provide accommodations for the School Department and the Overseers of the Poor by altera- tions in the old engine-house on Central Hill is one that could be carried out with comparatively little expense, thus complet- ing the provision of sufficient room for all departments of the City Government for a number of years.
To recapitulate these recommendations in the order of their importance :-
1. The construction of a twelve-room building for Gram- mar and Primary grades on Beech street.
2. The alteration of rooms now occupied by the Super- intendent of Schools in the English High School building into a classroom, and the resultant removal of that official's office to either the projected memorial hall or the reconstructed engine-house.
3. The addition to the westerly end of the English High schoolhouse of a wing projecting towards the north and con-
267
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
taining seven or eight rooms, with a similar extension for a Manual Training plant on the easterly end.
4. The erection of a Primary building of four or six rooms on Washington street, near Calvin.
TEACHERS.
How to secure and retain the services of the best teachers,- and we want no others,-is becoming each year a more seri- ous and perplexing question. We have lost this year 20 teachers, 8 of whom have left us for service elsewhere at in- creased salaries, 3 have given up work on account of health, 8 have yielded to the allurements of domestic life, and one has gone for another reason. We cannot compete with the neigh- boring metropolis or with State normal schools in salaries offered. They draw our very best teachers. To fill the vacan- cies thus caused with teachers equally good is very difficult, if not impossible; hence there is danger that our general average of excellence will be lowered. Thirty-one new teachers have been employed during the year and six positions are yet but temporarily filled. Great care has been exercised to secure pro- fessionally trained teachers of successful experience, but the task is one that requires much time on the part of Superin- tendent and masters. In self-defence smaller cities have been compelled to increase salaries, and thus retain teachers whom otherwise we might secure. The extension of supervision throughout almost the entire State has created a demand for normally trained teachers in or near their own homes. The tendency of late years among high school graduates is to enter college rather than normal schools, and to seek employment in higher institutions. The opportunities for remunerative service for women in other lines of business are constantly increasing. On the other hand, the demands made not only on the time and strength, but on the attainments of teachers, are growing greater year by year, and thus lessening the attractions which the teaching profession once offered. All these things, to- gether with the general recognition of the long-established fact that it is not good for man to be alone, make the supply of good teachers incommensurate with the demand.
268
ANNUAL REPORTS.
What is the remedy? Evidently this: we must offer pecu- niary inducements for the best teachers to come to Somerville, and for those now here to remain. A step in the right direc- tion was taken when the Board placed itself on record as wish- ing to retain its most valuable teachers by a ten per cent. in- crease of salary. Shall we not be forced soon to extend this principle of action to enable us to draw into our service the teachers we want?
Another remedial step was taken in the establishment of a training-school, in a small way, to be sure, but on the right principle, in the Beech-street building. Under the direction of a competent teacher, three or four young women, who have had the advantage of the State normal schools, are getting very valuable experience and training in first and second grade work. A larger building would afford equal facilities for the development of teachers for higher grades. The established principle of admitting to the training-school only normal school graduates must not be violated, for no training-school can supply the place of a normal school. Its purpose is to supplement the latter by experience in actual teaching under wise and skilful direction and criticism.
An order of the Board, adopted in April and designed to prevent the interruption of school work resulting from the avoidable resignation of teachers in the middle of the year, oc- casioned considerable comment at the time. It is, however, founded on sound business principles. We contract annually with teachers. We want their services at least for a full year. We do not care to employ those who will enter upon the year's work only to abandon it at the most critical and inopportune time, to the great disadvantage of the pupils taught. Mid-year changes of teachers, under the most favorable conditions, always involve a loss. In these days it generally means an interregnum of substitute teaching. Some changes of this sort are inevitable, but everything possible should be done to reduce them to the minimum. Several neighboring municipalities are insisting on an unconditional contract requiring a full year's service, more prohibit any surrender of work during the last few months of the school year. " Somerville, however, asks none of her
269
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
teachers to give up professional interests in her behalf, and wishes to hire only those who will, emergencies aside, carry the class work through to the end of the year, giving to the schools their full interest, and vigor, and time.
HIGH SCHOOLS.
Allusion has been made elsewhere in this report to the re- markable increase in the attendance in our High Schools. This is no cause for surprise when we contrast the present accom- modations and facilities with what were provided during the few previous years in the old building. We may always ex- pect a new building and enlarged opportunities to attract a larger number. This has already been shown to be the case in several cities of the Commonwealth which have recently opened new high school buildings. The question naturally arises whether this increase will prove to be permanent. Will the advantages presented lead to a retention of more pupils throughout the course? The experience of a single year may afford no just criterion, but the shrinkage of the two lower classes, in which the losses mostly occur during the school year ending June, 1896, was ten per cent. in the Latin School and twenty per cent. in the English, as against twenty-five per cent. for the last years of the combined school. The shrinkage of the entire Latin School was six per cent., against sixteen per cent. of the English. We may expect the greater permanency of membership in the Latin School, whose pupils enter with the specific purpose of fitting for college. But there is no doubt that the wide range of elective courses, the ample facilities offered in all departments, the attractions of the manual train- ing work, the practical opportunities of the business course, the enthusiasm of both pupils and instructors, and the reputa- tion which the school has already established for wise manage- ment and thorough work, will hold each year a larger number of pupils to complete its course. Relative expansion, rather than shrinkage, may be expected.
The Latin School graduated fifty young men and women in June last, at an average age of eighteen years six and one-
270
ANNUAL REPORTS.
half months. Thirty-one of these have entered college. The English School graduated sixty-seven, whose age was nineteen years and two months. Of these, five entered college, five the Institute of Technology, and six one of the State normal schools.
In accordance with State enactment, and in pursuance of the plan formulated by the Committee on Manual Training, during the summer vacation two rooms in the westerly end of the basement of the English School were fitted up for the ex- tension of the course, to include wood-turning, foundry work, carving, and clay modeling, the expense being $6,843.73. A full description of the Manual Training plant as at present arranged, prepared by its superintendent, will be found else- where. This extension compelled the employment of an as- sistant, Harry L. Jones, of the Providence Manual Training School, who has charge of the mechanical drawing and car- pentry. In the Manual Training department there are at present 96 boys.
The English School suffered the loss, at the end of the school year, of two of its teachers, Mr. Beede, the master, and Mr. Smith, teacher of physics, both of whom left us for in- creased salaries. Winfred C. Akers, from the Providence Train- ing School, a graduate of Wesleyan University, was selected from among a large number of applicants to fill the position of master of the school, and Howard W. Poor, a graduate of Bowdoin, '93, and a teacher of several years' experience, was chosen to take charge of the department of physics. The in- crease of numbers at the opening of the fall term created a demand for an additional teacher in the English department, and Miss Susie L. Sanborn, for three years a teacher in the Gloucester High School, was secured for the position.
At the present time, December 18, the English School has a membership of 572, with twenty-one teachers, an average of 27.2 pupils per teacher. The Latin School contains 268 pupils and nine teachers, an average of 29.8 per teacher.
The following table shows the number of pupils engaged in each branch of study at the present time :-
LATIN.
ENGLISH.
No. in Grade.
No. in Grade.
10
11
12
13
Total.
10
11
12
13
Post Grad.
Total.
Algebra
·
.
1
45
Biology
. .
. ·
·
. .
44
·
·
12.
6
38
Botany
·
. .
·
.
.
. .
. .
·
·
.
1
41
Chemistry
. .
. .
·
. .
. .
·
· ·
4
1
5
Commercial Law
. .
.
·
. .
·
·
· .
210
56
·
·
78
1
555
Elocution
79
67
69
53
268
230
137
83
75
1
526
English
230
157
109
76
·
·
. .
. .
.
53
66
90
157
19
136
14
13
·
·
. .
67
68
135
·
32
14
. .
. .
.
. .
503
History
79
67 .
68
53
267
100
41
5
· ·
. .
146
Latin
78
18
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
74
42
·
·
. .
.
. .
. .
·
·
.
·
.
.
. .
25
1
26
. .
34
·
. .
1
35
Physics
6
Physical Geography
101
77
178
Physiology
37
30
14
81
Stenography
. .
. ·
. .
24
22
14
60
Typewriting
·
.
·
53
132
221
12
. .
·
Bookkeeping
. .
·
·
. .
·
·
.
34
15
2
17
Commercial Arithmetic
·
·
·
. .
6
272
Drawing
572
Ethics
.
2
168
French
163
Geometry
47
German
Greek
.
79
68
147
129
136
172
66
. .
96
Manual Training
1
117
Mechanical Drawing
11
Normal Arithmetic
·
. .
. .
. .
3
:
·
.
.
·
.
·
·
· .
. .
·
· .
·
271
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
. .
13
· ·
29
21
77
43
124
.
.
231
147
98
. .
27
.
42
39
· .
. .
6
2
15
13
20
233
79
. .
1
11
3
STUDIES PURSUED.
272
ANNUAL REPORTS.
NUMERICAL HISTORY OF THE CLASS GRADUATED AT THE HIGH SCHOOLS, 1896.
Grade.
Year.
Number.
Per cent.
Loss per cent.
I.
1884
952
100
II.
1885
655
71
29
III.
1886
630
68
3
IV.
1887
691
73
5 gain.
V.
1888
617
67
1
VI.
1889
589
62
5
VII.
1890
495
52
10
VIII.
1891
460
48
4
IX.
1892
404
42
6
X.
1893
246
26
16
XI.
1894
177
19
7
XII.
1995
141
15
4
XIII.
1896
117
12.3
7
It is both interesting and instructive to note the numerical history of the class that graduated from our High schools this year. As a first grade it numbered 952. Seventy-one per cent. entered the second grade. During the next four grades it averaged an annual loss of only 1 per cent. In passing from the sixth grade to the seventh 10 per cent. dropped out. Twenty-five per cent. of the class entered the High School and 12.3 per cent. were graduated. The average attendance of the class in the High School was 18 per cent. of the number start- ing in 1884.
Of the 10,000 school children of Somerville, 8.4 per cent. are now in our High schools. Under ideal conditions, with these children equally distributed among the thirteen grades, four-thirteenths, or 31 per cent., would be found in the High schools. The ratio of this ideal number, 31 per cent., to the actual number, 8.4 per cent., or 27 per cent., shows the propor- tional part of our children that are actually enjoying the privi- leges of our High schools at the present rate of attendance. This fact should always be borne in mind in considering the cost of our High schools.
The aim of the English High School, its courses of study, and its methods of instruction and management, were fully set
273
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
forth in the last school report. The school has steadily pro- gressed along the lines and according to the principles on which it was organized. In their devotion to their work, in the high character of their instruction, in the enthusiasm and spirit they arouse, in the respect and confidence they inspire, in the influ- ence they exert in the formation of character, and in the untir- ing efforts for the welfare of those under their charge, the Prin- cipal and his assistants are constantly proving the wisdom of their selection, and are making a reputation for the school that is reaching far beyond our borders. Our citizens are to be congratulated in having High School facilities unsurpassed in the State. Each school, in its own especial way, is doing mag- nificent work. The ideals may not yet have been attained, but there will be no relaxation of effort and no satisfaction with results until the highest possible attainment has been reached. We have a right to expect the best things of our High schools, for no expense has been spared to supply them with all the appliances needed. But no wise expenditure will be withheld or grudgingly given so long as ample dividends are paid in the character of the young men and women whose education is thus secured.
COURSE OF STUDY.
During the last twenty-five years our elementary course of study has been four times revised, the last revision being nearly completed. These frequent revisions indicate constant changes in subjects and methods of instruction. There is noth- ing concerning which there is a wider divergence of opinion than prevails as to the arrangements and limitations of courses of study. Over this question the educational world has been in a state of turmoil, of discussion, of experiment, for the last two decades, but as yet no general agreement has been reached. Out of the chaos the ideal course may possibly be evolved, but the process is necessarily a slow one. The peculiar needs of each community must control and shape the work of its schools. Educational experiments are of the most costly kind, for they are often carried on at the sacrifice of the real interests of the schools.
274
ANNUAL REPORTS.
With regard to the perplexing educational problems of the time we have tried to occupy the safe middle ground, avoid- ing either extreme. Without wasting time on experiments, we have not hesitated to adopt whatever has commended itself as answering our needs or promoting our interests.
In the rearrangement of our elementary course of study, which has recently been made, we have placed the study of the English language first and foremost. Under this head are in- cluded reading, spelling, the free and correct oral expression of thought, and some knowledge of the laws of good usage as em- bodied in technical grammar. To constant practice in this work all other subjects of study are made to contribute in greater or less degree, the importance of the modern idea of co-ordi- nation or correlation . of studies being recognized throughout the course.
In arithmetic the work of grades below the ninth has been somewhat extended, in order to make room for the introduc- tion of algebra into the highest grammar grade. The exercises in this subject are necessarily simple, and are to be taken, as far as posible, in connection with, and in illustration of, the principles and applications of arithmetic. In the latter study we have proceeded throughout the course on the supposition that an exhaustive knowledge of any subject and its applications is not needed before the elementary features of another are pre- sented. In other words, the spiral plan is followed. Emphasis is laid on the intelligent understanding of numbers themselves, and of a thoughtful analysis of processes as compared with the mechanical manipulation of figures. The shafts of the critics may well be directed against the ordinary methods of teaching arithmetic as being repressive and stultifying and a waste of time. As against arithmetic itself as a valuable means of developing power and skill when rightly taught, they have little force.
In geography, the old course has been somewhat modified in order to adapt it to the book now in use and to the best mod- ern methods. Less attention is given to physical geography in the ninth grade; the aim throughout is to lead to its recog-
275
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
nition as a logical study admirably adapted to train the obser- vation, the imagination, the reason, and the memory,-some- thing besides a mass of interesting but unrelated facts. It is to be correlated with every other study in the curriculum.
The course in history has been changed by beginning its formal study in the seventh grade, thus affording time for its broader treatment and for the study of governments in the ninth grade. Historical reading is continued in the lower grades with the view of creating correct tastes and likings. The study is to be vitalized by constant excursions into the field of local history, which in our city and vicinity is so rich and broad.
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