USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1898 > Part 18
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ANNUAL REPORTS.
receive additional attention not shown in the table. This arrangement of time and studies may need readjusting and it may be far from the wisest. The facts are presented for infor- mation, thought, and suggestion.
TABLE SHOWING NUMBER OF MINUTES IN EACH 100 SPENT UPON DIFFERENT STUDIES.
STUDIES.
PRIMARY GRADES.
INTERMEDIATE GRADES.
GRAMMAR GRADES.
I.
II. III.
Ave.
IV.
V.
VI.
Ave.
VII.
VIII.
IX. Ave.
Reading, Spelling, Language .
47
48
45
47
39
33
31
34
30
30
3
30
Arithmetic
17
16
15
16
16
18
18
17
18
21
*25
21
Penmanship .
7
7 7
8
7
8
8
8
8
8
8
4
7
" The three R's "
71
71
68
70
63
59
57
59
56
59
60
58
Geography and History .
1
8
10
14
11
16
14
17
16
Physiology and Nature Study
4
4
34 3 4
14 4
8
8
8
8
7
6
6
6
Drawing and Music
14
14
14
14
13
13
11
12
11
11
11
11
Subordinate Studies
18
18
21
19
29
31
33
31
34
31
34
33
Opening and Closing Exercises, Į Recesses and Physical Exercises §
11
11
11
11
8
6
6
7
6
6
6
6
Sewing and Mechanical Drawing
4
4
3
4
4
3
* Including Bookkeeping and Algebra.
GRADING AND PROMOTIONS.
Among the educational questions now uppermost, not the least important is this, " How can the graded school better sup- ply the varying needs of the individual pupil ?" It is an old and perplexing problem that has thus far found no satisfactory answer. Given fifty children with a crowded curriculum, a lim- ited time, and all degrees of intellectual power from the bright, quick, interested girl at the head, to the slow, dull, indifferent boy at the foot of the class, how shall the teacher accomplish
343
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
the taskmaster's work without repression and lock step on the one hand or forcing that leads to failure and discouragement on the other ? Attempts at solution have varied in character and success as conditions have been more or less favorable. In some places a system of double promotion has been found help- ful, but very few can do two years' work in one year without overstrain or superficiality, and the plan affords no relief to those who must plod. In some schools where grammar pupils are massed, skipping classes are formed and the circuit short- ened by one, two, or three years according to capacity., Else- where special teachers are employed to supplement the work of the regular instructor by giving to each extreme the special assistance required. This plan is good, but its cost precludes its general adoption, for it demands additional room as well as more teachers. In some places the pupils are taught in small groups of six or eight each, pushing on as rapidly as possible. This calls for rare gifts in the teacher and may lead to confusion and loss. Here and there the instruction is wholly individual in character, each child working independently of every. other. This requires small classes and skilful management. Some claim to have found partial relief in departmental teaching, but there are losses that offset the gains. While a few localities are satisfied with one plan or another, no scheme has yet been devised equally suited to all the school sof any grade or city.
In our own schools several of these plans have been tried here and there spasmodically, but there has been no general attempt to seek or apply a permanent remedy. Teachers
have been watchful and children of conspicuous ability have been advanced rapidly, but in the main, the teachers have been satisfied to do their best to adapt requirements to the average middle of the class, giving some extra work to the more capable, and leaving the least favored to get what they can, and to repeat the work another year.
344
ANNUAL REPORTS.
The facts with regard to promotions in June, 1898, have been carefully gathered and tabulated and may be found else- where.
They show that out of every hundred pupils on the June promotion lists, seventy-nine were promoted unconditionally, twelve on trial for three months and the remaining nine were left behind to repeat the work. Of every twelve promoted on trial, one dropped back because unable to maintain a satisfactory standing. In other words, of the forty-six pupils now found in the average schoolroom, four are going over the work of the last year. This number is by no means excessive when individual cases are investigated and sickness and changes of residence, the chief causes of interruption to school work, taken into account. And yet in the aggregate the number seems large. Should all of the present ninth grade graduate in June next, their age will average fifteen years five months. As the age at entering is five years seven months, it will appear that in some way nearly one year is lost during the nine years' journey through elementary schools. Two hundred pupils have received special promotion during the current year.
It will be found that the children who are obliged to repeat the year's work are ordinarily included in the following classes : - idle, careless, indifferent boys, whom no pedagogic art can lead or drive to the satisfactory accomplishment of their tasks ; a few who have fallen hopelessly behind by unavoidable absence or ill-health ; now and then an abnormally undeveloped child without capacity ; and some diligent pupils whose minds act slowly, or who are lacking in natural ability along some one line of requirement. Very few of these need a whole year to make up their deficiencies. But as a rule we provide no shorter interval between classes, and they have no option other than to remain victims of an inflexible system.
345
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
A pernicious assumption underlies our course of study. It is that just so much ground must be gone over with equal thoroughness by all pupils in the same time. What is needed is greater flexibility of courses and rules, a greater regard for the abilities and needs of the individual pupil. Why, for example, should not high school courses be extended to cover five years if need be, so that the frail or slow may accomplish their sixty periods of required work at a pace that will not jeopard health or self-respect? Why should we insist that the girl whose mathematical bumps are concave should toil despair- ingly through subjects she can but dimly comprehend, only to be at last deprived of school privileges that the more fortunate enjoy ? Why not allow her, the necessary rudiments of numbers needed in practical life being acquired, to drop arithmetic, or algebra, or geometry, and to spend her time upon what attracts her and in what she excels? Or why should the boy with no taste or ability for grammar, or music, or drawing, be compelled to attain a certain standard in those studies in order to go on with his class and develop in more congenial directions, where his success may be brilliant? Why seek to substitute uni- formity where nature has planned diversity? Would our school system disintegrate if elective studies should be extended into elementary schools ? Shall we not recognize inherent unchange- able differences in children, and modify our requirements accordingly ? Surely the subject is of sufficient importance to awaken interest, and thought, and action among teachers and parents and those who control the methods of the schools. Our hope of improvement lies chiefly along the line of smaller classes and greater freedom of instruction, When the ideal number of pupils is reached, when teachers cease to be tram- melled by unteachable numbers and by too rigid rules, when they are controlled by the single purpose to do the best possible by each child, whose needs and powers they have closely studied,
346
ANNUAL REPORTS.
rather than by the class as a whole, when we cease to expect uniformity of attainment and power and progress, when we consent to give natural taste and talent a fuller swing and a wider range, we shall accomplish more for the child and thus best conserve the interests of the community for whose advan- tage the schools exist.
In this connection the question is raised whether the inter- ests of the schools would not be enhanced by the establishment of ungraded classes, possibly one in each district. There are found in every school, boys and girls overgrown, wilful, indif- ferent, hard to interest and hence to manage, who foment trouble and demoralize the class; unfortunate children of meagre past opportunities ; some who are seeking advancement out of grade movements ; some who are trying to neutralize the effect of absence and need special help ; some who have been left behind and are trying to overtake their classes. In every district at least twenty such - the maximum number - can be found, who might be committed to the tuition of a kindly, sympathetic, wise, tactful teacher with a salary large enough to secure the best, and in this way the schools be relieved and the interests of a class of children who have especial needs be greatly promoted. Such schools are established in other cities, and when managed so that no opprobrium attaches to member- ship therein, are productive of most excellent results.
MANUAL TRAINING.
Recent changes in the Statutes make the teaching of some form of manual training in the grammar as well as the high schools, obligatory upon every city of twenty thousand inhab- itants. The introduction of some form of hand-work for boys in our upper grammar grades is no longer optional.
The requirement is based, of course, upon the value of this line of work as an element of education. Experiments have
347
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
settled the question beyond dispute. The reasons for its introduction below the high school are found in the fact that the curriculum of high schools, particularly in classical depart- ments, is so crowded that a large majority of boys get no time for it. Then, too, many boys to whom this training would be of greatest value, never enter. the high school. Again, the elements of manual training can best be taught to boys below the high school age. "There is a moral as well as an intel- lectual advantage that comes from the correlation of hand with brain, that is very much greater in earlier years."
The Franklin School building is at present unoccupied, and with comparatively little expense could be renovated and fitted with benches and an equipment for wood-working. The building is accessible to the majority of ninth grade pupils. An annual outlay of twelve hundred dollars would provide a. weekly two-hour lesson to eleven detachments of pupils from our large schools.
The following, on the educational value of manual training, is from the last report of the Secretary of the State Board of Education, and is commended to the attention of those interested.
It is the misfortune of manual training that a wide gulf exists between the ideal training intended, and the poverty of the name that is popularly given to it. This name is too suggestive of the hand, of a kind of finger deftness, of a training that is not seriously mental, of a sort of discipline meagre in æsthetic and moral elements, of a preparation for the shop, rather than for a broader life; and so one of the grandest thoughts in education has to struggle against the opprobrium that goes with the poverty of its best known descriptive epithet. This great thought is that ideas are the embodiments of force ; they have a dynamic character ; they stir the motor areas of the brain ; they tend to discharge themselves in action ; they impel, in short, to the doing of things. Now, the
348
ANNUAL REPORTS.
energy that would express itself in ideas may be squandered, like any other energy, in innumerable petty, neglected rills, or it may be gathered up, concentrated and made to do work, precious in itself in utilitarian ways, and precious in its reaction on the mind in intel- lectual and moral ways. Nay, neglect of such guidance of the child's activity into channels of well-considered work is neglect of the child himself. Education of the child that goes on in strictly bookish, sedentary, inert ways reaches only half the child, and makes less of that half than it ought. It engages the brain in but a part of its activities. It leaves the rest to grow as Topsy grew. It ignores the wonderful possibilities there are in training the motor areas of the brain to co-operate with the sensory, - possibilities, on the one hand, of making the physical activities glow with increas- ing intelligence, and, on the other, of having these activities react in a most invigorating way upon the intelligence that inspires them. The tiny associative fibers that bind together the sensory, motor and other regions of the brain, multiplying and growing so as to reflect, as it were, the kind and the extent of the co-ordination that is secured among these regions, are the physical expression of educa- tional processes that merit profound study and discreet guidance. Were it not for the child's spontaneous activity, - an activity always struggling to assert itself, schools or no schools, - he would not fare so well as he now does. Such unguided activity, if not so educa- tionally telling as it ought to be, is, in its way, the child's support and defence in such schooling as he receives. This activity has brought him, indeed, countless woes at the hands of those who have misinterpreted it, but his rebel attitude towards everything that would crush it still persists. When will the world learn that nature is more the rebel than the child ? Take account of his active nature, give it a fair field, utilize the energy that is bubbling up and running to waste, and the rebellion is over. Among the many definitions that may be given to education, this is not without value : education is nobly-inspired and well-ordered self-activity. No educational process covers the field that does not reckon with all the ways in
349
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
which such activity tends to express itself, - ways to be checked as well as to be encouraged. A good school is a successful agency for directing and utilizing the activity of children. And the activity of children is at its best when it leads from play up to work, --- we want men of action ; from instinct up to deliberation, - we want men of reason ; from interest up to will, - we want men of character ; from dependence on others to dependence on self, - we want men of self-reliance ; from selfishness up to altruism, - we want good citizens ; in short, from the lower, natural, uncultured self, up to the higher, ideal, educated self, -- we want the best of which men and women are capable.
THE OUTLOOK.
The answer to the question, " Are our schools accomplishing all they ought ?" depends largely on one's point of view. The pupil, the teacher, the principal, the superintendent, the school board, the parent, the citizen, the taxpayer, the business man, the theorist,-each has his reply conditioned on differing ideals or demands. If the observations and judgments of all of them could be obtained and harmonized and the administration of the schools based thereon, improvements might result. While it is impossible to unify opinions so widely divergent, the criticisms and suggestions of those who see the schools from different angles are both valuable and acceptable, pro- vided always that they are based on positive knowledge. A leading difficulty lies in the fact that the critic's horizon is narrowed by opportunity, or prejudice, or self-interest. Another comes from the impossibility of measuring the intangible results of educational effort and attainment. Knowledge can be tested, but power and character, what alchemy can analyze, what skill can measure them! Time alone can show how far the schools yield these essential products.
It is quite natural for those who are responsible for school management to take optimistic views. There is danger indeed
350
ANNUAL REPORTS.
of complacency. And yet we venture to say of our schools that they are doing well and carefully the work for which they are established. They are fairly well supplying the distinctive needs of the community that supports them. They run with little apparent friction. The relations between teachers and pupils are pleasant. There is the spirit of harmony and co-op- eration among teachers and parents and authorities. Attend- ance is regular, and children are interested in their work and remain longer in school than formerly. Our graduates take high rank in advanced schools and in business pursuits. Visiting experts commend our work. Our teachers are invited to positions more important and lucrative. Those that remain are enthusiastic and progressive, dissatisfied with present attainment, striving for something better.
The last twenty-five years have seen marked advances in at least four directions : - First, in whatever pertains to the physical comfort and well-being of children; second, in the enrichment of school courses, giving wider range and increased interest ; third, in higher ideals and improved methods of instruction and discipline ; fourth, in largely increased high- school advantages and attendance. In all these changes, Somerville schools have shared in greater or less degree. And yet other and equally important changes lie in the immediate future. Among them may be mentioned, smaller classes and the consequent individualizing and specializing of instruction ; the extension of manual training ; the multiplication of kinder- gartens ; the modification of primary school methods to bring them into accord with the natural development of the child's powers ; increased attention to physical needs; the raising of the compulsory school age; the still farther enlargement of high-school facilities; the extension of elective studies, and greater flexibility in the graded system ; still higher standards of attainment and power in teachers; the recognition of
351
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
increased value in service by corresponding increase in compen- sation. In all the inevitable improvements in education which the spirit of the age is sure to demand and to evolve, we must be ready to share. With these changes will come increased burdens, but the compensations will far outweigh them.
The progress of events is rapidly bringing us face to face with new duties and wider opportunities. Never was there greater need in the nation, in the state, in the city, of intel- ligent, loyal, self-controlled citizens. To produce and develop these we rely chiefly upon the public schools. Let us grudge no pains or expense if only they may be made to bring forth men and women, intelligent, brave, patriotic, pure,-trained to think, to plan, to execute wisely and nobly for the maintenance and extension of whatever brings strength, happiness, and prosperity to the state.
The Superintendent extends his thanks to the members of the Board for their wise direction and cordial support and to principals and teachers for sympathetic co-operation during a fifth year of pleasant service.
Respectfully submitted,
G. A. SOUTHWORTH,
SOMERVILLE, December 30, 1898.
Superintendent.
352
Fresh Air Chamber
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Girls Bicycle Room
Boys Bicycle Room
1
clos
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Hall
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storage
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storage
V
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WA
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Fresh Air Chamber
Scuttle ?
Coal Vault
Ash Aret
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PLAN OF BASEMENT.
MARTIN W. CARR SCHOOLHOUSE.
AARON H. GOULD, ARCHITECT.
ANNUAL REPORTS.
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ivestibule!
11 Vestibule
Clos
V
Girls Lavatory
Track for Coal for
WA
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closet
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Corridor'
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Vent
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Hall
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Lecture Hall
Lecture Hall
Wardrobe
Class Room
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Warm kil
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PLAN OF FIRST FLOOR. MARTIN W. CARR SCHOOLHOUSE.
353
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
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Vestibule
Wardrobe
CPUSe
UP
¥
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Corridor
Down
Vent
Down
354
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Class Room
Class Room
Wardrobe
Toilet
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Down
Dowq
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Corridor
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Waiting Room
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Book Closet
Recitation Room
Wardrobe
Wardrobe
Principals office
Class Room
Class Room
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Shelves
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Closet
PLAN OF SECOND FLOOR. MARTIN W. CARR SCHOOLHOUSE.
ANNUAL REPORTS.
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Wardrobe
Powin
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Close
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Class Room
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PLAN OF THIRD FLOOR. MARTIN W. CARR SCHOOLHOUSE.
355
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
book Shelves
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Wardrobe
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APPENDIXES.
CONTENTS OF APPENDIX I.
1. In Memoriam.
2. Organization of Somerville Schools.
3. Evening Drawing School Regulations.
4. Somerville Teachers' Association.
IN MEMORIAM.
MARY S. LAWRENCE died June 24, 1898.
The School Board of Somerville recognizes with sorrow the loss the community has sustained in the sad and sudden death of Mary S. Lawrence, stricken down in the midst of active duty after five years of faithful service in our schools, and desires to place on record its grateful appreciation of the zeal, fidelity and unselfishness with which she devoted herself to the interests of the children under her care.
CLARA M. BAGLEY died July 5, 1898.
Miss Clara M. Bagley completed twenty-five years of con- tinuous service in the lowest grade of the Edgerly School on the 30th of June last, and died on the following Tuesday.
The School Board of Somerville desires to place on record its grateful appreciation of Miss Bagley's long, earnest, and faithful service and of her unselfish devotion to the interests of those under her care, and its cordial tender of sympathy to all to whom her death brings severest loss and sorrow.
363
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
ORGANIZATION OF SOMERVILLE SCHOOLS.
Information concerning our schools is frequently sought by citizens or by school-men in other localities. Following may be found the principal facts concerning them. Additional knowledge may be gained from the Rules and Regulations which are printed on subsequent pages for the benefit of parents and the local public.
KINDERGARTENS. - The city supports five kindergartens, in the Hanscom, Jackson, Prospect Hill, Glines, and Hodgkins schools. Vaccinated children between three and a half and five years of age are admitted to the kindergarten nearest their resi- dence during the months of September and April, and may remain until the July following their fifth birthday. Sessions from 9 to 12.
Head kindergartners receive $600. One trained assistant is allowed when the number exceeds thirty, at a salary of $275, $350, or $425, according to experience. Kindergarten teachers give five hours daily to their work, the afternoon being employed in visitation, preparation, mothers' meetings, and the like.
PRIMARY SCHOOLS. - Our elementary-school course covers nine years, the first three of which are spent in primary schools. We have no exclusively primary school buildings, the eighty-three primary classes being distributed among the twenty- three schoolhouses.
Vaccinated children five years of age, or who will reach that age on or before the first day of January, are admitted during the month of September only, provided they have never attended school before. Children able to enter existing classes will be admitted at any time. Application for admission should be made to the principal of the school.
At present the primary classes contain 3,938 pupils, 43 per cent. of whom are in the first grade, 30 per cent. in the second, and 27 per cent. in the third. Average number to a teacher, 47.4.
364
ANNUAL REPORTS.
Only trained or experienced teachers are employed, the sal- aries being $300, $400, $500, or $600, according to length of service. Normal training is equivalent to a year's experience, and experience in other places is counted in determining salary.
Teachers with classes numbering fifty-six are allowed an assistant, who is paid $200, $275, $350, or $425, according to years of service.
GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. - The grammar classes are found chiefly in eleven large buildings of twelve rooms each. The course covers six years and includes only those studies which the statute requires, with the addition of music, sewing, and elementary science.
Eight hundred and eight pupils were promoted into the fourth grade in June last, at an average age of 9 yrs. 4 mos. Three hundred and eighty-two were graduated in June at an average age of 15 yrs. 4 mos. There are at the present time, December, 1898, 4,581 in the grammar schools divided among the grades as follows : -
Fourth, 1,036, 22.6 per cent. Seventh, 723, 15.8 per cent.
Fifth, 950, 20.7 " Eighth, 553, 12.1 6
Sixth, 824, 18.0 «
Ninth, 495, 10.8
The average number to a teacher is 45.8.
The salaries of grammar school teachers are the same as those of primary teachers. Masters are paid $1,900, and their assistants $675.
PROMOTIONS. - Promotions in all grades from the first to the thirteenth, are made in June by the regular teacher and the principal with the approval of the Superintendent and district committee. They are based on the estimate of the pupil's daily work made by the teacher and recorded bi-monthly. An occasional brief, unannounced written test is a factor in this estimate.
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