USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1899 > Part 11
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Among the losses that we have sustained, it will not be in- vidious to mention that of Winfred C. Akers, the master, and Merle S. Getchell, first sub-master, in the English High School. Mr. Akers had rendered us efficient service for three years, and is now filling the important position of head master of the Hol- yoke High School. Mr. Getchell was connected with the school from its organization, and as head of the history department had done much to strengthen the school. In September he began his duties as principal of the high school in Hyde Park.
John A. Avery received a prompt and merited promotion to the vacant mastership, and Fred O. Small, of Machias, Me. (Bowdoin, 1895), and William I. Corthell, of Leominster (Wil- liams, 1895. Harvard, 1894), were selected from among many ap- plicants to fill the vacant sub-masterships.
The increase of 100 pupils in the English High School made necessary the employment of four additional teachers. Harriet E. Tuell (Wellesley, 1891, Cornell, 1894), was called from the Fall River High School to take charge of the department of his- tory. Hila H. Small (Boston University, 1896) was released by the Fitchburg High School, and was engaged as teacher of English. Bertha P. Marvel (Boston University, 1896), of the Murdock School, Winchendon, was chosen as teacher of French. Bessie L. Forbes, a graduate of the school, was appointed assist- ant in the department of stenography.
Besides these five teachers, thirty-one others have been en- gaged during the year to fill vacancies or for new schools, making a total of thirty-six new teachers, one-third of whom were resi- dents of Somerville.
Expenditures. The cost of maintaining the schools for 1899 was $244,914.91. This is exclusive of what has been spent for new buildings and for permanent repairs, and includes the cost · of teaching, supervision, the care and heating of schoolhouses, and supplies. Each dollar of this sum has been spent for these purposes in the following proportion :-
Teachers' Salaries. $0.788
Supervision
0.019
Janitors' Salaries 0.073
Heat and Light. 0.054
School Supplies 0.066
Total
$1.000
131
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
The following table shows the per capita expenditures for the year :-
Per Capita Cost of Maintaining Schools, 1898 and 1899.
High Schools.
Grammar and Primary Schools.
All Schools.
.AMOUNT PAID FOR
1898.
1899.
In- crease.
1898.
1899.
De- crease.
1898.
1899.
In- crease.
Instruction
and
Supervision .
$45 51
$46 73
$1 22
$18 34
$18 18
$0 16
$20 83
$20 80
*$0 03
Text-Books
and
Supplies .
4 44
5 76
1 32
1 37
1 29
0 08
1 65
1 70
0 05
Schoolhouse
Ex-
6 39
5 64
*0 75
2 90
3 03
+0 13
3 22
3 28
0 06
Totals .
$56 34
$58 13
$1 79
$22 61
$22 50
$0 11
$25 70
$25 78
$0 08
* Decrease.
t Increase.
-
It will be observed that there has been an increase of eight cents in the general per capita cost. The cost of instruction has decreased three cents, but the cost of supplies and that of school- house expenses have increased five and six cents, respectively. The increase of five cents in the cost of supplies is due to the ne- cessity of equipping 100 new pupils in the English High School with a complete set of books, and also to the furnishing of new books for the 300 pupils in the Perry School. The extra cost of six cents for schoolhouse expenses is owing to the fact that more has been paid for janitors and for coal and water than in the pre- vious year.
Modern appliances for schoolhouse heating and sanitation are naturally more expensive than those less effective.
The following schedule shows the salaries that are paid to teachers at the present time :-
2 men
$3,000
1 woman
$750
1 man
2,000
3 women
725
9 men, 2 women.
1,900
1 woman
700
1 man
1,800
16 women
675
2 men
1,700
3 women
650
1 mar
1,500
171 women
600
2 men
1,400
6 women
500
3 men
1,300
5 women
425
1 man, 3 women
1,200
1 woman
400
1 man, 4 women.
1,000
1 woman
360
18 women
900
1 woman
350
2 women
850
1 woman
800
1 woman
200
:
penses . .
·
Making the total salary list at present $196,210.
In addition, there are employed during the evening school term one teacher at $5 an evening, two at $4, six at $3, seven at $1.50, and from seven to twelve at $1 each, a total of about $3,500.
132
ANNUAL REPORTS.
Increased Accommodations. For the English High School. The pressing need of the enlargement of the English High School building was presented to the School Board a year ago. That body laid the necessities of the case before the City Govern- ment in January, and reiterated the facts in September, but all to no avail. The predictions made in December were more than fulfilled at the opening of the schools in September, when 725. students thronged a building whose actual capacity is but 600. This condition had become assured at the end of the school year in June. As a last resort, the seats at either end of the lecture hall were replaced by desks, curtains dividing the room into three so-called apartments. Here the additional 125 pupils were seated. This derangement makes but a poor substitute for class- rooms, as the curtains furnish little or no obstruction to the passage of sound. In addition to the coat rooms heretofore pressed into service for recitation purposes, two others were taken at the ends of the middle corridor. In this very unsatis- factory way a temporary provision for the present numbers has been made. The capacity of a school building cannot be meas- ured by the number of children that can be crowded into it by utilizing every nook and corner. A more correct measure is the number of teachers that can be provided with suitable classrooms,. laboratories, and recitation rooms for the convenient and health- ful accommodation and instruction of the twenty-five pupils that should be assigned to each. Judged by this standard, the Eng- lish High School is deplorably overcrowded. If such is the pres- ent condition, how shall we fittingly picture the state of affairs in September, 1900? At that time at least 750 students will seek and demand the privileges and opportunities which the school was es- tablished to provide. It will be a physical impossibility to ac- commodate them under existing conditions. If immediate action should be taken by the City Government, it would be impossible seasonably to complete any enlargement that might be under- taken. Do the best we can, the efficiency of the school will be jeoparded, if not materially lessened. Unless we are ready to sacrifice the interests of the school, the value of which to the com- munity is unquestioned, some plan for providing increased ac- commodations should be adopted at once and executed with all possible despatch.
The plan that was suggested and discussed last year seems, upon further consideration, the easiest of execution and, at the same time, the most economical. The extension should double the capacity of the present building and make provision for future growth. It must provide at least ten classrooms, six large reci- tation rooms, another science laboratory, four rooms for manual training, one or two rooms for domestic science, a larger library, and other accommodations needed for a thousand students. Be- sides this, it is possible, at a comparatively little expense, to pro- vide a centrally located hall that will seat 1,500, and that will
133
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
supply a room in which the entire school may assemble, and in which large public gatherings may be held. All this involves large expenditure, but no one can visit new high schoolhouses in Cambridge, Malden, Fitchburg, Springfield, and Holyoke with- out realizing how meagre and inadequate our accommodations are for a large school. The growth of our city, the demand for high school education, the welfare of our youth, all these compel increased facilities, which we are sure will not be grudgingly given by the generous and public-spirited tax-payers of a city in which education is held in such high esteem.
In Ward 2. It was expected that the opening of the Perry School would not only relieve the, congestion at the Knapp, but render it possible to dispense with the use of the wardroom in that building, which is entirely unfit for school purposes, being poorly lighted and heated, and wholly unventilated. The Perry School, however, was easily filled to repletion by contributions from the Carr, Durell, and private schools, as well as from the Knapp, without accomplishing the relief of the last named. The wardroom is still in use, and several of the rooms are crowded. The district is growing rapidly, and more room should at once be furnished. The Perry and Prospect-hill schools will furnish annually forty-five or fifty pupils for the Knapp. A little reflec- tion will show that no twelve-room building can receive a fifth class annually from an outside feeder without very soon overflow- ing. Ten rooms are needed to accommodate the nine grades, the first grade usually filling two rooms. If a fifth-grade class enters each year, in five years five additional rooms will be needed, and so any building that is fed from without, as well as from within, should contain at least fifteen rooms. This has been repeatedly exemplified in different portions of the city. There must, then, be a plethora of pupils sooner or later in all our large buildings, unless they are either increased in capacity or provision is made for the removal of primary classes from them. The Carr :School, for example, contains fifteen rooms, and can receive a class yearly from the Durell without crowding. To relieve the situation in this ward, it is recommended that another addition of four rooms be made to the Knapp School. There is ample room at the front of the building, and such an enlargement may be at a minimum of expense. At the same time, a much-needed improvement should be made in the removal of the present in- adequate heating and sanitary arrangements and their replace- ment by more modern apparatus.
If this addition should fortunately be completed in Septem- ber, 1900, three of its rooms would then be occupied. If without much expense, an assembly hall could be furnished in the third story, it would be of great advantage to the school and a public convenience to the district.
In Ward 17. Practically identical conditions exist in this ward. It was necessary to close the kindergarten in the Hodg-
134
ANNUAL REPORTS.
kins School in September to make room for a fifth class from the- Lincoln. Another fifth, and possibly a fourth, class must be transferred thither in September next. There will be no room for them, however, the graduating class being replaced by the fifty children that enter the first grade.
No section of our city bids fair to grow more rapidly for the next few years than that which naturally feeds the Lincoln and Hodgkins schools. This growth will be promoted by the proposed new boulevard and the" extension of trolley lines. It is therefore recommended that a six-room building be erected on Simpson avenue, just beyond the Hodgkins School. This will receive the primary children of the district, and leave the present building to be devoted exclusively to grammar grades. This substantially repeats the conditions that will prevail at the Forster when its annex is completed. The- erection of a building in any other part of the district would not answer, for the removal of primary classes from the Hodgkins to. make room for the graduates from the Lincoln is a necessity.
For reasons already stated, the Highland School cannot re- ceive classes from the Burns until provision is made elsewhere for the primary classes now in the former. Plans should be early made for a six-room building located sufficiently near the High- land School to accomplish this desired result. If this building: should be placed near the corner of Willow and Frederick ave- nues, it would fulfill the recommendation made two years ago.
The residents in the extreme northerly part of ward 5, in the vicinity of Meacham street, are very poorly accommodated as to- schools. The primary children have too long a walk to reach the Glines School, which they now attend, or even the Forster. At no distant day a four-room building should be located in this- vicinity.
In connection with increased accommodations for primary and grammar schools, what has been said in previous reports con- cerning new grammar school centres should be borne in mind. It is wholly needless to entail unnecessary expense upon the city in this wav. The reasons are fully given on page 29 of the re- port of 1898.
Defective Lighting. In the last two or three reports atten- tion has been called to the increasing weakness and defects in vision in school children without making much impression. The subject is so important, however, that we again recur to it. No. expert examination of the eyes of pupils has ever been made in our city, but tests have been repeatedly made in other cities, and always with results that occasion surprise. Not only is the num- ber of children with defective sight unexpectedly large, but, in repeated instances, both parents and teachers have been surprised to find unsuspected cases of optical weakness of one sort or another. Defective vision is more common in the higher grades. There can be no doubt that it is aggravated, if not caused, by per- nicious school conditions and requirements. One prolific source
135
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
of injury is insufficiency of light. Great care is taken in the light- ing of modern schoolhouses. Light is admitted behind and at the left of pupils. Front lights and cross lights are carefully avoided, and, above all, light is abundant. In general, experts demand that the lighting surface shall be from one-fifth to one- sixth of the floor surface. It should never fall below fifteen per cent. The following table shows the ratio of floor surface to win- dow surface in Somerville schoolhouses. It will be noticed that the newer buildings have fifteen per cent. or more of lighting sur- face. But the object of printing the table is to show how con- spicuously defective is the lighting of several of the older build- ings. Special notice should be taken of the last six buildings in the list, notably of the Bell, Prescott, and Forster. In these buildings the lighting surface is half of what it should be, and averages but little over one-tenth of the floor surface. It often happens in these schools that classes, particularly on the lower floor, are compelled to suspend eye-work altogether, and even in the sunniest days in some rooms the light is inadequate. It is possible to increase the light in these houses fifty per cent., at least. The expense and trouble will be considerable, but cer- tainly the end justifies the means.
Teachers cannot be too careful in the management of win- dow shades to see that all possible light is secured. They should .. remember that light from the top of the window is most valuable, because it reaches the farther side of the room.
Ratio of Floor Surface to Lighting Surface.
Lincoln
0.250
Hanscom
0.234
Carr. .
0.205
Davis.
0.194
Perry
0.192
Pope .
0.191
4 rooms 0.157 - 32 feet from window to outside row.
English High
0.182
· 4 middle rooms 0.134.
Cummings.
0.174
Knapp
0.172
1 room 0.10.
Durell.
0.166
Morse.
0.162
4 rooms 0.083.
Latin High. .
0.159
4 rooms 0.106 - main rooms.
Hodgkins.
0.155
4 rooms 0.125. 8 rooms 0.169.
Glines ..
0.147
2 rooms 0.117. Wardroom 0.08.
Jackson.
0.136
Highland.
0.130
Burns ..
0.125
Old rooms 0.113. New 0.138.
Edgerly.
0.116
Bingham.
0 110
Prescott
0.106
Bell
0.103
Bennett
0.104
Prospect Hill
0.103
Forster
0.095
136
ANNUAL REPORTS.
Time Lost. The year whose history we are recording has been free from dissensions, sensationalism, epidemics, and other conditions that tend to interfere with progress and the attainment of the best results. The schools have kept on 185 days, or 925 hours, ten and one-half per cent. of the entire year. And yet there are some who feel that children spend too much time in school, and advocate the further curtailment of their privileges. There have been eight sessions lost through the severity of the weather, ten by legal holidays, and twelve sessions have been taken from the theoretical forty weeks to lengthen the vacations.
The month of June was practically lost to the Bell School by what proved to be a needless panic regarding scarlet fever. The Perry School lost the opening week because the building was not ready. Exasperating and seemingly avoidable delays in com- pleting the Burns enlargement cost that school the entire month of September. As before remarked, eight classes in the Forster have been on four-hour time for four months of the year. Nine classes in various parts of the city have each lost three days that their rooms might be used for election purposes. Teachers thus forced to be idle have been paid $1,600, an unproductive expendi- ture of money that might have been avoided. It is to be regretted that the use of schoolrooms as voting booths still seems to be meedful. To be sure, the schools are now using three ward- rooms which they would delight to relinquish for something bet- ter, and it is quite certain that if schoolrooms were not available for voting purposes, more suitable places would readily be found.
The Latin School. No school holds higher rank or a warmer place in the esteem of our citizens. It does a definite and specific work most effectively.' The rigid examinations which its graduates pass and their subsequent careers show that, as a fitting school, it does not fall below the high standard set up by Harvard University.
With a membership of 264, it graduated fifty-one, seventy- four per cent. of the sixty-nine that formed the class at the be- ginning of its four years of membership. Of these graduates, thirty have entered college.
It is interesting to note that this is relatively to population a much larger number than neighboring cities sent to college at the same time.
Two questions have been very properly raised : (1) Whether by transfer of pupils, or in some other way, this school may not be utilized to relieve the pressure upon the English School; and (2) whether there may not be some enlargement in its courses or modification of its work that will result to the advantage of its pupils and attract larger numbers.
In the discussion of these questions it must be borne in mind that, for many years before the high school was divided, its chief and most important work was the preparation of students for col- lege. To this all other courses were subordinated. When the
137
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
:school was divided it was understood that the Latin School should be distinctly a preparatory or fitting school, designed for college-bound pupils and others who might for any reason prefer a so-called classical education. All other courses were relegated to the English School. Again, it must be remembered that the capacity of the school is measured by the number of teachers that may work simultaneously and effectively in the building, and not by the number of pupils that may be crowded into its rooms and corridors. Under the present arrangement of the building, only eleven teachers can thus work, there being but eleven rooms that can be used for recitation purposes. The present class-unit in the school is twenty-eight pupils. In Cambridge it is twenty- .one. The standard is twenty-five to a teacher. On this basis the pupil capacity of the building is 275. If it were called 300 on the basis of the existing class-unit, the school would accommo- date fifty more than its present number.
As to the transfer of pupils, all those who are taking college ·courses, whether regular or alternative, should attend the Latin School, notwithstanding the tendency to open college doors to graduates of English schools.
Concerning the transfer of students fitting for the Institute of Technology or other scientific schools, it may be said, first, that their present number is too large to be accommodated in the Latin School; and secondly, that it is essential that these stu- dents take the course in manual training, mechanical drawing, and chemistry, work possible only in the English building. As to the transfer of those preparing for normal schools, aside from the fact that they cannot all be accommodated in the Latin School, it should be noted that eight of the thirteen subjects re- quired for admission to those schools are provided for only in the English School. While one or two students enter normal schools each year from the Latin School with distinctively col- lege preparation, there is a very decided preference on the part of normal school authorities that those who seek admission should have specific preparation for these schools with their future work as teachers definitely in mind.
If the English School were not overburdened with its own numbers, and if the question of divided responsibility and author- ity could be adjusted, some Latin pupils might pursue certain kinds of work with English classes. Under existing conditions, however, this can be done only to a very limited extent.
Concerning the extension of courses in the Latin School and the enlargement of its work, the following considerations should have due weight. There is no reason why the pupils of this school should not receive optional instruction in certain subjects that do not require previous preparation, such as drawing, elocu- tion, ethics, physiology, physical training, etc. The difficulty in the way is that the great majority of them have no time to spend in this direction. To fit for college in four years requires good
138
ANNUAL REPORTS.
health, close application, and hard study. At the present time an average of eighteen and a quarter periods out of a possible twenty-five are taken by each pupil in recitations that require thorough previous preparation. In Cambridge the average is about sixteen periods per week. Adding one period spent in music, only six periods remain to be devoted either to study or to the extra unprepared work suggested above. Now it takes the average pupil as long to prepare a lesson as to recite it. Many require more time. This means four or five hours of study. Whatever is subtracted for unprepared work from the limited time afforded in school must be made up by study at home. It is doubtful whether more than a very few stu- dents either can give or ought to give additional time to school duties. Rest, recreation, health, and home cares have claims that cannot be ignored.
This brings us to the consideration of the question whether the course in the Latin School may not wisely be extended to cover five years instead of four. Undoubtedly the physical and mental strain of preparing for college in four years is severely, if not injuriously, felt, and deters many students from undertaking it who would and could accomplish the task in five years. Edu- cation is not simply the acquisition of facts ; it is growth, develop- ment, power. It is a process of digestion and assimilation. In all these time is an essential factor. Will it not be better to begin. the work of college preparation a little earlier, or continue it a little longer, and thus gain time to accompany it by the consid- eration of additional subiects that contribute to culture and to health ?
In this connection the experience of one of our neighbors, whose educational conditions are much like our own, may be- profitable. In the Cambridge Latin School the college prepara- tory course covers five years, but one student out of every fifteen completing it in four years. Very few students are admitted: from the eighth grade, although the work of the last four years of the grammar school course is completed by many in a shorter time. There is less of the forcing process, sixteen periods per week being the average recitation requirement of each pupil. Time is afforded for optional or unprepared subjects, and greater consideration is shown for the hygienic welfare of the pupils dur- ing a very important period of their lives.
The addition of a fifth year to our Latin School course would mean an increase of fifty pupils and two teachers. It would make. it possible to spend time on the optional subjects already named. Pupils could be admitted from the eighth grade, or the last two. years of the grammar school could be somewhat modified in the interest of college-bound students. Relief from possible undue- pressure would be assured, time would be gained within school hours for work that now requires each Friday afternoon of two. teachers and an entire college class. There would result distinct:
139
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
gain in the scope and efficiency of the school. The whole ques- tion is one that may well receive the early consideration of the. board.
The English High School. Notwithstanding its crowded condition, which has previously been described, this school con- tinues to maintain its high standard of excellence. Although it has lost two of its strongest teachers, the enthusiasm, esprit de corps, and efficiency of its instructors remain unchanged. The six new members of its faculty have entered heartily and success- fully upon their work. Its students are interested and loyal, and there is no diminution of effort in any quarter to merit the con- fidence and support hitherto accorded.
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