USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1900 > Part 13
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165
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
plished. Measured in dollars and cents, it is fourteen per cent. of our annual outlay, or $35,000. Some loss is inevitable, but it behooves every person interested to do what he can to reduce it to a minimum.
Teachers. At the present time 273 teachers are employed in the city, twenty-four men and 249 women. There are twelve men and twenty-eight women in the High Schools, ten men and 117 women in the grammar schools, ninety-one women in the pri- mary schools, eight in kindergartens, and two men and five women serving as special teachers. During the year sixteen teachers have resigned. Of these, six have gone to Boston, Brookline, or Cambridge, lured by higher salaries, six have left the profession to be married, and four have resigned for other rea-
sons. The average term of service has been a little less than five years. During the year twenty-four new teachers have been elected, ten of whom are residents of Somerville. The teachers that have left us were among the best in the employ of the city, and in securing their successors every effort has been made to maintain the standard. Of the new teachers, sixteen filled vacan- cies, three were employed in the English High School, and the re- maining five were placed in charge of newly-organized classes.
Latin School. The membership of the Latin School at the present time is 279, as compared with 254 one year ago. This increase is due to the admission of an unusual number of gram- mar school graduates, 103 having entered in September. The cost of maintaining this school for the year was $15,459, an aver- age of $60.61 per pupil. While this school is comfortably housed, it lacks facilities for certain kinds of work along the lines of modern methods. It has a physical laboratory, so-called, partly underground and destitute of suitable equipment, but the school is wholly without rooms or appliances for the proper teaching of science or drawing. There is also need of a library and a lunch room. The pupils of the school have availed themselves of the advantages of the English School lunch counter during the year.
Notwithstanding these difficulties, the school, under the di- rection of its efficient head master, aided by an able corps of as- sistants, continues to do the same excellent work that has now characterized it for a full generation. It graduated forty-eight students, fifteen young men at the age of eighteen years, one month, and thirty-three young women older by five months. Thirty-one of these graduates have entered college. This class numbered seventy-nine at entering, forty per cent. having fallen out during the four years' course.
The advantages of a five years' course for the Latin School were quite fully presented in the last annual report, but met with little response. The two advantages of the plan are: (1) Getting the college-bound pupil at work on the languages at an earlier age, and (2) relieving the overburdened student by giving more
166
ANNUAL REPORTS.
time to the course. If a new Latin building should be con- structed, these advantages and others could be secured by taking. college-bound pupils as they leave the seventh grade of the gram- mar school and giving them a special course of six years in the Latin School, with the opportunity of shortening it to five years, or even four years, if desirable. This is substantially the plan of the Boston Latin School.
English High School. The crowded condition of this school has been duly set forth in previous pages. It now contains 729 pupils, an increase of thirty over a year ago. Two hundred and sixty-nine entered in September, twenty-three of whom have already dropped out. Since the opening of this school, one-fourth of the entering class have left the school during the first year. A considerable proportion of these have been without sufficient stamina to do the required work. This brief connection with the school does the pupil no good, and is harmful to the school. Is it too much to demand that those who are admitted to the high schools shall agree to remain at least a year, unforeseen contin- gencies excepted?
The cost of maintenance for 1900 was $38,753, being $57.07 per capita .. There were graduated in June eighty-three students, twenty-five young men eighteen years and seven months old, and fifty-eight young women six months their seniors. The class started with 228 members, showing a falling off of sixty-three per cent. during the four years. Of the graduates, sixteen have en- tered technical schools. The number of students in different de- partments is as follows :-
English 733
German 104
History
652
Drawing 575
Mathematics
590
Manual training 146
Science
399
Commercial
188
Latin
141
Stenography 257
French
271
Elocution 733
The citizens of Somerville are coming to realize more and more the character and importance of the work done in this school. Though greatly circumscribed for room and somewhat limited in facilities, the energy of its teachers seems tireless and their resources and enthusiasm unbounded. It is unfortunate that a school so completely equipped in the spirit and ability of its faculty should be denied opportunity for doing its most efficient work. Let us hope that the proverbial determination of our people to secure the best for their schools will bring speedy relief.
The curriculum of this school has borne the test of five years' experience, and has proved admirable in most particulars. It is a question whether it may not be wise to modify it by placing drawing on the list of elective branches for the first, as well as for other, years, and by limiting the study of elocution to two or three years of the course, or by placing it, also, on the elective list. It
167
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
may seem desirable, besides, to extend the commercial course by teaching certain subjects in the second year, that time may be found for additions in the senior year.
There is no reaction as yet in the widespread movement in favor of high school education. The increase everywhere is sur- prising. This growth is neither superficial nor transient. It has come to stay. The demand for higher education at public ex- pense is emphatic and must be met. While the outlay may for a time seem burdensome, it will yield abundant income in the in- telligence and. prosperity of the city.
Table Showing Losses of Classes in English High School Each Year Since Its Organization.
MEMBERSHIP.
Class of 1899.
Class of 1900.
Class of 1901.
Class of 1902.
Class of 1903.
Class of 1904.
December 15, 1st year
192
228
211
217
299
246
2nd “
149
163
153
162
221
. . .
66
3rd
121
119
125
135
...
. . .
66
4th
98
97
108
. ..
. . .
.. .
Graduates
86
83
...
·
...
...
Loss per cent. 1st year .
22.4
24.1
27.5
25.3
26.0
.
2nd
66
18.7
27.0
18.0
16.6
3rd
66
19 0
18.5
13.6
...
...
. . .
66
4th
12.2
14.4
. . .
. . .
Total
.
55.2
63.6
. ..
...
...
...
·
.
Grammar Schools. Four hundred and thirty-four graduates of the grammar schools received diplomas in June last. Of this number 73 per cent. entered the High School. As a fourth grade the class numbered 834, but 48 per cent. dropped out before graduation. There has been very little change during the last twenty years in the average age of grammar school graduates, the decrease being a month and a half only. Thirty-eight per cent. of the graduates of 1900 were under fifteen, but thirty-one per cent. were over sixteen.
The question of promotion in the grammar schools with a view to completing the course in less than six years has been repeatedly discussed in previous reports, without much profit. Sporadic attempts have been made to hasten the progress of pupils through the grammar grades. The results have been meagre and on the whole discouraging. Probably not more than ten per cent. of the graduates have gained time in this way. It is difficult for any save the brightest pupils, and these must be in good health, to take the course in detail in less than the schedule time. There is a tendency among parents to give the time element in the education of their children undue emphasis.
168
ANNUAL REPORTS.
A child may skip through the grammar grades and gain a year or two, but at a sacrifice of much that is valuable. The race is not always to the swift. Mental development has its rate as well as its order of growth, and the unwisdom of attempting to force nature is often seen in impaired health or arrested development. Nor is this rate of growth continuous or uniform in the same individual. Slowness or apparent stupidity in the child may be nature calling a halt while the mind overtakes the body. Ex- perience shows abnormal precocity to be an unpromising sign, while many a plodder by giving nature her way has passed his more brilliant companion in reaching the ultimate goal.
Primary Schools. One thousand and eight children passed out of the primary and into the grammar schools at the end of the school year. In September, 1,065 children entered the first grade, at an average age of five years and seven months. There is a popular impression that the child begins his school life at the age of five. This is not true of Somerville.
In the report of last year a plan was presented and discussed that involved the closing of the kindergartens, the exclusion of all children under five years of age, the elimination of certain features of the first grade work and the substitution therefor of certain lines of kindergarten employment, and the reduction of the first grade session from five hours to three. Only one kinder- garten has been closed, but an approximation of the plan is being tried in various parts of the city under the compulsion of crowded conditions. Fourteen classes of first grade pupils, each averaging forty-six, have occupied seven schoolrooms, one class attending in the morning and another in the afternoon. Two ex- perienced teachers have been present at each session, one having entire charge of the instruction and the other of the seatwork. In this way each child receives as much personal attention from a competent teacher as if he were in attendance five hours. The teacher who instructs gives her undivided attention to the work in hand, while the other teacher has charge of the children at their seats, keeping them constantly and profitably employed. The teachers alternate in their work, the one instructing in the morning taking seatwork in the afternoon. As the morning session is an hour longer than that of the afternoon, the time is equalized by a monthly alternation of classes. In this way each child enjoys a session of two and a half hours through the year.
It is somewhat early to speak of the success of this plan, the teachers engaged in it being about equally divided at the present time in their expectation of accomplishing as much as they have formerly done under the old arrangement. The afternoon ses- sion is too short for a full round of recitations. If three full hours could be given to each session, there is little doubt that the results would be fully equal to those attained under the old plan.
169
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
This can be easily done by requiring one section to attend from 8.45 to 11.45 and the other from 12.30 to 3.30.
The conviction is steadily growing that children in the first primary grade should not be held to ordinary school tasks for more than three hours daily. There is no lessening of the cost of maintenance under this plan, but if it should become perma- nent it would save the construction of ten new schoolrooms. The result of the experiment will be watched with interest.
Kindergartens. Five kindergartens were in operation dur- ing the first six months of the year. It was found necessary, however, to close the one in the Carr in September, to make room for primary children. The attendance is shown in the following table :-
Hanscom.
Jackson.
Prospect
Hill.
Glines.
Carr. t
Total.
Enrollment .
99
87
83
99
54
422
Average Membership .
46
48
37
44
42
*200
Average Attendance .
40
38
30
36
33
*164
Per cent. Attendance .
87.5
79
80.2
81.4
77.4
81.5
Age
4-8
4-10
4-8
4-8
4-8
4-8
*60 per cent. of Carr added. t In session six months only.
The cost of instruction has been $4,637.88, and of supplies $103.23, a total of $4,741.11, or $23.71 per capita.
Expenditures. Excluding what has been spent for repairs and new buildings, the total outlay for school maintenance for 1900 has been $260,403. Each dollar of this sum has been «divided in the following proportion :----
1900.
1899.
Teachers' Salaries
$0.799
$0.788
Supervision
0.018
0.019
'Janitors' Salaries.
0.074
0.073
Heat and Light.
0.048
0.054
School Supplies
0.061
0.066
Total
$1.000
$1.000
Of the $10,000 increase in the salary list, $5,000 results from the raising of salaries, and $5,000 is occasioned by the organiza- tion of new classes. The per capita cost is shown in the follow- ing table :-
170
ANNUAL REPORTS.
Per Capita Cost of Maintaining Schools, 1899 and 1900.
High Schools.
Grammar and Primary Schools.
All Schools.
1899.
1900.
In- crease.
1899.
1900.
In- crease.
1899.
1900.
In - crease.
Instruction
and
$46 73
$48 28
$1 55
$18 18
$18 87 .
$0 69
$20. 80
$21 67
$0 87
Text-Books
5 76
4 46
*1 30
1 29
1 30
0 01
1 70
1 60
*0 10.
Schoolhouse penses .
Ex-
5 64
5 30
*0 34
3 03
3 02
*0 01
3 28
3 24
*0 04
Totals .
$58 13
$58 04
*$0 09
$22 50
$23 19
$0 60
$25 78
$26 51
$0 73
* Decrease.
It will be seen that there has been an increase in the cost of high school instruction of $1.55 as compared with 1899. This is due to the increase of salaries. The cost of supplies is less by $1.30 and schoolhouse expenses by $0.34. The latter is due to. the decrease in the salary of a janitor.
The increase of $0.69 in grammar school instruction is- caused by the general increase in the salaries of women teachers, which took effect in September. The increase of $0.01 in the cost of supplies is offset by the decrease of $0.01 in schoolhouse expenses. The general decrease in the per capita cost in the high schools is $0.09. The increase in the cost of elementary schools is $0.69. The per capita cost of all schools is $26.51, as- compared with $25.78 in 1899, an increase of $0.73, largely due to the increase made in salaries.
The salaries paid at the present time are as follows :-
2 men
$3,000
19 women $900
1 man
2,000
1 woman
850-
9 men,
women
1,900
1 woman
800
1 man
1,850
3 women 775.
2 men
1,700
17 women
725
1 man
1,500
173 women 650
1 man
1,450
11 women
600-
1 man
1,400
8 women
500.
3 men
1,350
3 women
425
1 man, 3 women.
1,200
1 man, 1
woman.
400
1 man
1,100
2 women
360
4 women
1,000
1 woman
350.
Supervision . and
Supplies .
. ·
.
The total salary list at present is $212,045.
Courses of Study. The question of education-vast, com- plex, momentous-has been for the last fifty years the subject of study, investigation, discussion, experiment, criticism, by both experts and laymen. Though there are still wide differences of opinion as to many important matters, the educational world has come into substantial accord upon certain fundamental questions. One of these is that the present common school curriculum is
171
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
suited on the whole to the needs of the mass of children to be educated, that it involves the knowledge and training that chil- dren need, whatever their future is to be. Had educators a. prophet's vision, it might be possible to classify children at an early age and adapt their course of study to their life pursuits. Though it is getting more and more to be the effort to individual- ize instruction, to give genius a chance, to allow the natural bent of the child every opportunity, yet the best we can now do is to- pass all children through a common mold and give them all that knowledge and training which presumably furnishes a sound basis for whatever further education may be in store for them.
The state of Massachusetts insists (1) that all elementary schools shall keep at least thirty-two weeks in the year, (2) that. every child shall attend these schools every day of each of seven years, from the time he is seven until he is fourteen, and (3) that certain prescribed studies shall be taught therein. It has given to school boards ample authority to execute these provisions of law and made the support of schools obligatory upon each com- munity. Moreover, it has given to school committees permis -- sion to lengthen the school year, to allow younger and older chil- dren the privilege of the schools, and to select additional studies. from a long optional list. Acting on this permission, Somer- ville has made its school year forty weeks in length; it has ex- tended the permissive school age to include all between five and seven and above fourteen indefinitely; and it has added to the compulsory studies others from the optional list. Now, if we could take the average child at five years of age, and if he could be invariably constant in his attendance, he could complete the elementary course when the compulsory age limit of fourteen is- reached. This, however, is theory. The fact is that the child is- nearer six at entering, that his attendance is interrupted by sick- ness and other contingencies, and if he graduates at all from the elementary school, it is when he is well started on his sixteenth» year.
Another serious difficulty that prevents our giving to each child the education which it is his privilege to receive is the im- possibility of keeping children in school beyond the compulsory age limit of fourteen. Here is a table that shows the aggregate. number of children in the six grammar grades for the five school. years ending June, 1900, the number dropping out of each grade,. and the per cent. of annual loss.
Pupils.
Dropped Out.
Per Cent. of Los.s.
Grade IV
4,049
· . .
Grade
3,840
209
5.1
Grade VI
3,496
344
8.8
Grade VII
3,177
219
6.2
Grade VIII .
2,522
655
20.6
Grade IX
2,154
368
14.6
Graduates
2,022
132
6.1
Total
4,049
2,027
50.11
172
ANNUAL REPORTS.
These figures show us that eighty per cent. of every fourth grade reaches the seventh, that one-fifth of each seventh grade goes no farther, that one-seventh of each eighth grade drops out, that one-third of the seventh grade never reaches the ninth, and that only one-half of our fourth-grade pupils are graduated from the grammar schools. Seventy-four per cent. of these graduates have entered the High Schools. What becomes of this missing fifty per cent .? Why do they drop out? The great majority leave school on reaching fourteen, mainly to go to work. How can they be retained? Partly, perhaps, by raising the compul- sory age limit to fifteen, and possibly in part by modifying the re- quirements ; nevertheless, the stress of poverty and untoward cir- cumstances will always exclude a large percentage.
If those whose school life is thus shortened could be grouped together, a more profitable course of instruction might be given them, but, scattered as they are over the city, and practically un- "known, this is now hardly feasible. The facts are given to show the need of shaping our curriculum to do the best possible for this important class.
And this raises the grave and perplexing question, How shall we shape our curriculum? How apportion the prescribed studies in kind and quantity to meet the natural order and rate of mental development, how graduate our requirements to the vary- ing conditions of. mental capacity, of physical health, of prospec- tive employment?
Here is the list of the eleven subjects that must be taught "by teachers of competent ability and good morals" in the ele- mentary schools, as prescribed by statute: Orthography, reading, writing. the English language and grammar, geography, arith- metic, drawing. United States history, good behavior, physiology and hygiene, including special instruction as to the effect of al- ·coholic drinks and of stimulants and narcotics on the human sys- tem, and, in cities of 20,000, manual training. From the permis- sive list we have added, within a dozen years, bookkeeping, na- ture study, sewing, physical training, and civics. Music has been taught in our schools from time immemorial.
Here, then, are seventeen subjects, each with an almost un- limited range, to be assigned to the right period of the elementary course of nine years. All but one of them may be taught in se- lected grades. The exception is "physiology and hygiene, which, in both divisions of the subject, shall include special in- ·struction as to the effects of alcoholic drinks, stimulants, and nar- cotics on the human system." For some inscrutable reason, this subject is to be taught, not as other studies, to special ages and grades, but " as a regular branch of study to all pupils in all schools,"-from the fledglings in the kindergarten to the seniors in the high schools.
It may not be amiss to consider briefly the absolute and rela- tive value of the subjects selected for our elementary schools. And first, as to the permissive branches.
173.
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
Bookkeeping is taught only in the ninth grade, as an applica- tion of arithmetic, and is limited to a knowledge of simple ac- counts by single entry methods. An hour a week is spent upon. it during the latter half of the year.
Civics is also studied in the ninth grade only in connection. with history, the object being to give the graduates a clear idea. of the salient features of the municipal, county, state, and national. governments. Is this too much to expect of children in their six- teenth year ?
Sewing has been taught to four grades of girls for eleven. years, and consumes one hour weekly. It is, of course, a form of manual training. It has a decided practical value, and is a relief from the severer strain of school work. It would be a step back -- ward either to abandon or to restrict it, and any proposition to do- so would meet with emphatic protest.
Vocal Music has been systematically supervised and taught for nine years in the primary grades. It affords rest and recrea- tion, it is a means of healthful exercise and pleasurable training,. and it cultivates the aesthetic and ethical sense. It trains the ear to appreciate and enjoy good music, and it gives the ability to sing at sight any ordinary musical composition. It requires an hour a week in grammar, and an hour and a quarter in primary grades. This time may possibly be shortened, but much curtail- ment would mean a distinct loss, and its abolition would raise a revolt.
Ten years ago the Ling system of physical training was in- troduced as a substitute for open-air recesses. The exercises re- quire an hour each week, furnish change and relaxation, and. theoretically, at least, promote the physical welfare of pupils. No. more advantageous use can be made of the little time now spent. in this direction.
Nature Study, or, more properly, elementary science, is a: comparatively recent introduction into the elementary school cur- riculum. It is one outcome of the conviction that has taken pos- session of the educational world that "education should include not only the study of man and his languages, history, and litera- ture, together with mathematics, but also the study of man's sur- roundings, his physical environment, of the world in which he is placed and on which he so largely depends." The fact that there is hardly a reputable school in the land in which it is not studied, nor a normal school without its special course for the training of teachers in this direction, shows the hearty welcome it has re- ceived and the interest it has awakened. So new is it that some- misconception exists regarding its purpose, methods, and char- acter. It is the study of nature, not through books,-none are. used,-but directly through some of her thousand manifestations. It leads to the close observation of the familiar phenomena of na- ture. It includes the study of plants, animals, and minerals, and, in explaining the facts of nature, involves the elements of physics-
174
ANNUAL REPORTS.
and chemistry. Of course some scientific nomenclature is used, and scientific methods of arrangement and classification are neces- sary, but these are only incidental to the main purpose.
What does nature study do for the child? In the language of Professor Scott, of the Oswego Normal School, it aims :-
1. To awaken an interest in the wonderful world about him, and to cultivate a sympathy with the life of which he is a part.
2. To develop his higher nature, aesthetic, ethical, spiritual, and lead him upwards toward the Author of nature.
3. To train his intellectual powers and form right habits of obser- vation, thought, and study.
4. To give him a knowledge of the facts of his physical environ- ment.
Its secondary, or subordinate, aims are :-
1. To give the child such an understanding and appreciation of na- ture as will enable him to appreciate and enjoy the literature and art which have been inspired by nature.
2. To give the child clear impressions which shall serve as one basis for the expressive work of the schools,-language, reading, drawing, modeling, and arithmetic.
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