USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1900 > Part 15
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AVERAGE NUMBER OF MINUTES SPENT IN STUDY DAILY IN SCHOOL AND AT HOME OCTOBER 20 - NOVEMBER 2.
GRAMMAR.
Average Age.
In School.
At Home.
Grade VI
12-2
75
23
Grade VII
13-1
70
40
Grade VIII
14-0
60
48
Grade IX
14-10
70
73
ENGLISH HIGH.
Grade X
15-8
60
123
Grade XI
16-6
76
107
Grade XII
17-3
64
136.
Grade XIII
18-7
48
137.
LATIN HIGH.
Grade X
15-3
85
165,
Grade XI
16-4
82
148.
Grade XII
17-1
78
173
Grade XIII
18-5
69
164
The inquiry went a little farther and sought to ascertain how many pupils have other work along educational lines, such as
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SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
music or elocution, and how many boys have regular occupation of one sort or another. The returns show that thirty-six per cent. of the girls and forty-four per cent. of the boys in the Eng- lish School, and thirty-seven per cent. of pupils in the gram- mar schools are thus occupied. There were no returns from the Latin School. It thus appears that sixty-three per cent. of chil- dren in the four upper grammar grades and fifty per cent. in the English High School are at liberty to devote their entire working time to school duties.
It is unanimously conceded that high school pupils must of necessity, and should of propriety, study at home. Here and there is one who seems to be carrying too heavy a burden, but the great mass of pupils in both High Schools are apparently doing the work with ease and credit. Relief for the overburdened is easily found in the extension of the time. Five years may be taken by any one who chooses to complete the Latin School course. In the English School a rule should be made that 2,400 periods of prepared work accomplished in three, four, five, or even six years should entitle one to a graduate's diploma. This gives those who for any reason are unable to keep pace with the regular class work an opportunity to secure all the advantages of the school without endangering health or overtaxing strength.
The transition from the ninth grade to the tenth, that is, from the grammar school to the high school, should be like that from any other grade to the one next higher, for our school course is theoretically an unbroken one of thirteen years. As far as en- trance to the high schools is concerned, the principles which apply to other grades control here.
The work of the high school, however, makes greater de- mands upon the student's time and labor than he is prepared for. It is not easy for him to adjust himself to the change from two sessions to a continuous one of five hours, with at least two hours of home study. All his studies are new, with the exception of English and history, and even these are pursued under new methods and conditions. He is thrown upon his own resources, finds his teacher not always at his elbow, and labors under condi- tions that test his power of self-reliance and independent action. The strain is severe, and under it many pupils leave school during the first year in search of easier tasks. These conditions prevail in many, if not most, high schools, and disclose a defect that can be remedied only by placing greater responsibilities upon the pupil during his elementarv course. There is no reason why the ninth grade should not prepare him to do high school work suc- cessfully. Indeed, much is done in this direction, but habits of study, application, and self-help cannot be formed in a single year. They require time for their growth, and should be fostered from the outset.
In discussing the question as to what extent the work of the school should be carried into the home, the following considera- tions should be borne in mind, and each given due weight :-
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ANNUAL REPORTS.
1. From his sixth to his nineteenth year the matter of su- preme importance to the child is his education. In this the school is the chief factor, and should hold the first place.
2. Legitimate, but subordinate, demands are made upon his time by home employments, private instruction in music or elocu- tion, religious and social duties, and recreation of various sorts.
3. The school should demand nothing in any wise detri- mental to the health of children. The great majority of school children, probably ten thousand out of the eleven thousand in our schools, are normal children, active, healthy, vigorous. A small minority, however, are of peculiar temperament and in delicate health and unable to carry as much weight as the majority. The interests of this class should be very carefully considered.
4. The school year is short. School buildings are open on only one-half the days of the calendar year for four and three- quarters hours each day. Two days of each week are rest days, during which no school work is done. Seven legal holidays in- terrupt the monotony. Every ninth week is a vacation. Two months of the year are a period of absolute rest.
5. Sixty per cent. of the children in our schools have nothing to do except to sleep, to eat, to play, and to discharge their school duties.
6. Every child thirteen years of age or over needs to have some regular specific employment for a portion of his leisure hours. Set tasks, interesting, pleasurable, profitable, are more effective than any curfew law in keeping children off the streets at night. Nothing useful to do breeds indolence, weakens the power of effort, begets mischief.
7. Through home tasks the parent is kept in touch with the school, learns the progress of his child, and is enabled to stimu- late, restrain, or counsel, as the needs may be ..
8. The tendency of some teachers to make unwise exactions should be recognized.
9. Half the time in school is spent in occupations that do not severely tax the pupil, and less than one-third of the time is spent in actual study. The child is often required to study while a wide-awake teacher and an interested section of the class are engaged in a livelv recitation that diverts his attention. The best intellectual effort is made in quiet, if not in solitude.
10. If home tasks are given they should be specific and definite, parental assistance should be prohibited, the work should be done chiefly in the morning, never on Saturday or Sunday. They should be of such a nature as to be completed by the majority of the class in thirty, forty-five, or sixty minutes, respectively, in the three upper grades. Parents should always be able easily to secure exemption from home tasks for their children on the ground of health or for other sufficient reasons.
These considerations, bearing on the general question in its different phases, are presented as the result of much observation
185
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
and reflection, and as a contribution to the discussion of an im- portant matter.
Drawing. The following communication has been received from the supervisor of drawing in response to the following questions :--
1. What is the chief value of drawing as at present taught in our schools?
2. May not those pupils who are destitute, seemingly, of taste and skill omit the study altogether?
3. Might not drawing be made optional for pupils in the eighth and ninth grades?
4. Cannot the time now given to drawing be shortened ?- Mr. G. A. Southworth, Superintendent of Schools,
Dear Sir: To your inquiries I submit the following replies :-
1. Drawing in the schools has become more truly art instruction. Its scope is no longer limited to so many minutes a week, but "its aim is to enlarge the pupil's breadth of view, open to him the world of beauty in nature and the great realms of the arts and crafts, train his taste, and give him a degree of skill." (H. T. Bailey.)
Mr. Frank A. Hill, secretary of the State Board of Education, says that art instruction may be judged from two standpoints, the objective and subjective. One gives the work of the classroom, the other the re- sults found in the minds and hearts of the children. "To give artistic tone to the industries of the state we need two things. We need people who crave beautiful workmanship on the one hand; we need people who can supply the craving with beautiful workmanship on the other hand. When we have this demand and this supply we shall have a hopeful con- dition of things."
2. From this point of view of general culture, it seems equally valuable for all pupils. The attempt to do has its value, even to the less talented, as it leads to a better appreciation of others' good work, while for those with more skill it often influences their future.
3. Art training in the schools is akin to the study of literature. Some children will never read nor write fluently, even after years of training, but do we, for that reason, deny them the knowledge of the best literature ?
Some pupils will never produce an artistic result, but is that any argument why they should not become familiar with the finest art of the world, why their taste should not be cultivated by this contact? This knowledge comes intuitively to very few. It is the result of training. ""We want correction of mind back of the form of expression."
Are children in the grammar grades old enough to decide what studies are best for them? Do they realize that no education is complete which is one-sided; that the character which is touched on all sides is the well-rounded one?
For this reason alone, it seems necessary that all pupils should have the benefit of the art instruction throughout their course in the public schools.
4. The time given to drawing could be reduced in the primary grades. Already we have striven to make drawing the expression of thought in all study, rather than so many minutes a day set aside for drill. "Imported one-hour-a-week art is a failure. A spirit of beauty pervading every school exercise will give us beautiful handicraft in every department in our complex life." (H. T. Bailey.) Respectfully,
Mary L. Patrick.
Newtonville, December 20, 1900.
186
ANNUAL REPORTS.
Penmanship. In May last, after an experience of less than two years with vertical writing, it was decided to abandon it in favor of writing with a forward slant of twenty-five degrees, to be executed with a combined forearm and finger movement. At that time the writing in all grades, considered simply as a product, was decidedly superior in uniformity, legibility, and general ap- pearance to any obtained in our schools in the last twenty-five years. It was awkwardly produced, however, with cramped posi- tions, and no attempt was made to secure what is called muscular movement.
In the system now in use there is little change in the form of the letters. The writing is round and open, capitals and loops being invariably twice the height of small letters. In the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades penmanship exercises are written with movement, with results ranging from crude to fairly good. School exercises, however, are written without movement. In the fourth and fifth grades drill exercises in movement are given, and a little attempt made to apply it in writing. School exercises, however, are written without movement and in poor form.
In the primary grades entire attention is centred on form, the position of the children being natural, but by no means ideal.
Attempts to secure movement-writing in the five lower grades will never be successful. Muscular movement presup- poses muscles, and children in these grades have no muscles suffi- ciently developed to secure controlled movement along lines of prescribed form. They must continue to write as such children always have written, with little movement and in constrained posi- tions. Long-continued practice will bear fruit in the eighth and ninth grades, but most of the intermediate school writing will be- ragged in appearance and unconventional in its execution.
As has been said elsewhere in this report, the subject of pen- manship has cost more discussion, effort, and time during the last few years than its educational value warrants. We spend twice as much time in instruction in this branch as Malden, for example. The Committee of Fifteen, whose judgment has become standard authority, recommends three lessons where we have four in the sixth and seventh vears, and drops penmanship altogether as a subject of formal teaching in the last two grammar grades. The time spent upon it in our upper grades may be halved with profit, more emphasis being laid on the correlation of penmanship with: the regular written exercises of the class.
The Public Library and the Schools. The relations of these two great educational forces grow more intimate year by year. The librarian and his associates have afforded every possible fa- cility to both teachers and pupils. Especial privileges have been accorded to the latter ; a competent assistant in the library gives. her entire time to the school side of the work; reference books. with pages indicated bearing upon school lessons, are ready at hand; cards are issued to all pupils, irrespective of age; trans-
18₸
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
portation of books has been made to and from the more remote schools ; special libraries of books selected by teachers, and most of which have been bought for the purpose, have been placed in many of the school buildings ; and a room for the exclusive use- of children, containing books directly accessible to them, has been. provided in the library building. All this is of incalculable bene- fit in giving an acquaintance with books, in imparting informa- tion, in fixing the reading habit, and in fostering a taste for good. literature. The thanks of teachers and pupils alike are due to the librarian and the trustees for the facilities which their courtesy and liberality have provided.
The number of volumes circulated through the schools dur- ing the year is 5,264. At the present time there are 112 libraries,. containing 2,926 volumes, in the various school buildings. This- places a circulating library of at least twenty-five books within immediate reach of 3,000 children.
It is gratifying to see that most teachers in the city are avail- ing themselves of the opportunity and advantages afforded by these unusual library facilities to direct the reading of their pupils. Their efforts, in most cases, are heartily seconded by parents. Children need guidance, not only as to what they read, but as to, how they read. Too much reading for mere pleasure, or for ex- citement only, is pernicious, as is also the "skimming habit." The over-reading of fiction is the easily besetting vice of present- day readers, young and old. The diet should be regulated. Teachers may well insist on a few good books being read, that they may be made the basis of language exercises in school by- way of reproduction, review, outline, and statement of lessons taught. And it should always be borne in mind that not only are taste and habit formed by reading, but that character is influenced, as well. Every book read, good or bad, enters to greater or less- degree into the life, and leaves the reader better or worse than before. Herein lies the golden opportunity of the teacher to fur- nish ideals for imitation and motives for right action.
Evening Schools. We spend about $3.500 yearly for evening schools, the maintenance of which is required by statute. The necessity and importance of these schools, and, indeed, their value, when rightly conducted, cannot be questioned. The diffi- culties which surround the work, however, are serious, and not easily overcome. They are, briefly, as follows :-
1. Irregular attendance. Out of an enrollment of 500, we get an average attendance of 150. The illiterates, whose attend- ance the law compels, come constantly. The 300 gradually drop- out, mainly from indifference and lack of interest. These are the- very ones, however, that need the school the most,-boys from fourteen to eighteen. The secret of holding them is not in com- pulsion, but in making the school more attractive and valuable.
2. The difficulty of securing a permanent corps of teachers thoroughly trained for this peculiar work. This difficulty is al-
188
ANNUAL REPORTS.
most insurmountable. Day school teachers have not adequate strength. Now and then a retired teacher may be found avail- able. Our principals are taken from the ranks of grammar school masters, and are unsurpassed. We are obliged, however, to employ in general students who are working their way into a profession, and women who are engaged in other occupations, and who come somewhat fatigued to their work. The payment of larger wages would not secure the right sort of teachers, although it might help to do so.
3. The lack of rooms suitably arranged and equipped for the exclusive use of evening schools. We are compelled to use rooms belonging to day schools, the books, apparatus, and work of which preoccupy desks, tables, and blackboards. The material for the evening school pupils,-often that which the day school "has discarded-must of necessity be distributed and collected each evening. Rooms for the exclusive use of these schools should be provided, one of which should be set apart in which books and current literature might be found where some students could spend a certain portion of. the evening in reading. There should be an assembly room where the entire school could be gathered ·occasionally for ethical instruction, music, illustrated lectures, and entertainments arranged by the students themselves. Rooms should also be provided for manual training and for physical training. In this way an attractive variety would be presented and a school interest and pride awakened.
4. The difficulty of classification. Save in large schools, this is next to impossible without sacrificing the interests of econ- omy or the needs of the individual pupil.
5. The fact that pupils come under the influence of the school for so short a time, and are without opportunity for home study. The only way of overcoming this difficulty is by lengthening the term. This would only be practicable under the ideal conditions above outlined.
It should be remarked that the success of the evening schools the present season, especially of that in the Bell School, has been ·exceptional, the attendance and interest having been unusually well sustained.
FACTS CONCERNING EVENING SCHOOLS, SEASON OF 1899-1900.
Enrollment of Elementary Schools
470
Average Attendance ,
141
Number of Sessions
76 to 47
Entire Cost .
$2,136 06
Per Capita Cost Based on Average Attendance
15 14
Enrollment of Drawing School
98
Average Attendance
53
Number of Sessions
46
Entire Cost
$1,334 30
Per Capita Cost Based on Average Attendance .
25 17
Vacation Schools. In the month of September careful en- quiries were made of 8,600 children in the elementary schools con-
189
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
cerning the way in which they spent the nine weeks constituting. the summer vacation. It was learned that 3,600, or forty per cent., of them were out of the city between three and four weeks each, on the average. The remaining 5,000 spent the entire time- in the city, with possibly a day now and then at the beach or in. the parks. Many of these remained at home from parental choice, and the rest under the stern compulsion of necessity.
It is fair to assume that large numbers were employed in some useful occupation, but hundreds, among them many chil- dren of misfortune and want, had nothing to do through the long. summer days but to seek recreation or amusement wherever it might be found. For many the street furnished the only play- ground. Groveling in dirt, mingling with vicious associates, falling into idle habits, learning lessons of mischief and truancy, is it strange that these children become the most unteachable chil- dren in our schools ? Is it not as much for the interest of the community to provide wholesome influences for these children during the midsummer months as during the remaining ten months of the year?
Such children and their needs have appealed so forcibly that many cities and towns throughout the country have established vacation schools for their benefit. At first these schools have- been supported by the contributions of the philanthropic, but their value so soon becomes apparent that the responsibility of their management has been assumed by school authorities and the expense paid by public funds. New York City spent $60,000 last year on vacation schools. They have proved remarkably suc- cessful in Philadelphia, Providence, Boston, and other cities. In Cambridge for several years these schools have been supplied by private generosity. In the summer of this year, however, an ap- propriation of $2,000 was made, and 900 of the 1,600 children who had expressed their anxiety to attend "were taught for two hours daily for five or six weeks to use their hands, eyes, and ears in such a way as to be profitable to themselves and of advantage to the community."
The work of a vacation school differs materially from that of a day school. Attendance is purely voluntary. Two or three absences open the place to a waiting applicant. No books are used except for reading of a diverting and instructive nature. The leading employments are such as call into exercise the bodily activities of the children, the largest freedom consistent with the plan of work being allowed.
The younger children are given kindergarten occupations, with directed games, as far as possible in the open air.
The older children are given nature work, art work, sloyd, manual training, sewing, cooking, music, and gymnastic exer- cises with simple apparatus. Occasional excursions to the parks, or the beach, or the country are provided, under the charge of teachers and volunteer assistants.
190
ANNUAL REPORTS.
Where vacation schools are not possible, well-arranged play- grounds, equipped with gymnastic apparatus, and under the di- rection of a person of tact and experience, may be furnished as substitutes.
The vacation school presupposes thoroughly-trained teach- ers, familiar with the work, and in full sympathy with child life. Some missionary spirit is needed to supplement the salary. Three such schools in Somerville would accommodate 600 chil- dren, divided between forenoon and afternoon sessions. As we are at present without the necessary equipment, ideal conditions cannot be attained at once. A beginning, however, could be made with one school, and the work extended as experience might dictate. It is hoped that the matter will be deemed of suffi- ·cient importance to receive the careful consideration of the School Board.
School Hygiene. In the main, the school buildings of Som- erville are so constructed and cared for as to minister to the health and comfort of their occupants in a satisfactory manner. Men- tion has been made of three notable exceptions, Prospect Hill, Bennett, and Jackson buildings, which, let us hope, will soon be abandoned. The defective lighting of the Forster, Prescott, and Bell Schoolhouses is being slowly remedied. The coming year should see this important improvement completed.
The attendance of pupils during the year has been interrupted to an unusual degree by the prevalence of contagious diseases. The Pope and the Jackson Schools have been closed for two weeks on this account. Five teachers have been absent from duty from personal illness of this kind. The attendance of some classes has been greatly reduced for weeks at a time from this cause. The law requiring the quarantining of a household in which measles prevail interferes greatly, and perhaps needlessly, with school work. Occasionally, when members of a large family are prostrated successively with measles, the resulting ab- sence jeopards promotion. The wisdom of this feature of the law is questioned in many quarters.
Teachers are vigilant and careful in excluding children whose physical condition furnishes ground for suspicion. It too fre- quently happens, however, that official notices concerning chil- dren who should be quarantined are received forty-eight hours after the outbreak of the disease, and that, where the family has representatives in different schools, not all schools are notified.
The recent action of the Committee in urging a system of daily medical inspection of schools will doubtless result in imme- diate action by the Board of Health. The plan provides for the visit of a physician at each school building every morning for the purpose of examining all children who may show infection of any sort or be in need of medical advice, and of taking steps for their isolation or proper care. The details of the system are not yet fully arranged, but will be announced in due season. As no more
191
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
effective means could possibly be suggested to prevent the spread of contagion, it is hoped that parents will cheerfully co-operate in whatever may be done, in the conviction that the only motive of action is the good of the child and the protection of the homes.
Attention has frequently been called in these reports to the importance of the examination of the eyes of school children. In Connecticut the law requires each teacher to make such examina- tion of her pupils at the beginning of each fall term. Such tests, wherever made, show practically the same results, namely, large percentages of children with defective sight and in need of arti- ficial helps. Under permission of the Board, an examination by teachers of the eyes of their pupils is now in progress. The test is similar to that used by oculists, but of course it is conducted without professional skill. Full returns have not yet been re- ceived, but the eyes of between five and six thousand pupils have thus far been tested. The result shows that twenty-eight per cent. have vision sufficiently defective to require attention. Chil- dren were required to read readily a line of letters at the distance of fifteen feet with both eyes and with each eye separately. Those who could read it only at a distance of ten feet or less were re- ported as defective. Very few children were found with abso- lutely normal sight, but those only have been counted as defec- tive that fall below two-thirds of normal vision. Such cases have been reported to parents, and in many instances a professional examination has been made, with the happiest results. In other cases, however, parents are averse to employing medical skill, al- though they know their children are suffering for lack of it. "They say the child is too young to wear glasses, or he will out- grow the defect. or they are unable to bear the expense, or they simply neglect the whole matter. The consequences to the child are, however, too serious to be neglected. Many cases of ner- vousness, headache, dizziness, unaccountable restlessness and ir- ritability, and even of positive dislike of study and of school may be traced to defective sight and to the consequent strain upon the whole nervous organism. Case after case has been disclosed of children with serious defects in one eye, or both, which have never been suspected by parents or teachers."
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