USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1902 > Part 14
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In connection with the evening school work, a very success- ful experiment was made in the line of stereopticon lectures. The sum of $100 was set aside by the Board for this purpose. Seven lectures were given in the English School hall to interested and orderly audiences, composed almost entirely of pupils in at- tendance at the evening schools. These lectures were instruct- ive as well as entertaining, and were accompanied by music and appropriate readings. The money spent in this direction cer- tainly paid as large a dividend as any that the city has invested.
We are now spending about $7,000 a year for our evening schools. At the same rate, it would cost us $35,000 to pay for the maintenance of the Bingham School alone. It certainly behooves us to use every device possible in securing the largest profit from this expenditure. The concentration of all the schools in one school building, if it were feasible, would materially reduce the expense and at the same time increase the general efficiency of the schools. This would also afford us opportunity to do a higher grade of work for which there is a demand. The whole subject is commended to the Board for its careful considera- tion.
The principal facts with regard to the evening schools are given in the following table :-
EVENING SCHOOLS.
Elementary.
Drawing.
Total.
'00-'01.
'01-'02.
'00-'01.
'01-'02.
'00-'01.
'01-'02.
Enrollment ..
612
700
192
211
804
911
Average Attendance ...
192
236
79
99
271
335
Per Cent.of Attendance.
31.2
33.7
41.1
46.9
33.7
36.8
Teachers
22
28
6
6
28
34
Sessions
298
300
48
46
346
346
Cost ..
$3,809
$5,452
$1,433
$1,424
$5,212
$6,876
Cost per Capita ..
19.94
23.10
18.14
14.38
. .
Cost per Pupil per
Evening.
0.265
0.303
0.378
0.310
....
.. ..
Illiterates. In connection with the evening schools, atten- tion is called to a modification of the statute concerning the
178
ANNUAL REPORTS.
employment of minors, made by the legislature of 1902. The amendment to the law forbids, under penalty, any employment of a person under twenty-one years of age unless he has in his possession a certificate signed by the Superintendent of Schools stating that he can read and write simple English sentences. All persons, whether graduates of our schools or not, are included within the requirement.
The object of the law is to find illiterate minors and enforce their attendance upon evening schools while they are in session. In accordance with the spirit of the law, an agent of the Superin- tendent was sent to visit all establishments in the city in which minors are employed, and to issue reading and writing certificates to those entitled to them, and to enroll the names of all others for attendance upon the evening schools. In this way, 88 illit- erate minors were found, the most of whom are foreigners recently arrived in the country. Employers were furnished with lists and informed of their responsibility under the law to see that illiterate minors in their employ attend evening schools regularly. Employers and employed have all co-operated heart- ily with the school authorities, and the attendance law has been duly enforced. It is this class that profit most by evening school instruction.
Two hundred and ten regular employment certificates have been issued in 1902 to children between fourteen and sixteen years of age who have left school for work.
Vacation School. Such was the success of the Vacation School last year that the Board unanimously appropriated the same sum,-$500,-for its maintenance for 1902, and reappointed the same special committee to direct its affairs. The committee consisted of Mrs. Attwood, chairman, and Messrs. Bennett, Jones, Dickerman, and Carr.
The school was opened in the Prospect Hill building July , and continued five weeks, closing August 8. Six rooms were occupied by children drawn from the lower seven grades of the schools, one-half of whom attended from 8 to 10 A. M., and the other from 10 to 12. The kindergarten of last year gave place to first grade children.
The plan of work was somewhat similar to that of last year. It was varied chiefly by the introduction of the braiding and weaving of raffia, from which sundry useful and ornamental articles were made. The upper class of boys were occupied exclusively in wood-working: knife, trysquare, compasses, and ruler being the only tools. Both boys and girls in lower grades were given hand work of various kinds,-cardboard construction, drawing, cutting, painting, weaving, raffia work, scrap-book making, and sewing. The exercises were varied by music. read- ing by teachers, story-telling, and, in the lower classes, by march- ing and simple games. There were no signs of disorder, interest never flagged, and the attendance was excellent to the end. Two
179
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
hundred and five pupils did not miss a session, and fifty-three were absent only once.
The success of the school was attributable to the character and experience of the eight teachers in charge, all of whom belonged to our regular corps, and had taken pains to qualify themselves for the work in hand. These teachers were: H. F. Hathaway, principal; Carrie F. Hathaway, Grace L. Wiggin, Elizabeth M. Collins, Daisy J. Adams, Carrie Armitage, Gertrude Friend, and Emma J. Ellis, assistants.
The cost and attendance of the schools were :---
Appropriation
1901. $500.00
1902. $500.00
Paid teachers
$405.00
$427.50
Paid supplies
99.26
123,43
Total
$504.26
$550.93
Average attendance
317
365
Per capita cost.
1.59
1.51
Number of classes
10
12
As was the case last year, the Vacation School Committee circularized the thirty-two Sabbath schools of the city, inviting them to contribute to a Fresh Air fund for the benefit of stay- at-home children. The following responses were received :-
East Somerville Baptist.
$10.36
Franklin-street Congregational.
10.00
St. Thomas' Parish.
6.16
St. Catherine's Parish.
15.00
Sycamore-street Congregational .
5.00
Highland Congregational.
5.00
Winter-hill Universalist.
5.00
Total
$56.52
With this fund, 1,125 Elevated Railway tickets were bought, to which the company generously added an equal number. These tickets were distributed in localities most needing them, and served to brighten one day at least in a thousand lives.
Vacation schools have passed the experimental stage, and are hereafter to be a factor in the school system of every large city. True, the statute concerning them is permissive rather than mandatory, but it shows the trend by giving them any sort of recognition. One after another, the large cities throughout the land are establishing them, not so much because they are educative, but because they restrain and occupy a class easily led astray through the enforced idleness of the summer months. While our city has relatively few of this class, and while we have not succeeded as yet in getting into the vacation school those who most need its help, still it accomplishes great good, and fully justifies even a larger outlay for its permanent establishment.
180
ANNUAL REPORTS.
Manual Training. It may seem unnecessary to revert again in this report to the subject of manual training. The School Board, however, has three times placed itself on record as fav- oring compliance with the statute by the introduction of this branch of modern education into our grammar schools. Three times have requests been made by the Board that plants in con- venient locations be equipped for cooking and wood-working. The urgent demand for ordinary school uses for the rooms that would otherwise be available, and other causes, have prevented any action in this direction.
The time, however, now seems auspicious for beginning this work. The Prospect Hill school building is now available for the establishment of a plant for both lines of manual training. If anticipated relief comes in Ward Five, the rooms in the Forster Annex, planned for this purpose, may also be occupied. Besides, there will be a suitable room in the new Morrison-avenue build- ing for this work. There is also a good room that may be used at the Brown School.
No discussion of the value of this form of education is here attempted, for the favorable sentiment of the Board has been repeatedly expressed upon that point. The question seems to be one of finance wholly, -- each plant established would cost not far from $1,000, and for teachers, an annual outlay of $1,600 would be required to give suitable instruction to ninth-grade boys and girls. Experience, the surest test of value, shows that there is no loss in other studies on the part of those who take two hours weekly in shop or kitchen work, and the verdict every- where is that the investment pays. When once begun, there is no desire to abandon the work.
To quote once more from President Eliot :--
In many scattered places in the United States, perfect demonstration has already been given that manual training and instruction in the me- chanical arts and trades are, in the first place, valuable as a means of mental and moral training, and, in the second place, useful for the indi- vidual toward obtaining a livelihood, and for the nation toward de- veloping its industries. Accordingly, manual training schools, mechanic arts high schools, and trade schools ought to become habitual parts of the American school system; and normal schools and colleges ought to provide optional instruction in these subjects, since all public school teachers ought to understand them. Such schools are more expensive than schools which do not require mechanical apparatus and the service of good mechanics as instructors; but there can be no doubt that they will repay promptly their cost to the community which maintains them.
Cost of Schools. The cost of maintaining our schools and educating the 10,402 pupils in their average membership has been $286,747.00, or $27.57 for each pupil. This does not include money spent in the repairs of schoolhouses or upon new build- ings. Of this sum, $33,151.00 has been expended by the public buildings department for :-
181
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
Janitors' salaries $20,859.00 Fuel 10,489.00
Light 1,803.00
The following shows the expenditure from the school con- tingent appropriation :-.
Officers' salaries
$4,800.00
Books
$7,162.69
General supplies.
3,909.90
Laboratory and manual training supplies. 1,446.84
Printing
920.14
Graduation expenses.
1,249.79
Drawing supplies
1,203.29
Book binding.
395.51
Truant officer's horse.
240.00
Expressage and postage.
279.11
Board of truants.
470.43
School census
199.88
Telephones
170.58
Miscellaneous
1,737.35
Total for school supplies, etc.
19,385.51
Amount expended for school contingent
$24,185.51
Estimate of committee.
23,000.00
Appropriation
21,000.00
Deficiency as compared with appropriation.
3,185.51
Deficiency as compared with estimate of committee.
1,185.51
Received for tuition and damage to property
177.50
Net deficiency $1,008.01
This deficiency is caused by unanticipated outlays for maps, typewriters, and books for an unexpected number of new pupils. The following is the expenditure for teachers' salaries during the year :--
January
$22,942.23
February
22,716.44
March
22,737.06
April
21,896.38
May
22,070.32
June
22,085.74
August
427.50
September
22,803.49
October
24,054.64
November
23,892.80
December
23,783.87
Total
$229,410.47
Appropriation and estimate of committee. 228,000.00
Deficiency 1,410.47
This deficiency is occasioned by unexpected expendi- tures for new teachers and for evening schools.
Each dollar of the sum spent for the support of schools has been divided in the following proportion :-
182
ANNUAL REPORTS.
Teachers' salaries
1900. $0.799
1901. $0.790
1902. $0.800
Administration
0.018
0.017
0.017
Janitors' salaries
0.074
0.071
0.073
Heat and light.
0.048
0.055
0.042
School supplies.
0.061
0.067
0.068
Total
$1.000
$1.000
$1.000
TABLE SHOWING PER CAPITA COST OF SCHOOLS, 1902.
High Schools.
Grammar and Primary Schools.
All Schools.
1901.
1902.
De- crease.
1901.
1902.
De- crease.
1901.
1902.
De- crease.
Instruction
and
Supervision .
$47 71
$46 63
$1 08
$19 89
$19 74
$0 15
$22 67
$22 52
$0 15
Text-Books
and
Supplies .
5 52
5 10
0 42
1 47
1 40
*0 02
1 87
1 86
0 01
Schoolhouse
Ex- ·
4 99
4 96
0 03
3 40
2 98
0 42
3 56
3 19
0 37
penses .
Totals .
$58 22
$56 69
$1 53
$24 76
$24 21
$0 55
$28 10
$27 57
$0 53
* Increase.
Instruction in the high schools has cost $1.08 less per capita than last year, supplies $0.42 less, and the care of the buildings $0.03, the total cost being $1.53 per pupil, $56.69 as against $58.22 in 1901.
In the elementary schools, the cost of instruction has les- sened $0.15 per pupil, that of supplies has increased $0.02, while the care of buildings has been $0.42 less, a total reduction of $0.55.
Taking all schools together, instruction has cost $0.15 less per capita, supplies $0.01, and schoolhouse expenses $0.37, a total decrease of $0.53, a total per capita cost of $27.57 as against $28.10 last year. This includes the cost of evening schools.
This lessening of per capita cost in the face of an aggregate increase, is accounted for by an increase of pupils without a pro- portionate increase of expense.
Per Cent.
Increase in average membership of schools for year
.4.0
Increase in number of teachers for year.
.3.9
Increase in cost of instruction for year. .3.3
Increase in cost of supplies for year . 3.6
The salaries paid at the present time are as follows :-
2 men $3,000
5 women. $1,000
2 men.
2,000
20 women .. 900
8 men, 2 women. 1,900
1 man, 1 woman 850
1 man 1,800
4 women. 775
3 men.
1,700
15 women. 725
1 man. 1,600
3 women 700
2 men
1,550
191 women. 650
183
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
2 men
$1,400
11 women
$600
1 man.
1,300
1 man 1 woman.
500
1 man, 2 women
1,200
4 women
425
1 man ..
1,100
4 women 400
1
woman.
1,050
2 women.
275
On this basis, the total salary list at present is $226,825.
This does not include sums paid for evening and vacation schools and substitutes.
Half-Time Schools. There has been hardly a year during the last decade in which half-time schools for the first grade have not been held in some part of the city. This condition has now prevailed in several schools continuously for three or four years, -long enough to show the effect of the shortened session upon the attainment of pupils in the third and fourth grades. It is safe to say that no losses thus occasioned are perceptible in these grades. In other words, whatever may have been lost in the first grade has been apparently regained in the second and third.
In the half-time schools that have given these results the plan has been to employ two experienced teachers at the maxi- mum salary. The one hundred pupils, more or less, have at- tended in equal sections of fifty each during either the morning or the afternoon session in alternation, thus giving each child an average daily session of two hours and twenty minutes. One teacher devotes her time uninterruptedly to instruction, while the other is employed in directing and supervising the seat work and general exercises, although when need is urgent with slower children, she sometimes does class work. When there are facilities therefor,-as in the Hodgkins and Carr,-the class that recites is taken to a smaller room, and the second teacher is left alone in the main room.
This plan of half-time schools saves the city no money in salaries, but if it were abolished, eight additional schoolrooms, costing $40,000, would be at once needed.
Another plan of half-time sessions was tried experimentally by permission of the Board in six schools during the spring term. In all of these schools save one, the number of first-grade pupils did not exceed forty-five. All pupils assembled for the first hour in the morning for music, drawing, writing, and other general class exercises. One-half were then sent home to re- turn in the afternoon to receive the uninterrupted care of the teacher. This plan gives all children three hours of school, and the smaller number for the larger part of the time enables the teacher to instruct without so much distraction of attention in caring for the children who are not reciting. It greatly lightens the work of the teacher, but does not enable her to do more for the children than she could do in an all-day session, if as much.
The plan is disliked by most parents as it requires more time to prepare children for school, and transfers the burden of re ..
184
ANNUAL REPORTS.
sponsibility for the children from teacher to parent for two hours daily. Many children are much better off in school than in the street, even if comparatively little is accomplished. Indeed, in some localities half-time schools under the most favorable con- ditions would be a misfortune. The only justification for this plan is that it gives some children an advantageous extension of their out-door life.
A third half-time plan that has little to commend it, has been forced upon us in two schools. Teachers who have had seventy pupils, none of whom can be transferred to other schools, have divided their classes and taken a part of them in separate half-day sessions. There are too many in the class for all to assemble together at any one time. Under this arrangement, the teacher is obliged to forego all formal attempts to teach music, drawing, elementary science, etc., and to concentrate at- tention upon reading. The labor of the teacher is rather less than that of one who has forty-five children on full time, but the consciousness of the fact that she cannot teach all that is desired and for which she may be held accountable, occasions unrest and dissatisfaction. Of course, the plan is decidedly objectionable, and should be resorted to only under urgent necessity.
Shortened Courses. This lack of uniformity in the quantity and character of first-grade instruction seems unavoidable until schoolrooms enough are provided, unless by slight modifica- tions of our Elementary Course of Study eight years instead of nine might be made to suffice for the work below the high school. Outside of New England eight years is the general custom. Children enter at five, either with or without kinder- garten training, -- although one or two states fix the age at six,- and after eight years are ready for the high school. There are in our own state two cities, Lawrence and Quincy, and a score of small towns, that have the eight-year course. In all other cities of New England the nine-year course prevails,-even in addition to the kindergarten. If we should exclude children from the first grade until they are six years old,-as Nashua has just done,-the great majority of children could do the work in eight years for which they now require nine. We make a seri- ous mistake in trying to force an understanding of certain sub- jects upon children in advance of their natural development. Time is thus lost, to say nothing of injury done the child. The idea that everything taught in the schools must be begun in the lowest grades is pernicious.
Excluding five-year-olds from school would, however, be thought revolutionary, unless kindergarten training should be substituted, but a kindergarten under existing conditions costs fifty per cent. more than a first-grade class. An eight-year course would result in twenty per cent. more grammar school graduates, for many who now leave school at fourteen would
185
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
remain a few months longer for the sake of graduating. It would also add twenty per cent. to our High school attendance for the first two years, at least, but it costs more than twice as much to educate a child in the high school as in the grammar school, even if we had the facilities therefor. To be sure, high school students would begin their work a year earlier in most cases. There would be, on the whole, no financial gain, nor any lessening of the demand for additional room by the change.
Either more schoolhouses must be provided, or we must settle upon the plan of half-time sessions in crowded localities as at present. There can be no doubt that, all things considered, it is better to give all children a full-day session the year around with employment commensurate with their unfolding powers. This normal condition we shall ultimately reach.
Medical Inspection. Since the beginning of this report the alarming prevalence of diphtheria in the immediate vicinity of the Morse school has led the Board of Health to close the school during the month of December as a precautionary meas- ure. Probably the trouble neither originated in nor was aggra- vated by any conditions for which the school could be held re-
sponsible. It was doubtless spread by the intercourse of chil- dren with other children from infected, but insufficiently quaran- tined homes. Whatever the causes, it brings public and official attention once more to the need of some frequent medical in- spection of schools. President Eliot, in the address heretofore quoted, places as the most urgent present school need, better schoolhouses, that is, schoolhouses made better from a hygienic point of view, --- so constructed that all heat and ventilating ducts can be often cleaned and freed from the disease germs that ex- amination shows always infect them; schoolhouses that can be and are kept as pure and clean as a well-regulated hospital. Secondly, even before a plea for better teachers, he places a de- mand for medical inspection. Here is what he says :-
Next to this improvement in schoolhouses and schoolyards comes improvement in the sanitary control and management of schools. This control requires the services of skillful physicians; and such a physician should be officially connected with every large school. It should be his duty to watch for contagious diseases, to prevent the too-early return to school of children who have suffered from such diseases, to take thought for the eyes of the children, lest they be injured in reading or writing by bad postures or bad light, to advise concerning the rectification of remediable bodily defects in any of the children under his supervision, to give advice at the homes about the diet and sleep of the children whose nutrition is visibly defective, and, in short, to be the protector, counselor, and friend of the children and their parents with regard to health, normal growth, and the preservation of all the senses in good condition. Such medical supervision of school children would be costly, but it would be the most rewarding school expenditure that a community could make, even from the industrial or commercial point of view, since nothing impairs the well-being and productiveness of a community so much as sickness and premature disability or death. As in an individual, so in a nation, health and strength are the foundations of productiveness and prosperity.
186
ANNUAL REPORTS.
Stamp Savings System. At the March meeting of the Board a special committee was appointed to consider the ques- tion of Stamp Saving in the schools. After careful inquiry and deliberation, on the recommendation of this committee, the fol- lowing order was adopted by the Board :-
Ordered: That permission be granted to the Somerville As- sociated Charities to establish and conduct a system of Stamp Savings in the public schools, in co-operation with the teachers, it being understood that the city shall incur no liability what- ever in connection therewith.
In September, agents of the Associated Charities in co- operation with the teachers put the system into operation in all the elementary schools. Briefly stated, the plan is as follows :-
Through some one of the twenty young women who are serving the Association gratuitously as agents, the principals are supplied each week with stamp cards at a cent apiece, and with stamps resembling postal stamps in size in denominations of 25, 10, 5, 3, and one cent each. Card and stamps are sold by class teachers to their pupils before the opening or after the closing of school semi-weekly, or oftener, as may be convenient. All receipts are turned over through principals to collectors once a week. When a child has accumulated at least a dollar's worth of stamps, if he desires it he may transfer his card to the Somerville Savings bank, and become a regular depositor therein. When needed, money in the bank or in the possession of the Association will be returned to him on presentation of the book or card.
The following reproductions will show the character of the Stamp Saving card :-
The
Stamp Saving System
Is under the direction of the following Committee :
Rev. CHARLES L. NOYES NATHAN H. REED
Mrs. MARY G. WHITING
Rev. W. SHERMAN THOMPSON Rev. WM. B. C. MERRY
Dr. CHARLES K. CUTTER CHARLES S. PHILBRICK Miss. EMMA S. KEYES
٠١
Somerville Savings. Bank UNION SQUARE
1
Hours : 9 to 1 daily ; Saturday, 9 to 12 A. M. Monday Evening, 7.30 to 8.30
As soon as you have bought stamps, attach them carefully to the card.
When one card is full, buy another.
When your card contains one dollar or more in stamps, you may take it to the Somerville Savings Bank, Union Square, and receive a bank book, showing the same amount deposited in your name; or you may secure the bank book a week later by handing your teacher the card.
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