USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1903 > Part 13
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"The Evangeline Land," November 19. . Bernard M. Sheridan "Washington, Arlington, and Mount Vernon, December 17,
Howard W. Poor
"The Isthmus," January 7 Rev. Peter MacQueen "Marcus Whitman's Daring Ride," January 21, Hon. J. Wilder Fairbank "Miles Standish," January 28. . Rev. A. T. Kempton
"Yellowstone Park," February 11 Hon. Arthur K. Peck
Evening schools are becoming more and more important each year as educational factors, especially in large cities. Illit- erate and uneducated immigrants in ever increasing numbers are coming to share the advantages of a government whose bulwarks are the intelligence and loyalty of its citizens. Day schools can reach their children, but those who are beyond compulsory school age can be educated only by the evening schools. Not only are these increasing in number and attendance, but they are also extending their courses and becoming centres of influence in uplifting and educating. Wood work- ing, basket making, sewing, cooking, lectures, entertain- ments, a variety of pursuits added to the ordinary studies, attract and hold, instruct and elevate, and are fast Americanizing these people. There is a field in certain parts of own own city for the expansion of evening school work in these lines. The Bennett and Bingham schoolhouses are admirably located for educational centres of this kind, and evening schools should be opened in these buildings another year.
There is also a demand in the city for an evening high school in which bookkeeping, stenography, typewriting, and other high school branches shall be taught. To this, in the interest both of economy and better education, the higher classes in the present schools would be transferred. Of the ten cities in the state re- quired by law to maintain such schools on petition, Somerville
VACATION
L
VACATION SCHOOL WORK.
171
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
and Lynn alone are without them. I recommend that such a school be opened in one of the high school buildings another year.
The following table shows the principal facts concerning evening schools for 1902-1903. Details may be found in the Appendix.
EVENING SCHOOLS.
Elementary.
Drawing.
Total.
'01-'02.
'02-'03.
'01-'02.
'02-'03.
'01-'02.
'02-'03.
Enrollment.
700
741 251
211 99
178
911 335
919 329
Per Cent. of attendance.
33.7
33.9
46.9
43.8
36.8
35.8
Teachers
28
28 346
46
47
316
393
Cost ..
$5,452
$5,857
$1 424
$1,331
$6,876
$7,188
Cost per capita*
23.10
23.33
14.38
17.07
...
Cost per pupil per evening ..
0.303
0,279
0.310
0.363
...
*Based on average attendance.
Vacation School. In January last the school board ex- pressed its conviction that the vacation school in Somerville had ceased to be an experiment by adding to its list of standing com- mittees one whose duties would be to manage such schools. Mrs. Attwood and Messrs. O'Neil and Dickerman constituted this standing committee.
All furniture having been removed from the Prospect Hill schoolhouse, the sessions of the vacation school were held in the Bell school. Here ten classes, composed of children from second to seventh grade, were organized, each holding a two- hour session between eight and twelve. Four hundred eighty- eight children were enrolled. Nineteen different day schools were represented, as shown below :-
Prescott,
1 Bell, 64
Brown, 3
Davis,
4 Cummings,
5
Durell,
4
Bennett, 20
Edgerly,
2
Morse, 39
Knapp, 40 Glines, 3
Lincoln,
2
Perry, 25
Forster,
10
Parochial, 40
Baxter,
12
Bingham,
98
Pope,
24
Carr,
92
Total, 488
. .
6
34
34
Sessions
300
6
78
Average attendance
. 236
The attendance for each of the five weeks between July 13 and August 14 was 365, 357, 310, 273, 261. This shows a loss of 104 in the average attendance during the five weeks. Seventy- three children did not lose a session, and 131 others lost but one session. The school was under the efficient management of Harry F. Hathaway, aided by six experienced teachers from our regular corps. To the work of last year, consisting of wood working, cardboard construction, drawing, cutting, painting, weaving raffia, scrapbook making, and sewing, were added
172
ANNUAL REPORTS.
basket making, crocheting, and weaving with raffia and worsteds on small looms. The children were absorbed enthusiastically in the work, rendering restraint and discipline needless.
The design of the school was not fully accomplished this year in that it failed to reach the poorer class of children, most of whose vacation life is spent in the streets. This was probably due to the location of the school outside of the centres to be benefited. It will probably be found better another year to divide the school, holding sessions at the Bennett, Perry, and Bingham school- houses. This would somewhat increase the expense, but the benefits will be commensurate. At least one thousand dollars should be appropriated this year for vacation school expenses. The cost and attendance of the school are shown below :-
Appropriation
1901. $500.00
1902. $500.00
1903. $500.00
Paid teachers.
$405.00
$427.50
$377.50
Paid for supplies
99.26
123.43
162.64
Total
$504.26
$550.93
$540.14
Average attendance.
317
365
311
Per capita cost.
$1.59
$1.51
$1.73
Number of classes
10
12
10
Cost of the Schools. The total amount spent in the main- tenance of the schools of Somerville in 1903 is $304,945.81. This does not include the sums spent on schoolhouse repairs and for new buildings. It does cover first the amount paid for the care of school buildings, for janitors' services, and fuel and light. With this expenditure the school board has nothing to do, it being wholly in charge of the commissioner of public buildings, who hires janitors and fixes their salaries.
The amount paid for janitors is.
$21,041.74
The cost of fuel is .. .
18,052.46
The cost of gas and electric light and power.
2,015.30
A total of
$41,109.50
The cost per capita
$3.84
The fuel bill for 1903 is much larger than usual, owing to the high price of coal during the early part of the year. The expense for light is largely chargeable to evening schools, and also in- cludes power used in running electric motors at the English high school and at the Glines.
The second important expenditure is wholly under the con- trol of the board, and is covered by what is known as the "School Contingent" appropriation. The following are the chief items :-
173
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
Officers' salaries
$4,800.00
Books
$8,236.42
General supplies. 3,953.73
Laboratory and manual training supplies 1,747.98
Printing
1,032.98
Graduation exercises 1,178.16
Drawing supplies
1,003.53
Bookbinding
828.32
Truant officer's horse.
240.00
Express and postage.
200.00
Board of truants
629.29
School census
272.38
Telephones
194.89
Miscellaneous
1,355.02
Total for school supplies, etc.
20,872.70
Total outlay on school contingent account. $25,672.70
Estimate of the committee.
25,000.00
Appropriation
24,000.00
Deficiency as compared with appropriation ..
1,672.70
Deficiency as compared with estimate of committee.
672.70
Received for damage to school property and tuition of non-residents.
133.86
Net deficiency .
538.84
This deficiency is caused by an unusual expenditure for books, owing to the reorganization of the Highland, Hodgkins, and Bingham schools.
The third and by far the largest element of the cost of schools is the sum spent for the salaries of teachers. The following shows the monthly payments :-
January
$23,959.22
February
23,753.39
March
23,683.33
April
22,928.02
May
22,918.22
June
22,826.29
August
377.50
September
23,322.10
October
24,807.36
November
24,861.99
December
24,726.19
Total
$238,163.61
Estimate of committee and appropriation. 238,000.00
Deficiency
163.61
The total outlay for all purposes in 1903 is as follows :-
Teachers' salaries.
$238,163.61
Administration
4,800.00
Care of schoolhouses
41,109.50
School supplies ..
20,872.70
Total for school maintenance.
$304,945.81
Paid for repairs. ..
12,260.90
Paid for new buildings.
59,822.15
Total for all school purposes. $377,028.86
174
ANNUAL REPORTS.
Each dollar of the sum spent for the support of schools has been divided in the following proportion :-
1900.
Teachers' salaries
$0.799
1901. $0.790
1902. $0.800
1903. $0.781
Administration
0.018
0.017
0.017
0.013
Janitors' salaries
0.074
0.071
0.073
0.070
Heat and light.
0.048
0.055
0.042
0.067
School supplies
0.061
0.067
0.068
0.069
Total
$1.000
$1.000
$1.000
$1.000
Per Capita Cost. The best way of comparing the cost of the schools year by year is by considering their cost for each pupil in the average membership. The following table shows
PER CAPITA COST FOR 1902 AND 1903.
High Schools.
Grammar and Primary Schools.
All Schools.
1902.
1903.
In- crease.
1902.
1903.
In- crease.
1902.
1903.
In - crease.
Instruction .
$47 28
$0 65
$19 74
$19 83
$0 09 0 07
$22 52
$22 67
$0 15
Supplies
$46 63 5 10 4 96
5 32 4 43
0 22
1 49 2 98
1 56 3 77
0 79
3 19
3 84
0 65
Total
$56 69
$57 03
$0 34
$24 21
$25 16
$0 95
$27 57
$28 46
$0 89
1 86
1 95
0 09
Care
*0 53
* Decrease.
From this table it will be seen that the cost of instruction in the high schools has been $47.28, an increase of sixty-five cents per pupil. This is due mainly to the increase of salaries in the English school, in conformity to the schedule that adds $100 an- nually to salaries of sub-masters until the maximum is reached. The per capita cost of supplies is twenty-two cents more than last year, being $5.32. This is owing in part to the demand for new books in the English school, to replace those that have been dis- carded after seven years of use, and in part to the call for addi- tional supplies in the departments of science and manual training. Of the $6.53 per pupil paid for supplies in the English high, $2.80 was for laboratory and manual training supplies, and $3.73 for books and general supplies. The expense for care of buildings is $4.43, fifty-three cents less than last year. This is because a portion of the year's coal bills is still unpaid. The net increase in the per capita cost of high schools is $0.34, being $57.03 for the year.
The per capita cost of instruction in the grammar and pri- mary schools is $19.83, nine cents more than in 1902. This is due to the employment of Professor Cone and to the unexpected increase in evening school expenditures. Supplies for these schools have cost seven cents per pupil more, owing to the un- usual expenditures for the Highland and Hodgkins schools,
175
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
where several new upper-grade classes have been organized. The increase of seventy-nine cents in the sum paid for care of school buildings is to be charged to the Pennsylvania coal strike of 1902. The entire increase in the per capita cost of the ele- mentary schools is ninety-five cents,-$25.16 for the year. This includes evening and vacation schools and kindergartens.
For all schools in the city
The per capita cost in 1902 was .$27.57
The per capita cost in 1903 was 28.46
An increase of. $0.89
fifteen cents of which was for instruction, nine cents for supplies, and sixty-five cents for coal.
The salaries paid at the present time are as follows :-
2 men
$3,000
1 man, 2 women. $800
2 men
2,000
4 women
775
9 men, 2 women.
1,900
15 women 725
4 men
1,700
4 women 700
2 men
1,650
200 women 650
2 men
1,500
9 women 600
1 man, 2 women.
1,200
2 women
500
1 man, 1 woman
1,100
2 women
425
1 woman
1,050
2 women
400
7 women
1,000
3 women
350
1 man
950
4 women
275
20 women
900
1 woman
240
On this basis, the total salary list at present is $236,115.
This does not include sums paid for evening and vacation schools and substitutes.
Stamp Savings. The system of stamp savings, introduced into the schools in September, 1902, by the Somerville Associated Charities, with the permission of the school board, was continued in operation throughout the school year, with results that were surprising to all concerned. The business transacted for the year is as follows :-
Received from sale of stamps $15,135.59
Received from sale of cards.
156.53
Deposited in Somerville Savings Bank.
8,069.85
Value of cards cashed 3,152.46
Number of bank books issued. 2,000
It is difficult to estimate the advantages that have accrued and the lessons of thrift that these figures indicate. The fact that 2,000 children have been led to open an account with a savings bank is sufficient of itself to commend the plan and to justify much of the trouble that has been caused.
Business was resumed on the first of October, the same methods being employed. During the months of October and November there was a very noticeable falling off in the sale of stamps, as compared with the corresponding months of the pre- vious year.
176
ANNUAL REPORTS.
2,690.88 In 1902, sales of stamps for these months amounted to ... $4,724.84 In 1903, 66 66 66
This diminution of forty-three per cent. in the business.can be accounted for only on the ground that the novelty that at first attracted has worn off.
The conduct of the system, involving, as it does, the hand- ling of $15,000 mainly in small coins, has required considerable time and labor on the part of teachers. The great body of them have entered sympathetically into the work, believing that the end justifies the means. The services of everybody engaged are purely gratuitous. The zeal which heavily-burdened teachers ยท have manifested in this direction is another evidence of the al- truistic spirit generally found in large measure in those who teach.
Manual Training. It seems almost superfluous to mention this subject again in a Somerville school report. Three votes of the school board are on record authorizing the introduction into our schools of wood working for the boys and cooking for the girls of the eighth or ninth grades. Pressure for room for more urgent lines of work has three times postponed the con- summation of the plan. Not only compliance with the statute, but also the benefits to be secured, should urge us to take advan- tage of what appears to be a propitious time to carry these votes into effect. There are rooms available for three manual training centres in the Prospect Hill, Forster, and Brown and Lowe schoolhouses. To suitably equip each centre would cost $750, and the annual expense of maintaining all four would be about $1,500.
The idea is still prevalent that the object of manual training in schools is to train mechanics, or cooks, or seamstresses. By no means. Any pursuit that has for its purpose to fit the pupil for some special life occupation is wholly out of place in public schools. Only such kinds of instruction should be given as are profitable to every child, whatever his future vocation may be. The true educational object of wood working is to cultivate the eye and hand in connection with mental training. Accuracy, precision, and perseverance are developed; good taste is culti- vated ; and respect and even a liking for manual labor and skill are engendered. Many a sluggish intellect has been roused into activity when called upon to direct muscular effort and labor in- telligently.
The chief aim of instruction in cooking is by no means to teach practical cookery, though even this is worth the while. Intelligent teaching of all household duties, the sanitation of the home, the elementary facts of the chemistry and physiology of common foods, household economy, the diet for the well and the sick, promotes mental activity and furnishes as valuable training as can be got from arithmetic or grammar.
177
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
So, too, sewing is taught not simply to give skill with the needle, but to impart valuable educational lessons. The mental qualities of exactness, industry, perseverance, and good taste in regard to shape, fitness, color, and other aesthetic elements are worth development.
I trust the board will find it expedient at least to make a beginning in these lines of work.
In this connection it is worth while, also, to consider the ad- visability of introducing some form of raffia weaving or basket making or knife work for boys during the sewing hour, if nothing better can be done. Some kind of motor activity is needed to prevent the one-sided training of the faculties of the child. The avidity with which children in the vacation school engage in such occupations, and the skill they show, indicates that a need in their natural development is thus supplied.
Truancy. It is interesting to note that there is no more truancy in Somerville than there was fifteen years ago, when the number of school children was one-half as large. There were in 1903, 525 visits of truant officer to schools ; 521 absences investi- gated; 152 cases of truancy ; twenty-four truants arrested ; nine sent to truant school ; $629.29 paid for board of truants.
In 1888 there were 164 cases of truancy. The cause of this decrease is to be found in the more vigorous method of dealing with truants. The establishment of the well-managed truant school at North Chelmsford, and the certainty that persistent offenders will be sent to it, has a deterrent influence. Nothing restrains crime like the prompt and impartial execution of the law. Embryo criminals, like the full-fledged, often mistake leniency for indulgence, and very quickly learn to place a fitting estimate upon promises of punishment. Severity in dealing with truancy is the greatest kindness to the offenders themselves and to the schools they corrupt. Due credit should be given to the efficiency of our single truant officer, whose vigilance has been an important factor in correcting the evil. Our use of the public telephones in connection with truancy has proved of great value.
Public Library and Schools. Ten years ago these two great agencies of popular education first came into alliance in our city, an alliance that has grown stronger and more productive of good year by year. There are few, if any, cities in the land in which these two institutions are in closer union. There are none in which the librarian is more studious of the needs of children or more ready to supply them. No library is more accessible, no trustees more generous, no attendants more courteous, no oppor- tunities more extended. Ten years ago a few school children over fourteen years of age had library cards, and drew books from a meagre collection by title only. Now all children, irre- spective of age, have access to a well-chosen and extended assort- ment of books, not a pernicious one in the number, on shelves in a room designed for them and devoted to their exclusive use. Then it was rare to meet a child in the library; now they are
178
ANNUAL REPORTS.
found there by hundreds. Ten years ago the schoolhouses con- tained nothing but dry text-books. To-day there are 163 libra- ries, containing 9,042 interesting and instructive books adapted to all ages, distributed over the city in as many schoolrooms. Each schoolhouse is a branch library. Nor do these books gather dust. They are kept in circulation, and libraries are inter- changed often enough to maintain interest and variety. Neither is it children alone that are benefited. Whatever books will aid teachers in instruction may be had in numbers for personal or class use. Books are constantly added by request of teachers as aids in either the professional or the practical side of their varied work. The value of all this is immeasurable. It is increasing the ability to read. It is fostering a love of reading. It is de- veloping a taste for good books. It is a silent, but powerful, means of informing, educating, elevating. Its influence reaches far forward into the future of every child, an important element in moulding character.
More books and more reading impose additional obligations upon teachers in directing the choice of books and determining the formation of the taste and desire for what ennobles and en- riches, rather than for that which merely amuses or entertains. No book at all is better than a bad book. Ignorance is better than misdirected learning. It is pleasant to feel that many teachers are taking advantage of their opportunities, and are doing all in their power to make books a blessing rather than a bane to those under their influence.
School Hygiene. Everywhere more and more attention is being given to whatever pertains to the health and physical well- being of school children. One-fifth of every city's population congregate daily in detachments of half a thousand each from all sorts of homes, and mingle freely together. No better scheme for carrying contagion could be devised. The sanitary condition of schools thus becomes a question of the health and safety of the public no less than of the individual, and demands utmost care and constant vigilance.
Hence the attention given in schoolhouse construction to ventilation, sanitation, and light. Hence the daily medical in- spection of schools. (Paris has had it since 1833.) Hence the quarantining of children from infected homes and the exam- ination of children's sight and hearing. Hence the tendency to revive the old-fashioned outdoor recess. Hence the much more frequent cleansing and purifying of schoolrooms, and the daily disinfection of books and pencils. Hence the re-covering of text-books and the discarding of the badly soiled. Hence the isolation of each child's clothing. Hence the rule in Chicago that every pupil absent four days, from whatever cause, must pre- sent a medical inspector's certificate of health. Hence every possible precaution and safeguard to secure ideal hygienic con- ditions.
179
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
Not only do we see all these negative efforts for the preven- tion of disease, but also equally general movements on the posi- tive side, for the development of physical health and vigor. It is generally recognized that that education is defective which does not provide for distinct physical training in the daily pro- gramme. So we see all progressive cities employing directors of physical training with regular courses of scientific instruction. We see the twentieth-century schoolhouses equipped with gym- nasiums for girls as well as boys, with baths and swimming tanks, with ample grounds for sports and recreation.
Along all these lines very little has been done in Somerville. Teachers are enjoined to watch vigilantly for signs of danger. The quarantine rules are strictly enforced. Nevertheless, within five years three of our largest schools have been closed for two, three, and four weeks, respectively, on account of scarlet fever or diphtheria. Medical inspection has been only discussed. All but two or three of our school buildings are in good hygienic condi- tion. Very few of them, however, are as clean as a hospital, or a meeting house, or an average home. And yet during this year the schools have been largely free from interruption, save by chil- dren's diseases that periodically well-nigh break up primary classes.
On the positive side we are equally deficient. We have no gymnasiums, no school playgrounds, no scientifically directed course of physical training. Fourteen years ago, a supervisor of physical training was employed for a few months, and the Ling system of gymnastics set in operation in the elementary schools. After an interval of five years another supervisor was hired for five months, and a revival of interest resulted. Since then these exercises have been given regularly twice a day in nearly all grades. They have, however, become perfunctory and monoto- nous. Moreover, while they give a form of muscular exercise, they fail to furnish the relaxation from mental strain which chil- dren need at suitable intervals.
In the high schools there is no physical training of any sort. The need is becoming constantly greater as the courses become more exacting. But we have no facilities of any kind. For a few athletic sports, the track, baseball, football and questionable basket ball afford a substitute. But the many who most need the training can only sit by and cheer.
All sides of this important question should be investigated and discussed, and some reform instituted. If medical inspection is unwise or too expensive, if gymnasiums are not to be had, at least may we not follow the example of neighboring cities and employ a director of physical training to plan and execute a scientific system that will produce the results we seek?
Repairs of School Buildings. There is a committee of the school board having this matter in charge. It is a survival of the earlier times, when the school committee enployed janitors,
180
ANNUAL REPORTS.
determined the amount of fuel needed, and had full authority regarding school buildings. Since the change in charter placed all these matters in the hands of a commissioner of public build- ings, this committee is only an "advisory committee." It makes annually a hurried visit of inspection to as many buildings as can be reached in a day, and turns over to the board the recommen- dations of principals with its endorsement, the matter being fi- nally referred to the city government. The extent to which these recommendations are carried out is generally contingent on the amount of money available.
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