USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1905 > Part 11
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chairs and tables, and the courtesies and refinements of home should be observed. The menu should be prescribed by proper authorities ; the food should be carefully prepared and tastefully served. The expense should be reduced to the minimum. Such a lunch-room would be generously patronized by pupils who now go into neighboring restaurants in all sorts of weather, or else abstain altogether. The lower story of the new annex would afford a suitable place for such a room. Probably the suggestion that it be used for this purpose would be met with the charge of extravagance, but the patrons of the schools would not be found among those making this criticism. No more popular provision for constantly-recurring needs could be made. Probably other demands will be thought more pressing, but something of this sort must be provided at an early date. As an illustration of up-to-date methods, the new high schoolhouse in Rochester, N. Y., is provided with a lunch-room containing 600 octagonal tables and 1,200 chairs. One thousand students are fed daily.
Accommodations for the English School. Before considering what is requisite for the proper housing and conduct of the Eng- lish school, it should be remarked that there are a thousand young men and women whose educational needs are to be met almost entirely in this school, not in higher institutions. It is here that they get their equipment for business pursuits and for life. Certainly the training and education of no other class of pupils is more important. For the support of the English school the city pays nearly $50,000 a year. Not only the interests of the pupils, but economy of expenditure demands the outlay of this money in a way to secure the largest possible dividend. It is a grave mistake to regard this school as secondary in value or importance to any other in the city.
In September, 1906, this school will contain a thousand pupils. At the present time there are 920. The normal capacity of the building is 600. All manner of devices and every inch of space have been used to provide for the surplus 320. Only the most skilful planning and the spirit of mutual accommodation on the part of teacher and pupil could have solved the problem in any measure. The present plan is to put 200 of these thousand
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ANNUAL REPORTS.
pupils into the Latin school annex. Their recitations will be now in one building and then in the other. It is impossible to select any 200 or, even 100 of the pupils of this school all of whose work could be done in the new building. Frequent trips from one building to the other will be unavoidable. This colo- nizing, however, still leaves 800 pupils in the English school building. The present ingenious devices may still be used to provide them seats, but something more must be done for these pupils than simply to find places for them to sit. It goes without saying that a building planned in its rooms, laboratories, and general equipment for 600 is wholly inadequate to accommodate a thousand, or even 800.
A thousand pupils should need forty teachers. There are now twenty-six working rooms for teachers in the English build- ing. Add a possible eight in the Latin building, and we are still six rooms short of the number needed. Moreover, certain de- partments are now crowded for room. This is true of the com- mercial department. The bookkeeping room should be enlarged by taking in the present typewriting room. This wholly inade- quate room should be replaced by another one of the proper size. The chemical laboratory is filled to repletion. The present three rooms obtained by changes in the lecture hall should be given up and the hall restored to its proper uses. The manual training department is very unsatisfactorily provided for. The library and reference room should be made larger by the addition of the book-room and a teachers' room. Rooms should be provided for the storage of books and supplies. The principal's office should be transferred to the first floor and made larger. A reception room should be provided for reasons already given. There should be toilet rooms on each floor. Adequate and secure clothes closets are needed. All these things and others that might be named call emphatically for the immediate carrying out of the second feature of the general plan for high school enlarge- ment. Steps should be taken to add one or two wings to the
rear of the English school. They should be carefully planned with the exact needs of the school in mind. Provision should be made for 1,400 pupils, for eventually no part of the English school can be accommodated in the enlarged Latin building. It is not just to this large body of students, nor to the teachers of the school, nor to the general public to delay any longer to provide for this school what it needs. It has been overcrowded for years, and no attempt should be made to force the school to continue under existing conditions simply because by great effort and sacrifice it has succeeded in doing so in the past.
Additional Accommodations, Elementary Schools. We group the Prescott, Hanscom, Davis, and Edgerly schools together, as they are located in the same general section, and are closely interrelated in their classification. These schools at the present
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SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
time contain 1,630 pupils in thirty-four schoolrooms, an average of forty-eight to a room. The conditions that prevail are prac- tically identical with those of a year ago. There are 100 children in the first grade on half-time in the Prescott school. To relieve the crowded conditions, it was found necessary in September to transfer fifty pupils from the Edgerly to the Glines school, where there was room in abundance. As in most cases of the kind, this occasioned some protests and remonstrances for which no good reason existed. Whatever may be said about the distance traveled by primary school children, no objection can properly be made to children in the sixth grade and above walking a half- mile to reach school. After careful consideration of the needs and the best methods of supplying them in this section, I renew the recommendation that has been made for several years that an addition of two rooms be made to the Hanscom school. Such an addition was contemplated when the building was erected, and it can be made at the minimum of expense. There is no prospect of any early increase in the population of this section, and doubtless the addition proposed would suffice for several years.
In ward two there are three schools,-the Baxter, Knapp, and Perry,-containing at the present time 1,120 pupils in twenty-four schoolrooms, an average of forty-seven to a room. Some of the children resident in this ward attend schools in wards one and three. No need exists for any increase in the school accommodations in ward two.
Ward three. In considering the needs of this ward, we group the Bennett, Pope, Bell, and Cummings schools. These schools have at the present time a membership of 1,756, in forty schoolrooms, an average of forty-four to a room. School accom- modations in this section are ample to meet all requirements.
Wards four and five. The Glines, Forster, and Bingham schools are closely connected. They contain an aggregate of forty-eight rooms, occupied at the present time by 2,037 pupils. This is an average of forty-three pupils to a room. In the Glines school there are eighty pupils on half-time. The transfer of seventy-five pupils from the Forster to the Proctor school left some of the rooms in the former school only partly filled. This is notably true of the two first-grade rooms, which contain only thirty-one pupils each. It has been found practically impossible to combine classes between the Glines and the Forster. The reason for this is that the children that it might be desirable to transfer live too far away from the school which they would enter to justify the change. It is probable that another year some such disposition may be made of the pupils in these schools as to ren- der half-time attendance needless and to save the services of at least one teacher.
Ward six. In its public school population, this is the larg- est district in the city. It contains the Carr, Morse, Durell,
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ANNUAL REPORTS.
Proctor, Burns, and Brown schools. The pupilage of these schools at present is 2,472, distributed in fifty-four schoolrooms, an average of forty-six to a room. By the opening of the Proc- tor school, the half-time conditions that had long affected 300 pupils were removed, and all pupils are attending on full-time.
The classification in this district is not wholly satisfactory. We are obliged to use a very small room in the Carr containing only twenty-four first-grade pupils. For these we employ a full- priced teacher. There is no opportunity to dispose of these pupils in other buildings. There is neither room for them nor do they reside in a locality from which they could well be trans- ferred. This is an unfortunate and uneconomical condition for which I have sought relief in vain.
There will be an inevitable crowding of the schools in this district in the immediate future. Next September we shall need to open the ninth room in the Proctor school. The district of which the Brown school is the natural centre is rapidly filling up, and the school will be overrun in September, 1906. I renew the recommendation made in former reports for the imme- diate enlargement of this building by the addition of four or eight rooms. Four rooms can be added without the purchase of extra land. Four more rooms and an assembly hall could be provided by the purchase of land on the southerly side. While the addition is being made, it should be large enough to meet future demands. The school is admirably located for another grammar school centre, and in the not distant future a build- ing of the capacity indicated would be easily filled. In the con- struction of the addition, the assembly hall should be a prominent feature. There is constant call in existing schools for a room in which the entire school may at times be assembled. There are gatherings of parents and teachers for which such a room is needed. Other municipalities provide assembly halls in their grammar schools. Why should we not do so?
Ward seven. This ward contains four schools,-the High- land, Hodgkins, Lincoln, and Lowe. Thirty-eight rooms in these buildings are at present in use. Their 1,742 occupants number forty-six pupils to a room. Two of these rooms in the Hodgkins building are temporarily in commission. The ward room comfortably accommodates forty-two pupils. A small room made last year from a teachers' room and a part of the cor- ridor contains twenty-three ninth-grade pupils. As I have said before in connection with the Carr school, it is poor economy to pay $700 for the instruction of twenty-three pupils, and it should be done only when a remedy is impossible. The use of this room at the present time is unnecessary, for the pupils now occupying it could easily be transferred to other rooms. This involves the forming of a mixed class of eighth and nintl -grade pupils. I have tried to secure such an arrangement, but have been unable to do so.
155
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
There are 180 ninth-grade pupils in the Highland and Hodg- kins schools at present in five rooms. The grade should be combined into four rooms, with an average of forty-five pupils to a room. The difficulty of doing this lies in the attachment that high-grade pupils have for the school which they have long attended. To what extent this very natural attachment should be recognized in the administration of school affairs is an open question. The increase in the population of this ward is chiefly in the western section. As a result, the Lincoln and the Hodg- kins schools are overcrowded, and the overflow must naturally go to the Highland school, where there has been this year ample room. The sooner the fact is recognized the better, that there must be a frequent readjustment of school district lines and a transfer of pupils enforced by changes in population of school districts. At an early day there must be some increase in school accommodations in this ward. As suggested in the last report, $26,000 would provide for an addition of six rooms to the Hodg- kins school by raising the present structure. This will be the natural school centre of this section of the city for years to come. If the capacity of the. Lincoln school could be doubled by an ad- dition, it would afford the relief needed. It has been suggested that a six-room building might be erected on Powder-house boulevard. It is, however, very doubtful whether this locality will become sufficiently populous to require a building of this size. Its pupils would need to be drawn from the immediate vi- cinity of the Lincoln and Hodgkins schools.
Reviewing the foregoing recommendations for additional school accommodations, I arrange them as to their urgency in the following order :---
(1) An addition to the English high school.
(2) The enlargement of the Hanscom school.
(3) The enlargement of the Brown school.
(+ Some addition to meet the needs in ward seven.
School Attendance. Fourteen thousand two hundred and ninety-six different pupils have been in attendance upon the schools during 1905 for a longer or shorter period of time. For the sake of uniformity in comparing the cost of schools in the different cities and towns, the state authorities have established certain rules regulating the membership of the schools. Under these rules, a pupil's connection with the school ceases at his death, on his removal from the city, by his withdrawal from school without intention of returning, or by an absence of ten consecutive days from any cause whatever. If we drop from the enrollment list names of pupils permanently or temporarily absent for any of these reasons, the remainder is the average membership of the schools. For 1905 the average membership has been 11,495, an increase of 401 for the year.
Somerville has an exceptionally large number of transient pupils who remain in one school for only a part of the year.
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ANNUAL REPORTS.
Some of them may be found registered in two or three schools- during the year. As giving some idea of these changes, the fol- lowing facts are presented :-
Number entering from schools outside the city. 1,273
Number entering first grade. 1,191
Number that were graduated. 817
Number of transfers from one school to another in the city, 2,331
We ascertain the average attendance of the schools by tak -. ing into account all absences during the membership period. This is the number of pupils that have been present on the average every school day during the year. For 1905 this aver- age attendance is 10,853, an increase of 431 over 1904. The- average attendance is 94.4 per cent. of the average membership. This continued absence of 5.6 per cent. of school children is due almost entirely to sickness or absence enforced by quarantine- rules. There have been 430 days lost on account of truancy. This is equivalent to the absence of 2.2 children throughout the year. As indicative of the willingness of parents to co-operate with the schools, it should be remarked that very few children are kept from school except in cases of sickness or urgent neces- sity. An exception, however, should be made of parents who do not enter their children at school promptly at the opening of the school year, and those others who remove them before its. close. While this may be a convenience to those whose summer residences are out of the city, it often results to the disadvantage- of the children themselves, and interferes somewhat with the working of the schools.
Punctuality is one of the school virtues that teachers strive to make habitual in their pupils. The habit of being where one- ought to be at a specified time and of doing the thing one ought to do just when it ought to be done is of great value in business. and out of it. The aggregate number of tardinesses in our schools for the year is 3,746. This number may seem large, but when distributed among the individual pupils, it shows that each child has been tardy once out of his 1,012 opportunities of being so. More than half of these delinquencies are chargable to chil- dren in the three primary grades. The responsibility for tardi- ness generally rests with the parent. Teachers should discrimi- nate carefully in imposing penalties therefor, for while the evil' should be restrained, tardiness is fortunately not a capital offence, and no general rule should be made in any building concerning the matter. Each case should be considered on its merits.
The dismissal of pupils before the close of the school ses- sion is very rarely necessary, and can generally be avoided by foresight and planning on the part of parents. In 1905 there were 2,464 dismissals, a number which appears unnecessarily large. Teachers very properly hesitate about declining to honor calls from parents for dismissal, but all should understand that
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SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
requests of this sort should be proffered only in case of most urgent necessity.
Those of us who have the good fortune to be living in the millennium will doubtless hear nothing of corporal punishment either in the school or in the home. The necessity for it will have ceased to exist. Until that happy period comes, however, and so long as human nature is what it is, so long as force is needed anywhere to secure compliance with rules and law, so long as parental government is weak, and so long as no restraint is placed upon wayward children outside of school, both teachers and parents will be compelled to resort to this means to secure, order and obedience. There have been in Somerville schools this year 337 cases in which the rod has been used. This is an average of little more than one case to a teacher, or one case during every 9,000 school sessions.' There have been 124 classes in which there has been no case of corporal punishment during the year.
On the fifteenth of December, the number of pupils in the schools was as follows :-
1905.
1904.
Increase.
In the Latin school.
444
422
22
In the English school.
917
811
106
In the elementary schools
10,562
10,357
205
In the kindergartens
195
197
-2
A total of.
12,118
11,787
331
Adding to this number the 1,764 pupils in private schools, we have 13,882 school children in the city.
Truancy. The vigilance of teachers and the efficiency of the truant officer have resulted in what may be considered a minimum amount of truancy for a city of the size and location of Somerville. The following is the year's record :-
1904.
1905.
Increase.
Number of visits to schools.
429
567
138
Number of cases investigated.
387
514
127
Number found to be truants.
146
150
4
Number sent to truant school.
5
4
-1
Paid for board of truants.
$245.84
$322.14 $76.30
Teachers. There are 315 teachers in the employ of the city at the present time, twenty-seven of whom are men. This does not include fifty who are employed in evening schools. The city has lost during the year the unusual number of twenty-six teach- ers. Eleven of these have resigned to be married; seven have left us to fill more desirable positions in other cities ; seven have relinquished teaching altogether for rest or change of occupa- tion ; and one has died. Seven of these teachers have served the city for a period averaging twenty-five years. Miss Brown, of the Prescott, Miss Downes, of the Morse, Miss Hunt, of the Knapp, and Miss Schuch, of the Bell school, had served the city faithfully for thirty-seven, thirty-three, thirty-one, and
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ANNUAL REPORTS
twenty-three years, respectively. In their retirement from teach- ing, they carry with them the gratitude and best wishes of all who have been associated with them either officially or as co- laborers.
George E. Nichols, for twenty-eight years the master of the Highland school, died in June last, after an illness of several months. The witness borne to his character and service as a teacher by the school board will be found on another page of this report.
Of the teachers who have resigned during the year, nineteen have served the city for an average period of four years and a half.
To replace these losses and to fill new positions, twenty- eight teachers have been elected during the year. These new teachers have all received professional training. One of them had had only a single year's experience; four of them had taught successfully two years; the remaining twenty-three were tried teachers about whose qualifications there could be no ques- tion. They were elected at the maximum salary of the positions which they filled. Four others were employed for a proba- tionary period. Thus far their success seems to have justified their selection. Of these new teachers, one-third were residents of Somerville at the time of their election.
While the necessity of employing only skilled and experi- enced teachers in our schools is growing greater and more appa- rent year by year, the difficulty of finding them is constantly in- creasing. Everywhere the demand for suitably qualified teach- ers exceeds the supply. The reasons for this are fully set forth in the last report of the secretary of the State Board of Educa- tion. Fortunately for us, the salaries that we have to offer are somewhat larger than those in many other cities in the state. In self-defence, however, several of these cities have recently raised the salaries of their teachers to our level, and have to this extent shortened our sources of supply. However, this difficulty in securing good teachers must not lead us to lower our standard. The character of the school centres in the teacher, and whatever economies may be practiced in other directions, failure here will be disastrous. We must be ready, however, to do something ourselves toward the training of teachers and the development in them of those qualities which the best teachers must possess. There are available a few normal school gradu- ates gifted by nature with an aptitude for teaching. Even
these, however, should not be employed until they have been tested by experience. After service under less trying conditions than our schools present to prove their work reasonably success- ful, we may well employ them in some of our larger schools, where they will be under the training and guidance of masters skilled in the work of supervision. Their service should at first
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SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
be of a probationary character, and their employment made per- manent only when their success is beyond question.
There is always, however, a serious risk in employing resi- dent teachers on probation. If they succeed it is all right, but if they fall short of the requirement, it is difficult to drop them. Social, church, and political influences are sure to be brought to bear upon the appointing power to have them retained, whatever their qualifications. In this way mediocre or even poor teachers may become permanent and unsalutary fixtures in our schools. It behooves us, therefore, to adhere firmly to the principle that the general interests of the schools should far outweigh all per- sonal considerations of every sort.
In our employment of teachers, we do well to remember this statement of the secretary of the State Board of Educa- tion :-
"It should not be overlooked that the most important ele- ment in the teacher's qualifications is not to be found in aca- demic scholarship, essential as this is, nor in the power to hold a school in order, essential, also, as this is, but in the rarer and finer power of leading the child to act judiciously, earnestly, and advantageously for himself in the enlargement of his executive and productive capacity, in the acquisition of knowledge, and particularly of those larger underlying principles that enable him to classify and utilize knowledge, in the cultivation of a sturdy civic spirit, and in the building up of a well-rounded and admir- able character."
Latin School. The Latin school now contains 444 pupils, as compared with last year's registration of 422. These are di- vided among the classes as follows :----
1904.
1905.
Change.
Senior
81
93
12
Junior
93
92
-1
Sophomore
112
120
8
Freshman
136
139
3
The number assigned to a teacher, exclusive of the principal, is thirty-seven.
There has been only one change in the teaching corps dur- ing the year. The place left vacant by the resignation of Miss Edith M. Walker has been filled by Miss Mand M. Cunningham. a Wellesley graduate with seven years of successful experience, the last of which was in the Holyoke high school.
This school has been seriously handicapped by lack of room in which teachers may hear recitations. It was hoped that changes in rooms in the building in the summer would provide accommodations for at least fourteen teachers. Owing, how- ever, to financial stringency, two rooms set apart for recitation purposes have not been set off from other rooms by folding par- titions, as was planned. This has compelled the use of the base- ment recitation room by one teacher, and has restricted the
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