USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1905 > Part 13
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All Day Schools.
1904
1905.
De- crease.
1904.
1905.
De- crease.
1904.
1905.
De- crease.
Instruction .
$47 20
$45 79
$1 41
$19 24
$18 86
$0 38
$22 16
$21 76
$0 40
Supplies .
6 04
5 15
0 89
1 29
1 29
0 00
1 78
1 70
0 08
Care .
4 29
4 15
0 14
3 31
3 26
0 05
3 42
3 36
0 06
Total
$57 53
$55 09
$2 44
$23 84
$23 41
$0 43
$27 36
$26 82
$0 54
If we include the sums paid for the maintenance of evening schools, the per capita cost for the two years is as follows :-
1904.
1905.
Change.
Cost of instruction
$23.03
$22.50
-$0.53
Cost of supplies.
1.93
1.74
0.19
Cost of care
3.52
3.63
+ 0.11
Total
$28.48
$27.87
-$0.61
An examination of these tables shows that in the high schools $1.41 less has been paid per pupil for instruction, that supplies have cost $0.89 less than last year, and that care of buildings has cost $0.14 less. This makes the average cost of educating a high school pupil this year $2.44 less than last year,- $57.53 in 1904, $55.09 in 1905. This reduction of expense is due to the fact that while there has been a large increase in the pupilage of the schools, there has been no increase whatever in the teaching force.
Instruction in grammar and primary schools has cost $0.38 per pupil less this year than last, while supplies have cost exactly the same, $1.29 per pupil, and care $0.05 less. This makes the net total of the per capita cost of these schools $0.43 less than in 1904,-$23.84 in one case, $23.41 in the other.
Taking all the day schools together, we find that instruction has cost $0.40 less, supplies $0.08 less, and care $0.06 less, mak- ing the net cost per capita $26.82 this year, as compared with $27.36 in 1904, a decrease of $0.54.
Adding the cost of evening schools to that of day schools, we increase the cost of instruction $0.74, the cost of supplies $0.04, and the cost of care $0.27. This makes the total cost for 1905 $27.87 per capita, as against $28.48 in 1904, a reduction of $0.61.
1
171
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
There were fifty-nine cities and towns in the commonwealth that paid a larger per capita sum than Somerville in 1904. The cost of maintaining our schools in 1904 was $5.44 for every thou- sand dollars of the city's valuation, but there were 130 cities and towns in the state that paid a higher rate. This year the ratio for Somerville is the same as for last year.
It is still to be noted that the school children of Somerville increase in number more rapidly than the ability of the city to meet the expenditure which this education entails. The increase in the number of children in the schools in 1905 was 2.8 per cent., while the increase in the valuation of the city was only 1.9 per cent.
While this decrease in the cost of the schools for the year may be gratifying and of temporary advantage in relieving the financial stress, we do well to inquire whether there has been in any direction a loss of efficiency. There is no question that there should be economy in all lines of school expenditure, neither is there any question that the people demand that the standard of the schools shall be maintained at whatever cost.
A comparison of the comparative cost of instruction in school buildings of different size, estimated on the basis of similar grading and equal numbers to a teacher, is interesting. We find it to be as follows :-
Per capita cost of instruction in 12-room buildings $16.29
in 8-room buildings 15.25
in 6-room buildings 13.42
in 4-room buildings 13.47
It will be seen that the cheapest schools are those that oc- cupy six-room buildings.
The salaries paid to teachers at the present time are as fol- lows :-
2 men. $3,000
1 man, 2 women. $800
2 men.
2,000
4 women. 775
9 men, 2 women.
1,900
16 women. 725
1 man.
1,800
6 women. 700
8 men. 1,700
201 women. 650
1 man
1,500
6 women. 600
1
man. 1,300
1 woman. 575
4
women
1,200
3 women.
525
1
man ..
1,100
6 women. 500
11
women
1,000
4 women. 425
1 man, 18 women.
900
1 woman. 350
2 women.
850
1 woman.
275
On this basis, the total salary list at present is $247,825.
Stamp Savings System. The stamp savings system intro- duced three years ago has begun its fourth year under the same general plan and management. The novelty has worn away, and the sale of stamps has reached a business basis. It requires time and service on the part of teachers, both of which in most cases are cheerfully given.
172
ANNUAL REPORTS.
The amount of business transacted is as follows :-
1903. 1904. 1905.
Received from sale of stamps. .... $15,135.59
$9,069.80
$8,056.80
Deposited in Somerville Savings
Bank
8,069.85 5,514.89 4,754.46
Value of cards cashed.
3,152.46 2,521.86 3,116.47
Total collections for three years to December 1, 1905. . $34,607.67
Total amount deposited in bank.
19,509.46
Total value of cards cashed.
9,318.66
Losses in three years (made good by interest) 136.26
Medical Inspection. The subject of the regular medical inspection of schools has been discussed in my reports for sev- eral years. Two or three votes of the school board are on record showing their approval of the installment of the system in Som- erville. Early this year a special committee was appointed to confer with the members of the board of health with reference to the matter. There was hearty agreement as to the wisdom and utility of the plan. Definite action was taken by the board of health, and the failure to secure the appropriation asked for was the only reason why the plan was not set in motion. Let us hope that money will be available during the coming year. There has been a minimum of infectious disease during 1905, the schools being very slightly affected. The preparation and cir- culation among teachers and parents by the board of health of a pamphlet containing directions for the prevention, treatment, and care of all the ordinary contagious diseases has been found very helpful. Teachers are watchful for any indications of trouble, schoolrooms are promptly and thoroughly fumigated whenever it is necessary, and books and other school property used by children affected are destroyed.
Public Library. There is one respect in which Somerville- stands pre-eminent among the cities of the commonwealth, if not of the country. It is in the close and cordial union between the public schools and the public library. Not only are the library doors swung wide open to teachers, and to pupils of all ages, but the books themselves are transferred from the library to the schoolrooms. There are at the present time 152 libraries containing nearly 6,000 volumes in the schools. These books have been selected mainly by the teachers themselves, and are, therefore, especially adapted to the age and attainment of the children in whose hands they are placed. The records show that there have been circulated among the school children during the year a total of 90,000 books lacking two. The advantages ac- cruing in this way to children cannot well be estimated, and an influence must go out from this distribution of books that will be lifelong. The school authorities recognize with gratitude the liberality of the library trustees and the unfailing courtesy and labor of Librarian Foss and his efficient assistant, Miss Wood- man, in purchasing and distributing books so generously among school children.
173
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
Since the opening of the school year another departure has been made by the library management, greatly to the advantage of the schools. It is the distribution in rotation among the schools of stereoptic pictures, the best that photographic art can produce. These pictures are used in the study of geography and history. They vividly show natural scenery, principal cities, life and customs of people, and notable buildings and works of art in all parts of the world. They are a great aid in instruction in the branches they illustrate, and are used with much zest by both pupils and teachers.
Manual Training. There are still some people in the com- munity who live too much in the past, and who feel and declare that manual training has no place in the public schools. They are generally people with narrow views who are totally igno- rant of what is going on in the educational world. Manual training has become a fixed element in the modern school. Manual training schools are found in every country that lays claim to an educational system. The value of this training is undeniable. The law requires it to be given in both high and elementary schools. The subject has a place in our high school under unfortunate limitations, which should be removed by the extension of the course in rooms especially adapted to the pur- pose. It should be given in the form of wood work for boys and domestic science for girls in the elementary schools also. At least two centres should be fitted up for these purposes, suitably equipped, provided with competent teachers, and opened to the pupils of the eighth and ninth grades. The school committee has several times voted to make this a feature of our educational system, and requests have been made for accommodations. The necessities of the case, however, have not appealed to those who control the necessary funds for this purpose. To show the strength of public sentiment along this line, I quote what has just been said by a student of educational problems in one of the lead- ing periodicals :-
The popular distinction between industrial education and higher edu - cation has no real existence. There is no higher education than that furnished by the professional schools-law, medical, theological. But training for law, medicine, and the ministry is industrial education as truly as training for carpentering, blacksmithing, or farming. The first three are industries no less than the second three.
And carpentering, blacksmithing, and farming are just as "high" as law, medicine, or the ministry. It is as important to live under a good roof as to live under good laws. Good bread is as important as good theology; bad cooking is as provocative of wickedness as bad preaching.
Life is for service; education is for life. That is the best education which best fits the pupil for the best service he can render. Which is better-to be a blacksmith or a preacher? That depends; it is better tó pound an anvil and make a good horseshoe than to pound a pulpit and make a poor sermon.
There is a real distinction between education for self-support and education for self-development; between culture and what the Germans call the bread-and-butter sciences. In order, if not in importance, the bread-and-butter sciences come first. The first duty every man owes to
174
ANNUAL REPORTS.
society is to support himself; therefore the first office of education is to- enable the pupil to support himself.
But manual training is not merely industrial training. It is not merely training for self-support; it is also training for self-culture. The hand has other uses than to hold a book; the eye other uses than to. read a printed page. Education is the training of the whole man-body, soul, and spirit. To teach a boy the mechanics of home-keeping, to. teach a girl the chemistry of home-keeping, is as much self-culture as to teach either what kind of homes the ancient Greeks and Romans pos- sessed. Our present self-development is too narrow. We need to. broaden it. Manual training is necessary to make the "all-round" man.
Manual training is moral training. The boy will learn that he is under law more quickly in a workshop than in a schoolroom. In-
dustry, order, carefulness, accuracy, obedience, conscientiousness are- taught at the forge and the work-bench more easily than at the desk. Moral lessons are better taught by doing than by reading, by tools than by text-books.
Whether manual training can come into our schools without putting something out is a question. What, if anything, shall be put out is another question. But it ought to come in for three reasons :-
To equip for self-support.
To make all-round men and women.
To develop the moral nature.
Promotions. There are some among us even now who think "the former days better than these," and who point with pride to the old-fashioned "district school," claiming its superiority in comparison with modern schools. Their judgment may be ob- scured by the glamour of some bright country boy who has come to the city and made a phenomenal business success. The aver- age mediocrity of the whole number and the restricted curriculum and narrow opportunities are forgotten. There was an excel- lency, however, in the country school which must be conceded. There was generally no attempt at classification, and the elective system prevailed. Each selected his favorite studies and worked upon them independently of his fellows. Progress along the. chosen lines was rapid. A spirit of self-reliance was developed. The bright were not retarded by the slow, nor were the latter forced beyond their ability.
The most common and probably the best founded criticism of graded schools relates to their "deadly uniformity." "Fifty pupils are in lock step, and the rate of advance is determined by the capacity of the average third. The bright pupils who might do double the work are repressed, while those whom nature has: not so highly favored are either forced beyond their natural ca- pacity or left at the end of the year hopelessly behind." The in- dividual is lost in the mass.
This danger has been generally recognized, and many at- tempts have been made to remedy the evil, with varying degrees of success. Some cities have adopted a plan of promotions at shorter intervals than a year, ranging from five months to six weeks. Others form "skipping classes," in which four years" work may be done in three, or three years' work in two. Still other plans have been tried. The latest, and one which readily
175
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
adapts itself to most schools without necessarily increasing the expense, is the one which has recently been systematically applied. in the city of Batavia, N. Y. While containing nothing abso- lutely new, the advantages of the plan lie in its methodical ap- plication and persistent working. The prominent feature is that a certain portion of the class instruction and recitation is replaced by the direct teaching of the individual pupil. A certain portion of each day is set apart for this line of work. The class in gen- eral is employed in study or written exercise while the teacher gives to the pupil seated at her side the special help and direction that he needs. Each child knows that his advancement depends wholly upon his own effort. No attempt is made to keep all pupils absolutely together in any subject. The precocious, the mediocre, the slow may each progress to the top of his bent. Those in special need of encouragement and instruction in one or two subjects (very few pupils are behind in all subjects) receive just what they require. Class instruction and recitation have their place, but they are subordinated to the requirements of the individual. A healthy spirit of emulation is aroused, and each one realizes that rewards are based solely upon individual merit.
The most successful working of this plan entails the employ- ment of an extra teacher in each building,-not an apprentice or a journeyman, but a patient, sympathetic, skilful, versatile woman, who passes from room to room and gives encouragement and assistance where most needed. In classes of twenty-five or thirty, or even thirty-five,-numbers that approach more nearly to the ideal,-the regular teacher does her work without assistance.
The result of the plan is that those that are capable advance. from grade to grade at any time during the year, according to their attainments. Just the encouragement and help are given that the lower third of the class need. At the end of the year no one is left behind to repeat the work, except in very rare instances where long-continued absence or other unavoidable circum- stances have interfered. This plan is being tried in several New England cities, and thus far with promise of success. Longer experience, of course, will demonstrate its actual value.
It is apparent that in our own schools there is need of some- thing of this sort, some well-considered and effective plan to se- cure the promotion of pupils whenever they are ready for it, and to prevent the spiritless repetition of a whole year's work.
In our schools 1,200 pupils fail annually of promotion to the next grade. This number includes those who drop back after a three months' trial in the advanced work. Distributed among 200 or more classes, it gives only four, five, or six to a class, but in the aggregate the number seems large. If all these pupils re- mained in school for the extra year, the cost to the city for their instruction would be $30,000. Not all, however, remain. Many drop out of school disheartened. If any plan can be devised to
176
ANNUAL REPORTS.
save this extra year to the pupil and to the school, it would be not only of immense advantage to the individual, but a worthy saving to the city.
The Batavian plan has been presented to our teachers, and in general meets with hearty approval. Some of them are using it to advantage. One great obstacle in the way of its success, however, is the size of the classes in our schools. For one woman to teach a class of forty-eight pupils successfully by any known plan is well-nigh impossible. The necessity for massing pupils in instruction and recitation is apparent. Some individual in- struction may be given, but it is perforce very limited in amount, at the best.
There is general recognition among educators of the neces- sity for smaller classes, and efforts in that direction are being made wherever possible. Smaller classes being at present impossible with us, the only remedy lies in the employment of an extra teacher in every large building, who shall devote her entire time to work among the backward or those in especial need. If the employment of such extra help should result in the promotion of even two-thirds of those who would otherwise be forced to repeat the work, the extra expenditure involved would be largely jus- tified.
Some such scheme should be adopted not only in the ele- mentary, but in the high schools. Many pupils drop out of the high schools early in the course through sheer discouragement. They are thrown more upon their own resources in the high school. The habit of self-reliant, individual work has not been formed. They have, depended heretofore too much upon the teacher, and, after vain attempts to maintain a creditable stand- ing, they drop out of school. Moreover, many pupils are condi- tioned in one or more studies, largely, no doubt, on account of their own indifference, but in many cases because it has been im- possible to give them the requisite help at just the right time. A skilled teacher could occupy her time to great advantage among this class of pupils. I commend the general adoption of this plan and the employment of extra teachers as far as possible to the careful consideration of your honorable body.
Student Organizations in High Schools. The question of the control of student organizations in high schools is now promi- nently before the educational public, and is occasioning earnest discussion in all parts of the country. There are two forms of these organizations, widely different in character and in useful- ness. Organizations of the first kind are open and public in their character. They include all forms of athletic clubs,-baseball, football, basket ball, polo, track athletics of all kinds, etc .; liter- ary organizations, student publications, dramatic clubs, glee clubs, school orchestras, chess and checker clubs, and organiza- tions of a similar character. The object of these societies is in general worthy, and, if well ordered and controlled, they may be
177
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
useful in promoting either the physical or mental or social in- terests of students. They generally bear the school name. .If mismanaged or uncontrolled, if excesses are allowed, if actions are permitted that are prejudicial to either the good name of the school or of its students, they become a menace, if not a positive injury.
Thus far Somerville high schools have been remarkably free from any of the objectionable features that have been noted elsewhere. It will be remembered that the subject of school athletics was discussed at some length in last year's report. Con- ditions have not materially changed since then. The Somerville High School Athletic Association is wisely managing the athletic interests of the schools. The employment of a graduate coach of sterling character, interested equally in the success of the teams and in the maintenance of the good name of the school and its students, has kept athletics of all forms on a high plane, and no criticism can be justly made. The fact that teachers of the school are on the board of government and that the finances are managed by one of them has maintained a healthy restraint, and has directed rather than antagonized the student manage- ment. The only criticism that may be made in connection with other open organizations connected with the schools may be along financial lines. As a rule, high school boys and girls are without the experience that is necessary to the transaction of business involving the outlays of large sums of money. A debit balance at the end of the year against any organization bearing the school name is a discredit, and there should be such control of funds by one or more members of the faculty of the school as would avoid endangering in any way its reputation. Just how far school authorities may interfere in the management of stu- dent organizations is a mooted question. An effort was made last year to secure legislation that would remove all doubts in the matter. The effort failed, but the attempt will be renewed this year in the hope of success. There is much greater need of authoritative control in other cities of the state than in our own, but the future is long, and "forewarned is forearmed."
The second form of student organizations is that of secret societies,-fraternities and sororities. These societies have de- veloped very rapidly all over the country during the last few years, and are in imitation of college customs. Most of them are local in character, although there are a few that have a na- tional organization. There are six or eight of these organiza- tions in our own high schools, and while there has been no con- flict between school authorities and these organizations (save in a single instance), they are in influence and character unsalutary, and they may become pernicious as the years go on.
The subject has assumed such importance as to have en- grossed, during the year, the attention of the Massachusetts Council of Education, an organization composed of leading edu-
178
ANNUAL REPORTS.
cational experts of the state. A very thorough and exhaustive investigation of the whole question, not only as it pertains to New England, but to the entire country, has been conducted during the year by Mr. Whitcomb, principal of the English high school, on behalf of this body. The consensus of opinion as ex- pressed by high school principals the country over is very em- phatically against these organizations as a whole. The general sentiment is that they should be abolished. If permitted at all, they should be under the control of the school authorities, but this removes the element of secrecy which seems to be their corner-stone. The subject was fully discussed at the last meet- ing of the N. E. A., and the following resolution, summarizing the objections to these organizations which have been disclosed by experience in various schools, was presented :-
"Whereas, the sentiment of superintendents, principals, and teachers against secret fraternities is almost universal, and their testimony, as. disclosed in the foregoing report, coincides with the observation and ex- perience of the members of the committee individually; be it therefore
"Resolved, that we condemn these secret organizations, because they are subversive of the principles of democracy which should prevail. in the public schools; because they are selfish, and tend to narrow the minds and sympathies of the pupils; because they stir up strife and con- tention; because they are snobbish; because they dissipate energy and proper ambition; because they set wrong standards; because rewards are not based on merit, but on fraternity vows; because secondary school boys are too young for club life; because they are expensive and foster habits of extravagance; because they bring politics into the legitimate organizations of the school; because they detract interest from study; and because all legitimate elements for good-social, moral, and intellectual-which these societies claim to possess can be better supplied to the pupils through the school at large in the form of literary societies and clubs under the sanction and supervision of the faculties of the schools."
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