USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1909 > Part 12
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Total $1.000
$1.000
$1.000
$1.000
$1.000
$1.000
.
Per Capita Cost. The proper method of comparison of the cost of schools year by year is to consider the sum spent for each pupil in the average membership. In this computation we exclude the cost of evening schools, the sum being so large as possibly to mislead. The following shows
164
ANNUAL REPORTS.
THE PER CAPITA COST OF DAY SCHOOLS FOR 1908 AND 1909.
High Schools.
Grammar and Primary Schools.
All Day Schools.
1908.
1909.
De- crease.
1908.
1909.
De- crease.
1908.
1909.
De- crease.
Instruction .
$43 52
$41 82
$1 70
$20 64
$20 63
$0 03
$23 58
$23 44
0 14
Supplies .
4 90
4 59
0 31
1 71
0 45
2 12
1 70
0 42
Care
4 85
4 36
0 49
3 30
1 26 3 38
+0 08
3 50
3 51
+0 01
Total
$53 27
$50 77
$2 50
$25 65
$25 27
$0 38
$29 20
$28 65
$0 55
Including the cost of maintenance of evening schools, the per capita cost will be as follows :-
1906.
1907.
1908. $24.21
1909. $24.06
Cost of instruction.
$22.63
$22.93
Cost of supplies
1.92
2.04
2.17
1.76
Cost of care.
3.45
3.65
3.65
3.66
Total
$28.00
$28.62
$30.03
$29.48
An examination of these tables shows that we have paid $1.70 less for the instruction of each pupil in the high school than in 1908, and thirty-one cents less per pupil for supplies.
The grammar and primary schools have cost one cent less per pupil for instruction, and forty-five cents for supplies.
The decrease in the per capita cost of instruction is due to changes in the teaching corps of the high and elementary schools. The schedule of salaries provides a yearly increase to such teachers as have not reached the maximum of their classes. The effect of this schedule is to raise the cost of instruction year by year until all teachers arrive at the maximum salary, when a level cost will be reached. This tendency can be off- set by the employment of new teachers at a salary less than the maximum of their classes or less than that of the teachers whose places they take. A number of the teachers who resigned dur- ing the year were receiving the maximum salary, but their suc- cessors were engaged at salaries lower in the scale. The total saving in salaries by this process was enough to make the de- crease in per capita cost noted.
There are several points in this matter significant enough to merit attention. The first is that an effort has been made by the Committee to spend in a careful, business-like way the money granted to it by the Board of Aldermen. Without sacrificing efficiency in any way avoidable, and with no willing- ness to sacrifice it, the Committee, nevertheless, has so attended to its duty in this particular as to make the best use of the city's money.
A second point is just as significant. The teachers who have resigned at maximum salaries have gone to larger salaries
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SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
elsewhere. They had served Somerville at the highest salaries available to them, but they were worth more, and could not be held by our scale. The teaching of this experience is that our maximum salaries are not too large. Those who come to us at lower than those salaries do so only because the attainable maximum is as large as it is. When they have reached it they, too, may move on. The maximum salaries are the determin- ing values in getting and keeping good teachers. With cer- tainty of reaching by length of service and by merit a maximum that is satisfactory, desirable teachers can be secured who are content to begin at salaries lower than that maximum.
The last point to be made is that it is plain that our salaries are not higher than are needed to provide for our schools the quality of instruction which they are now receiving, and which the standards of the city demand.
Considering all day schools together, the cost per capita has decreased fifty-five cents, resulting from a decrease of four- teen cents for instruction and forty-two for supplies, with an increase of one cent in the cost of the care of school buildings. Adding the cost of evening schools to that of day schools, we increase the cost of instruction by sixty-two cents, the cost of supplies six cents, and the cost of the care of school buildings fifteen cents. This makes the total cost for 1909 $29.48 per capita, as against $30.03 for 1908. In 1907 there were eighty- nine cities and towns in the Commonwealth in which the per capita cost was larger than it was in Somerville. The cost of maintaining our schools in 1908 was $5.78 for every thousand dollars of the city's valuation, but there were seventy-eight cities and towns in the state that paid a higher rate. This year the maintenance of the schools in Somerville has taken $5.75 of the $12 allowed for the maintenance of all departments in the city.
Teachers' Salaries. The salaries paid to teachers in Janu- ary, 1910, are as follows :-
1 man. $3,000
1 woman. $825
1 man. 2,800 .
1 woman, 1 man. 800
1 man.
2,000
16 women. 775
1 man. 1,950
1 woman. 750
11 men, 2 women.
1,900
7 women. 725
8 men. 1,700
203 women 700
1 man. 1,600
5 women. 650
3 men.
1,500
10 women. 600
2 men. 1,400
1 woman. 550
4 men. 1,300
4 women. 525
2 women 1,200
5 women. 500
1 woman
1,150
10 women. 425
1 man.
1,100
1 woman. 400
12 women.
1,000
3 women. 350
5 women.
950
1 woman.
275
20 women.
900
3 women, 1 man. 200
Į woman
850
166
ANNUAL REPORTS.
Truancy. The truancy for the year amounted to 780 half- days, being 76 half-days more than the record of 704 half-days last year.
This is not an undue amount of truancy. Teachers and ·principals have been vigilant, and have co-operated in every way possible with the truant officer in the effort to prevent pupils being out of school improperly, and to detect such tru- ancy as might occur.
Taken with the good average of attendance for the year, there is afforded a test of the efficiency of the schools, so far as attendance is concerned. The record is no lower than normal, and is probably somewhat better than that.
The following shows the record for the year :-
1908.
1909.
Increase.
Number of visits to schools.
401
787
386
Number of cases investigated
655
1,185
530
Number found to be truants.
155
265
110
Number sent to the truant school.
6
2
-4
Paid for board of truants.
$705
$791
$86
The 265 cases of truancy were caused by 201 individuals. Nine hundred and twenty cases investigated were found to be absences for which reasons satisfactory to the truant officer were given. Two hundred and eighty-four were out on ac- count of illness. i
While these cases furnished a large part of the work for the truant officer, and were apparently not of a nature to de- mand his services, it is probable that his visits to these homes promoted the attendance of children upon whose parents the obligations to send their children to school rests rather lightly. Six pupils were brought into court for sentence as truants. Two were sent to the truant school, and four released on pro- bation.
Of the 201 truants, five were attendants of the high schools.
School Hygiene. The physical welfare of pupils has been kept prominent in the minds of school officers and teachers during the year. More efforts than ever have been made to secure good ventilation and to keep the temperature of rooms at a degree which the best authorities and our Rules and Regu- lations declare as a standard. A beginning of the banishment of the drinking cup for common use has been made, and added attention has been given to the relation of schoolroom lighting to the activities of pupils. The recess for all pupils in the morning and for primary pupils in the afternoon has been re- established. In most schools the recesses are held out of doors in suitable weather.
The eye and ear tests have been held as described in the last report, yielding results shown in the following tables. These tests, while lacking anything like expert quality, are nevertheless productive of much good. There is need of some
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SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
method of assuring attention to remedying such defects as the tests disclose. As it is, many ascertained defects continue be- cause parents do not provide suitable treatment.
The following gives the results of the eye and ear test :-
EYES.
1
1908.
1909.
Change.
Tested
11,429
11,417
-12
Defective
2,307
2,200
-107
Per cent. defective.
20.2
19,2
-1.0
Notices sent to parents
1,406
1,375
Professionally treated.
350
185
EARS.
1908.
1909.
Change.
Tested
11,854
11,890
+36
Defective
496
371
-125
Per cent. defective ..
4.2
3.1
-1.1
Notices sent to parents
331
284
Professionally treated.
34
35
INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION.
At the September meeting, upon a motion by Mayor Woods, the School Committee passed an order directing the Committee on Industrial Education to take into consideration the whole question of industrial education and to report at the December meeting. In compliance with this order, a careful examination has been made of the status and tendencies of the movement for industrial education. Information upon the subject has been sought by means of a study of published re- ports, addresses, and discussions upon industrial education, by conferences with leaders in this movement, and by visiting schools where an effort is being made to provide this form of training. The time prescribed by the order of the Board for making this investigation has not been sufficient to permit an examination of a number of institutions whose experiments in this field of educational effort are of interest and value; the voices of speakers and writers upon this subject when clear have not been found always to be in unison, and the beginnings already made in various parts of the state differ greatly in plans and means used to provide industrial training ; but, in spite of these limitations and contradictory conditions, it is possible to present a few conclusions with a degree of assurance that they represent fairly the trend of thought of educators upon this subject.
It has been sought in this investigation to find such an- swers to a few questions as would afford the School Committee adequate reasons for its guidance in determining what it should recommend for the schools of Somerville. The questions for which answers have been sought follow ;-
168
ANNUAL REPORTS.
1. What is the demand for industrial education?
2. How is the need to be met?
3. What should be done now to provide industrial train- ing in the schools of Somerville?
1. Briefly stated, the demand for industrial education arises from the conviction that the old courses of instruction fail to fit for life a large proportion of the youth attending school. The curriculum of the elementary schools has been based upon the three R's of historic and honorable distinction. To be able to read, write, and do sums was for the youth a generation ago a preparation sufficient to enable him to enter some activity which would provide means of support. While the study of reading, writing, and arithmetic was then no more than now vocational in motive, its relative value as training for self-support was greater in former days than it is now. This change of value has come, not because it is less important to- day than formerly to be able to read, and write, and cipher, for it is vastly more important to-day to be able to do these things well, but because the marvelous changes in the conditions of living which have occurred in a comparatively few years have greatly impaired the potency as a preparation for earning a livelihood of that training of which the three R's were the prin- cipal factors. Moreover this training has never been equally effective for all pupils. The registers of the schools are bur- dened with the records of pupils whose attainments in book- learning have been mediocre. Such pupils have had little rea- son to expect to pass through the "door of opportunity" which stands invitingly open at the end of the literary courses. Hav- ing little aptitude for literary (cultural) courses, upon reaching the age when school attendance is no longer compulsory, they drop out of school to go to work, or, if they continue for a time longer, they do so with little advantage to themselves or satis- faction to the school. Others more successful at their books pursue one or another of the courses provided because of lack of opportunity to select one which leads to industrial life. It is urged with vigor that the needs of these pupils should be met by adding to the public school establishment such courses, agencies, and equipments as are required for a training which will give preparation for earning a living by means of a manual occupation. This in brief is the educational demand.
The educational demand is strongly supported and re- inforced by the demands of employers of skilled labor that public instruction shall furnish as thorough preparation for the indus- tries as it is giving for business and the professions. Em- ployers assert that the supply of skilled labor is not equal to the demand, that the number of skilled workmen coming to this country from abroad is small, that the apprenticeship plan has failed largely and conditions are rapidly growing worse.
And finally, organized labor demands that "the boys and
169
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
girls of the country have an opportunity to acquire educated hands and brains, such as may enable them to earn a living in a self-selected vocation, and acquire an intelligent understanding of the duties of good citizenship." The report of the convention of the American Federation of Labor held in Toronto last No- vember from which this quotation is taken goes on to say, "The one trouble of America to-day is that too many of our youths who have graduated from the grammar or high school are misfits industrially. If we are to secure industrial supremacy, or even maintain our present standards in the industrial world, we must in some way in our educational system acquire an equivalent to our old apprenticeship system." Also "We favor the establishment of schools in connection with the public school system, at which pupils between the ages of fourteen and sixteen may be taught the principles of the trades, not necessarily in separate buildings, but in separate schools adapted to this particular education and by competent and trained teachers."
These demands for a new order of educational effort have been taken by many as an attack upon the conduct of public education in the past and as an impeachment of the efficiency of that education. And there are not wanting those who hasten to resent the attack by stout denial of the claims for an educa- tion designed to promote industrial efficiency. That the old courses have given splendid vocational training for youths des- tined to enter professional, business, school, or scientific careers, can not be successfully questioned. That "industrial misfits" are also the products of that system is attested by the statements of employers and labor unions, and by the statistics of the schools themselves. That one sort of training is adapted to the needs of one part of the school attendance does not pre- clude the idea that another kind is needed for another part. Nor does the setting up of a course of instruction for new needs or needs newly recognized necessarily condemn that al- ready established so far as it is successfully accomplishing its purpose.
2. Having indicated the grounds on which the claims for industrial education rest, the answer to these claims is to be sought. Here again, as in the first inquiry, confusion and con- tradiction abound. Volumes of discussion and theory are available for the bewilderment of the searcher for light who trusts solely to such aid. Fortunately, however, experiments have been undertaken in varied ways and in a number of places, each throwing a faint beam upon the problem, and the whole number when properly focused affording considerable illumi- nation for its solution. In extent, full provision for industrial education would parallel the upper grammar school grades, the high school, and the college, ranging in quality from ele- mentary preparatory work, through intensive trade instruç-
170
ANNUAL REPORTS.
tion in a selected occupation, to schools or colleges for training foremen or superintendents. To satisfy the broad educational view, the matter of most consequence is to give suitable oppor- tunities for training to those who must at the beginning be of the rank and file of industrial workers. Such an opportunity should of necessity be open to those in the elementary schools who intend to work at manual trades, or who would otherwise leave school upon reaching fourteen years of age. It should be open to youth of high school age and qualifications, whether or not they have had elementary industrial instruction.
Two kinds of effort have already been started which serve to illustrate methods by which advance in this new undertaking may be made. Of these, the first is the so-called "extension plan" or the Cincinnati University plan. As adopted in Fitchburg, this plan has excited wide interest and attention. Boys who take this course spend half their time in the high school and a half in a machine shop or other metal-working establishment. Their high school instruction is outlined to supply the teach- ing which is needed for that line of work. The shop work is conducted under the same conditions as surround regular work- men and is subjected to the same requirements. Here the boy learns methods and processes of making the articles produced in the shop and at the end of his course of four years he will be a skilled workman. During his course he receives pay for his work at the rate of ten to twelve and one-half cents an hour for labor in the shop. This plan is working satisfactorily to all persons concerned and has many admirable features. Wherever and to whatever extent it is possible, it has the dis- tinguishing feature of being financially attractive: to the city, which pays nothing for it; to the boy, who gets pay while get- ting an education; to the manufacturer, who gets good return for his money and interest in the boy. That a plan so benign and advantageous to all concerned has not universally been adopted, is sufficient evidence of limitations to its application as a solution of the problem. Indeed, Fitchburg itself recognizes this limitation and is moving to provide training in manual arts for boys and girls in the seventh and eighth grades of grammar schools in a separate building provided by the state as a part of the state normal school. The pupils get the training and the normal school pupils give the training.
The second general plan for providing industrial training is worked out through schools created for the purpose. The place for holding such a school may be a building or part of one converted from some other to this use, or it may be a building constructed for this purpose; its equipment is determined by the trades to be taught ; its course of study is industrial in mo- tive, and its instructors are persons trained in the pursuits which they teach. Schools of this kind exist in a number of places, An independent industrial school was established last
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171
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
September in New Bedford. Vocational work in two centres was started in the same month in Springfield.
A secondary industrial school established a few years ago as a part of the public school system of Columbus, Ga., has at- tracted favorable notice because of its successful working and adaptation to the needs of the community which supports it. Requirements for admission are sound bodies, fourteen years of age, and education in common-school studies through the sixth grade of the elementary schools. Its sessions continue throughout the year, with the exception of the month of August. The school hours are from 8 to 4 daily, excepting Saturday. Every course extends over three full years. Aca- demic work is required of boys and girls, in addition to which the boys are taught carpentry, pattern-making, machinist's trade; cotton-mill work, and business pursuits ; the girls, dress- making, millinery, and business training. While successfully fulfilling its purpose in preparing pupils for industrial pursuits, its enrollment does not increase as rapidly as the school authorities desire, a fact due in part, at least, to the unusual length of the session and daily school hours. A new school building was provided for this enterprise, towards the cost of which the city government gave $30,000, and four gentlemen $21,000. The site for the school, consisting of two and one- half acres, was presented by two more public-spirited citizens. It is at present possible to teach all the trades selected under one roof, but whenever the demand for instruction in any one trade increases to an extent to justify the change, a separate building will be provided for instruction in that trade. A pri- mary industrial school had been in operation for four years in this city before the secondary school was established.
Industrial schools have been established in several other cities, corresponding in plan to one or another of these already described. All have one element in common, namely, an ex- perimental quality. Motive and certain definitions of condi- tions for entrance and continuance in these schools are well set forth, but the extent of the applicability of this educational ef- fort and what are to be its complete component parts are mat- ters which are not laid down as yet by competent authority.
One more phase of this movement should receive mention. Evening industrial schools to provide training for day workers have been established in a number of neighboring cities. They form an important part in a comprehensive scheme, but it is not necessary to describe them further in this connection.
As a conclusion to this part of the discussion reference must be made to the status of industrial education as a part of the educational policy of the state of Massachusetts. During the last session of the state legislature a new educational organ- ization was established superseding those then existing. The executive officer of the State Board is a commissioner of edu-
172
ANNUAL REPORTS.
cation who is to have two assistants, called deputy commis- sioners. Of these one. is to be in charge of the work of pro- moting and establishing industrial education in the state. A most important provision of the law concerning the establish- ment of industrial training is found in Acts and Resolves, 1906, Chapter 505, Section 5 (amended, 1909, Chapter 540).
Upon certification by the Board of Education to the auditor of the Commonwealth that a city, town, or district, either by moneys raised by local taxation or by moneys donated or contributed, has maintained an independent industrial school, the Commonwealth, in order to aid in the maintenance of such schools, shall pay annually from the treasury to such cities, towns, or districts a sum equal to one-half the sum raised by local taxation for this purpose : Provided, that no payment to any city or town shall be made except by special appropriation by the legislature.
Another provision of the law which is not generally under- stood in its full significance is Section 4 of Chapter 572 of the Acts of 1908, as follows :-
Any resident of Massachusetts may, with the approval of the commission on industrial education, attend an independent industrial school, as provided for in this act, located in any city or town other than that in which he resides, provided there is no such school supported in whole or in part by the city or town in which he resides, upon payment by the city or town of his residence of such tuition fee as may be fixed by said commis- sion ; and the commonwealth shall repay to any city or town one-half of all such payments. If any city or town neglects or refuses to pay for such tuition, it shall be liable therefor, in an action of contract, to the legally constituted authorities of the school which the pupil attended under the approval of said commission.
By this section cities and towns which do not support an independent industrial school may be compelled to pay the tuition of such of its residents as may, with the approval of the commission on industrial education, attend such a school located in any city or town other than that in which he resides. Six girls who live in Somerville are now in attendance at the Trade School for Girls in the city of Boston under the provisions of this section and bills for their tuition have been presented to the city of Somerville. It is apparent that anyone of our residents who has qualifications to satisfy the State Board of Education can obtain admission to an independent industrial school and require the city of Somerville to pay tuition therefor. Indus- trial education, therefore, is no longer merely a proposition to be considered, but is an established condition for some, at least.
3. Concerning the Needs of Somerville for Industrial Education .- Three views of the need of industrial education have now been considered, It has been seen that each view
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