USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1913 > Part 11
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1. Day Schools. (a) Elementary Schools. As the most im- portant of these elements of general culture the three R's occupy the most time and receive the greatest attention. In the treatment of these subjects teachers are guided by the course of study but are allowed great freedom for individual initiative and judgment. Closely associated with reading are language and literature, history and geography. These subjects are treated as major studies and have a large relative allotment of school time. Penmanship, music and drawing, manual train- ing and sewing in the classroom, all are conducted under expert supervision and all show the benefit which such supervision al- ways confers. One noteworthy achievement of the year has been the re-shaping of the course of instruction in sewing so as to lay emphasis upon making garments rather than upon mak- ing stitches. Under the new plan the child practices making stitches as an incident to making a garment in which her inter- est is mainly centred. The same educational principle is followed in all other forms of hand work, whether in the class- rooms or in the manual training shops.
Taken all in all the elementary schools are organized upon the plan adopted in the early days mainly according to pro- gressive stages or divisions of information. Upon this structure have been placed the new subjects of the curriculum. The whole conduct of the educational activities so organized is animated, however, by sympathy for the individual and by the desire to place his interests in the position of first importance. Good work abounds and good results are secured, Due to
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faults of organization, however, the work of the teachers is rendered harder than it should be and the progress of pupils is made slower. One of the chief of these faults is the presence in many classes of exceptional pupils who should be taught in classes by themselves. A few such classes are already estab- lished and their value is beyond doubt. No single change in the elementary schools produces more valuable results than the grouping of exceptional children in classes by themselves.
Another fault in the organization of the elementary schools is that which limits the supervision of supervising principals or masters to buildings having the ninth grade. It would be better to change this rule so as to give to teachers in the smaller buildings the benefit of such supervision. The rule which re- quires masters to teach not less than ten hours each week in the highest grade should also be changed so that the master may dispose of his teaching time as his judgment dictates. In order that they may properly carry into effect the good pro- visions of Section 82 that masters "shall instruct classes, ex- amine and grade pupils, and supervise the instruction of teach- ers in their own schools" masters should have some of those ten hours for that purpose. It is altogether to the interest of the schools that masters have opportunity to teach and do teach in every classroom under their jurisdiction.
(b) High Schools. The high school offers three courses whose major purpose is to give general development and cul- ture. These are the preparatory, the manual arts, and the gen- eral courses. Each has a well defined secondary purpose. The preparatory course fits pupils for higher institutions of learn- ing ; the manual arts course fits pupils to enter on advantageous terms high grade industries; the general course helps pupils whose natural proclivities are not strongly defined to find themselves. To some extent the materials of these courses are the same, but in method of presentation, adaptation to aim and intensity of pursuit each course makes use of them in a manner suited to its needs. The programme of these courses includes ancient and modern languages, history and govern- ment, mathematics and natural science, literature, art, manual arts and domestic arts.
1. Of these courses the preparatory is the oldest, being the lineal descendant of the old Latin High School. Many of the teachers of this course taught for years in the Latin High School, are familiar with its history and traditions, are devoted to its aims, and are proud of its reputation. All of these values they are zealously working to conserve and they assert con- fidence in the work they are doing under the new conditions. Their associates, teachers in the course who were not formerly in the Latin High, have all been selected for this work because of special fitness for it. All of these teachers under the leader-
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ship of the Head of the Preparatory Course, formerly a teacher in the Latin High, are working to make this course equal in every respect to the purpose which it serves. Last June from this course eighty-seven pupils were sent to nineteen higher in- stitutions of learning. So far as records are procurable they are wholly creditable to the work of this course.
2. The Manual Arts course was derived from elements which existed in the English High School. The interest of the course centres around the manual arts, freehand and mechan- ical drawing and construction work with tools and machinery. To some extent the book subjects of the course are related to the manual work. It is proposed to make this relation closer and more vital. The purpose of this course is to give oppor- tunity for the development in the individual of the creative fac- ulty, initiative, and judgment through the exercises which are carried on in the shops. All of the shop work is of a practical, commercial character. As the new rooms provided for this course by the additions to the high school building were not equipped when the school opened in the fall the boys improved the opportunity for doing real work of construction by build- ing benches, lumber racks, partitions and tool rooms. This course now. has an equipment for two years in tool and machine work. There are rooms for a third and a fourth year and it is hoped that the third year room will be equipped this year.
For girls the manual arts course provides instruction in domestic science and in domestic art, the latter having recently been introduced. The present and proposed equipment for domestic science is adequate, but that for domestic arts is in- sufficient. At present it shares with an academic subject the use of a classroom.
What technical high schools represent to cities which support them, the manual arts course of our high school repre- sents to Somerville.
3. The General course offers many of the subjects which are found in the preparatory course but under different condi- tions and limitations. The complaint that the colleges dominate high school instruction can have no force in this course. Here instruction is free from constraint and is shaped to interest the pupils in the subject matter itself. This course is somewhat experimental in its nature as by its title and its aim its limita- tions are not defined. As one of its aims is to help pupils to find themselves, this freedom to experiment is advantageous.
These are the offerings of the high school to the cause of general development and culture. The courses are well organ- ized, well provided with officers and teachers, and with the ex- ception of the Manual Arts course, well equipped. They will return to the city full value for the money invested and will meet the needs of the pupils efficiently within the limits of their
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undertaking. However, it should be pointed out that this offer- ing is deficient in one particular of first importance : It makes no provision for physical training or for athletics for either sex. As a sound body should be assured for the trained mind the omission of all care for the physical development of high school pupils is leaving to chance a matter of great significance. A physical director with suitable assistance from within or without the faculty should be provided to have charge of the physical training of the students and to develop and encourage all kinds of desirable out-of-door sports for both sexes.
Before leaving this subject I cannot forbear saying that I think the exactions of home and school duties are too severe for some high school pupils. Again some pupils are restrained from pursuing desirable work or studies out of school because home study takes all of their time. It seems to me this is neither a necessary nor a desirable condition. Its remedy can be found in allowing diploma credits to outside work so that it might be offered in substitution for some of the requirements for graduation. This idea has been worked out in some places and has in it that which is in harmony with the present tendency to make the work of the schools articulate more closely with outside interests. The administrative difficulties are such as could easily be solved once the principle were accepted.
2. The Night School. (a) Two elementary schools and one high school are maintained at night in the interest of the gen- eral development and culture of those who cannot attend school by day. The elementary schools provide instruction for illiter- ate minors who are compelled by law to attend night school and for others who attend voluntarily because of their eager- ness to add to their command of the school arts. These night school attendants by their self-denial in devoting four nights in a week to study after the labor of the day give the strongest kind of an appeal to sympathy and appreciation. By such efforts they merit a good return and I am glad to say that they get it in these schools. Experienced principals and proficient teachers make these schools of the first order of value. In view of the social conditions to which I refer in the first part of this report I expect to see the work of these schools continue to grow in importance.
(b) The high school carries on the good work begun in the elementary schools and fills its own field with equal success. Its programme of studies includes English and mathematics, free- hand and mechanical drawing, bookkeeping, stenography and typewriting, physics, Spanish, and chemistry. The attendance this year has been the largest in the history of the school. As the members of the faculty are all experts in their specialties
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the instruction offered is of a high order. Four years spent in this school will yield rich returns to the student.
Thus the offering of the City of Somerville in night school instruction spans the interval from the illiterate's beginnings in reading to the high school graduate's specialization in work of a continuation nature.
B. For Specific Development and Efficiency.
1. Day Schools. The aim in this work is to fit pupils for profitable employment in certain vocations while giving them opportunities for self-development by means of related academic work. This effort belongs to the period of secondary education and is furnished by Vocational Schools and by the High School. The Vocational Schools are organized under the provisions of chapter 471 of the Acts of 1911, are under the supervision of the Massachusetts Board of Education, and receive financial aid from the State to the amount of one-half of the cost of main- tenance. Admission is given to pupils over fourteen years of age who appear able to carry on the work successfully. The vocational work of the High School is offered in a Commercial course, which fits pupils for certain forms of employment in business.
(a) The Vocational School for Boys. This school is now in its fourth year. It occupies the four-room school building on Tufts street known as the Davis school building. The faculty consists of a principal and three instructors. The capacity of the school as now organized is limited to fifty pupils. Instruc- tion in two trades covering a period of two years is offered. The trades are machine work in metal, and tool and machine work in wood. The aim is to fit boys to enter these trades as advanced apprentices. In connection with the trade work in- struction is given in the school arts, civics, geography, and hygiene. This work is to a large extent individual, as the vari- ations of the pupils in attainment in school subjects is consider- able. The school is doing its work well and has shown that it is established on right principles and meets a real need. Its success as measured by growth is hindered by conditions beyond its control. The whole of the space in the building available for use is occupied by the work of the school. Expansion of work will require more room, but all efforts to get more space so far have failed. Probably the best way to get a small addition of room is to adapt the basement of the building to school use. This could be done at small cost, expenditure being required mainly for a new heating outfit. The boys could make most of the construction alteration.
A just estimate of the vocational training which this school gives as a part of a scheme of secondary education will not be satisfied by a provision apparently inferior to that given to
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other phases of secondary education. It will perceive that here is an educational opportunity of the utmost value to many more boys than are now sharing it, and it will insist that this educa- tional opportunity be so presented to boys as to show them its real worth to them as preparation for usefulness. For details concerning the work of the school during the past year I invite your attention to the report of Mr. Morse, principal of the school.
(b) The Vocational School for Girls. This school fits girls for profitable employment in millinery and dressmaking estab- lishments and in the domestic arts, while providing a training in related academic subjects. The school occupies a dwelling house at the corner of Atherton and Harvard streets which has been adapted to the various activities of the school in a fairly satisfactory manner. During the last year a Tea Room and Food Shop was opened at 109 Highland avenue as an adjunct to the activities of the school. At present the course at the Vocational School for Girls is two years in duration. The faculty consists of a principal and eight teachers. The success of this school is shown in its growth in attendance, the enthu- siasm of its pupils, and the success of those who have gone from its courses into employment. The plan on which the school operates is broad enough to furnish educational opportunities for many more girls but the school building is already crowded, and little additional work can be done until more room can be secured. Like the Vocational School for Boys this school suf- fers from the appearance of inferiority which its small and crowded building gives it. When other accommodations can be provided it will be desirable to do so because of the success and promise of the school. A full report of the work of the school for the past year is furnished in the report of Miss Brown, the principal.
(c) The High School Commercial Course. This course orig- inated in the English High School. At first it consisted mainly of typewriting, stenography, and bookkeeping offered in the junior and senior years, after a general course in the first two years. Now the course is so arranged as to give specific com- mercial instruction during any or all of the four years of the High School course. This course is distinctly vocational be- cause its aim is to fit pupils for employment at wages in various forms of business. Consequently a large proportion of time is given to various kinds of office work, such as bookkeeping, typewriting. and stenography. Connected with this practical work there are other studies intended to supplement the prac- tical studies and to enlarge the capacity of the pupils. Recog- nizing the fact that many pupils cannot remain in school the whole four years of the High School Course a grouping of the practical work in the first two years has been made for the bene-
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fit of such pupils. Here can be had all the advantage which the study of two years can give. That this course is not the equiv- alent of one four years in length is obvious. As it is desirable that all who can shall remain the full four years pupils who complete the two years' course will be allowed to continue the work if they so desire. The vocational work of the Commercial Course of the High School is more popular than that of the other schools, judged by the numbers of pupils who select each. That the reasons which dictate this disparity are sound and wholesome may well be doubted. If they are unsound in part, it would seem to be the duty of those who shape educational policies to discover why such reasons prevail and to endeavor to substitute therefor better ones.
2. Night Schools. (a) Classes in household arts have been conducted in two centres. At the Girls' Vocational school mil- linery and dressmaking were taught. At the Clark Bennett school, in addition to these two subjects, cooking was offered. The conduct of these classes was in accordance with provisions of the law designed to encourage women who are employed during the day at work or in the home to attend such courses for the purpose of becoming better workers. These schools were under the supervision of the State Board of Education and received State aid. Their success was such as to warrant opening again another year.
(b) Night High School. Vocational work in the night high school follows the lines of the commercial work in the day high school. It differs, however, greatly from the day school work in the range of intensity among the attendants. Night school scholars are all employed during the day. Some attend night school for the purpose of fitting themselves for a change of occupation, while others do so to perfect themselves in the work in which they are engaged. The latter are generally the more accomplished in their night school work and represent a higher degree of vocational-work effort. From this point of view chemistry and mechanical drawing are included in the list of vocational subjects offered at the evening high school.
C. Exceptional Development. The aim of this undertaking is to enable exceptional pupils to develop their powers under conditions which are adapted to their needs and are favorable to their development. A secondary purpose of this provision is to promote the efficient conduct of the regular classes by removing therefrom pupils whose exceptional characteristics make them misfits there.
Public education undertakes to educate all the children of the community-a large undertaking. But while engaged in this effort with great numbers of children the schools must deal with the problem as one affecting individuals, not masses
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of individuals, for education is an individual matter. But in- dividualizing education does not mean that each child must be taught separately. To do this would not be to the interest of the child even if it were economically possible to do so. There- fore children are taught to advantage in groups. But the suc- cess of this plan depends upon the character of the grouping as well as upon the number of individuals composing the groups. A general likeness among the members of the group must exist if general instruction is to be effective and the well being of members of the group promoted. It was the recognition of this principle which led to the establishment of graded schools. The divisions or grades of the school system were determined chiefly upon the basis of information, all other considerations being disregarded. With changing social conditions, increasing enforcement of laws for compulsory school attendance, increas- ing perception of the physical and mental deficiencies of many children and solicitude for their amelioration, and with increas- ing numbers of pupils entering the schools without knowledge of the English language, new elements have entered the prob- lem of grading and forced themselves upon the attention of teachers and others familiar with the work of schools. For- merly the plea was for ungraded classes to take care of slow or retarded pupils. Now the need amounts to demand that special provision shall be made for exceptional development. We have already established several classes for exceptional pupils.
1. Day. (a) Atypical Classes. There are now two classes for children of subnormal mental development, a new class hav- ing been established this year. There is a class in the Bell school and one in the Hodgkins school. The former has had a waiting list all through the year. The latter being a new class has not had an attendance equal to its capacity. This condition is due to the fact that parents of children of defec- tive mentality are often unwilling to recognize the deficiency and to allow their children to attend the class provided for them. This attitude, while natural and inspired by parental love, is not a wise one, for it is now well established by expert knowl- edge and experience that such subnormal children can profit little by the exercises of the regular school, that they can never acquire a useful mastery of the school arts, but that they can attain health, happiness, and the masterv of certain manual arts if their efforts are properly directed. I think it is impor- tant that pupils of this kind should attend atypical classes where- ever it is possible to do so and that additional classes be formed.
(b) Non-English Class. A class for non-English speaking pupils has been formed in the Clark Bennett school. Applica- tion for admission to our schools is increasing of those but recently arrived from foreign countries. These applicants vary
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in age, nationality, aptitude, mentality, and education in their own language. In attainment in English they are inferior to first grade children. What shall be done with them? Mani- festly it is not desirable to place them in first grades, if they are beyond the years of primary instruction. Nor do they usually fit anywhere else in the regular scheme of organization. Their welfare as well as the welfare of the community and the State demands that proper provision shall be made for the edu- cation and assimilation of these would-be Americans. The class for non-English speaking pupils at the Clark Bennett school has done well; others are needed.
2. Night. The elementary evening schools have long been dealing with this problem successfully, but it is assuming larger proportions there. Under the new law relating to the employment of minors, night school attendance is required of all minors over sixteen years of age who do not possess educa- tional qualifications equivalent to those necessary for completion of the fourth grade of the elementary schools. By this law all new arrivals between sixteen and twenty-one years of age who are ignorant of our language swell the number of non-English speaking pupils in the night school. This work is being well done, however, and is organized on a scale sufficient for present needs.
Schoolhouses. The elementary schools have used the same buildings as last year. Not a new schoolhouse has been built for them. Rooms which were unused last year in the Edgerly, Clark Bennett, Hodgkins, and Lowe Schools have been occupied since September. Application for admission to the Cutler School in September was greatly in excess of the capacity of that building, making it necessary to send to the Hodgkins School many pupils who belonged in the Cutler School, and to provide for them to send some Hodgkins pupils to the Highland School. While this transferring resulted in providing a sitting in an all-day school for all pupils and in fairly even-sized classes in all three schools the transferring of pupils was contrary to the wishes of parents and conse- quently disagreeable to them. For similar reasons it was nec- essary to transfer a whole first grade class from the Brown School to the Lowe School. In the eastern part of the city half-time classes were avoided in the fall only by distributing attendance among the several buildings so as to make use of every sitting, in many cases contrary to the customary rule of attendance and the wishes of parents. In other reports I have pointed out that this disagreeable necessity is due to the fluctuations of school population and to the necessity of organ- izing the elementary school attendance in building units too small and numerous to meet the need in a more satisfactory
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way. At the present time every schoolroom in the elementary buildings is in use except one in the Proctor School, and in several buildings rooms are used for classes which were not intended for that purpose. Of course the Lincoln School build- ing, which has been unused over a year, is not included in this statement. This condition is one whose significance must be fully considered. First of all it puts a very rigid limitation upon developing new undertakings. No new special class of any kind can be opened without a room as its home. Nor can an ad- ditional grade class be opened except in the Lincoln and Proc- tor Schools without recourse to half-time classes. Increase of attendance in the near future may be expected in the eastern and western parts of the city and also in Ward Two. In the eastern part the increase will soon make an enrollment too great for the school buildings in that region. Additional ac- commodation will, therefore, soon be needed there. When- ever it is provided it should be made in connection with an existing school building or in substitution for one of them, as a twenty or twenty-four room building in place of the Edgerly or Prescott Schoolhouses. This principle of development should be applied to future additions to the elementary school plants both in the interest of educational organization and of economy in the cost of administration. Happily this principle of growth has been applied in the plans for the Cutler schoolhouse and it is only necessary to complete the building according to the architect's plan to have ample accommodations there and a thoroughly satisfactory building. It is desirable to complete this building as soon as means can be provided for doing so. While it may be possible to accommodate the West Somerville pupils without opening the Lincoln Schoolhouse before next September I think it would be better to place two or more classes there at the beginning of the next semester. By so doing the new pupils entering at that time can be cared for and some needed relief can be given to the Cutler and Hodg- kins Schools.
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