USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1949 > Part 8
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However, since attendance and deportment frequently are found to be contributing factors to subject failure, the work of the personnel worker is pertinent to both phases of the administrative organization, the Curriculum and the Ad- ministrative.
The Administrative Board of the High School, comprising the Vice Headmaster and the Building Masters, has caused a very creditable attendance record to be maintained in the school, and at the same time has given considerable impetus to the improvement of deportment. Through techniques, some of which involve social and emotional adjustments, there has been brought about a development of a better social co- ordination which manifests itself in intelligent self-mastery and self-direction of the student. It is a great satisfaction to see students, through intelligent guidance, grow into their places in the community as well adjusted, stable adults.
A year ago it was anticipated that early in the year of 1949 the very successful course in Pre-Driving Instruction, which had been carried on for a couple of years on a volun-
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tary attendance basis and was limited to a lecture course, was to be augmented by actual training for the students who de- sired to become registered automobile drivers. It was ex- pected that a dual-control car would be made available through a plan developed by the Registry of Motor Vehicles and the Massachusetts Association of Automobile Dealers. Consider- able disappointment was manifest at the failure to obtain the car, but this situation was solved when the Somerville Kiwanis Club graciously offered to purchase the car and provide the registration and insurance coverage and loan it to the High. School for the use of the students in the Pre-Driving Course ..
All arrangements have been made, so that as soon as the lettering has been done on the car and the dual control has been installed, a public presentation ceremony will be held at which Rudolph King, Registrar of Motor Vehicles for the Commonwealth, will be present. Under the agreement made, a new car will be provided each September for use during the current school year. There is no doubt of the success of the course.
Junior High Schools
Both progress and achievement have marked the various activities relating to the Junior High Schools. In conjunc- tion with maintaining the previous standard of academic ac- complishment, a considerable amount of work has been done in the field of objective testing. This has resulted in a better integration of the work of grades seven, eight, and nine with the senior high school program. Through this medium, cases of maladjustment and under-achievement have been more wisely and sympathetically recognized.
The utilization of audio-visual aids has been increased by new equipment and materials having been made available for educational purposes, and the replacing of the equipment in each school with the latest in the sound motion picture field. Progress in the field of audio-visual education has been previously somewhat restricted due to the fact that a very small amount has been appropriated in the school budget each year for this item. In the past projectors, screens, wire re- corders, etc. have been purchased out of funds raised by the individual schools. The limited funds included in the budget for audio-visual education have been expended on film rentals and minor repairs of equipment. During the past year the School Committee has discussed this matter at length and has
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acted to correct this situation by including in the budget for 1950 a much larger appropriation for audio-visual education. It is anticipated that a wider use of equipment may thus be made available during the coming year. Significant is the fact that progressive school systems are supplementing their class- room teaching by the use of sound recorders. Development along these lines is highly recommended.
The program of weekday religious education which has been in effect in grades four, five, and six since January 1947 was extended to include grades seven, eight, and nine when on April 26, 1949 the School Committee voted: "That in accor- dance with Chapter 423 of the Acts of 1941, public school children in the 7th, 8th, and 9th grades be released from school, upon written application of the parents or guardians, one period per week, namely, the last period of one school day, provided said dismissal is for the purpose of religious educa- tion only." An interfaith committee, composed of religious leaders interested in weekday religious classes and the Assis- tant Superintendent of Schools representing the public schools, made the necessary arrangements for the operation of the program. The schedule of release time has been arranged to be effective January 10, 1950, as follows: Tuesday, 1:10-2:00, Western Junior High School; Wednesday, 1:10-2:00, South- ern Junior High School; and Thursday, 1:10-2:00, North- eastern Junior High School. Approximately 1070 out of a possible 2781 will be dismissed for instruction, which is about 38% participation.
The committee of junior high school teachers assigned last year to prepare a new course of study in geography for grades seven and eight completed its work in December, and the new course of study will be made available as soon as possible. Recommendations have been made by this commit- tee concerning instructional materials and already several thousand dollars have been expended for maps, globes, and textbooks. The benefits of the sincere work of this committee of teachers will result in improved instruction in the schools. This group is deserving of hearty commendation.
The appropriation of funds by the School Committee for athletic equipment, made last year for the first time, has been convincing evidence of its interest in extra-curricular activi- ties. This has been a source of encouragement to administra- tors, coaches, and participants of the junior high school.
A greater measure of safety has been provided by the installation of fire doors in corridors, thus contributing to the
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significance of the safety program. The Northeastern Junior High School continues to be handicapped by the absence of an inside communication system. A matter which deserves im- mediate attention is the deplorable condition of the window shades in the junior high schools. Unsatisfactory lighting conditions in the three junior high schools warrant a recom- mendation that action be taken to remedy this situation in order to avoid serious damage to eyesight.
A general spirit of cooperation among the teachers has served to maintain a high level of accomplishment for the benefit of the school program as a whole.
Elementary Schools
The Elementary Schools compose the unit of our school system which without doubt is the most important, for it is in this unit that the tools of learning are first presented to the pupil, and upon the degree with which he grasps and attains a knowledge of these tools depends his success in life. This unit continues to impart to the pupils those skills, habits, at- titudes, and ideals which make for good citizenship and true democracy.
Recognizing that our children deserve more of a pro- gram than was "good enough for their parents and grand- parents", for what was sufficient for the past is not an ade- quate basis for the future, the pupils of our schools must be educated in such a way that they will be competent to meet the demands which will be made on them tomorrow.
A successful product-the growing child in the elemen- tary school of today, the responsible and capable citizen of our community tomorrow-is the goal of our elementary schools. Let's see what has been the progress in achieving our goal during 1949.
In developing the abilities of our 7735 elementary school pupils, the learning activities are organized under four general headings, as follows (1) Reading and the Language Arts, which include language, spelling, literature, and penmanship; (2) Arithmetic, which includes the language of numbers, the fundamentals, and problem solving; (3) Social Living, includ- ing health, safety, science, and the social studies; and (4) the Expressive Arts, including music, drawing, and painting.
A committee of teachers has been at work for some time on the revision of the course of study in Geography and
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History, and has brought its task to a close during this past year, by a revision which consists of bodies of knowledge which, imparted to the pupils, will help to produce an under- standing of self and of others. The program will guide the experiences of the pupils in working cooperatively on their daily problems, and help them to become responsible, co- operative, and active members of their groups, at each stage of their development.
A practical demonstration of "an understanding of oth- ers" was developed in a third grade during the last school year by a teacher, Mary En Kau, who was on exchange from Hawaii to the Morse School. She wrote and produced "An Interpretation Pageantry of Hawaii", with the pupils compos- ing the cast, learning their parts outside of school hours, and rehearsing during recess periods and after school. It was produced in the school for the entertainment of parents and the other pupils, and was also performed before service and other clubs. All who witnessed the performance were loud in their praise of Miss Kau and her pupils and were so much impressed with their new information about a section of the world of which they knew little that they were anxious to witness the day when they could say to the Paradise Isle of the Pacific, "Aloha, Hawaii, our 49th State".
Other practical experiences were gained by visits of pri- mary school pupils to firehouses, post offices, the zoo, and the- Museum of Fine Arts, while the upper elementary pupils made trips by bus to Homes of Presidents in Quincy, Histori- cal Boston, Educational Cambridge, the cranberry bogs of Carver, and the battlegrounds of Concord and Lexington.
The program of Safety and Accident Prevention has again been supplemented and given more vital significance by the talks and pictures showing the constant need of vigilance, presented by a representative of the Registry of Motor Vehi- cles. One Parent-Teacher Association, being especially im- pressed by the performance of the School Patrol, provided new equipment for the patrol, and another P.T.A. has added rubber coats to the equipment for the use of the patrol in inclement weather.
The pupils of the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades of the elementary schools again participated in the Quiz-Down pro- gram conducted by the Boston Globe, and many awards were.
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received, not only by the broadcasting participants, but also by those who submitted the questions used on the quiz.
Many more pages could be added to this brief list of ex- periences to show progress during the year for our pupils at the elementary school level, but perhaps it would be better to extend a cordial invitation to all the people of the City of Somerville to visit the annual presentation of the work of the pupils of the elementary schools, which is held annually dur- ing the latter part of May or early June. At this time the work of all pupils is exhibited by subjects, and a perusal of the work will quickly and easily show the actual improvement in the various subjects during the course of the year. Those who have no children should visit the schools and witness the ap- preciation of the parents of the pupils.
Vocational Schools
The program of the Somerville Vocational High School has been pursued as usual with the exception of the academic work. The addition of more Science to this program was necessary to conform to the suggestion of the State Depart- ment of Education that more and more technical work should be undertaken by the schools.
There has been an increased registration of pupils in all six departments, so that the shops are now operating at almost maximum capacity. There have been a great number of requests for Automobile Body Work, which it was necessary to deny because of lack of space and accommodations, thus indi- cating a real need of expansion in this department. The de- mand for trainees is also great, but at the present time it can only be met in a small way. The State Department of Educa- tion has been very complimentary about the type and quality of work done by this shop and is ready to accept this part of the automobile trade as a separate department.
The Machine and Electrical Departments, like the other shops of the school, are extremely busy doing maintenance work for the city in many ways. There is an ever increasing demand for young men in the electrical industries, especially for maintenance work in the appliance field, because of the increasing number of electrical appliances which have been invented during the past ten years. Millions of radios, phono- graphs, public address systems, and automatic electrical de- vices have been added each year. The electrical course in the Vocational School presents a fine opportunity for interested
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boys, for it consists of training for installation and maintenance of electric wiring for signals, lighting, telephone, motors, gen- erators, and transformers connected with factories, offices, and public buildings, the fundamentals of servicing of radio equipment with the addition of repairs and maintenance of major household appliances, such as vacuum cleaners, washing machines, electric ranges, and other numerous appliances used in the home.
The building trades are constantly looking for trained people for their work as evidenced by the many requests for trained people received by the Vocational school. The car- pentry department, with its largest registration, continued to do its usual good quality and amount of instructional work and supplemented that by much practical work for both the City and the State.
The Painting and Decorating Department has achieved unusual success in that its paper-hanging division has been recognized by the industry as being one of the best depart- ments in New England. During the year the Director of the Wall Paper Institute, located in New York, visited the school and was impressed, but he noted lack of adequate room in which to expand this ever-growing program. Because of his recommendation, the Institute has offered to furnish equip- ment and materials, and has requested photographs of our accomplishments for publication in a national trade magazine.
The Printing Department has also continued its very good work The number of pupils has also increased this year, and this enables many students to take part in the great amount of production work done for both the City and the State.
The School Committe during the past year assigned to this school a Physical Education teacher on a full-time basis and appointed a member of the faculty to be faculty manager for the athletic teams.
Special Educations
It is pertinent at this time that more than passing notice be given to the program of special education in our schools because of the fact that President Truman has called the third meeting of the "White House Conference on Child Health and Protection". This conference is held in consequence of the agreement of the first White House Conference called by
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President Hoover in 1930 that subsequent conferences would be held each ten years.
The program in Somerville is organized to meet as nearly as possible the thirteenth aim of the now historical "Children's Charter of the first White House Conference, as follows:
"For every child who is blind, deaf, crippled, or other- wise physically handicapped, and for the child who is men- tally handicapped, such measures as will discover and diag- nose his handicap, provide care and treatment, and so train him that he may become an asset to society rather than a liability. Expense of these services should be borne publicly where they cannot be privately met."
The philosophy of special education,-"and so train him that he may become an asset to society rather than a liability." has always been the underlying basis for our work. The pro- gram consists of special educational facilities provided for the deaf and hard of hearing, the blind and the partially seeing, the crippled, the speech defective, the mentally retarded, and the physically handicapped. Each of these groups needs special adjustment, depending upon the specific demands for its own betterment and the welfare of society in general. The yearly cost of educating a child in a special class ranges from one and a half to four times that of educating a normal child in the regular school. Such an expense is certainly justi- fied because it is better to spend more money in helping the handicapped child to help himself early in life than it is to spend many times as much in supporting him at public expense later. Through such special education, the recipients gain happiness in the new worlds of experience opened up for them, and from the viewpoint of society they gain hope and satisfaction in personal success, which comes from economic self-sufficiency and social adequacy. Much has been written in previous reports concerning the philosophy and methods used in providing the education which it is possible for the mentally retarded to acquire. The eligibility for attendance upon such classes is determined through our testing service, a very important and necessary factor in any integrated educa- tional program. Such screening by tests shows those children who are obviously three or more years mentally retarded in development, those eligible normally by age to enter school whose immaturity is so pronounced as to indicate a delay in their entrance into school, and those of normal intelligence who do not meet grade achievement because of a physical.
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defect, an emotional difficulty, or some particular learning disability.
Of course it is a very sound policy which is followed in Somerville, that the test results shall be interpreted in the light of these indications rather than as the sole criterion on which to base a particular child's maladjustment to school situations. When outside cooperation is necessary, our spec- ial class division has active relations with approved hospitals, clinics, and other social service agencies. Only after all phases of a case have been thoroughly explored can collective and remedial measures be taken to bring about the satisfactory adjustment of these particular children. Such a program has been demonstrated to be effective.
The hearing conservation program of our schools is composed of three main phases, the audiometric testing, school ear clinic, and lip reading instruction. The first and third of these phases are carried on within the school organiza- tion, while the school ear clinic is made possible by the Board of Health.
The audiometric testing program consists of an individual test on the Pure Tone Audiometer given annually to every pupil in grades 3, 5, 8, and 11. These tests are supplemented for those in the other grades who were not enrolled in the Somerville schools during the previous year, for those who have been victims of disease likely to affect hearing, and for those who may be recommended by the teachers. All pupils who pass the screen-out test at a 10 decibel loss are considered to have normal hearing. Pupils who have more than a 10 decibel loss are retested. These retested pupils are followed up yearly to determine the gain or loss in hearing acuity. They fall into three groups:
(1) Pupils who have a measurable loss of hearing of 20 decibels or more in one or both ears in the speech range. Parents of these pupils are notified of the hear- ing loss and the suggestion is made that immediate medical attention be given, either by a private clinic or specialist, or, with their permission, that a diagnosis be made by the school otologist.
(2) Borderline cases, composed of pupils who have a decibel loss of 10 to 20 in one or both ears in two or more frequencies. These pupils are to be tested yearly to check any further loss of hearing.
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(3) Pupils who have a hearing loss of 25 decibels or more in two or more of the high or low frequencies in one or both ears. . Losses in these tones may indicate nose or throat conditions, which if cared for may prevent a more serious loss of hearing in later life. These pupils are examined by the school physician and nurse for such conditions. They are tested yearly to check any further or more serious loss of hearing.
The school otologist referred to above holds a school ear clinic on Thursday mornings, made possible by the Board of Health which provides funds to pay for the services of such a specialist. The clinic has proved invaluable in our hearing conservation program because we are able to get expert diagnoses by a reliable otologist and pass along quickly to the parents the results of the findings. If such defects are found early enough and treated, further loss of hearing is prevented, particularly in borderline cases. For those whose hearing difficulties can be most profitably benefited by lip reading instruction, eighteen classes in lip reading, composed of 93 students, are in operation in thirteen centralized schools throughout the city. Classes meet for a forty-five minute period weekly, except for the kindergarten class, which meets only for a fifteen-minute period weekly. The present mem- bership of these classes is made up entirely of pupils who are recommended by an otologist or by an ear clinic. By this situation we are assured that only those pupils whose need for lip reading is real are receiving the instruction.
Because medical attention is lacking in so many cases, a follow-up of every case is made either by home visits or by sending printed questionnaires to the homes. These ques- tionnaires serve two purposes: (1) to remind the parents of the need for medical attention, and (2) to discover needy cases for tonsil and adenoid removal. These cases can and do re- ceive help from the clinic sponsored by the Kiwanis Youth Program.
To the child with impaired hearing, speech sounds may become blurred and distorted. Because he hears imperfectly, his speech is often imperfect. There is a very definite need for speech training. Children with speech defects are urged to attend the speech class sponsored by the Boston Speech School for Crippled Children, which is held in Somerville High School one afternoon a week. Also recommended are the Guild for the Hard of Hearing and the Winthrop Foundation at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Hospital.
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The classroom teachers and the school nurses have given willingly of their time and efforts in checking these cases and in urging the parents to give prompt attention to the otolo- gist's recommendations.
The Sight Saving Class, located at the Cholerton School, which has been in existence for many years, is conducted, in cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Education, for those children who have only a minimum of sight. Such instruction necessitates a particular type of organization, an ideal physical setting, a special type of instructional techni- ques, and provision for specialized equipment, all of which are provided for our Sight Saving Class pupils.
Home Instruction Program
A program of home instruction which has been in opera- tion in Somerville for almost twenty years, was designed to bring instruction to those children who are unable to go to school and who are able to benefit by such instruction. It is operated in conjunction with the State Departments of Education and Public Health, and it is intended primarily for the more permanently handicapped child. Accordingly, only those children who are to be out of school for a period of at least two months are eligible.
There are three full-time teachers employed at present who give instruction to pupils in grades one through twelve. Each teacher instructs seven pupils weekly, visiting each pupil an hour a day three or four times a week. Each year children receiving home instruction are promoted from grade to grade and are ready to take their places in the regular school when their condition warrants. These home instruction teachers adjust their instruction to the emotional age and physical condition as well as the mental age of each child. Doctors regard the home instruction program as being very valuable because they recognize that by providing a wholesome and profitable interest during the periods of confinement and convalescence, the child's physical and mental condition is improved.
Thrift
It has been aptly said that "thrift is good management of the business of living". Since the schools are concerned pri- marily with the task of preparing youth for living in its fullest and broadest sense, the recognition of the place which thrift
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