USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Attleboro > Reports of town officers of the town of Attleborough 1910 > Part 10
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14
231
ANNUAL REPORT
Richardson School-Two cases maps, one blackboard globe, Richardson School Fund.
Bliss School-Two cases maps, one blackboard globe,
Richardson School Fund ; one organ, J. E. Trainor.
The department has also received from Mrs. Sarah H. Bliss school reports for the years 1852, 1954, 1855-6, 1856-7, and from 1861 to date. As these reports are the only record that we have of the schools of the town pre- vious to the abolishing of the district system in 1883, they are very valuable. Under the old system each dis- trict kept its own records, and only in one or two in- stances have the records been preserved. The depart- ment would be glad to receive other reports than those mentioned in order to make the records as complete as possible.
No School Signals.
The signals for no school were sounded three times . during the school year from September 7, 1909, to June 24, 1910 :
Date
Grades closed
November 24, 1909
Grades I-VIII afternoon
January 6, 1910 Grades I-VIII all day January 7, 1910 One session
I would recommend that arrangements be made this year, if possible, to install a signal at Briggs Corner as was contemplated a year or two ago.
The reports of the principal of the high school, the supervisors and special teachers, the school physician, and the truant officer, which accompany this report, con- tain matters of importance concerning their different de- partments, and deserve thoughtful consideration.
Results in school work are hard to measure. Exami- nations may show intellectual accomplishments, but may fail utterly to discover how much a pupil has developed
232
ANNUAL REPORT
in those qualities that make for strength of character and honest, upright citizenship. The school shares with the home and the church responsibility for the child's develop- ment in these respects, and time alone will reveal to what extent our efforts are successful. But with high ideals before us, and all working together earnestly and faith- fully for their realization, much that we desire to accom- plish will certainly be attained.
Respectfully submitted,
LEWIS A. FALES
233
ANNUAL REPORT
REPORT OF THE PRINCIPAL OF THE HIGH SCHOOL
Mr. Lewis A. Fales, Superintendent of Schools :
I have the honor to submit my first annual report as principal of the Attleboro High School.
The total enrollment for the fall term has been 277 as against 252 for the fall term of 1909. Changes in the per- sonnel of the teaching force have been made since the close of the last school year in the principalship, the head of the English department, and by the addition of another teacher in the Commercial department. Since the last report also the head of the Science department has received the title of sub-master.
At the beginning of the fall term considerable diffi- culty was encountered in making a satisfactory daily pro- gram of studies. The chief difficulty was in finding ac- commodations for so many classes at the same time. Owing to the increased size of the sections, rooms that in the past have been adequate for recitation purposes are this year found to be much overcrowded. The in- creased number of sections made necessary by the size of the classes and the giving of courses not asked for last year, have given us sixteen more class periods to ar- range for than on any previous year. It happens, there- fore, that in arranging the schedule to avoid conflicts in recitations several periods in the week are found for which no rooms are available. This necessitates putting several classes at times when certain of its mem- bers have conflicts in courses. In other words, taking into account the number of periods per week, and the available number of rooms at our disposal, it has now be- come a mathematical impossibility to accommodate our classes in anything like a satisfactory manner. This statement has reference only to the program of studies, does not bear upon the matter of school efficiency which
234
ANNUAL REPORT
I shall note below, and is made only because to one not thoroughly conversant with the factors involved, it may seem peculiar that more difficulty in arranging the pro- gram was experienced this year than at any time hereto- fore.
No radical changes have been made either in adminis- tration or discipline, and but few innovations. The school is conducted on the general policy of the greatest good to the individual student, and attempts to meet the greatest need in view of those characteristics peculiar to the school, as well as in general education. Discipline is not considered as separate from the work of the school and made a particular feature, but as the process by which the pupil acquires and develops social self-control. Conduct is considered as an expression of this self-con- trol : and in general, education as the process by which he acquires and develops control over his material and social environment. A serious effort is made to gain a true estimate of each pupil, his ability, his ambitions, his home environment, his strong points and his faults, and the motivation of his conduct-in short, to get the pupil's view point, to appreciate his problems, to get into his life, and to help him to help himself.
The different committees of the teachers as appointed last year and the two dismissal plan have been retained. We have had numerous calls to recommend pupils for various kinds of afternoon and Saturday work, and have been successful in most instances in finding suitable and worthy candidates. An additional table and chairs have been installed in the library for the greater convenience of students, and a teacher is in charge except for three periods in the week. We hope thus to make the library of greater service to the school both by instruction in the use of the various works of reference and by enlarging its sphere of influence. A system of issuing supplies to the students has been inaugurated whereby extrava- gance may be curtailed and practically all waste elimi-
235
ANNUAL REPORT
nated. The additional commercial teacher has relieved the pressure of work in that department. The depart- ments of science and mathematics, owing to the greater number of sections caused by increased attendance have reached a condition from which relief must be sought in the very near future.
It is the opinion of the writer that oratoricals and pub- lic exhibitions in speaking are of great educative value if properly conducted and correlated with the work in English. Under the present conditions little, if anything, of real value can be done in this line. During the past term the Senior Class prepared and presented to the pub- lic a three-act farce comedy. While primarily a finan- cial venture on the part of the class, the returns educa- tionally should not be considered as being less than a fair return for the time and effort expended.
It is a matter of regret that our only fall and winter . game, basketball, has to be eliminated owing to the fact that there is no available hall in town in which to prac- tice or hold games. School athletics are, therefore, at an absolute standstill until the opening of the baseball season.
At the present time we hear a great deal about the de- mand for industrial education. It is a well-established fact that such training can be very profitably grafted on to our present school courses where proper accommoda- tions and equipment are available. On the part of the individual the demand for an extension of educational facilities along industrial lines is based on the plea that the State's duty to the child is to furnish him a reasonable equipment for life, whether his vocation is to be along academic or industrial lines. The public school system of the present is devised to meet the academic require- ments, but the youth in pursuit of industrial equipment finds comparatively little advantage in the academic courses of the higher grades and high school and is apt to drop out of school because of the lack of attraction
236
ANNUAL REPORT
and incentive to continue. The result is that there is an increasing product of uninstructed labor from which in- dustry suffers. In the town of Attleboro, whose indus- try is specialized and which requires, very largely, skilled labor of a superior type, it seems to me that the oppor- tunity for development along this line offers a particu- larly fertile field.
It is a principle of economics that the development of skilled artisans at the expense of the community returns to the community more than an equivalent of its cost in valuable, directive and productive industry. With very little additional equipment, had we the rooms, our high school courses in drawing-mechanical, freehand, and design-could be made of tremendous practical value by furnishing those from our own midst, of natural, creative ability, already skilled and efficient in practical work. Our science department could, by special courses, most certainly furnish young men familiar with the principles of mechanics and their practical applications to machines and with a basic knowledge of all the chemistry used in our local industry. At present, both because of inade- quate rooms and lack of opportunity to use those sup- posed to be devoted to these subjects, very little more can be done than lay the foundation for the kind of work suggested above. The high school needs a manual train- nig department, and the town needs a manual training department in the high school, with properly equipped shops specialized to meet the local needs. This is an economic problem over and above its relation to the gen- eral problem of education as administered by the school officials.
It is almost needless to note that the above is in a gen- eral way a statement of the great need of more adequate accommodations for the high school, and an attempt to show the relation of that need to the material welfare of the town, apart from a purely academic consideration of the scholastic attainments of our youth. The principal's
237
ANNUAL REPORT
report of last year discussed the handicaps under which the school work was being done. The accumulative difficulties of the past have already become positive obstacles to efficient work. This year we are obliged to send five classes per week to the principal's office, twenty-six classes to the physical laboratory, fourteen classes to the chemical laboratory, in addition to the reg- ular laboratory periods in Physics and Chemistry, and one large section in English to the typewriting room- all rooms never intended for recitation and, except for a very few of the classes so assigned, entirely unsuited to that purpose. Each of the study rooms is in constant use for recitations, and usually has a large number of study pupils besides the class reciting. This arrange- ment is distracting to the best attention of the class, even more so to the study pupils and handicaps the teacher in her presentation of subject matter and con- centration upon the work of the class. Of more account than this, however, it leaves almost no opportunity for individual aid from the teachers and practically elimi- nates the opportunity to do one of the most essential and greatest services within the regular instructive program of the teacher-that of teaching the pupil how to study. The necessity of assigning classes for recitations to rooms whose size will accommodate the classes, and the consequent redistribution of overflow study pupils, re- quires the moving of almost every pupil every period in the day. The friction thus caused means just so much diminished efficiency in work accomplished. In the most congested part of the building from one hun- dred to two hundred pupils have to pass, part in one direction and part in the other, between periods, through a thirty-five inch doorway, every forty-five minutes during the day.
Mention was made above of the arrangement of the daily program. Indicating at once the scope of the studies pursued, the length of recitation periods, the
238
ANNUAL REPORT
number of recitations per day for each teacher, the number of teachers and the subjects taught by each, the relative position of recitation and study periods, nothing is more significant in judging the total efficiency of a high school on its organized side than its daily program. An examination of our program will show that the work is not evenly apportioned to the different teachers, that no account of alteration of study and recitation periods during the day has been effected, that many sections are altogether too large, and that conflicts occur for pupils in their recitations. These are serious defects and are the direct and immediate results of the physical limita- tions under which the school has to work. The adminis- trative difficulties under present conditions are at least twice what they would be under normal conditions. This means a corresponding diminution of efficiency and in educational results actually attained. A principal may do what he will and the work of the teachers may be of the highest degree of excellence, but these matters of purely physical limitations cannot thus be adjusted. It would seem that we have not only reached the limit of efficiency, but that each year's increment of increase makes it more difficult even to maintain our ground.
In conclusion I wish to express appreciation of a cor- dial reception by the school, the loyal and hearty co- operation of the corps of teachers and the manifest strong interest and support of the school administration in all matters effecting the good of the school.
Respectfully submitted,
HARRY E. PRATT.
239
ANNUAL REPORT
REPORT OF THE SUPERVISOR OF MUSIC
Mr. Lewis A. Fales, Superintendent of Schools :
In presenting my report for 1910 it will not be out of place to state a few ideas that are held by the leaders of musical thought regarding public school music in Amer- ica. From the report of a committee appointed by the National Teachers' Association in Grammar School Re- quirements in Music we find the following recommenda- tions: "The subject of music should be presented so that children of grammar schools shall develop a love for good music, shall be sensitive to and appreciate, to some extent, great works of art, shall know how to use their voices properly and shall be able to sing with expression and with some appreciation of emotional content. All agree that pupils graduating from grammar schools should know some good music and have some knowledge of music history and biography. There is also general accord that pupils of public schools should learn to read music readily."
This gives in a very few words my own idea of what we have a right to expect from the study of music in the public schools, and the effort made to conform to this ideal is the history of the success of music in the schools of Attleboro.
It is almost impossible to form any idea of the splen- did singing in the schools by reading a report. It is necessary to visit the room, to see and hear, in order to appreciate thoroughly the music work.
The arrangement of the music problems to the various grades remains the same as in former years, the plan be- ing the one now in general use in all the graded schools in America.
The longer I teach music in the public schools, the more I am convinced that everyone can be taught to sing. I mention this because of the fact that so many parents have come to me and asked: "Do you think my boy or
240
ANNUAL REPORT
girl will ever learn to sing ; he does not seem to carry a tune and I do so want him to sing." Now, as this is the most important problem of the first grade, I will cite one instance of the many that have come to my knowledge, where one of the worst cases of tone deafness that I ever met gave way to the persistent training of the voice and ear that finally led this pupil into the joy of singing in tune with the others in her class. A bright little girl en- tered the first grade a monotone ; she could sing only one tone and that a low one. Nothing we could do for her seemed to make any impression. She passed through the second, third and fourth grades, and this fall entered the fifth. A bright pupil in every other subject, in music she was the despair of all her teachers, and I was almost ready to agree with them (in spite of the fact that at al- most every visit I had told her that some day I expected her to be a good singer, and that she must not disap- point me) that it was of no use for she could never learn to sing. Last week I visited her room and began the lesson, and while the class was singing I walked down the aisle where she sat and, lo, and behold, she was singing high and in tune with the other singers.
The principal work in the first grade is to tune up the monotone through voice exercises, ear training, and song singing. In the second grade the pupils learn the first thing about music reading, namely, direction-whether the notes go up, down, or straight across ; reading from notes on the blackboard some of the simple songs learned in the first grade ; reading simple exercises from the chart, training the voice to produce tones correctly and teaching them to sing whatever they do sing in a musical manner.
This is continued in the third grade with the addition that here they learn the names of music signs : notes, rests, lines, spaces, bars, measures, sharps, flats, clefs and keys. They also read and sing alone from books. This is continued in the fourth grade with the further addition
241
ANNUAL REPORT
of simple exercises in two-part singing, two sounds to one beat, and the one and a half beat note. In the fifth grade two-part singing of songs and exercises with more difficulties of tune and time. Now, if anyone interested would take the time to visit schools with me, I could take him to various grades in the town of Attleboro where he can hear what I consider to be the finest possible school singing, perfection in tone, perfection in articula- tion, and good reading. Every time I hear the pupils I am reminded of a verse of a great song which says:
"I heard the children singing, and ever as they sang Methought the voice of angels from Heaven in answer rang."
While in London last summer, I heard the finest school singing in the world, the class that won first prize in the singing contests for which England is famous, and for the first time I heard my ideal of what public school sing- ing should be. The most significant thing to me, and also to the town of Attleboro, was the fact that I dis- covered after talking with the master of the school in London that the methods which were in use in his school were identical with the methods in use in Attleboro, namely, to teach children to love music, to train the voice, and to teach as much of the technique of music as possible.
It is the cathedral boy-choir tone effect that we are getting this year in every grade that gives to our school music its superior quality. In the sixth and seventh grades we begin the study of three-part music. Nothing is more beautiful than the effect of three-part harmony sung by the well cultivated child voice. It is peculiarly subtle in its effect on the mind and heart of the pupil. One of the poets has expressed it in these words :
"Consider it well; each tone of our scale in itself is naught ; it is everywhere in the world,-loud, soft, and
242
ANNUAL REPORT
all is said ; give it to me to use ; I mix it with two in my thought; and there! ye have heard and seen ; consider and bow the head."
In the eighth grade we are face to face with the prob- lem of the boy whose voice is changing, and during the first part of the year we find in this grade our greatest discouragement ; but it is only temporary after all, and before the end of the year the boy has found his new voice and those who attended the eighth grade gradu- ations will recall with the greatest pleasure and satisfac- tion the singing of the boys which, to my mind, was the feature of the 1910 graduation music.
Short lecture recitals with phonographic illustrations have been given to all the upper grades. This has proved an interesting and educational feature that the pupils, young as they are, seem to understand and appreciate.
Special mention should be made at this time of the or- ganization of the Glee Club at the Bliss School. A simi- lar club for boys only has been formed at the Sanford Street School. These are selected from the best singers in their respective schools.
It would be worth while if anyone who doubted the advisability of putting an assembly hall in the new Bliss School, would visit there while the three hundred fifty pupils are met together for opening exercises and hear them sing the Star Spangled Banner and other patriotic songs and hymns. I am sure they would say as I do every time I hear them: "This assembly hall is the greatest institution in the town of Attleboro to-day." What would it not mean if Sanford Street or Richardson or the High School had a similar place to meet as a school for their various exercises. It would be the great- est inspiration that could possibly come to the schools or to the town.
Of our high school singing much could be said in its praise. Though we lose some of our best singers every year through graduation, and we wonder at times what
243
ANNUAL REPORT
we will do next year without them, still there seems an unlimited supply of good voices coming along, so that our music still retains its high standard. I think I can truthfully say that we have to-day more and better sing- ers in the high school who can stand up before the class and sing alone than ever before. The concert given by the high school last year was its most ambitious effort, the first real oratorio that they had ever attempted. Part I of Haydn's Creation was sung, and when I mention to musicians the fact that all the solos were sung by pupils of the high school they hardly credit my statement.
I have often advocated in my past reports giving more time, apart from singing, to the study of music, but so far it has not received consideration. It was with the greatest interest then, while in attendance at the Na- tional Music Teachers' Convention held in Boston in December, that I listened to the discussion of the inade- quate music training given to pupils in the high school, especially to those who are contemplating attending Nor- mal School in preparation for entering the teaching pro- fession. Many of the leading Normal School instructors in this state, and I may say in this country, took part in the discussion and everyone spoke despairingly of the in- ability of a high school graduate to pass the music test given for entrance to Normal School. The seriousness of this lack of training is very evident for the music work of the Normal School is, generally speaking, over the heads of the majority of students. The remedy for all this was the very thing I have recommended in my past reports, namely, that one period a week be given to the study of technical music, thus better preparing the pupils in a subject that is becoming more important every year.
I would like also to see in the high school a phono- graph and a piano player, not altogether for amusement, but for the educational value. Then we could familiar- ize pupils with the works of the great masters of music and they could feel the refining, uplifting influence of
244
ANNUAL REPORT
great minds expressing themselves through music. I would have them know and love these expressions of human genius, and we must put these before them in the best available form rather than leave them wholly ignor- ant.
It would also give me much pleasure to see a new grand piano in the Bliss School hall. When I think that the old high school piano which used to be our despair in the past and was worn out twenty years ago is in the beautiful hall of the Bliss School I hope some one will be moved to present to that school a new piano, and thus perpetuate his name and bring down upon him the blessings of three hundred fifty children and countless more that will pass through the school in the next twenty-five years.
I am also of the opinion that the town of Attleboro should fit up a music room in the public library with a piano, a piano player and a phonograph with records of the great music, where boys and girls, men and women, could, free of charge, hear and study the works of the masters. I think such a place would be appreciated by many people and need not in any way interfere with the work of the library, and I fail to see why it is not as practical to attempt in this way to educate people in music, as it is to provide them with free access to the means of education in other branches.
Respectfully submitted,
JOHN LAING GIBB.
245
ANNUAL REPORT
REPORT OF THE SUPERVISOR OF DRAWING
Mr. Lewis A. Fales, Superintendent of Schools:
There are three ways in which we are trying for more efficient work this year :
I. A course of study related whenever possible to other school subjects.
2. Insistence on the pupil's best work.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.