USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Attleboro > Reports of town officers of the town of Attleborough 1920 > Part 9
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One of the duties of the Continuation school teacher is to visit factories where the pupils work, and also to visit the homes. Nearly all the factories have been visited and many of the homes. Almost without exception the teachers have been cordially received. The purpose of these visits is to find out in what way they can be of better service to the boys and girls.
The establishment of the Continuation school has tended to keep some pupils in the regular schools. One of the best things it can do is to return pupils to the High school or to the grades. We have en-
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ANNUAL REPORT
couraged six to re-enter the High school and seven to return to the grades.
The employment bureau connected with the school where shops may obtain help and pupils find employment has not attained a great degree of service on account of the conditions of business in the city. We have found employment for only six pupils.
At the present time only a few shops pay their help while they are attending the school. It would assist a great deal in keeping up the at- tendance if the boys and girls were paid by the week including the half day spent in school, and then if they are absent from school, deduct the half day's pay from their wages. Tlie employers are always notified in case the pupils are absent from school.
At this time I wish to express my appreciation of the splendid co- operation the employers have accorded us in establishing this new school work. I am grateful to all my associates for their valuable assistance.
Respectfully submitted,
MILTON P. DUTTON.
Vacation Schools
Vacation schools were conducted for six weeks during the summer at Dodgeville and Hebronville under the direction of Miss Martha J. Roberts, principal at Hebronville. Assistants at Dodgeville were Miss Hazel Pawlowsky, Miss Elizabeth Cornell and Miss Mildred Sullivan, and at Hebronville, Miss Helen Bullock and Miss Ona Lapalme. The older girls were taught cooking and sewing, and the younger children weaving, and various forms of hand work. Play, folk dancing and su- pervised games were a part of the program. The exhibition held at Hebronville on the last day of the session proved that the summer schools were decidedly successful in accomplishing results worth while.
July 12 to August 20, 1920
Dodgeville
Hebronville
Total
Enrollment, boys
53
24
77
Enrollment, girls
37
69
106
Total
90
93
183
Average membership
83
76.5
159.5
Average attendance
75
72.3
147.3
Per cent. of attendance.
90
94.5
92.3
The vacation schools at Dodgeville and Hebronville held their closing exercises August 20 after a most successful session of six weeks. The daily attendance for the two schools was about one hun- dred forty-seven.
The daily program included the following activities: Singing, story hour, folk dancing, sewing, cooking, hand work and weaving. kindergarten construction work, and also incidentally but not least of all, courtesy and mutual service. About four hundred articles in weaving, sewing and construction were completed by the children; this included thirty-five dresses finished and ready for the girls to wear.
The girls in the cooking class learned to prepare ten new dishes and each girl, under the direction of Miss Gordon of Segregansett, canned a jar of vegetables and a jar of fruit. A new idea was carried out in cooking. Each girl instead of cooking a tiny portion for herself and eating it at school brought materials enough from home so that at the close of the session she was able to take home a new dish suffi-
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ANNUAL REPORT
cient to serve the family. Thus the family was brought into direct contact with the school.
A baby clinic was also conducted in connection with the school, Miss Mackinnon, the child welfare nurse, coming down every Wednes- day morning, meeting the mothers and giving them advice as to the care of babies, and giving the children of the school a talk on health and oral hygiene.
The closing exercises of both schools were held at Hebronville and included a festival and baby show, a prize being given by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company for the best baby under two years of age, Mrs. H. A. Allen donating a prize for the most interest- ing costume worn by a child between the ages of two and five, and Mrs. Thomas Worrall donating a prize for the best decorated baby carriage. The judges of these events were Mrs. H. A. Allen, Mrs. H. R. Holbrook and Mrs. Lawrence Baer.
Folk dancing and singing games were given under the direction of Miss Bullock and Miss Cornell.
Eleven athletic events were held under the direction of Mr. Rob- bins of the Y. M. C. A. as folows:
Decorated bicyces.
Athletic stunts for girls, 11 to 13 years of age. 50 yard dash, base- ball throw, potato race, paper bag race.
For boys and girls 7 to 11 years of age. Obstacle race, 25 yard dash handicap, three-legged race.
For boys 11 to 13 years of age, high jump, 50 yard dash, potato race, sack race.
The exhibition of the work of the pupils was in charge of Mrs. Frank Keena.
The candy, ice cream and cake booths were in charge of a com- mittee of mothers consisting of Mrs. Luther, Mrs. Lapalme, Mrs. Keagan and Mrs. Walsh. The proceeds from these booths were used for the purchase of prizes for the athletic events.
Hebronville Community Center
No school building in Attleboro is in such constant use as the building at Hebronville. No teacher is more interested in the com- munity in which she teaches, or exerts a greater influence in the com- munity, than Miss Roberts, to whose untiring efforts the successful results are due. In her report she says:
Some one has said that the social ends of conduct are:
1. Health
2. Practical efficiency
3. Citizenship
4. Wise use of leisure
There is still being made at Hebronville an effort to meet these four objectives. It seems necessary to gain the first objective, health, in order to successfully attain the last three.
Through the baby clinic under the efficient care of Miss Mac- Kinnon, of the Red Cross, this work is begun with the child almost at birth, and carried on by her up to the kindergarten age.
After he enters the kindergarten, he is taken in charge by Miss Bowman, the school nurse, and weighed once each month. All chil- dren found five pounds or more under weight are put into a special nutrition class. Over forty such children were found in the building this year. Last summer the school was put in touch with Miss Queel of Amherst Agricultural School and Miss Gordon of Segregansett. These two women come once each month to Attleboro, giving one day
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ANNUAL REPORT
between Dodgeville and Hebronville Schools, where they hold nutri- tion classes for these under-weight children and
their mothers. Through the use of stories and games, and the use of charts or graphs which show the child's loss or gain in weight, there is created an in- terest in the work which carries over into the home, resulting in many cases, in a marked gain in health and weight.
To further this work we have been serving a mid-morning lunch, consisting of a cup of cocoa and a cracker, at the nominal price of two cents. In the afternoon we sell enough cookies so that we are enabled to serve about twenty free cups of cocoa each day from the slight profit made on these sales. Much of the success of this work has been due to Miss Mackinnon and Miss Bowman.
In a belief that the purpose of the school is control of the conduct of the people and not wholly the imparting of information, the extra ac- tivities of this school have been increased each year until at last we have a building which is open practically five nights and three after- noons a week. These activities take the following form:
Monday evening, 7 to 9:30-Working Girls' Club-Sewing and cooking, 2 hours; recreation one-half hour.
Alternate Tuesdays, 3:30 to 4:30-Junior Boys' and Girls' Clubs. Tuesday evening, 6 to 8-Senior School Girls' Club.
Wednesday afternoon, 2:30-4-Baby Clinic.
Wednesday evening is left open for lectures, extra club activities, etc.
Thursday afternoon and evening a branch of the Public Library is held under Miss Jennie S. Pierce. The library has an active circula- tion of about 215 books per week, one book to each person. This fall the pupils raised $58 for magazines and quiet games to be used in the library. Through the use of these quiet games we hope to teach the children the use of the old-fashioned, quiet games in the home.
Friday evening, 7 to 9-Boy Scouts.
Mothers' afternoons are held the last Friday of every month from January to June.
We hope before the year is over to have a Home Nursing Class as a part of the school center. We should not forget to mention that "Neighborhood School Center" meetings are held here on the last Monday of every other month.
Much credit should be given to Miss Pierce, and Miss Bullock, and also to Miss Kirkton and Miss Clifton who have come to the building this year. Without their wholehearted aid and interest in the children this work would be impossible.
For six weeks last summer a vacation school was held in the building in which the following activities were carried on, cooking, story telling, sewing, weaving, folk-dancing, chorus singing and hy- giene work under the care of Miss Mackinnon. Here we have a plant approximately worth $18,000. Formerly this plant was used thirty- nine weeks, five hours per day. It might have been called a 30% plant. It is now at least approaching a 100% plant as far as the point of use is concerned.
The Work of the Schools
Since the beginning of the World War, especially since this coun- try entered the war, the work of the schools has been seriously af- fected. The war brought to the schools many opportunities for service which they were glad to accept, but which interfered greatly with regular school work. In addition to these extra school activities the schools have had to contend with influenza, shortage of fuel, crowded rooms, the severity of the winter in 1920, and constant changes in the teaching force. To state that educational standards have suffered is
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ANNUAL REPORT
only stating a fact. What the State must do, what Attleboro must do, is to realize the conditions and then set about to remedy them.
First, teachers must be paid salaries sufficiently high so that they can be retained for at least three years. Nothing breaks up school work like a constant change of teachers.
Second, new buildings must be erected as rapidly as possible to care for present growth and to provide new educational opportunities. Schools for retarded pupils, open-air rooms, kindergartens, the exten- sion of the manual training department in the High School, a junior high school, are a few of the needs to be met as soon as finances will permit.
Above all, the schools should have a period of rest and quiet, free from outside, extra-school, activities to make up part of the ground that has been lost in the last three years, and to get back where they were before the war. Education may be so broad that it will have no depth. We need just now more concentration on fundamentals and fewer outside interests to distract our attention. One year devoted exclusively to school work would accomplish wonders and the schools need just that kind of work this year. Too many organizations, inter- ested in worthy objects, desire to use the schools for the furtherance of the causes they represent. Pupils and teachers alike should be left alone this year to devote their entire energies to the regular work of the schools.
THE SCHOOL SAVINGS BANK
Deposits for each year since the establishment of the bank in 1908:
Year
Deposits
1908 (3 mos.)
$2,429.00
1909
4,497.85
1910
4,198.25
1911
4,142.16
1912
3,826.22
1913
4,406.50
1914
3,658.13
1915
3,680.00
1916
4,927.27
1917
5,487.04
1918
3,185.91
1919
5,176.32
1920
10,886.46
Total
$60,501.11
Statement January 1, 1921
Dr.
Balance on deposit Jan. 1, 1920, including interest ($317.41) .. $3,041.78
Deposited in the First National Bank from Jan. 1, 1920 to Jan. 1, 1921.
10,886.46
Interest from Nov. 1919 to Nov. 1920 123.23
Total
$14,051.47
Cr.
Transferred to pupils' individual accounts, Jan. 1, 1920 to Jan. 1, 1921. .
$10,360.00
Withdrawn, 1920, from interest to cover expenses 100.24
Balance on deposit Jan. 1, 1921, including interest ($340.40) .. 3,591.23
Total
$14,051.47
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ANNUAL REPORT
Total amount deposited since October, 1908. $60,501.11 Number of individual accounts opened at the First National Bank from October, 1908 to January, 1920. 2,341
January, 1920 to January, 1921. 365
Total 2,706
Number of pupils depositing in the school bank
Jan. 1, 1921. 2,208
Respectfully submitted,
LEWIS A. FALES.
Report of the Principal of the High School
Lewis A. Fales, Superintendent of Schools:
Herewith is my second report as principal of the Attleboro High School.
Our enrollment for the current year is as follows: Post-graduates 5; Seniors 82; Juniors 102; Sophomores 109; Freshmen 164; a total of 462. Of these 223 are boys and 239 are girls. Since September only 8 pupils have left school, a remarkably small number considering the size of our enrollment. The commercial course still draws the largest number of pupils. Of the entering class of 164 pupils, 74 are in the commercial course, 37 in the technical, 35 in the college, and 18 in the general.
The course of study in the High School is essentially the same as it was a year ago. The restoration of German has resulted in a begin- ners' class being formed. The trigonometry course has been moved from the third to the fourth year in the technical course to allow more preparation in algebra for it. The elementary course in bookkeeping introduced last year for the first time has been increased from a three to a five period a week subject.
This year the increase in the school has made necessary the em- ployment of two additional teachers, Miss Georgia K. Coates in the commercial department, and Miss Helen F. Small in the English de- partment. Besides these we have Mr. Frederic O. Gifford in the Eng- lish department, Mr. Rodney D. Mosher in mechanical drawing, and Miss L. Marie Hentz in the commercial department as new teachers on the staff. Considering the uniform difficulty of all schools to have as many and as good teachers' as might be desired, Attleboro is ex- tremely fortunate in the High School teachers.
It is to be expected that the school will be slightly larger next year and plans should be made for the equipping of Room 105 with desks for a study room, and the addition of another teacher who would find most of the work in the mathematics department.
Last year the senior class activities in behalf of the school netted over $400 which has been expended for additional books for the school library. This much needed addition has made possible an in- crease in the available supplementary work of the school library, but a greater factor in this same direction has been the intelligent activity of Miss Margaret Brewer who is the High School librarian, employed half time for the High School and half time for the city public library. This year the class of 1921 purposes to raise funds for the purchase of a fire-proof curtain for the Assembly Hall stage, a much needed and welcome addition to the hall.
It would seem as though some solution should be found for an in- crease in the mechanic arts department. On account of lack of room
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ANNUAL REPORT
the school has been held to a very small part of the work in this de- partment to which it is properly entitled. Your principal is unable to suggest a solution since the two small basement rooms are the only ones available, but he does wish to go on record as pointing out the necessity of an increase in facilities for the work. Mr. Eastwood is well qualified to direct any of the work which might come in this de- partment.
The scholarship of the school has been steadily maintained. There is always the necessity of continual effort on the part of the principal and the teachers to keep the standard of the work to a proper level and this necessity is never lost from sight. There is a perceptible tendency on the part of the pupils to make up points for graduation from elementary subjects, and there has apparently been no rule or tradition to prevent this. It would seem reasonable that pupils who earn their school diploma by gaining 72 school credits should be re- quired to take at least 15 of these credits from each of the four years' work as given in the school course of study.
Last year our athletic teams were somewhat more successful than the year before and prospects are good this year. The credit again goes to Dr. Earl White. Attleboro High School should have a football team and a track team as well as its present teams in basket- ball and baseball, but it would be impossible to increase the athletics until the school has a regularly employed resident instructor in ath- letics and physical training. Mr. Reinhardt who successfully conducted the physical training in the grammar schools under student leadership has shown us how it can be done in the High School. The introduction of physical training would make necessary the lengthening of the school day or reducing the number of periods. We cannot consider shortening our forty minute periods at present. The physical training is not necessarily inseparable from the increase in athletic coaching but these would probably go best together.
Last year's graduation class numbered 74. We did not have a sufficient number from the commercial department to fill all of the desirable positions which were available for our graduates. Twenty- eight went to school or college. We have from last year's class pupils in the following institutions: Boston University, Brown University, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tufts. Boston Nor- mal Art, Bridgewater Normal, Mount Holyoke, Bryant and Stratton's Commercial College, and Wheaton College.
I desire to express my sincere appreciation of the cooperation given the principal by pupils, teachers, Superintendent, School Board, and the public.
Respectfully submitted,
JAMES FRANCIS SMITH.
Report of the Supervisor of Music
Mr. Lewis A. Fales, Superintendent of Schools:
The music work of the grammar schools of the city is well estab- lished. From the first to the seventh grades such fundamental training in note reading and voice culture is given that the average pupil is able to read music and to use his voice correctly in singing. Many patriotic songs, and folk songs, including such Christmas songs as have become well established, are taught. Every effort is made to have all the pupils sing, not because they have to, but because they want to. It is more evident this year than ever before that singing has become a great joy and pleasure to the pupils in the grammar school. In
4
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ANNUAL REPORT
the fifth, sixth and seventh grades, practice is given in two and three part singing.
The Eighth Grade
During the past three years that the eighth grade has been at Bank Street School I have been experimenting with various phases of music education in an effort to find out how to use the music period to the best advantage of the majorty of the class, many of whom leave school after graduation. Lectures were given on various music sub- jects such as The History of Music, Music Appreciation, Biography of Great Musicians, History of American Music, etc. These lessons were apparently of great interest to the pupils, only there could be no singing while they were being given; and after many of the pupils had spoken to me about it, I finally took a vote of the entire class and the majority voted for singing. This year I have resumed the study of singing much to the satisfaction of the pupils and to the evident im- provement of the eighth grade singing. Any person who heard the grammar school sing at graduation will bear me out when I say that no better singing by children of our schools has been heard in Attle- boro.
One of the best features of our music in the eighth grade is the orchestra. They were organized at the beginning of the year and re- hearsed after school hours.
High School
The class in singing has become so large in number that I think it advisable to divide the class into divisions, the freshman class in one and the three upper classes in the other.
The High School orchestra is growing in number from year to year until now there are forty-three pupils who are members of the orchestra. It is considered one of the best school orchestras in the State and wherever they have played they have received favorable comment.
Respectfully submitted,
JOHN L. GIBB.
Report of the Supervisor of Freehand Drawing
Mr. Lewis A. Fales, Superintendent of Schools:
A great deal of thought is put into planning the drawing course. In revising the course there has been an attempt to simplify it. I con- sider it very bad for the pupil to work out a problem in any but a whole hearted, sane way, and where the results of a lesson are general- ly poor, the fault is either in the problem, or the teaching of that problem. If good results are to be obtained in drawing, the lesson must be as carefully planned and taught as any other subject. One lesson in addition doesn't master the subject, and neither is a princi- ple in drawing mastered without repetition. There is an effort to make the problems of interest and use to the pupils. Whenever any school wants a project fitted to the need of their particular school we take that project rather than what is called for in the outline. Some things called for are posters for special occasions, covers and folders for special work, and devices for helping perfect attendance. Some very good work is the result.
A test of our work is in its influence on the pupils outside of school. The principles should carry over into the outside life, and help cons-
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ANNUAL REPORT
ciously or unconsciously to a little better judgment in choosing colors, in arranging rooms, hanging pictures, buying jewelry, writing a page, or judging posters.
In my mind the most valuable work in the high school teaching is art appreciation. We do not have time for enough of it. Some of the high school classes have done very good work in applied design.
Before this year some of the grades were visited every week, but by visiting all grades every two weeks it was easy to give time to the added number of rooms this fall.
Respectfully submitted,
PERSIS A. CROWELL.
Report of the Teacher of Manual Training
Mr. Lewis A. Fales, Superintendent of Schools:
To secure the best development of the pupil mentally, physically and morally the modern educator advocates teaching by the project method.
No course of study is so well adapted to the working out of this theory as Manual Training.
This method of teaching specially appeals to those pupils who have ideas of their own that they wish to express in some practical way. It also provides the opportunity for them to be of service to those at home, at school and around them.
General aims of the Project Method:
1. To help the pupil to acquire the habit of planning and making things for which he sees a specific need; by so doing to satisfy his instinctive craving for expression in a manner serviceable to his own growth.
2. To teach the pupil those processes of construction which will help him to become a "handy man" in his own home and a more effi- cient worker if he should choose any of the mechanical trades as his vocation.
Aim of the teacher:
With this end in view the teacher endeavors to supply the stimu- lus for a definite problem which may become the pupil's own hearty purpose to act.
This is done through :
1. Exhibiting finished pieces of work.
2. Exhibiting illustrated books, magazines and drawings.
3. The pupil's or teacher's personal experience and interest.
This has found expression in making furniture for home use, toys for younger members of the family, gifts for friends, tools to be used in the workshops where engaged after school, and in repairs for school, home, and friends.
How the aim is attained :
When the pupil fully realizes the need and applies for the teacher's assistance with new tools or processes necessary in the solving of his problem, he is given the needed demonstration and explanation. The pupil in general is given freedom to carry out his own purpose. "This is not to say that every purpose is good, nor that the pupil is a suitable judge as between purposes, nor that he is never forced to act against a purpose which he entertains. The teacher does not subordinate him- self to a pupil's whims but he does aim consciously and insistently to secure and utilize vigorous purposing on the part of the pupils." Pu- pils who have not elected Manual Training are welcomed when they
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ANNUAL REPORT
desire to do a special piece of work. Many have taken advantage of this.
In this age of labor-saving devices, the pupils-especially those who work in the shops where advantage is taken of every labor-saving device-desire to see their work grow rapidly, hence the insistent de- mand for more wood-turning lathes, band-saw, planer, drilling and sand papering machines, which should be met in order to keep the depart- ment fully efficient.
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