USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Attleboro > Reports of town officers of the town of Attleborough 1937 > Part 6
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 | Part 15 | Part 16
Enrollment by Curriculum (June 1937)
College Tech. Com'l
Man. Arts
H'd. Arts
Civic Arts Total
Seniors
38
11
46
11
.
4
60
170
Juniors
46
8
78
24
8
46
210
Sophomores
63
19
58
18
25
82
265
Freshmen
62
23
115
34
30
77
341
Totals
209
61
297
87
67
265
986
These figures represent a radical change in the situation which existed a year ago when 435 pupils in the high school were enrolled in the Commercial Course, presumably all training for positions in clerical or stenographic work! The new "Civic Arts" course supplements the good work of guidance done in the eighth grade. Pupils planning on no particular trade, but wishing the advantage of a broad and general type of training-a training, incidentally, which in some instances will qualify for college- have been directed toward the new course in each of the four years of high school. A brief comparison of the subject of mathematics as presented in the Civic Arts Course, as well as in each of the five other courses, will suffice to show the difference.
76
ANNUAL REPORT
College and Tech-Algebra I, Plane Geometry, Algebra II, Solid Geometry, Trigonometry,-Necessary to satisfy entrance requirements of standard liberal arts and technical colleges.
Commercial-Business Arithmetic-Main emphasis on practical application to life situations; such as billing, trade discounts, and bank interest.
Manual Arts-Shop Mathematics-Fundamentals of arithmetic and geometry applied to actual work projects in woodworking classes.
Household Arts-Household Arithmetic (for girls)-General principles of simple arithmetic applied to: household bills, making change, commodity prices, weights and measures, interest, taxes, insurance, reading gas and electric meters, and budgeting the family income.
Civic Arts-General Mathematics-Application of mathematics to everyday topics of budgeting, taxation, insurance installment buying, etc. Minor emphasis on basic concepts from algebra and plane geometry.
If we have the rooms and equipment to provide it, and the most intelligent guidance to pupils in selecting their courses, what is good for the individual boy or girl will prove to be good for the future of the city. On the other hand, crowded conditions indefinitely continued and better facilities lacking, successive graduations of misfit young people, products of courses to which they were not adapted, will prove a poor dividend-paying investment in high school education at public expense.
IV. Shall the high school provide a common curriculum for all or differ- entiated offerings?
In A. H. S. we require English of all pupils for four years, at least one year of mathematics, two years of history and civics, and at least two years of one foreign language (except in the commercial, household arts, and manual arts courses). While there may be some question among a few pupils and their parents of the value of the foreign language requirement, this common curriculum is generally accepted as providing a basically broad preparation for life-with one important exception: we take too little note of a pupil's health. With the Chadwick Clinic and the recent dental inspection of the junior class not over- looked, and their importance fully appreciated, we seem to proceed generally on the theory that if a pupil has not been seriously enough affiicted to lose notice- able time from school or to be brought to our attention by an interested family physician or the school nurse, he is presumably well. There is no health room in the school, nor facilities to permit us to engage in a scientific program of physi- cal education, a program based on a study of the individual pupil's weaknesses and correctional follow-up work to remedy the trouble. We have no program of physical education, and our large gymnasium is used only for the relatively small number who participate in basketball and as a place for dances and school socials. Present shower equipment is inadequate both from point of view of number of shower heads and supply of hot water. Our athletic program for girls is almost negligible. With enlarged facilities and the addition to the staff of a trained man and woman in this field, we might more safely assure ourselves that the common elements in our program of education comprised a broad and sound preparation for life. The school should not be satisfied with training the mind and neglecting the body.
To supplement this common basic training, students are encouraged to chose from a limited list of electives, especially after the first year when they have become established in the ways of their new school. But this "limited list of electives" in the high school is actually reduced almost to nothing because of crowded conditions. No tools or benches are available in manual training classes for out-of-course boys interested in that subject. Very few who have elected mechanical drawing work could be accommodated. With only 32
1
ANNUAL REPORT
77
typewriters for the entire school, and no room for more, we have been com- pelled to say "No" to countless requests for typewriting as an elective. In other words, because of crowded conditions the school falls short of the educational program which it advertises as long as pupils cannot be allowed to follow the direction of their real interests in the selection of at least part of their subject matter.
V. Shall the high school include vocational training or shall it be restricted to general education?
A good deal of the prescribed work of the traditional commercial course in high schools today is vocational training, to wit, typewriting and shorthand. What grounds can there be for failing to include some vocational training of other types which the majority of the jobs our graduates will enter upon will require? "Follow-up" cards returned by members of the class graduating in June, 1937, show that of a total of 157, 85 are working. Of these nearly 20 are already engaged in some connection or other in the jewelry industry. Should it not be the duty of the school to provide training for this group, and for the still larger number that will eventually settle in that vocation-training in the general skills, at least, required for Attleboro's leading industry? It is suggested that a joint committee of school authorities and manufacturers might well be organized to study the subject, and that the high school look forward to incor- porating in its program a recommended amount of training in the general skills of jewelry apprenticeship.
VI. Shall the high school lay chief stress on preparation for advanced studies, or shall it be primarily concerned with the real value of its own courses regardless of a student's future academic career?
Occupations of Graduates of June, 1937
Liberal Arts and Technical Colleges 20
Amherst, Boston College, Brown, Fordham, Massachusetts State,
M. I. T., Mt. Holyoke, Providence, St. Regis, Simmons, University of Maine, Wheaton.
Teachers College. 2
Bridgewater and Hyannis
Business School or College.
8
Junior College 1
School of Dentistry 1
Training School. 5
Preparatory School. .
6
Diesel Engineering School
Jewelry Trades School
1
C. C. C. 1
Work. 85
Married
1
At home. 10
Unaccounted for 12
Ever since the days of the seminary and academy, high schools in this country have felt the pressure of the college upon them. No other reason, in fact, accounts for so many subjects in our curriculum as the demands of college preparation. Yet the figures just cited-and they are repeated year after year- are definite evidence that only a relatively small number of our graduates go on to college. Working each year for a more appropriate type of education for the 75% who will not continue their education in school, we shall improve the prospect of success in life for this greater number. Furthermore, the training of the 25% in preparation for further education can thus be made decidedly more thorough. But these improvements require additional room. With
Postgraduate Work 3 1
78
ANNUAL REPORT
present crowded classrooms, and college sections increased in size by the inclusion of pupils for whom other work would be more appropriate, we cannot give the training that will insure for our graduates in college the excellent success they hope for.
VII. Shall A. H. S. be content with presenting merely organized knowledge or shall we assume responsibility for attitudes and ideals?
Having always in mind building for a better Attleboro, it must be admitted that boys and girls will not live wholesome lives, make better neighbors, or be- come more effective citizens merely as a result of having obtained information for knowledge in school. Attitudes and ideals of honesty, dependability, co- operation, fairness, and a score of others will best be developed not in the tradi- tional classroom but through lifelike experiences provided in a program of student activities. Here is a gold mine of potential character training which we have little more than tapped in Attleboro High School. To learn to take as well as to give, to meet and rub elbows with new companions, and to discover one's own capacities through the informal exchange of ideas and contacts in student council, home room activities, athletics, dramatics, and club work of many kinds should be the opportunity of every boy and girl in school.
The Student Council, with class officers, Blue Owl editor, and representatives from all home rooms, has developed an awareness of the needs and problems of the school and a pride in its good work. Under the auspices of the council marked improvement has been made in definite aspects of school life, notably neatness of the floors and grounds at recess, greater efficiency in the lunch room. A steam table recently added to the lunch room equipment, as a result of student council and faculty study of this situation will greatly facilitate the operation of this department. Further improvements in this direction should also be made in the future. Over 400 pupils are accommodated in the lunch room in each recess period of 20 minutes.
Home room programs, stimulating competition betweer rooms in matters of scholarship, attendance and in general school spirit, are a new type of worthwhile activity developing in the longer home room period.
The several clubs are developing a closer relation with school life which should be felt in improved standards of spirit and school loyalty. The work of the Press Club reaches the general public through the columns of the Attleboro Sun, but even more important is the invaluable training involved for individual students and the unifying effect of the write-ups on the school morale.
School dances function as an important part of school life and are conducted under the careful supervision of class advisors and earnest student committees.
Music activities have long since been recognized for their value to the extent of according them credit toward graduation. The work of this department culminated in the spring in a very creditable performance of the operetta "Pina- fore", an ambitious undertaking for an even more mature cast, and principals, chorus, and orchestra acquitted themselves well. This year a new band, meeting one day a week at 1:40 following intensive work every period for the various instruments of each section, is making rapid progress. It is safe to predict that when a public concert is given in the spring, the city will have no cause to regret its generosity in providing funds for this important activity.
Conditions in the girls' basement room were discussed before all girls of the school this fall, and a committee was appointed consisting of one member from each home room. A decided improvement has already been noticeable, and suggested improvements have been authorized by the School Committee in commendation of this fine spirit on the part of the girls.
Class elections, conducted for the first time this fall as an experiment under life-like conditions of campaigns, primaries, and final elections, have been in- stituted and supervised by the student council and conducted with sufficient success to warrant their continuance another year.
79
ANNUAL REPORT
The senior play, "Mrs. Moonlight", represented a departure in the direction of a more serious type of drama and was well supported by friends of the school. It required the intensive effort not only of the actors and coach, but of the various committee and several teachers as well. The time spent on the preparation of scenery, and the consequent expense, was excessive in view of what could be accomplished with the stage equipped as it should be for high school dramatics. Scenery and drops for this purpose would cost approximately $500; to remove the curved ceiling and open the wings would probably entail an expense of $2000.
With the assistance of the various department heads an assembly program for the entire year was outlined early in the fall. The first assembly periods of the year were utilized for organizing the school and acquainting the students with the operation of the new rotating schedule. Since then, assemblies have been held as scheduled. Only a few outside speakers and entertainers have been introduced, the majority of dates being reserved for programs organized by the various subject departments and featured by student participation.
Assembly Program, 1937-1938, (to date)
Upper Classes Oct. 13. Election Campaign, Seniors. Oct. 20 Election Campaign, Juniors.
Nov. 3 Bird Lecture
Mass. Audubon Society
Nov. 17 Blue Owl
Dec. 1 Town Meeting of the Air (History Department)
Dec. 15 Play : Scenes from the Life of Horace Mann. (English Department) Jan. 5 Basketball Assembly and Award of Football Letters, (Athletic Dept.)
Freshmen Oct. 27 Election Campaign, Sopho- mores.
Nov. 10 Blue Owl
Nov. 24 Football Rally (All four classes)
Dec. S Town Meeting of the Air (History Department)
Dec. 22 Play: Scenes from the Life of Horace Mann (English Department)
The work of the school library is necessarily curtailed because of lack of room. While there is a little required work for freshmen to familiarize them with reference materials available and to teach the use of these materials, in general the possibilities of this department is the way of encouraging better methods of study and higher tastes in reading are limited to the pupils who go to the library voluntarily. In the field of health this would be tantamount to giving physical examinations only to those who chanced to drift into the examination room.
The type of reading material which is occupying the attention of many pupils of freshman and sophomore age, if not altogether harmful, is at least no guide to a better, more mature type of reading. Such titles as "The Golden Peril" and 'Battle to the Death" are common in the reading vocabulary, apparently, of our growing boys and girls. If we are ever to improve their taste, the library must obviously meet these young people on whatever reading levels they are found and draw them up to an increasingly higher type of reading. The books added to the library within the past year are calculated to do this. There are stories of ad- venture and heroism, many of them taken from actual life which the realm of fiction cannot surpass in vividness. Such titles are "Microbe Hunters", by Dekruif, "Half-Mile Down", by Beebe, and "I Like Diving", by Eadie. Such books will widen the horizon of boys and girls who have thought that nothing but dull facts could ever come from non-fiction. Colorful posters are arranged on the bulletin boards and challenging titles displayed in and about the library in the attempt to interest students in its resources. On file also are standard magazines of social, political, and literary value. Add to these one or two of the type of "News Week", "American Boy", and "Good Housekeeping", and by all means a metropolitan newspaper, and our library will be thoroughly equipped to meet the needs of all types of students. The sole lack then will be that of space. The plans for the proposed addition and alterations make provision for approxi- mately one-third more floor space in the library.
80
ANNUAL REPORT
The outstanding success of the school's athletic teams in the past year is familiar to everyone. This success very soon brought an awakening in school spirit and a new enthusiasm throughout the entire student body. This sort of reaction from athletics is not the least among reasons which justify interscholastic sports. The physical benefits accruing to individual team members should be extended to all members of the school, girls as well as boys, through a program of intramural sports. If teachers were available, such a program could be put into operation at once.
Attleboro High School a Cooperative Enterprise
A personal rating card for students was evolved in the spring, the result of faculty study and the work of a special committee of teachers. This card is kept on file in the office and represents the collective judgment of all teachers with whom the individual student comes in contact, on important traits of charac- ter and personality. It is thus a broad and objective picture of each student and as such has already demonstrated its value in recommendations written by the school.
Deportment standards and qualifications for class office and membership in the student council were reviewed during the year by the faculty. Following the recommendation of a special committee these requirements are to be extended to apply to membership on the staff of the Blue Owl.
The new rotating schedule approved by the School Committee, and which was soon in smooth operation in the fall, was instituted as a temporary measure under crowded conditions to provide a period long enough to meet the requirements of college certification. No particular advantage is claimed for it otherwise except possibly that of variety in the weekly program. Educationally there is little question of the superiority of a 48-minute period over one of 37, and the new schedule appears to have been well received by a great majority of both students and faculty. Needless to say, study periods of this increased length under condi- tions which exist, for example, in the assembly hall are a doubtful improvement. Only the new addition will remedy this situation.
Results of reading tests administered to all freshmen and sophomores were as follows:
Ability to Understand What They Have Read
Freshmen (Grade 9)
165 normal 77 eighth-grade ability 74 seventh-grade ability 21 sixth-grade ability 3 fifth-grade ability
Sophomores (Grade 10)
180 normal 46 ninth-grade ability 37 eighth-grade ability 17 seventh-grade ability 3 sixth-grade ability
In reading speed 40 freshmen, normal or above normal in their rate of comprehension, were below average eighth-grade performance. The same was true for 30 sophomores.
These figures tell their own story. The next step, that of remedy of these reading weaknesses, which are unquestionably at the root of the great majority of failures in school subjects, is yet to be taken.
81
ANNUAL REPORT
Certain Changes in the Program of Studies
A study of pupils' records made February, 1937, showed
1. A high rate of mortality in continuing subjects; e. g., 73 in Stenography I, and only 30 in the second year of the same subject. Looking for a moment at the number 30, what became of the other forty or more who probably started the subject at the same time, or how much good they could possibly have secured from only the foundational year of a con- tinuing subject is something of a question.
2. Nearly 200 pupils out-of-course-that is, having taken a smattering of subjects from two or more courses without following through in any one direction.
These are two ways of painting the same picture, as the 200 figure in No. 2 is fed from the "forty or more", and similar cases in other subjects, who dropped out of continuing subjects as suggested in No. 1.
The new Civics Art course was set up chiefly for these pupils. Other im- provements effected were the addition of a new course in the commercial depart- ment, "Junior Business Training", and the extension of first-year typewriting to a full-year course for a better foundation in that subject. The process of drawing from the various curricula pupils not adapted to their specialized work, thus improving the progress of work in all curricula, and of setting up in the Civics Arts course a more general training for those desiring it, can be developed further to the great educational benefit of all pupils in the school as soon as the added space and necessary equipment are available.
These and other improvements in the subject offerings of the school were made possible only through the interest and thorough cooperation of the faculty.
Whatever progress has been made in the past year in the way of better high school training for the growing young men and young women of Attleboro has been due in great measure to the fine spirit of enthusiasm and the friendly cooperation apparent in the daily work of the school. To this should be added our appreciation of the interest, cooperation, and encouragement of the school authorities.
Respectfully submitted,
Philip L. Garland
REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF CONTINUATION AND VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS
Mr. Lewis A. Fales, Superintendent of Schools:
I herewith submit my annual report of the Vocational and the Continuation schools.
The boys and girls-14 to 16 years of age-would normally be in the first and second years of the high school. Various factors in connection with their grade work have impeded their progress and we find them somewhat retarded. So these students are generally placed in small classes, ten to fifteen to a teacher, with special instruction by specially trained instructors. These teachers must continue their special training every summer for several years in schools estab- lished for vocational and continuation work.
This year the shop work for the boys has been rearranged and is now con- ducted under four units of endeavor.
82
ANNUAL REPORT
I. Woodworking II. Elementary machine work
III. Elementary electricity
IV. General shop
WOODWORKING consists of shop construction of school projects, furniture work and manipulative skill in the use of working tools.
Projects
1. Art tables, end tables and stands.
2. Wheelbarrows.
3. Square and turned lamps.
ELEMENTARY MACHINE WORK consists of processes and ways of bending, cutting, working, machining and finishing metal objects.
Projects
1. Floor lamps
2. Tap wrenches
3. Lathe centers
4. Small tools
5. Flood lights (for use in school department)
6. Metal parts to wheelbarrows
ELEMENTARY ELECTRICITY consists of simple wiring, switches, circuits and currents.
Projects
1. Electric lamp wiring
2. Shop motor care
3. Direct and alternating currents
4. Switch mountings
GENERAL SHOP consists of tool sharpening and repair on home furniture and garden tools. Many repair jobs of importance to the school department are done in this shop.
An effort has been made to find more reference material suitable for classroom use. Various bulletins, booklets, posters and circular material published by insurance companies, manufacturers and other agencies have been carefully examined to determine their educational value. This literature contains a great deal of information that is valuable and is presented in simple language and is interestingly illustrated. The different companies and agencies interviewed in regard to publications of an educational nature which they distribute have been helpful and generous in their response. They have expressed their interest by cooperating and offering their assistance in the solution of our educational prob- 1 ems.
Variety in the usual order of school activities has been made possible by the cooperation of others. The prominent window space donated to us by a leading merchant enabled us to present our splendid canning exhibit to the public. An invitation to a cooking school sponsored by the local paper proved most interest- ing. When the girls heard the cooking expert explain and emphasize many things with which they were familiar, they had increased respect for what had been taught them at school.
An excellent illustrated talk on efficient kitchen arrangement was given by the Attleboro Steam & Electric Company. Mrs. Albertine MacKeller of the state department of public health gave a very instructive talk on "Charm".
83
ANNUAL REPORT
In our follow-up work during the past year we have made 394 calls at the homes of the pupils. These visits have been productive of a closer relationship between the school and the home.
We were asked by the State Department of Education to make an occupa- tional survey referred to in my last report. Mr. Tukey consented to undertake this task which he started and completed during the last year mostly on his own time.
In order to have pupils take advantage of their vocational opportunities it is essential to know what jobs minors (16-21 years) get in this locality.
A tabulation from the educational certificates gave us the answer to this question. It was possible to obtain the school grade completion, the age at which 16-21 year old minors secure work, the employer's name, and the seasonal trend of employment for jobs secured between September, 1935 and September, 1936, from the certificates still in force as of date September 15, 1936.
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.