USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Douglas > Town Annual Report of the Officers of the Town of Douglas, for the year ending 1918 > Part 3
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A great deal is being said now about Americanization. The war revealed serious defects in our social conditions and brought home the necessity of having all peoples of the United States united in one common ideal.
66
188 25
3,
31
66
66
255 50
66
66
1 2
Out of the first 2,000,000 men drafted, there were over 200,000 who could not read their orders nor understand them when delivered. In Massachusetts alone there are 350,000 inhabitants who are unable to speak English, and 300,000 males of voting age who are not naturalized. In the country at large we have 35 dif- ferent races, speaking 54 languages, and of these 13,000,000 are foreign born.
To bring all these different nationalities together the first requisite is a knowledge of English so that these foreigners can read, write, talk and think in one language.
A bill has been introduced in Congress which provides for the appropriation of $100,000,000 annually for educational pur- poses, a portion of this being for the Americanization of foreigners in the United States. If this bill becomes a law, it will be the greatest stride education has ever made.
There are now at Douglas Center forty-six pupils in two rooms large enough for about half that number. There are old double desks in these rooms and nearly every seat is occupied. The sanitary and heating conditions are very poor and there is no playground. The need is certainly urgent for a better school building and larger school grounds. Probably someone at Douglas Center could be found to donate the two acres required for a really suitable ground, if the town would erect an appropriate building.
I desire to express to the school committee my appreciation of their hearty support, helpful suggestions and active interest in my work, and in all that pertains to the welfare of the schools.
Respectfully submitted,
C. L. JUDKINS,
February 3, 1919.
Supt. of Schools.
1 3
STATISTICAL STATEMENT.
Assessed valuation, April 1, 1918 $1,440,225
Population, census of 1915 2,134
No. persons in town between 5 and 16 years of age, April 1, 1918-boys 215, girls 219. 434
No. persons between 5 and 7 years of age-boys 26, girls 28 54
No. persons between 7 and 14 years of age-boys 158, girls 154 312
No. persons between 14 and 16 years of age-boys 31, girls 37 68
Illiterate minors, 16 to 21 years of age-males 22, fe- males 39 61
Total enrollment in all the public schools during school year ending June 23, 1918 413
Average membership for school year
371
Average attendance for school year
348
Per cent. of attendance
93.80
No. school buildings in use
6
No. teachers required by the public schools
14
No. special teachers . .
2
No. teachers graduated from college
2
No. teachers graduated from normal school
7
No. weeks high school was in session
40
No. weeks grades were in session
38
No. pupils graduated from high school 5
No. pupils graduated from grammar schools 10
Attendance for School Year Ending June 28, 1918.
SCHOOL
TEACHERS
Enrolment
Under 5 years
Between 5-7 years
Between 7-14 years
Between 14-16 years
Over 16 years
Average Membership
Average Attendance
Per cent. of Attendance
No. Tardinesses
No. Dismissals
High .....
Louis J. Peltier. .. . § Esther Eckstrom . ( Margaret Mooney § Pauline Carver . . . Vera H. Simonds Eunice L. Buffington § Elois M. Holland ¿ Lovertia P. Chase
28
0
0
1
12
15
24
22.58
94.87|
95.24 96.41
26
6
40
0
0
39
1
0
36.70
31.42
93.58
49
21
47
0
0
46
1
38 70
36.49
94.29
37
19
46
0
0
44
2
44.76
42.19
94.26
48
22
Etta H. Johnson .. .
50
1
49
0
0
45.89
44.26
96.54
18
2
la ...
Ethel M. Owen ... .
49
0
26
23
0
0
43.44
40.74
93.79
36
0)
1 b ..... Daisy E. Sweet ....
29
0
20
0
0
26.92
25.54
94.96 110
10
Douglas Center 4-8 Gertrude M. Smith .
18
()
0
16
2
0
15.57
14.61
93.10|
11
9
1-3|Mollie H. Kelley ....
18
5
13
0
0
16.92
15.08
88.99
1
5
W. Douglas, Mixed Eleanor G. Foley ... South "
Mixed Miss B. L. Whitcomb
6
0
1
0
0
5.84
5.38
92.12
6
2
Totals
413
0
43 315
40
15
371
348
93.8
475|124
0
0
16
17
0
26.18 31.67
25.31
59
0
6. .
36
0
0
31
5
0
4
.
.
E. Louise Twohig .. May C. Buxton . ..
3 .
2 ...
13
0
1
12
0
0)
12.35
10.85
90.12
30
12
14
44| 16
E. Douglas 7-8. . ..
33
30.53
I5
Rank of the Schools in Attendance and Punctuality for Year ending June 28, 1918.
Rank
ATTENDANCE
Per Cent. of Attendance
Rank
PUNCTUALITY
Per Cent. of Tardiness
1
East Douglas, 2
96.54
1
Douglas Center, 1-3
.02
2
16
6
96.41
2
East Douglas, 2
.11
3
66
66
7-8
95.24
3
Douglas Center, 4-8
6
.22
5
High
.23
6
East Douglas,
4
94.29
6
66
4
.26
7
66
66
3
94.26
7
3 So. Douglas mixed East Douglas,
.29
9
66
66
5
93.58
9
10
Douglas Center, 4-8
93.10
10
66
5
.36
11
So. Douglas, mixed
92.12
11
High
.48
12
W. Douglas, mixed
90.12
12
W. Douglas mixed
.60
13
Douglas Center, 1-3
88.99
13
East Douglas, 1-b
1.13
Average,
93.8
Average,
.34
Average for State
93.00
.19
4
66
1-b
94.96 94.87
4
East Douglas, 66
1-a
.27
8
1-a
93.79
8
7-8
.30
5
NOTE-No record of tardiness is kept by the state. A higher tardiness than 1%, however, is regarded as unsatisfactory.
LIST OF TEACHERS, JANUARY 1919.
NAME
SCHOOL
HOME ADDRESS
GRADUATE OF
Salary
per year
When appointed
in town
C. W. Holmes
Junior High
East Douglas Orange
Simmons College
700
1918
Vera H. Daniels
East Douglas, 6
5
589
1918
Deborah O'Connor
4
608
1916
May C. Buxton
Douglas
608
1889
Etta C. Johnson
East Douglas
608
1908
Mollie H. Kelley
1-a
570
1916
Daisy E. Sweet
Middlebury, Vt. High
608
1900
Gertrude M. Smith
Douglas Cent. 4-7 1-3
Uxbridge
Worcester Normal
570
1918
Edith L. Anderson Julia E. Healey
Whitinsville
Fitchburg Normal
550
1918
Gladys Norton
Worcester
Worcester Normal
550
1918
Florence E. Putnam
Music
Charlton
New England Conservatory
160
1918
Rowena L. Brown
Drawing
Leominster
Worcester Art Museum
200
1918
Brown University
$1500
1918
Pearl Andrews
Braintree
Bridgewater Normal
608
1918
Eunice L. Buffington
East Douglas
Douglas High
665
1892
Worcester
Worcester Normal
589
1918
Agnes G. Sullivan
3
2
Douglas High
-
1-b
Symonds Training School
Douglas
W. Douglas, mixed S. Douglas, mixed
·
-
1 7
Report of High School Principal.
Mr. C. L. Judkins, Superintendent of Schools :-
Dear Sir :- In accordance with your request I submit the following report on the East Douglas "Junior High School."
The Junior High School is an attempt, common now through- out the country, to solve the problem of the transition from the grammar school to the high school. Under the old system, after eight or nine years of study in the grades, the pupil took the plunge into the high school, with its immensely wider range of subjects, where he was expected to add as much to his mathemat- ical equipment in a year as he had gained in six or eight years in the grades; where he struggled to acquire as much information in ancient or general history in a year as he had gathered in United States history in the four or five years preceding ; where his teachers, often with little or no recollection of their own limited capacity at the age of fourteen, despaired of the slow progress made and were usually ignorant of the fact that one of the most important tasks of the first two years is to teach the pupil how to study.
Under the Junior High School plan. the seventh and eighth grades are put into the same school unit with the first and second year high school classes, and some high school work is introduced into the grades. This brings high school teachers into cooperation with grade teachers, acquaints each with the field of the other, broadens the view of each, gives the grade teacher a clearer vision of the aims in the grammar school classroom, and the high school teacher more intelligent sympathy with the pupils in their struggles in high school work. The object is to speed up the grade work of giving the pupil the mere tools of culture, reading, writing, arith-
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metic, and the essentials of English grammar, to arouse interest in the use of those tools in broader fields of knowledge, and finally to persuade more pupils to enter high school.
The work in the four grades of our Junior High School is divided among the two high school teachers and the one grade teacher as follows. The grade teacher does all of the work in the seventh grade except manual training and househould arts. She also teaches reading and writing in grades 8, 9, and 10 (the two first years of high school are now called grades 9 and 10.)
The principal gives the boys in the seventh grade two periods a week in manual training. and the assistant gives the girls in that grade two periods a week in household arts. The boys in grades 8, 9, and 10 are grouped together for three periods a week in manual training, and the same arrangement is made with the girls in those grades in household arts. Manual training is required of all boys, and household arts of all girls, except those who are pre- paring for college. One girl who is preparing for college is so much interested in the course in household arts that she is taking that as an extra. This kind of interest is shown by all the girls taking the course, which fully justifies its existence, since the first requisite to success in an educational subject is to get the pupil interested in it.
Since no equipment has been provided for manual training proper, that course has taken the form of mechanical drawing. This is itself one of the manual arts, giving that training of the eye and hand the need of which has been urged so much by the great educator, Dr. Eliot. The interest of the boys in this work, of a kind which requires as much hard thinking as arithmetic, is evidenced by the fact that some of them ask for the privilege, occasionally, of working on their drawing through recess. The seventh grade boys once said they could work all day on drawing. This work was intended to be merely preliminary to shopwork, and the boys are all eager to get to work at the real thing with tools in the shop.
It was hoped that more work of a high school nature could be introduced into the eighth grade before the end of the school year. One of the educational aims of the present day is to finish
the regular grade work of training in the mere tools of culture in the first six years of school. Probably no school system has yet anywhere near reached that goal, but many pupils are fully capable of doing the regular grade work in less than eight years, and that is one of the underlying principles of the Junior High School plan. Pupils here I consider close to the average in their respective grades, but for the present, the addition of manual training and
19
household arts to their regular grade work is quite enough for them to handle. If none of the regular grade work suffers by this addition, a great step will have been taken in advance in the Douglas school system.
Besides manual training and household arts, the subjects re- quired of all in grades 9 and 10 are the regular high school English and Civics, the latter given in accordance with the all-important object of training for citizenship in a democracy. For their fourth subject, all but three of the 9th and 10th grade pupils chose a course in general science. These three wishing to prepare for college, take geometry as their fourth subject. Two of them are second year pupils who have had their first year Latin and are now taking Caesar. The third is a first year girl, the only one in that class who wanted mathematics, and so she joined the two second year girls in geometry. Next year there will be no geometry class, and so this girl may then take algebra with those who then elect mathematics.
It is too early to look for definite results from our Junior High School. We hope to prepare students now in the two upper classes so that they may finish the regular high school work else- where, if they have to go elsewhere, in two years. The eighth grade is a small class, and the boys show a tendency to make for their employment certificates and get into the scramble to earn money as soon as they are fourteen. It is our problem to make school work so attractive and so profitable that even this strong pecuniary motive will not take so many out of school. It will take time to convince the public, as well as the boys, that it will pay them to stay in school. Our hope is especially in the seventh grade, where there are 24 bright boys and girls, and it will be interesting to see how many of these we can keep and see through our Junior High School.
Respectfully yours,
C. W. HOLMES, Principal.
Jan. 20, 1919.
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Graduation Exercises of the Douglas High School.
THURSDAY EVENING, JUNE 27, 1918
PROGRAM
March Orchestra .
Invocation Rev. Vernon H. Deming
Song, "With Fife and Drum," Chorus
Salutatory, "The History and Progress of Aviation,"
William J. Dunleavy
Class History-Will-Prophecy, Helen L. Murphy, Albert C. Fairfield
Song, "Away To The Woods,"
Chorus
Reading, "Christianos Ad Leones," Dorilla A. Rivard
Presentation of Class Gift, Edith F. Fairfield, Class President
Acceptance for the School, Kathleen Johnson, Class of 1919
Solo, "An Open Secret," Woodman
Helen L. Murphy
Valedictory, "Reconstruction Work in France," Edith F. Fairfield Presentation of Diplomas, Supt. Clarence L. Judkins
Song, "A Prayer of Thanksgiving," Chorus
Selection, Orchestra
Benediction, Rev. William Grandy
CLASS ROLL.
William James Dunleavy,
Albert Churchill Fairfield, Edith Florence Fairfield Helen Louise Murphy Dorilla Anastasie Rivard
CLASS MOTTO. Ducit Amor Patriae (Love of Country Leads Us)
CLASS COLORS. Red, White and Blue. CLASS FLOWER. Tea Rose.
2I
Report of Supervisor of Music.
Mr. C. L. Judkins, Superintendent of Schools.
DEAR SIR :-
I herewith submit my first report, covering the last four months. Good progress has been made in the work this fall, considering the serious interruption which made it impossible to accomplish all that might be desired by the middle of the year.
We are giving careful attention to artistic and musicianly interpretation, as well as clear enunciation, which combined, com- municate feeling and thought. We are earnestly working for cor- rect tonal production, which is of the greatest importance. Chil- dren should sing with a mellow, flute-like tone, easily and without effort, which is absolutely essential to the success and safety of children's singing. Children, especially boys, who begin wrong in this one point are inclined to stop singing early in the grades because the throat tires easily from the strain and the tone sounds unmusical to the ear.
I have been very much pleased with the work at Douglas Center and also in all the lower grades at East Douglas. The fifth grade has done very good two-part work and the sixth grade has accomplished splendid three-part work. New books were purchased for the High School and the interest among the pupils is greater than at the first of the year, but there is still opportunity for improvement.
I wish to thank the teachers. for their earnest efforts and hearty co-operation, also the Superintendent and School Commit- tee for the new books in the High School.
Respectfully submitted,
FLORENCE E. PUTNAM,
January 24th, 1919.
Supervisor of Music.
22
Report of Supervisor of Drawing.
Mr. C. L. Judkins, Superintendent of Schools.
DEAR SIR :---
Having just entered upon my work as Supervisor of Drawing in the Douglas schools, I have very little to report in the way of achievement.
The object of the work is to bring about a better understand- ing of drawing-harmony of color that it may be applied to home furnishings, costumes and nature work.
Perspective has been taught the past month in the Junior High and Grammar grades, also object drawing and measuring in the Intermediate and Primary grades.
The following topics will be continued the remainder of the year :-
Nature drawing, paper construction, illustrative drawing, home furnishing, lettering, applied design and color work.
The attitude of the pupils is excellent.
I wish to thank the superintendent and teachers for their interest shown in the advancement of the work.
Respectfully submitted,
ROWENA L. BROWN,
Supervisor of Drawing.
23
Report of Instructor of Sewing.
SUMMER OF 1918.
Mr. C. L. Judkins, Superintendent of Schools :-
DEAR SIR :-
The work of the sewing class this summer was in connection with the work of the Red Cross.
There were 19 in attendance. The older class finished off and made bed socks, shirts and knit face-cloths, besides helping out with the younger pupils in making button-bags, winders and piecing a bed-quilt.
The children, too small to sew, came two afternoons and snipped pieces for comfort pillows.
In the above work the children were taught to baste, sew on machine, hem, overcast, make button-holes, sew on buttons, etc.
Repectfully submitted,
ETTA H. JOHNSON,
Instructor in Sewing.
24
RESULTS OF THE TESTS FOR VISION AND HEARING.
Number of pupils tested
388
found defective in eyesight.
54
66 hearing 16
66 parents or guardians notified 63
ATTENDANCE OFFICER'S REPORT.
Number of cases investigated
93
66 Absent on account of sickness
6.
‹: truancy 2
21
ALEX. JOHNSTON, Attendance Officer.
Jan. 6, 1919.
EMPLOYMENT AND EDUCATIONAL CERTIFICATES.
Issued January 1, 1918 to Jan. 1, 1919.
Number persons issued Certificates.
Number of Certificates issued.
Educational (literate) 59
Educational (literate) 65
Educational (illiterate). 0
Educational (illiterate) 0
Employment 44
Employment . 48
Summer vacation 6
Summer vacation
6
Special home permits. 0
Special home permits. 0
Total, 109
Total,. 119
Mr. Alex. Johnston has been appointed by the Superintendent of Schools to issue certificates, and these may be obtained by those entitled to them by making application to MI. Johnston.
MEMBERS OF TEACHERS' RETIREMENT ASSOCIATION
C. W. Holmes, Pearl Andrews, Vera H. Daniels, Agnes G. Sullivan, Deborah O'Connor, Daisy E. Sweet, Florence E. Putnam, Rowena I .. Brown, Julia E. Healey and Gladys Norton.
70
66
66 for other causes . .
25
SCHOOL BANNERS.
The school banner, awarded for excellence in attendance and punctuality each month (high school excepted), has been won for the past year as follows :
Per cent. Attendance
Number Tardiness
January, Grade 6
98.41
5
February, Grade 6
97.96
1
March, Grade 6
98.75
2
April, Grade 2
96.36
.
3
May, Grades 7-8
97.82
5
June, Grade 2
98.40
0
September, Grade 2
96.79
0
November, Grade 2
94.43
2
December, Grade 2
98.32
4
HONOR ROLL.
Pupil neither absent, tardy, nor dismissed for three years :
Albert Dansereau.
Pupils neither absent, tardy, nor dismissed for one year :
Walter Brown, Ernest Curtis, Charles LaPlante and Lillian Johnston.
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