USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Merrimac > Town Annual Report of the Officers of the Town of Merrimac 1913 > Part 4
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I would be only too glad to have every child in school have good, clean, whole books for their use. But this
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would take considerable more money than we are now spending for them.
IN GENERAL.
"John Lorance in the Boston Advertiser commends the Walthamı school board for its refusal to permit the high school seniors to make the usual trip to Washington next spring, and points out plainly the dangers of such ex- cursions as usually conducted.
"As a Washington correcpondent of experience, Mr. Lorance charges bluntly that the boys and girls 'Seeing Washington in groups have been put up in hotels that, to all intents and purposes, were houses of ill-fame; that schoolboys have been formally solicited by mail and mes- senger to visit notorious resorts, and that the decent people of Washington have been repeatedly stirred to amazement and indignation at the manner in which the young of both sexes have been turned loose in the streets of the capital, by day and night, without restraint and without proper guidance.
"The blame, of course, rests upon those parents who per- mit their children to make such trips without knowing or, apparently, seeking to know, whether the children are to be properly safeguarded. Cut rates and a chance to see Washington are an annual inducement, but it may be that this year other school boards will follow the example of that in Waltham. If they do not, the parents of school children should do a little thinking on their own account."
The above is an editorial in a recent issue of the Bos- ton Journal. Your superintendent wishes to add that from his own personal experience and knowledge that the above statement is not one bit overdrawn. And further that a child of mine unless accompanied by either mother or father would not be allowed to go on one of these trips. In the hotel in which I stopped I saw boys, pretty late in the evening, coming in considerably the worse for the use of liquor. This is only one of many
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things into contact with which I should not want to bring a child of mine under these very peculiar circumstances, some of which have been mentioned above.
Before closing, allow me to say that I appreciate greatly the kindness, helpfulness and steady support of the com- mittee during this past year.
Respectfully submitted, ALBERTO W. SMALL ..
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REPORT OF THE PRINCIPAL OF THE HIGH SCHOOL.
Merrimac, Mass., January 1, 1914-
To the Superintendent of Schools :
I herewith submit my annual report :
The total membership in the High School for the six months ending in June, 1913, was 84; the average membership was 82.4; the average attendance was 76, making the percentage of attendance 94.35 percent.
The following pupils were graduated in June :
Lucy Berry
Bertha Owens
Eva Bishop
Agnes Patten
Joseph Blotner
Russel Preble
Nella Boothroyd
G. Leonard Sargent
Ludwina Collins
George Steele
Mildred Crane
Esther Tuckwell
Gladys Crane ..
Raymond Waterhouse
Donna Dalrymple
Mildred Wood
Howard Dwinnells
Isabelle Emery
Gladys Crane
C. Lester Sweeney
Bernice Judkins
Mary Minahan
Beulah Miller
Sadie MacDougall Girls: 18. Boys : 6. Total 24.
During the four months ending January first, the total membership has been 78; the average membership 74.46; the average attendance 72.21, making the percentage of attendance 96.7 percent.
The present membership of the school is seventy-three, forty-three girls and thirty boys, divided as follows: Seniors, 14: Juniors, 16; Sophomores, 15; Freshmen, 28.
Generally speaking, the building and equipment are in satisfactory condition ; the rooms pleasant, well heated and ventilated. The halls of the building, however, are not
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heated and the writer cannot but be of the opinion that in passing from the warm rooms to the cold halls, the pupils suffer in health and will so suffer until the fault is remedied.
My service in the High School has been too short for comprehensive criticism. A few facts, however, are easily apparent. To begin with, the human material with which we are working is the best possible. The pupils, without exception, are of English speaking parents or those of closely allied races. That is to say, the habit of educa- tion is born in them. I am merely repeating what I have said elsewhere when I say that in Merrimac High School we should do at least twenty-five percent more work than can be done in the High Schools of our cities and large towns where the foreigner of alien race and habits is a problem.
We are not doing that. Outside of the commercial branches, that is to say, the easy courses, so easy that many still deny them a place in a High School curriculum, scarcely a class in the entire school is up to standard. The writer, at present, conducts eight classes, three of Freshmen, one of Sophomores, and four of Seniors. The only classes of the eight which are doing the work they should do are two classes of Seniors, one of them in a study usually considered Junior work, and the other in a subject usually pursued by Freshmen.
I do not believe that the fault is with the pupils. I am convinced that a great majority of our students are making honest efforts to do faithful work, and that that majority is greater than in the other High Schools with which I am acquainted. But I am equally convinced that our boys and girls are too young to adequately grasp the subjects which are offered to them. We have Seniors. whose work is moderately good, who would make brilli- ant Sophomores. We have many Freshmen, who are bare- ly passing or even failing in studies which in another
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year they could fairly devour. No help is to be expected from parents. In a majority of cases, their attitude, surely a pardonable one, is that of pride, that their boy or girl is in the High School so young.
My judgment, based upon my experience and that of others, is that none but precocious and abnormal boys and girls are fitted for high school work until they are ap- proximately fourteen years of age. And precocious and abnormal boys and girls are not desirable.
I find that one of my predecessors has seen and urged the need of more preparation for pupils entering the High School. I do not, however, recommend the rein- stallation of the old style ninth grade. But I do recom- mend with all the earnestness I have, that another year, a transitional and preparatory year, be added to the High School course.
The aim and purpose of all of us, citizens, parents, superintendent, committee and teachers, must be the same : To make our High School what it should be; to make our diploma mean something worth while; secondarily to make the High School a thing of which we may be proud ; but firstly and principally to give our boys and girls that which shall broaden their outlook upon life and be of bene- fit to them so long as they live.
I wish to take this opportunity to thank the Superin- tendent and Committee, the teachers and parents, as well as the townspeople at large, for the cordial welcome and hearty support which I have received in Merrimac.
Respectfully submitted,
CLIFTON C. PUTNEY,
Principal.
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REPORT OF THE SCHOOL PHYSICIAN.
To the School Committee of Merrimac :
The following brief report is respectfully submitted :
The law relative to the inspection of the public school children has been complied with this past year.
We have been free from epidemics of serious contagi- ous diseases during 1913, although among the lower grades the fall term was sadly broken up by an epidemic of Chickenpox.
A large percentage of the children lost from two to four weeks of school. Most of these cases were sick but little, or not at all, but it being a contagious disease the school law compelled them to stay away from school.
In the inspection of the throats and teeth of the eighth grade a much smaller percentage have been neglected, more of the primary teeth are being filled and many more of the sixth year molars are being saved than a few years ago.
The sanitary conditions of the outbuildings of all the school buildings, with the exception of the High School, are and have always been bad. At the Center School drainage could be easily had but here there is no cellar under the building so that heat is from stoves, and modern toilet rooms without a modern heating apparatus are out of the question. This would mean great expense, and after it was all done we would still have an old building far from modern, and school committees have felt for years that for this reason expensive repairs were not war- ranted in this school house.
At the Prospect School we have a furnace installed, but here the sewerage problem would be greater.
When the time comes that it would not be too serious a burden, the question of heated toilet rooms with modern
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conveniences should be solved for our school buildings.
Respectively submitted,
FRED E. SWEETSIR, School Physician.
REPORT OF SUPERVISOR OF MUSIC. .
To Superintendent and School Board of Merrimac:
Your supervisor takes pleasure in submitting a brief report of the music in the schools of Merrimac this year. The methods pursued in the several grades for the past two or three years have been continued on similar lines this year and I can say that the efforts of the pupils, as a whole have never before reached so satisfactory a condi- tion as that which exists at the present time. Very little is expected of the first grade other than what they can learn from association with the second grade, which is no small item. They are taught the scales in various ways and they become familiar with the songs learned by the second grade. The second grade pupils are doing work that would have been considered quite wonderful a few years ago, and it is by far beyond that which children of this grade have been able to do in the past.
I do not in this report intend to take up each class speci- fically but to mention in particular those classes which are doing the best work. The third, fourth and fifth grades are up to the standard of former years, and the same en- thusiasm continues which may develop exceptional ability before the close of the school year.
This year's sixth grade is deserving of special mention, not only in individual reading and singing, but in the
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class as a whole. It would please the supervisor, and encourage the pupils as well, if the parents and friends would visit this grade and hear some of the impromptu concerts which he himself enjoys thoroughly at each week- ly lesson. Visitors would also enjoy hearing some of the many beautiful songs rendered by the seventh grade pupils.
From the pupils of the eighth grade, which was the star seventh grade of last year, much was expected which ' may be fully verified before the close of this school year.
I am pleased to note that the best of harmony exists at the High School this year, and much of the old time en- thusiasm is evidenced by the singing of the pupils.
My thanks are due to the teachers and pupils of all grades for courteous treatment and co-operation in that which concerns this department of the schools to the su- perintendent and school board for needed material and assistance.
Respectfully, W. E. HARTWELL, Supervisor of Music.
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