USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Milford > Town Annual Report of the Officers of the Town of Milford, Massachusetts 1880 > Part 5
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A Milford school report made ten years ago says : "In due time we hope to have our children enter the Grammar school, with
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a full knowledge of the principles of simple numbers and great readiness of calculation, thus saving a year or more of school time ; and this in perfect harmony with the laws of health and mind." I also hope for this "consummation devoutly to be wished." Concrete arithmetical questions of a simple and practical character, have been introduced in all the grades. A little of this work was done with the younger classes, but it was mainly deferred to the Gram- mar grades. This inverted the true order of naturc. The child always works from the known to the unknown, from the concrete to the abstract. Drill in abstract numbers should form a very small part, possibly none at all, of the first year's work in the primary school. The teacher should not pass beyond the numbers, 9 or 12.
In all classes, especially in the higher, promptness and accu- racy in the fundamental combinations and processes must be se- cured. More work in number was attempted last year in some of the primaries than could be well done. A few of the first classes took up both short and long division. I lessened the work, and shall expect good results in notation, numeration, addition, subtrac- tion, and in the various cases of multiplication. A text book is needed in this class. The teachers should be held responsible for the attainments of the children in certain designated topics ; then the Grammar schools should continue the work, and not spend most of the year in going over with a text book, what the Primary teachers taught without.
READING.
I was surprised to find that the word, or sentence, method of teaching reading was not in use in all your Primary schools. The old method of teaching reading was discarded in New Bedford in 1866. I have not tolerated its use for several years. Some of your teachers long ago abandoned it.
Firmly convinced that the sentence method of teaching read- ing was most natural and profitable for the pupils, I have insisted upon its general use. But this is only one of the helps to good reading. First of all, the child must be taught to recognize the word, as the symbol of an idea or thought, which has been, if pos- sible, drawn from his own mind. After a very few words have been mastered, and can be called at sight as readily as can the name of the pet bird, cat or dog of the home, the reading may be- gin. No, it must be preceded by a lively conversation with the pupils, not a talk to them. Knowledge is imparted so skilfully as to excite in the children the most eager curiosity and interest in what the board-all the work for the first few weeks is done at the board-or "the book says." The reading should then begin, and be made by the wise teacher, through explanations and questions, a continuation of the conversation which preceded it. The child- ren will read naturally-the old-time Primary school hitch and drawl, and drawl and hitch will not appear.
They read well because they understand what they read, and
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never being allowed to read a single word which they do not know, or a sentence which they do not understand, they read with wonder- ful interest and expression.
The reading lesson should be preceded with much written work on the blackboard and slate by teacher and pupil,-thus forming a blended exercise in mental development, oral and written expres- sion, spelling, writing and English composition. The essential fea- tures of this method are well illustrated in some of your lower Pri- mary grades, and should be found in all the Primary classes.
This is the German-Cleveland-Dayton-Quincy-common-sense system. In the last-mentioned place, poor reading is almost un- known, and the writing even of the primer grades is excellent.
Three favorable conditions are essential to the complete success of this system : 1st, energetic, progressive, experienced teachers ; 2d, small and carefully graded classes with only 25 to 45 pupils in a room, under the care of veteran teachers who are aided by "pupil" teachers ; 3d, an abundant supply of nicely graded reading which is adapted to the mental development of a given class. Under the system which has generally prevailed, two Itttle books-a primer and a second reader-have been kept before the children's eyes for two or three years. I have had children read, or rather recite, to me very glibly, what the teachers declared they had never read, from the book held before their eyes or behind their backs. The whole book had been learned by heart, likely enough before a word of it was read in the class.
Teachers hoping to escape such a miserable waste of time and such mental stagnation, have placed their pupils in higher books. Instead of this unwise course, the primer classes should read five or six books of the primer grade and the second and third reader clas- ses should have an equally abundant supply. These books can be read in less time than is now spent in droning over a single book in each grade. The plan is not very expensive, as the books can be purchased for towns at greatly reduced rates, and the corresponding classes in the different schools can exchange books with each other. It may not be amiss to state that I have tested the plan at my own expense in some of your Primary classes.
If your Board could see as I have seen, the delight with which new books are seized by pupils and teachers, the eagerness with which the thoughts are grasped, and the impulse which is thus giv- en to a class, you would decide that in no other direction will the investment of forty or fifty dollars a term, bring so prompt and large educational returns.
When I entered your primary schools, last Fall, I felt that the tremendous pressure of numbers in the lower grades formed an al- most insuperable obstacle to the right training of the little ones. I often found from 60 to 75 pupils in daily attendance at several pri- mary rooms. The registered number ranged from 70 to 90 pupils. Common-sense, as well as the science of teaching, declares that the
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true teacher is known by the thoughtfulness and care with which she regards the varied needs of her pupils, and the fidelity and suc- cess with which she fosters personal characteristics and individualiz- es her instructions. Such care and such teaching is especially im- portant with young children. How is a teacher to individualize, when from 60 to 80 little restless spirits, in more restless bodies, are all "to be controlled, guided, occupied and taught by herself alone ? Individualize? The thing is impossible. It is cruel to ask it; it is foolish to expect it."
A superior teacher can do admirable general work with 50 or 60 scholars, nicely graded. But our schools are not nicely graded, and superior teachers do not abound. Under unfavorable condi- tions, it is a wonder that so many teachers accomplish so much in the lower grades. Is it surprising that a few, having no innate fit- ness, or acquired love, for their calling, should fail under the over- whelming load of distasteful daily duty ?
PUPIL TEACHERS.
I would recommend that the Chairman of your Board, the Principal of the High School and the Superintendent, be empowered to select from the recent graduates of the High School, and from the Senior class, after Christmas of each year, thoughtful young . women who wish to become teachers and who will spend some days of each month, without pay, in schools designated by the Superin- tendent for observing the methods of government and instruction, and also in teaching under the guidance of experienced teachers. In this way our overworked Primary teachers could receive much needed assistance, while the young women would be learning the work of the schools. This plan would strike from the list of appli- cants for teachers' places many who, soon feeling their want of fitness for the profession, would seek some other equally honorable field of usefulness. That all cannot succeed in the same line, in- volves no disgrace. It would be my desire to meet the pupil teach- ers once or twice each week, to hear their reports, and discuss with them the theory and art of teaching.
EXPERIENCED TEACHERS.
The primary schools of the State have, until recently, been the chosen field for the untrained teacher. After she had acquired some skill in management and shown considerable aptitude for teaching, she was transferred to a Grammar school and given a higher salary. Then the fifty or seventy-five little innocents anxiously awaited the coming of a new experimenter. One would think this plan had been expressly devised to waste the public money and stultify the chil- dren. Away with the wasteful and cruel notion that anybody can teach these little ones !
A mature and cultivated understanding, a fertile imagination, a wealth of resources, a kindly appreciation of the feeblest efforts of her little charges, a tender sympathy in their wants and trials, a de-
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voted, untiring industry-in a word, all that is strong, refined, noble and true in woman, must combine in the successful teacher of the formerly despised primary school.
Therefore I would most respectfully urge your Board in future appointments of teachers that inexperienced persons should not be allotted to the lower Primary grades, but that the "lambs of the flock" should be intrusted to teachers of winning ways and success- ful experience. Under this plan, the best schools in Scotland and Prussia are conducted ; under this plan, the most successful church schools of the followers of Loyola were founded in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. California, whose schools, like its people, are cosmopolitan and combine the best educational products of the civilized world, provides by law, that " beginners shall be taught for the first two years by teachers who have had at least four years experience, and such teachers shall rank in point of salary with those of the first (the highest Grammar) grade."
Superintendent Parker, whose five years of autocratical, active and wise supervision have made his three lower grades exception- ally excellent, has insisted upon these conditions : that the schools should be nicely graded ; that only a few pupils-from 30 to 44 are found in his rooms-should be assigned to each teacher ; that the best teachers of the town should have the lowest primaries, and re- ceive the highest salaries.
The city of Boston, by a report made within the last month, has entered upon the "new departure." Under adverse circumstan- ces, your teachers also have set forth. Some of your younger teach- ers are showing rare powers of management. During the last year or two they have been rapidly becoming "good teachers."
Many a competent teacher has been unwilling to take, or re- main in, a primary class, because of the false notion that her pro- fessional rank must of necessity correspond with the grade in which she is found. The scale of teachers' salaries has often been adjusted to the equally false notion that " anybody can keep a Primary school."
I would recommend that the salary of approved principals of Primary schools shall be the same as Grammar school assistants, and that the salaries of both these classes of teachers shall be based on experience and success in teaching. Under this rule some Grammar school teachers willingly would do better work in the Primary grades, and some primary teachers would do better work in the Grammar grades.
Some persons can never become teachers, I have seen them tried year after year, under changed and favoring circumstances. But the failure was annually more pitiful. We " change the place but keep the pain." No unjust criticism should be heaped upon school authorities who, after years of trial, will not retain or em- ploy incompetent teachers. Our schools should be conducted like all other departments of town affairs, on sound and just business principles.
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DISTRICT SCHOOLS.
Six of your schools are composed of Primary and Grammar classes, and can be appropriately called "Mixed Schools." Two others, the Fountain street and North Purchase Primaries, contain all the Primary classes and the Fourth Grammar grade. These schools should not be so closely graded as the central schools. Classes should be consolidated only when it is profitable. The scholars should be spurred to emulation, and to progress, regard- less of class lines. Permanent teachers and thorough instruction are the essential things for the Mixed schools. These schools dif- fer widely in attainments and merit. The two which rank highest have had for years the same teachers. Frequent short visits to these schools have seemed to incite and encourage both teachers and pupils. When pupils can be placed in good schools at no great distance from home and carried to them, or paid for going, and even then saving money for the town, should time, money and brains be squandered in maintaining small ungraded schools?
COUNTY TRUANT SCHOOL.
The town of Millbury desires to unite with Milford and other towns in establishing a "Truant School," under the following law of 1873 :
"When three or more cities or towns in any county shall so re- quire, the County Commissioners shall establish at convenient places therein, other than the jail or house of correction, at the expense of the county, truant schools for the confinement, discipline and instruc- tion of minor children convicted under the provisions of this act, and shall make suitable provisions for the government and control of said school, and for appointment of proper teachers and officers thereof."
In my opinion it is not best to aid in establishing this school, at present, but to open in Milford
AN UNGRADED SCHOOL.
All our large graded schools contain many pupils who cannot, or will not, make the best use of their time in their respective classes. By sickness, by work, by parental carelessness, or cupidity, and from stern necessity, they lose. whole months, and even terms, of schooling. They are in advance of one grade, but far below the next higher. These pupils drag along during two or three years, in the same grade and in the same studies. Many of them are eager to learn ; others are shirks and truants, and include four-fifths of the "troublesome" element in our schools. I believe in the system of graded schools for six boys out of every seven. What shall we do for the seventh boy? I would place him in an ungraded school and "work him to the extent of his ability." Such a school should be entirely distinct from our other schools. It should be taught by teachers of unquestioned power and success, so that the suspicion of being inferior in any degree to the best of our Grammar schools, should never attach to it. Such a school would fully relieve the other schools, and, perhaps, enable you to dispense with some oth- er school in the Winter.
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HEATING, VENTILATION AND HEALTH.
The present methods of heating many school buildings are very inadequate, expensive and unhealthy. The last place to save money is in the purchase of cheap stoves for a small school- room in which from forty-five to seventy-five children are packed. Good modern stoves will pay for themselves in two or three years. The Magee stove recently placed in a South Grammar rooni, burns only about half as much coal as its next neighbor. The High School is now heated by an excellent furnace.
I have often found school rooms " as cold as a barn." Some- times the heating apparatus was at fault; at others, the janitor had failed to notice the temperature of the room. Thermometers are placed in every school room, and should be often consulted, as I have found teachers serenely seated near a stove with the heat completely deadened, when the thermometer, in not the coldest part of the room, indicated only 50 degrees.
I do not know of a single school room which has any effect- ive means for ventilation, other than the windows and doors, which, in the Summer months, may safely supply pure air. But in the study hours of Winter, these doors and windows must be closed. They should be opened, except in the severest storms and weather, at recess and during the short physical exercises and march- ings which should occur four or five times daily in the Primary and lower Grammar grades. The insufficient heating apparatus of some schools compels closed windows and doors at all times. If the windows are opened more than a finger's width, active currents may beat down upon the heads and necks of the children. Many complaints have recently been made about this injudicious practice. We shall never know how much the unequally warmed, improperly ventilated and crowded school rooms have affected the rise and spread of disease. The past cannot be recalled ; the future can be guarded at some points.
CHANGES IN TEXT BOOKS.
When the Fall term opened, I found that my predecessor had arranged to introduce the Intermediate Reader into the 3d Gram- mar classes instead of the Fifth Reader, and to place the Language Primer in the 4th Grade instead of the Language Lessons. Your Committee were also considering the Writing Book and Spelling questions. In October, you introduced a less costly but more com- prehensive system of writing ; in January, you selected the Frank- lin Speller. As none of these changes were at my instance, I can say they were wisely made. I am always slow to change a text- book ; but I must report that the disuse of a good, well-graded Spel- ler in your schools was attended with grave evils, to remedy which required too much of the ablest teachers' time and thought. I am old-fashioned enough to believe that one good, printed spelling good properly used, is better than thirty which have been hurriedly written or extemporized by as many different teachers,
book
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DISCIPLINE.
Without established order neither literary nor moral excellence can prevail in the school room. Teachers "are monarchs within certain limitations." Good order has been secured generally in your schools without harshness and severity. In only a few in- stances has a teacher deemed it necessary to resort to the extreme limits of authority. To govern wisely a class of boys and girls, many of whom are home-rulers, will test to the utmost the rarest powers of body and mind, will demand a multitude of motives and means, the last of which is corporal punishment. Those teachers who have gone through a year without corporal punishment, possess the rare faculty of leading children to prompt and willing obedience. While I most earnestly wish this number might increase till it in- cludes the whole corps of teachers, and while I believe that cases of corporal punishment should diminish as the schools improve, I must acknowledge that frequent occasions now present themselves when reckless and persistent transgressors of school duties and school decencies should receive summary treatment. Therefore I do not think it expedient, under the existing management of the family and of the State, to say there shall be no corporal punish- ment in the schools. But I would discountenance it in every pos- sible way. Teachers will be required to record all cases of corporal punishment, with the degree of the offence, and with the degree and' date of the infliction.
Material Wants .- Many schools are almost entirely destitute of maps and globes. The High School needs reference books. The Primary schools should have counting tables, color blocks, the material for object teaching, and ruled slates for writing. Some of these things the children will buy. The law contemplates that a portion of the school fund received from the State, shall be expend- ed in apparatus and other illustrative material.
Parental Help .- It is not enough to build school houses, to employ competent teachers, and to freely supply them with all the school appliances ; there should be great co-operation and sympathy between parents and teachers. Home discipline and visits to the school-room will remove many misunderstandings, and incite pupil and teacher alike to more ardent efforts. Your teachers have been . desired to inform parents by letter, or personal visits, about the poor scholarship or bad deportment of the children ; this has been done in scores of instances. The scholars will also have reports to carry home, one for the Winter, and three or four for the Spring, or closing term.
Changes of Teachers. Numerous resignations and transfers of teachers occurred in the Summer, of which I have no record. Du- ring the Fall term, the teacher of the Deerbrook school, Miss Flora N. Knowlton resigned, and Miss Eva Cook was assigned to the school. This is the only new appointment since September.
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Extent of Education. Statistics show that nearly fifty per cent. of the children finish their school life during the first six years of the course ; that is, they rarely pass beyond the Fourth Grammar class. The time is brief, the work urgent for these. If they leave our schools without even the poor ability to read, write and cipher, without instruction in good manners, "without an awaken- ed and more sensitive moral sense," we have failed in our duty to them. Therefore, each year's work in the Grammar and in the High schools should be so planned that the pupil, at whatever stage in his studies he may leave his school, shall have secured that amount of knowledge and training which will enable him to supple- ment the rudiments of an education by knowledge subsequently ac- quired, and best qualify him for his present work in life.
. School Economy. Having good schools, we should aim to make them better. If there are defects in our schools, it is not be- cause the schools of "the olden time" are better than the new, but because the schools of to-day are not good enough for the present. To maintain the fair standing which our schools occupy, requires a large annual outlay of money. The strength of a nation, and its increase in material wealth and prosperity, depend largely on the character and scope of its public schools. Then let contributions to their support and wider usefulness, continue to be just and gen- erous.
Personal. It was my desire to spend all the school hours in the schools, but the daily and hourly calls upon my time from a variety of matters outside of the school room but connected therewith, have prevented ; yet all available time has been passed there. I may seem to have criticised freely, but not to destroy ; for no other per- son has had better evidence of the grand work of re-organization and reform which has been going on in your schools during the re- cent years. I have given you my candid opinions of present wants and future needs.
Moral Training .- Knowledge alone will not induce industrious habits and virtuous principles. To inspire our children with the love of truth, honesty. purity and all that inheres in real morality or vital religion, is a parental duty. Parents and teachers must combine physical, intellectual and moral training. But by what means the intellectual work of the schools shall be so permeated with moral training as to influence most strongy the conduct of life, remains the question of the hour.
In closing this report, I must express gratitude for my hearty reception by the teachers of Milford, and delight for the freedom and frequency with which they have consulted with me, and for the general readiness and earnestness with which they have sought to carry out my suggestions.
Thoroughly appreciating the full confidence and support with
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which you, gentlemen of the Committee, have honored me, I have devoted all my time, strength and study to the effort to perform faithfully the duties of this office.
JOHN W. ALLARD, Superintendent of Schools.
Milford, February 13, 1880.
Note .- The usual statistics are printed on a separate slip of two pages and inserted in this report.
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