USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Milford > Town Annual Report of the Officers of the Town of Milford, Massachusetts 1881-1890 > Part 9
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If absences are inexcusable in many instances, frequent cases of tar- diness are much less so. Every school should begin on the appointed minute, and every pupil then be in his seat prepared for the opening exercises of the school. Habits of punctuality should be constantly in- stilled into the minds of scholars. Each day pupils are acquiring habits that will affect their whole after-life. How necessary, then, that these should be of promptitude and a strict observance of duty.
Teachers should always bear in mind that example is stronger than precept, and should put that in practice daily which they would impress upon the minds of those under their charge. A few in the past year have given just cause for criticism, by neglect of that regulation which requires punctual attendance at their respective rooms.
If the best results are to be attained in attendance, school should be made an attractive place for children.
When our children learn to regard the school room as a place of pleasant associations, and feel a joy and pride in their work, we shall have fewer absentees, fewer derelictions of duty. .
TRUANCY.
The report of your faithful and efficient truant officers, gives 103 cases that came under their notice the past year. This does not show the different individuals, as many cases are of a few habitual truants. Many cases occur, however, that are unknown to the officers.
The number of cases of truancy has materially decreased during the Jast of the year, through the efforts of the teachers and officers and the removal from towu of some of the worst offenders.
Truancy is truly an offence against the parent, whose desires and or- ders are primarily disobeyed; but it is the duty of all teachers and school officers to use every means, both of influence and law, to check it. It has proven sufficient, in many cases, simply to notify the parents and confer with them. There are some hardened cases, however, that need summary treatment, and whom no mild means reach. Your of-
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ficers complains of the inefficiency of the law relating to juvenile offend- ers. What can be done for those children upon whom the influence of teachers and parents have no effect? And still further, what is to be done with that more deplorable class of neglected children whose par- ents neither know nor care whether they attend school or not, and who roam our streets day and night, growing up in ignorance and vice?
DISCIPLINE.
The primary element of success in any school, is good order. It is the outgrowth of discipline. Many teachers, seemingly possessed of every other requisite for success, have been complete failures through inability to govern their schools properly.
The air of every school room should be that of quiet industry. Un- wholesome restraint indicated by the motionless gaze or the sullen countenances of pupils, sometimes seen in a school room, is a certain kind of discipline, but, if anything, more pernicious in its effects than disorder.
That school is best governed whose time is so fully occupied by at- tention to school duties, that there is no thought of governing or being governed. In many of our schools the discipline is all that is required ; in others it is by far too lax. The impression seems to exist in the minds of many of the people, and allowed to remain, or at least, toler- ated, that the "busy hum of industry" is necessary to insure progress- that thoughit emanates from the lips rather than from the brain.
A number of cases of corporal punishment were reported in the first two months of the fall term. Several were taken by appeal to the Su- perintendent and Committee. Corporal punishment has been abolished in our High School. That it may disappear from all the schools, with all other punishments that tend to arouse the worst elements of the child's nature, is to be devoutly wished. It is now so restricted, that the cases are fewer. Milder means of restraint have been substituted, and in schools with judicious teachers the good results are already per- ceptible. New York city, and several large cities of Massachusetts, abandoned the use of the rod in their schools several years ago. Teach- ers and Superintendents alike in those cities, bear testimony to the wis- dom of such a course.
The efficacy of school government must depend in a great measure on the manner in which teachers exercise their authority. It should be the endeavor of every teacher to convince pupils that she is their friend, that his only aim is their improvement and their good. He should be firm and resolute, but kind and considerate. Prompt and implicit obe- dience should be insisted upon, and a strict observance of all rules and precepts. It has been aptly said that good order implies impression rather than repression. Let school government be so conducted as to recognize the peculiar natures, wants and dispositions of scholars, and the problem of order is solved.
MORALS AND MANNERS.
The subject of the morals and manners of our children, is one that demands the thoughtful and careful consideration of all teachers and parents. Many persons already hesitate about sending their children to the public schools, lest they may acquire habits and vices that no home influence can counteract. Recesses have been abandoned in several large cities for reasons urged, the most cogent of which is the spread of vice and the contamination incident to the play-ground. The ene-
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mies of the public school system are attacking it upon this ground; and it is an indisputable fact, and a deplorable one, that it is a very vulner- able point. .
My attention has been frequently called to the rudeness and ill-bred manners of many children upon our streets, in places of public amuse- ment, upon the play-ground, and, I am sorry to say, in the very school- room. It is no unusual occurrence in passing a group of boys upon the street, to hear the obscene jest, the vulgar slang, or the vile oath freely bandied back and forth.
A great responsibility, therefore, rests upon those to whom the train- ing of our children is entrusted. But teachers cannot bear the burden alone. It must be shared by parents and those to whom their religious instruction is assigned.
Our schools vary greatly in respect to the bearing and deportment of the pupils in them. The question naturally arises, to what is this due? Location might be pleaded, were it true that in schools lying in the worst neighborhoods, wrongs against morality and decency were most prevalent. I have not always found this to be the case, although neigh - borhood has its effect.
It is within the power of teachers to a great extent to mould their children at their will; and if they do not accomplish good results, with them must lie the blame.
In the school-room, on the school-ground, the pupils are under the immediate supervision and control of the teacher, and there, at least, disrespect to elders, rude and overbearing treatment of each other, should not be observed. Obscenity, profanity and vicious habits in a pupil, is good cause for expulsion and will be so interpreted. By precept and example, teachers should daily strive to implant in the minds of their scholars principles of rectitude, a sense of duty and of moral obligation, teaching them to shun lying, deceit, a desire to steal, cruelty to animals, unkind ness to each other, laziness, procrastination, arrogance and self-conceit, and all things that tend to debase or lower.
When we send out from our schools children filled with a love of jus- tice, truthfulness, honesty, benevolence, obedience, fidelity to every trust, and a high sense of patriotism, we have accomplished a result of greater importance than simple intellectual development, and of greater good to them and to society.
INSTRUCTION.
The instruction on the part of a greater portion of the teachers, has been earnest and ably conducted. There has been but slight variation in the course of study from that of the preceding year. Changes, how- ever, will be made in the details of the school work when occasion de- mands. In reviewing what has been done in our schools the past few years, there is just cause for gratification ; but much still remains to be accomplished, which will require time, patience and laborious, thought- ful study.
READING.
Your Superintendent has heard reading by nearly every class in the schools, and has tested the work in different ways. Most of the teach - ers have excellent ideas of the best methods of instructing in reading, and handle their classes with skill, productive of good results. This is especially true of the Primary grades. The reading of the Grammar schools, as a rule; does not exhibit that progress that we would expect from the proficiency attained in the lower grades. A loss in natural -
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ness of expression and distinctness of utterance is noticeable, nor does there seem evinced that clear comprehension of the thought in- volved, without which reading is a mere mechanical expression of sound.
Teachers should be ever mindful that good reading means good oral expression, and an intelligent comprehension of each individual idea, and its relation to the other ideas involved-that pupils should be drill- ed in silent as well as oral reading. Silent reading is that employed almost entirely in after-life, and is therefore of the utmost importance.
I would suggest that, in connection with the reading exercises, the attention of the pupils be directed to suitable books for home reading. Let lists of books be prepared adapted to the acquirements of pupils in the different grades. These lists are to be approved by the Superin- tendent and Board. Books from the lists should be assigned at stated intervals to the class, who should be encouraged in any way to read them. After the -lapse of sufficient time for a thorough perusal on the part of the pupils of the books assigned-teachers to ascertain how many had been able to procure and read them-discuss the works with the class, and by careful, pointed questions learn to what extent the readers had profited. By this plau pupils may be made acquainted with the best literature, be instructed how to read for the greatest profit, their taste for good reading cultivated, and the pernicious effects of this educational trash that is corrupting the minds of our youth of to-day, in a great measure counteracted.
LANGUAGE.
In language, one of the most essential branches, good work is being done. Beginning with the construction of the simplest sentences in the Primary rooms, the study is systematically carried on until the fourth grade Grammar room is reached. The pupil then begins the use of Swinton's Language Primer. New Language Lessons are begun in Number Three and finished in Number Four grade. Technical gram- mar is left to the last year in the Grammar schools, its proper sphere, if it has one below the High school, which I seriously doubt.
The aim of instruction in this branch should be a cultivation in the pupil of the art of expressing themselves in correct, forcible and idiomatic English. All exercises should be a means to this end. That much is being accomplished in the study of language in the schools, is shown by the character of the written exercises and the good taste and correctness displayed by the pupils in oral expression.
ARITHMETIC.
A change in Arithmetics has been made the past year. A text-book constructed to meet the demands of modern methods of instruction, essentially practical in its make-up, and unburdened with useless mat- ter, has been adopted. With the new book a greater interest has been given to the instruction in this branch, which cannot fail to be pro- ductive of good results. The importance of the study of arithmetic is second to none. The first few years of the pupil's school life are to be given to the study of numbers. By constant drill, repetition after rep- etition, he is to become thoroughly versed in all the simple combina- tions, and be able to apply them to practical examples. He is to learn early the use of the slate and pencil in expressing arithmetical opera- tions. As he advances, the power of memory, observation, imagina- tion, invention and reason are to be developed and disciplined. Arriv- ing at fractional and compound numbers, the same methods of instruc-
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tion are to be employed as in the integral. The units of weight, time and measure are to be brought into the presence of pupils and put into actual use by them in finding the data for their problems.
Such has been the general plan pursued in teaching this study in the schools. A large amount and great variety of concrete work is given ; rote work is fast disappearing. It yet remains for your Board to equip the schools with such necessary apparatus as will complete the plan of instruction and render the efforts of the teachers of the highest good.
PENMANSHIP.
The same general criticism can be made as to the instruction in pen- manship in the schools as was made in relation to reading. The hand- writing of the pupils in the Grammar grades does not meet the expec- tions that their proficiency in the lower grades would warrant. The slate pencil is placed in the child's hand the first day of school life. Be- fore he leaves the Primary grade, he writes a fair round hand with the lead pencil. Upon entering the Grammar schools, he takes pen and ink, and by the time that he has completed the second year, a clear, legible hand should be acquired. After the ability is once gained, the habit of constantly doing good work must supplement it, or deteiora- tion may be expected. Let the pupils be held daily to a strict account for the neat and legible appearance of all their written exercises, and give this branch due weight in respect to promotion, and better results may be expected.
GEOGRAPHY.
Oral instruction is given in this branch, in the Primary grade. The form and size of the earth; the divisions of its surface into land and water; distance, direction, position ; the cardinal points of the horizon, and a variety of elementary knowledge, is presented by the teachers in familiar talks with their pupils. A text-bock is taken in the Fourth Grade Grammar, and its use continued for four years.
The methods of instruction in greography are the least satisfactory of any in the schools. Rote work is the characteristic. The question and answer method is followed almost entirely in the treatment of every subject. Scholars' minds are burdened each day with a mass of facts to be as soon forgotten. Topics are not treated systematically and with profit. Your Superintendent has found pupil after pupil floundering and stumbling through the text, attempting to give the words of the books without the faintest comprehension of the terms that they were using or the object for which the lessons were assigned. Map-drawing is an unknown quantity. These are plain truths, but truths that cannot be ignored or palliated. Teachers are not wholly to blame for this state of things. Several causes may be ascribed. First: map-drawing has not been introduced, without which the study of geography is almost a farce. Second: the text-books in use are not constructed after a model to best supplement the efforts of the teachers. The Higher Geography is burdened with a mass of non-essential matter, and in plan and construction is not fitted to the work of the preceding book. Thirdly: the schools are utterly destitute of suitable maps and globes with which to illustrate and fasten the topics discussed. This last and important need should be supplied at once, and if neces- sary by special appropriation.
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HISTORY.
The study of History is now confined to the highest Grammar grade. Profitable work might be done in an elementary way in the second grade. The principal events in the different periods of our country's history, could there be presented to pupils through geographies, biogra- phies and elementary histories, and talks with the class by the teachers.
Geography and history are intimately connected, and, as far as prac- ticable, instruction in them should go hand in hand. The study of his- tory should be by topics. These should be assigned the class, and each pupil in recitation should give all that he knows of the topic assigned him, without being questioned by the teacher. After the pupil has given all that he knows, and in good language, questions should then be put to correct errors and call attention to omissions. Maps should be constructed of the place in which the principal historical events occurred. These maps should be drawn and used in recitations. Re- view schemes of the principal battles, etc., should be placed upon the blackboard. These reviews should be frequent. A course of reading should be mapped out, and scholars directed to the sources of informa- tion relating to the study. It is to be hoped that an increased interest may be awakened in this branch, and a fuller and more comprehensive knowledge be acquired than heretofore.
EXAMINATIONS AND PROMOTIONS.
The committee acted favorably on the suggestion that all promotions in the schools, above the second-grade Primary, be based upon exami- nations and the daily recitations of the year.
One oral examination is given by the teacher in mid-term week; one written examination, from printed questions, is given by the Superin- tendent at the close of each term. These, with the daily recitations of the pupils for the year, determine promotions. An average in all studies of 70 per cent. must be attained, to entitle a pupil to be promot- ed. Special examinations may be accorded pupils, when occasion de- mands. A standing must be reached of 75 per cent. in such cases. The papers of the pupils in the written examinations are corrected by the teachers, and placed on file in the Superintendent's office for inspec- tion and approval. This regulation has been in effect one term, and has already produced good results. The responsibility rests with the teachers whether it shall work the object for which it is intended. Iin - partial, uniform, accurate ranking must be done by each and every teacher, that no injustice be wrought upon the scholars, and no good ground given to parents for complaint.
HIGH SCHOOL.
The High School is the outgrowth of our public school system, and its success must depend in a great measure on the amount and quality of the work done in the lower grades. The progress of the class enter- ing the High School is retarded, when any amount of preparatory work is necessary which should have been done in the graded schools.
The crowded condition of our High School furnishes us food for reflection. A careful comparison made by your principal at the begin- ning of the fall term, with the High Schools of a number of neigh bor- ing towns and cities, seems to prove that its growth and condition is abnormal.
Eighty-three passed the required examinations of last June, and were admitted. This was a gain of ten'on the class of '81, and the class of
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781 was the largest known in the history of the school. This gain call- not be accounted for by increase of school population; for the number of children in the town between the ages of five and fifteen, as reported by the assessors for the year 1882, was 109 less than in the year 1881. That this constant increase is due to the fact that the quality of the work done in the lower schools at the present time, in comparison withi that done in the High School, is so superior as to send scholars there several years younger than formerly, and equally well fitted to meet its requirements, is scarcely to be admitted. To grant this, would be to acknowledge that the High School had failed to advance with the other schools. An examination of the course of study and the number of cases reported of pupils in the two lower classes in the High School who have been unable to perform the required duties and maintain the standing in their respective classes, seems to reveal other causes. Hereto- fore, admissions to the High School have been by a single examination held in June of each year. A single examination is not a fair test of the ability or knowledge of any scholar. A change in the method of .admission was proposed to your Board last fall, and accepted by them. "The single examination is virtually abolished, and the work done the last year in the Grammar grade is to be the test. An average stand of 70 per cent. for the whole year based upon three things, namely: one oral examination given each term by the teachers, one written each term by the Superintendent and the daily averages, is to be attained to secure promotion. It is to be hoped that the mistakes in admitting scholars to the High School will be fewer and the results more satis- factory.
Notwithstanding the increased accommodations furnished by the en- largement of the school building, if the next class of candidates is as large as the two previous years the seating capacity will be insufficient without throwing one recitation room into the main hall.
Most excellent instruction characterizes the school; efficiency and thoroughness mark each department. The instructors are scholarly and enthusiastic, and to their fidelity to duty is due in great measure the progressive work of the school. One resignation has occurred in the year. Miss Anna M. Bancroft, a lady of culture, a teacher of rare ability and enthusiasm, withdrew, and Miss Alice T. Hall, a graduate of Wellesley college, was chosen to fill the vacancy.
The average attendance for the whole year has been 176, and for the fall term 193. Each teacher now has an average of 48 pupils to instruct. Teachers in a high school cannot do themselves or their pu- pils justice with such large classes. The amount of preparatory work that devolves upon the teachers in this department is necessarily greater than in lower grades, and the extra out-of-school work that our high school teachers are compelled to do is detrimental alike to the highest good of pupils and instructors, and calls for relief. It may be well to state here that the average number of pupils to each teacher in high schools throughout the'state is thirty. In accordance with a vote of the Board, which went into effect Jan. 2, 1882, pupils in the High School are required to maintain a general average in all studies of 60 per cent., and in each study at least 50 per cent. Failing in this, they are not to be promoted. The standard is sufficiently low, and any pupil who does not reach it should be unhesitatingly dropped.
The graduating exercises were similar to those of the preceding year. The class were assigned no parts, but continued in their regular studies until the last day of the term. The following programine was carried -out :
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1. PIANO VOLUNTARY.
MISS JENNIE S. TUFTS.
2. CHORUS BY THE SCHOOL. High School March. ... Geo. Veazie, Jr. MISS TUFTS, ACCOMPANIST.
3. STATISTICS OF THE GRADUATING CLASS.
REV. J. T. CANAVAN.
4. SONG - " O Loving Heart Trust on," ..... Gottschalk
WM. WILLIS CLARK.
5. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS,
GEO. W. JOHNSON, CHAIRMAN SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
6. ADDRESS - GOV. JOHN D. LONG.
7. SONG -Proverbs b. A Bird in Hand,
a. When Poverty Knocks,
......... Roeckel
WM. WILLIS CLARK.
8. PRESENTATION OF DIPLOMAS.
9. CHORUS BY SCHOOL - " Far Away the Camp Fires Burn" .. Mercadante
COURSES: (E.) ENGLISH; (F.) FRENCH; (L.) LATIN; (C.) CLASSICAL.
FOUR YEARS.
Names. Courses.
Names.
Courses.
Thomas Françis Conniff.
E.
F.
Alice Minnie Aylward,
E. F. L.
Timothy James Dempsey,
E. C. t Sarah Priscilla Chapin, E. F.
Charles Henry Fisher,
E. F. Ella Thayer Chilson,
E. I.
Richard Augustine Gilfoyle,
E. F. L. #
Mary Frances De Sautell,
E. F. L.
William Elijah Knights,
E. F.
Jennie Louise Devine,
E. L.
Charles Henry Morrill,
C.
Susan Geneva Gallagher,
E. F. L.
Edmund Francis Murphy,
E. Mary Anna Hannan,
E. F. L.
Jerry Thomas Murphy,
E.
F. Lillian Jennette Haven,
E. F.
Frank Clifford Phillips, Percival Shea, E.
E. F. Annie Elizabeth Heath, E. F.
E. F.
John Vincent Sweeney,
E. C.
Catherine Ellen O'Callaghan,
E. F. L.
Irving Warren Sweet,
E. Mary Olivia Sumner,
E. F. L. f
Henry Johnson Wood,
C. Jennie Sophia Tufts, Nellie Augusta Warfield, E.
L.
Anna Augusta Woodbury, E. F.
TWO YEARS.
Names.
Courses. Names.
Courses.
Michael James Ahern,
C. t Harry Willard Haven,
E. L.
William Henry Aylward,
C. ± Harry Granville Krum,
E.
Ernest Lincoln Cook,
E. Arthur Whitmore Vant,
C.
Abbie Loumira Flagg, E.
# Partial Course.
Partial means a change of course, and hence incomplete.
The subject of High School graduations has received much attention, and been the theme of discussion for several years past. A few towns and cities have taken the "new departure." Your Superintendent has failed to become a convert to the theory.
Some needed improvements have been made in the laboratory, and the facilities for better work increased. Sufficient physical and chem- ical apparatus is still wanting, and if possible should be supplied. The library of suitable reference-books is small, and does not meet the re- quirements. An opportunity is here presented for some public-spirited
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