USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Palmer > Town Annual Report of the Officers of the Town of Palmer, Massachusetts 1918 > Part 5
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COST
The one uncontrollable feature of all businesses, public or private, during the past year has been cost of operation. The increases in the price of materials and labor have been the heaviest in many years, if not the heaviest in all years. Schools have not escaped.
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On nearly every account, an increased expenditure is noted. The largest are for teachers' salaries and fuel.
The quality of coal and the severity of the past winter, together with the increased cost per ton, has made the coal cost jump considerably.
The salary increase is due to three factors: (1) Regu- lar automatic increase : (?) small additional increase ; (3) payment of salaries of four additional teachers. The salaries paid teachers, in comparison with those paid in other lines of work, are still low. If the schools have such a potent in- fluence in shaping and moulding the lives of our young people, if the way they are shaped and moulded has such an intimate affect upon the nature of our democracy- both of which suppositions the public admit in their com- mendatory or condemnatory criticisms-, surely a recom- pense commensurate with the obligations should be given.
The actual total increased expenditures on each ac- count this year over last are :- General Expenses, $400.94; Teachers' Salaries, $3,531.27; Textbooks and Supplies, $1,044.34 ; Transportation, $322.46 ; Janitors' Services, $585 .- 15; Fuel and Light. $1,782.76; Maintenance of Buildings and Grounds, $416.18; Rent, $810.00; Repairs, $568.56; Music, Manual Training, and Drawing, -$129.30; Com- mercial, $302.93; Furniture and Furnishings, -$180.04; Other Expenses, $631.89.
The total cost for the fiscal year just elapsed was $65,210.69 ; the average membership, 1,868.41; the cost per pupil in average membership, $34.90. For the previous fiscal year, the corresponding figures are :- Total cost, $56 .- 505.26 ; average membership, 1,291.11 ; cost per pupil, $31.53. The increased cost per pupil was $3.32. This is the largest increase, by far, during the incumbency of the present superintendent.
"_" denotes decrease.
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EXTENSION WORK
The same activities have been carried on this year- Evening Schools, and Boys' and Girls' Club Work.
Evening Schools
The evening school work this past
year was conducted on the small- est scale since it was instituted. The major part of this work has been with illiterate minors, who, by law, are com- pelled to attend. If twenty educational certificates are issued during a year to illiterates, night schools must be maintained. The number of such minors has been lessen- ing each year since the European War began. At that time, there were approximately two hundred fifty illiterate minors. A recent investigation has revealed the presence of only twelve in the local mills. The number is too small to attempt to provide for.
Two classes were run last year-one for illiterates and one for citizenship applicants. The first began November 13, 1917, and ran until January 24, 1918, a period of eighteen sessions, being brought to an abrupt stop by the closing be- cause of a coal shortage. The enrollment was 29; average membership, 24.1; average attendance, 22.1; percentage of attendance, 91.7 per cent. The work done was good and the pupils were excellent in spirit, endeavor, and per- formance.
An experiment was attempted in the citizenship class. Instead of meeting in the school on school nights, the class met Sunday afternoons in a hall. Here there was more freedom, less of the schoolroom restraint, and none of that feeling many have when they occupy pupils' desks-a feel- ing of being "a kid" in their own and everybody's eyes. The experiment seemed successful. Seventeen enrolled and eight were successful in securing their final papers. Of those who tried, all were accepted. The class held twenty sessions only.
Under "Americanization," this subject will be further elaborated.
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Boys' and Girls' Clubs This past summer was our third in this kind of work. The success that has crowned our efforts has been ex- ceptional. The first attempt brought us the second prize in the so-called Large Town Contest; the second, first prize. This means that Palmer's work, in competition with that of all towns in Massachusetts of seven thousand five hundred or more in population, was so rated. This year our work was the best that we have done. Our state rating will depend upon its comparison, not with our previous efforts, but with that of other towns. Competition, because of the added impetus of war conditions, was very keen.
A full comprehension of the work can best be secured from these short reports :
Report of Garden Supervisor
"During the season of 1918 the School Garden project in town was a decided success. About two hundred and twenty children participated in the work, and raised about three thousand dollars' worth of produce. Of those who be- gan, two hundred and ten finished. The land for this purpose was furnished gratis by the mill corporations in Three Rivers and Thorndike, while in Bondsville and Pal- mer the projects were worked out on private plots, belong- ing mostly to parents of the individual workers. There were about fifty such plots in these villages. In Three Rivers and Thorndike, there were also about fifty school garden plots on land belonging to private individuals. In Three Rivers about one and one-third acres were donated by the company, which was divided into eighty-seven plots, and distributed among one hundred seventy young people. This surplus of gardeners was brought about because of the scarcity of land, which necessitated the distribution of one plot only to all applicants from a single family. This system created some dissatisfaction, but the results were very good. Many who were indifferent were eliminated in this manner. On the other hand over fifty. worthy appli- cants were rejected because of scarcity of land. About thirty
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additional plots were cultivated outside corporation grants.
"In Thorndike the mill corporation furnished about one-third of an acre, which was divided into seventeen plots. There were twenty or more other plots on private land in different parts of the village. About twenty applicants were rejected because of scarcity of land. In Bondsville no land was given, but there were, nevertheless, over twenty youth- ful gardeners. In Palmer there were between twenty and thirty plots of sizes varying from one hundred to five thousand square feet. These were all on private land, as no land was donated here.
"Besides indulging in garden activities, many boys and girls engaged in the pig raising project. About twenty pigs were raised. At present, the combined weight of these is between three and four thousand pounds. This represents a total value, at the present price of pork, of approximately one thousand dollars."
Report of Work Done in Canning
"The work done in canning this past summer by the girls of the Town of Palmer was the most extensive yet ac- complished.
"In addition to the fine canning center furnished by the Palmer Mill in Pickering Hall, Three Rivers, equipment was placed in the schools at Palmer, Thorndike, and Bonds- ville, thus establishing in each village a center.
"The total number of quarts canned was 6,289. The bulk of this canning was done in Three Rivers under the immediate direction of Miss Lizzie Fletcher.
"The complete statistics are as follows :- Total en- rollment of girls at beginning of season, 148; total enroll- ment at end of season, 150 ; number who enrolled and did no canning, 0 ; number who canned 6 or more quarts, 136 ; num- ber who canned 24 or more quarts, 108 ; number who canned 100 or more quarts, 12; total number of quarts canned, 6,189 ; total number of quarts canned in centers, 4,654; total number canned at home, 2,135.
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"The value of the articles canned, figured at retail prices, is not less than $3,500."
Cost of Work
The financial statement is :
RECEIPTS
Appropriated by Town of Palmer, $300.00
Contributed by Hampden County Improvement League,
362.14
Total,
$662.14
EXPENDITURES
J. E. Hurley, Garden Supervisor,
$200.00
Lucy Marcille, Canning Supervisor,
100.00
Miss Price and Miss Knowlton, 281/2 days,
136.00
Mr. Trask and Mr. Boyd, 14 days,
80.00
Stenographers, 24 days,
30.00
Automobile-1170 miles at 7 cents,
81.90
Meals and Carfare,
26.24
Demonstration Materials,
4.00
Communication-Telephone and Postage, Total,
4.00
$662.14
A growing work of this importance ought to have a larger appropriation. The amount last year was too small and, had it not been for a union of effort with the adult work, the possibilities would have been greatly curtailed.
If the Town is to finance both adult and minor activi- ties, she should appropriate at least $500. With a continu- ance of the union, the minor work can be properly carried on for $350 ; without, for $400.
When it is known that the minors' activities netted a cash value of $7,500, a low evaluation, and the adults' work $17,000, with a town expenditure of only $300, there should be no question as to the fairness of the request for an in- creased appropriation. This is a purely business appeal for an increase. A more abstract, yet, in reality, a better rea- son for financing this work for minors is the educational and moral worth of such effort.
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COMMERCIAL DEPARTMENT
Notwithstanding constant changes in the teaching per- sonnel of this department, the general efficiency and policy have continued intact. This past summer a very valuable man, Mr. Eastman, left us for a better proposition. His work was excellent, and his "horse-sense" and human un- derstanding were valuable assets for the department. The department owes him a great deal.
The wisdom of placing Miss MacIntire at the head, of making Miss Murphy first assistant, and of adding Miss Mahoney to the force has more than been vindicated. The combination is one of strength.
Last June twenty-one pupils were graduated and nearly every one secured a position on or before graduation.
About eighty of the graduates are now working and $50,000 per year is an extremely low estimation of their combined salaries.
PORTABLE SCHOOLS
At the last town meeting, upon the recommendation of a special committee, the sum of $6,000 was appropriated and placed in your hands for the purchase of two portable schoolhouses. Two buildings were bought-a two-room building, which was located upon the grounds of the high school, and a one-room building, which was located upon the grounds of the grammar school at Three Rivers. These buildings are housing one hundred twenty pupils.
The special appropriation was insufficient to buy and equip these buildings and, therefore, the lack was made good out of regular school appropriations.
The financial report is :
SPECIAL ACCOUNT
Special Appropriation,
$6,000.00
Expenditures :
1 Two-Room Portable Schoolhouse, $3,200.00
1 One-Room Portable Schoolhouse, 1,860.00
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3 Slate Blackboards and Installation,
163.25
120 Movable Chairs,
774.00
5,997.25
Balance,
$2.75
FROM SCHOOL ACCOUNTS
Curtains,
$33.90
Oiling Floors,
18.40
Fire Extinguishers,
27.58
Book Racks,
30.00
Clocks,
18.55
Teachers' Desks and Chairs,
95.10
Miscellaneous,
6.45
* $229.98
* Additional expenses for lighting, banking, and board walks will make this total about $400.
SCHOOL ACCOMMODATIONS
The buying of portable buildings has not solved the housing problem of school children. Palmer is still faced with the necessity of making so-called permanent additions to its school buildings. The portable is simply a make- shift proposition-the best make-shift I know of, but still a make-shift.
Unless Palmer has a sudden set-back in industrial con- ditions, she is destined to enjoy a gradual, healthy growth in population. One section of the town is already in this stage-the Wire Mill. Such growth calls for increased school capacity. In fact, a town that does not show proper and willing disposition to not only meet, but anticipate, such demands will not grow, for industries must have edu- cational co-operation, else they seek other locations. One of the first inquiries of prospective residents of a town or city is what the attitude of the town towards its school is- liberal or penurious.
The present financial and business conditions are not strongly favorable to building at the present. This is fully realized. Yet, there is one fact that must be borne in mind
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and that is this-the school housing problem has not been solved by buying portables.
If anyone thinks so, here are a few figures that are hard to account for :- Palmer Grammar School: Enroll- ment. 609; enrollment per teacher, 43.5. Three Rivers Grammar School: Enrollment, 469 ; enrollment per teacher, 36.1. Thorndike Grammar School: Enrollment, 319; en- rollment per teacher, 39.9. Bondsville Grammar School : Enrollment, 313; enrollment per teacher, 39.1. Wire Mill School : Enrollment, 71; enrollment per teacher, 35.5. In digesting these figures, one needs to know a few additional intimate factors entering into an intelligent appreciation of them. They are :- (1) The Palmer Grammar School is now carrying a heavy enrollment per teacher, even with the opening of two new rooms this past fall. She is now tres- passing upon the good nature of the Palmer High School to the extent of one room-and the latter can ill afford to ex- tend this generosity. She cannot accommodate many more pupils without further enlargements of some kind.
(2) The Three Rivers Grammar School has not a heavy enrollment per room. This is due to the fact that, in the last three or four grades, the numbers are proportionately smaller, as so many leave to go to work. This is an eight- room building-nine counting the portable ; consequently, four rooms are being housed in Pickering Hall. Our use of these four rooms year after year is little less than "nerve," inasmuch as the association owning this building is cramped and curtailed in its work by such occupation. It is simply by their sufferance that such encroachment is al- lowed. In brief, there are nine rooms belonging to the town when thirteen are needed.
(3) The Thorndike Grammar School is now used al- most to capacity limit without crowding. It will be sufficient until the number of pupils is increased.
(+) The Bondsville Grammar School has practically the same confronting conditions as Thorndike.
(3) The Wire Mill School is simply a two-room district
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school type of building, lacking, as such buildings do, many of the essential conveniences. It cannot care for many more pupils. The steady growth of this section of the town de- mands attention.
ENFORCED CLOSINGS
The even tenor of the usual school year has been dis- turbed regularly the past three years. First, there was a loss of some three weeks because of infantile paralysis; second, four to six weeks because of coal shortage; third, five to six weeks because of influenza.
Each cause was sufficiently strong for such closing. There is not, and should never be, any question of the right of precedence of life over education. The schools are probably as careful of the lives entrusted to their care five hours a day as they know how to be. Every precaution in the matter of prevention of disease is employed-medical inspection, disinfection, cleanliness, exclusion from school, etc.
While such closing is acknowledged as being the ab- solutely right thing to be done in case of an epidemic, there is, nevertheless, a break in the school life of many that is pernicious. This is more likely to affect pupils of high school age. They are easily thrown off from their balance and have not the re-adjustive powers of adults. The war and broken school year have had a deleterious influence on the usual power of stability-in adolescence never too strong-of many of the older pupils. This is simply one of the "to-be-expected" obstacles that lie in life's pathway. To make good in spite of obstacles is what makes life really worth-while. This is merely an acknowledgement of, and not a complaint because of, a condition.
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TRANSPORTATION
No problem is, in many ways, more perplexing in its proper solution than that of transportation. This state- ment is true of all towns, but especially so of ours, be- cause of the familiar fact that enters into many of the town questions for solution-geography. The cost per pupil for the entire enrollment is now about $2.50.
Children living at unreasonable walking distances must be conveyed to school. The school has no option about doing this under such conditions. The cost of transportation has been increased twice during the past year and, if certain has been increased twice during the past year and, if certain indications become realities, the legal rate of fare now in existence for school children-one-half fare-will soon be raised to full fare. This, if it happens, will add again sub- stantially to the transportation cost.
In brief, our transportation problem is this :- We transport on the cars about 189 pupils per day. With the zone system, it requires 1,306 tickets to do this at a cost of 11/4 cents per ticket, or a total cost of $16.321/2 per day. Taking 190 days as an average school year, it will cost this year $3,101.75 for car tickets.
Under the old rate of fares, it would cost $9.45 per day, or $6.811/2 less than at present. The total difference, be- cause of trolley fare change, is $1,305.30 per year.
The Mason District transportation costs $1,000; the Shaw District, $570. Another section of the town needs, or seems to need, during the winter months some provision for transportation, which will cost about $200.
The total amount necessary for this is nearly $5,000, or almost 1% of the total appropriation for school expen- ditures.
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PART II WAR EFFECTS GENERAL CONDITIONS
The entire world has been passing through a critical period for the past few years, a period alarmingly critical for our people especially during the year now ending. Every person, every organization-industrial, commercial, educa- tional, social, or civic-has been thrown from a formerly occupied basis of fairly regular occupation. Even though now war has ceased, and every effort will be put forth to re- assume peace-time conditions, absolute certainty seems to indicate that no organization will ever revert in its entirety to its former plan of operation. New conditions-physical, social, civic, mental-have been created and they will re- quire new treatment. Whether we will or not, changes will be made in every line of human activity. We can no more effectively resist their onrush than could the old woman „of story brush out from her cottage with her broom the Atlantic Ocean.
Pessimists look forward to these attempts upon the part of mankind to regain an equilibrium with strange and hopeless expectations ; optimists, with absolute faith in the recuperative and re-adjustive powers with which man has been indued. The real optimist recognizes true conditions and the rebellant forces underlying them. He does not "live in a fool's paradise." Yet, he knows that man has overcome troubles and obstacles in the past just as hard, when due consideration is given their relation to the time of their occurrence.
Education is to be re-acted upon just as surely as any endeavor is. New problems will be forced upon the schools. Thoughts and ideas of right that need to become transfused throughout the future citizenry ; thoughts and ideas that need counter-active forces to combat them must be grappled with-the first to be implanted, the second to be uprooted.
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THE WORTH OF THE SCHOOL
The prime business of the American school is to train for good citizenship. In order to maintain a democracy, good citizenship is an indispensability. Good citizenship requires as a prerequisite good intelligence, sound judg- ment, strong moral sense, firm patriotism, broad vision, and high ideals. The creating, the nurturing, and the bringing to fruition of these qualities is the task of the school. She has performed this function for years quietly, silently, faithfully. It always requires a crisis to bring "the light" out from "under the bushel." The late war has shown America what she owes her schools.
Some Acknowledgements
Guy Stanton Ford. Director, Division of Civic and Educational Publication, said :- "What America is to-day she owes to her public schools. What she means to her people and to the world in which she has become a greater force, is the product of the schoolroom. The one clear note that our schools have sounded is service. They have never taught, and never can teach in a great democracy, that private gain and individual excellence are the true measure of either education or success. The wel- fare of all has been the supreme lesson of popular education."
United States Commissioner of Education Claxton ad- dressed teachers as follows :- "Yours is the most wonderful opportunity in the world. You are asked to lead in the supreme struggle democracy is making for its life. You are asked to serve in that great army behind the lines with- out which success for those on the firing line will be im- possible or of no avail.
"Your special opportunity is to serve in the work you are in. The genuinely patriotic teacher need not look far afield for war work to do; her task lies ready to her hand. There is no group in our population so strategically situated for direct patriotic service as the teachers. She (the teacher)
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is not only keeping alight the torch of civilization by teach- ing the citizen of to-morrow ; she has it within her power to mobilize the mind and spirit of America for the war tasks that confront us, thereby rendering an immediate military service surpassed in magnitude only by that of those who fight for us on our ships and in the front line trenches.
"There are for us now just two tasks of supreme im- portance: To win the war for freedom, democracy, and peace, and to fit ourselves and our children for life and citizenship in the new era which the war is bringing in. The teacher serves in both."
Food Administrator Hoover sent this message :- "For more than a year the Food Administration has been in- creasingly indebted to the schools of America. Teachers, pupils, and administrative officers have been most cordial in their support of all that has been undertaken to provide 100d for those who have a right to expect it of us.
"There may be those who have doubts as to what their duty in this crisis is, but the teachers cannot be of them. They are the appointed leaders of the Nation's great re- serve'; if this force fails, the hope for a victorious peace will be in vain. Let them thank themselves that they find them- selves in a place so honorable and so commanding."
Finally, in true realization of what the American school has meant to the country, President Wilson sent this message :
"To School Teachers of the United States :
"It is quite unnecessary, I am sure, for me to urge a continuance of the service you and your pupils have ren- dered to the Nation and to the great cause for which America is at war. Whatever the Nation's call has been, the response of the schools has been immediate and en- thusiastic. The Nation and the Government agencies know and appreciate your loyalty and devotion and are grateful for your unfailing support in every war service.
"The schools and colleges of America are justified by their works when the youth of our land and the homes from
which they come are united in unselfish devotion and un- stinted sacrifice for the cause and the country we hold dear. The spirit of American democracy is a heritage cherished and transmitted by public education. All that America has meant to us and to the world in the past it must mean with greater and more disinterested devotion in the future. The civic sense that has made each home and child part of a community, part of a state, part of a Nation, is to-day deepened by this war and its issues. It affects the fate of the many lands and peoples whose blood is in our veins, and whose happier future will be part of the triumph of the principles for which we fight.
"The doors of the schools have opened to a new genera- tion of children. Your responsibilities, great in the past and greatly met, are still greater to-day."
Some Contributions Briefly summarized, the late war has shown that the American school system was responsible in considerable part, to say the least, for these assets of America, every one of which had a direct, important, and indispensable bearing upon its final outcome :- (1) An intelligent people, able to grasp the significance of German aims, capable of following wise leadership-not blindly, but wisely-, big enough to see the moral values involved and to make them their cause of action ; (2) a patriotic people, one fully sensing home and country ties, willing to sacrifice the former for the latter when their nation championed the cause of right; (3) a well-disciplined people, ready to submerge self for the bene- fit of all, not from fear or force, but from understanding; (4) a generous people, eager to give comfort, cheer, money, service, or life itself in such a cause; (3) an ingenious and adaptive people, one who inet every obstacle, foreseen or unforeseen, with methods and means for surmounting the same; (6) an energetic and accomplishing people, whose skill, dash, energy, and resourcefulness surprised the world in rapidity of accomplishment; (?) a well-balanced and good-spirited people, whose cheerfulness always proved a
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