USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Duxbury > Town annual report for the town of Duxbury for the year ending 1920-1925 > Part 39
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"No structural changes shall be made in the original building."
"Any addition to the original building shall be in the rear of the back line of said building or said line pro- longed.
"The same order of architecture shall be carried out in any addition as in the original building."
Even without these limitations no remodeling can make this building into a satisfactoy plant to house a modern high-school offering.
The Village Grammar School
This building is the most modern of the group. It is a one-story, two-room wooden building of Type E con- struction.
The site is centrally located, but too small for a modern grammar school.
The rooms are lighted by windows on the side and rear instead of from the left side. The glass area of the win- dows on the left side does not give the required ratio of one-fifth to one-fourth of the floor space. The orientation is not desirable, with the light coming from the west and south in one room and west and north in the other.
The heating and ventilating plants are, fairly satisfac- tory. The toilets are adequate in number, but are in the basement and unventilated.
The defects, however, are such as cannot be overcome. The building lacks rooms for the needs of grammar-grade pupils; has no gymnasium, work shops, nor domestic arts laboratory, and none of the facilities for instruction in any subjects beyond the conventional three R's. and
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lastly, from the point of view of safety, the entrance opens directly onto a narrow and much-travelled main street.
Much of what has been said in detail about the high- school and the Village Grammar School buildings applies with equal force to all the other buildings of the school plant. These buildings were erected at a time when requirements that are now considered necessities were not even thought of. Every one of them is located on an inadequate site, is poorly ventilated, badly lighted, and has wretched toilet facilities. The lighting is bilateral. In many cases the pupils have to sit all day facing the light. The blackboards are between windows; there are no cloakroom facilities, no retiring room, and no room for the nurse, the physician, or the dentist. Luncheon is brought by almost every child and must be eaten in the recitation room, with no provision for a hot lunch. The toilets are in all cases outside, with all the evils of such a system. To make these buildings habitable and modern would require an outlay out of all proportion to the results.
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II
The building arrangements may fairly be charged with a very large share of the retardation in the Duxbury schools.
Table I shows the number of pupils in each of the ele- mentary grades grouped according to age. In this table a child is considered at the age of 5.5 if between 5 years, 3 months and 5 years, 9 months ; a child at the age of 6.0 if between 5 years, 9 months and 6 years, 3 months, and so on. The children of normal age for entering their grade are included between the two horizontal bars in each column. Those that are above the horizontal are under age for their grade; those that are below are over age. Overageness may be the result of late entrance or repetition. Since, however, practically all the pupils in the Duxbury elementary schools enter the first grade at the age of six, overageness in the Duxbury schools does not arise from late entrance.
Two factors are particularly significant in this table: (1) the large number of over-age pupils, and (2) the wide range in age of pupils in the same grade. Only 48.4% of the pupils are of normal age, that is, between the ages of 5 years, 3 months and 6 years, 9 months for the first grade; between the ages of 6 years, 3 months and 7 years, 9 months for the second grade, and so on. Thus, allowing a range of eighteen months for each grade less than half of the pupils in the elementary grades are of normal age for entering their grade.
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Table I-Age-Grade Distribution of the Duxbury, Massachusetts Elementary Schools*
Grades
11
Age
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
Totals
5.5
1
6.0
12
6.5
12
1
7.0
2
13
7.5
6
5
1
8.0
1
7
7
2
8.5
4
10
3
9.0
2
8
8
2
9.5
1
4
4
3
4
1
10.0
1
3
1
5
4
10.5
2
2
11
2
11.0
1
6
1
2
11.5
2
3
5
12.0
1
1
2
7
4
2
12.5
1
4
4
5
13.0
1
1
7
8
6
13.5
2
5
4
14.0
1
1
1
4
14.5
1
1
3
15.0
1
1
1
15.5
3
16.0
2
1
16.5
1
Totals
37
38
36
22
42
29
29
29
262
Under Age
2
2
5
2
2
13
Normal Age
25
29
18
14
20
8
8
15
127
Over Age
12
19
18
6
20
16
19
12
122
*Ages as of September 1, 1925.
Enrolments as of November 15, 1925.
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The following table shows the percentage of over-age pupils in the Duxbury elementary schools compared with eighty cities of the United States:
Table II-Comparison of Overageness in the Elementary Grades of Eighty Cities of the United States With That in the Duxbury, Massachusetts Elementary Grades.
Grades
80 Cities
Duxbury
1
8.6
32.5
2
15.7
50.0
3
19.4
50.0
4
25.5
27.2
5
29.0
47.6
6
27.0
57.1
7
23.7
65.5
8
16.5
41.4
The smaller percentage of over-age pupils in the upper grades of the eighty cities is due to their dropping out of school as soon as they reach the compulsory age limit of attendance, while in Duxbury this affects only the eighth grade to any great extent.
This larger amount of retardation in Duxbury is prob- ably due to several causes. The building arrangements, resulting in small schools with several grades to the teacher, can certainly be charged with no small part of this excessive retardation. Teachers with four grades cannot devote much time to individual pupils, many of whom, if given more time by the teacher, would be able to pass to the next grade.
Financially this retardation presents a serious problem. The annual per capita cost for pupils in average daily attendance in the Duxbury schools is $117.06. Every pupil who repeats a grade increases the school expendi- ture by this amount. Nearly half of the pupils of Dux- bury elementary schools will average more than one year retarded. This means that under present conditions Dux- bury is spending far more than she ought for the returns she is getting in education. This does not take into con- sideration the loss of time to the pupils.
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From an educational standpoint the present building arrangements contain inherently the necessary condi- tions to foster and propagate this overageness. An ex- amination of the age-grade table shows in Grade I, for instance, a range of from five to twelve years. Children of these widely different ages are trying to do the same kinds of work. Such a variation in ages cannot but be a handicap to the teacher. And it is open to question whether any child three or more years retarded should be given the same program of studies as the child of normal age for his grade. Yet in small schools with sev- eral grades it is difficult, because of the small numbers, to grade and group children effectively. Attention to individual differences by ordinary methods of grouping is impossible. Consequently, the individual tends to be lost sight of in the shuffle to meet the needs of the non- existent "average child." While individual instruction for every child is probably not now possible the same aims can be achieved to a large degree by careful group- ing of children whose needs are similar. This method requires larger numbers than are possible in the rural school. Whether this retardation in Duxbury elementary schools be due to a lower type of mental equipment of the retarded child, to poor attendance, or to ill health, the organization of the schools necessitated by small num- bers of children seriously handicaps both teacher and pupils.
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III
The program of the Duxbury schools is seriously affected by the continuation of the small schools.
In the following discussion it should be understood that. criticism of the teachers is not intended. This study does not include an examination of the quality of instruction. Every report from those who are familiar with the work of the teachers gives high praise to the teaching corps, who are doing faithful work under adverse conditions.
The following is the program of the South Duxbury Primary School and is used merely as typical of all the primary schools of the town.
Schedule Minutes Grade I
Grade II
Grade III
Grade IV
9.00- 9.05
5
Opening Exercises Penmanship or Drawing
9.05- 9.20 15
9.20- 9.35 15
Reading
Reading
Arithmetic
Arithmetic:
10.20-10.30
10
Numbers
Intermission
10.45-11.00
15
Arithmetic
11.00-11.15
15
·
Reading
11.15-11.30
15
Reading
11.30-11.40 10
Spelling
11.40-11.50
10
. .
Spelling
Spelling
12.00-12.30
30
Noon Intermission
12.30-12.45
15
Music
12.45- 1.00
15 Reading
.
1.00- 1.15 15
Reading
.
....
1.15- 1.25 10
Language
.
1.25- 1.35 10
Language
1.35- 1.45
10
Exercise
1.45- 1.55 10
Language
1.55- 2.10 15
Reading
2.10- 2.25 15
.
Reading
2.25- 2.40
15
Geography
2.40- 2.45
5
Optional
.
9.35- 9.50
15
·
9.50-10.05
15
10.05-10.20
15
10.30-10.45
15
11.50-12.00 10
.
.
.. . .
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During the nearly six hours that the children of the first grade are at school they have altogether 40 minutes of instruction for work purely of their own grade. Pen- manship or drawing, music, and physical training take 40 minutes more. Opening exercises occupy 5 minutes. This leaves, excluding morning recess and noon intermis- sion, three and one-half hours that the children must sit in their hard, uncomfortable seats and do nothing, for no teacher with four grades to teach can prepare satisfac- tory "busy work" for these children.
Students of child life are agreed that in these early years are laid the foundation for future satisfactory work and correct habits. No children can spend weeks and months as the Duxbury children do in these early years without learning habits of idleness that will hamper them throughout their lives.
Furthermore, this situation has a serious physical re- sult. Every mother knows that the little child is in per- petual motion during its waking hours. Curtis* found that children of from three to five years of age moved about approximately ten miles a day. Yet the children in the primary schools of Duxbury are shut up in badly- lighted, ill-ventilated rooms for nearly five hours a day, without even the excitement of a "recitation" for most of this time.
If a complete health record of these children were kept from the time they enter the first grade until they com- plete the eighth, some startling results might be found as to the evil effect of this confinement.
The above program cannot help but emphasize formal instruction in traditional subjects beyond a reasonable point. While first-grade children in graded schools are growing through a contact with literature suited to their grade, with handwork and manual training, with art, with nature study, with dramatics, with play and games, with health habits,-while education is vital and interest- ing to them - the children in the first grades of Duxbury
*Education Through Play-Page 19. Published by the Macmillan Company.
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are getting but scant drill in reading, numbers, music, and exercise. Today, with our broadened conception as to what constitutes education and with the responsibili- ties thrust on the school due to the changing character of the home, the rural school seriously hampers the de- velopment of a proper program of studies.
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IV
The present arrangement results in a lack of co- ordination between schools in matters pertaining to management and curriculum.
One of the problems of administration in systems hav- ing several schools with the same grades is the matter of coordinating the work of the different units. Even with supervisors and other means of unifying the work, the pupils of different schools frequently have an un- equal amount of training in the same subjects. How unequal the results must be in a town like Duxbury, which shares its superintendent with two other towns and with practically no contact betwen the teachers of the different schools is suggested by the following table.
Table III-The Total Number of Minutes a Week Given During the First Three Years of the Duxbury Primary Schools, Compared with the Average for the Same Subjects in the Same Grades in 49 Cities Having One Grade to a Teacher.
Schools
Reading
Arithmetic Language Spelling | Writing
Millbrook
575
275
150
150
150
Ashdod
300
300
175
150
150
South Duxbury
500
175
75
50
225
Point
450
200
100
100
225
Tarkiln
525
375
75
150
100
49 Cities*
1156
400
438
208
211
*Research Bulletin, National Education Association, Volume II-No. 2.
The children of the Ashdod School receive nearly twice as much instruction in reading in three years as do the children of the Millbrook School, and no two of the schools give the same amount of work. On the other hand, the children in the Tarkiln Primary receive more than twice as much instruction in arithemetic as do the children of the Point School. Each of the other subjects shows an equal amount of variation.
Stating this difference in another way, the following table shows how unequal is the training the children of
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these schools receive in reading, arithmetic, language, when measured in terms of years and months.
Table IV-The Amount of Time to Specified Subjects in Certain Duxbury Schools and in 49 United States Cities.
Schools
Reading
Arithmetic
Language
Ashdod
5 yr. 7 mo.
2 yr. 7 mo
2 yr. 5 mo.
Millbrook
3 yr.
3 yr.
3 yr.
Point
5 yr.
1 yr. 7 mo.
1 yr. 3 mo.
South Duxbury
4 yr. 5 mo.
2 yr.
1 yr. 7 mo.
Tarkiln
5 yr. 3 mo.
3 yr. 7 mo.
1 yr. 3 mo.
49 Cities
11 yr. 5 mo.
4 yr.
7 yr. 3 mo.
Using the number of hours a week for three years in the Millbrook School as a standard, a pupil, at the end of three years, would have had the equivalent of three years' instruction in reading at the Millbrook School, four years, five months at the South Duxbury School, five years, three months at the Tarkiln School, and eleven years, five months in one of the 49 cities.
In other words, if pupils from these five schools were grouped in a fourth grade in another Duxbury school, the Millbrook children would have had considerable less reading than the others, somewhat more arithmetic than most of the others, and considerably more language. But in no respects would any of these children be on equal terms if they entered the fourth grade in any one of the 49 cities. This deficiency can be removed by re- ducing the number of grades per teacher.
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V
The present situation prevents the introduction of a modern course of study.
The program of studies of a Duxbury third grade compared with the program in a well-graded school shows the following differences:
Table V-A Comparison in Third-Grade Programs.
Number of Minutes a Week in
Subjects
Duxbury
A Typical School
Language
50
75
Reading
150
425
Spelling
50
100
Penmanship
75
75
Arithmetic
75
250
History
50
Civics
25
Geography
50
Science
25
Hygiene
25
Physical Training
50
50
Supervised Play
100
Recess
75
100
Industrial Arts
-
-
63
Music
75
75
Miscellaneous
25
-
Total for the Week
625
1,513
Total for the Day
125
303
-
25
Drawing
-
In Duxbury the children spend five hours, ten minutes in the school room daily; in the typical city, four hours, forty minutes. The pupils of the third grade in Dux- bury have no history, civics, geography, science, hygiene, or industrial arts. Furthermore, they spend more time in the school room and receive less than half as much instruction.
The following table gives the number of minutes a week and the subjects taught in the seventh grade of the
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Duxbury grammar schools in comparison with the cur- riculum for the seventh grade in a small junior high school .*
Table VI-A Comparison in Seventh-Grade Programs
Number of Minutes a Week in
Subjects
Duxbury
A Typical Junior High School
Arithmetic
150
200
Geography
120
200
English
210
200
Spelling
75
-
Hygiene
20
80
Current Events
30
40*
Penmanship
60
40
Drawing
65
.**
Music
110
40
Physical Education
75
80
Practical Arts
-
80 ***
Total
915
960
Electives :
Drawing (2 periods)
80
Foreign Language (3-4 periods)
120-160
*Government and Citizenship.
** Elective.
*** Household Arts for Girls, Manual Arts for Boys.
Duxbury offers no facilities for practical arts below the high school. The type of drawing offered in the junior high school can be given only when proper equip- ment and room are available. Foreign languages are usually possible in small places when the schools are organized on the 6-6 plan.
*"Specimen Junior High School Programs of Study," page 23, Bulletin No. 21, 1923, Bureau of Education.
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VI
The limitations af the high-school building seri- ously restrict the development of a modern high- school program.
The Space
The building contains one large assembly room, one room for typewriting, one laboratory, and one large room that is used in common for three class rooms di- vided from each other by movable screens. The science and domestic arts are done in the one laboratory. This limited space also prevents adequate equipment for many of the subjects.
The Course of Study
The following is an outline of the program of studies offered in the high school:
Subject
Periods Per Week
Subject
Periods Per Week
First Year
Second Year
*English
5
*English
5
Algebra
5
Geometry
5
Gen. Science
5
Bookkeeping A
5
Latin A
5
Science B
5
Anc. History
5
Latin B
5
Dom. Science
1
double
History B
4
Drawing Music
1
Dom. Science
1 double
*Phys. Education
5-15 min.
Drawing
1
Music
1
*Phys. Education
5-15 min.
Third Year
Fourth Year
*English
5
*English
5
Review Algebra
3
Solid Geometry
3
Accounting Course
10
Accounting Course
10
Secretarial Course 10
Secretarial Course
10
Latin C (Cicero)
5
Latin C (Cicero)
5
Chemistry
5 - 1 double
Chemistry
5 - 1 double
French B
5
French C
5
Drawing
1
Drawing
1
Music
1
Music
1
*Phys. Education
5-15 min.
* Phys. Education
5-15 min.
American Hist. Civics
&
5
Physics and Chemistry offered in alternate years.
Cicero and Virgil offered in alternate years.
*Required Subjects.
1
French A
5
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The high school building limits the offering to such subjects as can be given in four rooms without con- veniences or adequate equipment. As a result the pro- gram of study is restricted to the college preparatory curriculum with some work in commercial subjects and domestic science.
The lack of space confines the domestic science work to one small laboratory, shared with three other science classes. Water is heated on an oil stove. There is no opportunity for the practical application of the theory of household management. Organized as it is on the basis of only one double period weekly and under poor physical conditions the subject is relatively ineffective compared with what it might be under more favorable conditions.
Manual training and other courses for pupils who need work with the hands, an essential part of every modern high school curriculum, is impossible. Physical training is limited to five to fifteen minutes a day in- doors.
:
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VII
A consolidated school of the 6-6 type of organiza- tion offers the best remedy for these faults.
Advantages of the Consolidated School for Duxbury
In very few communities is the need of a consolidated school so evident as in Duxbury. The buildings are old, require a constant outlay for upkeep, and cannot be used for many years to house children. The enrolment in each grade is small. The total enrolment in each grade would require only one teacher in a consolidated school. The town is well crossed with good roads and already a large proportion of the children are being transported to the different schools.
Educators have pointed out for nearly a century that opportunities for education in the one-room school were inferior to those offered in a graded school such as the larger towns and cities provide. Every survey has shown that one-room schools are the weakest links in the public school system. Furthermore, they are ex- pensive in the cost per pupil and wasteful in the results achieved.
The inherent weaknesses in the one-room school may be summarized as follows :
1. Difficulty of proper grading.
2. The limited time that can be given to each class. (This has been shown in the schedule of the South Duxbury school, which is merely typical of other one- room schools.)
3. The lack of social experience. (The average number of pupils per grade in the first six grades of the Dux- bury schools is less than 9.)
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Grade
Pupil Average
1
8
2
6
3
5
4
6
5
12
6
15
(With the few pupils in a grade and the small num- ber in a school, the children miss the social contact with larger numbers that is a stimulus and a train- ing.)
4. The division of the community interests into little centers about different schools destroys a common in- terest that is essential for progress in any community today.
5. The lack of incentive in small groups, which with the limited instruction each pupil gets, leads to formation of habits of idleness that affect the whole life of the child.
Attempts to improve the instruction in the one-room schools have been but moderately successful. Their weaknesses are inherent and can be removed only by the elimination of the school itself.
In a circular issued by the Department of Education of Massachusetts on the consolidation of schools is in- cluded a series of reasons for consolidation offered by the superintendents of public schools of this State and others. Among the arguments advanced, not already included in this report are :
1. Reduces the number of teachers required. (Dux- bury now has five one-room buildings each with four grades and average enrolment of twenty-seven pupils to each school. If the pupils were carried to a central school, one less teacher would be needed for the regu- lar work, thus freeing a teacher to deal with the retarded children who have been mentioned above.)
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2. Encourages the teacher to become a subject or grade specialist. No teacher today can qualify herself to teach three or four grades as well as she could one grade. The pupils lose by this lack of specialization.
3. Is usually followed by a greatly enriched course of study. (The meagreness of the subject matter offered in the Duxbury grades is not due to lack of ability on the part of the teachers, but to the little time that can be given to each grade.)
4. Makes more efficient supervision possible because su- perintendent and supervisor can spend more time with the teachers and less on the road. (This is particularly true of Duxbury in that she shares the services of her superintendent with two other towns and thereby has inadequate supervision at the best.)
5. Allows for a proper division of time between study and recitation, and between individual and group work. (The teachers in the Duxbury schools can give no attention to individual pupils, which fact partly accounts for the excessive amount of retardation.)
Massachusetts has been a pioneer state in consolida- tion of schools, and today about half of the towns under 10,000 population have all or nearly all their pupils in a central school. The following figures show the growth of this movement in Massachusetts :*
Year
Number of Towns Transporting
Amount Spent for Transportation
1913-14
325
$426,274.11
1918-19
333
666,772.63
1923-24
339
1,291,702.53
In five years the amount spent for the transportation of school children in Massachusetts has almost doubled. The explanation lies in the fact that the towns commenc- ing consolidation are rapidly uniting all their schools in one central plant.
Possible Objections to a Consolidated School
Duxbury is now transporting 112 pupils in a total enrolment of 301 at a cost of $6,317 per annum. The town is paying 31c per capita for pupils transported
*Report of Committee on School Transportation Problems in Massachusetts, April 29, 1925.
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while the average cost in the State is 19c. With a re- organization of the routing to carry all the pupils to one central school, larger busses, and the unusually good roads, Duxbury should be able to carry all the pupils outside walking distance of a central school at no greater cost than at present.
The objection to the pupils being away from home all day does not hold in Duxbury for practically every pupil in the public schools carries his lunch and in many cases, probably most cases, the children would be carried as quickly from home to the central school and back again as at present. After the children are in the bus a dis- tance of two or three miles further would make no ap- preciable difference in time.
The following data taken from the Massachusetts study* summarized give the conditions of transportation service in this State:
1. Children are carried from less than two to more than six miles, with an average of 3.7 miles for primary children.
2. Few pupils are on the road more than 30 minutes, with an average of 29 pupils for all towns.
3. Busses carry from 26 to 29 pupils.
4. The trend is toward private ownership of busses. A few towns own their busses and report favorably on this plan.
5. Usually children are in care of the driver, but in a few localities a senior high school boy or girl is put in charge.
6. It is recommended that contracts be made with drivers so that both they and the school authorities may know their obligations.
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