USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Braintree > Town annual report of Braintree, Massachusetts for the year 1878-1879 > Part 4
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2
5 Cerebral Dropsy.
24. Clarence E. David,
5
1 Cholera Infantum.
26. John A. Mooney,
2 25 Cholera Infantum.
Sept. 8. Elizabeth Thayer,
80
6
11
Old Age.
10. Catherine M. Flood,
23
5 27 Phthisis Pulmonalis.
29. E. Warner Dailey,
59 S 12 Cancer.
Oct. 2. Minnie F. Miller,
1
2 19 Cholera Morbus. Pneumonia.
4. Mark F. Duncklee,
53
9
25 Drowning.
11. Jonathan Holbrook,
75
2
Pneumonia.
15. John F. Clary,
5
3
12 Atrophy of Liver.
27. Ernest L. Pratt,
2 22 Cholera Infantum.
28. Margaret E. Clinton,
2
7
17 Diphtheria.
29. Thomas Jordan,
72
5
5 Dropsy.
Nov.
2. Joanna W. Penniman,
44 0
8 Stone in the Gall.
5. William A. Robbins, 7. Branley,
4
4
5 Diphtheria. Stillborn.
8. Freddie J. Valiquet,
2
2
4 Spinal Meningitis.
23. Nathaniel Belcher,
10
20 Chronic Gastritis.
24. Mary B. Ahlf,
7
18 Acute Bronchitis.
28. Florence Wales,
4 Engorgement of Lungs.
8. Henry J. Holbrook,
83
7
27 Pneumonia.
11. Edward Friel,
35
4 Fracture of Spine.
18. George D. Newcomb,
50 5
15 General Debility.
19. Marcus W. Nickerson, 33 8 12 Phthisis Pulmonalis.
31. Rebecca Arnold, 68
6 29 Softening of Brain.
The Town Clerk requests that he may be notified of all errors or omis- sions.
Dec.
3. John Preston,
38
ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
SCHOOL COMMITTEE 15
OF THE
TOWN OF BRAINTREE,
FOR THE
SCHOOL YEAR 1877-78.
BOSTON : FRANKLIN PRESS: RAND, AVERY, & CO. 1879. .
REPORT
OF THE
SCHOOL COMMITTEE OF THE TOWN OF BRAINTREE.
THE importance and value of the public-school system of education, especially under a free government, and its direct, vital bearing upon the well-being of the nation, are threadbare truths, - so trite as to be often overlooked.
Upon the character of our schools depends the char- acter of our people ; for to our common schools is the great body of our people indebted, not merely for their intellectual training, but for their moral culture as well. And teachers cannot be too strongly impressed with the necessity of inculcating a high moral tone in those intrusted to their care.
Our fathers recognized this, embodying the idea in our constitutional and statutory law. In the laws re- lating to public schools they provided that " it shall be the duty ... of all instructors of youth to exert their best endeavors to impress on the minds of children and youth committed to their care and instruction, the principles of piety and justice, and a sacred regard to truth ; love of their country, humanity, and universal benevolence ; sobriety, industry, and frugality ; chastity, moderation, and temperance; and those other virtues
54
which are the ornament of human society and the basis upon which a republican constitution is founded." To such education as this we owe the preservation of our National Government ; to its absence the French nation owed, in large measure, its terrible revolution.
A town can have no greater interest to foster within its borders ; no object upon which it can and should expend its means with greater liberality.
As individuals, we undergo constant toil and self- sacrifice to provide for the future of our children; as bodies politic and corporate, we are too often strangely reluctant to expend our money in the same direction.
METHODS AND SUGGESTIONS.
Within the last few years the system of public educa- tion has made rapid strides. The old landmarks are swept away, and new theories are everywhere rampant.
With the ample means at their command, our cities and large towns are making important changes in methods, - some already assured successes, others still experimental, or of doubtful expediency. Your Com- mittee, adhering to the conservative traditions of the town, have preferred to proceed with caution, making such changes only as are no longer of doubtful value, and these by a very gradual method. But in view of the recent improvements in methods elsewhere, and of the establishment among us of the Thayer Academy, of which we shall speak presently, certain changes have become a necessity.
REVISION OF STUDIES.
A sub-committee was appointed the past fall to revise the studies of the schools, with especial view to the more
55
accurate grading of the Grammar and Intermediate Schools, and the establishment of a uniform course of study to be required for admission to the High School. Embodied in their report were suggestions, which, among others, we desire here to bring to the special attention of our teachers. The Committee have had the benefit of the excellent revision of studies and suggestions to teachers recently prepared and adopted by the Boston School Board; though, from their being adapted to a system at once the most elaborate and most lavish in expenditure of any in this country, their availability with us is somewhat limited.
TEXT-BOOKS AND ORAL INSTRUCTION.
It is a matter of common observation, that frequent changes in text-books are detrimental to progress, and that it is generally inexpedient to make such changes, unless rendered necessary by new courses of study, which should be introduced only with classes entering upon a study for the first time. All needless expense to parents is thus avoided.
The slavery of the text-book has been in the past, and is still, a marked evil in our schools. We would strongly recommend that our teachers make wider use of oral instruction, confining themselves less closely to text-books, from which lessons should be selected with regard to the needs and aptitudes of the scholar, rather than to the sequence of pages.
While we would not discard the spelling-book, there is no doubt that it too often proves a hindrance rather than a help ; and we would recommend the frequent use of the reading and other text books, combined with occasional oral and written exercises improvised by the teacher, in partial substitution therefor.
56
The evil of close adherence to text books is nowhere so apparent as in the study of history. As its result, whatever is acquired is purely a matter of memory, - isolated facts connected in the scholar's mind only with the page on which they are stated. To petty details equal importance is attached as to great epochs ; and the pupil's time is so wasted, that the colonial and revolu- tionary history of this country is all that is generally taught, even thus imperfectly.
The memory should not be burdened with minor details, which may well be omitted, that the Grammar School graduate may at least possess some degree of familiarity with the history of his own country to the present time, and may better comprehend the connec- tion of events and historical causes and results.
The marked benefits of this method of instruction were made apparent at the recent mid-winter examina- tion of the Union Grammar-School. A connected ac- count of the main events of the American Revolution was given by the scholars (called upon at random), gen- erally in their own language; and questions thrown in by the Committee were answered with a commendable degree of promptness and intelligence: and this was accomplished by the usual number of lessons during only one term. The benefits of this method are also perceptible in other schools.
Mathematics is the purest form of abstract reasoning, and problems should be worked out in accordance with principles, not rules. Time spent in geometry is wasted if the pupil is allowed to commit the problems to mem- ory ; and arithmetic is not properly taught. when undue prominence is given to memorizing and repeating rules. Clearness of thought and clearness of expression are
57
acquired when the theory, the rationale of the process is held as important as the practice.
One of the most important changes recently intro- duced in the schools of Boston, as well as of other places, and one of unquestioned value, is the increased attention paid to the study of English literature.
If our schools give nothing else, they should impart a love for reading.
The main object of school education is not to store the mind with facts, but to acquire those habits of con- centration and thought that will enable the pupil to master any subject to which he may apply his mind. Not what is studied, but how it is studied, is the impor- tant thing ; and that school is the successful one which best implants in the scholar a love for study.
School-work must be made interesting, or it is a failure : this is the central truth from which have sprung, and about which cluster, the theories upon which our best educators are at work to-day. And there is no greater aid to this end than the writings of our best authors. The benefits of such reading reach in every direction. A pure, healthy tone, intellectually and morally, is imparted ; a taste for the best reading is implanted, that will reject the poorer literature of the day, much of which is so detrimental to mind and character. Again, there is no surer means of acquiring a pure and correct style of expression in speech and writing. The pupil takes little or no interest in the fragmentary selections found in the readers now in use. One complete story, poem, history, or book of travels, would be not only of inestimably greater interest, but a most valuable adjunct to the text-books in other stud- ies, especially in history.
58
The value of the supplementary courses of reading in the Boston schools of all grades cannot be over-esti- mated.
The following books have been introduced as such supplementary reading-matter in those schools : -
In the Primary Schools, the monthly magazine called " The Nursery."
In the Grammar Schools, Higginson's " History of the United States ; " Hawthorne's " Wonder-Book " and " Tan- glewood Tales;" Miss Martineau's "Crofton Boys ;" Tom Hughes' "Tom Brown's School-Days at Rugby;" Dana's " Two Years before the Mast;" De Foe's "Robinson Crusoe ; " Irving's " Sketch-Book."
In the High Schools, the English Classics, so called.
It will be said at once, We cannot afford this. True, but we can do something in this direction. The town should supply each school with a few of these books, to be kept on the teacher's desk for occasional exercises ; two copies of each book would be sufficient, - one for the teacher, and the other for the scholar reciting. The exercise thus becomes extemporaneous, and close atten- tion as well as constant interest on the part of the other scholars is secured.
The result would certainly justify the effort.
Two other important changes introduced in several places in the State are, first ; - in the method of teaching grammar without a text-book, by oral and written exer- cises, rather than by memorizing : and, secondly ; - in teaching children to read without the alphabet.
With the former we are not entirely in sympathy, believing the idea of throwing away the text-book may be carried too far in the effort to find a royal road to learning, and that a judicious and partial use of the
.
59
text-book is essential. The new method is perhaps largely a reaction from the complications of parsing and analysis and the refined subtleties of terminology that have found place in too many school systems.
The method of learning to read before acquiring the alphabet is now in practice, in whole or in part, in some of our Primary Schools, and is certainly successful in the hands of the teachers who have adopted it. This method is now in general use throughout the United States.
TEACHERS.
These, and other changes which we have not space to discuss in detail, involving the laying aside of the text- book, depend however for their success upon trained teachers. To meet this want, training-schools have been established in various places.
. As the Committee of the Norfolk County Convention recently said ; - " If our smaller towns cannot afford trained teachers, we must train the teachers we have ; " and much can be done by suggestions, and by inciting them to a higher standard.
We do not wish to be understood as advocating any system of close restraint with teachers. It is the cus- tom in many places to prepare tabular views, prescrib- ing so many hours each day to particular studies. We do not approve of this, believing that it is the duty of committees, to see that the schools are kept properly graded, to outline the instruction to be given, and, by suggestion, to keep the teachers well informed as to the best methods ; but in all the details of teaching, to trust their aspirations, and allow them so broad a scope and such a sense of freedom as not to cramp their individu- alities.
In deference to the supposed wishes of the people
60
in different sections, a practice had sprung up in the past to refer the appointment of teachers in each section to its own sub-committee. Although it is believed that such sub-committees have always endeavored to perform this duty faithfully and impartially ; yet in order to avoid any possible suspicion, from any quarter, of favoritism, it was voted, some time since, that all examinations of candidates thereafter should be before the Board as a whole.
MONTHLY REPORTS.
To aid the Committee in the supervision of the schools, as well as to incite the pupil to greater effort, monthly-report cards, to be sent to the parents of each scholar, have been introduced into the Grammar and Intermediate schools. They are in the following form: -
GRAMMAR SCHOOL, BRAINTREE.
Monthly Report of
Div of Class
EXAMINATIONS.
187 . MONTH.
PARENT'S SIGNATURE.
.
Times present.
Times absent.
'Times tardy.
DEPORTMENT.
RECITATIONS.
Pupils in Class.
Rank in Class.
Arith.
Geog.
Gram.
Hist.
Spell.
Av. p. ct.
Feb.
Mar.
April
May
June
" Deportment" and " Recitation " are marked Excellent, Good, Fair, or Bad. Parents cannot expect their children to be regularly advanced from one class to another unless they are constant in their attendance at school.
Parents are requested to sign this Report, and return it to the Teacher.
Teacher.
61
A short examination is held by the teacher each month, which insures careful reviews, as well as greater attention to each lesson. An additional advantage is, that the parents are kept constantly informed as to their children's progress, and home influence, so great an aid to the teacher, is secured. In this connection we would particularly call the attention of parents to the impor- tance of requiring from their children attending schools above the Intermediate grade at least one hour's faithful study at home each day.
GRAMMAR AND INTERMEDIATE SCHOOLS.
Any revision of studies with us must necessarily con- template very gradual changes. The necessity of en- forcing a higher standard of scholarship for admission to the High School is, however, apparent ; and the teach- ers of the Grammar Schools have been informed that hereafter the Committee will be more strict in the mat- ter of admission to the High School. While the exami- nations will not be made more difficult, the percentage will be somewhat raised, and a more rigid rule applied as to rejections, with a view of securing a greater degree of thoroughness in preparation, and completion of the requirements, especially in history and arithmetic.
It is unnecessary to state here in detail the text- books and limits of study prescribed in the different schools. It is sufficient to say that an effort is making to raise the standard of scholarship in the Grammar and Intermediate Schools ; but to be successful it must be persistent and untiring, calling for the constant aid of parents, teachers, and scholars, for it must of necessity be very gradual.
The Committee voted last summer to place the Gram-
62
mar Schools in charge of male teachers. In the opinion of the Committee, time unnecessarily expended in disci- pline is worse than wasted; and it is a matter of experi- ence, that, with boys and girls of the Grammar School age, a word or a look from a master will usually prevent disorder that a lady-teacher could only check by corporal punishment, so often demoralizing in its effects upon teacher and pupil.
The Committee have been fortunate in the selection, as masters of the Grammar Schools, of young men who have shown themselves zealous, and well adapted to their work.
PRIMARY SCHOOLS.
The success of the Primary School depends mainly upon the personal influence of the teacher, and the in- struction should be chiefly oral.
The drawing-cards recently introduced prove inter- esting to the children, and a valuable step in object- teaching, several original designs of much merit being shown at the recent examination of one of the Primary Schools.
We do not favor, however, the introduction of draw- ing into the other schools, and learn, that, though taught extensively in the schools of nearly all our large cities, it is not spoken of approvingly by many of the best educators, and is likely to fall into disfavor. It should be left to individual tastes and to special schools.
DISTRICT SCHOOLS.
A source of much weakness to the Braintree school system are the outlying District Schools. Extent of ter- ritory renders them an apparent necessity ; but the Com- mittee, impressed with the marked benefits which would
1
63
result from concentrating the system, and bringing the scholars into regularly graded schools, have made an effort in that direction.
They find that the scholars of most, if not all, the District Schools, can be conveyed to and from the cen- trally-situated graded schools in teams provided with careful drivers, and at a considerable saving of expense to the town. The irregularity of attendance from which the District Schools now suffer so severely would be in this way doubtless greatly lessened.
Upon attempting to introduce this plan with the West-street School, however, the Committee, to their surprise, were met with so strong a remonstrance from the people of that section, who seemed to feel that they were in some way abridged of their full school privi- leges, that the plan was abandoned, though the Com- mittee are still of opinion that it was a move in the right direction. Indeed, the method of transportation to relieve over-crowded schools has been in successful operation for some months past in the East district.
HIGH SCHOOL.
Whatever differences of opinion may have existed, or may still exist, in regard to the pecuniary relations between the Town of Braintree and the Thayer Acad- emy, there can be but a universal desire that this insti- tution should be of as direct benefit as possible to our people in an educational point of view.
The Academy is practically free to-day to the children of this town ; all of even such moderate scholarship as will hardly suffice to entitle them to remain within its walls being permitted to attend free of tuition, - an arrangement which will continue so long as the present endowment remains unimpaired.
64
This institution, one of the best of its kind in the country, is enabled, with its ample endowment, to furnish better instruction in the higher departments of knowl- edge, whether in the classics, modern languages, or sci- ences, than our High School can ever hope to supply.
While, then, the High School cannot be merged in the Academy, even were it desirable, and the town must continue to maintain a high school with facilities for the study of the higher English branches and the Latin, Greek, and French languages, there will be no practical difficulty in making it substantially an English school.
The regular course should be shortened to three years, and be exclusively an English one, adapted to fitting our young men for mechanical, agricultural, and . business pursuits, and, generally, for occupations other than those purely professional and scientific. The Latin, Greek, and French languages, facilities for the study of which we are required by statute to supply, should be made elective studies, with the distinct recommen- dation, however, of the Committee, that all who intend · to fit for college, or who have the means and leisure to make a special study of the classics, modern languages, or sciences, should enter the Thayer Academy, - a rec- ommendation which would unquestionably be universally accepted.
The initiatory steps have already been taken to carry out the foregoing plan.
A circular setting forth the proposed course of study was recently distributed, in advance of this Report, among the parents of the High School scholars.
. The new course will be introduced very gradually, not to interfere more than is necessary with studies already begun by those now in the school. History has
€
65
been introduced into all the classes, Swinton's Outlines of the World's History being the prescribed text-book.
SCOPE OF INSTRUCTION.
It is a very difficult matter, in these days when the field of human knowledge has so widened, to define with precision the limits of public education. ·
We do not propose to discuss here the important question, so fully argued by President Eliot and other able thinkers, how far the State is bound to provide the higher education for the masses, and whether rendering such higher education accessible to the people generally is, as is claimed, an evil, fostering a distaste for the necessary drudgery of most useful employments.
Maine is trying the experiment of disestablishing her High Schools, - curiously, too, at a time when the High School system, though essentially American, has met with so marked a culogy from the French Centennial Commission.
But we are learning to-day that there is another edu- cation than that of the college and the library ; that every man's occupation can be so ennobled by the high thought that may be put into it, that it shall be of itself a liberal education. The so-called liberal professions have no longer, if they were ever supposed to have, a monopoly of brains; and it is among our leading merchants, . bankers, and manufacturers, that we often look for the clearest and broadest views in practical affairs, and often, too, for the highest culture.
Again, the education of the school is not our life- work ; it merely prepares us for it, furnishes us the tools to do that work with. The mind must be trained, and given its proper bent; and yet we must so widen the
.
66
scope of the education we furnish as to enable each mind to choose the right direction,-to know its calling.
We can train the intellect that is to grapple with men and things, with the world's great problems, by better mental discipline, surely, than a smattering of Latin and Greek. However valuable a thorough study of the classics may be (and we do not underrate its value), surely the brief years before the boy is compelled to stand and hold his own among men can be employed to better advantage with subjects equally adapted to mental discipline, and better suited to his wants and the wants of our age.
This tendency has indeed, here and there, run to wasteful extremes, overcrowding courses of study, and giving an education of mere fact-knowledge to the utter loss of essential mental discipline. Greater thorough- ness we certainly need in every department of life. We Americans are in too great haste to seize the world's prizes to think much of laying a sure basis on which to build.
But there is a golden mean. We need not over- crowd the time of teacher or scholar: so much attention must be paid to each of the sciences, and so much only, as will enable the student to find the true inclination of his mind, and to pursue further investigation for himself.
The study of a single science is a life-work. The merest rudiments are all we can give; but these we are bound to bestow.
The following is the course of study adopted for the High School, subject to such modification as experience may prove necessary : -
67
FIRST YEAR.
First Term. - Commercial Arithmetic, English Grammar and Rhetoric, General History, Physical Geography.
Second Term. - Algebra, Rhetoric, General History, Physical Geography.
SECOND YEAR.
First Term. - Algebra, Natural Philosophy, General History, Astronomy.
Second Term. - Geometry, Natural Philosophy, General His- tory, Civil Government.
THIRD YEAR.
First Term. - Geometry, Botany, Civil Government, Chemistry. Book-keeping.
Second. Term. - Trigonometry, Geology, Political Economy, Physiology, Book-keeping.
Exercises in Reading, Declamation, Composition, Spelling, Drawing, and Penmanship, during the entire course.
Diplomas of graduation will be conferred upon com- pletion of this course.
That no one may be deprived of any of the privileges now enjoyed, pupils may, if they choose, take an extra year, and in that case may elect in the regular course Latin, Greek, and French, or either of them, in place of chemistry, botany, and geology, or either of them. If feasible, French will be introduced also as an elective in the regular course.
SCHOOL APPARATUS.
For many years no appropriation has been asked for school apparatus, and the expenditure by committees for this object has been very light. Our schools are consequently deficient to-day in this respect. Maps and
68
books of reference are the most pressing needs. And are we quite satisfied to send our children, at an age when the imagination is most active and should be trained and given scope in the right direction, into school-houses with bare walls and no opportunity what- ever for visual instruction ?
There should be some, not necessarily extensive, ad- ditions to the scientific apparatus of the High School.
The Committee, therefore, ask an appropriation of at least two hundred dollars for this purpose.
SCHOOLHOUSES.
There is need of considerable repairs and improve- ments in and about the Iron-Works Schoolhouse.
The building itself can scarcely be considered safe, . having but a single narrow entrance and winding stairs, a defect that should be remedied without unnecessary delay.
The underpinning and steps should be replaced, the fence and privy thoroughly repaired, and the yard graded.
New blackboards are needed in each schoolroom, and a well and pump have long been a desideratum.
A small outlay for sodding here and about the other schoolhouses would go very far towards relieving the barren, desolate appearance said with much truth to be characteristic of the rural schoolhouses of this coun- try.
Mr. Freeman A. Arnold, who served as a member of this Committee during a portion of the school-year, resigned early in the fall to accept the position, which he now holds, of Master of the Pond Grammar School ;
1
69
and Mr. Eben Denton was subsequently chosen to fill Mr. Arnold's place on this board.
N. L. WHITE, - NOAH TORREY, G. H. ARNOLD, J. M. CUTTING, EBEN DENTON, B. L. M. TOWER, J
School Committee.
Statistical Table of the Schools.
NO. OF SCHOLARS.
AVERAGE ATTENDANCE.
No. OVER 15 YEARS.
NO. UNDER 5 YEARS.
LENGTH OF TERMS.
WAGES PER MONTH.
Summer.
Winter.
Summer.
Winter.
Summer.
Winter.
Summer.
Winter.
Summer.
Winter.
Summer.
Winter.
High
41
57
39
55
25
28
0
0
5
5
2 45
45
Pond Grammar
50
56
43
46
1
2
0
0
-5
5
42
42
44
42
341
32}
0
0
0
0
5
5
32
32
62
63
423
41
0
0
0
0
5
5
32
32
66 Primary .
.
.
·
46
34
36
30
2
0
0
0
5
5
42
42
Union Grammar
·
·
.
·
54
53
453
42
0
0
0
0
5
5
32
32
66 Primary .
·
·
50
23
40
0
0
0
0
5
5
42
42
Iron-Works Grammar
50
44
41
36
0
0
0
0
5
5
32
32
" Intermediate
70
77
57
59
0
0
0
0
5
5
32
32
66
66 Primary .
48
29
31
25
0
1
0
0
5
5
42
42
East Grammar .
33
36
24
27
0
0
0
0
5
5
28
32
66 Primary
46
22
30
20
0
0
0
0
5
5
32
32
Middle
27
35
163
29
0
0
6
3
5
5
32
32
South-east.
47
42
31
29
3
3
1
1
5
5
32
32
South
·
20
21
17
16
0
1
0
1
5
5
32
32
South-west
.
19
18
13
13
1
2
3
1
5
5
32
28
West.
·
.
.
·
·
·
·
.
·
34
41
28
35
0
0
0
0
5
5
32
32
Intermediate
·
.
·
34
·
.
SCHOOLS.
S $140
$140
" Intermediate
70
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