USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Braintree > Town annual report of Braintree, Massachusetts for the year 1894 > Part 8
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12
At the annual town meeting in March, 1894, the sum of $5,000 was appropriated to improve the heating, ventilating, and sanitary arrangements of the Pond and Union schoolhouses. The same committee was given the supervision of these changes. The work was begun the last of June and was completed so that the schools were reopened in these buildings September 10, one week later than the beginning of the school year.
Two large furnaces are located in each basement, each furnace warming two rooms, one directly above the other. The direction of the wind does not affect the heating of the rooms, as it does in most houses warmed by hot air, since the hot-air flues are directly above the furnaces and extend perpendicularly up to the rooms. The closets are in the basement, so that the children are not re- quired to pass out of doors and frequently contract colds from careless exposure.
At times during the present year the temperature of the class rooms has not been raised to the required 70 degrees. After the most careful inspection, I have determined that there are two reasons for this failure. The janitors have not as yet acquired sufficient skill in running the furnaces or in governing the admis- sion of air to the rooms; and the cold air enters the rooms around the windows in too great an abundance. The heating plants seem to be sufficiently ample, and, with the stopping of the rapid inflow of air at the windows and the proper management of the furnaces, I have no doubt that they will be a great success.
159
No other town in the Commonwealth has, in so short a time, so completely and successfully revolutionized the heating, ventilating, and sanitary conditions of its schoolhouses. In the class rooms of all occupied school buildings in the town, if the systems are properly managed by teachers and janitors, the air is completely renewed every fifteen minutes, at least, during the school sessions and is kept at the uniform desired temperature of 70 degrees. This means much, not only to the vigor and healthy growth of the children, but to their intellectual activity as well.
There are now several unoccupied schoolhouses, five of which are located in the outlying districts. Some of these may be occu- pied again; others should be sold. Those which are not sold ought to be kept in sufficient repair for preservation. Some of them are used by the people in their vicinity for social and relig- ous meetings. This is beneficial in interesting them in the care and welfare of the houses.
TRANSPORTATION OF PUPILS.
During the past few years there has been a strong tendency throughout the state to give to children of outlying and thinly settled districts the best educational advantages by transfering the pupils to the large graded schools. The law authorizing towns to expend money for conveyance of school children was enacted in 1869. I quote here from the report of the secretary of the state board of education for 1893-4 : "Towns were slow to take ad- vantage of the law as a means of consolidating their feebler lower grade schools. Concord was the first to apply it on a large scale for this purpose. Her example was speedily followed by her neigh- bors. The success of the plan wherever applied has secured for it an extended application. The expenditure, beginning with $22,118.38 in the year 1888-89, has advanced to $63,617.68 the present year. This is an advance of $13,027.27 from the expend- ture of $50,590.41 a year ago. The results are in general highly satisfactory to parents and to voters of the towns. Of these towns, 199 make returns of expenditures for transportation, vary-
160
ing from $5 per annum in Shutesbury to $2,366 per annum in Lexington. Wisdom is needed in adjusting the details of the plan to individual cases. But this has been exercised to such a degree, and the law is so beneficial, that in operation it meets with almost universal favor. It is helping to solve the question, What can be done for the small ungraded schools ? "
The arrangement of our school buildings, the small average attendance in the district schools, the favorable facilities for transportation, and an intelligent regard of the parents for better educational advantages for their children, has made it both desir- able and easy to extend the application of this law in Braintree during the past year.
Since October, 1890, railroad tickets at a cost of a little less than half fare, have been supplied to the high school pupils of East Braintree and Mayflower Park. At the beginning of last Septem- ber the railroad corporation doubled the rates for this service, and Mr. F. A. Burrell was engaged at a less price than the increased railroad rates to carry the high school pupils of East Braintree. In September, 1893, the West street school was closed and its pupils were conveyed by barge to the Pond primary and Monati- quot grammer schools. At the last annual town meeting extra appropriations were made to pay for transporting the pupils of the Pond street district and the centre of Liberty street to the Pond and Monatiquot schools and those of the south end of Liberty street to the Mayflower Park school. No one could be found who would carry the pupils of the center of Liberty street for the amount of money appropriated. This problem was easily solved in another way. At the completion of the Jonas Perkins building, the Mid- dle street school was closed and arrangements were made for the barge carrying the pupils of this school, to pass up Middle street to Liberty and thence to the Jonas Perkins school, going so near the center of Liberty street as to accommodate fairly well the chil- dren of that section of the town. The completion of the street railway from Holbrook to South Braintree and the contract by the selectmen of the town with the company for half-fares for pupils, permitted the closing of the Mayflower Park school. Its pupils, who included those of the south end of Liberty street, were con- veyed by street cars to the Pond and Monatiquot schools.
It will be seen that the problem of transportation has continued
161
to assume increasing importance, until at the present time, all school children in the remote and thinly settled sections of the the town are provided with transportation all, or a considerable part of the distance, and enjoy the advantages of graded instruc- tion.
The expense and extent of transportation for the school year of forty weeks at the present time, may be summarized as follows : Mr. A. A. Drollett carries twenty-seven pupils from the West district to the Pond, Monatiquot and high schools for $350. Mr. C. E. Townsend carries seventeen pupils from the South West district to the Pond and Monatiquot schools for $200. The street railway company carries thirty-nine pupils from the south section of the town, including the Mayflower Park district, to the Pond and Monatiquot schools for $350. Mr. F. A. Burrell carries thirty-two pupils from East Braintree to the high school, and forty- two pupils from the districts of Middle and Liberty streets to the Jonas Perkins school for $720. This makes the total number of pupils transported, one hundred and fifty-seven, at an annual ex- pense of $1,620, or a little over two and one-half cents per ride for each pupil.
We have been unusually fortunate in engaging careful and re- sponsible parties to do this work. Two necessary conditions for its success are comfort and safety. In both respects we have been highly successful. Of course the system demands careful and con- stant attention while it is being established. At times one parent and then another complains of some trifling disturbance, which is immediately adjusted.
By transferring so many pupils at one time from ungraded to graded schools, one exceedingly important consideration was established by indisputable facts. The pupils in the graded schools have accomplished as much in three years as those in the ungraded schools have in four years ; while in all-round develop- ment, the difference was much greater. One of the most impor- tant advantages among the many which come to those pupils from the outlying districts, is their opportunity to associate with the children in large schools. This will aid powerfully in unifying the social and moral interests of the whole community. In these
162
schools, also, the pupils enjoy the most comfortable and healthful schoolhouse accommodations.
Nothing could be gained even financially by reestablishing the district schools. The cost of transporting the pupils who would attend the West, Middle Street and Mayflower Park schools, is $840. The annual expense of maintaining these schools would not be less than $1,500.
HEALTH OF SCHOOL CHILDREN.
So much has been done recently in the schools to guard and improve the health of the pupils, that it seems desirable to enumerate the conditions and regulations which have been estab- lished.
Pure air of a desired temperature is an indispensable condition of sound bodies and sane minds in school children. Ideal pro- visions have been made for these in all our schools. Highest expert authority has declared that ." Braintree is the model town in the Commonwealth in the ventilation and sanitation of its school- houses." Evidence of the increased vitality of the pupils has come to us from many sources.
Regulations have been established requiring that each pupil in the public schools shall have, as far as possible, his own books, pencils and other materials. Each school room is provided with holders for pens and pencils, plain boards, each perforated on the top with 50 or 60 holes of a desirable size and numbered so that pens and pencils are never collected together and never promis- cuously distributed.
Since the cities and towns of this state began to purchase text books for pupils, it has been a general custom to provide each school room with a set of books in each study. In graded schools, when the pupils of one room are promoted to the next, they are resupplied with a new set of books, most of which have been used by another class of pupils the previous year; even though in most cases they are the same kind of books as those used in the preceding grade.
163
With this arrangement it usually happens that a number of pupils, in some cases perhaps a dozen, successively use the same book, regardless of the care and neatness of the one pupil and the carelessness of another, and all possessing little interest in its welfare.
In our schools, whenever a pupil begins a new study or advances to a grade in which a larger book is used, he is given a book in which he records his name and the date when he receives it. It is his for his own individual use as long as he studies the same kind of a book. In most cases it happens that a pupil pursues the same book in any branch of study for a number of years. It means much to a pupil in the interest of neatness, care, etc., to know that books are for his own use to all intents and purposes and that he will carry them with him as he advances from one grade to another ; for example, a pupil who enters the sixth grade is given an arithmetic and in the seventh a geography which he will use through all the succeeding grammar grades. In the sixth grade he is given a dictionary which he can use to the end of the high school course. When a pupil ceases to use a book, he records in it the date of its final surrender to the school. The stamp which marks a book as the property of the town of Brain- tree also records the date when it was purchased and put into use. With these provisions it may be seen at any time how long a book has been used and at what times it has been in the hands of different pupils. No pupil is required to take a book which has been used at any time by a sloven, or one which can possibly be known to contain germs of contagion. In this respect parents and pupils are expected to aid in maintaining their rights. The only exception to these regulations is found in the use of readers and reference books ; but it may be observed that these are not retained at pupils' desks and subjected to the same familiar hand- ling as other books. Of course it is somewhat desirable to supply each pupil with his own readers, but to afford a desirable variety, the expense would be considerable. These regulations will do much to avoid contagion and to develop a desirable spirit of neat- ness and economy in both pupils and teachers.
In avoiding the danger of contagion from disease, the following regulations are observed : When a physician or parent discovers
-
164
a contagious disease he is required by law to report it immediately to the board of health, who must not only quarantine the home, but report to the superintendent of schools. The superintendent immediately sends the notice to the principals of all schools which are attended by children from the section of the town where the disease has been discovered. The principals then determine to what extent contagion has been made possible in the schools, and make provision as far as possible to avoid future contagion. The notice to the principals contains the date of the beginning of the disease. This helps to avoid any difficulty in determining the time when children from the diseased home may be readmitted to. the schools. The teachers are required to discover by inquiry or otherwise, when a pupil has been associating with the children of homes in which there is contagion, so that he may be excluded from the schools for a reasonable time. This provision has been found in some cases to be a wise one. Two pupils at the Iron Works school last year contracted the disease from such exposure, but fortunately they had been sent home in time to avoid any danger. Teachers are required to be continually observant of the health of their pupils. They know many of the early symptoms of contagious diseases, and when the pupils appear to be affected they examine them as far as they can properly, and if the least. sign of disease is found, they are sent home with proper explana- tions or the advice that a physician be consulted. The efficacy of this provision has been proven at various times during the present school year, some pupils having been sent home two days before the physician determined the nature of the disease. When pupils are absent from the schools, the teachers determine at once if the absences are occasioned by contagious diseases.
In two respects it would seem desirable to improve the regula- tions concerning the reporting of diseases. At present physicians are required to report to the board of health only, who in turn report to the superintendent. Much valuable time could be saved in many cases, if the physician would send a duplicate report to the superintendent direct. If it is feasible, there should be provi- sion that a report be made when the first symptoms indicate a con- tagious disease of any kind. This would give the public the bene- fit of the doubt.
165
With the present excellent sanitary arrangements of our school- houses, in whose class rooms the atmosphere is changed completely once in fifteen minutes at most, with the consequent increased vi- tality of the children, who breathe fresh, pure air continually, this being the best safeguard against disease, with the individual use of text books and other school appliances, with prompt and sys- tematic reporting of contagious disease, and with the intelligent watchfulness of the teachers to detect and avoid any opportunity of contagion, I cannot see how there can be an epidemic among our school children if the sanitation of the homes is properly cared for. We have had some proof of this during the present school year, when, with epidemics in nearly all neighboring communities, and a few isolated cases of contagious disease in our own town, there has not been the least indication of an epidemic.
THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL.
Concerning the high school and the relation which it holds to the educational interests of this community, there seems to be such diversity of opinions and so much doubt, that I should certainly fail to perform my official duty did I not endeavor, after the cus- tom of my predecessors, to state, as clearly as possible, some of the facts which must enter into the complete solution of this problem.
The principal of the school, in that part of his special report which was incorporated in my last annual report, made the fol- lowing statement, in which I fully concurred : "The criticism upon the high school, which can most fairly be made, is lack of aim in its course of study. The course seems to have really no well-defined end in view. It fits a pupil neither for col- lege, for the normal school, nor for business life." I will add that this was not only true of its course of study, but the same spirit seemed to possess its pupils and faculty of instruction, a condition which could not fail to work serious injury to the higher educa- tional interest of our public schools, and ultimately to the commu-
166
nity itself. A school in which the pupils have no definite aims and aspirations, or in which there is not a strong and united pur- pose to arouse in them these aims and aspirations, is worse than useless. The condition of this school was fully known to your Board, and I can do no harm in saying that you held scarcely a meeting during two years at which its interests and needs, in one phase or another, were not considered. Many of our citizens seemed to hold the opinion that the public high school is an unnecessary and useless institution, and that the Thayer Academy should do all, or at least a part, of the work which the high school was attempting to do. After giving this thought careful consideration, the opinions of your board finally crystallized into the purpose first to determine how far it was possible for the academy to be made available in accomplishing the work of the high school, and then to arrange suitable courses for the work which should remain for the high school to do. This led to a joint meeting, on April 4, 1894, of representatives of the trustees and faculty of the academy, your committee and the high school.
At this meeting the relations of the two schools were fully and broadly considered. One special result was the appointment of a special committee by your board to arrange and submit to the trustees a series of definite propositions or questions. On April 7, 1894, this committee submitted seven questions concerning the utilization of the facilities of the academy by the pupils of the high school, especially its laboratories and gymnasiums ; the spec- ial preparation of pupils of the public schools for the academy ; and if that school would continue to do the regular work of sec- ondary or high schools or establish advanced courses of instruc- tion. These questions covered essentially all matters which could properly be considered. Then followed a meeting at the academy on April 17, 1894, at which, by invitation, the school committee, principal of the high school and superintendent met the faculty of the academy, for the purpose of considering those questions sub- mitted to the trustees, which related to the special preparation of pupils for the academy.
At this conference the conclusion reached, in which all present fully concurred, was "that a practical method for the utilization by Braintree schools of the educational facilities of the Thayer
167
academy is to establish in the Braintree high school a course of study especially designed to fit a pupil for the academy in the most effective manner and with the least expense of time, but that this course should not interfere with the higher work of the town high school for those pupils who shall not desire to enter the Thayer academy, as it would be an injustice to these pupils to withhold from them the advantages that any first-class high school should afford." The trustees have not as yet taken action upon the questions which pertained to the utilization of the laboratories and gymnasiums, or whether the academy would furnish instruc- tion in certain branches or to certain classes, so as to relieve the high school of certain duties and expenditures.
These results seemed to leave only one course of action for your Board to pursue ; namely, to arrange and establish in the high school, one course of study preparatory for the academy ; and other courses suitable for those pupils who should not wish to attend the latter school. This you have done ; and at the present time, any pupil with a suitable mental equipment and reasonable application, may secure excellent preparation in the public high school for the academy in one year, and for college, scientific school, normal school and business life in four years. A circular describing these advantages in detail was printed and distributed during last summer's vacation and is printed with the special report of the principal of the school. The elective principle which has been adopted does not, as some may suppose, permit the pupils to determine their courses of study in a careless manner ; but rather it imposes upon the teachers the important duty of recognizing the individuality of the pupils, of discovering their individual needs and aptitudes, and of adjusting them wisely. There are many signs already which indicate a more definite pur- pose in the pupils. Their ambition and aspirations are being aroused, and they are doing much better work. One of these signs of improvement is the wonderful maintenance of the same average membership for the four months of the present school year, a fact which without doubt is not true in any other high school in the state. The system of giving certificates for the actual work accomplished in any branch of study, is highly beneficial by developing in the pupils a sense of meritorious re-
168
cognition. With these certificates, it is much easier for the teachers to deal justly with the students in giving certificates for diplomas.
I would strongly urge those pupils who do not wish to attend the academy, to pursue a full four years' course in the high school if possible, especially those who wish to become teachers. All eligible candidates for grade positions in the public schools of this town, are graduates of high schools, who have pursued a regular course of study at a state normal school or have equiva- lent qualifications. It would be the duty of a committee to dis- criminate, all else being equal, against a candidate who had completed a three years' high school course.
The enrollment of students in the high school during the present school year is 104, of whom five are preparing for the academy. The only natural and proper way of determining how many of these shall attend the latter school is the drawing power of the facilities and advantages of that institution. The public statutes explicitly require that the town shall equip and maintain a high school, and the secretary of the state board of education has in- formed us that it could not be excused from this duty by legisla- tive enactment.
Some may advise that the expense of the high school be re- duced by providing such poor instruction for its pupils that they would find it advisable to attend the academy or to leave school. I am firmly of the opinion that in the future, as at present, the great majority of Braintree young people who pursue secondary school studies will either attend, or become graduates of, the public high school, however poor and meagre the course of instruction may be. To pursue this course of action, it seems to me, would not be the truest economy ; for these young people have much to do with the future political, social, and industrial life of this com- munity, and will become its representatives in the larger industrial and commercial life of Boston, where the competition for recog- nition or supremacy is intense, and the town which sends to it young people who are best qualified mentally, physically, and morally will secure the greatest advantages.
169
There are many reasons why these pupils will not attend the academy. Some cannot afford it. Others take pride in being educated in the public schools, the one peculiar American ele- ment of modern civilization. Here may be found a reason for the stringency of the law requiring towns of proper size to maintain high schools. Governor Greenhalge has said that "the rich man may give of his bounty a million here and a million there, but it does not mean as much as the appropriation of twenty pounds by the founders of Dedham for the founding of a free school."
More vital than all other considerations, is the question of training, the mental and moral fibre with which the students are equipped to attack the problems of life. The average age at which students in this country enter college is eighteen years. President Eliot affirms, and with him the leading educators agree, that it is not desirable to increase this age, but to diminish it if possible. He believes that a better preparation can be given even in a shorter time than at present. The average age of our gram- mar school graduates is above fourteen years. Hitherto, if pupils wished to prepare for college or a scientific school, they have been expected to spend two years in the high school and four years in the academy, or three years in each school. This would make the average age of admission to college twenty years. Does this mean that the pupils of this community are not endowed with average mental ability, that we are giving them a superior preparation, or that the training in the elementary schools is inferior? I cannot for a moment admit the first two propositions, and if the third is true, the remedy ought to be immediately applied.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.