USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Braintree > Town annual report of Braintree, Massachusetts for the year 1918 > Part 7
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
TT PAYS THE STATE TO EDUCATE.
118
REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS.
To the School Committee of Braintree :---
Herewith is submitted for your approval the report of the Superintendent of Schools for the year ending December 31, 1918. This report is the 34th in the reports of the super- intendents.
My first annual report, though addressed to you, has been prepared chiefly for the citizens of the Town.
Having given freely of your time and thought to school administration during the year, you are already familiar with much of the matter here presented.
It has been said, "Nobody reads a school report, why go to the trouble to make one?" The answer is, citizens ought to know the main facts concerning school administration, and school officials.
With this view of the case I shall present statements cov- ering school attendance, the assignment, training and experi- ence of teachers, the principal changes in school organization, the work of certain special departments, and the cost of the chief items of school expenditures. I shall discuss those con- ditions in our schools that seem to demand early attention and improvement and shall outline briefly the educational policy, in accordance with which I believe our school activities should be directed.
Teachers' Salaries.
The discussion of salaries seems justifiable because living conditions are becoming so serious that the teachers are really worse off than they were last year. In other words, the increase given does not equal the increased cost of living. To what extent present conditions are abnormal no one can be sure. It seems apparent, however, that present or worse conditions are sure to continue for an indefinite time, and that if a change for the better does finally come, the situation will never return to the level of two years ago.
But what has all this to do with teachers' salaries ? Much, for we shall be in serious competition with other kinds of labor, and unless the teaching profession offers remuneration comparable with other vocations, skilled and unskilled, we shall not be able to attract and hold teachers of first-class ability. Already fewer are preparing for teaching and more are leaving because of better prospects in other lines. If this is to continue, our schools are sure to suffer. The only remedy and safeguard is to make it worth while for promising young men and women to enter and remain in the teaching pro- fession.
119
The present demand for labor is so great in most lines of work that women are finding little difficulty in securing positions financially better than teaching. That a large num- ber are sceking these newer and better paid opportunities is evident from the fact that our normal schools are training fewer teachers, and college graduates in increasing numbers are entering other vocations.
Dr. Van Dyke has said that teaching is the poorest paid and best rewarded of all professions. His first statement is accepted as a fact by most teachers and other fair-minded people, and all are agreed that there are many satisfying re- wards in teaching, apart from the salary received. But how- ever satisfying these rewards may be, they are of no help in meeting financial obligations,-obligations that must be met promptly and without worry if the teacher is to be of the highest value to the school.
Teachers should expect to advance by certain stated in- crements until the maximum for that particular group of teachers is reached, if the teacher's work warrants such ad. vance; otherwise the increase should be withheld until proof of increasing efficiency is evident.
In presenting the request for increased salaries, statis- tics show the greatly increased cost of living expenses since 1914, and the corresponding decrease in the purchasing power of salaries. During the past twelve months the average cost of commodities has advanced to an unprecedented high level. The index of cost, according to Bradstreet, advanced 40 per cent. from January 1, 1917, to January 1, 1919, or a total of 117 per cent. since July 1, 1914. During this time teach- · ers' salaries have, on the average, advanced about 10 per cent. With this 10 per cent. advance, teachers must meet an advance of 117 per cent in living expenses. In view of these facts is there any fair-minded person who is unwilling to acknowledge the justice of the teachers' request for a reason- able salary schedule and the initial increase thus provided ?
Course of Study.
It is a well recognized fact that every successful school system must have a clearly defined course of study.
A well defined course of study is of great value in any school system because it gives definiteness to the efforts of the teacher and directs those efforts along the line of sys- tematic progress. Another great advantage resulting from a course of study is for the teachers, when they know that they are working in close association and along the same lines. They can compare work, and exchange ideas.
The Course of Study in our schools will tend to develop a thorough classifying of the pupils, and to eliminate a large
120
number of classes in the mixed schools. It is hoped that at the beginning of the next school year, we may have a basal printed course.
Changes in the Teaching Corps, 1918.
RESIGNATIONS.
Name
Position Month
Frank B. Taylor
Principal, Jonas Perkins School June
Catherine Griffin
Assistant at Jonas Perkins School May
Carroll E. Farrington
Principal at Hollis School July
Marie W. Goodhue
Seventh Grade teacher, Hollis
June
Katherine Denlinger
Third Grade teacher, Hollis June
Cora D. Smalley
Noah Torrey Seventh Grade teacher June
Phyllis Hauck
J. L. Williams
Chester A. Maddocks
Principal, Noah Torrey School
Magdalen McDuff
First Grade teacher, A. Lincoln First and Second Grade teacher
at the Penniman School
Aug. Oct.
L. Paul Chapin
Principal of High School
Marie L. Brewster
Commercial Teacher at High School Fifth and Sixth Grade teacher at the Penniman School
Sept.
Dolly B. Nerney
APPOINTMENTS.
Name
Alexander Thomson Alberto M. Eldridge Clara C. Hoopes Rosamond Cunniff
Jonas Perkins School, Principal
Hollis School, Grade five
Hollis School, Grade seven June
Isabel Brooks Harriet Holt
Noah Torrey School, assistant
Sept.
Fred A. Chapman
Emily A. Landry
Cora C. Coffill
Penniman School, Grade 1 and 2
Ruby Brav
Commercial Dept., High School
Lillie Littlefield
Penniman School, Grade 5 and 6
Oct. Oct.
James L. Jordan
High School, Principal
Helen Bartlett
Jonas Perkins, Grade six Nov.
Marjorie G.Cummings Hollis, Grades one to four
Nov.
School Nurse.
During the fall of 1918, when we were all disturbed about Spanish Influenza, the School Department authorized our nurse to make daily examinations of the pupils.
I am pleased to know that we have a nurse permanently
121
Oct.
Hollis School, Principal
Position Month Aug Aug. June
High School, History teacher Noah Torrey, Principal
Abraham Lincoln, Grade one
Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Sept.
Gertrude R. Troy
Noah Torrey Sixth Grade teacher History teacher, High School July Aug. Aug.
June
for the work. I feel that this is an important move for now we can take care of another side of the physical education far better than before. The nurse gives all of her time to this department during school hours.
The following, which is a part of the school nurse's report, shows what she is doing, and some of the results which are very satisfactory :
"The Superintendent of Schools made out a schedule on which days I was to visit the different schools. most of my time being spent in the school rooms observing and examining the children. The general inspection includes the skin for skin diseases, and pediculosis, conditions of teeth, the nose and throat for tonsils and adenoids, and in some cases the clothing. The general condition of the child is also noted, all cases needing attention are referred to the physicians.
"In May and June I examined the throats of all children in the grades and cards were sent to their respective parents. stating ailments. The teeth of the children in all grades were also inspected and cards also sent to parents.
"I have visited many homes in regard to children being treated for tonsils and adenoids, also in regard to eyes and ears. Of these thirty had tonsils and adenoids removed during the summer and early fall and twelve are now wearing glasses. Very much has been done in regard to teeth. I have taken 112 children to the Forsyth Dental Infirmary. There is a noticeable decrease in skin diseases and pediculosis this fall and winter, very few children being excluded from school with the latter. During November and December a few cases of scarlet fever and chicken-pox have developed in different parts of the town, but in no instance was there any danger of epidemic or undue exposure.
"The purchase of first aid cabinets by several of the schools has proved very useful in cases where children have received minor injuries in school yards while at play, and I am in hope that by the end of this term all schools will have purchased the same."
We cannot give in dollars and cents the value of the work done by Mrs. Atkins, but the fact that small things that lead to absence are done away with is alone worth all it costs the department for her services. I take pleasure in com- mending her work and the enthusiasm with which she does it.
Conditions in the Buildings.
All grammar school buildings are filled and are taxed to the limit of their capacity. Of all the different buildings the Penniman School is probably the most comfortable with regard to the number of pupils.
Last fall we had to open an extra room at the Hollis
122
School because the first, second, and fourth grades had more pupils than they could accommodate. The only additional expense was the extra teacher.
Judging from the present enrollment at the Abraham Lincoln School, we shall have to take some steps to relieve the situation there the coming school year. The only chance for transfers from that school is to the Jonas Perkins. This building is overcrowded. Now, practically every seat is taken at the Abraham Lincoln School.
The Noah Torrey School is over crowded, and next year even here there will probably be two grades without rooms. All this increase is in spite of the portable building which the Committee put into use in September, 1916. We shall have to transfer 60 pupils from this building the coming fall.
At the Jonas Perkins School we find things in a very serious condition. Last year we had about eighty pupils enter the seventh grade. Next year we may expect as many and probably more, due to the building upon Watson's Hill. We shall graduate about forty-five in June. Thus we may expect an increase of about forty pupils, as the seventh grade has an enrollment which will fill two rooms, whereas in the past, we have only had enough for one room. By promoting all the 8th grade pupils to the proposed new building we would be able to relieve the crowded conditions of the Grammar schools.
The most phenomenal feature connected with Public Schools in the United States in the last twenty-five years has been the development and growth of High Schools. The situation in Braintree is typical. The Braintree figures show that in 1893 there were seventy-one (71) pupils. In the twenty-five years following the construction of the present building the numbers increased from seventy-one (71) to two hundred and eighty-eight (288), (a two hundred and eighty-five (235) per cent. increase).
During the past ten years, to meet this increasing enroll- ment every nook of the present building, even with both sides of the assembly hall, has been converted into rooms to meet the demands. Many of these temporary provisions are highly unsatisfactory, as to light, air and space. The present assem- bly hall is entirely inadequate for general exercises, the facili- ties for chemical, physical, and botanical laboratories are not at all adequate or satisfactory. Although the changes in subject matter and method of teaching the sciences have been great and varied in the past fifteen years and although the demands of both the colleges and the technical schools for a wider and more complete training in sciences have been felt, vet the provisions made for the teaching of these subjects
123
-
when the present High School building was built have re- mained as originally installed. The absence of a proper science demonstration room involves a waste of time and effort in repeating exercises for different sections. The lack of recitation rooms of sufficient size makes two divisions of a class necessary where one should suffice. There is no room for a library or reading room. When one considers the demands put upon a building by an enrollment which has increased from seventy-one (71) to two hundred and eighty- eight (288), (two hundred and eighty-five (285) per cent.), it is not surprising that the character or size of the provisions then made should be insufficient for the present needs. My own observation, together with the report of the principal, as to the manner in which the work of the school is handi- capped makes it seem necessary that I should call to the atten- tion of your Board anew the advisability of immediate con- sideration of these needs, and the erection of a suitable build- ing as soon as convenient. In the High School we have a serious problem to meet next Fall as only 40 graduate and an entering class of 160 will give us over 400 pupils. This is more than the building will possibly accommodate.
Future Needs.
The time is at hand when the town should consider the erection of another school building. The enrollment in all of the grades and in the High School is increasing; the aver- age size of the grades is now 42 pupils, the smallest 28 and the largest 56; the High School numbers 288. The average membership of the schools has increased about 45% in the past ten years and the years to come will see a growth doubt- less as rapid. Most of the rooms now in use will accommo- date not more than 42 pupils without crowding, and six rooms have 53. No teacher can do her best work for the pupils when she has more than 35 or 40 pupils. There is no spare room in any building for an overflow class.
It is time for a comprehensive policy to be worked out and adopted that will not only meet the demands of the present but provide for future growth liberally. I suggest the following as the main features of such a policy :
In the first place I would recommend a new high school to accommodate the five upper years. The building should have accommodations for a Junior High School, including study hall and suitable classrooms for at least 260 pupils ; and for a Senior High School with study hall, commercial room, laboratory and class rooms for at least 275 pupils. Rooms should be provided also for manual training, domestic science, play rooms, teachers' room, office, and the necessary space for storage, heating and ventilating apparatus.
124
Junior and Senior High School.
A Junior High School will be of benefit to the town as far as accommodations are concerned. The scheme presup- poses one central school to take care of grades VIII and a Senior High School to take care of grades X to XII. If we could take the eighth grades out of the grammar schools we would have several rooms available for future growth. We would have the following numbers of rooms released in each building : Jonas Perkins 2, Noah Torrey 2, Penniman 1, Hollis 1.
The amount of room given at the other buildings by tak- ing out the eighth grade would be sufficient to take care of the districts for several years to come.
All this would require the erection of a new building, which must come this fall.
I believe such a program would be for the best educa- cional interest of the town. If we are to keep pace with the. times we must provide more and better facilities for the. upper grades, and I believe such a scheme as I have outlined above would do this.
Some of the reasons why the junior high school plan is recommended are briefly stated as follows :
(a) The plan favors a flexible course of study much better adapted to the individual needs of the pupils than the present one and allows promotion by subjects instead of by grades, so that a papil failing in one or more subjects is required to repeat those subjects only instead of the whole year's work.
(b) For most pupils the adolescent period begins at about the sixth or seventh year in school. This period marks the transition from childhood to youth and brings about many physical and mental changes which call for important changes in both the program and the government of the schools.
(c) The plan is most favorable to departmental teach- ing and enables pupils to begin the study of several subjects now confined to the High School, as soon as they are ready for them and at the time when they can master them most easily.
(d) The more flexible course of study offered under this plan enables the pupil to discover himself-his tastes and talents --- before entering the senior high school and thus pre- venting much loss of time and energy upon discouraging experiments after entering.
(c) Experience has fully proved that the serious diffi- culties in discipline, which are so troublesome in the seventh and eighth grades, very largely disappear under the junior
125
high school organization on account of the new and varied appeals to the interests of the pupils, the new methods of school work and the change in the character of the school government.
(f) Under this plan the transition from the matter and methods of the elementary school to those of the high school is gradual and in harmony with the changes going on in the pupils themselves, instead of abruptly as at present.
(g) Many children now graduate from the grammar school before they are fourteen years of age. Some of these do not wish to go to high school and their parents wish them to go only until they are are fourteen, when they can go to work. Such pupils enter the high school simply because the law requires them to be in school. They have little or no interest in their work, accomplish very little in their studies, often hinder the progress of their classes, are apt to play tru- ant and to leave school just as soon as the law will allow. This accounts for a large per cent. of the shrinkage of the freshman class. Under the proposed plan these pupils would be in the last year of the junior high school and about to graduate. They would be interested in their work, would be learning something of value, would be acquiring good habits, would be old enough to go to work at the end of the year, and their schooling would cost the city less than half as much as it does in the high school.
This is not a wholly new and untried plan for it has been in successful operation in some parts of this country for fifteen or twenty years. In 1916 there were 225 cities in the United States claiming to have junior high schools, 57 of them having such schools organized in unmistakable form. Since that time, many other cities have adopted the plan. Even conservative New England and Massachusetts are rapidly falling into line.
If this plan were adopted, the course of study for the eighth year and first year in high school would be recast and these years permanently organized into a junior high school, leaving years ten, eleven and twelve to constitute the senior high school.
The War.
The World War has affected the schools as it has every other part of American life. It has placed upon us new obli- grations, some temporary and some permanent in character. We have endeavored to continue school work as usual and at the same time to utilize the schools to help win the war and to utilize the lessons of the war in the training of our pupils.
A brief summary will probably suffice to show the main features of action taken :
126
(1) Several classes have been held in the High School under the general direction of one of the teachers in Red Cross work.
(2) Emphasis has been placed upon instilling patriot- ism through the Salute to the Flag, learning the "Star Spangled Banner" and "America," and Current History classes.
(3) Boys in the senior class of the High School who enlisted before graduation were awarded diplomas.
(4) Pupils have been listed for farm work and excused as opportunity offered.
(5) Food conservation pledge cards have been dis- tributed by pupils.
(6) The food conservation program is being followed in the high school cooking classes and lunch counter and has been made the subject of required work in English.
(7) In various grades pupils are working to produce material that may be of service in Red Cross work, also have collected a large number of peach stones, etc., for government use.
(8) Red Cross leaflets have been distributed by pupils.
(9) · Particular insistence has been placed upon economy in the use of supplies and upon the proper care of books.
(10) Liberty Loan advertising has been distributed by pupils and forty-four teachers and two hundred pupils own Liberty Loan Bonds.
(11) Thrift Stamps and War Savings Certificates have been placed on sale in all grades. There are 1434 pupils in the town holding stamps to the amount of $13,272.40.
(12) All of our teachers have been ascertained to be American citizens and all are loyal.
(13) A large number of our high and elementary school boys, during the Fall term, when labor was scarce and ruin of farm crops seemed certain, went and assisted a number of the farmers.
(14) The Commercial Department of the high school has assisted the Exemption Board in tabulating work. The teachers also assisted when the school was closed during the influenza epidemic in copying over 3000 questionnaires.
These are the principal things that can be noted. In addition it may be said that wherever opportunity has seemed to be open an attempt has been made to show the causes of the war with the obligations that it places upon all of us to correct any educational defects that the lessons of the war have made apparent.
127
Recommendations and Plans.
First, the town has taken a forward step in the establish- ment of a course in domestic science. This advance should be completed by the introduction of a course in manual training. The equipment needed for the beginning of such a course would cost about $800.
The reasons for the introduction of a course of manual training into our schools may be interesting at this point.
A. A large majority of our boys will earn their living in the mechanical pursuits of life rather than in the literary or clerical. The schools have been giving the boys training for the latter, but have allowed them to receive their training for the former in a haphazard way at home or to wait until they have ceased going to school before acquiring the skill necessary for success in this line of work. There is no good reason why this knowledge and skill cannot be gained at the time when it can be gained the most readily, that is, when the boy is at school.
B. Physiologists tell us that there is a close relation be- tween the development of the mental powers and the develop- ment of the physical powers and skill, and that a child's men- tal powers cannot develop to the best advantage unless his physical powers are being developed at the same time. This renders the training of the hands and muscles an essential part in the training of the brain.
C. An essential element in the rapid and satisfactory acquisition of knowledge and skill is that of interest. Unless a boy is interested in his work he progresses but slowly in his mastery of it. Wherever manual training has been intro- duced it has been the universal testimony that it has won- derfully increased the interest taken by boys in their work in school, and not only in the manual training work itself but in the other school work as well.
D. This State requires children to attend school until they are 14 years of age. Their attendance after that age is dependent upon their interest and ambition or that of their parents. In the ideal school system, every child would desire to continue his attendance at school after he is 14 provided his circumstances would allow it. The more nearly our coun- try can approach to that ideal condition when every child as he reaches the compulsory age limit wishes to continue his education and every child has such an opportunity, the great- er will be that country's prosperity and security. The active child longs to be doing something and to learn how to do things. Unless he can see the connection between what he is getting at school and the power to do things, he will leave school at the first opportunity. In manual training is furn-
128
ished the link between the theoretical knowledge of our schools and the practical work of the world.
E. Many persons think that manual training would fit all who take the course to be carpenters. Its work is broader than that. Its object is so to train hand and head that the hand will obey the head rapidly and intelligently and thus the pupils may be fitted and trained for a start in any mechanical or technical employment.
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.