USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Chelmsford > Town annual report of Chelmsford 1923 > Part 8
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5. CITIZENSHIP. We are continuously emphasizing the ideals of good citizenship from the first grade through the High School. We endeavor all the time to train the child to appreciate his opportunities and responsibilities as a citizen even though he does not enjoy the rights of suffrage under our laws until he is twenty-one. Actually taking part in the organization and management of the clubs or associations of his fellows gives him the best of training whereby he may understand the true function of government. We believe the chief aim of all our education is toward a stronger, better citizenship and realize that our instruction fails unless it carries over into the actual life of the pupil outside the school.
6. LEISURE. In different studies of youth and the gang instinct several writers have told how boys and girls use their spare time and have made it clear that they must have their amusements. If children do not find their pleasures in wholesome activities, it is principally because they have never been taught the difference between wholesome leisure and destructive idle- ness, and their desires and habits, undirected, lead them into harmful activities. A clear function of our schools is to teach pupils by means of organized play.
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"ORGANIZED PLAY"
bviates crime
P romotes health
R estrains the bully
L imits accidents
G enerates good feeling
A wakens the spirit
A ssists in discipline
Y okes social elements."
N ullifies selfishness
I nculcates self-control
Z ests Citizenship
E ncourages the timid
D evelops the body
More playgrounds are needed for the youth of our town. Several of our schools lack sufficient ground for play activities. Where this is true, more land should be taken by the town for development as playgrounds and for the gradual installation of playground apparatus. This might be a very worthy object for our Parent-Teachers' Association or other Improvement Associations of the town to work for.
7. ETHICAL CULTURE. Our public schools for their last objective should be concerned with the training of a strong ethical character. This is wholly separate from the purpose of religious instruction which is dis- tinctly a function of the church. However, it does have to do with a moral emphasis in education which will help greatly to make better workers. employers. merchants and professional men and women. The ethics of business life and good citizenship today demands that much stress be laid upon common honesty. Such ideas as : "An honest day's wage for an honest day's work"; "Honesty is the best policy"; "Good measure, pressed down, running over," etc., need be emphasized again and again. Drill upon such lines and precepts, reinforced by study of strong personalities and great moral leaders in the world of thought or community life of today will prove a mighty force in solving many of the great social problems that are facing the nations today.
ATTENDANCE
The per cent. of attendance, 92.77 for all schools for last year is an excellent showing when we consider the severity of the winter and the deep snows which blocked our highways for two or three months. From an in- spection of last year's registers, we find most of our schools had compara- tively few cases of tardiness.
Good regular attendance and punctuality on the part of all pupils is a fairly good barometer of the kind of work any school is doing. When pupils are regular in attendance and are in their places promptly, one may be reasonably sure their attitude toward the school is business-like and the work of the school will be promptly and more efficiently done. The co-opera- tion of parents will do much to make this condition possible.
TEACHERS
We lost through resignation last spring, three efficient teachers, Mrs. Doris A. Sampson, commercial teacher in the High School; Miss Katie D. Greenleaf, teacher of grade four at the Centre, and Miss Marguerite McGuinness, teacher of grades one and two at the Highland. Miss C. Edith McCarthy, Miss Doris E. Hardy and Miss Lottie M. Agnew were elected respectively to take the places of the above teachers, and are teaching and
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managing their schools successfully. Mrs. Frances McKinley is continuing as substitute in grade five at the Princeton St. school for Miss May Sleeper, who is on leave of absence; and Miss Elsie Burne, continues as substitute for Miss Marion Adams, who is also on leave of absence. All our teachers are thoroughly efficient in their respective positions. Their scholarship is excellent and their understanding and practice of the most recent investiga- tions of correct pedagogical practice is especially good. They have taken kindly any criticisms or suggestions we have offered and there is a fine spirit of co-operation among them. All they need is strong backing by all school officials and by all our people in general.
I have been especially pleased by the splendid professional spirit I have found on the part of most of them, as is evidenced by the fact that some of them attended summer schools last summer for additional professional train- ing. Besides, twenty-two of the elementary teachers out of a total of thirty- two are voluntarily studying with me a series of Problems in the Psychology of the Common School Branches by Dr. Clifford Woody.
Our teachers have requested an increase in salary and a questionnaire was sent out to other superintendents in December to get information relative to the minimum and maximum salary and the amount of annual increase that was paid in their towns. The averages for the tabulations of the returns from twenty-nine towns, with populations varying from 4,000 to 8,000, including Chelmsford with a population of 5,682, indicate that our salary schedule is somewhat lower than the average for those towns. It is our opinion that we should not be satisfied with merely paying as much as the average for these towns, but if we can afford it, we should pay somewhat better than the average. We must hold those teachers that have proved their worth for a period of several years rather than to permit them to be enticed, by a little larger salary, to some other town. It is poor policy to allow our schools to be mere training schools for other towns no better able to pay than our own town.
JANITORS
This report would indeed be incomplete if we failed to mention how much we appreciate the excellent service of practically all the janitors of our school buildings. Even though the Committee is fully aware of the great importance of this branch of the school service to the physical, and indirectly the educational welfare of our pupils and teachers, yet it is our opinion that many of our citizens fail to give them the recognition that is their due. However, we know that most of them take real pride in their work, and are ever thoughtful of the welfare of those pupils and teachers, who in a certain sense are in their care. It is a part of our knowledge that several of our janitors give attention to their fires in the late hours of the night, and the "wee" hours of the morning, during extremely cold spells, that there may be no bursting of pipes and that the schoolrooms may be of the approved temperatures the next day. We dislike to make special men- tion of names, but it is after an experience of twenty years in school work that we have found the "perfect janitor" in the person of Mr. C. O. Robbins of the High School. The Committee and the citizens of the town may be assured that so long as he is on the job, the High School will be kept more immaculate than the majority of our own homes.
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SCHOOL BUILDINGS
We do not wish to use any space for a full discussion of this all important subject as we believe the Committee and the citizens of the town are fully aware of the needs of the town in this direction. However, we do wish to call your attention again to the excellent recommendation of our predecessor in his report of last year, which called for two new buildings, one at the Centre and one at the North, with a reorganization of the school work to provide the Junior High program for grades seven, eight and nine. This would not only relieve the present congestion in our upper grades at both the Centre and the North but would also relieve the congestion which is bound to occur within a few years in the new High School building, which is already filled nearly to capacity. We believe the Committee should make a careful survey of our school property in order to develop a progressive building program that will take care of the school population for many years to come.
Two additional rooms are already urgently needed to provide proper school facilities at the East. An adequate and efficient school system is one, if not the best investment that a town can possess. Good schools usually increase the population of a town to such an extent that they do not increase the tax rate. In the end, they are paid for by the relative increase in property held. We recommend that the Committee take the proper measure to bring this matter before the voters at the time of the annual town meeting, to see what action they will take toward the erection of two additional rooms which will satisfy the most modern requirements of such a structure.
There are still several of our buildings which need more or less repair- ing and in a majority of them electric lights should be installed at the first opportunity.
In closing, I wish to assure the Committee how greatly I appreciate your wise counsel and loyal support and the excellent co-operation of parents and teachers in making a successful school year.
Respectfully submitted,
C. H. WALKER.
. Chelmsford, Mass., January 12, 1924.
REPORT OF HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL
The school has enrolled this year 207 pupils. This enrollment shows a small increase in the last year. The following table indicates the steady growth of the school in numbers over a period of years.
September, 1918.
164 Pupils
66 1919. 156
1920. 161
66
66
1921.
185
6
1922.
203 66
66
1923. 207
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The registration by classes at the present date is as follows :
Class
Boys
Girls
Totals
Senior
12
21
33
Junior
13
34
47
Sophomore
15
28
43
Freshman
30
40
70
Post Graduates
0
4
4
70
127
197
The school is a Class A School, as ranked by the State Department of Education. It is approved by the New England College Certificate Board, and has been granted the certificate privilege by the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Graduates who attain the B scholarship grade, and have satis- factorily met the requirements of the institutions of higher learning may enter the normal schools and colleges without examination. The continu- ance of this privilege depends upon the record made in the college during the freshman year by our graduates who enter by certificate. So far, the record of our school has been satisfactory.
In connection with this certificate privilege, I wish to point out that the attainment of a B mark is not the only requirement demanded of the pupils in our high school. The colleges place the entire responsibility on the principal of the school. The principal may withhold this privilege at any time when in his judgment the pupil is not sufficiently prepared to attend a particular college. There is no appeal from the decision of the principal, and in cases where the privilege is refused the pupil must take the entrance examination.
I have been informed that by vote of the Committee at some time previous to my coming here, the custom of giving diploma credit for music and drawing was abolished. I am very strongly persuaded that diploma credit for these two phases of the school work should be restored. I also recommend that diploma credit be given for work in the Glee Clubs and school orchestra.
One of the most significant trends of modern secondary education is the emphasis placed upon extra-curricular activities. High schools everywhere are found to agree that these organizations have functions of very great value in the lives of all students. The following organizations are functioning very prosperously in our high school.
School Orchestra Girls' Glee Club
Boys' Glee Club Radio Club
French Club Commercial Club
Dramatics
Ranger Organization
Sewing Club
Home Nursing and Care of the Sick Athletic Association Art Club
Class Organizations
Shelving has been placed on the walls of Room 5, and a very satisfactory beginning for a school library has been made. We have received some very valuable additions in books for this library. The most notable is the "New
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International Encyclopaedia" of thirty volumes, and also some special and technical volumes for reference work in science, history, and economics. One hundred and twenty volumes have been borrowed from the Adams Library and placed in this room for use by students.
The following changes in the curricula of the school have been made. Gregg Shorthand has been introduced in the third year and is expected by another year to supplant the Pitman stenography. College preparatory Algebra is being taught in the second year and Geometry will be offered in the third year. Eventually, the work in mathematics should embrace the following : 1st year, General Mathematics ; 2nd year, Algebra; 3rd year, Geometry ; 4th year, Advanced Mathematics, including Solid Geometry and Trigonometry whenever there is a sufficient number of pupils calling for them. The United States History and Civics, which is required by state law of all pupils receiving a diploma, has been shifted from the fourth year to the third year and a course in Problems of American Democracy is being offered for the fourth year.
The following table shows the registration of pupils according to their election of courses of study.
Year
1 2
3
4
5
Academic or College Preparatory
19
10
10
14
Commercial
38
16
27
13
General
8
10
8
3
Technical
8
12
5
5
Post Graduate Work
4
The principal of the school took courses in Secondary School Adminis- tration and Supervision at Harvard College last summer. Mr. Coates, sub- master, took courses in Administration and Science at the same school, and Miss Harmon spent the summer in study at the University of Maine, specializing in Commercial subjects.
In order that our school may function well over a period of years, the importance of retaining our best teachers cannot be too strongly emphasized. It may be an economic gain to allow a teacher to leave the service of the Chelmsford schools when it is a question of one or two hundred dollars increase in salary. Whenever this is done, please bear in mind that the boys and girls, the innocent parties in the transaction, pay, not in dollars and cents, but in arrested mental development and educational progress. Fur- thermore, the minimum salary should be such that whenever it becomes necessary to replace a teacher, one with some experience could be obtained. Chelmsford High School, with its present size, should not be a training school for people graduating from college with no teaching experience. Not only do the larger cities and towns pay more, but even towns of the same size and same ability to pay, have a higher salary schedule. The salaries of women teachers in a few of the towns of eastern Massachusetts are as follows :
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Town
Salary
Town
Salary
Wellesley
$1,750-$2,150
Westboro
$1,200-$1,600
Abington
1,500- 1,800
Grafton
1,200- 1,600
Mansfield
1,400- 1,900
No. Andover
1,200- 1,600
Fairhaven
1,350- 2,000
Billerica
1,200- 1,600
Winchendon
1,300- 1,800
Dartmouth
1,200- 1,500
Wareham
1,300- 1,700
Hudson
1,200- 1,500
Lexington
1.200- 1,800
Milbury
1,200- 1,500
Franklin
1,200- 1,800
Foxboro
1,150- 1,550
Walpole
1,200- 1,700
Chelmsford
1,100- 1,400
Easton
1,200- 1,700
Uxbridge
1,000- 1,550
Amherst
1,200- 1,600
In a number of these towns the salary of the men employed is larger than is paid by Chelmsford.
In a school the size of our high school there should be a fixed salary schedule containing a stated maximum and minimum salary with an annual increase of at least $100 until the maximum has been reached.
In many larger schools, salary increases are determined by a so-called merit system. The principal of this high school has at the present time ample opportunity to observe the work of all the teachers in the school. He sees them at work every day for forty weeks of the school year. He has first-hand information concerning the ability of each teacher to handle the classes, to discipline properly, and to teach the individual properly. He is familiar with their attitude towards the work, their scholarship, and the amount of professional improvement they are making. The principal's esti- mate of those teachers deserving a salary increase and the amount of such increase should be final.
At the present time, every effort is being made to keep our pupils in school. Many pupils leave from economic necessity, or by removal from town. A certain number leave because of failure. It is the aim of the present administration to prevent all possible loss for this latter reason. Pupils who are not succeeding in their work are followed up in an effort to discover, if possible, the cause of their failure, after which every effort is made to remove the cause if it is our power. Frequent reports are sent to the home, and a great deal of time is given by all the teachers to give individual assistance to the pupils who need it. Teachers are instructed to make every effort to discover those pupils who need this help, and any pupil who desires special help can always obtain it for the asking. However, I wish to make it clear, that due to the limitations of our curriculum, there is nothing much we can do for the pupil who is not interested in either the academic or commercial course.
The chief cause of failure in high school is the lack of systematic home study. No pupil can do justice to the work of any year without at least two hours of home study. Outside interests consume much time and energy. In a great many cases, interest in the work of the school is crowded out of the mind by these outside affairs. Social affairs carried to the extreme, business employment, or anything else that prevents school being the chief business of the child during the school period of his life must necessarily interfere with success in school work.
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It is becoming every year more and more apparent to parents that their children need an education. Many parents are depriving themselves in order that their children may remain in school. Yet I find upon investigation many sad cases where these same parents are making no provision for any systematic supervision of home study. In some cases, it is even a matter of pride that the pupil is so bright that he or she never brings home any books to study. It would be more to the point if many parents would ascertain by consultation with the teachers whether their children were really receiving an education, or just merely attending school. Until our schools are so organized that the boy and girl spends eight hours of his day in the school house, preparing his work under supervision of teachers, the home must not shirk its responsibility. I cannot emphasize too strongly the responsi- bility of insuring satisfactory work in school and that this responsibility in most cases rests with the home and not with the school.
Standardized tests of mental ability, now being used in all up-to-date school systems, have been successfully introduced into our high school. We have used these tests for two years, and, have pased somewhat through the experimental stage of applying them to the administration. These tests are especially helpful in making ability groupings in the large classes of fresh- man and sophomore English. We find that we can much more easily and quickly determine the weak members where more attention is necessary. Also, it is our belief that all pupils can, by means of these tests, be placed where they can accomplish their best work.
It is the intention of the principal to make an early introduction of standardized achievement tests in all courses where such tests are available. At the present time we are making use of standardized tests in the Gregg shorthand, and in the work in English Composition. We find, that in the results indicated by both the mental tests and the achievements tests, our pupils compare very favorably with pupils in other schools.
I recommend that diplomas granted by the school state nothing more than the fact that a pupil has achieved the satisfactory accomplishment of a high school course of study. The various courses of study, as organized and taught, are not of sufficient difference in difficulty or context to insure the belief on the part of any group of pupils that they have received a diploma of greater value than that received by their classmates. As a matter of fact, all the commercial pupils receive instruction in some of the so-called academic studies, and all studying academic studies could well profit by in- struction in typewriting, stenography, and other so-called commercial subjects.
The practice of awarding honor parts at graduation has been abolished in many schools. The State Manual for high schools recommends that it be eliminated from the administration of all schools. We have, at the rear of the school building, an ideal location for an outdoor pageant or other form of graduation which could be substituted for the present graduation exercises.
I recommend that the problem of a more extended program in physical education be given all possible consideration by the superintendent of schools and the school committee. At the present time, we have only the baseball in the spring months which gives systematic training to a few pupils. The best form of physical education is attained by a program which insures par- ticipation by all the student body in some form of exercise or play. The outstanding difficulty in the way of an extended program is lack of a hall
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or gymnasium, the shortness of the present school session, and a lack of teachers trained for this work.
The school took part last spring in the All School Track Meet fostered by the State Department of Education. Over eighty per cent. of the two upper classes entered the meet, and a creditable showing was made by Chelmsford.
This year, an experiment was made in holding the Junior party in the afternoon instead of the evening, as formerly. I have received favorable comments from parents. Some have expressed a desire that this practice might be extended to all social functions of the school.
During the past five years the high school has been without telephone service. The efficiency of many phases of our work is hampered consider- ably. I have repeatedly called attention to the many ways in which a tele- phone renders a distinct service to a school. We are at present serving over two hundred pupils who in all their activities and considered with their parents make up a considerable constituency. It is my opinion that there is not another high school of the same size in the state that is expected to attempt to do business without a telephone.
I wish to express through this report, my gratitude to those citizens of the town who by the fortune of residence happened to be neighbors of the school, for their unfailing courtesy in throwing open their homes to the pupils, the manager of the various student organizations, the teachers, and the principal of the school in order that the business of the school may be conducted over their telephone. I feel sure that a careful consideration of the many exigencies arising in connection with our school, whereby it be- comes necessary for the pupils, teachers, and principal to invade the private homes of these kind and considerate neighbors, will make apparent the necessity of installing a phone at the school.
I would thank all who may read this report and consider it of value. To all who may be pleased with the progress indicated, and to all who may agree or disagree with the recommendations made herein, I would extend my sincere desire to co-operate for the best interests of the boys and girls placed under my charge in the school.
Respectfully submitted,
LESTER F. ALDEN
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GRADUATION EXERCISES, CHELMSFORD HIGH SCHOOL
CLASS OF 1923 Town Hall, North Chelmsford, Wednesday Evening, June 20, 1923
Class Motto : "Success Awaits at Labor's Gate" Class Flower : Daisy and Iris Class Colors : Lavender and Silver
-
PROGRAM
March-Sabre and Spurs Sousa
Selection-Battleship Connecticut
Fulton
HIGH SCHOOL ORCHESTRA
Invocation
REV. EVERETT E. JACKMAN
Music-When the Roses Bloom Again
Adams
HIGH SCHOOL CHORUS
Salutatory Essay-Thoughts on Tutankhamen
FINIAN QUINN
Essay-Conservation
MARJORIE SCOBORIA
Music -- Starry Night
Densmore
GIRLS' GLEE CLUB
Essay-The End of the Trail
WILMA PERKINS
Selection-La Belle Gavotte Granfield
HIGH SCHOOL ORCHESTRA
Presentation of Class Gift
MADELINE BEATRICE LUPIEN, President 1923
Acceptance DONALD BILLINGS HOWARD, President 1924
Class Ode
Gladys A. Francis
Music by Margaret E. Robbins
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Music-Song of the Armorer
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