USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Ipswich > Town annual report of Ipswich 1915 > Part 9
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The fourth grade using the old method did three examples in subtraction, A fourth grade using the practice pads did sev- en examples in subtraction.
In addition the classes which used the practice pads were substantially up to the recognized standard of ability in June. While the grades using the old methods were still below the standard.
In view of the fact that the method of teaching speed and accuracy in arithmetic which is now in vogue takes on the whole quite as much time as the method experimepted with last year. And since the classes using the old method did not progress as fast as did those using the Courtis Practice Pads it seems fair to assert that we could improve our method of teaching arithmetic by adopting the Courtis Practice Pads for the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades.
What has been done to suggest improvements in teaching of arithmetic should also be done for the other subjects in the curriculum.
Division of Teaching in the High School:
In close connection with the course of study and methods of instruction is the problem of the expenditure within the High School. The following facts form an administrative problem which I think should be more satisfactorily solved by the open- ing of the school in September,
From this table we get the following costs (the cost per pu- pil per period) of the various subjects:
Subject
Instruction Cost
Latin
.05505
French
.04193
German
.0521
47
DIVISION OF TEACHING.
English
.03091
Ancient History
.03426
United States History
.0231
Modern History
.03258
Current Events
.0669
Civics
.03626
Economics
.04049
Science
.04629
Physics
.0966
Chemistry
.130
Mathematics
.030587
Plane Geometry
.036817
Commercial English
.015545
Commercial Geography
.02829
Commercial Arithmetic
.0244
Commercial Science
.02
Bookkeeping
.02895
Typewriting
.0283
You will notice that there has been a wide variation of cost between the several subjects. The subject which cost the most for instruction is chemistry at .138 for each pupil's recitation. The subject which costs the least is Commercial English at .015 for each pupil's recitation. The average cost for each pupil's recitation in High School is .0432.
These subjects cost substantially more than the average: Latin, German, Current Events, Physics, Chemistry. The fol- lowing cost substantially less than the average: Commercial Geography, Commercial Ariihmettc, Commercial English, Book- keeping and Typewriting.
Stating the matter in another way I find that a second year student in the Commercial Course is given 7.4c. worth of in- struction a day, while the second year pupil in the College
48
SINGLE GRADES.
Course receives 15c. worth and the Scientific Student is given 25c. worth of instruction.
Stating the matter in still another way we find that the sal- ary expense of teaching the commercial course is about half that of teaching the other courses. There seems to be some justice in the statement that in comparison with the college pre- paratory and scientific courses we value the commercial course too cheaply, or the converse that the college preparatory and and scientific courses are too expensive in comparison with our commercial course.
The evidence submitted above justifies this specific recom- mendation: That for the next school year beginning in Septem- ber we drop one teacher whose interest centers around the col- lege and scientific courses and add one commercial teacher. Single Grades in the Elementary Schools:
When the new building is turned over to our use we will have sufficient class rooms to maintain single grades throughout the system. I shall not in this report argue the advantage of single grades over double grades which are now customary from the fourth grade down. This point was covered in my report last year. The following scheme is thoroughly workable and seems the best available at present:
First Grade: Wainwright, Cogswell, Warren Street, Port- able, Payne.
Second Grade: Wainwright, Cogswell, Warren Street, Bur- ley, Payne.
Third Grade: Dennison, Payne, Burley.
Fourth Grade: Dennison, Burley.
Fifth Grade: Winthrop, Burley.
Sixth Grade: Winthrop, two rooms.
Seventh and Eighth Grades: Winthrop.
In re-arranging the grades two of the buildings which are to be used for lower grades have no adequate sanitary arrange-
49
EXTENSION OF SCHOOL ACTIVITY.
ments. May I point out the necessity of installing modern con- veniences in the Cogswell and Payne schools?
Extension of the Schools' Activity:
We shall extend the schools' influence beyond the present limits of actual class room instruction to the hours of play, home study and leisure time of the pupils.
This extension should be gradual, slow and steady. It should not reach its full development for at least five years. A positive and substantial beginning should be made at once. In inaugurating this extension work we should understand the un- derlying nature of it. We should appreciate the deeper forces at work in modern life which made such a developement of public education wise and we should ·understand where it will lead us. We should have from the very beginning a clearly de- tailed, organized plan of the whole movement.
The basic notion of the extension idea is this: The public school as such should provide legitimate methods of engaging the interests, energy and time of the child not only in school hours but during all his time which is not definitely taken up in his home life, private social life, religious life and work. This means that the school in some form and manner will be inter- ested in the child's summer vacations, his Saturdays, his late af- ternoons when the class room work is through, and his even- ings, all of this time he is not under the influence of home, church or work.
It means that public education will offer definite advantages for mental and physical improvement, opportunities for whole- some play and recreation not only to children actually in the regular day school but to all persons of school age and to all others who desire such mental and physical improvements and such opportunities for wholesome play and recreation.
Concretely this will mean in part the providing. of play grounds equipped with apparatus suitable for children of differ-
50
EXTENSION OF SCHOOL ACTIVITY.
ent ages and the provision of a play leader or director. It will mean the inauguration of summer activities such as will engage the interests of persons from six to eighteen. It will mean the stimulating of debating clubs, musical clubs, wireless clubs, glee clubs, to furnish proper amusement during the late after- noon and evenings during the school year. It will mean en- larging the present evening school and conducting game rooms, story hour features and the like for young children and study as well as club rooms for the older pupils. Other plans may be presented for the large number of young people now entirely beyond the influence of the school.
Whether or not the public school should begin to extend its influence along the lines suggested above is not a matter of argument. It is a question of principle of what we conceive as the function of public education. If our full duty is limited to keeping the conventional school we should drop the matter here. If we execute our full duty only when we influence the youth as much as possible, then the extension of the school in- fluence as sketched above is the natural, logical and necessary developement of public education.
In all seriousness I wish to raise the following questions: Shall the direct influence of the school be restricted to the nar- row and ineffective limits of the present school day -five hours a day, five days a week, thirty-six weeks a year -one-third of the active life of the child? Should the influence of public ed- ucation be confined to the school room? Does the responsibil- ity of the school cease the minute the child passes beyond the school door? It may have been well enough to thus restrict the influence of the school in pastoral Ipswich, in the nineteenth century. But this conception of the province of the school may not be well enough for industrial Ipswich of 1916. There have of late grown up many influences which play upon and influence the children of today which were absent even in the days of
51
EXTENSION OF SCHOOL ACTIVITY.
Horton. Moreover, many of our children leave school early and work not upon their fathers' farms as in the past, but in the mills where the work is monotonous and hardly tends to devel- op the child as did their occupations in the past. In addition over fifty per cent. of our children in the first five grades are more conversant with the ideals of Poland and Greece than they are are of those of America. If the public school does not transform them into thorough going Americans, then what will? This fact is also of serious moment. Many of our children have both parents working in the mill all day long. Hence the home life of what will soon be the majority of our childsen does not play the part in training youth as did the home life when the school's influence was properly limited to the short school day.
These are some of the considerations which should force you to consider the advisability of extending the influence of the schoot still further beyond the limits of the class room. For this extension of the school's influence has already begun in good earnest. Last summer we established a school garden, thus providing healthy interests for over sixty children during the dull idle hours of vacation, and in our night school we are educating ninety-three men and women in commercial subjects and about two hundred of alien birth in English and citizen- ship.
I think we understand the seriousness of this problem, at least we have informed ourselves about it. For we have al- ready the Russell Sage Foundation's complete study of the whole situation. This report has produced practically legal ev- idence that there is a fatal gap between what the child's life ought to be and what in many cases it actually is.
This report also furnishes a definite program by which this gap may be bridged at a minimum cost. Parts one, two, three. four and five covering pages seven to seventy-one deal with the whole situation in dependable fashion. We should not try to
52
RECOMMENDATIONS AND BUDGET.
develop this added function of the school too rapidly. We should go slowly in the matter. The program for this year should be as follows: Maintenance of Commercial Evening School, maintenance of an Evening School, maintenance of a School Garden in the summer time, equipping the Playground at the North Green, the Cogswell school and the Public Play- ground with simple apparatus for young children. The mainte- nance of a game and study room for grammar school boys aud girls in one of our school rooms three nights a week during the school year. These provisions I trust will help to give to these of our constituents who need it healthy, valuable interests out- side of the regular school hours.
Summary:
My recommendations for the educational policy of the year 1916 are:
First: The efforts of the school department should be di- rected mainly toward the educational phase of the schools.
Second: A new course of study for the grammar grades should be produced.
Third: We should attempt to improve the methods of in- struction.
Fourth: There should be a re-distribution of the teaching force in the High School.
Fifth: Single grades should be established in the elemen- tary schools.
Sixth: The school's influence should be slightly extended beyond the limits of the class room.
Budget:
I now pass to my last recommendation which concerns it- self for the budget for 1916.
We will need for the present year $43,272
A cut in this estimate would be exceedingly embarrassing. For we have not the means to offset a cut which we possessed
53
RECOMMENDATIONS AND BUDGET.
last year .. It should in fairness be remembered that last year we exchanged many old books which had been collecting for years. This year we have no old books to exchange. Thus the text book expense cannot be lessened. Again, we have bought English and other Language books which the classes will use till January only. Thus for our class work the last half of the year provision must be made. Had our 1915 appropriation not been cut we should have purchased books for the entire school year.
You should also realize the danger of a cut because of the fact that the new teachers in the High School will this year have to be paid for ten months. Out of last year's appropria- tion the additional expense of the proper numher of teachers did not begin until September. This year it begins in Jan- uary.
Most of the charges of the school department are fixed charges. It costs about $3.70 a pupil a year to provide proper text books and class supplies. It cost a fixed amount for insur- ance and for heat. The only divisions of this budget which can be raised or lowered are the teachers' salaries and the janitor service.
The cost of janitor service is cut extremely low at present. It cost over two dollars a room per month less for this service than previously. A further reduction would mean insufficient service.
You will notice that the only substantial increase is in teachers' salaries, This is accounted for by two facts: (A.) The teaching force in the High School was enlarged and an increase of substantially one hundred pupils in the grades made. Two additional teachers in this division were necessary. This year we have paid the additional teachers for four months service since they began work in September. In 1916 we must pay them for ten months. (B.) The second fact which
54
APPROPRIATION FOR 1916.
makes a larger appropriation for teachers necessary is that many of our teachers will very properly leave if their usefulness is not recognized by way of a fair increase in salary.
Now if it is good sense to keep a teacher one year or two at the most, and when she fully understands let her go and break in a new one, if this constant changing of teachers is good policy, some reduction in the appropriation is possible. We have a splendid corps of teachers on the whole. They work well together and they are conversant with the work here. It would mean a serious interruption of good teaching service to allow a wholesale re-organization at this time.
I do not think it necessary to try to persuade the town to vote the recommended budget. But I do think it is our duty to see to it that it is clearly understood that a cut will mean a less effective education for 1068 children.
I wish to also point out that the expense of public educa- tion compared with other expenses of the town is not excessive.
Our Needs Itemized According to a Sheet Prepared by the School Committee are:
General expense
$ 2500 00
Teachers salaries
25000 00
Texts and supplies
4065 00
Janitors
2500 00
Fuel and Light
3000 00
Buildings and Grounds
2000 00
Furniture and Furnishings
1000 00
Transportation
1950 00
Rent
00
Diplomas, etc.
115 00
Insurance 342 00
55
APPROPRIATION FOR 1916.
Other Expenses
800 00
Total
$43,272 00
It should be noted that this amount will not have to be raised entirely by taxation. The School Department will turn into the town treasury approximately $4,000. This will require about $39,000. to be raised by taxation.
Respectfully submitted,
Frederic B. Knight.
1
REPORT OF THE SCHOOL PHYSICIAN.
-
Department of Medical Inspection and Hygiene:
Dr. George E. MacArthur, J Miss Martha Stewart,
School Physician, School Nurse.
To the School Committee and Superintendent of Schools:
The work of this department begun in 1907 has increased in scope and magnitude each year. During that period this type of work has grown throughout the Commonwealth from a condition that just touched the outer edges of the problems in- volved, into a system that is rapidly approaching uniformity and efficiency. |It is still in the evolutionary stage, but its growth and development are in the right direction and along the lines now heing pursued by the State Department of Health in what may be termed Preventive Medicine, to which Medical Sehools, State and National Medical Societies and other organizations " interested in public health problems, are devoting more and more attention each year.
This department has watched carefully the growth and changes that have taken place, and has as far as possible under all the circumstances worked along these lines.
All industrial centers are now considering the problem of High Infant Mortality. It is higher in industrial than in other communities. It is high enough in Ipswich so that the State Department of Health has tried here through an exhibit and lectures to arouse that community interest without which
57
REPORT OF SCHOOL PHYSICIAN.
efficient community work along, these lines cannot be done.
By the time the child is past that age where he is beyond the special dangers that menace infants, he is of school age; and at that point comes under the observation of this depart- ment; so that it can be easily seen how important a department of this kind becomes, providing it is doing intelligent and effi- cient work.
Annual examinations and records of each pupil have been made since the beginning of the work. As time went on, these records became voluminous and were of little value for purposes of comparison in individual pupils because of lack of classified tabulation, which is necessary to give a pupil's health and de- velopment record covering a period of several years. In 1914 a card record for each pupil covering the period from the first grade through the last year in the High School was adopted, The data for the last two years is now on file and shows at a glance what the pupil's condition was each year. It shows an excellent growth and development of physique upon the aver- age, and it is easy by reference to it to show what the mortality rate has been among school children. From these records and other sources of information available, only a single death has been found to have occurred among the school children regis- tered since September, 1914. Not a single case of tuberculosis has been revealed by the examinations during that period, ex- cept a few cases of enlarged glands which may be of tubercu- lous origin of an attenuated form, and which have not affected the health of the individual child. Not a case of tuberculosis has been reported to the Health Department of the town during that period among children registered in the public schools.
The examinations have shown quite a number of children who are anæmic or under-nourished. Such cases are always potential possibilities for the development of tuberculosis if they become infected. It is known that some children live in sur-
58
REPORT OF SCHOOL PHYSICIAN.
roundings where such infection is possible; and that fact shows where the follow-up work carried on by the school nurse is sure to be of great value in the early recognition of symptoms should such children become infected.
The school nurse is to have office hours at certain intervals at which under-nourished and anæmic children are to report and have their conditions noted and checked up with their ex- amination records. These visits to the nurses are to be carried out by the teachers who are to see that the pupils report to the nurse. The nurse in turn will report to the school physician anything she may observe which she thinks needs his attention. The present school physician is a member of the Health De- partment, and all the resources of that department are there- fore immediately available to aid and supplement the work which this department is trying to carry out. Taken altogether, efficient health work ought to be accomplished by these two departments working together.
One of the most valuable adjuncts to this work is the part performed by Miss Stewart, the school nurse. Her enthusiasm and sympathetic devotion to those whom she serves are known to all. Her service is made possible by the sympathetic co-op- eration of the Directors of the Coburn Charitable Association, which organization has done so much in other directions for community welfare.
One feature of the work now being carried out is a course of lectures on Physiology and Hygiene which is being given once a week in the High School by the school physician. This course deals with the important organs of the body and their functions; proper diet, food values, ventilation, sunlight, drain- age and other subjects of hygienic importance which are things every child should be taught in order that he may preserve his health and develop a healthy body, and also a healthy mind. This is in accord with what both the State Department of Health
59
REPORT OF SCHOOL PHYSICIAN.
and the State Department of Education are emphasizing in the literature they are sending out.
Massachusetts stands well at the front among the states where progressive health and educational work is being done. The United States as a whole is behind the nations of Europe in this joint work. The writer had the opportunity several years ago to observe how this kind of joint work was being most effi- ciently done in two of the European countries now engaged in war; and it is easy for one who has observed to understand how that efficiency helped in preparedness for the conditions resulting from that terrible war.
The field hospital work being done by the nations now at war tells the story. It is a most marvelous story of efficiency in saving lives among the sick and wounded, and is graphically told by the correspondents of the Journal and the Medical As- sociation who are observing the work at the field and base hos- pitals. All of this points to the new era of Preventive Medicine which is now dawning. The public schools have not only a great opportunity but an imperative duty to perform in teach- ing the generations that are growing up to get in intelligent touch with what is bound to come.
I am glad to have had the opportunity|to lay the founda- tions for the work that this department will have to perform in the future. No one knows better than I how far it falls short of what the future will demand. I believe, however, that the foun- dation has been solidly laid and whoever does the work here- after should not only be skilled in the diagnosis of disease, but should be able to see in perspective what is coming. Seeing at close range ia obvious. Seeing in perspective is born of ex- perience.
The health of the children has been good during the past year. There have been but few absent from school on account of sickness. There have been no epidemics except a light one
60
REPORT OF SCHOOL PHYSICIAN.
for measles. The percentage of bad throats and teeth is less than last year, showing that quite a number give evidence of having had treatment.
The most pressing need at the present time is dental treat- ment for the children; and it is hoped that when the hospital soon to be built is in operation, that some arrangement may be made whereby the children may receive this much needed service.
Respectfully submitted,
George E. MacArthur, M.D. February 14, 1916.
-
.
EDUCATION.
-
General Expenses.
F. B. Knight, superintendent $1179 96
Emma Grabert, clerk 85 00
Florence I. Smith, clerk 31 50
Mary Otis, clerk
98 00
J. R. Richards, truant officer
30 00
W. B. Atkinson, truant officer
40 00
Ipswich Chronicle, printing 59 30
W. B. Rand, cards
4 00
C. J. Peters & Sons Co., engraving
17 56
F. B. Mitchell, designing
30 00
C. G. Hull, printing reports
153 00
Rumford Supply Co., supplies
1 05
J. H. Lakeman, postmaster, postage
22 30
Gale-Sawyer Co,, supplies
8 50
George H. W. Hayes, telephone tolls
45
N. E. Tel. & Tel. Co., telephones
70 91
D. A. Grady, teams 17 50
George E. MacArthur, school physician
200 00
25 40
· F. B. Knight, carfare, telephone, etc. Russell Sage Foundation, survey 40 00
printing
87 00
Eva K. Russell, clerk 4 20
62
SCHOOL EXPENSE.
George H. W. Hayes, writing report 10 00
The Globe-Wernecke Co., office furniture 54 80
D. A. Grady, team 4 50
Fred Mackinney, boat
1 00
Dr. W. E. Huntington, carfare
1 30
Russell Sage Foundation, expenses agent 19 30
· J. P. Marston, expense 4 29
1 40
B. & M. R. R., freight 1 03
Playground and Recreation Asso., sub.
2 00
A. D. Mallard, cartage and freight
17 40
Bina M. Shorey, carfare
1 40
George E. MacArthur, transportation
25 00
Gould & Adams, supplies
3 50
American Express Co., express
12 79
People's Express, express
60
2365 94
-
Teachers Salaries.
J. P. Marston
700 00
Emma G. Gardner
800 00
Dorothy Rand
577 25
F. W. Porter
480 00
Ruth Mobley
165 00
Ralph W. Westcott
890 00
Charles A. Goodwin
340 00
Mildred Emerson
280 00
Amy B. Lindsey
280 00
Dorothy Richardson
200 00
Gladys MacLay
200 00
Charles A. Goodwin, expense
63
SCHOOL EXPENSE.
Dorothea Whitney
130 00
S. Isabel Arthur
700 00
Alice Maguire
510 00
Bertha I. Porter
551 00
Katherine F. Sullivan
700 00
Nellie T. Sullivan
538 00
Ruth M. Carens
522 00
Augusta N. Appleton
306 00
Lydia S. Harris
516 00
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