USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Ipswich > Town annual report of Ipswich 1923 > Part 7
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$ 5250 00
Teachers' Salaries
60000 00
Evening School
650 00
Text Books & Supplies
6000 00
Tuition 400 00
Transportation
3500 00
Support of Truants
210 00
Janitors 3675 00
Fuel & Light
5000 00
19
IPSWICH SCHOOL REPORT
Buildings & Grounds
6000 00
Furniture & Furnishings
1500 00
Insurance
500 00
Miscellaneous
300 00
Total
$92985 00
Respectfully Submitted,
DR. GEORGE E. MacARTHUR, Chairman
RALPH W. BURNHAM
MARY U. JOHNSON
FRANCIS WADE
CHARLES L. LOVELL
CARROLL PERRY
School Committee of Ipswich.
REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON INCREASED SCHOOL ACCOMMODATIONS.
To the Citizens of the Town of Ipswich :---
At the Annual Town Meeting last March, the School Com- mittee was made a special committee to investigate and report upon some plan for securing additional school accommodations.
As a result of that action the Committee entered into a general discussion of the matter, viewed it from many different angles, and weighed all points carefully, before committing themselves to any definite plan. Several suggestions have been made, and each one carefully considered.
In the first place, it is absolutely necessary to have more room for the proper housing of the nearly 1400 pupils which we have at present, and that room can only be secured by the erection of a suitable building. As many of you know the buildings, with one exception, are crowded to capacity. Not only that, but some of them have been in use for so many years that they are in a state that will require many repairs.
The Committee is a unit in recommending the erection of a building on the Green St. property, of sufficient size to accom- modate the pupils of the High and Junior High Schools for some years to come We think that a modern building with
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IPSWICH SCHOOL REPORT
an assembly hall and other requisites, erected at that point would solve our housing problems for at least twenty years. In case that is done it will give us room at the central plant to allow the transfer of the pupils of the Payne, Warren St., Den- nison, Wainwright and Cogswell buildings.
This would be an advantage in many ways. The High and Junior High would be under the supervision of one person, who would control all matters pertaining to that building, and the centralization of the remaining grades would result in increased efficiency for all.
Weitherefore strongly urge the citizens to vote in favor of having plans drawn for a building of at least twenty rooms on the property before mentioned, and to immediately commence the erection of the same.
Respectfully Submitted,
DR. GEORGE E. MacARTHUR, Chairman RALPH W. BURNHAM MARY U. JOHNSON FRANCIS WADE
CHARLES L. LOVELL CARROLL PERRY
School Committee of Ipswich.
Distribution of Pupils In the Ipswich Schools By Grades and Ages.
AGES
5
6
7 | 8
9
1 10
11
12 | 13
14
15
16 | 17
18
19
20 | TOTAL
1
54
107
50
4
4
2
1
223
2
26
81
41
13
3
1
165
3
1
35
59
53
35
9
3
195
4
2
24
40
28
19
15
2
130
5
1
31
41
34
11
8
1
127
6
4
30
37
18
25
8
5
127
7
5
33
29
21
13
6
2
1
110
8
8
30
21
27
14
3
1
104
9
5
12
24
20
12
3
76
10
1
10
23
18
6
2
60
11
2
9
14
6
1
1
33
12
2
4
15
3
2
2
28
13
54 |134 :168 129 145 144
141
112
90
84
81 |
53|
32
6
3
2 |1378
4
ENROLLMENT OF PUPILS IN THE DIFFERENT GRADES FROM 1916 TO 1923.
Grade
1916
1917
1918
1919
1920
1921
1922
1923
I.
130
164
161
180
210
212
198
223
II.
117
121
144
159
201
199
184
165
III.
123
110
117
127
140
144
174
195
IV.
87
114
120
83
130
136
147
130
V.
81
80
104
133
107
166
134
127
VI.
65
93
75
94
134
111
148
127
VII .:
77
60
63
82
90
117
131
110
VIII.
66
68
49
53
55
59
87
104
IX.
80
80
75
64
52
1
69
71
76
X.
58
43
37
39
47 1
37
52
60
XI.
37
36
27
32
25
33
32
33
XII.
34
27
28
26
25
21
32
28
Post Graduate
3
3
Totals
975
996
1000
1072
1219
1307
1 390
1378
Annual Increase
21
4
72
147
88 |
83
*12
Decrease.
REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT.
To the School Committee of Ipswich, Mass. Gentlemen :---
In compliance with the requirements of the law and estab- lished custom, the twenty-second annual report of the present conditions and needs of our schools is herewith submitted for your consideration.
Enrolment.
The enrolment for the present year is not so large by twelve as that for the preceding year. This is due to two major causes, viz: Removals from town, and withdrawals from school as soon as the statute requirements have been met, by a dangerously large and growing class of young people.
In the first instance, the change is prompted by the unset- tled industrial conditions prevailing in certain manufacturing lines. People have been obliged to go where employment could be found in order to support themselves and their fam- ilies. As these families are usually large, the schools have suf- fered considerably on account of these removals.
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IPSWICH SCHOOL REPORT
Another phase of this movement also coming under the head of necessity, is the fact that not a few of our so-called foreign population have returned to their homeland in order to relieve the distress and suffering of friends and relatives across the sea. And we all know that these have been unprece- dentedly intense and prolonged. The conduct of these people in the cases cited is not censurable nor blameworthy in the least. In fact, it excites our sympathy and our pity, and commands our hearty approval and commendation. We are sorry to lose people of such energy and of such loyalty to friends in distress.
But the class with which I am dealing now neither deserves nor should receive any such consideration. I refer to that class of boys and girls who, lacking parental guidance and con- trol, are permitted upon the completion of the work of the sixth grade, to leave school at fourteen. In many instances, when a child becomes fourteen on a Sunday, he comes to the office on . Monday morning and demands his certificate to go to work, and by law we are obliged to give it to him. Possibly a child has completed the sixth grade work, or even the seventh and is well along in the eighth --- within a few months of the High School, but his fourteenth birthday anniversary is his ultima thule. For him, there is nothing beyond, there is nothing more to be desired, and he begins to loaf even while in school. He doesn't want to work, he wants to leave school, and he knows he can do so when he becomes fourteen.
But the worst remains to be told. He gets a job, complies with all the requirements of the law, and receives his certificate. He holds that job for two weeks, possibly six, and then begins to look for another-on the street corner; and his progress as a loafer is advanced a step. To be sure, the employer returns his card to the school office and thereby serves notice that the boy in question is out of work. But can the attendance officer, --- if he should succeed in finding the boy, --- bring him back to
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IPSWICH SCHOOL REPORT
1
school? No; he cannot take a boy who is looking for work. Some of the courts have so decided, and the boy becomes a senior in the loafer class.
Nor is this all. From fourteen to sixteen are two of the most critical years in a child's life. He is not physiologically nor mentally mature enough to be subjected to the hazards of industrial life. Confinement is detrimental to his proper devel- opment; he is less resistant to disease, and easily becomes the prey of the moral degenerate. He needs the steadying influence and the helpful moral guidance of the school if he is to be saved from the underworld and permitted to enter upon the en- joyment which only a well-stored mind assures. If education is a preparation for complete living, then the schools should be given more time in which to attempt the completion of their . responsible work. The plea of poverty cannot be urged in a great majority of cases. Where it exists, it could be met in other ways not so disastrous to the life and happiness of the boy. Again, if the parents could only be made to realize how severe a handicap the lack of a high school diploma really is, I am sure that they would bend all their energies to remove this stumbling -block. So many doors are closed to these children that their progress and their happiness becomes a matter of chance. They have no freedom of choice, but become the prey and slaves of circumstance.
Just one concrete example of what we mean :--- A girl who had left high school, thought that she would like to become a nurse. The hospital authorities informed her that it would be necessary that she should have a high school diploma, and to show a statement of her ranks while in the high school. She had no diploma and her credits were not sufficient to meet the requirements of the hospital; therefore her application could not be considered. The door was shut, her tears were of
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IPSWICH SCHOOL REPORT
no avail. She is but one of tens of thousands.
Let me quote a little, and so appeal to your patriotism. "A larger proportion of children under sixteen are working in Mas- sachusetts than in any other state, except Rhode Island and ten Southern states. While in the U. S. the average amount of child labor in cities over 25,000 is 6 per cent, there are seven cities in Massachusetts in which 12 to 19 per cent of the children are employed." "42,651 14- and 15- year-old children left the schools of this state in 1921 to enter industry. Only about 11 . per cent entered the skilled trades."
"Seven states have a higher standard than Massachusetts for the legal school leaving age; and in eight states the children must complete a higher grade than in Massachusetts before leaving school."
Herbert C. Hoover has this :---
"Clearly, if economic waste is reprehensible, waste of child life, whether viewed economically or in terms of common and universal betterment, is a blight that in its measure is more de- plorable than war."
It is conceded by every right-thinking person that the legal school-leaving age should be raised to sixteen, and the grade re- quirements from the sixth to the eighth. When this proposed change becomes law, our children will not be wasting more than a third of their time, as at present, in drifting from one position to another; our schools will be enabled to render a much larger service than is possible under present conditions, and our chil- dren will be better prepared to meet the larger duties and res- ponsibilities of citizenship in a democracy like ours.
But there is a brighter side to this shield. Whether the bill before the legislature becomes a law or not, most grati- fying and substantial gains in this direction have been made already. . Many of our largest and most- up-to-date manufac- turers are "employing no children under sixteen years of age,
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IPSWICH SCHOOL REPORT
believing that children under that age should be in school for their own good, and that of future employers. They find that older workers make better employees."
Let us hope that law and common sense may find an adequate remedy for this great evil.
Teacher Changes and Salaries.
The School Committee has casually alluded to this topic in its report, but it is a matter of much deeper significance than can possibly be implied by the recorded fact. It is of com- mon occurrence to be sure, but it is of such vital importance to the smooth working and efficiency of every school system that it should never become commonplace.
It is a subject that should be studied from every angle, and every contributing cause, as far as possible, should be removed. And these are many: the home ties, school environment, deter- mination to embark on matrimonial seas, and last, but not least, salaries. In only one of these cases is there any possibility of blame attaching to the teacher, and that is where she leaves her school during the term of her contract for a higher salarv.
Our schools have not suffered by reason of this spirit of commercialism during the past year. In fact, not a few of our teachers have had some tempting offers from other places which in every instance have been declined. I hope that such honorable and becoming conduct receives the recognition it so richly deserves.
All of our changes occurred during the summer vacation, and it was with the greatest difficulty that the places of the re- tiring teachers were supplied. The salaries we offered were from $150 to $400 below those offered in other places. The larger classes which we are compelled to have, and lack of
29
IPSWICH SCHOOL REPORT
boarding places, were among some of the objections raised by the applicants. What we need is a higher salary schedule, graduated to the length of service and the efficiency and pro- fessional advancement of the individual teacher. A horizontal raising of salaries (though much needed at present) defeats the very purpose for which it was intended. It finds its duplicate in the methods of some of our labor organizations where each workman, regardless of his skill or the character and amount of work accomplished, receives the same wage. This is deaden- ing, and tends to reduce the quantity and quality of work to the standard of the lazy and incompetent. Even with a lower min- imum, but with a fixed and certain advance each year, contin- gent upon professional study and good work in the schoolroom, our teaching force would be less liable to disastrous changes, and the progress of our schools better assured. The personnel of the force would also be improved, for if the individual teach- er was ambitious and was striving to reach the maximum, others would be obliged to do likewise or to continue in the lower class with the lower salary.
I have made a compilation of the average salary schedules of about thirty towns of approximately the same size and wealth as Ipswich, and I hope something of the kind may be adopted and put into use by the beginning of the school year in Sep- tember.
Let us not delude ourselves on these two points: First, that we shall be obliged to pay the market price for teaching as well as for other kinds of service; and second, that we rarely or never get more than we pay for. If it is good business policy to em- ploy and retain the services of only the most competent and constructive kind, why should not the same principle apply to our teachers? We have in our teaching force not a few individ- uals of good 'executive ability, fine personality, and strong motherly instincts, who are the real guides and counselors and
30
IPSWICH SCHOOL REPORT
friends of scores of our little people whom they are trying to lead aright. A larger recognition of a financial sort is due them, and they should receive it at once.
Overcrowding.
Many of our schoolrooms are in an overcrowded condition, notwith standing the fact that we have exhausted our ingenuity in transferring pupils from one district to another in order to properly house them. District boundaries have been ignored altogether. Our chief concern has been to find vacant seats, and many of even the smaller children have been compelled to travel long distances in order to reach a school of the right grade. School populations shift, too, as the years pass. What were once populous centers of our community, have become greatly reduced in numbers at the present time.
The Cogswell School will serve as an illustration. But a few years ago we had difficulty in seating all the children be- longing to this district; today we have only about half of the re- quired number. This is the most glaring example of this con- dition, but there are other instances which point to the same fact that the native stock is slowly dying out. But the fact of an overcrowded condition still remains. In some rooms there are as many as fifty-four pupils under the control of one teacher; in . others, every seat is taken; and in others still, there are more pu- pils than there are seats.
No teacher can do the best work, or even good work, under such conditions, and as a result the number of repeaters is al- together too large. We find that such a situation has another reaction. New teachers will not risk their reputation with such a handicap. A recent personal experience is evidence of this fact.
31
IPSWICH SCHOOL REPORT
Under our present inadequate housing accommodations, there seems to be but one way out of the difficulty, and that is by a semi-annual promotion, of which I will speak later.
Tardiness and Absences.
These have become too noticeable of late, and I would ask that the parents co-operate more fully with the teachers in their efforts to break up this most serious fault. Promptness and punctuality are still listed among the cardinal virtues, and still contribute in large measure to dependability and character. In fact, our success in life is little more than the product of right habits; and, unless we can root out the bad habits before they become too thoroughly established, failure will inevitably follow. Children should no more expect to be admitted to the school- room after the appointed time, than they would expect to take a railroad train when they were five minutes late. With some- thing better in the shape of good time-keeping clocks, and a stricter oversight on the part of both parents and teachers, we may hope to see a marked improvement in this direction.
Promotions.
This is a perennial subject and will continue to be such so long as new and ever-changing factors are brought into the consid- eration. Till within a few years, the ranks assigned by the teachers for the different subjects pursued by the pupils con- stituted the general basis upon which all promotions were made. No account was taken of the individual differences of pupils, nor of the wide variations usually found in the ranks given by different teachers. If the boy failed in the performance of a
32
IPSWICH SCHOOL REPORT
specific task, he was considered a dullard, and was relegated to the class of incompetents. And this delinquency followed him not only through school, but too frequently through life. The curriculum was narrow; trial along other lines was withheld or forbidden him. He was obliged to succeed in what the schools had to offer, or else go down to defeat.
But in time it was noted that some of these boys made a place and a name for themselves in the world outside, and to such a marked degree that the thoughtful and broadminded were led to investigate the matter. The individual child was given a larger place in their consideration, not a single fac- ulty, but all his faculties.
To show how defective and vicious the old system of pro- motion was, let me make use of a few quotations. Prof. Inglis in a recent article dealing with this subject states that "of 122 teachers marking the same examination papers of ten questions each, one half of them gave an equal value (10 points) to each question; another portion of them gave from 0 to 25 points. He found that the questions varied in relative value from 10 to 298 points. He finds that, "Teachers marks are variable and incon- sistent, because teachers in marking pupils do not measure the same trait and because they do not have a common scale for the evaluation of the trait measured; that is, their marks are distrib- uted on a purely subjective basis and their standards are not uniform."
"To provide a foundation for a clear discussion of this problem," it is said "we should distinguish these three traits in our student population: Inherited capacity, ability-to-do, and specific performance."
"The first defines itself --- the start in life. The capacity of an individual is determined by the 'third and fourth gener- ations,' and not by anything that he himself can do. There- fore, since capacity has to do with the 'start in life,' in the public
33
IPSWICH SCHOOL REPORT
schools we do not measure capacity. Environment operates upon capacity and develops the ability-to-do. His ability-to-do is not measurable; we can only estimate it by his performance. Specific performance is also variable and we must take the average of these specific performances."
How clearly this indicates the inadequacy and
injustice of a system that has figured so largely in times past. How intricate and involved this matter of promoting and grading really is, if we wish to deal justly with each individual child! And this wellnigh endless discussion by our foremost educators and the constant agitation by the press for a revision and a standardization of our marking system, are simply the evidence and measure of our effort towards the fulfillment of Demo- cracy's pledge --- "with liberty and justice to all!" But so far we have touched . upon but a single phase of the subject, --- justice to the individual child, --- and all must admit that this is a step in the right direction and of the utmost import- ance.
Other questions remain to be considered. When should promotions be made? Annually, semi-annually, or when a group, or an individual, will most profit by such advancement ? Should he be promoted by subject, or by an average rank of all subjects? All of these details are being carefully worked ยท out by different schools in different places, and a marked meas- ure of success has been attained in each case, though depend- ent, of course, upon the character of the. teacher, the pupils, and school accommodations. Here, too, "circumstances alter cases." The Wenetka System --- in a sense, the new-old ungraded school --- and the Dalton Laboratory plan, will suggest some of the more recent experiments along this line.
Fortunately we are not left helplessly groping in the dark. The advance made in mental measurements enable us to place
34
IPSWICH SCHOOL REPORT
the child very accurately so far as his mentality is concerned. Where we have been asking too much, the load can be light- ened; and where we have not been requiring enough, more pressure can be brought to bear. We can adjust the require- ments to the ability of the individual child; and where the clas- ses are of reasonable size, great economies of time and ability may be secured.
Furthermore, classes vary; and not infrequentlytheteacher is blamed for not producing results that, with the class in hand, were impossible of accomplishment. Small school buildings separated by considerable distances do not furnish ideal con- ditions for a scientific classification of pupils. Some modified plan which includes the basic principles upon which present day methods are founded will have to suffice here. But in the larger schools, where it is possible to organize full classes on the basis of intelligence-measurements and the record of specific performance, we have as favorable conditions as we can expect to find at present. But no method is foolproof. We need he mature judgment, the clear vision of experienced and progressive men, whose sustained efforts shall give to every child the fullest opportunity for that development for which, by nature, he is best fitted.
In accordance with this view, I am in hopes shortly to make a beginning in the grading of our schools along more equitable and scientific lines than has been our practicc in the past.
To relieve the congestion in many of our class-rooms, it has been decided to make a semi-annual promotion this year. This is done in many of our cities and larger towns and has the ad- vantage of allowing the brighter children to advance as rapidly as they are qualified, and saves the repeaters a half-year's time.
By making more use of standardized tests, we are in hopes to get a closer relative measure of the attainments of our schools, and this, too, will be another factor in our scheme of promotion.
35
IPSWICH SCHOOL REPORT
Field Day.
My sole reason for introducing this topic is to give expres- sion of my appreciation of the splendid manner in which the exercises of the day were carried through. It was the first year that we had been without the leadership of an expert in this line of work. Previously we had been under the training and direction of a leader of international reputation, who had planned the work and taken full charge of the various exercises of the day, and he always led to success.
But last year the whole matter was given over to the charge of the teachers. They planned the work, laid out a most pleasing and interesting program of attractions, and carried them through to a very satisfactory termination. All credit to them for their excellent work, and for the spirit of co-opera- tion so clearly manifested by teachers and pupils alike. To the many expressions of commendation and gratification from those who witnessed the exercises, I wish to add my sincere thanks.
Under the management of Mrs. Fred Nason and her corps of able assistants, the generous contributions of cake and other articles were disposed of to the advantage of the Association. As usual, Mrs. H. K. Damon and Mrs. McGinley sat at the receipt of custom.
Mr. Oscar Ewing, as in previous years, selected the judges and had full charge of the athletic events. Miss Blodgett and Mr. Conary supervised the games. Mrs. Damon's report may be found on another page.
MRS. HARRY K. DAMON, Trustee.
Dr. In Account With SCHOOL GROUNDS IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION.
Dr.
1923
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