USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Plymouth > Town annual report of Plymouth, MA 1894-1896 > Part 12
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The first lessons in every subject are usually taught in the best schools without text books. The primary school needs few books except a liberal supply of suitable reading matter. . Most of the work up to the fifth year at school may be done by oral exercises. But this oral work is here continued too long, and the schools are suffering from it. Experience shows the need of text books much earlier than they are here supplied. They should be in the hands of pupils at least as early as their fifth school year. To rely upon the teacher to supply the need of books is to assume that she can extemporize lessons as valuable as those which have
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taken authors, skilled in the given subject, hours to prepare.
The present practice also requires that the teacher shall conduct every exercise with the whole school at once ; and this very few teachers can do successfully. Moreover, the writing of so many exercises on the blackboard is an unne- cessary tax upon the time and strength of teachers, and the copying of these exercises is a wicked waste of time and energy on the part of pupils, and a severe strain on the eyes of all.
However successfully the schools have heretofore carried on their work without text books, no one who sees and un- derstands the present needs of the schools, will question the absolute necessity of their being at once supplied with suitable books, maps, and other apparatus. To the lack of these things is due, I believe, much of the fragmentary, in- complete and disconnected work so evident in many of the schools, and the helpless, dependent way in which pupils endeavor to work, even during their first year at the High School, when books are at length supplied them. Teachers are recognizing the weakness of their schools in this respect. Repeatedly, during the past few months, they have asked that the necessary books be supplied ; but there have been no funds with which to do it. All the regular appropriation for books and supplies is needed to rebind, replace, and supplement the books already in use, and to furnish the other needed supplies outside of new books. But if the schools' here are to do the work which this community has the right to demand of them, this need must in some way be met. It will take not less than $1,500 to reasonably well supply the necessary books and maps.
When these are secured, by exercising proper care in their use and reasonable economy in purchasing other material, the ordinary appropriation for books and supplies will be sufficient to meet the current needs of the schools.
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REGRADING.
The plan of work for the Primary and Grammar schools here provides for a ten years' course of study. That is, there are ten grades or classes, the work of each grade or class occupying, ordinarily, one year. To each teacher there is assigned at least two years' work - two grades or classes. The teacher endeavors to go over, in a general way, the two years' work in one year, carrying with her as many of her pupils as can go at this rapid pace ; and those who, at the end of the first year, are considered to have done satisfac- torily the work of the two years are promoted to the grade next above.
Naturally, only a small number ofeach school is qualified to pass on at the end of the first year. Those who are not promoted, together with those who come in from the grade next below, go over again the same work already attempted, hoping to complete it, if they have any hope or ambition left, by the end of the second year. The school work has been arranged, and the school-houses planned and built, to carry out this scheme of work successfully.
The results of this method are not wholly satisfactory. The plan tends to induce superficial work in all the schools. Those pupils who are accounted able to do the two years' work in one year, do not have sufficient drill to become well grounded in anything. To those pupils who have the ambi- tion to work earnestly for the yearly promotion, but not the ability to successfully accomplish it, the failure brings dis- couragement and needless humiliation ; while those who have to go over the same work a second time, do it in that listless, perfunctory manner which dampens all ardor and enthusiasm of both teacher and school.
This method of organization is unique, and doubtless has
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many advantages. But the experience of other good schools seems to indicate that the close grading of schools, with suitable provision for individual promotions, and the assign- ing of only one grade or class to each teacher, is the best plan yet formed. A regrading on this basis has been effected in a few schools where it could conveniently be arranged, and already more and better work is being secured than would seem to be possible with the same amount of effort where a teacher has to divide her energies between two classes and over two or more years' work.
But how to carry this regrading further is a question. Wherever there were pupils enough to form a school of two grades, there a building has been erected and a school of this kind organized, until the number of buildings contain- ing such schools is twenty-seven, of which there are two four-room buildings and two two-room buildings. All the other buildings have only one room each. This gives an average number of fifty pupils to each school building.
This seems an unfortunate state of affairs out of which to bring effective teaching or to secure economy in school expenditures. All of these school buildings are as simple in construction and as plain in furnishings as they can well be; but even so, it must be a severe drain on the yearly appropriation to keep them in reasonable repair - and will be increasingly so as they become older. If the schools could be consolidated in a third as many buildings - and that might well be brought about-very much more efficient school-work could be done by a less number of teachers, and a considerably smaller sum of money would be needed annually for repairing, refurnishing and heating school buildings.
Regrading and reorganizing the work of the schools are attended with difficulties peculiar to this community, and
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can be accomplished only at considerable inconvenience. Some children would have to walk much farther than they now walk to school, and others would have to be transferred out of the district in which they are at present attending school ; but, in my judgment, the greater efficiency in school- work resulting from the change would much more than balance the inconvenience incurred.
COURSE OF STUDY.
A definite course of study for the schools has been in use here, but for some time it has not been followed. Schools of the same grade are not all of them doing the same work. When a necessary transfer of pupils from one school to another of corresponding grade is made, these pupils are sometimes obliged to go over again work already done. The schools in this respect need to be re-arranged and the work unified.
If the course of study formerly in use here were again followed, it would not meet the wants of the schools of to-day. Nor does an outline of work especially prepared for other schools fill the requirements of the schools here. The lack of suitable text books and maps, the unusual arrangement of classes, and other conditions peculiar to the schools of this place, make the task of preparing a suitable outline of work somewhat difficult. Nevertheless, since teachers work more freely and with a more definite purpose - and hence more intelligently - when they know exactly what is expected of them, an attempt will be made to form a definite outline as soon as the time in which to do it can be found.
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TRUANCY.
This community is arranging in the best possible man- ner for its own welfare and prosperity in establishing and maintaining good schools. These being secured, it is a duty the people owe themselves to see that all the children in the Town receive those helps toward good citizenship which the schools furnish.
As in all other communities, there are some parents here who fail to appreciate the advantages the schools offer. Through carelessness or indifference, they allow their chil- dren habitually to absent themselves from school. Such children are present only when the law compels their at- tendance. Teachers do all they can to reach and hold such pupils ; they try to make school life pleasant and school work evidently profitable ; and by all reasonable means they endeavor to secure the regular and punctual attendance of every child; but, unless they receive the active co-operation of all concerned, their efforts sometimes end in failure and consequent discouragement.
The Committee recognize it to be their duty, when other and milder measures have failed, to have recourse to the law pro- vided for truants, and for parents and others who, through indifference or criminal neglect, practically contrive to ren- der the school laws of no effect. The active measures al- ready taken are having a wholesome effect upon careless parents and delinquent pupils. The teachers, too, are feel- ing and appreciating the active support of the school authori- ties in this respect. A vigorous, yet prudent, policy in this matter will have an excellent effect in carrying out more nearly the purpose for which the schools are established.
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NEW SCHOOL LAW.
There seems to be a misunderstanding on the part of some parents and citizens relative to the action of the Com- mittee with respect to the Compulsory School Law passed in 1894. The requirements of this law seem clear. All children between the ages of eight and fourteen, except those specifically mentioned in the Act, must attend school at least thirty weeks every year; their attendance must be continuous for the length of time mentioned, and must be- gin within four weeks of the opening of the Fall term.
It is the last mentioned provision - that requiring the year's attendance to begin before the end of the first month of the Fall term - that seems to bear heavily upon those children engaged at the cranberry bogs. Many times last Fall the Committee was requested to give to children per- mission to remain out of school beyond the time the law allows. These requests, some of them made on what ap- peared very reasonable grounds, could not be granted, for the Committee does not see that it has any power in the matter. If it could excuse any child from school for a month, it could excuse him for a year, and thus make the law of no effect. However severe or imperfect or unjust some may regard this law, it cannot lessen the responsibil- ity of the Committee with respect to its enforcement.
It has been suggested that, to meet the difficulty the law creates, especially in the outlying districts, the schools there be not opened until October. This would give the people there the opportunity of keeping their children out during the entire cranberry season, and yet place them in school before the time of absence allowed by law had expired. Then, by continuing these schools through the month of July, the children would still have a yearly school session of
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forty weeks, the length of time required by the Town. Just this plan was tried in the Fall of 1894. Some of the out- lying schools were not opened until October. During May and June of the following Spring, the attendance at some of these schools fell off nearly 50 per cent. Nevertheless,. a paper was sent to the parents of pupils in those districts. to determine how many would send their children, provided the schools were continued through July, to make up the time lost in the Fall. In some instances not one parent re- sponded ; in other cases the attendance of two or three children was promised. But in no case was there sufficient encouragement to warrant the Committee in continuing any school. Apparently, it is no more convenient for children in those districts to attend school during July than during September, or, in many cases, than in April and May.
Doubtless this condition of affairs is due more to the circumstances and condition of the people there than to any lack of appreciation of school privileges. In any case, the result is the same. These children are not receiving; that training which the State demands, and for which the Town makes provision at great expense. The Town is now paying very nearly twice as much for teachers' salaries to educate each pupil in the outlying districts as it is for each pupil in the center of the Town.
Conditions in the outlying districts should be changed, so that a better trained class of teachers would be willing to go and to remain there. A more regular school attendance should be enforced, a better quality of teaching be made possible by reducing the number of grades assigned each teacher and by giving her enough pupils to keep up her in- terest and enthusiasm. More efficient school work cannot be expected until the schools are, to some extent, consoli- dated. Such a measure would remove many obstacles which at present make successful work impossible.
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MUSIC.
It became evident to me very soon after my connection with the schools, that the work being done in music was not satisfactory. Enough time was assigned for this purpose, but it was not used to advantage. There existed in nearly every school a disposition to slight the music work. This inclination was especially evident in the High School, where more than half the whole number of pupils was excused, at the request of parents, from taking any part in the music.
The Music Teacher was working at a decided disadvantage. Most of the schools had no music books at all. He could, therefore, assign the different classes no definite amount of work ; nor could the regular teacher's conduct, to advantage, such work as was assigned. The whole scheme was unsys- tematic and incomplete, and the results were meagre and un- certain.
At the close of the school year, Mr. Leonard, the Music Director, left the service. To fill the vacancy, the Committee was able to secure Mr. F. L. Diman, who has been so favor- ably known here and elsewhere as a Teacher of Music. The teachers were asked to co-operate in putting the music work on a better basis, and their schools were supplied with the books and charts absolutely needed, All excuses of pupils to omit music were cancelled, and no others have since been granted. Teachers and pupils have cheerfully responded to the efforts made to render their work more profitable. They have taken it up with a zeal and enthusiasm which still con- tinues.
If the schools are supplied with the needed material, and the work wisely directed, there is little doubt that music will do for the schools here the valuable service it is doing for the schools in other places.
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PENMANSHIP.
An effort has been made, during the past few months, to make the work in penmanship more systematic and profit- able. Each school was doing what seemed to it best, with- out much regard to the work of any other school. Some of the teachers had already tried, or were at that time trying, the vertical system of writing, and seemed to be gaining good results from it. It seemed an opportune time to give the ver- tical system a fair trial.
In September the Committee voted to allow the schools to try this method of writing for so long a time as was neces- sary to determine whether or not results would justify its re- tention in the schools.
On the whole, very creditable results have followed. In some cases the improvement has been quite marked. All the teachers seem to favor this system of writing, and, while the time given to testing it has not been long enough, perhaps, to warrant a definite judgment, yet the satisfactory results se- cured thus far would seem to warrant its permanent adoption.
It seems desirable that pupils in these schools should begin pen and ink practice earlier than they do. The best results require an early familiarity with the pen - at least as early as the second year at school. The desks in the primary schools here contain no ink wells, making it inconvenient to begin the use of the pen until the fifth year at school. By that time the pupil very often has acquired careless and slovenly habits in written exercises, induced by the ease with which all work done with the slate and pencil can be effaced. Indeed, many of the schools are working at considerable disadvantage in their endeavors to secure the best results from exercises re- quiring writing and drawing. The desks and seats are poorly adjusted to the size of the pupils. This is especially true of
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the primary schools. In the lowest primaries, many feet can- not reach the floor, and in the third and fourth year classes, the seats and desks are much too small and low.
This condition of affairs is unfortunate in any grade of school, but it is especially so in primary grades, for in them it more readily engenders awkward, careless habits, renders good work impossible, and is very likely to do permanent harm to the bodies of the pupils.
These obstacles to successful work should be removed. The furniture should be readjusted and refitted, the use of the slates restricted, and the using of paper and ink made pos- sible earlier.
CLOSING EXERCISES IN GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.
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A class of about seventy finished the work of the Grammar schools last June. On the last day of the school year, for an hour in the afternoon, these boys and girls came together at the High School, and in the presence of their friends took part in some simple closing exercises. The programme was short, but each school took part, and the exercises were of so simple a character that very little time was required in their preparation.
Every year a class having about the number of the last class finishes the work prescribed for the Grammar schools. For some of these pupils it is the end of their school career. Many do not enter the High School. It seems fitting that some formal recognition be made of this important epoch in the life of those who do not return to school, and in this distinct stage of the work of those who enter the High School. And the more so, inasmuch as it gives an oppor- tunity to the different classes in the four or five Grammar schools to meet together for an exercise in which they all
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have a common interest. Since the High School is a suita- ble and convenient place in which to hold these closing exercises, the occasion serves for many of the pupils as a pleasant and fitting introduction to their new school home.
I hope these exercises, or those of a more suitable char- acter, may be continued, for they may be made a memorable, pleasant and profitable feature in the closing days of the school life of many pupils.
TEACHERS.
If the character and ability of its teachers are qualities which, primarily, render the schools of any community worthy the trust and liberal support of the people, then the schools of this Town merit the confidence, support and esteem which they receive. And, in this connection, it is pleasant to me to express my appreciation of the earnest, faithful work the teachers are here doing. I have found them, as a body, zealous and conscientious, ready to receive suggestions, and intelligent in interpreting and carrying them out. Their regular and cheerful attendance at the many teachers' meetings held the past few months, and their response to every call upon their time and strength for increased effort, show their willingness to give any reasonable amount of time to make their own work and that of the whole school system here a success. This community is fortunate in having so many good teachers -teachers whose services would command much larger salaries else- where.
The most perplexing question in school management to-day is how to secure and retain good teachers. The cities and larger towns of this State especially are all the time making strenuous efforts to find such teachers, and are
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offering the largest financial inducements their treasuries will allow to secure them. The supply of good teachers is not nearly equal to the demand.
By referring to the statistics given on a later page of this report, it will be seen that the average salary paid the teachers here below the High School is more than one-fifth less than the average salary paid the teachers in this State. If the Committee here hope to retain the present teachers, or secure worthy successors for those who, for one reason or another, drop out year by year, a larger sum of money must be applied to teachers' salaries.
CONCLUSION.
The schools of to-day are accounted better than those of yesterday. They cost more in time, money and effort. Year by year they are influencing at more points and more vitally every public interest. They are calling into their service men and women of the best and highest attainments. The demands of the modern school make heavy drafts upon the public treasury ; but by well-nigh universal consent, no public investment gives a larger, surer or better return. The best schools alone are worth the having ; and any rea- sonable amount of money and energy wisely applied to the securing such schools is well spent.
The lively and intelligent interest which the people of this Town show in their schools is evidence enough that they wish them to rank with the best, and are willing to make all reasonable and necessary provision for that end.
It is in this belief, and with an earnest desire for the in- creased efficiency of the schools, that the preceding suggest- ions are given ând summarized below :-
1. That the schools be supplied at once with the neces- sary text books, maps and charts.
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2. That the regrading of the schools be carried out still further, and each teacher, so far as possible, be given only one class or grade.
3. That a definite course of study be outlined and adopted.
4. That the furniture of the schools be refitted and read- justed where necessary.
5. That the policy of consolidation of schools be definite- ly adopted, and carried out as far as possible.
6. That a larger sum of morey be applied to teachers' salaries, so that it may be possible to pay to teachers here below the High School, the average salary paid to other teachers in this State.
With the expression of my appreciation of the uniform courtesy, kindly consideration and support which I have received from every member of the Committee, this report is
Respectfully submitted,
F. J. HEAVENS,
Superintendent of Schools.
FEBRUARY, 1896.
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STATISTICS.
Number of school buildings. .
30
Number in use 28
Number of school-rooms in use, including High School
Number of teachers employed, 44 :-
High School 6
Grammar schools 12
Primary 66
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Ungraded
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6
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Whole number different pupils enrolled in 1894-95, 1,614 :
Boys 802
Girls 812
The following data cover only the period from April to December, 1895 :-
Average monthly enrollment of pupils 1,433
Average monthly membership 1,330
Average daily attendance 1,237
Per cent. of attendance 93
Total half days' of absence
25,773
Number cases tardiness
6,630
66 of dismissal.
2,646
66 of truancy 52
66 half days' teachers were absent 85
66 visits made by Superintendent 528
visits by members of School Committee. . 41
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The following items are taken from the report of the State Board of Education for 1894 :-
Number of children in Plymouth May 1, 1893,
between the ages of five and fifteen years. .... 1,461
$15 64 Sum appropriated for each such child in Plymouth Average amount appropriated for each child in the
State between five and fifteen years of age .... 16 81
Average monthly wages paid male teachers in Plymouth 100 00
Average monthly wages paid male teachers of this State 129 41
Average monthly wages paid female teachers below the High School in Plymouth-present salary list 36 72
Average monthly wages of female teachers in this State 47 91
Percentage of valuation (taxable property) of Plym-
outh appropriated for the support of public schools . 3.66 mills.
In the percentage of valuation appropriated for the sup- port of public schools by the 352 different cities and towns of this State, Plymouth stands the 172nd in the list. That is, there are 171 cities and towns in the State that appro- priate a larger per cent. of their valuation for the support of their schools than this Town does, and 180 that appro- priate less. The preceding year Plymouth ranked 166, hav- ing fallen six during the year.
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