USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Plymouth > Town annual report of Plymouth, MA 1903-1905 > Part 8
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Dissatisfaction with the evidences of irregularity of attendance at school finds expression in the school reports of most communities. Notwithstanding the high estimation in which the people everywhere hold their schools, there is a widespread failure to secure through them the habit of punctuality and regularity of attendance of pupils, in spite of the persistent efforts of teachers and school officers to this end. These efforts are rendered futile by many parents who fail to appreciate the virtue of punctual and regular attendance of their children at school or any where else. They shield them from any serious work, and practically deprive them of the real pleas- ure of meeting and overcoming difficulties, through fear lest they be over-worked or meet some disagreeable task, or be required to do something which needs prolonged, persistent effort for its accomplishment. Such children soon become helpless and. hopeless cases in the schools which they attend.
The schools on their part are not faultless in this matter. Instead of meeting the issue of irregular attendance squarely. they temporize too much, hoping these conditions may change. They are trying various expedients to meet the cases of careless or indifferent parents, and to show a better attendance record. That the children may be rested, the vacations are made long; that the children may not be in
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school during the warm season, the schools are closed a fourth of the year; if a circus or a fair or a street parade comes, there is no school; if the temperature is high, the schools are closed; if it is low, there is no session; if a storm comes, the signal is given to keep the school doors closed against all who come. Every outside interest, event or con- dition is readily construed into sufficient reason for closing the schools. Is it any wonder that children soon learn, under such circumstances, to regard school work as something else than a serious undertaking? They soon find, sometimes by sad experience, that the world's successful work is conducted upon different lines, and that little success can come to them unless they base their efforts on different principles from those they found in use at school. No principles should be allowed to control in school work and life other than those which obtain and lead to real and substantial success in every other form of active work; and any school officials who resort to popular expedients which lead children to believe that one rule of life belongs to the school and another to the world outside the school, are doing a moral wrong to the children placed under their charge.
It will be a distinct help to the children if they learn by experience that the public will not tolerate the closing of the schools or the interruption of their work for any slight reason; if they find that the school officials co-operate to this end by keeping the schools open every school day; that it is regarded as a serious breach of duty on the part of janitor, teacher or superintendent if through any negligence or ignorance of either of these the schools are not ready at the proper time to receive pupils; if, in brief, they find their school work and life controlled by the same principles which control every other condition in life.
We have made a slight gain in regularity of attendance during the year covered by this report, but not so great a gain as was hoped for or as we had a right to expect. The figures showing the attendance in the outside schools where
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the roads are. for some part of the year, nearly impassable. unfavorably affect the figures representing the attendance record of the other schools; but making allowance for this, we are not doing in this matter all that we can. The careless and indifferent parent and pupil are with us as with other schools, and we have not found the remedy for removing their indifference. But we cannot be charged with aiding to continue this indifference or to hide its presence by using any of the popular expedients to which many communities resort. There are few days in term time that the schools are not open, whatever be the wind or weather. Our record, such as it is, has been won by honest endeavor, and we hope to make it better on the same lines.
FINANCIAL STATEMENT.
The items given below are based upon the expenditure for school purposes during the financial year 1903. The finan- cial and attendance periods are not therefore identical. but since each covers a full year, the one period being only a little in advance of the other, the returns they furnish are fairly reliable.
I. Assessed valuation of real and personal property in Plymouth, May 1, 1903. $9.116.574
2. Per cent. of valuation expended for cur- rent expenses of schools in 1903. .00399
3. Expense per pupil on average membership, $22.99
4. Expense per pupil on same for schools of State, 1902-1903. 27.30
5. Expense per pupil on average member- ship on total expenditure for schools in 1902-1903. $24.77
6. State average on same basis, 1902, 30.23
7. Average monthly wages of men teachers in Plymouth in 1903, $117.50
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8. Average monthly wages paid men teach- ers of the State, $145.27
9. Average monthly wages of women teachers in Plymouth in 1903, 43.12
10. Same paid women teachers in the State, 1902-1903, $54.61
In this statement the items are based upon the average membership of the schools, 1,587. Items 2 and 3 are based upon the whole amount ($40,542.37) which the Committee have spent, less the cost of repairs ($2,810.83), and new heating apparatus ($1,300.40). The items which make up this amount are payments for salaries, transportation, fuel and care of schoolhouses, text-books and supplies, inciden- tals. The sum thus expended ($36,431.14) is by act of the Legislature, to be regarded as the current expense of the schools, and is the sum to be certified to the State authorities as having been raised by taxation and expended "for the support of the public schools." This sum shows an average expense of $22.99 for each child in the average membership of the schools.
SCHOOL ACCOMMODATIONS.
Crowded school rooms at the North and at the Center of the town have interfered with the school work in those local- ities. We have tried to make conditions better by transfer- ring from crowded rooms in one school to other schools of the same grade where there was available room; but not enough vacant desks were found in other schools to accom- modate well all who needed to be transferred; and as in each case, except one, the crowded rooms were those where small children attend, the transferring in many instances has caused some hardship, and resulted in irregular at- tendance and unsatisfactory work.
The School Census taken in September showed an in- crease over the figures of the preceding year, of 100 in the
Plymouth 10
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number of children between the ages of five and fifteen years, and an increase of 120 of those between the ages of seven and fourteen years. Nearly all this increase is found at the North end, and at the Center of the town. It is like- Jy that there will be at least an equal increase in the number of pupils before any additional school accommodations can become available. There seems, therefore, to be an im- mediate need of providing additional school accommoda- tions for more than 200 children, including those who are not now provided for. The Knapp School is the natural center of the increased and increasing number of children at the North. It is therefore the most convenient place for enlarged school accommodations. The lot which was late- ly purchased by the town in the rear of the Knapp School offers ample opportunity to make a four-room addition to that building, and still leave a good-sized playground in the rear of the school.
Incidentally, the building of such an addition would be cheaper by several thousands of dollars than constructing a new building giving the same room elsewhere, and it would be much more economical to maintain it. When school ex- penses are increasing as they are in Plymouth, this saving is at least worth consideration. However, this plan is not urged principally for a financial reason, but because exper- ience amply proves that consolidation of schools results in better schools at a less expense. A reasonable number of schools together insures more regular attendance of pupils, better grading, a more reasonable number of pupils to a teacher, closer supervision and better teaching,-all of which are important elements in the making of better schools.
More school room is as much needed at the center of the town as at the North. Several rooms here are crowded, and there is no way of relieving them until additional school ac- commodations are provided. As the Knapp School is a natural school center at the North, so is the point where the Burton and Cornish schools are located on Russell Street a
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natural school center for that locality. It is the most con- venient place at which children coming from south of Cold Spring and north of Training Green can be accommodated. Additional school room is needed for children living in that area. If a new school house is built, it would be most ser- viceable if located in the immediate vicinity of the Burton and Cornish Schools. Besides being in the center of the area to be accommodated, its nearness to the other school buildings, each of them small, would allow us to arrange classes to better advantage, to provide school apparatus more economically, and do the regular school work more efficient- ly. The same good reasons for consolidation of schools on Russell Street exist as at the Knapp School.
PRIMARY SCHOOLS.
Children five years old, or who will reach that age be- fore the end of the fourth week of school, are admitted to the primary schools during the first four weeks of the fall term only, if they have never before attended school. Chil- dren competent to enter existing classes are admitted at any time in the district where they live, if there is room; other- wise, they are sent to the nearest school where there is room.
The number of pupils enrolled in all the schools at pres- ent is 1.727. Of this number 971, a little over 56 per cent. are in the primary schools, grades one to four inclusive, dis- tributed in twenty-five school rooms, making an average number of thirty-nine pupils to each teacher. This repre- sents the extremes of nine pupils at Wellingsley and fifty- four at two or three schools at the North.
Most of the primary school buildings are conveniently lo- cated; few of the children attending them have a long dis- tance to travel. It has been in these schools, especially. that a crowded condition has existed the past year, making it necessary, because of insufficient accommodations, that some teachers should have unusually large classes. This condi-
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tion, together with the irregular attendance which naturally comes in all schools of small children, has limited the amount of work which these schools have done. When it is difficult to find room for all children who wish to at- tend school, it would work no harm to the chil- dren excluded if the time of entrance were set at six years of age instead of at five. The law does not require that children attend school until seven years old. Little is gained in communities where kindergarten training is not provided, in sending children to school at the early age of five years. Especially when school room is limited, it would contribute to the efficiency of the work attempted if children were admitted to school a year later, and the time, room and money now used for the younger children used for the smaller number who would then enter school. In most cases. there would be no loss to children coming to school at the later age if they found, on their admission, am- ple school room and efficient teaching. But the custom of allowing children to enter school at five years of age having been established, it is very unlikely that any later time of admission will be conceded. The earlier time of admis- sion has an obvious advantage for many children, and it will probably be continued. Since this is so, it is the obvious duty of the community to provide ample school room, con- veniently located, and to see that the work attempted in these schools shall be suited to the age and capacity of the chil- dren.
The plan of having at least two grades in each school room has so long prevailed here that it has proved difficult to change it. On the whole, a teacher can do better work with a class of forty pupils of one grade, than she can with two grades, having the same number of pupils. The change to one grade classes has been made in all but four or five schools. When additional school room is provided we hope the location of the new buildings will make it possible to
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organize all schools in the town so that there will be but one grade in each room.
No change in the outline of work for the primary schools has been made during the past year; but we believe that some change is desirable, especially in the work for the first three grades. Competent judges are coming to be- lieve more and more that our number work is begun too early; that instruction in this subject would be more ef- fective if deferred until the child is six or seven years of age, or even older. We may to advantage leave out the formalities of number work, spelling and writing, and, in the first year, the formalities of reading; and find more time, especially during the first and second years, for telling and reading to children stories of world-wide interest, and for exercises which shall develop in them a closer sympathy with the natural world about them. There is good reason to be- lieve that at no period of a child's growth is the educative and refining influence of life in its actual forms or as portrayed by good literature in poem and story, so ef- fective as during the first two or three years of school life. During that period our school plans should be those which permit so potent an influence to do its perfect work.
GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.
The Grammar schools include grades 5 to 9. The number enrolled in these schools at present is 542, about 33 per cent. of the total school enrollment. They occupy 14 school rooms, making an average number of 40 pupils to each teacher.
Promotions are made in each school by the regular teach- er at the end of the school year in June. In doubtful cases the Superintendent is consulted. These promotions are based on the estimate of the pupil's daily work made by the teacher, and recorded at the end of each month, in the Gram- mar schools, on report cards sent to the parents. When
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conditions seem to justify it, a pupil may be promoted on trial for a month. In such a case, the parent is notified by written form of the intended conditional promotion, and the promotion in this form is made only in case the parent gives written consent thereto. If, at the end of the probationary period, the pupil's work warrants it, the promotion is made for the rest of the year, but no pupil is expected to be re- tained in any class when his interests are best served by his going back to a lower one.
The subjects of class study remain practically the same as last year. There is fair opportunity to change the work for the two upper grades at least, lessening the amount of work in two or three subjects, and substituting other work for that omitted. An attempt was made last year to point out how that might be done to good purpose, but no action has been taken in the matter. On the whole, the work in most of the Grammar schools is being well done. The schools are reasonably well supplied with books and other material necessary for good work. Books in sufficient number and variety and character are available that each school may every day read or listen to a selection from the best which literature has to offer. But it must be confessed that much of the work in reading fails of its full purpose. Ability to read well is desirable, and the pupil must be helped to secure it. The mechanics of reading must be mastered, and to this end drill is necessary. But it is also necessary to remem- ber that the ability to read is a means, and not an end, that the purpose of it is to secure pleasure and profit and to act as an incentive to good thought and noble deed. "It is quite possible in any class at school or college to so misuse a piece of literature by making it the basis of a lessen in mere word calling that it shall not cause one throb of inter- est in the heart of the reader, but rather cultivate a dis- taste for what he might have learned to love." It is worth while for a short time every day in school, to forget the means and omit the drill, and give unrestrained oppor-
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tunity to the pupil to enjoy the reading, to find the author's thought, the book's content, which alone is worth the seeking.
It is evident that in most Grammar schools of today, the teacher is trying to teach too many subjects. This does not mean that too many subjects are found in the curricu- lum. . It is possible to teach them all, and more, when the conditions are right for the most efficient school organiza- tion and with teaching at its best. The full curriculum need prove no detriment to the pupil, but it has become a serious burden to the teacher. Usually a teacher ought not to be expected to teach more than three subjects, and those should be closely related. She has neither time nor strength to prepare more. She is likely to dissipate her energy, and lose her enthusiasm when she attempts to teach all the sub- jects in the modern school course. She cannot do all the work well.
Departmental work is in a measure a remedy for this con- dition of affairs. It affords a partial relief to the over- burdened teacher. In a school where there are several teachers it enables each teacher to devote herself to those branches which she is best fitted to teach. She may teach as many classes, but fewer subjects. It is a method of work calculated to make it possible for a teacher to center her interest and energy on a few related subjects, and to enable her to utilize her power and skill to the best ad- vantage.
We should like to try this method of work here, but con- ditions do not favor it. The schools are scattered in so many small buildings that a teacher can rarely do work in any other room of the same grade than her own. To do so she would, in most cases, have to go to some other school building at a distance from her own; and school time is too short to warrant spending any of it in such a way.
It is this policy of scattering the schools, a policy so firm- ยท ly entrenched here, which so seriously interferes with their
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work. For effective school work. it is a policy most un- desirable, most unnecessary and most expensive. It practi- cally forbids an efficient organization of the schools and economical methods of supporting them; and so depart- mental work, with many other desirable things, must wait until conditions lend themselves better to that purpose.
HIGH SCHOOL.
Graduates of the Grammar schools are admitted to the High School by certificate. No formal examination is re- quired, except in the case of those from other places who ap- ply for admission. There were 42 who received certi- ficates last June, and 38 of those receiving them entered the High School in the Fall.
At present there are 186 pupils enrolled at the High School building; of these fifty are members of the Ninth Grade. who in all respects, save subjects of study, are a part of the High School. This fills the seating capacity of the assembly room, and every class room is in use.
The present current expenses of the High School build- ing are :
Teachers' salaries,
Janitor,
Fuel and light,
$5.650 00 450 00 600 00
$6,700
The present membership of the High School is 136 pupils, and six teachers. The average number of pupils to a teach- er in Massachusetts High schools is twenty-six; the aver- age number to a teacher here is only twenty-three. This is a good working number, and should insure few, if any, large classes for any teacher there. The work of the school is carried on in four courses as follows :
Boys
Girls
Total
Classical Course,
3
1
4
Science Course,
2I
38
59
Literary Course,
7
I5
22
Commercial Course,
36
I5
51 .
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Each of the four courses named above ordinarily requires four years for its completion. The student in the Classical course sometimes needs to do an additional year's work to meet college requirements for admission. With a few re- strictions such as seem necessary to prevent waste of time by injudicious or careless selection of subjects, any student for whom a full course is unnecessary or impossible may ordinarily take a special or partial course suited to his pur- pose. In this way, too, pupils who wish to take a full course, but who, for reasons of health are not able to do so, may make the work of each year easier by doing it more leisurely, taking five or more years to complete the regular four years' course. By such an arrangement the ad- vantages of the school are offered to some who would other- wise be barred from them, while the number of classes and the teaching work of the school is not materially increased thereby.
It will be noticed that there are only four pupils in the Classical Course. The distinctive feature of this course is that it requires Greek .. A rule such as many schools of the size of our High School have, requiring that the num- ber of pupils necessary to form a class in an elective subject shall be at least twelve in the first year, ten in the second year, eight in the third, and six in the last year, would cut out the teaching of Greek in the school altogether. It is expensive to support a class in this subject, or in any other, for four pupils. In fairness to the other classes it is a question whether it would not be best to omit Greek until a larger number wish to take it. If this were done, the school would still prepare pupils for college in the Science Course, but without the Greek, which a few colleges still require for admittance.
It may be noted, too, that more than one third of the whole school is classed in the Commercial Course. This line of work needs considerable room. During the past year the typewriters have had to be used in the school corridors,
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there being no suitable place for them elsewhere. If many more elect that sort of work it will be necessary to make special provision for its classes by equipping a room with commercial desks and partition off a part of it by folding doors for the typewriters.
But it is not probable that the Commercial course will grow very much unless there should be a large increase in the school enrollment. There has been a loud call for young men and women especially trained for office work, and many schools have responded to the call by furnishing stenographers and typewriters at short notice. But busi- ness men are coming to realize, what many of them already knew, that young people with a specific training, and with- out a broader and more liberal training underlying and sup- porting it, are in the long run a source of disappointment. The specific training should come if needed, but only in addition to the broader training which a good high school, or a school of equal grade, can supply. There are no more liberal and enlightening courses than those of Commerce and Industries, and none more important for the boy or girl of today. But the work of such courses as arranged to-day, is beyond the capacity of the ordinary high school pupil; it belongs more especially to the more mature mind in the technical school or college. The high school course in those subjects is apt to degenerate into mere vocational work, especially the manual one of shorthand and typewriting. with a smattering of commercial custom and law. I do not mean that shorthand and typewriting, and other voca- tional training in the high school are not valuable, and serve a useful purpose; but that these alone do not meet the needs of the business world.
"It is generally assumed that there is a pronounced dif- ference of opinion between the practical business man and the educational expert. From the one, the idea frequent- ly finds expression that vocational aims should more largely dominate school practice. The other usually deprecates
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.
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early specialization, emphasizing the larger if less immediate results which come from a broad and liberal training. The two ideas are not wholly inconsistent, and from such evi- dence as I have collected, I am convinced that the difference of opinion is more fancied than real."
The high school principal who wrote the above, sent let- ters to some of the successful business men in Boston, asking them among other things, the question, "What sort of train- ing does the business man want?" adding that "Hitherto we have relied upon a general rather than a specfiic training for business: but we are quite willing to change our policy if in the judgment of those most interested and best in- formed, it is desirable."
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