USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Plymouth > Town annual report of Plymouth, MA 1906-1908 > Part 30
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PRIMARY SCHOOLS.
Children five years old are admitted to the primary schools during the first four weeks of the fall term only, if they have never before attended school. Children of the legal school age are admitted to school at any time in the districts where they live, if there is room; otherwise, they are sent to the nearest school where there is room.
The whole number of children enrolled in the schools at present is 2,127. Of this number 1,099, about 52 per cent. of the total number, are in the primary schools, grades one to four, inclusive, distributed in twenty-nine school rooms, making an average of thirty-eight pupils to each teacher. The smallest number in any one room is sixteen, and the largest, fifty.
These 1,099 pupils are enrolled in the four primary grades as follows :
Grade I,
292
Grade II,
276
Grade III, 293
Grade IV,
238
1,099
The first year primary schools contain the smallest number of pupils to each teacher of any of the grades, and it is good edu- cational policy to keep them so. In many ways the teacher's task in the first year schools is the most difficult as well as the most important one. Children of varying conditions and apti- tude come together here for the first time, strangers to their fel- lows, and unused to school requirements and restraints. They
must all be classed together at first, with little regard to age, ability or previous training. To discover the individual needs and capacities of forty such children, to mildy restrain and en- courage, and to direct their intermittent interest and super- abundant energy into the right channels, all this requires the skill and ability of a successful teacher, and the best teacher's
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work is effective only when a reasonable number of pupils is as- signed her.
The school work in the primary grades is changed but little from year to year. We are learning to put the formal work of every school subject later in the primary course, and to leave the first year free for reading, story telling and singing. The problem of primary reading is one of the most complex and difficult in the whole range of school instruction. A large pro- portion of the finest skill and sympathy of teachers has been ex- pended in efforts to find the appropriate and natural method of teaching children to read. All sorts of methods and devices have been employed, from the most formal and mechanical to the most spirited and realistic. And the end is not yet. Methods and devices on the subject are being brought forward faster than one can examine them; but the most of them are being tried in one place or another. We are this year trying the Aldine sys- tem, which promises well, and in a few of our primary schools better results are being obtained than have been secured by any other method. But methods and devices come and go. The best of them furnish no certainty of good results. The poor teacher complains of her tools, and the good teacher scores suc- cess in spite of them. The best results wait upon the best teachers, some of whom we have, and we are ever looking for others.
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GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.
The grammar schools include grades 5 to 9. The number enrolled in these schools at present is 796; about 33 per cent. of the total school enrollment. They occupy 18 school rooms, making an everage of 44 pupils to each teacher.
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These 796 pupils are enroled in the five grammar grades as follows :
Grade V,
214
Grade VI, 210
Grade VII, 113
122
Grade VIII,
Grade IX,
296
Promotions are made in each school by the regular teacher 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 grammar schools, on report cards sent to the parents. When 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 intend- ed 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 war- rants it, the promotion is made for the rest of the year ; but no pupil is expected to be retained in any class when his interests are best served by his going to a higher or lower one.
Very little change is made from year to year in the work of the Grammar schools. At present the boys of grades 6, 7 and 8 are given about two hours each week in Sloyd, and the girls of these same grades occupy a portion of this time in sew- ing, under the direction of the regular teachers. In addition, somne manual training in brass and leather work, and in box drawing and construction, represents about all the industrial work we attempt. The material for this construction work is furnished the pupils upon the same basis as books and papers,- all free, and the pupils are given the articles they make. When we notice the generous provision of all supplies given to pupils for school work, and the way in which they are received and
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used, it is not hard to understand why the later employers of some of these children complain of the carelessness and wasteful- ness shown in the use of material furnished them upon which to work. But the children as pupils are not intentionally wasteful. They have always been supplied generously at the public expense with all needful material, but with the supply they have not been grounded in any adequate knowledge of the value of the material furnished or of its cost ; and so they have little appreciation of the effort and sometimes of the sacrifice necessary to furnish it. The remedy, therefore, is not to unduly restrict, or to be less generous in this matter ; but rather to give the child opportunity, and to see that he uses it, to gain an ade- quate conception of the labor and value of what he commonly has to use at school, and in his larger work outside of school-a knowledge of what these materials are, where they come from, how produced, and how transported and marketed, of the labor and skill and expense necessary before the staple articles of daily use are fitted for their purpose. We try to do this now, but more often work to make him master of these facts as mere matters of information, and without the conscious purpose to help him to that just estimate of the value of what is given him, that he may learn to use it all with care and reasonable economy.
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 apply for admission. There were 96 who received certificates last June, and 91 of those receiving them entered the High School in the Fall.
At present there are 265 pupils enrolled at the High School
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building; of these 78 are members of the ninth grade, who in all respects, save subjects of study, are a part of the High School.
The present current expenses of the High School are:
Teachers' salaries,
$6,100 00
Janitor,
500 00
Fuel and light,
675 00
Books and supplies,
420 00
$7,695 00
The present membership of the High School is 187 pupils, with six regular teachers, and two teachers giving part of their time. The work of the school is carried on in four courses, as follows :
Boys.
Girls.
Total.
Classical Course,
10
36
46
Scientific Course,
40
9
49
Literary Course,
1
28
29
Commercial Course,
27
36
63
28
109
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Each of the four courses named above ordinarily requires four years for its completion. The student can prepare for college or technical school in four years. With a few restric- tions such as seem necessary to prevent waste of time by inju- dicious or careless selection of subjects, any student for whom a full course is unnecessary or impossible may ordinarly take a special or partial course suited to his purpose. 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 arrange- ment the advantages of the school are offered to some who would otherwise be barred from them, while the number of classes
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and the teaching work of the school are not materially increased thereby.
The pupils who attend the High School come from homes scattered widely over the town, and some of them have long dis- tances to go to reach the school. Principally for this reason the plan of having only one session there each day has been con- tinued for some years. The apparent convenience of the ar- rangement is its greatest recommendation. The best interest of a majority of the pupils, particularly their health and pro- gress in school work. would seem to make a return to two ses- sions each day desirable. I believe the importance of this ques- tion merits the attention and consideration of the Committee.
The subject matter for work in the High School sees little change from year to year. Custom and long continued prac- tice have determined what its curriculum shall be. The college entrance requirements point the direction and determine the standard of work these schools shall do, and the pupils proposing to meet these requirements, though few, yet have the right of way. In the main, college graduates must be found to do the work of the school, and they perpetuate the ideals and methods of work in the institutions from which they come. The con- ditions make the High School conservative, and the last to feel the touch of the changed and changing conditions and require- ments of life. and to be impressed by its industrial demands. And yet it is to the High Schools that we have a right to look for an instant and intelligent response to the demands and to the real needs of every department of life, to those of the shop as well as to those of the college. The people contribute most generously to their support, and are looking for an equivalent return. They are too costly to serve only the purpose of a more extended and refined scholarship, and a more absorbing cultiva- tion of athletic sports. Having given the High Schools much, the public has a right to require much from them. They too, should begin to look the world's work squarely in the face. not only the work of the office and counting room, but the work of the shop and the mill.
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The most striking feature of modern productive industry is the extent to which it has turned to practical use the advancing knowledge of the sciences and mathematics. Agriculture has been revolutionized just so far as it has made use of chemistry and biology and botany. In the manufacture of leather and paper and textiles and food products, and in the refining of metals, chemistry has wrought great changes. In the manufac- ture and use of steam and electric power, physics has done a similar work. In the enormous development of engineering, science and the time-honored algebra and geometry have come to their fullest fruition.
By turning their study of science and mathematics and some of their history into these new channels, the High Schools would lose none of their dignity, while adding immensely to their influ- ence.
The demand is becoming urgent that the High Schools get in closer touch with modern life and breathe its atmosphere, and while retaining their interest in good scholarship, yet know and appreciate the problems the larger majority of their pupils have to face in industrial competition as well as those which a small minority of their pupils meet in the academic arena, and do their part in the solution of both. £ I think that our High School should anticipate the demand here, and that its course of study should be changed at once to meet the industrial situation. In particular, the work of the school should be so modified that the instruction in mathematics, the sciences, and drawing shall show the application and use of these subjects in industrial life, with special reference to local industries, so that the pupils may see that these subjects are not designed primarily and solely for academic purposes, but that they are designed and may be utilized for the purposes of practical life. That is, al- gebra and geometry should be so taught as to show their relation to construction, botany to agriculture and horticulture, chemis- try to agriculture, manufactures and domestic science, and draw- ing to every form of industry.
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In addition to the above, I have to renew my recommendation that the course in language offered at the High School be so changed as to give the pupils a larger and better training in practical English, and to afford them more opportunity to gain the power and confidence to stand up and express in simple and direct English, whatever they may wish to say.
The graduating exercises of the class of 1908 were held at the High School on Wednesday evening, June 24th, at 8 o'clock.
GRADUATES.
Allen Wood Bagnell, Masel Horton Beytes, Sara Craig Bodell, Helen Whiting Bradford, Martha Frances Burke, Horace Lee Cole, George Joseph Gerety, Alice LeBaron Gooding, Ralph Bard- well Heavens, Charlotte Burt Howland, Zylpha Odysell John- son. Herbert Hewitt Lanman, Carl Dudley Luther, Helen Louise McArdle, Josiah Atwood Robbins, Harriet Maude Rob- erts, Lydia Frances Sampson, Florence Genevieve Snow, Mary Louise Talbot, Mary Elizabeth Washburn, Theresa May Wasson.
First Honor for Scholarship, Horace Lee Cole.
Second Honor for Scholarship, Sara Craig Bodell.
UNGRADED SCHOOLS.
The Ungraded schools have increased their number to four. The pupils at South Pond, who were being carried to the Russell Mills school, increased to a sufficient number that warranted the Committee in re-opening the school at South Pond. There are now seven pupils enrolled there. This is the smallest of the four schools. The largest one is that at Ship Pond, with a mem-
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bership of sixteen. At the present time six or seven pupils are being carried from Indian Brook to Ship Pond at an expense of $200 a year. One pupil is being brought from Ellisville to the same school at a like cost of $200. The total number of pupils in these four schools is forty-two, with an average membership of thirty-eight. The current expense of supporting these schools is about $2,250, or an average of $59, per pupil, as com- pared with $24.55 for each pupil in average membership in the graded schools.
TRANSPORTATION.
The expense for transportation is an increasing one year by year. This item of school expense for the past year was more than $1,000. At the present rate, this sum will be considerably increased the coming year. Transportation is furnished to about forty pupils coming from the North to the Center Schools, twelve on the Manomet route, $200 a year to bring one pupil from Ellisville to Ship Pond, and $200 to bring pupils from Indian Brook to Ship Pond. The Town is fairly generous in providing transportation, but there are others who think their children should be carried to school at public expense. It is taking tact and firmness to keep this item of expense within reasonable bounds. At any rate, it does not seem feasible to re- duce the expense for this purpose until another building is pro- vided at the North, or until public opinion is stronger in the be- lief that it does not hurt a healthy child to walk a mile or more to school.
SCHOOL FIRE DRILLS.
When large numbers of people come together in inflammable buildings there is always danger from fire. There is still great-
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er danger from panic. School administration here, as elsewhere, recognizes this and guards against it. Of the twenty-four school buildings in use in Plymouth, all except two, are constructed of wood; and a fire breaking out in one of them would probably be destructive. But only in five of these twenty-four buildings is there a school room on any but the first floor, and in all of them exits are numerous, having doors fitted with automatic bolts, and all opening outward. In the largest wooden building there are nine exits, all of which can be used in case of need, un- less one or more is cut off by fire.
The element of safety is found in the quick dismissal of the children. When a school house can be emptied in an order- ly way in less than five minutes, by exits so placed that it is most unlikely that fire could block more than half of them, there is little danger that fire can spread before it is detected or before it cuts off escape.
Every school house in Plymouth having school rooms on the second floor has exits judiciously placed, and doors opening out- ward. In each of these schools fire drills are by vote of the Committee to be given twice each month, and the fact that they have been given is certified to the Superintendent monthly. Every reasonable provision for the quick and orderly dismissal of pupils in case of fire is made in all schools here; but the danger from panic in such an event remains; and this danger is guarded against as well as may be, by habituating the children to leave their schools at all times quickly and orderly and quietly under the immediate supervision of teachers and principals.
EVENING SCHOOLS.
During the past year the Evening Schools have been in session at the Knapp and Cornish Schools for twenty weeks, three even- ings each week. The record for the year is as follows :
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Number of boys enrolled, 110
Number of girls enrolled, 60
Average number belonging. 152
Average evening attendance, 124
Percentage of attendance, 82.
About two-thirds of the whole number enrolled are illiterates. The attendance of these has to be reported to their employers, and they are requird by law to discharge from their employ all those who have unexcused absence from evening school recorded against them. The card method of reporting these absences is cumbersome. It makes it necessary for the schools to make out and distribute in the mills about one hundred cards each week. It takes too much of the teachers' time, and we have, by' this method, no means of knowing what disposition, if any, is made in the mills of those who are reported as delinquents in atten- dance,-whether or not the mills discharge them as they are re- quired by the law to do. It will make our records easier and surer of working their purpose if we discard the method of re- porting which the law seems to require, and instead of it that teachers report on a specially prepared blank only their absen- tees, which paper sent to mills can be checked up and returned to the schools with such comments or explanations in regard to the non-attendants as the mills choose to make. If we can se- cure the co-operation of the mills in this arrangement, and the plan can be carried out without violating the statute in relation thereto, we shall make the work in the Evening Schools more effective.
MEDICAL INSPECTION.
The annual test of sight and hearing of pupils required by law to be made by teachers gave the following results : Number of pupils tested, 1860
Number found defective in sight, 225
32
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Number found defective in hearing,
Number of parents or guardians notified, 160
Percentage found defective in sight, 12
Percentage found defective in hearing, 2
This examination of the eyes and ears of pupils places a heavy burden upon the time of the teachers if they do the work with that care which makes the results reliable and valuable. And it is somewhat discouraging to find that many parents, when notified of the apparent defects of vision or hearing of their children, discredit the teacher's interest, and nullify her work through failure to provide the remedy the children need.
Doubtless some parents fail to, meet the needs of the child be- cause of the expense; they cannot afford it. Others think the child is in no worse condition than he has been for years, and see no reason for giving him immediate relief. And so the child suffers, and has to meet the exacting work of his day with increasingly impaired powers.
It is a vital defect in the Medical Inspection Law which gives no authority, in case the parent is negligent or indifferent, to demand the proper remedy for these physical defects in the child, or power to enforce the demand if one is made. Where the expense of providing suitable medical aid is a real obstacle to the parent, the aid should be provided at the public cost.
But on the whole, the medical inspection required under the statute is proving a great blessing to the schools and to the community. Under the powers given to the School Physician to make a prompt examination and diagnosis of each child re- ferred to him, and such further examination of teachers, jani- tors and school buildings as in his opinion the protection of the pupils may require, there is little opportunity for conditions which really menace the health of pupils long to continue unde- tected or unremedied.
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PLAYGROUNDS.
These are the days when the physical development and care of the children are reciving due consideration. The law is pro- viding as carefully for good sanitary conditions in school as for the course of study to be pursued. Efficient medical inspection of schools and school children is provided that the child may be kept in good physical condition to do his work.
And now the people everywhere are recognizing the fact that growing children need an abundance of out door air and exer- cise, and are calling upon the city and town governments to pro- vide suitable playgrounds. None of the school yards here are large enough for a ball game, and private ownership of shore rights effectually bars convenient approach to the water for public boating or bathing. It is not strange that children trespass on private lands for their games, and invade shore lots to reach the water for boating or bathing. The only alternative is to stop playing, and that they will never do. Children have a right to an opportunity to indulge in athletic exercises. Such exercises are the natural and spontaneous expression of themselves, and suitable time and place should be given for this means of growth. Out of door training in formal exercises in supervised games and athletic sports is fast being recognized as an essential part of school and public hygiene. It is therefore earnestly hoped that under the referendum playground act, if accepted by the Town at its next election, ample provision may be made for out of door training and exercises of the children; and that this provision include free and convenient access to the water for bathing and boating.
TEACHERS.
There are at present in the day schools sixty-two teachers, which number includes three teachers of special subjects. We
Plymouth 13
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have lost during the year only eight teachers by resignation, and only five of that number left to accept positions elsewhere. Du- ring the preceding year sixteen teachers resigned their places here, most of them to accept positions paying more salary else- where.
The increase of the maximum salary which the Committee voted last Fall to be paid to the teachers of the elementary schools is helping us to retain some good teachers who would otherwise leave us, and is proving an incentive to many to show themselves worthy of the larger salary. The only justifi- cation which the Committee can have for paying larger salaries is that there results an increased efficiency in the work of the schools. I believe that it is resulting in a more effective service, that it is abating, in a measure, the disturbance and loss of work by frequent changes in the teaching body, and is bringing to all teachers a more cheerful and willing service in meeting the exacting demands of their work.
I wish again to bear testimony to the skill, devotion and earnestness of the teaching body as a whole, and to the excellent work which is being done in the schools.
Respectfully submitted.
FRANCIS J. HEAVENS.
Feb. 16. 1909.
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LIST OF TEACHERS
IN THE SCHOOLS OF PLYMOUTH, MASS. 1908-1909.
High School.
James D. Howlett, Principal, Latin.
William Hoyt, Mathematics.
Elizabeth Mac Kenzie, Commercial Studies.
Helen N. Parsons, History and English.
Edith L. Flewelling, Science.
Marion Chandler, French and German.
Ruth Baker, German.
Augusta M. Morton, ninth grade.
Elvena Young, ninth grade.
Spooner Street School.
GRADE.
1. Hazel E. McLean.
Hedge School.
GRADE.
.
1. Lula C. Vaille. 2. Lucy L. Hildreth.
Allerton Street School.
GRADE. 1. Bertha M. Briggs.
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Frederick: N. Knapp School.
GRADE.
7-8. John W. Locke, principal.
6. Lydia E. Holmes.
5. Zelma B. Lucas.
4. Maude H. Lermond.
4. Kate Ģ. Zahn.
3. Bessie Barker.
3. Amy N. Briggs.
2. Annie W. Burgess.
1. Elizabeth H. Sampson.
Cold Spring School.
GRADE.
2. Gertrude C. Bennett.
3. Mabel F. Douglas. 5. Susan C. Thomas.
Oak Street School.
GRADE.
1. Marion T. Wholley. 2-3. Clara W. Mayhew.
Burton School.
GRADE.
7. Katherine A. O'Brien.
7. Mabel C. Ray.
4. Teresa A. Rogan.
4. Nettie E. Knight.
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