USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Plymouth > Town annual report of Plymouth, MA 1906-1908 > Part 7
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was whether the average child could do the same required work in this shortened period without undue pressure. Ex- perience has abundantly shown that he can. The work done with children five years old can be done with them in a much shorter time when they are six; and by the end of their third year of school, the children who enter at six are found to have accomplished as much work as those who en- tered at five. So that with the eight year period boys and girls finish the grammar school course and are ready to enter the high school at about the same age and with about the same attainments as those of the nine year course.
Some of the results of such a change in policy are ap- parent.
We should need no additional school buildings for some time to come; we should need six or seven less teachers; it would save an annual expenditure of from three to four thousand dollars; and it is alleged that there would be no educational loss caused by this saving. We cannot defend taking nine years to do what can as well be accomplished in eight ..
On the other hand, such a change would bar from the schools most of the 250 children enrolled in the first grade; and it would be difficult to prove that by such act no educa- tional loss would' result. To many if not to most of these children the school affords their only protection against the demoralizing influences of the street, and sometimes of the home; it is perhaps the strongest agent in helping them to gain habits of punctuality, cleanliness, order and obedience. Unless some efficient substitute for the school during that year were provided, it is not easy to believe that no educa- tional loss would result.
In view of the position other places are taking on this question, it is worth a careful consideration here.
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GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.
The grammar schools include grades 5 to 9. The number enrolled in these schools at present is 720, about 36 per cent. of the total school enrollment. They occupy 16 school rooms, making an average number of 45 pupils to each teacher.
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 teach- er, and recorded at the end of each month, in the grammar schools, on report cards sent to the parents. When condi- tions 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 promo- tion in this form is made only in case the parent gives writ- ten consent thereto. If, at the end of the probationary per- iod, the pupil's work warrants 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.
It is becoming more and more the practice for children fourteen years of age to apply for school certificates that they may secure employment for wages in the factories.
A much larger number of employment certificates was is- sued the past year than in any previous year. Personal or family need in the case of the few, and the inducement of small present gain in the case of the many appear to be the main reasons for children leaving school at the earliest day the law allows.
The recent enactment of law which prohibits the employ- ment of illiterate minors under the age of sixteen years has brought to our attention not a few who have been at school regularly until fourteen, but for some reason have not been able to learn to read and write well enough to entitle them
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to leave school and go to the mill. They seem to have se- cured from school work all they are ever likely to get. To hold them in school two years longer seems a waste of time for them and a detriment to the schools in which they hap- pen to be. We consider that such are released from the necessity of school attendance by that provision of the sta- tute which excepts from compulsory attendance those whose mental or physical condition renders their attendance inex- pedient. Such children frequently have considerable manu- al dexterity, and are able to engage in some form of work which renders them self-supporting.
It would be of decided advantage to all those who are in- duced to leave school to work in the mills at the early age of fourteen if they could be prepared in some more practical way before they leave school for the work upon which they are to enter. This could be done if our course of study in- cluded more definite and more practical work in manual training and instruction in elementary mechanics along the lines of our important industries. There are few places where better cloth and cordage are produced than here. These goods are preeminent in the market for their excel- lence. Ability and skill in producing them is the staple sup- port of the homes of the majority of the pupils in the schools. If we could offer to those pupils who leave school to work in the mills a course of a year or two in industrial training and instruction based on the simple elementary prin- ciples of these local interests-industrial arithmetic, com- mercial geography, mechanical drawing and draughting, in- cluding in the course the fundamental elements of mechanics -this together with a study of the materials used in these manufactories, and their method of growth and production. and all this made practical and real by such observation and instruction as the mills themselves would be glad to afford -- such a course continued for two years and offered to all boys and girls of fourteen years of age who were competent to
Plymouth
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profit by it. would take the place of the two years from 14 to 16 that so many boys spend in unskilled service which fur- nishes them no adequate return in either experience or money, and which are often wasted years. Such a course would enable the boy or girl on leaving school to enter these or like industries fitted to take places at advanced wages, and prepared for early advancement.
Such a course as here suggested would contain no less of the culture element. None of the subjects at present relied upon for school training would be omitted or slighted; but they would cease to appear unrelated or abstract, or leading nowhere in particular, but would acquire a new meaning and a practical bearing, and' might be expected to arouse in pupils a new and keener interest because of their evident and definite purpose.
The industrial problem in Massachussets is being serious- ly considered both by Legislative Commission, and by the large number of people who have urged the appointment of such a Commission; and all are looking at educational methods and principles from the industrial view point, and are hoping that the existing means of education may be used and supplemented to meet the needs of the increasing de- mands for industrial training.
An early consideration of this matter is being urged upon this and all other communities.
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 49 who received certificates last June, and 44 of those receiving them entered the High School in the fall.
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At present there are 211 pupils enrolled at the High School building; of these 71 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,
$3,650 00
Janitor,
500 00
Fuel and light,
650 00
Books and supplies,
315 00
$5,115 00
The present membership of the High School is 140 pupils, with six regular teachers. The work of the school is carried on in four courses, as follows :
Boys.
Girls. Totl.
Classical Course,
6
15
21
Science Course,
3I
5
36
Literary Course,
I
34
35
Commercial Course,
23
25
48
61
79
140
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 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 leisure- ly, taking five or more years to complete the regular four years' course. By such an arrangement the advantages of the school are offered to some who would otherwise be
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barred from them, while the number of classes and the teach- ing work of the school is not materially increased thereby.
It may be noted that from a third to a fourth of all the pupils at the high school are in the Commercial Course. This has become one of the most important departments of the high school, and the good training it has given and is now giving is shown by the successful work its students are doing in the places they occupy. There is a larger call for graduates of this department than can well be supplied.
The work of the other courses prepares for college, the technical and normal schools; and the school is well repre- sented in college and in scientific schools by young men and women who have prepared here.
Any pupil of ordinary ability can prepare for college or scientific school here in four years. Because of the quality of the preparatory work the school has done it has the right to send on its certificate its graduates to several colleges and scientific schools. The school has exercised this privilege in many instances, and to good purpose; but it is at least ques- tionable whether it is advisable to continue it. Examina- tions for all the more important schools in the East are held at points easily reached, and any pupil whose abilities and attainments justify a college course can pass the entrance examinations if he avail himself of the opportunities offered in our High School. In declining to exercise its right of certification the school is relieved of the unpleasant duty of offering to one group of pupils the certificates which exempt them from entrance examinations, and of refusing them to the other group of pupils whose attainments and abilities suggest that some other pursuit than a college course is ad- visable for them.
At no time during the past ten years has the school had higher ideals of good scholarship; nor has it been doing more serious, orderly, and successful work than at the pre- sent time.
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The present number of pupils in attendance at the high school building is about the same as it was last year. The number does not vary much from year to year. The need for new furniture of adjustable pattern better suited to the size and use of the pupil is still urgent. The laboratories need readjusting and refurnishing. Better accommodations for the commercial department should be provided. With these and some other minor changes, the high school build- ing will still provide a substantial and comfortable home for the present number of pupils in attendance.
The graduating exercises of the class of 1906 were held at the High School Building on Wednesday evening, June 20, at 8 o'clock.
GRADUATES.
Mabel F. Bartlett,
Isabella M. Hirst.
Mary A. Bodell,
Ethel M. Horsman,
Herbert E. Burns,
Cora E. Howland,
Emily M. Campbell,
Alice J. McArdle,
Huesten Collingwood,
Morris E. Resnick,
Rebecca T. Robbins,
Louise O. Freeman, Annie M. French, Anna L. Gerety,
Harold G. Roberts, Helen W. Smith,
Porter T. Harlow,
Edward O. Strong,
Fannie A. Hoxie,
Charles F. Walker.
Ethel F. Hayden.
Willard C. Whiting,
HONORS FOR SCHOLARSHIP.
Ethel M. Horsman
Helen W. Smith
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UNGRADED SCHOOLS.
There are at present four ungraded schools with an en- rolled membership of forty pupils. The largest is the school at Cedarville with twelve pupils, and the smallest at South Pond with seven pupils. The number in these outside schools grows less year by year, the number being nearly 25 per cent. less this year than last. It would be much to the advantage of the children who attend them if the four schools could be consolidated into one or two schools; but their location does not permit any such arrangement.,
They are the most expensive schools that the town sup- ports, the amount paid for teaching service there averaging about thirty-three dollars per pupil; while the necessary current expense brings this average expense up to about forty-two dollars for each child enrolled. In this expense is included the two hundred dollars paid during the year for transporting two children from Ellisville to Ship Pond. It does not appear how the expense of these schools can well be made less under present conditions.
EVENING SCHOOLS.
The evening schools have been in session for twenty weeks, the length of time generally regarded by custom as an evening school year. The record of the past ten weeks is as follows :
Number enrolled, 2II
Average number belonging, I53
Average daily attendance, II2
Per cent. of attendance, 73.2
These schools are held at the Knapp and Cornish build- ings, three evenings each week. Three rooms are used in the
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Knapp and two at the Cornish. At present there are two hundred pupils enrolled under the instruction of nine teach- ers.
The current expense of these schools for the year has been $736.24, making an average expense per pupil enrolled of $3.50 for the sixty sessions of the schools.
Regular attendance of pupils at evening school is neces- sary for the school's success, but such attendance is difficult to secure. A minority of those whose attendance is com- pulsory were present only when it suited their convenience until it was made clear to them that their employment in the mills could be continued only so long as their school at- tendance was satisfactory. But much the larger class of those who attend these schools is made up of young men and women who appreciate the opportunities the school offers them, who are present at every school session, and who work with commendable earnestness and zeal.
In orderly ways and earnest purpose these schools com- pare favorably with any good day school; and though they are in session only three evenings each week, they are ac- complishing good work.
TEACHERS.
During the past year twenty-three teachers have resigned their positions with us. These places have been filled, and one additional teacher appointed to a new position. At present there are sixty-one teachers and principals in active service here.
It may be noted that the number of changes in teachers the past year have been larger than a third of all the teach- ers in the service. These changes, with others made neces- sary in placing teachers where they could work to the best
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advantage, have proven a serious hindrance to the best work; for we have lost some valuable teachers whose places it has been difficult to make good.
If a teacher here proves her superior ability, it is usually not as difficult for her to hear and answer a call to a place offering a higher salary or larger opportunities. as it is for us to find a worthy successor to fill her place. And yet we have to make good her loss if possible, for the success of the schools depends more upon our filling vacancies as they occur with good teachers than upon anything else. And in accomplishing this the financial consideration is the main factor.
There is a very close relation between the amount of sal- ary which a community offers and the ability and character of the teaching corps it is to able to secure.
The following, taken from the report of a committee ap- pointed to investigate the conditions with respect to teach- ers' salaries paid in a neighboring county, expresses this most important consideration so well that it is worth quot- ing in this connection :
"The importance of a high standard of personality and professional efficiency in the public school teaching corps is so well understood that it needs no discussion.
In this connection, however, it should be noted that. ow- ing to the increasing opportunities for women to earn in other lines of effort as much if not more with less expendi- ture of energy than they can earn in teaching, there is grave danger that ultimately the character of the teaching force in our schools will suffer unless a higher standard of salar- ies can be secured for teachers.
Low salaries for teachers, if maintained in face of gen- eral prosperity in the business world. mean certain inevit- able results :-
First .- Although school boards may require complete professional training on the part of those whom they employ,
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the character of those who take up the work of teaching will gradually deteriorate, because many of the brightest and strongest personalities will prefer other fields of labor in which the renumeration is greater. Already complaint is being made quite generally that it is becoming increas- ingly more difficult to secure the type of teachers wanted for the average salary paid.
Second .- Low salaries mean shorten periods of service by first-class teachers.
Third .- A prevailing low rate of wage means less ambi- tion on the part of the teachers and less opportunity for professional growth while in the service,-a fact that oper- ates distinctly against the best results in our schools.
A reasonably high standard of salaries, therefore, is even more important to the public than it is to the teachers them- selves.
One of the chief obstacles to adequate financial compensa- tion for teachers lies in the lack of appreciation on the part of the public: (a) that the most vital interests at stake in a community are those involved in public education; (b) that the best results in this field can be secured only by employing first-class teachers, and making their tenure as permanent as possible; and (c) that first-class teaching talent and per- manency of service on the part of the teachers cannot be se- cured unless reasonably high salaries are paid.
If these conclusions be sound, it would appear that school officials can hardly do a greater service for the cause of pub- lic education than to labor systematically to lead the people to believe that it is neither wise economy, nor is it moral- ly right so far as the interests of the child are concerned, to maintain a rate of wages for teachers that is less than will enable the best results to be secured in the schools.
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MEDICAL INSPECTION.
For several years those having in charge the interests of the public schools here and elsewhere have tried to make evident the great need of some form of medical inspection in the schools.
They have urged that the Legislature make some provis- ion for discovering and remedying as far as it might be done, the physical disabilities of public school children. At length a bill has been passed making such inspection man- datory.
The law is as follows :-
Acts of 1906, Chapter 502.
Section I. The school committee of every city and town in the Commonwealth shall appoint one or more school phy- sicians, shall assign one to each public school within its city or town, and shall provide them with all proper facilities for the performance of their duties as prescribed in this act.
Section 2. Every school physician shall make a prompt examination and diagnosis of all children referred to him as hereinafter provided, and such further examination of teachers, janitors and school buildings as in his opinion the protection of the health of the pupils may require.
Section 3. The school committee shall cause to be re- ferred to a school physician for examination and diagnosis every child returning to school without a certificate from the board of health after an absence on account of illness or from unknown cause; and every child in the schools under its jurisdiction who shows signs of being in ill health or of suffering from infectious or contagious disease, unless he is at once excluded from school by the teacher; except that in the case of schools in remote and isolated situations the school committee may make such other arrangements as may best carry out the purpose of this act.
Section 4. The school committee shall cause notice of
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the disease of or defects, if any, from which any child is found to be suffering to be sent to his parent or guardian. Whenever a child shows symptoms of smallpox, scarlet fever, measles, chickenpox, tuberculosis, diphtheria or influ- enza, tonsilitis, whooping cough, mumps, scabies or trach- oma, he shall be sent home immediately or as soon as safe and proper conveyance can be found, and the board of health shall at once be notified.
Section 5. The school committee of every city and town shall cause every child in the public schools to be separately and carefully examined and tested at least once in every school year to ascertain whether he is suffering from defec- tive sight or hearing, or from other defect or disability tend- ing to prevent his receiving the full benefit of his school work, or requiring a modification of the school work to pre- vent injury to the child, or to secure the best educational re- sults. The tests of sight and hearing shall be made by teachers. The committee shall cause notice of any defect or disability requiring treatment to be sent to the parent or guardian of the child, and shall require a physical record of each child to be kept in such form as the state board of edu- cation shall prescribe.
Section 7. The expense which a city or town may incur by virtue of the authority herein vested in the school com- mittee or board of health, as the case may be, shall not ex- ceed the amount appropriated for that purpose in cities by the city council and in towns by the town meeting. The ap- propriation shall precede any expenditure or any indebted- ness which may be incurred under this act, and the sum ap- propriated shall be deemed a sufficient appropriation in the municipality where it is made. Such appropriation need not specify to what section of the act it shall apply, and may be voted as a total appropriation to be applied in carrying out the purpose of the act.
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It will be seen that this law aims to accomplish two dis- tinct purposes.
First, that physicians appointed under the law shall dis- cover incipient cases of infectious or contagious disease, and by the removal from school of those afflicted prevent all danger of the disease spreading.
Second, to determine whether any children in the schools are suffering from defective sight or hearing, or from any other disability or defect tending to prevent their obtaining the full benefit of their school work.
The teachers are required to carry into effect this second purpose of the statute. Under this law, most of the school children in town have been examined to discover defects of eyesight. The results indicate defects in about eighteen cases in each one hundred pupils. This does not mean that 360 pupils in the schools here actually have defective vision, but that the tests indicate this to be so, and that word has been sent to parents to that effect. Examination by an oculist may materially lessen the number.
The law requires teachers to notify parents of any defect which seems to require the services of a physician. This they have done. And here the school's authority in this matter ends. The law gives to it no authority to call the physician to examine and remedy the child's physical disa- bility when any is found to exist, nor has the school any way of compelling the parent or guardian to take any action to that end, or even to heed the notice sent. This is a vital defect in the law and one which, without doubt, will soon be removed.
We believe the provisions of this law to be most im- portant and beneficial. and very much desire that the , children have its full benefit; but we must wait for an ap- propriation for this particular work before we can effect the first purpose of the law; for it is especially provided that no expense can be incurred in this work except under an appropriation made therefor.
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With my sincere gratitude for the consideration shown me by the Committee, for the loyal support and cooperation of the teachers, and for the help of any others who have contributed in any way to the success of this schools, this report is respectfully submitted.
FRANCIS J. HEAVENS, Superintendent.
Plymouth, February 15, 1907.
LIST OF TEACHERS IN THE SCHOOLS OF PLYMOUTH, MASS.
1906-1907.
High School.
James D. Howlett, Principal, Latin.
William Hoyt, Mathematics.
Elizabeth Mackenzie, Commercial Studies.
Sarah E. Ridlon, History and English.
Frank E. Holt, Science.
Marion Chandler, French and German.
Augusta M. Morton, ninth grade.
Phœbe G. Haskell. ninth grade.
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