USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Plymouth > Town annual report of Plymouth, MA 1909-1911 > Part 31
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33
To meet the cost of this enlargement and the additional fur- niture required we ask for an appropriation of twelve thousand dollars.
To furnish a permanent home for the schools now on South street we recommend the erection of a building similar in size and plan to the present Hedge building, to be built in the
-165-
vicinity of the High School building. This new building, while having but four rooms at first, may later be economically doubled in capacity.
The estimated cost of such a building with its furnishings, exclusive of the lot, is twenty-three thousand dollars.
The new building at Manomet affords excellent accommoda- tions for the two schools, the upper room being unoccupied. We have been asked if the use of this room could be had for social uses connected with the uplift of the youth in that neighborhood, and the committee are still of the opinion that the room will not be needed for a school in the immediate future. It has heretofore been the custom to allow a limited use of the school buildings in the outlying districts, and occasionally the High School house, for gatherings which were not connected with school work, but recently, in response to a demand that school buildings be available for use in civic improvement, a law has been passed authorizing such use. One effect of this law is to point out the illegality of the permission without the sanction of the town. We, therefore, recommend the adoption of Chapter 367 of the Acts of 1911, which provides that "the school com- mittee of any city or town which accepts the provisions of this act may grant the temporary use of halls in school buildings upon such terms and conditions and for such public or educa- tional purposes, for which no admission fee is charged, as said school committee may deem wise; provided, however, that such use shall not in any way interfere or be inconsistent with the use of the halls for school purposes."
At the High School conditions are recently much improved, but to bring this school up to a desirable efficiency the recom- mendations of the Superintendent should have attention, and this will necessarily add to the cost of the school ; but we believe that the results will justify the expenditure.
Certain school yards are now too small and should be enlarged by the addition of adjoining land when this may be done upon
-166-
reasonable terms. The large amounts needed for other purposes prevent our urging this matter for immediate attention.
Respectfully submitted,
WILLIAM W. BREWSTER, WILLIAM M. DOUGLASS, EARLE W. GOODING, EUGENE P. ROWELL, J. HOLBROOK SHAW,
School Committee.
-167-
SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT
To the School Committee of Plymouth-
The following is submitted as the report of the Superin- tendent of schools for the year 1911. It presents statistics of attendance of all the schools for the year ending June, 1911; and a record of all other school matters for the year ending December 31, 1911. No unusual events or important changes in the school work have occurred during the year. There has been the normal increase in the number of school children, re- quiring more schools, more teachers, and more money to pay for them. Insufficient school accommodations, especially in the north part of the town, call for immediate relief. A more definite statement of the needs in this particular is given below.
CENSUS.
The school census, taken in September, 1911, gave the fol- lowing returns :-
Children between 5 and 15 years of age:
Boys,
1063
Girls,
1093
2156
Children between 7 and 14 years, the compulsory school age,
Boys,
742
Girls,
7773
1515
A
-168-
These figures show an increase over last year of thirty-four children between the ages of seven and fourteen, and an in- crease of eighty-three between the ages of five and fifteen. By far the larger part of this gain was in the district north of Cold Spring.
ATTENDANCE.
Two thousand two hundred and seven different pupils at- tended the schools here during the year ending June 23, 1911. This total enrolment is only twenty-two greater than the en- rolment of the previous year. The average membership for the year, that is, the number which shows the constant mem- bership of the schools for that period, is 2,082. The average . daily attendance, 1,957, or 94 per cent. of the number in the average membership.
Considering the number of outlying schools and the diffi- culty of reaching them in inclement weather, our record for regularity of attendance is good. A few schools have main- tained for weeks a perfect attendance. In most school rooms it is the few pupils whose irregular attendance mars an other- wise excellent record. Such pupils are not being given the attention their delinquency requires. The attendance and truant laws were passed to meet just such cases, and they meet them well when uniformly and continuously and judiciously applied.
The efforts of the teachers, who promptly report irregular attendants, must meet a quicker and more efficient response before they can well serve their purpose.
-169-
ACCOMMODATIONS.
At the present time there are 2,214 pupils enrolled in all the schools, seventy more than were enrolled one year ago. All the larger school buildings are used to their full capacity, and many rooms are crowded, especially in the primary grades. There are 197 pupils enrolled at the Hedge School today, giv- ing the four teachers there about fifty pupils each. These are all in grades one to three. The same grades at the Knapp School have 148 pupils in three rooms; and the one-room Spooner Street primary school has forty-six pupils. There is needed at once at the new Hedge School two additional rooms to relieve the primary schools in that part of the town; and it is altogether probable that a third room will be necessary when the next school year begins.
At the opening of school last September over seventy pupils applied for places in the 7th and 8th grade room at the Knapp. It was found necessary to transfer the whole of the eighth grade, eighteen pupils, from that school to the Cornish. With all the changes and transfers we could reasonably make, the Knapp School yet remains with far too many pupils in each room. The Cornish School has been relieved by establishing a new eighth grade at the remodelled Engine House, where the ninth grade is quartered. This building furnishes com- fortable quarters in three rooms for the ninth grade pupils and for the new eighth grade. The location is far from ideal for school purposes. It lacks several of the desirable, if not essential, qualities which make a modern school. Yet it is furnishing us a convenient, if temporary, means of relief from the half-time schools which were necessary before this build- ing was opened.
-170-
FINANCIAL STATEMENT.
The items given below are based upon the expenditure for school purposes during the financial year 1911. The financial and attendance periods are not 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.
1. Assessed valuation of real and personal
property in Plymouth, May 1, 1911, $11,958,720 00
2. Per cent. of valuation expended for cur- rent expenses of schools in 1909-10, or $4.75 on each $1,000.00, .00475
3. Expense per pupil on average membership, 27 28
4. Expense per pupil on same for schools of State, 1910-1911, 34 36.
5. Expense per pupil on average member- ship on total expenditure for schools in 1909-1910, 28 87
6. Average monthly wages of men teachers
(3) in Plymouth in 1910-11, 120 00
7. Average monthly wages of women (54) teachers in Plymouth in 1910-11, 54 90
In this statement the items are based upon the average mem- bership of the schools, 2,082. Items 2 and 3 are based upon the. whole amount ($60,082.45), which the Committee has spent, less the cost of repairs ($2,647.12) and expense of evening schools ($657.50). The items which make up this amount are payments for salaries, transportation, fuel and care of school- houses, text books and supplies and incidentals. The sum thus ex- pended ($56,777.83) is by the 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 that during the past year the town raised by taxation, and expended for the school support of each child in the average membership (2,082) of the schools, the sum of
-171-
$27.28. The State average on the same basis was $34.36. 'The total expense of the schools was $60,082.45, or $28.87 for each pupil in the average membership.
There are 354 cities and towns in Massachusetts. During the past year there were 175 of these cities and towns which im- posed upon themselves a heavier tax for the school support of each child in the average membership of their schools than Plymouth, and 178 that imposed upon themselves a lesser tax ... There were 200 of these same communities which paid a larger percentage of their assessed valuation for school purposes than Plymouth paid, and only 153 of them that paid less.
The current expense of the School Department has increased rapidly and continuously for the past fifteen years. For the year 1896 the current expense of the department was $33,- 078.35; for the past year it was $60,082.45, an increase of over $27,000.00 in fifteen years. It has been interesting to determine, and it may be worth while to note, in what par- ticular ways this increased amount of money is spent.
In 1896, thirty-eight elementary school teachers were paid $17,820.00, an average yearly salary of $443.00. Last year, fifty-two such teachers were paid $29,560.00, an average yearly salary of $568.40, an amount which adds to the salary list of the year 1896 the sum of about $13,000.00.
In 1896 the expense for instruction and supervision in the elementary schools was $16.05 per pupil; last year the expense- per pupil for the same purposes was $16.80. But if we leave out the cost of instruction in Sloyd, work given only to the pupils of the elementary schools and not in the curriculum in 1896, the cost for instruction in those schools is just about what it was fifteen years ago. In that time the number of children in the average membership of the lower schools has- increased from 1,196 to 1,950, or 63 per cent .; the number of teachers from thirty-nine to fifty-four, or 40 per cent., while- the salary list for those teachers has gone from $19,228.00 to $32,769.00, or 70 per cent.
-172-
In these fifteen years, in the High School, the number of pupils has increased from 170 to 220, the number of teachers from six to eight, and their combined salaries from $4,992.00 to $7,479.00. The cost of instruction and supervision for each High School pupil was, in 1896, $29.40; last year it was $37.50.
During this same period the amount paid for janitors has increased from $1,675 to $3,890, 132 per cent., or from $1.24 for each pupil in the average attendance in 1896, to $1.82 for every such pupil now. Fuel and light have increased from $2,351 to $5,286, 120 per cent., or from $1.72 for each pupil in average attendance then, to $2.47 for every such pupil now ; repairs from $1,291 to $2,647, 112 per cent .; transportation from $300 (estimated) to $1,360, or 350 per cent. Books and supplies cost, in 1896, $3,124 for 1,368 pupils, or $2.28 each. Last year the same items cost $3,661 for 2,062 pupils, or $1.72 each, a diminished cost of $0.56 for each pupil.
The number of teachers in the elementary schools has in- creased from thirty-eight to fifty-four in fifteen years, and their average salary has been increased 26 per cent .; and dur- ing the same period the average salary of each teacher in the High School has been advanced 18 per cent. The evening schools, organized recently under legal requirement, as at pres- ent arranged entail a yearly expense of about $700.00. These three items increase the salary list $16,000.00 over that of the year 1896 ; and the added expense of the other items mentioned total $11,000.00. Together they fully explain the $27,000.00 increase in the current expense of the schools over their cost in 1896.
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
-173-
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 2,214. Of this number 1,185, about 54 per cent. of the total number, are in the primary schools, grades one to four, inclusive, distributed in twenty-eight school rooms. The small- est number in any one room is eleven, and the largest fifty-one.
These 1,185 pupils are enrolled in the four primary grades as follows :
Boys.
Girls.
Total.
Grade I,
171
189
360
Grade II,
154
127
281
Grade III,
138
133
271
Grade IV,
125
148
273
588
597
1,185
The primary schools are becoming overcrowded, especially in the north part of the town, where the pupils of these grades particularly need to be placed in small classes, that they may receive individual attention. Every school room there has an average enrolment of forty-eight pupils-a number greater than any teacher can care for to good advantage. No school of any grade ought to have more than thirty pupils, and no school department should be permitted by law to register more than thirty-five children in any school room in the care of one- teacher. If only this latter number were allowed in Plymouth, where the average size of classes in the larger buildings is from forty-five to fifty pupils, it would mean another large build- ing of ten rooms to accommodate ten additional classes at a current expense of $7,000. This means that we are crowding into thirty school rooms a number of pupils that should be distributed in forty rooms, if we would secure one of the con-
-174-
ditions which enable teachers to work successfully and econom- ically. Simple and substantially built school houses, kept clean and comfortable; reasonably small classes, with a capable teacher in charge of each one, are some of the essential condi- tions for successful work in every school; and especially ought such conditions to be maintained in every primary school. That school should be the first care of every community. Pro- vision for its every essential need should be generous and con- tinuous. In the primary school is the large majority of all pupils, and many of them stay in school no longer than the law compels. At the earliest day they must help provide for their own support. Whatever the school does for such chil- dren it must do speedily and efficiently. To teach obedience and respect for authority; sympathy and toleration of one foreigner for another and both for the native born; to impart a common aim and interest born of association on an equal footing and of the same lessons learned in a common tongue ; to instill a growing respect and gratitude for the institution which knows no distinction between rich and poor, high or low ; which generously and wisely furnishes to all alike equal op- portunity to live a larger life; which trains them for a more intelligent citizenship, and inculcates love and respect for the flag that is the emblem of it all-the agency which is set to do this, and honestly tries to accomplish it, should meet no need in its work which is not immediately supplied. For, if well done, there comes of this work, in the majority of those children trained by it, a high aim and an intelligent citizen- ship, which promises well for the government in which they must soon take their part. The welding process which makes possible a common purpose and interest can best be done, under present conditions, by the common school, and prin- cipally in the earlier years of school life. There is nowhere any other adequate provision made to accomplish it. And current events are proving that the day is still here when failure to accomplish it is a menance to good citizenship and
-175-
safe government. The primary school, therefore, should be provided with everything necessary for efficient work. No wasted time or effort caused by overcrowded schools or classes, or by overburdened or incapable teachers should be tolerated. The conditions for good work must be ample and ever present if the service of the schools is to meet the need for which they are instituted.
GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.
The grammar schools include grades 5 to 9. The number enrolled in these schools at present is 811, about 36 per cent. of the total school enrolment. They occupy nineteen school rooms, making an average of forty-three pupils to each teacher.
These 811 pupils are enrolled in the five grammar grades as follows :
Boys.
Girls.
Total.
Grade V,
119
119
238
Grade VI,
94
98
192
Grade VII,
99
81
180
Grade VIII,
63
73
136
Grade IX,
24
41
65
399
412
811
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
-116-
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 retained in any class when his interests are best. served by his going to a higher or lower one.
Since the opening, last October, of three school rooms at the South Street Engine House, the pupils of the upper grades are fairly well provided for. All pupils of the eighth and ninth grades, except a few children of the former grade at Manomet and Chiltonville, are attending the schools at the center of the town. This became necessary by reason of there being no room for any of those pupils at the north. Bringing these children to schools out of their own district is making the bill for transportation seem large; but the amount paid for that purpose is not nearly so great as it would be to maintain a school at the north for the few pupils of the eighth and ninth grades there. And bringing most of the children of these two grades together practically in one school enables us to do much more efficient work with them, and to do it more economically.
The program of work in the grammar schools is being con- tinued along the usual lines. It was hoped that this year conditions would make it seem possible to offer to those pupils of the seventh and eighth grades who chose it, some form of industrial work. But circumstances have not favored this change. Experience of other communities in this form of school training is meager. I know of no place of equal op- portunities with this that is doing it very successfully. And so the schools are yet restricting their work, in the main, to the so-called, but often miscalled, essentials. No pupil is given an average time of more than two and a half hours a week to that form of industrial work called manual training. Prac- tically all the school time is given to the traditional subjects of school work. And this work is being done fairly well-in
-177-
some cases very well. But not in every case. We know it to be true even better than the critic who delights in telling it, that very many go from these schools poorly equipped with what the school is supposed to furnish them; that many write poorly, spell incorrectly and handle even simple numbers in- accurately. But this lament is nothing new; it has always been made since the public school began, and has always been true, and will continue to be true, of many who have the op- portunities that the best schools afford. If the master mechanic may select those whom he would train, he can guarantee the men he sends out; but what master would agree to send out. machinists for whom he could vouch if he were given no chance of choice in their selection? The public school is a demo- cratic institution, including and inviting children of every sort and condition. The same inequalities and imperfections of intellect, disposition and physical capacity are to be found. among pupils as are found in other sections of society; and no institution, or manner or kind of instruction, can wholly eradicate them. Children come to school endowed with vary- ing amount and quality of intellect. The school can never create that. It cannot, in the strict sense, even train the in- tellectual power which the child already possesses. It can only offer the right opportunities and use every right incentive to inspire the child to use them to his best intellectual de- velopment and physical welfare. Of the opportunities for this development there is hardly a lack. If every pupil in regular and continuous attendance upon an average Plymouth school does not become able to use in an elementary way the different. subjects in the curriculum offered for his training, it cannot. truly be alleged that he has not had ample time and oppor- tunity to master them.
But opportunity has never been the determining factor in education. The community through its schools can, and should, make most ample provision for the educational needs of its children; but the individual child determines for him-
Plymouth 12
-178-
self how far and to what extent he will make use of the op- portunities thus provided.
And so it comes about that there is truth in the criticism that many children leave the schools with scant ability to do the work the school has presumably prepared them to do, just as children left the schools fifty years ago, and as they will continue to leave them until opportunity and education mean the same thing. But it may well be found that the criticism which places upon the school, or upon any agency outside of the child himself, the responsibility for his lack of equipment, is neither just nor intelligent.
HIGH SCHOOL.
Those who receive certificates from the grammar schools are admitted to the High School. No formal examinations are required, except in the case of those from other places who · apply for admission. There were 54 who received certificates from the ninth grade last June, and 52 of these entered the High School. In addition to those entering from the ninth grade, 28 from the eighth grade who were regarded as ready to do the work of the High School, were admitted on trial. This made the total membership of the entering class 80.
The present current expenses of the High School are:
Teachers' salaries,
$7,590 00
Janitor,
550 00
Fuel and light (estimated),
800 00
Books and supplies (estimated),
1,000 00
$9,940 00
This makes the current expense for each pupil in the present total membership of the High School $45.60.
-179-
The present membership of the High School is 218 pupils, with eight regular teachers. The work of the school is carried on in four courses, as follows :
Boys.
Girls.
Total.
Classical Course,
30
37
Scientific Course,
38
6
44
Literary Course,
26
33
Commercial Course,
36
68
104
88
130
218
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 restrictions 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 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 arrangement the advantages 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 are not materially increased thereby.
The High School is slowly increasing in numbers. Five years ago the number in attendance was 145, or approxi- mately seven per cent. of the whole school enrolment. To-day there are 218 in the High School, or about ten per cent. of the total school enrolment. That is, in five years the High School has increased its attendance about fifty per cent., while the enrolment of all the schools has increased less than fifteen per cent.
Three of the eight teachers comprising the High School staff have left during the year. Early in July, Mr. Leicester
-180-
A. Williams, who had been principal of the school less than two years, resigned his position, and Mr. William C. Whiting, who had managed very successfully a large High School at Melrose, Mass., was elected to fill the vacancy. We are for- tunate to secure a man of such wide and successful experience to fill this position.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.