USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Plymouth > Town annual report of Plymouth, MA 1909-1911 > Part 8
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Heating and Ventilation-Messrs. Robinson and Rowell. Text Books and Course of Study-Messrs. Davis and Shaw.
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SCHOOL SESSIONS.
High School-8 a. m. to 1 p. m.
North Schools, Grammar and Primary-Morning session, 9 to 12 o'clock; afternoon session, 1.30 to 3.30 o'clock.
Centre Schools-Morning session, 9 to 12 o'clock; afternoon ses- sion, 2 to 4 o'clock (except from Nov. 1 to Feb. 15, when the · afternoon sessions are from 1.30 to 3.30 o'clock.)
The sessions of the other schools are as prescribed from time to time by the committee.
CALENDAR FOR 1910.
Winter term began Monday, January 3, 1910. Summer term begins Monday, April 4, 1910. School year ends Friday, June 24, 1910. Fall term begins Tuesday, Sept. 6, 1910. Fall term ends Friday, Dec. 23, 1910.
VACATIONS.
March 26, 1910, to April 4, 1910. June 25, 1910, to September 6, 1910. December 24, 1910, to January 2, 1911.
HOLIDAYS.
Every Saturday, Washington's Birthday, Patriots' Day, Memorial Day; from Wednesday noon before Thanksgiving, the remain- der of the week.
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
We are again obliged to report an overdraft, and the itemized statement of payments shows where the increase in expenditure has been made. An accurate forecast of the repairs to be made on so many wooden buildings cannot be given, but when they are found to be needed they must have attention at once.
The system used to regulate the pay of teachers, increases their salary with the longer term of service; and the raising of the maximum salary to $600, as reported last year, has materially increased the expenditure for salaries this year.
With high prices for all materials, and an increasing salary list, we cannot anticipate a reduction in the expenses of this de- partment, and therefore ask for an appropriation of fifty-five thousand dollars, with the usual additional appropriation of three hundred dollars to meet the cost of Medical Inspection.
At the last Annual meeting the Town appropriated the sum of twenty thousand dollars for the purchase of a lot, and the erec- tion of a brick school house in the northerly part of the town ; and nine thousand dollars was also appropriated to provide for a. three room building at Manomet.
We were fortunate in the purchase of a suitable lot for this building, at a reasonable price, on Brook road at Manomet, but great difficulty was experienced in finding a satisfactory lot for the northerly building. After much consideration and neces- sary delay, a good lot was purchased for this building. It lies on the westerly side of Standish avenue, a little north of Cherry street, and is about two hundred feet square. The grade of the land and its proximity to the sewer are among the advantages of this location. The other lot contains several acres, and its grad- ual slope to the rear insures good drainage.
Plans for both buildings have been obtained from Messrs.
Plymouth
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Cooper & Bailey of Boston, who have had much experience in school house construction.
Proposals were invited for the construction of both buildings, and while the bids received allow the construction of the build- ing at the north, they will not permit the construction of the one at the south for the amount now provided. It was hoped that both buildings might not only be built, but also furnished with the means provided by their respective appropriations ; but in this we have been disappointed, and are now obliged to ask the Town for more money in each case.
The contract for the complete construction of the Standish avenue building has been awarded to Mr. E. T. Wilson of Na- tick, and that for the heating and ventilating apparatus of the same building to the Fuller & Warren Company of Boston. The cost of the land (twenty-five hundred dollars), with the contracts above mentioned and the architects' fees, leaves but a small bal- ance for probable incidental expenses, and makes necessary an additional appropriation to furnish the schoolrooms.
The plans for the Brook road building provide for three rooms, conveniently arranged, up-to-date heating and sanitary apparatus, and a very pleasing exterior; the building to be made of wood. We feel that any changes that could be made in these plans to bring the cost within the appropriation would cause much disap- pointment to all concerned. The third room is placed within the roof, and easily reached by convenient stairways, making the additional cost for this room comparatively slight. The design of the building is attractive, and the locaton demands that it should be. We strongly recommend that the building be con- structed from the present design.
We recommend an appropriation of one thousand dollars for the furnishing of the larger building, and of four thousand dol- lars to complete the amount needed to build and furnish the smaller building.
The expenditure for Schools is a large one, and the work done there is correspondingly important, and we therefore ask your
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careful consideration of the accompanying reports of the Super- intendent, and the School Physician. Each year the methods of instruction and school management must be reviewed and carefully studied to keep pace with other towns, and to ensure that our children get all that is obtainable for them. While our schools are far from perfect, we feel that we may take a just pride in them. A careful study of the lines along which the teachers and the Superintendent are working, will give a better under- standing and greater appreciation of their efforts.
The data presented by the Superintendent has been carefully prepared, and is instructive, tending in some instances to correct erroneous impressions. f
We wish to express our appreciation of the faithful work done by our teachers, and to commend the good spirit shown in their work.
Respectfully submitted. WILLIAM W. BREWSTER, HARRY B. DAVIS, EARL W. GOODING,
J. HOLBROOK SHAW,
INCREASE ROBINSON,
EUGENE P. ROWELL,
School Committee.
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SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
To the School Committee of Plymouth-
The report of the Superintendent of Schools for the year 1909 is herewith respectfully submitted. The table of statistics required by the state authorities and other data that usually accompany the report are given below. They show an increased number of pupils in the schools over last year, an excellent record for regular attendance, one less teacher in the service, and a larger expenditure of money, caused by the increased needs of the department :
The school census taken in September, 1909, gives the fol- lowing :
1908
1909
Children between 5 and 15 years of age:
Boys,
982
1042
Girls,
1042
1047
2024
2089
Children between 7 and 14 years, the compulsory school age:
1908
1909
Boys,
714
753
Girls,
752
746
1466
1499
To meet the requirements of the State Board of Education the following statistics and attendance record cover the period of the school year, from September to July, 1908-1909, and are compared with the same items for the preceding year :-
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1907-8
1908-9
Whole number of pupils enrolled,
2,095
2,153
Number under 7 years of age,
374
397
Number between 7 and 14 years,
1455
1444
Number between 14 and 15 years,
111
125
Number over 15 years of age,
155
187
Average membership of all the schools,
1970
2027
Average daily attendance, .
1857
1929
Per cent. of attendance,
94.3
95.2
Number days absence of pupils,
19,638
19,003
Number cases of tardiness,
3,520
4,087
Number dismissals before close of school,
948
1013
Number cases truancy reported,
55
62
Number days teachers absent from school,
131
213
Number school buildings in use,
23
22
Number of school rooms in use, including high school,
57
56
Number teachers regularly employed,
59
58
High school,
Grammar school,
19
19
Primary school,
29
29
Ungraded school,
4
3
Special teachers, one each for
3
3
music, drawing and sloyd,
62
61
Present number of pupils enrolled Jan. 15,
2,110
FINANCIAL STATEMENT.
The items given below are based upon the expenditure for school purposes during the financial year 1909. The financial and attendance periods are not identical, but since each covers
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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, 1909, $10,865,247 00
2. Per cent. of valuation expended for cur- rent expenses of schools in 1908-'09, .004628
or $4.36 on each $1,000.00
3. Expense per pupil on average membership, 24 81
4. Expense per pupil on same for. schools, of State, 1908-'09, 30 98
5. Expense per pupil on average member- ship on total expenditure for schools in 1908-'09, 26 87
6. State average on same basis, 1908-'09, 39 48.
7. Average monthly wages of men teachers in Plymouth in 1908-'09, 115 00
8. Average monthly wages of men teachers of the State, 1908-'09, 151 39
9. Average monthly wages of 54 women teachers in Plymouth in 1908-'09, 55 28
10. Same paid women teachers in the State, 1908-'09, 60 68
In this statement the items are based upon the average mem- bership of the schools, 2027. Items 2 and 3 are based upon the whole amount ($54,466.92) which the Committee has spent, less the cost of repairs ($3,645.58) and expense of evening schools, ($528.50). The items which make up this amount are pay- ments for salaries, transportation, fuel and care of schoolhouses, text books and supplies, incidentals. The sum thus expended ($50,292.84) 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:
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membership (2,027) of the schools, the sum of $24.81. The State average on the same basis was $30.98. While the town, in the total expense for its schools paid an average of $26.87 for each pupil in the average membership, the State average for each child on the same basis was $39.48.
There are 354 cities and towns in Massachusetts. During the past year there were 161 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 192 that imposed upon themselves a lesser tax. There were 221 of these same communities which paid a larger percentage of their assessed valuation for school purposes than Plymouth paid, and only 132 of them that paid less.
ATTENDANCE.
The schools have been in session nominally for forty weeks, but the closing of them for various reasons during term time has reduced the time to an actual average session of less than thirty-nine weeks for each school. Two thousand one hundred and fifty-three pupils have been connected with the schools for a longer or shorter period during the year, while the average membership, the number which shows the constant membership of the schools for the same period, has been 2,027. The average daily attendance was 95.2 per cent. of the number in the average membership. These figures compared with those of last year, show a normal increase-fifty-seven-in the average mem- bership for the year, and an increase of seventy in the average daily attendance. There has been an increase of nearly one per cent. in regularity of attendance of those in average member- ship. This is an excellent record, and speaks well for the efforts of teachers and the response of the pupils in their attempts to secure the habit of regular attendance.
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ACCOMMODATIONS.
The average membership of the schools today is about seventy more than at this time last year. This increase has come wholly in the Knapp and Cornish school districts, and places for this larger number of pupils have had to be provided at those schools. All the classes at the Knapp and Hedge schools are crowded, each having an average enrolment of forty-eight pupils, a num- ber larger by half than any teacher should be asked or expected to care for. Many of the classes at the Cornish school are as large as those at the Knapp, and there is no way of relieving either until more school room is provided elsewhere. The con- ditions at the Hedge school are becoming intolerable. A hundred children are crowded there in two rooms poorly lighted, heated, and ventilated, and having no sanitary arrangements of a proper sort. These crowded conditions cannot be relieved even tem- porarily by transferring some of the children to other schools; for the children are small, and there is very little room for them in other schools within a reasonable distance if they could be carried there.
The High school is beginning to find itself inconvenienced in its work because of insufficient class room. The school has now, with the Ninth Grade, about 275 pupils in attendance, and next year will see that number considerably increased. The main school room will seat about 200, and the class rooms which can be used for recitation purposes will no more than comfortably accommodate that number. If the Ninth Grade be retained and continue to occupy a part of the High school building, it will soon become necessary to furnish the school more room than it now has.
TRANSPORTATION.
The expense to the Town for transportation is a growing one. The past year the sum paid for this purpose was $1,213.75,
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nearly $300 more than was spent for the same purpose the preceding year. This expense includes the cost of bringing five pupils from South Pond to Chiltonville at the yearly rate of $240 ; carrying children from Indian Brook to Ship Pond; furnishing transportation for fifteen children over the Manomet line, and giving one trip each school day to about fifty children from the Knapp school to the Cornish school. This expenditure for transportation furnished the children who come from the outside schools is amply justified by the larger opportunities af- forded these children in the schools to which they come; by the higher standard of scholarship they find there; by the keener competition they meet in the larger school, and by the better training which they inevitably gain thereby.
A large part of the expense for transportation will cease as soon as the enforced conveyance of pupils from the North is made unnecessary by making provision for these pupils in the new building: but the expenditure for transportation must con- tinue to be considerable in a town with schools scattered as widely as they are here, and where the sentiment that it is a hardship for children to be required to walk a mile to school, is so strong.
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 2.110. Of this number 1,108, about 52.5 per cent. of the total number, are in the primary schools, grades one to four,
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inclusive, distributed in twenty-nine school rooms, making an average of thirty-nine pupils to each teacher. The smallest number in any one room is sixteen, and the largest fifty-six.
These 1,108 pupils are enrolled in the four primary grades. as follows :
Grade I, 313
Grade II, 325
Grade III, 283
Grade IV, 187
1108
During the year covered by this report the attendance of chil- dren in the primary grades has been regular to an unusual degree. Weather conditions have been especially favorable; there has been very little illness and the close watch and ready detec- tion of incipient disease made possible by careful and faithful medical inspection are giving confidence to parents that the schools are safe and sane places for all normal children.
The accommodations for all children of primary school age have been ample, except for children of the first and second grades at the north. The large number of pupils of grade one. in that locality is due, in part, to the considerable number of over-age pupils who are beginners because they know no English. These larger and older children are out of place in the ordinary- first grade school, and a considerable number of them is a de- cided obstacle to the successful work of the school. Under present conditions, there is no other place to which these larger children can be sent, and their progress in these schools is dis- couragingly slow because they can not receive the peculiar individual attention they need. At the earliest opportunity a special school should be provided for these larger non-English speaking children, where the arrangement of school work and methods of teaching are particularly adapted to meet their needs.
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GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.
The grammar schools include grades 5 to 9. The number enrolled in these schools at present is 800; about 38 per cent. of the total school enrolment. They occupy eighteen school rooms, making an average of forty-seven pupils to each teacher.
These 800 pupils are enrolled in the five grammar grades as follows :
Grade V,
243
Grade VI,
1
194
Grade VII,
177
Grade VIII, 119
Grade IX,
67
800
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 justi- fy 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 retained in any class when his interests are best served by his going to a higher or lower one.
In an earlier report there was suggested the consideration of the questions of making the age of admission to school six years instead of five, and of making the elementary school course. consist of eight instead of nine years. In light of the experi- ence and practice in other communities, these questions are be- coming more insistent. Children under six years of age get very
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little out of regular school work. They take its instruction with the greatest difficulty, and lose it with the greatest facility. Work done with children five years old can be done much more easily and effectively when they are six ; and by the end of the third year of school the child who has entered at six ordinarily has done as much work as the child who entered at five years. If this is true, and experience seems to show abundantly that . it is, the presence of children in school at five years of age means, under the present form of school organization, a waste of energy and money. They should be in kindergartens, or else at play.
But the second question is the more important one since it in- volves the further question whether or not we are allowing to the average normal boy and girl nine years to do a work which, without undue pressure, they could as well do in eight years. The very large majority of schools in this country have an eight year elementary course. In Massachusetts the majority still hold to the nine year course ; but so many communities which main- tain good schools are adopting the eight year course, and ap- parently with such good results, that doubtless the nine year elementary course will soon be the exception instead of the rule in this State.
Experience has surely proved that the elementary school course, with its present requirements, can be done satisfactorily by the large majority of pupils in eight years. If this be true, to allow a longer time than this for its accomplishment is indefen- sible. It is surely a mistake to urge pupils to work beyond their strength and capacity; it is equally a mistake to allow the large majority an opportunity to mark time that the small minority may keep up with them.
The elementary course of study in use here can readily and easily be revised and arranged on an eight year basis, without reduction of work except such as experience has shown to be non-essential. Considerable material can be eliminated from the different subjects in the present outline of work and leave it stronger and better than in its present form.
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HIGH SCHOOL.
Graduates from the grammar schools are admitted to the High School by certificate. No formal examinations are required, ex- cept in the case of those from other places who apply for admission. There were 59 who received certificates from the ninth grade last June, and 49 of these entered the High School. In addition to those entering from the ninth grade, 25 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 74.
At present there are 264 pupils enrolled at the High School building. Of this number 64 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,
$6,285 00
Janitor,
550 00
Fuel and light,
700 00
Books and supplies,
800 00
$8,335 00
The present membership of the High School is 200 pupils, with seven regular teachers. The work of the school is carried on in four courses, as follows :
Boys.
Girls.
Total.
Classical Course,
10
35
45
Scientific Course,
37
44
Literary Course,
1
41
42
Commercial Course,
25
44
69
73
127
200
Each of the four courses named above ordinarily requires four years for its completion. The student can prepare for
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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 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 arrange- ment the advantages of the school are offered to some who would otherwise be barred from them, while the number of classes and the teaching work of the school are not materially increased thereby.
Two or three changes in the corps of teachers at the High School have come the past year. The last to resign was Mr. Howlett, who has very ably and acceptably filled the principal- ship of the High School for nearly five years. The position to which Mr. Howlett has been called offers a field of work so much broader, and with correspondingly larger financial and educa- tional possibilities, that he felt he could not refuse it.
Mr. Leicester A. Williams, who has been elected to fill the place left by Mr. Howlett, comes here from the principalship of the High School at Laconia, N. H. Mr. Williams' preparation for his work and his record of good service elsewhere, inspire confidence in his ability successfully to fill the place here.
The educational campaign in favor of a changed attitude of the ordinary High School towards industrial life and its needs is still being pressed with great vigor all over the country.
The demand is becoming insistent that the schools shall in some effective way recognize and meet the needs of the many who go at an early age directly into industrial life as bread winners, as well as the needs of the few who continue academic training to enter the professions. But how best these two needs can be met does not appear ; whether it shall be in industrial and vocational schools apart from the present High Schools, or
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whether the modified equipment of the High Schools shall be or can be adapted to meet the needs of vocational training with- out detracting in any marked degree from their present academic purposes.
But so urgent appears the need of industrial training and so insistent is the demand for it becoming, that some school authorities are being importuned in no uncertain manner to make their industrial and commercial courses so prominent and apparently so important, that the classical courses shall be de- throned entirely. But this is the extreme; public schools may no more be made machine-shops than continued only as feeders for colleges. There need be no conflict in these matters, and ultimately there will be none. The High School can meet the needs of those who must at once on leaving school engage in the manual arts as well as the needs of those who are preparing for professional careers. The question is how to do this. No definite or continuing plan has anywhere been formulated; it is all experimental so far as details are concerned. But industrial training in some form is being introduced into many school systems. The need of such training is conceded, especially in Massachusetts; and it is settled that this training is to be a prominent feature of the school systems in all industrial com- munities. But whether the industrial instruction shall be given under the same roof with the other school courses, or whether separate schools shall be maintained, remains to be determined.
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