USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Plymouth > Town annual report of Plymouth, MA 1926-1927 > Part 16
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A special effort to make improved posture the definite aim of this year's program has been made. Charts which keep a picture constantly before the child, explana- tions which help to create an understanding of what must be done to achieve the best standing position, constant admonition which suggests "head up, chin in, back flat" during dances, games and daily activities are used to produce a definite impression. Both by making it a
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desirable attainment and a game, the child is interested in gaining "good posture" as one of his assets.
Two methods of making the every day work as it has to be carried on by the teacher of more value, are being used. One is actual supervision of the teacher's work with her own class, followed by constructive criticism, and the other is model classes taught by the supervisor before a group of teachers, at which they may ask ques -. tions and make suggestions as to new work.
The second of a series of May Days, one at Stevens Field and one at the Cordage, helped to give to the mothers and fathers an idea of the results of Physical Education in the schools. Marching, games, dances, and sports made up a two hour program, and despite several postponements due to unfavorable weather conditions large audiences were present at both exhibitions.
Every school is now supplied with at least one soccer ball - the large schools having a number in proportion to their upper grades - and they are in use whenever the children are on the playground and before and after school hours. Volley Ball nets are also in use, and are to be taken outdoors as soon as the weather permits. It is planned to start an Inter-School Bat Dodge Ball tourna- ment followed by Volley and Baseball contests. The older children with captains practise after school on their playgrounds, and it is hoped by supervising com- petitive games to encourage this practise - which is giving the children some of the best lessons derived from team sports.
The popularity of the Physical Education program with the children leaves small doubt that there is the "spirit of joy" in it, so that our problem is only to be sure through careful thought that we are improving each year in all the vast possibilities of this important phase of school life.
BEATRICE EMERSON,
Supervisor of Elementary Physical Education.
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REPORT OF MUSIC SUPERVISOR
My dear Mr. Handy :
Permit me in my first annual report to present some of my general aims of public school music.
To many, one of the greatest things we do is to equip the child with a flexible singing voice, capable of sus- tained tone, which means helping children who have poor pitch or no pitch at all to acquire light, well-placed voices. Children must learn to develop a love and appre- ciation for the beautiful not only in the songs they sing, but in the music to which they listen. Music appreciation is something deeper than the recognition of certain class- ics, deeper than mere intellectual understanding. We must also develop the ability to read the printed page of music. This does not mean making such reading an end in itself, but recognizing it as an indispensible tool in gaining first-hand knowledge. Today, leaders in music education stress the fact that if America is to take its rightful place in music among the nations of the world, there must be created the individual desire to participate in its actual performance. The development of these three essentials, voice, appreciation, reading, in their proper proportions will, I believe, bring about an active individual interest in music.
We are making progress toward this goal. Several new books have been added thus far, recent publications which seem to be of greatest value and assistance to the teacher in furthering the development of these aims in their classes. Much commendation is due the teach- ers for their cooperation in helping to forward this work.
The allotment of time in most cities and towns is that recommended by the State - ninety minutes per week - and at present some of the buildings are devoting this
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minimum of time to music. I wish that this might be the case in all buildings, especially in the junior high school where, as is occassionally true, the question of time allotment is acute. Too often junior high school music is thought of as senior high school music moved down, and all that is expected is chorus, club and assembly sing- ing. Such an arrangement makes possible excellent pub- lic performances, but does not take into consideration the great need for intensive work in small groups due to changing voice, nor yet the distinguishing feature of the junior high school, the opportunity for specialization where all possible avenues are thrown open to the student. For two years the junior high school has been offering the opportunity for band practice. Unfortunately a de- ficit remains from the year 1925-'26, and it was felt to be too great a burden to continue the band at present. I have known of instances where public-spirited citizens of means have partially assumed the financing of such a project, or the town has taken upon itself the responsi- bility.
In January, complying with your request, I began regular work in the senior high school, which made neces- sary a change of time schedule in the grades and junior high school. I greatly appreciate the cooperation I am receiving from Mr. Marsden, the principal, and from Mr. Mongan, who has obtained that much-to-be-desired qual- ity, the spirit of pleasure in the singing of good music for good music's sake. We have now begun rehearsals for the production of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Pinafore." It is felt that this will not only afford an opportunity for the participants to gain a knowledge and real appreciation of a worth-while work, but will offer the community an occasion to show its interest and support.
In closing I wish to express my appreciation to all who have contributed to the success of this department.
Respectfully submitted,
VIVIAN DIX,
Supervisor of Music.
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REPORT OF THE SUPERVISOR OF DRAWING
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My Dear Mr. Handy :
An attempt has been made to give Plymouth schools an outline for drawing that includes the various types of work attempted in other school systems. Among these activities are the use of rulers for training in meas- uring, paper-cutting, folding, paper-weaving and con- struction, color-study, principles of design, object-draw- ing, animal drawing, figure drawing and illustrative work. With the older pupils, perspective and lettering are given. Last year posters were made in grade four for a flag sa- lute, grade five for "safety" and by grades seven for "health". Grades six and eight made posters for the S. P. C. A. contest and several pupils whose drawings were sent received the society's medal. Posters are ex- cellent projects, combining many elements of art-training but so much time is needed to produce results worthy of display that not more than one poster should be made in each grade. Some emphasis has been placed in the lower grades on measuring and lessons of mechanical form, which make a good foundation for manual training, hav- ing also great value in development of accuracy and neatness. Considerable improvement is now noticeable in this work.
This year we are attempting to increase skill in draw- ing figures and placing them in correct perspective. In time the pupils should be able to make reasonably ar- ranged illustrations to use in several studies. We shall also direct some attention to the study of abstract design in every grade. This develops the taste in color and line, having cultural value for the individual and forming habits of critical judgment in the consumer that are helping to raise the artistic standards for American manufacturers. The outline suggests that two lessons in each grade be given to picture-study. Also a small
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place in each school-room could be reserved for continu- ous display of a rotation of prints from a list given on the Outline. These could be interchanged so that but few duplicates would be needed.
The Supervisor visits all grades, from one to six, in- clusive, every alternate week with the exception of Wel- lingsley, Cliff Street and the four rural schools, which are on a four week schedule. The lessons vary from thirty to forty-five minutes.
Thursday and Friday mornings of every week are giv- en to the Junior High School. Here the lack of class-room capacity, limited space for storage of material and some- what short time allowance make it difficult to produce work of highest quality. On Thursday and the first two periods Friday, half-classes meet in the sewing-room but for the periods following the sewing-teacher uses Room 12 and the drawing teacher goes to her classes in differ- ent rooms. There seems to be no better way of arrang- ing matters. The classes which are not thus provided for, have their drawing instruction with Miss Stevens at the Lincoln Street School.
Last June each elementary school teacher filled out, on typed forms, an inventory and the amounts of supplies needed for the year. This was intended to equalize the distribution of drawing material and to provide a full · record of each room's order for the year. We hope this system will simplify the handling of supplies and will prove economical.
This report would be incomplete without the acknow- ledgement by the Supervisor of the friendliness and help- ful cooperation of the Plymouth teachers.
Respectfully submitted, FAITH C. STALKER,
Supervisor of Drawing.
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REPORT OF DIRECTOR OF AMERICANIZA- TION AND EVENING SCHOOL CLASSES
My dear Mr. Handy :-
During the past year the Americanization and Even- ing School classes have been in session for three even- ings a week for a period of twenty weeks. Nothing spec- tacular has been undertaken but steady progress has been made along rational and well defined lines. I believe our work today in these classes is on a better basis than ever before.
Classes this year are meeting at the Knapp and Corn- ish School buildings from seven-fifteen to eight forty-five o'clock Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Other classes meet at the Plymouth Cordage Company's Plant from five to six o'clock on the same days.
The Americanization classes are composed of adults twenty-one or more years of age. These men and women usually come to us after a day's work and the fact that they are there shows the value they believe the classes are to them.
The work in these classes grades into three divisions- Beginners, Intermediates, Advanced, or Citizenship.
In the Beginners' classes the teacher endeavors to get the pupil to talk freely in simple English about every day experiences and practical subjects. The Gouin Theme and Direct Method are used in the beginning.
The Intermediate classes continue this work but with a wider range of subject matter. More writing and reading are used; short letters; and something of our History and Government are taught.
It is expected that all who enter the Citizenship classes be able to talk, read, and write English. It is almost impossible to teach Citizenship to an Illiterate.
The Citizenship classes follow the course outlined by the State Department and the fact that the Federal Ex- aminers have always found our applicants for Natural-
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ization Papers educationally qualified indicates the excel- lent work accomplished.
The types of work presented in the Citizenship classes show- 1
What Democracy is-
How Our Democracy works out its problems and serves its people-
Its social, political, and industrial problems-
How it came to be-
Significant facts in Our Country's History.
Men and women in any of the classes are aided by the Director in filling out and filing Applications for Declara- tions of Intention, Preliminary Forms for Petition for Naturalization, and are aided in case of difficulties or complications which are sometimes encountered by those seeking Naturalization Papers.
The State reimburses the Town one half of all money paid in salaries and supplies used by men and women of Americanization classes.
Another type of pupil found in the Evening classes is the illiterate minor. These are between the ages of six- teen and twenty-one and required by law to attend until they have accomplished work equivalent to the comple- tion of Grade VI. They continue the regular work of the more important branches of the Day School and upon completion of the Sixth Grade are excused from further attendance if they so desire.
There is need of a stronger follow up in some of these cases. A pupil sometimes leaves a Day School before the completion of the Sixth Grade and obtains work without the necessary certificate, or else remains at home, and unless we know of such cases it is impossible to see that they are attendants at Evening schools. It would seem as if those seeking working certificates should of- fer proof as to grade last completed.
The larger industries fulfill the requirements for work- ing certificates very carefully and pupils working in such places carry their Evening School Attendance Card to the
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industrial plant each week, where their attendance is noticed. This does not always seem to be done however by some of the individuals who do employ illiterate min- ors. The observance of the requirement would make it possible to account for illiterate minors in relation to school attendance.
Nearly all teachers in Americanization and Evening classes have State Certificates representing special prepa- ration and training for this work. This is supplemented in all cases by actual experience. The teacher's task is a meaningful one. She must be one hundred per cent American, wherever born, sympathetic and ready to give. These, I believe, she is.
The enrollment at the present time is as follows-
Illiterate minors 34
Beginners
21
Intermediates
34
Citizenship
27
Advanced
8
Respectfully submitted,
WILLIAM WHITNEY, Director Americanization and Evening School Classes.
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SUMMER SCHOOL REPORT
My Dear Mr. Handy :
It may be difficult to establish direct proof of the fact that increased attendance at the summer school indi- cates the increasing value of such a session to the school system. Yet it is my belief that this increase in attend- ance is significant. The enrollment for the summer of 1926 was 141, compared to the 125 of 1925, to the 114 of 1924, to the 107 of 1924. The distribution of attendance by grades follows :
Grade VII
45 pupils
Grade VI
45
Grade V
24
Grade IV
27 "
Total
141 pupils
During the last session there was little change in the method employed. Grade IV and Grade V were taught on the grade basis; Grades VI and VII were taught on the departmental basis. In all grades there was the great- est possible attention paid to the individual needs of the pupil. The distribution of grades and subjects follows :
Grade IV Helen F. Perrier
Grade V M. Agnes Burke
Mathematics VI
Mary M. Dolan
History VI
M. Agnes Burke
English VI
Miriam A. Johnson
Mathematics VII Mary M. Dolan English VII Miriam A. Johnson
In general pupils were faithful in attendance and eager to profit by the six weeks of summer work. In fact, there
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were six pupils who enrolled voluntarily. Of the 141 members of the school, only seven were guilty of such ir- regular attendance that they were not considered candi- dates for promotion. This list shows the result of sum- mer school work in so far as the question of promotion is concerned :
Grade VII
23 promoted
6 promoted on trial
3 not promoted
Grade VI
31 promoted
3 promoted on trial
7 not promoted
Grade V
Grade IV
18 promoted
2 promoted on trial
4 not promoted
16 promoted
8 promoted on trial
3 not promoted
If, after a two weeks' trial, the teachers were reason- ably sure that a pupil could not be promoted even if he sacrificed part of his vacation in the attempt, the parents of that pupil were advised of the fact. In some cases the parents wished the pupil to spend the rest of his vacation away from the schoolroom; in other cases the parents wished the pupil to continue his work, gaining as much as he could from the three-hour morning session.
In a few cases pupils were sent to summer school who were deficient in the two major subjects as well as in one or two minor subjects. As a rule, these pupils do not attain promotion. Moreover, pupils seriously deficient in so many subjects tend to lessen the possibility of ef- ficient instruction with little definite good to themselves. I do not believe that summer school will solve the dif- ficulties of the seriously deficient pupil.
A second suggestion concerns the pupil who wishes to attend summer school, but who also desires to absent himself from school for one week or longer in order to enjoy a camping trip. The merits of the camping trip
Plymouth Twenty Two
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are not debatable, of course, but as a rule, if a pupil is absent one week out of six, the continuity of his work is broken and his comprehension of it is menaced.
It is difficult to compute the definite gain of a summer session. Of course, if it does nothing else, such a ses- sion reduces retardation, and reduced retardation means two things. The first is a financial gain to the town. The second is the fact that a false idea, which may become a part of his mental equipment and so influence his life, has less chance to taking root in a pupil's mind - the idea that he is inferior to members of his class. But, in so far as I know, there is no way in which the summer school teacher may know the later records of the pupils to whom she has given instruction. Since I believe that this knowledge would give information as to the type of pupil who should be sent to summer school, and the method of instruction best suited to the pupil in such a short session, I recommend that such information be available to the summer school teacher.
Respectfully submitted,
MIRIAM ADDISON JOHNSON,
Principal
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REPORT OF SCHOOL PHYSICIAN
My Dear Mr. Handy :
I herewith submit my twentieth annual report as school physician.
It appears from figures assembled by Glenn Frank, president of the University of Wisconsin, that about 3,000,000 persons are seriously ill in the United States at any given time, and that estimating the economic value of a human life to be $5,000 (a very conservative estimate) and that illness costs the patient $3.00 a day, then the economic loss to the country from preventable disease and postponable death is $1,800,000,000. Another author- ity, Dr. Louis E. Dublin Statistitian of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., as reported in "Medical Economics," computes the cash value of the life of a child at birth to be $9,333; at 5 years of age $14,156; and at 15 years $25,341. The values are estimated in terms of the cost of rearing the child, subtracted from his probable earn- ings in excess of expenditures in later life. Such compu- tations show that the economic value of the lives of the people of America is approximately five times as great as the nations total material assets and in this way may be estimated the enormous cash loss to the country through preventable sickness and death. £ Dr. Dublin notes that thirty thousand young men and women between the ages of 25 and 29 die every year from pre- ventable causes and estimates the total capital value of lives which can be saved annually through preventive medicine and public health measures to be over $6,000,- 000,000. If these statements are well founded, and they are made by eminent authorities, we may be sure that what we invest in finding and correcting the physical defects of school children, in encouraging the formation of habits of healthful living, and in teaching the princi-
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ples of hygiene, will yield positive and generous returns in prosperity.
HEALTH TEACHING
Since the report of a general survey made last year showing an unsatisfactory condition in the teaching of health, very material progress has been made. At the request of the Superintendent the school physician made recommendations in June for a comprehensive course on health and hygiene for the grades, including the Junior High School, which was adopted by the Committee. This course makes use of the "Outline for Teaching Health and Hygiene in the First and Second Grades" which has gradually developed in our own system with the assist- ance of the teachers during the past year and modern text books in the hands of the pupils in the second and all succeeding grades with a definite time allotment in the program, credit being given pupils for accomplishment in this as in other studies. The text books were distributed early in the school year but though a great deal of work had been put into the preparation of the "Outline" during the summer so that it was practically ready with the opening of school, serious difficulties developed in getting satisfactory mimeographed copies for distribution. This has now been accomplished and teachers of the first and second grades now have a definite course outlined for the year's work, with an abundance of helpful suggestions and teaching material at hand, something which they have never before had. Pupils graduating from the Junior High School in the near future, after following the entire course now in use should have an intelligent understanding of personal and community hygiene suf- ficient to insure personal efficiency and good citizenship.
Another advance in the teaching of health is to be found in the general use by teachers of the weighing and measuring of pupils to interest them in keeping them- selves fit by observing the "rules of the game" of health and freeing themselves of the handicap of remediable
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defects. Teachers generally now keep a list of their pupils posted in the school room and a record is made at each weighing.
Pupils are encouraged to drink milk, to go to bed at the proper time, etc., that they may arrive at or keep themselves at the weight found to be the average weight for their age and height as the ideal but with full recog- nition of the fact that weight is but one indication of health and that there are fairly wide variations which are still within the limits of normality. Whether, in any in- dividual case, a pupil is actually undernourished or not is a matter for a competent physician to decide.
POSTURE
A study of the posture of pupils in our schools, as shown by the results of the last physical examination recorded on the physical record cards, was made last spring, the results indicating that more than half carried themselves in a manner which could not be described as excellent. It was felt that this was an unsatisfactory condition, the more so as the examiner had not been too exacting in scoring posture at his examination. Mr. Turner, at that time the superintendent, was much inter- ested and after enlisting the cooperation of Miss Emer- son the grade supervisor of physical education, and Mr. Brown of the High and Junior High, it was decided that with the opening of school in September a concerted ef- fort should be made to encourage better posture.
In order to insure results two things were essential, first that everyone concerned and particularly the chil- dren should know how to secure good posture. With this in view at the Conference with the teachers in June the school physician told the teachers what had been plan- ned and the reason for it.
With the opening of school in September specific in- struction in body mechanics and correct posture with exercises, was included as a part of the course in physical
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education, using "Body Mechanics and Health" by Joel Goldthwait, M. D., and Leah C. Thomas as the founda- tion and a copy of this book was placed in the hands of each teacher.
A motion picture film on "Posture" the result of the successful work of Dr. Armin Klein at the Massachu- setts General Hospital was secured from the Children's Bureau of the Department of Labor at Washington and shown at the local theatre at several performances in- cluding a special matinee for school children, through the courtesy of the proprietor Mr. Moning. This educa- tional film visualized in a striking manner the mechanics of good posture as taught in "Body Mechanics & Health" used as the basis of our instruction in the schools.
The acquisition of a motion picture projector by the School Department has enabled us to carry this val- uable picture to the children in the schools. On October 29th, this same educational film was again secured, this time from the Division of Hygiene at the State House and our projector used for the first time to show it at the meeting of the section on "Health and Physical Educa- tion" of the County Teacher's Association. The follow- ing day the picture was shown at the High School and the Hedge. In December it was again secured from the Division of Hygiene and shown at the Cornish, Cold Spring, Knapp and Mt. Pleasant schools, over two thous- and pupils having the opportunity to profit by it on these two occasions. In order to keep postural ideals constantly before the children, charts, also the work of Dr. Klein, were obtained from the Children's Bureau at Washington and posted in each room. It is too early to make any statement as to the results obtained by the concerted effort being made to awaken interest in good posture, to show what it is and how to get it.
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