USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Quincy > Town annual report of Quincy 1850-1864 > Part 33
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THE SOUTH DISTRICT.
To provide for the new Primary School in this dis- trict, it became necessary to fit up the lower room in the Stone School-house, which, with the exception that it is a little dark, is very suitable for the purpose. The play-ground about the building is quite limited, so much so that the children in their plays are forced to run into the street at the hazard of their limbs and lives, and they often annoy the neighbors by encroaching upon their premises. It was improvident on the part of the town not to have made provision for the future increase of inhabitants in this district; for it is essential to a judicious grading of the school that the children of a district should be gathered under one roof. As things are, with a comparatively new school-house, there are from one hundred and fifty to two hundred children in this district who cannot be accommodated in it.
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THE NEW PRIMARY SCHOOL.
The Committee appointed Miss Hannah French to the new Primary School in this district. Miss French is a graduate of our High School. Although she had had no experience as a teacher, still, she had love for children and a steady and enthusiastic desire to seek and acquire whatever would best qualify herself to teach successfully. With these qualifications she was appointed. The Committee have observed with pleas- ure her varied efforts, and her success in those efforts, to enlist and excite the curiosity of her pupils and en- able them to get clear and definite ideas of the objects of their attention. The measure of her success has been equal to her efforts.
THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL.
After the long period of fourteen years as a teacher in our Grammar Schools, two years in the Willard School and twelve in the Adams, Mr. Morse shuts the books and retires forever, as he thinks, from the high place of guide and instructor of youth. With some faults and eccentricities, with some ideas regard- ing the instruction and conduct of a school in which we do not concur, yet it is not to be denied, that, in many of the highest qualifications of a teacher, he has had no superior in our schools. He has been plain, frank, and candid in his dealings with his pupils. He has taught them to despise meanness, hypocrisy, and lying. He has scorned to make them seem to the
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spectator and Committee what they were not. He has taught them to grapple hand to hand and foot to foot with the difficulties and obstacles which beset them in their studies. And, beyond most teachers, he has sought to give a practical bent and cast to the disci- pline of their minds.
No teacher can reasonably expect to hear, on his re- tirement from so trying and difficult a position to occu- py as that of a teacher, one united voice of the people among whom he has long toiled, saying, " Well done good and faithful servant; " but, in this respect, Mr. Morse may take pride in the reflection that so few dis- sentient voices are heard against the general judgment, that the tenor of his teaching and instruction has been for good, and that many, very many of his pupils will hold him in remembrance with gratitude and affection.
WASHINGTON SCHOOL.
Mr. Comins, a graduate of the Normal School at Bridgewater, was appointed teacher of the Grammar School in this district, at the beginning of the school year. The Committee are quite satisfied with the ap- pointment. With an aptitude for teaching sharpened and improved by the training of the Normal School and by experience, Mr. Comins, as was foretold by the former and the present head of that institution at Bridgewater, has proved himself a most efficient teacher. The school has changed for the better in all its features. Beginning with the elements, learning how to add and subtract, multiply and divide, after the approved methods of Normal Schools, and thoroughly
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reviewing what they had previously gone over, the school has reached terra firma. It has changed for the better in its spirit and order, and its pupils manifest diligence and increasing interest in the exercises and studies of the school. The scholars have not gone over a great deal of ground, to be sure, but it is the quality not the quantity of their performance which we would commend.
This change is owing somewhat to the appointment of an assistant teacher to this school ; and much to the fidelity and skill of that assistant teacher, but very much is owing to the introduction of a kindly spirit, new ideas, and new methods of teaching and the incul- cation of habits of accuracy and finish in all exercises and studies.
THE WILLARD DISTRICT.
It was deemed advisable by the Committee to estab- lish the new Primary School, required in this district, in that part thereof which is called West Quincy. The location is convenient to those who attend the school and the room is light and pleasant. We hope, how- ever, that this will not be a permanent arrangement. It would be for the advantage of the children of one dis- trict to go to one school-house for many reasons - this among others - in the case of the youngest pupils, their elder brothers and sisters would be able to lead and take care of them.
THE NEW PRIMARY SCHOOL.
Miss Mary McGrath, the teacher appointed to the newly-established Primary school is a graduate of our
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High School. The Committee take pleasure in record- ing her success because she has faithfully labored to achieve it. The school will compare favorably, we think, with any Primary School here or elsewhere. Not of those who think it an easy task to teach a Primary School, and that but little is required beyond the rudi- ments, she diligently seeks in books and nature, in art and science, suggestions and topics, with which to enlist the attention and draw out the dawning powers of her little pupils. From the principles upon which her school is conducted, we think good and salutary rules might be deduced for the guidance and instruction of all Primary Schools.
INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL.
Miss M. A. Beale, the teacher of the Intermediate school, dissolves her relations with our schools with the close of the school year. All the while she has been connected with them, a period of twelve years, the sev- eral Committees have invariably reported favorably of her school ; and ours shall not be an exception, not as a parting courtesy and compliment, but from a due sense of her merit as a teacher. The order of her schools has always been good. Her present school excels in vocal music and in penmanship. We have listened to mar- vellous recitations in mental arithmetic in her school. We concur in the belief that superior energy and talent for teaching will be required in her successor to keep the school up to its present high condition.
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THE EAST DISTRICT.
Miss Drake terminates with the year her connection with this school. For three years she has taught here with remarkable success. The Committee, speaking in their official capacity, regret the event which deprives the children of this district of her counsel and instruc- tion, for she has been a cheerful, faithful, and efficient teacher, and we think it will be hard to find a successor equal to her in tact, judgment, and skill in the conduct and instruction of a school.
THE HIGH SCHOOL.
We are pleased with the condition of this school. The teachers are the same as last year. We would abate nothing from what we said of them in our last report. They give themselves to their schools, watching with solicitude over all the pupils, neglecting none encouraging the timid and those without confidence inciting the indolent, and kindly counseling the way: ward and those bent on mischief. In their govern- ment, they are mild and firm, and in their instruction they insist on exactness, accuracy and thoroughness.
The relations existing between the teachers and pupils indicate just and proper sentiments towards each other. The average attendance of the pupils is very large. Besides the usual branches taught in High Schools, much attention has been given during the year to penmanship, orthography, and arithmetic. The Committee would specially commend the exercises in English composition and declamation.
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The course of studies pursued in this school is prac- tical, and fitted to the wants of pupils destined for the common walks of life. It is a serious and even mel- ancholy reflection that so few are permitted to share the benefits of this institution. One great cause of this has unquestionably been the inefficient and time- wasting methods of conducting the lower schools. An- other cause has been inconstancy of attendance of the children in those schools. Sometimes, too, we doubt not, the straitened circumstances of parents have caused them to deny their children the benefits of this insti- tution. In some instances, we have reason to believe, parents have withheld their children from erroneous notions respecting the effects of a superior education upon the minds and characters of their children. A falser notion there cannot be, than that the High School is a nursery of aristocratic sentiments, and has the effect to unfit boys and girls for the real, practical duties of life. It is rather the most leveling and dem- ocratic of all our institutions. It places the children „of the rich and poor on an equal footing, and awards its distinctions and honors to merit more impartially than society or the State. Inequalities of wealth and possessions are regarded as great hardships and as un- just by many; why superadd inequalities of education ? Is it not enough to be denied the gifts of fortune ? The rich, from their abundance, would provide for the education of their children; but the children of the poor - is it necessary for their well-being and happi- ness that they should be ignorant also ? Is it true that industry, economy, and thrift are the peculiar virtues
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of the ignorant ? By the light of our experience, it seems far otherwise.
Besides, it is too late to decry our High Schools and institutions of learning. A knowledge of higher branches than are taught in the common schools is required in many departments of trade and commerce, in the mechanic arts, and every variety of human employments. In these days skilled and intelligent labor is required. Men and women, who earn their bread by the sweat of their brows, have ceased to be regarded as slaves needing no other motive power than external force ; and he is none other than their enemy who would deny them the right and the vantage-ground of a superior education. The wise men who wrote and adopted the Constitution of the Commonwealth, design- ed that every son and daughter of the State should have as a birthright a good education, and declared " that it shall be the duty of legislators and magistrates in all future periods of this Commonwealth to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences, and all sem- inaries of them ; especially the University at Cambridge, Public Schools and Grammar Schools in the towns."
GYMNASTICS.
All our senses are susceptible of improvement by training and discipline, - the sight, touch, smell, and hearing ; so are all the faculties of the mind and like- wise all the powers of the body. It is essential to the full development of the whole man, and for the healthy and vigorous action and performance of the functions of
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his nature, that all his powers and faculties, - vital, animal, and intellectual, - should be educated together and in harmony. It is on this high ground, that the more enlightened friends of our public schools place physical training.
In Prussia, gymnastics are required by law in all their public schools. Our own legislature have a bill before them looking to the introduction of military drill and discipline into the public schools as a measure of security and defence of the State.
Aside from these considerations, however, we would recommend them for their happy effects upon the chil- dren. Trained to move at the sound of the bell and to march with military precision, the pupils acquire habits of promptitude in their action and avoid con- fusion and delay in taking their places for recitation and returning, and in moving about the room. In time, habits of self-possession, propriety, and dignity of man- ners and conduct are attained. The spirited execution of the simple exercises in gymnastics practiced in our schools, for a few minutes at a time, begets a cheerful frame of feelings in the pupils. The mind is quick- ened and invigorated, by warm and healthful currents circulating through the veins and arteries. The tone of the school is raised and made cheerful and pleasant, so that the children return to their studies with zest and fresh vigor.
We have but a few schools in which gymnastics are not practised, and we have determined that hereafter they shall be introduced into all. We take this occa- sion to recommend as a text-book "Mason's Gym- nastics."
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VOCAL MUSIC.
Much attention has been given to vocal music. There are many fine voices and excellent singers in our schools. We wish it were feasible to get up a musical festival, by bringing together in one grand choir all those pupils who have taste and skill in vocal music. We invite the attention of teachers and pupils to the subject. The Com- mittee have not failed to recommend the culture and prac- tice of vocal music in their visits to the school. It is not only a fine vocal exercise, but is calculated to form hab- its and sentiments alien to low and vicious ways. Music draws out the affections, and tames and humanizes the passions ; it makes home attractive, and adds to the number of those " fragrant memories that sweeten life's decline."
IRREGULARITY OF ATTENDANCE.
The ill-effects of irregularity and inconstancy of at- tendance of the children upon the public schools are very serious, both to those who are regular as well as to those who are not; yet it avails little to dwell upon them. It is an old story, and can hardly get a hearing. In this town the evil seems to increase. There were one hundred and fifty-eight towns in the State, and thirteen in the County of Norfolk, of a larger average attendance in the year 1861-2 than that of Quincy. Truancy has alarmingly increased, and it is the moral as well as legal duty of the town to insist on an ener- getic and rigid enforcement of the law touching truants. When the town shall have adopted by-laws in accord-
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ance with the requirements of the statutes, habitual truants may be made liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty dollars for any one breach of such by-laws, or for non-payment of the penalty be committed to some house of reformation for a time not exceeding two years.
SCHOOL ROOMS IN CODDINGTON AND WILLARD DISTRICTS.
We again call your attention to the rooms in the basements, of the Coddington and Willard districts, as- suring you that they are not fit places for your little children. The sun rises and sets, but not to cast its genial and balmy beams into those dismal retreats. The breezes of summer, that visit with their reviving breath all other human creatures, and even the sweltering ox and panting dog, come not to the inmates of those rooms ; or if, perchance, a stray wave of air undulates into them, it smells not of the neighboring waters of the bay nor of sweet-smelling flower-gardens ·hard by, but has a far other fragrance. The poor children, as they look out of the windows, behold no landscape, no moun- tains, no ocean, although they hear the roll of its waves, and no signs of civilization save only a nameless little edifice and stone walls surmounted by a high fence, as if they were in a jail yard. Or if, perchance, at other times, a little pure air is required, - a highly probable supposition, - there is no way to get it except to open the windows, when lo! rushing in with it come colds, coughs, croups, fevers, and death. Within, all is dark and remindful of a tomb. This is not a fancy picture, but is too severely true.
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EXPENSES OF THE SCHOOLS.
The incidental expenses of the schools have been larger than they otherwise would have been, because of the necessity of providing two rooms for the new Pri- mary Schools. It is a matter deserving consideration whether it would not be expedient to enlarge the Wil- lard School-house, rather than hire rooms for the schools. It is thought the interest of the money re- quired to enlarge it would be much less than the sums now paid for rent.
The experience of the town will show, we believe, that, on the ground of economy, it would be well to leave the selection of teachers, and making contracts with them, to the General School Committee. The sums paid for tuition and incidentals in the Willard District were larger last year than they would have been had the charge of the schools in that district been in the hands of the General Committee.
It stands to reason, we think, that the General School Committee would, usually, be as competent to expend the public money for the best interest of the schools as any six men elected Prudential Committees by the sev- eral districts.
We hear it said, sometimes, that the Committee pay too high salaries to the teachers. Taking into account the time and expense required to prepare and fit one to become a teacher, we think a salary of seven hundred dollars a year for a teacher of a Grammar School is very meagre. How can one with such a salary lay up
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anything for a rainy day or make provision for declin- ing life ? Think, too, how precarious is his hold upon his place! and still more precarious with increasing years ! As for the objections made to the salaries paid to female teachers, we do not deem them respectable.
To remove apprehensions, if such there be, touching the salaries paid by us, we will herewith produce a few figures from the Report of the Secretary of the Board of Education. For the year 1861-2, there were fifty-seven towns and cities in the State which paid a larger sum than Quincy for the education of each child between five and fifteen years of age. In the County of Norfolk the following towns paid a larger sum than this town for each child between these ages, - Brookline, West Roxbury, Dorchester, Dedham, Milton, Roxbury, and Walpole,-leaving Quincy at the fag-end of the towns in the county at all distinguished for their schools ..
There are seventy-seven towns in the State, and seven towns in the county, which appropriate a greater percentage of their valuation to the public schools than the town of Quincy.
Let him, who can, take pride in seeing the town of Quincy at this low stand-point; the Committee, how- ever, turn from the review with other feelings. To them it seems a cheap and quickly-perishing honor, which arises from that public or private oratory which tends - whether intentionally or not, is of little mo- ment, if such is the effect -to impair the efficiency of our Common Schools, - those seminaries of the people, the pride, the strength, and peculiar glory of all our institutions. They who do this are the friends of the people with a vengeance !
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Why not scrutinize every item of expense in other affairs of the town? Why not rigidly and jealously hold other servants of the town to the exact limits of appropriations ? Has the town sustained no losses through the negligence, improvidence, or culpability of its other public servants ? Might not a little of the indignation and eloquence directed against the School Committee for their alleged extravagance, be more decently and justly visited upon their heads ? We trust that parents and all good citizens who are mind- ful of, and solicitous for, the true welfare of the rising generation, will not be misled, nor allow our public schools to suffer injury from the hands of those who pretend to be their friends, but who really are their enemies.
GEORGE WHITE, Chairman. WILLIAM B. DUGGAN, GEORGE H. LOCKE, JOHN D. WELLS, EBENEZER ADAMS, J. G. B. HEATH,
Committee.
March 1, 1863.
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GENERAL TABLE.
Whole number of Children in the Town of Quincy, May 1, 1862, between five and fifteen years of age, 1,417.
Names of Schools.
Names of Teachers.
Whole number
Summer Term.
Average at-
tendance.
Whole number
Winter Term.
Average at- tendance.
High School.
Mr. G. B. Putman, Principal ..
74
71
54
53
Coddington School.
Primary No. 1.
Miss M. S. Thayer ..
60
50
54
44}
Primary No. 2.
Miss J. E. Underwood
68
57
71
53
Intermediate
Miss A. A. Prescott
56
47
54
45
Mr. L. P. Forbush, Principal ..
73
68}
74
66%
Adams School.
Primary No. 1.
Mrs. Francis E. Whicher
74
53
70
52
Primary No. 2.
Miss V. Richards
54
47
58
48
Primary No. 3.
Miss L. M. Gillson
63
56}
68
54
Primary No. 4.
Miss H. French.
60
49
44
43
Intermediate
Miss A. A. Holbrook.
54
44
49
42
Stephen Morse, Jr., Principal.)
95
84
89
80
Willard School.
Primary No. 1.
Miss Mary A. Davis.
87
71
47
39
Primary No. 2.
Miss Ellen S. Nightingale
40
35
51
42
Primary No. 3.
Miss Mary E. McGrath.
49
43}
48
40%
Primary No. 4
Miss E. A. Newcomb.
58
48
64
51
Intermediate
Miss M. A. Beale.
46
38
66
57
Grammar Department.
Mr. Seth Dewing, Principal.
50
41
48
43
Washington School.
Miss C. A. Thomas.
75
61
54
41
Intermediate
Miss Harriet A. Clements.
71
47
57
43
Grammar ..
( Miss E. R. Clements, Assistant. )
72
55
78
674
Quincy Neck School.
Miss Mary A. Holbrook
47
35
39
30
*North District School.
( Miss S. M. Cummings, Assist. 5
81
53
60
42
Germantown School.
Miss E. D. Drake.
25
20}
26
21
( Miss N. M. Dow, Assistant .... V
Grammar.
Miss L. Burrill, Assistant ..
Grammar ..
Miss Sarah V. Wilde, Assist ...
Primary
Mr. Ed. J. Comins, Principal .
Mr. Austin Sanford, Principal.
* Number over 15 years of age in North District, 5.
CATALOGUE OF PUPILS IN HIGH SCHOOL.
First Class.
Susie G. Baxter.
Isadore F. Bunton.
Bessie J. Newcomb.
Marianna Whitney. Total, 4.
Second Class.
Ellen B. Churchill.
Mary E. Duggan.
Emma A. French.
Emily C. L. Glover.
Sarah W. Glover. Helen M. Porter.
Mary E. Sargent.
Sarah A. Souther.
Eliza C. Sheahan. John Mundy. Total, 9.
Third Class.
Mary A. H. Baxter. Lizzie F. Cole. Ida Edwards.
Mary E. Hardwick.
Emma F. Russell.
Wyman J. Abercrombie. John Coyle. P. John O'Neill.
Walter S. Randall. Total, 9.
Fourth Class.
Helen F. Barter.
Henrietta K. Baxter.
Mary P. Butters.
Mary E. Dinegan.
Mary S. French.
J. C. Keating. Marietta H. Ladd.
Mary T. Mundy.
Clara S. Newcomb.
Mary Perkins.
Mary L. Pope.
Emma M. Saville.
Emma A. Severance.
Mary Sheahan.
Caroline E. Snell.
Angeline Spear.
Louisa M. Trask.
Gertrude A. White.
Joseph E. Arey.
William T. Averill.
Ensign E. Fellows.
Harrison C. Kingman.
George H. Mitchell.
John A. Newcomb.
William S. Perry, Jr. Joseph J. Riley. William H. Sampson.
Joseph M. Sheahan.
Andrew W. Turner.
Joseph R. Webb. David H. White. Total, 31.
There are in the entering class this year, 35.
RULES AND REGULATIONS.
CHAPTER I.
ORGANIZATION.
SECTION 1. The first meeting of the Board shall be on the Wednesday following the second Monday in March, when a Chairman and Secretary shall be chosen by ballot.
SECT. 2. There shall be appointed, at the same meeting six Sub-Committees, consisting of one member each.
CHAPTER II.
CHAIRMAN.
SECTION 1. The Chairman shall take the chair precisely at the hour appointed for the meeting of the Board ; he shall call the members to order, and on the appearance of a quorum shall cause the minutes of the preceding meeting to be read, and pro- ceed to business. In the absence of the Chairman, the Board shall choose a chairman pro tempore.
SECT. 2. The Chairman shall call a special meeting of the Board whenever he may deem it necessary, or when requested by any member.
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CHAPTER III.
DUTIES OF THE SECRETARY.
SECTION 1. The Secretary shall have charge of the records of the Board, and shall have them present at each meeting. In the absence of the Secretary the Board shall choose a Secretary pro tempore.
SECT. 2. He shall keep a fair and true record of the doings of the Board, and preserve, or cause to be preserved, files of the documents and communications belonging to the Board, prepare the Annual Returns required by the Acts of the Legislature, and transmit them to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, in order to secure the Town's portion of the School Fund.
SECT. 3. He shall notify all meetings, shall inform Teach- ers of their appointment, and shall give such other notices as the Board may require, and perform such other duties as are appro- priate to his office. If the term of office of the Secretary as a member of this Board shall expire with the year, the Board at its last meeting shall appoint a Secretary pro tempore, who shall notify the remaining members, and those newly elected, of the time and place of the first meeting for the new year.
CHAPTER IV.
DUTIES OF THE BOARD.
SECTION 1. There shall be a meeting of the Board on the first Wednesday of each month at three o'clock P.M.
SECT. 2. Four members shall constitute a quorum to do business.
SECT. 3. The Board shall examine all the schools semi-an- nually, once at the close of the Summer Term, and the second time, at the close of the Winter Term.
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