USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Quincy > Town annual report of Quincy 1865-1872 > Part 30
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The Washington Intermediate has been fortunate in re- taining the services of its former teacher, Miss H. A. French, another year. With the devotion and fidelity which she brings into the discharge of her duties, united with the hearty co-operation and confidence of the parents, success with her has become a certainty.
Miss Carrie L. Rideoute, who succeeded Miss A. C. Foster in the charge of the Willard Intermediate, has manifested an energy and interest in the fulfilment of the trust reposed in her which have told most beneficially upon the character of her school, and ranked her among our good teachers. We regretted to notice some poor reading in a portion of one of her classes, caused by frequent and continued absence from the school-room.
CRANE SCHOOL.
The Crane School yet labors under the misfortune of being entirely ungraded, and from its location can but remain so. In October, we received the resignation of Miss M. Lizzie Cobb, who was called to a more profitable situation elsewhere, and Miss L. E. Walker was elected to fill the vacancy. The
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order of the school at the last examination was not what we could have wished, and the advancement in the higher classes, especially in Arithmetic, did not wholly meet our expectations.
This may be attributed in part to the natural interruption · of the school caused by a change of teachers in the midst of the term.
Miss Walker has the confidence of the parents and friends of the pupils, and, as we are satisfied of her ability and pur- pose to advance their interests, we shall look for the good results of her influence and labor upon the future of the school.
GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.
All our Grammar Schools, five in number, we believe to be in good hands, and manifesting decided progress, under teachers of experience and acknowledged ability. A more detailed report of each of these schools is given below.
ADAMS GRAMMAR SCHOOL.
The Adams Grammar has shown decided improvement during the past year. Under the charge of Mr. Dewing and his assistants, Miss Carrie L. P. Torry and Miss Annie L. Thayer, it has become established upon a sound and healthy basis. This is the largest school in town, the register now showing a list of one hundred and forty-seven. The size of the school has necessitated the employment of an additional assistant, as has been elsewhere noted, and the last exami- nation satisfied us that the persevering labor of the teachers has not been without its due reward.
CODDINGTON GRAMMAR SCHOOL.
Mr. H. B. Brown and Miss Annie L. Arnold have had the Coddington Grammar School under their care during the
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year, and under their supervision it still holds the position of one of the leading schools in the town.
Both of these teachers have devoted themselves with zeal and fidelity to the performance of their duty, and, aided by the co-operation of the pupils, have succeeded in accomplishing satisfactory results. At the last examination, one of the · Grammar classes failed to reach the standard of excellence fixed by the school in this and other studies ; but, with this exception, the several recitations deserve and receive our approbation.
In this school the study of Geography has been pursued somewhat outside of the text-book, in connection with kindred topics, illustrating and giving practical interest to what, in many cases, proves to be a mere recital of barren names ; and the readiness of the answers to various miscellaneous questions tends to confirm our opinion as to the advantages of this method of instruction.
WASHINGTON GRAMMAR SCHOOL.
The Washington Grammar School has continued through the year under the charge of Mr. B. T. Hillman, with Miss Dora A. French as assistant.
The same good order which has heretofore characterized the school has been noticeable throughout the term and at both examinations. We believe that much good and thorough work has been done during the year by both teachers and scholars. We think that few teachers have labored with more earnestness, honesty, and fidelity than these. The exercises at the closing examination were quite satisfactory, though seriously marred by an indistinctness and want of voice in recitation, and in that energy needful to complete success. We think the declamations at our last visit worthy of special mention.
WILLARD GRAMMAR SCHOOL.
The Willard Grammar School with Mr. Granville S.
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Webster as principal, and Miss S. V. Wilde as assistant, is holding a favorable rank among the most successful of our Grammar Schools. With excellent order, and energy and thoroughness highly praiseworthy, we can but expect much of this school while it continues under its present guidance. The school is very large, numbering one hundred and fifteen during the first term, and one hundred and thirteen in the second term, rendering the labors of the teachers extremely arduous.
QUINCY GRAMMAR SCHOOL.
The Quincy Grammar School has, since our last Report, increased in numbers and advanced in scholarship and gen- cral position. It is unfavorably situated for competition with some of our other Grammar Schools, by reason of the want of proper grading in the schools below and its consequent mixed character, and also for the reason that the whole charge of it devolves upon one teacher.
The increase in population in this district will soon neces- sitate enlarged school accommodations, with which we shall look for a removal of the evils above alluded to, and in con- sequence thercof a still further advancement in the grade of this school. Mr. Lewis F. Hobbs has continued his instruc- tions through the year with marked success, and we feel it due to him to say that we think the last examination one of the most satisfactory which we have ever attended in this school.
HIGH SCHOOL.
We are pleased to report the High School as in a satis- factory condition, though we regret to notice its decrease in numbers. We hope that our Grammar Schools will see that vacancies are filled at the next fall term.
Mr. II. A. Keith has succeeded the former principal, and we are pleased to see a High School scholar holding the post of
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principal with credit to himself and profit to the school. Miss Annette E. Long continues to discharge responsibly and well the duties of assistant, while the place left vacant by the resignation of Miss L. P. Cole has, on account of the small number of scholars, been left unfilled, the principal and Miss Long dividing the responsibility before imposed on the assistant in the English Department. We believe that in this school may be found opportunities for training and de- velopment, which shall fit those disposed to make them avail- able, either for business or college life, and that as a means of cultivation and enlargement of the minds of our rising gen- eration, this institution is exerting and is destined to exert an influence for good in our town, of inestimable value. Here the pursuit of learning shall become a pleasure, and students shall begin to see the unity and harmonious completeness of studies which perhaps, before, have seemed abstract, dis- jointed, and uninteresting.
READING.
Among the many essentials of a finished education, if not of the fine arts, none are greater than good reading ; and this we believe to be true whether considered as an accomplish- ment merely, or as a literary aid to true scholarship. By good reading we mean not only the intellectual understand- ing and rendering of given sentences, expressed in words ; for every word may be correctly pronounced, every idea of the writer understood and given, every point of punctuation re- ceive its due attention, and yet the reading be far, very far from satisfactory, yes, positively bad. One of the prime es- sentials, after a clear and distinct enunciation, and a faultless pronunciation, is expression, and this is where, in our opin- ion, the greatest failures occur in our schools.
We do not expect all scholars to make finished elocutionists, but we think they should acquire sufficient dramatic concep- tion and execution to adapt the voice somewhat to the char-
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acter of the piece to be read. And yet, too many of the scholars in our Grammar and High Schools, even if they give sufficient attention to the piece selected for reading, to gain a tolerably thorough understanding of the subject-matter, ren- der it in a style wholly unbecoming the nature of the piece. It is not uncommon to hear a schoolboy shout to the full capacity of his lungs : -
" How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!" -
while the next in the class, in a voice, inaudible across the school-room, attempts to imitate the cry of the terrified Turk- ish sentry, when on being surprised by the foe he shouts along the lines : -
" To arms! They come! The Greek! The Greek !"
Another renders the beautiful and touching lines of the sol- dier, dying at Algiers, to his sister in her far-off home : -
" Tell my sister not to weep for me and sob with drooping head, When the troops come marching home again with glad and gallant tread,"
with the same stress, power, and energy as this direful warning of the Seer : -
" Ha! laugh'st thou, Lochiel, my vision to scorn, Proud bird of the mountain, thy plume shall be torn!"
We have seen our pupils, ranking well in general scholar- ship and literary culture, carry Sheridan so ungracefully over his historie ride, that never did his panic-stricken sol- diers rejoice more sincerely to see their favorite commander before them, than did we when the reader landed him safely in Winchester. We make these random suggestions with no intent at personality, but with a desire to awaken in the pu- pils of our more advanced schools a renewed and careful at-
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tention to this too much neglected branch of study. But it should be remembered that no piece can be well read, with which the reader is not familiar, for otherwise much of the attention must be directed to the mastery of the words merely, leaving him little or no chance to attend to other matters equally important to success in this department of study.
HISTORY.
Taken together the recitations in History were the least to our satisfaction of any which we heard. Probably this was owing in some measure to the manner in which the questions were proposed by the Committee, differing from that to which the pupils had been accustomed ; but we do not think that this will explain it entirely. It seems to us that there are certain leading points upon which the scholars should be thoroughly at home, so that the mere mention of them would bring the whole subject matter readily and freely to mind, not in all its details, but in its outline features. The word Puritan, for instance, should suggest to the scholar at once, who the Puritans were, why they left England, where they went, why they came to America, and how, where they landed, and when, etc., etc. Not mere words committed to memory, but facts laid up in store for use when wanted. We are inclined to the opinion that the text-book used by us, though an excellent one in many respects, is not elementary enough in its construction to accomplish the best work in schools constituted like ours. We would recommend the plan adopted, we believe, by one of our teachers, of selecting the most material facts, and by special questions prepared so as to call attention thereto, or in some other way, fixing them in the mind as central points, to which the learners may after- wards add minor details, as time and opportunity may admit.
So far as we can judge, the Willard and Coddington Gram-
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mar Schools, especially the former, seem to have made the most substantial progress in this study.
GRAMMAR.
We think the study of Grammar in our schools has been too much neglected. At the next examination we hope to sce more progress made in this useful branch of education in our Grammar Schools, so that our pupils on entering the High School may be able to take up its higher studies without embarrassment or obstruction. Then the High School will be in this respect what it was intended it should be, a High School, not a Grammar School.
Many of our pupils, who have been as far as Percentage in Written Arithmetic, cannot be said really to have much knowledge of Grammar. Whether it be the fault of the text-book, or some other cause, an unfavorable prejudice in the minds of many is created against the study. The study of language is by many esteemed of little importance, save to those engaged in professional pursuits. This is a mis- taken feeling, which a moment's thought will dispel. Cer- tainly nothing is more fundamental and absolutely essential to education, than a knowledge of the power and use of lan- guage. A practical knowledge of English Grammar is in- dispensable to every person who makes pretensions to a moderate share of education.
In every study, as well as in our reading and conversation, we have to deal with words. It is not enough that a person can speak and write with comparative correctness ; he needs also a knowledge of the powers and relations of words, and the correct use of language. Grammar does much for the pupil in the way of mental discipline, if he applies his mind to it. This study reaches the most profound depths of intel- lectual philosophy, requiring deep penetration and keen pow- ers of discrimination to develop, understand, and make
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critical application of it. Hence the importance of an ear- nest attention to the study of Grammar.
We think that teachers should introduce much oral instruc- tion in their grammatical exercises ; by so doing they will make deep and lasting impressions of the elements of this science on the mind of the pupil. They should not begin, as some teachers do, with the dry rules and definitions of gram- mar, drilling the class on them week after week, and term after term. We would have the pupils taught Grammar as one " learns the carpenter's trade, using the tools first, or as one learns to sing by sounding as well as naming, the notes." In this manner the pupil would learn the use of language properly, by the application of rules rather than by their mere verbal repetition.
Let Grammar be taught in this practical way, in its actual relations to our spoken and written language, and not as a system of senseless and barren technicalities, making this useful study repulsive, dry, and hard to the scholar, causing him in many cases to baptize his grammar in tears, and to become as Shakspeare describes him : -
" The whining schoolboy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail, Unwillingly to school."
WRITING.
We believe that Penmanship, in the several schools, has not received its due share of attention, though we find some excellent specimens.
We desire that special attention may be given to writing the ensuing year.
SPELLING.
The Spelling appears to be fully up to the standard of former years, and in several of the classes, at the closing examinations, it was quite gratifying.
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MUSIC.
Reasons, more specially mentioned in our last Report, still continuing in force, we have not found it desirable to make use of any part of the amount appropriated for instruction in music ; but we have relied, as heretofore, upon such assist- ance as the several teachers have been able to render in their respective schools. We are still of the opinion that the practice of music exerts a beneficial effect upon the minds of scholars, serving as a relief from more severe studies, and throwing a cheerful, refining, and harmonizing influence over the school ; and we would urge upon the teachers to give as much attention to this subject as they can do, consistently with the discharge of other duties. But, for reasons alluded to, we do not deem it necessary to ask for any appropriation for this purpose. We had reason to expect good singing in the Coddington Grammar School-room, and were not disap- pointed. The singing, in many of the other schools, was very creditable, and we are glad to commend Miss Ride- oute's instruction in the Willard Intermediate, in the reading of written music. A duet, sung by two young misses in the Adams Grammar School, was listened to by us with positive pleasure. We believe there is much musical talent, latent in our school children, which only waits development. It ought to be made available. We regret to think that, through inattention to this pleasing accomplishment, the pu- pils in the High School are doing themselves injustice.
GYMNASTICS.
The usual attention has been given to the physical exer- cises during the year ; though, in some of the overcrowded schools, they have been partially dispensed with.
Considering the amount of travel to which the pupils of some of the higher schools are subject, together with the fact that they suffer little for want of exercise, - finding free gymnastics in their several homes, as well as in the work-
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shops and the fields, when not engaged in the school-room, - we do not regard the omission of vital importance, in these upper schools, though we would not omit them in the schools of lower grades.
APPROPRIATION.
It is shown by the statistical table of " Estimated Expen- ses of Schools," hereto appended and made a part of this Report, computing the State School Fund, and the income of the Coddington Fund on the basis of last year, that we shall need an appropriation by the town of $16,125 to meet the current expenses for teaching and fuel for the ensuing school year.
GENERAL REMARKS.
While, with two or three exceptions, we wish to commend the present condition of our schools, and are of the opinion that it will compare favorably with that of former years ; still we cannot but think that our scholars, as a whole, do not make that advancement which should be expected from the time and care devoted to them.
It would seem that an aggregate life, between the ages of five and thirteen years, spent in our schools, should reach higher and broader results than those attained by our pupils in general. To read and write fairly, to " cipher " as far as Square Root, some outline knowledge of Grammar, a few fragmentary historical ideas relating to the United States, some general acquaintance with Geography, - this, substan- tially, makes up the sum total of result with the majority of scholars.
Why are these things so? Is this all that should be ex- pected in the way of profit on the investment made? Is our ideal too high? Perhaps so; but to us it seems otherwise. What are the causes of this failure, if it be one? We are not practical educationists, but, to a great extent, theorists
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only ; and therefore we submit with hesitancy and diffidence one or two suggestions which have occurred to us as perhaps worth examination.
We do not wish to be considered as finding fault with our teachers. We believe them to be a corps of capable, con- scientious persons, laudably proud of their high profession, and devoted and willing to labor hard and long for the at- tainment of the highest good of those under their charge.
Is the defect in the methods of instruction, or in the sys- tem itself? It does not seem to us that our scholars study very hard, - perhaps not hard enough. We do not believe in over pressure, but under pressure is also faulty. There seems to be a lack of a spirit of emulation and generous rivalry. We believe that a stimulus to exertion on the part of the pupils might be found in the cultivation of this spirit. Do they not travel too much in ruts, the rate of progress of the better, being restrained and impeded by the deficiencies of the poorer members of the class? The former feel that they can maintain their position without effort, and they make but little. All that is expected of them is to keep up with their class. Can they not be induced to do more, to study lessons in advance, until they can fit themselves to join a higher class, without waiting for the year to roll round, and roll them into a place which they should have occupied much earlier? It seems as if there should be several, in each school of seventy-five scholars, who would literally run away from the others. Might it not be well, frequently, to form and reform classes, according to individual and collective ability, without reference to months or years? Could not some way be devised in order to lessen the number of recita- tions, which, as now arranged, fill up the whole of the teach- er's time, with, perhaps, but a question or two to each scholar, so that, in certain studies, - Grammar, or History, in the Grammar Schools, for instance, - the instruction could be given to the whole school at once. Instead of hav- ing so many studies on the same day, might it not be well to
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lessen the number, and devote a large part of the time to some special study ? perhaps even to the extent of devoting a week's time principally to Arithmetic, then the like time to Geography, and so on, with reading, writing, and spelling, and some review of previous studies, for the sake of variety.
These ideas will not, of course, be understood as being elaborated, but only hinted at.
Absence from school is well known to be a serious evil, and an absolute injury to the constant members of the class. The remedy lies largely and principally with the parents.
Any method of teaching by which the topic taught can be made interesting and practical, rather than abstract, should receive consideration at the hands of our teachers. This means " object teaching," and the making a few central ideas the child's own, around which it shall be a pleasure to him to cluster associated thoughts. Greater freedom from text- books on the part of some of the teachers is, perhaps, desira- ble. Thoughts and not words, substance instead of formn, the real thing itself and not its name, are what we would have so incorporated into the mind of the child that it actu- ally becomes a part of it by adoption.
We cannot conclude this Report without a renewal of our grateful acknowledgments to you, citizens of Quincy, for your manifold expressions of confidence, as evinced in private acts, as well as in the hearty public responses with which you have ever answered our calls for aid, when made in the name and in behalf of your common schools.
As it has ever been, so shall it continue to be, our aim carefully to avoid anything that may be construed into an abuse of that confidence. Therefore, following the judicious precedents of former years, we present for your consideration a detailed schedule of the estimated expenses of the schools for the ensuing year, based mainly upon our present prices, in such a manner that no one can misunderstand the purpose for which the expenditure is to be applied. From the freedom and readiness with which the town has ever made its needful
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appropriations, we cannot distrust your good judgment and generous intent upon a subject so vitally connected with your best and dearest interests as is the welfare and educa- tion of the rising generation, committed to your custody and care.
If in this Report we shall seem to indulge in more than our wonted spirit of criticism, let it not be construed into an ex- pression of dissatisfaction with teachers or scholars, but as dictated by an earnest desire to awaken such a renewed in- terest, that we can point with an increasing pride to the public schools of Quincy as occupying no inferior position among those of this good old Commonwealth.
E. GRANVILLE PRATT, Chairman, HENRY BARKER, Secretary, WILLIAM S. MORTON, H. FARNAM SMITH, NOAH CUMMINGS,
School Committee of Quincy.
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APPENDIX.
COURSE OF STUDIES.
PRIMARY SCHOOLS. - Reading, Spelling and Defining, Printing, Writing, and Drawing on Slates and Blackboard, Arithmetic, Geography, General Object Lessons, Dicta- tion Exercises, Singing, Gymnastics.
INTERMEDIATE SCHOOLS. - Same continued. Written Arithmetic, Primary Geography.
GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. - Reading, Spelling and Defining, Writing, Arithmetic Written and Oral, English Grammar with Compositions, Geography with Map Drawing, Dec- lamations, Dictation Exercises; History of the United States, Bookkeeping, Physiology, Singing, Gymnastics.
HIGH SCHOOL. - ENGLISH COURSE.
Ist Term, 1st year, Arithmetic, English Analysis, Geogra- phy, and Map Drawing. Reading, Spelling, Writing.
2d Term, 1st year, Algebra commenced, U. S. History, Bookkeeping commenced, English Prose, Writing, Spell- ing.
1st Term, 2d year, Algebra completed, History of Eng- land, Book-keeping completed, Rhetoric, Chemistry, U. S. History, Compositions, Declamations.
2d Term, 2d year, Natural Philosophy commenced, Physi- ology, Grecian and Roman History.
1st Term, 3d year, Natural Philosophy completed, Geom- etry commenced, Physical Geography.
2d Term, 3d year, Mensuration, English Literature, Bota- ny, Constitution of United States.
Rhetorical Exercises, weekly.
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ENGLISH AND CLASSICAL COURSE.
1st Term, 1st year, Arithmetic, Latin commenced, Geog- raphy and Map Drawing, Reading, Writing, Spelling.
2d Term, 1st year, Algebra commenced, Latin Reader, Book-keeping commenced, Writing, Spelling, English Prose.
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