USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Quincy > Town annual report of Quincy 1876 > Part 5
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Above all, we have striven to combine, co-ordinate, and connect each separate teaching-force working in our system into a single harmonious effort, moving smoothly and efficiently to secure the greatest possible progress and the highest common advantage. Partial results, immediately apparent, entirely justify the committee in declaring that the public schools of Quincy have never heretofore attained the average excellence and efficiency which they show to-day. There is still room, however, for great improvement.
And in view of what has been already accomplished, as well as in anticipation of results which may soon be realized from the progressive development of the plan in operation, the committee feel entirely safe in pronouncing the experi- ment they were permitted to try an assured success. The town could not afford to retrace its steps. A superintendent has become a necessity and an economy. This last element of gain has been conspicuous in the keen and constant super- vision of repairs, and in the careful buying and methodical
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issue of supplies. Many small purchases and occasional expenditures, which have sometimes been made without suffi- cient oversight and concert, have been economically concen- trated and accurately checked. The care of the school- houses and fires has been systematized, and the expense greatly reduced. Above all, a minute account of every cent of expenditure incurred or authorized, has been kept from day to day, so that the committee have been able, at any moment, to ascertain precisely how they stood.
In a word, this department has been conducted upon the same principles which are found indispensable to the success- ful management of all private business.
Having thus briefly stated their judgment upon the gene- ral character and tendency of the year's work, the committee beg the attention of the town to the report of the superin- tendent, which is submitted herewith for a detailed and specific account of his views and action.
In obedience to a recent statute, the enumeration of chil- dren between the ages of five and fifteen years, which had, heretofore, been taken by the selectmen, was, ón the first of May last, executed by the agents of the committee. The duty was performed with scrupulous exactness, and the result has verified the repeated suggestions of the committee, that former returns seemed to understate the true school population of the town. The assessors reported, that the number on the 1st of May, 1874, was 1,487. On the 1st of May, 1875, the committee found no less than 1,727; and that is the number to which our known population would entitle us. In order to secure, as far as possible, a reliable accuracy for their census, the committee caused the name and age of each individual to be carefully entered in books prepared for the purpose.
Of this total number, we find that 1,420 are attending in some one of the public schools. Of the remainder, 37 are accounted for in various private schools. Twenty are students of the Adams Academy, and 250 seem not to be regular or occasional pupils at any school.
Most of the latter are believed to be working for wages ;
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a few are known to the committee as truants. But the evil of truancy has much diminished. It was found absolutely necessary to proceed against one boy under the by-law of the town for incorrigible persistence in this offence. He was removed to the Plummer Farm School at Salem, where he is reported to be doing very well. This example has had a salu- tary effect.
REPAIRS.
The repairs and improvements specifically ordered by the town, upon certain of the school-houses and grounds have been well and economically completed. This portion of the town property is now in good condition, and likely to require but little ordinary repair for the next year. Nor do the com- mittee feel constrained to ask for any large extraordinary expenditure at present. With the exception of one district, the accommodation afforded by the existing houses is rea- sonably sufficient. But, in spite of the frequent attention, and condemnation which it has received from the town and its committees, no action hes yet been taken to remove the primary scholars of the Coddington school from the low and ill-ventilated basement-room in which they have long been misplaced. More than once the town has authorized the committee to carry out proposed plans of relief ; but, from one reason or another, these plans were found impracticable. It is now proposed to proceed forthwith, and to solve the problem by placing a Mansard roof upon the present building. This alteration, while it will not injure the appearance of the house, will afford an excellent area for the grammar school, leaving the two lower floors for the younger classes. This plan can be carried out far more cheaply than any other, and no other would, upon the whole, afford more favorable results.
The committee also ask for a small extraordinary appro- priation, to plaster and finish one room at the Point school- house, which requires but a small outlay to fit it for occupa- tion. And the design of the committee, if approved by the town, is to follow in the case of the Neck School the policy
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which has been already adopted with such happy results at Germantown.
Every one at this day knows that it is no better than time, energy, money, and children wasted, to persist in maintaining small, ungraded and isolated schools, when it is possible, at the same expense, to combine the outlying pupils with the great body of the children of the district. For many years Germantown and the Neck schools have been generally far be- hind the graded schools in every thing which makes a school efficient. Sometimes, as now at the Neck, an exceptionally faithful and able teacher may succeed in reducing the inter- val, but it never can be closed. The committee propose, therefore, to transfer the Neck school to the Washington school-house. A considerable portion of the pupils of the Neck school will have no further to go than they now do. If any, from distance or tender years should really require regular or occasional transportation, the committee have the power to furnish it if the town so determine.
FINANCES.
The entire sum available for school purposes during the year was $33,953.12, which was derived from the sources, and applied to the purposes, specified below:
In the first place, the town appropriated for incidental ex- penses $4,000, and $80 more received from the sale of some school-books on hand swelled the item to $4,080. Of this sum $3,304.47 has been spent, leaving $775.53 in the treasury.
Two thousand five hundred dollars were voted for repairs and improvement of grounds and buildings, all of which has been laid out.
Two thousand dollars were appropriated for the salary of a superintendent.
For teachers' salaries, fuel, and care of rooms and fires, twenty-five thousand dollars were granted, of which $21,- 373.48 went to pay teachers' salaries ; $1,747.22 for care of rooms and fires, and $1,483.80 to supply a stock of wood and coal sufficient for the whole season, making a total of
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$24,604.50. It will be seen, therefore, that a balance remains of $395.50 of this fund.
But besides the regular appropriations, there are two re- sources upon which it has always been customary to rely to supplement the ordinary supply voted by the town.
Of these the first is the income of the Coddington land, $75, and the School Fund, $298.18. It will thus be apparent that the total expenditure for all causes has fallen below the anticipated outlay by $1,544.21.
Nor does this show exactly the true state of the case. It was found that an aggregate of $1,264.88 of liabilities in- curred and properly chargeable to former years, had to be paid from this year's surplus. This objectionable practice, however, will not occur in the year coming. For it is confi- dently believed that not one liability, charge, or indebtedness of any kind, properly incidental to the school year, which closed Feb. 1, 1876, has been either by inadvertence or de- sign left unsatisfied, to fall upon its successor. It is also proper to point out, that of the twenty-five hundred dol- lars expended in repairs, nearly two thousand were required for such extraordinary demands for permanent improvement as grading, fencing, and slating.
APPROPRIATIONS.
The committee are of opinion that they shall require for the present school year -
For salaries of teachers, fuel, and care of rooms,
the sum of
$25,000
Incidental charges,
2,000
Finishing Washington school,
225
Alteration of Coddington "
3,500
Transportation,
500
Salary of superintendent,
2,000
$33,225
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The total sum, therefore, which the committee deem essential for the school expenses and alterations for the next year, is thirty-three thousand two hundred and twenty five dollars.
J. Q. ADAMS, C. L. BADGER, WILLIAM B. DUGGAN, JAMES H. SLADE, EDWIN MARSH, C. F. ADAMS, JUN.
REPORT OF SUPERINTENDENT.
To the Gentlemen of the School Committee : -
In accordance with your instructions, I have the honor to submit for your consideration this, my First Annual Report.
On assuming the office of school superintendent (April 20, 1875), I made a careful examination into the condition and wants of the schools entrusted to my care. I found the facts so pointedly set forth in your recent reports to be sub- stantially correct. Without entering here into details, I will sum up my conclusions in a few words ; namely, the results obtained are entirely inadequate to the large amount of money expended and pains taken. Certainly much good, earnest work had been done by the teachers, and some very favor- able results were found; yet the need of one common, con- tinuous, systematic plan of work for all the schools was strikingly apparent. With your approval, the following new measures were adopted, and changes made : -
1. The course of instruction in the primary and grammar schools was reduced from nine to eight years.
2. Each district school was divided into eight distinct classes, and designated A, B, C, D, Grammar, and A, B, C, D, Primary.
3. The old course of study was discarded and a new one prepared, conforming to the above changes, and suited to the present wants of the schools.
4. The school year was reduced from forty-three to forty weeks, and divided into three terms,- a Fall term of sixteen weeks, and Winter and Spring terms of twelve weeks each, - with additional vacations at Christmas and in the Spring.
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5. Oral and written examinations are made during the last four weeks of each term by the superintendent, for the purpose of ascertaining the progress of the pupils, and their fitness for promotion. You decided to make but one general examination in the year, and that in the month of May or June.
6. Pupils are promoted whenever it is found, by examina- tion, that they are well fitted to do the work of the next class above, without regard to the number of years that they have attended school.
7. Monthly reports of attendance, tardiness and truancy from all the schools are made to the school committee and superintendent.
COURSE OF STUDY.
Owing to the marked difference in the attainments of classes of the same grade, it was not an easy task to prepare a course of study adapted to their respective wants. A Course of Study was prepared and given to the teachers with instructions to thoroughly examine their respective classes, and then to teach those subjects, in the order directed, that were especially adapted to their condition. In this manner I believe classes of the same grade will gradually and surely work up to a required and common standard. It is very evident that this has not been the custom. Teachers have taught that part of the course of study assigned them without regard to the previous advancement of the children : thus rendering rote teaching a necessity ; for progress in the ac- quisition of a science depends entirely upon the mastery of each successive step. Unless this plain condition is com- plied with the pupil cannot understand the subject, and the teacher is obliged to take the usual refuge of teaching the form without the substance. The foundation must be laid before the superstructure can be built. This vain attempt to build upon nothing, costing the country untold millions of money, the precious energies of teachers, the time and toil of parents and children, will surely lead us to mental bank- ruptcy, if the stupendous fraud is not soon abolished and
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healthier plans of better teaching substituted therefor. A teacher who is directed to teach that for which his or her class is not prepared, is justified in appealing to a Higher Law. The Course of Study is made up of subjects, or parts of sciences, in their proper order of development ; the teach- ers, however, are at liberty to use the text books prescribed, without stint, and what other method or plan they may deem proper. Arbitrary power, in directing certain methods to be used, however good they may be, deprives the teacher of his or her highest qualification for the work, -individuality. The examinations, however, are made in the subjects taught without any regard to the text books.
The thing to be ascertained is, how much does the pupil really know, not how many pages, rules, definitions, and for- mulas have been learned, or examples performed. Indeed, the examinations in school should be made similar to the tests of knowledge in real life, which relate principally to the ability to do practical, useful things ; to find the interest upon a note, to keep accounts, to measure wood, stone, and timber accurately, to write a good business hand, to indite a properly spelled, well-composed letter, to use correct and re- fined language, and, above all, to act promptly, intelligently, and honestly. These tests, it seems to me, are the proper ones in the examinations of our common schools. The last four weeks of each term are devoted to careful and thorough oral and written examinations, conducted so far as possible in the manner above indicated. The papers of the written ex- aminations are preserved for the inspection of the School Committee, parents, and all persons interested. Careful records of the results are kept by the teachers, forming an important part of the children's school history.
ATTENDANCE.
Regular attendance is in the highest degree essential to progress in school ; as essential, in fact, as continued and close attention to business is to success in that direction. Days of absence render futile all attempts to continuous
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teaching, so necessary in the development of any subject ; thus, the teacher is obliged to rob the whole class of much valuable time, in order to teach the absentees the lost lessons, or the entire work is of little or no value to them.
Active measures to lessen this great evil have been taken. During the long, wearisome term, lasting from the Monday after Thanksgiving until the middle of July, parents were accustomed to take their children out of school for rest and recuperation, thus breaking in upon the school-work at every step. The shortening of the school year, and its division into three terms, with vacations at the close of each, has, I think, remedied this difficulty, for much more time is now spent in the school-room than under the old arrangement. Following are the remarks printed upon the monthly re- ports : -
To TEACHERS.
The principal evil against which we contend is irregularity of attendance. Pupils who attend irregularly, not only derive very little positive benefit from school themselves, but disturb and lessen greatly the advantages of the other members of their classes. The success of a school is indicated, in a great degree, by the per cent of attendance.
1. This Report should be read and studied by each teacher ; and, in some cases, should be read and explained to the pupils. in order to create a proper emulation in trying to have the highest per cents of attendance.
2. Pupils should never be encouraged to attend school when sick, or in any way incapacitated for school work.
3. Pupils should always be required to bring from their parents a written excuse for absence.
4. Every case of truancy should be carfully and persistently treated. The blame for any neglect in this regard will fall upon the teacher.
5. The principals and teachers should spare no pains in keeping in school all children legally required to attend.
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6. All possible and proper means should be used to interest and encourage dull and backward pupils, - and great care taken not to discourage them.
7. The best means that can be recommended to prevent truancy and irregularity of attendance, is by making the school attractive. Good, wholesome, normal instruction, a mild, firm government, and a proper amount of exercise, - in other words, SUNSHINE in the schoolroom, will do more to keep children in school than all other means put together.
BETTER TEACHING.
Thus far I have given a brief outline of the re organization of the schools, and the systematic arrangement of the work ; but this alone would accomplish little in the promotion of education, unless closely followed by THE all-important means ; namely, BETTER TEACHING. Magnificent school buildings, the finest furniture, plans, systems, text-books, apparatus, and all the so-called machinery, are worthless, unless animated by the life, strength, and vigor of good, wholesome, normal teaching.
METHODS.
The first step in the direction of better teaching has been the introduction of improved methods for those hitherto used.
The utter impracticability of the methods in common use has been clearly shown by great thinkers and educators, from Pestalozzi down. The commonly used A B C method has been condemned by every prominent educator in the United States, for the last twenty years ; and, with very few exceptions, the same can be said in regard to the prevailing methods of teaching Grammar, Arithmetic, and Geogragphy. Doubt about the matter on the part of thoughtful persons is no longer possible. Their use is a great extravagance of money and time. Proofs of the meagre results produced by them are to be seen on every hand. It costs the town of
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Quincy, at the least calculation, $25,000 to prepare a class for the High School. Now take the large pile of examination papers of candidates for that school. in this office, and look them over ; there is not a single good business handwriting among them all. The language, punctuation, and capitaliza- tion are exeedingly poor ; much of the spelling is worthy the invention of a Josh Billings. The results in other branches can be better imagined than described. I wish that the tax- payers of Quincy would examine these papers for themselves.
These. then, are the results of the investment of $25.000. and the time and toil of the children for nine years, - and the best results too, - for they are the work of the few who remain in school the entire course. This state of things is not the fault of the teachers, but of the methods and the system, - or. rather, the lack of a system. The methods that are now being introduced into the schools of Quincy are by no means experiments. They have been tested for thirty years in Germany, and for several years in parts of our own country. Their application have produced as great a change in teaching, as Harvey's great discovery did in medicine. Although derived from a careful study of mental laws, they have been, in many respects, intuitively known and practiced in real life ; by the mother in the nursery, the mechanic in the shop. the farmer in the field, and the chemist in his laboratory, the essence of them all is the teaching of things, and not words alone.
The special basis is the thing. What carpenter would attempt to teach an apprentice to build a house, by rules and definitions alone ? What farmer would instruct his son in the science of agriculture before he had mastered its elemen- tary processes, with the active aid of the hoe, plow, and scythe ? How long would it take a boy to make a good boot in a shop where the foreman taught. from a text-book, the rules and definitions of cutting, pegging, and stitching ? How would children learn to talk, if the same abominable system of mnemonics were practiced in the nursery as in the primary school ? Fortunately, the child has five or six years of wholesome instruction to prepare for the terrible ordeal.
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In short, it is proposed to use the common sense of real life in the school-room.
It is a strange, peculiar fact, that the nation most prolific of inventions is still moving on in the stage-coach of educational methods ; keeping, with stubborn tenacity, in the old worn ruts of rote teaching. Methods of economizing brain power are neglected, while those mechanical inventions that econ- omize force are quickly seized upon and made use of. Why is this the case ? If benefits, similar to those produced by the railroad and telegraph can be derived from the use of these methods, why do not our teachers universally use them ? The sewing machine hums by countless firesides, the reaper sweeps down vast fields of golden grain all over the land. If, then, like these, methods of instruction could be bought, the change from the old to the new would be as abrupt as that from the stage-coach to the steam car, and every school in the land would be filled with new life. The solution, then, of this puzzling question, is a plain one ; these methods can only be acquired by long, careful, patient, perse- vering study. They must be studied as the master painter studies his art, and the successful lawyer his profession. Not until teachers thus know them, will they be applied, and the solemn fact is ; teachers generally do not know them. Super- ficial knowledge, or mere imitation of other teachers, will, of course, produce superficial results, and render the methods unpopular.
THE CHILD'S FIRST YEAR IN SCHOOL.
Hegel, the great German philosopher, says that a child learns more in the first six years of its life, than it ever after- wards can learn.
After these five or six years of active object teaching and healthful play, the child enters the schoolroom. Imagina- tion, curiosity, love for mental and physical activity are in a state of vigorous development. It is very evident that Nature's great methods, object teaching, and play, should not be abruptly changed to dull, wearisome hours
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of listless inactivity upon hard benches, interspersed with occasional glimpses into a mysterious volume crowded with black, ugly-looking hieroglyphics, as meaningless to the inno- cent little one as Chinese or Sanscrit signs are to most of us. And, to add to its misery, these black objects are given names far uglier than themselves, and these names must be laboriously learned before the poor child can obtain one glimpse of the bright objects that lie beyond.
No wonder that the love for school, and all that pertains to it, is so often crushed out of the little innocents.
Every good element that has entered into the child's life should be used, - in a word a primary school should have all the attributes of a pleasant, cheerful home. Home, play- ground, school, should be the golden pathways to a higher culture.
I am happy to report that the work in the lowest primary schools has been entirely and radically changed. The old A B C method has been abolished (I hope forever), and a far better one established. The little folks play, sing, read, count objects, write, draw, and are happy under the direction of very faithful and efficient teachers. At a comparatively small expense, many of the best features of the Kindergarten could be very profitably introduced into this grade.
METHOD OF TEACHING PRIMARY READING.
OBJECT METHOD.
The mother's method is to show her child the object, and then repeat the name. The more interests an object arouses the quicker its name will be learned. Words that do not re- call an object (idea) are empty sounds. Upon these simple facts is based the Object Method, which consists in first show- ing the object, - a picture of the object, - or vividly recall- ing it, and then teaching its name. I here use the word object in its philosophical sense, comprehending not only ob- jects in themselves, but their attributes, actions, &c.
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WORD METHOD.
The spoken or sound word is learned as a whole, that is, there is no conscious analysis on the part of the child. Now, the spoken word is almost, if not quite, as complex as the printed word, and, therefore, the latter should not be ana- lized ; a name given to each part, and these names pro- nounced before the whole is pronounced in order to learn it, as in the A, B, C method, any more than the former should be so learned. On the contrary, the five years' practice and experience should be continued. Hence the Word Method.
PHONIC METHOD.
1. Although the spoken word is learned as a whole, yet its parts are unconsciously recognized and combined.
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