USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Quincy > Town annual report of Quincy 1877 > Part 6
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27
4. .
Eleanor Glover,
18
28
7.
Eva Elizabeth Shackley,
2
IO
16
9.
James Tobin,
74
9.
Michael Donlin,
24
IO.
James Erskine,
78
12.
Thomas M. Marsh,
77
I
12.
Celestia Pratt,
43
13.
Bridget Walsh,
67
14.
Sarepta W. Newcomb,
80
IO
15
14.
Richard J. Larkin,
II
II
21.
John Clean,
55
4
22.
Herbert S. Whitman, - Glover,
·
October
5.
William Totman,
69
6
15
6.
Mary Ann Connor,
32
7
8.
Perez Chubbuck,
73
4
14
8.
Catharine Sweeney,
9
21
9.
Esther Nolan,
59
10.
Lemuel B. Underwood,
II
9
18
IO.
Mary McKenna,
9
12.
Mary Percival,
64
6
15.
Mary A. G. Stranger,
38
I
18
1.5.
-- Arnold,
O
18.
Michael Scully,
45
21.
Cora L. Smith,
2
25
22.
William W. Brown,
25
I
13
22.
Mary A. Baker,
69
9
19
23.
Arthur F. Washburn,
6
2
24
24.
William Kingman,
73
3
21
26.
Jeffrey R. Brackett,
61
28.
Bryant Newcomb,
80
9
6
29.
Amy L. A. Baxter,
8
15
30.
Henry Mayson,
90
31.
Charles Dunham,
55
November
I.
Mary L. B. Orsi,
7
9
2.
William Williams,
71
6
15
4.
William H. Young,
I
2
9.
Emma L. Langley,
5
6
12.
James H. Callahan,
47
14.
T. Franklin Veazie,
4
3
15.
William J. Higgins,
5
15.
Marcella Keenan,
O
17.
George Graves,
81
3
21.
Michael Garrity,
64
22.
Charlotte Carr,
81
5
26
2.
Lucy J. Prior,
37
2
6
30.
O
IO2
Date.
Name.
Age.
Years.
Months.
Days.
November
24.
Peleg F. Jones,
74
7
25.
Ada E. Locke,
24
4 23
December
3.
Mary A. Glover,
I
24.
IO.
Honora O'Neil,
I3
5
II.
Michael Butler, Edward D. Bisson,
I
I
28.
Arthur W. Shepard,
8
13
29.
Abigail Manley.
79
19
29.
Allen G. Pitchell,
77
29.
Olive F. Bradford,
60
8
18
30.
John J. Morrissey,
IO
6
29
31.
Barney Gibbons,
56
I 21
-
REGISTRATION OF DEATHS WHICH OCCURRED IN OTHER PLACES, THE BURIALS BEING IN QUINCY.
Date.
Name.
Age.
Place of Death.
Jan.
13.
John F. Mullin,
26
Richmond.
20.
Caroline A. Ingraham,
81
3
Boston.
24.
Alonzo Elwell,
41
I
2
Evanston, Ill.
27.
William Adams,
64
II
Foxboro.
Feb.
28.
Nicholas J. Nystram,
32
8
Boston.
May
6.
Joseph B. Lawton,
50
3
Gardner, Me.
II.
Henry W. Nightingale,
6
9
Boston.
24.
Charles W. Newman,
55
Plainfield, N.J.
June
2.
Josephine Littlefield,
27
II
Boston.
July
13.
Eliza F. Wiswell,
73
II
Boston.
15.
John L. Armstrong,
55
Boston.
Sept.
IO.
Caroline A. Currier, Almira Thayer,
54
4
Boston.
Dec.
16.
Matthew Murphy,
43
Boston.
17.
Caroline E. Tilden,
27
South Boston.
23.
Susan Hunt,
72
8
22
Taunton.
29.
George F. Hatch,
49
9
Boston.
0
Total number of deaths registered,
179
.
Buffalo.
April
6.
George H. Arnold,
2
Brockton.
14.
Arthur W. Coville,
Chelsea.
Nov.
IO.
Years. Months. Days.
32
25.
IO3
GENERAL RECORD.
Males. Females. Total.
January,
9
6
15
February,
8
5
I3
13
March,
10
7
17
18
April,
II
5
16
May,
9
6
15
40
50
66
19
July,
IO
5
15
August,
IO
5
15
September,
7
8
15
October,
12
9
21
November,
8
7
15
December,
8
6
14
Total,
IO3
76
179
Under I year of age, 32 Between I and 10 years of age, 22
66
IO
20
66
30
40
7
June,
I
7
8
50
60
70
"
17
70
80
90
66
3
95
"IOO
I
Not known,
2
20
30
60
80
21
8
90
95
16
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
٠
REPORT
OF THE
SCHOOL COMMITTEE
OF THE
TOWN OF QUINCY,
FOR THE
SCHOOL YEAR 1876-7.
SCHOOL COMMITTEE FOR 1876-7.
JOHN Q. ADAMS,
EDWIN W. MARSH,
JAMES H. SLADE,
CHARLES F. ADAMS, JR.,
CHARLES L. BADGER,
WILLIAM B. DUGGAN.
SUPERINTENDENT. FRANCIS W. PARKER,
BOSTON: PRESS OF COCHRANE & SAMPSON, 9 BROMFIELD ST.,
1877.
1
REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
NEARLY two years have elapsed since the town voted to employ a Superintendent of Public Schools. The measure was at that time avowedly experimental, and of course sub- · ject to revision after a sufficient trial. Our experience now enables us to form an accurate judgment as to its tendency and value. During the discussion upon its adoption, the strongest reasons urged for thus supplementing the general direction by a committee with a single, constant supervision, were, firstly, that the exclusive attention of a competent educa- tor would be likely to secure greatly increased literary progress through the adoption of improved methods and a more complete organization. And, secondly, that the very large sum of money annually appropriated by the town for the support of schools could thus be more systematically applied and more responsibly husbanded. Is the town now enjoying either or both of these promised benefits ? To answer this question we must compare somewhat in detail the present condition of the schools with their state before the change.
At the outset, then, we certainly think that a casual observer visiting our schools to-day, after an interval of three years, would be struck by the marked improvement apparent. But, however obvious the general result might be, it would perhaps be diffi- cult for even a careful inspector to detect at once the hidden forces which wrought it. These must be traced to several dis- tinct sources, and their power appears rather in a steady and concerted progress, in all the essentials of an efficient educa- tional system, than in any especially brilliant display or startling surprises.
Setting out with a comprehensive and accurate classification of all the school children, upon a scheme embracing the whole town, and co-ordinating each department in one compact plan,
(109)
IIO
each teacher was assigned his appropriate place and combined in a single effort to attain a common and concerted result. Thus unity of action and economy of labor have been secured. By the reiterated visitation and inspection of the Superintend- ent, in all the different sections of the town, regularity and smoothness of movement were maintained. While frequent comparison and review, consultation and experiment, have compacted and completed the basis of organization. At stated times teachers and Superintendent meet together to propose and discuss, to teach and to learn.
While an effectual system of examination is the best guar- anty of good schools, the method formerly in use conspicuously failed to furnish thoroughly satisfactory tests of merit. It was entirely oral and usually off-hand, differing often in schools of the same grade, and frequently conducted as accident might settle, here by one and there by another committee-man. The result was naturally vague and illusory, - an impression rather than a definite judgment.
Now, oral examinations are supplemented by carefully con- sidered papers of questions for each grade and each study. The answers are valued by a scale of marks, and these marks fur- nish reliable data from which to determine either the proficiency of the individual or the progress of the school. We can clearly see at once the working of the parts, and the operation of the whole machine.
Besides these improvements in management, we have begun extensive amendments in the province of instruction proper. For several years we have doubted whether the methods in use from time immemorial in our schools were really the best that could be devised. We had heard that the most profound stu- dents and thinkers of the science of teaching had long since discredited the system to which we clung. That, while dis- claiming the discovery of a royal road to learning, they did pro- fess to have found an easier way than the old one. Indeed, these men look upon our steadfast devotion to our worn and familiar paths very much as we should regard the conservatism of a man who should persist in preferring a stage-coach to a Pullman-car for a trip to California.
III
Take, for instance, the very first essays of the little child just entering school. They protest that we are wasting time and strength in compelling him to learn his letters one by one before he is permitted to form a syllable or to frame a word. They tell us that the letters C, A, T, spell dog just as much as cat to a perfectly untaught mind. And, inasmuch as the name of each special combination of letters has at last to be learned by a mere effort of memory, it is best to teach the name at once. Pressing on in the same direction, they scout, as unnatural and absurd, stuffing children with words before they know their meaning. They tell us that we have got the cart before the horse. That we should begin at the other end, and first show the thing itself to the child, then tell its name, and at last the written sign of that name. And then they assure us that, if we have the skill and tact to associate some child-interest with the name and its sign, the memory will rarely fail of its share of the task. But it is admitted that this excited interest is an essential element of success. The picture, not the symbol, is the key to the closed intellect. They declare, that, if we would succeed with the young, we must employ their senses more and their mere memory less. The mother does not teach her baby to spell F-A-T-H-E-R,- the child sees the thing and lisps the name. They learn by the eyes, and nothing sticks in the memory which has not an interest to hold it in. Therefore, they argue, we must teach by objects which alone engage their attention. By no other plan, and by no more abstruse processes, does our good mother Nature furnish the infant mind with the amazing store of facts which it picks up in the first three years of life. Then, pointing triumphantly to the exceeding small results of the first three years of school, they ask us how otherwise we explain the contrast. And certainly it does look a little as if we had not materially bettered the gentle, natural ways. Multiplied toil and lessened harvest betoken ill management.
To your Committee, long dissatisfied with the meagre returns for much honest labor which characterized a good deal of our established routine of school work, there seemed something plausible in this reasoning. There could be but little danger, and there might be much profit, in a trial of the theory. It
II2
had undoubtedly succeeded elsewhere, why not here? Indeed, among the people most advanced in the science of teaching, this hypothesis has long since passed from the realm of theory into the domain of settled knowledge. It was, therefore, determined to try how it would practically work in our schools.
The trial was begun cautiously, and extended gradually as time and circumstances favored, and as the necessary informa- tion and instruments could be secured. The teachers to whom the work was first intrusted in the primary schools have spared no pains to afford the novelty a fair field, and all in turn have done their best to secure favorable conditions for the attempt. The Committee have watched narrowly to detect the probable course and upshot of the matter.
And, although this trial is still in progress and far from com- plete, yet the tendency and scope of the innovations proposed have been now so far developed that we are able to offer some brief statement of our present opinion about them.
Suppose, for example, we follow the child into school on its first day of attendance. We should see the little band of begin- ners gathered naturally round the teacher at the black-board, watching the teacher write (not print) words on the board, and learning their meaning and how to sound them. For weeks this would constitute their lesson in reading. Then they are fur- nished primers containing simple stories about the birds or ani- mals or other objects with which they are familiar. Pictures illustrate the text and emphasize the action related. The teacher, taking this picture, perhaps, or some object or action of immediate interest as a theme, by a few skillful questions or apt suggestions, makes perfectly clear to each mind what it is all about, at the same time keeping all their wits awake and at work. Every word which any little finger points to as a possi- ble stumbling-block is carefully explained, until in every head all shadow of mystery about it has departed. While, lastly, and only after we are sure that the child has thoroughly made his own both the thought and the written form, is he permitted to read it.
Now, if to any this proceeding seems inverted and awkward, we can assure them that it works well. Indeed, we venture to
II3
say that all teachers who will try it intelligently and patiently will agree with our teachers, and with us, in claiming for it a surprisingly increased product over what we have been able to extract from an equal amount of labor under the A, B, C, plan. Nor is it a gain in quantity alone. The improvement in quality is quite as remarkable.
The child learns to read the thought, not merely to repeat the words. And in our schools already the painful twang of the old grinding organ, mechanical word-reading, has almost entirely ceased. From the outset they are trained in a good style, and nothing but the facility gained by constant practice is wanting. The interest of the children, too, is kept awake by changing their readers as fast as the contents of each is known; and we find that they press on eagerly to the fresh pasture thus afforded them. And no one, we think, will question the utility of this arrangement who has observed how much better a class of chil- dren will read a story which interests and pleases them than one which does not chain their attention.
Of course we are aware that statements so strong are likely to provoke the charge of enthusiasm. But we are ready to-day to take the skeptic into each of our D Primaries, and there show him plenty of little beginners, only one year at work, reading script more readily than they formerly spelled print ; and writ- ing it, too, more fluently than they used to engrave the discon- nected capitals which were supposed to be the extreme limit of their powers. For, as we find the A, B, Ab, stage unnecessary for teaching to read, so an apprenticeship in printing is useless for learning to write. We have a plenty of children of seven years who cannot print a letter, but can write sentences from the black-board on their slates, in a good current hand.
Surely, this is much, but it is not all. We deem it indeed but little compared with the gain we prize the most. For, beyond all improvements in quickness or thoroughness of teaching and learn- ing, the change most striking and pleasing to us is the change in the moral atmosphere of the school-room. Though subtle, it is unmistakable; and, if difficult to describe or dissect, it is instantly seen and felt. While all partake it, the infant schools manifest it the most. Your first glance catches it from the
15
:
114
bright, smiling, eager faces. Life, animation, gaiety, have usurped the weary stolidity of dull endurance. Erect, expec- tant, and intent, these latter-day school-boys belie their prescrip- tive characteristics. The shrill voice of scolding is hushed ; for the children are amused to do their duty. The best schools are the most cheerful and sprightly, and the most perfect order pre- vails where there is least reproof. Most amazing of all, you find the little ones actually anxious to go to school. The old reluc- tance to go has been replaced by an aversion to staying away. They want to be there, and are with difficulty kept at home. Such results we esteem of real value, and we accept them as true tests of sound method. We all learn easily what we like : the secret is to make us like to learn.
Our limits will not permit us to go at length through each study to explain the new theory or to detail the new practice. It must suffice to say that in each some application of the same general idea is made, and in every instance, we think, with a decided saving of labor and increase in useful knowledge. The old technical study of grammar, for instance, has been super- seded by a sedulous drill in the use of correct language. For the painful acquisition of dry and unintelligible rules, we substi- tute the constant practice of writing grammatical sentences. Parsing has been discontinued; but for all that we find that grammar-school scholars undoubtedly speak their native lan- guage no worse, and write it far better, than ever they could before. We believe, indeed, that the amendment here has been so decided that we need no longer feel ashamed of the English exercises of our grammar classes. And we are encouraged to hope that we have many pupils who can prepare a letter of three pages,- neatly and fairly written, not grossly ill-spelled, and free from glaring solecism in form or style.
Apply the same rule to geography, and you will find the same process of inversion at work. Instead of the tedious definitions and mathematical abstractions with which the first steps in our knowledge of this earth used to be entangled, we now point out and explain the things themselves. If we want the child to know what the long Latin sign " Peninsula " stands for, we find him one in his own town. His own familiar friend, the brook,
II5
will teach him all about rivers, and his native hills contain all the learning of mountains. And, although it follows from this method that we find fewer scholars who can rattle off the exact book definitions of continents and promontories, parallels and degrees, we are repaid by the entire disappearance of the little girl who lived on Wollaston Heights but never had seen an ocean, the boy who knew not a river though he was born and brought up at Quincy Point, and the other little fellow who was at a loss to conceive of a real peninsula though his home was at Germantown.
The science of number has as yet hardly been attacked. It has been left to the last because the need of reform in the meth- ods of teaching in use was less pronounced than in some other directions. But we are none the less of opinion that much rub- bish obstructs the path in arithmetic, and that a considerable saving of labor may be effected by some changes in the way of teaching it. The text-book in this, as in other branches of schooling, is often so used as to be a hinderance rather than a help to the learner. It not unfrequently happens that a scholar becomes so familiar with his book that he loses the use of his mind. If his little formula will exactly fit his problem, he is at home ; but, if its elements involve a novel application of the same principles, he is all abroad. His rules have injured his reason. He cannot walk without crutches. But we hope by and by to teach pupils to make rules for themselves.
To sum up, the general drift of our efforts looks to an attempt to teach things.
Not that we suppose that any system can dispense with much painful labor. All acquisition requires attention, and sustained attention is irksome. But, as a great part of the advantage claimed for the new system consists in a superior power of exciting and maintaining an interested attention, so its suc- cessful practice makes a greater draft on the teacher. The apathy, monotony, and tedium of the old school-room must be banished from the new, and it depends on the teacher, by per- petual variety of instruction, to make the school pleasant and interesting. We find that not every raw graduate of a normal school or college is either a born or an educated teacher. The
II6
power of imparting knowledge is a gift and a science. Its profession requires long and patient preparation and a special training. It is an art, not a makeshift. We found it neces- sary, therefore, to arrange some method to secure a supply of instructed teachers for our schools. They must be drilled in the devices to arouse the torpid interest and the tact to sustain the flagging attention, - in a word, to be teachers, not school- mistresses. To this end, a number of young women, graduates of our High School, have received constant instruction from the Superintendent, who, both by precept and example, has endeav- ored to impart to them the system which we have adopted in the schools. As fast as they seem prepared, they are exercised in the actual handling of classes, under his supervision, or that of some accomplished teacher ; and they act as substitutes and temporary assistants until they have mastered the elements of his method. Thus, when a vacancy occurs, we have a compe- tent candidate at hand equipped with the most approved instru- ments of her vocation. And it is fair to add that several of these pupils display qualities which promise flattering results from their labors.
Although the foregoing remarks apply more particularly to the grammar and lower grades, the principles discussed embrace equally the highest grades. For, though the tentative policy which we have pursued has not yet reached the High School, we are not the less of the opinion that its curriculum requires remodeling. The superstition which has so long attached to the study of Latin and Greek is fading away. Some people begin to doubt whether, for the great majority of those who wish to attend our country high schools, it is worth while to go through so much to get so. little. For they carry away nothing of the literature, and but a smattering of the language. Mean- while they have spent at it time and toil enough to acquire a firm grasp of some living tongue which may be of use to them through life. The classical requirements of the town are amply supplied by the Adams Academy. We think it worse than use- less to spend strength in imparting a showy but worthless veneer of classical polish to what ought to be a plain, practical English fabric. And by English we would not be understood
II7
to underrate the value of the study of foreign languages. But we are satisfied, that, with the time and material at our disposal, we can accomplish more real good by devoting all of each pupil's attention to either Latin or French than by dividing the time between them. We shall, therefore, ask the parents of pupils in the High School at the next term to elect which of these tongues they prefer to attempt, with the understanding that Latin will no longer be a required study, although any pupil who desires may receive instruction in both Greek and Latin at his request. The time gained by this arrangement can be use- fully employed in the prosecution of several branches of science, or even in gaining a closer acquaintance with the English lan- guage and some part of its noble literature.
In closing this review of the general literary result of the changes effected in the public schools, it is only just to attribute a great share of credit to the intelligence, skill, tact, and unwea- ried assiduity of the Superintendent ; while no less praise is due to our zealous and efficient corps of teachers, for the patience, courage, and ability which they have displayed in executing his plans and bringing the experiment to so gratifying a conclu- sion.
FINANCIAL.
The remarks under this head which were offered in our last report may substantially serve to present our views as to the past year. The disbursement of our funds, the purchase of our supplies, and the knowledge of our current accounts have all been systematized and regulated. There can be no doubt that the money goes further, and effects more, than under the old system.
The Coddington school-house has been remodeled during the past year in such a manner as to furnish very satisfactory accommodations to all attending it. The expense of the altera- tion, and of certain necessary repairs of the interior, consumed the appropriation, and trenched a little upon our incidental fund. The result has been one of the pleasantest and most convenient school-houses in the town.
It will be seen by the detailed accounts submitted herewith that our expenses have almost exactly covered the appropria-
118
tion. We shall not find it necessary to ask for any extraordi- nary outlay this year. The necessity of renovating and bright- ening up some of the older school-rooms will require a slightly increased supply for incidental expenses ; but, with one excep- tion, no considerable item of unusual expenditure is contem- plated. The single exception is the appropriation of five hun- dred dollars to purchase reading-books for general use, which is recommended in the report of the Superintendent and heartily supported by us. We deem the suggestion of great value, and earnestly urge its adoption. We would also bespeak the careful attention of all citizens interested in school affairs to the report of the Superintendent transmitted herewith. There may be found a detailed relation of just what has been done during the year, and many very wise and judicious remarks upon the general theory and practice of elementary education.
Your Committee think that they shall require for the uses and support of the schools for the ensuing school year the following sums : -
For teachers, fuel, and care of rooms, $25,500
Incidental expenses and repairs, 3,200
Transportation of scholars, 800
Purchase of books,
500
Superintendent of schools,
2,000
$32,000
J. Q. ADAMS, JAMES H. SLADE, WILLIAM B. DUGGAN,
EDWIN W. MARSH,
CHARLES L. BADGER,
CHARLES F. ADAMS, JR.
REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT.
To the School Committee of Quincy : -
In conformity with your instructions I respectfully submit the following as my Second Annual Report.
ATTENDANCE.
The active measures taken during the past year to increase the percentage of attendance have been quite successful. By reference to the table appended, it will be seen that the aver- age daily attendance is g5 per cent. Monthly reports have afforded means of comparison and stimulated active exertions in the several schools to attain a high per cent. These reports have been published in "The Quincy Patriot." Interesting pupils in all that pertains to school has been the most efficient means of lessening the great evil of non-attendance. Most if not all the dislike for school has been removed by good teaching and proper treatment. It is not wise to press this matter too far ; due allowance should be made for sickness, and other unavoidable reason for detention at home. What we wish to accomplish is to prevent all trivial excuses for ab- sence, - to make pupils feel the importance of a single day in school.
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