USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Quincy > Town annual report of Quincy 1888-1889 > Part 14
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But we may find something more than evidence of sound judgment in these reports. It may not be surprising that men disciplined by the management of extensive private interests, and accustomed to responsibilities in other departments of public affairs, should display wisdom in their management of schools. Nor would it appear surprising if such men should yield ready assent to educational principles if brought to their notice by persons who had made a special study of the history, science, and art of education. But while these committee-men made no claim to being educators, but were doctors, lawyers, ministers, business men, it is with some surprise that we find them occasion- ally enunciating the soundest educational principles, with a con- viction as positive as though their lives had been given to a study of pedagogy. Such utterances as the following illustrate my meaning : -
" No system of public teaching can prosper without the active and earnest co-operation of parents and friends. Any other than a good instructor is dear at the lowest price ; a town is better off to be without him.
" In every civilized society, strong minds will from time to time appear, which. with suitable opportunities for development, become instruments of good to their own and perhaps even later generations. Such minds should not be suffered to rust or decay from the want of means at hand to improve them. This town owes it to her former character to keep up with the progress of the age. She is bound to advance as fast in mental improvement as she does in the strength of numbers, to increase in intellectual and moral as well as in pecuniary resources."
Of arithmetic : -
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" As the value of this study, whether for use or discipline, depends upon the clearness, accuracy, and thoroughness with which it is learned, every principle should be so perfectly understood as to be readily applied to examples selected or made up by the teacher, differing from those in the text-books. All the fundamental principles of arithmetic should be so thoroughly mastered, that the scholar can apply them, not only with unerring certainty, but with the rapidity of thought itself. Merchants and bankers demand for accountants ready reckoners. Our schools ought to produce them, not as mere exceptionals, but in the main.
" To remedy, in part at least, what we conceive to be defects in the present system of teaching this branch of study, we venture the fol- lowing suggestions, not by any means as a perfect system, but as an aid to better results : -
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"(1.) Let the system be taught and learned from principles, and not from rules : the former teach to think, the latter only to repeat. If the scholar understands the principles, he needs no rule. If he does not understand the principle, the rule is nearly worthless to him. Scholars should not be required to explain their processes by the formulæ as laid down in the text-books, but should be allowed to. explain them in their own language, especially after those processes are well understood and made familiar by practice.
"(2. ) No time should be spent - wasted - in preparation for what is- termed brilliant or showy recitations. Too much time is often wasted, not only in learning to repeat rules, but also in performing examples contained in the books. As ciphering in itself is a mere mechanical process, imparting no real discipline, no time should be wasted in this after enough examples have been performed to illustrate and teach the given principle.
" (3.) No one branch in the whole routine of common-school educa- tion should be taught more independently of text-books than arith- metic. We do not mean by this to discard the use of text-books altogether. They have their appropriate spheres of usefulness. The fault is, they are too much and too frequently relied upon by teachers as the chief means, instead of the mere adjuncts, of teaching. They are the mere artificial machinery, which, without the aid of skilful operation, will invariably produce imperfect results, - the mere skeleton, which it is the province of the teacher to animate with life.
" (4.) The teacher, in presenting his subject to his pupils, should not only be possessed of a perfect knowledge of the subject himself, but should be so thoroughly armed with illustrations and examples as. to enable him to impart in the clearest manner that perfect knowledge to others. He should never pass from one subject to another until the former is well and thoroughly mastered. By pursuing the above methods we confidently predict that far better results will be attained with great saving of time."
These illustrations might be multiplied, but as I propose to cite samples in other connections further on, I refrain from adding to the number here.
In order that a school committee may be highly efficient, it must be somewhat in advance of public or popular opinion, and it must dare to assume responsibility. If school officials merely reflect the prevailing opinion of the community which they serve, where shall we find that force which is needed to carry promptly onward and upward the interests of education ? While they should not be so far in advance as to be set down as impracticable visionaries, it is beyond dispute that they should fashion and guide public opinion, neither loitering along with it, nor dallying until forced into action by it. Many par- agraphs might be chosen from the reports of which I speak,
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indicating that the school boards of Quincy have been well up to their duties as leaders of educational thought, and some of them I shall have occasion to quote presently. A school board that dare not assume such responsibility as events prop- erly throw upon it is likely to be a useless affair. I choose a single example from the report of 1855, as indicating a manly independence which has been repeatedly displayed. It became clear to the committee of that time that an assistant should be employed in the High School, and they say in their annual re- port : -
" Yet no provision whatever for such a contingency has been made in the estimates for the annual expense of the schools presented by the committee of last year, and it was not likely that they should be able to meet it out of their funds without the risk of overrunning the appropriation. Here was a dilemma. On the one side was the dan- ger of injury to the discipline and habits of study of the children, whom the parents had sent in the expectation of having them as well cared for as ever ; on the other the necessity of incurring some re- sponsibility for exceeding the annual appropriation made for support of schools. . . . After mature consultation, the committee did not hesi- tate as to which branch of the alternative to adopt. They decided to keep up the school at least as high as its former grade, by endeavor- ing to secure aid for the remainder of the year."
When school committees have sufficient courage underlying their convictions to induce such results as have just been indi- cated, a considerable amount of plain speaking is necessary, and evidence is at hand that your predecessors in office were equal to the necessity. One of the carly reports remarks of a certain school district that -
" A portion of the parents show some disposition to co-operate with the teachers."
Of another : -
" The scholars, many of them, manifest indifference rather than want of knowledge. Wherever this symptom is perceptible, the cause must be looked for at home rather than in the school-room. It is earnestly to be desired, for the sake of the children, that a better spirit may be awakened in the district, a more ardent sympathy with the efforts of the teachers, and that the results of the next year may fully make up for what may have been wanting in this." " Germantown has often been a prolific source of vexation to former committees. The school there has been curiously bad, etc." " Parents, we fear, are but little aware of the ceaseless care and anxiety of our teachers. Theirs is too often a thankless and obsenre toil. If they happen to
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punish unduly, or otherwise offend the pride and sensibility of a child, then the parents are swift to resent and censure ; but they seldom utter words of thanks and praise, or even of appreciation, for long weeks and months of anxiety and untiring efforts for the instruction and improvement of their children. There is a most unaccountable indifference to the schools among our people. Occasionally a mother or sister of some of the pupils visits them, but never or very seldom fathers. Nor do the citizens generally seem to appreciate their great importance to society and to a free government."
" Many boys and girls leave our schools every year, it is feared, who cannot write a letter in a clear, legible handwriting, and which shall be free from errors in punctuation, spelling, and grammar."
" The attention of your committee was arrested by the imperfection manifested by many of the candidates for admission into the High School at the beginning of the school year. The faults were so general that we feel ourselves justified in making this sweeping re- mark."
" Speaking generally, we must say that the spelling in our schools is bad."
There seems to be no good objection to the above and many similar extracts which might be made, but in the earlier reports may be found a great amount of plain speaking in regard to teachers, of which we cannot say as much. It was the custom of the time to take up teachers in turn, and dissect them either for their own good or the edification of the public. Witness the following : -
" At the first visitation, the scholars were found huddled in a cor- ner of the Lyceum room, in the Town Hall, as usual, ill assorted and ill disciplined, the larger ones very backward, the smaller quite noisy."
" Miss A- was succeeded by Mr. B-, who, having tried in vain to exert the desired influence over the school, has been in turn displaced by Miss C- ; but as no change for the better appeared after a reasonable trial, she withdrew from the situation, and the com- mittee have very recently appointed Mr. D- with the hope that something may be done to arrest the impending disorganization of the school." . .
. " Miss M-resigned after teaching a few weeks, and was succeeded by Miss N-, who was obliged to con- tend with a few refractory boys, and they gave her great uneasiness and trouble, and much impeded the prosperity of the school. The committee on visiting the school addressed some plain admonitions to the pupils, upon the unsatisfactory condition of the school, and their remarks, in connection with the untiring efforts of Miss N-, pro- duced a marked improvement in its appearance and character."
" The committee are sorry to be obliged to make any remarks tending to reflect upon the condition of any school, but it is their duty to make a detailed report of the condition of the several public
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schools to the town; to bestow approbation where it is merited, and to point out, in a friendly manner, such imperfections as come under their notice. In Miss R-'s room stricter discipline should be en- forced, so that order, Heaven's first law, should be established as a vital step to success."
" Miss N -- seemed at one time to be less energetic than formerly, but nothing of the kind is now apparent."
" Miss O- did not satisfy the requirements of the committee. Her school was ordinary, and did not improve. She was, therefore, discharged, and Miss B- was installed in her place."
These last extracts are fairly characteristic of the reports down to 1862. In that year, however, a decided change appears. The committee of that year use the following lan- guage : -
" We shall make no personal criticism of the teachers. We see no necessity for such criticism ; and we feel that much injustice might be done them from our own imperfect knowledge of their schools. If a teacher is unfit for his place, it is the duty of the committee to remove him ; if his merits overweigh his faults, the committee should counsel and advise with him in private. It serves no good to parade, in a public report, the faults and foibles, or alleged faults and foibles, of a teacher, or to give a semi-judicial opinion of condemnation of his character. The critic himself cannot always feel sure that he has made due allowance for the thousand and one causes which co-operate to make the school what it is. He may not be fresh in the studies pursued in the school, or the modes and methods of teaching and disciplining the pupils. He may not have seen the school in all its phases. He may have dropped in when the school was in a bad mood, and things were all awry. He may have gone into the school when it was at its best estate. Sometimes school committees have some fond notions of their own - whims, crotchets, puzzles, or con- ceits - with which they seek to gauge and measure the schools. Then there is the liability to do injustice by speaking of the several teachers personally, from fear, favor, or affection, not to mention re- sentment at some real or fancied indignity."
These views seem to have commended themselves to suc- ceeding committees, for in subsequent reports we find an almost entire absence of personal criticism of teachers. The report of 1864 uses the following language : -
"We shall not in this report individually criticise teachers or schools. Such personal criticism was, at one time, quite customary. It is fast becoming, however, a custom more honored in the breach than in the observance, and is beginning to receive in various quar- ters the condemnation it deserves. . . . A committee's cure for
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incompetent teachers is not complaint but removal, and the town's cure for the failure of a committee to do their duty in this respect is the election of new and more faithful committee-men."
The report of 1870, the following : -
" We do not deem it our duty, nor this the time or place to deal in strictly personal criticisms as to the methods of instruction adopted by our several teachers, or their capacities to govern their respective schools. We think that duty should be discharged in a more private manner, in perfect freedom and candor, as becomes the official con- nection between teachers and committee, and that it only becomes us to offer such a detailed report as shall give the voters of the town 'a good and fair understanding of the general condition of the schools under our charge, and the manner in which their appropriations have been expended, in order that they may be enabled to act promptly and understandingly upon all questions relating to the schools of the town."
A comparison of the first and last of the reports under con- sideration affords a distinct knowledge of the growth of the school system of the town. In 1851 there existed primary schools in the West, South, Centre, and Point districts ; inter- mediate schools in the West, South, and Centre ; grammar schools in the West, South, Centre, and Point districts ; dis- trict schools in the East and North districts. These thirteen schools, taught by as many teachers, cannot be said to have answered the needs of the town, for the report states that an equal division of all the pupils would have assigned eighty to a teacher. It may be of interest to notice that only six weeks of the year were allotted to vacations, and that pupils were graded solely by age, not at all by qualifications. At the age of seven, every child was alloted to enter the intermediate school, and at the age of ten to enter the grammar. The report of 1888 shows that the number of teachers had risen to sixty, and that similar increase had taken place in number of school-rooms, number of pupils, and amount of money expended.
We cannot read this series of reports without observing annually-recurring statements of certain pressing needs of the schools. Take for example the number of pupils which may wisely be assigned to a teacher. Year after year we find committees reporting that no more than forty or forty-five should be put in charge of one teacher, and the report of 1875 even goes further, for there we may read : -
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" Certainly we should be glad to see one teacher assigned to every twenty-five pupils, instead of one to every forty, upon an average, as we now have."
While such were the opinions of those intrusted with the management of the schools, I quote from several of the reports to show what was the actual condition of affairs.
Of two grammar schools : -
" The whole number belonging to the school is one hundred twelve ; the average attendance is seventy-nine " ;
and
" The whole number belonging to the school is ninety-three ; the average attendance is eighty-four."
As recently as 1862 we may read : -
" We have had primary schools during the last year of a hundred pupils."
Can we much wonder that the committee add : -
" While a pupil in a primary school is reciting, very few of his class- mates are so attentive as to derive any material benefit from instruc- tion given to him; while all the others not in his class reciting are idle, sleeping, or playing " ?
Instead of multiplying instances of this kind, as might readily be done, let us turn to the matter of adequate accom- modations for pupils. From 1851 to the present day there has been an almost constant cry for more and better school- rooms. I choose one or two illustrations only : -
" In the West district it has been found necessary to exclude some from the primary school, they not being quite of the age of five years, and nevertheless, ninety or more children have been, during the past summer, cooped up in a small, ill-ventilated apartment, not exceeding twenty-nine feet long by thirteen wide, and four children have been pressed into every seat, four feet long, allowing twelve inches of space to each child."
"For a large portion of the year the school in the South district, . under the charge of Miss W-, containing a hundred scholars, with an average attendance of seventy, was crowded into a small room scarcely fit for half the number."
"At present the basement rooms of the Coddington and Willard school buildings are occupied by two primary schools. These rooms are unsuitable for such nses. They are low, dark, damp, and with- out adequate means of ventilatiom. To introduce pure air, the teachers are obliged to open the windows or doors, and thereby the
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children are exposed to draughts of air ; that is, to colds, headaches, fevers, and a variety of disorders. It is far better to let in the air in this way, however, than to compel the children to breathe the foul and poisonous atmosphere generated in these low, stifled rooms by the lungs of some sixty or eighty children. Half that number of men confined in those rooms for any length of time would die. No, no, this is a mistake. They would not submit to such oppression."
Nine years later : -
"There are two schools, one in the West, the other in the Centre, where the education of the children commences down cellar, which certainly is not a fit place for babies !"
Here we have a striking illustration of a fact which is sub- stantiated by the whole body of reports, viz., that an urgent demand for more adequate accommodations has been steadily in advance of their supply ; that abuses have been pointed out, and yet years have elapsed before the remedy was forthcom- ing. The former of these propositions is true to-day, and may well be recalled, when, later in this report, I revert to our present need of more school-rooms.
Our present school organization is highly efficient and eco -. nomical in form. We have pupils gathered at a few centres in large numbers and carefully classified. It is interesting to trace the gradual evolution which has resulted in giving the town such organization. In this and other instances, we shall find first a mere hint of the advantage which would result from taking a certain step; other suggestions follow; then come more positive recommendations, and finally some succeeding board puts its shoulder to the wheel, as it were, and the recommendation becomes an accomplished fact. To illus- trate : In 1854, the committee, speaking of the poor attend- ance upon the schools, say :-
"In the smallest one at Germantown, the absence became so gen- eral during a part of last summer that the teacher found himself almost alone, became discouraged and departed. It is very much to be regretted that the great distance from the other parts of the town prevents the children in Germantown from profiting by the better instruction which would be there obtained, and at much less relative cost to the town than is now incurred."
In 1857 the committee say of the same school : -
" It is the smallest school in the town, and labors under the disad- vantage of the absence of that emulation which only members of the same age and grade of acquirement can give."
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In 1860 come the general statements that
" the advantages of complete classification outweigh considerations of convenience in location,"
and that
" the mixed schools seldom attain the same excellence as the graded schools, and they are more difficult to manage."
Ten years elapse, and in the report for 1870 we read : -
" But since the recent act of the Legislature, authorizing towns to convey pupils, at the public charge, from one section of the town to another, the pupils of the Crane School may be so conveyed to the Point at a comparatively small expense, and thus one school be discon- tinued, except, perhaps, in the most inclement seasons, and, at the same time, give the members of the Crane and Washington Schools the benefits of graded departments."
In the paragraph devoted to the Crane School in the same report, the committee say : -
" We cannot close our report of this school without making the suggestion that, in the opinion of your committee, its members, at this time numbering but eighteen, would be greatly benefited by being placed in the nearest graded schools, where their energies will be quickened by laudable emulation, and their habit of thought and study improved by close contact with other minds."
The report of 1872 emphasizes anew the advantages of classification, while that of 1873 says : -
" There is one plan which the town ought never again to pursue ; and that is, to fix small mixed schools in isolated positions, merely for the sake of some local convenience. Such schools are never satisfac- tory ; and it is far better to allow the committee to transport a few of the most remote and youngest pupils in bad weather to a really efficient school than to let them dawdle near home in the sluggish atmosphere of a school in the woods. Experience fastens no convic- tion upon members of this committee so forcibly as the abiding faith that, to have first-rate common schools, you must collect your pupils at a few centres, and then classify them as thoroughly as possible."
We can scarcely fail to notice the increasing positiveness of these several reports, and so we are prepared, in 1875, to find the committee reporting as an accomplished fact the measure which had been kept before the town for so many years. There are many towns in Massachusetts whose committees would be glad to bring about the same measure which has proven
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so beneficial to our schools, and so I quote from the report of 1875 an account of the actual working of the transportation scheme in practical operation : -
" A reference to former reports of the school committee of the town will show that for many years the condition of the little school at . Germantown has been steadily unsatisfactory. Isolated and small, classification was impossible, emulation unfelt, and enthusiasm absurd. Ten pupils ranged from the primer to the proper studies of a high school. The most conscientious teacher soon lost hope and energy in such surroundings. For years committee after committee have striven in vain to afford a remedy. During the past summer the teacher who has been laboring there for a considerable period declared her intention of resigning in despair. The committee, profoundly dis- satisfied with the backwardness and lethargy of the school, were un- able to assign the fault either to the teacher or to the pupils. At the same time it became evident that the school building was unfit for occupation during another winter without extensive repairs. It was indeed shamefully dilapidated, decayed, and dirty. Competent me- chanics, after careful survey, estimated the expense of necessary repairs to be at least five hundred dollars. Besides this extraordinary outlay, the regular expense in salary, care of house, and fuel incurred to maintain this school of ten scholars, was five hundred and sixty dollars a year. And yet this large expense availed those ten scholars but little or nothing. The committee, therefore, determined to try by experiment whether or not at one and the same time in this depart- ment the outlay might be reduced and the returns increased. They ascertained that they could contract for the transportation of all the school children in that school district to the Coddington School for about four hundred and twenty dollars yearly, and they thought it prob- able that when there they would be aroused and stimulated by the transfer to a large graded school.
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