USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Saugus > Town annual report of Saugus 1923 > Part 7
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Saugus High is classed as a grade A High School by the state department of education. This classification permits us to certi- ficate to a State Normal School any graduates in subjects in which they have a mark of A or B plus.
The above facts convinces me that any pupil who attends Saugus High School and puts in the good hard study that he should in his school work, will be able to gain entrance to any college or Normal School he wishes, and do successful work there.
During the month of March (1923) the Dearborn Group Intelligence Examinations were given to all pupils in the seventh and eighth grades. These examinations assist us in determining the ability of a pupil to do school work and by means of the examination the pupils in the seventh and eighth grades have been regraded so that they make up groups of equal ability and in this way no pupil is overworked. This should enable all pupils in the seventh and eight grades to do better school work.
It is a big problem for pupils entering upon the work of the Senior High to decide just what course of study they should take. We gave to each pupil in the eighth grade during the month of May, 1923, a questionnaire consisting of nineteen questions to assist the teachers in guiding the pupils in their home rooms to select courses of study in the Senior High that they would be best fitted to pursue.
It has been the custom in the past of requiring all Seniors, Juniors and Sophomores to take the same type of work in
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English regardless of whether they were going to college or planning to take up a commercial occupation. This method is not right because it does not properly fit each group for the work that they plan to take up. We have in our English work for Senior year separated the students into three groups, the college, the commercial and the general groups. Therefore, the pupils that are on the college course are taking work which will best fit them to enter college and likewise the pupils of the General and Commercial courses are given work in English that will best fit them to enter their respective fields. Our plan for next year is to separate the English work of grades nine, ten and eleven as we have that of grade twelve of this year.
Athletics at the High School has not been neglected during the past year. During the fall of 1923 the football team played nine games winning three, tied three and losing three. The plan this year in Athletics has been to get as many students as possible to enter into the sports, and to develop in each student high ideals of sportsmanship and fair play. To properly carry on physical exercise in the High School as it should be, a gymnasium of some sort should be provided. The basement of our present High School is not safe or suitable for physical exercise or games of any sort.
For improvements I would suggest the following : In Manual Training each pupil should be expected to pay for whatever lum- ber he uses in making articles that he himself would own after completion. If any pupil did not wish to pay for lumber that he finds necessary to use in his work in Manual ยท Training, he would be allowed to work on articles that the Manual Training Depart- ment finds necessary to make throughout the school year for the different schools in town.
The above plan is in use in Wakefield, Malden, and Everett and has proved very successful in that it saves money for the town, as well as teaching the pupils economy and care in the construction of whatever articles they are to make in their year's work in Manual Training.
Our present sewing room is not large enough to handle the number of pupils that are required to take sewing each period. Our Commercial Department also is overcrowded in its present quarters. The ninth grade is composed of 154 pupils ; 60 of these are taking the Commercial Course. Therefore, in order to increase the accommodations in the Commercial and Sewing rooms, I would recommend the following changes in the Senior High : That the pupils' desks in Room 5 be removed and this
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room used as a Typewriting Room, and that the present Type- writing. Room be used as a Sewing Room, and our present Sew. ing Room to be used by the Commercial Department to keep Commercial Office Appliances and Supplies. This would re- lieve both the Sewing and Commercial Department of the pres- ent crowded condition.
As the student body of the Saugus High School is increasing each year we find it necessary to increase our Lunch Room facil- ities and therefore our present Domestic Science Department is not adequate for the number of students that wish to take up Domestic Science. There should be some means provided for an expansion in this department.
After investigating conditions in surrounding schools I find without exception that the Principal has a paid office girl to assist him in the clerical work that it is now necessary to do in the management of the High School. Wakefield with a student body of 615 has a paid office clerk. Reading with a student body of 450 has a paid office clerk besides commercial girls who also assist in the office. Winchester with a student body of 435 has a paid office clerk, also a commercial student who assists. I could go on and name many other schools with a far less enroll- ment than we have at Saugus High School, all of which employ a paid office clerk to assist the Principal in the routine work that is now necessary in the proper management of a secondary school today. It is absolutely impossible for any principal to properly supervise the teaching, attend to discipline, and the clerical work that must be done in a school the size of Saugus High School (774 pupils). How many business enterprises to-day, factories or otherwise, which employ between 700 and 800 hands would think it a business proposition for the manager or the superintendent of the plant to have the entire clerical duties to perform. The average person has no idea of the amount of office work that must be performed in the average High School Principal's office. There are reports that must be sent in to the Educational Department of Washington, the Educational De- partment at Boston and to the Superintendent of Schools of our own town, along with the records of all pupils that are attending or have ever attended Saugus High School. A record of all books: and supplies the High School receives, the dealing out of supplies to teachers. At present we are printing nearly all forms we use at the High School such as,- tardy slips, dismissal slips, permission to leave the room slips, teachers' monthly report blanks, monthly attendance blanks and other blanks that we find
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1923]
necessary to use in the proper management of the High School. The paid office girl would be able to look out for all the routine work of the office, leaving the general supervision and improve- ment of teaching for the Principal. Supervision and improve- ment of teaching is necessary because at Saugus High School last June we had only two teachers in the school who had been here four years, or as long as the graduates of last year. You will see by this that the teaching staff is constantly changing and in order to keep the standard of the school as high as possible means a great deal of work on the part of the Principal. We were extremely fortunate in the past year in that we lost only six teachers from the Junior and Senior High School, while the previous year we lost fifteen and it is probable with the added experience that many of the teachers have received in Saugus that they will secure positions elsewhere next year.
From my observation during the past year it seems to me that the spirit of the school is constantly improving. The teachers are all working hard to assist in improving the standard of our High School, and in order to show you that they are interested in the teaching profession I will state the following : out of the 35 teachers now employed in Saugus High School 15 of them are taking educational courses at Boston University, Harvard College, or taking tutoring lessons from private teachers.
In closing, I wish to thank the parents, the teachers, the School Committee, and you, Mr. Lambert, for your faithful sup- port on all school problems for the past year.
Respectfully submitted. ROBERT R. WEBBER, Principal of High School.
Report of Director of High School Music Mr. Jesse W. Lambert, Superintendent of Schools, Saugus, Mass.
DEAR MR. LAMBERT .- I submit herewith my report of music for the school year 1922-23 and for the Fall term of the present school year. Much organization and reorganization was found necessary at the beginning of the year 1922-23 in both the Junior and Senior High Schools.
THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL
Due to many conflicts, it was found impossible during last year to arrange for more than one period a week in each room of the
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seventh and eighth grades, and one period a week for each grade as a whole to gather in the Assembly Hall for ensemble work. In spite, however, of time handicaps, much good work was accom- plished in reviewing past tonal and theoretical problems, and in presenting measure construction in simple and compound time, key construction, and other harmonic problems. A regular test of individual ability was given ; and a carerul grading of voices resulted in fine tone production.
During the year a series of psychological music tests (devised by Prof. Seashore of the University of Iowa, and presented by means of talking-machine records) was given to all pupils in the school, and a careful survey made of the musical talent in the. school. The records used in this test (called "Measure of Musical Talent") are as follows :
"Measure of the Sense of Pitch."
"Measure of the Sense of Time." Measure of the Sense of Intensity."
"Measure of the Sense of Consonance."
"Measure of Tonal Memory."
As a result of these tests, certain apparently unmusical pupils were discovered to have latent ability in music, and much valu- able data is in my possession.
Ensemble singing in each grade was spirited, interesting and progressive. Careful attention was given to instruction in all phases of choral practice ; fine shadings, varying tempi and rhythms. The ninth grade (properly considered in this section) had only the ensemble singing for two twenty minute periods a week. Pupils in this grade were allowed to try for membership in the Glee Club, and several were chosen last year and this.
A Junior High School Orchestra was formed last year, which rehearsed once a week with good results, notwithstanding small numbers, and not too long acquaintance with the instruments played. Late last year and again this year this group was combined with the Senior Orchestra with mutual benefit.
Last year, one room in the seventh grade sang at a meeting of the Roby Parent Teachers' Association. This year I thought it advisable to have each room in the seventh and eighth grades give a concert, to which the parents and friends of the pupils would be invited. Two such concerts have already been given with splendid success, and more are planned for the near future. The principal object in such a series is to give those who are studying piano, violin, reading, etc., an opportunity to perform in public, and also to give the zest of preparation for a definite purpose.
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I should like to emphasize the great importance of more time for music ; time for each home-room teacher to devote at least a few minutes each day to teaching music under the supervision of the Director ; time for the Director to teach something of the un- derstanding and appreciation of the finest music.
THE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
Elective chorus singing was given last year to a group of ap- proximately 250 for three twenty-minute periods a week. The essentials of good ensemble singing were carefully emphasized, and the performance of this really unweildly number of young people was a revelation. No one could doubt that they love to sing, and that they enjoy good music, properly presented. Their spirit was splendid, and their attitude, generally speaking, above reproach.
Late last year a group of singers was carefully chosen to form a Glee Club. After a period of rehearsing, an excellent concert, with good assisting artists, was given ; and a second, still better, during the last few weeks of school. In addition to a real artistic success, a fund for music was established from the profits of the two concerts, which amounts to nearly $100.00.
At the beginning of this year, a still more careful testing of voices resulted in a Club with a membership of 40 to 50 voices, all of fine quality. During December, the Club sang at the Out- look Club, Lynn, and at the Hospital for Disabled Soldiers, Danvers. In prospect, the Club is engaged to broadcast a pro- gram for the radio station at Medford Hillside ; and a concert of their own at High School Hall is planned for the near future.
The Senior Orchestra has this year a membership of about twenty. There is little variety in the kind of instruments played ; nevertheless, the character of their work is constantly improving.
A lecture course in Music Appreciation was given last year to a class of forty-illustrated by talking-machine records, vocal, and piano solos. Form in music ; history of music ; and a defi- nite study of symphonic music was taken up and three sym- phonys studied in detail-namely :
"Surprise" Symphony Haydn "Jupiter" Symphony Mozart
Fifth Symphony . . Beethoven
Regretfully I report that the lack of recitation rooms makes a continuation of this course impossible during the current year.
A course in Elementary Harmony was undertaken with a class
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of eight. Study in harmonizing basses and melodies was taken up with excellent results. This course and the course in Music Appreciation were practically of college grade. The. course in Harmony could not be repeated this year, owing to lack of rooms.
SUGGESTIONS
I recommend : -
I. That credit for outside music study be given careful thought.
2. That the matter of purchasing and loaning to pupils under bond various orchestral instruments be investigated by the School Board and Superintendent, in conjunction with the Director of Music.
3. The investigation of class instruction in piano, voice, or on any orchestral instrument, at a nominal figure.
4. The permanent enlargement of the stage at the High School ; and that a series of elevations be made in sections for seat- ing a group of people on the stage.
In closing, I wish to express my appreciation of the fine co-operation from you, sir ; from Mr. Webber, Principal, and all the teachers of the Junior and Senior High Schools ; and from the pupils themselves. Only so could such a year of accomplish- ment be recorded here.
Respectfully submitted, C. FRANCIS WOODS, Director of Music, Saugus High School.
Report of Household Arts Department
Mr. J. W. Lambert, Superintendent of Schools, Saugus, Mass. :
The work of the Domestic Science Department started on September 10th in the Sewing Department and on September 17th in the Cooking Department. The work is divided as follows :
Elementary Sewing-Grades 7-8.
Cooking-Grades 9-10 (elective).
Dressmaking-Elective for High School.
Foods and Household Arts-(including some cookery) also elective.
The work in elementary sewing is divided into four projects ; Grade seven makes first a duster, then a ribbon sewing case, third an apron and fourth a simple cotton dress. This gives a foundation
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1923]
in simple hand sewing and teaches them to run the sewing machine. Grade eight makes its cooking aprons and caps for use the following year, one piece of underwear and a simple cotton dress.
The work of the cooking department is greatly hampered by lack of room and the fact that up to the present time (since the beginning of the department) no individual or class instruction in cookery has ever been included as part of the school curriculum. Now, however, the program of every girl taking Cooking or Household Arts, has been revised, so that for the remainder of the year she will be given intensive training in practical home cookery.
In spite of unsatisfactory working conditions, the school lunch is running on a paying basis.
A separate menu for teachers and pupils is served every day.
A sample menu, with prices, is given :
TEACHERS
LUNCH COUNTER
Hamburg steak cakes .05
Corn chowder 05
Mashed potato
.05
Tuna fish salad sandwich . .03
Crab salad sandwich .06
Ice cream cones .05
Coffee, tea or milk
.05
Milk or cocoa
.03
Cookies
.0I
Cookies
.OI
Desserts .05 and . 10
Total receipts from Sept 1923 to Jan. 1924, $660 39 Total payments from Sept. 1923 to Jan. 1924, 596 26
Profit
$64 13
No department in the school is more hampered by the present crowded conditions than the Domestic Science Department.
The sewing room is much too small for its classes. In some instances thirty-three pupils are crowded into a room that accom- modates sixteen comfortably. There are three machines to be divided among thirty-three pupils at a time. The light which for sewing should come from the back and left of a pupil, is directly in front of most, which will result finally in eye strain.
The cooking laboratory is well suited for lunch room work but is not adequate for cooking classes. Much better results from the work could be accomplished if the department had larger quarters.
Respectfully submitted,
EMILY S. WOODBURY.
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Report of Manual Training Department
SAUGUS, MASS., Jan. 7, 1924.
Mr. Jesse W. Lambert, Superintendent of Schools :
I herewith have the honor to present to you my 6th annual re- port of Instructor of Manual Training.
This department of our school opened the same as the other departments, September 6th, with an enrollment of 171 pupils ; 139 from the Central Junior High, and 32 from the Roby. Ow- ing to the increase of pupils in the grades this year it was impos- sible to give the pupils of the Senior High a chance to take this course.
On account of the distance and the time lost going and coming, it was deemed advisable to drop Manual Training in the Ballard Junior High this year. An opportunity will be given them to take the subject when they enter the Senior High next year.
There has not been any changes in the course of study with the exception of a few new models which always adds to the interest of the pupils. So far quite a lot of outside work has been done. Four drawing tables, one file cabinet were made for the drawing department, besides making T squares, drawing boards, etc. A set of shelves were put up for the Mansfield School. We are now making ten telephone boxes for the Police Department (these to be placed in different parts of the town) and the other small jobs too numerous to mention.
The exhibition was held the last week of the school year, which. was well attended and every one seemed pleased with the work done.
Nothing new in the way of equipment has been added since I have been here except a jig saw, and it seems to me that any school is not properly equipped without some machinery for metal work. At this time I would like to recommend that the town purchase one or two machinist lathes and one speed drill.
This department seems to be running smoothly, very little complaint in passing to and from the High School. At this time I want to commend the Principal of the High School for his co-' operation and splendid support, not once this year have we had an occasion to send a pupil to the office of the Superintendent.
Thanking you for your loyalty to this department.
Respectfully submitted,
N. B. CORTHELL, Instructor.
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1923]
. Report of Supervising Principal of Armitage, Ballard and Lincoln Schools.
Mr. J. W. Lambert, Superintendent of Schools, Saugus :
DEAR SIR,-A report of the Armitage, Ballard, Lincoln supervisory principalship for the year ending December, 1923, is herewith appended.
"The most important step in the educational progress of today is the opening up of that field of educational activity known as supervision, making a definite separation of the supervising duties of the principal, in the past, largely confined to classroom teaching and routine administration." This statement was made at the Harvard Summer School in July, 1923, by a leading pro- fessor, author of textbooks, and a former Massachusetts Normal school principal.
"In this new field," he continued, "the functions of supervision are the improvement of instruction, the encouragement of good work, and the constructive elimination of ineffective efforts and misapplied energy. Expert supervision should lead teachers to a broad vision of teaching problems, to a still wider range of experience, so that the work of one grade may be seen in rela- tion to that of other grades, to an understanding of needed revisions, of necessary growth, and of the final outcomes of instruction."
With the foregoing in mind, it would appear that Saugus is in line with the most recent educational development, the Armitage, Ballard, Lincoln, supervisory principalship having been esta- blished in June, an innovation which became operative in the following September.
In the local work, necessarily experimental to some degree, the supervisor believes that the outstanding features characteriz- ing the accomplishment of the past four months, are the uniform- ity of procedure followed, revised study outlines, teacher confer- ences, and a general strengthening of the esprit d'corps. In addition, frequent transfers of books not in use in one school to another where they are needed, have resulted in a saving of considerable expense to the town.
With the opening of the school year, improved outlines in geography, English, and reading and spelling were placed in the hands of teachers, with a specified time limit for completing the work. The former course of study was planned for the new Frye geography recently introduced, no outline having been available since the Tarr and McMurray books were in use. The
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spelling lists, composed of only practical words, were based upon the surveys of Doctor Ayres of the Russell Sage Foundation, . Dr. Jones, and other experts. These are graded, and are sup- plemented by words selected from English, geography, and history. The Junior High English outline was also modified, and the thoroughly practical aims which will promote ease, flu- ency, enjoyment, and accuracy in oral speech and written com- position were added.
Recognizing the value of love and appreciation of poetry, a list of standard poems for all grades was prepared, so that by the time a boy or girl leaves school, a familiarity with some of the literary masterpieces will have been gained, and the poetry habit to some extent acquired. The study of eighth grade history has received an impetus through the adoption of a project-problem laboratory method which has resulted in an increased interest and appreciation. This plan is a slight modification of the renowned Dalton method now so generally in use, and which has its incep- tion in our own state.
As a means of bringing about a more gradual transition from the grades to the Junior High school, a gap which has occa- sioned more or less concern, departmental work was inaugurated in the fourth-fifth and sixth grades of the new Armitage school. This arrangement has apparently worked out well, familiarizing the pupils with the teaching of other than their home-room teacher, at the same time affording to these teachers additional opportunity for specialization.
The activities in this school have progressed most harmoni- ously, and with good teaching, a model building, and much con- scientious effort, the functions of successful instruction, as well as the morale of the school have steadily advanced.
Work in the Ballard Junior High school has progressed this past year with the least friction since my administration four years ago. A strong and willing corp of teachers, and a student body for the greater part striving to acquire the most it can from the instruction given, have worked co-operatively and harmoni- ously. The purchase of a stereopticon and a set of reference books have been among the assets acquired which have contri- buted to the effectiveness of the teaching. If the entire building, grades five and six inclusive, could be conducted on the same time basis as the upper grades, one of the existing problems would be eliminated for the dismissal and reassembling of pupils cannot be accomplished without some interruption to the classes then engaged in serious study.
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As transfers of textbooks were made from the Ballard school, the opening of a seventh grade in the Lincoln school was accom- plished at a minimum expense. With a teacher giving her entire time to her class, this plan is commended for its sympathetic contacts which cannot be but far-reaching in their results.
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