USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Weymouth > Town annual report of Weymouth 1859 > Part 4
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is practiced in our high schools. Of the class, six were per- fect in spelling, and one was perfect in spelling, accentuation, and divisions.
The following scholars were neither absent nor tardy during the year, viz., Isabel W. Curtis, Emma A. Trott, Julia A. Dyor, Jennie Fairbanks, Ella M. Merritt, Andrew S. Gore, and George F. Lindsey.
It is no more than justice to Miss Clapp to say, that in her two years' experience in our schools, she has taken a high rank amongst our most efficient and successful teachers .-
TENTH DISTRICT .- Grammar School .- Summer Term .- Miss Lydia A. Tirrell, teacher. There is much to be commended in this school. The order has been uniformly good, the teach- ing thorough, and the progress of the pupils in their studies, all that could be expected. The teacher has an agreeable tact for securing good government, and evinces much skill in imparting knowledge. It is with pleasure that we are able to speak of her success. At our repeated visits, the recitations have been animated and correct. The exercises at the close of the term were of a character that reflected great credit on the teacher and pupils. Having resigned her situation, much to the regret of the pupils and Committee, for the ensuing term Miss Ursula K. Fletcher, of Claremount, N. H., was elected to take her place. Owing to her especial training for this work, and her large experience, the Committee anticipated a session of signal success. Her affability and correct deport- ment early secured the confidence and good will of the pupils. She had no difficulty in leading them along the path of dis- cipline and study by the cords of affection. Everything per- taining to the school indicated that the scholars were quiet and thoughtful, orderly and diligent; the teacher assiduous and faithful. The examination showed that the teacher had spared no pains in order that she might meet the approbation of the Committee and friends.
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Summer Term .- Eighteen weeks and a fraction. Whole num- ber of scholars, 42. Average attendance, 36.
Winter Term .- Twenty-one weeks. Whole number of schol- ars, 45. Average attendance, 38 and a fraction.
Primary School .- This school has been in charge, for the past year, of Miss M. Augusta Fay. This was her first attempt at teaching, but she has proved herself well qualified for this position. If to succeed under great difficulties deserves great credit, this credit properly belongs to her. As a discipli- narian she is equaled by few, if any; her system of teaching is clear, correct and successful. At the examination she made no attempt at display, neither did she appear desirous of aiding her scholars by asking suggestive questions. In almost every instance the questions were answered promptly. In Arith- metic the classes acquitted themselves nobly ; the reading was good, and in Geography scarcely a question failed of a ready answer.
Summer Term. - Nineteen weeks. Whole number of pupils, 40. Average attendance, 30 and a fraction.
Winter Term .- Twenty-two weeks. Whole number of schol- ars, 36. Average attendance, 26 and a fraction.
ELEVENTH DISTRICT .- Summer Term .- Miss Sarah B. Thomp- son, teacher. Length, twenty weeks. Whole number, 51. Average attendance, 41.
The teacher manifested a desire to succeed. She was thorough in her instruction, and for a time maintained a toler- able degree of order. But gradually she lost the control of the school; and particularly after the summer vacation, there was much disorder in it. Some of the pupils were dutiful and studious. Others manifested but little regard for the teacher and but little interest in study, consequently they made but little progress. The term closed sooner than the teacher anticipated, so that she had but little time for review. On this account allowance was made by the Committee for some of the imperfections of the closing examination.
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Winter Term .- Length, twenty-one weeks. Whole number, 61. Average, 39. Mr. Horace Choate, teacher.
This was his first school. He entered upon his duties with a zeal and energy that betokened success. He labored hard, but successfully, to bring the school into a proper state of order. He aimed at thoroughness in instruction. The school improved greatly under his charge. Some of the scholars made very commendable progress, and showed that they had been thoroughly taught. There were individuals who failed to be interested in their studies, and who consequently accom- plished but little. The school was very seriously interrupted by the measles the latter part of the term. The closing examination gave the Committee much satisfaction. Some of the classes did exceedingly well. The happiest relations existed between teacher and pupils. The Committee regard the school as highly successful, and Mr. Choate as a competent and devoted teacher.
From the foregoing statements it appears that the schools, with few exceptions, have, during the past year, been under efficient management, and that they are, generally, in a pros- perous condition. Still we do not regard them as having reached the highest standard of excellence. They are not what it is desirable they should be; what it is believed they may be, under a different system, and at the same, or even less than their present cost. The Committee find the character of the schools to depend mainly upon the qualifications of the teachers, and that there is a wide difference between teachers in this respect. And, perhaps, there is nothing upon which they differ more than upon the vital point of thoroughness. It is necessary to the highest elevation of our schools that they be taught by those who have been themselves thoroughly taught, and who are thorough in teaching others. Some of our teachers are eminently thorough. It is for the interest of the schools that such be retained.
More would have been accomplished in many of our schools the past year had they not been interrupted by sickness.
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Nearly or quite all in the south part of the town suffered from the measles. In several, the attendance was so much reduced that it was deemed advisable to suspend them for a time.
The want of sympathy and cooperation with the teacher on the part of some parents has proved injurious to several of our schools. If parents understood better the labors, the dif- ficulties, the anxieties of teachers, they would avoid wounding their feelings, trying their patience, and discouraging their efforts, by fault finding and censure. Teachers may, and some- times do, err in judgment, but the evils consequent upon such mistakes are slight in comparison with the injury done by those who make use of them to excite prejudice against the teacher.
A great evil in most of the schools is the large number of classes which, in the present system, it seems necessary to make. It is impossible for a teacher who has twenty or more classes to hear in a day, to give to them such thorough instruc- tion as they need. The only remedy for this evil is a proper grading of the schools. In all cases where it is practicable they should be so constituted that each school shall be com- posed of scholars of nearly the same attainments. If, for instance, there are, within a mile or a mile and a half of a central point, children enough to form four schools, instead of their being divided by territorial lines into four mixed schools, they should be divided according to attainments into four graded schools. The number of classes in each school would thus be reduced three-fourths, and, consequently, each class would receive four times as much instruction as it could have were the school a mixed one. Each grade of pupils would be - benefitted by such an arrangement. Is it not better for a class in algebra, arithmetic, or grammar to be drilled in a recita- tion of forty minutes than of ten ? Will not the child in the spelling book make more rapid progress if he reads twenty minutes a day than if he reads only five ?
It is a mistake to suppose that the tendency of such an arrangement is to degrade a school. The schools in a given district are not degraded but elevated, when all belonging to
57
those schools are placed in the most favorable situation for improvement. And this is done when they are placed in graded schools. If those of widely different attainments are brought together in the same school, the more advanced pupils, generally few in number, will receive more than their propor- tionate share of the teacher's time and attention, to the disad- vantage of the other members of the school. On account of . these few, the school may make a fine appearance when exam- ined, and obtain a high reputation; but is it, as a whole, elevated ? Is it to elevate a school, to keep the greater part from rising? But remove from the school these advanced classes, and place them, with others of similar attainments, in a school by themselves, and both those that remain and those that are removed would be more favorably situated for improvement; and in this way the school, as a whole, would be elevated. The true way to elevate the schools is to grade them. In a mixed school, the higher classes act as weights upon the lower, and the lower as clogs upon the higher; and so they mutually impede each other.
The chief obstacle to a thorough grading of the schools in our town is the district system. On this account, it is desir- able that the district system be abolished. It is desirable also on another account, which is, that all parts of the town may have equal educational advantages. An equal tax is laid upon all the people for the avowed object of affording equal school privileges to all the children in the town. But in the distribution of the public money, more has been allotted to some districts than they were able to expend, while others have not been allowed as much as was needed. For example : In two contiguous districts, the appropriation of last year gave for the school in one district $356, and for each of the three schools in the other, $228 ; consequently it was necessary to close the latter schools at the end of eight, and eight and a half months, while the former was kept ten and a quarter months, without expending all the appropriation. Had the money raised for schools been placed at the disposal of the Town Committee,
8
.
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and had they appropriated it in this manner, withholding from some sections a sufficient portion, and giving to others more than they could use, till a surplus had accumulated in several districts of two, three and six hundred dollars, it would have been deemed an injustice not to be tolerated. Let the district system be abolished, and there will be an end to this unequal distribution of the public money.
Your Committee do not intend in this Report, to present all their reasons for preferring the town to the district system ; but they cannot forbear alluding to one which they consider of great weight. It is the success which has so generally attended the experiment, wherever the town system has been fairly tried. This system has been adopted by 80 or 100 cities and towns in this State, embracing probably more than one-half the population. The Secretary of the Board of Edu- cation says, " Wherever a town has established the municipal system, and adhered to it for two years, there has never within my knowledge been a serious effort in favor of the district system." Doubtless there are individuals in many of these towns who are dissatisfied with the system, and should we hear only such speak of it, we might be led to believe that the majority in the town were opposed to it; but knowing that majorities govern, we consider the fact that the system is still retained, as disproving all such adverse statements.
Some cling to the district system under the idea that it is democratic. But is it genuine democracy, for a district to be under the irresponsible power of one man ? It is true, they create the one man power. But, nevertheless, it is absolute while it lasts ; and should it become despotic, as it may, and sometimes does, there is no help for it. There is no other such irresponsible power in all our government. Would it not be more in harmony with the genius of our republican institu- tions, to have the duties hitherto performed by one man, chosen ordinarily without any reference to his qualifications, entrusted to a body of men chosen with special reference to their quali- fications for the duties to be performed ?
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Your Committee fully agree with the Committee appointed by the town last May, to consider the propriety of abolishing the school district system, before the time at which a then existing statute required its abolition ; who say in their report to the town, signed by every one of the twenty-two members of the Committee, "Your Committee are also of the opinion that the School District system, has, on account of the great increase of population, and other changes in the circumstances of the town, within the last twenty-five years, become detrimental to the interests of education, and tends to hinder what it was designed to promote ; and that it is desirable, acting indepen- dently of the law above referred to, that this system should be abolished at the earliest convenient time."
Your Committee believe that the interests of education in this town would be better promoted by adopting the town than by continuing the district system, and should the change not be made this year, they are confident that it will be at no dis- tant day, that it is only a question of time. But under which- ever system we act, let us endeavor to derive from it its full benefits by giving to it our cheerful, earnest, and united sup- port.
J. P. TERRY,
C. W. MELLEN, E. S. POTTER.
WEYMOUTH, March, 1860.
1
60
School Statistics.
No. of District.
NAMES OF TEACHERS.
No. of persons in the
District bet. 5 & 15.
No. of Scholars at-
tending School.
Average attendance.
No. under 5 Years
No. over 15 Years
of Age.
Term.
Wages of Teachers
per month.
Term.
I.
Miss A. E. Vining,
140
47
39
14
4
10
$19 00
Summer. Summer.
Miss Sarah E. Loud, . Miss J. F. Vining,
-
42
36
3
4
10
32 00
Summer. Winter.
Miss A. E. Vining, .
41
36
1
5
24 00
Winter.
Miss J. F. Vining,
-
41
33
8
5
32 00
Winter.
II.
Miss Eliza French,
54
50
38
2
2
6
5
30 00
Summer.
III.
Miss Marianna Bates, Miss Maria L. Bates, .
264
76
48
20
5
5
14 00
Summer.
Miss Mary C. Cowing, Miss Susan J. F. Pratt,
45
41
1
1
4
5
5
28 00
Summer. Winter.
Miss Maria L. Bates, .
52
44
1
5
7
20 00
Winter. Winter.
Miss Mary C. Cowing, Miss Susan J. F. Pratt,
52
43
5
7
22 00
55
45
6
5
10
32 00
Winter.
IV.
Miss A. M. Webster, . Miss L. W. Johnson, . Miss Mary Proctor, . Miss A. M. Webster, .
113
78
53
Co
6
10
24 00
Summer. Summer. Winter.
V.
Miss Elizabeth T. Torrey, . Miss H. M. Vining, .
130
72
57
2
7
24 00
Summer.
Miss Elizabeth T. Torrcy,".
60
50
3
24 00
Miss H. M. Vining, .
55
43
7
3
28 00
Winter.
VI.
Miss Elizabeth White, Mr. W. F. Sampson, . Miss Elizabeth White, Mr. Chester D. Pratt,
111
74
51
11
LO 1 Q
7
5
32 58 6-16
Summer. Winter.
VII.
Miss M. J. Blanchard, Miss Lucy E. Hunt, . Mr. H. F. Woodman. . Miss Lucy E. Hunt, . Mr. H. F. Woodman, .
134
42
33
8
-
5
-
.
52
34
6
5
20 00
Summer. Summer. Winter.
VIII.
Miss H. A. Fuller,
153
59
45
2
20 00
Summer.
Miss Lydia A Paddock, Miss Susan M. Torrey,
51
42
G
2
10
24 00
Winter.
45
39
2
3
9
36 00
Winter.
IX.
Miss Sarah A. White, Miss Anna E. Wright, Miss M. V. Boardman, Miss Mary T. Clapp, . Miss Sarah A. White,
239
84
61
14
6
15
16 00
Summer.
61
52
6
15
16 00
Summer. Summer.
Summer. Winter.
Miss Anna E. Wright,
58
52
60
51
1
10
24 00
47
42
7
10
28 00
Winter.
X.
Miss M. Augusta Fay, Miss Lydia A. Tirrell, Miss M. Augusta Fay, Miss Ursula K. Fletcher, .
86
40
30
1
15
18 00
Summer.
42
36
4
12
24 00
Summer. Winter. Winter.
XI.
Miss Sarah B. Thompson, . Mr. Horace Choate,
63
51
41
5
22 00
Summer.
Mr. Elbridge Torrey,º
47
46
Mr. Elbridge Torrey,º Mr. William K. Fletcher,o.
62
56
43
10
95 24
Miss R. V. Humphrey, º
-
49
44
30
6
95 24
Summer. Winter.
Mr. William K. Fletcher,o. Miss R. V. Humphrey,º
-
-
1
28 00
Winter.
1
ʹ
1
I
3
10
24 00
41
38
-
2
28 00
Winter.
47
34
I
7
24 00
Summer. Winter.
56
38
3
10
20 00
58
49
12
3
10
47 00
Winter.
46
35
5
6
15
20 00
.
58
37
1
-
1
12
-
50 00
Winter.
Summer. Winter.
Miss Lydia A. Paddock, Miss Susan M. Torrey, Mr. J. French, .
55
35
49
49
31
2
15
24 00
52
35
1
10
10
20 00
Winter. Winter.
Miss M. V. Boardman, Miss Mary T. Clapp, .
36
26
5
10
20 00
45
38
5
26 00
5
40 00
66 66 2-3
42
41
6
66 66 2-3
Winter. Summer. Winter. Summer.
61
39
119 1510
" High Schools.
-
4
10
24 00
Miss Lois B. Vining, .
45
38
9
4
5
19 00
5
5
20 00
Summer. Summer.
Miss Sarah E. Loud, .
73
41
19
5
G
20 00
35
30
6
24 00
20 00
Summer.
40
31
41
2 6 1910
6
24 00
Summer.
55
47
15
24 00
14 00
Summer.
59
48
-
58
43
5
22 00
52
40
46
88
-
41
35
of Age.
4 181811+1
G 6 3 co co co Co C. C> 3
10
28 00
20 00
-
Length
of
Mo. Dy.
29 40
39
65
24 00
41 00
10
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