USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Weymouth > Town annual report of Weymouth 1876 > Part 5
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83.2
" average mark of the 11 successful candidates Broad St. was 78.9
79.7
" average 66
8
66
Pratt 66 79.2
combination 66
8
66
66 79.9
average 66 5
66
66 Main St. was 82.2
" combination mark of the 5 successful candidates Main
St. was
82.6 " average mark of the 16 successful candidates Torrey St. was 82.6
" combination 66 16 66 66 66 66 81.6
No scholar obtained an average per cent below 43 and none above 93. Two scholars obtained an average per cent between 40 and 50.
Three 66
66
50 and 60.
Thirteen " 66
60 and 70.
66 Seven 60
70 and 75.
Eighteen " 66
66
75 and 80.
Sixteen 66
66
80 and 85.
Seven 66
66
66
85 and 90.
Three 66 66
66
90 and 95.
Of the six pupils admitted to the High Schools at the second exami- nation, three belonged to the north, and three to the south part of the town, and all obtained a rank of about 70 per cent. In behalf of the committee,
C. C. TOWER,
Chairman.
WEYMOUTH, February, 1877.
66
·
66
North was,
66 combination 66 11 66 66
66
66
SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
TO THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE OF THE TOWN OF WEYMOUTH :
I submit the following as my report of the educational condition of the schools for the year beginning Jan. 1, 1876, and extending to Jan. 1, 1877.
GENERAL STATEMENTS.
There have been in operation during the entire year thirty-eight schools, and during a part of the year forty-two, as follows : -
Eleven Primary, eighteen Intermediate, eleven Grammar, and two High. In them forty-seven teachers have been employed, forty-two as principals and five as assistants.
RESIGNATIONS.
Eleven resignations of teachers have been made during the year, as follows : -
Miss Hattie J. Farren, of the Athens Intermediate ; Miss Florence E. Tirrell, of the Athens Primary; Miss Lavinia Totman, of the Grant Street Primary ; Miss Anna L. Noyes, of the Middle Street Intermediate ; Miss Helen H. Blanchard, of the Tremont Street Mid- dle Intermediate ; Mrs. Flora A. (Colson) Tilden, of the Mt. Pleasant (now the Tremont Street) Middle Intermediate ; Mrs. Mary E. Hutch- inson, of the Pond Street Intermediate; Miss S. L. Fisher. of the Randolph Street Intermediate; Miss M. Lizzie Foye, of the Mt. Pleasant (now the Broad Street) Upper Primary ; Miss Sarah Lewison, assistant in the North High; Mr. W. H. Bartlett, principal of the Commercial Street Grammar, to accept a similar position in the city of Worcester.
APPOINTMENTS.
Fifteen appointments of teachers have been made during the year, as follows : -
Miss Mary L. Ells, to the Athens Intermediate ; Miss Mabel F. Harlow, to the Athens Primary ; Miss Clarabelle Pratt, to the River Street Intermediate; Mrs. Flora A. Tilden, to the Tremont
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Street Middle Intermediate ; Miss Hannah E. Ward, to the Broad Street Upper Primary ; Miss Emma F. Parker, to the Broad Street Lower Intermediate ; Miss Hattie J. Farren, to the Middle Street Intermediate ; Miss Ella M. Burgess, to the Grant Street Primary ; Miss Josephine A. Raymond, to the Commercial Street Primary ; Miss Maria Torrey, to the Pond Street Intermediate ; Miss Emily V. White, to the Randolph Street Intermediate ; Miss Mary F. Logue, as Assistant in the Torrey Street Upper Grammar ; Miss Martha J. Hawes, as assistant in the Commercial Street Upper Grammar ; Miss Sarah B. Goodwin, as assistant in the North High; Mr. Lucius Brown, as principal of the Commercial Street Grammar.
TRANSFERS.
Two transfers of teachers to other positions have been made during the year as follows : -
Miss Louie Briggs, from the Adams Grammar (assistant) to the Adams Intermediate; Miss Carrie A. Blanchard, from the Mt. Pleasant Lower Intermediate to the Mt. Pleasant Lower Grammar.,
NEW SCHOOLS.
Four new schools have been established during the year.
The River Street Intermediate opened at the middle of the first month of the present school year in the new building erected for it, with twenty-eight scholars, in one Intermediate and three Primary grades. The present number is thirty-two.
The Adams Intermediate was formed by dividing the Adams Gram- mar. The Adams Grammar School last year contained sixty-seven scholars and needed more room and better grading. At the begin- ning of the present school year, it was divided into two schools, a Grammar and an Intermediate, each containing twenty-eight scholars, the Intermediate occupying the lower room of the buliding and the Grammar the upper.
The Mt. Pleasant Lower Grammar was formed when the present one-grade system was introduced into the Third Ward, and the pupils of the two Broad Street Grammar Schools were classified into three separate Grammar School grades.
The Commercial Street Primary in the Second Ward was opened to receive the children who could not be accommodated at the High and Pleasant Street Primary Schools. The average number in each of these three schools for the first term of the present year was fifty-five.
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PRIMARY SCHOOLS.
One Primary School having been added during the year, there are now eleven in this department, strictly Primary, containing five hun- dred and fifty-five pupils with an average of fifty to cach school. Eight other schools contain primary classes. Of the eleven pure Primaries, seven contain the three regular grades. Of the remaining four, three have one grade, and one has two grades.
In these schools, most of the work of the year has been successfully performed. Some teachers have appreciated the nature and relation of their work more fully than others, and have devoted themselves with more of enthusiasm and success to its performance.
In reading two teachers only have attempted to teach by the phonetic method. Of these, one disliked and abandoned it, the other continued its practice with decided success. Instead of being rec- ommended, the adoption of this method should be required of all.
The printing of letters has been attended to during the year in all these schools, but in very different ways and with very different re- sults. In some, scholars have printed but have received no instruc- tion in printing ; in others, they have printed from set copies ; in others, they have imitated the teacher as she has made the letters on the board before their eyes, - showing them what part of each letter to make first and where to begin the making of that part ; making the parts separately and then combining them together ; exciting their interest and pleasure by remarks on the beauty and use of the letters and on the credit it will be to them to learn to make them well. Thus ,by varied instruction and pleasing and exciting exhortation, the suc- cess of some teachers in this one particular is in no respect wonder- ful, nor through the want of these the failure of others strange. By the methods pursued in three schools, scholars will become able, in three months from the time of beginning to learn the alphabet, to print, in large, clear hand, ten words of five letters each, in five min- utes.
Good printing, as far as it goes, is good drawing ; every letter is a simple design. Printing trains the eye and the hand, and cultivates the taste ; printing helps spelling and writing. It has important rela- tions and ought to be thoroughly attended to in every Primary School. The smallest scholars cannot write, but can easily print.
In all these schools, oral instruction in Geography has been recom- mended for the second grade, and in one, on account of special facili- ties, it was required. In this one alone has anything worthy of
.
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mention been accomplished. In this one, oral instruction, in con nection with large maps hanging before the eye, has been regularly given, and with the most pleasing results. In this school, for a part of the year, the same instruction lias also been given to the third class, and with results equally pleasing. The second class in this school, taught in this way, orally, without the text-book, have gone over more ground, and gone over it more satisfactorily, than the first class go over in the same time with the text-book. Oral instruction in this branch for the second and third classes should be required. With the present method of teaching in the Primary Schools, the aid of the eyes and memories of the little scholars is by no means econo- mized.
Most of the primary teachers have found the ground in reading required to be gone over in a year by the course of study too limited. The amount was therefore extended in each of the three classes so as to include the whole of the First Reader for the third class, the whole of the Second for the second class, and the whole of the Third for the third class.
The course of study and the methods of instruction in this depart- ment need a radical revision and readjustment to the peculiar age and nature of the scholars. No department of the entire school system so fails to utilize and turn to practical account the educational forces at command. Every course of primary study and all methods of primary instruction will be legitimate in proportion as they are adapted to the eyes and memories of the scholars and to their deli- cate susceptibility to impression and prejudice. There are parts of arithmetic, grammar, geography, history, reading, spelling, writing, drawing, and music adapted to every one of the nine grades of scholars from the Primary to the High. Let these parts be taught in the Primary Schools, not by the use of text-books, but by the living, oral instruction of the teacher. If scholars are to become familiar with these branches, they must be for a long time exposed to their influence. When by an entire reconstruction of the studies pursued and the methods of instruction employed, the Primary Schools shall be put to their true and proper work, better scholars will be advanced to the higher grades, and the character and efficiency of the entire system promoted.
INTERMEDIATE SCHOOLS.
There are now eighteen Intermediate Schools, two new ones having been established during the year. Of these ten are pure, containing
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only Intermediate grades, and eight are mixed, containing Intermedi- ate and Primary grades. Of the pure Intermediates four are of one grade, three are of two grades, and three are of three grades. In the mixed Intermediates, as now organized, four regularly contain six grades ; two, five grades ; one, two grades ; and one, the Adams Inter- mediate, varies in its kind and number of grades according to circum- stances. At present it has three grades, one Intermediate and two Primary.
In these schools, as well as in the Primaries, more oral instruction has been given, and more work accomplished, this year than last. Several of the teachers are of the first order ; three have never taught before ; and of the remainder, most have striven for better methods and achieved better results.
In Arithmetic the ground has been extended a few pages for the first and second classes, in order to complete the subject and reach a better stopping-place. The second class are to go through Federal Money, stopping at the fifty-third page, instead of at the forty-ninth ; and the first class are to go to Compound Numbers, stopping at the ninety-eighth page, instead of at the eighty-fourth. The starred examples are to be omitted.
In all these schools, scholars have had the benefit of more slate and black-board practice, and have been required to be more prompt in their answering and more rapid in their figuring. The teaching has, in general, been more vigorous, and the schools more active and enterprising in their appearance.
In schools where the number of classes and time would allow, oral instruction in Grammar has been given to the second class, and in a few to the third class also. The classes that have been thus taught will more easily and understandingly complete the work of the first class, studied from the text-book next year. No more difficulty has been experienced, and no more ought to have been experienced, in inter- esting these classes in Grammar than in any other of the branches taught. The teacher must understand it herself, and understand so thoroughly how to present it that it will excite the interest and pleas- ure of small scholars as much as do any other of their studies. To ask the questions of the text-book is one thing ; but to have such an understanding of a subject and such an interest in it as to be borne away from the text-book to an original style of questioning and dealing with one's class upon it, is quite another, and one which is indispensable to any teacher who looks for high success. All the Intermediate and Grammar School studies ought to be begun lower down in the course, in the form of brief daily oral instruction.
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More ground than is required by the course can be gone over in Geography. The Primary book, which by the course of study is begun at the middle of the Upper Primary year and finished at the close of the Middle Intermediate, is by some teachers completed at the close of the first term of this year. Some parts of the course in the Intermediate Geography also need to be extended. Without assigning any uniform limit for all of the same grade, teachers have been allowed to advance as much beyond the requirements of the course as they have found they were able to do.
GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.
In this department one new school has been established during the year, making the number now in town eleven. Of these, nine are pure, and two mixed. Five of the pure Grammars contain but one grade ; of the remaining four, two have two grades, and two have three grades. Of the two mixed schools, one, the Pratt Grammar, has four grades, three Grammar and one Intermediate ; the other, the Adams Grammar, varies in its composition according to circum- stances. At present, it has one Intermediate and two Grammar grades.
In the Grammar Schools, five male and six female principals, with three female assistants, have been employed. The corps of teachers has been the same as last year, with the exception of one male and one female principal and two female assistants.
In these schools the uniformly excellent order that has prevailed among the scholars while engaged in school duties or recreations, to- gether with their gentlemanly and ladylike deportment on the streets, are honorable to them as scholars, and a testimony to the fidelity and ability of their teachers. The numbers of the several schools have been well sustained, and a very commendable interest in study has been manifested. A greater demand has been made on scholars for thoroughiness in preparing lessons and promptness in reciting them, and there is at the present time the promise of classes better prepared than ever before for admission to the High School.
A great improvement was made in the order and discipline of the Mt. Pleasant building by the removal into it of the three Grammar Schools and the appointment of a male head.
HIGH SCHOOLS.
The two High Schools opened at the beginning of the present school year with an aggregate enrolment of a hundred and thirty members,
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equally divided between the two schools, sixty-five at the North and sixty-five at the South. The numbers admitted on examination from the Grammar Schools were as follows : six boys and twenty girls at the North, and thirteen boys and nineteen girls at the South. Of the girls admitted at the South, one went to the North and two did not enter at all, making of those who actually entered the two schools, twenty-seven who entered the North and twenty-nine who entered the South. The numbers in each of the classes of the two schools at the beginning of the year were for the North, twenty-seven in the fourth class, nineteen in the third, twelve in the second, and seven in the first ; and for the South, twenty-nine in the fourth class, eighteen in the third, sixteen in the second, and two in the first.
The records of attendance for the first term, ninety-four per cent at the North and ninety-five at the South, show that the daily instruction and discipline have been lost on only a very few scholars.
With sixty-five scholars in four classes, and with teachers of expe- rinece, scholarship, and culture, aided by experienced and full-timed assistants, there is afforded in our High Schools opportunity for the most thorough instruction, inspiration, and guidance on the part of teachers, and progress on the part of scholars. A few only of the members of either High School require to be unfavorably reported. All, save these few, have evinced a noble determination to understand thoroughly the subjects studied, and to contribute to a high standard of scholarship and attainment.
The same course of study is prescribed for both schools ; there has been, however, considerable variation in the courses actually pur- sued. The following statement shows the studies pursued by each class of the two schools from the date of its entrance to the present time : -
FIRST CLASS. YEAR 1873-4. - First Term.
N. H. Arithmetic, Eng. Grammar, Physiology, Spelling. S. H. Arithmetic, Eng. Grammar, Physiology, Reading.
Second Term.
N. H. Algebra, Arithmetic, Eng. Composition.
S. H. Algebra, Bookkeeping, Physical Geography, History.
YEAR 1874-5. - First Term.
N. H. Latin, Algebra, Natural Philosophy.
S. H. Latin, Algebra, Natural Philosophy.
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Second Term.
N. H. Latin, Geometry, Natural Philosophy.
S. H. Latin, Algebra, Natural Philosophy.
YEAR 1875-6. - First Term. N. H. Latin, French, Chemistry.
S. H. Latin, Geometry, Chemistry.
Second Term.
N. H. Latin, French, Physical Geography.
S. H. Latin, Geometry, Rhetoric.
YEAR 1876-7. - First Term.
N. H. Latin, French, Geology.
S. H. Latin, Greek, Mental Philosophy, Geology.
Second Term.
N. H. Latin, Eng. Literature, Rhetoric.
S. H. Latin, Greek, Eng. Literature, Astronomy.
SECOND CLASS. YEAR 1874-5 .- First Term.
N. H. Eng. Composition, Arithmetic, Algebra.
S. H. Latin, Eng. Composition, Arithmetic, Algebra.
Second Term.
N. H. Eng. Composition, Physiology, Algebra.
S. H. Latin, Composition, Physiology, Algebra.
YEAR 1875-6. - First Term.
N. H. Latin, Natural Philosophy, Civil Government.
S. H. Latin, Greek, Geometry, Bookkeeping, Civil Government, Rhetoric.
Second Term. N. H. Latin, Natural Philosophy, Geometry.
S. H. Latin, Greek, Geometry, Trigonometry, Rhetoric, Anct. History.
YEAR 1876-7. - First Term.
N. H. Latin, French, Chemistry.
S. H. Latin, Greek, French, Natural Philosophy, Modern History. Second Term. N. H. Latin, French, Rhetoric, Physical Geography.
S. H. Latin, Greek, French, Natural Philosophy, Physical Geog- raphy. ·
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THIRD CLASS. YEAR 1875-6. - First Term.
N. H. Latin, Arithmetic, Algebra.
S. H. Latin, English, Arithmetic, Algebra.
Second Term.
N. H. Latin, Physiology, Algebra.
S. H. Latin, English, Physiology, Algebra.
YEAR 1876-7. - First Term.
N. H. Latin, History, Natural Philosophy.
S. H. Latin, Geometry, Bookkeeping, Civil Government. Second Term.
N. H. Latin, Geometry, Natural Philosophy.
S. H. Latin, Geometry, Ancient History, Natural Philosophy.
FOURTH CLASS. YEAR 1876-7. - First Term.
N. H. Latin, Physiology, Algebra.
S. H. Latin, English, Arithmetic, Algebra.
Second Term.
N. H. Latin, Arithmetic, Algebra.
S. H. Latin, English, Physiology, Algebra.
SCHOOL ACCOMMODATIONS.
The school accommodations of the Third Ward could be greatly improved and rendered very complete by remodelling, at slight ex- pense, the interior of the Broad Street building into four large, well- lighted, and well-ventilated rooms, and by removing into it the two schools now occupying the small and inconvenient rooms and grounds of the Perkins building, thus still further massing the schools, and occupying with three buildings the ten schools now occupying four.
A new school in the Second Ward having been established without suitable conveniences, and rendered necessary by the growth in num- bers of those already existing beyond the capacity of the buildings in which they were held, increases and renders still more imperative the demands of that section of the town for enlarged and improved school accommodations. One large, commodious building of four rooms, erected on the grounds and in the stead of the two High and School Street houses, would afford the means of bringing together, under more easy and efficient supervision in one building, the two
81
hundred and more scholars now scattered in three, and of supplying in part the needs of this ward.
The two school buildings in the eastern section of the Fourth Ward. are unfavorably located for securing the advantages of good grading. For the sake of equality of numbers, each of the two Intermediate Schools is obliged to have five grades, two Intermediate and three Primary ; and the Grammar School, four grades, three Grammar and one Intermediate. A single building, more centrally located than either of the present ones now is, would vary the distance for scholars but little more than a quarter of a mile more than it is now, and allow the hundred and seventy-five scholars now occupying these two buildings to be brought together and classified into three well-graded schools.
GRADING.
The system of thorough grading introduced into the schools of one section of the town has been in operation a year. Its advantages were supposed to have been demonstrated by long use in other places.
Of the advantages of this system the most important are the following : -
1. It introduces into schools more extensively the principle of the division of labor.
2. By giving the teacher fewer branches to teach, it allows him to become more familiar with each one.
3. It allows the teacher to devote to one class the time otherwise devoted to two or more.
4. It renders the scholars more accessible to the teacher, allowing him opportunity to discriminate and vary his methods to suit the individual peculiarities of each.
5. It allows the teacher time to study with the scholars, directing and economizing their efforts in the study and preparation of a lesson, thus not only helping them to learn their lessons, but also instructing them in the important work of learning how to learn.
6. It avoids the necessary confusion belonging to schools where study and recitation are going on at the same time.
Of the disadvantages that may be mentioned against the system are the following : -
1. Its unsocialness. The social influences which in school as in soci- ety are educationally as well as morally valuable are most powerful and efficient where pupils of different ages and attainments are min- gled in the same school.
2. The loss of the excitement that comes from witnessing the perform-
6
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ances of higher classes. In a school of one grade the standard of recitation that has been erected during the year goes out of the room with the class at its close. In schools of two or more grades, where this standard is preserved in a higher class, the new scholars at the opening of the year are at once exposed to its elevating influence. The fourth class in the High Schools, in the same time and under the same teacher, could not make the same progress in a given study pur- sued in a separate room and by themselves as in the same room with and in the presence of the three higher classes.
3. Unwieldy classes. It is impossible to command so fully the at- tention, to call up so frequently for recitation, or to agitate so thor- oughly with the fear of being called up, in a class of fifty as in one of ten.
4. New teachers. For most scholars, nine years under nine good teachers is not so favorable as nine years under three teachers equally good.
5. Waste of time. A school of two grades and sixteen recitations a day necessitates a full use of time more than one of one grade and eight recitations. Too little time prompts to a careful use of all; an abundance exposes to a waste of some.
Doubtless the advantages greatly outweigh the disadvantages. Too much must not be expected. Fair judgment is not that a school of one grade and with the same other advantages will accomplish twice as much as one of two, but only that it will accomplish more.
The advantages of thorough grading may be introduced into the Grammar Schools of the Fifth Ward at the opening of the next school year. The two Grammar Schools of this ward enrolled, at the begin- ning of the present year, ninety-nine members, forty-one in the lower and fifty-eight in the upper. At the close of the year not more than twelve can be subtracted by promotion to the High School, nor less than thirty added by promotion from the lower, making pupils enough to form three schools with an average of about forty to each school. The still further advantage of grouping in the same building schools of the sanse grade, with a male head over the whole, may then be real- ized by either reducing the three lower schools of two grades in the Central Street building to two schools of three grades, or opening a new room for one of the three without reducing, and then occupying the whole building with the three Grammar, and one of the two lower schools, after occupying the vacated lower room of the High School building with the other, and thus introducing in the Fifth Ward an arrangement of six schools in two buildings, similar to that lately introduced in the Third.
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