USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Weymouth > Town annual report of Weymouth 1883 > Part 7
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While this work was in progress, an enterprise was undertaken for the publication of a history of Norfolk County, which should contain, as a part of its contents, a sketch of Weymouth. As this was in the direct line of the Committee labors, covering the same ground, although of necessity much more brief, it was thought bet- ter, upon proceeding further in the work, to await the appearance 'of this volume, since whatever of value it might contain would be so much gain to the town, and might form a substantial basis for a thorough history. This county history is now going through the press, and will soon be published.
Consequently, the Committee present their report in its incomplete condition, and ask for further time to continue the work.
On behalf of the Committee,
GILBERT NASH, Chairman.
REPORT
OF THE
SCHOOL COMMITTEE
OF THE
TOWN OF WEYMOUTH
FOR THE YEAR 1883.
BOSTON : ALFRED MUDGE & SON, PRINTERS, 24 FRANKLIN STREET. 1884.
REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
THE School Committee of Weymouth respectfully present to the citizens of the town their
ANNUAL REPORT.
The sum appropriated at the last annual town meet- ing, to be raised by assessment for the support of schools, was . .
This has been increased by the Pratt fund $300 00
$29,350 00
By the Alewife fund
252 00
By the State fund
303 45
By the Dog-license fund
380 42
1,235 87
Making the total amount for the support of schools, $30,585 87
The expenditures for salaries of teachers, janitors, and cleaning, repairs of schoolhouses, fuel and incidentals, books furnished poor children, and the bills of truant officers, amount to $29,502.24, leav- ing an unexpended balance in favor of the town amounting to $1,083.63. This large balance has been caused in part by the lengthening of the summer vacation one week, the schools com- mencing on the first Monday in September, making one week less of school between the summer vacation and the close of the year. This loss will be made up during the spring vacation, which will be one week instead of two, as heretofore.
CHANGES OF TEACHERS.
. During the year there have been fewer changes than usual in our corps of teachers. In the First Ward, Miss Lottie A. Ham tendered her resignation as teacher of the Adams Grammar School at the
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close of the summer term ; while at the Athens no change of teach- ers has been made, but on account of the large number of pupils in the intermediate grade the third class was transferred to the upper primary room, thus making a more equitable division of labor than under the former arrangement.
In the Second Ward, Miss M. M. Hunt was transferred from the ยท Middle Street Intermediate to the vacant position in the Adams School, and her place was filled by the transfer of Miss M. J. Thayer from the primary school in the same building. At the Franklin building Miss Charlotte B. Tower tendered her resigna- tion of the primary school, and Miss Mary F. Leavett as assistant in the grammar school.
Your Committee have also to record the resignation of Miss Ellen G. Parrott, after a long and faithful service in our public schools of marked acceptance to the community. Other resigna- tions in this ward have been that of Miss Florence G. Fay, of the Bicknell Primary, and Miss Priscilla L. Collier, of the High Street Primary.
Instead of continuing the primary school in the Bicknell house, it was thought expedient to place another primary school in the Franklin building ; and the room formerly used for the grammar- school assistant's room was fitted up for it, and Miss Sadie Stet- son was elected teacher. The lower primary room was placed in charge of Miss Brittannia Harlow. A glance at the crowded con- dition of this grade, as well as the others in the Franklin building, ought to convince any one of the urgent need of a new school- house in East Weymouth.
At the beginning of the current year the High Street Inter- mediate and the School Street Primary were both found to be in so crowded a condition that the Committee were compelled to open ' another school, consisting of two grades, in the Pleasant Street house, and this was placed in charge of Miss Lucy G. Tucker.
The same arrangement as of last year has been continued for the upper intermediate grade with the same teacher, and Miss Lizzie G. Hyland as half-time assistant. Other new teachers in the ward are Miss Ida J. Barker, Franklin Third Grammar ; Miss Annie M. Thompson, Middle Street Primary ; and Miss Julia M. Talbot, High Street Primary.
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In the Third Ward, Miss Lottie E. Allen resigned her position in the second grammar grade on account of sickness ; and this school, as well as the next grade, suffered somewhat from changes of teachers, but are now in admirable working order, Miss Baker hav- ing been transferred from the Third to the vacant position occasioned by the resignations of Miss Allen and Miss Mary J. Moore from the Centre mixed to the school formerly taught by Miss Baker.
On account of the small number of pupils in the Pratt Grammar School, situated in the Fourth Ward, it was thought best to dis- pense with an assistant for that room, and to allow the principal to devote his entire time to the classes of the grammar grades. The upper intermediate grade was divided between the Pratt and the Holbrook Intermediate.
The position made vacant by the transfer of Miss Moore from the Centre Mixed School was filled by the selection of Miss Alice Ford as teacher.
In the Fifth Ward, Miss Mary B. Tirrell resigned her position as teacher of the Howe Primary, and Miss Ella M. Clark was elected her successor. The Bates Upper Grammar School in the same ward being somewhat smaller than usual, it was thought best, as an economical measure, to dispense with an assistant for this school, the principal thus having entire charge of the first and second grades.
GENERAL CONDITION.
The general condition of the schools is highly gratifying. The teachers have been faithful in their work, and the superintendent has been indefatigable in his efforts to lift our schools into a higher rank, and make them more nearly what they ought to be, and what we believe they may become.
We would especially commend the setting apart of certain days as visiting days, in which parents and friends are invited to go . into the schools and see them in their every-day working dress. No preparation whatever is made on the part of the teachers for such receptions. No changes are made in the working of the schools. They do their work just as on other days, thus giving visitors an
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opportunity of knowing, from what they see at that time, what is being done on any other morning or afternoon. It appears to your Committee that the benefits of such supervision on the part of par- ents and friends are very obvious.
First, in awaking a deeper interest in the schools. It is impos- sible to go into a well-worked school, and observe its movements for two or three hours without some quickening of interest on the part of the visitor, especially if he is a parent and has children there. That which interests his children will interest himself. Those who visit the schools most frequently invariably feel the deepest interest in them.
Another benefit arising from such a course will be the forming of a bond of sympathy between the parents and the teachers. Parents will see more clearly that teachers have something to do ; that it is no boy's play to manage a school, and the wonder on their part will be that they can do so much. They will be less dis- posed to find fault, because they will see less to censure, and more to commend. They will be very sure to give 'expression to their feelings in words of cordiality and friendship to the teacher. Thus the teacher on his part will be encouraged and strengthened to carry the load which sometimes is almost unendurable.
A third benefit arising from frequent visiting of the schools by the parents will be the quickening of interest on the part of the pupils. Children like to display what they know ; they are espe- cially pleased to show their parents what they have been doing. They enjoy the visiting days on this account ; it stimulates their ambition to make a good report of themselves, and thus it will be found to be helpful to them in their studies, their examinations and their promotions.
The frequent visiting of the schools by the parents will enable them to understand and appreciate the improvements that have been made in methods of teaching and study since their school days terminated. Many are inclined to the belief that there is no real improvement upon the methods of other days ; that it is all machine work, and that the children are not trained to think so much as in former days. A little visiting of schools will correct this mistake, and they will learn that instead of doing less think-
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ing, they are trained to think vastly more than formerly. Their thinking takes a wider range ; their thoughts are brought to bear upon a greater variety of subjects.
Your Committee express the hope that more attention will be given to the visiting days ; for they feel assured the results will be most gratifying to yourselves and the teachers, and salutary in their influences upon the schools.
The enlarged course of supplementary reading is to be com- mended. It gives greater variety and freshness and interest to the reading. . It opens more avenues of information to the young, and will make this exercise more helpful and profitable to them. We are glad to inform you that more attention is being given to . this most important branch of study than heretofore. The atten- tion of your Committee has been called especially to the subject of spelling in our schools. For several years no text-book in spelling has been used in the schools of Weymouth. This omission has been supplied by the introduction of Harrington's Speller, which we believe will be productive of good results in this direction.
For nearly two years our schools have been under the superin- tendence of Mr. G. C. Fisher, who has devoted himself most energetically and untiringly to his work, and we believe with marked success. If anything needs good supervision it is our schools. In a town so large as Weymouth, it is impossible for the School Committee to give such attention to the working of the schools as their importance demands. It is too much like an army with five or six commanders-in-chief instead of one. Some one is needed whose whole time and energy can be given to this most im- portant department. We believe we have the right man in the right place, and we hope the town will take no backward steps in this direction.
The schools of Weymouth are taking high rank among the schools of the Commonwealth, and we trust that such means will be placed at the disposal of the School Committee as wili enable them to keep them moving on an ascending grade.
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THE NEW SCHOOL BUILDING AT EAST WEYMOUTH.
At the last annual town meeting it was voted to build a school- house in Ward Two, and the sum of fifteen thousand dollars was appropriated for that purpose. It was also voted that a committee of five be chosen to purchase a lot and build the house, three of the committee to be chosen by the School Board and two by the Board of Selectmen. The committee chosen were Z. L. Bicknell, A. J. Richards, and Mrs. E. C. Hawes, of the School Committee, and Thomas H. Humphrey and George A. Cushing, of the Select- men. This committee, after a careful examination, purchased of Mr. Davis D. Randall a lot containing two acres, for the sum of two thousand dollars, located on an avenue leading south from Broad Street, near his residence, and took a deed for the same. As this lot was large, centrally located, and could be made easy of access from all parts of the ward, and as the schoolhouses in this ward are, with one or two exceptions, poor and inconvenient, it was recommended by the School Committee that plans and estimates be procured for an eight-room building. Plans were received which were approved and bids asked for ; but the Committee learned at this time that the deed furnished by Mr. Randall was not acceptable to the Selectmen, and they had declined to pay for the land, and had returned the deed to Mr. Randall. And as Mr. Randall declined to do anything more in the matter, excepting that proposals for grading the lot and erecting an eight-room building were received, nothing has been accomplished. We therefore recommend that an additional sum of six thousand five hundred dollars be appropriated to erect an eight-room building in Ward Two.
TRUANTS.
The town at its last annual meeting passed the following vote, in relation to truants : -
Voted, That a committee be chosen by the town to act with committees chosen by two other towns in Norfolk County, in peti- tioning the honorable Board of County Commissioners to provide
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suitable accommodations for the discipline and instruction of truant children, according to sections 10, 12, and 14, chap. 48, of Public Satutes of 1882.
Dr. F. F. Foresaith and Judge James Humphrey constituted that committee. What action that committee has taken we are not in- formed, but presume they will be ready to report to the town at the next annual meeting. This is a grave subject, and it is hoped the town will take such action as will at least check what appears to be an increasing evil.
REPAIRS OF SCHOOL BUILDINGS.
We have endeavored to practise the strictest economy compati- ble with the interests of the schools ; but some unexpectedly ex- pensive operations in the repairs of school buildings have been demanded.
The roof of the Tremont School building, in which the North High School is located, was found to leak profusely on account of bad construction, letting water in large quantities into the school- room, and threatening serious injury to the building itself. We trust this has been effectually prevented, although at quite heavy expense. We have also built a new outhouse for the Howe School building, which was much needed. These have swelled our bills for repairs to a larger amount than usual. We trust that the com- ing year will furnish us with no demand for so large an expendi- ture in this direction, consequently we ask for a smaller appropria- tion.
We believe the following appropriations are needed for the en- suing year : -
For wages of teachers .
$24,000 00
Salaries of janitors and cleaning
2,100 00
Fuel and incidentals
2,500 00
Repairs of schoolhouses
1,500 00
Total
$30,100 00
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This may be diminished
By the Pratt fund
$275 00
By the Alewife fund
252 00
By the State fund
300 00
By the Dog-license fund
400 00
Total
$1,227 00
Leaving a balance, to be raised by assessment, of $28,873 00
1
A. H. TYLER.
ELIZABETH C. HAWES.
LOUIS A. COOK.
Z. L. BICKNELL.
A. J. RICHARDS. O. B. BATES.
REPORT OF SUPERINTENDENT.
To the School Committee, Weymouth, Mass. :
I HAVE the honor to submit herewith my second annual report as superintendent of schools, taking up the consideration of a few topics of general interest.
VISITORS' DAY.
The Weymouth Gazette of May 18, 1883, kindly published the following letter from me : -
To Parents and the Public :
Hereafter there is to be a monthly Visitors' Day in all the public schools of Weymouth, the object of which is to bring you into closer sympathy with them. By setting apart a particular day, and calling your attention to it at regular intervals, we hope to get you out in large numbers, and make you better acquainted with our methods. Once inside the school-room and facing the youth of the town, you would, I feel assured, enjoy yourselves ; and the pupils, seeing that you take an interest in what they are doing, would value their educational privileges more highly. If you cannot come on Visitors' Day, come on any other day that suits your convenience, - only come. The school is a semi-public place of resort, and you have a right to enter it, if not a duty to perform in exercising that right. If the mothers would come in - and who can have a more anxious interest in making the child's other home a place of purity and refinement ? - if the motliers would come in, bring their sewing, knitting-work, or embroidery, and spend the whole half-day, I should be pleased, and in common with the teachers extend to them a cordial welcome. I must, however, ask them and all other visitors not to expect the teachers to converse with them at any length, or to pay them any special attention. The teacher's time belongs to the school just as the minister's time belongs to the assembled congregation.
Below the first grade grammar, the closing exhibitions of the year, occurring in the heat of the summer, are abolished; and these visitors' days, designed to show the regular every-day work of the school-room, take their place. As the time for one draws near, teachers will notify pupils, and pupils will be expected to notify parents.
Respectfully, etc.
1
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The above letter, with a few verbal changes, is introduced here for the reason that Visitors' Day has proved a very agreeable fea- ture of our system thus far, and it seems desirable to maintain it. The invitation is therefore renewed, and the importance of visiting schools once more emphasized.
THE SCHOOLHOUSES OF EAST WEYMOUTH.
In marked contrast with the churches, factories, stores, and dwellings of East Weymouth are a few small schoolhouses built," for the most part at a time when each district was a little munici- pality in itself, or at least had not outgrown the effects of the dis- trict system, and when the presence of unsightly objects was very generally believed to be necessary to tone down the youthful imagi- nation. These schoolhouses ought to be abandoned. They are insignificant edifices, ill-adapted to the graded system, and behind the times in every respect.
I hold that every decent man, father, tax-payer, and citizen, will agree with me in this : that a child is entitled to air as pure, sur- roundings as cheerful, and sanitary arrangements as perfect as he is entitled to himself., Agreeing with me in this, he will agree with me substantially in everything I shall have to say about the school- houses of East Weymouth, and the necessity of replacing some of them.
The Franklin (three school-rooms and two recitation-rooms) is the only school building in the village which can be classed as modern and properly equipped. The Bicknell (two school rooms and one recitation-room) is a good, fair building, but the furniture is a sight to behold. The Middle Street School- house (two rooms), the Grant Street (one room), the Pleasant Street (two rooms), and the schoolhouses on Commercial Square (three rooms) are little better in their appointments than steer- age passage to Europe, and they ought to be donea way with. How a Christian can worship complacently in one of the com- paratively elegant churches of East Weymouth, and at the same time send his children to these schoolhouses without a protest, I can't understand. Neither can I understand how a business
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man, who demands a richly frescoed and upholstered car to ride to Boston in, and who would remonstrate if the Old Colony put on plain, bare cars, destitute of polished woods and n ckel-plated orna- ments, can, without remonstrating, send his children to be educat-d in schoolhouses so mean that, if put on wheels, he would n't even ride to the depot in them. What is the use in treating children in this way? Does it do any good? Is it in keeping with our proud new-world assertion and boast that the church, the liome, the print- ing press, and the schoolhouse are the corner-stones of American civilization, and that with education the Republic must stand ?
I know there are those who take every opportunity to say that the old district system is better than the graded system, and that 1 we ought to return to it ; but we can no more return to it than we can return to the tallow-dips of our forefathers. The times have changed, and the schools have changed, and change.l for the bet- ter too. I favor the centralized plan - massing a large number of pupils in a single commodious building under strong manage- ment - in preference to sending them to small outlying schools, where the necessity would exist of having several grades in a room, for the reason that, in the first place, the order is better, just as on a great Cunard steamship it is better than it is on a fishing smack ; and, in the second place, the stimulus to exertion is greater, since the larger the class the greater the honor of being at the head of it; and when a class is reduced to one or two, - and especially if the other one is a dunce, - there is no honor at all in being at the head of it.
In view of the changed conditions of society, and in view of the luxuries that have been introduced into houses, and barns even, I do not hesitate to say that until East Weymouth is placed upon a par with the other parts of the town in the matter of school accom- modations for little children, it can never be regarded as a desira- ble place of residence for those who have little children to educate. Ill health, corrupt morals, corporal punishment, truancy, and a distaste for learning naturally go with poor schoolhouses; and East Weymouth at the present time contains all the poor school- houses in the town of Weymouth. It is wedged in, moreover, between two favored sections, with Hingham on one side and Quincy not far away on the other.
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James A. Garfield once said, " A schoolhouse built of logs, and containing a rough bench with Mark Hopkins on one end and my- self on the other, is good enough for me," or words to that effect. I think that would be good enough for anybody ; and if you will but put a Mark Hopkins into every one of the primary and interme- diate schools of East Weymouth, the present accommodations will answer very well as they are; otherwise. the least that can be done, in my opinion, is to erect an eight-room building on the hill opposite the Catholic Church, - a most admirable location, as you yourselves will urge.
There are at present sixteen teachers in East Weymouth, oc- cupying thirteen school-rooms and three small recitation-rooms. With the erection of an eight-room building, as above, the Frank- lin would become a primary school, and the Middle Street, Grant Street, and Pleasant Street schoolhouses could be shut up and disposed of. Retaining the schoolhouses on Commercial Square, as it would be necessary to do for the accommodation of the little children in the eastern part of the village, there would be in all sixteen school-rooms in East Weymouth, or one for each teacher. Even then the school property of the village would include two schoolhouses which ought to be abandoned.
THE LOCATION AND CHARACTER OF OUR HIGH SCHOOLS.
Speaking from the the teachers' and superintendent's standpoint, and caring as much for one part of the town as another, I am forced to confess that I should deeply regret a change in the loca- tion of either one of the high schools.
The removal of the South High to any other part of the town, with a view to having one high school, is in my opinion entirely out of the question. The idea of transporting forty or fifty pupils across the country at all times of the year and in all kinds of weather is simply absurd, and to return by train at 6 P. M. makes too long a day. The expense attending the transportation would be considerable, and the scheme in other respects is one which the good sense of the town would oppose.
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The transfer of the North High to East Weymouth is doubly objectionable ; for, in the first place, it would leave a vacant build- ing at the Landing, and, in the second place, East Weymouth has no room to spare for a high school, and even when an eight-room building has been erected she will have none. Every father in East Weymouth who has little children coming up to be educated should, for the present at least, be opposed to the transfer of the North High or the establishment of a third or East High, as I sup- pose it would be called. So far as school accommodations are concerned, East Weymouth has no proper shoes nor stockings, and it is no time for her to be talking about a collar and cuffs. When the schools in this part of the town are built up from the bottom, and suitable quarters have been provided for the nearly seven hundred children in actual attendance in the primary, intermediate, and grammar schools, then the high-school question will be in order, and not till then. If, however, the town should at any time fail to vote the car-fares of the East Weymouth and North Wey- mouth pupils, the whole aspect of the case would be changed.
With regard to the character of our high schools, I have only words of commendation. They are good high schools, with few superiors, and not many equals outside the great centres. They are under very popular and efficient management, and meet the wants of the community in all essential particulars. The state- ment often made, that they cannot fit for college, is properly char- acterized as a libel. They can fit for any college in this country ; and to say they can't is to make a statement as contrary to fact as to say that Weymouth is not on the line of a railroad. We are seeking also to make them more strictly supplemental of the gram- mar-school course, and thereby render them more valuable for those who do not intend to go to college. , Knowing full well the advan- tages of getting started early in life, I still think the boys espe- cially make a mistake in dropping out of the high schools so early. By doing so, they often sacrifice an enduring success for the sake of a mere temporary advantage, and get a start, which, while it . seems better for a while, proves poorer in the end. So far as the school system as a whole is concerned, the ideal state we picture to ourselves is this : such a perfect gradation and adaptation of the
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