USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Weymouth > Town annual report of Weymouth 1884 > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8
Janitors and cleaning
. 2,000 00
Fuel
. 1,500 ( 0
Repairs of school buildings
· 1,700 00.
Text-books and school supplies .
3,350 00
Miscellaneous expenses
500 00
$32,550 00
126
This may be diminshed
By the Pratt fund
$275 00
By the Alewife fund .
252 00
By the State school fund . 300 00
By the Dog-license fund
400 00
$1,227 00
Leaving a balance to be raised by assessment of $31,323 00
Respectfully submitted,
AUGUSTUS J. RICHARDS, LOUIS A. COOK, JOHN C. FRASER, O. B. BATES, W. H. BOLSTER, W. A. DRAKE,
School Committee.
SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
To the School Committee, Weymouth, Mass. :
I have the honor to submit herewith my third annual report, as Superintendent of Schools, taking up the consideration of a few timely and important topics, the first of which has been thrust upon us by State legislative action during the year.
THE FREE TEXT-BOOK LAW.
Among the minor measures connected with the common school education which Massachusetts loves so dearly, no one she has enacted of late years can, in my judgment, be made so fruitful of good in the enlightened towns as this. The only risk it runs lies in the danger of procrastination ; here and there school boards will not order the books and supplies in season, and days will be lost at the beginning of the school year and at other times for the lack of things to do with. I am happy to say, however, that Weymouth received many compliments from. the publishers of New York and Boston for her prompt action. All, or nearly all, the books needed for the year were ordered in due season and left at the various school buildings during the last few days of the summer vacation, so that the teachers were enabled to' make the first day of the succeeding term as profitable, or nearly as profit -. able, as any other.
Of course the nicer critics discover objections to the law ; the rich and the childless will be made to pay for the school books, the children will grow up with the idea that the State is to do every- thing for them, etc., etc. ; but the law on the whole is a beneficent one, and such as only an enlightened community or commonwealth would pass. By its enactment Massachusetts has given another proof that she cherishes an affection for the masses, and will i ot
128
be behind others in living up to the doctrine, which is essentially the American doctrine, that free schooling for the people is the only sure and safe means of securing the equal rights of all.
And the schools now are FREE! It costs nothing, absolutely nothing, to send a child to school. In other words, everything is provided at the public expense, from the Schoolhouse to the slate pencil. Having provided fuel, tuition, ink, crayons, you now go a step further and provide everything.
The result is, less money goes out of the town, books are used until they are worn out instead of accumulating in old garrets, ' school supplies are uuiform and bought at a lower figure, and, best of all, no books are charged to the indigent account, and no child, sensitive in spirit, is made to sit down among his fellows, is as a pauper ! Truancy and absenteeism are diminished, and the burden of buying books for a large family is lifted from the shoulders of those who have all they can do to make both ends meet. The books are better cared for, great gains are made in the interior management and instruction proper of the school-room, and the whole business of teaching the future sovereigns of America is put upon a more practical and democratic basis.
The following is the text of the law :-
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows : -
SECTION 1. The school committee of every city and town shall pur- chase, at the expense of said city or town, text-books and other school supplies used in the public schools, and said text-books and supplies shall be loaned to the pupils of said public schools free of charge, subject to such rule's and regulations as to care and custody as the school committee may prescribe.
SECT. 2. Pupils supplied with text-books at the time of the passage of this act shall not be supplied with similar books by the committee until needed.
SECT. 3. This act shall take effect upon the first day of August, eighteen hundred and eighty-four.
Naturally enough, in the application of the law, misunderstand- ings arose at first. Many for a time supposed the town was to furnish all the books, whether the pupils already owned them or
129
not. This error corrected, some sought to obtain slates and books by destroying or hiding their own. In trying to correct abuses and make the expenditures as small as possible for this year, we have no doubt erred on the side of too much circumspection in some cases. Further friction was produced in a few instances by the action of teachers who encouraged the pupils to buy certain small articles which they thought were needed, as note-books, rulers, and the like.
In view of the fact that parents are under no obligations to buy articles which are not needed to make good breaks and losses, I think it would be well to, consider very carefully just what the schools require, and having provided that, to prohibit all further appeals to individual generosity.
READING BOOKS.
We have now entered upon a new era of instruction in reading rendered possible by the wisdom of the purchases made by you . under the new law.
These purchases, by the way, include no Fifth Readers for the grammar schools. I am very glad of this, for no Fifth Reader, in my opinion, should be used below the High school, unless it is a very easy one. Both the fifth and sixth readers of the ordinary series contain didactic poems, abstruse essays, learned harangues, and lofty descriptions which are among the masterpieces of English literature, and which no ordinary boy or girl, fifteen years of age, could be expected to comprehend or enjoy. But if we have no Fifth Readers, we have the lower books in great variety, so that pupils below the High school read through, on an average, five books per annum, or forty-five books in the course. That, at least, is what they will do, if the present supplies are kept up, and the pres- ent methods of distribution maintained. Let me describe these more fully.
For the two thousand (nearly) pupils below the High school, we have between two and three thousand First, Second, Third, and Fourth Readers, including copies of Goodrich's Child's History of the United States, parts of Prang's Natural History Series, and other books used as readers, and properly enough to be included
130
under that head. These First, Second, Third, and Fourth Readers do not belong to one and the same series, but to several series, mainly Swinton's, Monroe's, Appletons', Lippincotts', the Eclec- tic, and the Franklin, and, together with the books classed as readers, they are passed around from schoolhouse to schoolhouse every eight weeks, in book-cases made especially for the purpose out of some old abandoned school-room furniture. As the town is divided into circuits, five schoolhouses in a circuit, and there are five times eight weeks, or forty weeks in a school year, the circuits. are completed annually. Such, in brief, is our system of exchanges which, without a material increase in the cost, confers all the advantages of a circulating library, and keeps the schools con- stantly supplied with an abundance of fresh reading matter.
I wish that all the parents could see these books. They are, in the first place, beautiful to the eye, models of the typographers' and the engravers' art that any cultivated father or mother would delight to sit down and examine, if not to peruse entire. Embel- lished by some of the very best artists in the land, no one can see . them without feeling that even the pictures must exert a powerful influence upon the culture and development of the pupils. The reading matter, also, is of the most entertaining description, stim- ulative in the highest degree to the better nature of the pupils, and much of it exceedingly instructive even to & grown-up person.
What now is the result in the class room? The pupil looks for- ward with joyful anticipations to the reading lesson. He does not drawl when he reads. The pieces do not become in a little while too hard for him, and he is never called upon to grind to tatters in perfunctory drill a piece that he hates because it is too hard for him. He is not pushed laboriously up a steep hill, but allowed to clamber to a flowery height. The very abundance of his reading matter keeps him back where he belongs, seeing old words in new relations, until they become perfectly familiar to him not only in form as presented to the eye, but in meaning as presented to the understanding. New words are allowed to tumble in upon him only when he is ready for them. That is the secret of the philoso- phy which underlies our new departure in reading, - new depart- ure rendered possible by the passage of the law so honorable alike
131
to the head and heart of Massachusetts. In the first place, the pu- pil's eye, and, in the second place, his vocabulary, keep up with his reading.
THE USE OF THE DICTIONARY.
The word vocabulary suggests the use of the dictionary. . In keeping the expenditures down to the lowest possible limit the pres- ent year, you have bought no dictionaries, but dictionaries should be bought the coming year for at least one of the three gram- mar grades, and the annual purchase of dictionaries continued until all the grammar grades are supplied. During the first six years of school life the child's vocabulary is built up under good teaching without the aid of a dictionary, but beyond that point a dictionary becomes indispensable to secure the best results.
GEOGRAPHIES.
The free text-book law gave the cities and towns of the common- wealth a splendid opportunity not only to obtain the best the mar- ket afforded, but in several departments of study, notably reading and geography, to break up the monotony and routine of a meagre, old-time instruction. Comprehending the full scope and benefits of the law. you have adopted and made equal purchases of five text- books in geography, Maury's, Harpers', Appleton's, Swinton's, and the Eclectic ; and these geographies, displacing Guyot's, are moved along bimonthly in the same circuits as the readers, so that the pupils get, in the course of the year, the full benefit of the superb illustrations they contain, the pictures, maps, and diagrams, to say nothing of the desciptive portions of the text, which all but bring the world to the school house door.
Whether Weymouth stands alone in the adoption of several equal but independent series of geographies, I do not know ; I have been informed, however, that in a number of places in which the initial courage and convictions necessary for the consideration of the same or a similar adoption were not wanting, corrupt influ- ences came in to thwart it. However that may be, Weymouth moved, and moved unhesitatingly, and the brave but unusual · action which makes her perhaps the solitary exception of the State,
132
is doing much to brighten and improve our schools. An abstract defence of the adoption - if defence be needed - is found in the following line of argument : -
There are two kinds of geography, the small and the large. The former is nomenclatural and statistical, and includes the maps and the map questions. The latter is in a higher sense descriptive and scientific ; it has to do with the great outcome of civilization as it is to-day in the political, social, and industrial world ; it holds up pictures of life and manners, and, through the charms of asso- ciation, invests the Atlantic and the Pacific, the Old World and ' the New, the Mississippi and the Mediterranean, and every other great natural division of land or water with a living personality.
A person does not need much small geography, but he does need a considerable amount of large geography. The former he can get from the railway guide which he carries in his pocket, or the gazet- teer which he keeps at his elbow ; but the latter is more a matter of growth and experience. Any one of the geographies you have adopted would give enough and more than enough small geog- raphy, but no one of them would give enough large geography. Indeed, to limit the amount of the former -" Where is Squirrel Island?" " Locate Alligator Creek," etc. - as well as to avoid confusion arising from the use of several series, we lay out the work definitely beforehand ; while to get a sufficient amount of the latter we read through the whole year's work every eight weeks in the particular geography which is then on hand. In other words, by using the various geographies as reading books and albums, we supplement with fireside travels the bare facts pertaining to size, location, etc., which the pupil is required to com- mit to memory.
That our plan is a sound one, and entirely in keeping with the spirit of the times, I have no doubt ; but I will say no more upon the subject, except to add a few words upon the desirability of introducing
THE SCHOOL SOLAR CAMERA.
This instrument is simply a magic lantern, in which sunlight is used in place of artificial light. Of the one patented by Prof.
133
Adams, of the State Normal School at Worcester, the patentee says : -
The instrument will be found of greatest use in GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, and HISTORY.
By simply darkening the room, selected maps and charts, which other- wise would be too expensive, and perhaps too small, may be shown ten feet square or larger, and brightly lighted. By using two slides at a time maps may be superposed, showing the relative size in a very striking manner. This may be followed by typical views illustrating the charac- teristics of a country, - mountains, deserts, prairies, glaciers, icebergs, volcanoes, cañons, and other physical features and phenomena, the vege- tation, animals, productions, the occupations, dress, amusements and habitations of different classes of society, the street scenes, architecture and customs. These and more may be shown, and all with the detailed accuracy of the photograph, and with the impressiveness [of size. Taught in this way; the real facts being presented through the eye, geography becomes a most interesting study, and progress is rapid and enjoyable.
In the same manner the teacher of geology is able to present physical phenomena, strata, fossils, etc., and the teacher of history can show por- traits of persons, views of places, and the typical scenes of the actual camp, fort, and battle, with a vividness and truthfulness otherwise unattainable.
What the stereopticon is to the lecture platform, the school solar camera is to the class-room. It presents instantaneously and most agreeably a multitude of scenes and objects which the tongue, no matter how eloquent, can describe in but a laborious way and with comparative pain to the listener. As the outside world has testified to its appreciation of the graphic treatment, and we live at a time when everything that admits of a photographic repro- duction or an artist's sketch is pictorially påged for us in one form or another, I do not think we have any right to ignore a labor- saving device which promotes the true work of the school-room to such an extent, and at the same time confers so much satisfaction.
THE FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
Between the free public school and the free public library there should be an intimate and close connection. The two are like the forenoon and afternoon of the same day, - parts of a perfect whole.
134
Instruction in reading should lead up to a love of literature ; geog- raphy should overflow into books of travel ; history should expand into biography, etc. ; and I am happy to say that the changes made in our schools during the past year have directly tended to produce these results. No organized effort has as yet been made, however, to guide the pupil through a voluminous catalogue to the selection of the right books. I recommend, therefore, the publication, both in separate form and with this report, of the list of books con- tained in the Tufts Library, and suitable for supplementary read- ing, which has been prepared by Mr. E. R. Downs, principal of the Bates School, South Weymouth. The list is much needed, and it can be made the basis of concerted action.
VISITORS' DAYS.
During the school year 1883-4, the schools received in all 4,003 visits. Of these, 744 were in Ward One, 1,345 in Ward Two, 972 in Ward Three, 399 in Ward Four, and 543 in Ward Five. For the number of visits paid each school, see statistical table on page 144.
For the year 1884-5, bimonthly visitors' days were appointed as follows : for third grades Primary, Intermediate, and Grammar, Oct. 14, Dec. 9, Feb. 17, April 21, and June 16 ; for second grades, the day following; for first grades, the second day following ; and for the High schools, the third day following. Visit- ors are welcome, however, at all other times ;. and it would, indeed, be very gratifying to me if the parents would make the schools semi-public places of resort. When the schools of a town have reached a certain stage of excellence, they are vastly improved by the visits of parents and others. In a place of this size the schools should have ten thousand visitors in the course of the year.
THE SCHOOLHOUSE OF EAST WEYMOUTH.
As a superintendent of schools, having no faith in the doctrine of village sovereignty, but looking upon the whole town as a union of villages, no one of which should be favored more than another, I have always felt badly that the children of East Weymouth, who
135
are bright, active, and intelligent, and share in the general charac- teristics of the place itself, should not have an equal chance with the children in the other parts of the town; and I have accordingly wished that the policy of centralization and consolidation which is carried out in the other villages should also be carried out here.
In North Weymouth there is one fine, four-room building, first- class in its appointments, and pleasantly situated in well-shaded grounds, which accommodates all the children of the village.
In South Weymouth there are two fine four-room buildings, well equipped and favorably located, which also accommodate all the children of the village.
At the Landing there are, besides the High school building, three schoolhouses, two of which are located in the same yard. These three schoolhouses contain the well-furnished and unusually attractive school-rooms and one commodious assembly hall. Per- haps no village in New England is better off for school accommo- dations than the Landing.
In all of the above villages the schoolhouses compare favorably with the other public and private property.
In East Weymouth, on the contrary, instead of a few well-con- structed school buildings which would not suffer in comparison with the churches, temples of honor, shoe factories, and skating rinks, are seven school buildings, five of which are utterly unworthy of the place, and if not a positive eyesore, at least a somewhat painful anomaly in a vital thrifty spot. These would be a real cause for alarmif the people were indifferent to the appearance and prospects of the place, and no movement had yet been inaugurated looking to the erection of an edifice which would be a crown and honor to the village. Let us hope that the series of drawbacks and mis- understandings which have hitherto retarded progress, is now for- ever and finally concluded, and that East Weymouth will soon be placed upon a par with the other villages of the town, and the town itself made the peer of any in the commonwealth so far as school accommodations are concerned.
·
136
SCHOOLHOUSE YARDS.
During the past summer the children of the Hollis School have constructed a " rockery," and planted flowers in the schoolhouse yard, so that quite a number of people, attracted by the beauty of the premises, have inquired the name of the school and commended the action of the children. I hope that, under your encouragement, the custom of decorating schoolhouse yards will become general throughout the town, and I mention the matter here simply for the sake of giving it a little preliminary advertising.
TARDINESS.
At the beginning of the school year 1884-5, the number of tardi- nesses had become so great that the teachers felt called upon to unite in simultaneous efforts to check the growth of an evil that alarmed us all. I present herewith a table showing number of tar- dinesses in fall term of 1883 as compared with that of 1884 : -
Ward. /
School.
Grade.
1883.
1884.
Ward.
School.
Grade.
1883.
1884.
I.
North High.
10 to 13
208
73
III.
Hunt
7
91
25
South High
10 to 13
37
100
66
6
63
25
Athens
7 to 9
17
1
Lincoln
5
93
34
66
5 and 6
0
0
6.
1
64
40
3 and 4
3
0
Tufts 66
4
39
18
Adams.
5 to
9
66
39
6
2
52
42
River.
1 to
6
14
13
IV. Shaw
7 to 9
43
73
II.
Franklin
8 and 9
87
30
4 to 6
96
12
7
200
25
1 to 3
83
34
1
352
103
Pratt.
7 to 9
12
53
Bicknell.
6
61
54
1 to 6
39
64
5
105
32
Holbrook.
1 to 6
86
46
High Street.
4
2
0
Centre
1 to 6
54
61
V.
Bates.
8 and 9
45
13
66
2
104
23
7
33
14
Grant Street ..
85
43
66
5 and 6
8
23
Pleasant Street.
5 and 6
59
39
Howe.
3 and 4
13
5
1
110
32
1 and 2
68
21
Middle Street.
4 and 5
99
30
Thomas
1 to 6
27
4
2 and 3
65
28
Pond.
1 to 6
31
12
III. Hunt.
9
60
19
Hollis
1 to 6
17
17
8
27
37
Total
2993 1460
1
1
3
50
24
1 to
4
52
38
1
34
25
66
3
38
15
.6
1
1 and 2
66
The co-operation of the parents is needed in this great work of making the pupils prompt and reliable.
137
OUR REPORT SYSTEM.
I believe that our report system is about the best in the Union, and I should like to enumerate a few of the points in its favor : - First. Its simplicity inspires confidence.
Second. It is not the record of results obtained under an iron- clad regime of marks and inquisitorial findings, and it secures the promotion of the right ones in nearly all, and perhaps, cases.
Third. As a stimulus to pupils in the primary schools, the bi- monthly cards of the meritorious are stamped with a star, and in intermediate, grammar, and high schools, the pupils have, in ad- dition to their bi-monthly cards, an annual one, which briefly sum- marizes the former, and, if favorable to the possessor, constitutes, as it were, a letter of recommendation available for use.
Fourth. Reports are sent home with unvarying regularity every eighth Monday of the school year after the first. No newspaper in the land is more certain to appear on a given day than are our report cards. During the past two years, no teacher has, to my knowledge, ever been behindhand in forwarding them.
A RÉSUMÉ OF SCHOOL-ROOM METHODS.
It may be well to give a brief résumé of the methods pursued and the objects sought in each of the studies taught in our schools.
By the purchases made last summer, the reading was placed upon a splendid physical basis, and we are now doing our utmost to place it upon the best educational basis. We believe that if we can but create in a lad a love of reading, and give him in this republican land of ours a good grasp of the newspaper column, we do much towards making him a good citizen. We look sharply, therefore, after the meanings of words, and, while we do not neg- lect the elocutionary rendering, we make the pupil build up a vocabulary - a vocabulary which will be available in his subse- quent correspondence and conversation.
In penmanship we are certainly doing good work, and I hope that at the next Agricultural Fair of Weymouth an exhibit of the · same will be made.
133
In arithmetic we are determined that the pupil shall know the fundamental processes, fractions, the elements of percentage, sim- ple interest, the more important and practical part of compound numbers, including mensuration, thoroughly, and we are trying to develop his reasoning powers so that he will know when to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all plain cases ; but beyond this we are not over anxious below the High school.
In spelling we do not neglect the old-fashioned drill, but we do not carry it to a foolish extreme.
In language we are seeking, as I have already said, to give the pupil a greater range of words, and to prevent him from being all choked up when he wants to say anything ; but we do not despise technical grammar. We have, in fact, great faith in analysis, although not much in minute parsing.
In geography and history we strike out the minutic, and seek to make the leading facts stand out in bold relief. We design that both these subjects shall be supplemented by extensive reading.
In drawing we are doing fair work, but not the best.
In music we are poor, we are wretched, we are a disgrace ; but whose fault is it? Without a professional teacher at the head of the department, we cannot be expected to excel.
Of course I cannot take up the High school studies and speak of them one by one. I can only say of them, in a general way, that they are well taught, and that the institutions which form the cap- stone of our system are worthy of the confidence and support of the people. One must look here to the character of the teachers in charge. These are faithful and progressive and doing enlightened work.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.