USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Weymouth > Town annual report of Weymouth 1919 > Part 6
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Section 2. The treasurer and receiver general shall, as herein pro- vided, distribute said sum on or before the fifteenth day of November, nineteen hundred and nineteen and annually thereafter, to the several cities and towns of the commonwealth as reimbursement, in part, for expenditures for salaries of teachers, supervisors, principals, assistant superintendents, and superintendents of schools, for ser- vices rendered in the public day schools during the year ending on the thirtieth day of June next preceding.
Section 3. For each person employed for full-time service for the entire school year as teacher, supervisor, principal, assistant superintendent or superintendent of schools, the city or town shall be reimbursed as follows :-
(1) Two hundred dollars for every such person who has received as salary not less than eight hundred and fifty dollars and who is a graduate of an approved normal school or college and has had at least two years teaching experience or who possesses preparation and teaching experience accepted in lieu thereof.
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(2) One hundred and fifty dollars for every such person, not included in the foregoing classification who has received as salary not less than seven hundred and fifty dollars and (a) who has satis- factorily completed one year of professional training in an approved normal school or teachers' training school, and has had at least three years of teaching experience; or (b) is a graduate of an approved normal school or college, and has at least one year of teaching experience; or (c) who possesses preparation and teaching experience accepted in lieu of the foregoing requirements in this paragraph.
(3) One hundred dollars for every such person, not included in either paragraphs (1) or (2), who has received as salary not less than six hundred and fifty dollars.
Section 4. For each teacher, supervisor, principal, assistant super- intendent, or superintendent of schools, employed for less than full- time service for the school year, the city or town shall be reimbursed such a fractional part of the corresponding reimbursement for full- time service provided for in section three of this act as that service bore to full-time service: Provided, however, that the person for whom the reimbursement is claimed shall have met the corrsponding requirements of certification, if any, specified in section three, and shall have received as salary an amount not less than that fraction of the corresponding salary for full-time service specified in section three. No town in a superintendency union shall, under the pro- visions of this act, receive reimbursement for the part-time employ- ment of a superintendent of schools if the town is entitled to reim- bursement for such employment in accordance with laws relating to superintendency unions.
Under the provisions of this act, the Town received on November 15, 1919, $11,227.25, divided as follows :
Section 3.
(1) Reimbursement, seventeen teachers, $200 each. $3,400.00
(2) Reimbursement, thirty-three teachers, $150 each. 4,950.00
(3) Reimbursement, twelve teachers, $100 each. 1,200.00
Section 4.
Miscellaneous reimbursement 1,677.25
Total reimbursement $11,227.25
During the summer the School Committee voted to increase the maximum salary for elementary teachers to $1,000 and the maximum salary for High School teachers to $1,200, and asked the Appropria- tion Committee to set aside money from the Reserve Fund to cover the expense from September to January.
The salary problem is still a perplexing one. Dr. Philander C. Claxton, United States Commissioner of Education, declares that the minimum salary for teachers should be $1,200 per year. Professor George D. Strayer of Columbia University says that six per cent of the schools in the United States are closed for want of teachers, and that $1,200 is no more than an "existing" wage and leaves no margin for savings and for culture.
According to a recent newspaper article, out of 650,000 teachers in the United States, 143,000 last year left the profession, and in four years the graduates of the normal schools decreased thirty per cent. One hundred thousand positions are without teachers or filled with teachers below the standard.
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Congress is preparing to expend over a billion and a half for the Army and the Navy during the coming year. All the states of the Union combined are spending less than half of that amount on twenty-four million future citizens. They are expending only about four hundred million dollars on the wages of their school teachers.
An expenditure of a billion and a half dollars means a per capita tax of approximately fifteen dollars. Such a tax levied on the Town of Weymouth for school purposes would net $225,000. In the year closing Dec. 31, 1919 less than half that amount, or $110,000 was expended.
Governor Coolidge in his Inaugural Address makes the following statements regarding education :-
"The main product and sole reliance of this commonwealth is the intelligence of her citizens.
"In our past solicitude for the pupil we have neglected the teacher. In honor and in compensation the profession of teaching is coming to be surpassed by commercial and industrial employment. This has resulted in diminishing the attendance of our normal schools by one-third, and will soon make impossible the securing of trained instructors of our youth. The ancient respect for our schools and for learning cannot be continued unless that respect attach to the persons of those who there teach and lead. The value of education itself is diminished unless it can be received in an attitude of reverence. Unless the teacher amounts to something the pupil will not amount to anything. No talent is too high for education, no price too great for understanding.
"The beginning of the remedy lies in increased compensation for our teaching force. I recommend that this be provided by law. It will be found that the public estimation will follow the public treas- ure."
SCHOOL ACCOMMODATIONS.
For a number of years the Athens School has been so crowded that it has been impossible to do standard work in some of the grades. Last year there was an average of forty-seven pupils to a teacher, some of the teachers having more than fifty pupils. To relieve this condition it was decided in September to place the first and second grades on half time and to increase the teaching force by two, giving the principal an assistant, and providing an extra teacher to do special work throughout the building. This plan has relieved conditions temporarily. The first grade teacher now has thirty-nine pupils in the morning session which extends from eight- thirty to eleven forty-five, and forty-one pupils in the afternoon ses- sion which extends from twelve-thirty to three forty-five. The second grade teacher has thirty-eight pupils in the morning session and twenty-nine in the afternoon session with the same hours for teach- ing. Under the new arrangement the average number of pupils per teacher is thirty-nine plus, with forty-eight as the largest number of children in any one room.
At the present time it does not seem to be advisable to build a new schoolhouse with building conditions so uncertain and the cost of materials so high. Possibly a better solution of the problem would be to erect two portable buildings with a seating capacity of forty pupils each. This method of handling crowded conditions is being used temporarily by many towns and cities. A single portable build- ing twenty by forty-five could be erected complete with heating ap- paratus at a maximum cost of twenty-six hundred dollars. The
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furniture would entail an additional cost of about four hundred dollars. A two-room portable building could be erected for about forty-two hundred dollars, a saving being made by having a single heating plant for the two rooms. Such a building would not be so servicable, however, as it could not be so readily moved to another location nor could the rooms be used as single units without con- siderable additional expense.
We shall need additional accommodations at the High School in the near future. Any portables erected at the Athens School can be transferred to the High School grounds as soon as a permanent schoolhouse is built at North Weymouth.
Health conditions in the Athens School are normal although I un- derstand that a few parents are dissatisfied. There are modern toilets for the children. Besides there is a blower in the basement for keeping the air fresh and pure. During the summer the walls of the basement were whitewashed, the woodwork painted and the pipes blackened. Not withstanding these conditions a complaint was lodged with the State Board of Health which resulted in an agent being sent out to investigate. He reported that there was no ground for complaint ; the building was clean and in good condition.
In East Weymouth a number of the grades are crowded, but the Franklin Building provides abundant opportunity for expansion.
In Weymouth it was necessary to use the whole of the Old Hunt School to provide accommodations.
In South Weymouth all of the rooms in the Nevin School are now being used. An additional teacher was added to the force in September to help teach the fourth and seventh grades. After a careful investigation of the number of pupils who would attend the Hollis School, it was decided to close the building and transfer the children to the Nevin School. Eight pupils in the first and second grades are now being transported from Randolph Street.
EVENING SCHOOLS.
The evening schools, which opened October 24, 1919, have been better attended than were the evening schools of last year. We now have forty-three taking Sewing under Mrs. Ahearn, nineteen in the evening class at the High School, ten in the afternoon class at the High School and fourteen in the afternoon class at the Nevin School.
In Millinery Miss Knight has an evening class at the High School of twenty-one and Mrs. Kelley has an evening class of eleven at the Nevin School. It will probably be necessary to open an addi- tional evening class in Millinery in January.
In the evening Business Department there are fifty-one enrolled ; twenty in the Bookkeeping Department and thirty-one taking Stenography and Typewriting.
A class in Americanization was maintained for fifty-five nights, from May 21, 1919 to October 24, 1919 at the American Agricultural Chemical Works, North Weymouth. The company furnished a room in one of its buildings and the School Department furnished the teacher. Thirteen Lithuanians enrolled. The work was of the most elementary character, as some of the men could neither read nor write their own language. These men showed much interest in the work and made rapid progress. The work was somewhat hampered in view of the fact that a part of the men were out for night work on alternate weeks.
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Next year, if the Committee cares to take advantage of the pro- visions of an act to promote Americanization through the education of adult persons unable to use the English language, the State will pay one-half of the expense.
GARDEN AND CLUB WORK.
REPORT OF SARAH E. BRASSILL, DIRECTOR OF GARDEN. WORK.
Because interest at this time centers in questions of cost and value, I am sending my report in the form of a statement of the gains and honors that have come to Weymouth pupils through the garden work during the year.
Lessons in selecting seed, in preparing and planting a garden, in cultivating and harvesting crops, in storing vegetables for the winter, in weed and insect enemies to crops and in miscellaneous allied topics that came up, have been given in all seventh, eighth and ninth grades. Written lessons have shown how much of this has been learned, but the practical application of the teaching depends on the home conditions and needs. We know that two hundred forty-seven small gardens have been cared for by pupils unaided. Many other pupils have helped in the family garden. There have been twenty- nine gardens of one-tenth of an acre or more.
The State Board of Agriculture allowed our Weymouth Agricul- tural and Industrial Society two hundred dollars for use in premiums. One-half of that sum was given by the society to the children. At the fair in the autumn, the children displayed two hundred eighty- seven plates of produce (there were one hundred seventy-five plates in the adult display). We think that the quality of the children's vegetables equaled that of the adults, indeed in some cases children's products that failed to win a prize were better than some to which prizes were given on the other side of the hall. This one hundred dollars is to be added to the value of the vegetables shown in esti- mating the gain to the children. Products grown and not shown are roughly estimated at five hundred dollars. Inspection of the gardens during the year made it reasonably certain that the display was genuine and the estimate correct. Products gathered up at Weymouth and sent on to the New England States Fair at Worcester received second prize there. A "team" of two Weymouth boys won first place in Norfolk county in garden demonstration, were sent on to Worcester as County Champions to compete with boys from other counties, won the State Championship there and were invited to Camp Vail at the Eastern States Exposition for a week in camp, there to measure up with teams from nine other states. Our boys rank third in demonstration in the Eastern States. One of these boys was in the team that won fourth place in judging vegetables. A Weymouth boy stood first in Norfolk County in market gardening and the same boy will-quite probably-be sent to Washington this. spring as the winner of highest honors in the state. A week in camp at Amherst was the reward for the county honors. In the "club" to which these boys belong there are several members who are doing exceptionally good work.
Weymouth boys and girls have raised sixty-seven pigs dressing from ninety to two hundred twenty-five pounds at an average cost of fourteen cents a pound. This represents about four tons of pork and a value of over one thousand dollars at a low estimate, one-third of which sum may be counted as gain. We have in Weymouth the boy who stands first in the county in the "Pig Club." He also spent a week at Amherst. We exhibited our stock at Brockton Fair and
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won four first prizes, three second prizes and two third prizes. A Weymouth boy won second place and a ten dollar prize in judging pigs there.
We have a calf club of six members, two of whom are a "demon- stration team" and are county, state and Eastern States champions, holding the gold medals awarded at Springfield. One of these boys brought home from there a thoroughbred registered heifer won in the judging contest and worth then one hundred twenty-five dollars. The same boy holds a twenty-five dollar scholarship won at Brockton in judging and a Weymouth boy won first place and a seventy-five dollar scholarship at the same time.
The Home Economics Clubs had thirty-four members who make either garments or bread. Fifty-two garments and eight hundred fifty loaves of bread are part of the work they have done. One of the garment makers was among the best in the county and spent two days with other "best workers" at Amherst. Our bread making team are county champions and hold second place in the state. They spent two days at Camp Vail, and they have been invited to demon- strate at Walpole, at Worcester and in Boston. Six members of these clubs are now leading clubs of their own.
Our canning club members have put up five thousand jars of fruit and vegetables worth one thousand two hundred fifty dollars. Not all of this is gain, but much of it represents value that would otherwise be lost.
Our poultry club is taking high rank. Members exhibited by invitation, at the Boston Poultry Show, and won awards on every- thing shown; poultry, eggs, equipment, feeds, photographs of plants and demonstration. We have the special prize awarded to the boy making the best all-round display. We furnished the Norfolk County demonstration team and one of the two county judging teams and won third place with each among ten and sixteen contestants.
We are sending into the agricultural course in the High School some of our brightest young people,-and borrowing back a few of these to help in the club work.
If it is true that he is a benefactor who makes two blades of grass grow where one grew, then these young people are among those who deserve praise and encouragement.
AGRICULTURE.
REPORT OF CHARLES W. KEMP, DIRECTOR OF AGRICULTURE.
It is impossible for me to report on the year's work with any degree of accuracy prior to September, when I returned to take up the work in Weymouth once more.
There are nineteen enrolled in the department, all coming from the town of Weymouth with one exception, and that boy from Cohasset.
I am following the outline of studies as furnished me by the County School at Walpole, which covers the following subjects :
First year-Agricultural survey and vegetable gardening.
Second year-Poultry husbandry, fruit, swine.
Third year-Dairying, feeds and feeding, soil fertility and farm erops.
Fourth year-Farm management, advanced poultry husbandry and advanced market gardening.
Most of the boys have started on a project with varying degrees of success, which is to be expected, but in each case much practical knowledge is being gained which is the main object in view.
Eleven boys have poultry and gardening projects.
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Four boys have dairy and gardening projects.
Two boys have gardening projects.
Two boys will work on a farm as a substitute for a home project.
One boy deserves special credit for work done in connection with the club work during the year, i.e. : exhibiting at the Weymouth Fair, demonstrating and judging at the Eastern States Exposition at Springfield, judging and exhibiting at the Brockton Fair and judging and exhibiting at the Boston Poultry Show.
The boy in question is Adrian Barnes of South Weymouth and the prizes won are too numerous to mention here, but would total something over two hundred dollars in value.
The boys are showing a real live interest in the work and I hope that the coming year will show much progress in the department.
MANUAL TRAINING.
REPORT OF MISS ALICE L. TUCKER, SUPERVISOR OF MANUAL TRAINING.
The main purpose of this course is to teach the boy the need for thought, accuracy and care, and to correlate hand, eye and brain. In manual training, as in other subjects, it is most essential that the child start right. He must at the beginning learn to use his tools correctly and to master several important tool processes. For this reason, a certain amount of prescribed work is presented involv- ing such fundamental operations as seem necessary for the best development. The models are arranged in progressive sequence with regard to exercise and tools.
Before making a model, the boy is required to draw a plan from which he works. When the article is finished, if the worker cares for it he pays the cost price. The boys are interested in their work and practically everything is bought by them.
In all the grades, the fast workers are allowed to make extra articles involving the same exercises as the models in the regular course. The ninth grade have work in simple joinery, and, after finishing the first three models in the course, each boy who shows ability is given an opportunity to make furniture.
The seventh grade course included hat racks, bread boards, broom holders, plant stands; the eighth grade, necktie racks, scouring boards, blotters and a choice of one or more of the following: Nail boxes, knife, fork and spoon boxes, salt boxes, bird houses, or clock cases ; the ninth grade, kitchen racks, picture frames, tabourets, pen trays, foot stools.
In addition to the above were made milking stools, sleeve boards, medicine cabinets, sewing screens, library tables, telephone stands, chests, magazine racks, a writing desk, and a double runner.
SEWING.
REPORT OF MISS HELEN ROWELL, SUPERVISOR OF SEWING.
At the time the report was written last year the Sewing in the schools had barely commenced; so last year's report was more of an outline of the work to be accomplished. At this time one year's work has been completed and another year's work begun with satis- factory results, and it is hoped that this coming year will increase both the quantity and quality of work.
The seventh grades last year were beginners in Sewing and so their task was to learn the different stitches and seams which form
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a foundation for all hand sewing. Sewing bags, that were suitable for school use, were first made by the girls. To complete the sewing outfit they next made pin balls, needle books, and scissors cases, and to make these more attractive, designs made in Drawing were applied. In order to help with the household sewing the girls learned to make pillow cases, and one class was far enough ad- vanced to hemstitch theirs. To finish the year's work the girls made dish towels that were stamped with an appropriate design, and a simple embroidery stitch was learned and used in applying the design.
The study of cotton cloth was taken up rather extensively as it has such an important bearing upon the problem of the future house- wives. With outside help the girls were able to trace cotton from its planting and growth, through the processes of preparation and manufacture, to the stores and to their own homes, where many kinds of cloth were found. By comparing various samples brought in to school, the quality, use, and approximate cost of the common cotton cloths was discovered and later applied to their own sewing.
Last year the eighth and ninth grades were practically at the same stage of advancement, since they had each had nearly the same work; but as time went on the ninth grade girls were capable of advancing a little faster than the others. As a review of the sewing previously done in both grades the girls first made knitting or laundry bags.
The eighth grade work is a continuation of hand sewing and the beginning of the use of the sewing machine, and it is here that the girls begin to make their own wearing apparel. Chemises, or princess slips were made, and every part was done by the girls from the cutting to the final putting in of ribbons. Different kinds of seams, methods of putting on ruffles, and various ways of trimming were learned. The girls decided upon the most suitable kind of cloth for their purpose and in many cases they were allowed to purchase the cloth themselves, thereby gaining valuable experience in selecting and buying materials. When the chemises were done, the work was continued by making other garments, as petticoats, drawers, bloomers, night gowns, and aprons. The girls of the ninth grades progressed faster and were able to do more work and work of a better quality than the younger girls in the eighth grades.
Stocking darning was done in all grades and since it is such a practical accomplishment is to be continued through every class this coming year. It is hoped that by the time girls are through the Elementary schools they will be skillful along this line.
To increase the knowledge of common household textiles, the growth, preparation, and manufacture of linen was studied. As in the work with cotton, the girls learned to distinguish various kinds and qualities of linen, and to know their uses; and also they were able to apply simple tests for adulteration of linen, which will aid them in selecting goods all their lives.
At the Athens School in North Weymouth, there is an organized Junior Red Cross Chapter, and with the money raised by the pupils the sewing classes there bought and made garments for the Red Cross. By a special arrangement, the articles made were given to the Weymouth District Nurse to be used at her discretion where they were most needed in the various parts of the town. The articles made were three large woolen shawls or blankets, one com- plete layette, five dozen diapers, ten flannel nightshirts for babies, two cotton nightshirts and a woolen bathrobe for an invalid boy. The girls deserve especial credit for their generosity and willingness
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to do this work for those less fortunate than themselves.
At the close of the school year in June there was an exhibition of sewing done by the girls of the Elementary Schools, at the High School graduation exercises. To this exhibition each girl brought one article she had made as a fair sample of her ability. In this way the townspeople had an opportunity to see what was being accomplished by the school girls, and it is hoped that during the year the mothers and friends can visit the sewing classes to see what their own girls and other girls are doing.
It might be interesting to know about how much work was done by the girls last year. They made 132 sewing bags, 122 sets of pin balls, needle books, and scissors cases, 109 pillow cases, 112 towels, 132 chemises, 41 ยท petticoats, 35 aprons, 10 pairs of drawers, 25 bloomers, and 29 nightgowns, besides 150 bags for the Red Cross to give the soldiers.
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