USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Weymouth > Town annual report of Weymouth 1921 > Part 8
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Next September we shall have at the High School about six hundred pupils. In order that there may be no misunderstanding as to how these numbers are obtained, the following figures are given which may be verified :
Enrollment, High School (Sept. 1921)
450
Lost membership
19
Graduating Class (June (1922)
46
Remaining in High School (Sept. next)
385
Entering from Athens Grade IX
40
Entering from Humphrey Grade IX
68
Entering from Hunt Grade IX
36
Entering from Shaw Grade IX
15
Entering from Nevin Grade IX
59
Estimated number in High School Sept. 1922
603
98
These figures were taken from the registers the last of December. They may change to a limited extent but not sufficiently to make any great amount of difference.
The present High School was built in 1898 and was made to accomodate a maximum of three hundred fifty pupils, pro- vided every class room in the building was occupied and every seat used. It is manifestly impossible, however, to run a building on that scale as some provision must be made for class room work. The building as it stands will accomodate comfortably less than three hundred pupils if allowance is made for dividing classes into sections and providing recitation rooms.
To illustrate, we have two hundred freshmen. According to the requirements of the State Board of Education, these should be divided in classes which will average not more than twenty-five for recitation purposes, making eight divisions. In assigning these to rooms which seat either twenty-eight or forty-two pupils, there will be a loss in the seating capacity of from three to seven- teen in each division.
There are two ways of remedying this crowded condition. First, we may retain our present plan of organization, enlarging the central high school so that it will be able to accomodate from six hundred to eight hundred pupils, or second, we may change our plan of organization, making a re-distribution of the grades in the different parts of the town.
It has been a common practice in the past to organize on the 8-4 basis, that is, eight grades in the elementary schools and four in the High School. The more recent practice and one which is coming into common use is to organize on the 6-3-3 basis, that is, six grades in the elementary schools, three in the Junior High School and three in the Senior High School.
We have in this town, the 9-4 plan, which has been widely used in this state but has been seldom met with outside of New England, nine grades in the elementary schools and four in the High School. This plan differs very little from the 8-4 plan, the chief difference being that the pupils are admitted a year younger and get a year's additional training. It is expensive, however, and the question of abandoning it may well be considered at the present time when we need more room.
The Junior High School plan could only be adopted if the age limit were raised to five years, ten months instead of four years, ten months, the room now occupied by the extra grade in the elementary schools being used for the freshmen class in the High School. In the three grades of the Junior High School would be accomplished the work now being done in the seventh, eighth, ninth grades, and the first year of the High School, the work of the first six grades being practically the same as is now being done under our present plan.
A suggestive program made by the committee on Junior High Schools is submitted which gives in detail the way such a plan is carried out.
99
Grade
Grade VIII
Grade
VII
IX
5
5
5
(1
(1
(1
5 (
5 (
5 (
Social Studies
(4
(4
(4
Mathematics
(3
(3
(3
5 (
5 (
Science
(2
(2
Foreign Languages (0
(0 or 4
Practical Arts
(6
(2 or 6
(2 or 6 or 8
10 (
10 (
10 (
Fie Artsn
(2
(2
(0 or 2 or 4
(
(
(
Physical Training
(2
(2
(2
Total
25
25
25
The above program requires a school day fifteen minutes longer than we have at the present time but that would not be a disadvantage as our day might well be lengthened.
Personally I prefer the plan of enlarging the High School for the following reasons:
1. The building will have to be remodelled and enlarged anyway. It will not even now accomodate comfortably the three upper classes.
2. The Junior High School is more expensive in the long run as it necessitates introducing the departmental plan in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades. This plan has the effect of increasing the numbers of teachers for any given number of pupils.
3. It would be impossible to organize a successful Junior High School with less than three hundred pupils. East Weymouth is the only part of the town which has children enough in the three upper grades to justify undertaking such a school.
4. It would necessitate a building program in each of the wards which would total a greater expense than would be incurred by enlarging the High School.
5. It would necessitate doing away with the first grade for one year and after September, 1922, the entrance age would be five years and ten months or thereabouts. I doubt if the people are willing to agree to that arrangement.
6. The majority of the Junior High Schools in the state are such in name only. They are doing with a much greater expense work very little different from what we are doing.
EVENING SCHOOL
The Practical Arts evening work in Millinery has proved very popular this year. One hundred seventy have been enrolled in Dressmaking and ninety-two in Millinery, making a total enroll- ment of two hundred sixty-two as against a total enrollment of one hundred twenty-five last year.
New classes in Millinery and Dressmaking, both afternoon and evening have been opened in North Weymoth.
Economically, these classes are a paying proposition as the value of the work done far exceeds the amount expended in in-
(
(
5( (2 (0 or 4 (
English Library
100
struction. Last year the market value of the dresses made in the classes was estimated at $4,066.75, the labor entening into them $2,027.68. In Millinery the market value of the product was estimated at $3,814.95 and the value of the labor $2,305.65. The gross value of the products for the year was $7,881.70. The total cost of running these classes including instruction, janitor service, heat, light, etc., was $1,720.28. Of this amount, the state paid one-half, leaving a net cost to the town of $860.14.
The classes offered in the Athens School were a new venture and the work was undertaken at the request of the state as a number of applications had been received for work at the Fore River Club House. According to the law governing this class of work a person desiring to take it may enter classes in another city or town if work of a like nature is not being of- fered in the town where the applicant resides. The town would have to pay one-half of the tuition charge if the work was taken in Quincy. It was, therefore, considered advisable to open classes in North Weymouth as the cost to the town would be no greater and the opportunity of doing this work could be shared by a larger number of women. That the work is considered profitable and in- structive is shown by the increasing number of women taking it.
SCHOOL NURSE
It was very unfortunate that the work of the school nurse had to be discontinued in June. The District Nurse Association did not feel that it could provide a nurse for the balance of the year with the money appropriated by the town at the annual March meeting. According to a law passed at the last session of the Legislature it will now be necessary for the School De- partment to employ a nurse from its own funds. This will be done soon after January first. Miss Downey did excellent work during her connection with the department for one year and proved conclusively the value of a nurse to the school system.
AMERICANIZATION
One class in Americanization is being held at the High School with an attendance of sixteen. The members of this class are all over twenty-one. The work in planned to the end that those who desire may become citizens. This class comes under state supervision, one-half of the expense being borne jointly by the Federal and State Governments.
SCHOOL SAVINGS
The deposits in the school banks show a slight falling off from last year. This was naturally to be expected when we take into account the business depression which has been prevalent during the entire year. I feel, however, that the children are making a rather remarkable showing, the deposits amounting to over two dollars per capita. A few years ago it was considered almost impossible to get the children in the upper grades to de- posit, but at the present time the grammar buildings are among the heaviest contributors. The James Humphrey School leads the list with a total deposit of $1,751.59. The Jefferson School, a primary building of only four grades has made a remarkable
101
showing with a deposit of $1,193.25. Regular collections are now being made at the High School in order to give those who have formed the saving habit in the grades an opportunity to continue it. The amount collected is not large for the present year but I am sure that the record of the grammar buildings will be duplicated and that in a few years the pupils of the High School will be among the heaviest depositors.
Withdrawals Withdrawals Bal.
School
Balance 1921 Deposits For B. B. & Transfers
1922
Humphrey
$352.85
$1,751.59
$1,538.58
$96.00
$469.86
Franklin
100.27
230.95
121.00
96.73
113.49
Jefferson
292.79
1,193.25
1,040.14
86.11
359.79
Adams
29.19
66.93
47.46
4.43
44.23
Athens
489.71
601.01
552.00
72.74
465.98
Washington
450.03
888.36
929.00
106.59
302.80
Shaw
99.46
142.34
141.50
5.91
94.39
Nevin
253.09
396.50
393.75
31.88
223.96
Hunt
428.63
1,038.89
915.86
58.57
493.09
Pratt
67.69
28.22
14.00
15.26
66.65
High
178.99
124.00
20
54.79
Pond
2.84
25
2.59
Hollis
2,65
1.17
1.48
Total
$2,569.20
$6,517.03
$5,817.29
$575.84 $2,693.10
DRAWING
Report of Miss Evelyn Silvester, Supervisor of Drawing.
The most noteworthy addition to the department this year has been reference material in the form of pictures. Good reproduc- tions of paintings, pictures of sculpture, some in sepia and some in color, of about one hundred different subjects, give us a fair start toward a miniature art gallery for each school. With these pictures we hope to teach the children to appreciate fine works of art and to know intimately the entire collection at the end of their nine years of elementary school training. Also we hope to have the children know the chief characteristics of the style of the work of at least fifty different artists representing the art of Italy, France, England, Holland, Germany, Russia and America.
Ths kind of study lends itself nicely to English composi- tion and is to be carried on in direct connection with that subject.
In selecting the pictures, care was taken to have the subject matter, whenever possible, relate to some other study in that particular grade. For instance, in grade six, the story of Sir Galahad is studied, so we have for some of the pictures, the beau- tiful hand colored reproductions of small size of Abbey's Mural Decorations of the Boston Public Library, which tell the story of the "Quest of the Holy Grail". Where wool raising is studied there we have Millet's beautiful pictures "Spring" and "Autumn" showing sheep grazing in the pastures.
For some of the pictures in the primary grade collections we have fine color prints, reproductions of Jessie Wilcox Smith's delightful illustrations of nursery rhymes and subjects dealing with child life.
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This fall it has been necessary to set aside any extensive applied problems for Christmas in grades seven, eight and nine, as there was not sufficient time after completing an interesting, tho greatly rushed, poster contest for "Good Health."
The seventh grade worked out posters dealing with the foods to eat to make one healthy. Grade eight took for its subject "Healthy Exercise" and grade nine specialized on the cleanliness side of good health or any miscellaneous health topics.
The posters were hung in exhibition at the High School for Health Week and really showed much originality and interest on the part of the pupils.
Local clubs offered money prizes which added zest to the work and the interest of the parents in the work of our schools.
The prizes for the posters best illustrating how good health is to be obtained were awarded as follows :-
Grand Prize $5.00 Jordan Cazeault, Athens School, Grade IX "The Spirit of Prevention."
First Prize, Grand IX, $2.50 Edmund Sylvester, Hunt School "Loyal Companions"
Honorable Mention, Grade IX Raymond Hollis, Hunt School "Couriers of Health"
First Prize Grade VIII, $2.50 Mary Doble, Nevin School "A Home Run for Health"
Honorable Mention, Grade VIII Stuart White, Humphrey School "Healthy Exercise"
First Prize, Grade VII, $2.50 Valerie Hersey, Athens School "Baby Knows What is Good"
Honorable Mention, Grade VII Allen Putnam, Nevin School "Eat Us"
The regular class work proceeds as before; we are constantly trying to improve it.
MANUAL TRAINING
Report of Miss Alice L. Tucker, Supervisor of Manual Training
Although the program of work was quite similiar to that for 1919-20, we constantly endeavored to secure a greater accuracy and care.
In addition to their regular models, the seventh grade boys made toy animals, drawing their own patterns and working them out in the manual training room, thus correlating the drawing
103
and manual training. Several of the eighth grade finished the work of the prescribed course early enough so that they made medicine cabinets, sleeve boards and various kinds of boxes. The ninth grade made many pieces of attractive and useful furni- ture including costumers, trays, stools, folding ironing boards, sewing tables, book cases, magazine racks, telephone stands and stools, piano benches, and blacking stands.
In the spring twenty-five of the boys visited the manufact- uring department of the Paine Furniture Store and then went to a large lumber yard and saw the different processes of preparing the lumber.
This year there are so many boys in the three upper grammar grades that there is not time enough for one person to get to all the buildings, so Mr. Berry is teaching the manual training in the Hunt School.
The spirit is fine and the interest and enthusiasm which the boys show are a great inspiration and help.
SEWING
Report of Miss Helen Rowell, Supervisor of Sewing
During the past year the sewing in the grammar schools has improved both in quality and quantity. A regular course of study has been followed which advances the pupil in an easy and logical manner, with the result that in three years a girl is enabled to do good hand sewing, machine work, and simple dressmaking.
The seventh grade girls have made bags, aprons, pillow cases, Christmas gifts, and kimonas, the latter being added this year with great success. This is all hand work and the majority of girls are capable of fine sewing.
In the eighth grades the girls made handmade sewing aprons and then started machine work. It is planned to have each girl make a complete set of underwear so that she may understand the different kinds of seams, plackets, putting on belts, ruffles, and trimming. The first and simplest article is a nightgown which the girls made and trimmed in various ways. After this was completed they made bloomers, bungalow aprons, and this year nearly every girl made a simple voile blouse and some cotton skirts.
The girls of the ninth grades completed the set of under- wear by making a chimese or slip which was made in several different styles, and a petticoat also made in various materials and finishes.
A year ago we started dressmaking in the ninth grades. The girls were very enthusiastic about making their own dresses, and in every case the dresses were well made, attractive, practi- cal, and wearable. This year every ninth grade girl made either a blouse and skirt or a dress. The girls in the Hunt School did exceptionally fine work both in their hand sewing and dressmaking, each ninth grade girl having made two dresses and several three.
Along with their regular sewing the girls learned to darn stockings, darn tears in woolen dresses, put on patches, sew on buttons, and make buttonholes. They also took up a study of cotton, its growth and manufacture, kinds of cloth and their uses, which will be of value to them in later years.
At the close of schools in June each grammar school had an
104
exhibition of sewing to give the mothers and friends of the girls an opportunity to see the work. These exhibitions were very well attended and everybody was pleased with the sewing.
SCHOOL GARDENS
Report of Miss Sarah E. Brassil, Supervisor of School Gardens
The work has been the same in all essentials as in the pre- vious year. We are working out a course of study more like the one tried when the work was introduced, and abandoned to meet the needs of the times. In the seventh grades nature study is made the basis of the lessons, reviewing, supplementing and applying earlier teaching. In the eighth grade we take up the cycle of the plant life in annual, biennial and perennial. In the ninth grade we study planning and growing a garden, harvesting and judging crops, and storing the surplus.
There is a growing interest in the decorative side of garden- ing, due, perhaps, to the less urgent need of immediate food supply. Since it is as easy to teach the principles of gardening with flowers as with vegetables, that interest is being fostered. At the Shaw and Pratt Schools, the pupils are helping in the care and improvement of the grounds. In the James Humphrey dist- rict, the pupils are working out plans for home grounds; and at the Edward B. Nevin School cuttings have been rooted and set out for use later on the lawn.
Although the work under consideration was introduced as "gardening" and is still so listed, it has grown to include various forms of agriculture and home making encouraged by the Ex- tension Department of M. A. C. This opens the way for any boy or girl who wishes to do more than the required work through a membership in one of the many clubs organized by the Junior Extension of the college.
Our garden club leads off with a Weymouth boy, who, having done the best work in Norfolk County in 1920. spent two weeks in camp at the college grounds this summer and is now in line for the state championship.
Canning naturally follows. We have held second, first and second places through three successive years. Also we held the garment making championship in 1990 'due to the excellent foundation laid in the sewing course.) We hold the bread making championship for 1921 and one girl has been commended for "good all round work."
We have a strong poultry club, the president of which is second in the country in 1920 and 1921 and we have a "small fruit" club just starting off with members in the Edward B. Nevin and Pratt Schools and with several possible members at the Hunt School, where the project is under consideration.
We have been asked to work out for eastern Massachusetts, a new project intended to interest young people in their own home problems through direct interest in their own rooms.
A distinguished feature of all this club work is that it is meant to be done at home with the approval and advice of the parents making the home the center of interest. .
Weymouth products have been exhibited at the Weymouth Fair, at the Norfolk County Fair at Walpole, at Springfield and
105
at the Boston Poultry Show, and at each place they have stood well.
On the whole it has been a busy year with, we believe, credit- able results.
AGRICULTURE
Report of Mr. Charles W. Kemp, Director of Agriculture.
Our total enrolment for the year was twenty-three. The State Department of Education recommends that a department similar to ours should not run many over twenty.
Four boys graduated last June and received their diplomas. One other received a certificate for the completion of two years' work in the department. Of these five boys, four are today taking advanced work at the Agricultureal College at Amherst. One is specializing in Forestry, two in Dairy Manufactures, and one in Poultry Husbandry. The fifth boy is running a retail milk proposition of his own. Each day he furnishes milk in half-pint bottles to the High School lunch counter. This allows the High School students to have fresh milk of good quality, not opened after being bottled until the student lifts the cap at his or her lunch period.
This year the boys have carried on some very good projects and in several cases of considerable size. The largest individual project consisted of a one and one-sixth acre garden and two hundred fifty day old chicks. He made as a return for his labor, over and above all expenses, five hundred fifteen dollars. This boy is one of those mentioned as taking advanced work this year at Amherst.
Ten boys in the department have poultry projects. The total number of chicks bought or raised was fifteen hundred, making an average of one hundred fifty per boy. The largest individual flock was two hundred fifty and the smallest seventy-five. The largest flock of pullets being wintered over by one boy is ninety.
As usual some of the boys have shown birds at the fairs. This year birds were exhibited at the Weymouth Fair and the Boston Poultry Show. The following table shows the distribution and value of money prizes received during the year, not including forty-seven ribbons won :-
Exhibit Vegetables Fruit $7.00 $50.50
Poultry General Exhibit
Total
Value of
Prizes $26.50
$10.00 $94.00
Eight boys having garden projects had a total of seven acres under cultivation. The largest single lot was carried on as a joint project by two of the boys, having one and one-half acres planted to sweet-corn, string and shell beans.
The largest cash return on any single garden above expenses, not counting the boy's labor, was two hundred sixty dollars, made mainly on sweet corn retailed to neighboring families.
I make a point during the year of taking the various divisions to places carrying on the type of agriculture being studied. The following are some of the places visited during the past year :-
106
PLACE
Mr. Thomas Nettles, S. Weymouth
Thomas Chisholm, S. Weymouth
(Former Student) Mr. H. H. I. Smith,
Weymouth Heights
Arnold Arboretum, Forest Hills Weymouth Ayrshire Farm N. Weymouth
Charmada Farm, S. Weymouth
OBJECT OF VISIT
To see registered Poland China Pigs.
To see milking machine and ob- serve silo filling.
To observe coal and oil burning brooders, brooding chicks.
To observe shrubbery and land- scape garden effects.
To judge pure Ayrshire stock
To observe dairy barn construc- tion and to see registered Ayr- shire stock
Wampatuck Farm, Canton.
Bradley's Horse Stable
To see milking Shorthorn cattle of show quality To see Arabian Horses.
Personally I feel that a great deal of valuable information was received by the boys through these visits, and I would like to publicly thank all who have so kindly given their time and allowed us the freedom of their places.
The work of the year has been much facilitated by the hearty cooperation and valuable suggestions of the Superintendent of Schools and the Principal of the High School.
GENERAL
I wish to call attention to the fact that for the first time in the history of the town we have passed the three thousand mark in: actual school attendance, the total enrollment anounting to 3,087 and the average membership to 2,873.8. As can easily be imagined it has been difficult to arrange for the schooling of this increased number of children, particularly with the constant change from Continuation to regular schools of the pupils between the ages of fourteen and sixteen. It has been necessary to take from the attics and storerooms of the buildings all the extra furniture, repair it, and place it in use, so that today we are faced with the condition of having practically every available seat in use. .
The schools were in session one hundred eighty-six days in the grades and one hundred eighty-seven days in the High School, as compared with one hundred eighty days for 1920 and one hundred seventy-three days for 1919.
We have had fewer changes in the teaching force than for the last few years and I am glad to report that there has been a distinct improvement in the ease with which trained teachers can be secured.
In conclusion I wish to thank the committee, teachers, and the community for their hearty support throughout the year.
Respectfully submitted
PARKER T. PEARSON Superintendent of Schools
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APPENDIX
CHANGES IN THE TEACHING FORCE, 1921 RESIGNATIONS
High School-Edward W. Ellsworth, Science. Athens School-Howard W. Wilbur, Principal; Lucy A. Money Asst., Grade IX; Ruth E. Sladen, Grade II. James Humphrey Schol-Annie A. Fraher, Grade VI. Hunt School-Myra F. McGuirk, Grade VIII. Nevin School-Amy J. Tomlinson, Grade VIII. Pond School-Helen M. Pratt, Grades I-III. School Nurse-Mary A. Downey.
LEAVE OF ABSENCE
High School-Louise A. Morrison, Latin.
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