USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Wakefield > Town annual report of the officers of Wakefield Massachusetts : including the vital statistics for the year 1882-1886 > Part 19
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A constantly increasing growth of water weeds seems to be filling the lake in a manner previously unobserved, inter- fering with both rowing and sailing.
And there is uo remedy known to the Committee to obviate this state of affairs.
Fishing appears to have been as good as last year, so far as the returns have been made, but we regret to say that they have come in very slowly.
Total number of permits issued .
252
Number returned ·
38
Leaving a balance unaccounted for
214
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On which no estimate of catch can be made. Following is a list of fish taken according to returns sent in.
83 Black Bass, 262 Pickerel, 32 White Perch, 1961 Red Perch, 226 Miscellaneous Fish. Total number, 2674. Total weight, 990 lbs.
With the exception of carelessness on the part of holders of permits, in not making returns as they should do, the regulations have been well observed, and there have been no cases of illegal fishing. A party from out of town laboring possibly under a misapprehension of the situation, went out to fish, but were waited on by the executive officer of the Committee who informed them of the regulations, and they at once returned to the shore, and desisted from any further attempt to fish.
All of which is respectfully submitted,
SAMUEL PARKER, JR.,
CHARLES H. DAVIS, Fish HOWARD EMERSON, Committee.
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-
REPORT
OF THE
APPROPRIATION COMMITTEE.
The Committee chosen by the town at the last annual meeting have held three meetings, and after consulting with, and hearing the statements of, the Boards charged with the expenditure of the various appropriations, would respectfully report as follows, and recommend the following appropria- tions for the next financial year.
For Payment of Town Debt, $5,000 00
Interest on Town Debt, 3,500 00
Support of Schools,
16,200 00
School Contingent Fund,
1,500 00
Poor Department, .
4,500 00
Fire Department.
2,000 00
Expense of Street Lamps,
1,200 00
Town House Expenses,
2,000 00
Highways and Bridges,
5,000 00
Repairs of sidewalks with concrete, where abuttors are willing to bear one-half of such expense, ·
750 00
Concrete crosswalks and gutters, . ·
350 00
Beebe Town Library, the funds now in hands of Town Treasurer from dog- tax and . 500 00
Support of Reading Room, .
225 00
$42,725 00
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Salaries of Town Officers to be divided as follows :
For Town Treasurer,
$200 00
Town Clerk,
100 00
Board of Selectmen,
400 00
Assessors,
400 00
Overseers of Poor,
250 00
School Committee,
250 00
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Fire Engineers,
75 00
66
Auditors,
100 00
Road Commissioners,
200 00
Tax Collector,
400 00
Constable and Police,
350 00
$2,725 00
Miscellaneous expenses,
3,000 00
Total,
$48,450 00
We recommend that the compensation of Enginemen for the year commencing May 1, 1884, be fixed at the sum of fifteen dollars and a poll-tax or its equivalent.
Respectfully submitted,
W. F. YOUNG, Chairman, LUCIUS BEEBE, THOMAS WINSHIP, JAMES F. EMERSON, S. O. RICHARDSON, EVERETT HART, T. J. SKINNER, THOMAS HICKEY, JOSHUA PERHAM, J. O. BLANCHARD, A. W. BROWNELL, Sec'y.
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HAMILTON SCHOOL BUILDING.
To the Citizens of Wakefield :
Your Committee ask leave to report that the Hamilton School Building is nearly completed, and will be ready for occupancy at the beginning of the next school term in April.
We employed for architect our townsman, R. Pote Wait, Esq .. accepted his plans, and after advertising, in conform- ity with your instructions, finally awarded the contracts to our townsmen, Mr. David Perkins and Mr. Dennis Greaney, their bids having been, if not the very lowest of the thirteen submitted, manifestly the best, considering as factors their responsibility, and well-known character for faithfully exc- cuting their contracts.
We regret that the cost will considerably exceed the ap- propriation, but anticipate the pleasure of presenting to the town an edifice of superior material and workmanship, well adapted for school purposes, and to the needs of the locality where it is situated.
We think that all who take the trouble to examine the building will be pleased with it, and that no one, after a fair inspection, will complain of its cost.
We respectfully ask the town to make a further appropri- ation of four thousand one hundred dollars to cover the de- ficiency, and for heating and furnishing the building, and for grading and fencing the premises, basing our estimate on the following figures, which show the items of cost as nearly as can be stated at this time.
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Land at corner of Albion and Lake sts., 21,825 ft. $2,481 87 David Perkins, contract for School Building, . 12,550 00
out house, 1,000 00
R. Pote Wait, architect, 600 00
F. A. Lewis, tablet, 110 00
$16,741 87
Deduct appropriation,
15,000 00
$1,741 87
EXTRAS AND INCIDENTALS.
Car fares for Committee to Wey-
mouth, Haverhill and Salem to inspect School Buildings, $10 95
C. W. Eaton, adv'tising & other pt'g, Extra on stock in floors, . 120 00
31 05
" gutters, difference between copper and zinc, 30 00
For tarred paper between floors,
30 00
" painting and tinting walls,
145 00
" coal bins, coal, janitor &c.,
150 00
" heating apparatus, three Kohlar furnaces,
650 00
Estimated cost of grading,
500 00
66
" " fencing,
200 00
" " school furniture.
500 00
$2,367 00
$4,108 87
Respectfully submitted, for the Committee,
LUCIUS BEEBE, Chairman.
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SCHOOL COMMITTEE'S REPORT.
To the Town of Wakefield :
The mariner before he embarks learns his port of destina- tion, examines his chart, acquaints himself with his course, inspects his vessel, tests his compass, and then ploughs his way as directly as may be to his destined harbor, but when, perchance, "tossed for many days in thick weather and on an unknown sea, he naturally avails himself of the first pause in the storm, the earliest glance of the sun, to take his lati- itude, and ascertain how far the elements have driven him from his true course." Somewhat like the mariner is one who leads in a system of public instruction. He must know his port and the course he must pursue, familiarize himself with the changing currents, steer clear of the dangerous reefs, and if he drifts away he must avail himself of the first glance of the sun to take his latitude and return to his true bearingz.
Surrounded by alarmists, extremists, hobbyists and theo- rists, all attacking and endeavoring to change our system of common public schools to suit their various and varying fears, views, notions and whims, it is wise for those who have the responsibility and charge, and those who are most deeply interested, to sit down and "reason together for a season." To this end, let us see what we are, what we have, and whither we should tend. In the first place we must
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disabuse our minds of the prevalent idea that the public school system is organized and our schools established for the benefit of individual children or any number of children ; we must learn that they are not for private, but the pub- lic good, and that individual good is incidental only to the greater public welfare. The State has a right to demand that its citizens become qualified to occupy the stations in life to which they are called, and to take part in affairs per- taining to the welfare of society, the State and Nation, and so far as individual education promotes the welfare of the aggregate population of the State it is competent for our schools to be conducted for individual good. Further than this there is no warrant, either in the law or the Constitu- tion. Taxes should be raised only for the public welfare, and it is for that welfare that the large sums which are ap- propriated from year to year for educational purposes are raised and paid. It is, in fact, taking by force of the strong arm of the law private property of a person against his will, which ought only to be done for the public safety, protec- tion and welfare. Schools are established, school houses built, teachers hired and paid, and all the incidental expenses incurred, upon the theory that it is for the benefit of the State, and so far as any good results to individuals, as such, it is incidental to and absorbed in the greater public weal.
Given then, in a town like ours, the problem-A thousand children to educate and fit for the duties and responsibilities before them in a lifetime so that the welfare of the State shall be subserved in the best possible manner-a thousand children from all the walks of life, some born and nurtured in stately mansions midst luxurious surroundings, others in miserable hovels where gaunt want stalks boldly round, some who from heritage are noble, quick and true, and some whose very look betokens the sluggish blood of a dead an- cestry-a thousand varying scintillations from the Divine Eye, environed in the clay, made life, with bodies, minds and souls, to be educated physically, mentally and morally,
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to be equipped for the various callings, trades, business and professions into which the activities of the world are divided.
This problem was met by our ancestors generations ago, and with such modifications as changed circumstances have required, their solution has remained the true one to the present day ; but the tendency of the present is to drift away from the ancient moorings, and we can be led to adhere to true principles no better than by an occasional restatement of them.
Considering the small proportion of time given to the care of our youth in the public schools, all that was desired could not be taught there, so that which seemed most for the benefit of the State and that to which the force of the public schools could be most profitably and successfully applied, was made the most prominent in the curriculum, and that which could be learned elsewhere to better advantage, was made less prominent. Physical culture, while instruc- tion in its principles was given, was relegated to its more appropriate sphere, the farm and the workshop, and while instruction in morals was not wholly neglected, its more specific and definite teaching was left to the home circle and surrounding influences, so that the chief purpose of the pub- lic schools was to afford an opportunity for intellectual train- ing. This purpose and principle, with such modifications as we have suggested, founded upon the Constitution of the Commonwealth, has run down the ages in our law until it is embodied in our last revision in these words from the Public Statutes :
CHAPTER 44.
SECTION 1. In every town there shall be kept, for at least six months in each year, at the expense of said town, by a teacher or teachers of competent ability and good morals, a sufficient number of schools for the instruction of all of the children who may legally attend public school therein, in orthography, reading, writing, English grammar,
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geography, arithmetic. drawing, the history of the United States, and good behavior. Algebra, vocal music, agricul- ture, sewing, physiology, and hygiene shall be taught, by lectures or otherwise, in all the public schools in which the School Committee deem it expedient.
SEC. 2. Every town may, and every town containing five hundred families or householders, according to the latest public census taken by the authority either of the Commonwealth or of the United States, shall, besides the schools described in the preceding section, maintain a High School to be kept by a master of competent ability and good morals, who, in addition to the branches of learning before mentioned, shall give instruction in general history, book-keeping, surveying, geometry, natural philosophy, chemistry, botany, the civil polity of this Commonwealth and of the United States, and the Latin language. Such High School shall be kept for the benefit of all the inhabitants of the town, ten months at least, exclusive of vacations, in each year, and at such convenient place or alternately at such places in the town, as the legal voters at the annual meeting determine. And in every town containing four thousand inhabitants, the teacher or teachers of the schools required by this section shall, in addition to the branches of instruction before required, be competent to give instruction in the Greek and French languages, astronomy, geology, rhetoric, logic, intellectual and moral science, and political economy.
SEC. 8. A town may establish and maintain one or more industrial schools, which shall be under the superin- tendence of the School Committee, who shall employ the teachers, prescribe the arts, trades, and occupations to be taught therein, and have the general control and manage- ment thereof; but. they shall not expend for any such schools an amount exceeding the appropriation specifically made therefor. and shall not compel any scholar to study
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any trade, art, or occupation without the consent of his parent or guardian ; and attendance upon such schools shall not take the place of the attendance upon the pub- lic schools required by law.
SEC. 9. A town may establish and maintain, upon shore or upon ships or other vessels, at the option of the School Committee one or more schools for training young men or boys in nautical duties ; such schools shall be subject to the provisions of the preceding section, except that the School Committee may excuse boys attending such nautical schools from attendance on other schools.
From the reading of these statutes, it is easily seen that until sections 8 and 9 were enacted in 1872 and 1873 respec- tively, which were innovations, the evident purpose of the law was, to lay a foundation broad and deep of general train- ing and culture upon which a superstructure of correspond- ing breadth and symmetry, or one narrow, contracted and of a specialist character could be reared at the individual's choice. The aim was that the culture provided by the schools should be of a character and kind which would fit cach for the discharge of the ordinary duties of citizenship and to meet the requirements of the ordinary transactions of life, and leave for individual acquirements in special schools the arts, trades and professions by which the business of the world is done. The prime object then of the school system is to afford to all, the means for that intellectual culture which will best prepare them to walk in the divergent paths to which their tastes, inclinations or necessities lead them, and to the highest degree of success in their respective walks. This culture involves the acquirement of a certain amount of knowledge and the training of the perceptive, retentive and reasoning faculties of the mind so that when the intricate questions of business and professional experi- ence arise, the best powers of which the mind is capable may be concentrated for their solution and the ascertainment
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of right and truth. While the perceptive faculties, aided by the senses, those sentinels and couriers to the human mind may be easily trained to their best effort, the retentive and reflective faculties require constant drill and exercise. It is by their own constant use that they are made strong. Anal- ogous to the muscles of the human body in the manner and means of their growth, they are unlike them in the unlimited development of which they are capable. Into what depths of research and reasoning may not the mind of man descend, and to what flights of fancy or eloquence may not the same mind rise ! What phantasms may it not invoke, and what realities may it not draw from the chambers of memory ! Like the muscles of the arm, the mind grows stronger by work, like the diamond it grows brighter by rubbing, and the educator who recognizes the fact that the child learns best who learns from his own effort, has mastered the funda- mental principle of his calling. The teacher who tells the scholar the least, but compels him by judicious measures to exercise his own faculties, does the most towards properly educating him. He develops and strengthens the reasoning faculties, impresses the retentive, and thus prepares him to answer greater demands. It is just here that the great army of theorists of the present day part company with true prin- ciples. They vainly imagine that a child's mind is a vacuum into which knowledge can be poured as water into a reservoir ; that all they have to do is to make school a play house, to tell entertaining, very likely instructive stories, read pleas- antly written books or newspapers, read the lessons which the law requires to be learned and let the children catch what they can therefrom ; perhaps be required to tell or write what they can remember from.a hasty reading, and that this will educate them. Such exercises in proper quantity are very well, and the scholar will gain some information, but they afford only the subordinate part of an education such as the law of the land contemplates, and leaves the child with a dwarfed aud flabby mind, which never knows what
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it ought and can never use what it knows at the right time and in the right place. Education defined as training and knowledge, can come only from work, work, work. "There is no royal road to learning." This much upon the under- lying principles and methods in view of the current criti- cisms of the day. "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh."
By what we have written above we would not have any one infer that we ignore the teaching of morals, or the incul- cation of good habits, for we do insist that the formation of good character and the acquisition of good habits is the great desideratum of young life. It is true that character makes up the sum of human life, and that its maintenance is infinitely more important than knowledge or discipline, and that no opportunity should be lost to comply with the letter and spirit of our statute law, which imposes the duty upon all instructors of youth "to exert their best endeavors to impress on the minds of children and youth committed to their care and instruction, the principles of piety and justice, and a sacred regard to truth ; love of their country, human- ity and universal benevolence; sobriety, industry and fru- gality ; chastity, moderation and temperance; and those other virtues which are the ornament of human society, and the basis upon which a republican constitution is founded ; and it shall be the duty of such instructors to endeavor to lead their pupils, as their ages and capacities will admit, into a clear understanding of the tendency of the above mentioned virtues, to preserve and perfect a republican constitution, and secure the blessings of liberty as well as to promote their future happiness, and also to point out to them the evil tendency of the opposite vices."
The simple mention of these objects of moral training forming the very elements and essence of character, shows a wide field for the observation and action of every teacher and educator, yet a single day's experience in one of our common schools will very likely afford the occasion for his
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dealing with every one of them. They must be handled with tact and judgment, and with such arguments, state- ments and illustrations as shall fix the right principle in the mind of the child, and arm him with weapons to defend it from attack. How ample, then, should be the resources of every educator, how thoroughly equipped should be every teacher. Not alone physical strength, not alone intellectual endowments, but transcending all bodily and mental powers the earnest teacher should exemplify an inwrought moral worth with his whole life and being woven into his pupils' life, and theirs made part of his. He must love them for what the are, hope for their possibilities, and in that hope be patient with all their imperfections.
" O'er wayward childhood would'st thou hold firm rule. And sun thee in the light of happy faces ?
Love, Hope and Patience-these must be thy graces ; And in thine own heart, let them first keep school."
OUR OWN SCHOOLS.
Upon the principles which we have outlined as general, have we tried to conduct the trust committed to our hands. Our success has been varying. In those schools in which the teachers have comprehended these principles and acted upon them, we do not hesitate to say that excellent work has been accomplished. The results in recitation and exami- nation, the power with which scholars are enabled to grapple with new questions, and a gradual but sure growth towards true manliness and womanliness afford ample evidence of it. Some teachers, however, like some other people, are born visionary, and are very much like the boy who runs after the bag of silver at the end of the rainbow, and their work is about as profitable. To say that we are satisfied with the work of the year would not be true, for we know that it ought to have been better, and with a better environment it might have been ; but it can be, however, only when parents
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make education, as we have defined it, the paramount duty of their children's child-life. So long as parties, balls, sociables, entertainments, show and dress, are made by parents of primary importance and education secondary, the work of the schools must remain inferior in quality, and the money, time and labor devoted to them will be partially wasted. When children go to school in the morning with their energies exhausted by the excesses of the previous evening, and perhaps by lack of proper sleep and rest, they are in no suitable condition for the school work, which requires quick apprehension, lively thought and a rested brain and body, but they are dull, sleepy, careless, and perhaps cross, annoying to other scholars and their teachers ; the day is practically lost to them, and the school is injured by their presence. This state of things has become so alarmingly frequent that we cannot forbear to call attention to it, and respectfully ask those, who have the power, to apply the remedy. We would not deprive children of a due amount of pleasure and entertainment, for we know full well how essential it is to their growth and happiness, and with what abiding satisfaction these youthful scenes and pleasures recur to us in succeeding years. It is only the excess and abuse we seek to have remedied. In this behalf will not parents and those having children in their charge sec to it that during their school years they shall be prompt and regular in their attendance, and that their other duties, so far as they can, be made subservient to their school work. If the best possible results are desired, the greatest possible effort must be made. Teachers and Committee will gladly co-operate and the incentive of watchful and anxious parents will be of untold value.
For the last few years the number of scholars in our schools has been on the increase, and the Committee, as ne- cessity required, have resorted to various expedients to keep the expenses as light as possible and furnish the accommo- dations needed. It is unnecessary to say that some of these
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expedients have proved of doubtful utility and all unsatis- factory. At the beginning of the April term of this year the number in the Primary rooms in the Centre, West Ward and Franklin Street schools had increased so much that two new schools were absolutely necessary, and a Primary school was established in the Bank Building at the corner of Rail- road and Albion streets, and another in Mr. Ricker's building near the Junction. These schools were placed under the charge of Misses Minnie E. Emerson and Mary E. Mc- Laughlin respectively. . When they were established it was expected that the new school house on the west side of the railroad would be ready for occupancy at the opening of the fall term. As the character and style of that building were changed, this was found impossible, and these schools have been continued in their respective rooms to the present time, and are necessary till the completion of the new school build- ing. At the opening of the fall term it was found that the number of scholars at Greenwood was too large for the care of a single teacher, and that school was graded to correspond with the West Ward and Franklin Street schools, to wit : an intermediate and primary grade.
More than one hundred scholars presented themselves at the door of the Second Grammar room at the beginning of the school year, for whom the accommodations were totally inadequate, and at once the school was divided, one half remaining in the old quarters and the other going to a room hired for the purpose in Wakefield's Block, and put under the charge of Miss Warren, formerly of the Third Grammar. At the same time the First Grammar School was too full for successful work, especially as it contained quite a number who were promoted as exceptional or special cases, and it became a question whether an unquestionably good school should be injured by over-crowding and the presence of practically two grades, or another school established. The latter course was chosen as the wiser, and twenty scholars were taken from that room and placed under the care of
.
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Miss Ella L. Prime of Salem, in an ante-room on the same floor, which, so far as size is concerned, afforded ample accommodations. In other respects it was not what it should be, but it was the best we had. Thus it is seen that during the year five new schools have been established. This will account for the large outlay of money which a report of our expenditures will show ..
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