USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Wakefield > Town annual report of the officers of Wakefield Massachusetts : including the vital statistics for the year 1885-1889 > Part 40
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PUBLIC EDUCATION ESSENTIAL TO GOOD CITIZENSHIP.
The National and State Government is considering the necessity of providing more salutary means to educate the youth of our land, by and through the public system of
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Common Schools. The underlying principle of our demo- cratic institutions consists in a free and universal education of all classes of children by the people. The strength and durability of the government, and its power to exercise a ben- oficial influence over other nations, largely depends upon the moral intelligence and mental cultivation of all grades and classes of citizens. The public schools afford the best oppor- tunities and privileges to educate the youth of our land to become good, moral American citizens, for there they all can meet on equal terms, and are taught, in addition to the prescribed studies, principles of obedience, self-government, respect for the legal rights of others, and a morality which expresses itself in character and manliness. Here the chil- dren of different positions in life and nationalities can meet together and by observation, association, recitations, amuse- ments, and the general exercises of the school, form a char- acter which will help them out of the narrow ruts of individualism, when acting for the common interests of society, and create the power and habit of thinking and acting for themselves, which characteristics are essential and desirable for the proper discharge of the duties of American citizenship. It has lately been stated in the Senate of the United States, that illiteracy was increasing in Massachu- setts, and the cause was attributed to the rapid and large emigration of uneducated people coming from foreign lands to our State. It is a sad fact that a large majority of these emigrants, both old and young, come among us with a limited education and knowledge of the nature and practical workings of our institutions. It is stated that there are over 121,000 persons now living in Massachusetts above ten years of age, unable to read and write. This statement should be a sufficient motive for every person to zealously guard and carefully maintain the institution of Common Schools, as affording the best means of turning this current of ignorance into the stream of a free and universal educa-
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tion. It. is clearly proved by official statistics where compulsory education prevails, the working classes, in con- sequence of a better education, are able to utilize their earnings in providing for their families, have more self- respect, a better physical and moral condition, than the corresponding class of citizens, who live in those countries where education is comparatively left to the option of the individual.
Much has been done by eleemosynary and other societies to provide schools for the moral and mental education of the youth in our land, and they deserve recognition for the good work they have accomplished ; but in this self government the public schools, where all classes not only meet on an equality, but all contribute either directly or indirectly to their support, affords the strongest safeguard for protecting all rights essential for the enjoyment of life, property, reli- gion and home. Therefore, it behooves the citizens of Wakefield, as constituting a portion of this free and prosper- ous nation, to encourage, by private and public action, every facility for strengthening and increasing the power and scope of the Common Schools, and on the contrary they should discourage all attempts to lower their standard or lessen their efficiency to furnish all an education which would best equip them for the duties of life and citizenship.
HOME EDUCATION.
Home instruction is a great auxiliary to School education. Here should be laid the foundation for whatever amount of education the child may afterwards obtain. Parents are not generally aware how much home influences regulate the con- duct of their children at school and affect their whole course of school instruction and discipline.
The law of this Commonwealth requires teachers of Com- mon Schools to be competent, among other qualifications to
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teach good behavior, as order is indispensable for the success- ful management of the public schools.
Obedience, so essential for maintaining school discipline, should be one of the first lessons which a child should learn, and be taught at home by parental instructions. Parents sometimes say to teachers, "I want you to govern my child, for I cannot." Rather an unreasonable request, for if the child, while under the hallowed influence of home and control of its parents, cannot be governed, it is quite doubtful when removed from these influences and surrounded by less favorable circumstances, that the teachers will be able to accomplish at school what the parent failed to do at home. It is the ungoverned child at home who generally throws the school into disorder and interrupts the harmo- nious feeling which should exist between parent, teacher and scholar, thereby preventing the whole school from real- izing the full benefit of its privileges.
Other duties of equal responsibility rest upon parents in relation to their children while in the school room if they would have them secure for themselves the full benefit of their school resources. Many parents think they have done their whole duty if they send their children to school, rely- ing upon the capabilities of the teachers and the statement or deportment card of their children as affording sufficient evidence of their deportment in school and proficiency made in their studies.
When the opportunity presents, parents should visit the school-room and learn from personal- observation and exam- ination if their children are rightly employed, their lessons learned and correctly recited, and the relations existing between them and the teacher. Not only valuable and cor- rect information would be obtained, by this action, but the presence of the parent would stimulate and encourage the unambitious child and create a healthy activity and interest in the school. Parents prevented by unavoidable circum-
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stances from making this personal observation and examina- tion should improve every opportunity at home to question their children concerning all their relations connected with the school, and the advancement made in their studies.
The children in our schools are required by law to be taught the principles of piety, justice, truth, love of country, humanity, universal benevolence, sobriety, industry, frugal- ity, chastity, moderation, temperance, and those other virtues which are the ornaments to human society, and the basis upon which a republican constitution is founded.
Instructed in the principles of these virtues, assisted with the teachings of the church and sabbath-school and proper home surroundings, it would seem that nothing could well prevent the children from becoming good moral citizens- except original sin.
LAWS RELATING TO SCHOOLING AND EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN.
The Committee are constrained to call the attention of parents and guardians to the laws of this Commonwealth, relating to the employment of children in manufacturing, mechanical and mercantile establishments. This position is made necessary from the disposition exercised by many per- sons having the management of children, either from pecu- niary necessity, or a desire to relieve the children from their school duties at their own request and solicitation, to obtain for them situations of employment in locations under circum- stances prohibited by law. Section 2nd of Chapter 48, of the Public Statutes, forbids the employment of any child under fourteen years of age in any of the aforesaid establish- ments, except during vacation, unless the child has attended school during the year next preceding such employment twenty weeks, and requires every child so employed to obtain a certificate signed by, or under the direction of the School Committee, specifying full compliance with the law.
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Section 4th of the same Chapter provides a penalty for every parent or guardian convicted of violating the law, by a fine of $20 or $50. Section 5th makes it the duty of the truant officers to visit these establishments at stated times, and inquire into the situation of the children there employed, and report to the School Committee all violations of the law.
Many parents are often compelled from adverse pecuniary circumstances to receive monied assistance from the labors of their children, for the purpose of paying their daily family expenses, but their employment should always be avoided at the sacrifice of their schooling, unless in cases of pressing necessity, for an educated mind is the best heritage which parents can leave their children, either for themselves or the community.
HYGIENE.
The law of 1885 requires that special instructions should be given in the Common Schools relating to the effects of alcoholic drinks, stimulants, and narcotics on the human system, and also that teachers must be qualified to teach this prescribed study. Although the pupils in our public schools have been taught by lectures and from text books the baneful and destroying effects which alcoholic, or intoxicating bever- ages, opium, tobacco, and other stimulants produces on the tissues of the human body, the Committee have been in- formed of the fact, that unfortunately some of the older boys connected with the schools, disregarding their instruc- tions, have met together in secret and sought relief, from the troubles and perplexities of school life, through the soothing influences of the fascinating cigarette, or the aromatic powers of the sweet scented cigars. They and others who follow a similar practice are unconsciously contracting a habit which will probably compel them in the future to make a life con- tract with the tobacco manufacturer and leave evidence of ·
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their youthful indiscretions to be seen and felt hereafter in a disordered intellect, a broken nervous system, and an en- feebled body.
We remember in our school days while strolling through a pine forest, we casually tied the top of a young sapling in a knot, and in after years when it had reached to a goodly size, and continued to grow, the proof of our youthful act was clearly seen by a ridge upon the bark around the trec. The same unchangeable law which controlled the growth and life of the young sapling, till it reached a well grown trec, governs the growth of the human body from youth to man- hood, and all violations of the physical laws of health in early life will be more or less clearly seen or felt when the youth has arrived at the age and stature of man. It is essential that the youth should be instrucred regarding the laws which preserve or destroy health, and the inestimable blessing, or the inevitable consequences which will follow as they are obeyed or disobeyed, for health is a prerequisite to the highest order of good citizenship and a live manhood.
Physical science clearly and plainly teaches, that the un- necessary use of any kind of stimulants either in liquid or solid forms, injures all the faculties of a living body, and observations and experience of others with equal distinctness teaches that habits formed in youth adhere and abide in after years with a tenacity and power that is hard to break and overcome. It is to be regreted that many parents cven including School Committees, teach their children by exam- ple, the use of stimulants and narcotics, but by wise and judicious instruction of our youth relating to their use on the human system, may it not be hoped and presumed, that parents and officials in advancing generations will not be hampered and fettered by the intemperate vices of the pres- ent age ?
Good example is a powerful teacher, and will instruct when the body is dead. Seneca, the celebrated philosopher,
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when he received the sentence of death from Nero, requested that he might be allowed to dispose of his property as he thought proper, which request being denied, he said to his weeping friends standing around him, that since he could not leave them what he believed was his own, he would leave them, at least, "his own life for an example."
TEACHERS' TENURE OF OFFICE.
The Legislature in 1886 enacted a law giving authority to the School Committee to elect teachers to serve in our pub- lic schools during the pleasure of the Committee, provided they have taught in the city, or town, one year previous to said election. This obviated the necessity of choosing teachers yearly, and makes their tenure of office more secure, When a good teacher is obtained, he or she should be retained, for continuity of faithful and efficient services is certainly one of the essential conditions for successful results in the teaching force of our public schools. It is not so difficult to decline voting for the re-election of an unsuccess- ful teacher, as it is to vote to discharge one. The Commit- tee have been lenient towards those teachers who have failed to meet their approval in the results of their teaching, with the hope that they would improve, but frequently their leniency has been unworthily bestowed, and their hopes not realized ; therefore, any measure which will make room for good teachers in the place of poor ones, should receive attention and support.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF WAKEFIELD.
The school year which closes with this report has not been seriously interrupted by any contagious disease incident to children, nor disturbed by any friction created by difference of opinion, which is liable, and frequently occurs between parents, committee, and teachers, concerning the manage- ment and direction of our public schools. The Committee
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are gratified to report that a general interest has been mani- fested by the parents to have their children in school at the appointed time, and to observe and comply with its govern- ing rules, but they regret to report that only a few parents have sought and obtained correct information from personal observation and examination regarding the true status of the several schools. This is an abiding obstacle which seriously interferes and hinders the children from receiving the full benefit and profit from their school resources, and its removal depends entirely upon the will and action of the parents.
The teachers' position is equal, if it does not exceed, in responsibility the parental position as effecting the moral and intellectual education of the children placed under their instruction, and the teachers in our public schools, recogniz- ing this fact, have labored with fidelity and zeal to develop and strengthen the moral character and mental faculties of their pupils, which development and strength lays a broad and strong foundation for success in the general vocations of life. The usual diversity of gifts and qualifications for teaching will be found to exist among our teachers, but Wakefield can claim, for the majority of her public instruc- tors, to possess an average amount of natural and acquired ability for successful and profitable teaching. Teachers who have taught in the same school for a series of years, either from indifference, or want of confidence, are liable to refuse new methods of teaching, and to follow in, or very near, the old ruts which mark their former course of action, even to the detriment of their reputation, security of their position, and the best interest and highest success of their schools. We consider it the duty of every teacher, as opportunity presents, to examine and become acquainted with new rules and methods of public instruction, and, if found to be an improvement on the old formulas to bring them into practi- cal use. The Committee would kindly suggest to our teach- ers, and more especially to some connected with the lower
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grades, the propriety of self-examination into their method of instruction and the management of their schools, to ascer- tain if it would not be wise and prudent to substitute some modern methods of instruction and discipline for those that are now observed, which have become ossified and worn out by age and long-continued use.
The number of scholars registered in our public schools during the year is 1126, possessed of different abilities, attainments, habits of industry, thought and action, there- fore their standing in scholarship is varied aud diversified, but the progress made in their studies and their behavior in school is considered to compare favorably with the improve- ment and conduct of the scholars in former years. The school registers are not badly stained with absence or tardy marks, and the average attendance of scholars in the schools, during the year, has been, under all circumstances, compara- tively satisfactory. This general statement will convey to the town the necessary and desired information concerning the condition of our common schools without a more speci- fied account of each school, but it has been considered fitting and proper to give a more definite notice of the High School, for the reason that it receives so large a share of the public attention, and has supplied nearly fifty per cent. of the teach- ing force employed in town.
The Principal, Mr. E. D. Russell, has received, and still retains, the confidence of the Committee and the esteem of his pupils by his courteous manners and scholarly attain- ments, and under his instructions, ably assisted by Miss Williams, Miss Howe and Miss Barker, the school is in' a very encouraging and satisfactory condition. An entering class numbering fifty-three, together with accessions to other classes, gave a total of one hundred and forty-two pupils at the opening of the High School last fall, equally divided between the English and Classical Courses. The favor with which the school is regarded by our neighbors is attested by
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the presence of twelve tuition pupils from surrounding towns. During the year one pupil of the school has entered Boston College, and two have passed without condition the prelimi- nary examination for admission-one to Boston University, the other to Wellesley College. In June these will take the final examination, and at the same time one will be presented for preliminary examination at Harvard, three at Boston University, and two at the Institute of Technology. In the lower classes the college element is strong and vigorous.
While prominence is given to Classics, the English branches have been strengthened. Study of the English language and literature begins in the Junior year and contin- ues throughout the Course. Physics and Chemistry are given a year each, and Geometry the same time for those who desire to study it. There is a growing demand for a four years' English Course. This will place the two courses on an equal footing, and meet the demands of many who have no aptitude for Latin and still wish a four years' train- ing in English branches. Calisthenics for show has given place to gymnastics, and calisthenics for physical develop- ment, with excellent results.
The cadets have made commendable progress during the year. At their annnal drill, officers and men won merited plaudits for their soldierly bearing, and precision of move- ment. Medals for excellence in the manual, donated by citizens interested in the Company, were assigned after a competitive drill as follows ; 1st prize, Sergt. Creagh ; 2nd, Corporal Aborn ; 3d, Private Ahern.
The school is fairly equipped, but there is need of a fund for the replacing of worn, and the purchase of new appara- tus in the laboratory, and books in the library. Friends of the "people's college," in which the boy or girl who comes with a purpose to improve, is fitted for citizenship, fully prepared for our best universities and scientific schools, and so trained to clear and accurate methods of thought and
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expression, as to enter any business at a decided advantage, can find no worthier object for endowment. Capt. James F. Emerson has recently given the school the use of a Ter- rell electric, signal clock, and automatic gong, which has proved wonderfully helpful, saving much valuable time, and relieving teachers from distracting watching of clocks during recitations.
Only those who have visited our High School realize what proportions it has attained, or how much and how varied is the work accomplished. There are twenty recitations daily, in addition to military drill, and gymnastics twice a week, . drawing, writing and spelling weekly, and rhetoricals and compositions throughout the terms. With the hard work and interminable drill which this program represents, all come to realize, sooner or later, that the High School is neither a day nursery for mischievous children, nor a resort for idlers and loafers ; as a consequence, the school is pro- gressing with absence of friction, seriousness of purpose, and thoroughness of work on the part of both teachers and pupils.
It is estimated from present indications, that one hundred and sixty scholars will attend the High School at the com- mencenient of the fall term. Should this estimate prove approximately correct, additional sittings and recitation rooms will be required to furnish the necessary aocommoda- tions. No definite plan has been matured to meet the desired purpose although several have been suggested and the atten- tion of the town is respectfully directed towards making provision for the prospective exigencies of the school. It requires at the present time three furnaces and five coal stoves to imperfectly heat the High School building, consum- ing nearly sixty tons of coal at a cost of $350 per year, and it is recommended to the town to consider the question whether it would not be an economical policy for the town, and an act of kindness to the scholars, to substitute a steam heating apparatus for the one now in use.
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The Committee have considered the feasibility of building a new school house on Academy Hill, and commend the consideration of this subject to the thoughtful action of the town. Should the town consider it advisable to erect the building, the Advanced and First Grammar schools could be removed into it, and the High School could occupy to entire building now used, which would only be sufficient for its needful accommodations. Reference to the school report of last year and personal examination will convince the most incredulous that the increase of pupils in the High School, has, or will soon crowd it out of its present limited dimen- sions, and require the entire building for its use.
The graduating exercises of the class of '87, were oh- served in the Town Hall, Wednesday evening, June 29th, by a large and well pleased audience, and diplomas were awarded to twenty graduates.
The programme of the exercises is herewith subjoined.
PROGRAMME.
CHORUS. Welcome to Spring, Mendelssohn.
SALUTATORY. The Crusades.
John T. Creagh.
RECITATION. The Chariot Race, . Wallace.
Lila Kilgore.
TRIO. Sweet and Low, Cirillo.
ESSAY. The Faerie Queene.
Ida Smith.
ORATION. The Progress of Liberty, Miss Daland.
E. Amos Knight.
PROPHECY. '87 over the Styx, Miss Haskell. ·
Fred. S. Hartshorne.
SONG. Like the Lark, Eichberg.
PRESENTATION. Class Gift : Books. Julia Flanley ...
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Longfellow.
CONCERTED SELECTIONS. a. Keramos, b. Lodore, Southey. Maud Howard, Alice Burdett, Ella Gammons, Linda Daland, Alice Haskell, Edith McAvoy, Mabelle Sperry. DECLAMATION. Keenan's Charge, Lathrop.
Weldon A. Duley.
SINGING. O, the Fragrance of the Air, Eichberg.
RECITATION, The Leap of Curtius, Miss Elliot.
Isabella Elliot,
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RECITATIONS.
( a. Cassandra Brown,
Messer.
b. The Last Leaf,
George H. Bancroft.
.
Holmes.
VALEDICTORY. The Power of Ideas. Eva Gowing.
PRESENTATION OF DIPLOMAS.
SINGING. Class Hymn, Words, Geo. Bancroft ; Music, Miss Elliot. PRAYER.
NAMES OF GRADUATES,
CLASSICAL COURSE, FOUR YEARS.
Alice Burdette, Eva Melville Gowing,
Linda Perkins Daland, Alice Galacar Haskell,
Isabella Maud Elliot, Edith Evalena McAvoy.
Julia Louisa Flanley, John Thomas Creagh, 1
Ella Morrison Gammons,
Winfield Scott Ripley, Jr.
ENGLISH COURSE, THREE YEARS.
Maud Vesta Howard, Weldon Ashley Duley,
Lila Welch Kilgore, Walter Herman Eaton, Ida Emma Smith, Ernest Amos Knight,
Mabelle Preston Sperry, Albert James Madden,
George Henry Bancroft, Charles Waldo Newhall,
Frederick Stanwood Hartshorne.
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List of pupils neither absent nor tardy during the year :
Frederic H. Anderson,
Edith R. Marshall,
Flora L. Bradford,
Adah B. Phinney,
Fanny I. Crosby,
Emma B. Skinner,
Annie F. Emmons,
Flora A. Staples,
Edward S. Mansfield,
George M. Staples,
George A. Taber.
CHANGES IN TEACHERS.
In April, Miss Luella A. Leavitt resigned her situation as assistant teacher in the Advanced Grammar School, and Miss Kate W. Nash was appointed in her position. In June, Mr. Jackson and Miss Butterfield, assistant teachers in the High School, resigned, their resignations to take effect at the close of the summer term, and at a subsequent date Miss Harriet J. Williams of Somerville, for six years classical instructor in Smith College, was chosen classical assistant. Miss Isabella A. Howe of Cambridge, Principal of the Plymouth (Conn. ) High School, was elected Mathematical assistant, and Miss Grace J. Barker of Watertown, educated at Wellesley College, was elected English assistant. In the same month, Miss S. Emma Thompson, who had rendered valuable services as teacher in the Centre Primary No. 2, for some time, resigned to accept a more lucrative situation in Newton, and Miss Annie E. Tucker of Melrose, a gradu- ate of the State Normal School, was elected to the vacant position. In July, Miss Emma A. Weeks, teacher in the Franklin Street Intermediate School, resigned for a better position in Melrose, and Miss Mattic Bruce of Medford was appointed teacher of the school. In August, Miss F. A. Bishop, to obtain a better pecuniary situation at the West, resigned her situation as teacher of the Franklin Street Pri- mary School, and Miss M. Ada Brown has since occupied her vacated position. In September, Mr. George A. Tyzzer, for a more responsible and profitable position in Natick, re-
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