USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Wakefield > Town annual report of the officers of Wakefield Massachusetts : including the vital statistics for the year 1890-1893 > Part 45
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Our teachers are appointed for one year unless otherwise stated, and it is but just that they should consider themselves bound for that length of time, provided they do their work satisfactorily. But we have learned by experience that all do not consider them- selves so bound. We have several times been put to much incon- venience and trouble by the sudden resignation of a teacher in the middle of the year, or perhaps in mid-term. Sometimes our first intimation of a teacher's leaving is an application for her position by some out-of-town resident. Committees are not inclined to be unreasonable or to stand in the way of a teacher's bettering her condition, but it seems hardly just that teachers should withhold their resignation until the last moment, without even a previous request or suggestion that they would like to be relieved. We are glad to say that there have been so.ne exceptions. The blame
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does not always rest wholly with the teacher. Committees or superintendents of other towns, desiring a good teacher, visit some school in a neighboring town, and, if they like the teacher's work, offer her a position at an advanced salary.
It is hard to replace a good teacher at any time, and especially so upon short notice ; consequently in such cases teachers are retained if possible. Formerly we were greatly troubled in this way with primary teachers, and the only remedy was to increase their pay to correspond with neighboring towns. The same course should be pursued in some other grades, especially in the High School. It is often said that there are plenty of teachers to take the places of those who leave. This is a fact, but it is neither pleasant nor profitable for our town to be a training school for untrained teachers, and then lose them because neighboring towns will pay more than we can.
Good teachers are plenty, but the demand for such is larger than the supply. In all kinds of business inefficient workmen find it hard to obtain work, fair workmen obtain fair average wages, while those ranging from good to excellent are seldom in want of work at wages corresponding to their abillties, and the profession of teaching is no exception to the above.
It is thought by many that school boards in appointing teachers should give the preference to graduates of their own schools. Our endeavor is always to get the best, irrespective of their place of residence, but, other things being equal, residents of our own town are given the preference.
THE HIGH SCHOOL.
Whoever originated the above title evidently had in mind a high ideal, and the Committee have endeavored to keep the school at least above the average, and, with the assistance of an efficient corps of teachers, we feel that we have not entirely failed Our school increases in numbers from year to year, and the graduat- ing classes are proportionately large. Though the teachers are doing good work they are laboring at a disadvantage. Under the present conditions, classes are limited to a minimum amount of time for recitations, and even with this arrangement it has been
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found necessary to omit rhetoricals from the course of study. The size of the school and the work requires another assistant.
During the summer vacation one of the class rooms on the third floor was enlarged and fitted up for a physical laboratory, and with the money which the town generously appropriated for the purpose, the room has been supplied with much needed new and modern apparatus, and is now one of the best equipped physical laboratories in the county if not the state. The former laboratory, on the first floor, has been arranged for the use of the committee, while the room vacated by them on the second floor is now used as a class room. This gives the entire second, and a part of the third floor of the building to the use of the High School.
The distribution of tickets for the graduating exercises has been a disagreeable and perplexing duty, and the methods of former years proving unsatisfactory alike to the committee and the public, it was decided last year to adopt another method, and, after reserving seats for those most directly interested, the balance of the tickets were sold at ten cents each, the proceeds being used to defray the expenses.
It is a serious question with the Committee whether it is not best to omit these graduation exhibitions. They are expensive in every way, both to the town and to graduates. It takes valuable time from the school work; time which, especially to those pre- paring for college, is a decided loss. In fact, the good, if there be any, resulting from these exhibitions, does not in any degree balance the time, labor and expense necessarily spent in prepara- tion. In neighboring towns they are doing away with these exercises.
Parents or those interested can get a much better idea of the real merit of the school and its work by visiting the school and hearing the recitations of different classes, and such visits would be a great encouragement to teachers and pupils, and would be gladly welcomed by all.
The graduating exercises occurred in the Town Hall on Wed- nesday evening, June 24. The exercises were interesting, the various parts being well rendered and creditable alike to teachers and scholars.
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PROGRAMME.
CLASS MOTTO, -" Doe Ye Nexte Thynge."
OVERTURE. March from "Suite." . Franz Lachner. Wakefield Orchestral Club.
Music. "Damascus Triumphal March." Costa.
SALUTATORY.
Words of Welcome in Greek.
Grace Belle Day.
ORATION.
" The Mission of America."
John Jay Round.
DECLAMATION. "Jacques Dufour." . Wm. W. Howe. Flora Louise Bradford.
SEMI-CHORUS. " Old German Shepherd Song." Wilhelm Kienzel.
ESSAY.
" A Study of the Heavens."
Dora Adelaide Laybolt.
ENGLISH HONOR ORATION. "Climbing and Sliding."
James Edward McMahan.
CLASS HISTORY. " Looking Backward." Ada Estelle McAllister.
MUSIC. "Beneath the Shade." . Meyerbeer.
ORATION. " A Roman Triumph." Eden Kirk Bowser.
ESSAY. " Libraries and their Relation to Schools." Alice Boutelle Whiting.
DECLAMATION. " A Famous War Lyric." John G. Whittier. Rosetta Hollis.
MUSIC.
"Awake! Awake ! The Flowers Unfold." Henry Leslie.
ESSAY.
" The Uses of the Electric Light."
Edward Barker. ·
ESSAY. "Flowers, Old and New." Jennie Whittemore Potter.
DECLAMATION. " Personal Responsibility." William Everett Kernan.
TRIO. The Miller. G. A. Veazie. ESSAY. "The Ocean and its Life." Lizzie Mabelle Wyman.
DECLAMATION. " Daddy Worthless." . Lizzie W. Champney. Ada Mana Phipps.
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CLASS PROPHECY. "Our Destiny." Fred Bertram Cutter.
Music. "The Vesper Bells." '
DECLAMATION. " The Rajah's Clock." Annie Helena Burnham.
VALEDICTORY. " Doe Ye Nexte Thynge." Annie Gertrude Balch.
PRESENTATION OF DIPLOMAS. By Chairman of Committee.
CLASS ODE, . Written by Annie Rebecca Abbott.
BENEDICTION.
Rev. N. R. Everts.
CLASS ODE.
WRITTEN BY ANNIE R. ABBOTT.
The time has come for leaving The school. where Ninety-one Has spent so many happy hours In study and in fun. (), happy High School days, To thee, "Good bye," we sing :
May we ever heed our motto, And each " Doe ye nexte Thynge."
The life that lies before us Has work for all to do. May each be ready for it. And never prove untrue. Good bye. dear High School days ; Farewell, to teachers, kind; Farewell, to old companions ; - And the life we've left behind.
NAMES OF GRADUATES.
CLASSICAL COURSE.
Annie Rebecca Abbott, Annie Gertrude Balch, Eden Kirk Bowser,
Flora Louise Bradford, Grace Belle Day, Ada Estelle McAllister.
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ENGLISH COURSE.
Edward Barker,
James Edward McMahan,
Annie Helena Burnham,
Fred Bertram Cutter,
Jennie Whittemore Potter,
Rosetta Hollis,
John Jay Round,
William Everett Kernan,
Alice Boutelle Whiting,
Dora Adelaide Laybolt,
Lizzie Mabelle Wyman.
HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL'S REPORT.
MR. A. H. THAYER, Chairman of School Committee :
MY DEAR SIR,-In accordance with your request for a "re- port of the condition of the school, the work being done, and its general needs," I have the honor of submitting the following facts and suggestions.
The record of the High School during the past year certainly compares favorably with that of any similar period since the en- gagement of the present Principal. Not only can it be said that more work and better work has been done, but also a number of important improvements have been made, which have aided ma- terially in accomplishing this result.
What is true in the business and the political worlds is equally true and ought to be true in the educational world. Activity and progress is the watchword. New ideas, greater helps, better methods, and higher aims are supplanting those of the past, and while it is the part of wisdom to exercise a due conservatism before adopting the new for the old, changes must certainly be made from time to time, if schools are to reach and maintain the high standards the public expect.
For a year or two it has been seen that the High School course of study needed revision. After carefully examining the work which was being done in some of the most advanced schools of the state, a new course of study was prepared and adopted at the beginning of the present school year. This cannot fail to be a positive benefit to the school.
Ada Mana Phipps,
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A more systematic arrangement has been made of the studies in each course. Equal consideration has been given to the English Course with the Classical. Heretofore three years were given to the former and four to the latter. At present both courses con- tinue four years. A thorough review of general history is now required of all pupils, instead of those of any particular course ; and English history, which, in a certain sense, is American his- tory up to the time of the Revolution, becomes a regular study for the first time in the school.
But perhaps the most important change in the whole curriculum is the requirement for all pupils to take a thorough study of the English language and its literature throughout the entire course. Too much attention can hardly be paid in teaching scholars to speak properly and write correctly their own language, while at the same time acquiring a knowledge of its history and a love for its classics.
The rapidly increasing demand for college preparatory work made it imperative that a systematic course be prepared in these branches, not alone that more satisfactory work might be done, but that it might be simplified, each institution re- quiring preparatory work peculiar to itself. The number of pupils seeking this work has increased nearly fourfold during the past three years. Twenty per cent of the whole school is now engaged in college preparatory studies. The course is definitely arranged for entrance into Harvard College, such a preparation being sufficient to meet the demands of any college or technology school. It really ought to be a source of gratification to the citizens of Wakefield that so many of its young people are seeking higher education, and that the graduates of its High School can pass without further expense or study to their collegiate and professional schools.
The teaching of science has undergone a radical change during the past few years. The old method of memorizing dry facts and principles has given place to the reasonable and natural method of studying by experiment. The Chemistry Laboratory was fitted up three years ago, and has proved a most valuable aid in the work of the school. A study which had been the most unin-
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teresting, suddenly became the most popular. In accordance with the same policy, a room on the third floor, little used, was remod- elled and enlarged into a commodious and well-arranged Physical Laboratory. A wise use has been made of the appropriation of two hundred dollars voted by the town at its last annual meet- ing for the purchase of apparatus. Much of the old apparatus was either worthless or required extensive repairs, while many modern machines and instruments were needed that had never been owned by the school.
Especially was this need true in the department of electricity, a study of which comparatively little was known a few years ago, but which to-day has grown to so great practical importance and interest. Other sciences, as Geology, Astronomy, Botany, and Physiology, are taught, as far as possible, by natural methods, thereby ingrafting in the minds of the pupils the invaluable lessons of observation and investigation. While the most noticeable ad- vance has been made in science teaching, still the departments of History, Language, and Mathematics have not been neglected, the keynote of the instruction being to lead the pupil to think and investigate for himself, - in short, to obtain an education, not merely knowledge.
Another improvement, and a great convenience, is the change of the committee room from the second to the first floor, thereby furnishing three recitation rooms on the same floor with the main room of the school and doing away with the use of one flight of stairs.
The general attendance of the school is not as high, in my opinion, as a school of its character ought to have. The excuses for absence, tardiness, and dismissal are in many instances trivial. No student can be away from his studies one day without loss, and no school can take a high standard of scholarship or deport- ment when its per cent of attendance is low. No parent should allow his son or daughter to be absent from school, except upon the most urgent necessity, and then an adequate excuse should always accompany the return of the scholar.
The deportment of the pupils is as a whole very satisfactory. The placing of the military organization directly under the control of the School Committee, and the advance of each cadet being
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dependent strictly upon his record of scholarship, deportment, and military proficiency has been a great aid to discipline. The system of government in the school, that of considering the pu- pils young men and young women, has certainly raised the tone of the school. There are individual cases where an appeal to honor has little avail, but proper warning and frequent encouragement seldom fail to have the desired effect.
Such in general is the condition of the High School at present. The one hundred and twenty scholars are in most cases doing work with credit to themselves and satisfaction to their instruct- ors. I consider the school in good condition, but more teaching force is needed for its improvement and the best interests of the town. Last year an extra teacher was employed on account of the delay in opening the school in the fall. This year with four teachers it is impossible to do all the work assigned. In conse -_. quence, the important exercise of Rhetoricals, with its drill in speaking and practice in writing, has been dropped, and recitation periods have been shortened. The need of another assistant is urgent. Other schools, doing similar work with the same number of pupils, have five and six teachers, and oftentimes one of them is a sub-master. I am sure that the extra expense of an additional teacher would be more than met by better results in the school.
The school needs a number of first-class reference books. A new encyclopædia has not been added for years. The facilities of the school in this regard have not kept pace with other improve- ments. It would be a grand idea, if a separate appropriation of fifty or seventy-five dollars were made each year for this pur- pose. Reference books are costly, and such an amount would not be unreasonable. The purchase of the Century Dictionary by the School Committee during the past year was a splendid service for the school.
It is unfortunate that the public library is not in a building in which ample facilities could be furnished for the direct use of the books by the pupils of the High School. Every courtesy and aid that can be granted is given at the library at present, but it might be made a most valuable auxiliary to our schools if some ·means, as a separate room, were provided, where students could consult books of history, science, and literature, previously as-
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signed for study or reference by the teachers. When a pupil takes a book away from the library, its use is destroyed for the rest of the class.
In conclusion, an urgent need of our High School to-day, which would have as marked an effect upon the scholars and the teach- ers as any I could mention, and one, too, which would require no appropriation and very little effort, is the personal interest in the school of parents and citizens, manifested by their visits, while the school is doing its regular work.
Very respectfully yours,
C. T. C. WHITCOMB, Principal.
CADETS.
Under their able instructor, Lieut. Philip. J. Flanders, the cadets still maintain a high rank in the Second Mass. School Regiment, and made a very creditable showing at the Second Annual Field Day at Lynn, May 9, 1891, standing third in the list of competitors.
While under some conditions military drill in the schools may prove objectionable and harmful, under proper restriction and control it proves a benefit. There are very few young men who do not take a lively interest in military matters. The method adopted last year of making promotions conditional upon general good character as well as faithfulness in school work and military fitness, is a strong incentive to be deserving of promotion. The cadets are to be commended for the good work already accom- plished and we hope and expect that they will maintain the high position which they have attained.
CHANGES.
In September Miss I. H. Howe resigned her position as assist- ant in the High School to accept a position in one of the Cambridge schools, and Miss M. Sprague, a temporary teacher, was elected to fill the vacancy.
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At the beginning of the fall term Miss Whitman was transferred from the Greenwood Intermediate school to the Centre First Inter- mediate in place of Miss Charles, who was granted leave of absence owing to ill health. Miss Theodora Teague, who had been acting as assistant in the Centre Third Grammar was appointed to the vacancy at Greenwood, but had hardly com- menced her labors when she was offered a higher salary at · Melrose, and the committee reluctantly accepted her resignation, and appointed Miss L. P. McCormick, a teacher of experience, and with excellent recommendations, to fill the vacancy.
Soon after the opening of the fall term Miss Marion Fish, assistant in the Advanced Grammar school, received an offer from the committee of Quincy, of a position in the High school of that town, and the committee were obliged to lose an efficient assistant, but were very fortunate in securing Miss A. L. Batt, of Concord, Mass.
In January, just before the beginning of the winter term, Miss E. R. Sanborn, who had taught successfully for the past seven years, resigned, to accept a life position as assistant in a more agreeable line of duty. To fill the vacancy, Miss Nellie F. Emer- son was transferred from the East Ward school, where she had taught for the past four years, and Miss Whitman was appointed to that school, Miss Charles resuming her former position as teacher of the First Intermediate school.
Soon after the beginning of this term, Miss Marshall, whose parents had removed to Antrim, N. H., resigned her position, as assistant in the West Ward Primary school, and Miss H. J. Ardill, a High School graduate of the class of '88, also a pupil of the Normal school at Salem, was appointed assistant in that school.
We would again call attention to the disagreeable fact of the liability of losing efficient teachers, especially in the higher grades, because of our inability to pay such salaries as will retain the class of instructors, which the committee desire should have charge of our schools.
PRUDENTIAL.
The West Ward school-house has been repaired and painted, and lake water put into the building. This was necessitated by the poor quality of the well water, which was offensive both in
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taste and odor, notwithstanding the fact that the well had been thoroughly cleaned and the old pump replaced by a new one. The Water Company's mains are not laid along this section of the street; consequently, as the Water Company gave no encour- agement of laying their pipes any nearer, the committee, after deferring action for a year, were obliged to lay a long line of ser- vice pipe to the building at an expense of about $90.00.
Lake water has also been put into the North Ward school- house, water for this building having been supplied for several years by the neighbors. The well at the Woodville school has been cleaned out, and the pump was removed from the West Ward to this well.
The Hamilton school yard has been graded with soil taken from the cellar of the new school-house on Academy Hill. This grad- ing was much needed, as the street sidewalks had been raised, causing the water to settle in the school yard. Owing to the expense, where filling must be bought, the committee had post- poned the work from year to year; but having this opportunity to obtain the soil for the cost of carting, arrangements were made with Mr. Dow, and over one hundred loads of filling were spread around the yard.
The school buildings at the North Ward, East Ward, Wood- ville, and Franklin street need painting; and the Greenwood school-house needs shingling ; and the walls and ceilings of this and the East Ward building need painting and tinting. This is also the case at the High School building in the Advanced Gram- mar school room and in all halls and class-rooms, very little hav- ing been done to these rooms, since the building was first erected.
The heating and ventilating of the Franklin street building has been greatly improved by the committee appointed by the town to have charge of warming and ventilating the High and Franklin street buildings. A contract was made with C. M. Drennan & Co., of Boston, who put in an arrangement for warming and ven- tilating the entire building by one of Gold's Hygeian heaters, which is working satisfactorily and has been approved by Mr. J. T. White, State Inspector.
The heater and flues are so arranged that, in case the building is enlarged at any time, the apparatus would need only to be dupli-
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cated without disturbing the present arrangement. The condi- tion of the air in rooms which are well ventilated is in strong contrast to those not so ventilated, the air in these latter being so close and disagreeable as to be almost unbearable to those who are accustomed to fresh air.
EXPENSES.
The Committee each year make an estimate as closely approxi- mate as possible to the amount needed for the different depart- ments. It seems to be the opinion of some, that the Committee frequently ask for considerably more than is actually required, but such is not the fact; they are more inclined to ask for less, rather than more, than they believe is needed. For instance, four school buildings need painting outside; three need renovating inside; the halls and class rooms of the High School building need repairing ; another building needs shingling; now which of these much needed improvements shall be done this coming year, and which shall be left undone? And so in other departments. The Committee see changes and improvements which might be made with advantage to the schools, but they are deterred because of the expense, and make only such improvements as are felt to be absolutely necessary.
Each year the Committee determine to keep the expenses within the appropriations, if possible, but frequently find at the close of the year that this or that department has over run. Parties having accounts with the school department of the town are largely to blame for this, as bills are not sent in promptly, or with any regularity, and near the close of the year bills are sent in, which, in some cases are unexpectedly large, while others come too late for settlement, even though there is a balance to our credit. It is often the case that if, at the end of the financial year, the Committee were allowed to transfer the balance from one department to make up the deficiency of another, that the appro- priations, as a whole, would not be exceeded. Practically, the town debt is benefitted or reduced at the expense of the schools, by the amount unexpended at the close of the year.
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INDUSTRIAL TRAINING.
Undoubtedly there is room for improvement in our public schools, but in no line is there so great a chance for making them of practical use to every day life as in the introduction of indus- trial training. In any new venture or undertaking, the first step is the hardest. Several towns have taken this step and still oth- ers are following. We have no definite plan to present at this time, possibly the town is not quite ready to make any decided move, but we believe it would be a step in the right direction, and the time is not far distant when the town will probably take some action, and, as suggested in last year's report, introduce into our schools some simple forms of industrial training.
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