USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Wakefield > Town annual report of the officers of Wakefield Massachusetts : including the vital statistics for the year 1903-1905 > Part 15
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FINANCIAL STATEMENT, JANUARY 3, 1904.
GENERAL.
Appropriation for teachers, superintendent, janitors, etc., . . $39,000 00
Balance available from last year, 2 18
Expended for salaries,
$38,618 83
Military department,
100 00
Balance unexpended, applied to fuel,
283 35
$39,002 18 $39,002 18
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FUEL.
Appropriation,
$6,127 00
Applied from general,
.
283 35
" tuition,
23 38
Expended,
·
. $6,433 73
$6,433 73
$6,433 73
SCHOOL CONTINGENT.
Appropriation,
$3,000 00
Income from tuition,
1,333 28
Expended for repairs on new Frank-
lin school,
. $1,013 73
Repairing damage by electric road at Montrose school,
312 89
Water rates,
429 00 ·
Incidentals, .
.
2,577 66
$4,333 28
$4,333 28
TEXT BOOKS AND SUPPLIES.
Appropriation,
$2,600 00 .
Income from tuition,
321 98
Expended,
. $2,921 98
$2,921 98
$2,921 98
COMMERCIAL COURSE.
Appropriation,
$1,600 00
Income from tuition,
12 01
Expended,
. $1,612 01
$1,612 01 $1,612 01
Balance from tuition unexpended, . $87 54
By the exercise of the strictest economy, consistent with intelligent school management, we have finished the year
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with an unexpended balance of $87.54, and all bills that the committe has knowledge of are paid.
After careful consideration we find that the following appropriations will be necessary for the proper maintenance of our schools the ensuing year :
Salaries, . . $40,033 00
Commercial course,
1,600 00
Contingent, 2,500 00 ..
Books and supplies,
2,600 00
Fuel,
4,502 00
Respecting the outlook for our schools it may be said, that so long as the town continues to make generous appro- priations (not extravagant), for them, and so long as poli- tics is kept, as it has been, from being a controlling or influential factor in the choice of school officers and teachers, just so long will the outlook be hopeful.
The school board holds the most sacred trust committed to the officials of the town. We have endeavored to per- form the duties devolving upon us to the best of our ability.
Respectfully submitted,
IDA F. CARLISLE,
ASHTON H. THAYER, EDEN K. BOWSER,
CHARLES E. MONTAGUE,
MARTHA F. BLANCHARD, SAMUEL K. HAMILTON.
288
Report of Superintendent of Schools.
TO THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE :
I have the honor to submit my second annual report as Superintendent of Schools, the eleventh in the series of such reports.
The year has been one of quiet progress. No radical changes have been made in any department of school work. It has been the aim, by using all of the means available, to increase the efficiency of our schools, and to make them serve the future welfare of the community.
The school committee is familiar with many of the details of the separate schools. Hence it will be the purpose of this report to direct attention to some phases of school work in which the inhabitants of this town are directly interested.
TEACHERS.
It has been truly said that the future of this country is more then ever in the hands of the public schools. The pupils represent all classes of society and all stages of social and moral development. To train this heterogeneous col- lection of human beings to be members of society is the work the schools are trying to perform. The teacher makes the school. . Arnold gave Rugby its fame. Mark Hopkins at one end of a log and a student at the other, was said to be a university. It is as impossible to have a good school without a good teacher as it is to have a poor school with a good teacher. Manifestly the success of any school system is more dependent upon the selection of good teachers and
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the ability to retain them, than upon any other element in school administration. Every year more is expected of the teacher. His professional requirements are threefold :- He must have an expert knowledge of the subjects he expects to teach ; he must have an expert knowledge of the pupils to be taught; he must have an expert knowledge of the most economical way of bringing pupil amd subject together. In addition to his professional requirements he must have that subtle personality which inspires children with respect. The true teaching profession certainly embraces all others, as it comes in contact with and developes all sides of life.
Let such teachers enrich the course of study "with the cultures that make for a nobler citizenship, but let the people enrich it with the utilities that make for a material success, without which citizenship is a mockery and democ- racy a farce." In order to secure and retain good men and good women as the teachers of our children, it is necessary to pay salaries commensurate with the ability and worth of the teachers. During the past year five per cent. of our teachers were compelled to give up teaching, temporarily at least, on account of nervous prostration ; fifteen per cent. left us to accept more lucrative salaries elsewhere. It is somewhat demoralizing to a school system to have one-fifth of its teachers change annually.
In the matter of salaries we cannot hope to compete suc- cessfully with the larger and wealthier places about us, but we can and should pay enough to prevent smaller towns from taking our teachers. For several years our salary schedule has not been raised, therefore, when teachers leave us it is very difficult to fill their places with the kind of teachers we demand, since there are few towns in which the salary schedule is lower than ours. It seems to me that the salary question is the one to which attention should be especially directed at this time. It is true that the town has been called upon to spend a large amount of money during
.
290
the last few years. However, the town demands good schools and good schools cost a great deal of money, but they are more economical than cheap schools.
The total appropriation for schools in Wakefield is larger than it is in many towns of about the same population, but the cost per pupil by comparison is in most cases less. In Wakefield the number of children in the public schools is very large in proportion to the population.
During the past five years the average annual increase in the number of pupils in the average membership of our schools is ninety. This fact is significant since it explains why the total appropriation for schools must increase each year.
Before leaving the subject of teachers and appropriations it might be of interest to quote from Mr. Mosely, the Englishman who brought over the large delegation of British educators lately in this country. In speaking to a gathering of educators in New York, where teachers' sala- ries are more generous than anywhere else in the country, he said : "You do not offer sufficient inducement for per- sons to take up the work of teaching. Better inducements are offered in other lines of work, and the teaching profession is therefore left in many cities to persons who cannot secure profitable employment elsewhere. Higher salaries are paid to teachers in England than in this country. The cost of living is lower there; the wages of skilled and unskilled labor are lower there than here, and yet the salary of English teachers is higher. There the pay of teachers is enough better than that of other employments' to attract competent men and women." The Englishman's remarks were very pertinent to the situation in this country. It is true in teaching as well as in any other calling, that as much talent can be secured as the money offered will pay for. Unfortunately in this country a person's social standing and influence is too often based, not on the character of his
291
work, but on the amount of pay that he gets for it. Teach- ers will receive the social consideration and honor due their high calling when parents and children can no longer look upon teaching as a "cheap job."
We have at present a corps of teachers with correct and high ideals of life and duty. In order that the schools may do the community the most good it is necessary that the salary schedule be sufficiently high to retain such teachers.
SCHOOL MANAGEMENT.
In this phase of school work the School Committee and Superintendent of Schools, who is the executive agent of the committee, come into direct contact with the parents.
We have in our schools children from about fifteen hun- dred homes. It is not strange that the schools can not be administered in all the minor details to the entire satisfac- tion of so many homes. No set of rules has ever been devised or ever will be that would adequately meet every contingent of school management. Teachers and school officials are not infallible. However, I think that they do their work at least as conscientiously as mortals generally do. " The man who never makes mistakes, never makes anything else."
Most school troubles are the result of misunderstandings. In such cases if the parent would go at once to the teacher, calling at the end of a school session or in the evening, before calling on the superintendent, the chances are that the best interests of all would be subserved. The teachers are not the natural enemies of the children and parents as is too often supposed. The children and parents have no better or truer friends. Parents can find time and should find time to see the teachers in the interests of their chil- dren. For is there anything nearer or dearer to a parent than his children ? '
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If a teacher can't succeed when he has the hearty cooper- ation of the parents he is not worthy of his position. Nearly any teacher will fail if he hasn't such cooperation. It is not sufficient to take the child's word for what trans- pires in school. Several cases have come under my obser- vation of children whose veracity I could not doubt, but whose statements about their school were untruthful. The impressions of children on account of the immatureness of their judgment are apt to be colored by their feelings and sentiments. I urge parents to see the teachers first in cases of misunderstandings. The teachers have the interest of the children at heart. A little timely help from parents will many times increase the teachers' power to do the children good.
There is a source of complaint for which no remedy has been discovered on the part of school management. That complaint against the work of the public schools and their management comes from homes where children are permitted to have free range in the matter of amusement and entertain- ment outside of school hours ; and from homes where boys are allowed to lounge on street corners or loaf somewhere far into the night. These children, even if no other harm is done, on account of the loss of sleep, irregular hours and waste of nervous energy, will be unfitted to perform the du- ties of school the following day. As a result of such living many bright children fail of promotion through no fault of the school. School work is so exacting that few growing children have the strength to devote to social functions on school day nights.
Parents are urged most earnestly, if they would have their children taught habits fitting for good citizenship and success- ful home and business life, to control their children in the matter of home preparation of school tasks, in regularity of study hours and retiring hours, in amusements and evening recreations. It can be guaranteed that the results of public
293
school work will be much more satisfactory where such con- trol is exercised.
SCHOOL ACCOMMODATIONS.
In the schools below the High the pupils are so arranged that not over two grades are in any room, except in the Montrose building. There it is necessary to have three grades in each of the two rooms. For each schoolroom of the town there is an average of thirty-nine pupils. A teacher can do much more for the pupils' good if there are not over thirty-five in a room. It would be to the advantage of the . schools if this plan could be carried out.
It is necessary at this time to call attention to the needs of two of our buildings, the Lincoln and Greenwood. It is probable that accommodations for the pupils of the rest of the town can be found for two years at least.
If the Woodville, Montrose, or West Ward buildings should be crowded, no great hardship would be imposed on anyone by transferring the older pupils to the larger build- ings. If the Hamilton should be crowded, there is plenty of room in the H. M. Warren. In the F. P. Hurd building a few more can be accommodated. For the relief of the new Franklin, which is now about full, there is the old Franklin building, which can be repaired and put into commission again. This probably will have to be done in a year or two.
The eight schoolrooms of the Greenwood building are now occupied by schools. A few more pupils can be distributed through the rooms. Possibly the increase of next year can . be taken care of. The distance between the Greenwood building and the other buildings makes the transferring of pupils from the Greenwood school impracticable ; therefore, it seems to be necessary to formulate plans immediately for increased school accommodation for Greenwood.
The conditions at the Lincoln building were discussed somewhat at length in the superintendent's report last year.
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The situation has not changed for the better. In one room are sixty-one pupils ; in another, fifty-two. This year some of the older pupils in the Lincoln district have been trans- ferred to the F. P. Hurd, Franklin and Hamilton schools, but the building is still overcrowded. By any arrangement, it is impossible to give children the attention they need when there are fifty or sixty in a room.
As stated in last year's report, relief for the Lincoln can come in one of two ways: either the Lincoln building must be equipped with more schoolrooms, or the district lines must be changed on the west. The latter plan, it seems to me, is not feasible. I think that the sending of small children across the railroad tracks will never be recommended until different arrangements are made to safeguard human life on the tracks between Albion and Chestnut streets. It seems improbable that adequate arrangements will be made for this purpose for many years at least ; therefore, plans must be made for more schoolrooms. There are two ways in which more school room can be provided : An addition to the present building could be constructed, having in it two schoolrooms and a large manual training room. The present manual training room in the basement of the Lincoln school is not large enough, and is not properly heated and ventilated. Now there is no place where lathes could be set up if our manual training course should include the turning and boring of wood and metal.
In the third story of the Lincoln school it would be possi- ble to make two schoolrooms, which could be properly heated, lighted and ventilated, I think. If this plan should be adopt- ed, it would be necessary to equip the building with suitable fire-escapes, as it would not be wise to use three stories of a building for school purposes without supplying ample means of escape in case of fire.
In the long run, I believe it would be economy for the town to build the addition, although the first cost would be
295
somewhat greater. The wisdom of building schoolhouses · with room beyond immediate needs has been fully demon- strated in this town.
FIRE PROTECTION.
Our fire department has equipped every schoolhouse in town with fire buckets and hooks on which to hang them. Our janitors keep the buckets full of water and ready for use. In case of a small blaze the bucket would do valuable service. The first thought, however, is for the safety of the children. Fire drills are held in every school in town. In teachers' meetings methods have been discussed and plans devised for the proper handling of pupils in case, of fire or panic. We have no schools above the second story except in the high school, and in the high school very few pupils at a time are in the third story. There is no situation, in any of the large schoolhouses in this town, in which a pupil could be placed where he would not have access to at least two exits from the building. It seems to me that every possible precaution has been taken for the safety of our pupils in case of fire or panic.
MEDICAL INSPECTION.
During the past year it has been necessary very many times to call on our Board of Health and local physicians for assistance and advice respecting the physical welfare not only of individual pupils but of whole schools. For this gratuitous service and cooperation of our medical friends we are very thankful. The benefit that has been derived on · such occasions strengthens my belief in the need of some form of systematic medical inspection for our schools. In my report of last year I gave my own views respecting this matter. In order that this important phase of our school re- sponsibility may not be lost sight of, I wish to quote from President Eliot of Harvard :
1
296
"Next to this improvement in schoolhouses and school yards comes improvement in the sanitary control and man- agement of schools. This control requires the service of skilful physicians, and such a physician should be officially connected with every large school. It should be his duty to watch for contagious diseases, to prevent the too early return to school of children who have suffered from such diseases, to take thought for the eyes of the children, lest they be injured in reading or writing by bad postures or bad light, to advise concerning the rectification of remediable bodily defects in any of the children under his supervision, to give advice to the homes about the diet and sleep of children whose nutri- tion is visibly defective, and, in short, to be the protector, counselor and friend of the children and their parents with regard to health, normal growth and the preservation of all the senses in good condition. Such medical supervision of school children would be costly, but it would be the most re- warding school expenditure that a community could make, even from the commercial or industrial point of view, since nothing impairs the well-being and productiveness of a com- munity so much as sickness and premature disability or death. As in an individual, so in a nation, health and strength are the foundations of productiveness and prosper- ity."
GIFTS.
Many valuable gifts have been received by the several schools. In behalf of the schools I wish to thank the donors, The spirit of giving to the public schools is commendable and should be encouraged. There are many things the schools actually need, which it is not expedient to supply from the public appropriations for obvious reasons. There is no dif- ference of opinion that it is a good. thing for pupils to have in the schoolhouses good statuary, pictures, flowers, plenty of good books for reference and wholesome reading, pianos,
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etc. The only way they can have them at present is through private generosity. Gifts to the High school have been duly and publicly acknowledged by the principal. The following gifts are gratefully acknowledged, and I wish to express thanks for any others to which my attention has not been called :
To the Lincoln school : A picture of Mt. Vernon from Mr. W. N. Tyler. A mineral cabinet from pupils of Grade 5.
To the Greenwood school : Eleven pictures from Mrs. Charles Tingley.
To the F. P. Hurd school : A new piano cover, six large potted plants, and $40 for new library books from Mr. Jun- ius Beebe. A valuable mineral cabinet from Mrs. Emily C. Poland.
To the Franklin school: A piano from Mrs. Juliet H. Anderson. A picture, " Aurora," from the Class of 1903. A statuette, " Hermes," from Blanche Van Nostrand. Stat- uettes, " Singing Cherubs," from Mrs. Annie P. Bartlett.
To the Montrose school : Two Audubon Bird charts from the Montrose Reading Club. A statuette, "Cupid of the Mandolin," from the pupils of the primary room at Christ- mas.
To all of the teachers : A year's subscription to "The School Physiology Journal" from the W. C. T. U.
To each of our schoolrooms : A beautiful silk flag from the Woman's Relief Corps.
The flags in the schoolrooms help to keep alive that spirit of patriotism which forms the very kernel of good citizenship and is the real hope of the state. Our pupils give the flag- salute at least once a week, when they pledge loyalty and devotion to the flag which stands for noble, courageous and manly citizenship. It is well to keep the story of the flag before the rising generation ; it is instructive, patriotic, edu- cational and soul-inspiring.
Following this report and supplementary to it are the re-
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ports of the heads of the several departments of our school system. With the exception of the military department, the work remains under the same supervisors as last year. Lieut. Harvey G. Brockbank, who succeeded Lieut. Walton in the military department, takes hold of the work with an earnestness and zeal which is very assuring. The High school principal's report gives much valuable information re- specting this very important department of our system. Lengthy comment on these reports seems unnecessary at this time. I am in perfect accord with all that is contained in them, and recommend them to your consideration.
CONCLUSION.
The school is only one, though a very important one, of the educational forces of a community. The home, the church, the public library and the press, each has its part in creating the influences that are making or spoiling American children. The credit for whatever progress has been made belongs in a measure to each of the above agencies. . I take great pleasure in publicly acknowledging my appreciation of the assistance these agencies have given in the educational work of our town.
I owe and wish to express my heartfelt thanks to all with whom I have been associated for their help and encourage- ment. The success which has been achieved is due in no small measure to the hearty cooperation which they have given me in our common work. I wish to thank the public and School Committee for courtesies, assistance and unfail- ing support during the year just closed.
Respectfully submitted,
ALFRED C. THOMPSON,
Superintendent of Schools.
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High School Principal's Report.
TO THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS :-
Sir : - My ninth annual report and the twelfth in the series of high school principals' reports is herewith submitted.
The history of the school for the past year has differed very little from that of the past few years. Two depart- ments only call for special mention. The science department of the school was strengthened at the opening of the school year by the purchase of additional working apparatus, and as a result interest has been stimulated in classes that hith- erto it has been impossible to reach.
The commercial department is meeting a want and we find an increasing number of pupils making the best of the opportunities offered. It is · common experience that, as between shorthand and typewriting, pupils fail to acquire the desired proficiency in typewriting, owing to inability or lack of inclination to practise sufficiently. With a view to . making it possible for practically every pupil to secure the opportunity for additional practice on the typewriting machines, the typewriting room has been opened each after- noon from 1.30 to 4.15, so that now there is no reason why everyone who desires to cannot become proficient. Following is an extract from a letter sent to the parents of all the commercial students :
"We are anxious to make our commercial department of still greater service to its pupils and call your attention to the fact that from 1.30 to 4.15 p. m., the typewriters of the department are at the service of any of the typewriter students on condition that application for the privilege be made at recess. The seven machines will give opportunity
300
for a generous amount of practice in addition to the regular work of school, each week.
"There is no doubt that the student of average ability, with the added practice on the typewriter that this afternoon ses- sion will afford, can, by the time of graduation, render himself a competent operator, and satisfy the demands of the ordinary office. We hope that your child may make use regularly of the afternoon privilege thus offered, some portion of the week.
"It goes without saying, of course, that every person who tries stenography and typewriting can not become proficient.
"There are some people who never could master it, no matter how much they might practice, just as some people never can become musicians or artists or mathematicians. However, for the person who "takes to" the work in even a fair degree only, there is every hope of success, and especially if every opportunity for practise is taken advan- tage of. Practice, and a lot of it, is the only road to success."
At the time of the introduction of the commercial course, the fear was expressed that pupils would flock into it in large numbers and deplete the other courses and lower the standard of the school. I believe that our experience shows the fear to have been without foundation. From a compar- ison of the percentages of pupils pursuing the different branches of study this year, with those of the previous year, it will be found that the percentages of pupils taking com- mercial subjects this year are as likely to be less than those of last year as greater, and that some of the traditional subjects of the curriculum like Latin, geometry, etc., have a larger following now than a year ago.
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