USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Fairhaven > Town annual report of the offices of Fairhaven, Massachusetts 1895 > Part 4
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The number of pupils in the High school is small. They come from the Rogers school and the outside schools. All who graduate from the Grammar will not enter the High ; all who enter the High will not continue to graduation. For a few years at least there will be but a very slight in- crease in the number of High school pupils. Grade nine has enrolled but nineteen pupils and Grade eight eighteen. Grade seven has enrolled thirty-one, Grade six about forty- seven, and Grade five about fifty-seven, counting those in the Shoe Factory school. If we also count those at Naska- tucket and New Boston, some of whom will probably attend the High, those numbers will be slightly increased. If the loss of time and distaste for work occasioned by the fre- quent changing of teachers can be obviated so that there will be fewer pupils taking their work over and losing their interest, in a few years we may expect to see a much larger High school, otherwise we will not. It is most noticeable in this State that the proportion of children who continue their education through the High school is rapidly increas- ing.
From the census of last May, there were thirty-six pupils between five and six years of age, who, no matter how anxious the parents are for their children to advance, by the regulations of the School Committee cannot attend school. The Committee were forced to make that regula- tion because there was not sufficient accommodation for all. To accommodate these children requires another room. There is no law in the State which regulates the age for admission, it being left to the School Committee, and they are limited by the appropriation. The prevalent rule is that children shall be admitted at the age of five. It takes nine years to complete the Common school course and four for the High school, accordingly, as the children cannot enter school before six years, they will be fifteen before they can enter the High and nineteen before they can graduate. If
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they could be admitted a year earlier they could graduate at eighteen. Here is a way of saving a year to the young folks of this town at a most important period in their lives. There may be even more loss than that. Children at five are old enough to undertake school work; they have reached a stage in their development where they can be taught in classes by a teacher; they know enough and understand enough to assimilate what is offered to them in schools. If they are kept out that year, they learn con- siderable and form many undesirable habits which to a cer- tain degree hinder their advancement in school work. Miss Sarah Arnold, one of Boston's Supervisors, whose special department is Primary school work, at our educa- tional gathering last summer, expressed her opinion that the child can learn to read at five with greater facility and success than at six. This may partly account for the diffi- culty so many experience in learning to read. There is strong agitation to provide school facilities for those of kindergarten age. We cannot do that, but we should make a strenuous effort to provide school accommodations for all over five years of age. There has not been a rapid increase in the school population but there has been a steady one, and while the facilities have been ample for all, the town has outgrown them. The number of children between five and fifteen years of age for the past ten years is as follows :
1886, 418
1891, 402
1887,
421
1892, 445
1888, 411
1893. 45I
1889, 406
1894, 457
1890, 429
1895,
492
While there was a fluctuation for some years. during the past five years there has been a steady increase. We can- not expect a fluctuation that will make it unnecessary to provide for more pupils, so it seems necessary to provide for all now, and expect to provide for more in the future.
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Another room cannot be provided in the Rogers school, but grades eight and nine may be moved out and other ac- commodations found for them. They are now taught by the same teacher in one room. After another year, at the latest, if the pupils of grades six and seven can be kept in school, it will be impossible to put both those grades in the same room. At present it is not giving those grades fair attention, to ask the Principal, on whom rests the care of the building to teach both those grades without assistance. In addition to providing the extra accommodation at Oxford, two rooms should be provided here in the centre of the town, for the highest grades of the Grammar school. ·
With a four-room building in the northern part of the town and two extra rooms here at the centre there will be ample provision for about five years.
Owing to the overcrowding of rooms five and six at the Rogers, it was found necessary to open a room in the shoe factory, the only available place in town. It was fitted with the Bobrick patent adjustable seats and desks, thus making the seating accommodation the best possible. The build- ing is low and has a flat roof, so that the room is not suita- ble for school purposes when the weather is warm. The heat last September caused several cases of sickness there. During the spring the teacher should be authorized to dis- miss school at her discretion on warm days. It is also in a very noisy place and when the weather is mild, so that the windows have to be opened, it is very difficult to carry on the work of the school. The new building at Oxford should be erected without delay so that it will be ready for occu- pancy in September.
The school at Naskatucket was reopened in January, there being twenty pupils in that district. Miss Grace A. Knowlton, a graduate of Salem Normal school with three years' experience, was appointed teacher.
The school at Sconticut Neck has had an attendance of
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five pupils. Some of these have expressed a wish to come up to the Rogers school. Without prejudice to the interests of any, I think it advisable to permit those pupils to attend either the Rogers or Naskatucket and close the Sconticut Neck school.
The High school needs extensive repairs to make it decently habitable. Last fall water was put in the High school but no drain was dug. As far as I can learn the sink spout conducts the water to the ground underneath the floor, where it may run off or not. This may or may not be prejudicial to the health of the pupils. Is it wise or economical to allow fifty of the most promising children of this place to spend four and a half hours per day in a build- ing where suitable provision is not made for heating, venti- lation, sanitation, care of the body, and moral and ethical influences? The building is old, so that the walls and floors are out of repair. In the winter it is not safe for the pupils to sit in the class-room down-stairs. The main room is not properly seated so that large pupils have to sit at small desks in cramped positions. The paint is worn off the woodwork, the walls are of various designs and colors elaborated by age and generations of pupils, and the whole building bears a worn-out look which encourages and in- vites rough, careless usage. A good condition teaches and inspires respect, and has a decidedly moral and ethical in- fluence upon the pupils using it.
The repairs needed now are a new floor in the class- room, windows fixed, walls repaired and tinted, new doors and casings, woodwork newly painted, new curtains down- stairs and in the vestibule. The graduating class of 1895 presented new curtains for the main room.
Some arrangement should also be made by which the pupils' wraps may be hung in a warm room. It is not con- ducive to good health for a pupil, after sitting in a warm room and just before a late dinner hour, when he must be
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somewhat faint and therefore less able to bear exposure, to put on wraps which have been hanging in a cold room. It is surprising that there is not more sickness among the pupils. There has been a great deal of sickness among the High school pupils during the past winter, but I cannot say how much, or whether any of it is traceable to the building.
There is this opportunity, once a year, to bring school matters to your notice in an official manner. If we do not do so, you cannot be blamed if the conditions are not such as you wish. These matters need investigation for the con- ditions and circumstances surrounding the children during the period of their development and are of the utmost import- ance to all parents and the State, which represents society in general.
My opinion is that if a new building cannot now be erected, enough money should be expended upon the old one to ensure that the conditions surrounding the pupils will enable them to prosecute their work without any risk to their health, and without anything that will prevent them from concentrating their minds and energies upon their tasks.
If a new High school can be erected, it may be advisable to provide accommodation for grades nine and eight in the same building, until the High school grows to such a size that it will require all the rooms for its own use. By that time another large building will be required in the town.
During the past year such changes have been made in our text-books that we have very few poor books now in use. Prince's Arithmetic by grades has been introduced. There has always been a tendency for a teacher to spend too much time on the work of a previous grade. This series obviates much of that. When a child changes his grade he takes up an advanced book. He gets a review of his former work sufficient to enable him to take up the new, but he cannot be put back to study the old work over anew unless he is put back into the other grade.
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Frye's Geographies, as they differ in their plan from the old, have not been found quite as satisfactory to the teachers. Strong criticism has been made of the book by experts who have taken an advanced position in teaching geography by the use of the old text-book. This author would first teach the natural features that determine the different phases of our complex civilization, before giving the facts of descrip- tive geography. In that way the pupil can be led to obtain and grasp the facts of descriptive geography. It may take a few years for the teachers to obtain as definite results from these books as from the others, for now the question must be, how do the pupils think and reason, not how much do they remember.
I prefer a child's understanding the influence of a bay's running into the land to his knowing only the name of it.
Shaw's Elements of Physics has been introduced in the High school. This book provides suitable laboratory work in that branch, and is a full course for the time we can de- vote to that subject.
Some few changes are necessary this year. I think we shall have to provide a laboratory manual in chemistry to take the place of the Normal school outlines which have been in use here.
All the books introduced have been in exchange for old ones in the same subjects, thus materially reducing the cost of changing.
We have introduced considerable supplementary readings during the past year. School readers have been prepared with a view to introducing selections that would contain words of a certain degree of difficulty, and enough pains has not been taken with the character of the literature. There is an abundance of the best literature that is adapted to the ability of the several grades and which is worth read- ing, studying and remembering on account of its intrinsic value. It is hoped we may be able to put in more supple-
29
mentary reading until the reading lessons will partake to a greater degree of the nature of a definite, systematic course in good literature.
By increasing the number of books that can be taken by each teacher, from four to ten, the Millicent Library has materially assisted us in our work.
To encourage the pupils to pay proper attention to their work, and not discourage the most capable, the teachers, when they find a pupil who leads his class and is capable of doing more advanced work, advance him a grade with- out regard to the time of the year, and conditioned only upon his doing the work of the grade to which he is trans- ferred.
The town of Fairhaven passed the by-law enabling the Committee to send habitual truants to Walpole. It has been necessary to send three there, two being sent during the past year. The reports thus far received have been favorable and it is hoped that residence there for two years under the steady influence of good associations will result in forming such habits that they will become useful mem- bers of society. I think a mistake was made in not passing the by-law to send incorrigibles there. A few instances have arisen where the pupils have received no benefit from their school and have had a pernicious influence while at- tending. The Committee had no resource but to turn them into the street to practice their disobedience and disorderly behavior until such time as it may become flagrant enough for the law to take cognizance of it and make criminals of them.
During the year a few employment certificates were issued to boys over fourteen years of age. Blank forms of certificates with stubs for a permanent record should be procured.
Since the appointment of Mr. Baker as Truant Officer, it has been possible to keep the pupils at school quite regu-
30
larly, yet there is too much indifference on the part of some parents. It is worth very much to the child to have the idea firmly implanted that it is his business to attend school punctually and regularly, and that no consideration short of endangering the health should permit his absence from his place. That would almost certainly assure his advance- ment with his class every grading, his interest in his school work, and his securing all the education available which is the best equipment any parent can furnish his child.
The report of the Truant Officer is annexed. The seven- teen cases of truancy reported do not mean that seventeen children have played truant, as most of those cases were occasioned by two or three.
Appended are the programmes of the graduation exer- cises of the High school and the Rogers, with the names of the graduates ; also the reports of the music teacher and the truant officer, and the lists of authorized books.
Respectfully submitted,
H. S. FREEMAN, Superintendent of Schools.
February 14, 1896.
REPORT OF MUSIC TEACHER.
Mr. H. S. Freeman, Superintendent of Schools :
DEAR SIR :- A weekly lesson is given by .me in each room of the Rogers school. During the time between these lessons, the music is rehearsed daily by the room teacher.
In the lower grades, our aim is to teach the pupil to read at sight in any key. The drill is alternated by rote sing- ing, and the little songs are a change and recreation for the children. Two part singing is introduced in the fifth grade, and in the seventh grade the pupils begin to sing in three parts.
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In the first years, we try to gain accuracy, both in time and tune; in the latter part of the course, we give more attention to expression. The music in the High school is chorus work.
For the past few months there has been a marked im- provement, more especially in the lower grades, and the interest has grown with this improvement.
There is need of at least two new charts for the use of rooms 1, 2 and 3, as much inconvenience is brought about by the necessity of using one chart in the three rooms. The same inconvenience is felt in rooms 7 and 8, where one set of books is used by both rooms.
Respectfully submitted,
MARGARET P. C. TUCKER, Teacher of Music.
REPORT OF TRUANT OFFICER,
FROM JANUARY, 1895, TO JANUARY, 1896.
Whole number of cases looked up,
89
Reasonable excuses,
52
Unreasonable excuses,
20
Cases of truancy, I7
- 89 2
Number carried to Walpole,
Respectfully submitted,
SAMUEL J. BAKER, Truant Officer.
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GRADUATION EXERCISES OF HIGH SCHOOL, JUNE 27, 1895.
Song-Norwegian Wedding March. Sodermann.
School.
Prayer.
Rev. O. L. Waters.
Salutatory and Essay-A View of the Negro Problem. Jane Alden.
Essay-Civil Rights. Annie B. Gammons.
Declamation-Toussaint L'Ouverture. Wendell Phillips. Herbert C. Terry.
Piano Solo-Second Mazurka. Godard, Op. 54.
Lucy B. Ellis.
Class History. Helen Maxfield.
Song-Cherry Ripe. C. E. Horn.
School.
Reading-The Broomstick Train. O. W. Holmes.
Josephine Congdon. Essay-History of Civil Liberty. William Garthly. Banjo Solo-Wedding Bell Gavotte. Charles H. Sisson.
Wm. Huntley.
Essay-Sketches from Virgil's Æneid. Sarah E. Howard.
Valedictory and Essay-Thoughts about American Poets. Agnes D. Allen.
Song-The Happy Peasants. School.
Schumann.
Presentation of Diplomas.
John T. Hanna, Jr., Chairman of School Committee. Song-America.
School.
Benediction.
Rev. O. L. Waters.
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Graduates.
Jane Atwood Alden,
Agnes Dunham Allen,
Lucy Babcock Ellis,
William David Garthly, Sarah Elizabeth Howard, Helen Thomas Maxfield,
Josephine Helen Folger Cong- Charles Herbert Sisson, don,
Herbert Clinton Terry.
Annie Bethany Gammons,
Class motto : Knowledge is Power. Class colors : Nile green and white.
GRADUATION EXERCISES OF ROGERS SCHOOL,
JUNE 28, 1895.
Song-Summer Days. Invocation.
Rev. Dorrall Lee.
Recitation-School Close. Whittier.
Alice Lloyd.
Piano Duet. Faust. Mabel Bennett, Gertrude Card.
U. S. History Papers.
Albert Swain, Annah Dodge, Kate Dowling, Sidney Peck, William Spiller.
Song-The Violet. U. S. History Papers.
Gertrude Card, Arthur Fuller, Mabel Bennett, Bessie Tall- man, Alice Lloyd, Anna Howland, Alonzo Brown. Reading-The National Game. Alonzo Brown.
Song-Vesper Bell. Class.
Reading-How Ruby Played.
Annie Slater.
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Piano Solo-The Music Box.
Gertrude Snow. Essay-Our Career Through the High School. Alice Lilley. Song and Chorus-Bird of the Wildwood. Bessie Noland and Class. Fortune Telling. Class.
Presentation of Diplomas. .
Dr. C. C. Cundall. Graduates.
Edith Emeline Ball,
Annah Adams Dodge, Alonzo Elden Brown,
Louis Henry Perry,
Alice Lilley.
Wade Hampton Delano,
William Earnest James Spiller, Bessie Marie Noland,
Alice Gertrude Lloyd,
Gertrude Lewis Snow, Annie M. Slater,
Gertrude May Card,
Sydney Elmer Foster Peck,
Kate Dowling,
Elizabeth Delano Tallman,
Florence Johnson Dunham,
Arthur Beauvais Fuller, Albert Clifton Swain,
Anna Greenwood Howland,
Mabel Elizabeth Bennett.
Class motto :
Aim High.
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LIST OF AUTHORIZED TEXT-BOOKS USED IN THE HIGH SCHOOL.
Algebra-Wentworth.
Physics-Shaw.
Chemistry-Shepard.
Botany-Gray.
Astronomy-Young.
Physiology-Steele.
Physical Geography-Hinman.
Civil Government-Martin.
English Literature-Kellog.
Rhetoric-Lockwood.
Shakespeare-Hudson.
English Classic Series-Maynard, Merritt & Co.
English Classic Series-American Book Co.
Riverside Literature Series-Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
English History-Montgomery.
General History-Myers.
French Grammar-Keetels.
Petites Causeriès-Sanveur.
La Fontaine's Fables.
Mere Michel et son Chat-Bidolliere.
La Cigale-Van Daell.
Latin Grammar-Allen & Greenough.
Easy Latin Lessons-Lindsay & Rollins.
Cæsar-Harper & Tolman's.
Virgil-Harper & Miller.
Cicero-Allen & Greenough.
New High School Music Reader-Eichberg.
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LIST OF AUTHORIZED TEXT-BOOKS USED IN THE GRAMMAR AND PRIMARY SCHOOLS.
The Normal Course in Reading.
Harper's First Reader.
Franklin's First Reader.
Lippincott's Readers.
Riverside Literature Primer.
Harrington's Speller.
Hyde's Practical Lessons in English.
Southworth & Goddard's Elements of Composition.
Prince's Arithmetic by Grades.
Meservey's Book-keeping.
Frye's Geography.
King's Geographical Reader.
Eggleston's Primary History of the United States. Higginson's History of the United States.
Montgomery's History of the United States. Bert's First Steps in Scientific Knowledge. Normal Music Course.
Independent Music Reader-Mason.
THE MILLICENT LIBRARY.
[Abstract of Librarian's Report.]
It is a wise provision of our by-laws that requires that once each year the progress and needs of the library be fully and explicitly set forth.
It is impossible, however, in the limits of a report like this to give an adequate idea of the work which the library is doing. The statistics of books loaned for home use give some indication of this work, but a faint indication only, as no record is made of the books used in the library building.
The following privileges not uniformly deemed expedient in library administration have been granted to patrons :
Free access to all books in the reference room.
Free access to the shelves in the circulating department.
The privilege of taking two books on one card.
The privilege extended to teachers of taking ten books on a school card and retaining the same one month.
This liberal policy in the administration of the library which the Trustees have uniformly sanctioned and encour- aged has undoubtedly done much to increase the usefulness of the institution.
ACCESSIONS.
During the year 846 volumes have been added to the library, 757 by purchase, 89 by donation.
The public library performs its proper mission, not by furnishing reading merely but by furnishing good reading.
The plan pursued in the purchase of new books has been to give precedence to books on subjects in which the library appears poorly equipped.
No attempt has been made to make collections upon spe- cial subjects, neither has it been deemed wise to encumber
38
the shelves with government reports or with miscellaneous pamphlets to the neglect of works of more general interest.
It must be borne in mind that after a time quite a propor- tion of the sum available for the purchase of new books must be devoted to replacing those which are worn out, although it is sometimes impossible and sometimes inexpe- dient to replace them.
The number of books missing is small as compared with the experience of other libraries granting the same privi- leges as our own, and shows that the confidence of the management in the integrity of the people who use the library is not misplaced.
There are now in the library II, OII volumes.
CIRCULATION.
The circulation for 1895 was 50,358, an average of 4,196 books for each month; or 138 for each day of the year. There has been no marked decrease in the percentage of circulation of works of fiction, the figures remaining 79 per cent., the same as in 1894.
MONTHLY CIRCULATION OF BOOKS BY CLASSES FOR 1895.
General
Works.
Philosophy.
Religion.
Sociology.
Philology.
Natural
Science.
Useful Arts.
Fine Arts.
Literature.
History
Biography.
Fiction.
Circulation by Months.
January,
175
II
57
49
7
60
go
94
14I
347
III
3838
4979
February,
221
19
50
48
5
47
76
56
137
316
II3
3713
480I
March,
266
23
44
45
7
50
71
57
175
368
116
4237
5459
April,
214
20
32
37
6
46
71
50
129
250
89
3732
4676
May,
192
5
30
25
4
33
51
3I
118
226
90
3199
4004
June,
171
1
27
30
3
34
52
39
108
204
84
2867
3620
July,
137
o
26
3 I
4
33
77
39
92
166
71
3170
3856
August,
115
17
36
1
7
31
64
45
84
194
69
3040
3723
September,
II2
3
cowi
37
1
53
46
33
94
174
71
292 I
3624
November,
151
5
40
42
5
43
72
62
I12
177
71
3211
3991
December,
171
12
38
3I
A
54
73
60
97
175
79
3209
4003
2077
130
441
413
60
520
808
599
1369
2760
1039
40142
36
66
33
82
163
75
3005
3622
October,
152
A
17
7
Total, 50,358.
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From the table the character of the circulation may be seen. After fiction, which is most largely read in every public library, the subjects most in demand are, in their re- spective order-History ; General works, periodicals, &c. ; Literature ; Biography ; Useful Arts ; Fine Arts ; Natural Science ; Religion ; Sociology ; Philosophy ; Philology.
PERIODICALS.
The reading room has been well supplied with leading periodicals. It should be the aim of every public library to make available to the public information of practical value. In order to do this publications of the highest class must be kept on file. Some of the magazines today contain the best contributions to literature and science, and in connec- tion with the modern methods of indexing hold a high rank as permanent reference books.
There are now 83 periodicals on our list divided as fol- lows: I quarterly ; 33 monthlies ; 39 weeklies and 10 dailies.
REGISTRATION.
In my last annual report I called attention to the fact that 2,204 persons had received cards up to Jan. Ist, 1894, and I observed that the list of applicants for the privileges of the library would not be much increased during the next few years as nearly every family in town had one or more cards. It was a surprise then that 334 names were added to the list during 1895, making a total registration of 2,539 to Jan. Ist, 1896.
BINDING.
So great is the damage to books which are in constant circulation that the amount of money necessary to maintain the library in good condition increases from year to year. The bills for binding are also increased by the number of periodicals received from the reading room. Five hundred and twenty-nine volumes were rebound during the year at a cost of $180.72.
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CARD CATALOGUE.
A card catalogue of all the fiction in the library has been completed, and the work for the coming year will be in the direction of supplying as soon as possible a catalogue of the additions in the other departments of the library since the printing of the Finding-list.
Leaflets, four in number, have been printed and distrib- uted to patrons free of charge. This has proved a con- venient method of bringing new books to the attention of the public.
Nothing more need be said regarding the work which the library is doing for the people of the town. That its privi- leges are heartily appreciated and that its influences are immeasurably for good is clearly evidenced by the extent and diversity of its patronage.
Respectfully submitted,
D. C. STEVENS, Librarian.
Fairhaven, Mass., Jan. 14, 1896.
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