USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Fairhaven > Town annual report of the offices of Fairhaven, Massachusetts 1914 > Part 4
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An unusually large amount has been expended for repairs since the last report. The walls and ceiling of eight rooms at the Rogers School and two in the old part of the Oxford school were re-tinted and the wood work was re-varnished. A new floor was laid in one room at the Rogers School and a small office for the Principal was fitted up on the lower hall. The badly worn plaster boards at the same school were re-placed in part by slate boards. Three rooms have been equipped with adjustable desks. It is a pleasure to state that every room in town now has these. The usual minor repairs have been made.
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Teachers.
At present 38 teachers are employed in Fairhaven schools. They are classified as follows: High School, full-time, 10, High School nearly full-time, 2, Grades, full time, 23, Super- visors, grade and high school, 3. Two more teachers are in service this year than last due to the opening of new rooms at the Oxford School. Fifteen vacancies have occurred since the last report. Three of these were caused by the creation of new positions, nine by resignation to accept higher salaries elsewhere, and three by resignations for other reasons.
An additional teacher could be advantageously employed at present. The Oxford first grade has an enrollment of 60 pupils. As at the Washington Street School, the single session plan prevails, whereby one division of children attends in the morning, the other in the afternoon. There are, however, in the Oxford first grade nearly twenty pupils from seven to eleven years of age. Such pupils should have a full session of school.
In last year's report the employment of an unassigned teacher, who should do substitute work when needed and at other times do individual work with backward pupils, was recommended. Such a teacher began service in September. During the fall she was employed exclusively at the Oxford School where the conditions absolutely required an extra teacher. Beginning with the winter term it is expected that she will be able to do individual work with backward pupils for the larger portion of the time. In this connection it is interesting to know that Easton, a town of nearly the same size as Fairhaven, employs five such teachers.
The present corps of teachers has fewer teachers of inex- perience than any during the tenure of the present superin- tendent. The payment of higher salaries is responsible for this desirable condition. The continuance of the usual ap- propriation, with the income from the various funds now available, will, after your buildings have been placed in repair, enable an increasingly high standard of teaching to be maintained.
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Evening School.
The legislature of 1914 enacted the following law relating to evening schools: "Any town may, and every city or town in which there are issued during the year from September first to August thirty-first certificates authorizing the em- ployment of twenty or more persons who do not possess the educational qualifications enumerated in section one of Chapter forty-four of the Revised Laws, as amended, shall maintain during the following school year an evening school or schools for the instruction of persons over fourteen years of age in orthography, reading, writing, English language and grammar, geography, arithmetic, industrial drawing, history of the United States, physiology and hygiene and good behavior." There were 36 illiterate certificates issued between September 1913 and September 1, 1914, making it mandatory, therefore, to organize an evening school in Fair- haven.
Playground.
With the financial assistance of the Improvement Asso- ciation and a generous contribution from Mr. D. W. Deane. the School Committee were enabled to further equip the playground and to employ supervisors for a period of six weeks during July and August. Mr. F. C. Hill acted as director and was assisted by Mr. Edwin Babbitt and Miss Ruth E. Fitzsimmons. The attendance was better than that of the first year, the interest greater, and the kind of play engaged in much more fruitful educationally. I believe the continuance of organized and supervised play during the summer is highly desirable and will vield still more valuable results with further development.
Medical Inspection.
The importance of medical inspection or health work in the schools is generally underestimated. The chief reason for this is that in most communities very little real service has
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been rendered, owing to the fact that not enough money has been expended to secure it. Space is lacking for a full pre- sentation of this matter. It is obvious that health is the most valuable asset of any person and that it should be conserved by the use of every effective agency. The following state- ments regarding medical inspection in the schools are sub- mitted for your consideration. I. The school physician should make an examination of every child once each school year as the law requires. II. He should direct the exclusion of children suffering from contagious diseases and of children exposed to such. III. He should make frequent visits to the schools to keep himself informed regarding the health conditions there. IV. He should furnish information whereby parents may be informed of physical defects of their children needing attention in order that the school work may be done in the best possible way. V. He should examine candidates for employment certificates as required by law. VI. He should report to the School Committee sanitary conditions in the schools.
To do these things requires time and adequate recompen ..... The present school physician has given an unusually larg. amount of attention to the work, far more than his remunera- tion warrants, but we cannot expect to secure good service permanently without larger compensation.
As to the benefits of medical inspection I submit the following: I. It has been proven that where thorough medical inspection prevails there is a marked reduction in the number of cases of scarlet fever and diptheria, as well as of less dangerous diseases. II. While individual exan- ination of pupils, with no "follow-up system" by a nurse, has not accomplished all it might, nevertheless many physical defects have been remedied as a consequence. III. Where there is co-operation between the school physician and the teachers, school work is modified to meet the physical needs of certain children.
There should be a greater degree of co-operation by the community in the effort to have the schools clean and sani-
The "New" Oxford School
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tary, Public sentiment should support the most rigid en- forcement of laws and regulations having this in view. The parent who permits his child to disregard quarantine is not co-operating in the health work of the schools, neither is the parent co-operating when he evinces a resentful spirit be- cause his child is excluded on account of vermin or some other non-dangerous but nevertheless contagious and disagreeable disease.
No-School Signal.
The usual arguments against the use of the no-school signal are as follows :
Frequent use of the no-school signal lessens the importance of the school in the minds of children. Other business goes on despite the weather.
Closing of the schools does not pretect all children from exposure. Large numbers are permitted, notwithstanding, to play or run errands, and these, as a rule, are those who can come to school least protected from the weather.
Closing of the schools means the total loss of use of an expensive plant, with small compensating gains.
It is difficult to forecast the weather at the time the no- school signal must be sounded.
All these arguments apply in Fairhaven, the last one with especial emphasis because the decision must be made here at 7.30 a. m., before the barge, which transports the pupils from Sconticut Neck, starts on its route. An objection to the sounding of the afternoon signal, peculiar to our conditions, is the fact that more than one-hundred children, conveyed to school by car and barge, are already at school. It is useless and therefore unwise to send these children home in a story which may have abated before the end of the session.
The no-school signal has been sounded only four times in two years. There have been more days than this when some children needed to be kept at home. It has been our custom to record absences only when half or less than half
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of the school was present. I would suggest for your con- sideration the abolition of the no-school signal and the sub- stitution of the so-called "New Britain plan" which is as follows :
Have the schools open every day but give the superinten- dent authority to direct the teachers not to record attendance on days when, in his judgment, careful parents would keep their children at home. This arrangement is not without disadvantages but it ought to result in less loss and dissatis- faction than the present plan. It would have the effect of placing the responsibility for exposing children to the weather where it belongs, upon the parent.
Course of Study and Organization.
New outlines in Arithmetic and Geography have been placed in the schools since the last report. Something has been done toward the preparation of a new course in Reading. The work in this subject needs to be more carefully arranged.
In September plans were initiated which, when fully operative, will result in a slight modification of the present organization. The changes purpose a reduction of the ele- mentary course of study from nine years to eight for children entering at six, the establishment of a sub-primary standard of work for children entering at five, and the provision of two courses of study to meet the needs of eighth grade pupils. The end sought by these changes is a more flexible organiza- tion whereby the required work may be presented so as to fit better the capacities and needs of the pupils.
The reduction in length of the elementary course of study is in line with the tendency in Massachusetts. It is already an accomplished fact in practically all the larger communities. In many cases it has been done without increasing the en- trance age to six, but the results prove there is no real gain in this because children reach the High school at about the same age as previously, owing to retardation caused by im- maturity in early grades. The Committee deemed it wise
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to continue the policy of housing children of five but to establish a different standard for them.
In the first grade the same standard of attainment has been set heretofore for children of five and of six. Age is not an infallible index, but the majority of children of five are considerably less mature than children of six, and, conse- quently, capable of less progress. The effect of the past arrangement has been that the more mature children did less than they could and the less mature more than they ought, or, through failure to cover a minimum requirement, were compelled to repeat the grade. Under the new plan, children of five, except those of unusual maturity, are placed in the sub-primary grade, and those of six, unless of ex- ceptional immaturity, are placed in the first grade. Where normal progress is made each class of children will complete the grades at the same age, fourteen.
The reduction in the length of the elementary course of study eliminates the ninth grade as such, but in its place will be an eighth grade composed of pupils planning definitely a high school course. Heretofore, with the exception of Latin, which has been elective, the course of study has been uniform for all. It is proposed that the eighth grade be divided into two sections, one made up of those whose formal education will end with the grammar school, the other of pupils planning work at the high school. In the former division the course of study will emphasize especially practical training in English, Arithmetic, Spelling and Penmanship. Other subjects will be American History, Commercial Geography. Physiology and Hygiene, and Civics. The present work in Music, Drawing, Domestic Science, and Manuel Training will be continued. In the division fitting for High school the subjects pursued will include, in addition to English, Arith metic, Spelling, Penmanship, and American History, the be ginning of a modern language, Algebra, and Elementary Science. The same courses as at present in Music, Drawing, Domestic Science and Manual Training will be followed.
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The public school system has been modified greatly in re- cent years. Not all the changes have resulted in greater effi- ciency, but the sentiment of no wide-awake community would tolerate a return to the conditions of the not-far-distant past. In the more radical changes that seem certain in the future, the school will occupy, as in the past, a dual position, that of cause and effect. It is only one of the forces working upon the conditions of the time and it cannot, therefore, be en- gaged exclusively in building a foundation for the dreams of educators and other idealists; it must respond to the social and industrial needs of the generation which its serves.
High School.
The High school has had a very successful year. The en- rollment numbers 191. Despite the fact that the largest class in its history graduated in June there was an increase in membership in the fall. The spirit of the student-body has been excellent and there has been a gratifying manifestation of interest by the public in the activities of the school. In several departments notably good work has been accomplish- ed. The manual training exhibit last spring showed such articles as morris chairs, cedar chests, and dining tables, as well as many less elaborate pieces, all of very superior work- manship. In quality and quantity the exhibit was esteemed the best the school has shown. The gymnasium exhibit was pro- nounced by those who have attended previous ones as the best yet given. In this department also, the football team won credit for the school and itself by defeating the leading elevens of the South-Eastern Massachusetts League, thereby winning the foremost position, if not the championship title, among the schools of this part of the state. The thoughtful exulted in this triumph not merely because of the football skill displayed, but, chiefly, because of the quality of the regular physical training in the department which made possible such success of a relatively small school.
Last spring the Agricultural Department of Amherst Col- lege organized Home Economic Clubs among the high school
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girls of the state. The purpose was to stimulate an interest in home duties. Prizes were offered. Each contestant selected as a major either bread-making or canning and preserving, and was required to perform certain other work. The send- ing in of a weekly report to the authorities at Amherst was one of the conditions. Twenty girls from your High school enrolled and eight stayed in the contest until the end or for a period of about six months. In this state-wide contest a Fairhaven High pupil won several prizes. Several other prizes came to the school in connection with the contest.
Through the generosity and interest of Mr. Clifton A. Hacker of this town substantial cash prizes were offered last spring for excellence in declamation and in English composi- tion. The immediate results of this as well as the stimulation of interest in these lines of work, were gratifying.
In June the experiment of holding a regular session of the school between the hours of 4.30 and 9.30 p. m. was tried. The purpose was to furnish an opportunity to fathers, as well as others employed during the day, to see the school at its regular work. An effort was made to record the visitors but they came so fast that it was given up. It is estimated that between five and six hundred people visited the school. Although it is doubtful if the classes recited in quite their usual form under such unusual conditions, nevertheless it was possible for the visitor to secure a fairly clear idea of what was being attempted daily. A number of townspeople present stated that it was the first time they had been in the building.
The people of Fairhaven know that superior educational opportunities are to be found for their children in the High school. To induce more Fairhaven boys and girls to attend the school, to secure that co-operation between parent and school which shall result in the most efficient use of these opportunities in the building up of strong, self-reliant, re- sponsible men and women, are problems ever with us.
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School and Library.
No other public institution is so closely related to the pub- lic school as the free public library. For this reason there should be intelligent co-operation in these two educational agencies in a common purpose. An effort is being made to increase still further the effectiveness of co-operation be- tween the Millicent Library and Fairhaven schools. In No- vember the librarian gave an instructive address to the teachers on the subject of mutual co-operation, and, as one result of this, a series of lessons is being given pupils of the upper grades, to the end that they may know how to use the library more profitably. The lessons are given at the library by the librarian or one of his assistants.
The Library has shown its interest in the vocational guid- ance work undertaken at the High School by compiling and printing an extensive list of books which may be used by the school in connection with work along this line, and by fur- nishing, also, a list of helpful and inspirational biographies related to the same purpose.
Finances.
The fiscal year just closed has been one month less in length than usual, which fact will account for the substantial balance in favor of the School Department. Aided by this balance it will be possible to get through next year with an appropria- tion of $19,000. It is undoubtedly the desire of the voters to apply the HI. H. Rogers Trust Fund in a way to raise the standard of the schools. Without this fund, however, the necessity of maintaining two more schools than formerly, with another in prospect, the opening of an evening school next year as required by law, the increased expenditure for books and supplies as number of pupils increases, and the making of long-needed repairs upon school buildings, would have rendered it necessary to ask the town this year for more than the usual $20,000 rather than less.
The usual statistical tables will be found appended.
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Acknowledgment of the spirit of earnestness and co-opera- tion existing among the teachers is hereby made.
I wish to express my appreciation of courteous, business- like treatment at the hands of the Committee, and of its thorough co-operation in efforts to advance the schools.
Respectfully submitted, CHARLES F. PRIOR.
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ROLL OF HONOR. Pupils neither absent nor tardy for the year ending June 26, 1914.
High School.
Frank M. Babbitt
Grace R. Fitzsmmons
Harry R. Betagh
Mary F. Petty
Everett G. Leonard
Paulina Sherman
Arthur P. Raiche
Doris Wilde
Madeline S. Corson
Theodore R. Bradley
Caroline R. Gilmore
Donald R. Campbell
Grace W. Mackie
Arnold W. Fitzsimmons
Carleton E. Bauldry
Harold D. Mahoney
William J. Grant
Leonard K. Murphy
Melissa HI. Besse
Rodney W. Perkins
Bessie M. Hoye
Manuel P. Reble
Ruth H. Taber
Ralph L. Rounsville
Lucy E. Thatcher
Stanley R. Tripp
Edwin V. Babbitt
Eliot S. Vaughan
William H. Davis
Jennie E. Bennett
Frederick L. Dexter
Marion V. Bennett
Allen P. Stillman
Mary A. Curry
Elizabeth S. Bushnell
Gladys E. Fish
Eva M. Card
Elsie M. Higgins
Annie E. Denson
Dorothy L. Nye.
Evelyn II. Ellis
Amy F. Taber
Louise G. Freitas
Old High School-9th Grade.
Esther Austin
George Ashley
Madeline Caswell
George Cornell
Doris Maxfield
Herbert Porter
Helen Newton
John Quirk
Anna Olson
Herbert Saunders
Madge Westgate
Franklyn Thatcher
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Grade 8-Emma Marshall Mildred McGill Esther Raiche Willard Alden Grade 7-Mildred Chase Elsie Dufrane Catherine Fleming
Florence Freitas
Gladys Gelett Malcolm Campbell Everett Miller
Grade 6 and 7-Helen Haskell Ida Palmer
Helen Perry
Marguerite Ryder
Evelyn Wilkinson Alice Backus
Grade 6-Gertrude Karl
Annie Mitchell
Charles Anderson
Gilbert Long Antone Silva
Grade 5-Manuel Silva
Elsie Adshead William Karl
Grade 4-Sarah Fleming
Madeline Waterman Anna Johnson Hugh Bradwell
Rogers Annex.
Grade 3-Edwina Lewis Howard Horne
Oxford School.
Grade 5 and 6-Raymond Waterman Lena Mendell
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Grade 3 and 4-William Grinrod Grade 2-Ruth Harring Alphonse Baillargeon Leonard Labonte Leopold Rodeillat
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PRESENT CORPS OF TEACHERS.
HIGH SCHOOL.
Albert B. Kimball
Science
Chas. H. Woodbury
Mathematics
Alvin J. Long
Manual Education
Frederick C. Hill
Physical Education
Josephine H. Leach Grace M. Grant
English Stenography and
Typewriting
Ruby R. Dodge
Mabel S. Reed
German and History
Susan P. Gifford
French
Bessie C. Verder
Science and History
Eunice E. Strong
Domestic Science
Tosca Woehler
Sewing
Beatrice A. Randall
Drawing
Anna B. Trowbridge Music
Charles Johnson, Jr. Manual Education
Worcester Polytechnic Institute Tufts College Columbia University International Y. M. C. A. Training School Boston University
Chandler Shorthand
R. I. State Normal Smith College Boston University
Grenoble University
Middlebury College Brown University Oxford University, Eng.
Columbia University
Framingham Normal Salem Normal School Art Course
Silver Burdett School
Columbia University Summer School
Latin
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OLD HIGH SCHOOL.
Anne E. Williams Prep. Class Wellesley College $70.00
ROGERS SCHOOL.
Sara B. Clarke, Prin.
Grade 8 Bridgewater Normal $100.00
Florence V. Nichols
66
8 Gorham Normal 65.00
Grace J. Delva
66
Fitchburg Normal 60.00
Dorothy Hathaway
66 6-7 Fitchburg Normal 50.00
Ruth W. Holloway
6
Bridgewater Normal 60.00
Sara M. Curtis
66
5 Fitchburg Normal 60.00
Edith M. Kendrick
5 Bridgewater Normal
60.00
Marguerite Struthers
4 Fitchburg Normal 55.00
Mattie L. Norris
4 Fairhaven High School
73.00
ANNEX.
Marian Shepard
Grade 1 Bridgewater Normal $70.00
Mary A. S. Sale
1 Framingham Normal 60.00
Constance Young
2 Bridgewater Normal 50.00
Rachel E. Kingsley
2 Castleton Normal (Vt.) 60.00
Katherine R. Eames
66
3 Framingham Normal 60.00
Pauline E. Thiesfeldt
66
3 Fitchburg Normal 50.00
OXFORD.
Myra D. Crowell
Grades 7-8 Bridgewater Normal $90.00
Mary A. Wight
5-6 Plymouth, N. H., Nor. School 60.00
Margaret Timberlake
Grade 4 Gorham Normal 50.00
Alice T. Lee
3 North Scituate Tr. School 57.50
Edale B. Garside
66
2 Westfield Normal 55.00
Hattie M. Smith
1 Wheelock K'dergarten School 55.00
SUPERVISORS.
Anna B. Trowbridge
(part time)
Music $45.00
Beatrice A. Randall
(part time)
Drawing and Sewing 47.00
Alvin J. Long
Manual Education
Charles Johnson, Jr.
Manual Education
Frederick C. Hill
Physical Education
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HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES, 1913-1914.
-
1913.
Thomas W. Albiston,
Foster W. Baker,
Lucy Baker, (Mrs. Ray Gifford) Helen O. Bowman,
Laura E. Bowman,
James H. Brennand,
Florence M. Coupe, (Mrs. Byron Pardee) Nathan B. Denham,
At Home, Fairhaven. Mass. Agricultural College, Amherst. At home, Fairhaven. Conservatory of Music, Boston. At home, Mattapoisett. Farmer, Fairhaven. Stenographer, M. C. Swift & Son, New Bedford. At home, Mattapoisett. Farmer, Athabasca Landing, Alberta, Canada. Training School for Nurses, Mass. Gen. Hospital, Boston.
Adrian R. Ganter,
Pauline R. Griffin,
Ralph M. Holland, N. B. Gas Light Co., Draughtsman, New Bedford. Asa S. Hoxie, Farmer, Mattapoisett. Marion E. Mantius, Training School for Nurses, Mass. Gen. Hospital, Boston. Byron F. Morton, Teacher, High School, Beresford, So. Dak. Mary M. Soares. At home, Fairhaven.
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Anna F. Sohlgren,
Harold S. Spooner,
Harold D. Stillman,
Paul R. Swift,
Clara L. Taylor,
Miriam Thrasher,
Mildred C. Tinkham,
Delight Tuthill,
Samuel F. Tuthill,
Maria M. White,
Hilda W. Wilde,
Frank M. Babbitt,
Carleton E. Bauldry,
Harry R. Betagh,
Gertrude M. Carrie,
Leonard K. Church,
Marie C. Clark,
Clerk, Specialty Shoe Store, New Bedford. At home, Fairhaven. Dartmouth College, Hanover, N. H. Clerk, N. B. Cotton Corp. New Bedford. Stenographer, Atlas Tack Co. Fairhaven. At home, Fairhaven. State Normal School. Bridgewater. State Normal School, Bridgewater. Mass. Agricultural College, Amherst. At home, Lakeland, Fla. Stenographer, Hill & Cutler, New Bedford.
1914.
Mass. Agricultural College, Amherst. Rhode Island State College, Kingston, R. I. Clerk, Brownė Pharmacy, Fairhaven. Stenographer, School Department, Fairhaven. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa. Stenographer, Boston, Mass.
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Madeline S. Corson,
Ellen F. Curran,
Beatrice Dean,
Ethel H. Dunn,
Laura F. Ellis,
Albert E. Foster,
Bernice Gifford,
Margaret L. Gillingham,
Caroline B. Gilmore,
Manuel R. Gonsalve,
Minnie A. Q. Halloran,
Mary E. Hartley, At home, Rochester. Olive C. Hayes, At home, New Bedford. Jennie M. Hiller, Teacher, Little Compton, R. 1. Doris E. Hodgson, Cambridge Latin School, Cambridge. Madeline E. Hoxie, At home, Fairhaven. Gertrude F. Hulse. State Normal School, Bridgewater.
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