USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Fairhaven > Town annual report of the offices of Fairhaven, Massachusetts 1938 > Part 8
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ners. The schedule of salaries recommended in the 1937 report is now essentially in force. It needs to be said again that this schedule is still very low for the type of schools Fairhaven people demand. Perhaps the time is not favor- able for increasing it but, eventually, it should be increased. Fairhaven may not be in a financial position to compete successfully with the wealthier towns, but it can afford to pay a somewhat higher maximum and an annual increment sufficient to retain good teachers for longer periods of service. This would enable our children to have more efficient schools.
Difficulty of the Teacher's Task
I wonder if the general public apprehends at all clearly the difficult task of the teacher. Visualize the schoolroom,-
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the teacher at her desk or by the door, as her pupils come trooping in. Here is Peter who has been a disciplinary problem in previous grades; there is John who is dreamy and never finishes his task; here is Mary, bright as a dollar, but so careless that she never does anything correctly the first time; there is Rose whose anxiety to get a good mark leads her to copy from her neighbor when she has a chance; here is Nicholas, able to accomplish much more than any other boy in the class, who gets his work done quickly and then disturbs others; there is a child from a home where he never hears English spoken and within which is not a book or magazine; here is another who is up early to help on the place or deliver milk, and who comes to school so tired, that he has little energy to put into school work; there is a big over-grown boy who has repeated every grade, who has learned so little he is prepared for none, who is a disciplin- ary problem ;- all of these and many more come trooping in. Before the teacher lies the course of study,-to each must be taught so much reading, spelling, geography, arith- metic, English, or Latin, or History, or Science, and all the rest. How to teach this subject matter to these widely dif- fering boys and girls and, in so doing, train them for citi- zenship and thus help to make democracy safe,-that is the teacher's problem. It is his or her mission, also, for her real success in meeting the problem depends not merely on practical knowledge of pedagogy, upon technical skill, upon ambitious zeal, but, also, it rests in a greater degree upon the strength and vividness of the teacher's profes- sional ideals.
When is fairly considered the difficulties and the responsi- bilities of the work is realized that a community cannot be too careful in its selection of teachers, within its salary limits, nor can it afford to make the salary limits so low as not to enable the employment of the best.
PERTAINING TO PUPILS
Given the best of teachers, not every pupil can achieve high success in school. Why? Because there are children who come to school unprepared in body, mind, spirit, or all three, to receive what the school can give. Take the physical condition of a child, for illustration. A specialist in the teaching of reading visited recently a lower grade
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adjustment class in the subject, in one of our buildings. After examining the class she said,-"A large proportion of this group are obviously undernourished. That is cer- tainly one of the reasons why they are making such slow progress." Studies made of a large number of retarded children have shown that when they are more adequately fed they accomplish more in school. How to bring this about cannot be completely answered. Without question, the free distribution of milk, made possible in Fairhaven by the Mothers' Club and the Teachers' Association, has aided considerably in this direction, but it does not begin to solve the whole problem. Supplying more milk will not do so but more would help. If fraternal and other organizations in Town would follow the example of the New Bedford Rotary Club and "pass" the milk bottle at each meeting,- turning over the proceeds to the School Milk Fund or Mothers' Club,-it would assist greatly.
The annual eye and ear tests given in each school show that defective sight and hearing are common causes of slow progress and that, with remedial treatment, improvement often results. Here, too, is a field for philanthropic effort.
Everything that affects a child's physical condition favor- ably, tends to make him a better pupil. The physical child is, however, only part of the child. The invisible child is even more important than the visible. The real child is the bundle of likes and dislikes, loves and hates, emotions and thoughts, that make up his personality. Science and ex- perience have discovered facts and rules relating to the development of this invisible child but, at present, they are not a part of the common knowledge of parents and teachers. The development of the invisible child is, there- fore, directed with less intelligence even than that of the physical.
Important in his reaction to the purposes of the school are the pupil's attitudes toward it. These are determined in a measure, of course, by his teacher, but, in a larger degree, they are determined by his outside environment, especially that of the home. If parents show indifference to or have an unfavorable attitude toward education, to- ward any subject taught, toward the teacher, the child also usually indicates it in his efforts at school, and it acts as a handicap to his progress. Children who come to school
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from broken or inharmonious homes often show the effects of this in their school life. They are frequently so-called disciplinary problems. Such children need the love, interest and encouragement of father and mother to stimulate them to effort in the right direction.
The school cannot, at its best, compensate for lack of opportunity to develop right attitudes at home, but, if the right kind of teacher could know the conditions at home, and parents could understand the effect of the home atmos- phere on the pupil's work in school, this mutual knowledge could be utilized by both to transform the child into a happier, more efficient pupil. To bring about a higher degree of cooperation between the school and home, some communities now employ a "visiting teacher." It is her task to bring school and home into closer and more intelli- gent cooperative effort in behalf of the child. May I express the hope that the time will come when the School Committee can employ a visiting teacher in Fairhaven.
Statistical Facts Regarding Homes
A State questionnaire recently compiled gives some in- teresting data concerning the homes of Fairhaven pupils. There is little of it that can be directly applied in the schools, nevertheless some of it is suggestive in various ways.
Among 1,561 elementary school pupils, the occupations of parents are distributed as follows:
Farming
103
Industry
299
Trade 289
Profession
68
Skilled-Craft
371
Unskilled-Craft 431
Number of pupils from homes having radios 991
Number of pupils from homes taking a newspaper 1004
Number of pupils from homes taking a magazine 862
Number of pupils from homes having at least ten books 889 Number of pupils having one parent foreign-born 356 Number of pupils having two parents foreign-born 524
Number of pupils with parents who do not speak English 128
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Perhaps the most significant fact relating to the success of the pupil in school is the large number of homes where there is little or no reading material accessible. The public school curriculum is based largely on books. The pupil who comes to school without an interest in and familiarity with the instrument through which his education is to be secured is badly handicapped, in comparison with the child who lives in a home where the opposite condition obtains. A home where suitable reading matter is accessible, where parents are interested in reading, where children are read to in early childhood, sends them off to a "running start" in school life.
Expansion of Curriculum Needed
Increasing juvenile delinquency is a serious problem to- day. Safety and criminal records show that the failure of a pupil to make a success of his work in school tends to make him a potential delinquent in society, and, that, "if he can find in school the opportunity of success he may be led into a life of usefulness instead of drifting into a life of conflict with society." Studies made of the after-school careers of seven hundred juvenile offenders in Chicago and eight hundred in Boston caused the investigators to say,- "There is abundance of evidence that the careers of juvenile delinquency are, in the main, swervable."
Juvenile delinquency is not a problem to be considered in an abstract way. It exists in Fairhaven. There are po- tential delinquents in every building. Practically every teacher has one or more. How to swerve these into the right path is a matter for consideration by the school and community. Undoubtedly some delinquency is beyond remedy. There is no cure-all at any rate. The employ- ment of the finest types of teachers is a long step in the right direction; securing the intelligent cooperation of the home is another. Provision by the community of adequate, wholesome, recreational facilities for older youth will also help. It is pertinent to emphasize especially here, however, something else that the taxpayers can enable the schools to do which will aid in solving the problem. It can enable them to offer a school curriculum better adapted to meeting the needs of non-book-minded pupils.
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Extensive studies have shown that in respect to native capacity to learn from books, most delinquents are inferior to non-delinquents; but, in respect to mechanical intelli- gence, they are equal. Since both high and elementary courses of study cater almost exclusively to the ability to learn from books, the non-book-minded are often complete or partial failures. Admitting that many failures under the present curriculum are due to other remedial causes, such as physical condition of the pupil, better home co- operation, and better teaching, there are nevertheless, a considerable number of pupils who fail to achieve much success in studying books because of sheer incapacity. The boy or girl who has not a "verbal abstract intelligence" is not necessarily bad because of it; that too has been proven by researchers. There is no correlation between moral character and book-minded, or between moral character and mechanical intelligence. The two types are equal in this respect. But there are boys and girls who are not dis- posed naturally to wrong-doing who become restless, humili- ated, disorderly, because there is so little in the present school curriculum that they have the kind of intelligence to approach with interest, and master. They develop an inferiority complex in respect to school tasks, which leaves them with a desire to shine in some other way. Thus they become problem pupils and potential delinquents.
Every pupil must, of course, acquire the tools of learn- ing; he must learn to read, write, figure, and use books; the curriculum must make provision for these things. But the school should provide also, opportunities for the ex- ercise of manual and motor skills, should utilize the interest of non-bookish pupils in working with things and mechan- isms. It is his right to have the opportunity to succeed and to the extent that he can succeed, in that measure, he has been swerved from delinquency. It may be stated also, in passing, that a curriculum which gives an opportunity to use and develop mechanical intelligence should be considered as important, respectable, and truly cultural as the book curriculum.
Why discuss this matter in the School Report? Because it concerns the solution of the problem of delinquency and, also, because there are so many things the schools, parti- cularly the high school, could do for all pupils if money
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could be found to purchase more equipment and employ suitably prepared teachers along this line. It would not require a very large additional appropriation to make a beginning in Fairhaven, namely, to restore sewing to the girls and expand the home economics course; to furnish more equipment for the school shop and provide an addi- tional teacher for it; and to give to all 7th grade pupils opportunity in woodworking, something which most of them are denied at present.
AMERICANIZATION CLASS COMPULSORY
The State law now requires that a municipality must establish Americanization Classes if (20) or more people apply for them: These classes are to give instruction in the English language "to adults eighteen years of age or older, who are unable to speak, read or write in it, and, also, in the fundamental principles of government, and other subjects adapted to fit for American Citizenship." When such a class has been organized, the law states that it may be discontinued at the discretion of the School Committee if the attendance falls below (15).
A petition with (20) signatures of Fairhaven residents has recently been received by the School Committee, and the budget for 1939 must provide funds for such a class.
The State will reimburse the Town to the extent of one- half the cost of the supervision, and instruction of such a class, provided that the teacher holds a certificate from the State Department. The length of time the class will be in session, if it is not closed because of falling off attendance, is (20) weeks, two sessions each week.
SCHOOL WORK
High School
The high school is having a very successful year. The morale of the student body and teaching staff is excellent; the scholastic standard of the school is being maintained on as high a level as conditions permit; the assemblies are well planned, conducted and interesting, and all the extra cur-
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ricula activities are well managed. Details of the year's work will be found in the Report of the Principal.
Reference has been made hereinbefore to the rather sur- prising increase this fall in high school membership. As a result of this the teacher-load, average number of pupils per teacher, increased to 33. The State Department of Education has ruled that a school, to be rated Class A, must not have over 30 pupils per teacher. In an effort to comply with this standard, another teacher was employed in October. Despite this, the present average is over 31. Unless there is a further decline in the number of pupils, it is possible that our rating will be lowered. Merely engag- ing a second additional teacher would not solve the problem satisfactorily. There is a shortage of rooms in which to assign more classes. There are two possibilities, one that membership will decline and thus bring the teacher-load within the standard set; the other, that State authorities may overlook so negligible a deviation from it. At any rate, it is comforting to know that the State rating does not determine the school's standing with the New England College Entrance Board and that our certification privilege is not therefore jeopardized. In view of present conditions, and future prospects of some decline in membership, it does not seem wise to take immediate action in the way of pro- viding more recitation rooms. If one more teacher becomes imperative, it may be feasible to equip for the purpose one of the rooms formerly used in connection with manual training.
The Band
The school and Town are justly proud of Fairhaven High School Band. It won an "A" rating again this year at the State meeting held in Fall River and repeated its success of last year by receiving the highest rating at the New England competition held in Burlington, Vermont. The cam- paign to raise funds to send the Band to these two meetings was sponsored by the local posts of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars. I am sure the school, the Band, and the entire community appreciates greatly the efforts of these organizations and those who cooperated with them.
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Athletics
The various teams representing the school have made a better than average record during the year. In basketball Fairhaven was "runner up" to the champion in the Brockton tournament of Class "C" teams of Southeastern Massachu- setts; in track and baseball our rating was fairly good. In football, Fairhaven won six out of nine games in a schedule with no "soft" opponents. To many Fairhaven people, foot- ball is of greater interest and importance than any other sport. In their estimation, also, no season is completely successful unless New Bedford and Durfee have been de- feated. This year both schools won from us, and the team was criticized sharply for its lack of skill and spirit. Useless to say again, that the opponents in our objective games are not logical ones for a school of our size and that only very occasional victories over them can justly be expected. While it is true that Fairhaven did not appear to play in its best form and spirit in the great game of the season, this is far from an unusual phenomenon with any team. As Howard Jones, coach of the Rose Bowl, U.S.C. said recently of his players,-"No one knows just how a bunch of boys are going to be on a certain day. They may be up one week and down the next. Young football players are subject to all the moods in the book."
The Lady Fairhaven Citizenship Awards
On the occasion of her visit to the Town in March, The Lady Fairhaven donated to the high school the sum of $600. with the provision that $100. should be used to purchase a cup, the purpose of which is to recognize scholarship and citizenship, and $500. to establish a fund, the income from which is to be awarded annually as a recognition of superior school and community citizenship. The cup is to be called THE LADY FAIRHAVEN CUP, the Fund also, after its donor. These awards will be made by a committee of five from the high school faculty and will be presented for the first time in June of the current year.
Brief Notes on School Activities
The Fairhaven-Mattapoisett Teachers' Association has functioned as usual. It has contributed its usual quota to
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the School Milk Fund and has supported generously local campaigns to raise money for charitable purposes. It has sponsored several professional addresses and arranged a program for a successful Education Week observance.
The program for Education Week included chorus sing- ing by members of the high school and representative groups from each elementary grade, under the direction of Miss Agnes Santry, Music Supervisor. The singing, and the selections by the High School Orchestra, played under the direction of Mr. Kempf, were exceptionally well executed.
The Art Department, under the direction of Miss Lillian Elliott, has held its annual exhibit of posters, this year, devoted to PEACE. More than one hundred were made by pupils of the various elementary schools. The ideas ex- pressed on them so vividly indicate what is true, that art is being taught in our schools as a means of expressing real thought and feeling, and not merely for decorative purposes.
Choric speech is interesting teachers and pupils in every building. Verse speaking choirs have been organized in most of the rooms, and their selections have been a pleasing feature of several programs. The educational value of choric speech includes its training in good enunciation and use of the voice, its exercise of memory, and the develop- ment of a feeling for poetic form.
The law requires eyesight and hearing tests of each pupil. Heretofore the teachers have given both of them in the grades, and the school physician, in the high school. This year the Department of Hygiene of the State Board of Health was secured for the hearing tests. The work was done with an audiometer, used by a skilled technician. The testing of nearly 2,000 children in grades 3-12, including retesting of doubtful cases, required more than a week of her time, in conjunction with that of the school nurse. The surprisingly small number of 16 pupils was found to have serious hearing defects.
There is probably not another library in the United States that does so much for the children of its community as does the Millicent. The Librarian gives herself unstinted- ly to the service of the schools, both through the school year and during vacations. The reading projects conducted in
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the summer, with smaller children, are a very valuable supplement to the work of the school. The instruction given the 7th grades in the use of the library is practical, efficient, and develops an interest in its use. Our schools are al- together fortunate in having the opportunity to cooperate with the Public Library as they do,-that they appreciate this is shown in some degree by the Bookweek exhibits of this and previous years made by the children of various schools. It is but fair to say that the exhibit this year de- serves special mention for its high quality, as well as its scope.
OXFORD SCHOOL:
The Oxford School is the largest elementary school in Town. It has 315 pupils and 10 teachers in grades 1-7, in- clusive. For the first time in several years, the first grade in this district showed an increase.
During the spring term the Oxford Special Class held an exhibit of its handwork in the Town Hall. The weaving shown received high commendation.
Opportunity for visual education, through the use of a stereopticon or movie machine has been made by the pur- chase, from the School Fund, raised by the efforts of teach- ers, of opague curtains for one of the classrooms.
Amid the disruption in attendance at other buildings, due to the havoc wrought by the hurricane, the fidelity of Oxford School pupils to their task may be noted. The school was open all day, with an attendance of 80%. Other buildings were open, with teachers present, but pupils were absent. It is fair to say, however, that in several buildings conditions made it impracticable to hold school.
EDMUND ANTHONY, JR. and JOB C. TRIPP SCHOOLS:
This year, for the first time, the Anthony School has a spare room, and it is being put to good use. Seats and desks have been removed, tables and chairs installed. From a fund, earned by pupils, opaque shades have been placed on the windows so that stereopticon and movie pictures may be shown when available. Book shelves have been built, and the Millicent Library has provided a collec-
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tion of 200 books to be loaned children. A teacher acts as Librarian. In addition to other uses this room serves as a place for physical training in groups, listening to radio programs, and for project work.
The regular classroom work at the Tripp School has been unusually good this year. At both Tripp and Anthony Schools the programs of the California Broadcasting Sta- tion are listened to each Friday. A booklet with lesson plans for the teachers enables valuable results.
In both the schools the project "Christmas In Other Lands"-described in previous reports-has been unusually successful. Through it, children acquire much geography, develop goodwill toward other peoples and, in a season likely to breed too many selfish thoughts, have their atten- tion distracted toward something else. The audiometer technician, in the service of the State, wrote of her recent work in Fairhaven schools,-"The rooms were so full of centers of interest that had I not been testing, I should have enjoyed just observing, particularly in the Anthony and Tripp schools, with their scenes of "Christmas In Other Lands."
WASHINGTON STREET SCHOOL:
This primary school again won the book prize, given by the Mothers' Club, to the school selling the most tags in the spring drive.
The young musicians of the school gave a musicale in the spring. The ensemble playing was remarkably good, con- sidering the age of the children. Some of the selections given were really more suitable for grammar grades, but they were played by these children of grades 1-4 with poise and accuracy. The proceeds of the concert were used to establish a music fund for the school.
EAST FAIRHAVEN SCHOOL:
The operetta given by this school, in a building with the smallest enrollment in Town, was remarkably good. It was an ambitious undertaking for so small a group of teachers and pupils. The costuming, planning, and re-
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hearsing must have required much painstaking effort by the teachers. It was on the whole, the best entertainment in the history of the school.
The civic spirit of East Fairhaven pupils is high. One of its manifestations was the planting of four silver maple trees on Arbor Day.
The teachers have visited, during the year, the homes of 95% of their pupils.
ROGERS SCHOOL:
This school, grades 5-7, issues several mimeographed papers, or, perhaps, magazines is the better word. A 6th grade gets out "Our Weekly Newsette" and the 7th grade "The Rogers Review" and the "Rogers Art News" ;- all show extremely credible work. The "Rogers Review" of this year deserves especially high commendation. The work on these papers is a very profitable correlation with the English instruction given.
The inauguration of a school library is perhaps the pro- ject which has most interested Rogers School pupils this year. Through donations largely, but, also, by the loan of 200 books from the Millicent Library, 700 books have been assembled. The collection has in it about every child classic written. The boys have made and painted tempor- ary stacks to hold the books, but, permanent ones of more substantial character are being constructed by them. Every- thing is being done in approved library style. Each book has received an accession number, a catalog number, and a card pocket; and the art classes plan to provide a book- case also. The library is open two days each week and, thus far, an average of 40 books has come out each day. It is obvious that such an activity as this will be a means of improving the reading ability and the interest of pupils.
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