USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Acton > Town annual reports of Acton, Massachusetts 1853-82 > Part 7
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The superintendence of your schools is no trifling affair, and when faithfully performed, requires the sa- crifice of much time and personal convenience. En- couraged by your liberality, we have endeavored to discharge our official duties, with fidelity to the inter- ests of your schools, and to exercise with moderation and discretion the authority committed to our trust. While we lay no claim to infallibility, we are uncon- scious of having acted from unworthy motives, or of having departed from the principles of equity and hon- or in our decisions. We well know it is scarcely possible to please all, and can hardly flatter ourselves that we have done so. Whatever may be the policy
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of a committee, in regard to schools, there will always be some to find fault-their measures will seldom fail to meet with opposition from some quarter.
A variety of circumstances conspire to render their duties difficult, and sometimes disagreeable ; and they ought, as a matter of justice, to be cheerfully sustained by their fellow citizens in their efforts for the improve- ment of our schools. We say, then, let your commit- tee be men in whose wisdom, integrity and judgment, you can confide, and give them your unlimited confi- dence. In resigning the superintendence of your schools to other hands, your committee cannot but express the hope that they may be sustained by the increasing liberality of the town, and continue to flourish under the instruction and supervision of future teachers and committees.
Yours respectfully,
WM. D. TUTTLE,
School Committee
JOHN M. MILES,
LUTHER CONANT, JR., - of
Acton.
Tabular Statement for 1855.
NAMES OF
Districts.
TEACHERS.
Wages, including board
per month.
Amount of do.
Whole No. of Scholars.
Average No. Scholars.
Average per cent.
No. over 15 yrs. of age.
No. under 5 yrs. of age.
Length of School, in
1
SUMMER.
Caroline E. Hosmer,
$20 00
$70 00
53
47 1-2
89 6-10
0
0 3 1-2
Centre,
Mary J. Harris,
14 00
35 00
32
27 1-9
24 1-6
71
0
0 3 1-2
West,
B. A. Mead,
16 00
56 00
38
32 2-7
85
0
6 3 1-2
South,
Sarah A. Shattuck,
12 00
42 00
30
22
73 3-10
0
7 3 1-2
Celeste J. Robbins,
16 00
72 00
34
26 1-2
78
0
5
4 1-2
East, North,
Lucy Barnard,
16 00
64 00
35
26 1-4
75
0
5
4
So. East, Eliza J. Hosmer,
15 00
56 25
24
16 3-4
70
2
2
3 3-4
Total,
$142 00 $519 25
326
259 4-7
5 33
32 3-4
WINTER.
Mark Davis,
$42 00$115 50
55
45 3-10
82 1-3
20
0 2 3-4
John C. Hale,
42 00
115 50
55
49 2-5
30 1-2
87 1-9
22
0
1 3-4
South,
ยง John B. Goodrich, Oliver Wetherbee,
42 00
31 50
35
30 1-2
87 1-9
22
0
3-4
North,
Luther Conant, Jr.,
38 00
142 50
38
34 1-4
90
8
0 3 3-4
East,
Samuel W. Lovejoy,
42 00
130 00
50
41
1-6
82 1-3
13
0 3 1-4
So. East, Alvah M. Richardson,
39 00
117 00
37
27
73
7
2
3
Total,
$287 00 $725 50 270 227 37-60
97
2
18
WINTER PRIMARY.
Martha A. Keyes,
$18 00
$49 50
54
44 2-3
82 2-3
0
8 2 3-4
B. A. Mead,
16 00
45 33
40
35 1-3
88 14
0
3
2 5-6
Tryphena Clark,
17 00
46 75
46
39
84 3-4
0
2
2 3-4
Total,
$51 00 $141 58|140 119
0 13
8 2-3
Paid to males, $725,50 ; paid to females, $660,83. Average wages per month, of male teachers, $41,00 ; of females, $16,08.
Months taught by males, 18; months taught by females, 41 5-12.
Greatest number of scholars attending school in winter, 410.
Average
346 37-60.
Greatest
66
"
in summer, 326.
Average
259 4-7.
0
8 2 1-2
Martha C. Harris,
16 00
56 00
34
37
80 1-2
3
0
4
Tryphena Clark,
17 00
68 00
46
Centre, West,
89 8-10,27
0 2 3-4
42 00
73 50
35
Centre, West, South,
84 7-10
months.
ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
SCHOOL COMMITTEE,
OF THE
TOWN OF ACTON,
FOR THE YEAR 1856-7.
CONCORD : BENJAMIN TOLMAN, PRINTER. 1857.
REPORT.
The School Committee beg leave to present their report to the men and women of Acton-to the readers and thinkers-the friends of free schools and free institutions.
We have sometimes thought that school reports were a little too much like 4th of July orations. While the latter make the welkin ring with the praises of our civil privileges, our mighty deeds and our glorious Union, the former are equally earnest in thanking God and our pilgrim fathers for the estab- lishment of free schools, where the rich and the poor meet together on common ground.
We repent of the thought, and hasten to make all due confession. Recent events, a particular exami- nation of the census, as well as our own every day experience, convince us that too much cannot well be said in favor of common schools as the great means of perfecting and perpetuating among us the blessings of civil and religious liberty.
4
We are more and more convinced that bigotry and superstition, ignorance and degradation, go hand in hand together ; while liberty, freedom, righteousness and peace, wait on the footsteps of wisdom, and follow in the train of free schools, and a liberal system of universal education.
In the olden time, it was spoken by authority - " My people perish for lack of knowledge." It is equally true to-day. How many men are daily stalk- ing around this fair, green earth, dead to all the grand surroundings in which God has placed them ; to many of the glorious aspirations, the deep, unspoken and unspeakable joys by which the well-trained, the think- ing, loving mind is ravished !
The general voice of community is now in favor of a thorough and practical education. The success- ful man, in all the walks of his life, is trained for his work; is brought up to it. It is the high praise of our New England schools that they fit our boys and girls for any business. It is in them that our children learn and begin to practice that self-respect, self-reliance and self-knowledge which will be their only sure support in all their future lives. Here they are fitted for the field or the workshop, the place of business or the halls of legislation.
Here in Acton, our children are blessed in the be- ginning with healthy bodies, strengthened and de- veloped by labor, while their minds are prepared for action by study in the school, and reading and think- ing at home. We thus become a strong people. Our whole life is a victory. We overcome our sav- age climate and our sterile soil, and make our loved old town the home of man, the spot to which, of all
5
the world, her children look with a thrill of no com- mon love, and to which-their wanderings over - they return as to a father's house and a mother's home.
The people of this town have always made fair, if not generous appropriations for the support of schools, ever since we knew them, thirty years ago ; and during the lapse of that age, there has been, in many things, a visible improvement. A hasty com- parison of that time with the present will, we trust, be neither unpleasant nor unprofitable. Then, there was raised for the support of schools, $600 - now $1500. Then, we had four districts and four schools -now we have six districts and nine schools. Then, a man could be hired to teach for fifteen or twenty dollars a month, and boarded for six dollars - now thirty dollars is thought cheap, and board is from twelve to sixteen dollars a month. Then, our popu- lation was one thousand - now seventeen hundred. Then, the prudential committee picked up his teacher wherever he could find him, or, more frequently, perhaps, the teacher sought out the committee and the school began without examination, went on with- out supervision, and ended when the money was gone ; the minister, as a matter of charity, and a few friends, to show their interest, gracing the closing scene ; now, the State is making great efforts to supply richly qualified teachers, and pay well a committee chosen by the town to take the entire charge of all the schools. Then, not half the teachers could tell exactly their whole number of scholars, or the average attendance, and sometimes not even their names - now, the number, names and ages are matters of record, as are the days of attendance, tardiness and
6
absence. Then, the teacher was accountable to no- body in particular. If he did well, his memory was cherished in the hearts of the favored scholars - if otherwise, it was soon forgotten. Now the State requires and pays well for a full and particular ac- count of all the schools, to be preserved as a matter of history forever.
Thus, you can see at once that, while our school system has made rapid progress toward perfection, while we have greatly increased in population, in schools and scholars, while the mines of California have reduced the value of money one-half, our ap- propriations have not been trebled, when they should have been four times as much as thirty years ago. In farther proof of this, we would state that the cost of private instruction, to make up deficiences in the town schools, amounted to about $400 annually. The $1500 raised by the town was divided as follows : $300 cach to the three large districts, and $200 each to the small ones. This is the recorded vote. The school moncy was formerly divided by giving the large districts $177, as often as the small ones have $135 ; but it was found that this plan, though very good in its day, made the schools altogether too short in the large districts. It was proposed to divide the money by giving the large districts $33 1-3 cach, and then dividing the remainder in the old way, $135 to $177. There was little difference between the two plans.
Our Summer schools were all commenced under favorable circumstances. We had faithful, energetic and well qualified teachers- young women devoted
7
heart and soul to an important calling ; it seemed almost impossible that they should make even a comparative failure.
Their success was great, as was also their labor and their anxiety. Before noon and afternoon, they toiled continually ; and when night came, which should bring sleep to the weary and rest to all, they ceased not in their work, but kept school in their dreams, acting over again in the night watches the scenes of the ever busy day.
There is one drawback on our schools which even continual labor and untiring energy cannot overcome, viz : the absence of scholars during the berry season, Berry picking is an institution of Acton, and cannot be done away. All our calculations, and especially our schools, must bow to it. Is this to be wondered at, when we remember that the scholars comprising our schools, both great and small, hasten to the pastures, and hail the first ripening berry with noisy glee ? and remember, too, that they can earn daily from twenty-five cents to two dollars through the season of eight or ten weeks ?
Our schools are thus ruined by irregularities of at- tendance, which we see no way of avoiding, while the present custom of commencing them about the first of May continues. The most desirable remedy we can think of is this: let all the Summer schools commence about the last of March and continue for twelve weeks, closing about the first of July, at the commencement of the berry-picking season. Let this be called the Spring, or long term, and be con- sidered to belong more particularly to the larger scholars. In September, let there commence another
8
term of about eight weeks, to be devoted to the smaller scholars of the district, while the larger and more advanced shall have an opportunity to attend a high school.
People not conversant with the business of the school-room are not fully aware of the many annoying things connected with irregularity of attendance. If they were, they would not suffer their children to stay at home for small reasons, and often for no reason at all. Classes are broken up, lessons are de- layed, the teacher discouraged, and all the work of school thrown into disorder. Some of these irregu- larities of attendance can easily be remedied by parents and others interested in the school, but those of the berry season are incurable, and for these the better way will be to change the time of commencing the schools as suggested above.
We think this plan has many and great advantages over the custom of continuing the schools through the blazing heat of our burning Summers. In the first place, Spring and Fall are by far the most desir- able seasons for study ; next, the necessity for private schools, taught by irresponsible, and perhaps improper persons, will be done away entirely, every season having its appropriate school; and, finally, the large scholars in all the various parts of the town will be wide awake for Fall schools of a higher order than we have ever yet enjoyed.
One subject connected with our Summer duties, which caused us no little anxiety, was the question of dividing the schools in the large districts. At first, we were strongly inclined to follow in the foot- steps of our illustrious predecessors, and divide the
9
schools, but the assurance on the part of the teachers of their ability to manage the whole number, and with more satisfaction and less labor and care than when they were only partially under their control. Our experience in the West district, and, finally, the fact that in this way we could add considerably to the length of the Summer term, without shortening the Winter school, induced us to try the plan of single schools in the three large districts. And perhaps we ought to say further, that it gave us opportunity to protest most earnestly against the common practice of sending to school little toddling infants, merely as it would seem, for the sake of getting them out of the way - for no one pretends that the little knowledge they gain is worth a thought - and what is more, very serious injury is often done, both to their bodily powers and mental capacities.
Our deliberate opinion is that, so far as health of body, strength of mind, progress in education, and success in life are concerned, children should never see the inside of a school house until they are full six years of age. Let them run the streets, roam over the fields in search of flowers, laugh and scream, skip and play like little lambs, consolidate their bones, their whole strengthen their muscles, and develop system, by active and incessant exercise, which is so natural to the young, before they are put to that most laborious of all work-head work. It is asked, shall our children learn nothing in all these years ? To be sure, they will learn a great deal, at any rate, and the great business of the parent will be to see to it that they learn nothing injurious or erroneous - they will have "schools and school-masters," enough of them,-
2
10
let them be good and true. Let them learn of the brooks and stones, of the woods and fields, of bird and beast, under the care of father or mother, or older brother or sister ; but never let them take first lessons in places of public loafing. As a matter of recreation, let them learn the names of all sorts of letters, and begin to form little words, before entering a school house. Let them look forward with joyful expectation to the school, as the academy boy does to college. The office, then, of the Summer teacher would be shorn of half its trials, and relieved of much of its irksome labor.
With the Winter schools and their teachers, we have good reason to be well pleased generally. We have no reason, as formerly, to complain of their profanity or dissipation. The whole of them were entirely free from the vile and filthy practices of other days - the use of rum and tobacco - although some of them have recently abandoned the latter. They were, in general, well qualified, faithful, laborious and successful.
GENERAL REMARKS.
The office of town committee, although an honor- able one, is really no sinecure. A man must earn all the money he gets, while he receives the weight of his reward in something else : the thanks of the parents, the friendship of the teachers, and the good will of the scholars.
We have had under our care, during the year, fifteen teachers. Our intercourse with them, and our labors in their schools, have been very pleasant, and
11
all suggestions and requirements have been received with the kindest feelings. The several prudential committees aided us in the most cordial and gentle- manly style. Some of them devoted much of their time to the schools, and by their influence, in word and deed, added much to the value and success of their several schools. Our great, and, indeed, our only trouble has been the result of imperfections in government. This has been sometimes feeble and inefficient, sometimes hasty, passionate and irregular, but generally good, gentle, parental and almost perfect.
WEST SCHOOL.
LEVI W. STEVENS, Prudential Committee.
The Summer term of this school, commencing May 12th, was entrusted to the care of Miss Martha A. Keyes. She is a teacher well known and valued here. Thorough in her teachings, gentle, patient, kind, yet very decided in her government, we ex- pected much of her, and it gives us pleasure to say that our expectations were fully realized. Her school was always orderly, quiet and studious, and none the less so after the addition to her number of the scholars from the primary school. It will be remembered that this school commenced in separate departments, but the teacher of the small school found her task difficult, and so nearly impossible that, after a trial of two weeks, she sought another field of labor-Miss Keyes taking the whole number. The school was pleasant and profitable during the whole term. The exami- nation was pleasant and satisfactory. Good improve- ment was shown in all the studies. We noticed particularly the classes in English grammar. With
12
the school and the teacher, the committee and the district have good reason to be well pleased. The term was 12 weeks, with an average attendance of 61 ; whole number 72, of which 8 were under 5 years of age.
The Winter term of this school was commenced by John C. Hale, who had just closed a very success- ful term of private instruction. And such a term! It was a promise in full of what we should witness in his present effort. the school went smoothly on the first half of the term, when, on account of his great labor of body and mind, Mr. Hale broke down in
health. By parents and scholars generally much anxiety was felt, and many fears as to the result ; though, believing it the effect of hard labor, we confidently expected a full recovery. This was a great and unexpected stroke on this school, for where could the man be found to fill the place of John C. Hale. One good young man attempted the thing, but found the task too much for him. This has long been the best school in town, and would be now, had it been carried on through the term in the manner and spirit in which it commenced.
The Primary School was taught by Miss Anna Hayward, of Boxborough. She has had great ex- perience and has long been known to us as a very successful teacher. It was on this account that the prudential committee made so great an effort to obtain her services. It is not enough to say that, under Miss Hayward's management, it was a pleasant and profitable school ; it was truly delightful ; though with other teachers very disorderly and uncomfortable. The school was all we could ask, in government,
13
instruction, and results. We would like to speak of all we saw and heard during the examination - the reading and spelling, arithmetic and grammar, geography and declamation, and last, but by no means least, the pleasant and appropriate songs - all were good, and most of them very good. There were present 36 scholars and 50 spectators - all interested and gratified. Average number of scholars, 33; whole number, 42.
SOUTH EAST SCHOOL.
WILLIAM CONANT, Prudential Committee.
The Summer term of this school was commenced by Miss Mary Hosmer, and under apparently favorable auspices. The district seemed pleased with her, and the committee and her friends expected much of her. For the first part of the term, the school went on well, but, as if this district was fore-ordained to trouble, and their destiny must be wrought out at whatever cost, the school began to fail in interest and diminish in numbers, until the teacher wisely deter- mined to bring it to a sudden end. Miss Hosmer was well qualified to teach, and we fondly hoped to see her rise and take her stand among the good and useful teachers of the town. The alleged causes of her failure are well understood in the district. Whole number of scholars, 17; average number, 11.
The Winter School was entrusted to the care of Greenleaf C. Baker, of Waltham. Mr. Baker applied for the Centre School, but the committee, after a careful examination, advised him not to com- mence a school so large and difficult; while it was suggested that he might do well, perhaps, in a small
.
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one. A mighty hue and cry was raised among the friends of Mr. Baker that the committee had greatly wronged him, and we, willing to make the amende honorable, conscious that we were not infallible, on his second application, permitted him to go into this school on these conditions : that he should spend the then intervening time in earnest preparatory study, should go into the school for a fortnight on trial ; if he did well, should go on with the school ; if not, he was to leave at that time without pay. His term of trial passed off pretty well, and, so far as we know, the people were satisfied. Soon, however, trouble began to appear, and we do not say there was not some reason for the complaints. The committee, desiring to do the fair thing, permitted the district to decide the matter in a meeting called for the purpose. They voted, by a very small majority, that Mr. Baker should continue his school. We believe it would have been well for him had the decision been other- wise. The school could not have been a very pleasant one for him, and certainly not for us. At the examination we heard some very good lessons and declamations. A few had made good improve- ment - but all the while, we were painfully reminded that, out of thirty-eight scholars, only twenty-two were present. An increase of practical knowledge and a chastened self-esteem would be of great service to Mr. Baker. We kindly suggest the study of Mason on Self-knowledge.
EAST SCHOOL.
DAVID WETHERBEE, EsQ., Prudential Committee.
This school, in Summer, was taught by Miss C. J. Robbins, of this town. Miss Robbins enjoys the
15
reputation of an excellent teacher, which she has well earned in her former efforts in this town and else- where. She is well qualified, fond of the business, lov- ing and pleasant, though sufficiently earnest and de- cided in the school-room. It is no wonder that she is greatly beloved by her scholars, and highly esteemed by all who know her. A kind word is better than a pretty face, but when they both come together, who can resist their genial influences ? Certainly not the scholars in the East School. Everything that faithful labor, thorough teaching, and good government could do to make this a superior school was done, and done earnestly and constantly, and had it not been for " the berry season," not even the shadow of a shade would have rested on its fair fame. At one time it was well nigh broken up by the many absences and the constant calls to be dismissed, by those who professed to attend. After all, it was a school of which the teacher may well be proud, and with which the committee and the district have abundant reason to be well pleased.
The Winter school was taught by Augustus B. Clarke, of Dartmouth College. He is a studious and scholarly young man-pleasant, modest, and winning in his manners - disposed to recognise and acknowl- edge the rights and the manhood of every one, and particularly of his scholars. This kind and generous feeling led him into the only trouble occurring in his school. He was, undoubtedly, too lenient and too gen- tle with scholars who were not prepared to value his gentleness and forbearance ; so that, when he found himself forced to use something harder than mere words, there was a disposition to question his authority. We
16
are happy to say, however, to the honor of humanity in general, and this district in particular, that, as soon as the matter was fairly understood, the teacher was heartily sustained by a vote of the district nearly unanimous. After this, the school went on prosper-
ously. The scholars were studious and obedient, the teacher earnest and faithful, good progress was made, and decided improvement manifested in all that makes a school desirable. The appearance of the school at examination showed these facts to the parents and the committee. The reading was good; the recitations in geography, arithmetic and natural philosophy, very good. We could not fail to see that the whole affair was prepared beforehand, however; so that, in many of the exercises, it was rather an exhibition than an examination. The declamations and compositions de- serve particular notice and commendation, especially the latter. They showed a desire to improve and determination to excel worthy of all praise.
SOUTH SCHOOL.
LUTHER W. PIPER, Prudential Committee.
The Summer term of this school was taught by Miss Tryphena Clark, of Concord. She is an excel- lent teacher, and has enjoyed that reputation for a number of successive terms in this school. Her number was quite large, although so nearly of the same size that they seemed to have sprung up in one crop together. Miss Clark had a laborious Summer's work, and it seemed sometimes almost too much for her strength; yet, by her gentleness, her patience and perseverance, she performed the difficult and trying duties of her office in a manner which called
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