USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Acton > Town annual reports of Acton, Massachusetts 1894-1900 > Part 8
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Soil,-amount of fertile soil, comparative fertility.
Productions,-exports, imports, exchanging continents.
Race,-characteristics, advancement.
Study North America. Review form, size, bordering waters, islands, peninsulas and capes.
Study carefully,-
a. Great surface features, highlands and lowlands, mountain systems, ranges and slopes, plateaus and plains.
b. Great drainage systems, and relation to highlands and low- lands.
c. Varieties of soil and their location.
d. Varieties of climate and their location.
e. Great product districts, animal, vegetable and mineral.
f. Races of men and their location.
g. Countries and their capitals.
Study United States by sections, using the following topics for each :-
a. Location of section in United States.
b. States comprised in the section.
c. General character of surface, soil and climate.
d. Chief industries.
e. Leading products ; exports.
f. Capitals and principal cities.
Study British America and Mexico. Use same topics as in study of United States.
2. Study latitude and longitude, tropics and polar circles, zones, change of seasons.
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SCHOOL REPORT
3. Study South America; topics as in North America.
4. Study Europe; topics as in North America.
5. Study ten principal countries of Europe ; topics as in United States.
SUGGESTIONS. - In studying foreign countries comparison should constantly be made with our own, in size, latitude, climate, peo- ple and productions, ..
Vary exercises by written descriptions of imaginary voyages and travels.
Much use may be mdde of the newspapers by having the places mentioned in the news and shipping columns located by the pu- pils, and by having the articles named in the lists of imports and in the market reports referred to the country where they were: produced.
In teaching longitude the effect of difference in longitude upon time should be shown, and the meaning of the term, " standard time " as used in our own country explained.
HISTORY.
Use the language exercises and those in home geography to awaken an interest in historical subjects and to prepare the way for more formal study.
Describe historical events and relate striking incidents in the lives of famous persons. Select especially examples of heroism, and self-sacrifice for one's country or for one's fellow-men.
Use public anniversaries and birthdays to give historical infor- mation.
Require all stories to be retold, either orally or in writing. Have it understood that the work is not for entertainment, but. for instruction.
In connection with the study of home geography, consider the early history of the town, the first settlers, who they were, why they came, in what part of the town they lived, how they lived, their houses, schools and industries, their neighbors the Indians, interesting historical events and local traditions.
As far as possible illustrate these facts by pictures and such relics of the past as the neighborhood may afford.
Explorers and Discoverers. I.
Columbus ; Americus Vespucius ; Balboa ; De Soto; The Ca-
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TOWN OF ACTON.
bots; Raleigh ; Gosnold ; Champlain ; Marquette; LaSalle; Henry Hudson.
II. Colonization.
John Smith; Pocahontas; The Mayflower and the Pilgrims ; Myles Standish ; Roger Williams ; King Philip's War ; In- dians ; Importation of Slaves.
III. The Last French War and the Revolution.
Washington ; The Arcadians ; Braddock's Defeat; Wolfe and Montcalm ; Patrick Henry ; Samuel Adams and the " Bos- ton Tea Party"; Paul Revere ; Concord and Lexington ; Jo- seph Warren; Bunker Hill; La Fayette; Valley Forge; Franklin and the Lightning Rod ; Arnold the Traitor and Andre the Spy.
IV. The Republic from 1789 to 1820.
Eli Whitney and the Cotton-gin; Daniel Boone and the In- dians ; Thomas Jefferson ; Fulton and the Steamboat.
V. The Republic from 1820 to 1865.
The Railroad ; Morse and the Telegraph ; The Story of Slav- ery ; John Brown; Abraham Lincoln; Anecdotes of the Civil War.
BOOKS.
Dodge's Stories of American History ; Pratt's American His- tory Stories ; Johonnot's Stories of Our Country ; Blaisdell's Sto- ries of the Civil War; Eggleston's First Book in American His- tory ; Montgomery's Leading Facts in American History ; Hig- ginson's Young Folks' History of U. S .; Fiske's War of Inde- pendence ; Our Fatherland; The Great West; Stories of Massa- chusetts.
POEMS.
America ; The Star Spangled Banner; Our Country (Peabody); Song of the Union ; The Red, White and Blue ; Hail Columbia ; The American Flag ; The Rising in 1776; The Battle of Lexing- ton ; Paul Revere's Ride ; Bunker Hill; Song of Marion's Men (Bryant); Independence ; Independence Bell ; My Country ; The Ship of State ; Union and Liberty ; God Bless Our Fatherland; Seventy-Six; The Flower of Liberty ; Liberty, Our Queen; The Concord Hymn; Our Country's Call; Barbara Frietchie ; Sheri- dan's Ride ; John Burns of Gettysburg ; Our Colors at Fort Sum- ter ; The Cumberland ; The Landing of the Pilgrims ; The Pil- grim Fathers-Where are They ? ; The Pilgrim's Vision.
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SCHOOL REPORT
Department of School Supplies.
To the School Committee :
I herewith present the annual report of the expense account of this department:
J. L. HAMMETT.
Mar. 23. 20 rms. No. 27 letter paper, $19 60
6 rms. No. 3 practice paper, 4 20
6 rms. No. 8 3 60
6 rms. No. 5 3 60
6 rms. No. 11-2 66
3 90
20 packages 8 1-2x91-2 manilla, 2 80
5 rms. manilla letter, 3 25
100 Cornhill pads, 5 00
66 1-2 lbs. best pads, 5 99
2 doz. plain manilla pads, 1 20
5 doz. note manilla, 1 50
5 rms. 6x9 manilla dr. paper,
1 25
2 rms. 9x12 66 1 00
6 gross No. 490 pencils, 4 50
5c Penn. slate pencils, 50
2 gross school pencils No. 2, 3 00
8 66.
No. 3, 12 00
15 gross school pens, 5 40
1 doz. Bonneys ink, 3 00
4 doz. No. 30 rules, 60
1c No. 50 blank books,
2 25
1 case white crayons,
4 50
5 packages blotters, 2 50
2 lbs. sponges, 2 00
6 boxes " Little Artist," 1 20
12 boxes "Penn Busy Work," 2 70
.
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TOWN OF ACTON.
Mar. 23. 5c sheets Bot. Wtg. paper, $1 25
15 botany blanks, 1 50
2 Knoebel's Guides, 1 00
1c sheets drying paper, 1 50
$106 29
Apr. 5. 5 doz. manilla note rules, $1 50
30 lbs. sheet wrapping paper, 1 35
1 box reading objects, 3 50
6 35
May 2.
1 Gem pencil sharpener,
$3 00
1 doz. packages S. P. disks, 1 92
4 92
June 15. 1 Knoebel's Guide, $ 50
50
Sept. 6. 12 manilla note books,
$1 08
1 08
Sept. 13. 100 note books,
3 50
3 50
Aug. 8. 10 1-2 doz. White's drawing books No. 1,
8 20
20 pkgs. 6x9 drawing paper, 80
6 clay bricks,
1 20
6 boxes teachers' models No.2, 5 38
5 pr. B. B. compasses, 2 00
1 M Middleton fasteners,
2 50
1 Knoebel's beetles,
50
1 Burritt's Atlas of Heavens, 94
1 Burritt's Geog. of Heavens, 94
22 46
Oct. 26. 5 lbs. rubber erasers, / 3 95
1 1b. school sponges, 1 00
1-2 gross No. 30 rules, 75
25 Cornhill pads, 1 25
6 85
$151 95
GINN & Co. Mar. 26. 4 Wentworth P. & S. Geom., $5 00 Less 1-6, 1 83
$4 17
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SCHOOL REPORT
Apr. 6. 50 Cyr's Primers, $12 00
50 Thompson's Fables, 12 00
40 Kingsley's Water Babies, 14 00
$38 00
Less 1-6,
6 33
Apr. 20. 7 Ovid,
$10 50
Less 1-6. 1 75
8 75
May 2. 17 Prince's Arithmetics,
$3 40
Less 1-6,
57
2 83
May 18. 23 Prince Arithmetics,
$4 60
Less 1-6,
77
3 83
May 24. 51 Prince Arithmetics, $10 20
5 Prince Manuals,
4 00
$14 20
Less 1-6,
2 37
11 83
Sept. 10. 2 Prince Arithmetics,
$ 39
39
Sept. 7. 3 Greenough's Virgil,
$4 80
5 Eng. History,
5 60
$10 40
Less 1-6, 1 73
8 67
Oct. 15. 2 Prince's Arithmetics, post- age,
$ 40
40
Oct. 21. 16 Prince's Arithmetics,
$3 20
Less 1-6. 53
2 67
Oct. 24. 21 Prince's Arithmetics,
$4 20
2 Wentworth Ele. Algebra, 2 24
6 44
Less 1-6, 1 07
31 67
5 37
TOWN, OF ACTON. 79
Dec. 10. 1 doz. spelling blanks No. 2, $ 35 35
Jan. 11. 3 Prince's Arithmetics, post- age, $ 60
60
Jan. 20. 9 Wentworth Sch. Algebra, $10 08 4 Wentworth Ele. Algebra, 4 48
4 doz. spelling blanks, 1 68
16 24
Less 1-6,
2 71
13 53
Jan. 21. 1 Wentworth Manual,
$1 75
Less 1-6, 29
1 46
$96 52
AMERICAN BOOK Co.
Mar. 21. 11 Jevon's Polit. Economy, $3 85
3 readers, teachers' edition, 1 50
$5 35
Less 20 per cent., 1 07
4 25
Oct. 3. 3 Martin Civil Gov't, $2 16
2 16
Oct. 26. 6 Webster Prim. Sch. Dict., $2 88
15 Swinton Word Books, 2 16
$5 04
Less 20 per cent., 1 00
4 04
Dec. 14. 4 Harrington Spellers, No. 4, $ 48
Postage, . 12
60
$11 08
H -
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SCHOOL REPORT
D. C. HEATH & Co.
Mar. 22. 5 Sheppard's Chemistry, $5 60 Less 1-6, 93
4 67
16 Columbal,
$5 60
Less 1-6, 93
4 67
$9 34
LEE & SHEPPARD. Apr. 6. 40 King's Geog. Readers No.3, $18 67
$18 67
Oct. 9. 2 King's Geog. Readers No. 2, $1 20
2 No. 4, 94
2 14
$20 81
SILVER, BURDETT & Co.
Apr. 11. 15 Chemistry report books, $3 75 Less 1-6, 62
$3 13 $3 13
PERRY MASON & Co.
Apr. 6. 200 selections, Youths' Com- panion, $14 00 $14 00 $14 00
UNIVERSITY PUB. Co.
Apr. 22. 1 Lippincott Bidy. Dict., $7 20 $7 20 $7 20
EDUCATIONAL PUB. Co.
Apr. 20. 50 Aesop's Fables, vol. 1, $15 00 50 66 vol. 2, 15 00
40 Am. Hist. Stories, vol. 1, 14 40 40 vol. 2, 14 40
$58 80
Less 1-6, 9 80
$49 00
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TOWN OF ACTON.
Nov. 29. 4 Aesop's Fables,
$ 20
20
Dec. 23. 2 66 vol. 1,
$ 60
2 66
vol. 2, 60
$1 20
Less 1-6,
20
1 00
$50 20
GATELY & O'GORMAN.
June 26. 3 Scenes from Every Land, $15 00 $15 00 $15 00 PUBLIC SCHOOL PRINTING CO.
July 20. 200 Baldwin Report Books, $3 70 $3 70 $3 70
PRANG EDUCATIONAL CO.
Aug. 5. 1 set White's models, No. 3, $ 9 60 1 gr. scissors, nickel, 18 00
123 sets models, No. 1, 14 76
5 Primary Manuals, 2 00
5 66 No. 4, 2 00
1 66 No. 5, 40
8 glass prisms, 1 60
$48 36
Aug. 15. 115 spheres, B size, 115 cubes, 66 · 115 sq. prisms, B size, 115 cylinders, 460 solids, 10 boxes,
$13 80
2 50
16 30
Oct. 21. 6 sets models, No. 1, $ 72
1-2 doz. scissors, 75
1 47
$66 13
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SCHOOL REPORT
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & Co.
Apr. 25. 40 Prose and Verse, $ 8 50
40 Fables and Folk Stories, 13 60
40 Colburn's Arithmetics, 11 90
$34 00
Nov. 29. 3 Riverside Primers, $ 77
77
$34 77
THOMPSON, BROWN & Co.
Dec. 14. 21 sets Merservey's d. e. book-
keeping, $12 60
Less 1-6, 2 10
$10 50 $10 50
DEWOLF, FISKE & Co.
Dec. 18. 12 Routledge French Dict., $6 00
$6 00 $6 00
MISCELLANEOUS.
N. C. Reed, express, $1 90
Wm. Jenrins, express, 3 65
Tuttles, Jones & Wetherbee, ink,
1 95
C. H. Mead & Co., ink,
65
W. A. Charles, music,
50
$8 65 $8 65
$500 33
CREDIT.
Old books sold Ginn & Co., $5 25
Supplies sold pupils, 7 23
12 48
$496 50 The property now in the supply room is valued at about $160.00.
Very respectfully, CHAS. J. WILLIAMS, Purchasing Agent.
ADDRESS
DELIVERED BY
EBEN H. DAVIS, Superintendent of Schools of Chelsea,
AT THE
HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION AT ACTON, MASS., 1895.
It gives me a peculiar pleasure to stand before an Acton au- dience. The man must be of strange mould who does not enter- tain in his heart a good deal or respect for his native town.
Although my lot has been cast in other places since the early age of thirteen year's, I have found time to visit the homestead a few weeks of each summer season, have kept in touch with . the spirit and progress you have manifested, and have rejoiced with you in your occasions of festivity and honor.
As my life-work has had to do with matters of public school education, it is natural that I should note with greatest interest the progress you have made in the improvement of your school system. Having received my earliest instruction in these schools I am the better qualified to contrast the advantages afforded to- day with those which existed in my time. In this respect I think you have reason to feel a just pride in what you have achieved.
When I was a boy, the only high school in the town was a private enterprise, held but a few weeks in the fall, in the centre of the town, and kept by some college student to eke out his col- lege expenses. There was no orderly course of studies, but each student selected such branches as his fancy dictated or friends advised, for which he paid his own tuition. In this way it was possible to obtain a smattering of Latin or Greek, an introduction to the elements of science, and some knowledge of mathematics. But, in order to fit for college, I had to attend an academy, one hundred and fifty miles from home.
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SCHOOL REPORT
To-day, you have a high school that is a credit to the town, with a full four years' course, where, as I understand, the boys and girls may fit for college, or any similar institution in the land. It is further to your credit that the expense of this school is as- sumed voluntarily, the town being exempt from the provisions of the statute on account of the smallness of the population.
While thus giving full credit to the present condition of af- fairs, I would by no means speak lightly of the schools of my boyhood days. They were good for the times, and generally had excellent teachers. The foundation I then received enabled ine to enter college at seventeen years of age, and to graduate at twenty-one,-quite as young as is for one's best good.
Nor were those brief terms of high school studies without in- fluence. They opened up to us new lines of thought, and the per- sonality of the teachers, fresh from college and imbued with zeal for a higher education, made a strong impress. It was through contact with such influences that I was inspired with an ambi- tion to go to college. You remember that President Garfield at- tributed all his nobler ambitions and successes to the influence of his instructor, Mark Hopkins. Thus, you see, the schoolmaster, as much as any other influence, shapes the destinies of men.
Nor would we forget our school days if we could. There are doubtless some in this hall to-night who remember the old meet- ing-house which stood upon the ground now occupied by this hall, with its long settees in the vestry below, on which we sat as stu- dents. But more often we sat on the old-fashioned benches of the school house farther down the street.
I must not forget to mention the names of Lyman Cutler, Albert S. Ingalls, Mark Davis, (and others whose names I might mention), who were among the school nisters of our youth.
It is pleasant to recall the memory of school days. Indeed, the lot of the average boy and girl must have been a hard one whose school days do not affor.l pleasant reminiscences in after life.
However pleasant the recollection of early days, we must not forget that the world is constantly moving forward, not backward, bearing with it progress in all things. We should be of peculiar disposition if we were unwilling to admit that the schools had kept pace in the onward march of events.
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TOWN OF ACTON.
There is a science which regulates the instruction of to-day which was not so well understood twenty-five years ago or more. Great changes in the processes of teaching have taken place within a few years, and greater still are fore-shadowed in the near future. It will not be long before all teachers will be required to have a professional training before they can be licensed to teach. Massachusetts, having already more normal schools than any other state in the union, voted through the legislature of 1894 to add several more, which will soon be in active operation and filled with a high grade of apprentices.
The science of psychology has assumed a prominence which can no longer be ignored. Dr. E. Stanley Hall, of Clark Univer- sity, is giving this subject a dignity and meaning which command the respect of all thinking minds. The child is made the object- ive study, and this science enables us to look through the outer surface into its very soul, and to comprehend what is best for its complete development, morally, intellectually, and physically.
When I began my professional work of directing school in- struction twenty-five years ago, there were but eight or ten school superintendents in the state. Now, there is scarcely a town which does not come under their influence, and I am pleased to find that you have one as skilled as the best, and one to whose judgment you may in all confidence defer.
The occasion which you celebrate this evening is one of ex- ceeding interest. The exercises of a public school graduation have always taken strong hold upon the people. The halls in which they are held are rarely too large. In my own city we have never been able to secure one large enough to hold one-half of all who would like to attend, not even in our spacious Acad- emy of Music:
Why are the people so interested ? Is it because they like to be entertained ?
Ycs, in a measure, but this is not the only reason.
Is it because of their natural interest in young people, whose days are seemingly so free from cares and so full of bright hopes ?
To some extent this may be true, but there are other reasons still.
When our forefathers planted their homes in the wilderness
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SCHOOL REPORT
they at once began to look about for means to establish the school, then the college. From that time to this the public school has taken higher and yet higher position in the hearts of men, until it outranks all other interests. It has cost more money, received more favorable legislation, and is surrounded with stronger safe- guards. A thrust aimed at the public school will call forth more righteous indignation than any other occasion. No school archi- tecture seems too magnificent, and no equipment too extravagant. The people suffer themselves to be taxed for it as they would for no other cause. Many states have set apart public lands which yield enormous revenues for school purposes, and our own state has a fair income which is disbursed in the country towns.
Our fathers knew, and our legislators understand, that the hope, the strength, the very existence and perpetuity of our re- publican form of government depend upon the education of the citizens.
We have already felt the dangers which beset it from the hordes of ignorant foreign immigration, which is trying to sieze the reins of government, and wrest from our grasp the control of those customs and ideals which have ever been dear to us.
To the graduates of the class of '95 I have a special message.
This is your day and occasion. This audience is here to do you honor, and to offer you congratulations. I am pleased to offer you mine also, and to wish you complete joy, for it brings to my mind similar events in my own experience. This occasion is all the pleasanter to me because, somehow, I feel as if I were a part of it.
You have completed the first epoch of your life's history. However insignificant the affairs of this night may appear in com- parison with what may follow in after years, you will never for- get this occasion, even though your future career be filled with brilliant and abounding success, or your years be lengthened out fır beyond the time allotted for man to live.
I would have you enjoy these honors to the fullest extent, because they can never be repeated in such fulness and sincerity of youth.
But. I would not have you magnify them beyond their real
TOWN OF ACTON.
significance. They mean that, thus far, you have done well, but beyond the present, they offer no guarantee for the future. Thus far you have had the uplifting hand of father and mother, and perhaps brothers and sisters, but, as you go onward you are likely to be thrown more and more upon your own resources and strength.
You must not feel that you have got very far toward a com- plete education. This is the work of a lifetime. Even a college course but puts you firmer on your feet and makes the race easier. The library and experience with men and with the world are the schools which are to expand your lives for greatest usefulness and happiness. Your course thus far has been but a preparation for this broader career.
The question now confronting you is, " What are you to do next ? " and it is a momentous question, for, on the decision you make may depend your future success and happiness.
Probably some of you will continue your studies in some higher institution of learning, (I would that you all might do so), in which case the decision might be deferred, knowing that, what- ever it be, you are pursuing just the course to realize any reason- able expectations.
But you cannot begin too soon to think over what is to be your life-work, and to choose that which accords most with your natural tastes and desires. When you have chosen, exercise great determination and push, and events will shape themselves so as to aid you. Fortune helps those who help themselves.
I trust you have ambition to excel in something. It matters little what your avocation may be, provided you make the most of yourselves in it. The danger lies in having no fixed ideas of your own, and, like Micawber, " waiting for something to turn up."
There is as good chance for distinction in the occupation of farming as in any other, provided you bring to bear in your man- agement of its affairs the same intellectual force you would have to exercise for successful competition in business.
The honors and distinctions in the professions, which once were the exclusive privilege of men, are now, happily, open to women also.
You are born in an age of great events and of great activity. Men live at a rapid rate, burning the candle at both ends. They
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SCHOOL REPORT
push and crowd to the front in mad career to be rich. But this is not the greatest nor the best ambition you can have, nor does it lead to the greatest happiness. It is far better to choose some congenial occupation early in life, stick to it through thick and thin, give it your best thought and strength, for- competency is sure to follow without making it the chief aim. The secret of wealth lies not in rapid gains, but in saving. Fifty cents saved every day of your lives and wisely invested, will place you above want in old age.
The greatest essential to success in life is honesty,-the es- tablishment of a good name which the world will be bound to re- spect. At first thought this seems an easy thing to accomplish, but, in all my experience with men, I have found it a difficult task. To be thoroughly honest is not only to do what is right, but to defend the right in all places and under all circumstances. To be able to say no, at the risk of displeasing a friend or when it runs counter to public opinion, even though you know it is the proper thing to do,-this requires a moral courage which many do not possess.
Socrates was such a man. Although poor and in rags, and living in a great city on fifty dollars a year, he stood for princi- ple, for truth and righteousness, in a brilliant though corrupt age, when it cost something to be honest. He was a great scholar, able to meet in debate the most learned men of ancient Greece in her proudest days of glory. He saw through their sophistries and false logic, and turned their reasoning into absurdities, for which he was condemned to die. Scarcely had he drank the fatal hemlock, when the citizens of Athens, realizing what they had done and what they had lost, began to feel the twinges of con- science. They hastened to erect a costly monument over his grave, thus showing that honesty will not suffer long without its reward.
The name of Socrates has stood out boldly in history for nearly twenty-five hundred years as an example of one of the greatest and best men that ever lived.
As we read the history of the world from earliest date to the present time, we find that the men who command our greatest ad- miration and respect, whom we would like most to pattern in our
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TOWN OF ACTON.
own lives, were men of principle rather than men occupying high stations.
Finally, let me entreat you always to think well and speak well of your alma mater and your native town. Both enjoy a good name, and if you can do nothing to increase their lustre, see to it that you do nothing to tarnish it.
To parents I have a word to add.
There was once a lady of distinction living in Rome, who was very rich. While calling on another illustrious matron named Cornelia, she took occasion to display the diamonds and jewels she possessed. She then requested Cornelia to permit her to see her jewels. This eminent woman contrived to turn the conversation to another subject till her sons returned from one of the public schools. Then she introduced them, saying, "These are my jewels."
In a like manner I might say, " These graduates are your jewels."
There is implanted in the human breast a strong love for our children. This has been true in all ages.
I cannot refrain from the reference to another Roman matron which affords a most beautiful illustration of this love.
This mother lived in Pompeii, and at the time of the erup- tion of Vesuvius, near the commencement of the Christian era. It was a beautiful city, lying at the foot of Mt. Vesuvius, the fashionable resort of the wealthy Romans, and noted for its costly comforts and indulgences, its gardens, and public amusements. You know that it was a wicked city, for history so informs us.
In that awful moment when, without warning, the mountain was shooting up flames of fire, with smoke and ashes, the ground trembling, a woman in her fright started to run to the open coun- try with her child, for safety. As she ran along the street the mountain was pouring forth boiling mud which, running down the mountain side, quickly overtook her, when she was overcome and thrown to the ground. But her brave heart, her high courage rose to the occasion. As she sank into the scalding mud she grasped her babe's dress with her left hand and held it aloft so that the babe should be above the scalding mass. Another mo-
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