USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Southbridge > Town annual reports of the officers of Southbridge for the year ending 1905-1908 > Part 20
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Number between 7 and 14. 663
835
Average number belonging 641
720
Average attendance .611
665
Per cent. of attendance .85
.92
137
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
Number of teachers
12
12
Number enrolled at St. Mary's
176
168
Number under 5
0
6
Number over 15
14
9
Number between 5 and 15
162
143
Number between 7 and 14
126
131
Average number belonging
170
158
Average attendance
162
142
Per cent. of attendance
95.3
89.8
Number of teachers
. 6
6
EVENING SCHOOLS.
Number
Enrolled.
Average
Membership.
Average
Attendance.
Per Cent. of
Attendance.
Number of Evenings.
Main Street, boys.
90
73.87
66.95
90.76
38
River Street, boys.
38
28.26
26.73
94.58
38
Main Street, girls .
67
55.72
50.37
90.41
39
River Street, girls.
.
54
45.93
39.82
86.45
38
COST PER PUPIL ..
Total expenses for the grades . $20,031 48 Cost per grade pupil based on total enrolmeut ... 15 91 Cost per grade pupil based on average er rolment. 19 64
138
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
Total expenses for the High school $4,758 00 Cost per pupil based on the total enrolment. .. 38 68 Cost per pupil based on average enroltuent ... .. 43 05
CHANGE OF TEACHERS.
The following is a list of the changes of teachers from March 1, 1906, to Feb. 1, 1907 :-
RESIGNED.
Month Teacher
School
June. Anstice Newton,
High Grade I
June. Gertrude Litchfield,
June. Gertrude Lamoureux, Lebanon Hill
Oct. Nellie Thompson,
Dec. Alice Edwards,
High High
LEAVE OF ABSENCE.
Sept. Sarah Haskell,
Sept. Mary Ellis,
Grade V Grade I
TRANSFERRED.
Sept. Mabel Teahan,
Sept. Mabel Chamberlain,
Oct. Bertha Harwood,
Morris I to Mechanics I Dennison to Morris 1 School III to River I
139
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
APPOINTED.
Sept. Eliza Ward,
High
Sept. May Guilford,
Grade V
Sept. Alice Haskell,
Dennison
Sept. Emily Mague,
Morris 2
Sept. Estella Stafford,
Lebanon
Oct.
Alice Edwards,
Jan. Alfred Smith,
High High
140
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
CORPS OF TEACHERS, FEBRUARY 1, 1907,
NAME.
Salary.
Date of first
Election.
Grade. Educated.
F. E. Corbin
$900
1902
Supt.
. Williams college.
F. E. Corbin
1.100
1886 Prin. H. S.
Murray Hunt.
900
1905 Assistant
Laura Williams
00
1899
Bertha Shepard.
600
1906
66
Smith.
Eliza Ward-
500
1906
Smith.
Alfred Smith
525
1906
Harvard.
Laura E. Shepardson
600
1897 IX.
Alice Holmes.
570
1ST8 VII.
per
month
Mary Meagher
46
188+ VIII.
Southbridge H. S.
Louise Twombly
1892 VII.
Salem Normal.
Eva Conner
44
1898 VI.
Worcester Normal
Blanche Harwood
44
1903 VI.
Southbridge H. S.
May Guilford.
40
1906 V.
Mt. Holyoke.
Clarissa Hathaway
32
1905 V.
Newburyport Tra'g
Rebecca Rowley
44
1865 IV.
Southbridge H. S.
Martha Cutting.
40
1SS5 IT.
Southbridge H. S.
Jennie Gilbert
40
1905 IV.
Bridgewater Nor'l.
Katherine Flood
36 1904 III.
Gertrude Barrett
40
1905 III.
Jane Farquhar
40 1887 II-III.
Quincy Training.
Emily Mague
32 1906 II-III.
Framingham Nor'1.
Mary Boardman
40
1891 II.
Southbridge H. S.
Margaret Butler
40
1893 II.
Nettie Stone
40
1898 II.
Southbridge H. S.
Susie Knight
44
1858 I.
Southbridge H. S.
Agnes Meagher
40
1SS6 I.
Southbridge H. S.
Mary McCabe
40
1890 I.
Mary Butler
36
1906 I.
Mary Chase.
40 1906 I.
Bertha Harwood
40
1901 I.
Mabel Teahan
40
1900:I.
Mabel Chamberlain
36
1902.I.
Alice Sanders
36 1899 I-II-III.
Southbridge H. S.
Ita Morse
32 1902 Ungraded.
Southbridge H. S.
Alice Haskell.
32
1906
Southbridge H. S. Framingham Nor'l.
Estella Stafford.
32
1906
Anna Simpson
44 1900 Substitute.
May Simpson
1905 Helper.
Anna Eager
55
1896 Drawing.
[Worcester Normai Southbridge H. S. Normal Art School.
Mabel Plant.
50
1905 Music.
New Eng. Conser'y
Tufts. Nor'l & Boston U.
Grammar .
Nichols Academy. Palmer H. S.
Worcester Normal. Salem Normal.
Southbridge H. S.
Quincy Training. Southbridge H. S. Home School.
Southbridge H. S. Albany Normal. Southbridge H. S.
141
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
STATISTICS FROM SCHOOL REGISTERS.
For School Year Ending
June 1906.
Number of Girls Reg
intered.
'Total.
High School Marey Street
-
61
IR?
123
110 5
104 47
94 34
IX
15
36
34 62
33 56
96 93
VIU
30
11
41
37 79
35 55
97 24
\Ile
19
1.5
34
27 43
26 17
95 411
..
VIIW
13
16
26 04
94 34
1.
19
36
33 71
31 95
94 55
..
VIW
21
--
47
35 65
:5 64
School Street
IV
13
34
28 77
45 54
42 55
.. 03
School Street
III
21
16
3.
19 92
18 65
93 46
Mechanic Street
III
15
13
30 68
26 69
90 46
Main Street
III
26
48
37 45
34 3.
91 70
River Street
II-III
35
16
33 55
32 11
95 70
Sandersdale
I-II-III
18
16
34
28 54
25 51
90 75
Mechanic Street
II
11
15
26
23 79
22 49
94 10
Main street
II
-35
42
36 24
34 03
93 97
Morris Street
II
19
41
34 8
31 57
90 1
School Street
I
13
32
43
30 44
427 11
89 06
Main Street
Iw
11
03
34
Morris Street
1
19
40
75
54 92
53 51
97 42
Elm Street
I
35
13
18
14 74
13 23
89 51
Lebanon Hill -
6
6
19
9 56
8 63
90 75
Morse District
4
5
9
90 01
65.9
600
1259
1019 81
947 42
92 92
Per Cent of A ten
Elm Street
IV
IT
21
--
13
36 03
30 88
95 51
. .
Ve
25
16
38
32 29
34 49
32 13
93 26
School Street
22 19
20 86
94 02
Mechanic Street
I
48
40 3
36 01
90 01
Main Street
Ie
18
45
44
34 8
31 57
90 1
River Street
I
30 04
90 12
33 33
24 64
90 62
24 31
85 .1
Dennison
11
14
43
58
26
Mechanic Street
TIe
142
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
HIGH SCHOOL.
The number enrolled in the High school, one hun dred twenty-five pupils, is the largest number ever registered.
Of these thirty-seven attend from out of town so that, in reality, our town of eleven thousand population has but eighty-eight high school pupils. This number is not commensurate with our population. This is the last year that pupils will attend from Charlton at that town's expense as their recently established High school is deemed adequate for their needs. The trolley line soon to be opened through Brimfield will, doubtless, also draw away some of the Sturbridge pupils who would otherwise attend here. So that our school for some years to come will probably not have a larger attendance than at present. A town our size should have at least one hundred and fifty pupils in its High school.
While our town is one of working people and many of the parents make sacrifices to keep their children at school yet if more could realize the benefit offa thorough education the attendance would, I believe, be much larger.
The recent report of the United States bureau of education shows that a boy with a grammar school education has practically one chance in nine thousand of general recognition as a successful man in some de- partment of human endeavor and usefulness. A high school education increases his chances of such success
143
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
by about twenty-two times, while a college education gives a young man about ten times the probability of success and advancement possessed by the high school graduate, or about two hundred times the opportunity open to the boy with only a grammar school education.
The high school offers its advantages not to the poor alone, nor to the rich alone, but to all alike. Given ordinary ability, coupled with a willingness to work, and success is practically assured. A school is not a brain factory but a place where boys and girls may go to sharpen what wit they may have obtained by inher- itance or environment. The school needs the active co-operation of the parent. When we have active, healthy boys and girls fifteen to twenty years of age who state as an excuse for coming late that they "did not get up in time" it would seem as if some stronger remedy than sugar coated pills in homeopathic doses was needed.
Boys who get tired of going to school should read the following, written by Superintendent Adams, of Fayette (Ohio) college :
"The average educated man gets a salary of $1,000 per year. He works forty years, making a to- tal of [$40,000 in a lifetime. The average day laborer gets $1.50 per day, 300 days in the year, or $450 in a year. In forty years he earns $18,000. The difference, or $22,000, equals the value of an education. To ac- quire this earning capacity requires twelve years at school of 180 days each, or 2,160 days. Divide $22,000 the value of an education, by 2,160, number of days
144
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
required in getting it, we find that each day at school is worth a little more than $10 to a pupil. Can't afford to miss school, can we?"
As regards the money value of a higher education towards which many of our pupils are striving I quote the following from a lecture recently delivered by President Hyde of bowdoin College. Speaking of the gifts conferred by a college education one of which is the gifts to earn a comfortable living he said; "A recent investigation shows that 493 graduates of Bowdoin College, who have been out of college more than 10 years, are earning on an average $3,356. The 64 phy- sicians in that number earn on an average $4,687; the 154 lawyers average $4,577; the 108 engaged in teaching average $2,258, and 68 ministers an average of $1,559."
I take the following extract from the report of 1902 :
"In looking over the records of the past fifteen years, the time of my principalship, I find there have graduated 152 pupils. Of this number 21 have entered college ; 7, technical schools; 11, normal schools ; 3, training schools ; a total of 42, or 28 per cent. of the graduates.
While three have entered college and one, normal school at the completion of their third year in the high school. This I believe is a relatively high per cent., creditable alike to the school and to the town. While the annual number passes unnoticed, the aggregate is large."
Adding to the above list the graduates of the past
145
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE. -
five years, we find for the twenty year period that there have been 210 graduates. Of this number 34 have entered college ; 13, technical schools ; 11, normal schools; 4, training schools and two have studied abroad, a total of 64, or 33 per cent. of the graduates. The gain in the per cent. of attendance at higher insti- tutions is indicative of the growing prosperity of the community.
It is also noticeable that no graduate has entered a normal school in the past five years. The class of girls that formerly looked ahead to teaching are now turning to office work, typewriting and stenography as being more remunerative and much less of a tax on the nervous system.
GRAMMAR GRADES.
In previous years I have devoted the greater portion of my time to the primary grades. During the past year more work has been put upon the grammar grades.
I have always thought that there was a tendency to help the pupil to do work that he should do for himself.
While the school life should be one of the pleas- antest parts of our existence, yet the teacher should never lose sight of the fact that the child comes to school solely for the training that will benefit him in after life.
The whiling away time with pleasant stories and
146
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
the doing of the child's hard sums can never cause a strong mental development.
If a teacher does not propose to insist on having lessons learned it would seem as if it would have been a gain in time not to have given them out. I believe that we do too much for our scholars. We teach them too much: they learn too little. Strongly believing in this I have frequently told the teachers to be sure that the pupils learn something. Habits of industry can only be cultivated by being industrious. Working along this line we have marked the following historical dates as ones to be learned in the different grades and for the pupil to have some definite knowledge of their setting.
Grade V. 1000, 1492, 1620, 1630, 1775, 1776.
Grade VI. 1000, 1492, 1565, 1607, 1620, 1630, 1775, 1776, 1777, 1812, 1846, 1861, 1863, 1865, 1898.
Grade VII. 1000, 1492, 1565, 1582, 1607, 1619, 1620, 1630, 1636, 1754, 1765, 1775, 1776, 1777, 1781, 1787, 1789, 1803, 1812, 1846, 1861, 1863, 1865, 1898.
Grade VIII. In addition to the above, 1643, 1820, 1850, 1853.
Grade IX. English history. 449,828, 871, 1066, 1215, 1265, 1295, 1558, 1588.
The Emerson and Bender language books have been introduced as giving more definite and concise statements than the text heretofore used.
While many educators decry the use of technical grammar, I believe it is disgraceful for a pupil to grad-
147
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
uate from a ninth grade and not be able to construe a sentence as simple as-"John is a good boy."
SALARIES.
It would seem as if the time has arrived when the committee should take some decisive action toward establishing a fixed salary list. It is well known that the prices of all the essentials of life have risen greatly during the past few years and the wages of nearly all classes of labor. The rule here is to pay ten dollars per week to all grades up to the sixth irrespective of length of service or efficiency. Thus a teacher work- ing forty weeks will earn $400 out of which she must pay weekly at least $5.50 for board and washing.
This leaves but $180 for the expenses of twelve weeks' vacation, clothing, car fare and the many odds and ends which are necessary for a bare existence.
Looking at it from another view point a girl of fair ability after graduating from a high school and then attending a normal for three years at an expense of $500 to $800 can go out as a teacher and earn $1.33 a day. Practically on a par with the most ignorant of labor.
I have written to ten towns of approximately our size and present in a table what they are paying their teachers :-
148
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
Population .
Minimum
Marlboro,
14,073
$10 00
Maximum $12 50
Milford,
12,105
9 00
11 00
Gardner,
12,015
10 50
12 00
South Framingham,
11,548
10 00
12 50
Southbridge,
11,000
8 00
10 00
Webster,
10,018
10 00
12 50
Greenfield,
9,456
10 00
12 50
Ware,
8,594
10 00
Not fixed
Putnam,
7,348
9 00
10 00
Spencer,
7,167
9 00
Not fixed
These salaries represent what is paid in the first six grades, as above that local conditions vary the salaries so much that a fair conclusion can not be drawn.
In this list it will be noticed that Southbridge has the lowest minimum wages and its maximum is as low as any.
We have lost good teachers both in the grades and the high school by our unwillingness to make slight advances in the salaries. There is no desire to run into extravagancies in this matter but we should be willing to pay what other towns of the same size are paying.
The best way to improve our schools is to improve the quality of the teaching force, for the school is never any better than the teacher. A self active teacher will always have a self active school.
SCHOOL PHYSICIANS.
The legislature of 1906 passed the following law :- "The school committee of every city and town in
149
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
the Commonwealth shall appoint one: or more school physicians."
In accordance with the act two school physicians have been appointed, Drs. Genereux and Lawlor whose duty it is "to make a prompt examination and diagnosis of all children referred to them: namely, those returning to school without a certificate from the board of health after absence on account of illness or from unknown cause; and every child in the schools who shows signs of being in ill health or of suffering from infectious or contagious disease.
"Shall make such examination of teachers, jani- tors and school buildings as in their opinion the pro- tection of the health of the pupils may require."
In accordance with this law the physicians have made due inspection of the buildings and report that all are in a thoroughly sanitary condition.
Ninety-one pupils suffering from ill health have been referred to them since October first when the physicians were appointed.
Also:
"The school committee of every city and town shall cause every child in the public schools to be sep- perately and carefully tested and examined at least once in every school year to ascertain whether he is suffering from defective sight or hearing or from any other disability or defect tending to prevent his receiving the full benefit of his school work, or requiring a modification of the school work in order to prevent injury to the child or to secure the best educational
150
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
results. The tests of sight and hearing shall be made by teachers. The committee shall cause notice of any defect or disability requiring treatment to be sent to the parent or guardian of the child, and shall require a physical record of each child to be kept in such form as the state board of education shall prescribe."
"The state board of health shall prescribe the directions for tests of sight and hearing."
Tests of the 1203 pupils enrolled have accordingly been made and of the whole number, 226 were found defective in eyesight; 97 in hearing aud 185 parents have been notified.
Attention is called to the reports of the special teachers,
Respectfully submitted,
F. E. CORBIN.
EVENING SCHOOLS REPORT.
MR. F. E. CORBIN, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS,
Sir :-
In conformity with established custom, I again submit to your approval a brief account of our work in the public evening schools for the fall term of 1906.
We commenced our labors with the boys on Tues- day evening, Sept, 14th. in the upper rooms of the River street school house in Globe Village, and the same evening with the girls in the rooms leased from the St. Peter's society in Memorial block on Main street.
Each school was kept running steadily six nights a week throughout the term, with the exception of Thanksgiving night and the first Thursday of each month, when the St. Peter's society needed the rooms for their regular monthly meetings.
Owing to the effect of the new school law that no boy or girl under 16 years of age (the limit was for- merly 14) should be employed in any factory or work- shop, unless able to read or write legibly in English, there was necessarily a somewhat smaller attendance than for the past few years, especially at the Globe Village school.
152
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
In addition to this, during the past two years an en- couraging number of the more diligent evening school pupils have attained the required proficiency in read- ing and writing to be entitled to a certificate declaring them "passable", and consequently no longer required by law to attend school.
The number of boys enrolled at Main street was 90 and at River street 38. This number, however, was not upheld throughout the term for various reasons.
Fully a dozen of these attained a standard high enough to be granted "passable" certificates, and a little over this number left town.
The percentage of attendance, however, was ex- tremely good, being 90.76 at the center and 94.585 at the Globe.
The total number of evenings the schools were in session was 76, 38 at each school.
The courses of study were about the same as in previous years, except that more attention and work had to be devoted to the primary grades, owing to the large number of newly arrived Polanders, Albanese and Italians, who were mostly entirely ignorant of our language.
The progress with these classes was necessarily slow, and entailed a great deal of patience, tact and painstaking effort on the part of the teachers to illus- trate the ideas they wished to convey.
153
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
By using the more intelligent pupils, however, as interpreters the object was accomplished; after which the advance of the pupils became more encouraging.
In the more advanced classes American history, letter-writing and the making out of ordinary invoices and bills of sale were taken up; and also considerable time devoted to sentence building and arithmetic.
The progress made in these branches was quite pronounced and encouraging to both teachers and principals, and undoubtedly to the pupils themselves.
At the end of each week the principals notified all overseers of the non-attendance of any of the pupils employed by them, with the result that the following week usually found them back at their desks, unless detained by illness or some other legitimate reason.
We have now so many different nationalities in school that it often requires considerable tact and careful planning to avoid friction. So far as possible the different nationalities were kept in different classes, but when practically all were confined in one room it was at times somewhat difficult to arrange this satis- factorily, and so as to get the best results.
On the whole, however, the pupils were docile, diligent and respectful to their teachers, and whilst implicit obedience and discipline was at all times in- sisted upon, it was always carefully borne in mind to temper reason and justice, so as to avoid any ap- pearance of being arbitrary, harsh or unreasonable.
154
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
By our working conscientiously upon these lines the deportment of the pupils throughout the term was very good, and the general results attained by our labors, were, from a teacher's standpoint, all that could be expected.
Very respectfully submitted, E. I. KNOWLES, Principal.
SPECIAL REPORTS.
REPORT OF MUSIC TEACHER.
MR. F. E. CORBIN, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS.
Sir :-
The Normal Music System introduced in the schools last year, is carried on this year as scheduled for each grade, and has been especially productive of good results.
The drill in technique and sight reading of the previous year enables the pupils to do the work this year with greater readiness.
Progress has been made in individual sight read- ing and sight singing.
The educational value of the music lesson is being more fully realized. The work for the grades from the first, through the seventh, has been followed as ar- ranged, with the addition of extra songs for the holiday time and other occasions.
The eighth grade has begun a special course in individual sight reading. Each one is supplied with an exercise different from that of any other pupil, and reads and sings his own. Solfeggio has also been in- : troduced.
156
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
In this grade and the ninth they have studies and songs in four parts. New books were furnished the latter grade this year and the work accomplished has been commendable.
The High school sang selections at the Teacher's convention, and Graduation exercises, June 1906. Since September 1906, regular music lessons have oc- cupied two periods each week. Part songs and chorus selections are studied.
The faithfulness and interest of the grade teachers in carrying on the music is greatly appreciated.
I wish to thank the Superintendent for his kindly consideration.
Respectfully submitted,
MABEL B. PLANT.
REPORT OF DRAWING TEACHER.
Mr. F. E. CORBIN, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS,
Sir:
Said Plato :- "The true order of going is to use the the beauties of earth as steps which mount upward for the sake of that other beauty."
Can we make the order of going over educational paths any better by using some of these beauties of earth in our daily work. But the lives of those who
157
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
are surrounded by some of the sublimest aspects of nature, as the Swiss peasants who are indifferent to the loveliness of their own mountains, prove to us that the eye must be trained to see and the understanding to appreciate the marvels of nature.
Pictures are the most easily obtainable means to help the child to understand and appreciate beauty in natural objects, for, as the saying goes, "We love first that which we first see painted."
"As we increase the richness of what we see, we increase the richness of what we can imagine," so that our aim as educators should be to enrich the imagina- tion of the child by placing before him beautiful things in art and literature. As the quotation from the poets, the gems of the literary world help enrich the lives of children, so works of art should be placed before their eyes to give them an idea of what is good in the art world.
The story is told of a lady who had a beautiful frieze painted on the stairway hall of her home that her children as they ascend and descend each night and morning might be familiar with its beauty and slowly take it into their lives. As our children draw and paint the flowers and leaves they learn to appre- ciate their beauty and their eyes are trained to see things which before they had not noticed. Drawing should be used more in all our school work.
We sometimes have a pen and ink drawing of a geometrical design on the side of our promisory notes. We have a tiny landscape of icebergs to illustrate a
158
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
paper on the far north. Some of the teachers make frequent use of ornamental initials in their memory gems and language papers and we often make designs for a pamphlet case for a series of papers on geography or for the life of some artist.
The cause in drawing aims to cover all branches of art so that, as we go on, the pupils may know if they have especial talent in any direction, and in any case they have an understanding of the subject so that when they go out into the world they can comprehend and appreciate the works of others.
If a boy wishes to take up machine drawing and fit himself for a machinist, the little he has had in school would give him a foundation so that, as he is already familiar with the elementary principles of the subject he can go on with less difficulty than as though he were totally ignorant of the subject. As drawing comes in use in so many departments of life and in so many professions now-a-days we feel that at least a little knowledge of the subject is indispensable for a general education. The carpenter, the architect, the designer, the dress-maker, the advertiser and the illus- trator are only a few of the people who make drawing help them in gaining their livelihood.
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