USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1848/49-1855 > Part 12
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The teachers of the district (or mixed) schools, except- ing that for colored children, have been employed by the month. The Rules of the Board require that the other " teachers shall be chosen annually by ballot."
The compensation of all teachers has been fixed at the time of their election.
For the support of these schools, during the past year, an appropriation of Eighteen Thousand Dollars was made by the city government. The following specific applica- tions of this money were voted by the Board of School Committee.
For Salaries of Teachers, - $14,250 00
" Fuel, - -
- 1,200 00
" Contingent Expenses, - 2,550 00
$18,000 00
It will thus appear that, of the $83,645 00 which the city raised by taxation the past year, nearly one fourth part was applied to the support of the public schools. Adding to this about $12,000 expended in the erection of school houses, and the sum appropriated to educational purposes during the year amounts to Thirty Thousand Dollars, or more than one-third of the entire annual tax assessed upon the polls and property of the city !
Since the adoption of the city charter, the School Com- mittee has been composed of twenty-four members, exclu- sive of the mayor, who is ex-officio chairman of the Board.
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At its first meeting, the Board has been divided into sub- committees consisting of one member for each of the outer or rural district schools, and of two members for each centre district school. The sub-committees, however, for the African, the Young Men's, and the High School, have usually consisted of a larger number of members.
It has been the duty of these sub-committees to exercise a general supervision over the schools under their special care, to visit them as often at least as once in a month, and to report their condition at the regular monthly meetings of the Board.
Other duties devolve upon the members of the School Committee, which it is not important to mention in this connexion.
Under this system-substantially described above-the public schools of the city were received in charge by the present Board of School Committee.
That the schools of Worcester are so nearly perfect as to be beyond the probable reach of farther improvement, the Committee do not maintain. But it has been wisely said, " to innovate is not to reform." It is indeed so vastly more easy to crush the best institutions beneath the weight of reckless changes, than it is to strengthen their means and enlarge their sphere of beneficial influence; it is so vastly more easy to tear down than to build up, that the present Board do not at all regret the conservatism which has enabled them to transmit to their successors the public schools of Worcester, unchanged in their organization, unimpaired in their efficiency for usefulness, and despoiled of no ornament which has justly made them the pride of the city.
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Early in the year, the Committee deemed it advisable to raise the salary of Mr. Starr-principal of the English department of the High School-and the salaries also of a large number of the female teachers in the centre dis- trict. It was contemplated to give more liberal compen- sations also to teachers employed in some of the outer dis- tricts.
The aggregate of the additions thus made to the sala- ries of upwards of thirty teachers, was about nine hundred dollars, being nearly an average of ten per cent. increase upon the salaries of the year immediately preceding.
Whether a proportionate sum was actually added to the pay of the outer district teachers is an irrelevant ques- tion ;- for the increase of school expenditures must be where there is an increase of children, If the growth of the centre district outstrips that of all the others com- bined, it is a thing altogether beyond the power of a school committee to control.
With the adoption of the city charter, the legal exis- tence of the school districts was terminated. From that time, the School Committee have had discretionary power to locate schools and to distribute and classify pupils. One hand of the committee grasps this right, the other has its firm hold fastened upon nearly a fourth part of the revenue of the city. Hence it has not been for lack of power that the Board have refrained from formidable inno- vations. They have been restrained by considerations of quite another character. Prudence has dictated to them that institutions long established and eminently successful, should not be changed for light and transient causes! They have, therefore, abstained from instituting experiments where a prosperous result could not clearly be foreseen.
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And here, in view of these things and in compliance with the spirit of the Statute cited at the commencement of this Report, the Board would, with respectful earnest- ness, urge upon their fellow-citizens the great importance of placing their ABLEST MEN upon their School Com- mittee.
Vested with powers far more extensive than they were under the town organizaton, the office has become one full of responsibility. To this Board is entrusted the education of upwards of three thousand children, the selection of some seventy or eighty teachers, the expenditure of more than one fifth part of the annual income of the city.
In a place like this, it is not enough that a school-com- mittee man should be abundantly qualified to examine all the classes in all the schools placed under his immediate charge ; it is not enough that he should be incapable of stooping to that meanness which officially indulges private enmity or friendship toward a teacher; it is not enough that he should possess something of discretion and judg- ment, so as not to be unduly biassed by rumors floating about the streets or dropping from the angry lips of a dis- affected child. Other qualifications than these, are requi- site. To adequate education, to dignity of character, to discretion, prudence and other moral accomplishments, he should add refinement of manners, the love of children, devotion to his calling, and a lively interest in whatever may tend to the prosperity of the public schools.
Nor is it impertinent to affirm in this connection, that no good citizen will allow himself to be made a member of the school committee, until he has predetermined faithfully to discharge the responsible duties pertaining to the office.
The present Board would eschew all comparisons ; they
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make no allusions, prospective or retrospective. Sufficient is it for them, that they willingly acknowledge and deeply regret if they themselves have proved unequal to the trust reposed in them. Believing that the office from which they are now retiring, is of deeper responsibility than any other within the gift of their fellow citizens, it is their earnest prayer that their successors, immediate and remote, may ever be fully competent to the discharge of the weighty obligations which the acceptance of the office imposes upon them ; warmer wishes than the present Board have cher- ished for the prosperity of the schools, no future committee will ever possess.
Of the schools, collectively, it is not necessary to say many words. During the year which is passed, they have been generally as successful as in former years. The great mass of our citizens appear to be satisfied with them. Possibly a very few parents may feel aggrieved; but it is not in the nature of human affairs that the voice of com- plaint should be altogether silent. While, therefore, chil- dren, teachers, parents and school committee share in common the frailties of human nature, no system of public schools can attain perfection.
We now proceed to that detailed report of the condition of the several schools which the law requires at our hands.
1st. The Infant Schools. With one exception, each of these nine schools has been instructed during the year, by one principal and one assistant teacher, both females. Nearly one half the pupils in the public schools of the city, belong to the schools of this grade. At the tender age of these pupils-from four to seven or eight years of age-their intellectual education ought, as it appears to
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this Board, to be regarded as a thing of secondary nature. It seems far more desirable that their morals should be guarded with assiduous vigilance, and that they should be carefully trained under that minor code of ethics called good behavior. The Committee commend the teachers of these schools generally, not only for the visible mental improvement of their little pupils, but also for their favor- able influences upon the moral characters of the children.
2nd. The Primary Schools. The six schools of this grade, for the most part, remain at the close of the year, in excellent condition.
The Thomas street Boys' Primary has, however, been somewhat less successful than the others, partly in conse- quence of truancy and absences of some of the scholars, and partly from other causes.
The Summer street Boys' Primary, taught by Miss Whittemore and her assistant,-and the Pleasant street Girls' Primary, (of which Miss Eaton was principal until the first of January, and afterwards Miss Read,) are par- ticularly commended by the visiting committees respectively in charge of them.
During the past year, the fine new and commodious school house on Ash street was occupied for the first time; and in this school house, the experiment of associating the sexes together in one of the Primary schools was first in- stituted. Of the success of this school it is not too much to say, that it has fully equalled the anticipations of the Board. The visiting committee report that " the prompt- ness and accuracy which have generally appeared in the recitation-room, justify the opinion that the school is in a healthful and prosperous condition."
Although complaints in more than one instance have
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been made by parents in regard to the discipline of this school, the committee themselves are not prepared to ex- press the opinion that any of the pupils attending it have been punished with unwarrantable severity.
From the success of the High School, and the expe- rience of the present year in regard to this school, the ex- pediency of associating the sexes in each and every school in the city, can now hardly be called in question. The present Board do not hesitate to recommend to their suc- cessors to organize all new schools upon this plan. From infancy to old age, and under proper restraints in the school-room, as well as elsewhere, each sex is capable of exerting a beneficial influence upon the other-an influ- ence of which the School Committee ought not to be un- mindful whenever they establish a new school or remodel one already in operation.
3d. The Grammar (or English) Schools. The smallest of these, having but one teacher, is the South Girls' Eng- lish, located on the common. The Board are sorry to add, also, that this has been the least successful of the three schools of this grade.
The visiting committee report that " the school was in excellent condition from the commencement of the year until about the first of November, when the teacher, Miss Baker, was taken sick and obliged to leave. The school was then, for a few weeks, in charge of Miss Holbrook. About the first of January, Miss Wood was chosen as successor to Miss Baker. Immediately upon the election of Miss Wood, a spirit of insubordination began to mani- fest itself among a few of the pupils, and it soon increased to such an extent as seriously to impede the progress of the school."
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The Committee have, from the first, considered Miss Wood entirely competent both to teach and to govern her scholars ; but they do not believe that any teacher, in this city or elsewhere, can long maintain a successful school in the face of a combined opposition to interrupt its progress.
Miss Wood labored faithfully in the trying situation in which she found herself, and, but for these difficulties which could not have been foreseen, it is believed that her efforts would have been crowned with entire success.
The Board sincerely regret that, in consequence of ill health, Miss Wood was compelled to resign her situation a few days before the final examination of the school was to have taken place.
The Centre Girls' English School, under the charge of Miss Maria R. Eddy, as principal, during the first part of the year, was somewhat less prosperous than it had former- ly been. In the autumn, Miss Eddy resigned her place, and Miss Nancy Baker was appointed to fill the vacancy. Saving interruptions occasioned by her ill health, Miss Baker has fully realized the expectations of the Commit- tee, and even added to her former very high reputation as a teacher.
The assistant teachers, Mrs. Wheeler and Miss Parkin- son, have been as successful as they have been unwearied in their departments, and the whole school remains at the close of the year, in a most excellent condition.
The Thomas Street Boys' English School, under Mr. Metcalf, as principal, and Miss Stone and Mrs. Gird, as assistants, has also passed through another successful year. The efficient discipline under which Mr. Metcalf has brought this school, reflects great credit upon him. Strict as it may appear to a stranger, it is neither harsh nor un-
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kind. Nor do the Committee believe that the best inter- ests of the school will admit that the reins of government should be held more loosely over the scholars.
The thoroughness with which every lesson is required to be prepared, and the prompt, energetic manner in which the recitations are conducted, are highly gratifying to the Committee. If the pupils have not passed over so much ground in their several studies, as some parents may have desired, it is a thing by no means to be regretted ; for pu- pils cannot be taught faster than they can learn, and a little, learned thoroughly, is worth more than a great deal acquired superficially. In the one case, the pupils make a positive advance-though only for a little way ; in the other, the confusion of things half understood is worse than ignorance itself. All the exercises at the final exam- ination, were highly satisfactory; particularly so were those in elocution, spelling, and arithmetic.
The Board believe that the school, in all three of its departments, was never in a better state than it is at pres- ent, and they cheerfully commend Mr. Metcalf and his as- sistants to the entire confidence of those whose children may be placed under their government and instruction.
4th. The District (or Mixed) Schools. In these, in- struction is given in the branches taught in all the other schools of every grade, excepting the High School. Of this class, five schools have been kept in the centre dis- trict, and thirteen in the outer districts. The school for colored children is the only one of these which has been taught through the year. It has still continued under the charge of Miss Eveleth, who, as teacher of this school, has for years labored with great fidelity and industry to promote the intellectual and moral improvement of her
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pupils. The visiting committee report the school as being in excellent condition. The final examination was highly satisfactory, reflecting much credit both upon the teacher and her scholars. The whole number of pupils, during the year, was forty, and the average attendance about thirty-two. It is a significant fact that while the population of the city has doubled within a very few years, the number of children in attendance at this school has considerably diminished. Should the proportion of col- ored children in the city continue to decrease-as this fact seems to indicate-the time cannot be far distant when it will no longer be advisable to continue this as a school exclusively for colored pupils.
The Young Men's (or Apprentices') School was taught, during the winter, by Mr. Addison A. Hunt, who, in this as well as in former years, has proved himself one of the most successful teachers employed by the city. The vis- iting committee speak very highly of the proficiency of the pupils in their studies. The outline maps placed in this school were of great service to the classes in ge- ography.
The three Evening Schools for Adults were taught by three excellent teachers-Messrs. Starr, Pratt and Bur- bank. The whole number of scholars in these schools was considerably over one hundred, but the great irregu- larity of their attendance seriously retarded their progress. Unless some remedy can be devised for this evil, the con- tinuance of this class of schools cannot be unanimously recommended by the Board.
In all the school-houses in the outer districts of the city, both summer and winter schools have been kept, generally with gratifying success.
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During the summer term, excellent schools were taught, in the 3d district, by Miss Avaline Williams and Miss De- land; in the 5th district, by Miss Mary H. Williams; in the 6th district, by Miss M. A. Bigelow, and in the 12th district, by Miss Eaton. The summer schools in the 2d, 10th and 13th districts, also, were very good. The average attendance in the 13th, was only eleven scholars, of whom the oldest was not ten years of age! The schools of the summer term in districts No. 4 and 8, were less successful.
Of the winter schools, those in the 3d, (both depart- ments,) 5th, 6th, 9th and 11th districts, taught respectively by Mr. Holbrook and Miss Deland, Mr. C. E. Pratt, Miss Bigelow and Mr. Lamb, were excellent. The winter school in district No. 2, was also-in the main-successful. In the 4th, 9th, 12th, 13th and 14th districts, the win- ter schools were good; likewise in the 10th district, only that the teacher of this school was somewhat deficient in energy of character. In the 7th district, the teacher first employed, was young and inexperienced, and, in conse- quence, he failed to give satisfaction. About the middle of the winter, he was succeeded by another gentleman who taught the school during the remainder of the term with very good success. In the 8th district, the teacher was well disposed, but his scholars did not make very great progress.
Viewed in comparison with the schools of the compact part of the city, those of the other districts are seen to labor under two disadvantages: they are not graded, and their teachers are not permanent.
The Board are of the opinion that in the more populous and nearly connected districts, a system of combining and grading two or more schools would, to some extent, remedy
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the first of these evils, while the plan of employing female teachers through the year in all the outer districts, might, perhaps, entirely remove the other. Should it be feared that such teachers would not be able to govern the winter schools, the experiment may nevertheless be deemed worthy of trial, inasmuch as some of the largest and most difficult winter schools in the city have repeatedly been conducted by female teachers with entire success. The latter measure is rendered the less objectionable, now that the Grammar Schools are about to be thrown open to all the districts, thereby drawing off a portion of the larger pupils from each.
5th. The Classical and English High School-the high- est of the several grades of the public schools-has now been in successful operation for nearly six years ; and in no period of its existence has it given greater satisfaction to our citizens than it has in the year which is now just brought to a close. During the term of office of the pres- ent Committee, no change has taken place in the corps of teachers of this school.
Mr. Wheeler, always efficient and energetic in the gov- ernment of the school, always critically accurate and thorough in his instruction of the classical department, has, as principal, discharged the responsible duties of his station in a manner which meets the entire approbation of the Board.
Mr. Starr, distinguished alike for his modesty and his sound scholarship, has labored with equal success in the English department.
The assiduous devotion to their duties on the part of the assistants,-Miss Harwood and Miss Hunt,-their evi- dent influence upon the manners and deportment of the
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young ladies of the school, and the intellectual improve- ment which their classes have made, are reported, by the visiting committee, in terms of high commendation. The closing examination of the school was exceedingly gratifying to the numerous parents and friends who were in attendance.
To these details a few statistics may be added :-
The whole number of pupils belonging to the public schools, during the year, was-in the summer, 3,122; in the winter, 3,184. The average attendance was-in the summer, 2,026 ; in the winter, 2,142,-being only two- thirds of the whole number of pupils ! It has been re- peated often, and it ought to be reiterated here, that this evil of irregular attendance is the greatest of all the obsta- cles which impede the progress of the schools.
The number of children between the ages of five and fifteen years, who were in the city on the 1st day of May last,-constituting the basis upon which the income of the State School Fund is apportioned,-was two thousand seven hundred and seventy-six.
The whole number of male teachers employed by the Committee during the year, was 25; of female teachers, 55.
On retiring from office, the Board are required to make " such suggestions in regard to the schools as they shall deem necessary or proper to promote the interests thereof." Several such suggestions they have already made, and their report has even now been extended to a great length.
The population of the city continues to increase. New school-houses must be built, and the old must be repaired or replaced by larger and more commodious structures.
Among other things, the Board would advise that the school-house and lot, in district No. 6, should be sold, and
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that a new school-house should immediately be built in some neighboring locality, less objectionable than that at present occupied.
As the Grammar Schools are about to be opened to pupils from all parts of the city, it would seems best that these schools, so far as it may be practicable, should be located upon the frontiers of the centre district, so as to lessen the distance between them and the homes of the children attending them from the outer districts.
The Committee recommend that teachers for the outer district winter schools should be elected much earlier in the year than it has been customary to choose them, in order that a better selection may be made from among the greater number of candidates who would probably present themselves for examination.
The Board would advise that the pupils in all the schools should have more thorough and practical instruction in elocution than they have generally received heretofore.
Chirography (or Penmanship) is also another very im- portant branch, not as yet very successfully taught by some of the teachers.
Passing at once to a subject of infinitely greater mo- ment, the Committee would urge upon their successors the immense importance of introducing into the public schools some more efficient system of moral education. It ought not to be concealed from the citizens of Worcester, that acts of cruelty and meanness are sometimes perpetrated, that profane oaths and shameful falsehoods are often heard upon the play-grounds-even of our Infant schools.
If the common school system be indeed a part of the machinery of the government, how vain a thing is it to promote the intelligence of the intellect in a community
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where profanity, falsehood, cruelty, and every form of mean- ness, not to say vice, are suffered to grow with the growth of childhood, until, nerved by the strength of riper years, they wage a destructive war upon the very government it- self which has so long neglected them.
These things, together with whatever else pertains to the prosperity of the schools, the Committee leave in the hands of the new Board, repeating here, in conclusion, their earnest prayer that their successors, through all coming years, may ever be guided by a wisdom equal to the emergency of the times.
All which is respectfully submitted,
For the Committee,
GEORGE JAQUES.
Worcester, April 7th, 1851.
NOTE .- Since the adoption of the above Report, the names of several classes of the public schools have been changed, as follow :-
Old Designation. New Designation.
Infant,
Primary.
Primary,
Secondary.
English (or Grammar), Grammar.
District (or Mixed), Mixed.
APPENDIX.
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The names of the permanent schools in Worcester, and of the teachers and assistants employed in them, with their present salaries, are as follow :
Classical and English High School.
Nelson Wheeler, Principal, - - Salary, $1200,00
William E. Starr, Assistant, - 1000,00
Louise C. Harwood, 1st Female Assistant, 400,00
M. Maria Hunt, 2d "
300,00
Thomas St. Grammar School.
Caleb B. Metcalf, Principal, - - 1000,00
Sarah E. Stone, 1st Assistant,
275,00
Elizabeth Gird, 2d Assistant,
275,00
Main St. Grammar School.
Nancy Baker, Principal, 350,00
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