USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1848/49-1855 > Part 49
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The question was early brought before the Committee whether the sexes should be separated or not in the schools to be established in this building. They decided unani- mously that it is preferable for them to be together in each room, and in every grade. In their opinion this arrange- ment will conduce to the best development of character in all. A distinguished authoress* remarks : " I am convinced from my own recollections, and from all I have learned from experienced teachers in large schools, that one of the
* Mrs. Jameson.
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most fatal mistakes in the training of children has been the too early separation of the sexes. I say, has been, because I find that this most dangerous prejudice has been giving way before the light of truth and a more general acquain- tance with that primal law of nature, which ought to teach us that the more we can assimilate on a large scale the public to the domestic training, the better for all. There exists still, the impression, in the higher classes especially, that in early education the mixture of the two sexes would tend to make the girls masculine and the boys effeminate, but experience shows us that it is all the other way. Boys learn a manly and protecting tenderness, and the girls be- come at once more feminine and more truthful." If you would have the boys to become ruffians, and the girls spe- cimens of languid affectation and vanity, train them sepa- rately; but if you would educate them into true men and women, do no such unnatural thing.
The whole cost of the Sycamore St. School House, ex- clusive of the lot, was nineteen thousand four hundred and forty-seven dollars and sixty-seven cents, of which about one-half came into the expenses of last year. The edifice was set apart to the purposes of public education, by ap- propriate services, on the fourth day of September, under the direction of his Honor the Mayor and the members of the School Board. The building was then intrusted to the care of Mr. ADDISON A. HUNT, who had been previously elected master of the grammar department, and a school was duly inaugurated in each one of the rooms. We only observe further of this school house, that we could wish it had been different in three respects. First, that it might have had a much more ample yard and play-ground. Sec- ondly, that its rooms had been made sufficiently large to admit of single desks, and yet contain the requisite num- ber. And thirdly, that reference had been had in its ex- ternal structure to the principles of architectural taste, so as to make it more an ornament to the city.
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SCHOOL HOUSE ON THE COMMON. - The hope expressed by our predecessors that another year would terminate the existence of this edifice has proved abortive. It still stands, an unsightly blot in the midst of our pleasant pros- pects, grossly offending more senses than one, and present- ing in its very appearance an absurd antagonism to that thrift and enterprise which are the boast and glory of Wor- cester. Having understood from the first that it was one of the objects contemplated in the construction of the new house on Sycamore street, to prepare the way for the re- moval of that upon the Common, your Committee accord- ingly made prompt arrangements to effect this object, by opening a new primary school on Thomas street, and ano- ther on Main street, in rooms which were then vacant, to commence simultaneously with the new schools on Syca- more street. They then transferred the Front street pri- mary schools to the new edifice ; and on the twenty-third of July, the following recommendation to the City Council was unanimously adopted. (See Records.)
" The Board of School Committee would respectfully call the attention of the City Council to their action re- specting the school house on the Common.
" They would represent, that yielding to a sense of deco- rum, which forbids that a school house with the necessary out houses connected with it, should be allowed to encum- ber a Common designed for ornament and a place of public resort, and consulting also the comfort of the scholars, and the convenience of the teachers, who complain (not unjust- ly) of the inconvenience of the rooms upon the Common, and of being disturbed by the noise of travel and that arising from other causes incidental to a location so pub- lic ; and also in accordance with the express design of the City Government in erecting the school house on Sycamore street, they have made arrangements for vacating the school house on the Common and for transferring the scholars to other buildings owned by the city, and especially to the
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new school house (on Sycamore street) to be opened next term.
" The School Board would therefore recommend that the school house on the Common be at the earliest period pos- sible sold and removed. They believe that in this recom- mendation they express the wishes of a large portion of our citizens ; and that a prompt attention to our request will have a tendency to allay any regrets, and prevent any irritation which may arise upon the part of a few individu- als, in consequence of their children being transferred to schools more remote from their residences than is that which they have hitherto attended. It is confidently trust- ed however by the School Board that the arrangements they have suggested, and intend with the co-operation of the City Council to carry into effect, will be generally ac- quiesced in, as on the whole for the public good."
The above recommendation came regularly before the City Government, and after full discussion it was voted to remove the house from its present position, and rebuild it in the eastern section of the city. A special committee was raised to have the work in charge. But an appropria- tion to meet the expense of the removal was subsequently refused, and there the matter was permitted to rest. It seems especially unfortunate that the retiring administra- tion did not seize the honor of clearing the Common of this dilapidated structure. May that distinction be claimed and enjoyed by their successors.
ROOMS FITTED UP FOR SCHOOLS .- The west room in the lower story of the Thomas school house, which had not before been used for a school, has been fitted with small chairs and other suitable fixtures for a single Primary school. It commenced early in September.
The north room in the second story of the Main street school house was at the same time completely renovated, and furnished for the purposes of a large Primary school,
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which has been in operation since September fourth, under the care of two teachers.
The north room in the third story of the same building was in November cleared, and furnished appropriately to accommodate the Young Men's School. This is found to be a very convenient and suitable place for it. An evening school for adults is maintained in the same room.
In the month of March the upper story of the Pine street school house was made ready to receive children of a pri- mary grade; and a new school was established there by vote of the Board, as the lower room had become incon- veniently crowded.
SCHOOL HOUSE IN CHAMBERLAIN DISTRICT. - This house at the beginning of the year was found to need some repairs ; and a petition having been received from the District ask- ing for its removal to a more central location before the repairs were made, it was deemed advisable to remove it, and a recommendation to that effect was made to the City Council on the third of July. The work was done during the Summer vacation, and the house moved and fitted up in a neat and substantial manner, at an expense exclusive of the lot, of two hundred and forty-two dollars and four cents. The good taste of the inhabitants of the District was manifested in selecting an ample play-ground, which we hope soon to see ornamented with shade-trees. The cost of the lot of land was fifty dollars.
SCHOOL HOUSE FOR NEW WORCESTER .- The inhabitants of New Worcester have keenly felt for some time the need of more ample school house accommodations. By parti- tioning off a portion of the public hall in the second story of the building in which their school is kept, and establish- ing in it a new department, of an intermediate grade, some little relief was gained for awhile. But soon their quarters were too strait for them. At the first visit of the sub-com- mittee to the school, on the eighteenth of January, 1855, there were found present in the highest department of the
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school forty-two children. The number of desks in the room was forty, and the whole number of pupils forty-nine. In the second department, containing thirty-two desks, thirty-four scholars were present and thirty-eight was the number belonging to the school. And this, too, where the whole area of the rooms was filled with desks, leaving the scantiest amount of floor-room, not enough for the classes to stand upon comfortably at their recitations. In the third department were twenty-four desks and four long seats ; forty children were present, and forty-eight was the whole number on the register. If it were a manufactory or a stable, instead of a school house, such a plethoric state would not be endured for a week. No living beings but children at school, and slaves on the middle passage, are ever packed so closely.
Your Committee, deeming the wishes of their fellow citi- zens in New Worcester for a new school-house to be very reasonable, and perceiving that they were much in earnest by their readiness to donate for the purpose a very eligible lot of land to the city,-the gift of that enterprising firm, L. & A. G. Coes,-took action upon the subject at their meet- ing April 3, as follows:
Resolved, "That it be recommended to the City Coun- cil to erect a school house at New Worcester on the lot of land recently presented to the city for that purpose; and that said school house should be of sufficient capacity to accommodate two hundred scholars, with primary, second- ary and grammar schools, for both sexes."
Together with this recommendation, a plan of such a school house was submitted to the City Government.
On the third of July the Board again recommended, with emphasis, the same measure. But the work still remains undone. It will be for others to determine how long it shall be delayed. Perhaps, children are decreasing in that part of the city, and their present accommodations will prove adequate to their wants for some years longer ! The census will determine.
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HOUSE FOR PROVIDENCE ST. SCHOOL .- On the twenty-ninth of August the Board received the following communica- tion :-
Gentlemen : - This is to inform you that the Worcester Medical College building and lands on Union Hill have been sold by contract, and that possession will be given early in the month of September. And you are hereby notified that the rooms in the above-mentioned building, used by the city for a district school, must be vacated on or before the fifth day of September next.
Very respectfully, Yours,
WM. BUSH, Sec. Board Trust. Wor. Med. Ins.
The Committee on that school were authorized to pro- vide a place where it might be temporarily kept, and they subsequently made an arrangement to that effect with the new proprietors of the College.
The Board, at their August meeting, recommended to the City Council to purchase a lot of land containing not less than half an acre, for a school house site, located as near the Medical College building as might be ; and to erect thereon, forthwith, a building covering an area of not less than thirty by forty-five feet, two stories high above a base- ment, for the use of the Providence street school. Pursu- ant to this recommendation, the City Government consid- ered the plan of re-building in this district the school house on the Common. But differences of opinion arising as to its proper location, no appropriation was granted, delays ensued, and the year closed.
This is a district in which the number of school children is reported as being already near a hundred, and is rap- idly increasing ; an increase, which will be favored by the location of the new Female College within its limits. And therefore a sound policy would seem to require accommo- dations there, somewhat beyond the supply of present want. This subject will early claim the attention of our succes- sors.
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SCHOOL SUPERVISION.
The School Board have held during the year twelve regular monthly meetings, and seven special ones. At each one of them a quorum of members was present, and in every instance except one a majority. That one occured in August, when the schools were not in session, and many of the citizens were absent from town. His Honor the Mayor has been present at every meeting. The average attendance of members for the whole year has been fifteen and two thirds ; although the Board was three short of & full number more than half the year. Reports were re- ceived from most of the schools at each regular meeting, and these reports, in respect of regularity and complete- ness, have not, to say the least, fallen below those of pre- vious years. An uncommon degree of harmony has char- acterized the deliberations of the Board throughout the year; and the supervision of the schools though by no means what it should be, has been, we presume, as good as usual.
The chief defects of our system of school supervi- sion, are those which are inevitable, because incidental to the system itself. They are such as no amount of faithful- ness in meeting each one's allotted portion of school ser- vice could remedy. It is the incurable vice of a system which parcels out into twenty-four different hands the care of some fifty school rooms, that it furnishes no common standard of comparison, gives no just view of the real con- dition of the whole as a unit, and suggests no general prin- ciples which may be applied to all for the common benefit. Some schools will be faithfully visited every year, and some will be almost totally neglected every year. The differ- ence in this respect between different committees is less than many suppose. It is usual to commence the year with a vigilance which knows no languor; but it is not common to close it with a zeal which has experienced no abatement. A season of service in the schools has been known to be- gin with a great ado, and end with a doze. It is, with
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some, the mission of the first two months to reform abuses, the experience of the next two to cool down and become conservative, the work of. the following six to walk reluc- tantly at the heels of a routine, and the conclusion of the matter is an unspeakable disgust at the whole transaction. A concentrated system, by which all the facts of a school year and of many successive years, might be digested into a single working plan, by the diligence, experience and wisdom of one guiding mind, is at once our grand deficien- cy and our grand desideratum. In the opinion of your Committee this can be accomplished in no other way so well as by the employment of a
SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS.
We desire on this subject to commend, emphatically, the views set forth by the last Board. And our grateful thanks are also due to the present Mayor of our city for his une- quivocal recommendation of this measure. We have learn- ed by experience the difficulties which environ this whole subject, and the impossibility of doing well the work to be done, in our present immethodical and hap-hazard way. Sooner or later it must come to the appointment of a School Superintendent; and every year it is delayed puts further off the good time surely coming, when the benefits of such an office will be enjoyed by our schools and families.
Does any one, fearing the introduction of some offensive novelty, distrustingly inquire what these benefits are ? We reply :
The measure would prove an economical one. The ex- pense of official visiting and other services of the School Committee, amounting last year to seven hundred and fif- teen dollars and thirty-five cents, with the salary of the Secretary (two hundred dollars), being saved thereby, would go far towards paying the salary of a Superinten- dent ; and in the construction and furnishing of a single school house he would save to the city more than enough to double the sum. If he were a practical man he would
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at once make himself felt at every point, and the result would be a more economical expenditure in all departments of the service. Any shrewd man can determine whether a thirty thousand dollar business would be managed the most snugly and thriftily by twenty-five men who had each a business or profession of his own besides, or by one prac- tical and competent person who should have the whole charge of it, and of nothing else. Especially when it is borne in mind that he would have the full advantage of the advice and counsel of those twenty-five men, whenever he should need it. The arrangement, in a business point of view, would be like that of a Superintendent and Board of Directors of any Railroad Corporation.
The measure would bring all the schools, both central and suburban, under the inspection of one mind. One pair of eyes would behold them all annually, quarterly. The person lives not in this city who has seen the interior of every school room. He therefore who compares one school with another does it at a disadvantage, and under strong probabilities of error and injustice. But a Superin- tendent could speak that which he did know, and testify that he had seen.
It would secure better teachers. The teachers of our schools are in general very faithful and earnest laborers. But occasionally one will be employed who is found in practice to fall below the required standard. A teacher, however, is rarely dropped by vote of the Board at the end of. the year. It is a responsibility from which her subt committee shrink, and the committee as a whole are igno- rant of the state of the case. So the evil is made perennial. A teacher who positively fails is usually forced to resign by public opinion ; but those who stand at the mark of medioc- rity are accustomed to stand there a long time! A Superin- tendent would be charged with the care of this matter ; and if a teacher did not improve as he should point out her defects and suggest improvements, it would lead to her re- moval and the substitution of one more competent. We
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use the feminine pronouns here simply because females constitute a large majority of our teachers.
Again, The appointment of a Superintendent would pre- vent frequent changes of the School Committee. They could thereafter draw from the treasury no pay for their ser- vices,* without a special City Ordinance permitting it ; and the office would be accepted only by high-minded men, who would discharge its functions gratuitously, and solely in view of the good to be accomplished. Such men as are most competent by education and experience to act upon this Board, are men who would probably do so no less faith- fully, and even more cheerfully, without compensation than with it.
Even if changes should continue to be as frequent as formerly, much less evil would result from them. As at present constituted, one Committee is distrusted by anoth- er, and there is little that is fraternal or sympathetic be- tween successive Boards. In fact they are sometimes di- rectly antagonistic in measures and influence. The battles of party are fought over the heads of the school children, with an asperity as great as if the interests at stake were merely the spoils of political victory. Even should this unnatural and unreasonable state of things continue, it would have less power to harm the schools, if they were under the watch of the same Superintendent from year to year. But it would not continue. Our best educated cit- izens are fast coming to the determination not to act upon the School Board at all, until it is constituted upon a higher principle than the chances of a plurality vote, in a warmly contested election. A School Superintendency, fairly in- augurated, would help to put the subject of popular educa- tion upon a more worthy and stedfast foundation. For it would then follow, almost of course, that the Committee should be elected triennially, and in such a way that only
*Massachusetts Statutes of 1854: Chap. 314 .- "And, in every city and town in which a Sup- erintendent of Schools shall be appointed, the School Committee shall receive no compensation, unless otherwise provided for by the city government of said cities, or by a vote of said town.ยป
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one-third of them could be changed in any one year. This would carry forward the experience of one year to aid in the business of the next, and secure a more progressive and consistent treatment of the schools.
And beyond all this, the Superintendent's positive influ- ence in the schools would be of unspeakable worth to them. He would secure some results which we cannot now reach. He would cause the Registers to be faithfully kept, while at present some of their results are so unreliable as to be nearly valueless. He would investigate the causes and rem- edy of absence, tardiness and truancy, which are now among the greatest evils we experience. He would stimulate both teacher and pupils to higher aims. He would have a hund- red eyes to our one, to discover the obstacles that retard our progress ; and a hundred hands to our one to extend in their removal.
Let it also be borne in mind that we do not propose to commit any arbitrary and irresponsible power into the hands of a Superintendent. The decision of all important questions would still devolve upon the School Committee ; they would monthly transact the business which he should bring before them; they would still maintain a personal acquaintance with the schools, would fix the salaries of the teachers, and be fully responsible for the care and manage- ment of the whole institution. It would be at once his in- terest and duty to maintain the closest intimacy with them. The precise distribution of their several powers and duties would be matter for subsequent arrangement, but a wise and full School Board would be no less a necessity, with a Superintendent than without one. And the city would still reap the whole advantage of their experience and counsels.
But on this topic your Committee need say no more. We commend the subject most earnestly to the attention of the City Fathers, and humbly ask them for timely relief. We pass to the subject of school examinations.
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SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS.
The last school year did not close until the fifth of Jar- uary. This delayed the annual examination of some of the schools to a later period than usual. It was thought best by the committee to distribute the exercises through the last two weeks of the term. This arrangement gave opportunity for a larger number of persons to attend the examinations than usual, and we were glad to observe that it was very generally embraced. Parents and guardians do not realize how much good is done by an occasional visit from them, even if it be but a few minutes in duration. If they would oftener look in upon the schools, they would appreciate better the labors of the teachers, the progress of the pupils, and the importance of the whole educational interest.
The results of the oral examination will be given more particularly in connexion with the report furnished by the sub-committee of each particular school.
EXAMINATION BY PRINTED QUESTIONS. - The apparent ben- efits resulting from an examination of our Grammar and High Schools by prepared and printed questions the last year, led us to repeat the experiment. We are still more gratified with it than before, and trust it may become an established feature of our system. The questions this year were considerably more difficult than the last, and the examination was conducted in a way to make it a more thorough test of scholarship, and yet the answers given were more correct in almost every class.
Unfortunately for the pupils in the Sycamore St. Gram- mar School their Principal was sick at the time of the ex- amination, and no trial by printed questions was afforded them. In the Appendix to this report will be found the questions proposed to the Thomas Grammar School, and to the High School, with a tabular view of the answers given. They are preserved for the sake of comparison in future years ; and also that our fellow citizens may know to what tests of scholarship our more advanced pupils are subjected, and how well they are able to bear them.
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PROMOTIONS BY EXAMINATION.
Pupils have heretofore been promoted by examination from the Grammar schools to the High School, none being admitted except those who could write correct answers to more than a moiety of the questions upon four printed sheets, viz. of Arithmetic, Geography, Grammar and His- tory, containing each twenty questions.
Your Committee, feeling the importance of extending the good influences of such an examination into schools of a lower grade, passed a resolution at their meeting on the sixth of March, that " promotions from the Secondary to the Grammar schools shall be made hereafter by examina- tion"; and a committee was raised to make arrangements for it. Their report was subsequently presented and adopted, as follows : " It is hereby ordered; that the scholars to be promoted from the Secondary to the Grammar schools should be able to read fluently in the Sequel to the Grad- ual Reader ; to spell correctly one hundred pages in Tow- er's Spelling Book; and to bear a thorough examination in any part of Colburn's Mental Arithmetic and Monteith's Geography. At the next promotion, however, the candidate may be prepared in Geography upon the first seven pages of definitions in Mitchell's Quarto, and upon general ques- tions on the Maps of the World, its Grand Divisions and the United States.""
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