USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1848/49-1855 > Part 50
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The influence of this measure in stimulating the efforts of the pupils in the Secondary schools was very apparent during the last months of the year. The examination was conducted by the teachers of the Thomas school, and was such as to vindicate the wisdom of the Committee's action. It has been an object steadily in our view to draw the lines of distinction more accurately between the different grades of schools ; and we feel assured that something valuable was accomplished, in this regard, during the last year.
We would suggest, at this point, that a tendency exists among our children, and probably many parents encourage it, to go up with too much haste and an inadequate pre-
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paration, into schools of a higher grade. This is always an injury, in fact a double and treble injury. The school prema- turely left is injured, because its general scholarship is not brought up to the established point, as the pupils leave before completing its course. The school that receives them is harmed, by the necessity of drilling them in studies which should have been mastered before coming there; and thus they become a millstone about the neck of its progress. They themselves are injured, by reason of deficiency in the ear- lier studies, which continually embarrasses them in the pur- suit of branches which are more advanced. They have left too many unconquered enemies in the rear, to make sound progress. And the result is oftentimes discourage- ment, and always a superficial scholarship. Your Committee believe that if parents are wise, they will discountenance in their children the idea of going up higher, before they are prepared to take the step with advantage to their educa- tion.
TEXT BOOKS.
The year has witnessed but few changes in text books. Knowing full well the repugnance of parents to frequent substitutions of one book for another, oftentimes but very little if any better than the one displaced; and believing that far more depends upon the ingenuity and tact of the teacher than upon the excellence of the books used; we have thought it wise, in general, to sanction and continue the use of those previously introduced. In one study, however, your Committee have ventured to make some in- novations. We refer to
GEOGRAPHY .- It required but a brief acquaintance with the schools to be convinced that the whole subject of Geog- raphy was in a most unsatisfactory condition. The text book long used in the Secondary and Grammar Schools, viz: Mitchell's Quarto, contains such a large amount of descriptive and statistical matter as to make it totally unfit for the use of most of the children in these schools. It was impossible that they should learn the whole of it; and
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the result has been that in one school the pupils would be taught one part of it, and in another, another. So that when a new class came into a Grammar school by promo- tion from two or more of the Secondary grade, their knowledge of Geography was so diverse and unequal that they could not be classified. One pupil would know all about the United States, but next to nothing respecting the state of the world generally. Another would be especially familiar with European and Asiatic facts, but be totally lost among the Territories of our Union, or even the counties of Massachusetts. Some would give evidence of having been drilled in the general principles of the study, others would show that they had only seized upon a few isolated facts, names and dates. A child without one intelli- gent conception of longitude, latitude, tropic, meridian or ecliptic, would state accurately how many solid feet of ma- sonry there were in some obscure railroad bridge in Penn- sylvania ; while another would know all about the circles, great and small, yet not be able to tell you whether Ontario empties its waters into Erie or Erie into Ontario.
The question arose in our minds, what is the reason of this inequality ; and can it be remedied ? Meanwhile we became acquainted with a series of Geographical text books which were professedly prepared by practical teach- ers who had felt this very evil, and had attempted to reme- dy it by giving more simplicity and precision to the text books, omitting large amounts of matter contained in other treatises, and leading the mind onward step by step, from that which is elementary up to that which is more complex, and involved. One of this series, to wit, Monteith's Manual of Geography, was placed in the Secondary Schools, by vote of our predecessors, just at the close of the year. Find- ing that it met the approbation of the teachers who used it, and promoted a more exact knowledge of Geography in the Secondary Schools, your Committee after long and ma- ture consideration of the subject, ordered at their final meet- ing "that Monteith's and McNally's whole Series be used
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henceforth in all the schools in the city." If this decision is carried out by our successors, we have no doubt that an improvement will appear in the Primary and Gram- mar Schools, as great as we have already noticed in the Secondary. To perfect the arrangement, however, a trea- tise upon Physical Geography, exclusively, should be intro- duced into the Grammar Schools. This subject will inev- itably claim the attention of succeeding Boards, and if any improvement can be made upon the action we have taken, we shall hail it with delight.
SCHOOL APPARATUS.
It has been an object with us to make a judicious expen- diture of the sum of three hundred dollars, or there- abouts, which it has been usual of late years to appropriate annually to the purchase of apparatus and reference books. It may well be questioned whether this sum should not be made much larger. A good supply of books of reference, and suitable maps, charts, globes, and other arti- cles by which to illustrate the various studies clearly and fully, are as needful in a school as good text books, to say the least. Among the new apparatus purchased last year is Joslyn's Telluric Globe placed in the Secondary Schools, a most compact and beautiful instrument, from which every thing can be learned that could be from a fully mounted twelve inch globe of four times its cost. We should be glad to see it in more of the schools. We would suggest that the greatest need, at present, is of more reference books in all the schools of a grade above the Primary ; a good map of New England, and of Massachusetts, (with the Counties conspicuously colored,) in every Primary School; and a better supply of the suburban schools with suitable apparatus.
SINGING AND DRAWING.
No special provision for instruction in these branches has yet been made in this city ; and whatever is done in either of
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them is voluntary and occasional. We scarcely know why it is so. If education be the cultivation of all our con- stitutional powers, it is difficult to tell why music should not be employed for the improvement of the ear and the heart, and drawing to educate the eye and the taste, as well as arithmetic to develop the reasoning powers, and grammar to teach the use of language. Perhaps the world is more indebted for its happiness to singing than to speech. Songs are a greater motive power than sermons and orations. The lecture cannot, even in these days of lecturing, vie with the concert. Ought we not then to cultivate this faculty ? It has been recommended before ; and we would do it again, did not the grim form of "retrenchment" rise up before us, from whose miserly lips we are forced to hear the statement that singing is an extravagance, and drawing a puerility. We will therefore wait until retrench- ment has wrought its worst, and more liberal counsels prevail.
Both singing and drawing are taught in the public schools of Boston, and they are justly regarded as increas- ing the efficiency and the attractiveness of their school system. It is matter of congratulation that, without a special teacher, singing is habitually practiced in all our schools except Tatnick, Northville, North Pond, and the adult schools. For what reason the three districts just named are exceptions, we cannot imagine.
One hour weekly of musical instruction in each school above the primary grade, given by an accomplished music master, would retard no other pursuit, but accelerate every interest and heighten every pleasure of the school room. We would even put the city upon its own defence, and ask by what right it denies musical culture to those children to whom it professes to give the best education it is possible to give ? At no point is the competition of private schools with public so much felt as in music, drawing, and other similar studies which educate the taste. What good rea- son can be given why these should not find a place in pub- lic training also ?
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ABSENCE AND TRUANCY.
The whole number of children who, as the Germans term it, " are due at the schools," can be known only by ad- ding to the whole number between five and fifteen years of age, those who are less than five and more than fifteen, and who may be rationally expected to attend school. We are fully of opinion that it is unwise in any case to send chil- dren to school at the tender age of four years. They had better, until they are five or even six years old, be picking violets from the greensward, or taking their first lessons in household economy in the nursery. Nevertheless quite a numerous delegation from this infantile corps find their way into the primary schools. Of this class three hundred and thirty-six were reported last year ; and of those over fifteen years of age three hundred and ninety-six. When these numbers are added to three thousand nine hundred and seventy-four (the whole number between five and fifteen) the sum will be four thousand seven hundred and six, which may be considered the whole number "due at school." It should perhaps be reduced fifty, on account of those un- der five years of age who have removed during the year from one school to another, and thus have been registered twice. This will leave four thousand six hundred and fifty- six persons of a suitable age to attend school. And yet our records show that the average of regular attendance upon all the public schools was only two thousand five hundred and forty-four.
How shall we account for this large amount of absentee- ism ? Has sickness caused it? Are these children kept at work instead of being sent to school ? Do they attend pri- vate schools and academies ? Or are they truants, spending their time in idleness and vagrancy ? Without doubt all these causes are influential, and to each of them must be at- tributed a share of the deficiency.
It will be perceived that the difference between the num- ber that constantly attend school, (two thousand five hun-
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dred and forty-four) and the number that ought to attend school, (four thousand six hundred and fifty-six) is two thousand one hundred and twelve; for these we have to account. Let us then investigate the causes which may be supposed to produce so much non-attendance.
Since it is not to be expected that all of suitable age to attend school will be always there; the weather, when se- verely warm or cold, or very wet, making many absences inevitable, especially among the girls ; prevailing sickness, like the measles, whooping cough, or other epidem- ic complaints putting hundreds at a time upon the in- valid list; the illness or death of friends causing a tem- porary absence; visiting out of town in term time, with or without their parents, yet with their consent, breaking in upon all a pupil's habits of punctuality and close applica- cation ; occasional absence permitted by parents thought- lessly, and in view of the importunity of their children, who have a pair of skates that are aching to be used, or a kite all impatient to fly, or who must see a military parade ora travelling circus, whether they ever learn to read and write or not ;- we shall be obliged to make a liberal allowance in view of these and similar disturbing agencies. Proba- bly 33 1-3 per cent. of the whole deficiency will not be too much to attribute to this class of causes. This will reduce our number of absentees to one thousand four hundred and eight.
It would however be very wrong to suppose that so large a number are receiving no benefit of literary training. Our many and excellent private schools and academies, whether incorporated or unincorporated, have gathered in and are educating about six hundred and fifty of these ; leav- ing only seven hundred and fifty-eight to be accounted for.
It is safe to suppose that one hundred of these are placed at school out of town. We shall then have six hun- dred and fifty-eight remaining.
Parents, for the most part, are too busily employed to in- struct their own children in the common branches of knowl-
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edge. But there are a few mothers who have not only education and taste, but also sufficient leisure to attend to this matter. Perhaps fifty children are thus cared for; and it may be that fifty more who are a little more than five years old are kept out of school, because their parents judge (wisely no doubt) that they more need now to be devel- oping the body than the mind. But where are the five hun- dred and fifty-eight still unprovided for ?
Quite a number of parents feel obliged to put their children, even at the age of ten or twelve, to some kind of labor in which they may earn their own support, and even aid in the care of their brothers and sisters. Young girls live out in families, or work in factories and shops, and boys are apprenticed at fourteen or even earlier. Their parents feel unable to give them a good common school education, because their time is needed to buy bread for the family. It is a great pity that relentless poverty should so divert the current of a young life from noble and ennobling aims, but so it is. And we presume that this cause will account for full three hundred of the cases of absence from school.
We have then left, after making due allowance for every excusable delinquency, two hundred fifty-eight child- ren for whom there is no excuse, who are truants, idlers and vagrants about the streets. The Committee are con- vinced that the number cannot vary essentially from the above figure, although this is only an approximate esti- mate .* These are the children, usually half-clad and filthy, that are prowling around wood-piles and dwellings, pick- ing up bits of fuel from the gutters and ash heaps, gather-
*It is probable that many of these children spend a few days, or perhaps a week or two, in school in the course of the year. But this does no good, and only gives them increased power to injure others. It was stated on page 82 of this report that four thousand six hundred and fifty-six is the number that ought to be connected with some school; and on page 62 that four thousand five hundred and forty is the whole number that have actually entered the schools for a longer or shorter period. This would leave only one hundred and sixteen who have not been at all. But if we suppose that as many more have attended school just long enough to be enu- merated scholars, we shall have a number of habitual truants corresponding very nearly with the one already given from estimation.
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ing cold victuals from house to house, thieving about the depots, cellars and stalls, or roaming through fields and or- chards, pilfering from others and degrading themselves.
The influence of a few such children upon those with whom they associate is terrible ! Few sinners can destroy so much good as one of these bad boys. His prurient in- iquity pollutes and debases others, and he sows the seeds of crime in innocent natures by inciting them to misdeeds, and by instructing them that they can sin with impunity. Among the shining ranks of beauteous childhood such a boy is " a noisome pestilence."
This matter of truancy is equally formidable, when viewed from a point within the schools. Early in the year the Principal of the Summer-street Secondary school sent a communication to the Board upon this subject, with the names of some inveterate truants, asking for our interposi- tion to put a stop to the growing evil. It was a mischief which we knew to be extending itself, but did not so well know how to overcome. On making particular inquiry, we find that seventeen schools severally report from one to thirty-five cases of truancy. About one hundred and twenty-five instances are reported in all. Many of the schools made no return, in some of which we know that the evil exists in a greater or less degree. It is found in schools of every grade, but chiefly in the Secondary. Sev- eral of the teachers have been greatly tried with it, and have not known what to do. If a true return were made of all the truancy in our schools, it would without doubt amount to many hundred days in a year. And the truancy of those who never, or next to never, go to school at all, would swell the amount to many thousands.
Your Committee look with alarm upon these facts, and would call to them the attention of their fellow citizens. They injure us at home, and injure us abroad. Our city shows, year after year, a very unsatisfactory record in the printed Reports of the State Board of Education. In the Report of the present year (the nineteenth) Worcester
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stands, in respect of school attendance, the 275th town in the Commonwealth. A list of twenty-two of the cities and larger towns, with the percentage of regular attendance at school in each, shows where we stand relatively.
Boston,
,78-50
Northampton,
,62-90
Cambridge,
,76-17
Holyoke,
,60-39
Charlestown,
,75-90
Taunton,
,59-85
New Bedford,
,74-72
Worcester,
,59-84
Fitchburg,
,73-41
Greenfield,
,58-91
Lynn,
,71-92
Fall River,
,58-78.
Lowell,
,71-32
Clinton,
,55-60
Milford,
,70-75
Lawrence,
,51-28
Dorchester,
,70-59.
Dedham,
,51-15
Roxbury,
,69-01
Springfield,
,46-99
Salem,
,65-01
Newburyport,
,44-69
It is also a fact, somewhat humiliating, that fifty-one of the fifty-eight towns in this County are in advance of Wor- cester in respect of attendance on the public schools. And our deficiency is owing mainly, we believe, to unnecessary absence and truancy. Now what can be done to remedy an evil so inveterate and alarming ?
We do but suggest, in answer, a few thoughts, without expanding them.
Every individual should feel a personal responsibility re- specting this evil. We have a common property in our schools, a common interest in our children; and it should grieve every good person to see even one growing up in voluntary banishment from school. "I promised my God," said the excellent Dinter, the Prussian School Commission- er, "that I would give to every Prussian peasant child the best education it was in my power to provide for him, both as a man and a christian." Individuals should feel a simi- lar responsibility, and, in that case, the work would not lan- guish.
The employment of a school Superintendent would un- doubtedly mitigate the evil. It might be made a part of his duty to investigate the subject of truancy, its causes and their remedy; and he would be in the best position to perform such a work.
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Music and drawing taught in the schools, by making them more attractive, would induce more to come, and also promote regularity of attendance.
Uniform cheerfulness, hope and cordiality on the part of the teachers, will lessen the absenteeism. They should fascinate the children. They are even expected to bewitch them with their winning ways. Every teacher should be a powerful magnet, at least to the children.
Special instruction should be given in every school re- specting the evils of truancy; and much be made of indi- vidual cases, for the sake of a strong and profitable im- pression.
A more liberal allowance of holidays would have a good effect. We have but few festivals, unless the Mayor shall manufacture them. Whenever any matter comes up, of general interest to the children or the community, it is better by far to give all the schools a holiday, than to have one or two hundred children play the truant. Our vacations are not very long; and if lengthening them somewhat, by adding a few holidays, should secure a more punctual and diligent attention during the study terms, it were well worth while to do it.
There is a class of our fellow-citizens who would be glad to see a small fund invested, say a thousand or fifteen hun- dred dollars, the income of which should be annually de- voted to prize medals, for the encouragement of punctual- ty, good conduct and scholarship, in the public schools. This would stimulate not a love of gold but of honorable distinction. Nor could it be objected to by any who will remember that the hope of reward is one of the most pow- erful motives to which the Divine Being appeals in his great moral government.
We would, in this connexion, call attention to that law of the State which forbids any person to hire or employ chil- dren, under fourteen years of age, to do any kind of work, unless they shall have been at least twelve weeks at some school, during the year previous to being thus employed.
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Let no one, for the few dollars which a child could earn, be guilty of depriving him of that which he needs so much more than money, and which if has not he will be poor in- deed.
The Committee would suggest, finally, the propriety of a City Ordinance for the prevention and punishment of Tru- ancy .* Something of this kind is needed, at the last, to
*Authority to enact such a law was granted by the State Legislature in 1850, by the passage of
AN ACT CONCERNING TRUANT CHILDREN AND ABSENTEES FROM SCHOOLS.
SECT. 1. Each of the several cities and towns in this Commonwealth, is authorized and empowered to make all needful provisions and arrangements concerning habit- ual truants and children not attending school, without any regular and lawful oc- cupation, growing up in ignorance, between the ages of six and fifteen years: and, also, all such ordinances and by-laws respecting such children, as shall be deemed most conducive to their welfare, and the good order of such city or town; and there shall be annexed to such ordinances, suitable penalties, not exceeding for any one breach, a fine of twenty dollars; provided, that said ordinances and by-laws shall be approved by the Court of Common Pleas for the County, and shall not be repugnant to the laws of the Commonwealth.
(SECT. 2. This scetion provides for the appointment of officers to make com- plaints and execute judgment.) SECT. 3. This section has been repealcd.
In 1852 the Legislature passed an act entitled,
AN ACT IN ADDITION TO "AN ACT CONCERNING TRUANT CHILDREN AND ABSENTEES FROM SCHOOLS."
SECT. 1. Any minor between the ages of six and fifteen years, convicted under the provisions of an act entitled " An act concerning Truant Children and Absentees from Schools," passed in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty, of being an habitual truant, or of not attending school, or being without any regular and law- ful occupation, or growing up in ignorance, may, at the discretion of the justice of the peace or judicial officer having jurisdiction of the case, instead of the fine men- tioned in the first section of said act, be committed to any such Institution of In- struction, House of Reformation, or suitable situation, as may be provided for the purpose under the authority given in said first section, for such time as such justice or said judicial officer may determine, not exceeding one year.
SECT. 2. This section provides that any person convicted under this act, and sen- tenced to pay a fine, may in. default of payment be committed to the House of Reformation, or the County jail.
SECT. 3. Provides for the discharge of persons so convicted.
SECT. 4. Provides that the power of a justice of the peace under this act shall be continued under a re-appointment.
SECT. 5. Repeals the third section of the previous act.
The City has only to accept the power granted by these acts, and pass an ordi- nance defining the duties implied in the exercise of it. One or more "truant officers" should then be appointed : one will probably be sufficient at first. He should spend his whole time during school hours traversing the streets, lanes and alleys of the City, in search of truant boys and girls. Whenever he finds any absentees from school, let him make such inquiries of them as will enable him to learn their his- tory, mode of life and residence. Then he may visit their parents, if they have any. If they have recently come to town, and have as yet neglected to send their children to school, he can point them to the proper place to go,and go with the children once or twice. If they have no clothes that are suitable, and are too poor to procure them, he could find means either from public or private funds to fur- nish them. He would be to such parents not so much an officer of the law, as a kind friend using a persuasive influence with them, and only resorting to the statute and its penalty after other means had failed.
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