USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1848/49-1855 > Part 51
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Our late excellent Secretary of the Board of Education informs us in his last Report that "great success, has in several instances attended the labors of persons appointed to look after absentees, to inquire into the causes of their absence, and to use proper means to bring them back to the schools."
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check those whom kindness and diligence will not reach ; who have no parents to control them, and no good influen- ences thrown around them ; who can feel the force of no authority but the law; who might be restrained by the sight of an iron grated window viewed from the inside, but by nothing short of that.
We will close what we have to say on this subject by asking the question, what the City can best afford to do re- specting this matter ? Shall an effort be made to bring all the children into school, and keep them there till they have been trained into neatness and subjection, docility, truth- fulness, temperance and intelligence ? Or, for the want of these qualities, indispensable to good citizenship, shall a portion of them become thieves, drunkards, blasphemers, robbers and vagabonds, to be supported in our jails and penitentiaries at the public expense ? Let the public an- swer.
Your Committee would next present some facts and sta- istics on the subject of
EXPENDITURES FOR SCHOOLS.
We have reason to suppose that this subject is greatly misapprehended by many of our fellow citizens. Without looking very closely at the facts, they have credited the prevalent rumor that a most lavish and extravagant expen- diture of funds has characterized the department of edu- cation, to such an extent that a material retrenchment is demanded in order to bring down our school expenses to the scale of our general expenses, or reduce them to such a standard of wise economy as is maintained in other large cities and towns in the Commonwealth.
So far from the truth is such a view, that our school ex- penses, whether viewed absolutely, or relatively as com- pared with past years and with other cities, have been far enough from extravagant. The figures and records will show that we have neither kept pace with our neighbors, nor improved much upon ourselves.
We turn then, first, to the successive Reports of the
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Massachusetts Board of Education for the last five years, and copy from their carefully prepared tables, the number of persons found in Worcester each year between five and fifteen years of age; the sum appropriated annually to the support of schools ; with the amount per scholar, obtained by dividing the sum appropriated by the whole number of ratable children.
Year.
No.of Children between
Appropriation ..
5 and 15 yrs. of age.
Amount per scholar.
1850
2,776
$15,450
$5,56.6 -15th An. Rep.
*[1851
2,083
13,000
6,24.1]-16th
1851
2,803
18,000
6,42.1
1852
3,215
18,000
5,59.9 -17th
66
1853
3,312
20,000
6,03.9 -18th
"
1854
3,845
22,000
5,72.1-19th
1855
3,974
25,500
6,41.6
From these figures it will be perceived that the children have been increasing at the rate of from one hundred to five hundred a year ; and that the annual appropriation has been also increasing, but not in undue proportion ; for the amount per scholar was no greater in 1855 than in 1851, and has varied from about five dollars and a half to six dollars and a half for six successive years.
We will turn next to the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Board, issued the present year, and see how appropria- tions for public schools in this city will compare with the valuation, and give the same with reference to several other cities and towns. This will show whether, accord-
* The returns inclosed in brackets, though copied from the Sixteenth Annual Report of the Board of Education, are incorrect in two particulars, as any one must observe at a glance. The number of children in 1851, as appears from the books of the Assessors of this city, was two thousand eight hundred and three, and not two thousand and eighty-three. The return, though certified and sworn to by fourteen honorable citizens, before a justice of the peace, was too small by seven hundred and twenty ! an error which could scarcely have occurred but for the custom of changing the Committee at every election. For if any who signed the return had been members of the Board the preceding year, they must have known that the children in Worcester could not have decreased from two thousand seven hundred and seventy-six to two thousand and eighty-three, a loss of seven hundred, in a year of uninterrupted prosperity ! As the income of the State School Fund is divided to the several cities and towns by the scholar, each child between five and fifteen years drawing about twenty-two cents, this error cost the city one hundred and fifty-eight dollars and forty cents, although it is only the difference be- tween eight cipher (80) aod cipher eight (08). We bring no accusation against any man, and impute no blame ; but an error of such a nature as this is a powerful argument in favor of a School Superintendent.
It was in the year 1851 that the commencement of the municipal year was changed from April 1st to January 1st, and therefore thirteen thousand dollars was the appropriation for a period of only nine months. The expenses for the remaining quarter were five thousand dollars more, as appears from the return for that year. The appropriation should therefore be set down at eighteen thousand dollars, in order to calculate correctly the yearly amount per scholar. A result for the year 1851, rectified in both these respects, is therefore placed in the table above.
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ing to our ability, we are doing more or less than they are. We will take the same twenty-two towns with which we compared Worcester in respect of attendance at school. The figures against the names express the percentage of valuation appropriated to public schools, equivalent to mills and hundreths of mills.
Lynn,
,005-38
Lawrence,
,002-50
Milford,
3-93
Dorchester,
2-43
Taunton,
3-78
Fall River,
2-22
Clinton,
3-24
Holyoke,
2-10
Lowell,
2-96
Greenfield,
2-05
Charlestown,
2-95
Newburyport,
2-04
Roxbury,
2-94
Northampton,
2-00
Dedham,
2-84
Worcester,
1-98
Fitchburg,
2-70
New Bedford,
1-83
Cambridge,
2-65
Salem,
1-59
Springfield,
2-51
Boston,
1-14
It may surprise some to see Worcester so near the end of this list, and still more so to see Boston bring up the rear. It may be said in explanation of this latter fact, that a vast amount of taxable property in Boston is owned by persons whose families and children live in surrounding towns ; and therefore even so small a percentage as ,001-14 is sufficient to raise $10,25.4 per scholar. While Worcester raised but $5,72.1 the same year. In Worcester County* there are twenty-two towns that appropriate a larger per centage of their valuation to schools than does Worcester herself. Were the valuation of 1855, viz. eighteen million fifty-eight thousand nine hundred and fifty dollars, taken as the basis of the above estimates, instead of that of 1850, which was eleven million eighty-five thousand five hundred and six dollars, the comparative standing of this city would be yet lower.
The amount per scholar in the towns above named ex- hibits a result somewhat more favorable to Worcester. And yet we know not why the third city of the Common-
* In this connection the fact may as well be chronicled that Worcester County is the ninth in the order of Counties, when arranged according to the per centage of their taxable. property appropriated for the support of public schools, the average per centage for the County being ,002-00, while the City of Worcester stands still lower than that. If the Counties be arranged according to their appropriations, including voluntary contributions of board and fuel for schools, Worcester County stands thirteenth, and the City of Worcester is below the average of the County.
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wealth, in population and wealth, should stand eleventh upon such a scroll.
Amount per scholar.
Amount per scholar.
Boston,
$10,25.4
Clinton,
$5,07.7
Dedham,
9,84.6
Fitchburg,
5,05.9
Dorchester,
8,88.5
Holyoke,
5,03.3
Roxbury,
8,48.1
Salem,
4,99.8
Lowell,
8,24.5
Fall River,
4,96.7.
New Bedford,
8,09.6
Taunton,
4,81.7
Cambridge,
7,72
Springfield,
4,63.9
Lawrence,
6,89.3
Northampton,
4,23
Charlestown,
6,73.1
Greenfield,
4,12.8
Lynn,
6,47.6
Newburyport,
3,82.6
Worcester,
5,72.1
Milford,
3,67
It is a well known fact that we spend every year upon schools a sum larger than is appropriated, the balance being transferred from some other account in which there is a surplus. Probably other cities do the same. So that the substantial accuracy of the State school-returns is not thereby impaired, at least as a basis of comparison. But to show our fellow citizens precisely what our schools cost from year to year, we will take from the City Treasurer's reports the exact amounts expended, and calculate again the rate per scholar. The result is as follows :
Year.
No. of Children.
Money Expended.
Amount per Scholar.
1850
2,776
$19,119 11
$6,88.7
1851
2,803
*14,007 65
6,66.2
1852
3,215
19,070 00
5,93.1
1853
3,312
21,162 55
6,38.9
1854
3,845
24,505 62
6,37.3
1855
3,974
29,915 59
7,52.7
It will be perceived that for three of these six years there was a steady decrease in the rate per scholar, and no abso- lute increase in the whole sum expended. But this state of things could not continue ; for after May 1853, the number of children between five and fifteen years of age increased five
* This being the expenditure for a period of nine months, the calculation is based on the corresponding sum for a year, viz. eighteen thousand six hundred and seventy-six dollars and eighty-six cents. This will give the rate per annum.
1
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hundred in one year, and it became necessary to establish a number of new schools, not less than six or eight, to meet the increased wants of the community. The salaries of the female teachers were somewhat raised about the same time, to conform them to the increased expense of liv- ing. These facts caused the sum per scholar expended last year to exceed a little any previous year. Yet it is only sixty-four cents on a scholar, more than it was five years ago ! Not a very extravagant advance, certainly. During the same time Lowell has added to the amount paid per scholar one dollar and eighty cents, Dorchester one dollar and seventy-five cents, Roxbury two dollars and thirty-four cents, Dedham three dollars and fifty-nine cents, and a large number of smaller towns have made a still greater increase. For instance, Shrewsbury has gone up in five years from two dollars and seventy-eight cents to seven dollars and ten cents per scholar, and now stands first in the County.
Compare next the sum annnally expended for schools, during a period of six years, with the whole amount ex- pended by the city for all purposes within the city. This will show what proportion of our municipal expenses is incurred for the education of the people. For this pur- pose we take from the annual reports of the City Treas- urer the sum total of strictly city expenses. We arrive at these, by deducting from the grand total of his account all accounts overdrawn and balances due at the beginning of the year, and also cash on hand at its close; all County and State taxes ; loans borrowed in anticipation of taxes and for transfers of city debt ; militia bounties, un- collected taxes and bills receivable.
Arranging the sums thus obtained in one column, and the sums expended on schools in another, the proportion which the latter bear to the former will be exhibited in the parallel column of percentage. In order to indicate sub- stantially the same facts in another way, we have in like
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manner compared the expenditures for schools with the annual tax.
Year.
Sum Expended on Schools.
Total of City Expenses.
Annual Tax.
1850
$ 19,119 11
- $86,024 72=22 per cent. -:- $83,645 79=23 per cent.
1851
*14,007 65
*83,478 10=16}
87,765 58=16
1852
19,070 00 -
:- 91,475 33=20}
89,478 68=21
1853
21,162 55
- - 96,591 95=21}
-:- 114,019 20=18}
1854
24,505 62
-:- 146,194 39=16}
154,966 87=16
1855
29,915 59
-:- 148,383 71=20
136,636 15=22 "
The foregoing table shows that our schools received a smaller share of the money expended in 1855 than in 1850 ; and that while our taxes are continually larger, the increase has not been appropriated to education. In these statis- tics may be found more to excite shame at our illiberality, than sorrow at our extravagance.
Let a comparison be instituted between the sums expen- ded for schools in 1850 and 1855, and a similar comparison be extended to one or two other branches of our public ser- vice, and it will appear which has increased in the greatest ratio.
Year.
Schools.
Watchmen.
1850
$19,119 11
Highways. $8,950 10
$2,505 28
1855
29,915 59 28,232 14
6,466 75
Increase in expenditure for Schools
in five years, = 157 per cent.
Highways and Bridges
= 315
Salaries of Watchmen
= 258
What material interest, it may be asked, can be so impor- tantas public education, connected as it is with public morals, and the common welfare. And yet money is more freely spent fo · the lower than the higher objects. We have nothing to say against good highways and bridges, cost what they may, but we humbly conceive that it is a higher duty to instruct every child among us to walk in Wisdom's ways of pleasantness and paths of peace.
None of the foregoing estimates include in school ex- penses the sums employed in the erection of school houses. In making comparisons between different towns, or differ- ent years, it is proper to exclude these sums, since they are
* For a period of nine months.
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occasional and irregular. But we now propose to add these to the regular annual school expenses, and thus pre- sent a view of the whole amount of funds devoted to the educational interest for the last six years. When these sums are compared with the whole amount of city ex- penses, and with the annual tax, we shall again be able to discover whether our school expenditures are, or are not, becoming an onerous and oppressive burden upon the tax- payers, as compared with other public interests of the city.
School-houses=$12,282 57
1850 Schools
= 19,119 11
Total of City Annual Tax.
expenses. per cent. per cent -:- $86,024 72 = 36} -:- $83,645 79 = 37}
Total
= 31,401 68
School-houses= 11,789 91 Schools = 14,007 65
1851
Total =* 25,797 56
-:- * 83,478 10 = 30} -:- 87,765 58 = 29}
School-houses=
4,442 56
Schools
19,070 00
1852
= 23,512 €5
Total School-houses=
Schools = 21,162 55
1853
Total
= 21,162 55
96,591 95 = 22 -:- 114,019 20 = 18
School-houses=
9,634 26
Schools = 24,505 62
1854
Total = 34,139 88
-:- 146,194 39 = 23} -:- 154,966 87 = 22
School-houses= 9,813 41
1855
Schools = 29,915 59
Total
= 39,729 00 -: 148,383 71 = 263 -:- 136,636 15 = 29
From the above it will be perceived that while in 1850 thirty-six and a half per cent. or more than one third of our strictly municipal expenses were incurred for edu- cation ; in 1855 only twenty-six and a half per cent. or about one fourth of them were so applied. Absolutely $8,327 32 more was spent upon the schools in 1855 than in 1850 ; but relatively $14,431 05 less.
The diminution during the same five years, of the per- centage of expeditures for education when compared with the tax, was eight and a half per cent.
The result of this whole view of school expenditures
*For a period of nine months.
91,475 33 = 25} -:- 89,478 68 = 26
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some will deem a matter for congratulation, and others for humiliation. Our object in making these statements and comparisons is to enlighten the public mind upon the sub- ject. The machinery, guidance, expense, excellences, de- fects and wants of our schools, are too little understood by the community. The public prints give us not much information respecting this great interest ; the annual re- ports of the School-board are read by but few; the ma- jority never visit the schools, and know scarcely more of them than if they were in Nebraska. The statistics here given have been gathered at great pains, and are recorded with no other purpose than to promote the public welfare. Our aim is to elicit the truth. We are notafraid nor ashamed to express the truth, let it bear where it will, or displease whom it may. Looking less at what will promote a brief and fitful reputation, than at what will advance the cause of learning and virtue, and lead to wise action in the pro- motion of that which is so dear to every patriot and every christian, we have attempted to state things as they are.
"Nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice."
If the short-comings of our city have been somewhat ex- posed, and she is brought into humiliating comparison with other places, or with her former self, it may prove a healthy stimulus to well doing in future, and open the door to some very desirable changes and improvements. With all the faults of our educational system, we feel an honest pride in contemplating it; and it is only because we love it so well that we would see it generously maintained, care- fully guarded, judiciously managed, and brought as near to perfection as possible.
It is utterly out of the question to take a step backward in popular education. Whoever shall attempt it will be buried under the ruins of his own devices, and lie in his self-made grave unhonored and unsung. The public school is a living institution, and looks not back to the dead past. It must be guided by living men, and its course be onward and upward ever.
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The expense of sustaining our schools will inevitably increase from year to year. For this the Committee are not responsible. They have no power to control it. In a city like ours the number of pupils is constantly increas- ing; and if we fail to supply them all with a thorough christian education, we shall fail in one of our fundamen- tal duties as American citizens, aud cease to deserve the respect of mankind.
What a Committee can and ought to do, is to improve the schools, so as to make them worth as much more as they cost. It devolves on them to bring up the standard of ac- quirement to the highest attainable point ; to see that no labor of the teachers is lost for the want of a little. lateral upholding; to make efforts to bring every child in the community under their benign influence; to introduce more order and arrangement into the system, and wisely consolidate the whole; to guard the morals of our chil- dren, and train them up to love their fellow men, their country and their God.
We have shown that the full measure of these blessings- cannot be realized by us at present, on account of the vice of a faulty organization. We have suggested the remedies deemed appropriate; and herewith submit the case to the candid consideration of those with whom lies the pow- er to apply them. " We speak as unto wise men, judge ye what we say."
Some statements will now be given respecting the con- dition of the various schools, commencing with those in
THE SUBURBAN DISTRICTS.
Twelve of the Districts maintain permanent Schools, kept forty weeks in a year, and by the same teacher, who retains her place just as do the instructors of the graded schools. Two Districts, Northville and North Pond, still pursue the old and unsatisfactory district system, of short schools, taught by a female in summer and a male in the
98
winter. In two of the larger Districts, Tatnick and New Worcester, the schools are divided into departments, and taught by two or three teachers. All the others are single.
In giving an account of the condition of particular schools, we depend entirely upon the report of their sub- committees, and they are held responsible for their sub- stantial accuracy.
TATNICK .- The school committee were fortunate in securing the services of Mr. Joseph W. Bixby in this school during the winter of 1855. The visiting commit- tee were frequently in the school during the term, and, at its close in February, were joined by most of the parents of the children. The examination in the vari- ous studies fully satisfied the expectations raised by Mr. Bixby's services the win- ter before.
On the sixth day of February, in accordance with a petition of Ashley Moore, and a large number of the inhabitants of the District, the Tatnick school was made a permanent one, by a vote of the Board. In March, Miss Jane A. Mer- riam was temporarily employed to take charge of the school as principal, and taught it four weeks. In April, Miss Mary M. Maynard, an experienced and most successful teacher, was induced to take the school and taught it several months, to the entire satisfaction of all parties interested. Her resignation is a loss to the school which cannot be easily repaired.
Miss Melora Fletcher, a lady of thorough scholarship, was employed near the close of the year, as Miss Maynard's successor; and the school is now under her care. Miss Martha Hobbs has been employed as assistant teacher during the year, and has discharged her duty with a fidelity that is rarely surpassed. Her qualifications and aptness to teach are of a high order. She resigned her situation however, at the close of the year, and Miss Sarah J. Smith, a young lady who has ust completed a very thorough course of study at the High School, was put in her place. A. C.
PARKHURST .- Miss Mary J. Ainsworth taught this school through the year It is among the smaller, instead of the larger of the suburban schools, as erroneous- ly reported last year; the average attendance for the year being 21. But though small, this is an important school, as some of the pupils are older than the average, and take here their last lessons before entering upon the employments of life. Miss Ainsworth has given special attention to this class; and her services general- ly have been quite acceptable to the committee and patrons of the school.
This district suffers for the want of a convenient boarding-place for its teacher. The committee believe the interest of teachers in their schools will be greater when they reside within the bounds of the district; and that the presence of a good teacher in a neighborhood is worth, not a little. They hope therefore that this district, for its own sake, if not for the convenience of its teachers, will hereafter furnish a home for those whom it employs to instruct its children. G. B.
LEESVILLE .- This school has continued under the care of Miss Ruth C. Thomp- son. Located as it is, in a manufacturing village, with but few children who are not required to work in the factory a portion of the time at least, the attendance is irregular and the school very changable. But notwithstanding these draw-
99
backs, it shows a very respectable progress and a creditable thoroughness of in- struction. Miss Thompson has served the city faithfully through the year.
G. A. J.
NEW WORCESTER .- This school is in three departments; of which the Primary was taught by Miss Hester E. De Land until the commencement of the summer term, at which time Miss Anna P. James succeeded her. Quite a change has been ebeted in the system of this school, giving a pleasing variety and vivacity to the exercises, alike beneficial to the school, and creditable to the teacher. The Secon- dary department has been under the instruction of Miss Sarah E. Eaton since it was first established at the commencement of the year. She has labored faithfully, yet the progress of the school has not been such as the committee could have desired. The crowded state of the room, and the many hindrances incident to the establish- ment of a new school, require that some allowances should be made in favor of the teacher. The Grammar department has been through the year, under the faith- ful charge of Miss Martha A. Willard. It is not too much to say that she has suc- ceeded in making this one of the best conducted schools in tho city. In putting questions and eliciting answers with great rapidity, and in skillfully awakening the minds of the pupils to thought and reflection, she has few equals. We commend her as one of the best of our teachers, eminently deserving of a higher place, though she could not be well spared from her present situation. G. A. J.
SOUTH WORCESTER. - At the commencement of the year this school was under the care of Miss Martha G. Bigelow. Resigning her place in the Spring, it was filled by Miss Marion Henshaw, who has, during the remainder of the year, dis- charged the obligations of a teacher with credit to herself and profit to her pupils. The closing examination gave unmistakable proofs of good scholarship among the different classes,-also of the good discipline and thoroughness of the teacher. The progress of the school, the mutual good will and confidence subsisting between teacher, scholars and parents, warrant a continuance of their present relation.
S. P. M.
PROVIDENCE STREET. - Miss Mary H. Williams resigned her situation in this school quite early in the year, and was succceded by Miss Mary L. Kinne who who also resigned, at the close of the first term, on account of impaired health. Miss Charlotte Wheeler was elected to fill the vacancy, and has labored with great assiduity, and proved herself a competent and successful teacher. At the final examination the pupils were tested in all their leading studies, and with very creditable results. The discipline of the school was in all respects satisfactory. The Committee are of the opinion that more extended accommodations are needed for this district, and that the time is not distant when an additional teacher may be pro- fitably employed. Temporary seats and the services of some of the more advanced pupils have already been called into requisition, to some extent. The average at- tendance is nearly fifty, and the whole number towards a hundred. W. H. H.
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