USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1856-1861 > Part 24
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It may not be improper to refer in this connection to a commu- nication transmitted to the Secretary of the Board of Education in August last, in reply to questions relating to our experience with normal teachers, and the advantages of their methods of
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instruction. Our experience, more limited, perhaps, than that of most other cities in the Commonwealth, has not given an opportunity for a critical and definite statement. In general, however, the system of normal teachers in communicating the knowledge of elements and principles, gradually works its way beyond their own sphere of activity, making its influence felt where it cannot be accurately defined. It will be one of the best tendencies of normal instruction to clear the field of that class of temporary teachers who, with no special fitness by nature or by culture, take up the work as a merely incidental business, - as a day laborer takes up a job, and for want of something else to do. If teaching ever expects to rise to the dignity of a profession, and to escape from the multitudinous vexations of which Teachers' Associations are accustomed, with some justice, to complain, it must be cultivated, like other professions, and guarded against intruders with as watchful and jealous an eye. The communication was substantially as follows :-
" Six Normal School teachers have been employed in the last three years. Four are now employed.
" Their character and success as teachers has been generally good, and their methods of teaching well-approved.
" In one or two cases there has been a failure in discipline and government.
" In general, they excel in communicating what they know to others, and in explaining the truths they teach.
" The Normal Schools are exerting a good influence on the system of common school education, by sending forth a class of teachers, so far as our observation has extended, who are superior to those who have not had the advantages of the Normal Schools. A person may pass a good examination, may have knowledge enough to keep a good school, and yet have very little capacity to communicate what he knows to others. This difficulty may be remedied at the Normal Schools. When they can send forth teachers enough to supply our common schools, we feel confidence in saying that they will take a higher rank than they do at the present time."
Signed in behalf of the Committee.
We ought also to speak with commendation of the Association of Teachers, whose monthly meetings for the consideration of questions incident to their calling are productive of great good. They promote unity and harmony of views, and secure to each the advantage and experience of all. If committees themselves, whether as silent members of such an association or by any other practicable means, were better acquainted with the sentiments of
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associated teachers, it would be advantageous t nothing can be more unreasonable than, with a. justice, to exact a vote, on any important questr vital interests of the school system, of those whose om ance with it has been acquired from an impatient half-hour's monthly to three or four schools, and a total negligence of all th rest.
SCHOLARS.
The tabulated statement which accompanies this report, contains all the details desirable for reference. There were in the city on the 1st of May last, four thousand and seventy-eight children between the ages of five and fifteen years - an excess of eighty-nine over the number at the corresponding period in 1857. The whole number of scholars registered for the year 1858, between the same ages, was four thousand two hundred and eighteen. The whole number of all ages was five thousand one hundred and ninety-four, with an average daily attendance of two thousand nine hundred and nineteen. For the year 1857, the whole number of scholars was five thousand one hundred and eighty-seven, with an average daily attendance of two thousand eight hundred and fifteen, showing in favor of the year now closed, a balance of seven in number, and of one hundred and four in the average attendance. Com- pared with the year 1856, the difference is still more marked - the excess in numbers being one hundred and forty-eight, and in the average three hundred and twenty-nine. The number of scholars under five years of age in 1858, was three hundred and fifty-seven ; and over fifteen, six hundred and nineteen.
If the inference were to be hastily made, that the great difference between the average attendance and the whole number recorded, was owing either mainly or in any considerable degree, · to truancy, it would be a startling and melancholy fact. It should be remembered, however, that there are in the city a large number of private schools, some of them of a superior character, which, for a variety of reasons, draw their chief support from the public schools. The whole number attending these private schools and incorporated institutions of a higher class, would not vary far from six or seven hundred for the year, with an expense for tuition alone of $12,000 or $14,000 - or nearly one-half the appropriation for all our public schools. A portion of these come from other towns,
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's partially offset by that of our own children, it of town to be educated. In estimating the sular attendance, the effect of this great diversion ablic schools must be taken into account. The number imperative causes of irregularity might be greatly extended. Contagious sickness may come, like a thief in the night, and decimate the most prosperous and successful school. Poverty may hang its weary mantle on many a bright-eyed and enthusi- astic boy. The inclement season may keep at home those delicate " household jewels" whose cheeks have never blushed before an east wind, or have never been colored by a mid-summer's sun. Innumerable incidents which can neither be foreseen nor avoided, will happen in the best regulated families, making the constant and unbroken attendance of children at school impossible. If these causes are all taken into account, as they should be, the cases of wilful and deliberate truancy would be found compara- tively small.
Though the evil of truancy and absence is very far from being removed, and is still the great vice of our schools, yet it has appeared during the past year in no special instances of excess. It is a vice which might be somewhat mitigated by severer applications of civil authority ; but it is questionable whether such interference would be on the whole desirable. Parents and teachers in the faithful exercise of their united duty, can accom- plish by persuasive appeals and timely discipline, more than the law. Make the schools more attractive. Enliven them with music and drawing and recreation. Increase the number of holidays if necessary. But till all these means of making the virtue of the schoolroom more fascinating and seductive than the vice of the street have failed, the time of a civil officer spent in suppressing truancy, would be poorly spent, indeed.
RESOURCES AND EXPENDITURES.
The financial statement of the year represents that the resources of the School Department were as follows :
Appropriation by the City Council, - - $28,000 00
From the Commonwealth,
837 27
Bill of repairs, -
17 38
(Balance from " Contingent Expenses,") -
1,649 44
Total,
$30,504 09
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The general expenses of the year have been as follows : For salaries of Teachers, -
$24,081 1
" salaries of Superintendent, Secretary and Prudential Com., 833 3
" wood and coal, -
930 3
" repairs, building fires, &c., &c.,
-
-
3,143 7
" books and stationery, -
-
-
-
1,075
"' lot on Ash street, - -
" visiting schools, (an old account,)
Total, -
Comparing the average attendance and expenditures year with those of the two preceding, we arrive at the foll gratifying result :
Year.
Average daily attendance.
Expenditure.
Cost per scholar.
1856
2,520
$29,992
11 90
1857
2,815
32,280
11 82
1858
2,919
30,504
10 45
That is, taking the average daily attendance as the basis, the cost of education was $1 37 less per scholar than in 1857, and $1 45 less than in 1856.
In addition to the above expenditures, however, there were paid $4,125 77 to complete the school house at New Worcester, and $230 72 for a lot for a school house in Tatnuck. These expenses, together with the $412 50 paid for the Ash street lot, and which is included in the general account, are chargeable to permanent improvements, and not to the current expenses of the year. The real estate now owned by the city and used for school purposes, is estimated at about $140,000.
The committee were early impressed with the importance of economy in this department of municipal expenditure. The sensitiveness of the public mind at the time their duties com- menced, was such as to require not a little moral courage to make the necessary disbursements; in which respect, however, the Board was not wholly wanting. In January, a committee to whom the subject had been referred of devising means for "re- ducing the expenses of the Public Schools without impairing their efficiency," recommended, among other things, that all teachers, to be hereafter employed by the city, should be employed at reduced salaries, both for the sake of present economy, and be- cause an opportunity would be thus afforded to increase the compensation of deserving teachers, as their value should increase
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er
y experience and success. They also suggested, that, at a lat period in the year, should the existing depression in business and diminution in prices continue, a revision of the entire scale of alaries should be made, with a view to effect such reductions as ight be found expedient and practicable for another year. The recommendation was applied during the rest of the year, in ployment of all new teachers at ten per cent. less than the salaries of the places to which they were elected. The bommendation was not again brought before the Board sufficient reason that the condition of public prosperity It contemplated did not continue. And at the close of ear, when all the teachers in the service of the city, except e who resigned by choice, were re-elected, their salaries were stored to the former rate. The suggestion, however, of a thorough revision of salaries, is still eminently worthy of consid- eration. Before many years, at the farthest, the work must be undertaken, as a simple act of justice to teachers of superior culture, and of long and faithful services.
Events which have transpired since the new year commenced show how exceedingly difficult it is-how constant and watchful care it requires to restrain the expenses of this department within the limits which a proper regard for economy and the public feeling has established. With daily applicants for admission to schools already crowded to overflowing; with fresh sources of expenditure as the schools enlarge, and, we trust, improve, from year to year; with new ambitions on the part of scholars to be gratified, and new demands on the part of parents, anxious for the best of privileges, at the very moment when most anxious for reform, there is little left for the School Committee to do but to supply the immediate needs of the Department, and trust to Providence for the consequences. If the population should con- tinue to increase, both in numbers and in the enjoyment of that genuine thrift and prosperity which comes from honest occupation and actual values, the expenses of the Public Schools will 'continu- ally enlarge. It is a matter which no committee or delegation of citizens can limit or control. The Board of Education has sug- gested, as one method of meeting such a contingency, that the State School Fund should be increased to $3,000,000, which is now a little more than half that sum. The suggestion has been offi- cially approved by His Excellency, and will have the sanction of all right minded men. For the rest each town and city must
provide for itself. He any reasons which can future School Committee complaints of extravagance
SCHOOL
No changes in the location or in the im any of our school houses have been seriously co the past year; and the necessary repairs have require less than the usual outlay.
The old school house at New Worcester, which had se than half a century's excellent service, was closed finally appropriate ceremonies at the end of the Summer term. On 30th of August the new edifice, built to meet the demands increased population and enlarged prosperity, was formally det cated. It is an elegant and durable structure, of ample accommo dation for the present wants of the District. Three of its four rooms are already filled with an aggregate of one hundred and eighty-seven scholars, which number will probably be increased during the current year.
It will be gratifying to the inhabitants of the Tatnuck and Northville Districts, to know that there is a very general disposi- tion to replace their inconvenient and worn-out school accommo- dations at an early day. With these exceptions, we know of no call for permanent expenditure during the current year. The school houses on Front and Main streets, though improperly located almost in the midst of the most noisy and crowded thoroughfares in the city, could not be, under present circum- stances, replaced, without serious disturbance to the comfort and progress of the children who are compelled to attend them. No losses by casualty or fire were sustained during the year. The explosion on Pleasant street, by which the school house on that street was damaged to the value of about $500, occurred on the first day of January, when the old Board had nearly completed its labors.
Little attention has been given for several years to improving the grounds and the external attractions of our school houses. The grounds on Walnut and Pleasant streets, at New Worcester, South Worcester, and in many of the suburban districts, are as
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able of producing any A expense, shade trees ight to many generations e there is a moral obligation flowers and trees, it is where apressions and lessons of a long burban Districts might do much afice to surround their school houses s would make it a punishment for children
BOOKS, APPARATUS, &C.
necessary changes have been made in text books. At the nning of the year Sargent's Series of Readers was introduced place of Tower's and the other Readers then in use. Warren's hysical Geography was put into some of the suburban schools, where it had not before found its way. Book-keeping has been introduced into some of the schools, and is of sufficient practical importance to be prescribed in all the schools of the higher grades. Greenleaf's Series of Arithmetics, Primary, Intellectual and Com- mon School, were prescribed, near the close of the year, in all the schools. By an arrangement with the publishers, the Readers and Arithmetics were introduced without expense to the parents,- the old books being received in exchange for the new. The writing books of Payson, Dunton & Scribner, were prescribed for general use; and the teachers of the secondary schools were instructed to give four lessons a week, of not less than one hour each.
As nothing was done by the committee towards providing maps or other illustrative school apparatus, or books of reference, during the year, it is a proper subject of inquiry whether they may not soon be needed to promote the general efficiency and progress of the schools ; some of which are wholly destitute, and others only provided with a dictionary, and maps deficient in accuracy or in detail. The suburban schools stand in especial need of aid. It was the practice for sometime previous to 1858 to expend from $200 to $300 annually in apparatus and books of reference. But a very small part ever found its way to those isolated and too much neglected schools which guard the outskirts of the city.
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In this place we would direct attention to the timely suggestion of the committee on the third department of the Sycamore street Grammar School, relative to the more general use of globes. " The writer," he says, "has only to remember the hasty lessons given on the maps of the world, the few sights caught of the globe, and the long and tedious minutiæ on separate pictures called maps, to remind him of the labor of after years, to correct the errors he had learned. Countries and States are mapped with the borders only of oceans and seas that wash their shores. The bays and capes may be carefully projected, but the ocean and sea intermingle, and the relative situation of the different countries is so little shown and taught that it is impossible for the pupil to get correct notions on the subject. It seems to me that the teaching of geography should be mostly by the use of globes instead of maps. The relative situation of one country to an- other; the comparative amount of sea and land; varying degrees of longitude and the latitude of each place, with its products, are here brought to the comprehension of the pupil, without the errors of the dissected maps of the atlas, or the hanging planes used in our school. rooms. The text books, would, of course, require alteration to adapt them to such a system. Nor are the globes now in general use (from five to six inches in diameter,) capable of giving the necessary information. They should be from twenty-four to thirty-six inches in diameter."
The cultivation of Music has been less general than in some previous years. Four years ago, it is related in the report of that year, the practice of singing was maintained in all the schools but five. Under judicious encouragement, it promised to become one of the most pleasing and useful exercises of instruction. Early last year the services of a professional teacher of music, who had been employed in the Grammar Schools, were dispensed with, and the whole matter was left to the taste of scholars or the discretion of teachers. The custom in some of the schools has fallen into an irregular practice, and in others has ceased altogether. The influence of music, especially on young and susceptible minds, is so salutary ; it affords such a relief to the more laborious routine of schoolroom duties, acting, at once, as a solace and a recreation ; it unconsciously promotes such happiness of feeling and such virtuous sentiments, that it should be encouraged by all practicable methods, not as a substitute for any of the legitimate exercises, but as a pleasant assistance and auxiliary to all of them.
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SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS.
On the first day of May, Rev. George Bushnell, the able and successful Superintendent of Schools, resigned the position he had held since January, 1858. By his resignation, the' Board lost an earnest co-worker, and the schools a devoted and faithful friend. It is not our purpose, or our work, to show whether the duties of the Department have been better or worse performed with a Superintendent than without one; nor to repeat the familiar arguments which were urged for four years, by unanimous com- mittees, in favor of the establishment of the office. We think the community generally were satisfied with the experiment, although it was not made at a fortunate time, nor under wholly fortunate circumstances. And if there could now be found a man thor- oughly acquainted with the public schools; identified with the interests of education by voluntary service in its field; gifted with enthusiasm for the fairest cause to which intellectual energies can be devoted; entitled to the confidence of citizens by the integrity of his character, and to the affection of children by the purity of his life and the love he could return to them; - if such a man could be persuaded to accept the office and perform its duties, the School Committee would be bound by the gravest obligations of public duty, to elect him and to set him at work. And the City that never yet hesitated in works of practical beneficence, would pay him the salary to which his services would be entitled in any other field.
It is a popular mistake, into which even some School Committees are liable to fall, to infer that the members of the Board are absolved from a considerable portion of their duties by the ap- pointment of a Superintendent. The inference is not consistent with a correct appreciation of the trust they were appointed to hold. The committee abates nothing of its advisory or its legis- lative power by the appointment of an executive officer. The duties are the same in both contingencies. And the committee man who thinks he has entered a limited field, and fears he shall do too much, may be certain he has mistaken his calling. It is often a difficult thing to steal time enough from regular occupa- tions for the purpose of forming such a discreet, intelligent and discriminating judgmenta s requires patience and frequency of observation. But it is a difficulty to be contemplated and pro- vided for before, and not after, assuming the office with its
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constant and manifold duties. Schools may be thriving under faithful supervision, or suffering on account of ill-arranged accom- modations, incompetent teachers or unworthy books. In searching for the facts, and applying the proper instrumentalities of relief and reform, there is, always, a need of watchfulness and activity.
During the past year the Board has held twelve regular meetings and four special. At all the regular meetings, except two occurring in vacations, the schools were generally reported upon, showing that the system of visitation was maintained, at least, with usual regularity. We cannot allow this subject of visitation to pass without saying a word of the delinquency of parents with reference to their own schools. For the industrious and conscientious teacher, who takes much pains to instill the first and most difficult lessons the child-scholar has to learn, and to change the crude notions of honor and morality which nearly all boys and some girls entertain, into intelligent ideas of propriety and right conduct - for such a teacher it is a source of great encouragement and satisfaction to know that the parents for whom she is maturing pillars of strength and beauty, appreciate and approve her work. Yet it is within the truth to say, that scarcely one child in ten ever saw his parents across the threshold of his schoolroom. In some schools, especially in the suburban districts, the whole year has been suffered to pass, while their listless and unprofitable repose has been disturbed only by the monthly or quarterly visits of a single member of the committee. How can a school be animated with interest, enthusiasm and ambition ; - how can a teacher be inspired with an earnest and increasing love of her calling, while parents carelessly remain at home, through good report and through evil report, - many of them, perhaps, forming injurious opinions from the partial state- ments of children, or the ill-founded rumor of the street ? If the schools have a claim on the watchful regard of one class more than another, it is on those who fill them with the intelligence and the life which they are expected to develope and control.
But the burden of responsibility returns to the teacher, after all. Others can trifle with it, or throw it entirely aside; and the injurious consequences will not immediately appear. But the teacher is compelled to summon her "best thoughts and energies" to the service, with an industry that never tires and a care that seldom sleeps. The increased interest which is beginning to prevail throughout the Commonwealth in the cause of the common
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schools - manifesting itself in the growth of normal schools, in public discussions, and in the frequent expression of favor from high official sources- will, while it adds to the pride of the teacher, multiply her labors and duties. With the new light, the good teacher does not regard her pupils as endowed with only a single faculty, which is common to all of them; but as the possessors of a multitude of faculties, of which the intellect embraces but a small part. It is truc that she must command the literary qualifications which are required of the best pupils ; for she cannot teach what she has not learned; and that she is able to explain why the application of specific rules to figures and to words will produce desirable combinations. She also strives to impress a desire for knowledge and a love of virtue, not in the spirit of servile obedience, but for their own sake. She accustoms her pupils only to privations which they may hereafter fcel, and to pleasures they may hereafter enjoy - aiming to make the school life a miniature of that which they may lead hereafter. By kindness of manner and patient decision of purpose, she encourages the idle and timid, and restrains the hasty and impul- sive. She searches out the motives by which bad pupils are governed, and quietly persuades them into right directions ; for she knows better than any other, that none are incorrigible or beyond hope. She aims with conscientious fidelity to inculcate those principles of truth, humanity, benevolence, justice, and all the benign virtues which the Christian law-givers of an earlier generation assigned as the especial duty of all instructors of youth.
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