USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1856-1861 > Part 26
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SYCAMORE STREET NORTH.
Miss Goodspeed had charge of the school till the first of Novem- ber, when she resigned, and Miss E. J. Clapp was elected to fill her place. It is making excellent progress in all the various branches taught in the schools. The teacher is untiring in her efforts to impart instruction to her scholars.
S. D. HARDING.
FRONT STREET.
This school has never been large nor had a very regular attendance, and perhaps has never been a very satisfactory one to teach. Under the charge of Miss Fannie D. Clark, a constant though most rapid improvement was visible. A more thorough discipline and a closer investigation into the reasons and explana- tions of facts, would have improved its appearance and hastened the intellectual progress of the pupils. In August, owing to a sudden influx of Primary School children into this district who
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could not be accommodated in the existing schools, it was thought best to abolish the Secondary school, distributing the pupils among the adjacent schools of the same grade, and erect a new Primary school in its placc. W. S. DAVIS.
NEW WORCESTER.
Miss Eliza Harris has discharged her duties with fidelity as a teacher in this school the past year, winning the confidence and regard of the friends of the school. Her future work here is full of promise. D. HITCHCOCK.
GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.
The Grammar schools of the city are in an excellent and promising condition. They are now eight in number, under industrious and competent teachers, crowded to overflowing, and full of animation and life. The whole attendance last year was six hundred and ninety-one, with the comparatively large average of four hundred and forty-five. The three in Thomas street are double schools, the rest single, and they together are under the government of three male and eight female teachers.
THOMAS STREET GRAMMAR SCHOOL.
This school, during the most of the year, was under the charge of its former very successful teacher, Mr. E. C. Hewett, who resigned his place in October last, to take the post of teacher in the State Normal School, in Bloomington, Ill. He was succeeded by Mr. Harris R. Greene, a teacher of some experi- ence and great promise, who was engaged to fill the unexpired term of the former teacher. Of Mr. Hewett, it is only necessary to say that he possessed the affection of the scholars, the entire confidence of their parents, and the full approbation of the com- mittee. The committee were fearful that they might not well succeed in securing a successor who could fill his place. It is very difficult, in most cases, for one teacher to succeed another and finish an unexpired term, without serious detriment to the school, especially so, when the retiring teacher has the full confidence of the school and its patrons; and hence, such a change is always to be deprecated. But the present case seems to have been an ex- ception, and if the school has suffered by the change, it was so slight as not to be observable by the committee; and the annual examination of the school proved the teaching of Mr. Greene to
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be an entire success. The arduous labors of the energetic and faithful Assistant, have, during the year past, as in former years, contributed very much towards the success of the school.
A. L. BURBANK.
Second Department. Miss Cushman's school commenced the year with flattering prospects, and with two months of success, we had everyreason to expect a highly satisfactory result, when there oc- curred one of those perplexing difficulties that are so detrimental to all schools. Some of the parents had become impressed that the assistant teacher was arbitrary and exacting, and did not suf- ficiently win the love and command the respect of their children. However this might have been, your committee believe she is among the first in teaching the rudiments, and elucidating the principles, and more especially so, in mathematics. She took care to govern the manners and morals of her pupils, and is worthy of much credit in detecting, in their incipient stages, some flagrant evils. She was sacrificed, a new teacher succeeded, the Principal became disabled, and her place was temporarily filled for six weeks. Under this state of affairs, advancement could not be expected.
At the commencement of the fall term, Miss Cushman was in her place, with renovated health and energy, striving to retrieve what had been lost. The annual examination gave evidence of her labors, and was of a higher degree than so many disappoint- ments led us to anticipate. T. K. EARLE.
Third Department. This school has been successfully taught by Mrs. Gird, assisted by Miss Charlotte L. Hapgood. It is among the first of its grade in the city, and is made so by the fidelity of the teachers, and the kind feelings between them and their pupils.
O. P. GILBERT.
SYCAMORE STREET GRAMMAR SCHOOL.
The First Department of the Sycamore street Grammar School continued, through the year, under the charge of Mr. Addison A. Hunt. It is a school of superior excellence, and has won a high place in our system of schools. Fidelity of discipline, clearness and accuracy of method, and the ability to awaken interest and enthusiasm among his scholars, has been rewarded with the most gratifying success. The classes in arithmetic show large command of the principles of the study, and a rapidity and correctness of
.
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calculation which it is as rare, as it is pleasant, to see. The progress of other classes is good. The school has been very full, and at the close of the year, there was a very general indisposition on the part of scholars fully prepared for promotion to leave it. Promotions crowding from below were so great as to render the establishment of a new Grammar School, or the enlargement of Mr. Hunt's department into a double school, an imperative and early necessity. D. A. GODDARD.
Miss Walker's Department. This school, now taught by Miss Harriet M. Walker, has always ranked high in its grade. In the opinion of the committee, it has, during the past year, maintained its former good character. Miss Walker is a systematic, faithful and eminently successful Grammar School teacher.
E. F. CHAMBERLAIN.
Miss Brigham's Department. Miss Brigham entered upon her duties in May last. Much credit is due her for the unflagging zeal and interest taken in the progress and welfare of her school. The instruction in the various classes is thorough and critical. The school is well governed, and in a very prosperous condition .* J. M. C. ARMSBY.
ASH STREET GRAMMAR SCHOOL.
This school was started at the commencement of the May term as an experiment,-and a most successful one it has proved. Miss Rogers, a graduate from the State Normal School, was selected as the teacher, and well sustains the credit of those institutions as educators of good teachers. The year closed upon a full school, and one which was not excelled by any of its grade in the city. The school is now established permanently.
S. V. STONE.
NEW WORCESTER GRAMMAR SCHOOL.
The Grammar School at New Worcester, was, till the close of the summer term, taught by Miss Crane. The school made good progress under her instruction. The past term, Mr. Haskins has taken the school, and although at the examination, but little progress was perceptible, it is hoped the school will make a decided improvement the coming year.
ALBERT W. CURTIS.
*See page 87.
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HIGH SCHOOL.
The school has been divided into three Classes. The Junior Class includes all who entered from the Grammar Schools, in January, 1858, and commenced the regular course of studies. A few have been added to the Class at each of the following terms, by passing an examination upon the previous studies of the Class, in addition to the studies required for entering. The Middle Class includes all who had been members of the school one year previous to January, 1858; or had completed the studies of one year. The Senior Class includes all who had been members of the school two years, or more, previous to January, 1858; or had completed the studies of two years. As many scholars are members of the High School but a part of the year, the per centage of the attendance of each has been calculated from the time of entering until the time of leaving. The average of these ratios is given below :
Whole number.
Per centage of attendance while members of the school.
Senior Class,
-
-
31
,90
Middle Class,
-
-
78
,88
Junior Class,
-
91
,93
Whole school, - -
200
,90
Largest number present at any one time, - 194
Average in attendance during the entire year, Ratio,-calculated in the usual way, - -
140
,70
It will be seen that while the per centage of actual attendance (,90) is far below what it ought to be, and below many other High Schools in the State, yet the habit of leaving school before the completion of the year is the great cause of irregularity in this school. Many scholars have been present but one term of the year. Others have left permanently, having completed the course of studies. Three have been removed by death. It may not be improper to state, as marked examples of regularity, that the following scholars have not been absent or tardy during the year : David B. Perry, of the Senior Class; Henry Chamberlain, and Misses Annette M. Bemis, Harriet A. Smith, Amelia White and Joanna Woodbury, of the Junior Class.
We close this report with the statement of the visiting com- mittee upon the school, and of the special visitors who kindly consented to attend the annual examination at the close of the year.
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REPORT OF THE VISITING COMMITTEE.
The committee on the English and Classical High School, have pleasure in reporting its continued and undiminished prosperity. They refer to the reports of the special committees who attended the annual examination, as exhibiting with impartiality and fullness the proficiency of the scholars, and the success of the teachers.
The principal teacher, H. B. Sprague, Esq., and his associate, Mr. P. W. Calkins, have sustained through the last year their high and well deserved reputations, and your committee trust the time is far distant when the city shall cease to enjoy the valuable services of either of these gentlemen. There was no female teacher "employed at the commencement of the year, and the vacancy then existing was filled by the election of Miss Sarah L. Greenleaf, a graduate of the school, and a highly educated and accomplished teacher, entirely competent to discharge the duties of the place, which she resigned at the end of the summer term, after a brief period of service. Her successor, Miss Waterman, entered upon the situation in October, and has fully justified the high expectations entertained by those who remembered her attain- ments as a pupil in the school, or knew how well she had availed herself of subsequent and superior advantages. In the month of September it was found necessary to employ an additional male assistant, in consequence of the increased numbers of the scholars. The services of Mr. Horace Graves, a graduate of the State Normal School at Bridgewater, were secured in that situation, and he has proved an excellent and popular teacher. The entire corps of instructors at the present time is harmonious and effective, and combines an amount and diversity of educational ability which must be entirely satisfactory to all the friends of the school.
The average attendance during the year has been good, and a very fair degree of regularity and punctuality has been secured. But it continues to be difficult to impress upon the minds of either parents or scholars the essential injury done to any pupil who is allowed to be absent or tardy frequently, or without urgent reasons. The discipline of the school has been well maintained, and few serious difficulties have occurred. There has been no case where your committee have been unable to sustain the action of the teachers without hesitation. The rules of the school board require that only certain specified excuses for absence should be received by the teachers, and that any scholar who has six
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unexcused absences should be excluded from the school, and not re-admitted without a certificate from one of the committee. Many applications arise under this provision of the by-laws of the school board, and your committee have occasionally felt that it was regarded merely as a matter of form, and did not produce much effect upon the regularity of the scholars. As an exclusion from the school is the most severe penalty for serious trangressions, it seems very desirable not to have it become a familiar idea to the minds of the scholars, and especially that they should not regard restoration to the school as a thing easy and almost of course. But in this instance, as in so many others, it is easier to notice the evil than to suggest an effectual remedy. Much depends upon the tact and sound management of the teachers themselves, and very much responsibility also rests with the parents and guardians of those who attend the school.
Your committee believe that there is in our entire community an increasing appreciation of the importance and value of the Classical and English High School, and they feel assured that its success and usefulness were never greater than at the present time.
DWIGHT FOSTER.
THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT.
The following gentlemen, namely, Rev. H. L. Wayland, Prof. James Bushee, Hon. Henry Chapin, Geo. W. Baldwin, Esq., Dr. William Workman, and the undersigned, were requested by the school board to attend the annual examination of the English department in the High school in December last. All the exercises in this department were attended by one or more of the above named committee. In English literature the junior class under the care of Mr. Graves, and the middle and senior classes under the care of Mr. Calkins, were examined. The gentlemen who listened to these exercises, express themselves in general as satisfied with the acquisitions of the several classes. The recita- tion of the senior class, which exhibited much careful study of the history and derivation of words, was considered an exercise of very great value, and the prosecution of this method of obtaining an accurate knowledge of the English language, as well as by such critical examinations as that presented by the class in the Merchant of Venice, would, in the opinion of the committee, facilitate a dis- criminating and exact use of words so essential in expressing sharply defined and nicer shades of thought. The rich mine of
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wealth in our own familiar tongue, the flexibility and the compre- hensiveness, as well as the massive strength and beauty of it, are often left unnoticed in the predominant cultivation in early life of the more polished Latin, and the copious and almost perfect, but scarcely more expressive Greek.
The Mathematical recitations occupied more time in the exam- ination, as they evidently had received more attention during the study hours of the year. It is but just to say of the tuition in this department, that the evidences of its thoroughness were abundant and conclusive. The examination of the second division of the Senior Class in Algebra, and of the Middle Class in Algebra through Quadratics, and of the Senior Class in Plane and Spheri- cal Trigonometry, was conducted by Mr. Graves. The gentlemen who heard these exercises say that the classes under the instruction of Mr. Graves acquitted themselves very honorably, and with much credit to the fidelity of their teacher, who seems to be heartily devoted to his work. The different members of the class in Algebra exhibited a noticeable uniformity in the degree and character of their attainments, which distinguished them from some other classes in which a considerable diversity was apparent. The examination of these classes was as a whole deemed creditable and unexceptionable.
The examination as conducted by Mr. Calkins, consisted of the Ist division in the Senior Class in Algebra, the Middle Class in Geometry, the Senior Class in the Binomial Theorem and Loga- rithms, and a class in Theoretical Arithmetic. The peculiarities of Mr. Calkins' method of teaching and drilling were evident in all his classes. The recitations were characterized by promptness, rapidity, thoroughness and accuracy. The analysis and general- ization in Theoretical Arithmetic were invaluable, conducting the scholars at once to a perception of the necessary relations of numbers, and discarding all arbitrary rules and processes. The drill in the simplification of methods, though liable if not watched to lead to mistaking novelties for improvements, tends when carefully prosecuted to sharpen invention and to cultivate a self- relying dexterity. Under such a tuition the blind formalities of common arithmetic become at once luminous and attractive. The demonstrations in Geometry were particularly interesting to the committee. The philosophical arrangements and classification of propositions, by which they were presented in their natural .dependence and connections, and the clearness with which every
15
110
link in the entire chain of reasoning was supplied, gave to the whole an aspect of convincing strength and completeness. The severity and rigor with which the consecutiveness of the steps is maintained, affords an admirable discipline of the mind, and the habit formed of taking nothing for granted cannot fail to cultivate accuracy in thinking, and safety in adopting conclusions. With- out any design of disparaging any exercises of the school, it may not be improper for the committee to say that the class examined in the Binomial Theorem and the theory of Logarithms, were excelled by no other. The facility and accuracy with which the processes were carried through, the rapid development of difficult algebraic formula, the determination of the methods and the actual construction of Logarithmic Tables, left no room to question that diligent, laborious, and successful effort had been expended upon the subject. It may safely be said that these recitations for thoroughness, skill and promptness, would have been highly creditable to students in our colleges - very many of whom certainly never master and really comprehend problems which in this examination were satisfactorily resolved. The committee do not hesitate in saying that if the youth of our city do not attain a thorough mathematical education, and make ample advances for their period of life in this department, it cannot be for want of adequate means and opportunities. Enough has already been accomplished in the cultivation of independent thinking and reasoning, in stimulating the powers to work out new solutions and to form new demonstrations, to show that there is no lack of mathematical talent amongst the scholars of our public schools. A well regulated enthusiasm, and wise incentives and encourage- ments, will give the start to many minds to whom the achievement of future celebrity and success will be certain.
A class was very briefly examined by Mr. Graves in Physical Geography and Meteorology, which closes the review of the studies under the charge of the principal of the English depart- ment. And if it is not assuming on the part of the committee, they would suggest the importance of more attention to the physical sciences, if it can be done without overburdening either the teachers or the scholars.
The afternoon of Friday was devoted to exercises in rhetoric and composition, which deserve the usual commendation, as they exhibited the usual vigor of thought, facility of expression, and discipline of voice which have marked the school in former years.
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In conclusion, the committee beg leave to congratulate the board and their fellow-citizens upon the prosperous, healthful and promising condition of the department of the High School which fell under their inspection.
All which is respectfully submitted in behalf of the Committee. S. SWEETSER, Chairman.
In addition to these full and satisfactory reports we have a more precise statement of the condition of the several classes. In Mathematics there are three classes. The first have reviewed the whole of Geometry, completed Algebra through the Binomial Theorem and Logarithms, and Plane and Spherical Trigonometry. They have carried the investigations in Logarithms beyond the formulæ in the book, finding other formulæ, and calculating, to a considerable extent, tables of Logarithms. They have made the usual application to the measurement of heights and distances, &c. The second division have recited with the Senior Class only a part of the year, while studying higher Algebra.
In the second class the attempt was early made to combine the different methods pursued in mathematical reasoning, in such a way as to show their unity and their application. Accordingly, as soon as the simple processes of Algebraic formula were familiar, and the idea of equations was perfectly understood, the class commenced Geometry, combining Algebra and Geometry in the same recitation. Whenever it was possible, two entirely different demonstrations have been given to the same proposition - one geometrical, the other analytical. In Geometry the book has been followed, with some changes in the arrangement; but in Algebra the class have been taught to find methods and explanations of their own, and to depend upon the book only for examples. The class have completed six books of Geometry, and Algebra to Quadratic Equations. The Junior Class have completed all the more important topics of theoretical Arithmetic, and Algebra through Simple Equations, Involution and Evolution. There has also been a class in Commercial Arithmetic and Book-keeping during a portion of the year.
The Senior Class in Natural Science have been instructed in Experimental Philosophy by familiar lectures, with the use of the excellent apparatus belonging to the school-the class subse- quently reciting on the topics of each lecture. The Junior Class recited, during two terms, in Jarvis' Physiology. The book proved to be diffuse and uninteresting.
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In the study of the English Language and Literature, the Senior Class have pursued the principles of grammatical analysis from a system of oral instruction ; have read parts of Washington Irving, giving a close analysis of all the more difficult sentences ; Trench's Study of Words; and one play of Shakspeare. In the last book the class gave the derivation and history of all the more interesting words in the text, the life of the author, the sources from which he drew his materials, and other kindred topics. It is proposed to continue a thorough study of the English classics so long as the class shall remain in the school. The Middle Class have had a similar oral drill, and have read, in the same manner, Bacon's Essays. The Junior Class have been drilled, orally, in Grammar and Analysis, using Tower's Grammar of Composition as an exercise book.
THE FRENCH DEPARTMENT.
The undersigned were invited, by the school committee, to attend the annual examination of the French department of the High School, at the close of the year 1858. In regard to the French instruction, generally, in the school, little occurs to us to be said, additional to what is contained in the report made for the year 1857. The exercises, at the recent examination, consisted of the grammatical recitations of the Junior Class; translations, from French into English, of Telemaque and Racine, by the Mid- dle Class, and of Moliere and Lamartine, by the Senior Class ; and, lastly, of translations from English into French, written on the black-board, by both the latter classes.
The renderings, from French to English and from English to French, were promptly and accurately made, evincing a very creditable knowledge of the grammatical structure, both general and idiomatic, of the French language. The recitations of the pupils, for the most part, seemed to us to compare favorably with those heard, on similar occasions, in former years. During the year just closed, as in 1857, the classes have labored under the disadvantages of a change of teachers. Miss Waterman, who has been in charge of the classes for the last ten or twelve weeks, only, is a young lady of superior talents and an accomplished scholar. She is thoroughly qualified to teach French, and, from the opportunity we have had of judging, we do not hesitate to express the opinion that she will, at least, sustain the high repu- tation which the French department of the school has, for several years, enjoyed. We consider it a fortunate circumstance for the
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pupils that her services have been secured for the current year.
Were we to venture to propose any changes in the manner of instructing the classes, we would suggest that the Senior Class should pay more attention to French composition, in which they were somewhat deficient. A little more perseverance in the practice would enable them to write the language with commend- able ease, and with a good degree of accuracy. We would also suggest that the language of communication between teacher and pupils, in the recitation room, might be, for the Senior Class, with a little effort on their part, exclusively French; for the Middle Class, French or English, according to the proficiency of each pupil ; and that, for the Junior Class, this communication should be exclusively in the English language. We would, however, by no means insist upon a rigid enforcement of such a regulation, but should prefer, rather, to leave it entirely as an experiment, discretionary in the hands of the teacher.
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