USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1856-1861 > Part 34
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The books are so kept as to show at what school house any expenditure is made, and for what it is made.
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Expenditures from January to May, 1859, four months when there was no super- intendent.
Expenditures from
May 1859, to January 1860, eight months
under the superin-
tendent.
Salaries of teachers,
$9023,84
$15791,76
$24815,60
Salaries of secretary and prudential committees,
231,25
231,25
Salary of superintendent,
925,66
925,66
Services of com. visiting schools, and preparing annual report, Services of com. visiting in 1858, Fuel,
62,00
62,00
180,75
180,75
Fuel, bal. bill of 1858,
607,93
Fuel, (including a year's supply of coal,)
1524,48
2422,72
Books,
659,63
161,25
820,88
Printing,
107,58
Sweeping and building fires,
426,19
Cleaning school houses,
79,08
Repairs,
2316,30
2210,56
Furniture, &c.,
563,91
Cutting wood, centre district,
57,15
Miscellaneous,
151,35
5912,12
$13372,01
$21998,97
$35370,98
Two bills belonging to the account of 1858 appear here. The expenses were incurred in that year, but the bills were left over to be paid in 1859. These were :
Balance of bill for fuel, $607 93
Bills of committee for visiting schools
that year, 180 75
$788 68
If this sum be taken from the expenses of 1859 and added to the expenses of 1858, it will be seen that the expenses of the school department were for the year 1858, $31,292 77 ; for the year 1859, 34,582 30. The excess of the expenditures of 1859
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TOTAL
FOR 1859.
290,31
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over those of 1858, is more than accounted for by the following items of extraordinary expenses :
Furnishing four new school rooms, - - - $293 00 Repairs on Pleasant st. school house after the explo- sion of January 1st, 1859, 550 00
Changes in the Sycamore st. school house, to accom- modate Mr. Hunt's enlarged school, 289 00
Making a new school room in the Front st. school house, 217 00
The new furnaces and chimney in the Thomas st. school house, 814 00
The extraordinary repairs on the Quinsigamond school house, 128 00
The vote of the school committee, April, 1859, rescind- ing the vote of April 6, 1858, whereby all teach- ers thereafter employed by the city were to receive ten per cent. less than the rates paid to the teach- ers then employed, cost the city in nine months, not less than 930 00
The cost of maintaining three new schools, of which the salaries of the teachers alone amount to 725 00
Making an aggregate of
$3937 00
Deducting this amount from the actual expenses of the year,
$34582 30
3937 00
leaves the ordinary expenses of the year $30645 30
If we compare the average attendance and the expenditures of this year with the three preceding, we find the following result :
Year.
Average daily attendance.
Expenditures. $29,992
Cost per scholar. $11 90
1856
2,520
1857
2,815
32,280
11 82
1858
2,919
30,504
10 45
1859
3,140
35,390
11 27
95
That is, notwithstanding the large expenditures of the year, the cost per pupil is sixty-three cents less than in 1856, fifty-five cents less than in 1857, and only eighty-two cents more than in 1858, which year bequeathed to the year 1859 the legacy of a debt of nearly $800.
The heating of the school houses is a serious bill of expense. Economy of fuel cannot be prac- ticed where furnaces are used. Each of the seven furnaces in the centre district consumes fifteen tons of coal per year. The Walnut street and the Syca- more street school houses are heated wholly by fur- naces, two in each. The Thomas street school house has two furnaces, and the New Worcester one; but they are insufficient, and stoves are also used. It is not easy to economically heat and properly ventilate a school room. What we gain in one we lose in the other. Until a cheap plan of heating our school rooms by steam can be devised, the most satisfactory and eco- nomical method is clearly the use of coal stoves. Though it might not be good policy to remove the furnaces we now have, it would not be wise to put in more.
The superintendent has called the attention of the teachers to their responsibility in taking care of the school property, and they have generally responded to his suggestions with very commendable alacrity.
During the year nearly all the school rooms in the centre district have been thoroughly cleaned under the immediate supervision of the teachers. Some of the rooms then received their first ablution. Clean- liness is a constituent part of a good education, as
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well as an indispensable element in civilization and religion. It will always be difficult to maintain the purity of our children's minds and hearts in an im- pure atmosphere and in filthy rooms.
One other item of expense, the supply of books, merits notice. Each school room is furnished with one copy of each of the books used in that room. The statute also requires the city to furnish the indigent with books. A short experience convinced the superintendent that most of the books given away by the city, were worse than thrown away. The children had no motive to preserve them. Costing nothing, they were soon destroyed or lost, and the city was called on for more. Persons, not too poor to pay a dollar to license a useless dog, classed themselves with the indigent and called upon the city to supply their children with books ! Selfish persons, of considerable wealth, joined in the demand. To correct so gross an evil, the super- intendent refused to give books to any pupil, but furnished them to the teachers to lend to the needy. In this way the really indigent have been supplied, and the city is relieved of an onerous tax. Stopping the supply has diminished the demand. The monthly expense of the city for books, from May to Decem- ber, was less than twelve and a half per cent. of what it was per month from January to May.
The price paid for books early received the atten- tion of the board, and a plan was adopted to furnish both the citizens and the city with all the authorized school books, at the lowest rates. Proposals were solicited from all the book sellers in the city. The
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result was a contract between the city and Mr. Edward Mellen, Jr., by which he furnishes all the authorized school books, to the citizens as well as the city, at a great reduction from former prices.
The amount saved to the city is large, but that saved to the citizens is much larger. If there are in the public schools 4,000 children, and the books of each child cost fifty cents per term, or two dollars per year, the annual cost of school books will be $8,000. If one-fourth of this is saved by the reduction in the price, the annual saving to the citizens will be $2,000. Might not all the supplies for the schools, as well as the books, be profitably bought by contracting with the lowest responsible bidder ? The book sellers can hardly see why they alone should be compelled to sell at reduced rates.
SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS.
At the first meeting of the school committee of 1859, a sub-committee of five was appointed, of which the mayor was chairman, to consider the appoint- ment of a superintendent of public schools. At the regular meeting in April, that committee presented a unanimous report, recommending that a superinten- dent be elected. The board confirmed the recom- mendation by proceeding at once to elect one. After a month's deliberation, the superintendent elect ac- cepted the office, and has since given his undivided attention to the schools. The duties assigned him embrace a supervision of both the financial and educational interests of the schools, as well as the
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work of secretary to the committee. The care of the school property, the purchase of supplies for the schools, the supervision of all repairs, and the keeping of all the accounts of the department, necessarily make a large demand upon his time.
Since the control of the expenses in the suburban districts lies in the prudential committees, if the su- perintendent is expected to do anything more than audit their accounts, his powers must be enlarged and theirs restricted.
The educational department has received the superintendent's attention generally during the school hours of every day ; and two hours, other than school hours, have been given to office work, consultation with teachers, pupils, and parents. In visiting the schools, he has studied the system as a whole, and in its several parts. The want of entire uniformity of method and progress in schools of the same grade did not surprise him, since the teachers have very limited opportunities of comparing their own schools with others, and the visiting committees are so arranged that no one of them sees all the schools of any one grade. With many differences in the age and the culture of the pupils, and with many degrees of difference between the best and the poorest, the schools of the same grade were found as nearly alike as they could be expected to be without the supervision and control of one mind.
In some instances, the classes in one school were found several months in advance of the correspond- ing classes in another of the same grade. The inconvenience of this becomes strikingly manifest
99
when these classes, of attainments so unequal, are united to form a single class in the next higher grade.
An attempt to correct this has been made in the primary and secondary schools by defining the amount to be required for promotion, and the cor- rection can soon be extended to the higher grades.
It is the judgment of the superintendent, and he is happy to know that mayors Bullock and Rice, both well known friends of our public schools, coincide with him in the opinion, that the pupils have been retained too long in the primary schools, that the studies of the secondary schools have not been well adapted to the mental capacity of the pupils, or the most useful for those that cannot long attend school. The standard is now fixed for promotion from the primary schools to the secondary, and the studies of the latter grade have been revised, practical arithmetic has been introduced, and a mental arithmetic, not beyond the comprehension of the pupils, has been put into their hands.
The introduction of a fourth, or preparatory, class into the high school enables the pupils promoted from the grammar schools to review and complete certain English studies, for which under our former arrangements there was no provision.
It has been no part of the superintendent's design to depress the standard of any of the schools, but to supply defects, and make one grade meet another without leaving a chasm between them.
An argument for the introduction of written arith- metic into the secondary schools is found in the
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melancholy fact that a large number of the pupils never go any higher than this grade. Their school days close as soon as they can work, which is usually sometime before they are prepared for the grammar schools.
The semi-annual promotion of such as are fitted to enter the next higher classes than those to which they belong will tend to relieve the pressure in the lower grades, and to fill those of the higher.
The high school has never had a larger number of pupils than now, and it will receive, in May, accessions of as many as it can accommodate. Standing at the head of our schools, the committee and the public justly demand that it should be a model and pattern for all the others, in its discipline, government, and teaching.
The superintendent gratefully acknowledges the generous assistance given him by the committee in perfecting his plans, and in elevating the schools. Their monthly visits encourage and animate both teachers and pupils.
BOOKS AND APPARATUS.
Besides furnishing the schools with the text books used in them, the city also furnishes each school with certain books for reference, a globe, and a set of outline maps.
The change of books is at any time a burden, and, unless the substitute is a very decided improvement upon the original, it is an unmitigated evil.
At the beginning of the year, Greenleaf's series of arithmetics, and Qackenbos' History of the United
101
States, were introduced into the schools. Whether the exclusion of Chase's and Colburn's arithmetics, with the consequent expense of introducing others, even under the publisher's proposal to exchange one for the other, was a gain to the schools, is very questionable.
Except the introduction of a few text books into the high school, no other changes in books have been made or recommended during the year. The same reason that would forbid the introduction of a new book, would weigh equally against its rejection when once introduced, namely,-that a decided and positive preference for a book, on account of its superior merits, is the only reason justifying a change.
The high school is the only one in the city sup- plied with a philosophical and chemical apparatus. It has suffered for the want of care and is now quite imperfect. An appropriation of one hundred dollars was recently made by the school committee for re- pairs and additions.
SINGING, WRITING, AND DRAWING.
The experiment of employing a teacher of vocal music in the grammar and secondary schools was made during two terms of the last year with very decidedly favorable results. The salary paid was $100 per term, and lessons of thirty minutes were given weekly to each of the above-named schools. The need of such an instructor is obvious. Few of the teachers employed by the city, however compe- tent in other respects, can teach singing. In man schools no attempt to teach it is made. If the pupils
102
sing, it is without help or direction. In others, singing is taught more or less correctly according to the skill and knowledge of the teacher. The brief experiment of the last year proved that a competent teacher of vocal music would secure uniformity of method and awaken a general interest in the subject.
Nearly the same reasoning will demonstrate the importance of employing one competent instructor of writing. Very few, if any, of the public school teachers, have made penmanship a study with the design of teaching it. An incompetent teacher must give very indifferent instruction. Did not the public schools fifty years ago make nearly as good writers as our schools make ?
The subject of drawing has received attention in the high school since the summer term. Miss Helen M. Knowlton, a very excellent and accom- plished teacher, gave lessons through the fall term with eminent success. This department is now under the charge of Miss Kate F. Leland, one of the permanent teachers in the school. The progress of the pupils under her tuition is very gratifying.
CHANGE OF THE SCHOOL YEAR.
The school year has heretofore corresponded with the municipal year, commencing with January and closing with December. There are some inconven- iences in this arrangement. The time of the annual promotions in the schools is not the most opportune for a new committee to assume the charge of the schools.
The annual promotions should be made at the
103
time when the necessary changes will cause the least possible disparity in the attendance. The primary schools have the smallest number of pupils in the winter, when the higher grades have the largest. It is therefore an unpropitious time to make promotions, since the primaries would be diminished when they need no diminution, and the other schools would be enlarged when they need no additions. In the spring, the higher grades lose many pupils and the primaries receive large accessions. These facts induced the committee to change the commencement of the school year from January to May. It is expected that making the promotions at that time will fill the vacancies in the higher grades, and leave room in the primaries for the crowd of little ones that the warm sun of May will call out from their homes where the winter has confined them, and that a nearly uniform attendance will be secured for the year.
The committee also reduced the school year from forty-four weeks to forty-three, and made the number of terms four instead of three, no term to be longer than twelve weeks, and a vacation to follow each term. A term protracted beyond twelve weeks taxes too severely the nerves of both teachers and pupils.
Since the change in the school year postponed the annual examination from December to May, the usual reports of the visiting committee upon the sev- eral schools under their charge do not appear in this report.
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ADULT SCHOOLS.
The young men's school has for several years been under the charge of Mr. Nathaniel Eddy. In the fall of 1859, Mr. Eddy having been elected to the state senate, the school passed into other hands.
Most of the pupils in these schools have been either very unfortunate or very negligent in early life. They are quite irregular in their habits, and are not enough in earnest to improve their time and opportunities. Mr. Samuel N. Aldrich, the present teacher, has experience and skill.
The number in the day school is now seventy-five, with a daily attendance of fifty-two.
The evening schools have been reduced to one, to which both males and females are admitted. This is found sufficient for all that apply. The number of males in attendance is sixty-one, females sixteen.
Firm government and strict discipline have very nearly discouraged the attendance of those who go there merely for recreation or amusement.
The little learned in these schools is all the literary capital which many of the pupils have with which to begin life. However small, it is far better than none.
SUBURBAN SCHOOLS.
Number of pupils registered during the year, 670
Average number of pupils belonging during the year, 436
in daily attendance, 339
Per centage of attendance, .78
There are thirteen suburban schools, of which one, Providence street, has employed two teachers all
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the year, and another, Tatnuck, has employed two in the winter. The others employ one each. The Providence street school properly belongs to the center district, and is placed there in the statistical tables accompanying this report. The change of teachers in some of these schools is quite too frequent for their highest good. Only six of them have not changed teachers during the year, and two of them have changed more than once.
The disparity between the largest taught by a single teacher, and the smallest, is very marked. The average daily attendance at South Worcester is 45 : the average daily attendance at Blithewood is 15. The school houses are among the best we have. The school yards are, in a few instances, adorned with trees, but in most cases are neglected. The inhabitants of these districts have a fine opportunity to cultivate the taste of their children by planting trees and laying out miniature flower gardens in these ample yards.
These are all mixed schools, and therefore the classes are often very numerous and the time very limited which the teachers can give to each. There is no remedy for this in the sparsely populated dis- tricts. The privilege of attending the schools of the centre district is, however, extended to any who may wish to avail themselves of it.
PRIMARY SCHOOLS.
The whole number of primary schools at the beginning of the year was nineteen. One has since been added on Front street, and one single school in East Worcester has been made double, the two
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furnishing additional accommodations for about 120 pupils.
Number of pupils registered during the year, 2,510
Average number of pupils belonging during the year, 1,800
" in daily attendance, 1,459
Percentage of attendance,
.81
The need of still more room for this grade of schools is very manifest. The number of seats, in- cluding the additions just mentioned, is only 1632, while the number of pupils in pleasant weather is often 1800. Taking the old common as the centre of a circle one mile in diameter, we have, in that circle, the crowded district. If the city should, at the proper time, build a new house for the high school, and appropriate the present one to grammar school purposes, one grammar school being removed to it from Thomas street, another from Pleasant street, and another from Sycamore street, three rooms, suffi- cient for two hundred and fifty pupils and located nearly where we want them, would be left for primary schools. If we do not build or rent a house, the only other practicable method of relief is earlier promotion to the higher grades and the rejection of all pupils under five years of age.
The teachers of these schools deserve great credit for accomplishing all they have under the pressure of an attendance so large. An attempt has been made to secure at least an approximation to a uni- form preparation for promotion, as well as to fix the standard for it. In no schools are semi-annual pro- motions more needed. The more constant and regular very soon outstrip the irregular and incon-
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stant, and, to retain them in these schools, after they are fitted to enter the schools above, is an injustice, as well as a discouragement.
The efficiency of the primary schools would be greatly promoted by dividing them into two depart- ments, in one of which the instruction should be chiefly oral and extend only through the alphabet and the primer; in the other, the studies prescribed for the primary schools should be completed.
The advantages of such a system are obvious. Each teacher, having fewer classes, could give more attention to each pupil, entertaining the beginners with oral instruction, cards and pictures, without requiring them, as now, to sit painful and protracted intervals with folded arms, to their great physical discomfort if not permanent injury.
SECONDARY SCHOOLS.
At the beginning of the year, there were ten sec- ondary schools, one double, and nine single .- One single school has since been added.
Number of pupils registered during the year, 950
Average number of pupils belonging during the year, 662
" in daily attendance, 571
Percentage of attendance during the year, .86
The character of these schools has much improved. The government of them is particularly difficult. One, which has from its organization been trouble- some and in consequence had frequent changes of teachers, has come to be, under the charge of a supe- rior teacher of fine executive ability, one of the best governed secondary schools in the city.
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There is no immediate demand for another school of this grade. The one on Main street is badly located, since most of the pupils attending it live in the south- east part of the city. The number of pupils that complete their education in these schools is large. The study of the fundamental rules of written arithmetic, in addition to the mental arithmetic heretofore studied, has been introduced during the year.
Through an oversight of the committee when Greenleaf's series of arithmetics was introduced, the mental arithmetic designed for grammar schools was put into the secondary schools.
This unfortunate mistake discouraged the pupils, since what they could not understand they could not love. The correction of the mistake has cleared the mental sky of the poor boys and girls and ena- bled them to discover beauties even in what had seemed to them the dark science of numbers.
Under the new arrangement, the classes entering these schools from the primary bring with them and complete the geography of which they had learned only a part in the primary schools. It has been the custom at the time of promotion to lay aside the primary geography, half finished, and take up a larger and more difficult one. The transition from grade to grade should not be made difficult and forbidding, but easy and inviting.
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GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.
Of these there are nine, of which three are double. The increase of pupils in the south part of the city, and the large number of applicants to enter Mr. Hunt's school, made it necessary, early in the year, either to give him an assistant, or to organize a new school of the grade of his second class. The last was done, and the new school supplied the immedi- ate demand for more room.
After the promotions to the high school in Octo- ber, this new school was temporarily suspended and the teacher transferred to another.
Number of pupils registered during the year, 844
Average number of pupils belonging during the year, 564
" in daily attendance, 518
Percentage of attendance during the year, .92
The two teachers in the first department of the Thomas street grammar school were, during the year, promoted to the high school, and the commit- tee were compelled to search for suitable candidates to fill the vacancies. A change of teachers, like a change of books, is not of itself desirable. The committee, however, do not always feel at liberty to interpose objections, when their most reliable teachers are invited to "go up higher." The committee deem themselves fortunate in the selection of the present excellent principal of the Thomas street school and his worthy assistant. Neither are nov- ices in teaching.
The experiment of employing a male teacher in the New Worcester grammar school was made in
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