Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1856-1861, Part 43

Author: Worcester (Mass.)
Publication date: 1856
Publisher: The City
Number of Pages: 940

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1856-1861 > Part 43

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Teaching is an art second to none in usefulness or honor. It is not quite clear, however, that all teachers comprehend the dignity and responsibility of their profes- sion. Few of any profession do. Only teachers them- selves can answer the often agitated question, whether teaching shall be placed on an equality with the learned professions. Merit, like water, finds its own level. If modest and unostentatious merit restrains teachers from demanding of society the consideration which the learned professions enjoy, a discriminating public will not long withhold honors deserved. But so long as teaching con- tinues to be a temporary expedient of honest poverty, or worthy ambition-a mere stepping stone to a more desir- able and permanent position or profession, a teacher will hold a lower place in the public mind than a member of the learned professions. A teacher whose heart is not in the work, who does not prefer teaching to any other business, will never excel. In other professions, eminence is attained by protracted and patient industry. The teacher must walk the same path to reach the same goal.

SCHOOL HOUSES.

The school houses belonging to the city are twenty- three, of which twelve are suburban having only one school in each, though three of them are large enough for two schools in each.

Eleven of them are in the centre district, furnishing accommodations for forty-four schools, of which one has

six teachers, twelve are double, and thirty-one are single. Three other single schools are kept in the leased house in Temple street.

Since the lease of that house expires on the first of September 1861 and cannot be renewed, some other pro- vision for the pupils in that part of the city will be ne- cessary.

There are two hundred and ninety-six more pupils in the centre district than seats in all the school houses owned by the city in that district. This surplus lies almost wholly in the south and west parts of the district. A new house in the south part of the city large enough for four single schools, and another in the west for two, would supply the present demand, and afford immediate relief to the crowded houses in Ash, Sycamore, and Pleasant streets.

In the construction of new school houses great care should be taken that the defects of the old ones are not reproduced. It is both wisdom and economy to know what you want before you build. The neglect of this simple rule has subjected the city to a great annual ex- pense in making alterations of the original plans of the school houses. The contracted and ill-ventilated school rooms in the Sycamore street house suggest the propriety of making the rooms of the new houses larger, and of invoking the aid of science in providing means of ventila- tion.

Of the suburban school houses, that at North Pond is the least attractive and the most uncomfortable. A peti- tion for a new one has been laid before the committee and is now under consideration. The citizens of that district will hardly think themselves as well treated as their neighbors till the old house between the road and the fence gives place to a new one, in a more desirable locality.

PUPILS.

The growth of the city is quite as manifest in the in- crease of pupils in the public schools as in the erection of new blocks of stores or new dwellings.

The whole number of children in the city between the ages of five and fifteen years, on the first day of May 1860, was 4824

On the first day of May 1859, it was - 4163

An increase of six hundred and sixty-one. This is the largest increase for several years. In 1859 the increase was eighty-seven. In 1858 it was eighty-nine. In 1857 there was a loss of sixty-seven.

The whole number of pupils between five and and fifteen years of age registered in the public schools during the year 1860, was 4457

Number over fifteen years of age, less than five years of age, - 409

- 473

Making the aggregate, - -

- 5339

By the frequent removal of families from one part of the city to another, the same child may be registered in two or three different schools in one year. This has some- times swelled the number registered in a year beyond the actual number in the city. Great care has been taken to include in the report for this year each pupil but once, whatever be the number of times he may have been regis- tered in the schools. The whole number registered ap- pears to be eighty-two less than last year, though the actual number has been much greater than last year.

The average whole number belonging to the schools during the year was

In the center district, -

3521

suburban districts, -

462

whole city, - -

- -

-3983

The average daily attendance for the year was In the center district, -

- 2933

" suburban districts, -

362

- whole city, - - - - -3295

The ratio of the daily attendance to the whole number be- longing to the schools was eighty-eight per cent .- a gain of six per cent from last year ..

The number of seats in all the school houses of the city including those in the Temple street house are 3963; namely :

In the high school, - -

208

66 higher grade of grammar schools,

208

lower grade of grammar schools,

400

secondary schools,

694

66 primary

The pupils have been distributed among the several schools as follows :

In the high school,

4 3-5

per ct. of all.

higher grade of grammar schools,

5 4-5

lower grade of grammar schools,

8 2-5

secondary schools,

primary

46 3-5

adult

suburban

11 3-5

If we compare the statistics of this year with those of 1859 we find that the increase in daily attendance is one hundred and fifty-four, and in the average whole number one hundred and fifty-nine.

Year. 1

Number Registered.

Average whole Number.

Average Attendance.

1859

5421

3824

3140

1860

5339

3983

3295

suburban

1785

adult

598

The tabulated statement which accompanies this report will show the relative standing of the several schools in regularity and punctuality of attendance. There are so many good reasons for irregularity in attendance, that all the pupils belonging to the schools can never be found in attendance at one time.

The attendance during the last year has been more uni-

form and regular, and has approximated more nearly to the average whole number, than is usual. Some of the schools have done so well that their future efforts will not be likely to surpass what they have already achieved.

In the fall term four hundred and twenty-three pupils were perfect in their attendance, that is, were not absent, tardy, or dismissed, for twelve successive weeks. Fifty-five have a perfect record for the entire year.

We append their names and the names of the schools of which they were members at the close of the year.

HIGH SCHOOL.

Emma J. Barton,

Helen C. Lovell,

Frank J. Daniels,

Sarah-M. Brigham,

Mary E. Partridge,

Maria S. Clarke,

Julie A. Rockwood,

Adela A. Fitch,

Hattie A. Smith,

Stephen Greene, Charles S. Hall, John Healy,

Malvina A. Foster,

Mary G. B. Wheeler,

Albert E. Lamb, David Manning,

Carrie E. Gilbert,

Agnes E. Samson,

Ella J. Goodnow,

Harry Boyden, Fred. S. Pratt,

Emma L. Griggs, Henry H. Chamberlain, Charles A. Scott,

Mary A. Hakes,

Eugene D. Clarke, Charles R. Wells,

Mary A. Harrington,

Patrick Colleary, William Witherbee.

GRAMMAR SCHOOLS : first grade :- Mr. Newton's-Susie G. Gale, Mary Ella Whittemore, Edwin M. Staples.

Mr. Hunt's-Carrie Lovell.

Miss Manly's-Ella Fitch, Georgianna Barton, Joseph Bushee.

GRAMMAR SCHOOLS : lower grade :- Miss Hawes'-Delia Osmer.

SECONDARY SCHOOLS : - Miss Meade's-Annie Broadbent, Georgie Clark.

Miss Hewett's-Delia M. Griggs, Edgar E. Clark.

Miss E. S. Barnes'-Albert Whiting, Charles Dennis, Henry Simond.

Miss Follett's-Maggie Melanefy, Augusta Coes.

Miss Taggart's-Sumner R. Joslyn.

PRIMARY SCHOOLS :- Miss S. W. Clements'-Abby S. Davis.

Miss Mack's-Johnnie Coes, Charlie Coes.

Miss Kate Hobbs'-Henry S. Knight.

Miss A. P. James'-Rosina Broso.

SUBURBAN SCHOOLS :- Miss Parker's-Clara L. Goodale, Mary S. Goodale.

RESOURCES AND EXPENDITURES.

The aggregate value of the school property of the city, personal and real, is not far from $150,000 00.

A large part of this property is perishable, consisting of buildings and furniture, and therefore requires a consid- erable annual outlay to keep it from serious depreciation. Repairs which ought to be made at once cannot be long · postponed without prejudice to the public interest ; for, a slight defect, if neglected, soon comes to be a great one. The limited appropriation will not permit the superinten- dent to put all the houses in complete repair in a single year. His policy has been, by timely repairs in every locality, to arrest the destruction of the property and to thoroughly repair two or three houses every year. The houses which have received particular attention this year are those in Main, and Ash, streets in the centre district, and those in the Chamberlain, and Pond, districts in the suburbs.

The property would now be in a better condition, and the cost to the city would have been less, if this work had been done three or four years earlier.

The school department for the year 1860 has been credited with the following sums :

Appropriation by the city council from the taxes, $33,000 00

Amount received from the school fund of the state, $853 42

Tuition of pupils from other towns, -

$6 00

Books, - -

$1 10

$33,860 52

The expenditures of the department for all purposes have been, -

$33,497 22

Leaving a balance on the right side of

$363 30

This result is as gratifying as it is unusual. For many years the balance has been largely the other way and has been paid from the contingent fund.

In 1857 there were drawn from this fund, -

$2,341 86

" 1858

- $1,649 44

" 1859

$4,490 76

In 1860 nothing has been drawn from the contingent fund, and a surplus of $363 30 is left to apply to the ex- penses of another year.

The annexed schedules will show for what the expendi- tures have been made. The item of teachers' salaries is larger than ever before, not because the salaries have been higher, but because the number of teachers employed has been larger.

In the first schedule are arranged the actual expenses of the schools for the year 1860. It is confidently believed that the bills of that year lying over for future payment do not exceed one hundred dollars.

Salaries of teachers,

$25,038 08

Salary of superintendent,

1,400 00

Fuel, -

1,921 05

Sawing wood, -

147 91

Books, - -

290 44

Printing,

181 35

Fires and sweeping,

802 81

Cleaning,

164 32

Repairs, -

1,891 71

Furnishings, -

719 45

Miscellaneous and incidental,

- 273 92

$32,831 04

The following bills of former years which, through the neglect of parties to present them at the proper time, have become a tax upon this year, swell the expenditures for 1860, but do not form any part of the actual expenses of the schools for that year.

Salaries of teachers, -

$138 30

Fuel, - - -

135 02

Sawing wood, -

- 21 79

Fires and sweeping,

- -

- 26 66

Repairs,

25 70

Furnishings,

26 50

Printing,

27 25

Visiting,

113 72-

514 94

$33,345 98

Two other bills have been paid.

Insurance of school houses,

$105 00

Balance of bill for books (E. Dorr & Co.,) not allowed in 1859, but allowed by the city council, in 1860, -

46 24-

151 24

Total expenditures for the year 1860, -

$33,497 22

Comparing the average attendance and the expenditures of this year with the average attendance and expenditures of the four preceding years, we find that the cost per scholar is one dollar and eighty cents less than in 1856, one dollar and seventy-two cents less than in 1857, thirty-five cents less than in 1858, and one dollar and seventeen cents less than in 1859.

Year.

Average daily attendance.

Expenditures. $29,992

Cost per scholar. $11 90

1857

2815

32,280

11 82

1858

2919

30,504

10 45

1859

3140

35,390

11 27

1860

3295

33,497

10 10

In the following schedule some interesting and important facts stand side by side for convenience of reference and comparison.

Schools.

Amount of Teachers' Salaries for the year 1860.

Cost of Tuition per scholar for the year 1860.

Number of Teachers employed Dec. 1860.

Average No. of pupils to one Teacher.

High School,

$3,682 45

$19 69

Grammar, higher grade, 2,750 03

12 50

Grammar, lower grade,

2,399 97

6 82

Secondary,

4,117 39

5 22

Primary,

8,462 11

4 56

Suburban,

3,469 43

7 51

Adult one-third of a year, 295 00

2 46

1856

2520

In the last annual report the superintendent called the attention of the board to the want of economy in the use of furnaces in heating the school houses. The original defects of the furnaces have been greatly aggravated by the method of arranging the smoke flues. This defect has been so serious that the utmost capacity of the furnaces was not enough, on the coldest days, to heat one half the rooms which they were designed to heat. A new arrange- ment has proved of great service and obviated the necessity of the frequent dismission of the schools on account of cold rooms, while it saves a large amount of fuel.

A part of the teachers never lose sight of their responsi- bility to preserve the property under their care. Much would be saved if all of them would strictly observe the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth sections of the sixth chapter of the general regulations of the public schools, which prescribe the duties of teachers in respect of the school property.

The system of supplying the pupils and the schools with books, which was introduced in 1859, has been continued through this year with the very decided approval of the board. It would be a public convenience if the books could be procured at the same rates at all the book-stores in the city.

SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS.

One of the duties assigned the superintendent is to "visit each school as often as his other duties will permit ; keep himself familiar with their condition and progress ; give to teachers such counsel and direction as they may require ; and see that careful attention is given to the classification of pupils, and the proper apportionment of studies." He has given more time to this duty than to any

other one of all that are assigned him,-generally, all the hours the schools are in session.

Unless other pressing duties forbid it, he visits every school monthly. To accomplish this, the schools are so numerous, he must visit three every day. In the fall term, consisting of twelve weeks, his records show that he made two hundred and twenty-seven visits and calls upon the schools, which is very nearly four per day. He is not aware that his visits in that term were more fre- quent or more numerous than they have been every term. If his presence is needed in any school oftener than once a month, he goes without regard to the time of his last visit. Inspection is not the only purpose of these visits. A prominent object is to promote the interests of the school by counsel with the teacher and encouragement to the pupils.

The studies of each grade are now defined, and a uni- form standard for promotion is fixed, and there is as much uniformity in the tasks assigned, and in the lessons learned, as the different mental characteristics of the teachers, and the disparity in their capacity to make pupils think, will allow.

The changes made in 1859 in the course of study and in the amount required, have not disappointed expecta- tion. Children of different mental capacities are not now chained together. While the slower is not forced to keep up with the more active, the latter is not held back to keep unwilling and unnecessary company with the former.

Great care has been taken to give every mind as much freedom of action as is compatible with thorough disci- pline and profitable progress. No pupil in the city is com- pelled to spend in daily study and recitations more hours

than are assigned to the school sessions ; at the same time, no one is constrained to study less. In assigning lessons, the teachers are enjoined not to require too much. In graduating the daily tasks, the guide is not what the best minds in a class can acquire in a given time, or only what the dullest can learn, but a medium between them.

The secondary schools have lost their dread of mental arithmetic since a book they can comprehend has been sub- stituted for the one over which the superintendent found them weeping in the commencement of the year 1859, and the introduction of the fundamental rules of written arithmetic has awakened an unusual interest in these schools. The semi-annual promotion of pupils whose stand- ing entitles them to a place in the next higher class, has done much to encourage merit and promote correctness of deportment and accuracy in scholarship. Promotions should not be regulated by the time of service in a given grade, but by the quality of the service,-the fitness for promotion. It is the very nearly uniform testimony of the teachers that they have no better or worthier or healthier pupils than those whose very decided merit has enabled them to anticipate the regular annual promotions.

The schools no longer suffer from an excess of pupils in one grade, and a corresponding want of them in an- other, for nearly all the grades are equally crowded.

BOOKS AND APPARATUS.

The recent statute of the commonwealth restricting the powers of school committees to change text books, while it relieves committees from the incessant importunities of book publishers' agents, whose business is not the interest of education, but of their employers, also relieves the community of an odious and unnecessary tax. No change

of text books has been made during the year. One or two new ones have been introduced to supply the wants of new classes, and the "Boston Primary School Tablets," a very valuable contribution to primary school education, by John D. Philbrick, Esq., superintendent of the public schools of that city, have been introduced into the sub- primary schools. Their early introduction into all the primary schools is very desirable.

· A few new instruments and some chemicals have been added to the high school philosophical and chemical apparatus, which has undergone extensive and much needed repairs. The amount now possessed is hardly adequate to the wants of the school.

SINGING.

Vocal music is one of the exercises in all the schools, but it is necessarily very indifferently executed when the teacher is not a singer. Very few public school teachers have ever studied music, or feel that it is a part of their duty either to know or teach it. Singing is a most delightful exercise, producing the happiest effects upon the pupils in those schools whose teachers are good singers. The ability to sing should be held to be an essential qualification of all candidates for the place of teacher in the primary schools. In one of the grammar schools, Mr. J. H. Newton's, the time devoted to music is spent, not in rehearsing familiar tunes, but in studying the elements of the science; and it is hoped that the result, on the day of the annual examination, will justify the making it a study as well as a pastime.

WRITING AND DRAWING.

The mayor, in his inaugural address, recommended the employment of a writing master in the public schools,

and, at a subsequent period, a sub-committee of the board reported favorably upon the recommendation, but, between the inception and the consummation, the measure died. While that plan would be more expensive than our pres- ent one, it would also be much more efficient. Writing is much better taught in some of the schools than in others, and the success of a teacher usually corresponds with the effort he makes.

Drawing is taught in the high school only. If daily attention were given to this study in the primary and sec- ondary schools, it would furnish an agreeable recreation to the active minds that sicken of the monotony of the school room, while it would cultivate a taste which American educators have sadly neglected.

READING.

Reading is one of the exercises in all the schools. In nothing do teachers differ more than in their ability to make good readers. After ten years of daily drill, the reading of many pupils is too often mechanical and monot- onous, a mere calling of the words without a discovery of the thoughts clothed by the words. Words without thoughts are bodies without souls.

A very commendable effort has been made by a part of the teachers in the city to improve their own reading by taking semi-weekly lessons in elocution, and the valuable results are already manifest in the improvement of their classes. The committee have been very fortunate in securing an accomplished elocutionist, Miss Anna U. Rus- sell, to take charge of this department in the high school. It will be very gratifying if the competitors for the medals which are given for excellence in reading and declamation are numerous.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

Many important educational questions, which, during the last century, have engaged the attention of the public and the deliberations of legislators, have been definitely settled, never again to be discussed in New England. The duty of the state to make provision for the education of all her children is not likely to again become a question for discussion in this commonwealth ; and it is not prob- able that any large number of persons will ever be found in Massachusetts who will question the wisdom of the statute which declares that "no child shall be excluded from a public school on account of the race, color or reli- gious opinion of the applicant or scholar ;" and that man will surely not be envied who shall have the hardi- hood to denounce the statute which declares that "the tenets of any particular sect of Christians shall never be taught in the public schools."

But as soon as one question is settled a new one rises. That now uppermost is physical education. Whether physical education is necessary or desirable is not the question, for all agree that it is both ; but the question is whether the public shall undertake the physical as well as the mental education of all the children of the common- wealth, or whether this necessary part of every child's education shall still be left to the care and wisdom, or the negligence and ignorance of parents. That parents, par- ticularly in the large towns and cities, do neglect the physical culture of their children, and that there is a con- sequent physical deterioration in those places, are facts as melancholy as they are indisputable. To correct these errors, many eminent educators are of the opinion that the public should make provision for the physical as well as the mental education of the young. The results of

the first experiments will be looked for with great interest, and if an unexceptional plan, adapted to the school room and to both sexes, and not too expensive, can be devised, it will be hailed with delight as one of the improvements most needed to perfect our admirable system of free schools. The superintendent of the public schools of Boston has recommended a plan for the schools of that city, which, if on trial it proves successful, Worcester may do well to adopt.

CHANGE OF THE SCHOOL YEAR.

The advantages which it was thought would result from changing the beginning of the school year from January to May, have been found to correspond with the expecta- tions of the committee. It is a pleasanter season for the annual examination, and the promotions from the lower grades take place at the time when the seats vacated are · wanted by the little ones which the spring is as sure to call out from their homes as it is to call the birds from the south. The more frequent vacations under the new arrangement of terms are a grateful relief to those teach- ers and pupils whose hearts, as well as minds, are given to their work. Intense application is essential to the best mental discipline, but it should not be too protracted. The bow must not be bent too long.

ADULT SCHOOLS.

There are only two schools of this class in the city,-a day school for males and an evening school for both sexes. The average attendance in the day school is forty-seven, and in the evening school fifty-nine, of whom twenty-eight are females.

The rooms in the Main street school house, formerly occupied by these schools, having been appropriated last

spring to permanent graded schools, the adult schools were organized this winter in the Temple street house.

Mr. Francis H. Manning, a former very successful teacher of one of the evening schools, now has charge of both, and his faithful labors encounter, among other hin- drances, a want of studious, and often of cleanly, habits, on the part of some young men and lads, whose stay in school is not long enough for its influence to thoroughly correct those habits. The larger part of the pupils, how- ever, evidently feel the need of additional education before entering upon the responsibilities of manhood, and by patient industry are making commendable progress.

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Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1856-1861, Part 43

Author: Worcester (Mass.) Publication date: 1856 Publisher: The City Number of Pages: 940

Author: Worcester (Mass.)
Publication date: 1856
Publisher: The City
Number of Pages: 940