USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1862-1866 > Part 42
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The reading in a few schools is excellent ; but gener- 13
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ally there is too much neglect, and too much room for improvement. In the lower grades there is less occasion for criticism than in the Grammar schools. Here the pressure of other studies leaves too little time and atten- tion to this most important accomplishment. The crowded condition of the schools, and the difficulty of fitting large classes for promotion, requiring all the effort possible on the part of teachers to prepare for examina- tion upon other studies, may furnish some excuse. But no excuse is sufficient to justify neglect in this funda- mental art, so essential a part of all elegant culture, so useful to all in every sphere.
Precisely the same may be said of writing. Where- ever the fault may be, the penmanship in our schools is far from what it ought to be. It is a too current preju- dice that good penmanship is a gift of genius, not an at- tainment within the reach of ordinary mortals, that like poetry it must be born, not made. However this may be of the rare grace and beauty of form that may fitly rank as a fine art, a clear, legible and even handsome style of chirography is a simple question of care and practice. It is a subject of unqualified surprise that so many persons present themselves as candidates for teaching, whose business it is to teach this among other branches, who cannot themselves write respectably, and who make no special effort to learn. They would regard ungramma- tical English in their conversation, or inability to spell or count correctly as a disqualification ; yet are willing to write in a rapid and most discreditable style and lead a school of children to do the same, scarcely recog- nizing it as a defect or failure on their part. The printed copies now used in schools makes it less essential than
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formerly that the teacher should herself be able to write handsomely, for with their aid, any one may learn prop- erly to criticise and direct the pupils. Yet with all the multiplied facilities of the present time, the art seems degenerating among us, and its condition becoming ut- terly discreditable to an educated community. We be- lieve it is possible for every child who completes the grammar school course, to write in a style worthy of an accountant. This is accomplished in some places. The great defect in our schools is directly due to neglect, and teachers and committee should resolve at once to remedy it.
The system of object teaching, which has largely found favor of late, has been somewhat introduced into the schools of lower grade. The manual prepared by N. A. Calkins, has been furnished to all such teachers as de- sired it. Its use has not been prescribed in any system- atic way, but has been desultory and incidental, de- pending upon the choice and interest of the several teach- ers. In some cities this system has been pressed to an absurd extreme, becoming a mechanical drill, committing long lists of technical names, learning words more than ideas. Yet used with discrimination and good sense it has great value, in training the faculties of observation and comparison, in making study real and practical ; and it should be cherished and commended to all teachers of the younger children as a happy method of enlivening a school, relieving the young minds from a wearying study of books, kindling their interest in passing scenes and surrounding objects, and giving them a store of informa- tion on common things beyond the range of their techni- cal studies.
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The experience of the last seven years has demon- strated, what was doubted in the beginning, that the employment of a Superintendent, who should give his ex- clusive attention and time to general service in the school department, would be an actual saving of expense to the city. His care in all prudential matters has actually les- sened the cost per scholar, which, even with his own salary added, and all the enhanced prices incident to the war, has not reached the yearly average before the office was instituted. But better results than this have been obtained It is believed that the general order and disci- pline, the success and efficiency of the schools have been in so many ways promoted, that at even the same cost, the office would have proved in every generous estimate a wise and true economy. The continued growth of the schools, and the widening of this sphere of labor, have convinced the committee that the force in this depart- ment may well be increased. It is not that two men are needed to do the same work which has hitherto been ac- complished by one, but that there is ample opportunity and call for more work in this direction than any one man can perform. If in accordance with the statutes of the Commonwealth the prudential affairs and office work shall be committed to a clerk or assistant, the Superin- tendent will be left free to give his whole time to vis- iting the schools, studying the educational literature of the day ; familiarizing his mind with the most recent, methods and suggestions of the best educators of our time, then bringing the results of his experience and study directly to bear by counseling teachers, and advising with them, and making his presence and power felt throughout our schools. Liberality in such an outlay of
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money, though some might cry, " why this cost ?" would amply repay the community in results beyond the reach of money to measure.
The High School has during the past year, through various causes, for the most part beyond the committee's control, been subjected to the trying experience of an unusually frequent change of teachers. But two of the present corps were in the school one year ago; and two of the four places made vacant have been twice filled. Yet there was no considerable break in the course of in- struction, and the teachers have co-operated so harmoni- ously, that the school has received less detriment from change than might have been expected. The school is to be congratulated on its good fortune in obtaining suc- cessors to those who left, for we believe it has had for many years no more accomplished and faithful teachers than the present corps.
The committee and teachers agree in their desire to elevate, by all practical methods, and as speedily as pos- sible, the standard of scholarship in all branches of study. One obvious and efficient means would be a more rigid examination and higher standard of requisition for en- trance. Teachers very properly urge that they should not be held responsible for any deficiency that inevitably follows the lack of due preparation at the start. Illy prepared scholars become a drag to their class, and in- jure the school, while they become discouraged and care- less, and find little benefit for themselves from being pushed prematurely through a course of study beyond their ability thoroughly to master. The committee are of opinion that the school has suffered in this regard, and contains to-day pupils who would have found lasting
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benefit in a year's delay, which should have given them more adequate equipment for entrance. Under this per- suasion, the examination of last year was made more severe than usual, and in consequence excluded the un- precedented number of seventeen from the list of appli- cants. Although this was deemed a just ground of complaint by some of the parties aggrieved, seeming to debar them of a privilege to which they had a rightful claim, the committee are persuaded that it was for their best welfare as well as that of the school. On the other hand it was tempting to the teachers to put their exam- ination so sharply as to shut out all but the best scholars, with whom as a small and select school of fine material to work with, teaching would be far more attractive and the results far more brilliant. Were the school an inde- pendent Academy, under the absolute control of a pri- vate corporation, this might be immediately feasible and desirable. As it is however a part of a school system, the committee have felt that a broad gulf ought not to be made between it and the grammar schools, but that it should form. a fair connection, and the difficulty gradu- ally overcome by elevating the standard of attainments throughout. The defect alluded to is indeed felt all the way up, arising from promotions prematurely hastened by the crowded condition of the schools, having its ori- gin in the insufficient schoolhouse accommodation already mentioned in this report. The complaint made by High School teachers of crude material sent them is made in some measure by every school down to the Primary. It should be gradually remedied, without at once emptying the High School by establishing an impracticable stand- ard for admission. Taking into view all the facts as they
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are, the committee and teachers are disposed to co-oper- ate harmoniously to secure the desired end.
Another method is to hold scholars more rigidly to the prescribed course of study. After several years of careful attention to the subject, examining the course laid down in other schools of similar rank, watching the results of experience in our own school to see how much is practicable in a given time, where the course might wisely be abridged or extended, and so modifying it as occasion required, the committee now believe that noth- ing superfluous is embraced in the course prescribed, that all it contains is valuable for instruction and discipline, and that all can be accomplished in the allotted time without overtasking the mental or physical strength of any girl or boy with fair abilities and average health. We would here respectfully suggest in passing, that the preparation of a curriculum of studies for a High School course might fitly engage the attention of our state Board of Education. Some degree of uniformity in our different cities and towns is desirable. And whatever the size or the circumstances of the school, the possible and most desirable attainments of a four years' course would be for the most part the same in all localities. A well wrought plan issued not as a matter of compulsion, but of recommendation, would come with a weight of authority from the central Board which would command respect and have a happy effect. Our aim has been to prepare a well balanced course in which the four depart- ments of physics, mathematics, English literature and foreign languages, should each furnish a line of continu- ous study, and each have just attention without monop- olizing an undue share to the exclusion of any other.
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Though open to improvement it is at present giving general satisfaction. With its offer of elective studies it contains nothing that any pupil, whatever his destined calling or career in life, can afford to neglect or despise. Why shall not all be held strictly to it as at West Point, at College, or in Primary schools ? But this uniformity can be secured only by the willing assent of parents. Inexperienced scholars, blind to their own best interests, ignorant of the value of a study of which they yet know nothing, exaggerating its imagined difficulties, for the sake of an easy time in school, too often persuade their over indulgent parents to excuse them from pursuing some study assigned, and thus cheat themselves of a valuable acquisition, and entail upon themselves a life long loss. The good nature of the family physician in many cases induces him too readily to write the desired certificate of ill health, whose authority in the case we are of course compelled to accept as final. Thus in the last year eleven members of a class were excused from the study of geometry. When their graduation day ar- rives we anticipate from some prize examining committee or other friends of the school a loud wail of criticism at the degeneracy of the school in the shameful neglect of mathematics. We here file our caveat. Every one of these scholars has brought a written certificate from the family physician, endorsed by the parent, that feeble health forbids the study of geometry, though in most cases it is difficult to discover in the ruddy countenance and robust vigor, symptoms of any ailing other than vis inertiae. As the malady however has been of the nature of an epidemic and so palpably contagious, our High
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School authorities must recognize some new disease, perhaps Geometralgia, on the medical faculty's list.
By no means would we underrate the value of health, or the importance of discretion in school requisitions, lest it be sacrificed. But it has been authentically re- ported to us by the teachers that not infrequently during the current winter, scholars have attended evening parties till near midnight, have been utterly unfitted for school duties, have therefore failed in their lessons, and complained of overwork. Moderate amusement is to be encouraged. It promotes health and, by its exhilaration makes hard study possible. But it so readily lapses into dissipation, which even in its milder forms, brings detri- ment to the scholars, that the Committee owe a duty to the school and the Community to call serious attention to the subject ; and they here record their candid belief that in this direction lies the dangerous tendency of the day. Observation convinces us that few are really in- jured by too severe application to study, while many more are injured by irregular habits and the excitement and dissipation of late evening hours.
In the High School, which is the crown of our school system, where we look for the finest results of culture in all branches, we regret to note most emphatically, the deficiency already alluded to in the elementary arts of reading and writing. While the formal declamations are generally creditable and occasionally admirable, the or- dinary reading, conversation and recitations, betray a great indistinctness of enunciation, a mumbling of words scarcely intelligible, or a low tone scarcely audible. It seems to be a rule which has not been explained, but which teachers should strive to reverse, that as scholars 14
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advance from the primary schools, they retrograde in the use of their vocal organs. Although faults in penman- ship are not exclusively chargeable to the High School, we have no doubt that in the use of blackboards, or copying from dictation where rapidity of execution is the chief aim, careless habits are acquired, and the style of penmanship, not yet sufficiently formed and fixed by age, is made to degenerate. In all school exercises, even where penmanship is not formally taught, it should be a subject of criticism, and the scholars held to a strict standard of careful style.
Few changes have been made in the text books used, though there is great room for improvement in this di- rection. Hadley's Greek Grammar has been substituted for Kuhner's, Harkness' Latin for Andrews and Stod- dard's, and Pijol's French for Fasquelle's, all promising good results. A suitable text book on the English lan- guage and literature, is greatly needed. The Committee have desired to bring the study of the English Classics into greater prominence, believing that there is oppor- tunity here for valuable acquisitions in grammar, rhetoric, etymology and history, as well as for varied training and culture in the direct acquaintance with the best authors of our own tongue. Our efforts are embarrassed by the want of a treatise at once compact and comprehensive. The same may be said in the department of Natural History. Indeed, in all branches of science, the experi- ments and discoveries of late years have so multiplied and accumulated facts that the text books have become encyclopedias, where every detail of near or remote value is crammed, till pupils are bewildered and over- whelmed.
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For High School use, we need simple manuals that shall serve as introductory and not exhaustive treatises, that shall open the doors, excite an interest, stimulate inquiry, furnish a general chart or outline of the subject and leave something yet to be learned in after years. It is absurd to crowd into a High School book on Chemis- try, all the details possible of this exhaustless realm. Pupils are only repelled by it, whereas a simple and truly elementary manual, might be rendered interesting and attractive, and kindle an enthusiasm in the pursuit valuable through life. It is to be hoped that there will speedily come a reaction from the Encyclopedic tendency of school book making toward simplicity and brevity.
The teachers of the High School are faithfully laboring to secure more perfect discipline, by which is meant not merely the momentary quiet during recitation, but the regularity, precision and punctuality, correct deportment, fidelity in studies and general good order throughout all the arrangements and exercises of the establishment. The best models of recent High School architecture, facilitate this by distributing the scholars into several rooms, where not more than thirty-five sit together, thus securing less commotion and fewer interruptions, and rendering it more possible for a teacher hearing a recitation, to exercise at the same time proper supervision. Our building on the other hand, while it has four recita- tion rooms for the female teachers, entirely too small for their purpose, being uncomfortably crowded, always too cold or to hot, and rendering the blackboards on the walls almost useless, seats all the scholars in two large rooms containing more than a hundred seats each, where the Principal and his assistant, while hearing recitations
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are expected to preserve good order and detect every misdemeanor. This is utterly impracticable. It is not therefore, with any ambitious desire for a more sightly and tasteful building, but purely for the best practical results in the school itself, that we here express once inore our earnest hope, that as soon as our city can afford to assume the expense, the present house may be turned into a grammar school, already needed in this locality, and a more convenient and suitable building erected for the High School.
As this Report began by reference to the war, it may fitly close by recording the honorable part borne by the High School in patriotic service. Not only its alumni, but the classes of under graduates contributed their generous quota to the ranks of the Armies of the Union. While these nobly went forth, they who staid at home followed their fortunes with lively sympathy, and by the organization of a Soldiers' Aid Society collected contribu- tions, made garments and sent many amply filled boxes of material for the comfort of the sick and wounded in the hospitals. Appended to this Report, is a copy of the Roll of Honor inscribed on the white silk banner carried by the High School in public celebration, on the Fourth of July, and containing, it is believed, a correct list of the members of the High School who have been soldiers of the Union. Let their names be held in everlasting honor.
R. R. SHIPPEN, For the School Committee.
Errata. 86th page, 22d line, for " oration" read ovation. 92d page, 18th line, a period after " teacher."
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HIGH SCHOOL ROLL OF HONOR.
G. W. Allen, Paymaster.
H. Bacon, Lieut.
F. J. Barnard,
G. E. Barton, Capt.
L. H. Bigelow, Lieut.
M. A. Boyden, Capt.
D. Boyden,
J. S. Brown, Adj. E. Brown,
W. R. Bynner,
W. Cheney, Lieut.
E. D. Clark,
D. H. Chamberlain, Lieut.
E. Coe, Lieut.
W. H. Clapp,
F. J. Daniels,
A. P. Forbes, Capt.
M. S. Forbes,
D. K. Fitch
W. R. Foster,
M. B. Goodell,
N. S. Greene,
S. E. Greene, Lieut.
C. H. Griffin,
H. A. Harding, Lieut.
C. L. Harrington,
L. B. Haskins,
L. L. Hicks,
E. A. Morse, Capt.
E. A. Otis,
S. P. Perry,
C. E Pierce,
H. D. Putnam,
G. H. Rice,
J. S. Rogers, Capt.
F. L. Smith,
J. W. Stanley, Maj.
H. G. Savage,
J. S. Sylvester,
H. B. Sprague, Col.
J. H. Thompson,
J. M. Tucker, Col.
C. A. Walker,
A. W. Ward,
F. W. Wellington,
E. W. Wellington, Lieut. H. Winn, Maj.
E. T. Witherbee,
J. C. Woodworth, Lieut.
C. W. Wood,
KILLED.
F. Bacon, Lieut. E. L. Barnard,
E. D. Cheney, Lieut. J. R. Estey, C. F. Everett, C. A. Fitts, J. W. Gird, Capt.
W. N. Greene, Lieut. Col. G. A. Harrington, J. W. Grout, Lieut. T. J. Spurr, Lieut.
E. M. Staples,
D. Starr, Sergt.
C. W. Upham,
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MUSIC.
This study, though not occupying fully the position to which it is entitled in our schools, has made itself inter- esting and useful. The rudiments of music are dry indeed, and since we pursue the subject as a science, and begin at the very foundation and at first principles, it requires all the knowledge and tact and invention of a good teacher to interest and to keep interested, young people in such a study. We are not satisfied, we are even unwilling, that our scholars be merely taught tunes-that a teacher give his time to singing a few melodies, that the scholars shall learn to sing by rote after him-but we want them to lay the foundation of a musical education, that in after life may be built upon, as leisure, talent, choice or necessity may prompt. There was a time in this country, when all that was musical was foreign. The fact holds good and applicable even to the present time to some extent. It would certainly be strange and not very creditable, if we are always going to consider music a foreign luxury, that must necessarily be imported to be relished and appreciated. We are behind other countries, not in musical taste, but in musical knowledge. For in other countries, elementary music forms one of the regular studies of the schools. We acknowledge with satisfaction however, that we are daily applying a remedy to our defect, and we feel that what is now being taught in the public school, will soon make itself felt on the public mind, and foster, extend and direct a love for this heavenly art.
JNO. J. POWER, Chairman Com. on Music.
.
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BULLOCK PRIZES.
BOARD OF JUDGES. Charles A. Chase, George Jaques, Merrick Bemis, M. D., Stephen Salisbury, jr., Rev. Charles F. Kelly.
The committee appointed to make the sixth annual award of the prize medals in the High School, before announcing the names of the successful competitors, beg leave to offer a few remarks suggested by their labors and investigations during the past few months. We entered upon our duties with a deep interest in the school, and a determination to make a thorough examina- tion of the proficiency of the pupils in their several studies. We meant, also, to criticise wherever an oppor- tunity offered ; but opportunities have been few. We found the teachers able, zealous and successful, the schol- ars, as a whole, interested in their studies, and, as far as we could observe, a general good feeling existing between teacher and pupil. But while we are satisfied with the High School as it exists under present circumstances, we still think there is an opportunity to widen its influence and make it an institution of which we can be still more proud. In the first place, it should be remembered that the accommodations for the school are but a trifle better now, when our city has a population of about 30,000 inhabitants, than they were when we were a town of only 10,000 souls. While, therefore, it is evident that some children who ought to be in the High School are not to be found there, we are inclined to believe that the reverse of this is also true. It was an old maxim that bricks could not be made without straw. It would be equally useless to expect the best teachers in the world to make accomplished scholars in four years, out of pupils
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who were but imperfectly acquainted with the primary elements of education. In the lower schools the differ- ence in the mental activity and perceptive faculties of children is plainly manifest. No teacher should en- courage, no parent should desire the child of slow mind to be hurried along at the same pace with the more quick-witted. Dragged over the road at an unnatural pace, tripping at every stone, the former arrives at the end weary and disgusted with the journey, remembering only the obstacles in his path ; while the latter, walking with light foot, leaping gaily over the impediments to his progress, has drunk in, at every step, the beauties of the view, and stored his mind with pictures that will enrich the memory with the most delightful visions. Let the first take the journey more leisurely ; teach him the nature of the difficulties and how they are to be sur- mounted ; give him ample time to admire the view, and though he arrive later at the goal, he will not regret the additional time that he has spent upon the road. At the High School, the final polish is given to the edu- cation of most of its pupils. The four years' course is filled with important studies, and it is the theory of the' school committee, that students who present themselves for admission, are competent to take up the course and go through with it advantageously to themselves. But if the applicant has not a thorough acquaintance with all the preparatory studies, he will not only fail to derive benefit from the course at the High School, if admitted, but will prove an incumbrance to his schoolmates and greatly impair the efficiency of the school. Such a one ought to be refused admittance, and no parent has a right to demand it for him. The law defining the time
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