Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1875, Part 19

Author: Worcester (Mass.)
Publication date: 1875
Publisher: The City
Number of Pages: 490


USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1875 > Part 19


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Statistics show that insanity is increasing at a fearful rate among business men; and the cause is found in the incessant application and ceaseless cares which they are obliged to endure in the hurry for wealth. Europeans, we are told, spend more time in recreation and holidays ; and we in this country must do the same, it is said, or go to ruin. Is it better that our people should find recreation in bull-fights and cock-fights like the inhabitants of Spain and Mexico, or even in the exciting and


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unnatural scenes of the drama ; or is it better that our children should be so taught that they may see and find rational enjoy- ment in the beauty which nature has spread about them with lavish hand? It is not difficult to decide which of these two sorts of recreation will most contribute to the making of good citizens, which it is the object of public schools to produce.


MUSIC


too is one of the studies pursued in our schools objected to as " ornamental." A few thousand dollars are expended annually in giving instruction in this branch of study to about one-eighth of our population-from fifty to seventy-five cents apiece reck- oning, as in drawing, the cost of the special teacher and a fair proportion of the other expenses of the schools; and who can doubt that this small outlay is more than justified in the greater capacity for enjoyment among the thousands of children growing up here, and the consequent elevation in the moral tone of the community ? Let any doubter compare, if he is able, the ex- . quisite satisfaction and the humanizing influence of a single performance of Thomas' Orchestra, which could be appreciated by none but a cultivated community, with the brutal gratification and the demoralizing tendency of the Spanish arena !


No extravagant expenditure, let it be observed, is here advo- cated for this or any other branch of study ; but it is claimed that the small sum appropriated for instruction in drawing and music, is not applied to a less useful and necessary object than the amount expended in teaching arithmetic and grammar ; even an elegant use of English and scientific accuracy in accounts, might with equal propriety be decried as " ornamental." If a sincere desire for liberal culture-and to this these studies tend-had grown up in this country in the place of avarice, men would not have been so often swept onward to forgery and fraud.


THE FINANCIAL ASPECT.


The recent depression in business has called public attention to the heavy municipal and State debts and the burdensome taxes.


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In looking for an opportunity to retrench, the eye is at once attracted to the amount spent yearly for schools. The conclu- sion is natural to those not well informed of the facts, that a reduction should first be made from the largest expenditure. It is our duty to make known the facts.


What created the debts ? Not the schools. The amount ex- pended for schools has been paid by taxes each year. If extravagant school houses have been erected, it was not done by the school authorities, but by the towns themselves or the city councils.


In a neighboring city, of seventeen thousand inhabitants, re- joicing in a new charter, water-works have been constructed large enough to supply a city of one hundred thousand people ; bridges, halls, streets, sewers, etc., have been built on the same scale. Thus the debt was created. Alarmed at its magnitude, the people first demanded, of course, a large reduction in the cost of schools ; but upon investigation it was found that if the other branches of the city government had been conducted like the schools, the present exigency would not have arisen ; and they concluded not to cripple the usefulness of the schools to the permanent injury of their children. The same may be true in other cities.


The cost of schools is increased by the very causes that reduce expenses elsewhere. Business is dull; laborers are plenty ; wages, low. The markets are glutted; trade is light; mer- chandise, cheap. All this diminishes the cost of carrying on every other department of public affairs ; but children out of work go to school. The attendance was larger by more than three hundred the last term of the present year than for the corresponding term last year; and the demand for teachers is consequently greater instead of less.


The salaries of teachers in this city have always been low in comparison with other cities of its size and wealth, and the work required of them. From time to time those among the best have been called away by larger salaries ; and not a few have refused a larger salary elsewhere in order to remain near their friends from either necessity or choice. To make a general


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reduction in the salaries would deprive us of some of the best teachers, and work injustice to ot ers.


These salaries are not large in proportion to the wages of other employés. A gentleman here keeps two fine horses, and pays the groom $600 a year to take care of them. A multitude of men are ready to do the work for $300, but he dares not trust his fine animals in unskilful or untried hands. On the adjoining lot is a school of fifty children whose training for a year-at the most impressible period of their lives-is intrusted to a teacher whose yearly salary is $500. This lady has spent years in pre- paration for her work, either in the High School or Normal School, or in previous teaching. Are these children less dear to their parents than the gentleman's horse is to him? Does their proper training require less skill; is the teacher's salary high in proportion to the pay of the other; and shall the people's agents secure inferior training for the children, when the people themselves will not trust fine horses to inferior grooms ? Let the parents make answer.


In the matter of school-houses, it has been suggested, if not in salaries, the school committee may have been extravagant. In the first place, the committee have no discretion on this subject except to point out the need of more accommodations and to approve the plans of the proposed house when submitted to them ; with the manner of finishing, whether costly or cheap, they have nothing to do. In the second place, excepting the High School house, which is elegant, no school house in the city is in the least extravagant except for its general cheapness, and the use of stoves to save the cost of furnaces or steam. In the report of our schools for the year 1869 it was remarked, as gentlemen visiting us have observed, that " you will search the country in vain for a city which has, in the space of five years, furnished more numerous, more comfortable, and more inexpen- sive school sittings, than has this city."


It is better, as has been done here, to provide good teachers for the children than to furnish elegant houses ; but since there is an impression that the houses have perhaps cost too much, a comparison is in order. Passing up Beacon street a stranger


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inquired what beautiful school house stood on the corner of La Grange street. He learned that no such fine architecture and finish is to be found in any Grammar school house, as in the house of Fire Engine No. 2. On John street is the house of the Babcock Extinguisher, with its varnished walls, its baths, its hall and other appurtenances, certainly not inferior to those of the Dix street school near by. Nobody would furnish less for the firemen; nobody should object, if the children were cared for as well.


The rate of increase in the cost of schools while the city was grow- ing in wealth and population, from 1850 to 1874, has been much less than in the ordinary expenses of the other departments of the city government, as appears in a table further on. It is as follows :-


From 1850 to 1860, Schools . . 76. Other City Expenses 106.


1860 to 1870, .


. 259. 66 60 625.


1870 to 1874, . . 23.


32.


The actual cost of the schools, including ordinary repairs, was less in 1875 than in 1874, by $2,399.68, while the number belonging to the schools and the daily attendance was larger.


The total expenditure was greater by $4,176.26 because nearly nine thousand dollars was expended in permanent repairs and new furniture ; about one thousand dollars was paid for rent that properly belongs to the charges for maintaining a City Hall ; and sixteen hundred and fifty-two dollars paid in 1874 from the income of the State school fund, by a change in the law was not received in 1875.


Are we spending too much money for schools ? No doubt we are, remarked a gentleman whose annual tax is $1,200. He has not visited one of these schools for ten years; he is not acquainted with a single teacher, and knows nothing of the value of their services ; he has never sent a child to the public school. His only daughter was educated in private schools for the twelve years more or less, of her school life, at an average yearly cost of $200. At this rate the public schools would have cost, the past year, $1,433,000 instead of one-tenth of that amount. Another


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gentleman whose tax is about twice as large, has a daughter who was educated in the public schools at an average yearly cost of about twenty dollars, and while in the High School of fifty-four dollars ; there is no evidence that her education is inferior to that of the first gentleman's daughter. Here is a saving of two thousand dollars, a large part of which would have been sent out of the city but for our public schools. There are hundreds of such cases. ' In one of our schools, a few years since, a dozen pupils could be counted representing more than a million dollars. By maintaining a high degree of excellence in our schools -- and this cannot be done by any penny-wise policy-all classes find it for their interest to patronize them, and floods of money are saved. It is possible that close inspection might lead the gentle- man quoted above to modify his opinion.


It is by no means certain that any or all of these considera- tions will affect those men, if such there be, who cannot look beyond the $143,355.05 which the schools have cost; but we do hope that all good citizens, interested in the real prosperity of the city, may be led to take more interest in these schools, and while encouraging no needless or extravagant expense, that they may give countenance to a wise liberality in the support of a system of schools whose whole aim and influence is so beneficent.


GRADATION OF SALARIES.


Minimum $500; Medium $550; Maximum $650.


As pointed out in the report for the year 1874, a new rule was adopted in May of that year for fixing salaries of assistant teachers, in schools below the High School, by length of service and real success in teaching, instead of by grades. The effect of the rule, when fully carried out, is not to increase the aggregate of salaries, but to raise those of teachers of superior merit, and to retain at a lower point those of inexperienced or only moderate teachers. The salaries of five teachers have been fixed at the maximum, as appears from the following


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REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON TEACHERS.


" Under the Rules, Chap. III, Sec. 4, it is made 'the duty of this committee to inspect the qualifications of any teacher in respect to the following particu- lars : 1st, Successful experience ; 2d, Scholarship; 3d, Ability to interest and instruct pupils ; 4th, Executive tact ; 5th, Health.'


After this inspection has continued through a period of six months, a report may be made, certifying that the teacher in question has been so ex- amined and is, in the opinion of the committee, worthy of the maximum salary. In case a similar report be made concerning the teacher at least six months after the date of the first, the board may fix the salary at the maximum. In accordance with the provisions of this rule, the committee have thoroughly inspected some of the teachers, and partially inspected a great many others. At the meeting of this board, July 6th, the first report was made relative to eleven of the teachers examined. The second report is now submitted upon five of those eleven; these reports are signed by the several members of this committee who visited the teachers in question, and their salaries may now, under the rule, be fixed at the maximum.


We wish to remark that, of the remaining six from those named in the first report, the inspection has not yet been completed; and of the others, partially examined, in some cases the committee will not recommend them for the maximum ; while in other cases the question is still undecided.


The rule was made upon the assumption that teachers ought to be paid according to merit and not by grades; and the further assumption that it is possible for a committee-three of whom are always to be members from the previous year, and who are assigned to this duty only-to decide upon the relative merits of these teachers. Whether this can be done remains to be seen. There are indications that it can be done. The committee has, during the past year, made many hundred visits; the result of each inspection has been reported in the meetings of the committee and carefully recorded. Each member forms an independent opinion; and at the end of the six months the results are compared and a decision is reached in each case. No such thorough examination of the relative merit of teachers could have been made before. Each member of the board is assigned as special committee to some half-a-dozen schools; and though generally changed each year to other schools, he rarely sees any except those to which he is assigned-almost never any considerable part of them. Thus it happened that only. the Superintend- ent was familiar with all the schools. ' By this rule, if nothing more is gained, a whole committee takes into view the whole corps of teachers. They can help at the annual election in weeding out such as may be incompetent, and in encouraging the excellent."


This report was adopted early in the year 1876.


The ground here taken, that skill and not grade merely ought to determine the salary of a teacher, is not only eminently rea- sonable but has the endorsement of the best educators. In his


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recently published book on The True Order of Studies, Dr. Thomas Hill, late President of Harvard University, says :


" Nevertheless the education of the first years of life is, in many respects, more important than any which follows. There can be no doubt that early impressions are very deep, and exert great power over the subsequent life, physical, intellectual and moral. Every observer knows the difficulty of cor- recting the moral habits of a spoiled child. The difficulty of correcting his intellectual habits, although less apparent, is as real. For this reason, I have endeavored to persuade the school committees with which I have been con- nected, to secure the highest talent and pay the highest wages in schools for the youngest pupils ; convinced that this would, in the end, most truly elevate the character of the whole community."


This opinion is becoming universal among those who have considered the subject.


THE HIGH SCHOOL.


In describing the school system of the city for the year, there is no reason for making special reference to this one of the Com- mon schools, except that standing as it does at the head of the system, its pupils, unlike those of any other school, come from all parts of the city ; and here, to quote the late Mayor Blake, is seen the perfect fruit of the educational tree. The custom of thus singling out the High School, and of making for it the special provisions which its rank at the head of the system makes necessary, has led to a wide-spread misapprehension of what such a school is ; and even the propriety of maintaining it at the public charge has of late been called in question by an eminent scholar. In the discussion of various questions relating to public schools, also, the common schools and the High School are often loosely spoken of as if the latter were not a part of the former. The term common schools, if it has' any specific meaning, must be synonymous with public schools, or those supported by a general tax for the benefit of the whole community.


What then is a High . School ? It is claimed by some that this is a school of a different order from the others; that it ought to have a high standard of admission, independent of what


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may be the course of study and training in the lower schools ; that its object should be high culture in distinction from the mere drill expected, as it is assumed, in the schools of lower grade; and that its privileges only pupils of superior ability should enjoy. If this claim be admitted, the next position which the claimants often take is easily carried, viz: that it is not right to maintain this exclusive institution by public tax. The High School is


THE HIGHEST GRADE


in the system of public schools. The rank of these schools, the standard of admission, and what they attempt, is not at all uni- form even in this State; much less throughout the country. What may be said of the High School in Boston or Cambridge, may not be true of the one in Worcester or in Grafton. The law of this State does indeed require that


" Every town may, and every town containing five hundred families or householders, shall maintain a school to be kept by a master of com- petent ability and good morals, who, in addition to the branches of learn- ing before mentioned, shall give instruction in general history, book-keeping, surveying, geometry, natural philosophy, chemistry, botany, the civil polity of this Commonwealth and of the United States, and the Latin language ; for the benefit of all the inhabitants of the town. And in every town contain- ing four thousand inhabitants, the teacher shall be competent to give instruction in the Greek and French languages, astronomy, geology, rhetoric, logic, intellectual and moral science and political economy."


But to what extent pupils will seek this instruction depends almost entirely upon the character of the schools below. Hence in practice the High School is only the upper round in the lad- der ; and high is only a relative term when applied to a public school.


THIS IS ITS POSITION HISTORICALLY,


as appears in the law of 1647, establishing public schools which has never been repealed except to be re-enacted in a different . form :


"And it is further ordered, that where any towne shall increase to the num- ber of 100 families or householders, they shall set up a grammar school, the


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master thereof being able to instruct youth so farr as they may be fited for the university ; provided, that if any towne neglect the performance hereof above one yeare every such towne shall pay 5s to the next schoole till they shall per- form this order."


WHY ABOLISH THE FREE HIGH SCHOOL


after it has been maintained continuously nearly two hundred and fifty years ? The arguments for such an innovation were set forth in the Atlantic Monthly for June, 1875. They are these:


It is not unreasonable that the community should bear the whole cost of giving all children that amount of elementary training [reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, etc.] on the ground that so much is necessary to the state. It is by no means necessary to do this. Above this limit education is continued by the voluntary act of the child's parents, and since the benefit accrues partly to the State, and partly to the individual, he should pay a part of the cost. The free school, devised for a homo- geneous community, was at its origin, a common want, and was supported by common sacrifices ; and this description no longer applies to Massachusetts cities and towns. A large part of the population pays no taxes, casts no votes and makes no contribu- tion whatever to the cost of educating their children, even when that education is carried far above the compulsory limit. There is no distinction in theory between giving all school-children their books [and the higher education] at the public expense, and in giving the children their shoes and their parents soup at the public charge. Bright children of very poor people may be carried further [in their education] at the public charge as a reward of merit.


WHY IT SHOULD NOT BE ABOLISHED.


If there is one thing settled beyond dispute in the history of this country, it is that popular education is a necessity, to be pro- vided for by the State-that is the sovereign people-as really as the police, or any other concern about which the functions of government are exercised. In every period of our history, in the Farewell Address of Washington, and in the National and


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State constitutions and the laws, this principle is recognized. The experience of other nations has shown that education "generally diffused among the people " can not be secured in any way but through the action of government; and in more than one country a system of public schools similar to ours has recently been established. It cannot be said, therefore, that ele- mentary education at the public charge is unnecessary, especially in a republic like ours. It is also just as necessary for the prosperity of a community that some of its citizens be well and even highly educated, as that all should be taught something ; hence the higher education as well as the elementary, should be secured by public action. , Now, it is said that this ad- vanced training is a greater benefit to the individual than to the community. · This is doubtful when we contemplate a com- munity entirely destitute of educated men ; but if true, the same is not less true of the elementary education; hence the cost of that also ought to be paid by the individual, and free schools aban- doned; and this is the conclusion, the Q. E. D., to which the logic of the opponents of high schools leads.


Though the free school system may have been devised for a homogeneous community, it is not less but rather more necessary, in a population very heterogeneous where each male citizen twenty-one years old, has a ballot.


It is still a common want and supported by common sacrifices ; for there is no considera- ble portion of the population who pay no taxes, and all aid in the support of schools to a larger or smaller amount, just as all are entitled to vote. Suppose there are those who are honest and too poor to pay any tax ; should their children be deprived of all education, or of the higher ? If the parents are dishonest, all the more necessity, in the interest of the community, that the children should be well trained. Will any one advocate the doctrine that a man's right to the privileges of education is in proportion to the amount of his taxes, and that a boy has a right to be educated only when his father is rich ? So it appears. But such is not the genius of our institutions. The poor boy does not receive his education as a charity, but as a right ; if he happens to be bright he is not now pushed forward through the classes as a superior kind of


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· pauper ; and in our public schools there are none of the de- moralizing effects said to flow with public soup.


By law the rights of property are secured; and the same law recognizes the principle that the property of the State should educate the children of the State. The man who has reared a family of honest children, at great expense, is not obliged to see them grow up in ignorance if he will make the sacrifice, which is not inconsiderable, of supporting them while they remain in school ; and he has contributed to the welfare of the community not less than his neighbor who has, in the same time, amassed a fortune.


Such being the status of a child with respect to education, why should the higher be denied to all whose parents are not able to pay for it, or who cannot themselves earn it by superior merit ? The sentiments quoted above against the higher education, were not entertained by the early presidents of the most venerable institution of learning in our State; and the changes in our population, from immigration and other causes, only render the diffusion of intelligence the more imperative. Nor were those views held by that sturdy old democrat, Thomas Jefferson, as appears in this language of his :-


* whence it becomes expedient for promoting the public happi- ness, that those persons whom nature hath endowed with genius and virtue should be rendered, by liberal education, worthy to receive, and able to guard the sacred deposit of the rights and liberties of their fellow-citizens, and that they should be called to the charge without regard to wealth, birth, or other accidental condition or circumstance. But the indigence of the greater num- ber, disabling them from so educating at their own expense those of their children whom nature hath fitly formed and disposed to become useful instru- ments of the public; it is better that such should be sought for and educated at the common expense of all, than that the happiness of all should be confided to the weak or the wicked."




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