USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1876 > Part 21
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In the same way the remaining three sides may be explained in succession, and afterwards the rest of the apparatus may be similarly treated.
The multiples of the meter may be represented by cords, with divisions a meter apart, indicated by knots painted black for greater distinctness."
If this apparatus cannot all be supplied at once, the ingenious teacher will be able to obtain portions of it from time to time ; the "School meter" might even be constructed by the older pupils in a school-a work which would leave nothing for them to learn about it afterwards.
To show its simplicity, here is all that essentially belongs to the system.
THE METRIC SYSTEM,
SHOWN IN ONE TABLE,
EXPLAINED ON TWO PAGES
WITH
ONLY FOUR NEW WORDS.
THE NOTATION COMPARED WITH
UNITED STATES MONEY.
COPYRIGHT. ALBERT P. MARBLE, 1877.
39
UNITED STATES MONEY .*
10 equal 1 of the next higher. Eagle, DOLLAR. Dime, (Deci-mal.)
Cent, Mill.
The lowest denomination is placed at the right, as Money and Metric Numbers are written.
METRIC SYSTEM.
Kilo- Hekto-
For the dash - read the UNIT of the Measure, that is, METER, LITER, or GRAM. Long Measure. 10 equal 1 of the next higher. Deka- METER. Deci-
Centi- Milli-
Square Measure. 100 equal 1 of the next higher.
Sq. Kilo- Sq. Hekto- Sq. Deka- SQ. METER. Sq. Deci- Sq. Centi- Sq. Milli-
Cubic Measure.
1000 equal 1 of the next higher.
Cu. Kilo- Cu. Hekto- Cu. Deka- CU. METER. Cu. Deci- Cu. Centi- Cu. Milli ---
Dry or Liquid Measure. 10 equal 1 of the next higher.
Kilo-
Hekto~
Deka-
LITER. Deci-
Centi- Milli-
Weight.
Kilo-
Hekto-
Deka-
10 equal 1 of the next higher. GRAM. Deci-
Centi-
Milli-
* United States Money is introduced for illustration; it is not part of the Metric System.
298
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 31.
Note 1. Values for Reductions-Cubic, to Dry or Liquid Measure and to Weight.
The meter is 39.37 inches-a little more than 1 yard; the deci-meter is about 4 inches.
The liter (leeter) is 1 cu. deci-meter-about 1 quart ; a liter of water weighs 1 kilo-gram-about 21 pounds. The gram is the weight of 1 cu. centi-meter of water-about 1 ounce avoirdupois.
The 5 cent nickel weighs 5 grams.
Note 2. Names now in use.
Meter means measure : as gas-meter, water-meter, thermo-meter.
The names mill, cent, dime, in United States money, correspond to milli, centi, deci, in the Metric System. The eagle might be called the deka-dollar, because it is ten dollars; the dime, a deci-dollar, etc. We have the deka-logue, or 10 commandments .*
Note 3. There are only four new terms in this system :
Hekto-meaning 10 deka-or 100 of the units ; Liter-the unit of capacity, Dry or Liquid ;
Kilo-meaning 10 hekto-or 1000 of the units ; Gram-the unit of weight.
Note 4. How to read Metric Values.
275.46 (dollars) may be read : 27 eagles, 5 dollars, 4 dimes, 6 cents. Practically we say : 275 dollars, 46 cents. Written $275.46.
275.46 (meters) may be read : 2 hekto-meters, 7 deka-meters, 5 meters, 4 deci-meters, 6 centi-meters. Practically we say : 275 meters, 46 centi-meters, and-so-forth. Written 275m46.
Note 5. A few other names may be used,
But they are not essential and should be avoided by beginners.
A myria-meter is 10 kilo-meters ; an ar is 1 sq. deka-meter of land; a ster is 1 cu. meter of fire-wood. A ton is 1000 kilo-grams, or the weight of 1 cu-meter of water; it nearly equals the "long ton."
Note 6. The Spelling and Pronunciation
Is that adopted by the Metric Bureau, Boston, and the American Metrological Society, New York.
* Heka-tomb means a sacrifice of 100 oxen; kili-arch, a commander of 1000 men; and myriad, 10,000-commonly spelled decalogue, hecatomb, chiliarch.
SCHOOLS .- SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
299
-
300
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 31.
.
I DECI - METER
10 CENTI .METERS
100 MILLI-METERS
TO THE LEARNER.
This table is designed to show the extreme simplicity of the Metric Measures and Weights.
It is a peculiarity of the arrangement, that the several denomi- nations stand, in the table, in the same order as in the written numbers of those denominations.
In all the Measures-money, length, surface, solidity, capacity and weight-the UNITS stand in the same vertical column; and so of each division, deci-(76), centi-(Tdv), milli-(Tobr), and of each multiple, deka-(10), hekto-(100), kilo-(1000).
Values in the Metric System, as in United States money, are written like ordinary numbers in the Arabic Notation, thus :
-
-
Hekto
Deka
Meter (m) Deci
Centi
Milli
Kilo-liter
Hekto -
Deka
Liter (1)
Deci
Centi
Milli
Kilo-gram
Hekto -
Deka
Gram (g)
Deci Centi
Milli
2
3 5
6.4 7
8
2
3
5 6.4 7 8
2
5 6. 4 8
read
read
read
m
2
2356478
2 356478
and for heavy goods 2.356 kilo.
Eagle.
Dollar ($)
Dime.
Cent. 7 co Mill.
2356.
read
$2356.478
-
2 3 5 6 4 7 8
Kilo-meter
301
SCHOOLS .- SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
IN CLOSING.
This hasty review of the schools for the year 1876, does not describe the regular work that has been done in the school room day after day. In no recent year perhaps has this work been conducted with less interruption, or with more success. The statistics show that more than six-thousand-five-hundred children have been in school every day ; statistics do not show the impres- sion made on these children, by the faithful daily work of more than one hundred and fifty teachers.
The amount of money expended for schools, is made the sub- ject 'of comment, and paraded, on various occasions, in forms more or less correct, and for all sorts of purposes. But only a few of those who make the most talk appreciate what the schools really are, or what it must cost to carry them on successfully ; it is not uncommon to hear the course of study, adopted by this committee, roundly criticised by ;those who, palpably, do not know the difference between arithmetic and algebra. Equally unintelligent criticisms are frequently made upon the financial management of the committee.
It is believed that parents, in this city, desire for their children schools as good as the best in this commonwealth. They, in common with all good citizens, wish these schools to be conducted with prudent economy ; but they are not willing, as a general thing, to have their children exposed to tyros in the art of teach- ing; and skillful teachers cost more than tyros.
The difference between ordinary teaching and the best, is hardly ever fully appreciated by those most familiar with both ; and by many it is not appreciated at all. Suppose that our teachers reach an average of excellence, as high as that in the most fortunate city in the land ; suppose, now, that all the teach- ing in some one study, arithmetic for example, were to be done by the most accomplished master of that subject, instead of by the regular teacher ; it is not too much to say, that the children could, in one term, learn all which they now acquire in a year. The same is true of each of the other school-studies.
Teachers of this ideal kind are rare; and in proportion as they approximate to that standard they will command larger
302
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 31.
salaries. Such ideal teachers, at four times the ordinary salary, would be cheaper, because three-fourths of the pupil's time, three-fourths of the fuel, and three-fourths of the cost of school- houses, would be saved. Each fourth of the school-children might then attend school in the four successive terms of the year. What a commotion this proposition would make if put in practice-a school master at $8,000 per year! and a Primary school-mistress at $4,000 ! Let no one suppose that this practice is advocated; there is no danger that it will be adopted. Is this proposition so preposterous after all, if teachers so skillful could be found ? Railroads not unfrequently pay their officers $5,000, $10,000 or even $25,000 per annum; Insurance com- panies are sometimes conducted by men whose skill commands $15,000 or $20,000 per year; and some of them claim to earn a dollar for themselves, occasionally, besides. In these cases the directors think it profitable to employ such men. What serious consequence to the public purse would have followed, if any one of them had turned his great talent to school-teaching ! Is it true, that forty miles of railroad require more skill or more talent in its manager, than four hundred school-children require in their teacher ? Ought the insurance of our houses and our cattle against fire, to be conducted with more skill, than the insurance of our children, in school, against the untold evils inseparable from untrained minds.
It is often suggested that cheaper teachers can be found. Would it be wiser to set up at auction, the care of our children, to be assumed by the lowest bidder, than to put the cheapest men in care of our insurance, our railroads and our banks ?
Paupers are no longer " bid off" for the year in town or city ; are we ready to go back to that plan with school-children ?
It is gratifying to note that, in all the recent talk about schools, there has been very little, or nothing at all, said against the schools themselves. The quiet and effective discipline, the steady progress of the pupils, and the quite general satisfaction of the parents-who may be trusted to make known any real grievance-do not afford an inviting field. It is by no means claimed that these schools are above criticism ; and whatever they are now, without constant care and effort of efficient teachers,
303
SCHOOLS .- SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
day by day, they will inevitably depreciate. In the wise words of the Mayor, therefore, "a too settled conviction of our superi- ority in this respect may, in time, lead to laxity and abuse."
It is true also that the largest expenditure does not always secure the best schools; but most of us prefer flour which we buy at ten dollars to that sold for seven dollars.
To the members of the School Board, to the teachers and pupils in our schools, and to the public generally, with whom official duty has associated me, it is pleasant again to return thanks for uniform courtesy and generous consideration.
Respectfully submitted.
ALBERT P. MARBLE,
Superintendent of Schools.
WORCESTER, Dec., 1876.
APPENDIX.
HISTORICAL SKETCH
OF
PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN WORCESTER.
IN the earliest days of our colonial history, education was a matter of public interest ; and each parent or guardian who did not send his child to school was subjected to a fine of twenty shillings "for each neglect therein." [See law of June 14, 1642.]
A few years later it was made the duty of each town of "fifty house- houlders " to maintain a public school ; and of each town of one hund- red families or householders to "set up a Grammar School," corres- ponding to the High School of to-day. [See Mass. Col. Records, vol. 2, p. 203, Nov. 11, 1647.]
Under our constitution it is made "the duty of Legislatures and magistrates, in all future periods of this Commonwealth, to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries of them," etc., and by Art. XVIII of the amendments, no moneys raised by taxation for the support of public schools, shall be appropriated to any religious sect for the maintenance of its own school. From the beginning of the Commonwealth twenty-two years after the landing at Plymouth, to the present day, public schools for all the people, supported by tax have been the invariable rule.
Soon after the settlements were made on the coast, the early colo- nists found their way up the Connecticut river, and settled its fertile valley. The two-days-journey over land from Salem, Boston, and Plymouth to this new settlement in the interior, the west as it might then have been called, began soon to be made; and thus sprang up the first settlement at Worcester, the half-way place, on the beautiful shores of Lake Quinsigamond or by the then clear stream of the Blackstone.
40
306
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 31.
In the very first days of this stage-town, it is not probable that much attention was paid to education ; but as the settlement grew the inhabitants must have attended to the support of the school-master as they did to that of the minister, for the laws of the colony required it.
There is no record of any public action about schools, under the pro- prietary government of the place, and previous to the incorporation of the town in 1722. What was done in the matter at that early day, must be left to conjecture.
The following notes from the records of the town and the files of the newspapers of the day, aim to give in chronological order the action of the town relating to schools. They have been condensed from notes made by William Lincoln, now in possession of the American Antiquarian Society, and from the files of the Worcester Spy.
In publishing these notes, we follow the example of the City Coun- cil in publishing an interesting historical sketch, in connection with the account of the celebration, July 4, 1876; and we join in the almost uni- versal response to the proclamation of the President of the United States, calling for such publications by cities and towns in the Centennial year.
The following contribution of comments on these extracts has been generously made by a member of the School Committee :
The existing school system of Massachusetts is a growth. As Sir James Macintosh said of the Constitution of England, so also may or rather must we say of our school system ; it was not made but grew. There were scholars, that is, children needing and receiving instruction in the colony of Massachusetts Bay before even the earliest enactment of the legislature. Nearly all the leading features of the system were customs before they were law. Even a very cursory perusal of the accompanying excerpts, will make this very apparent ; without attempt- ing to point out in detail the full growth of the system, let us note a few of the more salient points of it as illustrated by the records of the town of Worcester.
SCHOOL DISTRICTS.
It was not till the year 1789, that school districts were so much as mentioned in any formal enactment. The act of that year was not merely a revision of former acts, it included also a recognition of the then existing customs. Compare the vote of the town of Worcester under date April 23, 1730, reciting "that whereas many small children cannot attend the school in the centre of the town, by reason of the remoteness of their dwellings, &c.," and therefore locating "the school dames" in the several parts of the town, with the preamble of ยง2 of this act of 1789; " Whereas by reason of the dispersed situation of
307
SCHOOLS. - HISTORICAL SKETCH.
the inhabitants of &c., the children and youth cannot be collected in any one place for their instruction &c.," wherefore towns are authorized to define the limits of school-districts. Thus does the very first act that mentions school-districts recognize them as already existing. In the records of Worcester, school-districts are spoken of under the names of skirts, quarters, rows, divisions and squadrons.
By the act of 1817, ch. 14, districts were made corporations with power to sue and be sued, and to hold real and personal estate. But this act was merely declaratory of existing law. In a suit brought three years before by the Inhabitants of the Fourth School District in the town of Rumford in the district of Maine, then a part of this commonwealth, against one Wood upon his contract to build for them a school-house, the supreme court had held that the plaintiffs had sufficient corporate power to maintain the suit. [13 Mass. Reports, 194]. Thus had school-districts grown into corporations before they were incorporated.
THE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN AS TEACHERS.
The vote of the town of Worcester, above referred to, is also of special interest as proof of the employment of women as teachers long before such employment was considered legal. Said Gov. Bullock in his address, last summer, at Holyoke, on the Centennial situation of woman :-
"For some years after the adoption of the Constitution, women were ineligible to the office of teachers, and, if permitted to perform its duties they could not I believe by process of law collect their salary."
The school laws of both the colony of Plymouth and the colony and province of Massachusetts Bay required the towns to employ and pay school-masters, and doubtless it was upon the exclusive use of this term in the laws that the notion was based, that women if employed to teach the public schools could not have the aid of legal process to col- lect their pay. That it was the common professional opinion as well as the current popular belief is beyond dispute; and not unlikely it was supported by judicial decisions, though I am not aware that any authentic report of such has come to our time.
At the time of the vote of Worcester to employ five gentlewomen as school-dames, the town had less than one hundred householders, and according to the law then in force was required to be " provided of one school master to keep school for six months in each year." This school which was sometimes located "in ye centre " and sometimes " a mov- ing school into ye several quarters," was chiefly attended by the older children. The title of a new teacher to be school-master was not unfrequently challenged by the big boys, and if unable to vindicate it by physical force, he was liable to be carried out and dueked in a snow- drift. The idea of a woman's being able to master such a school was too absurd to be thought of; men that could do it were not to be met with every day, and a president of the United States in posse might be more easily found than a school-master in esse.
In 1755-6, John Ad uns, then a young man studying his profession, was employed to keep a school in Worcester-centre ; and though his
308
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 31.
capacity to fill divers high places including the highest in the country is questionless, his ability to keep or at any rate to master this school, if tradition is to be believed, was stoutly disputed by his scholars and remained an open question all winter. It is a familiar story in the family of the writer's wife, handed down from one of her ancestors who was one of master Adams's scholars, though too young at the time to be a participator in the affair, that on one occasion the big boys actually carried the master out and barely failed of final victory over him on the very margin of the intended snow-drift by reason of his happen- ing to seize hold, as he was dragged along, of a stray stick from the woodpile wherewith he laid about him so lustily that the young rascals were fain to desist. That the like never happened in the dames' schools was thought to be due to their having to do only with small children.
The "some years after the adoption of the Constitution " (which was in 1780), was until the act of 1789, in which, as before stated, was included a recognition of existing customs as well as of the express provisions of provincial and colonial legislation. The ninth section of this act is a specimen illustration of the negative way in which the rights of women have usually received legislative recognition. Read it.
" And whereas schools for the education of children in the most early stages of life may be kept in towns, districts and plantations, which schools are not more particularly prescribed in this act, &c. Be it enacted that no person shall be allowed to keep such school or to be master or mistress of the same unless he or she shall first obtain a certificate, &c." That is to say, cutting short circumlocution, a certificate of qualification and character from the proper authorities. The phrase "no person shall," &c., negativum pregnans was under- stood to mean more than it said. People read it (lawyers and judges apparently approving or at any rate not appearing to disapprove) as if it had said,
Any person duly certified by the selectmen and a learned minister as to the sobriety of her life and conversation and as to her educational qualifications may have the aid of legal process to compel her employ- ers to pay her.
Nay even people went much farther than this and acted as if the statute had authorized such duly certified person, without regard to sex, to keep any of the public schools prescribed in other sections of the act. The terms "children in the most early stages of life" was liberally construed and no question appears to have been raised about the legali- ty of the employment of women as teachers after the passage of this act. No change was made in the law till the next revision of the school laws in Mr. Burnside's act of 1827, hereafter referred to. The idea, too absurd to be thought of, has been thought of, subjected to crucial test and found to be sound and practicable. Ability to keep school does not depend on physical force. The profession of teaching, so far as the public schools are concerned, has been substantially surrended to women, than which according to Gov. Bullock, nothing in the methods of social progress is more propitious. But my purpose here is merely to point out how the first stages towards this surrender were taken, not only in advance of legal enactments but even in spite of them.
309
SCHOOLS .- HISTORICAL SKETCH.
SCHOOL COMMITTEES.
It is interesting to trace the growth of that part of our school system, whereby jurisdiction over schools and education was taken out of the hands of the selectmen of towns and municipal officers of cities, and vested in a separate and independent board of officers, called the school committee. It appears in the very earliest town records of Worcester (and doubtless the same thing would appear from the examination of the records of other towns), that not unfrequently special committees were appointed to employ teachers, and perform other duties relating to schools. The services performed by these committees were probably little more than prudential. It was the custom for the ministers of the towns to examine into the education- al qualifications of teachers and to visit and inspect the schools. And this they did, not under any formal appointment or election of the town, but by virtue of a sort of informal selection by public opinion, as being the fittest persons to perform those responsible functions. The province law of 1701, in order to secure a more impar- tial administration of the minister's duty to examine teachers, forbade him to act as school-master himself, and required every grammar master to be examined by the ministers of the town, and of the next two adjoining towns. The codifying act of 1789 before referred to, declared it to be the duty of the ministers of the gospel and the select- men of towns or such other persons as shall be specially chosen for that purpose, to endeavor that youth regularly attend the schools, and to visit and inspect the same. Manifestly the school committee was growing.
The first act that required towns and cities to elect School Com- mittees and ousted all other officers and persons of all control over schools, was passed March 10, 1826. The history of this act has a con- nection with the Centre School-District of Worcester, specially deserv- ing of notice here.
In 1823, a committee, of which Samuel M. Burnside was chairman, was appointed at a school meeting of the district to report upon the general concerns of said district. The report of this committee, which is still on file in the office of the Superintendent of Schools of the City of Worcester, and which was published in an appendix to the Worcester School report for 1872, contains, besides other recom- mendations of importance, the following :
In the third place, Your Committee recommend, that a board of twelve over- seers be chosen annually by ballot, whose duty it shall be, in conjunction with the Selectmen, to determine upon the qualifications of instructors and to con- tract with them for their services ;- to determine upon the attainments of scholars, to be admitted into said Schools respectively :- to prescribe the course of instruction therein, and all necessary rules and regulations for the government thereof ;- to determine upon all complaints of instructors, of parents or of scholars, which may arise in relation to said schools, or either of them :- to visit and examine said schools respectively, at stated periods during the year ;- to encourage, in every suitable manner, both instructors and scholars in the performance of their relative duties; and to make a report in writing annually to the District, of the condition of said Schools during the period of their office.
310
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 31.
The recommendations of the report were adopted. The duties of the Overseers of Schools of the Centre District of Worcester were iden- tical with those of the modern school committees. Mr. Burnside's associates on the committee, who reported on the general concerns of the district, were Aaron Bancroft, Jonathan Going. Levi Lincoln, Otis Corbett, and Samuel Jennison. The first board of overseers included all the members of the committee except Mr. Jennison, with Aretius B. Hull, Laommi Ives Hoadley, John Davis, Theophilus Wheeler, Enoch Flagg, Benjamin Chapin, and Frederick W. Paine. In accordance with other recommendations of the report the schools of the district were graded and special authority was obtained from the legislature, act of Jan. 17, 1824, [see Laws and ordinances of the City of Worces- ter, pp. 16 and 17, ed. 1867], to raise money by assessment of the in- habitants of the district. Under the supervision of the Overseers, the schools rapidly advanced to that position and degree of excellence which the schools of Worcester have ever since maintained. The report of Mr. Burnside's committee in its consequences, which probably were not wholly foreseen at the time, is one of the most important facts in the school history of Massachusetts, and deserves to be litho- graphed and hung up in every school room in the commonwealth, although Mr. Horace Mann, in one of his philippics against the school- district system, pronounced the special power granted to the Worces- ter Centre District by the legislature, in the act above referred to, a local aggravation of the chief vice of a most vicious system.
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