USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1879 > Part 11
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English Grammar; Geography; History, United States and General; School Hygiene; Psychology; Civil Government ; Drawing; Music; Reading; Spelling; Writing. Many of the candidates, sometimes one-half or two-thirds, are graduates of the State Normal school ; but any person of equal attainments has an equal chance with them. There is, indeed, no discrimi- nation against Normal school graduates, and there is none in their favor. The teachers of those schools especially desire that their graduates should stand on merit alone; and this they are quite able to do.
The selection of teachers is the most important of school work. On them depends the character of the schools. They need not merely learning, but acquaintance with the art of teaching, which experience and professional training give, and tact, which comes largely by nature-though in this, even, nature can be reinforced by study, observation and experience. This second step forward, it is confidently expected will improve the character of our teaching.
SUPLEMENTARY READING.
As early as 1873, it was observed here that pupils, in the lower grades especially, were able to read well in the reading-book for the grade, but not so well in other books of about the same character. This inequality was the result of drill in one book only. They learned to read a particular book, yet they did not learn to read. There had been a custom of having an annual display of the schools, mis-called an examination. The parents came in in large numbers; the children appeared in holiday dresses ; the exercises, previously prepared, went off with glib- ness. This plan had its uses and its day. The parents and friends of the children were attracted by a free entertainment, and they went into the school room at least once a year, in large numbers. But all the good that could come from this kind of entertainments had been secured; it was no longer useful and it was abandoned ten years ago. One of its bad effects was, that much time was spent during the year in pre- paring for the display, instead of in the legitimate work of
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education ; another, that teachers disliked to send to an ad- vanced grade, the pupils whom they had spent a large part of the year in drilling ; another that the tendency was towards too much drill in everything, and especially in reading; for ability to read well in any part of "the book," came to be regarded as the legitimate test of the thoroughness of the teaching; whereas, in fact, the only true test is the ability to read any thing, of similar grade, and within the pupils' apprehension. All annual and stated parades having been discontinued, as a substitute, it is enjoined upon each teacher to induce the pupils to persuade their parents to make frequent and informal visits to the school, and see the regular daily work; and to secure good reading in place of mere drill. The Superintendent at that early day was authorized to buy sets of the Nursery, a childs' periodical magazine, to be used by one teacher and then passed to another. For grades Four and Five, sets of the St. Nicholas Magazine were subsequently bought and used in a similar way. These periodicals circulated through the Superintendent's office, after the manner of a book club, have been fruitful of good results. This plan has been continued with these and other books, more or less, ever since. It has now become the custom in all good schools, to supply such extra reading; and to supply the demand, numerous periodicals and books of stories, suited to every capacity, have been published. They engage the interest and the attention of pupils, and cultivate a correct taste.
The plan here hinted at for the lower grades, has also been adopted in the higher. The last purchase for grades Eight and Nine is Selections from American Authors, by Samuel Eliot, and Boys of '76, by C. C. Coffin,-the latter a spirited account of the American revolution, well calculated to awaken an interest in American History. Hudson's Classical English Reader, and Hudson's Text-Book of Prose, have recently been introduced into the High school, for a similar purpose. Higgin- son's History of the United States is so used in the Grammar and the High school. Among the latest juvenile books of this class, are Little Folk's Reader, Six Popular Tales, First
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series and second series ; Six Stories from the Arabian Nights ; and Poetry for Children.
A list of books so supplied to teachers will be found in an appendix to this report. In several of the schools the teachers have inquired into the habits of reading of their pupils, and aided them in making good selections. Measures have been taken to give all, the benefit of the experience of each in this important direction.
Thus, several good results are sought with promise of attain- ment. Good reading is secured by placing before children that which interests them. Good taste in reading is cultivated so that, gradually, profitable reading will supplant the pernicious " blood and thunder " literature which has so fearfully large a sale among the young. The influence of the schools, if wisely directed, will do more to stifle the demand for trash, than all the postal laws and Mr. Comstock combined ; though before that influence prevails, there will be work enough for both these agencies. Again, recreation and diversion is thus secured from the routine of school work, by a profitable employment of time. And finally, the school becomes a further preparation for constant progress in knowledge and enjoyment, from the the child books that are so accessible, after he enters active business. The manifold uses of such well directed efforts towards abundant reading, cannot be too highly prized. Within due limits, too much of such effort cannot be put forth.
The school at New Worcester is peculiarly fortunate. The Principal of that school, who has travelled in Europe, wished to get a few works of travel, and photographs of places and natural scenery, for the better study of geography. In solicit- ing subscriptions in the neighborhood, one man proposed to buy a little library for the school. Accordingly, about ninety volumes of well selected books, with a neat book case, a ·collection of photographs, and a few historical busts, have all been presented to the school, at a cost of some $150. This generous example of Mr. Albert Curtis, is worthy of imitation. There may be other generous citizens, who would like to contribute to the library of the schools in their neighborhood, and are waiting for a call from the Principal. The library of
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the High school was founded in a similar way, and is constantly replenished by the income of a fund, now amounting to more than $1,300, donated by Alexander H. Bullock. This kind of liberality toward the High school has already supplied the grand piano, by Stephen Salisbury ; the Electric clocks, by the late Edward Earle; and the bell and fountains, by Wm. Dick- inson. Who will be the next to remember the not less import- ant Grammar schools ?
THE FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY,
through its progressive librarian, has put itself in the way of helping on in the work of securing better reading. In the first place, every teacher receives all possible assistance in the preparation for school work. Secondly, pupils are encouraged to make investigations at the library. Thirdly, the librarian is now taking steps to furnish books for teachers to use in the schools as supplementary reading, in the manner indicated above, and books bearing upon practical studies, for example, geography and history. Thus another bond is formed between the public schools and the free public library, which is the university wherein the education of the great mass of citizens will be carried on all their lives-a better university, too, than many an ancient one, grown gray with the moss of centuries. If all the school children learn how to use the library and how to value it, general intelligence is secured whatever they may fail to learn. If the library attracts to itself all the youth of the city, its future growth and influence will be insured, and the sale of vile literature here will not pay. In this same direction of more interesting reading, one of the teachers has conceived the idea of occasionally, or periodically preparing an abstract of current news, for circulation among the schools, entitled
TOPICS OF THE DAY.
History has its place in the school curriculum. It appears to the author of this idea, that current history is of equal importance with the record of ancient times. By telegraph we are in daily communication with every part of the civil- ized world. We may read at breakfast what occurred four or five hours later in the day, on the continent of Europe ..
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Thus the events of the whole world take place under our very eye, as it were. We understand what we see; and that which is now going on has a freshness of interest which annals musty with time do not possess. Moreover, current events link us with the past and give reality to history. A spirited compend- ium of the news, weekly or monthly, adapted to the capacity of pupils, lends an interest to the reading of newspapers and magazines. It may also be so prepared as to lead to a better method of reading papers among pupils ; for this kind of read- ing can never be exhaustive ; it must consist of culling here and there a little.
This project-Topics of the Day-is original and new. It seems pregnant with good. The first attempt interested the pupils and proved a success. The cost in a city like this is slight; a few hundred slips were printed in cheap form and circulated in sets of two or three dozen each, among several schools. Of course in the preparation of the abstract, individu- al opinions would almost inevitably be expressed, with which teachers, children or parents might not agree. 'No serious harm can follow, for we must all learn at some time to judge for ourselves, and to tolerate opinions that differ from our own.
In the appendix the second of these issues may be seen. It was prepared in haste, and the author thinks the style might have been improved. It will, however, just as well illustrate the idea. It is proposed to follow up this experiment and test its value by experience.
THE VALUE OF DRILL
in reading is not to be lost sight of; but it is not an end in itself-only a means to an end. Under the direction of his teacher, a pupil may practice a few selections till he can read them admirably, and yet be a very poor reader. On the other hand, with no practice on special selections, he cannot take up miscellaneous selections so profitably. Occasional drill and abundant miscellaneous reading, seems to promise most. In learning to play a musical instrument, the "exercises " are insisted on, not for themselves, but as a preparation for the
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execution of music at sight. We retain the reading book as an " exercise ; " but perpetual drill in it gives the pupil no taste of the music of general reading.
SEWING
was taught Saturday afternoons, as early as 1873, in con- nection with classes formed in different parts of the city by certain benevolent ladies, for the benefit of poor children. The city encouraged these schools by furnishing the rooms in which to hold them, and by a small amount of money. In 1876, action was taken by the school board, towards teaching it in a few of the Primary schools. It has not yet been extended to all the schools of that grade. A full and interesting state- ment of the experiment and its success will be found in a report of the Special Committee in charge of Education for 1879, published in the report of the State Board. The success thus far would warrant more attention to the subject than it has received.
PRIMARY SCHOOLS.
Those persons who have made a study of public school edu- cation, agree that the pivotal point in the system is the primary grades. Here, the child receives his first impression of school ; his habits of study are formed-or rather the habit of gaining knowledge, in his first years. If he becomes accustomed to taking things on trust, he will not be likely to seek for the rea- sons of things later. If he forms idle and disorderly habits, they are not easily corrected. If, instead of real knowledge, he is furnished with husks, school will become irksome to him. In the first years, he ought to experience the real pleasure there is in the discovery of vital truth.
Great improvements have been made in primary instruction within a few years. Many people are not acquainted with these improvements. Methods that have been practiced here half a score of years, are not unfrequently spoken of as if they were new, after they have been adopted and have attracted notice elsewhere. There are men now living who can remember their
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first year in school; and they are apt to suppose that schools continue just as they were.
The contrast between an old-time and a modern school may be interesting and profitable to the public.
Within the memory of many of us, the child, on entering school at the age of four or five, was made to sit still ; he was punished for making pictures on his slate ; he had no picture books to interest him, no oral instruction ; nothing but the blank desert of a, b, c, confronted him, for the first six months. At intervals between the recitations of the older classes, he was paraded with his little mates around the teacher's knees and made to pronounce the letters as she pointed them out, one by one. The teacher once said to a little boy, pointing to the let- ter, " That is b;" and he said, " What of it ?" Another remem- bers, forty years later, the white hands and clean nails of the teacher, and the splendid pen-knife with which she pointed out the letters. And another told his father that the teacher had a beautiful knife which he stuck into the paper and called it a; then he stuck it in and called it b; and then again he stuck it in and called it c. The first of the letters he fixed in mind were " round o" and " crooked s." At length the names of the alphabet are mastered. The "power of the letters " next en- gages his attention, and endless combinations are traversed : B, a-ba; b, e-be; b,i-bi; b,o-bo: b,u-bu. C,a-ca; c, e ce ; and so-forth. B, l, a-bla; b,l, e-ble : b, l, ¿- bli and so on, ad infinitum and ad nauseam. Next comes words-nothing but words-made up of the syllables and sounds selected from the wilderness just gone through. Bak-er, mak-er, tak-er, and so forth, some of which the child recognizes. In the course of a year or two of this wearisome monotony the child comes to read, at first in words of two or three letters and one syllable. We go on ; he may go up ; let him go in. By-and-bye, no doubt, he learns to read. For three or four years, there was this and nothing more. At length he takes up ciphering and plods along with occasional help from the teacher, in "doing the sums." Further on he memorizes a "grammar book;" and learns to " parse ;" and at some time, determined by his size and his am- bition, he takes to writing, periodically and spasmodically, with
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a pen. It is not necessary to enlarge this picture. It can be supplied from the memory of most men forty or fifty years old. These were the famous ungraded schools that some peo- ple so much hanker for. They made scholars on the same prin- ciple that saints are sometimes made, by doing penance. That eminent scholars have come through such tribulation is due to the inherent force of human will and the discipline of the disa- greeable, and not to any virtue in that kind of school. They are the schools of the past ; and we shall never go back to them.
In our primary schools the following principles are recog- nized : That children are active; and their activity should be directed, not repressed : That they should be held to one kind of work for only a short time: That the thing should precede the name : And that they should become interested in advance, in what they are expected to learn. All these principles were violated in the schools described above.
The child now has, generally, a comfortable room and an easy seat ; his attention is held to one subject only twenty minutes at one time; he has frequent physical exercises, either in the room or out of doors ; before each lesson, the way is paved for an insight into the subject taught ;- the child is led along, step by step, in the same natural and easy way in which he learns about the things he sees around him at home. No room is left for such a question as the little boy, mentioned above, asked about the letter b-"what of it ?"
On his first day at school a tablet is hung up before him, on which is the picture of a cat, for example, with the word cat printed below. The child recognizes the picture ; and he knows that it represents the cat, though it is not a cat. He is thus prepared to understand that the word cat is also representative of the real cat. He at once perceives that a word stands for some real thing. He learns what a word is. Immediately the word cat is written upon the black-board; a slate is placed in the child's hands and he writes the word cat. Other words fol- low, developed in the same or a similar way. The child soon learns a large number of words which he can recognize at sight -either in script letters or in type-and which he can write. All the while he is fascinated by the real things his attention is
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called to, and by his own ability to represent them by words. At an early stage these words are combined in sentences. I see a cat ; I see the rat, and-so-forth. He is taught to re-com- bine the words and make sentences of his own. Thus reading, writing and practical spelling, that is, forming words from let- ters, are carried on simultaneously ; and all the while his mind is occupied with familiar objects and ideas. Nothing is said about letters or spelling at first, except incidentally. He sees the characters themselves and their use ; by degrees he feels the want of a name for these little characters, and he picks up the names without knowing when. He sees that cat differs from rat. The names of the initial letters that make the difference, drop from the teacher's lips, naturally and incidentally, and the child learns the letters c and r-nobody knows or cares when ; but he learns all the letters in this way surprisingly fast. He learns the names of his playmates and the members of his own family on the same principle. It would not be more absurd to teach the names of twenty-six people whom the boy had never seen, than to teach these twenty-six letters before there is any use for them apparent to the child-or to teach anything else before the child has been introduced to it. It is the new born child and the new idea that requires a name.
The same principles underlie the teaching of other subjects in these first years; for the child's interest is not confined to reading, writing and spelling. The very play of the child is made to contribute to his progress. He is not punished for marking on his slate ; he is encouraged in it. His idea of num- bers is developed by placing before him material objects to count and to combine and separate. This combining and separating is addition and substraction; and these, modified a little, are the whole of arithmetic and of all mathematics. He counts his fingers, his schoolmates, the objects in the room. Number is not with him an abstraction.
The perception of the child is cultivated in all directions. By oral lessons he is taught to notice the peculiarities of all sorts of objects, and to perceive differences and resemblances. He learns the primary colors from cards that show them, and the secondary colors, from combinations of these. Later he learns
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tints and shades. Plants are studied both from actual speci- mens and from pictures-not scientifically, but as a child should know them. Animals are studied in the same way. Thus an interest in Natural History-that which comes daily under their eye-is early awakened in the children.
The parts of the human body,-head, trunk, limbs; the parts of each of these: face, crown, sides, back; and of each of these : eyes, nose, lips, cheeks ; and in turn the parts of each of these : lids, lashes, pupil, iris, and-so-forth,-all these are pointed out ; and the child learns to describe them in words, thus giving defi- niteness to his idea and accuracy to his expression. The head is at the top of the trunk, the legs are below the trunk, and so on. The form of objects also receives attention-the form of blocks, and the names of those forms; of objects in the room ; of diagrams upon the board or the slate. Place, or the location of objects with respect to each other, is another object of study. This is geography in its earliest stage. An object is placed up- on the table ; the child is taught to describe its position. In the upper [or further] right-hand corner, middle of the left side, &c. He makes a drawing representing the table with the objects as located. Later he represents the school room, with the furniture, doors, windows, &c., in it; then the school house, the school grounds ; and, finally, the streets, or the fields and pastures in the vicinity. This study of what is under the eye, and its representation, is preparatory to a knowledge of maps and distant places-that is geography.
These are some of the subjects that receive attention in the Primary Schools; they are so taught as to be preparatory to the studies of succeeding years.
This description is by no means exhaustive ; but it may serve as a hint to our citizens of what is attempted, and lead them to become acquainted with these schools from actual observation. Familiar as all this is to school teachers, the average citizen, there is reason to believe, knows as little about it as he knows of the ceremonies of the Knights of Malta.
It is not to be understood that these numerous branches of study are taken up, like Latin in a High School, by set and
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formal lessons to be recited; nor that very extensive progress is made in some of them during the first year. Interspersed with music and drawing on the slate, they give a pleasing vairety to the exercises of the school; and each, in its turn becomes a new diversion in the hands of a skillful teacher.
IMPROVEMENTS SUGGESTED.
1. It is proposed the coming year to rule all the slates in the first grade with parallel lines, and to secure, if possible, a more legible and a more uniform writing in this grade.
2. In this and in the other Primary grades, II and III, it would be exceeding useful to have sets of several kinds of First, Second and Third Readers. These could be owned by the city and passed from school to school. Each pupil might then read his own book and five or six others of the same grade. If the school numbers forty-eight, twelve books will serve the purpose, because one-fourth of the pupils may read while the others are engaged in something else.
3. It is recommended that special attention be paid to the enunciation of words and sentences. Many pupils speak indis- tinctly; some have defective organs or defective hearing ; and they habitually fail to pronounce certain letters. It is not un- common, among a certain class, to hear, for example: wid for with. In cases like this, it takes a long time to induce the correct. pronunciation by direct effort. The skillful teacher will call for the pronunciation of words and letters whose sound the child has mastered. The class may then be called upon to pronounce the word or letters in question ; and often the pupil will speak correctly before he knows it, or even without knowing that he has made a mistake.
Often indirect means, both in instruction and in discipline, will secure what can be obtained with difficulty, or not at all, by direct effort.
4. The Primary Schools must be reduced in numbers. In a few of our schools the daily attendance has been nearly sixty. This has been necessary for want of rooms. If possible, the
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Primary Schools should be organized with not more than forty- eight pupils each. No teacher can do justice to a larger number.
THE GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.
There has been no important change in the plan of these schools within a year. The propriety of forming two classes in each room has been suggested. Of these two classes, one could be six months in advance of the other, and each distant from the class below or above, by the same amount. One advantage of such a plan is, that a pupil who enters would never be more than three months behind or in advance of a class; another that promotions and demotions would be easy. In this way the complaint that pupils are held back or dragged forward would lose its last prop. One half hour the pupil-in the higher grades-could study by himself; the next half hour, with his teacher-in other words recite.
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