USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1881 > Part 14
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In order the better to enforce these lessons, and to take the most appro- priate notice of the national loss, the Mayor has ordered that the ordinary exercises of the schools be suspended; that the forenoon of Monday be devoted to memorial exercises; and that the schools be closed for the after- noon, when the churches will probably hold religious services at the time of the solemn ceremonies at Cleveland. This mode of observing the day is most heartily approved by many citizens who have expressed their views, and I shall be surprised if all, both pupils and teachers, do not enter heartily into
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the observance. * In what way, I wish to ask, can the ten thousand school children so well spend the forenoon, as, with their teachers and in the presence of a common sorrow, to study the life, character, and example of the illustrious dead, and to learn the lessons of fidelity, industry, courage and fortitude, which that example teaches ? In what other or more appropriate way can they and we observe the requests contained in the proclamations of the President and the Governor? It is by impressing, in an appropriate way, the minds of these children, and not by tears alone, shed either in solitude or in public, that we can best show our regard for the beloved Garfield. As a teacher, he would prefer such a course, there is no doubt. And no prayers or religious service, it seems to me, will be more acceptable than the emotions of reverence, contrition and affection which the contemplation of the public calamity and its heroic victim will call forth from the children in the scene of their daily work."
As a sample of the exercises in the Grammar Schools, the following pro- gramme of one of them is given :
1. Selections from the Scriptures.
2. The Lord's Prayer.
3. Hymn.
4. Reading. "General Garfield's Boyhood."
From New York Tribune, July 2, 1880.
5. " President Garfield."
6. " Mr. Garfield's Record."
7. Singing. "America."
8. "To Mrs. Garfield."
9. " Sad Interview with his Daughter."
10. " Scenes at the Death Bed of Garfield."
11. " The Funeral."
12. " My Captain."
13. " King John." Act IV. Scene 3.
14. Singing.
15. " Letters of Garfield."
16. "God Grant him Peace."
17. Singing.
18. Accounts by children.
19. Decoration, by children. [This consisted of a procession in front of the desk, where each child deposited a small bouquet in front of the draped picture of Garfield.]
20. " Chester A. Arthur."
In the Primary Schools there were exercises similar in character :
The school was opened and closed with the Lord's Prayer.
The teacher then related such anecdotes from the life of Garfield as would interest and instruct the children. A hymn suitable to the occasion was sung to the tune of America. The children were then asked to relate anything they had learned of the late President, and to write sentences from memory.
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Pictures from Harpers' Weekly, besides the large picture of Garfield which was in the room, were also shown the children.
In the High School the pupils were assembled in the Hall, and the exercises were begun by appropriate remarks by the Principal, Mr. Alfred S. Roe. Anthems and hymns were sung by the pupils ; a quartette, Mr. and Mrs. Seth Richards, Mr. Oliver C. Hutchins, and Miss Gertrude J. Hutchins, sang selec- tions suited to the occasion. Hon. W. W. Rice addressed the school on the character, the manhood, and the personal influence of Garfield, with whom he had long been associated in Congress. Rev. J. F. Lovering pointed out the useful lessons from the nation's calamity. Brief remarks were also made by His Honor Mayor Kelley, and by the Superintendent of Schools.
About eight thousand school children personally took part in the memorial exercises. They will never forget the occasion. It will dwell in their memory, and be recounted to children's children.
Prominent in the exercises of that day was the address of Alexander H. Bullock. It closed the exercises. It was his last public appearance. What he said of the lamented president may very largely be said of him. There is no higher or more useful duty of the teacher, than to stimulate the ambition and the love of virtue among his pupils, by noble examples such as this and near at hand.
But beyond the influence of an honorable life of which the city is proud, the late ex-governor has left a more direct obliga- tion upon the schools of the city; first, by his long service on the school-committee ; and second, by a donation whose benefits are to be perpetual. The income was first distributed in 1860, as prizes for deportment and scholarship in the High School. It was so continued till 1868; subsequent to that date, by the donor's consent, the income has been applied to the purchase of books and apparatus for that school. The fund was at that time increased by one hundred dollars from George Jaques : and by judicious investment and care of the unexpended balances of interest from time to time, by the City Treasurer, it now amounts to $1,504.95.
The books purchased from this fund, all of permanent value, now number, 200 volumes ; they are all stamped with an appro- priate inscription. The two pieces of apparatus, which are also of a character not to be consumed in using, have cost and are now worth the sum of $125.
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The effect of the prize system upon the pupils was found to be injurious in certain ways; it affected only a part of the scholars and the part which least needed such a stimulus; it tended to over-work in the more ambitions, a comparatively few of whom could hope to win the prize - and these the very ones who needed quiet more than stimulation. Of the value in all respects of a constantly increasing library of standard books of reference there can be no question.
The following correspondence gives the history of the fund. It seems appropriate to recall it at this time when the founder has so recently gone from our midst, and in order to bring his example before the thousands of children in school who are his debtors.
" CITY OF WORCESTER.
MAYOR'S OFFICE, Oct. 31, 1859.
GENTLEMEN OF THE CITY COUNCIL :
In the course of my official connection with the School Board and of my visits to the schools, during the present year, I have observed with interest the success of our system of education. I well recollect the condition of the schools at the time immediately prior to our organization as a city, when for a period of four or five years it was my lot, as Secretary of the Board of Overseers of Schools in the Centre District, to enter them frequently and to inspect them somewhat minutely; and although they were then in high repute and wore honors in comparison with those of other equal towns, it now appears to me manifest, that in maturity of system and in the efficacy of intelligent and vigorous instruction, we have since made a large and gratify- ing advance.
But in this department of the public interests, our necessities as a local community require that the progress to which I have alluded shall be con- tinued. Our prosperity, position and influence, as a city, absolutely depend upon this. In the tendency of our time to centralization, which is collecting a great proportion of the population of the state into its large and thriving cities, - where the useful arts of material power and all the agencies of influence are quickened and supported by the aids of aggregated wealth and cultivation ; - you will concur with me in the opinion, that the best way, and the only way, in which we can expect to maintain ourselves in such a compe- tition of communities, is by a constant, 'liberal and thorough development and stimulation of our public schools. These make the men and women, who are the city. And it becomes us to establish these free and public insti- tutions in the confidence and affections of our whole population, without distinction of race, or party, or sect : - and especially to invest them with
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such varied attractions as shall enlist the interest and enthusiasm of the youth whose preparation for active life is in a large degree dependent upon them.
My excuse for having thus briefly indulged in this expression of such truisms as are familiar to all, must be found in the interest which has been freshly awakened in my own mind by the frequent and immediate contact with our school system, to which I have been called in the discharge of my official duties. My particular object, however, in making to you this com- munication, is to say, that entertaining these opinions, and impressed with a sense of their importance, however familiar and common they may be, it is my wish before retiring from the office I now hold in the city, to leave behind some token of the sincerity with which they are cherished. For the more definite accomplishment of this desire I shall select the High School of our city. This selection is made, for the reason that this institution is the only one which is open to pupils resident in all parts of the city ; - and because, as the school of last resort for nearly two hundred lads and girls before engaging in the practical life of the world, it possesses peculiar claims upon our thoughtful care.
I propose, therefore, Gentlemen, to now tender to you as representatives of the city, the sum of one thousand dollars, to be set apart as a fund of which the annual income shall be appropriated, under the direction of the School-Committee, for the encouragement of merit in scholarship and deport- ment, in both sexes, in the High School of Worcester. If you accept the gift, I recommend that the whole subject be referred to the School-Commit- tee, in whose discretion and judgment we may safely conflde; and with reference to the investment of the money, permit me to recommend that the Treasurer be ordered with it to pay off one thousand dollars of the city debt, and to open an account which shall represent and designate this fund, paying annually six per cent. interest for the object I have expressed, in such manner as may be voted by the School-Committee. The particular name to be attached to the account or fund can better be determined by you after the School-Committee shall have arranged the mode for its use; it being expressly understood, however, that my own name is not in any event to be made a part of the title which may be adopted.
If I had regarded mere delicacy or general propriety, this communication might perhaps have been deferred to the close of the municipal year. But I am sure that your judgment will relieve me from any embarassment arising from this consideration, when I give you the assurance, that as my term of office will soon expire, to which I shall not under any circumstances be a candidate for re-election, my sole object in bringing the subject to your attention at this time, is that by reason of my connection with you in the government of the city, I may share with the City Council and School-Com- mittee in arranging the details for the investment and use of the fund.
A. H. BULLOCK."
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This communication was referred to a joint special committee of the City Council, on whose report it was
" Resolved : That the City Council, in behalf of the city, hereby accepts the gift as a sacred trust, to be appropriated and used in the manner, and for the purposes contemplated by the generous donor."
And the fund was designated the
" HIGH SCHOOL MEDAL FUND."
On reference to the School-Committee, the following regula- tions were adopted for making use of the fund, on the report of Hon. Dwight Foster, chairman of a special committee appointed for the purpose : -
Resolved, That the income of the fund of one thousand dollars, which has been placed at the disposal of this board by the munificent liberality of the Hon. A. H. Bullock, Mayor of the City of Worcester, be annually appropriated to the purchase of twenty silver medals, of uniform size, appearance and value, for distribution as prizes among the scholars of the High School; and that at the end of each school year, on the last day thereof, these prizes shall be publicly awarded as follows :
I. Four medals for excellence in Deportment : - under which term shall be included good morals, good manners, industry and assiduity, regularity, punc- tuality, and every description of honorable and meritorious conduct.
II. Four medals for excellence in classical studies.
III. Four medals for excellence in mathematics.
IV. Four medals for excellence in English studies, which shall be deemed to include all branches taught in the school, except those for which the other prizes are especially offered.
V. And one medal for excellence in each of the following branches : Composition, Declamation, Reading, and French.
All who have been members of the school during the entire year, with the exception only of temporary absences for sufficient excuse, shall be candidates for medals, each in the studies which he has pursued; but only one medal shall be awarded to any scholar in a year; and no one shall receive a medal who has, during the year, been guilty of any serious misconduct or gross violation of the rules of the school.
Where the merits of any scholar shall have been such that he or she would be entitled to a prize in more than one department, the fact shall be publicly announced, and the medal shall be awarded for excellence in all the branches in which it has been deserved.
The School Committee at the commencement of each school year, shall elect five gentlemen, none of whom shall be members of that board, to act as judges in the award of the foregoing prizes, who shall be governed in their decision by the marks of the scholars for recitation and deportment during
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the year, by their appearance and proficiency at the school examinations, and such other modes of ascertaining their comparative merits as they may see fit to employ.
The prizes were first awarded in May, 1860, and each year subsequently till 1867. The gentlemen elected to. serve as judges were distinguished in the community for learning; their reports from year to year, made in connection with the award, contained valuable suggestions. The list of prize pupils numbers one hundred and sixty.
But the generally beneficial results expected from this system of prizes, it was thought as above stated, did not appear; and certain unexpected evils were found to attach themselves to the system. Accordingly, the following correspondence was laid before the School Board, between George Jaques, Chairman of the High School Committee, and Hon. A. H. Bullock, then Governor of the Commonwealth :
" My Dear Sir :
It is with great hesitation that I sit down to write a letter which may possibly seem to you to be both officious and uncalled for, and to require some more weighty apology than a mere expression, on my part, of a feeling of deep interest in the prosperity of our public schools. But, as next to not writing at all, I will endeavor to be very brief.
There is now an excellent corps of teachers in our High School, and the pupils, I believe, are generally making good progress in their studies. To this extent, all is going well; no trouble exists within the domain of the school and no complaint is heard from any quarter. Still, from a certain point of view, the institution appears at great disadvantage. Our High School building, as compared with those in other Northern cities of the rank of Worcester, is shabby in appearance, inconvenient in its accommodations, and destitute of educational furniture and equipments which, in these days, properly belong to a New England High School. It differs, for instance, from that at Cambridge as a second-class car differs from a first-class car on any railroad where the plank seats are broadest and the cushioned chairs are softest. Between the libraries and the apparatus of the two schools the con- trast is not less striking. Our High School library comprises a few dozen appropriate volumes; that at Cambridge nearly as many thousands. Our chemical and philosophical apparatus, comparatively meagre and inadequate, is now badly out of order; and, indeed, with all its deficiences supplied, it would be of little avail, inasmuch as we have no suitable apartment in which to use it to advantage. The Cambridge High School-house has a large and commodious lecture-room, appropriated expressly for chemical and philo-
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sophical experiments, and furnished with apparatus as costly and expensive as that of many colleges.
Eight years ago you most generously gave to the city the sum of one thousand dollars, upon the condition of its being a fund of which the income should be annually appropriated 'for the encouragement of merit in scholar- ship and deportment, in both sexes, in the High School of Worcester.' At that time you were the very popular Mayor of this beautiful inland city. Amid the cares and duties of a far higher official position, to which you have since been so deservedly called, it is possible that your attention may have been diverted from the results of that medal fund which your munificent liberality then placed at the disposal of the city. And now I come to the part of my letter which I write with great reluctance, and should most gladly omit were it not essential to my agreement. Having been three successive years a member of the Board of Judges appointed to award the medals, and having since, for the last two years, been familiar with the High School as one of its Visiting Committee, I have been unwillingly made to believe that, all things considered, the medals do not, in any desirable way, encourage good scholar- ship or exemplary deportment. A few weeks, and only a few weeks, before the award is made, the approaching prize competition begins to have a certain influence upon the school. A limited number of the more brilliant scholars - just those who least need incitement - are stimulated to make great exertions, not in the love of learning, but for a coveted triumph over some rival. Upon a majority of the scholars, however, the influence is either disheartening or else altogether inoperative. The medals for deportment have been almost universally regarded with aversion akin to contempt, and consequently have produced little or no effect whatever. Thus, for the most part, the fruits of the prize-medal system have been, and they must continue to be, envy, jealousy and disappointment, of various degrees of bitterness.
It is unpleasant to write thus; it is even more so to add that the statement just made represents the almost unanimous opinion, I believe, of all who have had a hand in distributing the medals, and would be endorsed by a very large number of the most influential friends of education in the city ; among whom I might name the Rev. Drs. Hill and Sweetser, Rev. Mr. Shippen, our Superintendent of Schools, Mr. Peterson, Principal of the High School, his predecessor, Mr. Greene, and others. Similar results, as you are well aware, have also operated to render prizes unpopular elsewhere, as in Boston and other cities.
Admitting, however, all that can be urged in favor of this mode of encouraging good scholarship and deportment, there still remains something incongruous not to say absurd, in distributing medals in a school which is in a manner destitute of the very necessaries of school life. The medals are so to speak luxuries, while the library and the apparatus are almost indispen- sable. To appeal to the City Government for pecuniary relief of those wants of the High School would, under the existing pressure of heavy taxation, only provoke from a shameless opposition party still further charges of extravagance in the administration of the public schools.
These things being as thus very briefly and imperfectly represented, may I
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venture in the most respectful manner to request you to take into considera- tion the following proposition ?
Let the name ' The High School Medal Fund' be changed into ' The Bullock High School Library and Apparatus Fund;' and let its income under the direction of the School Committee be annually applied to such uses as would be appropriate for such a fund.
A fund of this kind once established would commend itself to every one for its obvious utility, and might reasonably be expected to increase by contributions from time to time made it by public spirited citizens. I, myself, though very far from ranking among the rich men of the city, and though deriving no direct benefit from the schools, will cheerfully contribute one hundred dollars to such a fund, as soon as the above proposed change to which your consent is necessary, shall have been made.
Aiming to make this communication as brief as I can, one word more must suffice. According to the best information I have, the above proposi- tion if submitted to them would command the unanimous vote of the High School teachers, a nearly, if note quite unanimous vote of all who have served as awarders of the medals, and also of those now acting as the School Committee of the city.
Be pleased, my dear Sir, to accept my most sincere apology for the subject matter of this letter and for the abrupt manner in which it has been written; and pardon me if anything herein may appear to you in the slightest degree intrusive or otherwise offensive.
With the highest respect and esteem,
I remain your obt. servt.,
GEORGE JAQUES.
To His Excellency Alex". H. Bullock.
CITY OF WORCESTER, Dec. 23d, 1867."
" COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT.
BOSTON, Jany. 4th, 1868.
GEO. JAQUES, Esq., Worcester.
My Dear Sir : -
My constant engagements have prevented an earlier reply to your very kind and interesting favor of the twenty-third of Dec. last. This will be a sufficient explanation of any apparent neglect.
I have for some time been aware that a difference of opinion prevailed as to the utility of the medal, or prize system in the schools. Whatever may be my own convictions upon the subject, I have no wish to impose them upon others. Nor have I any such attachment to the form of medals which was
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adopted by the School Committee in the year 1859, as to preclude me from feeling the same degree of interest in the object to be promoted, if it may be attained in any other manner.
I therefore cordially consent that the fund to which you refer and which was given by me to the city for a general purpose and not for any particular mode of accomplishing it, may be applied in any other direction which the School Committee of Worcester shall choose; only keeping in view the object set forth in iny original communication made to the municipal authorities.
I beg only, further, to suggest whether if my own idea of the establish- ment of a High School Library Fund shall be adopted with my donation as its basis the name of the donor would not better be omitted : to the end that other citizens may feel inducements without embarrassment to make additions to the same. You have my consent to this.
I remain, my dear Sir, with sentiments of great regard and esteem,
Most truly your obt. servt., ALEXANDER H. BULLOCK."
The following preamble and resolutions were adopted by unanimous vote of the School Committee, February, 1868 :
WHEREAS, His Excellency, Alexander H. Bullock, in November, 1859, being then Mayor of this city, generously made a donation of one thousand dollars as a permanent fund, the annual income of which should be appropriated, under the direction of the School Committee, for the encouragement of merit in scholarship and deportment, in both sexes, in the High School of Worcester; and
WHEREAS, His Excellency, in a written communication dated January 4, 1868, has further manifested his interest in the welfare of the High School by kindly acceding to the wishes of this Board, that the income of said fund, which has hitherto been devoted to the purchase of prize medals, may be hereafter expended upon the library and apparatus of said school; therefore,
Resolved, That the School Committee, recalling to mind the munificent liberality of which said donation is an evidence, does now, in behalf of the city, gratefully tender to His Excellency Alexander H. Bullock, its cordial thanks for the generous spirit and large measure of confidence with which, as above set forth, he has entrusted to this Board the disposal of the income of said fund.
Resolved, That the fund hitherto styled "The High School Medal Fund " shall be hereafter known as " The Bullock Fund for the High School Library and Apparatus"; and that the annual income thereof, including the income accrued since the purchase of medals for 1867, should be hereafter applied to the uses of the library and apparatus of said school.
These resolutions were sent to the Governor ; the City Council was requested to consent to the change proposed; and Mr.
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