USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1882 > Part 12
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It will be seen that it is a matter of no little difficulty to organize the schools for the Fall campaign, so as to preserve the proper grading for the several classes, keep the right number of pupils in each room, let all the members of a family go to the same school, and at the same time please all the pupils and their parents. To this task, and to numerous changes in the corps of teachers made necessary by resignations, or otherwise, are devoted all the spare moments of my Summer vacation. The matter is still further complicated by the absence of some pupils who are
196
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 37.
expected at the opening of the Fall term, and by the presence of new pupils ; and at the same time many pupils are usually found to have moved, and they must necessarily be transferred to other schools. And again some pupils, or their parents, have strong preferences for one school, or prejudices against another ; and they have to be appeased as far as possible. Even after the schools are thoroughly organized and start off in their work at the beginning of the year, the difficulty is by no means over ; for all along during the year, children are returning to school from the shops where they have been at work, or they are moving from one part of the city to another, or they move into the city from other places, or they arrive at school age. During the past year, some five hundred additional pupils have been admitted to the schools which were organized, at the begin- ning of the year, not in expectation of them. And yet there has been no very serious disturbance of the schools. In assign- ning these to school, one room after another becomes crowded and the best available make-shift must then be devised ; and if a new school-house, imperatively demanded at the beginning of the year, is not ready for occupancy till a month or two later, as has sometimes happened, the difficulty of opening the schools- in September, referred to above, is still further augmented.
All this difficulty of assigning pupils to school would dis- appear, if the city were divided into districts each with school- room enough for all the pupils in it. Such an arrangement would, however, be likely to leave some districts with too much room, and others with too little; and so long as we have not school-room enough for the pupils, even by sending the surplus to the vacant rooms, we are not likely to adopt that plan.
This statement, it seems to me, emphasizes what has been said above respecting the necessity of keeping pace with the need of school-houses ; and what follows immediately is not less emphatic.
INCREASE OF PUPILS.
The following table shows the number of pupils in school at the close of each term for the last five years, and the average number for each year.
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SCHOOLS .- SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
WINTER.
SPRING.
SUMMER.
FALL.
AVERAGE.
1882,
8719
8945
8788
9622
9008
1881,
8500
8548
8578
9056
8860
1880,
7910
8104
7993
8941
8419
1879,
7724
7662
7716
8159
7745
1878,
7203
7307
7422
7873
7686
Average yearly increase for five years.
379
410
341
437
330
The following table shows in what part of the city growth is most rapid.
SCHOOL CENSUS, MAY.
WARD.
1881.
1882.
GAIN.
1
1189
1226
37
2
1386
1555
169
3
1867
1956
89
4
1563
1684
121
5
2242
2535
293
6
1185
1260
75
7
1067
1184
117
8
864
886
22
Total,
11363
12286
923
The parentage of children in school at the close of the year, November 30, 1882, is as follows :-
United States,
4384
Ireland,
3396
Canada,
717
Other countries,
1125
9622
Or Native born,
4384
Foreign born,
5238
Of the children themselves the nativity is as follows :-
United States,
8885
Canada,
168
Ireland,
115
Other countries,
454
Foreign born,
737
9622 .
14
198
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 37.
TRUANCY.
The following table shows the work of the Truant Officers for the year, and the number of cases of absence from school with- out known excuse. It appears that but little more than one- third of the absence reported, is truancy. The number of pupils sentenced to the Truant School from December, 1881, to December, 1882, is sixteen. This is not a large number from the one thousand, more or less, inclined to run away from school. In the city of Springfield, Mass., where the number of pupils is about one-half as great as in this city, twenty-two truants were sentenced the past year. The restraining influence of the Truant School affects all the pupils of our schools who are inclined to truancy. That school is not maintained merely for the benefit of its inmates.
MONTH.
Cases Investigated.
Returned as Truants.
Visits to School-houses.
Sentenced Arrests for Truancy. Truant School.
1881.
Dec.,
271
99
161
3
2
1882.
Jan.,
351
106
211
2
2
Feb.,
174
58
113
1
1
March,
424
141
205
1
1
April,
339
120
158
-
May,
334
106
139
June,
271
105
119
1
1
Sept.,
307
126
138
2
1
Oct.,
351
135
208
7
6
Nov.,
317
117
187
2
2
Total, 3139
1113
1639
19
16
Besides the work shown in the table, and the taking of the school census, it is the duty of the Truant Officers to enforce in this city the law respecting the employment of children in shops and factories. Each employer is required by law to have a certificate of age and school attendance, approved by the School- committee, for every child in his employ under sixteen years of age. If every employer secures such a certificate before he hires a child, the attendance at school for the required twenty weeks each year, can easily be secured. Usually the manu- facturers have cheerfully cooperated. Only two prosecutions
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SCHOOLS .- SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
have been made within the year; but others must follow, for there are a few employers who pay no attention to the law and hire children without the proper certificate. The certificate itself sets forth, on the reverse side, the requirements of the law, and fixes the date at which the child should return to school. No one can plead ignorance of the law.
PUNCTUALITY OF ATTENDANCE.
The following, from the Rules of the School Committee, has been in force some twenty years.
CHAPTER VIII.
ATTENDANCE AND DUTY OF PUPILS.
[Legitimate causes of absence. Written explanation.]
SECTION 1. As regularity and punctuality of attendance are indispensable to the success of a school, sickness and domestic affliction shall be regarded as the only legitimate causes of absence or tardiness. In every instance of absence or tardiness, a written statement, or personal explanation, shall be required of the parent, master or guardian, on the return of the pupil to school, or at the next session, that the teacher may know whether the cause is legitimate or otherwise; and if not, the pupil shall be subject to discipline.
[Unexcused absence reported to Superintendent.]
SEU. 2. Any pupil absent four half-days in a month, except for the above causes, shall be reported to the Principal; and if the same number of absences occur a second month, in the same term, the pupil may be reported to the Superintendent, for discipline.
An excused absence, under this rule, leaves the child in as good standing as if he had been present all the time, for this kind of absence is unavoidable; but the absence must be counted, nevertheless, on the register of the school. Of the remaining absences, there are two classes : those with the con- sent of the parents, and those without such consent. The first of these, unless too frequent, merely subjects the pupil to a loss
200
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 37.
of rank, in respect to attendance, as compared with one who has not been absent at all, or only for unavoidable cause ; the second requires discipline of such a sort as will put a stop to it.
A record of the tardiness and absence for each school is kept and reported to this office; for many years this record has been published in the annual report of the school committee. The comparison of one school with another in this respect has aroused a good deal of emulation among them. At first, no doubt, the ambition to excel in respect to attendance was bene- ficial to many a school; but recently there is evidence that the record has become too much an end in itself, in some of the schools ; and, for the present, nothing but the aggregate for each grade is printed in the tables following. Every teacher will, none the less, put forth every wise effort to secure punctuality and regularity of attendance.
REGISTRATION OF PUPILS.
The number of pupils from five to fifteen years old in this
city, as appears from the census is, 12,286
Besides these there are in school pupils over fifteen years of age,
1,288
Of the total of,
13,574
There are registered in the public schools,
11,873
And in private schools,
1,500
13,373
Leaving unaccounted for, 201
If all these were over the age of fourteen, and .therefore exempt from compulsory attendance, the showing for the city would be complete. There is no evidence that such is the case. It is probable that, with all the diligence that is possible, a few children grow up without attending school according to law ; but it is also probable that the school registration is as nearly complete here as in any city in the State. And we do not, here, register more than one hundred per cent. of the school children, as some of our Western friends facetiously charge this State with doing.
201
SCHOOLS .- SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
THE CORPS OF TEACHERS
Remains substantially the same as last year excepting the usual changes from resignations, and the addition of seven more teachers required by the enlarged school attendance.
Of the two hundred and twenty-two regular day-school teachers, there are twenty-one who were employed here at my entrance to this office in 1868.
One hundred and forty-nine are graduates of some Normal School, the larger part from the school at Worcester. It is believed that there is no more faithful, hard-working, and intelligent body of teachers in any city or town of the Commonwealth. They have worked early and late to carry out the wishes of the committee and to secure the greatest good for the children. On rare occasions parents fancy that the teacher of their children is not faultless ; but in most of these cases, by careful inquiry, and an honest attempt to see the affair in another light, the parent finds that the action of the teacher is justified. And when teachers find themselves in error-to which everybody is liable-they are not ashamed to correct themselves. In the faithful work done by this excellent body of men and women, from the High School to the lowest grades, parents will find more and more to admire, the more they investigate with a spirit of fairness. It has frequently been remarked in the school reports that the work of our teachers is not fully appreciated. Our schools have a fair degree of efficiency, and a corresponding reputation abroad; and this is mainly due to the corps of teachers.
THE ORGANIZATION
Of the schools, the arrangement by grades, and the course of study, remain substantially as last year. Owing to the increased number of pupils in the Ninth Grade a new room was opened last September, in the Washington street school-house ; and the Principal is in charge of that school only. He was relieved from extra duty and his salary was diminished accordingly, because his health had become impaired. The Lamartine street school which has formerly been under his care, is now in charge of an independent Principal.
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CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 37.
THE HIGH SCHOOL
Has gone on prosperously and without friction. The addition of one year to the course of preparation for college, became necessary from the increasing requirements of the colleges. To · complete the work in four years, compelled a kind of cramming which was destructive to the best mental growth, to habits of study and to real education, and which was at the same time injurious to the health of pupils at a growing age. Within a few years one of the pupils died, whose friends think, not without reason, that her life was shortened by the hard work which she was too ambitious to give up.
Despite those weighty reasons for lengthening the course, however, a few parents have been anxious for their children to enter college at as early an age as possible ; and seven pupils who would naturally be in this school have been sent to other institutions, partly from this cause, no doubt, though other influences operated in most if not all the cases. It should be observed here that there is prevalent more or less misapprehension respecting the proper age for admission to college. We read in the lives of such men as Edward Everett and Charles Sumner, for example, that they entered college at the age of about thirteen ; and when our regular courses would send boys to college at nineteen, it appears as if four precious years of life would be lost to them. But the course of study in the colleges has greatly advanced ; the requirements for admission are much greater; and the training of a first-class High School, now, is probably about equal to that of the colleges fifty years ago-this on the authority of a late eminent professor at Harvard. If more time is now required, there is more work to be done.
In order to compare our present standing with other first-class schools where boys are fitted for college, both in respect to the length of the course and the average age of admission to college, and also as to the honors attained at the entrance examination, the following table has been prepared by Mr. Roe, Principal of the High School, from information obtained, as far as possible, by correspondence with the several schools named.
203
SCHOOLS .- SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
LENGTH OF COURSE AND AGE OF PUPILS IN CERTAIN SCHOOLS FOR THE LAST THREE YEARS.
School.
Length of
Number sent to Harvard.
Number Unconditioned.
Number of Honors.
Average age at Graduation.
Boston Latin,
6 yrs.
66
54
145
18 : 6
Roxbury “
6
36
24
57
18 :5
Cambridge High,
5
30
16
34
18 : 6
Worcester
*5
6
3
11
18:1
Springfield
66
4
66
9
5
7
18:2
New Bedford "
4
66
1
1
1
17:6
Providence
4
1
1
3
18:
Phillips, Exeter,
4
77
35
150
19: 8
66 Andover,
4
12
18:7
Williston Seminary,
4
66
6
-
-
18 :
Adams Academy,
4
66
-
-
-
-
Newton High School,
4
66
19
18 : 2
The average age at graduation, of the two classes that have entered this five years' course, will still be considerably less than that of the pupils at Phillips Exeter Academy ; and those schools have done better than ours in college examinations, where the time of preparation is longer, or the age of pupils greater.
ADVANTAGES OF FITTING SCHOOLS.
No account is here taken of the difference in the conditions of a special Fitting School and the ordinary High School. The former possesses certain advantages which the latter cannot have :- the exclusive control of the pupil who is removed from the society of his home and the other like means of occupying his time ; and the unquestioned power to send a boy home if he will not work ; and again, the singleness of purpose of the school.
These are important advantages which those who can afford it, often no doubt do well to secure. But this going away from home, to secure at an academy what the High School does not give, is not always just what it appears to be. If a boy fails to learn at one school, he will be likely to fail at another, unless he works harder. At home, he may study leisurely, spend his
* The first class to complete the five years' course will graduate June, 1884.
18 :
Hartford
66
4
2
-
-
4
18 :
Lowell
Course.
Y. M.
204
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 37.
evenings with his friends, and be excused from school duty by his too indulgent parents ; and if he fails to advance fast enough, or if his teachers are too persistent, or not persistent enough in urging him, the High School takes the blame. He is sent to some famous Fitting School. A few years later he enters college triumphantly, to the apparent discredit of the school which failed to get him forward.
AN INSIDE HISTORY.
The Inside History in the Fitting School, if it could be known, would in some cases, of course not in all, be like this: At the end of one month-Report that the boy is not doing well; the parent urges him to be diligent. At the end of the second month -- Report that the boy's progress is still very unsatisfac- tory ; reply asking the teacher not to spare the boy but to make him do his duty. At the end of the third month-Report, boy not improving, he must go home; reply from parent asking if nothing can be done to keep the boy in the school. After a time it is found that, by paying two dollars an hour for private instruction (from one of the teachers of the school ?) the boy may go on, if he will study. Confronted with the alternative, either to go home in disgrace, or else to study, the boy lays aside his home habits, pays the extra cost, and becomes a air student, with the result as above.
There is no objection to all this, if it is desirable to send a boy to school when he does not wish to study, and if this is the only way to make him study. What should be noticed is, that with the same amount of pressure, the same private instruction, and the same cost, the High School might accomplish as much. At . least, the school should not be placed at any disadvantage in a comparison, until all the facts are known.
Of the last graduating class twelve were admitted to college, and all without conditions: To Amherst, 4; to Harvard, 3; to Brown, 3; to Smith, 2. Of fifteen in the last class at Amherst, entering without conditions, four were from this school.
205
SCHOOLS .- SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
THE GRADUATING EXERCISES
Took place at High School Hall, Tuesday, June 27th.
PROGRAMME.
MUSIC.
Chorus :- The Banner of the Free.
B. Richards.
1. Salutatory with Essay :- " What went ye out for to see."
Helen DeF. Marshall.
2. Oration :- Immigration. John F. Buckley. Leila O. Cunningham.
3. Essay :- Privileged Classes.
4. Oration :- Public Opinion. J. Daniel Burns.
MUSIC.
Chorus :- Dream On- German Melody.
5. Essay :- Broken Barriers. Lina B. Johnson. T. Hovey Gage, Jr.
6. Oration :- The Truly Great Nation.
7. Essay :- Nina, wife of Rienzi, last of the Roman Tribunes. Annie M. Russell.
MUSIC.
Quartette :- Greeting. Phillipps. 8. Oration :- The Study of English Composition in the High School.
Charles F. Marble.
9. Essay :- Woman's Place in Literature. May E. Sleeper.
10. Oration :- The Power in the People, with Valedictory. Clarence W. Smith.
MUSIC.
Solo, Duet, Trio and Chorus :- Old Friends and Old Times. Thomas.
Pianist-Nellie L. Ingraham.
Presentation of Diplomas by His Honor the Mayor.
CLASS SONG.
WRITTEN BY THOMAS B. LAWLER.
I.
Return, O Time, the hours so quickly gone, Roll back the minutes brightly passed away, Cheer up this parting hour as in the morn The rays of sunlight cheer the coming day.
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CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 37.
II.
Our past on History's page has been enrolled, And fades adown the silent halls of time, What we will be, the future shall unfold, And in its grasp the glorious deeds enshrine.
III.
But as the hour of parting draws so near, And through the mist the future we survey, The memories rise of each successive year To check the gladness of this crowning day.
IV.
May Heaven protect us on our future way, To do our duty, faithfully and well, While all the pleasures which these years convey May sweetly echo with this last " Farewell " !
CLASS OF '82.
George Massa Bassett.
Charles Elisha Lucius Briggs.
Florence May Belcher.
Annie Hubbard Brigham.
Sadie Kent Chandler.
William Francis Carmody.
Leila Oriola Cunningham.
Thomas Henry Courtney.
Anna Maria Dean.
Marcus Daniel Cronin, Jr.
Lilla Florence Gates.
James Francis Cullen.
Minnie Alice Gibson.
Charles Alvin Farley.
Edna Harrington.
Olive Melissa Hatch.
Carrie Adaline Hildreth.
Franklin Campbell Jillson.
Grace Helen Howland.
Thomas Bonaventure Lawler.
Nellie Louise Ingraham.
Charles Francis Marble.
Lorinda Burdon Johnson.
George Claflin Parker.
Helen DeForrest Marshall.
Frank Beaman Rice.
Lizzie Emma Newland.
Charles Gilbert Simmons.
Addie Pierre Oswell.
Clarence Wright Smith.
Emma Louisa Peck.
Rosella Maria Pratt.
Frank Bulkeley Smith. Addison Whitney Towne.
Annie Maria Russell. May Emma Sleeper.
Harris Hawthorne Wilder.
Esther Narcissa Aldrich.
Annie Gertrude Thompson.
Annie Elizabeth Wells.
Elizabeth Charlotte Allen. Mary Chamberlain Baker.
Catharine Elizabeth Whalen.
John Francis Buckley. Jeremiah Daniel Burns.
Anna Ballard.
Otis Allen Freeman. Thomas Hovey Gage, Jr. Norman Gunderson.
Harriet Prentiss Holman.
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SCHOOLS .- SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
THE EVENING SCHOOLS.
In looking for the authority by which these schools have been carried on for the past fifteen or twenty years, no record of any action could be found; as far back as any one now connected with them can remember they have been kept. It appears that in the year 1857 a law was passed by the "Great and General Court," authorizing any city or town to maintain evening schools, in addition to the schools required by law. It is probable, that this law was passed in consequence of the fact that certain towns, like Worcester, had already organized such schools ; and that no action was afterwards taken by this town to establish these schools because we already had them.
Attention having been called to the subject, however, the following has been adopted by the City Council :-
Ordered. That, in addition to the schools required by law to be kept in this city, Evening Schools for the education of persons over twelve years of age, and not required by law to attend the day schools, are hereby estab- lished ; said schools to be kept between November 1st and March 1st follow- ing at such hours, and during such times, and at such places, as the School Committee may determine; the expense thereof not to exceed the annual appropriation therefor; said Committee are also hereby authorized to deter- mine the conditions of admission to said schools, and what branches of learning may be taught therein, and to have the same superintendence over them as they have over the other schools.
Under this order the schools have been organized for the present winter ; and they are now going on with unusual success. The plan of requiring the deposit of $1.00 by each pupil, on his admission to the school, has been continued with the same good effect as for the past two years. The plan is now sanctioned by the highest municipal authority ; under its operation no idlers have troubled the school ; and but very few of the deposits have been forfeited by misconduct.
EDUCATION MORE THAN SCHOOL.
The training of a generation of men and women in school, is one of the most important duties of the city. The influence of the schools upon the habits of thought and action, and upon the character of the children, is incalculable. Fifty years later, it
208
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 37.
will appear more or less what that influence has been. . But the school and the teacher being by no means the only influence by which the child is affected, what he becomes, will be the resultant of all those forces, and not the effect of the school alone. The. hand must be trained to dexterity, the eye and ear to quick perception, and all the muscles to their full perfection; the conscience must be trained, and the will strengthened, to detect and do the right; and the intellect must be stimulated and trained to activity. Without all this, we have not the perfectly developed man. Education does indeed consist in the sym- metrical development, and training to their highest usefulness, of all the human powers. Education in its broad sense is the whole of human existence. The mistake is often made of assuming that the schools ought to do it all; and education in this wide meaning is often spoken of, as if it were the product to be looked for in the common schools. The schools as now organized, should claim to do only a certain part of this great whole; for education does not begin with the schools; it does not end with the schools ; it is not confined to the school during the brief period of school life. Education in the broad sense, is one thing; and education in its restricted sense, as applied to common-school training, is much less ;- though of course it should always be a fitting part of the great whole. The word education is often used in this double sense in discussions about schools. Such a confusion of terms, has led to many an error on the subject.
Let it be admitted that no education is complete which does not train all the powers in harmony-the physical, the intel- lectual, and the moral; the body, the mind, and the heart. It does not follow that every man who undertakes to teach a child the common branches of English learning, for the double pur- pose of training his intellect and furnishing him the means of becoming a useful citizen,-it does not follow that this teacher must, at the same time, train all the muscles of that child's body in a gymnasium, or teach him a trade, or instruct him in the catechism, because forsooth, the child has a three- fold nature. The boy might visit the gymnasium after school,
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