USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1885 > Part 9
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And in conduct, habits, or manners, no wrong should be made prominent. It ought to be corrected by a substitution of the right in its place, and not by dwelling at length upon the wrong. Is virtue best taught by setting up the image of vice for contem- plation, familiarity, and at length to be embraced ? It would seem not. Such is not the method by which the beauties of the Christian religion are commended to us by the Founder and the early disciples. And such a method will not be adopted by wise teachers at the present day.
Temperance physiology is now required by law to be taught in all the public schools of the State. The importance of teach-
152
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 40.
ing temperance can not be over-estimated. Teaching this primary virtue has been required since the adoption of our constitution. The teaching of physiology with special reference to the injuri- ous effects upon the system of certain substances in common use and generally injurious, such as alcohol and tobacco, may be in the interest of temperance. On the other hand, if done injudi- ciously, such teaching may be not only useless in the direction sought, but it may even be positively harmful. Where there is a liability of such a result, the subject should receive careful atten- tion.
The gigantic evil of intemperance which ruins thousands,- whose victims confront us almost daily, whose causes are deep- seated, whose advances are slow and stealthy but not the less sure, and whose blighting influence is seen in many of the pupils of our schools,-this evil, all good men unite in wishing to resist. But as to the best way to resist, and to at length overcome it, good men do not all agree. Since the law requires that it should be attempted in the public schools, and since the teachers are re- quired to make the attempt in a formal way, they ought to do so with wisdom as well as with zeal.
It is obvious in the first place, that this instruction in physiology should be adapted to the age of the pupils. In the Primary schools, children are not sufficiently mature to understand the complicated process of digestion, and the effect of stimulants and narcotics upon the tissues. It would probably have but little effect to teach children from 5 to 8 years old that " alcohol is a trans- parent, odorous, volatile liquid, which burns with a flame and dissolves gums." For such children the general character of foods and the harmful effects of spices and stimulants in a general way may be sufficient ; and there is a wide field of use- ful instruction which a judicious teacher may give her pupils, in the care which they ought daily and hourly to take in respect both to food, and to the inevitable and frequent secretions. Small children are in more danger of injury from eating im- proper food and neglecting the ordinary daily functions of the body, than they are from either alcohol or tobacco. The teacher of young pupils might be excused for only a moderate attention
153
SCHOOLS .- SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
to what those pupils drink; to prevent them from attending promptly to the calls of nature, or not to insist upon such atten- tion, is inexcusable.
With older pupils, in the Grammar and High schools, the harm- ful effects of alcohol and narcotics upon the bodily functions may be more explicitly pointed out. And even here the harm to result should not be exaggerated beyond the facts. Some one will say it is not possible to exaggerate this harm. Whatever may be true in the abstract, to the boy such exaggeration is pos- sible. If, for example, he is told that swift and sure ruin follows all indulgence, he will recur to instances within his own observa- tion, of men who indulge in strong drink, and who have not gone to destruction. He will then lose confidence in the instruction. He should be taught that the bad effects are often concealed for a long time ; but they are there, nevertheless.
In the second place, the instruction in the physiological effects of alcohol and tobacco is not a part of the question of prohibition or license ; and whether, medically, alcohol in all its possible forms and combinations is invariable and absolutely harmful, is still an open question. Since the subject has passed the legislature, a score or more of text-books have been prepared and put upon the market. In some of them the most ridiculously radical views are set forth, which the facts of science will not warrant. With all this the law has nothing to do. It is the truth on the subject, and not a fanatical notion, which ought to be taught.
In the third place, the prominence given to temperance by the adoption of this law, should not obscure the inculcation of those other virtues which are not less important. Among these is respect for parental authority. Suppose, for example, that a pupil is the child of a dealer in intoxicating liquors - a rumsel- ler. Aside from his business he may be a man of average morality, and entitled to respect. Is the child then to be taught that his father is a criminal - no better than a robber or a mur- derer, and not entitled to the respect of his children ? The teacher may be a better man than the parent; but he cannot take the place of the father. The question arises, then, whether the child is not better off under the guidance of his father,
154
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 40.
though a rumseller, than with no guidance at all. It is obvious that no teacher should so manage the instruction in temperance physiology as to destroy this respect for parents.
In the fourth place, can temperance be best commended and enforced by frequent contemplation of drunkards, or by noticing the happy lives of temperate men,-by frequent and close atten- tion to the vice, or by the admiration of the virtue ? If the observations above are correct, it would appear by the latter : " Whatsoever things are pure, lovely, of good report, &c., think on these things."
And lastly, the moral instruction in the schools is one of their most important functions-not in a religious or sectarian sense at all, but in the pure and healthy example of the teachers and by a word in season as the occasion presents itself. Respect for authority, obedience to law, truth, chastity, regard for the rights of others, are all important, as well as temperance ; and they are equally, though not as specifically, required by law. Neither ought they to be inculcated by reference to horrible examples- in one case at least this would be highly inappropriate; and the least said about the vice except when forced upon us the better. There are evils which are best avoided by ignoring them as much as possible. And the relations of teacher and pupils are not, as a rule, so intimate that certain passions and bodily functions can wisely be considered by them. Here is a field which ought to be left to the discretion of parents, except in rare instances where peculiar circumstances call for action by the teacher. And yet temperance physiology may easily lead up to this questionable ground, unless the subject is treated with discretion. A great cure of evil tendencies and safeguard against vice, the use of alcohol and tobacco among the rest, is healthy and constant occupation with what is useful and entertaining. Many a man drinks and smokes to fill up the time. The duty of industry well enforced and made habitual will guard many a boy against intemperance ; and this duty our schools ought to inculcate, and they do.
ARBOR DAY
Was observed in this city by the Worcester Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, on Thursday, April 30th. Many of the schools
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SCHOOLS .- SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
and school children were interested in the occasion ; and some 500 trees were set out within the city limits, on the public highways and parks. Hundreds of trees and many plants and shrubs were planted in the school grounds and yards. The pleasure which many pupils had in the planting and care of these trees and shrubs, and the labor and expense which they devoted, is most encouraging. It cultivates and evinces a public spirit which is worthy of attention ; and the educational effect of tree-plant- ing is worthy of more encouragement than it has heretofore received. The full statistics of what was done in the several schools are not at hand. They will appear next year, it is hoped with numbers greatly increased, from all the schools of the city.
THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY
of this city has inaugurated a work in its winter and summer classes which supplements the work of the public schools in a way hardly second to that of the Free Public Library. Besides the work of the classes detailed in the report below, in April and May there were lectures in Botany in the rooms of the Society, by Mr. Jackson of the Woodland-street School and Mr. Lyford of the Winslow-street School, which were very largely attended by pupils from the schools ; and in July and August there was a camp at the park near Lake Quinsigamond, where a few boys had an outing, mixed with a little study of Natural History, which was both pleasant and profitable. This nucleus of a Summer School promises more than any basement carpen- ter-shop appended to school-house, and it will be heard from in the future.
REPORTS ON CLASSES.
" The evening classes in science, maintained now for several years by the Natural History Society, and constituting an import- ant and original feature in our scheme of educational service, have lost something of the novelty that attracted students at first, but your committee are confident that the amount of hon- est and solid work done in these classes has suffered no diminu- tion. Indeed, there is evidence to show that a larger per cent. than ever before of the students enrolled during the past winter
156
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 40.
have been real workers, and it is equally evident that the instruc- tion given has fallen no whit below the standard of previous years in point of subject matter, consecutive arrangement, and skill in presentation.
It is by no means our policy to discourage the attendance on our classes, of young people whose purpose and aim are not as yet very firmly knit ; in fact, we rather seek such, with the hope of awakening their interest, stimulating their industry, turning, as it were, their intellectual pulp into fibre. Nor do we withhold our welcome from another class, whose ready and excessive enthuisasm at the outset seems ominous of an early falling off. We willingly work with and for such during the brief effervescence of their interest and zeal, trusting that they will be caught by some later wave and carried a little further toward the object of their sin- cere, though rather unstable wishes. And while our classes usually contain some representatives of these two sorts of young people, the proportion of such is not larger probably than would be found in any High School. The mass and body of those who seek instruction and guidance in our winter classes are intelli- gent, earnest, faithful students, and they make substantial pro- gress and gain solid and useful acquirements while with us, many of them returning year after year to pursue well-chosen courses of study.
The community is little aware of the amount of sound teach- ing and faithful learning done in the class-rooms of this society during the long winter evenings, when such numbers of young people are elsewhere frittering their time away in amusements and occupations that lead nowhere and come to nothing. Our work is of a kind that makes little show. There is nothing boisterous or giddy or theatrical about it - no spending of money, no pass- words, no costumes, no music. Nor are there examinations and exhibitions and "recitals " at which students can show their attainments. We encourage no rivalry, no prizes, and award no diplomas. Our pupils do not even have the satisfaction of seeing their names in the newspapers. But in spite of these privations, - and privations in a sense they are to the young,- in spite of slow recognition and scant praise by the public, there is expert teaching and diligent study here, and its fruit, though for most part unperceived, is surely ripening to the lasting advantage of our city.
There is a yearly increase in the number of young men and women in Worcester who have had an introduction to the truths and methods of science, and who have thereby learned an inno-
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SCHOOLS .- SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
cent, pleasant and useful way of occupying their time. There is, as a result of the work of this society, a growing body of scien- tific knowledge diffused through the younger portion of the community,-knowledge that can be used and is used in manifold ways, and there is also increased power and acuteness in observ- ing the phenomena of nature and reasoning correctly upon them. If a man of science of the first class, a man like Louis Agassiz or Charles Darwin, were to come to Worcester and appear in Mechanics Hall to speak to our citizens upon some topic of nat- ural history, there is not the slightest doubt that the welcome and hearing he would find, the understanding and appreciation, both of the man himself and of his message, would be due largely to the influences direct and indirect of what this society has done, especially in its evening classes, during the last five years.
While not ungrateful for the moral and pecuniary support afforded by a large and increasing number of our citizens, your Committee, in behalf of the youth of the city, cannot refrain from renewing the appeal heretofore made, for such an increase of the funds at their disposal as may enable them to enlarge and render more effective the instruction now given; by offering at least double the present number of courses ; by furnishing an ampler and richer supply of material; by providing charts, text- books and reference-books; by fitting up suitable laboratories, and especially by making such compensation to instructors as to command, in addition to the excellent volunteer corps now in service, the whole time of two well-trained teachers of science.
Your Committee tender their sincere thanks to the ladies and gentlemen who have with so much intelligence and devotion served the society and, indirectly, the public, as instructors during the past winter. It is only just to say that to them chiefly be- longs the credit of sustaining the interests in these classes, while the generous and cheerful spirit in which they have worked is beyond all praise.
With a staff of six instructors and a class membership of 151 students, we feel justified in claiming a modest place among the educational institutions which are the pride of our city.
The following outline exhibits the most important details of our classes and their work during the winter of 1884-5 :-
STRUCTURAL BOTANY :- Instructor, Mrs. Frances M. Baker. Number of members, 40. Term, 6 evenings. Work, the evo- . lution of vegetable tissue.
ZOOLOGY :- Instructor, Mr. W. F. Ganong. Number of mem- bers, 15. Term, 12 evenings. Work, elements of structural and systematic zoology.
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CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 40.
MICROSCOPY :- Instructor, Dr. L. F. Woodward. Number of members, 12. Term, 10 evenings (and still continuing). · Work, study and mounting of vegetable and animal tissues.
ICHTHY-TAXIDERMY :- Instructor, Mrs. Olive M. Morrow. Number of members, 11. Term, 9 evenings. Work, the mount- ing of fishes by the Davidson process.
MINERALOGY :- Instructor, Mr. W. F. Ganong. Number of members, 40. Term, 12 evenings. Work, classification and determination of minerals, with blowpipe analysis.
COMPARATIVE ANATOMY :- Instructor, Dr. Dean S. Ellis. Num- ber of members, 20. Term, 12 evenings. Work, chiefly the study by dissection of the osseous, muscular and circulatory sys- tems.
ENTOMOLOGY :- Instructor, Mr. Henry A. Kelly. Number of members, 13. Term, 6 evenings (and still continuing). Work, structure, metamorphoses, and classification of insects, particu- larly of the hymenoptera, lepidoptera and diptera.
The classes in botany are about to be organized on a new plan for spring and summer work.
Respectfully submitted, For the Committee on Classes, E. H. RUSSELL, Chairman."
April 18, 1885.
Manual Training has engrossed the attention of its few advo- cates as an "annex " to the public schools, the past year, very much as in the few years last preceding. In a few cities of the country, schools have been opened in the out-buildings or base- ments of school-houses; and these have been heralded by the worshippers of the fetich as the coming of a dawn in the educa- tional firmament that is to usher in a glorious day. Every special school in Europe, and Technical schools in this country of any grade and of all aims, are catalogued and paraded as evidences of the great progress in industrial education and of the public enthusiasm in its support. Just as if a Polytechnic school in Paris a score of years old and fulfilling a definite and most excellent purpose, were an argument in favor of opening a little play-shop in every school-house; or as if a special school in St. Louis maintained by private munificence, with an attend- ance of 200 or 300 pupils paying tuition, had anything to do with the 20,000 or more public-school pupils in that city, beyond
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· SCHOOLS .- SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
the mere advantage which a more or less successful experiment may confer. Nobody questions the utility or the necessity of Technical schools ; the interesting character of special schools- sewing schools, cooking schools, moulding schools, or what not- is admitted ; and such special schools will be established whenever they are needed. But it does not follow from such utility or such an interest, that the whole school system needs to be revolutionized, or that the general usefulness of that system should be put in jeopardy to try a doubtful experiment at the beck of uneasy agitators: an experiment involving loss of the energy needed in the proper conduct of schools, and loss of money in untold thou- sands. The demand for manual training throughout the system of public schools exists only in the minds of a few enthusiasts. The apparent call for such training is created by a few voices echoing and re-echoing the refrain and magnifying the few experi- ments that are being tried into a general educational movement. Magazine writers and newspaper paragraphers reiterate the same old strains in praise of the little shop at Gloucester, the Boston basement, and the more recent Toledo movement, just as if they were general and representative. Such experiments,-and they are to be highly commended because they cannot help showing the futility of their becoming general,-bear about the same pro- portion to the schools of the country that the congenitally blind or deaf bear, in number and importance, to the whole community.
In one respect the agitators of this kind of annex to our schools have made progress, namely : Heretofore they have not known whether such schools should aim to popularize the manual industries, to produce skill in the various trades, to keep children in their proper sphere, or whether they are a necessary part of a complete education. It now seems to be the prevailing sentiment of their advocates that no education is complete which does not include the training of the muscles ; and that habits of exactness, for example, in thought, can only be secured by that necessity for exactness which is involved in such a mechanical act as fitting a tenon into a mortise ! It follows that nobody has been properly educated up to the present time, and a new species of men is about to be developed, if only the world can be induced to adopt
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CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 40.
this theory. In this city our financial condition compels us to wait; for we cannot act upon this theory and be the first of the new creation because we cannot just now command the necessary funds.
The special vacation school at the Technical Institute, and the cooperation in that enterprise of the Mechanics Association, con- tinued last year, as the year before, to meet the popular demand for manual training in this city-not indeed "educationally" and in this most advanced form, but practically and up to our present light. A few benevolent ladies have also opened a cooking school where about twenty-five girls learn to prepare, economi- cally, various articles of food-which they forthwith proceed to devour. This movement is a good one. About twenty-five homes are the better for it. No doubt the number would be doubled by another school, trebled by a third, and so on to an indefinite extent. May the number of such schools increase ! But it must be confessed there is little prospect that they will soon attach themselves to the public schools of the city.
Something has been done also the past year in the way of studying the industries of the city by pupils of the Grammar schools, though not as much as was hoped, because other duties have engrossed the time of both teachers and pupils. What has been accomplished, however, confirms the belief that great possi- bilities lie in that direction. The details of that scheme and also the work of the Mechanics' Association have been given in former reports, especially in that for 1884.
The No-Recess innovation has not yet swept the country. Indeed, the agitation of the subject seems to have exhausted itself. This reform against nature, after adoption in a few cities, is already falling by its own weight ; and the evils predicted one year ago, as likely to appear in full force twenty years hence, have already shown themselves in only one-tenth of that time. The city of La Crosse, Wisconsin, is already discussing a return to the old way. The lack of the mid-session exercise in the open air, and the more obvious necessities for a break in the long hours of a school session, have not only been apparent in that city, but
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SCHOOLS .- SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
the injury to the eyes of pupils in the uninterrupted study of two-and-a-half hours, have begun to show themselves. We may congratulate ourselves that we were left behind in this instance by the so-called car of "progress." The progress is the wrong way !
A. P. MARBLE,
Supt. of Schools.
Worcester, Feb. 2, 1886.
SECRETARY'S REPORT.
FINANCIAL STATEMENT.
RESOURCES.
Appropriation by City Council,
$207,999 65
From books sold,
618 86
Materials sold and repairs,
48 05
Rents,
12 50
Tuition,
142 00
$208,821 06
EXPENDITURES.
Salaries of Teachers,
$155,127 08
Salary of Superintendent,
3,000 00
Salary of Clerk,
1,000 00
Salaries of Truant Officers,
1,800 00
Fuel,
9,457 31
Janitors,
7,731 19
Cleaning buildings and yards,
1,295 05
Brooms, brushes, pails, &c.,
623 59
School-books,
8,741 12
Stationery, ink, &c.,
2,818 90
Apparatus,
1,146 06
Printing and advertising,
647 02
Extra clerical labor,
333 75
Insurance,
190 25
Horse hire,
250-00
City water,
398 09
Gas,
283 40
Fitting up and moving to new office,
351 22
Census of school children,
73 44
SCHOOLS .- SECRETARY'S REPORT.
163
Fire-alarm signal, Miscellaneous,
100 25
277 22
Returned from these items,
760 86
Ordinary expenses of schools,
$194,884 08
ORDINARY REPAIRS.
Of School-houses,
$6,450 12
Stoves and furnaces,
1,321 39
Steam-heating apparatus, Furniture,
1,609 25
$9,672 69
Returns,
48 05
Net cost of repairs,
$9,624 64
$204,508 72
Rents, Superintendent's office, $958 33
School-rooms, New Wor- cester, 200 00
$1,158 33
Returned from these items,
12 50
$1,145 83
$2,535 55
EXTRAORDINARY REPAIRS.
Sanitary improvements, Oxford St., 955 38
Total expenditure,
$207,999 65
$1,389 72
Net cost of instruction and repairs, New furniture,
291 93
$195,644 94
164
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 40. £
EVENING SCHOOLS.
Appropriation by City Council, Revenue,
$4,210 36 45 00
$4,255 36
Salaries of teachers,
$3,854 50
Janitors,
147 80
Gas,
204 20
Printing and advertising,
8 50
Books,
12 75
Repairs,
2 50
Oil, lamps, &c.,
25 11
$4,255 36
TABLE SHOWING THE LOCATION, SIZE AND VALUE OF THE SCHOOL - HOUSE LOTS BELONGING TO THE SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
LOCATION.
Material.
Stories.
Size.
No. of School
Condition.
Estimated
Size of Lots,
Estimated
Value per
Amount.
Total Value
of Houses
and Lots.
12
Brick,
3
130 x 87
16
Good,
$125,000
31,672
$1.30
$41,173
$166,173
[in 1881, 58 x 68, for six school-rooms.
High .....
66
2
92 x 90
16
45,000
31,440
25
7,860
52,860
Belmont Street .....
66
2
96 x 60
11
30,000
24,000
25
6,000
36,000
Dix Street
66
2
107 x 53
10
66
29,000
25,009
20
5,001
34,001
Winslow Street ...
66
2
94 x 94
10
66
26,500
34,858
25
8,715
35,215
Chandler Street .....
66
2
96 × 60
11
28,000
40,000
25
10,000
38,000
Woodland Street ....
66
2
2
50 x 30
2
66
5,500
7,188
60
4,313
9,813
Washington Street ..
2
96 × 60
13
30,000
40,670
20
8,134
38.134
Ledge Street ....
66
2
78 x 62
9
=
24,000
52,664
10
5,266
29,266
Millbury Street ......
66
3
75 x 53
12
66
33,000
23,433
60
14,060
47,060
Thomas Street ..
.6
2
62 × 50
9
66
22,000
30,760
5
1,538
Edgeworth Street ...
3
70 x 50
7
66
20,000
9,487
1.30
12,333
32,333
Walnut Street ....
66
3
52 × 50
10
30,000
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