USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Arlington > Town of Arlington annual report 1892-1894 > Part 21
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CROSBY SCHOOL 95 ; first and second primary 52, third primary 43.
From these figures it appears that the whole number in attendance January 1, 1894, is exactly what it was January 1, 1893, 959, notwithstanding the fact that there are thirty less pupils in all the primary grades than there were a year ago and twenty-six less in the lowest primary. A smaller number of pupils than usual entered the lowest primary classes last September. Only ten pupils have left the grammar schools to go to work, during the year.
The number of different pupils attending school in town during the year has been 1132, five more than last year.
Every pupil who has attended school in Arlington during the year beginning January 1, 1893, and ending January 1, 1894, is counted in this number. It includes some who have come and gone, - the floating population - some who have left school to work or on account of sickness, all who have graduated from the High School during the year, and those attending school at present.
The number over 15 years of age has been 151
The number under 5 years of age has been 3
The number between 8 and 14 years of age has been 897
The average number attending this year has been 924
The average daily attendance has been 845
The ratio of daily attendance has been 91
The average number is six larger than it was last year, the average daily attendance thirteen larger, and the ratio of daily attendance one per cent. higher.
The year has been one of quiet, faithful, persistent work.
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SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
In the primary schools no radical changes in administration or courses of instruction have been made. For several years improved methods of teaching have been introduced into most of the primary schools of this country, and in Arling- ton they are now well established to the great advantage, I believe, of our Common School System.
Writing
is now taught to beginners. They learn to write well while they are learning to read. The two subjects, reading and writing, are taught together by methods which make them aid each other. Copying a word or sentence helps the little pupil to recognize it in reading, and reading it repeat- edly helps him to write it better. This, however, is not all that is gained by teaching writing thoroughly during the first year of school life. The study of the script forms, which are simple and easily brought to the' child's attention in new relations, soon become interesting to him because he can use them to express his thought ; and any skilful primary teacher can use these letter and word forms to develop the little learner's observing faculties, memory, judgment and imagination. Furthermore, by requiring the class to repro- duce the script forms carefully, part by part, the teacher has an excellent opportunity to cultivate and strengthen in each pupil habits of precision, neatness and carefulness, and to develop will power. The results reached in writing in ยท the primary classes of our schools are good. Some gains have been made this year, I am sure, because I find in the exercises written by pupils from day to day, better form, more character, more freedom of movement and more facil- ity. In
Reading
there has been great improvement during the year.
The reading is more natural and more accurate, and the better methods in phonic and word drill lately adopted by
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SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
the teachers have led to the development in many pupils of more independence, self-reliance and intelligence in connec- tion with this study. In some classes a lively interest has been awakened by the use of certain helpful devices, and by a higher purpose and a more logical plan of work. Such good work has been done in reading, by some primary teachers, that a stranger, with slight experience in testing children could, in a single lesson, pick out easily the pupils in the class who had been absent even a few times. In some schools pupils may not lose much by being absent, but in a good school, where the teaching is logical, natural and persistent, every day's absence is a positive loss.
Special attention has been given to
Language
in primary grades and something has been done, but not a great deal systematically. To secure better results in this study it is necessary to give the teachers time to study the subject of language in all its bearings, in its relation to other branches of study, to the processes of mental develop- ment which school work is designed to foster, and so on. Steps have been taken by some of the primary teachers already to make their instruction and training more practical, broader and deeper, and a little more definite. I have seen lately several exercises in written and oral expression where standard pieces of literature have been used to train the language faculty which pleased me very much, and where remarkably good results have been reached. It is our pur- pose to make each part and feature of the language work more specific next year. In
Spelling
which is not taught separately to any great extent in the first school year many new methods have been used, but not by all teachers. In this subject for various reasons the
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SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
steps of progress have been taken more definitely and systematically than in any other branch. In
Primary Geography
much has been done by all the teachers in a general way. It will be possible, I think, for a majority of the teachers to follow a carefully prepared. outline for teaching this subject orally next spring. In
Number
nothing new has been attempted directly. Improvements cannot be made in every branch of study at the same time. We propose, as indicated last year, to take one step at once ; to do a little, do it well, and then go on to do more. This subject (Number) is taught fairly well in some schools and extraordinarily well in a few of them, especially in those where the teachers have followed closely the outline printed for the use of all teachers in the Course of Study for 1892 and 1893. According to this, the simple numbers and all the facts in them (combinations and separations) should be taught objectively. The teacher seated at the end of a table directs this work. She presents the numbers using a great variety of objects till each child learns the number by seeing it. Then each pupil is led to make for himself all the changes possible (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) with each number. This is continued till he can make the changes readily, and can describe what he does in- telligently ; after which he is taught the signs which repre- sent the ideas he has learned. These signs are invested with life by their repeated application to real things. The pupil is then trained to recall what he knows without visible help. It is supposed by some that the tables (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) are not now taught in the primary schools. They are taught in all good schools of this grade, but not mechanically. The children are not told what they can be led to find out for themselves, but are led to exercise their intelligence at every step. Each child is trained to do the right thing in the right way after he has
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SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
'been led to do it for himself, instead of learning how to do it by rote. The general principles of arithmetic are learned by application varied and extended. Since accuracy and rapidity are important results to be obtained, sharp mental practice on what has been taught accompanies each recita- tion. Rules of no practical value are kept in the back- ground. Pupils are encouraged to illustrate, when possible, every problem given them, by drawings and objects. This is an outline, in brief, of what ought to be done in primary arithmetic. We do not claim that in Arlington it is followed exactly yet, for number is not often taught as rationally and economically as it should be. There is great room for im- provement. In
Nature Study and Manual Training
very little organized work has yet been attempted. A few steps have been taken, and some interest aroused for the purpose of keeping these subjects and their value as broad- ening elements in the school curriculum present to the mind, but a few teachers are carefully studying the subjects from the right standpoint, and will, I think, be prepared to get excellent results by and by.
I have thus tried to sketch, somewhat in detail, what an expert teacher would be likely to see accomplished or sug- gested during a visit to our primary schools. He would find I believe two elements which would impress him favorably, especially if he gave his whole attention to reading, writing, spelling and language.
1. The tone and spirit of the work; because it would be interesting, full of life, sense, purpose and intelligence.
2. The uniformly good results secured. Every child is bright and every child is dull in certain directions, and it takes a skilful, thoughtful, well-trained teacher to discover how to sharpen one faculty in this individual and another in that to the end that each may be prepared to hit the difficulties of practical life squarely and cut his way clean through them.
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SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
This rehearsal of gains made lately in our primary schools does not imply that there has been remarkable progress everywhere, or that there are no weak places. Perfec- tion has not been reached and we are not likely to reach it immediately. There are also some hindering con- ditions which make decided improvement in a few of our primary schools almost impossible. No teacher work- ing against such adverse circumstances as have hampered for several years the lowest grades at the Russell and Cutter Schools can get satisfactory results. In each there are too many children in one room. In the Russell, pupils have been promoted out of the lowest grade repeatedly, not because they were fitted fully to go on, but to make room for new comers. At the Cutter Primary School for various reasons only a small number of pupils have been properly fitted for promotion each year; therefore, the lowest room is generally full to overflowing while the upper rooms have not scholars enough. It seems to me that the main reason why this state of affairs continues to exist at the Cutter School is not because pupils drop out of the upper grades to go to work, for some of the higher classes have increased in number this year, but as I have just suggested, for lack of pupils who are not for one reason or another fitted to go on. I have suggested for this evil several remedies, one of which I hope may be adopted and applied very soon. To over- come the dificulties existing at the Russell School more rooms are necessary and these will be available as soon as the new High School building is completed. Then we shall probably have a decided improvement in the primary work, a result to be anticipated with pleasure, because the charac- ter of all subsequent work is affected greatly by the work done in the lowest grades. In
The Grammar Schools
penmanship is now very well taught. In a few classes the results are extraordinary. Correct form, uniform height and slant, a light and smooth style, facility and rapidity of exe-
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SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
cution have been pretty well attained and the pupils will soon be ready to learn to shade and finish their work taste- fully and beautifully. In these grades the mental discipline obtained by the introduction of philosophical methods of teaching penmanship appears in all other studies which the pupils take up. This is encouraging because the effect wrought in the pupil himself is of more value than the thing which he produces. In
Reading
the results are fully as good as in writing. There has been a great change during the last eighteen months, in the inter- est shown by pupils in the subject. They have gained in power to grasp thought from the printed page and in the freedom, force and feeling with which they express accu- rately by voice and manner what they have apprehended silently.
In a few cases many selections of great literary merit, which would have been too difficult for them to use at all a year ago, are now taken and used easily and with profit for sight reading as well as for study and practice. No one who has not watched closely the development of this work of learning to read, first, that which is very simple and colloquial in style, then what is more difficult as to form and depth of thought and, finally, that which expresses the deepest thoughts of the world's thinkers clothed in the beautiful forms of classic and artistic expression can appreci- ate all that has been done and gained by the methods so ex- cellently devised or accepted and practiced by some of our grammar school teachers.
A few of the purposes and principles which govern good instruction in
Language
have been considered from time to time at our teachers' meetings. New methods suggested by a careful study of this subject from the standpoint of the pupil's capacity and
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SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
the needs of practical life have been employed by many of the teachers. They are now doing more than ever before I believe to cultivate and develop in every pupil under their charge the faculty of oral and written speech, the power of free and fluent expression and the habit of correct expres- sion. These are the three chief ends of language teaching. Every lesson is made a language lesson and nothing lost thereby in any direction. Time and labor are saved by teaching two or more subjects, like Language, Reading, Writing and Spelling, together, for they are naturally co- ordinate and easily coalesce. The written exercises in Geography, History and even in Arithmetic, as well as those in Original Composition, Description of Narration, show improvement in a general way. Particular gains can not be noted until the work is organized and developed more fully ..
Spelling -
learning the forms of words -has been taught carefully and thoroughly this year in the grammar grades. The aim has been to teach the words of common life, to make them so familiar to every pupil that he can reproduce them immediately in writing.
Oral-Spelling - naming the parts of written words - has not been abolished, but made subordinate and subservient to written spelling. In this branch of study we are using such methods of teaching as seem to lead most surely and directly to the formation of a correct habit of spelling. Such a habit, formed in early life, makes it easy for one to spell correctly the words he needs to use in communicating his thoughts to others. The best evidences of progress and tangible results are the pupils' written exercises to be found any school-day on the teachers' desks in our gram- mar rooms.
Geography
has been taught thoroughly by every teacher but too exhaus- tively by some. In this subject, more than in any other,
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SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
teachers need to have an eye single to the dominant, essential significant facts of Geography, those which every pupil needs to know because they are not only the basis of details but the guiding lines of future and protracted study - the pivotal points about which all minor facts arrrange themselves and turn, each in its proper place.
At the same time Geography is peculiarly a culture study. Mechanical methods, cramming processes, sets of topics, detailed and inflexible outlines of study from day to day, or from term to term, are out of place here. Freedom for the teacher is absolutely necessary ; therefore; there must be no measuring of results by the inch or the page or any such thing.
The results secured in Geography by the best teachers are not easily stated, in fact, are with difficulty observed, for they are in the pupil and can be discovered only by such as know how to discover the best mental results. Of what value is it to a boy to know the names and positions of five hundred cities, if, with these facts, he has not acquired power to see and to learn, by observation and reasoning, something new every day from all he sees about him, from the varied forms of vegetable and animal life or the characters and customs of the people he meets in this civilized society of which he is a member. In a word, the best product of learning Geography is learning to love to learn and learning how to learn. Some of our teachers are getting hold of this fact, others have not seen it . yet ; until they do, a systematic outline of methods and a detailed course of study in this subject will not help, but may hinder a great deal. In
Arithmetic
nothing has been attempted by the superintendent. The first thing he needs to do is to eliminate certain subjects now taught under cover of the name Arithmetic which are not Arithmetic at all; and the second thing he needs to do is to eliminate certain notions from the heads of teachers as to
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SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
the topics and processes which are of practical value. With such a bright, intelligent, earnest and thoughtful corps of teachers as we have in Arlington this is a pleasant task for sombody to anticipate.
Of the work in
History, Science and Manual Training
I have time to say but a word. These subjects are not so important in the lowest practical sense as the " three R's," but in the best sense they are practical for they are cultural and inspirational and are likely therefore to find a larger and larger place in our public school curriculum. Without noticing the particular gains which have been made in these three branches of study I will conclude this review of the purely technical or professional features of my work by one general remark. Our teachers need to be supported heartily by the parents, and strengthened and stimulated by a deeper and broader sympathy on the part of the public. This sympathy should be freely extended, expressed often and assiduously cultivated by both parties. The teachers need to see more clearly and to know more particularly what the public needs and wants, and the public needs to know better what is the length and breadth and depth of the teacher's work.
The good teacher devotes his life to making men and women. His duty is not to make " a clerking man, or a farming man," for such an one is never so serviceable to the world as " a man clerking or a man farming." He is to develop in each pupil " those powers of mind and heart which" make the individual adequate to varying conditions and unexpected situations. Effective service in the world of affairs can come only from a well developed manhood or womanhood enlisted in the service."
I heartily commend to your favorable attention all the teachers in the Arlington Public Schools, for I believe they are striving with tireless energy in patience and love for such an ideal.
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SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
The work during the year in the
High School
has been continued on the lines laid down in the courses of study adopted in 1892. The pupils in the Classical and Academic Course have been held to the same high standard of attainment as formerly, and pupils who are taking the English or General Course show increasing interest in their work. The classes in Chemistry and Bookkeeping are larger than formerly, and in both subjects results are promising. No one who has examined it carefully can fail to be pleased with the teaching, influence and spirit of this school.
I hope it will be possible next year to have more complete and definite instruction, and more extended practice given here and in the grammar schools in Original Composition and Public Declamation. It has been impossible to begin such work this year, for reasons which are obvious to all who know anything about our limited accommodations at the High School.
The Course of Study for classes below the High School which was prepared in 1892 for temporary use will be re- constructed and adapted to the new conditions of work next year. It will then be more definite and consistent.
Music and Drawing.
Careful attention has been given as usual to the instruction in music, and steady progress has been made. The change of instructors in September made no radical change in the plan of instruction.
Mr. Diman's work in the higher grades was quite satisfac- tory. Miss Heard has given close attention to thorough drill in the elements of tone and time especially in the primary grades, and her previous experience as a public school teacher of other branches as well as music has helped her to adapt her methods admirably to existing conditions. The work is well planned and carefully and systematically supervised. During the last five months special efforts
11
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SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
have been made by the supervisor of music, under the direc- tion of the Music Committee, to secure the best practical results while teaching the subject in such a way as to secure its highest educational value. It is possible to use Music in school as a means of training sight and sound perception, memory, the imagination, the will power and the feelings. By such a course pupils may be taught to sing while their minds and characters are developed by the study required. Our pupils in all grades are learning to read music at sight easily and to sing in proper rhythm or time. There have been some gains in purity of tone and quality of voice, but the work still needs to be continued mainly on the lines so well started in 1888 and 1889 by Mr. Marshall. A carefully written account of Miss Heard's work will be printed as an appendix to this report. See page 166.
The work in Drawing, under the supervision of Miss Parker, has been continued with progress in various direc- tions.
In the school exhibit this subject, represented by the actual work of the children, had a prominent place. The three principal kinds of Drawing, Constructive, Representa- tive and Decorative, were plainly set forth, and also the use which the children were making of drawing in connection with their other studies; more especially, History and Geography. The color work represented only a few of the first steps which have been taken.
An outline Course of Study in Drawing was prepared by Miss Parker last January. Since that time she has given carefully prepared detailed outlines to each teacher. Miss Parker's report of her work during the year is printed as an appendix to this report. See page 168.
Last June
A Public Exhibit
of the work done by the pupils of the primary and grammar schools was given at the Town Hall.
What the pupils had done from day to day during the
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SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
previous six months was displayed on cards hung upon the walls or was arranged on tables for close inspection. The breadth and variety of the work exhibited was a surprise to some and doubtless caused casual observers to fear that the " Three R's " were in danger of being neglected for the newer branches. of study. But it was easy for a close observer to discover, running through the exhibit a unity of purpose, by which Reading, Writing and Arithmetic were made the basis of every other study, either for acquisition or expression, while a common aim in teaching -the develop- ment of mental power - made these three one, like a tree with so many branches. In such a light the work of the common schools did not appear more complex and diver- gent, but simpler and more convergent than in the past.
During the year we have received several visits from members of Post 36, Grand Army of the Republic. Some members assisted at interesting school exercises on the Monday preceding Memorial Day. We hope these exercises will be repeated, with improvements and amendments, to the end that Patriotism, which is the sentiment that prompts a citizen to sacrifice himself for others, more especially for Freedom, Brotherhood and Native Land, in war and peace, may be fostered and taught in our public schools. Our thanks are due to Francis Gould Post 36, for giving each school a reminder of their interest in our work, and their desire to aid us to the extent of their ability.
In conclusion allow me to say that I have tried to present a simple and just report of the work which has been done in the schools during the year. If I have failed in this attempt it has not been from lack of a desire to present every matter just as it would appear to an unbiased observer.
The year has been filled with pleasant associations and enjoyable effort, partly due to the assistance and encourage- ment you have given me through the labors you have freely given in behalf of the public schools. My thanks are due to
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SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
all the sub-committees, especially those on Music, Drawing, Supplies and Repairs, for valuable aid received.
I commend our schools and teachers to the favor of every thinking man; for, while educators and statesmen have much to say in these days about ways and means of train- ing for citizenship by the study of Civics and Morals, etc., we all need to remember that no means ever devised is so potent for this express purpose as the Common School System itself. In every well managed school every child must live a real citizen's life. He is trained therein to think his conduct as a member of the society we call a school-in a word, " he is trained to the citizenship habit. Civics in the life is more vital than civics in the head."
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