Town of Arlington annual report 1904-1906, Part 42

Author: Arlington (Mass.)
Publication date: 1904-1906
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1358


USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Arlington > Town of Arlington annual report 1904-1906 > Part 42


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LIBRARY HOURS, ARLINGTON HEIGHTS READING ROOM.


TUESDAY AND SATURDAY .- 1.30 to 6, 7 to 9 P. M.


THURSDAY .- 3 to 6, 7 to 9 P. M.


Books left at the Reading Room on Tuesday and Saturday be- tween the hours of 1.30 and 3.30 P. M. will be exchanged, and books will be ready for delivery from 7 to 9 P. M. of the same day.


Books not left at the Reading Room on or before 3.30 P. M. on the days when due will be subject to fine.


STATISTICS.


Number of volumes in the Library, Jan. 1, 1906.


20,425


Increase during the year 1905: -


Circulation and reference departments 593


Public documents 29


Arlington Heights Reading Room 45


667


Number of periodicals subscribed for


72


Number of periodicals given


10


Number of newspapers subscribed for.


6


Number of books and single copies of magazines loaned, includ- ing those sent to Arlington Heights 44,035


Number loaned from Children's Room. 10,864


Number of magazines loaned : . 2,606


Largest number of books and magazines delivered in one day ... 429


138


LIBRARIAN'S STATEMENT.


Number not returned to the Library, from Jan. 1, 1905, to Jan.


1, 1906


7 4


Number destroyed on account of contagious disease.


Average daily attendance of the Reading Room.


58


Average daily attendance of the Children's Room. 19


Average Sunday attendance of the Reading Room. . Average Sunday attendance of the Children's Room


46


38


Number of new names registered during the year.


542


Number of volumes in Arlington Heights Reading Room, Jan. 1, 1906


485


Number of periodicals subscribed for


22


Number of books and magazines sent by basket from Centre in 1905


2,733


Number of magazines loaned from Arlington Heights Reading Room


1,120


Number not returned, from Jan. 1, 1905, to Jan. 1, 1906


0


Number destroyed on account of contagious disease.


3


Fines paid to the Town Treasurer in 1905.


$222.23


Amount paid to the Town Treasurer for sale of catalogues. $5.10


139


LIBRARIAN'S STATEMENT.


LIST OF PERIODICALS AND NEWSPAPERS.


Amateur Work.


American Boy.


American Monthly Review of Re- views.


Architectural Record.


Arena.


Arlington High School Clarion.


Atlantic Monthly.


Bird Lore.


Birds and Nature.


Book Buyer .*


Bookman. Boston Cooking School Magazine. Century.


Chautaquan.


Christian Endeavor World.


Congressional Record .*


Cook's Excursionist .*


Cosmopolitan.


Critic.


Cumulative Index. Current Literature. Delineator.


Educational Review.


Etude. Federation Bulletin. Forum


Good Housekeeping.


Good Roads Magazine.


Harper's Bazar.


Harper's Monthly.


Harper's Weekly.


Harvard University Calendar.


Historic Leaves.


Home Science Magazine.


House Beautiful.


Illustrated London News. Independent. Indian's Friend. International Quarterly. Journal of Education.


Journal of Ethics.


Lamp. Library Journal. Life.


Lippincott's Magazine. Little Folks.


Living Age.


McClure's Magazine.


Masters in Art.


Masters in Music.


Munsey's Magazine.


Museum of Fine Arts Bulletin .*


Musical Courier.


Nation.


New England Homestead.


New England Magazine.


Nineteenth Century.


North American Review.


Official Gazette, U. S. Patent Office .*


Our Dumb Animals .*


Outing. Outlook.


Perry Magazine.


Photo Era.


Popular Science Monthly.


Public Libraries.


- St. Nicholas.


Scientific American.


Scribner's Magazine.


Search Light.


Spectator.


Studio.


Success.


Technology Review .*


Temple Bar.


Tuftonian .*


Tufts Weekly .*


Worcester Magazine .*


World's Work.


Young Idea.


Youth.


Youth's Companion.


NEWSPAPERS.


Arlington Advocate. Boston Daily Advertiser. Boston Evening Transcript. New England Farmer.


New York Times, with Saturday Review of books and art. Springfield Weekly Republican.


*Given to the Library.


140


LIBRARIAN'S STATEMENT.


We have received reports or bulletins, or both, from the public libraries of the following places :- Baltimore, Md. (Enoch Pratt Free Library) ; Belmont; Boston; Brookline; Cambridge; Can- ton; Chelsea (Fitz Public Library) ; Concord; Erie; Everett (Shute Memorial Library) ; Fall River ; Fitchburg; Hartford, Conn .; Helena, Mont .; Hyde Park; Lancaster ; Lexington (Cary Library) ; Malden; Manchester. N. H .; Milton; New York; Newton; Northampton (Forbes Library) ; Philadelphia, Pa .; Providence, R. I .; St. Louis, Mo. (Mercantile Library Associa- tion) ; Salem; Somerville; Syracuse, N. Y .; Wakefield (Beebe Town Library) ; Watertown; Wilkes-Barré, Pa. (Osterhout Free Library) ; Winchester ; Woburn; Worcester.


Respectfully submitted,


ELIZABETH J. NEWTON, . Librarian.


ARLINGTON, December 31, 1905.


REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.


December 30, 1905.


To the Town of Arlington:


Your committee after full consideration decided that the schools required the services of two Assistants to the Principals whose time should be equitably apportioned to four Grammar Buildings and Miss Bessie A. Conway and Miss Augusta A. Jack- son were elected to these positions.


Swedish Gymnastics have been introduced in the Grammar Grades and the services of Miss Bessie L. Barnes secured as In- structor for two days each week. A Commercial Course in the High School was opened in the fall term and 35 pupils elected to pursue its studies showing the need for its establishment at this time.


At the meeting in May our former Superintendent, Mr. Frank S. Sutcliffe, after seven years or service presented his resigna- tion which was accepted, to take effect July Ist, with the hearty wishes of the committee that his health might be quickly restored.


In September, Mr. John F. Scully, formerly of Brookline, was unanimously elected Superintendent and entered upon his duties October 23d.


Dedication Exercises of the William E. Parmenter School were held on May 26th. Hon. James A. Bailey, Jr., presided, and ad- dresses were made by Secretary Martin of the State Board of Education, and Judge James P. Parmenter.


Miss Susan F. Wiley was elected to succeed her sister, Miss Florence S. Wiley, as principal of this school on the latter's resig- nation.


The time of the Spring Vacation has been changed to the week preceding the second Monday in April.


The citizens are again indebted to the Arlington Woman's Club for further gifts of pictures and casts to the schools, and the continued interest of its members in educational matters.


Respectfully submitted,


H. G. PORTER,


Chairman.


142


SCHOOL COMMITTEE.


SCHOOLS.


Total Salaries Paid Teachers $39,188 88


Total Salaries Paid Janitors. 3,950 00


GENERAL EXPENSES.


Classified as to Schools.


High.


Books and Supplies


$705 28


Fuel


1,076 18


Janitors'


Supplies


65 01


Repairs


198 82


Lights


55 53


Laundry


10 66


Furnishings


90 30


Telephones


...


27 25


$2,229 03


Russell.


Books and Supplies


$1,502 24


Fuel


456 89


Janitors' Supplies


52 15


Repairs


303 63


Lights


40 79


Laundry


19 00


Furnishings


14 00


Telephones


.... ... . 17 87


$2,406 57


Crosby.


Books and Supplies.


$559 48


Fuel


367 70


Janitors' Supplies


47 35


Repairs


317 92


Lights


25 98


Laundry


16 00


Furnishings


19 50


Telephones


15 44


$1,369 37


Locke.


Books and Supplies


$517 87


Fuel


570 09


Janitors' Supplies


52 92


Repairs


285 17


Lights


13 20


Laundry


14 00


Furnishings


00


Telephones


. .


16 99


. .


$1,495 24


143


SCHOOL COMMITTEE.


Cutter.


Books and Supplies


$524 05


Fuel


765 18


Janitors' Supplies


75 74


Repairs


603 72


Lights


. .


42


Laundry


16 75


Furnishings


7 85


Telephones'


. . . . .. ..


13 76


William E. Parmenter.


Books and Supplies


$230 86


Fuel


438 88


Janitors' Supplies


59 32


Repairs


207 17


Lights


9 68


Laundry


3 68


Telephones


22 00


$971 59


BOOKS AND SUPPLIES INCLUDED IN THE ABOVE TABLES.


Drawing


$426 82


Commercial


144 86


Physical Training


10 78


Sewing


11 50


Reference Books, from Pratt Fund.


373 31


TOTAL FOR TEXT BOOKS AND SUPPLIES.


Text Books and Supplies.


$4,039 78


Gift Books from Blake Fund. .


100 00


Books of Reference, Apparatus, Lectures, from Pratt Fund ..


613 96


Manual Training


251 90


Sundries, including expenses for Grammar and High School Graduation


700 57


Repairs


1,881 83


Balance of Repairs


118 17


Appropriated by Town, General.


52,300 00


Appropriated by Town, Repairs.


2,000 00


From Blake Fund


100 00


From Pratt Fund


613 96


From Martha M. W. Russell Fund.


188 14


From William Cutter Fund.


.


. .


.


. .


214 24


$55,416 34


Appropriated for Bills of 1904.


$450 00


Paid


448 63


Balance


1 37


. .


. . . . . .


$2,022 47


. .


.


144


SCHOOL COMMITTEE.


REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS.


To the School Committee of Arlington :-


I beg to submit to you my first annual report.


It is with regret that I find that custom has not required of the Superintendent an annual report, consequently I find myself some- what embarrassed in not being able to present such statistics as, it seems to me, are necessary to secure a connected history of the schools of the town.


Realizing that the time I have had to study conditions in the Town is too short to form most decided opinions, there are, never- theless, certain phases of the work about which I am glad of the opportunity to address you. Of what was done the last school year you are better informed than I can possibly be. This report must, therefore, be an outline of conditions as they appear to me, some suggestions as to how conditions may be improved, and in general terms the method I intend following in order to secure certain definite results.


The people of Arlington have a right to demand that the schools do effective work in producing character and ability to do things, together with the desire to accomplish something. Money alone is not the sole and efficient cause of good schools, no matter how liberally it may be expended. Fine buildings, per- fectly heated and ventilated, teachers general and special, fine courses of study, manual training, physical training, all are miss- ing their mark if they do not make for character and competency: Wealth of opportunity does not always mean wealth of result. Great work is going on and character and ability are in the making in many places in which the conditions, ordinarily considered essen- tial to success, are almost wholly lacking. History teaches us that opportunity, of itself, is not a great matter. Not the mere presence of opportunity, but the use to which the student will put it, this is the determining factor. The forceful personality of one or more teachers, compelling the admiration and affection of their pupils, and the atmosphere that they create in the institutions to which they are giving their lives, these are the all important things. It is the duty of the Town to furnish the best of oppor- tunities, and it is the work of teachers, principals, superintendent, and parents to see that they are appreciated.


145


SCHOOL COMMITTEE.


In this connection I am led to speak of the great difficulty of finding good, sensible, experienced teachers. By examining the list of teachers given later, with the year in which they began service in Arlington, it will be seen that fourteen teachers, twenty- four per cent. of the whole force, were new to the Town during the year 1905. I am further informed that during the school year, 1904-1905, twenty-six teachers, regular, temporary, and substi- tute, entirely new to the school system of Arlington, taught in the schools of the Town. It must be apparent to the most casual observer that this is possible only at the expense of the children, and that it is a great detriment to efficient results. Places paying larger salaries than Arlington can afford to pay - Somerville, Cambridge, Brookline, Malden, Winchester, etc. - are drawing from our schools many of our best teachers. Most of the smaller towns have raised the salaries of desirable teachers in their em- ploy so that we cannot attract them by the salary we can offer. Our field for available teachers is becoming more and more re- stricted.


Arlington pays as good salaries as most places of its size, and better than many, but we are so conveniently situated for princi- pals and superintendents to visit, that we suffer more than places outside the Metropolitan district. This condition, therefore, is one for which it is difficult to find a remedy until the Town can afford to raise the maximum salary for grade teachers. We need as good teachers as our richer neighbors and it should be our policy to insure ourselves against loss by paying salaries as large as the resources of the Town will admit.


I respectfully suggest that, in view of the increasing difficulty of securing good teachers, the rule by which a teacher in the grades below the eighth must serve the Town two years before receiving the maximum salary be changed, so that a teacher may receive the maximum at the end of one year, and that in special cases the maximum may be paid at once to a teacher of excep- tional experience and promise. My reasons for feeling the seri- ousness of the question of salary to teachers may be summarized as follows :-


I. The increased cost of living.


2. The greatly increased demands made upon the teacher, re- quiring more thorough professional training and a longer period of apprenticeship.


3. The pay of teachers as compared with the pay received in other lines of work requiring less preparation and less skill.


146


SCHOOL COMMITTEE.


4. The necessity of increasing the compensation offered to teachers, in order to attract to the profession and to hold in it the best talent.


5. The fact that salaries are relatively lower to-day than they were twenty years ago.


In contrast to our own losses of teachers during the last year, Somerville, offering larger salaries, loses comparatively few teachers. In last year's school report, the Superintendent says : "During 1904, seventeen teachers have tendered their resigna- tions. Of these ten have been drawn away by matrimonial allure- ments, three are teaching elsewhere for larger salaries, and the remaining four have relinquished teaching for other pursuits." The whole number of teachers new to the Somerville schools was twenty-nine, or nine per cent. of the whole number employed.


Consulting a table which shows the comparative amount of money expended in the towns of Massachusetts for the support of public schools per child during the last year, I find Arlington number thirty-four; i.e., thirty-three towns expended a larger amount for each child, while three hundred nineteen ex- pended a smaller amount. Turning now to a table in which all - the towns of the State are numerically arranged according to the proportion of their taxable property appropriated for the support of public schools, I find that Arlington is numbered one hundred and seventy. That is to say, a heavier financial burden was car- ried by one hundred sixty-nine towns, while a lighter burden was carried by one hundred eighty-three.


SCHOOL ACCOMMODATIONS.


The Town may well be proud of its excellent school buildings. I know of few places superior to Arlington in this respect. The buildings are kept on the whole, clean, well-heated, and well-ven- tilated. The sanitary conditions are good. There are very few crowded rooms, and no room in which the number of children is so great as to make proper ventilation unreasonably difficult.


On extremely cold days the heating of the High School is some- what difficult, because of the fact that proper boilers for the heating of such a large plant were not installed when the building was built. I hope that this difficulty will be remedied during the present year.


The Locke district seems to be the section growing most rapid- ly. In December there was a membership for the month of 358, an increase of twenty-five over the corresponding month of last


147


SCHOOL COMMITTEE.


year. This is an average for each of the eight rooms of practi- cally forty-five children. This is comfortable for the present, though there are two rooms with fifty-two in each, but if the growth continues, as we have every reason to expect, additional school accommodations will be needed soon in that district.


A room was finished in the south-east corner of the High School basement, during the summer, for the use of classes in stenography and book-keeping. It makes a very satisfactory class- room.


I wish to express my very deep appreciation of the excellent taste and judgment that has been shown in the selection and plac- ing of works of art in the various school buildings of the Town. I fully agree with Bliss Carman who says, in speaking of the relation of art to life: "It is a sad day for a people when their art becomes divorced from the current of their life; when it comes to be looked upon as something precious but unimportant, having nothing to do with their social structure, their faith, or their daily vocations. The sense of beauty and the sense of good- ness are so closely related, that any injury to one means an in- jury to the other. The nation which cares nothing for art cannot be expected to care much for justice or righteousness. The two must go hand in hand." "


The following works of art were added to the schools during the year :


High School: Busts of Lincoln, Grant, Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, and John Adams ; presented by the Class of 1905.


Russell School: Victory of Samothrace, Boys with Cymbals ; presented by the Arlington Woman's Club.


Crosby School : Rossilino's Madonna, Boys with Cymbals, Boys Singing from Scroll, Photograph of St. Peters; given by the Woman's Club.


Cutter School: Boys Singing from Scroll, Boys with Cymbals ; given by the Woman's Club.


Locke School: Boys with Cymbals; given by the Woman's Club, and Diana Robing; given by the children with help of the Woman's Club.


Parmenter School : Busts of Washington and Lincoln, Setting- nano's Madonna, Sistine Madonna, Van Dyke's Children, of Charles I, Dancing Children ; given by the Woman's Club.


SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.


There were one hundred eighty-five days in the school year 1904-1905. The schools are in session nominally forty weeks, but


148


SCHOOL COMMITTEE.


with holidays and stormy days the number of school days is always considerably below two hundred. When it is remembered that the schools are in session but about half the days in the year, that the school day is but four and three quarters hours long, that there are two no-school days in every week, and that there are two vacations of a week or more each besides legal holidays, it must be conceded that the normal strain imposed upon children by the hours of school life is not sufficient to occasion any alarm. In view of this shortness of the school year, it is important that interruptions of every sort should be reduced to a minimum, and that there should be the utmost economy of time on the part of every teacher. Regu- lar attendance is absolutely essential to the progress of every child. We have been trying to improve the attendance. A glance at the table showing the percentage of attendance and the number of tardinesses in December, 1904, and December, 1905, will show with what success we are meeting. The system of monthly reports now in use is helping greatly. A still greater help, we feel, will be the work of the Truant Officer who began work with the present term. The officer calls at, or calls by telephone, all the schools every session. It is his duty not only to look up all sus- pected truants, but to look up all absentees whose non-attendance is suspected of being unnecessary. Many children are not getting a fair show because they are being kept at home to help. This is contrary to law and must be stopped.


HOME STUDY.


While it is possible to report much good work in all the grades, still, it seems to me, our average scholarship is too low. Boys and girls between the ages of twelve and eighteen are capable of doing much hard work. They should have plenty of time for recreation when their minds are wholly free from the demands of mathematics, language, or literature, and when play absorbs their utmost attention. But life to pupils should not be all play, and certainly some time every day, out of school hours, should be given to honest, hard work. In the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades it is not unreasonable to require from forty-five to ninety minutes, four or five times a week, of home work from children. In the High School there are few children who can maintain a fair standing in their classes without giving several hours a day, outside of school hours, to the preparation of their lessons. But this does not mean that a pupil is to give all his time out of school to study. If he is doing this, he is doing wrong, and there is fault somewhere. Either he is over conscientious or the work is.


149


SCHOOL COMMITTEE.


for him, unreasonably hard. I am assuming, in what I have said, that the pupil is in vigorous health. Without good health; a high degree of scholarship cannot be maintained without grave con- sequences. To meet such conditions, many High Schools have adopted the plan of diploma points. By this plan each subject counts a certain number of points for a diploma, and, to gain the number required for graduation, a pupil may take three, four, five, or even six years. An average pupil will receive his diploma in four years, but to the one who, because of ill-health or other cause, does not do this, no dishonor or disgrace attaches. It is always a misfortune, never a disgrace.


Parents and teachers should work together to secure good habits of study, and when such habits are acquired, there will, with the ordinary child, be no complaints of poorly prepared les- sons or a low standard of scholarship.


GYMNASTICS AND ATHLETICS.


There was a time, and I regret to say some schools have not yet struggled out of that,time, when the branches taught seemed to be the center and end of education. From this extreme view there has been a gradual change toward the opposite view, that the , child is the center and end of education. We have had brought to our attention a fact which we have always known, but of which we have not been seemingly conscious ; namely, that every child- . mind that comes to school, comes in some kind of a body, and that the kind of body in which it comes, determines, to a great degree, what the mind may accomplish. People have come to be- lieve that a training of the mind alone is a one-sided training, and that a highly trained mind in a poorly developed body is not the most effective instrument for accomplishing the world's work. I quote in this connection the following words of a distinguished educator :


"First among the present-day problems is the problem of physi- cal education.


"For training the body directly and the mind indirectly, four agencies are more or less employed in some schools, and should be extensively employed in all schools; play, gymnastics, ath- letics, and manual training. In addition to the physical qualities developed by gymnastics, athletics develop the intellectual quali- ties of alertness, self-knowledge, executive ability, and 'presence of mind,' or the ability to think effectively in a crisis; and the moral qualities of self-control, self-reliance, courage, endurance, humility in victory, fortitude in defeat, and loyalty to one's fel-


150


SCHOOL COMMITTEE.


lows through working together for a common end. Manual train- ing specifically trains the hand as the executive of the mind; it gives opportunity for self-expression in material forms; it gives facility in the manipulation of the simplest tools that have aided man in his ascent from savagery; it cultivates the mental and moral habits of accuracy and truthfulness, and it induces a reali- zation of the dignity of labor.


"Without these four forms of physical culture, no school is do- ing its perfect work."


If we would keep abreast of the times in the matter of physical training, we should keep very distinctly in mind the need of a gymnasium in the High School. It would brighten the whole at- mosphere of school life. By making gymnastic work and games compulsory for all but the physically unfit, we should do more for our girls than can be done in any other way. Professor Tyler in an address to the Twentieth Century Club, recently said : "What can the school do? It can furnish more gymnastics and play. It can lengthen and increase the number of recesses and pauses - between recitations. We need, above all, teachers with clear and watchful eyes who can lighten worry, fret, and weariness; can see when leniency is needed and when firmness is kindness; who know when not to notice a bad error or recitation, or even a day's work; who can pass over or even advise a day's absence from school now and then. We need wise and sympathetic teachers, who have a leaning towards mercy ; and above all a public edu- cated sufficiently to appreciate them and support them in their efforts. At present we are far more likely to blame our teachers for that which they cannot and we will not change."


We have made a good beginning by introducing gymnastics into the primary and grammar grades. We have a most efficient supervisor who knows the work thoroughly, and, what is better, uses good judgment in teaching it. We need her services in the High School building.


It is a lamentable fact that there is no public playground for school boys in the Town. The High School boys lease Lawrence Field for a base-ball ground, but it is at such an expense that they are unable to do for their teams what the more fortunate sur- rounding towns can do. It is a good deal of a burden for them to bear. If it does not seem probable that the Town will soon erect a Town Hall on the lot adjoining the High School lot, I hope that it may be deemed within the province of the School Com- mittee to recommend to the Town that the lot be fitted up as an athletic field.




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