USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Arlington > Town of Arlington annual report 1904-1906 > Part 79
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GRADE VIII. Constant practice on and wider development of the Grade VIII. work, with the study of the minor scales and modulation.
The writing is now of minor scales.
GRADE IX. Sometimes in the eighth year, always by the ninth, we are ready for four part singing. The F clef is presented and the bass` singing of the boys very carefully, gently started. The Cecilian, Book III, is the book used. This provides for a system- atic and thorough review of all tone and time problems of the pre- ceding years.
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HIGH SCHOOL. The work of the High School must necessarily vary greatly according to the amount of time which is given to the music. Our work has been largely chorus work, the training and careful development of tenors and basses, sight work, boys' part songs, girls' choruses, singing by the entire school in five, six, eight, or any number of parts, and the learning to follow accur- ately the baton of a director. This partial list of some of our recent choruses will show the character of the selections : -
Hallelujah Chorus, from " The Messiah." And The Glory of the Lord, from " The Messiah." The Heavens Are Telling, from " The Creation." The Lord is Great, from Mendelssohn's " Athalie." Heaven and the Earth Display, from Mendelssohn's " Athalie." Pilgrim Chorus, from " Tannhauser."
Damascus Triumphal March, from "Naaman." Gloria in Excelsis, Mozart.
I wish to quote from the report of the Music Conference held under the auspices of the New England Educational League, - " A frequent example of the neglect of a serious consideration of music in public education : A youth reaches the High School age desiring to study music with a serious purpose, which desire is approved by parents and teachers. He is met by these school conditions ; first, he must add music to his High School course as an out of school study and thus run the peril of over-crowding, a condition which occasions much parental complaint, and may result in permanent injury to the pupil; or, second, he must drop music, which, in the deliberate opinion of his advisors, may be to him one of the most valuable studies of the High School period ; or, third, he must leave the High School; for the present school system neither teaches, credits nor favors the serious study of music. These conditions make it difficult for parents to carry forward the musical education of their children, and at the same time secure the general High School advantages. They curtail the opportunity of the musical element of society for literary and general training."
In order to correct this evil Harvard University and Tufts College already accept work done in music, giving points on entrance examinations, other colleges are considering it. A number of our High Schools, accordingly, allow credit for work done on piano, organ, violin, cornet or harmony out of school (if the High School course cannot offer it) to count toward a diploma. I earn- estly anticipate the time when such opportunity may be open to Arlington High School pupils.
Once each year for the past four years the grammar grades have been given a written test on the music. In 1903 the number of classes averaging above 70% was four. Last year only three classes fell below 70% in average.
Beginning with the fifth grades, I have personally tested the voice of every pupil in our schools at least once each year, oftener
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in many cases, watching the changing voice that it may not be strained, and placing the boy or girl on the part which at that time seems best to meet the needs of the voice.
During the past year, " Songs of the Nations," a valuable collec- tion of the best familiar hymns, ballads and patriotic songs of many countries, have been placed in the buildings and are being used with enjoyment and profit. A " kindergarten " organ, small enough to be carried easily from room to room, has been placed in each building. These are long enough in range - four octaves - to give much hap- piness to the pupils and great assistance to the teacher.
Permit me, in closing, to express my grateful appreciation to the Committee, who for so many years have made my position almost an ideal one, to the Superintendent who can and does do for my boys the one thing that I cannot do for them, and to the teachers and pupils, who ยท by their earnest cooperation and responsive attitude have made the results of these years very gratifying.
Very respectfully,
BLANCHE E. HEARD, Supervisor of Music.
REPORT OF SPECIAL TEACHER OF MANUAL TRAINING.
Mr. John F. Scully, Superintendent of Schools :
DEAR SIR : - In compliance with your request I submit to you a report of the manual training department.
Receiving instruction in the manual training work are about two hundred boys comprising grades seven, eight, nine, and the English course of the first year in the High School. These are divided into eleven classes varying in numbers. The seventh, eighth and ninth grades are taught bench work after the sloyd method. The work of these three years is designed to familiarize the pupils with the simple tools of carpentry and their uses. The seventh grade devotes one lesson of one and one-half hours per week, through the year to the making of ten useful pieces of wood-work. These pieces are intended to teach planing, sawing and some whittling. The eighth grade devotes one lesson of two hours (except the Russell School where they have two lessons of one hour each) per week through the year to making several pieces' of work requiring more thought and care than the first year's work and taking up exercises in chisel- ing and chip carving in addition to the planing and sawing. The ninth grade has two lessons per week of about one hour and forty minutes each. This grade is instructed in laying out and cutting carpentry joints during the first part of the year. This work later
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receives a pratical application in finished pieces. Some chip carv- ing and finishing in shellac and varnish is also taught in this grade. Boys of the ninth grade are allowed to attempt some sharpening.
A course in mechanical drawing has also been laid out for these three grades. The seventh grade take up some preliminary exer- cises designed to teach them the use of the T square, triangles, draw- ing board and compasses. These exercises are continued in the eighth grade and are followed by some working drawings. The ninth grade take work in orthographic projection and follow this with some working drawings. The work of the English division of the first year in the High School is in wood turning and pattern making combined with some bench work.
It is to be regretted that some arrangement cannot be made for more of the boys of the High School to elect turning when they desire to do so.
It is desirable that parents shall visit this department that they may better understand what is being accomplished. Too many parents get the erroneous idea that we are teaching boys to be carpenters. The real design of the manual training is to develop in the boy habits of accuracy, neatness and independent thinking.
To instruct these two hundred boys once and about eighty of them twice each week I am obliged to teach seven hours on Tuesday and Thursday and six and one-half hours on Wednesday and Friday. This is too great a tax upon any teacher's strength, and if the com- mittee could employ my full time it would be greatly to the advan- tage of this work.
While the work is regularly marked, the marks are made little if any account of in promotions. So important a branch as this should receive due consideration in promotions.
The equipment of the room is ample for the work and in excellent shape, with the exception of the engine. The engine is much out of repair and needs a large outlay. No repairs have been made upon it during the twelve years it has been in commission. It seems to me it would be economy to replace the old engine, which is dirty and unsanitary, besides being unsatisfactory, by a motor. My work could be done to much better advantage and economy of time if we had a motor that could be used out of school hours. Many times in warm weather the janitor is obliged to have twenty pounds of steam to run the machinery when no heat is needed in the building. A motor would do away with this necessity, besides combining neatness, utility and economy.
Respectfully submitted,
ALFRED C. COBB.
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REPORT OF THE SPECIAL TEACHER OF SEWING.
Mr. John F. Scully, Superintendent of Schools :
In compliance with your request, I present, herewith, my report as special teacher of sewing.
The course, as planned, is designed to teach not only plain sewing but various practical ways of working in the construction of gar- ments ; and, by use of the sampler, the pupil is given something for future reference.
The first half of the present year has been spent on the sampler, and many pupils will soon be ready to apply the knowledge thus gained to the making of garments as prescribed by the course, each grade having assigned to it such work in this line as seems best fitted to the amount of ground covered.
No cast-iron rule, however, is followed in this respect. Girls here and there may have no use for the particular garment of their grade and are allowed to choose something else, the making of which is within their ability. Interest in what is being made is the greatest incentive to securing satisfactory work.
The ability to sew neatly and easily varies greatly under the same instruction. It is quite possible at the first lesson in Septem- ber, to select those who will to the end of the course handle the needle and thimble awkwardly, and make hard work out of what to many is an easy and graceful exercise. If to this is added a natural distaste for work with the hands, and, consequently, a shirking of practice out of school, it becomes rather discouraging for the teacher who can give to these pupils but a small fraction of the hour lesson each week. She often finds forgotten and undone this week what she labored hard to impress the week before.
It is not possible to obtain an equal amount of finished work from each girl, if this were considered desirable. Many find their limita- tions far short of the full course, but, since it is planned for the quick ones, there is never any idle time.
The ninth grade, having spent four years on very practical work, seem to have fairly earned the right to a little "fancy work." All who desired, have been allowed to lay aside the regular work for a few lessons at this season and apply what they have learned, parti- cularly in Mexican work, to the making of center pieces, bureau scarfs, doileys, handkerchiefs, collars, etc., as Christmas work.
The next in line for this grade is a cotton dress or some part of one, the amount varying with the ability of the different pupils. This branch of the work could be made much more practical if the girls of this grade could be taught the use of the sewing machine. There is much sewing in the construction of garments which is much better done in this way, notwithstanding a fad for hand work. At present the girls are obliged to prepare work for the machine and take it home to be stitched at the convenience of those who do it for them, beside losing the value of the experience to themselves.
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I would earnestly recommend a sewing machine for the use of the ninth grade.
Any ordinary system of cutting by chart for pupils of this age has seemed so impractical that it has been deemed wiser to teach the use of patterns until something more desirable presents itself. This may be found, possibly, in the School System of garment cutting as presented by the Parker Whiting Co., of Boston. It has some good points to recommend it, and I would suggest a consideration of this system by the Sub Committee on this branch of school work.
Respectfully submitted,
MARY J. COPELAND, Teacher of Sewing.
REPORT OF SUPERVISOR OF DRAWING.
Mr. John F. Scully, Superintendent of Schools :
DEAR SIR: - In accordance with your request, I present my report of the drawing for the past year.
The work has included both artistic and practical training. The
aim of the artistic study has been to increase the love for the beau- tiful, and, in its practical aspect, to teach the use of that knowledge in every day life. To attain these ends there has been a course in freehand, and a course in mechanical drawing. It may not be amiss to state what we have tried to accomplish along these lines, and to note the methods which have been used.
I. ARTISTIC APPRECIATION. As there are certain books and certain musical compositions which have power to exert a wonderful influence for good, so there are certain works of art which appeal to the best that is in us. Fortunately our schools are unusually well supplied with such pictures and casts, and by their study, as well as by the use of small reproductions of other works of art, the pupil comes to have a higher standard, comes also to possess a gen- eral information regarding some of the most important works of art, and to know something of the lives of the artists themselves.
Considerable attention is now given to the subject of design, for more and more the spirit of the age demands things pleasing to the eye, and it is important to a people whether this demand is met by importing goods, or by educating our own people so that they shall be able to give to common materials the value which taste and skill alone can impart. This training must begin in the public schools, and in order to obtain the best results, the pupil must feel that his design is not merely a piece of paper, but is to be applied to some useful article. Thus one class makes a calendar, another a book cover, a third a portfolio, yet a fourth use the patterns to orna- ment articles made from leather.
The latter is of special interest. The tooling of leather has been
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carried to perfection in many foreign countries, and of late there is a tendency to do leather designing in our own country. The orna- ment is first traced upon the leather, then the leather is moistened and the pattern cut into it with an outlining tool. The background is next rubbed so as to show darker than the figure, or finished so that it has a rough surface. The leather is sometimes modeled, when it is worked from the wrong side so that the design is raised slightly above the background. The tools for the work are inex- pensive, only one or two being required, and as the pupils always wish to keep whatever they make, they buy their own leather. There are so many small, useful articles such as purses and card- cases, that the expense is not great.
II. FREEHAND SKETCHING. This includes study from plant forms in outline, light and shade, and color, also the sketching of common objects and everyday scenes in outline and light and shade. The ability to see truly and to represent what is seen is a thing every one should possess, even though all may not be able to make artistically finished drawings. The High School teacher of physics and chemistry wishes her class to sketch the apparatus of the laboratory, the instructor of botany calls for nature drawings, and outside school life there are many occasions when ability to produce even a rude picture serves better than many words.
III. MECHANICAL DRAWING. We cannot afford to do without this subject. Our boys must know the language which the inventor must use if he wishes to design a machine, the architect must know . if he would plan a house, and which the workmen too should under- stand in order to execute intelligently the idea of the inventor or architect. Mr. Sargent, recently State Supervisor of Drawing, reports that the average builder asks us to teach more mechanical drawing, and says that only two or three out of a force of fifteen men can read a blueprint without assistance. Below the High School, both boys and girls study mechanical drawing during a portion of the year. In the fifth and sixth grades, a special course in cardboard construction and geometrical problems is planned for the boys, while the girls are sewing. In the first year of the High School, there is a course mechanical drawing extending through the entire year, and most of the boys choose this course, as most of the girls elect the freehand course for the year.
As the lessons are given largely by the regular grade teacher, meetings are held frequently for instruction as to the carrying out of the course of study, and occasionally to give actual practice in drawing.
I desire to acknowledge my appreciation of the faithful work done by our teachers, also the many ways in which assistance has been rendered and the duties made pleasant by the members of the School Committee, as well as by the Superintendent.
Respectfully submitted,
EVELYN F. CROSS, Supervisor of Drawing.
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REPORT OF THE SUPERVISOR OF PHYSICAL TRAINING.
Mr. John F. Scully, Superintendent of Schools :
In compliance with your request, I present, herewith, my report as supervisor of physical training.
Since the introduction of Physical Training in September, 1905, daily lessons have been given in the first eight grades by the regular teachers. With the exception of the Russell School where it was ably started by Miss Westcott, it was an entirely new subject both to teachers and pupils. The cordial reception by all made it possible to make a most encouraging beginning.
Although performed with the limited conditions which the school room affords, the windows are thrown open and the work is done in fresh air, knowing that by vigorous exercise we shall quicken the circulation, improve respiration and in a measure overcome the necessarily unfavorable condition of school life. Without apparatus the work of actual body building is slow, but it is reasonable to expect the following results : correction of faulty posture in many cases ; that the children shall learn to breathe well; that they shall sit and walk correctly ; that the body shall be a ready servant of a quickened mind and a stronger character.
The work is designed to be hygienic, corrective, educational, . recreative, and ethical ; and these results are accomplished by formal gymnastics, rythmical exercises and games.
Observation of the teachers' work, lessons of demonstration ; frequent meetings and consultations have developed intelligent work on the part of the teachers and, in many cases, exceptionally good results have been obtained. The excellent work of the principals, especially in the eighth grades, tells its own story in the ability and interest of the present ninth grade.
The present year opened with an opportunity, greatly appreciated, of extending the work to the ninth grade and the freshman class of the High School. This extension called for the services of an assistant and Miss Miriam A. Tobey, a graduate of the Boston Nor- mal School of Gymnastics and an experienced teacher, adds one day a week to the supervision, making it possible for each of the first eight grades to be visited once in two weeks, and for the ninth grades and freshman class to have two lessons a week. In addi- tion to these visits, over thirty extra lessons have been given since September to new teachers and to others needing or desiring addi- tional time. One of the most gratifying and valuable features of the work has been the demand of the teachers for assistance, and the excellent spirit in which criticism has been sought and received.
A room in each grammar school suitably equipped with apparatus would be a most valuable addition to the already splendid equip- ment.
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The most critical part of the educational system physically is that which deals with the girls of the High School. Greater skill is needed in caring for girls between the ages of fourteen and eighteen than at any other time, yet that is the time when the greatest pres- sure is put on the mental side of their life, and a girl must be "pre- pared for college " and society whether she has a sound body to take with her or not. A large proportion of girls leave the High School in poorer health than when they entered it. Ought not a supreme effort be made to improve health rather than injure it ?
The examination of sight and hearing by the State law has come because these are the most apparent hindrances to the accumulation of facts, but, to my mind, the discovery of mal-nutrition, spinal curvature, and other physical conditions against which girls are struggling is even more valuable. Examination by a physician who knows the value of gymnastics and the wise use of a well equipped gymnasium is an important factor in solving this critical problem of the High School girl's health.
I speak with renewed conviction on this point, having with Dr. Sarah A. Bond, of Boston, just completed the work of examining all the girls who take gymnastics in the Brookline High School. It has proved most valuable in directing the character of the gymnasium work and in explaining mental and moral deficiencies in many of the students.
Dr. Robert W. Lovett states that lateral curvature is found in 26% of the average of school children, wherever examined. This begins with 8% to 10% in the lower grades and increases to 32 and 33% in the High School.
It would be unreasonable to claim that school room gymnastics will cure lateral curvature, but it ought to prevent a large proportion of it, and if it is combined with constant care of habitual position and movements during adolescence ought to result in excellent carriage.
With comparatively small expense for the purchase of apparatus much work of a corrective nature can be done in the room in the High School to be used for gymnastics. This phase of gymnastics is of real importance, and needs to be done while the muscles are flexible.
In conclusion, I wish to add my hearty appreciation of the generous support that has been given to the department of Physical Training.
Respectfully submitted,
BESSIE L. BARNES.
REPORT OF THE SCHOOL PHYSICIAN.
Mr. John F. Scully, Superintendent of Schools :
I herewith submit my report as School Physician from the date of taking up the work, March 7, 1906, to the end of the year.
The school inspection was under the direction of the Board of
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Health until September 1. On that date the work was put in charge of the School Committee by statute, and I was appointed School Physician.
The total number of examinations made since March 7, is 1,159. Of these 292 were examined as to vaccination. The number excluded from school is 84. Of these, 18 were required to be vac- cinated, 14 were suffering with whooping cough, 14 from pediculosis, 8 from scabies, 7 from suspicious sore throats, 4 from measles, 4 from conjunctivitis, 3 from tonsilitis, 2 from mumps, 2 from nausea, 1 from headache, and one from ivy poisoning. Two were sent home for obtrusive lack of cleanliness and 4 were dismissed as having been exposed to contagious diseases, 2 to diphtheria, 2 to scarlet fever. Besides this one whole room in the Locke School was dismissed as a case of diphtheria was known to have been pres- ent during a session. The room was fumigated.
Special diligence is used in guarding against contagious diseases, and every effort is being made to discover undetected mild cases. Our endeavor is to make the school room the safest place in which a child can be. On a mere suspicion of the presence of a com- municable disease in a room, every child is examined and extra caution is observed till the danger period is passed. Such examina- tions have been required from time to time during the year and on one occasion a room was closed and fumigated.
Many cases of contagious disease are of a type so mild that no physician is called. These are the cases that commonly give rise to epidemics, as the infected person mingles freely with others. One of the most important results obtained by medical inspection is the prompt elimination of these cases from the schools of the town.
The interest and hearty co-operation of the superintendent and teachers has been of great assistance in making the work effective.
Respectfully submitted,
CHARLES F. ATWOOD, M. D, School Physician.
REPORT OF THE TRUANT OFFICER.
Mr. John F. Scully, Superintendent of Schools :
I herein present my report as truant officer of the Town of Arlington, Mass : -
Number of calls made 267
Number of truants . 32
Kept home for sickness 52
Kept home by parents. 171
Kept home for lack of clothes. 12
Respectfully submitted,
WILLIAM T. CANNIFF,
Truant Officer.
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ORGANIZATION OF THE SCHOOLS.
Information concerning our schools is frequently sought by citi- zens. Following are the principal facts concerning them. Addi- tional knowledge may be gamed from the Rules and Regulations :
PRIMARY SCHOOLS. Our elementary school course covers nine years, the first three of which are spent in primary schools. We have no exclusively primary school buildings, though the Parmenter School has but one grammar class. The seventeen primary classes are distributed among five schoolhouses.
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