USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Arlington > Town of Arlington annual report 1912 > Part 10
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Respectfully submitted,
ALTON F. TUPPER, Chairman.
REPORT OF SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS.
To the School Committee of Arlington:
In compliance with the rules and regulations I present herewith my eighth annual report for your consideration.
.
The Legislature each year enacts new laws with reference to some features of school administration, but the statute relating to school reports has for years remained unchanged. The framers of the law evidently intended that the citizens of the municipality should be kept informed of the work of the School Board, for, unlike other Boards, the School Committee is required to report directly to the inhabitants of the Town.
This report is offered for the inspection of those in whose in- terests school affairs should have a place. It will go into sub- stantially all homes represented in the schools. ' It will be read wholly by some, in part by some, and by others will be laid aside for possible future consideration. How helpful it would be if every parent would examine its pages in the hope of thereby
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SCHOOL COMMITTEE
getting into closer touch with what the schools are trying to do for the children!
The school report of the present day differs materially from the report of years ago. Formerly it was merely local in its interests and discussions, with little or no discussion of educational policies or experiments. Of late years the plans and aims of the school system are discussed at some length and an exchange of reports with places in all parts of the Union is made, whereby each com- munity derives benefit from the experiences of others. So it becomes necessary for the superintendent to prepare his report not only for residents of the community in which he works, but for superintendents of other towns and cities and for educational departments of colleges in this State and in the other States of the Union.
Efforts are now being put forth by the Bureau of Education and other agencies to secure uniformity with reference to statistics that appear in annual reports. For instance, the cost per pupil is a matter of general interest. This item is secured in one place by dividing the expense by the average number belonging, in others by using the average attendance or the whole number belonging as a divisor. The cost of the water used in the various buildings forms a part of the school expenditures in some places, while in others this expense is not charged to the school depart- ment. Many other items might be cited, but are hardly necessary, to show that figures presented at times are misleading in an attempt to compare expenses or other matters annually reported. The statistical part of this report corresponds in substance with that which has been presented for several years past. It is expected, however, that in future reports the statistics will be presented in accordance with standard forms prepared by the Census Bureau.
THE COMMUNITY AND THE SCHOOLS.
Arlington is a town of about twelve thousand population. It has an assessed valuation of $14,000,000. Its tax rate for the year is $20.80 per thousand. It covers an area of about five and one- half square miles, with Massachusetts Avenue running the whole length of the town, and the population scattered on each side of this Avenue at a distance of not greater than one mile. All the schools are situated near this central thoroughfare. There are
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ARLINGTON TOWN REPORT
no district schools, the whole school population being housed in six school buildings. It is a remarkably healthy community, the death rate being among the lowest in the State. Its popula- tion is almost entirely of American birth and extremes of poverty and wealth are hardly to be found. There are but few foreigners who have come to our country so recently that the schools must perform for them the double duty of teaching their children the English language, as well as the fundamental subjects which con- stitute elementary education. In this respect the educational task is much simpler than in many of the neighboring cities and towns, where great numbers of children of other nations must be taught a new language, and inspired with the ideals which are the foundation of American school instruction, as well as instructed in the subjects of the common school course which both those who know the language and those who do not must learn. In these respects Arlington is fortunate.
Certain other features in the life of our community do not make for educational efficiency in the same measure. Arlington is a suburb of Boston, with the larger part of its citizens business men, professional men, clerks, salesmen, etc., in the big city. The Town lacks unity; it is a fragment of the larger whole. The great interests of the people are elsewhere and much of the social life is centered around Boston. There is much moving in and out of the town. Many make only a convenience of the place; houses are rented but homes are not established. In such a community, there is bound to be a lack of interest on the part of the masses of the people in local issues. People do not know each other and do not work together closely for common ends. These conditions affect the schools greatly. The Town being a resi- dential suburb, the people leave their homes every morning to go elsewhere to their work. The children leave their homes every morning to go to school with the notion fixed in their minds that the really momentous concerns of life are elsewhere. Their minds are divided just as their parents' minds are. This is a penalty which the suburban dweller must pay for his immunity from the confusion of city life. The children in the schools are more intelligent than they are in many places, but they are not naturally more interested in school work, and appreciate less the necessity which men and women are under to work for a living,
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1
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SCHOOL COMMITTEE
than if they were brought up in a community where all the features of a vigorous economic life were playing everywhere about them. The absence of these dominant interests of mankind from the foreground of their consciousness makes the little things of the playground and street which go on under their eyes, assume an unreasonable importance. Teachers coming from country dis- tricts or small cities at a distance from a great city at once notice the difference in the importance placed by the children upon school life, as compared with those children with whom they have been dealing. They say that with children in the Metropolitan district, school is more or less of an incident, while, in country districts, it is the central interest of their lives. It is a common experience to have children kept out of school a half day, or dismissed early, to attend some children's party held during school hours, or to stay at home in order to be fresh for social events to be held in the evening. The fact that this fault is confined largely to people in good financial circumstances and of good intelligence makes it a more serious matter. Again, it is a very common thing for a child to be kept out of school to go to Boston with a parent, or to stay at home to "mind the house," while the parent goes to the city, and it seems impossible to impress upon some people the seriousness of the loss to the child and to the whole class because of such absences. We are forced to regard these things as a serious hindrance to the efficiency of schools, and a condition which the parents should change, if the best interests of their children are to be conserved. .
The Town has taken pride in its schools, and its people have supported them generously with the money necessary for their support. But there is another kind of support which in a large measure has been withheld. They have built good school buildings and pay as good salaries as they think they can afford to teachers and supervising officers. After that, the vast majority seem to think no more about the schools than if they were factories or department stores. The education of the young is a family concern as well as a community interest. It used to be accom- plished in olden times by the parents themselves. When this became impossible, teachers were brought into the household to instruct the children under the eyes of the parents themselves. But as communities grew this was not economical, and so the
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ARLINGTON TOWN REPORT
children were sent outside the home to public schools, where the parents followed to support and encourage them in getting an education and to give such assistance to the teachers as the weighty task of educating the little ones seemed to require. And this good old custom of concerning themselves deeply over all that happens to their children, and regarding it a duty as well as a pleasure to be often present at their lessons, to know well the conditions which surround them, and to give support and en- couragement to the teachers, still moves some mothers and a very few fathers in communities to visit the school which their children attend, at frequent intervals, and for a sufficient time to get acquainted with their teachers, their lessons, and their progress in their work. But these parents are very, very few. When a pupil takes home a poor report card, or when a note of complaint about conduct or poorly prepared lessons is sent home, the parent may come in to see about it. They do not visit much otherwise. This is not satisfactory, for the schools cannot do their best work without a heartier co-operation on the part of the homes than these facts indicate. Because of these conditions Parent-Teachers' Associations have been formed in the Locke and Crosby School Districts, while another in the Russell School district will probably be organized in a short time. These associa- tions have helped matters some, but not to the extent that we wish.
Again, Arlington does not care sufficiently for its teachers. It pays their salaries, but beyond this the people concern themselves but slightly as to their welfare. Living is high and proper accom- modations are not easily found. In consequence, many teachers live out of town where boarding places are more numerous and living expenses less. The teacher who comes to the community a stranger is apt to remain a stranger. Few go out of their way to meet her and seldom are opportunities provided for making acquaintances beyond the circle of her own fellow workers. Only those who have been so situated as to feel the need of acquaint- ances and friends can know what a hardship it is to be shut off from them and thrust back completely upon one's self .. Teaching is a work of spiritual radiation. Only a contented, happy, and measurably successful person can generate the enthusiasm for knowledge which it requires. Surely the work which teachers do is of sufficient importance to the community to cause parents to
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SCHOOL COMMITTEE
be solicitous for their well-being and to provide opportunity for its teachers to live as satisfactory a social life as is open to any class of people. A discontented, unhappy teacher is a distinct injury to a school system.
Another difficulty is that the community has no industries. of its own. Shall its schools, particularly its High School, train its young people for business and for the professions by fitting them to go to college, or shall it provide them as varied oppor- tunities for training in various other lines as well equipped High Schools of industrial communities are offering? This question is not easily answered. If the community trains its children to follow their fathers' occupations only, it will fail to provide the very opportunities which many of the young people need. Occu- pations in America are not hereditary, and it is a question whether any town can live so completely to itself as to provide a less complete opportunity for the training of its young people than its neighbors do. Some points included in this discussion will be considered further under separate headings.
CHILDREN.
The children are the raw material in the business of education, and in all matters relating to schools they are the important factor. It must be borne in mind, however, that they are also the workers in the hive of education. This fact is not always appreciated. Parents often assume that the child is a vessel, into which knowl- edge can be poured. This is not so. Only self-activity means growth, and each child by concentrated study and work must develop his individual powers and abilities. As the father goes each morning to the industries or to the business world, and by working eight hours or more each day earns a livelihood for his family, so the child goes to school for five hours or more a day, and by faithful attendance and conscientious study prepares himself for efficient citizenship. Both have a serious duty to perform and each should appreciate the necessity of doing his best.
Not too much should be expected of the child, nor should he be overtaxed in the age of his growing and ripening powers, but at the same time he should have sufficient work to develop the best that there is in him. "God's greatest gift to mankind is work."
.
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ARLINGTON TOWN REPORT
One has only to read the daily newspapers to see how many men and women go wrong because they have nothing to do. Ex- perience with reformatory institutions of the State for boys and girls shows conclusively that almost all who are committed to these institutions have been idle, either because their parents could not or would not make them work. The child who is fed from a golden spoon has a serious handicap in the race of life unless he is wisely educated and taught to work by thoughtful parents, while the poor boy, driven by necessity to work, who has learned the virtue of application and perseverance, usually far outstrips his wealthy companions in the things of life that are worth while. Service is the watchword of the present day, and that child gets the best preparation who is taught to perform hard tasks and to realize that the greatest happiness is secured by making the most of his abilities.
It follows, then, that every child must be taught to work. The business of the child is to get an education, and the question naturally comes, how much time a day must he put into the work of getting that education? It will be conceded by thoughtful people that during the first year of school life, when the child of five years is becoming accustomed to the confinement of the schoolroom, three hours a day is sufficient for recitation and study for the average child. From the second grade to the seventh, five hours a day of mental work is not too much to expect. In the seventh grade, where the normal age is eleven and twelve years, children can safely prepare one lesson of a half-hour's length at home. In the eighth grade one hour of home study can reasonably be required, and in the ninth grade one and one-half hours. In the High School, since so large a proportion of the day is occupied with recitations, home study of two or three hours is an absolute necessity. If parents realized that the education of a child is a serious business, they should see that the right conditions for quiet study are furnished the child and take some responsibility in seeing that he does his work. We are well aware that there are many people who object to home study for children, but the demands of the public and of the schools that a considerable amount of work be done, and the necessity for frequent drills and examinations, make it impossible to do the work required in the upper grammar grades and High School in
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SCHOOL COMMITTEE
the allotted school time. The only way to avoid home work is to lengthen the school day by approximately the same amount of time as is now required in each class for home study. There is a strong sentiment in some parts of the country in favor of such an arrangement of schools as this, and there is much to be said in favor of the scheme. The objection which will probably in- fluence people most is that, if six, seven, or eight hours a day are spent in school, little time remains for exercise and enjoyment in the open air. It is my belief that some arrangement by which schools shall keep longer hours and more weeks in the year is something we may confidently look forward to as bound to come in the near future.
GRADING AND PROMOTIONS.
For several years in my annual report I have spoken of the matter of grading and promotions and of the necessity of improve- ment and elasticity in our scheme. We have been working year by year, first to reduce the number of pupils who were obliged to repeat a year's work, and then to give a larger opportunity for pupils of unusual ability to cover the work of the grades in less than the normal time. It is a bit gratifying to find that we have not lagged in the matter, for determined efforts are being made all over the land to eliminate waste resulting from repetition and slow progress. Because I feel that the work done in our schools along these lines is the greatest progressive step that we have taken, I -feel, even at the risk of appearing to repeat things said in former reports, that the broad view taken of this matter by educators all over the land should be presented. Of the fifty or more school reports which I have read during the year, almost every one has discussed the matter of grading and promotions at greater or less length, and a summary of the opinions expressed is about as follows:
The school system is a business affair, with different materials, standards, methods, and products from those found in any other business. The number of pupils enrolled corresponds quite closely to the material that comes into a business plant. The intellectual standing, measured by a definite standard, corre- sponds to the quality of the output. The number of pupils who have lost time in making progress through the grades corresponds
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ARLINGTON TOWN REPORT
to the waste or loss in the process of preparation. The number of pupils who are able to complete the course in less than the prescribed time corresponds to the gain. If a child has the ability to complete a nine-year course of study in nine years, and because of the inefficiency of the system is required to take ten years to complete the course, that child has lost a year from his time of productive activity; the parent is required to feed and clothe that child an entire year longer, which will cost the parent at least one hundred dollars; and the school system becomes more expensive, because it is required to furnish that child instruction one year longer than it would if he had progressed at the proper rate. If the child has the ability to complete naturally and satisfactorily a nine-year course in eight years he has added to his life term of productivity a year, has reduced the home invest- ment at least one hundred dollars, and has saved the school department the cost of one year's instruction. The terminology resulting is that those pupils who require more than the standard time to complete the course are called retarded pupils, while those who advance more rapidly than the standard are called accelerated pupils, and those who advance just according to the standard are called normal pupils. According to the United States Bureau of Education, if the standard of scholarship is constant and the number of accelerated pupils just balances the number of retarded pupils, the system is considered an efficient one. The following is the result of promotions at the end of the last school year:
Whole Number
Not Promoted Promoted Per, cent a Year
Gained
P.
ent
Grade I
240
213
27
11.2
16
6.7
Grade II
226
215
11
5.
4
1.8
Grade III
225
220
5
2.2
26
11.5
Grade IV
221
200
21
9.5
8
3.6
Grade V
215
205
10
4.6
3
1.8
Grade VI
202
189
13
6.4
0
0.
Grade VII
202
185
17
8.4
44
21.7
Grade VIII
126
126
0
0
1
1.08
Grade IX
173
171
2
1.1
0
0.
Totals
1830
1724
106
5.8
102
5.6
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SCHOOL COMMITTEE
It will be noted that the number of repeaters and the number of those who have gained a year practically offset each other. This seems to show our system to be an efficient one. I cannot pass this subject without calling to your attention the results obtained for a series of years in the matter of reducing the number of repeaters. The per cents follow:
June 1905 18.5%
June 1909 11.8%
June 1906. 14.4%
June 1910. 10.5%
June 1907 13.4%
June 1911. 8.8%
June 1908 12.5%
June 1912. 5.8%
Credit for this great improvement belongs to the teachers who, without lowering the standard of scholarship, have worked so faithfully, in school and out, with slow and backward children to bring them up to grade. This has been accomplished without any purpose of making a record, but solely with the idea in mind that we must do our very best for each individual child. The number has been reduced at a higher rate the last two years because of work done in the Vacation Schools.
It will be noted that the qualifying expression in regard to an efficient system was, "if the standard of scholarship is constant." The doubt that will be sure to assert itself in the minds of many people, whether they are advocates of progressive measures in school administration or are of those who think that what is is right, and that anything new or different must be wrong, is - are the pupils getting as good a preparation as those who take the normal time or longer? At no time since my connection with the schools of Arlington has the work of the pupils been subjected to more or severer testing than during the last two years. During the second month of school, the Superintendent gives what is called an accuracy test on the four fundamental operations in Arithmetic in all grades above the fourth. Principals give accuracy tests approximately once a month during the year. Tests in Mental Arithmetic and in History, Geography, and English are given at various times. At mid-year and near the end of, the school year, written tests in all the subjects are furnished by the Superintendent, corrected by the teachers, examined . and commented upon by the principals, and sent to the Super- ntendent for his examination and approval. These tests are
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ARLINGTON TOWN REPORT
very comprehensive in their nature, and while they are not designed to determine the fitness or unfitness of pupils for promotion, they are a help in this matter, and they show to principals and superin- tendent the weak spots of the teaching in the schools, and also serve the purpose of making the work uniform in all the schools. Special tests or examinations are furnished by the Superintendent at any time that principals or teachers feel that one would be helpful. By these means, supplemented by the ingenuity of the principals in making the work interesting and valuable, the work has been kept up to a good standard. The results are gratifying in that they show constantly increasing class averages and a decrease in the number of pupils who fail to secure a passing mark.
The statistics of the entering class of the High School, showing the number of years required to complete the grammar school course, are as follows:
2 or 1.2% took 5 years 16 or 9.9% took 7 years 49 or 30.2% took 8 years 62 or 38.3% took 9 years 29 or 17.9% took 10 years 2 or 1.2% took 11 years 2 or 1.2% took 12 years
NOTE: Of the two who took five years, one was taught at home and entered the third grade, the other is a Greek girl who is now sixteen years old.
An examination of the report cards of the sixty-eight pupils in the Freshman class who completed the work in less than the normal time, shows the number of failures in the various subjects to be very small. Not one has received two deficiencies, which would indicate that their work is a failure, while four only have any deficient marks whatever. They lead their class in scholar- ship easily. This would seem to show that these pupils, while usually younger, are better prepared to do the High School work than the others. The average age of the whole class is fourteen years and six months, which is just about what it should be. The average age of the pupils entering the first grade is five years and five months, which would result, if normal progress were
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SCHOOL COMMITTEE
made by all, in an average age in the Freshman class of fourteen years and five months. It is doubtful if we shall be able to make as favorable a showing in the next Freshman class, or perhaps for several years to come, as this happens to be a class containing many children of unusual ability. The teachers in the High School are united in their praise of this class during the first term of school.
AGE AND GRADE DISTRIBUTION, SECOND MONDAY IN DECEMBER, 1912.
GRADES
AGES
5 6
7 8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
Total
Over
age
Per
cent
I
97|113
25
6
2
1
244
34 13.9
II.
98
89
24
4
2
1
218
31 14.2
III.
86
94
25
7
3
1
1
217
37 17
IV
4
96
85
50
22
6
1
1
265
80 30.2
V ..
9
54
78
41
30
6
218
77 35.3
VI.
30
62
67
37
19
6
2
1
224
65 29.
VII.
7
58
62
43
32
7
209
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