USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Franklin > Town of Franklin annual report 1899 > Part 2
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The best service can not be rendered by teachers who assume its responsibilities as a mere makeshift. It demands. the whole of the mind, the body and the affections for the highest service. There is getting to be no room in the ranks for one who can or will give less than his all in enthusiastic service. Further, if candidates are not worthy in character, education, preparation, or that indescribable power of control that makes for discipline and good order in the school, they should not be employed, even if their home is here in Frank- lin. The schools are not maintained to support the indigent. to help pay taxes, or for charity. During the last year I have been approached by two citizens offering large inducements if I would use my influence for their candidates. The names of neither candidate were reported to the committee, because on investigating their record they were found not worthy. Neither is employed. At times, too, there comes the in- pleasant duty of dismissing teachers, but this last year all who left us resigned to accept other or better positions. An unusual number of vacancies had to be filled. Many hours of school and vacation time were spent in travelling, meeting. examining candidates and in writing letters to investigate their earlier records. The new teachers finally elected were Clara E. Ham of Boston Technology and Frank H. Wilkins of Bos-
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ton University for the Horace Mann; Lucy B. Conner of Robinson Academy and Hyannis Normal, and Caroline Atkins from the Brookline Training School, with several months actual experience in school work, for School street; Theresa D. Lewis of Bridgewater Normal and Pearl L. Jacobs from the City Mills School for Nason street ; Margaret M. Sullivan from the Horace Mann and Bridgewater Normal for the City Mills School. In mid-term A. Fannie O'Hara resigned to accept a much better position in the Roxbury High and Arthur W. Blake of Bowdoin was elected for the vacancy, and Mrs. Nellie Willard secured for one hour per day to teach stenography and typewriting. Five of the former teachers, Frances E. King, Charles F. Frazier, Pearl L. Jacobs, Bertha A. Hood and Bertha E. Ellis, received an increase in salary, varying from a few cents to one dollar and a half per week. Your superintendent further recommended that Rebecca Dun- ning, because of her faithful and efficient service at the Brick, and Isabel M. Reilly, because of her wise management as principal of School street, receive a weekly increase. The committee, while recognizing the merits of each, did not feel warranted to thus add to the expense. The number of weeks in all schools of lower grades was increased from thirty-six to thirty-eight weeks. The number of school weeks in the cities and towns of our worth and rank is forty. In the high schools it is fixed by law at forty.
Inventory of the School Year.
PROMINENT LOSSES.
(1.) Continued carelessness on the part of children and par- ents in the use and care of pub- lic books, supplies and property.
IMPORTANT GAINS.
(1.) School buildings cared for better than ever before. Both jani- tors now take personal interest in their work. Rooms more frequently washed; some, six times a year. Seven years ago the committee refused to appropriate any money for washing. Less sickness,
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Inventory of School Year, Continued.
PROMINENT LOSSES.
(2.) The leaving for private schools at a loss both to them- selves and to us of a few pupils from our higher grades. " Wealthy parents, it may be unthinkingly, are really com- mitting an act of injustice to their own children when they suffer them to grow up practi- cally in ignorance of those who were to be become in a few years their fellow citizens and adminis- trators of public affairs. This is substantially one of the out- comes of education in private schools."-Supt. Sawer, Boston.
(3.) Unmerited ill-will in the minds of certain parents on Central street, occasioned by assignment of their children to Nason instead of School street school.
(4.) Too few reference books.
(5.) The resignation of Miss A. Fannie O'Hara.
(6.) Many absences caused by la grippe.
(7.) Lack of permanent, pro- fessional spirit among some of the teachers.
IMPORTANT GAINS.
(2.) Additional apparatus in physics for the Horace Mann.
(3.) Closing of the 'Latic school.
(4.) Transportation of the Latic pupils to the graded school at the Center.
(5.) Selection and retention of teachers from personal merit and preparat'on, giving far better re- sults than selections from favorit- ism.
(6.) Courses of studies in VIII. and IN., years enriched by elemen- tary physics, foreign language, con- crete geometry in the one, and chemistry and better work in Eng- lish in the latter.
(7.) Double promotions success- fully bestowed.
(8.) Departmental teaching much farther extended in the Horace Mann.
(9.) Increased number and inter- est in the volunteer teachers' mcet- ings.
(10.) Since September. '98, a decided gain in a healthful, moral tone among the pupils of the Hor- ace Mann. More harmonious and united work among the teachers.
(11.) Primaries regraded. Few- er classes and better results in each. A new intermediate grade opened at the Nason School.
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The new intermediate grade at Nason School was opened to relieve the primaries and not because the 'Latic School was closed. Formerly there were three grades and four classes in the primaries in town. This crowding of pupils in the lowest grade retarded many of them a whole year.
NUMBER OF PUPILS TRANSPORTED BY EACH DRIVEK.
NAME OF DRIVERS.
NAME OF TEACHERS.
A. F. Everett. J. H. Tyler.
E. P. Proctor.
E. D. Daniels.
F. E. King.
. .
F. H. Wilkins
I. M. Reilly ..
1
1
6
T. D. Lewis.
1
5
. .
P. L. Jacobs
1
. .
L. L. Tower.
5
4
9
tic last year. Miss Jacobs,
teacher of the new school
of whom are pupils from
outside the village. Half of
the 'Latic pupils come to the Horace Mann.
R. Dunning
..
..
Totals,
11
18
34
1
(. F. Frazer.
I. B. Conner
. .
There were 20 pupils at 'La-
opened, has 45, only three
--.
Five years ago the course of study in the High School was remodeled by the introduction of many advanced studies and by the omission of studies belonging to only grammar grades. The cry then from citizen and committee was college preparation. This is now successfully accomplished by all WHO BEGIN IN TIME. We are, as has often been stated, recognized as an adequate preparatory school and hold certi- ficate rights. We, however, cannot be censured when a pupil does not decide to attend college until his last year, if in his electives he has not taken the studies required for admission to his chosen college. Parents and pupils are urged to confer often with the superintendent. Again in the rivalry among colleges for students, the right of certificate for entrance is often, I believe, abused. This last year the Dean of one of the leading colleges hinted broadly that I should say a certain pupil had completed work, which, in my opinion, was not done. I refused.
Many of the High School pupils will not attend college or even a normal school. For some of these a commercial course was offered, and under Miss O'Hara maintained very high rank. A plan was introduced, and since approved of by
26
the Woonsocket and Springfield High Schools, viz. : that the first year or two should not differ from the regular course. The wisdom of this is seen in the difficulty of mastering the intrica- cies of commercial forms. But two exceptions have been made. and these only after careful investigation by the com- mittee.
To the cavillers at frequent changes in courses of study, reference is made to the Harvard requirements, frequently changed in the past and now changing more radically than ever by a system not to be completed till 1903. And what have we in New England higher or better than Harvard! Indeed, in this age of experiment serious question has arisen if any study is canonical ; if any study or group of studies may not be omitted without serious loss? This can be answered only by the experiment.
A better course of study is proposed for next year. It differs but slightly from the one in actual use. There is to be no break between grades IX and X. There is to be greater freedom in election of studies or groups of studies, increased amount of work in English and history, and lastly the intro- duction of physical and manual training.
More stress is laid upon the study of English, not only to gain correct standards for usage and an appreciative liking for the great masters, but to form a correct and permanent taste for good reading. A youth is better off today without the power to read unless he has with it the taste and habit for only good reading.
A knowledge of history, ancient, mediæval and modern, is priceless to members of a free republic. To properly under- stand our privileges, our institutions, and to wisely protect them, the voter must know minutely the source and tendency of historical development. Spread-eagleism is ignorance, while a right education is the state's supreme reliance for the enlargement and strengthening of its civil foundations. The public schools of today ask your support to accomplish these aims.
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(1.) To promote the pupil's normal, physical develop- ment.
(2.) To stimulate every individual to aim at self-support or some worthy form of life-work and to give him a general preparation for such activity.
(3.) To stimulate and prepare the pupils, as far as the age and time limits will permit, to participate and to be help- ful in promoting the welfare of the society of which he is a part.
(4.) To prepare and to stimulate each pupil to carry forward his own development nuinterruptedly, so far as his cir- cumstances permit, through self-teaching, whether he con- tinues his studies in some higher institution after his school-life is closed, or whether he enters at once upon his active life's work.
In relation to the radical improvements accomplished this fall in the Horace Mann, note the following: "The present academic year has been marked at Princeton by important changes. The chief of these, because it con- cerns undergraduate instruction, which is always a paramount consideration, is the introduction of Latin as a required study in the Freshman year of the School of Science, and as an elec- tive in the Sophomore year. No more essential change has been made at Princeton in the last decade. The insufficiency of an education without, or almost without, Latin has been clearly proved by an experiment of twenty years. The aver- age School of Science student has been less mature, less man- ageable and less successful EVENIN SCIENTIFIC BRANCHES than the average Academic student. When seated side by side in Junior and Senior elective courses, such as Physics, History and Economics, open to men of both departments, the supe- riority of the Academic students, with from six to eight years of Latin and from four to six years of Greek behind them, over the Scientific students, with only one or two years of Latin and no Greek, has been very marked. This difference has been only slightly compensated for by a small excess of Mathematics and Modern Languages on the part of the Scien-
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tific men. Apart from athletics. they have not done anything like a proportionate share of general college work. such as debating, speaking, writing and editing college papers. The literary societies have been conducted without much active aid from them. On the other hand, they have contributed far more than their share of cases of discipline, and about forty per cent. of those who matriculate in Freshman year have to be dropped. The class of '99 in the School of Science num- bered in Freshman year 106, in Sophomore year 84, in Junior year 65, and at the beginning of Senior year 60. No such great falling off occurs in the Academic classes, although their course is at least as severe. Evidently the drill of language study makes for maturity of mind and character."
The above long quotation about Princeton is authoritative and of unusual interest to us in Franklin. There are eleven cities and towns in Massachusetts which have introduced the study of Latin below the tenth year and eight before the eighth year of school. Last September an option between Latin and German was offered to the pupils of the eighth year. The great majority chose Latin. The plan is to offer the same election next year. Even the youths who do not intend to long remain in school, and needs must begin life's work at once on leaving. ought to receive the broadest influence and culture while they are in school.
Our schools now furnish a good preparation for the col- leges, normal school or business, but what of those pupils who care for none of these? A good school is a successful organi- zation for directing all the activities of the children-and the best is when the activities are led from play to work-but the education possible today in Franklin in its bookish, largely sedentary and inert way, reaches only half of the child and makes less of that half than it might and should. The control of the motor nerves and the muscles measures the power of the mind. If the physical activities glow with well-directed intelligence, they stimulate powerfully the mental activities. A self-controlled, moral. well-being results from co-ordinating hand and brain.
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1. "A properly ordered system of physical activities, exercised in the intelligent planning and production of finished products of handicraft by skilful methods, involves such exer- cise of the physical, intellectual, and moral activities as must necessarily result in development of physical, intellectual, and moral power."-Cambridge Manual School Report.
The education largely intellectual tends to draw the boy and girl away from physical work, away from the shop and farm, and leads them to despise the humble toil of their parents. Eighteen cities and twenty towns have adopted and introduced in their public schools some form of manual train- ing. The following named list were not by law obliged to :
Bridgewater,
Arlington,
North Adams,
Brookline,
Belmont, Peabody,
Easton,
Concord,
Rockland,
Milton.
Dedham,
Williamstown,
Watertown,
Marblehead,
Lexington,
Winchester, Medford,
Northampton,
Woburn,
Everett.
Manual training takes time from other lessons, but the experience in Boston, Waltham and Birmingham, England, attests that the boys who labor from two to six hours per week in the manual schools do better work in the same lessons than the boys who do not. Further, boys given an oppor- tunity in the manual schools remain much longer in school, are less idle, and are less on the streets.
Is manual training necessary ? Formerly, when children at home had certain daily tasks or stents to perform, such training was less needed. Now many children have no home duties to do and form no idea of work. The plan is not to furnish a separate school or to teach a trade, but the use of certain tools and familiarity with certain principles essential to several trades, together wit .. right purpose and motives for work. A room in the basement of the Horace Mann could be fitted up, benches and tools bought, and a teacher hired for from $650 to $800, and instruction given to all in the Horace Mann and the upper grades of School street. The idle boy
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or girl soon drops out of school, soon becomes the bad boy or girl, and later the dangerous citizen. In the school year 1896-7, some $20,000,000 of property was destroyed by idle boys during vacations. I doubt not that some day a building will be furnished by the town on the eastern corner of the Horace Mann lot and will contain workshops and a gymnasium.
Cambridge is solving one great question. A summer school, with courses in manual training and nature study, was opened. Only the boys were admitted whose records the truant officers and police reported as doubtful. The school became very popular. Many more wished to enter, and notice ! the future record of each boy was much better. It is cheaper for the state to save boys now than to build prisons later ; "In short, manual training aims to make intelligent, strong-think- ing, right-feeling, self-respecting, self-governing, and right- living men out of its pupils, whatever may be the position which they may be called to fill in their after life, and, at the same time, to give them a decided impulse toward the adop- tion of some industrial pursuit as their life work."
Will it pay? The future of Massachusetts is in her school rooms. The south and west, with their wonderful natural resources, are sharp competitors. If Massachusetts is to retain her industrial supremacy, it can only be done by train- ing the new generation by wiser and better arts, to be more skilful and industrious. We cannot all be physicians. The child of the mechanic is just as much entitled to receive in the public schools, at the public expense, the education best suited to aid him to become a better mechanic than his father -if he wishes.
It is not wise economy for the state to spoil a good mechanic or farmer to produce a poor minister or lawyer, but the tendency of the High School has been just in that line for the last twenty-five years. And when we consider that less than seven per cent. join the learned professions, and the great majority in the humble walks of life have their special needs in a measure ignored, the demand for manual training becomes more imperative as a step forward and in the right direction.
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Consider the regeneration of the negroes in the south wrought by the Tuskegee school. As the home in our hurried American life is exercising less and less directing control over the chil- dren, it behooves the state to provide new means to meet the new conditions. The American youth is a different creature today from those of a decade ago. Note the difference wrought in maternal control and influence by the bicycle !
It will cost money ! The industrial and commercial schools maintained at public expense in Germany are of the highest value to the nation in aiding her to compete for the world's markets.
The extension of America's foreign trade and protection of American labor would be as well subserved if like schools were established generally here. Yes, manual training in our schools will be more effective than high tariff in competing against foreign nations by rendering the mechanic still more skilful and intellectual. What private citizen hestitates long to spend a dollar if he sees that dollar is to honestly return him two ! Further, what are a few dollars or cents compared with the mental and moral salvation of one boy! You who are opposed, what father among you would hestitate to endorse any wise plan to save or aid your boy ? Why do you in the case of your neighbor's boy? No juster law was ever uttered, " The strong must bear the burdens of the weak, the rich of the poor."
REPAIRS NEEDED.
The interior walls of several rooms need white-washing or tinting, especially those of the Horace Mann and School Street. The floors in the Horace Mann need to be " dead- ened" and the third story strengthened. Town water is needed in the latter. The well in the school yard has to be abandoned because the wash from the street rendered the water unfit for use. The building at School Street needs to be shingled at least on the north side. Some of the school-houses in the outlying district now closed are in a bad condition. This year your superintendent recommended the expenditure of sufficient sum to set the window-glass and thoroughly
32
board up the windows. This was satisfactorily performed at 'Latic and in a less degree at the North West school. But at the Mount and South Franklin nothing was done, because by vote of the town one or both of the buildings had been taken from the school committee and placed in the hands of the selectmen for sale. These two buildings are rapidly depre- ciating in value. I doubt if any are ever used as school-houses again. But certainly it is not wise economy to leave them thus. Either let them be sold or thoroughly protected from . the weather and tramps. Let the town give suitable instruc- tion about them.
I would further respectfully recommend that the name of School Street school be changed and named after our late fel- low-townsman, William M. Thayer.
To the members of the school committee, who have care- fully and patiently considered every plan proposed, and who have wisely decided, let me return my heartfelt thanks and to the larger public, whose servants we are. the same gratitude is due for co-operation and increased interests in our schools.
Signed. ERNEST DARWIN DANIELS, A. M.
SCHOOL STREET SCHOOL.
TO THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE OF THE TOWN OF FRANKLIN :
The first six months of the present year were uneventful so far as the work in the schools is concerned. A marked change, however, was made last September, which I think has tended to make the work for the present less effective in the sixth and seventh grades.
The change to which I refer is the putting of the pupils of two different grades into one room. At the opening of the
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schools in September, we had a seventh class of thirty-five pupils and a sixth grade of fourteen in one room; a sixth division of thirty pupils and a fifth of twenty in another room ; the recitation period being thirty minutes for each division. Previous to the regrading, the sixth and seventh classes were in separate rooms.
It is my opinion that much time can be saved, and that a teacher can give to each child more of that attention which is especially valuable to those attending either of these grades by lessening the number of grades under one teacher. The primary department has now two classes instead of three and fewer pupils. Owing to the decrease in the number of scholars under the instruction of the teacher in this depart- ment excellent results can be achieved in her work, and a few years hence we hope to see the good resulting from this change apparent in our sixth and seventh grades.
For the past five months, the departmental plan has been followed in the fifth, sixth and seventh grades in two studies ---- geography and arithmetic. To assure successful results from this method of instruction. the teacher should be a good disci- plinarian. Without the power to govern, her work will be a complete failure, and the work of her associate teachers will be seriously affected.
Permit me to call attention to the poor light in the School Street building. During many days in the fall and winter, the rooms darken as early as 3 o'clock. I find in my room many children suffering from defective eyesight. Some means of lighting the rooms in the higher grades should be found or the pupils' eyes will receive a permanent injury. Many times it is necessary to continue the work in these grades after school hours.
The ventilation is not always good. Coal gas has not disturbed us so much as last year, but the rooms are not at all times free from it.
I think the supplies should be more generously dis- tributed among the teachers. When the term's supply is ordered, we do not always receive the amount asked for in our requisitions, and before the expiration of the term, the children
34
are using pencils that are too short and the teachers are annoyed by not having materials for work. Two of the rooms are greatly in need of cabinets, and a pencil sharpener should be provided for the building.
Respectfully submitted,
ISABEL M. REILLY.
To CHAIRMAN OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE, FRANKLIN, MASS. :
If there is one study above another which cannot afford to be neglected in our schools, it is Reading.
The average pupil's vocabulary is so meagre that intelli- gent questions are not comprehended, and poor recitations are traceable, not only to the inability of the pupil to read the sub- ject matter understandingly, but the lack of power to express the thought in language of his own. Thus mechanical results instead of thoughtful recitations.
Although the greater per cent. of all reading is silent, let us encourage reading aloud as much as is possible.
School libraries are doing much to create a taste for good literature.
The books of our standard authors are abridged and accompanied with notes, and prove attractive to the young readers.
It is an advantage to have books where they may be freely handled, for a book examined proves, many times, more inter- esting than the title indicated.
There are in circulation in the Ninth Grade library eighty-five volumes, contributed by the superintendent, the pupils, and loaned by the teacher. It is an addition the school is proud of, and we only hope the good work may go on.
FRANCES EDDY KING.
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To THE CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS OF THE SCHOOL COM- MITTEE :
The Superintendent of Schools has asked me to report upon the results of the introduction of Latin, Concrete Geome- try and Physics into the eighth grade. In other words, to answer the question so often put by the practical business man : " Of what use are these studies to the average scholar whose education will end with the grammer school?"
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