USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Hamilton > Town of Hamilton Annual Report 1913 > Part 4
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(b) The giving to each and every child his due share of the instruction paid for by the town. As the system is now administered, the child in the first grade in the South School gets five hours of instruction, the one in the West School thirty minutes.
(c) Greater flexibility could be introduced in the scheme of promotions.
(d) The town could then afford to have a first class man as principal. The necessity of having a man at the head of a school, especially where there are many boys four- teen years of age, needs no proof.
If it should seem wise for the town to build such a school, I should advise that the unit system of construction be used. A paragraph taken from the School Board Jour- nal will explain what I mean.
" In the western cities the school population has been increasing at a phenomenal rate for the past two decades, and School Boards are sorely pressed to provide room for the constant increase. In every important city, enlargement after enlargement to the original buildings has been made, often resulting in an ill-advised arrangement and an exces- sive cost. In the enlargement of old buildings in Tacoma it
17
SCHOOL REPORT.
was found that 20 to 25 per cent of the cost was used in modification and reconstruction, and it was this that sugges- ted to Mr. Heath (School Board Architect) the unit system, which has been consistently followed ever since by the Tacoma Board. The result is that Tacoma possesses an almost unique nucleus of a future school system which is flexible, economical and practical. An eight room unit has generally been built first. A unit of this size permits the permanent position of entrances, stairways, heating plant and plumbing, and the future additions are classrooms only. The plans are worked out to develop into twenty four room buildings which is the ultimate size which the School Board expects to build."
In my opinion it would be wise for Hamilton to erect a twelve room building putting in all the heating, plumbing, etc., looking forward to a sixteen room building. Twelve rooms should accommodate the elementary pupils for the next seven or eight years. Then by adding four more rooms sufficient accommodations would be given for ten or more years.
MANUAL TRAINING.
I again urge upon you the need of Manual Training in your schools. The value of such training needs no discus- sion. It seems to me that there could be no better time than now for its introduction. Suitable quarters can be fitted up in the basement of the South School. There is no special ex- pense in the School Department this year; there is bound to be heavy expenses within a few years. With an outlay of not more than five hundred dollars, permanent equipment could be installed which would serve our needs of to-day and would form part of the equipment of the new building when-
18
SCHOOL REPORT.
ever it is built. The cost of instruction per year would not go beyond three hundred dollars which would amount to one hundred and twenty dollars for this fiscal year if we begin this work next September.
To offset Manual Training for the boys I would recom- mend Sewing for the girls. The expense of this would not go beyond two hundred dollars a year or if we begin it with the Manual Training, about eighty dollars. A special ap- propriation of seven hundred dollars would permit us to have hand training for both boys and girls.
CONCLUSION.
In conclusion I would say that the great question for you as a committee and for the citizens of the town to decide is whether Hamilton really wishes an efficient educational system. With this answered in the affirmative, every effort should be made toward introducing modern methods of effi- ciency in school organization and administration.
Respectfully submitted,
ELDRIDGE SMITH.
High School Principal's Report.
MR. ELDRIDGE SMITH,
Superintendent of Schools,
Dear Sir:
It is with pleasure that I respond to your request for a report upon the condition of the High School, but I shall beg you to allow me to present briefly a few facts and
19
SCHOOL REPORT.
merely to suggest at this time recommendations which I would submit later in more definite form, when I have more than a half year's acquaintance with the school and its prob- lems. Established only a few years ago, the school has progressed toward a well rounded institution far more rapidly than is usual and reflects great credit upon the members of the committee who have planned and the teachers who have executed with such good results. I find my task is to continue a program of progress well begun. It frequently takes many years, in Hamilton it will require but few more I am sure, to outline and put into effect plans which will cover all features of the life of a school and its service to the community.
The enrolment this year is seventy, a gain of twelve over last year. The outgoing class will number eight, the incoming class next September probably twenty-five. There is every reason to believe that the school will continue to increase in numbers at the rate of about fifteen a year. This is the leading fact of many which point imperatively to the need of early action on the matter of a new building. For a year or two the school can overcome with reasonable success the difficulties of the present situation. After that it will be practically impossible to do so.
We have been following this year the course of study as last published. I shall beg leave to submit before the close of the year some suggestions as to changes. We need to offer fully one-third of our pupils more opportunities in the first three years of the course for training for earlier practical work in life. Out of a class of twenty-five enter- ing the ninth grade it is not probable that more than ten will continue in school more than three years, and of these ten no more than three probably will make any use of their
20
SCHOOL REPORT.
course as preparation for higher institutions. The adoption of some of the recommendations of the State Board as to programs in small high schools would improve our course very much. Mechanical drawing, manual and domestic arts should be given a place as soon as they can be supported.
An established and well appreciated system of discipline is a step in advance very much needed and very careful and effective attention is being given to the matter with the hearty co-operation of the teachers and of nearly all pupils. There are still a few to whom the school can render no more profitable service than the development of self-control and personal responsibility and reliability.
"School Spirit" is a very real thing of great importance. It requires years to develop it fully. In the early history of a new school it is unsteady, fickle, flaring up at one moment and almost dying at another. It comes to burn steadily with great and compelling force only when in the course of years school social and athletic functions become well or- ganized and established by tradition, and when alumni attain success in life and begin to look back with the appreciation of mature years upon the school that cared for them in their youth. These institutions and traditions connected with a school cannot be cut out and made by pattern. If they are to be living things they must just grow, under the law of the survival of the fittest softened by the guidance of the experience and mature judgment of those who plan and work for the whole interest of the school. The Hamilton High School must find its proper place in athletics and is striving to that end. The "Washington Trip" is a school function worthy of support and now struggling for survival. It urgently needs the hearty and earnest care of school authorities and friends, for it involves many problems diffi-
21
SCHOOL REPORT.
cult to solve but for which exact not merely approximate answers must be found. The organization of the alumni is an event to be hoped for in the near future.
The High School is maintained this year as an institu- tion separate from the Grammar School in every administra- tive way. My duties and responsibilities are those of the principal of the High School only, co-operating with the principal of the Grammar School in such matters as concern our use of the same building. This relation has been very successful and we have dealt with the difficulties inseparable from the circumstances of working on schedules differing in the hours for sessions and recesses with common interest, forbearance, and patience. We agree, however, in the conviction that both schools will gain great advantage when the time comes that they may be conducted in separate buildings.
We have established for both schools a very effective fire drill through which the building is cleared of every person in less than a minute, the best time taken so far be- ing forty-three seconds. The system also includes a roll-call in the yard after passing out, so that in less than two minutes the principals are able to report all present or accounted for.
In closing I want to express heartiest appreciation of the great interest shown in our success by the members of the School Board and yourself, and of the kindness with which we are always greeted when we come to you for advice and assistance.
Respectfully submitted,
EVAN W. D. MERRILL,
Principal.
22
SCHOOL REPORT.
Report of Supervisor of Music.
TO THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS :
The amount of time given to the Hamilton schools by the Supervisor of Music is the same this year as last ; but, however, since a re-arrangement of grades took place at the begining of the year, the amount of time allotted to several of the grades in the South school had to be reduced.
The method employed this year differs but slightly from that of last year,-the changes being necessitated mostly by the individual character of the work done in the lower grades.
SOUTH SCHOOL.
In the first grade nothing technical is taught. The singing of songs by note forms the main part of the work. These songs are selected with view to their appropriateness and for the inculcation of various musical concepts. Natural- ly some time has to be devoted to those children whose limited range of voice must be extended. It is a pleasure, however, to say that no real monotones are to be found this year in this grade.
In the second grade singing by note is continued, and later in the year work in reading is taken up. New books have been received this year, and good results are expected, for these books possess just the kind of material desired to make the step from the first to the third grades a gradual one.
In the third and fourth grades stress is put on individual and collective sight-reading. Here, too, graded tonal and rhythmical exercises are given for the training of the ear.
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SCHOOL REPORT.
In the remaining grades attention is given to various technical problems, part-singing, interpretation, analysis, and so forth. More and more difficult chromatic work is taken up,-work which stimulates the mind because of the more expressive intervals and richer harmonic material.
DISTRICT SCHOOLS.
At the West school the pupils are taken in two divisions, and, as this is not a large school, results can be obtained in the time allowed.
At the North school three divisions are necessary because of the number of pupils, and in the time allowed it is almost impossible to do satisfactory work. At nearly every visit it has been necessary to run over the allotted time to get over the work assigned even in a very hurried manner.
At the East school conditions are very much like those at the North. This school never was so large during the service of the present Supervisor of Music, and, because of the time loss at the North school, it receives less time then in former years,-a fact which ought to be the reverse.
At the Center school conditions are satisfactory.
I suggest that the North and East schools each receive at least three quarters of an hour in order that individual attention may be given to the lower grades and that satis. factory work may be done in the upper grades.
HIGH SCHOOL.
The High school this year has a large chorus, a selected chorus of about two-thirds of the large chorus, and a quar- tette. The work is progressing favorably and good results are confidently expected.
24
SCHOOL REPORT.
Here, when there are many musical students, a cultural course in music, counting toward a diploma might well be added to the curriculum; and I suggest that some thought be given to the introduction of a course in Appreciation of Music.
The hearty co-operation and conscientious efforts of the principals and teachers are gratefully acknowledged and deeply appreciated.
Respectfully submitted,
HENRY L. STONE.
Report of Supervisor of Drawing.
MR. ELDRIDGE SMITH,
Superintendent of Schools,
Dear Sir :
Some one asks : " Why try to teach all the children in our common country schools to draw when so few of them have the talent and the opportunity to become artists?"
Drawing, properly taught, develops the child's power to see, to think, to construct, to express, to invent-pow- ers we all know are essential to success whether the pos- sessor is to become an artist, farmer, mechanic, or man-of- all-work.
We teachers must therefore strengthen and direct pupils along these lines so long as they are with us, leaving
25
SCHOOL REPORT.
the question of deciding the particular use to which the skill shall be applied, to the temperament, opportunity and inclination of the individual.
We are teaching drawing in connection with nature, for it is alone in our environment created by the All Wise Teacher, that we find food for all our intellectual and spiritual needs. We are trying (though our time is painfully lim- ited) to follow out the logical sequence of Seeing, Think- ing, Constructing, Inventing ;- for the making of lines, the blocking in of masses of color are but a small part of a real drawing lesson.
For example : nearly every country boy and girl has seen the swallow darting in and out some barn or out build- ing, but he has not marked the magnificent curves, rythmic as music, of his circling flight, the exact balance of his body, the beauty lines of his breast, wings, head, throat; the acute accentuating angles of wing tips and tail feath- ers, the glorified creature he becomes seen against the sky of sunset or of dawn.
Having been led to see these things the child is next stimulated to think of the forces of nature which this little being combats, so successfully, by his wonderful adroitness, intelligence and adaptation to the business for which he was created,-that of catching insects in mid air.
The construction results, now in the drawing of a bird from accentuating grace and motion ; in a fruit drawing ac- centuating colors and shadows; in pose drawings to enforce and illustrate the necessity of keeping to proper proportions in any construction. In the designing (of which we have yet attempted little because of our pupils lack of previous training) the child's powers of invention are given play.
26
SCHOOL REPORT.
These problems should be carried through all the grades and carefully reviewed and enlarged upon during the first year of high school work with the addition of the following :
1. Problems in composition.
2. Problems in perspective.
3. Problems in geometrical drawing.
4. Problems in design with talks on the theory of design.
These can be carried on in the second and third, fou th and fifth years of high school with relation to painting from nature, drafting, design for interior decorating or ma- chinery, object drawing, enlarging, etc.
The material for all this need not be of an expensive kind. There is too much money wasted in this way in many cities and towns. The best material is that which will in least degree handicap the child in his attempt to ex- press his thoughts and constructing his designs. He must have something he can erase easily. Good sized sheets of plain white paper, and a number of boxes of charcoal and colored chalk in soft tints are all that are needed in the lower grades.
The higher grades can do excellent work with mate- rial not necessarily expensive.
What is sorely needed here is an understanding that this is a necessary part of education so that both the teacher and the pupils shall be given a reasonable amount of time for the carrying out of the system.
ANNIE CHASE,
Drawing Supervisor.
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SCHOOL REPORT.
Report of the School Physician.
Superintendent of Schools :
My report as School Physician for 1913, as in previ- ous years, has consisted of the vaccination of new scholars, examination of individual scholars at office and the various grades for pediculosis, whooping cough, diphtheria, etc.
Yours very truly, JNO. G. CORCORAN, M. D., School Physician.
Attendance Officer's Report.
To the School Committee of Hamilton, Mass. :
I hereby submit my report as Attendance Officer for the year ending January 1, 1914.
During the past year I have made thirty calls. The school records for the past year show a much higher average attendance than in previous years. The two chief reasons for this may be that we have had no serious epidemic and also the new school laws of the state.
With but few exceptions I have had the support of the parents. This support has been of great assistance to me in the performance of my duty.
OSCAR A. WOOD,
Attendance Officer.
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SCHOOL REPORT.
Teachers and Year of Appointment.
HIGH SCHOOL.
E. W. D. Merrill, (Harvard) Principal, 1913; Flor- ence M. Holmes, (Plymouth Business), 1912; M. Gladys Ferguson, (Bates), 1912; Marion L. Russell, (Boston University), 1913.
SOUTH SCHOOL.
Margaret P. Buell, (Hyde Park High) Principal, 1907 ; Susan E. Knapp, (Newburyport Training), 1911; Ellen E. Bennett, (Fitchburg Normal), 1913; Mildred F. Wildes, (Salem Normal), 1913; Edith L. Fletcher, (Salem Nor- mal), 1906; Annie Chase, (Beverly High), 1912; Julia E. McLaren, (Nashua High), 1913.
WEST SCHOOL.
Rachel H. Steele, (Bridgewater), 1913.
CENTER SCHOOL.
Nelly G. Cutting, (Vermont Academy ), 1899.
NORTH SCHOOL.
Grace C. Stone, (Ipswich High), 1885.
EAST SCHOOL.
Julia E. Connolly, (Framingham), 1913.
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SCHOOL REPORT.
SUPERVISOR OF DRAWING. Annie Chase, (Beverly High), 1912.
SUPERVISOR OF MUSIC. Henry L. Stone, (Harvard), 1909.
School Census, 1913.
5 to 15 years of age-Boys, 190
5 to 15 years of age-Girls, 175
365
7 to 14 years of age-Boys, 127
7 to 14 years of age-Girls, 119
246
ATTENDANCE DATA SEPTEMBER, 1912, TO JUNE, 1913
SCHOOL
TOTAL MEMBERSHIP
AVERAGE MEMBERSHIP
AVERAGE ATTENDANCE
PER CENT. ATTENDANCE
Center
26
22.4
21.4
95.5
West
16.5
16.29
15.4
95
North
29.7
29.4
27.73
94.3
East
32
26.3
23.9
89.78
South Grade I
32
32
28
94.4
South Grade II and III
34.5
34.15
32.58
95.41
South Grade III and IV
45.2
44.92
42,52
95
South Grade V and VI
45.9
44.3
42.4
94.6
South Grade VII
32.1
31.35
29.88
95.2
South Grade VIII
32.2
31.76
30.27
95.3
High
54.6
53.8
46.2
85.5
F
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SCHOOL REPORT.
Roll of Honor.
Figures indicate number of terms of perfect attendance.
CENTER SCHOOL.
Irving Thrasher,
3
Annie Armstrong, 2
Elizabeth Nutter,
2
Evelyn Daniels,
2
Henry Pjaff,
2
Norma Nutter,
2
Raymond Daniels,
2
Bertie Poole
2
May Daniels,
1
George Pjaff
1
Agnes Foss,
1
Carroll Daley,
1
WEST SCHOOL.
Anna Drew, 3
Augustine Drew, 3
Reginer Drew, 2
SOUTH SCHOOL. Grades II and III
John Rennedy,
2
Mae Hatt, 2
Ruth Conant,
2
Earle Gobeille,
1
Benjamin Letarte,
1
Frank Malone,
1
Pauline Sculley,
1
Vera Addison,
1
Henry Dullinger,
1
Lawrence Foster,
1
Alice Kloski,
1
Bella Kloski,
1
Andrew Nelson,
1
Odelon Trembly,
1
Thelma Bull,
1
Mary Burns,
1
Minnie Gould,
1
Harry Holmes,
1
SOUTH SCHOOL. Grades III and IV.
Franklin Holland,
3
Louise Day, 3
Beatrice Bonin,
2
Eleanor Scully, 2
Evelyn Conrad,
2
Carl Back,
1
Helen Cross,
1 Samuel Malone,
1
.
32
SCHOOL REPORT.
Edward Trembly, Mary McVey Charles Williams, Benjamin Dodge,
1
Marian Fitzgerald, 1
1 Wesley Towle, 1
1 Joseph Cooper, _5.2
1
1
Dorothy Smerrage, 1
SOUTH SCHOOL.
Grades V and VI.
Mary Kennedy,
3 Alexina Morrow, 3
Arthur Morrow,
3
Edward Dixon, 2
Robert Dukette,
2
Harcourt Dodge, 2
Henry Gobielle,
1 Amy James,
1
James McGinley,
1 Albert Pepin,
1
Edward Pepin, Lillian Cross,
1 Charles Peterson,
1
1
Richard McGinley,
SOUTH SCHOOL.
Grade VII.
Teddy Holland,
3
Ernest Day, 3
Marim Randlett,
3
Willie Dixon, 2
Olive Harraden, Elsie Abbott,
2 James Wallace,
1
Gladys Mann,
1 Melissa Elder,
1
Marie Kinsella,
1 Gladys Smerrage, 1
SOUTH SCHOOL.
Grade VIII.
Willie Williams,
2
Walter Ramsdell, 2
James Saulnier,
2
Daisy Back,
1
Martha Barrows,
1
Sidney Dufton,
1
David Haskell,
1 Mildred Sculley,
1
Gertrude Ball,
1 Lester Stone,
1
Rodolph Smerrage,
1 Edith Fitz,
1
Mary Gammell,
1 Scott Libby,
1
2
Willie Poole, i ...
2
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00
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