USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Newton > Town of Newton annual report 1877-1878 > Part 9
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GENERAL REPORT.
go farther than this, and teach the boy's hands how to win his bread, does not seem so clear. Something must be left to private enterprise ; and the State's duty we conceive to be to give general, not specific training. At least, if this is to be done at all, it must be done in specific technical schools, like our State agricul- tural colleges, and by some sort of elective system. There must be some limit to what the State may be asked to do; and it hardly seems reasonable that the limit should be so broad as to include the industrial training of all her children. If she give them a sound but general culture, and laws that encourage and foster enterprise, industry, and self-respect, ought she not to be satisfied ? The subject has, however, been assigned to a special committee of the Board, and some valuable contributions to the discussion of the question have been placed in their hands ; but their report has not yet been rendered.
THE TEACHERS.
There have been during the past year, for various reasons, an unusual number of changes in our corps of teachers. In very few instances, however, have the Committee felt called upon to ask the resignation of a teacher because of unfitness or incompetency. The vacancies made by these resignations have been filled, only after the most careful examination, and out of many scores of applicants. It is our steady aim to maintain within our ranks a high standard of teaching- ability. We have no right to claim that in no case have we failed ; but we may confidently express the judgment, that our teachers deserve their position both from their capacity and their self-sacrificing devotion to their work.
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REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
As such, we commend them to the confidence and esteem of parents and the patrons of the schools.
SUPERVISION.
The question of the supervision of the schools can hardly yet be regarded as " out of the region of discus- sion and experiment ;" and the relative position and duties of the superintendent, masters, and teachers, are not yet so clearly defined and conceded as to secure the most efficient and economical working to a common end of our entire force. As our rules now stand, it is made the duty of the masters to aid the subordinate teachers, not by personal supervision alone, but by entering their rooms from time to time, and in their presence giving model lessons to their pupils. This requirement is based « on the legitimate assumption that the skill and experi- ence of the master qualify him to do this work, and that he can therefore in this way most effectually sup- plement any possible teaching deficiencies of his subor- dinates. But the soundness of this position is not everywhere conceded. By a parity of reasoning, it is averred, the deficiencies of the subordinate in the im- portant matter of discipline must be supplemented in the same way, and the master be called in to settle cases of disorder, and administer chastisement. But this, it is universally conceded, is destructive of the teacher's authority, and spoils all. In the same way, it is argued, the teacher's influence with her class as an instructor receives a fatal wound if the master is required to come in and show how well he can teach, and thus bring her into damaging comparison with himself. Children are quick to draw inferences, and are by no means always logical in doing it; and it would seem, therefore, that
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GENERAL REPORT.
ingenuity ought to devise some other way for the master to give to his subordinate teacher the benefit of his larger capacity than by the use of one which shall destroy, or even endanger, the full confidence of her pupils in her efficiency. That the master should help her, be watch- ful to help all, is a reasonable demand. If in our present mode of doing it there is danger, ingenuity must devise a remedy.
THE SUPERINTENDENT.
For the same reason there will be no unnecessary interference with the work of the masters by the super- intendent. Each will respect the position of the other, and guard the pupils from the evils of a divided loyalty. At the date of our last report our superintendent was yet new to his place among us, and discreetly refrained from aggressive changes in our system and modes of work. Criticism averred that his influence was too little felt. But the past year has removed this feeling, and the benefits of his supervision are now most freely admitted. We refer to his appended report for a review of his work during the year, and for such sug- gestions as his experience of the schools prompts him to make.
CONCLUSION.
On the whole, as will appear from the papers of spe- cial committees, printed below, the year has been a successful one; and while we can distinctly see a higher goal at which to aim in the future, and discover evils or obstacles to be removed or overcome, we are yet able to point with just pride and satisfaction to the results that have been achieved.
HIGH SCHOOL.
THIS school was established in the year 1859, be- cause the State law required it, and has therefore now been supported by the city for nearly a score of years. Its friends and foes should alike remember that it is free to all, - free as the light of the sun; and that it offers to every child in the city the same opportunity for a higher education. They should also remember that this opportunity for fuller training, so far from being purchased for the few at the expense of the many, is daily sending its powerful stimulus down through all our school system. The prime apology for the existence of the High School, and its full justifica- tion, will be found in this potent influence on our schools of lower grade. These all feel its spur. No child in the city can escape the elevating power of the institu- tion, which is sometimes so mistakenly branded as the school of the privileged few. All are alike drawn up by it. Every teacher in the city feels its impulse, and through the teacher every pupil, - as notably the child who never reaches it as the one who passes through it out into the world. If we have one best servant of the lower schools it is the High School.
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HIGH SCHOOL.
STATISTICS.
The whole number of pupils in attendance on this school the last year was 276 (15 more than the year previous), of whom 131 were girls and 145 boys. Of these, 61 were in the college course, 31 in the mer- cantile, and 184 in the general. The average daily attendance was 241; the comparison in this particular being slightly in favor of the boys, their average amounting to 127, while that of the girls was 114. This is an average daily attendance of 94 per cent, which is an improvement on former years. The classes contained the following numbers : I., 30 regular and 7 special ; II., 53 regular and 5 special ; III., 52 regular and 11 special; IV., 97 regular and 11 special; to which must be added 10 special students not classed. The average age of the pupils would seem to be gradu- ally rising ; that of the fourth or lowest class being 153 years ; of the third class, 16} years ; of the second, 17; and of the first, 172 years; showing that the raised standard for admission to the school has raised the average age of the entering class. Of the whole number of pupils enrolled, 233 were in the regular courses, and 44 were special students, 19 more than the year previous.
SPECIAL STUDENTS.
As in former years, so now, some of these special students were persons who had passed the ordinary school age ; and the studies pursued by them embraced all the principal topics taught in the institution. Drawing, philosophy, chemistry, botany, book-keeping, the mod- ern languages and Latin, at the option of the pupils or
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REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
their guardians, have all been taught to these special students during the year. The school still continues to welcome to its privileges those also who have completed their course at the institution, and received their diplo- mas, - pupils who linger behind for the further study of some department of special interest to them or their parents. The branches thus studied are more com- monly the natural sciences and the modern languages. This feature of the school is an interesting one, and, to a limited number who have gladly availed themselves of its advantages, it continues to be welcome and useful ; but in its practical working it proves to be not an unmingled good. The number who avail themselves of its help, compared with the whole number of the school, is so small, that it becomes questionable whether the good received by the beneficiaries of the system is great enough to compensate for the evils it brings with it. The greater freedom enjoyed by these special students, and the contrast in this respect between themselves and the regular pupils of the school, cannot but introduce an element of disorder affecting the discipline of the whole body. As they are allowed to come and go very much at their own option, and are also, in some other respects, superior to the stricter rules of the school, it is not difficult to see that there is here a demoralizing agency that needs at least to be carefully watched. The " special" reasons producing this class of pupils differ widely in different cases; and, if the system is to be continued, - for which its obvious and great advan- tages would plead, - there must be devised some practi- cal test that will discriminate between the true and the false, opening the doors of the school to those who would enter it for study, and who are willing to submit
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HIGH SCHOOL.
to its discipline, and closing them to those who would seek it for whatever other reasons. No violent changes should be made; but the matter deserves the attention of those who have the interest of the school at heart.
LAST GRADUATING CLASS.
Of the class who graduated in June last, 27 took the full course of four years, and the remaining 9, a three- years' course. Of these, 16 have gone from us to higher schools and colleges, and others may follow them at a later date. Seven have entered at Harvard, and one each at Amherst, Brown, Colby, Wellesley, and West Point ; while two have entered Smith College, Northampton, and two the Massachusetts School of Technology. In the examinations preliminary to entering these institutions, our pupils have sustained the previous reputation of our school for full and thorough preparation, ten of them having been matriculated without any conditions, - with honors some of them, - while the remainder were con- ditioned but slightly. One of these young gentlemen was awarded the prize at Brown University for excel- lence in the Greek language, - an achievement on which we would congratulate him and his teachers, but for which the Providence schools will not soon forgive us, since these prizes have long been regarded as their peculiar prerogative, and have very rarely gone out of the city of Providence. Two others received each the Lee prize at Harvard, for reading English, - an event of special interest to the friends and patrons of our school, inasmuch as we have been painfully conscious heretofore of our deficiencies in this regard, and have made special efforts throughout all our schools for its correction. A fourth member of this class has received
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REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
the nomination to the vacant cadetship at West Point, due this year to this congressional district. This is the more noteworthy from the fact that our school was simi- larly complimented three years ago; the sharply con- tested prize having at that time been awarded to young Noyes of our city and school. A year later, after a simi- lar examination, young Richardson, one of our graduat- ing class, bore away from many competitors the coveted honor of a cadetship in the United-States Naval Acad- emy at Annapolis. As our present worthy representa- tive in Congress chances to live hard by the school from which both these last successful candidates had been taken, he sought to relieve himself from the possible charge of favoritism in filling the vacancy this year by laying the responsibility of selection upon a board of examiners chosen from without the bounds of our city. When, after a severe examination, a name was selected by this commission out of twelve competitors, our rep- resentative was greatly relieved to find that the success- ful candidate belonged in the town of Brookline. His Honor's dilemma, however, returned upon him when he learned, on inquiry, that the successful applicant was again from our school, though his home was just with- out our city limits.
CLASS OF 1877.
We feel justified also in congratulating the citizens of Newton on the standing at Harvard of our pupils who left us a year ago. As the result of their first year's study in that university, the rank-list shows that four of the seven who then left us stand among the first tenth in a class of 239; while one of them, if he does not actually lead his class, would seem to stand near
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HIGH SCHOOL.
enough to the head to stimulate the best endeavors of the foremost. This boasting on the part of your Com- mittee, if such it appear, is justifiable only as an argu- ment with those of our citizens who would depreciate our school, or question the strength of its principal or his associates.
GRADUATING EXERCISES.
The graduating exercises of the class, which took place at the school-building in June, were highly en- joyed by a large and cultivated audience. It is only just to say that they fell no whit below the high stand- ard which had already been established by their prede- cessors. Nor do we disparage former classes when we say that, in elocution, there was an improvement on former years ; while the essays pronounced on the occasion dis- closed a smoothness and strength of composition, a felicity of expression, and a maturity of thought, highly creditable to the pupils and the school. We hope a critical but favoring public will second the efforts of the Board and its teachers still further to advance the standard of excellence in purity of English and force of utterance aimed at in all our endeavors.
HIGHER TRAINING OF GIRLS.
The Committee have watched with profound interest the earnest discussion, by the friends of education, of the question of the higher intellectual training of our daughters. Some among us, and keen observers at home and abroad, continue to look with alarm upon the exact- ing demands made upon the nervous system of our girls as hazarding, if not insuring, premature exhaustion and physical decay, calamitous to them, and monitory of the
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REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
gravest evils to posterity. We share in these fears ; but only so far as to urge on parents and teachers the duty of watchfulness to detect the first symptoms of nervous overstraining, and at once to apply the remedy of needed rest. If this be done, we see no reason why the female brain may not be safely tasked and urged to the same degree as the boy's, and by the stimulus of the same studies as are assigned to him. We are gratified to report, therefore, that the higher pursuits of the boys continue to be shared by the girls ; and with the doors of Vassar and Wellesley and Smith, and the Boston University, open before our daughters, we are glad to see them preparing for the same severe training and curri- culum at college as are offered to their brothers. We have pupils at Smith and in each of the classes at Wellesley ; so that one of them will stand enrolled in the class first graduating next spring at that institution.
PHYSICAL CULTURE.
The military drill, first reported a year ago as having been introduced into the school, has continued to justify the expectations of its ardent friends. It is no longer an experiment ; and we are already able, from our expe- rience, to add ours to the emphatic testimony of the Boston schools, - that in the much needed physical training of our boys, and the discipline of the school, it is an efficient agent. Lieut. Carter of the United-States army still remains in charge of this department.
The Committee regret, that, in this matter of physical culture, they have been unable to place the girls on an equal footing with the boys, their funds not allowing the appointment of a special teacher of calisthenics. It is to be hoped that a wiser economy will correct this
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HIGH SCHOOL.
mistake another year, and that the small sum of $200 needed for this purpose will not be withheld by our City Council.1 The department, since the beginning of the present year, has been under the charge of Miss M. A. Smith, an efficient teacher, who has secured a good degree of success, but who feels that in consequence of her other engagements, she has not had time to give to the department that attention which would secure the full results reasonably demanded of a special teacher of the system.
PROPOSED RE-ORGANIZATION OF THE SCHOOL.
Our school labors under the grave disadvantage of uniting in one the incongruous elements of both a preparatory and a finishing school. This of necessity greatly complicates our system, crowds our programme with a multiplicity of topics, and distracts the attention of teachers and pupils. This cannot at present be changed ; for the time has not yet arrived for our city to support a distinctly classical and preparatory school : it should, however, be borne in mind when comparisons are made between the Newton school and those of the neighboring metropolis. The question has indeed been raised during the past year, whether the time has not arrived for a re-organization of the school, involving important changes ; whether our bark is not sailing somewhat heavily, because of certain barnacles which in the process of years have fastened themselves to her sides and keel. We point not to efforts and aims, but to methods only. It is urged that fewer topics should be pursued contemporaneously, in order that each pupil
1 Since this was written a special teacher of calisthenics and elocution has been appointed by the Board, Miss JENNIE E. IRESON.
ISLAND
MASS.
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REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
on each succeeding day should come before his teachers · with a recitation in each of the topics pursued by him, instead of three or four times a week, as at present. The proposition has not yet come formally before the Committee ; but, as it is the suggestion of our superin- tendent of schools, it is entitled to their respectful con- sideration, and will no doubt receive it, especially as we shall secure by the change, in the judgment of the superintendent, economy of time, labor, and money. In the opinion of many thoughtful minds our preparatory schools are suffering, not so much from overwork, as from misplaced and wasted work. If, therefore, any thing can be gained in time or labor by the change here suggested, the Board will be prompt to adopt it, and the teachers will as certainly welcome it. It is pertinent to remark, however, that this would only be a return to the system abandoned by us a few years ago, and, as it was then supposed, for valid reasons.
The Committee have to report the following changes in our corps of teachers. Miss M. Isabel Hanson, who has so long been one of our honored assistants, found herself unable from physical exhaustion to continue her work, and tendered her resignation. This, however, was not accepted by the Board ; but a release of a year for rest and foreign travel was voted her instead, hoping that her valuable services, enhanced by this opportunity for observation and study abroad, might thus be retained to the school. The vacancy thus made is filled for the year by Mr. S. Warren Davis, recently tutor at Burlington University, who has entered earnestly and efficiently upon his work. Miss L. A. Dennison resigned at the close of the school-year in June ; and her place has been filled by the transfer to it of Miss M. A. Smith, so long the suc-
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HIGH SCHOOL.
cessful head assistant of the Adams School. Mr. Thomas B. Lindsay at the same time also resigned his position as assistant, that he might accept an assistant professor- ship of Latin offered to him by the corporation of the Boston University. His place has been filled by the appointment of Miss M. E. Foote, who has won an enviable reputation as a teacher by years of successful labor, and who, we trust, 'will prove herself Professor Lindsay's worthy successor. The other teachers retain the positions filled by them for years past ; and, as we have seen, " their works do praise them." The capacity and energy of our accomplished principal have been well supplemented by his associate teachers; and we think we may demand for them as a body the hearty approbation of our fellow-citizens for a faithfulness and zeal in their work bold enough for any endeavor, and shrinking from no task; for a cheerful activity, pluck, and endurance utterly at variance with a mere perfunc- tory holding of place, and born only of a love of teach- ing that survives obloquy, and defies defeat. If any of them be conscious that such praise has not yet been deserved, we confidently call upon them not to shame us in our boasting, but, by their increased zeal, to more than make it good.
With the aim of securing the more effective super- vision of the school, the different departments were again this year given into the hands of the several mem- bers of the Committee ; and from their reports we make the extracts below.
MATHEMATICAL DEPARTMENT.
The teachers in mathematics in the High School have a well-established reputation for thorough and practical
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REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
teaching ; and, from such examination as I have been able to give, I most cheerfully accord to them well- deserved commendation.
They are wide-awake, practical, and fully equipped in all the collateral information requisite for a full and complete presentation and exemplification of the subject in hand; while the classes as a whole have appeared interested, with their minds open for the reception of such truths as might be presented by the teacher. Such conditions being accorded, we naturally expect most excellent results, and such I have found in general.
The chief criticism I would make (and it applies to all schools) is, that there is too much teaching and too little study. In my judgment, this is one of the chief defects of the schools of to-day ; and the same defect is found in all departments of life, - relying too much on outside help, too willing to be aided in the accomplish- ment of any task, too little working out of one's own salvation, either intellectually or morally. Is there not too little of the persistency that would prompt the burn- + ing of the midnight oil in the pursuit of knowledge or the search for truth ? I fail to find among pupils of to-day enough of that spirit which used to prompt the girls and boys of our country districts to beg the privi- lege of an evening's study with the master in solving the intricate problems in arithmetic, or in the exercise of "parsing." - an exercise now nearly obsolete, yet valua- ble still as an aid in understanding many passages in Pope's " Essay on Man," or Milton's "Paradise Lost."
These remarks are not called out by any special tame- ness or listlessness on the part of pupils in the mathe- matical department of the High School, but from general observation in all schools.
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HIGH SCHOOL.
Another suggestion I would make, and 'tis this, - that a closer connection would seem desirable, if not indispensable, between the grammar and high school by a thorough and complete review of the studies gone over in the latter years of the grammar-school course, where the work has been necessarily the gathering of facts, - a drinking-in process, so to speak, with little elabo- ration. This, perhaps, is well ; for the reasoning faculties are among the later developments of the mind, and come into play only in the later school-years.
Our natural food, unless fully digested and assimilated, not only does not nourish and develop the body, but is a positive injury : so with mental food; it must be elaborated and assimilated before there can be mental growth. This is especially true in the science of num- bers, the manipulations of which have been learned in the grammar schools, while the philosophy remains an unknown quantity.
With these few suggestions, which I will not further attempt to follow out, I most cheerfully accord to the teachers and pupils in the mathematical department my satisfaction with their large measure of success.
GEORGE E. ALLEN.
THE DEPARTMENT OF BELLES-LETTRES.
The examiner in this department reports a very marked improvement in the studies of English litera- ture, history, and elocution. In the latter branch the best evidence of this improvement was given in the reading of the graduating-essays, and in the declama- tions by the class.
There was a precision and distinctness of enunciation
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REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
that charmed those who had the pleasure of listening, and made the performances of this character more pleasing than those of former years.
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