USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Newton > Town of Newton annual report 1879-1880 > Part 8
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1881.
LINCOLN R. STONE,
66
60
1882.
66
Two,
Present Term of Office. Expires January, 1883.
THOMAS MARCY,
E. FRANK HOWE,
66
1881.
CHARLES E. ABBOTT,
DISTRICT COMMITTEES.
NEWTON-CENTRE DISTRICT.
JAMES S. NEWELL, Newton Centre. JOHN A. GOULD, Newton Upper Falls.
AMOS E. LAWRENCE, Newton Centre. CHARLES E. ABBOTT, Newton Highlands. CHARLES C. BARTON, Newton Centre. .
UPPER-FALLS DISTRICT.
JOHN A. GOULD, Newton Upper Falls. JAMES S. NEWELL, Newton Centre.
CHARLES E. ABBOTT, Newton Highlands. AMOS E. LAWRENCE, Newton Centre. ISAAC HAGAR, Newton Lower Falls. LOWER-FALLS DISTRICT.
WILLIAM S. SMITH, Auburndale. ELIJAH W. WOOD, West Newton. ISAAC HAGAR, Newton Lower Falls.
WEST-NEWTON DISTRICT.
JULIUS L. CLARKE, West Newton. ELIJAH W. WOOD, West Newton.
E. FRANK HOWE, Newtonville. WILLIAM S. SMITH, Auburndale. A. AMELIA SMEAD, Newtonville.
NEWTONVILLE DISTRICT.
E. FRANK HOWE, Newtonville.
A. AMELIA SMEAD, Newtonville.
LINCOLN R. STONE, Newton. THOMAS S. SAMSON, Newton. THOMAS MARCY, Newton.
NEWTON DISTRICT.
LINCOLN R. STONE, Newton. THOMAS MARCY, Newton.
GEORGE W. SHINN, Newton. E. FRANK HOWE, Newton. THOMAS S. SAMSON, Newton.
STANDING COMMITTEES OF THE BOARD.
High School. - Amos E. Lawrence, Thomas S. Samson, E. Frank Howe, Elijah W. Wood, William S. Smith, John A. Gould, George W. Shinn, Mayor, ex officio. Rules and Regulations. - George W. Shinn, Thomas S. Samson, Charles E. Abbott. Accounts and Printing. - Isaac Hagar, Elijah W. Wood, Julius L. Clarke. Schoolhouses. - Isaac Hagar, John A. Gould, Lincoln R. Stone.
· Salaries. - James S. Newell, Charles C. Barton, E. Frank Howe. Text-Books. - Amos E. Lawrence, William S. Smith, Julius L. Clarke. Music. - Amos E. Lawrence, Lincoln R. Stone, A. Amelia Smead. Drawing and Writing. - Charles C. Barton, A. Amelia Smead, Thomas Marcy. Industrial Drawing. - James S. Newell, Charles E. Abbott, Elijah W. Wood. Evening Schools. - George W. Shinn, Lincoln R. Stone, Thomas Marey.
CITY OF NEWTON.
IN BOARD OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE, Sept. 24, 1879.
The following-named gentlemen were appointed to prepare the Annual Report of the School Committee for the year 1879; viz., Amos E. Lawrence, Thomas S. Samson, Elijah W. Wood, Lincoln R. Stone, and Charles E. Abbott.
ISAAC HAGAR, Secretary.
IN BOARD OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE, NOV. 26, 1879.
The Annual Report was presented by Rev. Amos E. Law- rence, read and accepted, and twenty-eight hundred copies ordered to be printed.
ISAAC HAGAR, Secretary.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
GENERAL REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE
PAGE 11-22
Public interest in our schools
11
Additional masters .
13
Salaries
14
Music
15 15
Methods of instruction
16
Primary grades
17 21
Advanced class in the grammar-schools
Permanency of teachers.
Conclusion
HIGH SCHOOL.
Statistics .
Last graduating class
23
Graduating exercises
24
Present system of instruction, - alleged defects
25
Calisthenics and military drill
Standard of admission
Mercantile department
Department of mathematics
Classical department
Department of natural sciences
Department of modern languages
GRADUATES OF 1879, HIGH SCHOOL
REPORT OF MASON SCHOOL .
REPORT OF OAK-HILL AND THOMPSONVILLE SCHOOLS
REPORT OF PROSPECT SCHOOL
REPORT OF HYDE SCHOOL
REPORT OF HAMILTON SCHOOL
REPORT OF WILLIAMS SCHOOL
REPORT OF PEIRCE, DAVIS, AND FRANKLIN SCHOOLS
REPORT OF ADAMS SCHOOL .
REPORT OF JACKSON SCHOOL
60
REPORT OF CLAFLIN SCHOOL
60
Expenditures for 1879
12
Our graded system
21 22 23-44 23
31 32 33 35 36 37
41 44 45 48 50
52 55 .56 57 59
10
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
REPORT OF NEWTON DISTRICT
64
REPORT ON DRAWING .
66
REPORT ON INDUSTRIAL DRAWING
70
REPORT ON MUSIC .
72
REPORT ON EVENING SCHOOLS
75
SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT
. 76-100
Summary of statistics
76
Promotion and other tables
78-81 .
Attendance
82
Teachers .
83
Teachers' meetings
84
Intstruction. - Promotion
SỐ
The primary grades
SS
Grammar grades
93
Penmanship, drawing, and music .
95
Discipline
96
High School
98
SECRETARY'S REPORT .
101-106
.
.
.
.
.
.
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
TO THE CITIZENS OF . NEWTON, - In compliance with the requirements of the Statutes of the Commonwealth, the School Board of the city of Newton respectfully submit to their fellow-citizens their Fortieth Annual Report.
PUBLIC INTEREST IN OUR SCHOOLS.
The lively interest taken by our citizens in their pub- lic schools is fully justified, not only by considerations of personal advantage to those who have children to be taught, but especially by the intimate connection of the schools with the public welfare. In a government by the people wide-spread ignorance is wide-spread dan- ger. Bigotry, superstition, class prejudice, and narrow- minded indifference to the general welfare, attain their rankest growth where ignorance reigns, and find their legitimate cure and preventive in the universal intelli- gence. If the people are to make the laws, and admin- ister the government, every thing will be imperilled by leaving them untaught. Here is at once the explana- tion and the sufficient defence of our public-school system. The government guards its own life, - seeks its own perpetuity. Society protects itself.
12
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
EXPENDITURES.
The accompanying report of the Secretary of the Board will show, that, of the $82,864.30 available for school-purposes the past year, there has been expended the sum of $82,260.08, leaving a balance of $604.22, and showing a decrease of $948 55 from the amount expended last year. This result is the more gratifying because it has been secured notwithstanding important additions to the corps of teachers which the Board have felt called upon to make during the year.
The expenditure for schools, exclusive of school-build- ings, during the last six years, have been as follows :-
Expenditure for 1874
$97,353 65
Expenditure for 1875
96.649 23
Expenditure for 1876
.
86,533 64
Expenditure for 1877
83,917 89
Expenditure for 1878
83,208 63
Expenditure for 1879
82,260 08
showing a reduction of $15,093.57 as compared with 1874.
This, it will be admitted, is a very large reduction, especially when it is considered that the number of our pupils has meantime increased more than thirty per cent, - from 2,446 in 1874 to 3,397 in 1879. The reduction, however, would be no cause for congratula- tion if the result had been a degrading of our schools ; if, in proportion as the expenses have diminished, the character of the teachers employed and the quality of the instruction furnished have depreciated. But this has not been true. It has never been the aim of the Board to see how cheaply the schools can be administered, but rather how well. In their judgment they have not been seriously injured; and their conviction is, that, as a
13
GENERAL REPORT.
whole, they were never in better condition than they are at present. In one department only does the policy of curtailment seem to have wrought decided harm ; and to this we shall briefly refer hereafter.
ADDITIONAL MASTERS.
Allusion has already been made to important changes during the year in our corps of teachers. In the year 1872 our schools were under the care of eight head masters. This number was felt to be larger than was warranted by the finances of the town, and was very much larger, in proportion to the number of pupils to be taught, than in any other of the cities or towns of the Commonwealth. Accordingly, in September of the following year, they were reduced from eight to four. But the working of the new system was never wholly satisfactory, and from the first was sharply criticised by the districts affected, notably by Newtonville, Auburn- dale, and the Upper Falls. These districts felt that unjust discriminations were made against them, and in favor of other parts of the city no more deserving than they. The friends of such schools as had been deprived of their masters did not cease to urge their claims for the same advantages as were accorded to others, espe- cially as they saw their claim strengthened from year to year by the steadily increasing number of their pupils.
The Board, therefore, decided, early in the year now under review, so far to retrace their steps as to limit the masters once more each to a single school, and to increase the number again from four to eight, except that one of the eight is, for the present, to have the title of principal instead of head master.
The publication of this purpose of the Committee
14
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
brought them numerous applications, from gentlemen of culture and experience, for the places to be filled ; and the only embarrassment of the Board, but a grave one, was in making from so many excellent names a selection. The result was the choice of Mr. George L. Chandler for the school at Auburndale, Mr. Walter C. Frost for the Upper Falls. Mr. William A. Spinney for Newton- ville, and Mr. George G. Edwards for the North Vil- lage. These are all gentlemen of thorough training, graduates of our best schools and colleges, and have all made proof of their capacity by years of success in teaching. We confidently hope to see in them here the same energy and skill they have shown elsewhere, and to find among their other qualifications for their office that union of caution with audacity that makes the pro- gressive teacher, - the blending of a wise conservatism with a fearless questioning of existing methods that is not the less wise because it is inquiring and aggressive.
The Committee are happy to report that these changes have involved no increase of our annual expenses. The addition of the four masters made practicable the withdrawal of several subordinate assistants ; and the saving thus effected, augmented by a small reduction in other salaries, has enabled the Committee to make this important addition to our teaching force without increas- ing the salary-account of last year.
SALARIES.
But, gratifying as this result is, we must add, that if the Committee are to guard, as heretofore, the best interests of our schools, and if the citizens of Newton demand of us that we do not imperil the honorable reputation the city has so laboriously won, we cannot
15
GENERAL REPORT.
hold out the hope of further curtailment in our expen- ditures. We have repeatedly reduced the salaries of our teachers, till it is believed they have now reached the lowest point consistent with justice or safety. An incompetent pretender is dear at any price ; and com- petent teachers must be competently paid, or they are lost to us. " Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that tread- eth out the corn " is an injunction as wise as it is old ; and certainly there is no true economy in starving the horse that draws the plough. The best interests of all concerned require that this question of salaries should be held as settled.
MUSIC.
There is another path on which we have reached. if we have not already passed, the limit of a wise econo- my. Two years ago the Board decided, though not without much misgiving, to dispense with the services of a special teacher of music ; and Mr. W. S. Tilden, who had so long and honorably held that position, withdrew from our service. As a result Mr. Tilden's salary has for two years been saved to the treasury; but we are compelled to report that the music has declined. It is still taught in all our schools, and we require of all our teachers that they be able to sing, and to take charge of the daily musical practice. But our expe- rience has shown and emphasized the need of a com- petent specialist to supervise the labors of the teachers, and impart that life and enthusiasm by which alone any thoroughly satisfactory work can be done.
OUR GRADED SYSTEM.
It is the fault of whatever system, when pressed to an extreme, that it interferes with healthful freedom
16
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
of action, and becomes repressive rather than helpful. This has proved true of our system of class grading. The acute and cager have been held back by the slug- gish and the incompetent ; the lazy fret and hinder the workers, and the system keeps them together. And yet we cannot give it up. It has too many advantages, and we have nothing to substitute in its place. We can modify it, however ; and experience points out the way. Let there be allowed to the teacher and to the qualified supervisors of education a degree of discre- tion in the matter, let there be introduced into the administration of the system a measure of elasticity and freedom, and the evil and danger will disappear.
Without further discussion here, we commend, as. worthy of particular attention, the observations on this subject in the accompanying report of the superin- tendent of schools, under the head of " Instruction and Promotion."
METHODS OF INSTRUCTION.
It is not our purpose in this report to discuss modes of instruction, or to claim that those adopted in the schools of Newton are the only good ones, or even that they are certainly the best ones. It is, however, true of them that they are not lifeless, are not dead forms ; and mere routine work is not acceptable work. Our teachers are chosen and put in their places, not for their cart-horse quality, - their ability to draw a load of · given weight over a beaten path in the regulation way, - but for their intelligence, wakefulness, and independ- ence of thought and action. Teaching is recognized as a science, - one in which there are experts, indeed, and authorities to be respected as guides, but where
17
GENERAL REPORT.
each one of the guild has responsibilities of his own. The mind has its laws of growth ; and it is the privi- lege of every earnest teacher to study those laws, and the best way of working under them in the nascent minds before him. The philosophy of instruction has long had its earnest students, and has its acknowledged leaders ; but it surely will not be claimed that the field has been so thoroughly explored that the end is reached, and nothing more remains but to follow in the beaten track. Inquiry and experiment, where they are earnest and conscientious, should still be welcomed ; and the teacher should be encouraged to devise for herself the best ways of waking and guiding the minds in her charge. The outcome of this will inevitably be, in the primary grades especially, that life, freshness, and variety that will banish the traditional tedium of the class-room, and make school a pleasure. Another result, as naturally springing from this as light from the rising of the sun, will be the easy victory, by a wholly unconscious effort, over what were to our child- hood the frightful bugbears of reading, spelling, writ- ing, and number.
PRIMARY GRADES.
We have not far to go for an illustration of these general truths. The results gained the past year by our teachers of the primary grades, under the guidance of the superintendent, have been gratifying in the highest degree. Those who can recall their own child's experience in learning the alphabet, the dull monotony and listless drill of weary months, the thrill of joy when at last they had conquered the difference between b and d, p and q, 6 and 9, and were prepared to move
18
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
on to their " a-b-abs," could not fail to be gratified at the fruits of the first ten-weeks' training lately wit- nessed in our primary grades. The examination re- ferred to extended to four of the primary classes in different quarters of the city, and was without any reference to the supposed superior excellence of the material of the classes. The average age of the chil- dren was a little above five years. They had had no previous training, were at the close of their tenth week of attendance, and had consequently been in the teach- er's hands fifty school-days. Wishing to test the prog- ress of these little ones, we carried with us a number of sentences printed with the pen on slips of paper, to be laid before the child, that he might first study them. There were twenty-four different sentences, involving the use of thirty-four different words, combined as variously as was consistent with the expression of a distinct thought. They were such as, "I see a bird in the tree," "Is the pig as big as the ox?" "The boy can spin a top," " Yes, I will run to. you." The busi- ness-like and determined way in which each little head bent at once over the paper, and attacked the problem, was one of the most gratifying and suggestive things the visitors saw. It was as truly study, and independ- .ent study, as is the absorption of the collegian in the solution of his algebraic problem. For they were not allowed to call the words merely: they were expected to read them. They must know the sentences, there- fore, - must comprehend the thought, - before they rose to read. They did know them; and, in less time than we have taken to narrate it, rose, and read them as easily and correctly as a professional elocutionist, with a naturalness of tone and cadence entirely fault- less, because it was nature.
19
GENERAL REPORT.
Further to test whether this was parrot-work, or whether thought was enlisted, we asked them if they could print for us something of their own on their slates. Hands were raised in assent, as many as there were little ones in the class. and three minutes later the slates were examined. One had printed, "I can see the pretty little kitty ; " another, " I can see a little boy. Can he see me?" a third, " I can see a pretty little baby. Can the baby eat? Yes, the baby can eat." And each of them all had printed something conveying a thought. The letters of the several words were correctly and even gracefully formed. The right ones were in every case used ; the capital letters, inter- rogation-point, period, and comma, were all right, and as they are given above. Their vocabulary was of course limited, and obviously no words would be used that they had not before learned and printed. But the point is, that they had learned them ; for the combina- tion was new, and the whole thing was evidently im- promptu and alive. It should be added that this took place in each of the rooms visited, that our call was not expected, and that the teachers took no part in the examination. Here was certainly a noticeable achieve- ment ; for these are more than initial steps in all the difficult problems of reading, writing, and spelling, and was the fruit of fifty days' work.1
Similar results, and flowing from the same attempt to follow the natural laws of development of the child's mind, were found in the classes of the second year. Here the process of writing had, of course, been car- ried farther, and the children were using the script
1 The only needed modification of this statement is, that a small per cent of the class were enrolled in the spring.
20
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
characters. This they did with correctness, and some of them with great beauty and ease. To test their independence, and to learn how far they could make use of their attainments in the expression of thought, and how far they were mere copyists and slavish imi- tators, they were required to write from memory four lines of a poem they had just been repeating in con- cert. This, it will be admitted, was a severe test for pupils who had been only one year under instruction. The lines were written, - time, four minutes, - not all with equal excellence, but with correctness of spelling, capital letters, and punctuation, and, in some instances, without a fault. And when, later in our visit, they were required to write on their slates something of their own composition, the result was no less satis- factory than before.
In arithmetic, also, these children had made a degree of progress which will be very assuring to those who are in doubt whether children of so young an age can be expected to know any thing of number. Simple questions were answered by them, and even framed by them for their associates to answer, involving each of the fundamental rules of arithmetic; and while the words " addition," " subtraction," " multiplication," and " division," were unknown to them, all the processes were correctly performed. Something, also, of fractions they had learned, but this little by processes so natural that their ideas were evidently both clear and practical.
Here again we must refer to the superintendent's report for a statement of the principles through the application of which these results have been gained by our teachers.
21
GENERAL REPORT.
ADVANCED CLASS IN THE GRAMMAR-SCHOOLS.
The suggestion has been made by intelligent friends of education among us, that something is due to a con- siderable class of our pupils who cannot attend either of the High-school courses, or perhaps that school not at all, and who yet ask for something more than our grammar-grades as now limited are able to give. It is worthy of our consideration, whether, without any in- crease of our expenses whatever, there might not be added, for the benefit of such pupils, an advanced class, to be under the instruction of the master. For the instruction of such a class, our masters are all thorough- ly competent ; and it must be obvious at a glance that a full course of one additional year in the grammar-school could be more profitably administered than one-third or one-fourth of either course in the High School.
PERMANENCY OF TEACHERS.
By the present usage of the Board, our teachers hold their office for a single year, and, if retained beyond that period, do so by renomination and annual re-ap- pointment. It is a grave question whether the supposed advantages of such a system are not more than out- weighed by its obvious evils. By denying to the teacher a sense of security in his position it leaves him exposed to a degree of nervous unrest as he approaches the time of annual re-appointment, from which, it would seem, one who has earned the confidence of the Board by years of successful labor ought to be exempt. The practice, besides, finds little encouragement in the usage of other branches of the public service, where the in- cumbent holds his position, not by annual appointment,
22
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
but during good behavior. The judges of our courts, and the public teachers of our holy religion, are not supposed to be the less efficient because they hold their position under this rule. The same remark applies to many other appointments of trust and emolument under our State and National Governments ; while the entire civil service, as is well known of European Governments, is made efficient and stable by the force of this simple principle, since it may well be doubted whether a more powerful incentive can be devised than the con- sideration that the appointee holds his place so long, and only so long, as he proves himself competent and faithful, i.e., " during good behavior."
CONCLUSION.
On the whole, then, we congratulate our fellow-citi- zens on the results of the year. The Board, feeling the responsibility of their trust, have made it their steady aim so to guard and foster the schools as to leave them inferior to none in the Commonwealth. The superin- tendent and teachers have co-operated with them in this aim ; while our pupils, also, have cheerfully welcomed their share of the labor necessary to maintain the good name of their native city.
The condition and progress of the several schools is reported below by the various committees assigned to the duty by the Board.
In behalf of the Committee.
AMOS E. LAWRENCE, Chairman.
NOVEMBER, 1879.
HIGH SCHOOL.
THE whole number of pupils in attendance on this school the last year was 282, 6 more than the previous year, and 21 more than the year before. Of these, 145 were girls, and 137 boys. Of the whole number, 61 were in the college course, 29 in the mercantile, 193 in the general, making 237 in the regular courses, and leaving 45 who have been special students, - one more than last year. The average daily attendance was 232.7, or 91.9 per cent of the whole. The classes contained the following numbers : I., 34 regular and 6 special ; II., 43 regular and 12 special ; III., 68 regular and 9 special ; IV., 92 regular and 7 special; and 11 (post-graduates and others) not classed. The average age of the pupils was, of the first or highest class, 173 years ; of the second, 17; of the third, 16}; and of the fourth, 15-53. 1'2. This average will be found almost identi- cal with that reported for the same classes last year, the first and fourth classes differing by only one month of time, and the third by two. The second class averaged the same in both years.
LAST GRADUATING CLASS.
Of the class who graduated in June last, thirty-one took the four-years' course, and the remaining thirteen
24
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
the three-years' course. Of these, five remain with us as post-graduates, deferring to another year, on account of their age, their entrance on college-life. Three are en- gaged in teaching, and are doing well. Eight have gone from us to higher schools and colleges, and one to the Normal School at Framingham. Three have entered at Harvard, two at Williams, and one each at Tufts, Smith, and Wellesley. In the examinations for matriculation at these several institutions our pupils acquitted them- selves with credit, and well sustained the honorable reputation of our school and its teachers. If any of our citizens fear that their school is declining, these examinations for successive years ought to assure them that it is still worthy of their confidence. We have not done all we could wish, nor all we have aspired to do ; but the records of the higher institutions to which our pupils have been sent will surely not accuse us of failure. Better results could unquestionably be gained, if the pupils of our school could be carefully selected, and the incompetent, the idle, and the mere diploma-hunter, could be sifted out from our classes. But the presence of such pupils is an evil not confined to the schools sup- ported at the public expense. Private institutions are not exempt from them, and it surely would not be diffi- cult to show that the doors even of our chartered acade- mies and colleges are not effectually closed against the aimless and unworthy.
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