USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Norwell > Town of Norwell annual report 1920-1929 > Part 10
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In all fairness we present the facts to you for solution trusting the voters in March meeting will give the matter their most earnestness consideration.
Financial Statement
HIGH SCHOOL FUND
Unexpended balance in 1920 $150.17
Unexpended balance in 1921 150.17
EXPENDITURES FROM GENERAL
APROPRIATION
Transportation
C. O. Litchfield
$1,155.00
J. H. Sparrel 2,226.00
M. F. Williamson 1,135.50
W. F. Turner 2.20
$4,518.70
SUPERINTENDENT
Paid Stephen G. Bean, services and
expenses
$1,081.80
JANITOR SERVICE
Alexander Brown, High School .. $ 400.00
Charles A. Bruce, No. 5 163.50
George A. Goodenough, No. I 160.00
W. C. Tolman, No. 7
Total 57.00
$780.50
126
SEVENTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT
FUEL AND FITTING
Lyman W. Lincoln, wood
$41.00
Benjamin Loring, wood
178.00
Walter T. Osborn, wood
122.00
C. W. Briggs
14.00
Phillips Bates, coal
56.01
Albert Gunderway, fitting
.50
Edmund I. Sylvester, 2nd, fitting
.50
Charles Smith, fitting
5.00
G. O. Goodenough, fitting
8.90
Arthur Stoddard, fitting
1.50
C. A. Bruce, fitting
8.00
$435.41
TEACHERS
J. M. Nichols, High $1,885.00
Margaret Cochran, High
750.00
Margaret Tolman, High
750.00
Dorothy Sleeper, High
1,270.00
Ruth Tyler, High
440.00
Frances Carr, High
440.00
Prof. E. L. Wood, High
63.00
Ella Osborn, No. I
1,020.00
Lois C. Turner, No. I
410.00
Catherine Kelliher, No. I
600.00
Minnie Gardner, No. I
790.00
Florence Pinson, No. 5
1,020.00
Marion Merritt, No. 5
1,020.00
Dorothy Litchfield, No. 5 790.00
Maria Tolman, No. 7
1,020.00
Mrs. A. G. Eldredge, Drawing
300.00
Ethel M. Studley, Music
700.00
Mrs. James Waterman 4.75
$13,272.75
127
TOWN OF NORWELL
BOOKS AND SUPPLIES
Edw. E. Babb, Text books and
supplies
$206.71
C. C. Birchard 28.40
American Book Co. 42.65
D. C. Heath Co. 14.24
A. S. Barnes
5.37
Ginn & Co.
86.44
Gregg Publishing Co.
7.52
Oliver Ditson Co.
14.27
Little, Brown Co.
6.85
Ryan & Buker
7.07
Dowling School Supply Co.
5.08
Stone & Forsyth
22.50
J Lippincott
2.84
Ward's, Diplomas
9.00
C. M. Ford, Printing and supplies 20.35
Floyd Osborn, Hanging curtains .
4.00
$483.29
SUPPLIES AND INCIDENTALS
L. E. Knott Apparatus Co. .. $ 10.79
National Typewriter Exchange Co.
2 typewriters 165.25
Edw. E. Babb, supplies 9.93
Frederic T. Bailey 67.27
Bailey & Weston, curtains
38.50
Stone & Forsyth, supplies
106.50
Carrie M. Ford, supplies and printing 15.50
C. S. West, supplies 10.32
Houghton & Dutton, supplies 20.15
Geo O. Turner, labor and material 594.98
Phillips Bates, supplies 32.84
.
128
SEVENTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT
Hall & Torrey, supplies 2.50
Standard Oil Co., supplies 8.70
Wright & Potter, supplies 2.05
H. S. Turner, supplies
19.70
Belle Tucker, supplies
.85
W. H. Spencer, supplies
.75
Herbert Colburn, repairs
1.25
Fred A. Studley, repairs
1.50
Edwin Bates, repairs
1.50
Maria Tolman, cash paid
2.62
Nellie L. Sparrell, cash paid
27.44
W. T. Osborn, truant officer
4.00
J. Foster Merritt, labor
2.00
Robert Anthony, labor
2.50
M. A. Bruce, cleaning
24.00
Alexander Brown, cleaning
12.50
Eva Winslow, cleaning 25.00
Clarence Winslow, cleaning 4.00
Walter Wagner, cleaning vaults . . 6.00
Timothy Sheehan, cleaning vaults.
9.00
Samuel Turner, cleaning chimney .
1.00
Michael Gautreau, blasting
25.00
McKee Express, carting
1.16
Benjamin Loring, Cash paid, telephone and auto 245.65
P. W. Bonney, trans. 20.50
Arthur Osborne, labor and trans. .. 61.65
C. A. Bruce, labor
6 00
Harry S. Merritt, labor
2.80
Harry B. Merritt, labor
9.90
George S. Morton, labor and material
18.95
J. H. Sparrel, cash paid express,
carting, telephone, 1920 & 1921 204.86
Dr. Eldredge, Inspection 25.00
129
TOWN OF NORWELL
Herbert Joseph, labor
3.00
G. A. Goodenough, labor 6.75
$1,862. II
SUMMARY
HIGH SCHOOL FUND
Unexpended in 1920
$150.17
Unexpended in 192I 150.17
GENERAL APPROPRIATION
Town Appropriation for Schools . $12,500.00
Town Appropriation for Supt. 500.00
From State for Supt. 622.22
From State Tuition State Wards . . 161.75
Dog Tax 184.10
Income Tax
1,970.00
High School, Special
1,014.29
Received for Tuition
10.00
Mass. School Fund
3,395.38
Total
$20,357.74
EXPENDITURES
Teacher's Salaries $13,272.75
Transportation 4,518.70
Superintendent 1,081.80
Janitors .780.50
Fuel and Fitting 435.4I
$
130
SEVENTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT
Books
483.29
Supplies and Incidentals
1,862.II
Total $22,434.56
Appropriation Exceeded
$2,076.82
Respectfully submitted,
NELLIE L. SPARRELL, Secretary
BENJ. LORING AMY W. SYLVESTER
School Committee
Report of Superintendent
To the School Committee of the Town of Norwell :
Herewith is submitted my Fourth Annual Report as Superintendent of Schools for Norwell. It has been pre- pared for the benefit of those whose money supports the schools of this Town; to inform them of the present con- ditions and future needs of the school system, that they may become conversant with the same prior to the Annual Town Meeting. No elaborate statistical tables or confusing graphs will be found; only the simplest tabulations of pupil distribution will appear.
GENERAL CONDITIONS
There has been a very marked improvement in one exceed- ingly important element of the general school situation during the past year. This has to do with hygienic or sanitary conditions. The ink was barely dry on the writer's adverse criticism in last year's report ere the School Com- mittee in co-operation with the School Nurse had provided every school building in town with liquid soap, wash basins, paper towels, paper drinking cups and toilet paper, no one. of which had heretofore been provided in the schools.
Of a more localized nature but nevertheless a very decided betterment of general conditions was the installation of the Kaustine System of Chemical Toilets in the Ridge Hill building. A similar installation should be made in the Num- ber 5 School if it is to continue in use for school purposes.
The most important educational gain was forced by an
132
SEVENTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT
unexpected influx of children in the vicinity of the Number 2 School. Ordinarily these children would have been housed in the Ridge Hill School; but owing to the fact that they were in the main pupils in the primary grades which were already overburdened, it became necessary to open the lower room in Number 2. This made it possible to ameliorate a very undesirable condition which has been in existence ever since a primary assistant was introduced at Ridge Hill. Two teachers in one room engaged in teaching dif- ferent grades simultaneously produces educational Bedlam.
Only intimate contact with the daily operation of the classes under the old and new conditions can give any real appreciation of what this apparently simple reorganization has accomplished. It is to be hoped that the old condition may never return.
Not the least gain from this change was the assurance of the continued service during the year of a very superior teacher who would not long have been able to support the former condition.
It is almost universally true that any radical change brings some drawback in its train. The fly in this particular ointment was the matter of transportation. This has been given very serious and careful consideration by the School Committee and the Superintendent. To them it seems that the condition, while not ideal, is far from impossible. Al- though it is true that for a time the bus is crowded, the period is not five minutes long, and the distance not over a mile and a half.
There are two remedies under consideration, one obvious, the other apparently less so. The first is the addition of another barge to this route at the additional cost of ap- proximately twenty dollars a week. The other course would be to just meet the legal requirement as to the distance that children shall be transported, setting the limit at two miles. The objection to the first of these would appear in
133
TOWN OF NORWELL
the tax bill for next year. The difficulty of the second course is that it would penalize the smaller children chiefly, because it is to the children in Number 2 School that the crowded condition is due.
Personal investigation by the writer has brought convic- tion that the true solution of the problem could be found in the display of a little forebearance and consideration on the part of the older pupils, combined with a more helpful civic spirit which strives for the greatest good of all con- cerned rather than to assert what may be considered per- sonal rights. In any event it is difficult to see how any ad- ditional burden for transportation can be assumed by the committee except on special appropriation from the Town.
THE TEACHING STAFF
Changes in the teaching staff during the year were small in number but large in proportion. Our greatest loss was from the High School corps and was particularly severe because of the quality of the departing teachers as well as their length of service. There is some small consolation in the fact that it was matrimony rather than a matter of money that robbed us of the services of Miss Tolman. There is significence in the fact that the loss of Miss Cochran was due less to financial considerations than to the miserable teaching conditions at the High School.
Matrimony balanced its account by bringing to us the services of Mrs. Lois M. Turner who assumed the position left vacant by the resignation of Miss Katherine Kelliher. Mrs. Turner is a Bridgewater graduate of the quality sought by such towns as Arlington where she was employed just prior to her coming to reside in Norwell.
The High School staff was finally completed by the en- gagement of two classmates from Wheaton College. Miss Carr assumed the duties laid down by Miss Tolman and
134
SEVENTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT
Miss Tyler took over the work in Science and Mathematics. Both of these teachers have fitted into the school admirably and have shown a spirit of earnestness and willingness.
PROFESSIONAL IMPROVEMENT OF TEACHERS
Teacher training thru the medium of regular Teachers' Meetings does not seem to be good economy of time and effort in this town for geographical reasons. Their place is filled by the Teachers' Institute and the Lecture Course.
The first Institute for the teachers of this superintendency Union was held in St. Andrew's Parish House at Hanover in April, 1921. It was heartily supported and fully attended by the Norwell teachers, who afterwards expressed the un- animous opinion that it had been the most practical and helpful education meeting in their experience, not except- ing the more pretentious Conventions. Informality, prac- ticality, and cordiality were the key notes of this meeting.
The principal speakers were Deputy Commissioner Frank W. Wright of the State Department of Education, who delivered his message with his customary powerful, incisive, impressive earnestness; Miss Mabel C. Bragg of Newton, with a very practical and helpful talk for the elementary teachers in general; and Miss Flora Stewart of the Normal School at Bridgewater, who gave extremely helpful sug- gestions to the primary teachers and demonstrated a variety of time saving and busy work devices and materials.
At the opening of the morning session Miss Loretta MacDonnell of the King Street Primary School of Hanover gave a class demonstration of reading, aided by a group of pupils of foreign born parentage. The object was to show methods used and results obtained in this class of children who had known no English at the opening of school the preceeding September.
A second demonstration was given by Miss Helen Whit-
135
TOWN OF NORWELL
ing of the Hanover schools with a class from her room. A time-saving method of program administration was the object of this demonstration.
At noon an excellent lunch was served by members of the local Parent-Teacher organizations under the leadership of Mrs. Sylvester of Norwell School Committee.
The afternoon session was departmentalized, the gram- mar school teacher's meeting in Salmond School for a class demonstration of the socialized recitation in Civics by a class from the Hanson schools under Mrs. Emily Baker, the High School section holding conference with Mr. Wright in one of the rooms of the Parish House; while Miss Bragg gave her talk to the teachers of the lower grades in the Parish Hall.
As a result of this meeting the Superintendent was re- quested by the members of the School Committees there present to make this type of meeting a part of the regular plan for the improvement of teaching.
Another outgrowth of this Institute was the plan for a series of lectures to be given by Miss Bragg during the school year of 1921-'22. The first of these meetings was held in November with a full attendance in spite of the fact that it came on Saturday. The next lecture is to take place Saturday, January 28, 1922, and will probably be followed by others at regular intervals during the winter and spring.
Miss Bragg is Assistant Superintendent of Schools in Newton, and is an educator of long experience and re- cognized ability as a specialist in elementary methods. She has an inimitable combination of vividness of language and power of personality and expression which grips and holds the attention and impresses the message she brings. The results of the first lecture have already appeared in more than one class-room in the district.
136
SEVENTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT
HEALTH ACTIVITIES
The word activity applies well to the health work in the Norwell schools. The school physician, dentist and nurse have been doing an excellent piece of team work this last year the results of which will prove far reaching. This is a department of the school work of which this Town may well be proud. Sincere and hearty thanks are due those who have fostered the growth of this work. It is a work worth doing, well done.
THE SUPREME EDUCATIONAL NEED
There seems to be current in the Town a very general impression that the greatest local educational need is a decent high school building. This requirement is obvious ; but there is a greater which if met to the best advantage would include the high school project, and at the same time so improve the quality of preparation for high school work as to give a far greater return on the investment.
The supreme educational need is a complete reorganiza- tion of the whole school system; a reorganization such that no teacher shall have more than two grades under her leadership. This is the one means by which Norwell can attain or even approximate the educational training due every American child wherever found. It would prove one of the best investments that the Town could make; an in- vestment in futures to be sure, but in the futures of Nor- well's children.
Any serious consideraion of this problem of reorganiza- tion involves an equally serious consideration of the present school plant. Even a cursory examination of the buildings now in use makes it clearly evident that without some new construction effective reorganization is almost impossible, or at least not feasible for financial reasons.
There are in use at the present time five frame buildings no one of which would scale forty por cent. judged by the
137
TOWN OF NORWELL
requirements for a rural school on the score sheets of the Corn Belt States. By the standards of the Virginia Educa- tional Commission they would grade Con an A to E basis. This means that they are of a low-medium grade. Of these the high school, as such, would be almost impossible to grade, aside from equipment. Attempts have consistently been made to render these buildings as efficient as is pos- sible. Much money has been spent for decent black-boards, adequate seating, improved sanitary facilities, and abortive endeavors at proper heating and ventilation; but the build- ing still stand as structural schoolhouse monstrosities . They could be remodeled but it is not safe to estimate at what cost.
Of playgrounds there are none worthy the name. At Ridge Hill during the past year the quality has been re- markably improved but the area is still inadequate. At Number 5 the space is very meager and the quality im- possible. Of apparatus there is none here and very little level ground to hold it if there were any. . There is mighty little incentive for the teachers to supervise playground activities where there is practically no playground.
Reorganization being imperative, and the existing school plant being inadequate to carry it through, it is evident that some form of new construction is necessary. Just what direction the project should take from this point might be open to a difference of opinion. The logical thing to do seems, under existing circumstances, to hinge on adequate housing for the High School. If the Union High School project could be carried through it would simplify the problem materially. If this be wholly beyond hope of con- sideration at present a high school plant should be built as the central unit of a consolidated school for all children in town above the fourth grade. Such a building could at a future date serve as a consolidated school for all but high school pupils should the Union School plan have proven itself elsewhere and become desirable.
138
SEVENTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT
This arrangement would allow for the concentration of the first four grades in the schools at Ridge Hill and Nor- well Center with two grades in each room. Under these conditions the children could secure a thorough grounding in the fundamentals, and upon entering the fifth grade in the new school be gradually introduced to department train- ing and a richer curriculum with new conditions and fresh experiences ever in enticing anticipation. It would break the deadening momotony of the same surroundings year in and year out, and keep the young minds alert and eager.
Such a school should be placed in a plot of land sufficiently large to permit of proper segregation of play areas, and with ample opportunity for project work in which the use of the soil has a part. This is one point which should be given most careful consideration, and prime importance should not be given as to what part of the town it should he located in.
One other important adjunct of the school should be an adequate assembly hall; not for the use of the pupils solely but rather as a civic center. In it the people should gather in groups large or small, and from it should radiate all of the important movements for local betterment.
AGE LIMITS
From two different sources during the past year has come the suggestion that Norwell return to the nine grade plan of elementary school organization. The plea is that the entering classes in the high school are too young and immature. If this be true and if but one year has been cut from the former nine year elementary school course surely this one year does not wholly account for the youth and im- maturity. The true remedy lies elsewhere. It is the age of entrance to the first grade that should be questioned. Did children enter as young in former days as they do now? As it is at present a child may enter the first grade very soon after his fifth birthday.
139
TOWN OF NORWELL
The laws of the Commonwealth provide that every child in the State must attend school between the ages of seven and fourteen years. This would seem to indicate that the educational authorities considered seven years a sufficiently low limit for school entrance. It is, however, a sufficiently safe conclusion that chronological age is not the safest criterion.
It has been determined by no less an authority than Dr. Lewis M. Terman, Professor of Education in Leland Stan- ford University, that below the mental age of six years no child is ready for the first grade, and that below the mental age of five and one-half years the chances that really standard first grade work will be done are practically negligible. This accounts for much of the immaturity com- plained of. It has been repeatedly demonstrated by very carefully standardized tests that chronological age and mental age are not at all in total agreement. They may vary widely with individuals. Children of five years chronologically may show a mental age of seven or more, while some who are mentally five years old are chronologi- cally seven, ten, or even twelve or more years old. As was said above, it has been demonstrated that a mental age of at least six years is necessary for really successful work in the first grade.
It is the carefully considered opinion of the writer that it would be far better for the children and the schools of Norwell (and incidentally for the teachers) if it were re- quired that every child shall attain the age of five years on or before January first of the year that he enters the first grade. This would giive a minimum entrance age of fire years and eight months.
The ideal proceedure would be to determine entrance to the first grade on the basis of phychological tests for mental age, admitting only those who showed a mental age of six years. This would allow the exceptional child to take
per cent.
I-The total enrollment is 45 greater than at a similar period last year. This is an increase of about 20.5
this table :
Tablo I School-Grade Distribution
I
T
22
18
12 |13 7
72
#2
9
14
13
36
Total
22
18 9
14
13
/12/13 7
108
6
|11|12
9
8
8
4
21
79
Chur cf Hill
4
7
5
. 4
20
Total
10 |18|17
9|12
8
4
21
99
High School
23 11 14 10
58
Grand Total
32 36 26 23 25 20 17 28
23 11/14/10
263
×
NUMBER AND DISTRIBUTION OF PUPILS The number and distribution of pupils in the Norwell schools is shown by the two tables which follows :
teachers and parents.
advantage of his natural endowment. Incidentally data could be thus secured which might be of great value to both
SEVENTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT
140
Attention is called to the following significant features of
141
TOWN OF NORWELL
2-The High School enrollment has increased from 45 to 58, a growth of 28.9 per cent.
3 -- If all of the present eighth grade are promoted to the High School in the fall the enrollment will be 76, a further increase of 31 per cent. This would be a total increase of 68.9 per cent. over the 1920 figures.
4-If the usual number of children enter the first grades in the fall, and if promotions are normal, there will be about 48 children in the first five grades in Number 5 School thus overcrowding the primary room. Under these same conditions there would be 83 children who would attend the Ridge Hill primary school, this of course providing Number 2 School were not used as in the past. If Number 2 School is continued in use as at present seats must be provided for the increase of five in the room now full.
5-At Church Hill sixteen pupils will be left in the grades II-III-IV with the likelihood of a small entering class. The number here will probably not exceed twenty. This means a per pupil cost of fifty dollars for instruction alone as compared to $24.34 for the same grades at Ridge Hill and Num- ber 2, and $40.22 at Number 5.
From (2) and (3) above it is evident that something must soon be done to ensure adequate housing conditions for the High School just from the standpoint of numbers alone.
It is evident from (4) and (5) that reorganization would give a fairer division of the teaching burden, a more efficient expenditure of the money, and far better chances for the children.
TABLE II AGE AND GRADE DISTRIBUTION
5 6 7
8 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
T
UA
Per Ct.
O A
Per Ct.
II
7 |
23
6
-
36
7
20
0
0
III
2 | 17
3 |3|
1
26
2
7.7
4
15.4
IV
1
1 |7 |8 |3 |3
23
8
34.8
4
17.4
25
7
28
5
20
VI|
8 | 8|
1|
2
1
20
8
40
3
15
VII
4 | 9
2 |
1
1
17
4
23.5
2
11.8
VIII
1 13 | 10 |
4 |
-
-
-
28
14
50
0
0
IX |
1 | 5 |4 |9| 3 |1|
23
6
25.2
4
17.3
11
2
18.2
1
9.1
XI
14
2
14.3
0
0
XII
1
1 8 1
10
1
10
0
0
6 22 34
32
19
21
22
29
20
12|
19
14
14|
1
265
67
|25.3
26
9.8
1
-
-
V
-
-
7 | 7 |6 | 4
1
1
-
32
6
15.1
3
7.5
6 |15
|8 | 2|
1
-
X
1
2 | 6 | 2 | 1|
1
-
-
1
2 | 8 | 41
-
1
1
-
1
143
TOWN OF NORWELL
Numbers at the heads of vertical columns indicate the age to the nearest year of all recorded in each 'square below.
Roman numerals indicate the various grades. Grades IX thru XII are the High School classes.
Each age block represents the number of children whose ages are within six months either side of the year indicated at the head of that colum.
UA indicates the number of children below the normal age for the given grade. Corrrespondingly OA represents those who are over age.
The table does not show enrollment for the year, but is the acual membership December 31.
The proportion of over age and under age pupils is nearly the same as last year. The per cent. of UA pupils is large for the school conditions and organization in this town.
Ten per cent. of the over age pupils are in grades above the sixth. This is an encouraging fact. The over age pupils is usually far less numerous in these grades.
CONCLUSION
In closing may I say that I hope this report will be taken in the same spirit that we accept a physician's diagnosis and prescription. We may be alarmed at what he tells us and consider the medicine hard to take; we may feel that the money spent is needed for shoes for the children; but we have employed him in the belief that he knows his profes- sion and what we must do in order to keep in condition to give those same children the support and protection we owe them.
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