USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Reading > Town of Reading Massachusetts annual report 1879-1880 > Part 3
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We have a suggestion in another direction for the consideration of parents as well as teachers. The books taken out of our library in two days show the following classification : Fiction, 248 ; magazines, 22; history, 13; travels, 8; biography, 6; poetry. 6 ; scientific, I ; miscellaneous, 6. Five-sixths fiction is suggestive of an unhealthy mental appetite. Fiction has its place. It often leads to the forma- tion of a taste for better reading. But the parent's duty is to see that the taste for reading does not terminate with fiction, but that it is cultivated up to a relish for more nutritious reading. Spices are good in their place, but would be an unhealthy diet ; so we say that fiction
42
is good in its place, but in excess it is simply dissipation. A popular teacher said to his pupils, " If you are not fond of reading fiction I would advise you to read it occasionally, but if you are fond of it let it alone." We think this rule a safe one.
But there is another of kind reading which cannot be too carefully kept from the perusal of all our children and youth. Says the N. E. Journal of Education :
"Many a great metropolitan journal has one department on the wrong side of this line, and under the specious plea of a righteous exposure of evils is poisoning a myriad of children in a thousand homes. * * * * If the history of the drunk- enness, lewdness. violence, and general depravity sprouted in American youth by this vile literature of corruption could once be written, we fancy no man with a reputation to lose would fail to demand the uttermost power of the law for its sup- *
pression. * * * Let all good people everywhere, who are working and praying for their children, open their eyes and see what they read."
A boy's ideal is something that is smart-that has the elements of dash about it; something that secures by right or by wrong a king- dom, or a fortune, or fame in a day. The smartness and audacity in his eyes too often atone for the crookedness and crime, and beget a feeling that has little sympathy with the rewards that come from honest endeavor and slow gains.
A few days ago a lad was arrested in Boston and money found upon him taken from a gentleman's pocket. We know the lad and thought him honest, but our surprise vanished when we remembered his almost constant reading had been the Police Gazette and similar publications. Within two months three run away boys were arrested in New York armed with knives and revolvers, tobacco, fish hooks and lines, stolen money, with books containing tales of Indian atro- cities. They were making their way to Colorado, as they said, to ex- terminate the savages.
A gang of boys have recently been " working" the stores and dwellings near Jersey City, in true burglar style. Some of them were not ten years old, but led by an older boy, their captain, they brought their plunder to a thief's den, kept by a " Fagin," who sold it and gave them a share of the proceeds. Some of the boys belonged to respectable families, but inspired by the " Jack Sheppard " kind of reading had an eye rather to the romance of their doings than to any worse motive.
If statements in the daily papers are to be relied on, we have an- other terrible illustration of the effect of exciting and pernicious stories upon the minds of boys in the case of young Dillingham, the Londonderry, N. H., murderer, himself now dead, also as the result
43
of a shot fired by his own hand. Says a late writer on this subject :
" Now what of the parents who allowed them (their boys) to form such associ- ations and tastes, and then did not know whether or not they were in their beds from midnight to morning ? It is abominable that men should be allowed to print and circulate stuff so ruinous in its tendency ; but it does seem as if watchful par- ents might so pre-occupy the minds of their boys with something better, as to keep them from ripening into criminals before their teens."
Says another :
" A boy's head must necessarily be full of some kind of knowledge and thought, and his only salvation is to fill it with useful and pure material. Almost all boys are fond of reading, and while they might not enjoy Baxter's Saints' Rest, they do like the Rollo travels, or single books on the wonders of nature. The veriest rag- amuffin on the street loves to hear about the stars, what they are, and for what they were made. We let the minds of children run to waste, or weeds, often by our negligence. These street boys as well as others must be taught orally. Mis- sion schools held one day in seven will not do it. The Y. M. C. A. reaches young men on useful topics, but who looks after the boys who are spoiled before they be- come young men ? Young boys become most enthusiastic over a popular course of geological lectures, and it isn't possible to put geology and murders in the same niche of the brain .. "
It seems unnecessary to offer further remark on this subject. Men are said to be known by the company they keep, and it is no less sure that the "true inwardness" of the boy is shown by the books he reads.
We close our report, only adding that the term of office of two of our board, Messrs. Foster and Wadlin, expires this spring.
Respectfully submitted.
E. APPLETON, President. HIRAM BARRUS, Secretary. F. O. DEWEY, STEPHEN FOSTER,
H. G. WADLIN,
W. S. PARKER,
Trustees.
ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
School Committee
OF THE
TOWN OF READING
FOR THE YEAR 1879-80.
REPORT.
-
The School Committee for the year ending March, 1880, respect- fully submit the following report :
According to the latest statistics,* Reading ranks nineteenth among the three hundred and forty-four towns and cities in the State in respect to the amount appropriated for the education of each child between the ages of five and fifteen ; one hundred and fifty-first as to the percentage of taxable property appropriated ; and twenty- second as to average attendance of pupils.
A tabular view of the rank of the town in the two last respects for the ten years ending March, 1879, is here presented :
Position of Reading' ( mong the towns and cities of the State and of Middlesex County, based upon the percentage of taxable property appropriated for educational pur- poses.
1869-70, Rank in State
64;
Rank in County
15
1870-71,
66
25;
66
9
1871-72,
66
66
76 ;
46
10
1872-73,
66
22;
5
1873-74,
25;
66
6
1874-75,
66
29;
3
1875-76,
6
61 ;
7
1876-77,
66
106;
"6
IO
1877-78, 1878-79,
[13;
66
IO
151;
16
.
* For the year 1878-9.
4
Position of Reading as to average attendance of pupils.
1869-70, Rank in State
.27 ;
Rank in County
9
1870-71,
66
48;
12
1871-72,
64 ;
15
1872-73,
66
21;
66
8
1873-74,
66
66
25;
IO
1874-75,
22;
=
6
1875-76,
66
66
66;
66
18
1876-77,
66
24 ;
1877-78,
66
6 6
II ;
3
1878-79,
66
22;
66
6.
6
6
The first table exhibits the liberality of the town in its appropria- tions for schools as compared with other towns and cities. It shows that since 1869, and within the last few years especially, decreased appropriations have carried Reading downward in the scale to a point hardly above the average for the State. The latest figures, as stated, are for the year ending March, 1879. Since then the appro- priation has been still further reduced, while the valuation has increased, and when the statistics of the year just closed are obtained, it would not be surprising to find our position below the average. This is not a pleasant thing to contemplate, and the inferences drawn from such a record are not likely to be complimentary to the town. Much more gratifying is the exhibit of the second table, which shows that our schools hold a high rank in regard to average attendance. Always among the first seventy, usually among the first twenty-five, we close the record standing twenty-second among the towns and cities of the State, and sixth among those of the county in this important particular. The year :877-78 was the banner year, as will be seen. If insufficient appropriations tend to weaken the schools, by shortening the school year and necessitating the employ- ment of inferior teachers, scarcely anything contributes more to the success of a school, or to the individual progress of each pupil, than constant attendance. It is with pride, therefore, that we point to our standing in this respect, hoping it will be maintained in the future.
The past year has been a prosperous one. A few difficulties have arisen-as they always will arise-but, as a whole, the schools have maintained their usual excellence. The committee retains the same organization as at the beginning of the year, the sub-committees being as follows :
5
HIGH SCHOOL-Messrs. Wadlin and Kittredge.
FIRST GRAMMAR-Mr. Kittredge.
SECOND GRAMMAR-Mr. Wadlin.
THIRD GRAMMAR-Mr. Davis.
UPPER MEDIUM-Mr. Brown.
LOWER MEDIUM-Mr. Wightman.
UPPER PRIMARY, Union Street-Mr. Parker.
LOWER PRIMARY, Union Street-The entire committee.
WALNUT STREET SCHOOLS -- Mr. Brown.
WOBURN STREET SCHOOLS-Mr. Wadlin.
LOWELL STREET SCHOOL-Mr. Kittredge.
MAIN STREET SCHOOL-Mr. Wightman.
HAVERHILL STREET SCHOOL-Mr. Davis.
THE HIGH SCHOOL
now has a total membership of 103. The entering class numbered 53. The unusually large size of this class was partly due to a double promotion made several years ago. Under the present system of examinations and promotions, so large a number of applicants is not likely to be presented again.
The revised course, as adopted prior to our last annual report, has commended itself by a year's satisfactory trial. It is given in the appendix. That it may be fully understood, it should be borne in mind that in some respects our high school occupies an anomalous position. It may be somewhat trite to repeat that a larger per cent of our lower grade pupils enter and remain in it than is usual else- where. The percentage has constantly increased during the last ten years, and this result has not been attained by lowering the standard of scholarship. The ratio of pupils now in the school to the whole number enrolled in the town is as I to 5.6; while the ratio for the State at large is as 1 to 14.5 *.
With so large a school, and with but two teachers, it is impossible to provide several distinct courses, with numerous elective studies, as is done in some neighboring towns. Wakefield and Melrose, for instance, have a classical course of four, an English course of three, and a business course of two years. They are able to do this by
* Towns and cities maintaining high schools alone considered-the statistics of 1878-9 being used.
6
employing three teachers for about 80 and 100 pupils respectively.
The wants of our own pupils seem to be best met, with the resources at our command, by an English course of three years, or by an English and classical course of the same length, introducing Latin. The work thus laid out may be thoroughly done. It covers the practical branches required for business life ; it gives elementary instruction in the sciences and in literature ; and a pupil may devote three years to Latin or one year to French.
We have reduced the number of studies to the minimum, but three being taken in each term. For those who desire to do more than is contemplated by these courses, the principal is ready-as in former years-to give such instruction and aid as may be possible outside the regular school hours. Great interest is manifested in the studies of bookkeeping and English composition. In the department of English literature, excellent work has been done. As a typical exer- cise in this branch may be mentioned an hour devoted to the poet Longfellow, in which brief reviews of his life and leading works were presented by different pupils, and short extracts from his poems read by others. The classes in Latin, also, have made much progress, and, generally, the condition of the school is such as to warrant the fullest support from the town. The annual graduating exercises took place in June, and were held in the Old South Church. The graduating class numbered twenty-three. The names appear in the appendix.
THE GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.
At the close of the spring term, Miss Jennie R. Barrus, of the First Grammar, requested leave of absence for one year. This was granted by the committee, and since then Miss A. Evelyn Barrows-trans- ferred from the Lowell Street School-has taken her place.
A new grammar school was established in the spring at Walnut Street, by dividing the mixed school located there. Miss Susan R. Drew, of Concord, N. H., was engaged as teacher. The pupils of the primary grade were placed in charge of Miss Vestina P. Con- verse. The change has resulted most favorably, and both schools are improving under their present teachers.
The Woburn Street Grammar has been under the care of Miss Hattie A. French during the entire year. We are glad to report great improvement in this school, and to note the unanimity with which Miss French has been supported by the parents of her pupils. The room has been made cheerful by new curtains, and by the pres-
7
ence of plants and pictures. The school is now better graded than formerly, and the interest shown by the pupils promises continued improvement in the future. In
THE OTHER SCHOOLS
changes have occurred as follows : At Lowell Street, Miss Cora A. Prescott fills the vacancy caused by the transfer of Miss Barrows to the First Grammar. At Main Street, Miss Marion E. H. Barrows succeeds Mr. L. F. Elliott, who is now pursuing his studies at the Bridgewater Normal School, after successful experience in teaching here.
No other changes have been made. The remaining teachers, all of whom have been in the employ of the town for some years, are to be commended for faithful and painstaking service.
DEPORTMENT.
The deportment of our pupils is usually good. The cases of dis- obedience demanding special notice or extraordinary treatment are rare. It is our duty to say, however, that during the present year certain pupils have been disposed to disgrace themselves and injure the school to which they belonged. For the most part, this disposi- tion has shown itself in covert ways, and in careless and rude manners on the part of the pupils referred to, and has rarely developed into open insubordination. Such cases severely tax the patience of a teacher, and exert a bad influence upon every member of the school.
We desire to call attention to a rule governing the schools, and posted in every school-room, as follows :
" The committee will expel from school any pupil guilty of such immorality as may tend to demoralize pupils, and in the High School will withhold the diploma in every case in which the record of deportment shall require it."
Fortunately this rule has not needed enforcement since its adoption, but hereafter it will be at once enforced whenever a pupil is found indisposed to conform to the requirements of the teacher. Occasional lapses may be expected, and, of course, excused ; but chronic unwillingness to perform faithfully and promptly the tasks assigned, and general ungentlemanly or unladylike conduct on the part of those no longer mere children will neither be excused nor overlooked.
MUSIC.
Owing to the reduction of $500 in the appropriation for the present
8
year, instruction in music by a special teacher has been discontinued. Much as they regretted to do this, the committee were unanimously of the opinion that it was the best way of confining the expenses within the limit set by the town. The loss of the music teacher is felt most in the primary and intermediate schools, and we trust that the amount requested for the coming year will be granted, so that some provision may be made for this branch of instruction.
REPAIRS.
The Union Hall building was painted and completely renovated during the summer vacation. New steps were built in front, and the entrance graded. The High School building, also, has been painted one coat outside, and the roof and gutters repaired. Another coat will be needed on the exterior, and the interior will require thorough cleansing during the ensuing year.
Minor repairs have been carried out elsewhere, and of these, a detailed account is rendered in the financial statement contained in the appendix.
AIDS IN TEACHING.
Following the plan of other years, a small amount has been expended for books of reference, globes, etc. To keep our schools abreast of the improvements now making in methods of instruction, it is absolutely necessary that every requisite for intelligent work should be placed in the hands of the teachers.
In order to give a wider range of selections than is contained in an ordinary reader, and to teach reading at sight, the use of supple- mentary reading matter, as practised in the schools of Quincy and Boston, was begun in the primaries several years ago, but our work in this direction has been limited on account of insufficient funds. In addition to the Nursery, the Little Folks' Reader, published by D. Lothrop & Co., will hereafter be regularly supplied to the primary grade, and will enable us to furnish bright and attractive reading matter fresh each month. Some of the selections in this publication may be made the basis of object lessons, and, if properly used, the results will more than repay the slight expense incurred.
A supply of bound volumes of the Wide Awake has been procured for use in the upper grades. We alluded last year to the influence the teachers might exert towards fostering a taste for good reading on the part of their pupils, and suggested the selection of books from the public library for this purpose. We again touch upon this topic,
9
for its importance renders it worthy of more attention than it has hitherto received. The trustees of the library, in order to aid this work to the fullest extent, have granted to teachers the privilege of taking ten volumes at one time for loaning to pupils. The schools and the library-the chief educational forces in the town-should be more closely connected than hitherto, and we ask attention to that portion of the trustees' report relating to the subject, trusting that the opportunity offered will be improved. An effort will be made early in the coming year to point out to teachers the works best adapted to their classes in the various departments of literature.
The defects most apparent in the schools are those inherent in an imperfect system. The two most frequently pointed out are :
I. Failure to develop the moral sense while cultivating the mind.
The opponents of public schools perceive this defect, and use it as an argument for the advancement of their ends. Its removal would deprive them of one of their most effective weapons. It is a lament- able fact that the pupils are too often not self-governed, but simply held in check by the coercion of the teacher. An incident which came under our observation some time since will be in point. A teacher, who had a superior school in respect to discipline, was obliged to be absent a few weeks from her charge. Immediately after the arrival of her substitute disorder arose. A general impulse toward insubordination seemed to pervade the school. There were, of course, honorable exceptions, but more than one pupil, who was thought to be depended upon in any emergency, was in the front rank of the disturbers. The substitute was forced to leave the school, and order was only restored by the use of force on the part of a second substitute, while even then the pupils were several times on the verge of rebellion, until the return of the regular teacher brought quiet. Manifestly, the obedience of the pupils was outward merely. It did not spring from sense of duty or moral principle. They were held in order by the personal force of the teacher. These pupils, too, were under most favorable home influences, and were old enough to fully comprehend what was required of them in the school. Parallel instances will, no doubt, recur to the mind of the reader. They are by no means of infrequent occurrence.
Defective home training is a serious obstacle to overcome, but for five hours each day, during the most plastic period of his life, the child is subjected to the influences of the school-room. Does it not
10
reflect upon our methods of government that we are so little able to trust our pupils without the restraint of rules and checks, and the constant fear of punishment ? We ask this in no captious spirit, nor do we intend any personal application in what we have said. The defect, so far as it exists, is general, and is confined to no particular school. It is of sufficient magnitude to demand the persistent efforts of every teacher and the hearty co-operation of every parent for its removal. The school that fails to elevate the moral tone of its pupils, fails in a fundamental point. No excellence in other respects can atone for it. If it cannot be overcome, it is a fatal weakness. " Character is of more consequence than learning, and the power of self-control is superior to the ability to conform to school rules under the eye of a teacher." *
2. The second defect is the employment of wrong methods of instruction.
The prime end of all good teaching is to arouse mental activity. The error in the methods often pursued is that the passive, not the active, powers of the mind are addressed. This is always the case when the pupil is simply made to commit his lesson directly from the text-book. He is then absorbing the mental products of others, while his own activities are not aroused at all. The teacher who pursues this plan is a mere school-keeper, and cannot properly be said to teach. Her class is like that under the charge of Mr. Gradgrind- " A row of little pitchers ready to be filled with facts." Far too much of what is called studying in the schools is only memorizing-the endeavor to acquire certain facts in geography, mathematics or the sciences, to hold them in the mind until the examinations are passed and promotion secured, when they are allowed to drop that other facts may take their place. This process is not education. It will never enable the pupil to become master of himself, and so become a productive force in the world. He never acquires the power to think, in the strict sense. He is not equipped for the battle of life, nor is he fitted for the duties of citizenship. It is among the victims of this sort of mis-education that demagogues find their ready followers. In a republic the stability of the State demands a very different kind of training. The schools, which are to be the source of the nation's
*Hon. J. W. Dickinson.
11
strength, must produce men and women able to use the powers with which they are endowed, strong, self reliant, in whatever situation they may be placed.
If, then, the teacher is to secure mental growth, she must acquaint herself with the powers of the mind and their natural order of development. Teaching becomes a science, and she cannot be fitted for her work unless she understands its principles. The nature of the child is to guide her in her work, and the peculiarities of individual pupils are to be discerned, and constantly kept in view.
The day of routine teaching is passing away. Perfection does not consist in doing a thing just as it has always been done before. That is the Chinese idea. No two classes are adapted to the same tieat- ment ; no two minds are to be unfolded in precisely the same way. Given the great principles underlying the science of teaching, and there must be infinite variety in their application.
These principles are not new. They were applied by those Grecian teachers, who took their pupils into the fields for their instruc- tion ; they were enunciated anew by Pestalozzi ; they are the life of the Prussian school system, and make it, on the whole, the best in the world ; they were set forth in this country by Horace Mann.
They have made no new discovery in Quincy. The Quincy system is simply a revival of these principles, and an application of them where they had fallen into neglect. A great deal has been done here in the line of improvement, but much more remains to be accom- plished, and if our schools are to hold their own with those around us we must not rest satisfied with past success, but devote our energies to the removal of present defects.
EXPENDITURES AND ESTIMATES.
Besides dispensing with music, the school year has been shortened one week. As our teachers are nearly all paid by the week, this has caused a reduction in the amount received by them during the year. We have thus not exceeded the appropriation, having expended $7,662- 37 leaving a balance of $34.68 undrawn .* The average price paid fe- male teachers has been $38.00 per month. Wakefield pays $41.53; Melrose, $48.28; and Stoneham, $41.66.
The average cost per pupil, based upon the whole number enrolled,
*The sum of $12.00 has been received for tuition in the High School and is now in the hands of the committee
12
has been $12.62. In Wakefield it is about $10.96 ; in Melrose $13.14 ; in Stoneham, $11.67 ; and in the State at large for the year 1878-9, $13.90. Tuition in our High School costs on the average $ 18.96 per pupil. In Wakefield it is $35.09; in Melrose, about $31.61 ; and in Stoneham $45.50.
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