USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Reading > Town of Reading Massachusetts annual report 1909 > Part 7
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It is with extreme regret that we announce their deter- mination to retire from public service.
WALTER S. PARKER
Chairman of School Committee
. .
REPORT OF SUPERINTENDENT
To the School Committee of the Town of Reading :
My first annual report, the seventeenth in the series, is herewith offered for your consideration.
As my work in charge of the Reading schools, dating from September 1, covers only four of the ten months of the school year, it will be impossible for me to give a complete resume of the period which has elapsed since the last annual report was published. I can, therefore, only touch upon such conditions and features of the work as have been presented to me in this short time.
During the past year Reading has suffered its usual number of changes in the teaching corps. Situated as the town is, so near the city of Boston, so accessible as to invite visits of Superintendents from nearby towns, it is inevitable that any able teacher in the town of Reading attracts attention from those in larger places seeking high grade talent, and they, with their larger resources, can usually furnish inducements to change.
Though it is a calamity in a measure to lose our good teachers, there is yet the consoling thought that the evident ap- preciation of others is a proof of the high grade work which they have given us while they have been with us.
Mr. Fred L. Reed of Dartmouth College, sub-master at the High School during the latter part of. the school year, during the summer was elected to a mastership in the Belmont School at Berkeley, California, at a salary nearly $400 larger than he was receiving. The place was filled by the election of Mr. W. P. Raymond of Rockland, Mass., a graduate of Brown University, who has fitted into the work admirably, and by his attractive personality, interest in the students, and ability as
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an athlete, has already given promise of unusually efficient service.
The latter part of May, Miss Natalie A. Smith, head of the English Department, was taken by the city of Somerville at an increase in salary of $250.00. Her loss to the school was felt strongly, as she was much beloved and respected by all her classes. Miss Marion West of Wollaston, Mass., an honor graduate of Boston University, became her successor in the English Department.
The Stenography and Typewriting Department was made vacant by the resignation of Miss Mary Lerner, who for three years had very skillfully carried on that work. It is at present presided over by Miss Agnes Gilmore of Lynn, another honor graduate of Boston University.
The town of Englewood, N. J., took from us our very able Mathematics teacher, Miss Ruth Buffum, at an increase of $200.00 over her Reading salary. She was succeeded by Miss Reba M. Bush of Chelsea, an honor graduate of Tufts College.
Miss L. Lucile Wheeler of the Physics and Chemistry Department, was called to the Springfield High School at an increase of $200 in salary, and we are exceedingly fortunate in obtaining for that position the services of Miss Sara A. Quimby, of Worcester, Mass., a graduate of Mt. Holyoke College, class of 1907. Miss Quimby's college record in her chosen subjects was so high that she was, upon her graduation, elected to the instructorship in Chemistry at Mt. Holyoke, and has done college work there since her graduation. After visiting Reading, she was so impressed with the attractiveness of the town and the spirit of the school, that she was induced to take the Science Department at a salary much less than her ability and experience would imply.
The resignation of Miss Helen B. Flanders from the position of Assistant in the English Department made a vacancy which was filled by Miss Helen Chapin of Holyoke, Mass., a graduate of Mt. Holyoke.
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The increase in the enrollment at the High School from about three hundred to three hundred and thirty made i: necessary to open up another room and engage another teacher to preside over it. Miss Marjorie Wheeler of White River Junction, a sister of Miss Lucile Wheeler, and a graduate or Mt. Holyoke, was engaged and made assistant in the Modern Language Department.
This is the most sweeping change that has ever occurred in the faculty at the High School in any one year, seven new faces being seen there since last year. It is only fair to say that this change could not be made and the school still be successfully administered unless the teachers were of a very high grade, and the students as a whole were loyal to their school and ready to co-operate with the faculty in the period of adjustment made necessary by the advent of strangers.
The teaching corps of the Centre School remained intact. The only change there was that another room was opened to accommodate a fifth grade, made necessary by the burning of the Lowell St. School building. Miss Mary V. Long is in charge of that room.
At the Prospect St. School, Miss Caroline Spencer resigned at the end of the year, and Miss Billings was elected in her place. Miss Billings in her turn resigned the day before school began in September, and Miss Ada E. Dow of Fort Fairfield, Me., Lowell Normal School, and a teacher of ten years' experience was engaged in her place to take charge of grades I and II. The year had gone but a month when Miss Josephine L. Drown of the Third and Fourth grades was called to Brockton at a large increase in salary. and Miss Helen Knowlton of Chelmsford, Mass., a graduate of Lowell Normal School, assumed charge of grades III and IV in her place.
Miss Marion F. Hall of the Chestnut Hill School was called to other fields by greater inducements and Miss Julia M. Noves of Haverhill is now in charge of that school:
Thus we see that the teaching corps of Reading has suffered fifteen changes in this school year.
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Not only in the teaching corps has Reading suffered changes this past year, but by the unfortunate burning of the Lowell St. School building a new problem was presented in the distribution of the pupils. This has caused much inconvenience to the residents of that section and has also resulted in a very great increase in expense for transportation. The appropria- tion granted by the town at the November Town Meeting assures the erection of a new building at Lowell St., and it is to be hoped that the new structure will be as great a credit to the town as the present buildings are.
One engaged in active work in administration along educational lines is continually forced to the conclusion that there are two vital points upon which the greater portion of his energy should be concentrated: first,-the health and physical well-being of the children in the schools; second, -- the quality of instruction which they receive.
In regard to the first point, it is my opinion that school authorities, as a whole, throughout the country are just at the starting point in taking measures to safe-guard the health of the students. That in many, one might almost say most places, the measures taken towards sanitary conditions in and about the school buildings are either entirely absent, or are of the crudest sort.
The grave danger of gathering together large numbers of children from many different sources, into quarters that are often overcrowded, in buildings which are too often lacking in modern facilities for ventilation and sanitation, subjecting them to the two-fold danger of the dust evil and the public drinking cup are becoming more apparent every day. In every large group of children there are bound to be some affected with diseases which are communicable to others, and the com- pulsory grouping of these children together for hours every day and for two hundred days in the year, is a constant, though hidden source of danger, which to my mind is far greater than that evidenced by the more spectacular panic occasioned by a few conspicuous cases of scarlet fever, diphtheria or small pox.
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The State Board of Health of Massachusetts has begun to prosecute a vigorous campaign along these lines, and none too soon. The Boards of Health of other states, notably Texas, are starting out along the same lines. Wherever enlightenment upon the subject of personal cleanliness, cleanly habits of living and the ordinary precautions against infection in public places has come, the death rate has decreased.
One of the greatest signs of the times is the awakening of the people of this country to the fact that most human diseases are preventable and a large proportion of early deaths avoid- able.
"The death rate in any locality or country is usually indica- tive of the habits and education of the people in reference t.c the protection of health. In benighted Spain twenty-seven out of every thousand inhabitants perish annually, while in enlightened Norway only fourteen out of every thousand die In New Orleans the death rate among the colored people is forty-one to a thousand, while among the white race it is only twenty-one to a thousand. Ignorance and negligence in regard to the laws of sanitation invite sickness and death. "
In the two most recently constructed buildings in Reading the system of ventilation and sanitation are modern and adequate. In neither building is the public drinking cup tolerated, but modern sanitary drinking fountains are installed. By the careful use of germicidal disinfectants and sweeping compounds to allay the dust evil and by the banishment of the feather duster, conditions are approximately safe. In the other buildings throughout the town conditions are not so good, and it is hoped that gradually the toilets, now outside. may be brought within the buildings and rendered sanitary along modern lines.
I believe that much more emphasis should be placed upon the securing of absolute cleanliness about the buildings, inside and out, than has ever before been insisted upon. Though in
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no building in Reading is there allowed a public drinking cup, vet the individual cups brought by the students, exposed as they are to the germ laden dust of the school room, are but a step onward. The Prospect St., Union St., and Chestnut Hill Schools should be equipped with sanitary drinking fountains as soon as possible.
In the matter of medical inspection Reading has fallen into line in conforming with both the letter and spirit of the law. Medical inspection this year has actually been much more than the formal compliance with the law would necessitate. The teachers have been instructed in the symptoms of the various contagious diseases and have freely notified the medical inspector of any suspicious cases. The medical inspector has been very constant in his visits to the various schools, and on the occasion of the recent outbreak of smallpox in the town was thoroughly in touch with the situation at all times where it affected the welfare of the school. I believe that much: more good can be done through this matter of medical inspec- tion than has ever been done. Notification of parents in cases of defective eye sight and hearing has been going on for some time, but I believe it is possible for intelligent teachers who have received intruction along such lines to be on the lookout for, and call the attention of parents in a tactful way to other common diseases which are continually present in the school room, and many of which account for otherwise unexplainable cases of backwardness in children.
The presence of adenoids is very readily marked by an observant teacher, and their removal is often the starting point of the complete rejuvenation of what has hitherto been a lag- gard in school work. By disseminating information in a quiet way regarding the prevention of tuberculosis the teacher can aid in a great work, without at all intruding upon her present duties.
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The teacher, principal or superintendent who loses sight for one moment of the fact that the health of the child is the most important thing in the world and who does not administer the educational system with that fact constantly in mind is using the educational plant to defeat its own ends. The most glorious result of the combined efforts of the family and the school working together is a young man or woman, intelligent, with high ideals and with a hopeful outlook upon life engendered by perfect physical health, and no amount of intellectual expert- ness can make up to our future men and women for the awful handicap of physical anaemia, with its accompanying pessimisn' the lack of energy. The healthy man is the happy man. the successful man, the man who is good to live with.
The second point concerns the. quality of instruction which the children receive, and which implies the training of the mind and intelligence in the normal body. Again it seems to me that the educator must never lose sight of the fact that the things in an educational system which show are not always the things that count. The best of buildings, the most carefully planned course of study, the most modern appliances and the latest methods can accomplish but little for real education if the instruments by which all these things are to be made avail able for the children are of inferior quality.
The teacher then, as has been said so often, is the vital point in the school system, and not necessarily the brilliant teacher, nor the highly educated teacher, but the teacher who can some- how or other develop a love on the part of the children for that which is good and fine in life, and in some way or other makc him actually want to come to school and learn. Such a teacher's very presence in the school room, her attitude toward life from day to day, her treatment of the children, her views of the little things that continually come up in the school room are a silent and continuous force towards instilling in her charges right ways of thinking and of living in years to come.
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No amount of previous training and education can produce a teacher of this sort. It is not what she has learned to do, nor what she does, but what she is that counts, and the whole question here lies in the matter of personality. Given the right sort of teacher in any school or school systent, with the ideal personality, and no matter what the course of study may be, or the physical equipment of buildings, text books, etc., that school will live, and thrive, and visibly progress, while on the other hand teachers of un doubted educational equipment and training without this intangible quality to which we allude, can teach, literally teach a group of children for months, but inspire them never.
I believe that no pains should be spared to install in the schools of Reading a group of teachers of this sort, and with few exceptions, the town is fortunate in the number at present members of the teaching corps. Contrary to the practice and perhaps the opinion in many places, I believe that if a strong, earnest and skillful teacher is needed anywhere in the school system it is needed in the grades, especially the lowest grades.
The idea that a raise of salary must necessarily be dependent upon a promotion to a higher grade should be forgotten. The child receives his first and strongest impres- sion upon his first introduction to the school system, and it is vitally important that those impressions should come from the teachers of the kindliest, broadest and most inspiring personality.
Such teachers can be secured, but they are equally desir. able everywhere. Hundreds of superintendents are looking the ground over continually, for just such talent, and in order to compete with others, Reading must be able to offer salaries which will induce that sort of teacher to join our corps. It is my hope, therefore, that all the resources possible for such a town as this to give may be directed toward the strengthening of the teaching in the lower grades.
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In conclusion, it is a pleasure for me to express my appre- ciation of the kindly and helpful spirit shown to me by he School Committee in these few months of service as Superin tendent, the spirit of co-operation with which I have been met by the teachers, and the very fair and courteous treatment accorded me by the townspeople. The schools of Reading have been, and are in excellent condition. There is much to do, and in a town as alive and progressive in spirit as this is, much surely will be done in the future.
Respectfully submitted, H. T. WATKINS
REPORT OF THE SUPERVISOR OF MUSIC
Mr. H. T. Watkins, Superintendent of Schools, Reading, Mass.
Dear Sir : Inasmuch as the successful teaching of any subject depends,-first : upon a high aim; second : upon a logical course of study ; third : upon definite lesson plans and directions to grade teachers,-I beg to offer in this my first report as Supervisor of Music in the schools of Reading, the aims and courses of study as applied to the teaching of the subject of music in the schools of Reading.
The general aims in music teaching may be phrased as follows :
To teach the language of music, its sounds and symbols for singing and reading, the mastery of which is shown in sight translation.
To develop the emotional nature by means of song inter- pretation, the result of which may be shown in singing or in written work
To develop the aesthetic sense by the study of proper tone production, beauty in melody and rhythm, beauty in sym- metrical form, the result of which is shown in singing, in written work and in music analysis.
To develop a love for good music by the study of musical history and biography and the representative works of the great masters.
Thus music becomes a medium for the expression of emotion, exerts to the greatest degree its cultivating and refining influence upon life and character and promotes the ethical aims of education.
The following is a summary of the courses of study in music in the schools of Reading.
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Grade I.
The major scale with syllables and numbers. Staff read- ing of simple melodies. The first principle in time, one tone to a beat represented by a quarter note. Rote songs. Their names with the representation, line, space, G clef, bar, double bar, measure.
Grade II.
More difficult melody in reading. Song singing. Review of the first principle in time extended to dotted half and whole notes. Individual singing. Written work.
Grade III.
Ability to read, at sight, difficult melody. Last half of year finding of the key note from any key signature. The second principle in time, two tones to a beat represented bv two eighth notes. Rote songs. Individual singing. Written work.
Grade IV.
Names of the 15 major keys. Chromatic tones in simple progression using a sharp, flat and natural for the representa- tion. Reading of six-eighth measure. The principle in time as represented by dotted quarter and eighth notes. Thorough: review. Song interpretation. Simple musical terms of expres- sion and tempo. Two part singing. Individual singing. Written work.
Grade V.
The more difficult progressions in chromatics. In time. the computation of note values. The theory of simple time. Song interpretation. Musical terms. Two part singing. Individual singing and written work.
Grade VI.
Position of sharps and flats in the signature. The use of five chromatic characters (sharp, flat, double sharp, double flat and natural) in singing and writing. The triplet, represented
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by three eighth notes. The derivative form of the triplet represented by quarter and eighth notes. The theory of compound time. The principle in time, four equal tones to a beat represented by four sixteenth notes. The time principle as represented by dotted eighth and sixteenth notes. Song interpretation. Musical terms. Two part singing. Individual singing. Written work.
Grade VII.
Review. Syncopation. Song interpretation. Musical terms. Prescribed work in minor mode, scale building, etc. Three part singing. Individual singing and written work.
Grade VIII.
The bass clef. Reading the tenor part. Review in prin- ciples already presented. Song interpretation. Word reading. Three or four part singing. History and biography. Individual singing and written work.
Model lessons are frequently given by the Supervisor for the benefit of the regular grade teacher. Definite lesson plans are given for the presentation of each principle. The lesson plans are based upon the soundest pedagogic principles. Preparation-presentation-application.
To appreciate the power and beauty of music, the pupi! must become familiar with well written music of various kinds, in selections that shall be interesting from his own point of view as well as admirable from that of the critical musician. By familiar association with such music and by wisely directed study of it the pupil's taste is cultivated and a love for good music is fostered.
The music material now in use in the schools of Reading provides a great variety of selections of that which is best in music, culled from the best available sources.
Respectfully submitted,
ALBERT EDMUND BROWN
January 17, 1910
REPORT OF TRUANT OFFICER
1909 то 1910
Number of absences reported to me 75
Number found to be truancy
30
Number reported by parents as ill
22
Number reported insufficiently clad
3
Number kept out by parents to work or otherwise
20
.
Respectfully submitted,
WILLIAM KIDDER,
Truant Officer.
READING HIGH SCHOOL
Graduation Exercises
CLASS OF . . 1909 . . -
Wednesday Evening, June twenty = three, High School Hall
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PROGRAM
PRAYER BY REV. E. B. MARSHALL
1 Our Trip to the Capital (Salutatory )
VERA YOUNG
2 Carroll Davidson Wright ¡ WILLIAM FLETCHER TWOMBLY
" The Lord is Great " from Athalie Mendelssohn
3 The Cruise of the Great Fleet * HARLAN DANE EAMES
4 A New Departure in Municipal Housekeeping Ť HILLMAN BARNES HUNNEWELL
a " Wind of the Sea " Clayton Johns b " Old Folk Song " Harvey Worthington Loomis
5 The Road to Yesterday * MARION JOHNSON PEASE
6 What Our Girls Need (Valedictory)
MARION LOUISE FLINT
" Damascus March " from Naaman Costa
Conferring of Diplomas WALTER S. PARKER, Chairman of School Committee
Benediction
REV. FATHER LEE
* Class Honor t Faculty Honor
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MEMBERS OF THE CLASS OF 1909
COLLEGE COURSE
Davies, Dorothy
Doyle, Alberta Ruth
Flint, Marion Louise
Hamilton, Mildred Ethelyn
Libbey, Ruth Ardelia
Michelini, Claudia
Pease, Marion Johnson Pecott, Edith Madeline Robinson, Harold Carmi
Strout, Ethel Louise
Young, Vera
SCIENTIFIC COURSE
Black, Lawrence Kingston
Davis, Harold Francis
Hunnewell, Hillman Barnes
Surrette, Leo Augustus Twombly, William Fletcher
GENERAL COURSE
Abbott, Lyman Ellsworth Beebe, Helen Ruggles
Blair, Viola Edna Campbell, Clara Louise Cullinane, Ellen Frances
Davis, Charles Edwin
Doran, Phæbe Martha Hughes Doucette, Florence Marguerite Doucette, Frank Patrick Eames, Harlan Dane
Eames, Ralph Gardner Eaton, Helen Mildred Flint, Clara Edith
Forbes, George Paul
Foote, Ward
Hopkinson, Marion Townsend
Johnson, Charlotte Stevenson Leavitt, Lena Ethelda McKenny, Louise Margaret Nichols, Roy Richard O'Brien, Christine Frances Parker, Irene Frances Ricker, Bessie May Robertson, Rose Ella Smith, Elizabeth Frances Smith, Wilfred Benjamin Stembridge, Alfred Reginald Stevens, Thomas Winthrop Upton, Harold Frances Weafer, Helen Francis Wells, Myrtle Delphine Wickens, Bertha Louise
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PUPILS GRADUATING FROM HIGHLAND SCHOOL JUNE 24, 1909
GIRLS
Akerley, Mildred L.
Pease, IIelen H.
Barrett, Mildred J.
Perry, Beatrice E.
Bokleman, Abby I.
Prentiss. ITilda C.
Bond, Dorothy
Quinlan, Helen G.
Brown. Elsie M.
Randall, Maude F.
Buck, Edith A.
Rich, Marion A.
Butters, Ada M.
Riley, Ellen
C'anty, Katherine M.
Robinson, Mary E.
Carleton, Margaret
Rodden, Marion W.
fummings. Grace
Russell. Inez M.
Desmond, Mary M.
Skillen, Dorothy B.
Devaney, Mary E.
Squires, Emma
Doucette, Philomena O.
Squires, Regina
Fisher, Lottie M.
Stevens, Marion C.
Flint, Grace D.
Surette, Mary Frances
Florence, Grace M.
Gilman. Minerva G.
Thornton, Margaret
Hatch, Marie L.
Hatch, Miriam W.
Thornton, Mary E. Tucker, Amy F.
Herbolzheimer, Jennie
Turner, Dorothy B.
Kershaw, Helen G.
Turner, Mary G.
Turner, Seraphine
Twombly, Marion
McCoy, Annie E.
McLeod, Ruth R.
Morrison, Ruth H. Muise, Mary I.
Navarro, Amelia M.
Nickerson, Joanna Oliver, A. Marion
Walls, Isabella
Young, Edna S.
BOYS Babcock, Ernest G. Bachelder, Albert J. Badger. Clarence I.
Lang, Sylvia C.
Tarbox, Doris G.
Lamprey, Edna F.
Parker, C. Lillian
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Bolton, George B. Charles, Warren F.
Currell, Harold B. Colvin, John R. Doran, Daniel
Doucette, Albert J.
Doucette, Frank E.
Patrick, Herbert L.
Duby, Arthur C.
Emery, Elmer L.
Freedman, George
Gibbons, Lawrence F.
Pratt, Lyman E.
Gray, Freeman M.
Putman, Chester A.
Remick, Nelson A.
Killam, Leonard A.
Killam, Phineas
Rodden, William H.
Leach, Ernest H.
Shepardson, Robert
Lord, Edward R.
Staples, Malcolm L.
Stevens, Frank M.
Temple, Carroll W.
Townsend, H. Alfred
McNeil, Hugh J.
Melonson, George Newell, Harry R. Nickerson, Frank M.
Nowell, Foster
Parker, Hubert F.
Parkins, William J.
Pendergrace, Frederick G.
Phelps, George W.
Pinkham, Carl W.
Hunnewell, Donald P.
Robinson, Gerald C.
Loring, John Alden
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