USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Reading > Town of Reading Massachusetts annual report 1913 > Part 13
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194 67
$1,846 60
Expended
.
$1,846 60
DEPRECIATION CASH ACCOUNT
Appropriation from earnings $4,788 80
Amount used for construction account $1,849 95
Amount used for renewal of lines 2,938 85
$4,788 80
278
NORTH READING EXTENSION
TOTAL INVESTMENT TO DEC. 31, 1913 :
Electric plant
$440 12
Lines .
19,840 28
Incandescent street lights 1,517 13
Meters .
995 08
Transformers
726 34
$23,518 95
LYNNFIELD EXTENSION
TOTAL INVESTMENT TO DEC. 31, 1913 :
Lines
$6,021 17
Incandescent street lights
299 68
Meters .
521 92
Transformers
425 50
$7,268 27
WILMINGTON EXTENSION
TOTAL INVESTMENT TO DEC. 31, 1913 :
Electric plant
$627 18
Lines
23,813 56
Incandescent street lights . 1,572 85
Meters .
988 40
Transformers
934 64
$27,936 63
The law requires that the Manager submit an estimate of the requirements for the coming year, and this year I have submitted two estimates. Estimate No. 1 contem- plates a reduction of one cent in the lighting rate in Read- ing and the loss of the entire Wakefield business after April 1st, 1914, while Estimate No. 2 contemplates the sale to the Wakefield plant of all their current after April 1st. The amount needed for new construction can be estimated only approximately at the time of making this report as the new street lighting business in the adjoining towns is not known.
279
ESTIMATE NO. 1
EXPENDITURES :
Operation, maintenance and re-
pairs . $34,643 00
Interest on bonds and notes 4,452 50
Depreciation (3% on $201,702.87)
6,051 08
Note payments
4,000 00
Bond payments
5,000 00
Loss in preceding year as defined by statute
5,020 90
Total
$59,167 48
RECEIPTS :
Estimated income from custom-
50,167 48
ers .
.
Balance .
$9,000 00
Due for construction Dec. 31, 1913
2,932 07
For new construction 1914
8,000 00
Total
$19,932 07
ESTIMATE NO. 2
EXPENDITURES :
Operation, maintenance and re-
pairs
$37,643 00 .
Interest on bonds and notes 4,452 50
Depreciation (3% on $201,702.87) 6,051 08
Note payments 4,000 00
Bond payments 5,000 00 .
Loss in preceding year
.
5,020 90
Total
.
$62,167 48
.
280
RECEIPTS :
From private consumers
$57,667 48
Balance
$4,500 00
Due for construction Dec. 31, 1913
2,932 07
For new construction .
8,000 00
Total
$15,432 07
Respectfully submitted,
ARTHUR G. SIAS,
Manager.
Annual Report
OF THE
SCHOOL COMMITTEE
OF THE
TOWN OF READING
For the Year Ending December 31 1913
SCHOOL COMMITTEE
WALTER S. PARKER, Chairman, Walnut St.
Term expires 1914
HOWARD W. POOR, Mt. Vernon St.
Term expires 1914
MRS. IDA A. YOUNG, Woburn St. Term expires 1916
JESSE W. MORTON, Woburn St. Term expires 1916 ARTHUR N. MANSFIELD, Woburn St. Term expires 1915 MRS. ELIZABETH H. BROWN, Prospect St.
Term expires 1915
Superintendent of Schools and Secretary of School Committee ADELBERT L. SAFFORD
Truant Officer WILLIAM KIDDER
Medical Inspector E. DALTON RICHMOND, M. D.
Janitors
HIGH SCHOOL, Clement Gleason, 64 Orange St. HIGHLAND SCHOOL, Jesse N.Hutchinson, 32 Bancroft Ave. CENTRE SCHOOL, William Kidder, 26 Lowell St. UNION ST. SCHOOL, William Kidder, 26 Lowell St. LOWELL ST. SCHOOL, Sylvanus L. Thompson, Lowell St. PROSPECT ST. SCHOOL, Timothy Cummings, Temple St. CHESTNUT HILL SCHOOL, Alfred Ells, 47 Hopkins St. HIGH SCHOOL MATRON, Mrs. Ara Pratt, 29 Orange St.
ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE
WALTER S. PARKER, Chairman ADELBERT L. SAFFORD, Secretary
Sub-Committees
A. N. Mansfield
FINANCES AND ACCOUNTS H. W. Poor
J. W. Morton
J. W. Morton
BOOKS AND SUPPLIES Mrs. Ida A. Young W. S. Parker
SCHOOL HOUSES AND PROPERTY
A. N. Mansfield J. W. Morton H. W. Poor
RULES AND REGULATIONS
Mrs. Elizabeth H. Brown A. N. Mansfield
H. W. Poor
H. W. Poor
TEACHERS AND SALARIES W. S. Parker J. W. Morton
MUSIC AND DRAWING
Mrs. Ida A. Young Mrs. Elizabeth H. Brown J. W. Morton
H. W. Poor
COURSE OF STUDY Mrs. Ida A. Young J. W. Morton
284
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE
The School Committee submits the following report for the year ending February 28, 1914:
The attention of the citizens is earnestly requested to the reports which accompany this report. We would urge a careful perusal of the report of the Superintendent of Schools, especially that part of his report which treats of the financial aspects of the school question.
Much has been said recently regarding the very great expense connected with the school department. It has been maintained that the expense in running the school depart- ment in Reading is very much greater than in other towns of the Commonwealth. That phase of the subject is taken up by the Superintendent in his report. It shows clearly from his quotations of the report of the State Board of Education that our town stands about midway between the extremes of high and low expenditures of money for school purposes by the seventy towns of over 5,000 inhabitants in the state : that Reading stands below Wakefield and Stone- ham : that is, we do not expend in proportion to what we are worth as much as Wakefield or Stoneham.
We desire to emphasize the fact, to which the Superin- tendent calls attention, namely :
That something should be done in the future to retain the most efficient teachers in our teaching force.
Complaint has come to us many times recently that we have too many young teachers, and when they prove their worth they resign for more salary elsewhere.
285
286
It seems self-evident that there is but one remedy for this frequent change in our teaching corps. In the High School, we cannot find anyone but the young teacher fresh from college who will accept the low salary which we are able to offer as the first year salary. Our salaries have not been raised during the past few years in proportion to the high cost of living. The teachers today, considering the high prices which they have to pay for everything they are obliged to buy, are not getting large pay.
The terms of Howard W. Poor and Walter S. Parker expire during the present year.
APPROPRIATIONS
We recommend the sum of $42,300 and school receipts for school maintenance. We also recommend a special appropriation of $3,600 for the following purposes :
Special repairs and alterations, $2,000.
Twelve additional typewriters, $600.
Additional for fuel if hard coal is used, $1,000.
WALTER S. PARKER, Chairman. JESSE W. MORTON. IDA A. YOUNG. HOWARD W. POOR. ARTHUR N. MANSFIELD. ELIZABETH H. BROWN.
REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS
TO THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE OF THE TOWN OF READING, MASS. :
The twenty-first annual report of the Superintendent of Schools is presented herewith. In the few months in which I have had the honor to serve you as Superintendent, atten- tion has been given chiefly to getting acquainted with the conditions. I thank the Committee, the teachers and the citizens generally for a very cordial welcome and for the manifestation of a readiness to co-operate in every way in promoting the welfare of the pupils in the schools. I am particularly grateful to my predecessor in this office who ex- tended a helping hand and did all in his power, not only to make my coming a pleasure but also to render such advice and assistance that the loss to the schools occasioned by his departure might be reduced as much as possible. The man- ner in which the work of administration had been systema- tized was admirable and proved very helpful to a new- comer.
TEACHERS
The large percentage of new teachers is one of the most striking features of the present situation. Of the twelve teachers in the High School, including the Principal, eight were new to the school in September. Six of the eight were fresh from college without previous teaching experience. Of the four teachers remaining in the school from last year, one had been one year in this school, one three years, one four years and one six years.
While some changes are inevitable, and are perhaps de-
287
288
sirable for the sake of introducing new ideas and as a stim- ulus to the ambitions of the teachers, yet such wholesale changes cannot be otherwise than detrimental, however competent the new teachers may be.
It is extremely difficult under such circumstances for the school to perform adequately its functions. On the other hand, it is very disappointing to the pupil if he finds on his graduation that he cannot enter college or secure office work without further study.
The margin between unquestioned success and partial failure generally involves only a small percentage of the whole cost of the enterprise. The true economy is to get satisfactory results.
The changes in teachers in the elementary schools were less numerous than in the High School. There were six new teachers in twenty-four. Even this is too large a num- ber. If the vacancies are filled, as in most of these cases, by young teachers lacking in experience, a high degree of · efficiency is impossible.
COURSE OF STUDY
The trend of modern courses of study is towards prepar- ing each pupil specifically for some one definite undertaking, such as entrance to college, technology or normal schools ; stenography, bookkeeping, general office work; or some agricultural, industrial or domestic occupation. Such prepa- ration includes the broad foundations in the fundamentals and as much general culture as circumstances permit, but it also makes indispensable, facility and skill in the partic- ular direction in which the pupil is to specialize. Our course of study in the Reading High School is admirable in its general outlines, but provision might be made for greater specialization. Pupils entering college and technology should be fitted to pass the College Entrance Board exami- nations with uniform success; pupils studying clerical branches should attain proficiency in penmanship, spelling,
289
rapid calculation, stenography, typewriting and bookkeep- ing: pupils intending to remain at home should have their school work closely related to home projects in agricultural and household arts and sciences.
The college preparatory work is well outlined in the course of study and requires only a stable and efficient corps of teachers, with perhaps some changes in text-books and some additional apparatus in order to afford the pupils all the necessary conditions for successful effort. The provisions for studying commercial branches should be improved by doubling the time devoted to shorthand and typewriting, by increasing by one-half the time devoted to bookkeeping, and by materially increasing the amount of instruction in com- mercial arithmetic, penmanship and spelling. Commercial English. business law and commercial geography might also be added to the course of study. Commercial studies should be developed until a point of contact with a job is reached. Otherwise they are like a bridge with a missing span. A system of office practice in local business offices might be arranged also with good results.
Such a readjustment of the commercial course would make necessary no larger teaching force in the schools, but might require the exchange of one of the other teachers for a teacher of commercial subjects. The work now done in the school in these branches is excellent so far as it goes. It is merely inadequate because too little time is devoted to it.
For pupils who are to remain at home on the farm after completing their High School studies, the High School work should be coordinated with home projects in domestic arts and science, and in various agricultural pursuits such as home gardening. market gardening, poultry raising, potato, tomato, and corn raising. The Massachusetts Agricultural College at Amherst carries on an extensive system of school clubs along these lines. Mr. O. A. Morton, in charge of this work, has lectured at the Reading High School and the Highland Grammar School, and a number of pupils have
290
joined various clubs. Another lecture on potato culture aroused considerable interest among the pupils. The condi- tions here are favorable for a large work along these lines if the citizens of Reading will co-operate. If the home work in agriculture is suitably developed, a course in agricultural chemistry and other related branches can be easily intro- duced into the High School and large results obtained at small expense to the town.
The following list of clubs and projects is compiled from the registration blanks furnished by the Massachusetts Agricultural College at Amherst to which reference is made above.
· MASSACHUSETTS BOYS' AND GIRLS' HOME ECONOMICS CLUBS
CONTESTANTS MUST BE BETWEEN 10 AND 18 YEARS OF AGE
All members of the Club must select either bread mak- ing or canning as a common activity.
Check activities to the amount of 110 hours in addition to the common activity of 40 hours.
PREMIUMS-Trip to Washington, D. C .; trip to places of interest in New England; week at Massachusetts Agricul- tural College.
LIST OF ACTIVITIES
COOKERY HRS
Soup making . 20
Making and baking yeast bread 40
Vegetables 20
Cooking of meats .
20
Preparation light dessert 20
Making and baking pies 20
Making and baking cake 20
Makingand baking cookies 15
HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT HRS
Table setting . 5
Table serving . 5
Washing dishes . 10
Drying dishes and ar-
ranging in cupboard . 10
Sweeping and dusting . 20
Care of one's bedroom . 20
Washing windows . . 15
Cleaning floor . ·
. 10
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Making and frying dough- nuts
15
Building fire . . 10
Preparing breakfast
·
25
Blacking stove 10
Cereal course 1-4 Assisting withi washing 15
Main course .
.
1-2
Ironing
. 20
Beverage course 1-4
HANDWORK
Preparing supper 25 .
Sewing, darning or mend-
Main course .
1-2 ing . 20
Dessert course
1-2
Basket work, caning, crocheting, knitting or
Canning and preserving
fruit .
. 40
weaving .
. 20
BOYS' AND GIRLS' POULTRY CLUB
RULES AND REGULATIONS
1. Members of this club shall be between the ages of 10 and 18.
2. The period of competition shall be from February 1 to August 1, 1914.
3. There are four classes open for competition : 1, 2, · 3, 4, and the number of hens or pullets entered in each class must be 6, 12, 25, 50 respectively.
4. The contesting fowls must be leg-banded. (Leg bands to be furnished by the College ).
5. Members competing must own the fowls under their management.
6. The fowls may be of his or her own raising, or may be obtained through purchase or as a gift.
7. Standard bred stock of one variety is recommended, but not required. Any variety or combination of varieties- pullets or hens-may be entered.
8. Layers must have from 5 to 8 square feet of floor space per bird.
9. Data must be kept according to record card and report blanks furnished.
Cleaningand filling lamps 15
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10. Fourth weekly records and final reports must be sent in promptly.
SCORE CARD
Egg production
40
Profits
30
Reports
15
Story
15
100
The premiums will be on the same basis as those for corn. 1. A free trip to Washington. D. C., or some National Poultry Show. 2. A free trip to some New England Poultry Show. 3. A free week here at the college when a regular convention of poultry men is held. Setting of eggs from standard bred stock, medals and ribbons will be awarded to the most successful members in each town or city club. For the free trips, the State members will be divided into two, three or four clubs as the number of mem- bers warrant. National pins will also be awarded to the most successful members in each club.
MASSACHUSETTS BOYS' AND GIRLS' AGRICUL- TURAL AND HORTICULTURAL CLUBS
CONTESTANTS MUST BE BETWEEN 10 AND 18 YEARS OF AGE
PREMIUMS .- Trip to Washington, D. C. ; trip to places of interest in New England: week at Massachusetts Agricul- tural College.
CLUB
Corn .
1 acre
1-2 acre
Hay
1 acre
1-2 acre
Potatoes
1
acre
1-2 acre
Potatoes
1-4 acre
1-8 acre
Market garden
1-10 acre
1-20 acre
Tomatoes
1-10 acre
1-20 acre
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Manual training and sewing are already in the schools and can be closely related to the home projects, and can aid them by furnishing necessary preliminary instructions.
If cooking should be added to the curriculum it could be closely related to home work in domestic science, and thus multiply itself many fold by co-ordination of school work with actual accomplishments outside of school hours.
To sum up the whole idea in a few words, we might say that the school may so relate its teaching to the real tasks and problems of the pupils' life, that, while limiting its in- struction to the legitimate field of school subjects, it would co-ordinate all the pupils' activities at home, at school, at work, at play, so that each would help the other and all all would promote the physical, intellectual and moral im- provement of the pupil. The organization of the Reading schools is ideal for any plans of this sort. The concentration of all the grammar grades in one building makes possible variations in the work of different groups of pupils accord- ing to their special interests. Many grammar schools in this and other states are offering four partially separate courses to pupils in the upper grades : cultural, commercial, household and industrial. About three-fifths of the work is the same in all courses, and two-fifths is devoted to the special branches of the particular course. Also in most of the places where this plan has been adopted, an hour or more a day is devoted to manual or special work outside of the regular five hours of school.
TEXT BOOKS, SUPPLIES AND APPARATUS
I learn from & previous report that for several years past the appropriation for text books, supplies and apparatus has been progressively reduced. As the cost of these items is less than 10% of the whole, it would not seem to be economy to impair the results of the whole expenditure by a too frugal policy in respect to so small a part. There is need of a number of new text books in both the high school and the
294
elementary schools. There is a noticeable lack of any large pieces of apparatus in the schools, such as stereopticons, electrical machines, microscopes, cameras, relief maps, charts, globes and other apparatus for teaching. Of course expensive apparatus must be acquired gradually, but if it is not acquired at all the scope of usefulness of the school is permanently impaired.
SPECIAL SUPERVISORS
Instruction in music, drawing, manual training, sewing and penmanship is under the direction of special supervi- sors or teachers. Excellent progress is being made in all these lines. Reading is fortunate in retainingall its special teachers this year. Work in drawing by Reading pupils was chosen this year by an Association of Art Teachers to be part of a permanent traveling exhibit illustrating the best methods of teaching drawing. This was an honor accorded few, if any, other towns of the size of Reading, but was, I am sure, fully warranted by the high character of the in- struction given to the pupils in this subject.
BUILDINGS
Improvements were made during the year in the heat- ing of the Prospect Schoolhouse, and the Chestnut Hill Schoolhouse, and water closets were installed at Chestnut Hill and at the Centre. Also the grounds were graded at Lowell street. During the coming year the rooms of the Highland Schoolhouse should be tinted, the Chestnut Hill Schoolhouse should be painted and shingled, the Union Street Schoolhouse should be shingled and the yard im- proved by removal of concrete and putting on a surface coat of gravel. The vent ducts and chimney of the High School- house should be relaid above the roof and protected from action of water. These and other minor repairs require a special appropriation in addition to the usual amount for incidental repairs and upkeep of buildings, furniture and grounds.
295
SALARIES OF TEACHERS
I have alluded elsewhere to the importance of paying sufficient salaries to prevent wholesale changes in teachers. In most cities and towns, salaries have been advanced 20 to 25% in the past five years. Consequently those towns that have not increased salaries must usually employ inexper- ienced or inferior teachers, and must suffer frequent changes. There are, of course, many exceptions to this in the case of individual teachers of excellent ability, who for personal reasons prefer to remain in a place at a salary less than could be had elsewhere. The exceptions, however, prove the rule.
It is highly desirable that a maximum salary be estab- lished with a uniform advancement each year towards the maximum until it is reached. Primary teachers should re- ceive as high salaries as grammar school teachers of equal ability and experience. The old idea of beginning at the lowest salary in the first grade and "working up" has been almost universally abandoned for the plan of a uniform salary for all grades. This is not only just, but conducive to the efficiency of the schools, since it holds each teacher in the kind of work for which she is best suited.
MORAL RESPONSIBILITY IN PUPILS
Charges are sometimes made that the schools are God- less and immoral, but I have never found it so. The school is a little world in itself wherein are enacted in kind nearly all of the comedies and tragedies of life, and in these are revealed the moral status of the pupils. The method of discipline and control that makes the pupil feel the greatest personal responsibility for his own acts and leads him to use wisely the largest amount of initiative in managing his own affairs will lead most rapidly and surely to wise self-direc- tion and self-dependence.
On the other hand, a method that depends on arbitrary commands and artificial rewards and punishments cannot
296
fail to lead to a lack of clear perception of moral issues and a lack of self-restraint and self-control when removed from artificial restraint. The pupil is apt to consider the artificial punishment as the lawful price of indulgence and weigh one against the other. He is apt to consider that every thing is made right when he has suffered the arbitrary punishment for a wrong act. But in fact, such punishment settles noth- ing: the wrong act sets in motion a long train of conse- quences which his arbitrary punishment does not affect in the least. These natural consequences of his act are the real punishments which he should be made to feel and should be taught to avoid by a clearer perception of moral issues.
Acts of violence against others, and dangerous and vile acts must be summarily, arbitrarily and forcibly suppressed with unrelenting severity, but within reasonable limits the pupil should choose his own course, subject to the sugges- tions and criticisms of his instructors. Dr. Montessori, who has made this " right of initiative " on the part of the pupil one of her cardinal doctrines, thus defines the function of discipline : " We call an individual disciplined when he is master of himself and can therefore regulate his own con- duet when it shall be necessary to follow some rule of life. The liberty of the child should have as its limit, the collec- tive interest: as its form, what we universally consider good breeding. We must, therefore, check whatever of- fends or annoys others, or whatever tends towards rough or ill-bred acts. But every manifestation having a useful scope-whatever it be-must not only be permitted but must be observed by the teacher."
FINANCIAL RESOURCES
In planning a school system as in buying a coat, the first consideration is the financial resources available. Often very erroneous opinions prevail regarding the relative stand- ing of one's own town in comparison with others. Recently one of the best informed men in town in the matter of finan-
297
ces asked me to namne a single town of the size of Reading that devoted a larger part of its tax levy to the support of schools. As a matter of fact there are thirty-seven such towns- more than half of the seventy towns of over 5,000 inhabitants in the state: in eight of the thirty-seven towns the percentage of the school tax was more than 40% greater than Reading: in four towns it was more than 50% greater. The tax rate per thousand of valuation for school support is perhaps a better basis for comparison. Thirty-five of the seventy towns have a higher tax rate for school support than Reading, which for the year in question was $5.62. The town of Abington, slightly smaller than Reading, had a tax rate for school support for the same year of $9.18, or more than 63% greater ; Saugus was about 30% greater; and even the adjoining towns of Stoneham and Wakefield were 10% greater than Reading.
Comparing the resources of the town as represented by the valuation per pupil, thirty-eight out of seventy towns have a less valuation per pupil than Reading.
To sum up, in whichever way we compare Reading with the other seventy towns of its size, we find it ranks a little below the middle position in expenditure : being 38th in per cent. of whole tax devoted to schools; 36th in tax rate per thousand of valuation ; and 39th in valuation per pupil counting from lowest to highest.
These figures are taken from the special report of the Massachusetts State Board of Education to the Legislature of 1913.
In closing, I wish to express my appreciation of the earnest spirit and hearty co-operation of all of the teachers and to thank the members of the School Committee for their support and kindly consideration.
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