USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Reading > Town of Reading Massachusetts annual report 1915 > Part 11
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twenty-one republics of Central and South America. Our trade with these countries has already increased greatly during the past year and is likely to continue to increase provided we are ready to meet our Southern neighbors in the right spirit and with some knowledge of their language and customs and their habits of thought and trade. The merchants of our country should be equal to the situation and take immediate possession of those markets.
The department of Domestic Science and Household Arts has made a good start and has become so popular that about fifty more pupils applied for the course than we could accommodate. Part of the Grouard house is very well adapted for some of the work in Domestic Science and Household Arts.
The present year is eventful in the fact that 129 pupils have been added to the enrollment, which is the largest in the past 16 years ; the next largest was 73 in 1904; the aver- age increase for the 15 years preceding 1915 was 27 pupils. The School Committee asks the town to raise and appro- priate for regular school expenses the sum of $51,000 and receipts, which is four thousand dollars more than the sum appropriated last year. The additional amount of $4,000 is accounted for in the following way. Five additional teachers were added last year to carry on the work : one in the High School, two in the elementary grades and two special teach- ers. The rest is accounted for by the fact that last year at the express desire of many citizens, and on petition of the teachers, a regular system of graded salaries was adopted for all the teachers in town with a minimum and a maxi- mum limit for the different grades. It was begun last year in September and additional amounts are needed to con- summate the plan. The tables prepared by the Superinten- dent showing the whole matter in detail were presented to the Finance Committee in January. A careful scrutiny of the salary list will reveal nothing to the examiner that could be called excessive or extravagant.
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The terms of the following members of the School Com- mittee expire at the ensuing town meeting, March, 1916: Jesse W. Morton and Mrs. Ida A. Young.
The Committee is pressed to provide for more school accommodations because of increasing numbers. After care- ful deliberation of the whole matter with the interests of the whole town in mind, it has been thought wise to finish the two rooms in the upper story of the Lowell Street school- house and make some repairs at the Chestnut Hill school- house so as to open the second room and to care for two or three more grades in these districts. Also it is proposed to raise up or otherwise alter the Prospect Street schoolhouse to care for two more classes at least as the school is in a crowded condition now. These changes will relieve the schools at the center which are now overcrowded.
It has been thought best to recommend the issuing of $15,000 in bonds as a general school loan to be paid at the rate of $1,000 a year and the appropriating of the proceeds for the purposes described above.
WALTER S. PARKER, Chairman ELIZABETH H. BROWN ARTHUR N. MANSFIELD JESSE W. MORTON HOWARD W. POOR IDA A. YOUNG
School Committee of Reading.
REPORT OF SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, 1915
TO THE HONORABLE, THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE OF READING, MASS. :
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN-I submit herewith a report for the year 1915. During this year there have been under- taken numerous modifications of the public schools of Reading.
SUMMARY
Some of the more important of these changes are as follows :
1. The adoption of salary schedules for teachers of the Elementary Schools (grades 1-6), the Intermediate School (grades 7-8), and the High School (grades 9-12).
2. The establishment of a State-Aided Vocational School of Agriculture as a department of the High School.
3. The reorganization of grades seven and eight to form an Intermediate School (similar to a Junior High School).
4. The institution of regular quarterly examinations in the Intermediate School, similar to the quarterly exam- inations instituted last year in the High School, and de- scribed on page thirteen of last year's report.
5. The establishment of a School of Household Arts in the Grouard house (for girls in grades seven, eight and nine).
6. The adoption of a new method and an increase of time for Manual Training for boys in the Intermediate School so that the work is now more fully pre-vocational in character and includes woodwork, gardening, painting and other handicraft and is planned to include printing as soon as an equipment can be secured.
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7. The lengthening of the school day in the Interme- diate and High Schools to six hours, coincident with the abolishment of compulsory home-study in the Intermediate School, and a large reduction of the amount of required home-study in the High School. (Voluntary home-study may be done, of course, in any grade).
8. Publication of a new Course of Study for the High School, giving directions for choice of studies and outlining courses for different purposes that have distinct require- ments.
9. Rearrangement of the History Courses in the High School, and the establishment of a full course in Community Civics with a survey of local conditions and needs.
10. The opening of courses in typewriting to pupils in all grades of the Intermediate and High Schools, and an in- crease in equipment to thirty typewriters. These have been in use ten recitation periods each school day since Septem- ber.
11. The entire separation of the courses in Commercial English from the courses in College English in the last two years of the High School.
12. The introduction of the "direct method" of teach- ing the modern languages, German, French and Spanish, by means of native teachers, the conversational method, and the use of the victrola records of the Cortina and Rosenthal methods.
13. The inauguration of a debating club called "The Reading High School Forum," for the purposes of intra- mural debate and also for participation in the triangular debating league composed of the high schools of Stoneham, Wakefield and Reading.
14. Development of musical appreciation in the High School by selections of standard music, as performed by the best artists and reproduced on the victrola daily at chapel exercises.
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15. Improvement in methods of teaching reading and numbers in Primary grades by extending the use of the Pro- gressive method of teaching reading and the measured- object method of primary number-work.
16. Skilled supervision of the Highland School play- ground and instruction in physical exercises, folk-dances and games for the pupils of the Highland School and for the girls in the High School by a trained playground director and teacher of physical culture, Miss Florence G. Nichols, honor-graduate of the Sargent School of Physical Culture at Cambridge, Mass.
17. Other improvements during 1915 included: the addition of five teachers to the staff-one in the High School, two in the Primary grades, one cooking, one physical cul- ture; resurfacing playground in the rear of the Highland schoolhouse and the building of a concrete retaining wall across the west end of the lot; the grading of the grounds in the rear of the Lowell Street schoolhouse; the removal of old concrete, regrading and planting of shrubbery at the Union Street school grounds; the equipment of a workshop for farm carpentry in the basement of the High School; the placing of fire alarm boxes in the High, Highland, Centre and Union Street schoolhouses by the Selectmen; and the installation of telephones in all the schoolhouses not pre- viously connected by telephone, as a safeguard in cases of fire or accident. This action was requested by parents and, in the cases of the Lowell Street and Prospect Street Schools, by the Selectmen.
TEACHERS' SALARIES
The salary schedule for the elementary schools provides for a minimum of $500, an increase of $50 a year for two years and then an increase of $25 a year for the following four years, when a maximum of $700 is reached; for the Intermediate School the same schedule obtains, except that the annual increase of $25 is continued until a maximum of $800 is reached; for the High School the minimum is $600
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and the regular annual increase $50 until a maximum of $900 is reached; for High School teachers in positions of large responsibilities or of special value to the school the maximum salary is $1000. In actual practice, it has been found difficult to conform to this schedule in the High School because of greater inducements offered to the teachers by other towns or cities. Five teachers resigned from the High School staff in 1915 to accept materially higher salaries and three more were offered considerable advances over the amounts that they were receiving here.
A high standard of teaching ability is indispensable in obtaining the proper advancement and discipline of the chil- dren. The difference in salary between a good teacher and a poor one is insignificant compared with the difference in the quality of the instruction given and the far-reaching consequences of their different treatment of their pupils. The salaries contemplated in the foregoing schedules are conservative and are less than those paid in most other occupations open to women and demanding commensurate ability and preparation. Reading parents demand for their children schools of a high order. It is getting to be more and more difficult every year to get and keep teachers who can meet these requirements.
AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION
Cultivation of the soil is a fundamental industry. There are many evidences that the whole nation is awakening to its importance not only as a means of livelihood for those who engage in it, but also as an indispensable source of food supply for the great masses of the population gathered in the cities. Increased prices for food products are in effect on the wage earner equivalent to decreased wages, and to some degree lead to the use of inferior or insufficient food and a consequent injury to health and loss of physical stamina. An important cause of high prices in food pro- ducts is the increased cost of production on account of poor management and ignorance of scientific methods of cultiva-
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tion. Another equally important factor is the actual short- age in food supply due to a lack of farmers to cultivate properly large areas of fertile land untilled at present. Appropriate education tends to correct these evils and is as essential and as productive of results in agriculture as in other vocations. Agriculture deserves recognition in the school curriculum equal to that accorded the other leading occupations.
The department of agricultural education in Reading has been particularly fortunate in its inception. It was established by a practically unanimous vote of the town meeting; the ability and personality of the instructor has won universal confidence and esteem; the enrollment of pupils has been at the maximum, and the quarters and equipment have been adequate and satisfactory. As was to be expected under these conditions, good results have been obtained. The instructor's report, which is appended, con- tains much interesting information and is commended to your careful consideration.
THE INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL
Intermediate School, Junior High School and Six-year High School (also called the "six and six plan") all have the same general aim, which is to provide different courses in which selected subjects may be taught more thoroughly "to meet the needs of individual pupils, as these needs vary according to aptitudes and purposes for the future." Each course aims to develop some one line of study suffi- ciently to be of special significance and value in the child's educational life. There are usually four courses : Literary, Commercial, Industrial for boys, Household Arts for girls. Progress in the direction of establishing schools of this character has been made in a number of states, notably California and Michigan, and more recently in Massachu- setts.
Pupils in grade seven and eight in the Highland School were organized in September 1915 as an Intermediate
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School. The seventh grade is called Junior Intermediate and the eighth grade Senior Intermediate. Under this arrangement, the studies required by law receive the same consideration in all courses, but in each grade additional time is devoted to special subjects according to the course. The special subjects include in the four courses German, Spanish, business practice, typewriting, rapid calcula- tions, bookkeeping, cooking, sewing, manual traning and physical exercises. The special studies are variously com- bined with the regular studies to make the four different courses, of which only one may be chosen for each child. The courses are :
LITERARY COURSE (COLLEGE OR NORMAL PREPARATORY ) THIRTY HOURS PER WEEK
English, penmanship, mathematics, geo- graphy, history and science .
15 hrs. per week
Physical training, music and general exer- cises or study
73 hrs. per week
German
·
32 hrs. per week
Drawing, cooking, making, repairing . 32 hrs. per week
COMMERCIAL COURSE ( PREPARATORY TO WORK IN OFFICES OR STORES) THIRTY HOURS PER WEEK
English, penmanship, mathematics, geo- graphy, history and science 15 hrs. per week
Physical training, music and general exer- cises or study 73 hrs. per week
Business practice, bookkeeping and rapid calculation 34 hrs. per week
Typewriting or Spanish
·
32 hrs. per week
INDUSTRIAL ARTS COURSE FOR BOYS THIRTY HOURS PER WEEK
English, penmanship, mathematics, geo- graphy, history and science 15 hrs. per week Physical training, music and general exer- cises or study . 72 hrs. per week
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Drawing, gardening, wood working, repair- ing and printing (to be provided ) . 72 hrs. per week
HOUSEHOLD ARTS COURSE FOR GIRLS
THIRTY HOURS PER WEEK
English, penmanship, mathematics, geo- graphy, history and science .
15 hrs. per week Physical training, music and general exer- cises or study 72 hrs. per week Sewing, cooking, housekeeping, drawing, making and design 72 hrs. per week
The successful completion of any one of these courses will earn an Intermediate School diploma, and admission to the High School. Upon entering the High School, each pupil may elect under proper restrictions any course there offered, regardless of the course he has pursued in the Inter- mediate School, but will naturally continue lines of study already undertaken unless good reasons for change appear.
THE SIX-HOUR DAY
A necessary feature of this change of curriculum is the increase of the school day to six hours, 8.30 to 11.30 A. M., 1 to 4 p. M. To offset this increase, compulsory home study has been abolished. For many years this home work has required an hour at least each day. Nothing in this arrangement prevents home study if pupils and parents desire it.
The six-hour day is divided into eight periods of three- quarters of an hour each, with two periods of three-quarters of an hour between the morning and afternoon session. At Gary, Indiana, after which our plan was patterned in many respects, the two periods of the noon intermission occur at different times for different groups of pupils, so that the school is in continuous session from 8 in the morning to 4.30 at night. There are two half-hour common play periods from 8 to 8.30 A. M. and 4 to 4.30 p. M., and ten periods of
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forty-five minutes, of which two are for the noon intermis- sion. We do not contemplate adopting this feature at present, but our organization would permit of it if it should seem desirable.
Of the eight forty-five minute periods daily four are devoted to English, penmanship, mathematics, geography, history and science in all the courses, and two are devoted to physical training, music, general exercises or study. The remaining two periods are specialized.
LITERARY COURSE
In the Literary Course one period is devoted to Ger- man, taught by a native teacher with the purpose of devel- oping facility in pronouncing the language, familiarity with the idioms of expression and some ability to converse, read and write in German. Not much study of the technical grammar is made. The object is to give, as nearly as possible, such a knowledge of the language as would be acquired from a governess or from residence in a German- speaking community. It is intended to follow this course in the Intermediate School by courses in the High School, providing a careful study of the technical grammar and general vocabulary of the language. In the later years of the course in German in the High School attention will be given to the vocabulary of scientific books in German.
There has been considerable discussion as to whether the remaining forty-five minutes daily in the Literary Course should be devoted to elementary algebra and geometry, or to manual training for the boys and household arts for the girls. Because of the universal interest in manual training and household arts and the advice of the State Commis- sioner of Education, we have for the present included these subjects in the Literary Course.
COMMERCIAL COURSE
In the Commercial Course, specialization consists of Spanish or typewriting, business practice including common business forms, rapid calculation and simple accounts. One
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period daily is devoted to Spanish or typewriting, according to choice, and one period to the other special subjects. The Spanish is taught by the same methods as the German described above.
INDUSTRIAL COURSE
In the Industrial Arts Course for boys we follow in general for two periods a day the methods of the Practical Arts School connected with the Fitchburg Normal School. Instruction in wood working and home gardening (and printing as soon as equipment is secured) are the principal special subjects, but all sorts of repairing and home projects according to the interests and needs of the pupils are intro- duced.
HOUSEHOLD ARTS COURSE
In the Household Arts Course for girls, two periods a day are devoted to sewing, cooking, drawing and making. We intend to emphasize especially the home project work and to require a definite number of hours of home work in practice of the different things taught at the school. We hope to utilize quite largely the ideas advanced for boys' and girls' Home Economics Clubs through the Massachu- setts Agricultural College. In connection with this work, considerable attention is given to home canning, as outlined in Bulletins 521 and 359 of the United States Department of Agriculture.
We secured for the Household Arts classes the use of a part of the Grouard House in which there was a kitchen equipped with coal range, hot water heater, soapstone tubs and sinks. Two gas ranges, an electric range and some other necessary equipment have been added. More equip- ment will be provided as the work develops in the second year of the course. Eventually we hope to equip a dining room, living room and chambers. A real house is the most suitable place in which to teach housekeeping and the house- hold arts. Most of the food cooked by pupils has been sold to cover the cost of materials, and has found a ready market.
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VACATION HOME WORK
The teacher of Manual Training and Gardening is to be in service during the summer vacation to supervise the home gardens and the home projects of the boys. It is probable that home projects for girls for the summer vacation will be arranged in connection with the Home Economic Clubs.
INDUSTRIAL COURSE
The boys in the Manual Training classes made some repairs on the Grouard house and some alterations in the unfinished part of the ell. A floor was laid, the walls and ceiling sheathed and a partition built. This provided a second unit kitchen in which a sink, a gas range and an electric range were installed.
Other general work of a practical character has been done, as well as considerable work in making furniture in the manual training shop at the Highland schoolhouse. The only serious difficulty in this department has been the large size of some of the classes. Work can be done successfully at the benches in the shop with a class of twenty-five or even more, but it is difficult to manage more than eight or ten and keep them busy on general repair work. The High- land School won the first prize for school gardens at the Quannapowitt Fair. The garden work last year was super- vised very successfully by Miss Fannie O. Whittemore. Work for 1916 will be undertaken in season.
LENGTH OF THE SCHOOL DAY
If the schools are to teach effectually practical knowl- edge of a vocational character or any considerable subject matter beyond the traditional " three R's" the six hour day is necessary. It is intended to adjust the pupil's program to his outside needs, such as music lessons and special health requirements. If it does not seem best for a particular pupil to take the full program of special subjects, or if it is desired to substitute piano lessons for a part of the work, satisfactory arrangements can usually be made to fit the
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conditions. It is intended to thoroughly revise the outlines of work and make necessary changes in text books and apparatus for teaching the English, Mathematics, History, Geography and Science in the Intermediate School.
It will necessarily take two or three years to accomplish this fully. In fact, the beneficial results of the reorganiza- tion cannot be expected to become fully apparent until con- siderable time has elapsed. Also in a new plan there are always many details to be worked out by experience before the best organization and methods are perfected. Some time, patience and forbearance are necessary in carrying to a successful conclusion any new enterprise involving exten- sive changes from the regular routine or practice.
COURSE OF STUDY FOR THE HIGH SCHOOL
Considerable confusion in courses and loss of time existed among the pupils in the High School on account of injudicious choices of studies ; also numerous changes in the subjects offered have recently been made. It seemed neces- sary, therefore, to publish a new course of study, as follows.
English is required by all pupils. Such other subjects as contribute to the pupil's major aim in his High School course may be chosen in order. Therefore, the first essential of a wise selection of subjects is some definite end to be attained by the course in the High School. Among the different purposes that have distinct requirements may be mentioned : preparation for college, school of technology, or normal school : acquisition of the knowledge and skill neces- sary for satisfactory office work in stenography, typewriting and bookkeeping; and the scientific study and practice of agriculture. Definite courses along these lines are outlined below and when once entered upon should be carefully fol- lowed unless circumstances lead to a change of aim in the course as a whole.
The College Course, with slight modifications to meet the particular requirements of individual institutions, pre- pares for any American college.
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The Scientific Course prepares for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other similar institutions. These courses are necessarily difficult. To accomplish either of them in four years requires exceptional ability, industry and health. Nearly all schools recommend and many of the best require that five years be devoted to this preparatory work. It is usually possible for an able student to obtain the A. B. or S. B. degree from Harvard in three years, if he has devoted five years to his preparatory course.
For these and other reasons that need not be enumerat- ed here, Reading pupils are strongly urged to devote five years to either of these courses.
For a pupil who expects to become a professional musi- cian, English, modern foreign languages and history should be prominent studies. For pupils intending to enter mechanical and industrial pursuits, the sciences and mathe- matics with drawing should predominate; German is desir- able and for advanced courses leading to engineering is indispensable.
If Industrial Education other than Agriculture or pre- paration for schools of technology is desired, the various state industrial schools are open to Reading pupils. The tuition is paid by the town. One-half of it is repaid to the town by the state. All day industrial schools are open to persons between the ages of fourteen and twenty-five; all evening industrial schools are open to any persons over seven- teen years of age who are engaged in work in the trade to be studied. Among the state industrial schools easily accessi- ble to Reading pupils are : The Somerville Industrial School for Boys, The Boston Industrial School for Boys, The Somer- ville Industrial School for Girls, The Boston Trade School. for Girls, The Wakefield Evening School of Household Arts.
Twenty recitations a week of prepared work is sufficient amount for a pupil of average ability, but with the consent of the Principal, music, drawing, penmanship, spelling, typewriting or cooking may be taken as an extra subject.
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