USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Reading > Town of Reading Massachusetts annual report 1921 > Part 13
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would again quote from the address of Governor Cox in regard to the importance of Agriculture to the people of Massachusetts. He says, "A new hope and a new courage on the part of our farmers has been noted this past year. The educational work of the Agricultural College and the helpful activities of the State Department of Agriculture have had a noticeable effect upon the progress of our farming industry. Those engaged in the commercial and manufacturing business of the Common- wealth are increasing their interest in the farmers with greater realiza- tion of the mutual advantage to be gained. The business of farming is bound to increase in this Commonwealth. There are many acres of rich untilled lands yet to be brought under the plow. There are many other acres which are wet and need to be drained or otherwise improved to be made fully useful. The development of dairying and of such special- ties as the raising of apples, cranberries, market-garden crops, onions, small fruits, tobacco, and poultry seem to offer possibilities of much greater expansion. I recommend the encouragement of fairs, particularly the exhibit of the boys and girls. There are over twenty thousand such boys and girls pursuing organized agricultural work, in the Commonwealth at the present time. The tide is turning on the part of those who are agriculturally minded from the West back to the East. Many farms in the Commonwealth have been sold to such per- sons during the past year. This is a movement which the State Depart- ment of Agriculture is encouraging and in which it should be supported. Civilization in all countries and at all times has thrived best where a proper equilibrum has been maintained between city and country." Home gardens and club work were carried on in connection with Read- ing schools under the direction of Mrs. Lucas, Science teacher in the Junior High School. A very creditable exhibition was made at the Highland School hall and at the Waltham Fair where several prizes were won for the Reading School exhibits.
The largest part of the expenditures for agricultural instruction in Reading is returned to the treasury in receipts for tuition, re-imburse- ment by the State, and Federal Aid granted under the Smith-Hughes Act.
The terms of Mrs. Ruth A. Lumsden and Jesse W. Morton expire in February 1922. These two positions as member of the School Com- mittee are to be filled by election at the annual town meeting in March.
WALTER S. PARKER, Chairman ELIZABETH H. BROWN RUTH A. LUMSDEN HENRY Q. MILLETT JESSE W. MORTON, LEONE F. QUIMBY
December 31, 1921.
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REPORT OF SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, 1921
To the Honorable, the School Committee
of Reading, Massachusetts:
The report for the year nineteen hundred twenty-one is submitted herewith. It is the ninth annual report that I have the honor of ren- dering in Reading, the twenty-eighth in the whole series of annual re- ports of the Superintendent of the Reading Public Schools.
War's Aftermath A Vast Disturbance of Morale
Nineteen hundred twenty-one has been a critical year. The schools of Reading, though seriously menaced in some particulars, have passed through the year successfully and unscathed in the main.
One has only to pick up any current newspaper to read of moral disturbances of serious import in social, political, and industrial life throughout this country-in fact throughout the whole world. Accounts of suicides. hold-ups, thefts of automobiles, murderous assaults and other violent crimes and misdemeanors appear daily in the newspapers; citi- zens, who in other spects are honored and respected as law-abiding, flagrantly violate the prohibition laws or "wink at" their violation by others; high officials of our courts and other public institutions in con- spicuous instances have prostituted their powers for private gain; our social life has become infected with a strange malady in which "jazz" flaunts itself as something to be desired and patronized. It is impossible that such conditions can exist wthout re-acting upon every individual- particularly the young and unsophisticated. School children are by no means immune from such influences. That Reading has suffered less than many other communities from these conditions has been due in large measure to the efforts of parents and some of our more enlightened citizens who have given substantial support to the schools in upholding moral values and stabilizing the social sanctions threatened by the popular unrest and have defended the schools and their personnel from unwarranted and sometimes vicious attacks. Honorable James M. Beck, Solicitor General of the United States, addressed the 1921 Annual Meet- ing of the American Bar Association on "The Spirit of Lawlessness." The following quotations are taken from a newspaper account of that address: "Accompanying the indisposition to work has been a mad de- sire for pleasure such as has not been seen within the memory of living man. Man has danced upon the verge of a social abyss and even the dancing has, both in form and in accompanying music, lost its former
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grace and reverted to the primitive forms of uncivilized conditions.". . . "In commerce the revolt is one against purity of standards and integ- rity of business morals. Who can question that this is pre-eminently the age of sham and counterfeit?" .. ."The morale of our industrial civi- lization has been shattered. Work for work's sake as the most glorious privilege of human faculties has gone. The aversion to work is the greatest evil of today. The less a man does, the less he wants to do. The whole history of the mechanical era is a persistent struggle for more pay and shorter hours and today it has culminated in world-wide ruin. In my judgment the economic catastrophe of 1921 is far greater that the politico-military catastrophe of 1914." Perhaps some may feel that Mr. Beck's strong words are exaggerations, tainted with the emo- tional exaltation of which he complains, but we must all admit that we are in a period of social flux in which we shall do well to defend the Palladium of our liberties and hold fast to the moral ideals that have lifted our civilization slowly but surely out of the slough of the Pagan world.
To thousands upon whom the struggle of life presses hard in these perilous times has come loss of courage, depression and feelings of in- ability to cope with the issues of life. This has led to an unprecedented number of suicides. An editorial in the Boston Transcript is authority for the statement that, in the first six months of 1921 in the United States, 4,527 men took their lives as compared with 2,771 during the cor- responding period of 1920, an increase of 1,756 or 63 percent in one year. The increase in the number of women who took their own lives was even greater, amounting to 1,983. "The dreadful harvest of self- slaughter was reaped in still larger measure in European countries." That this wave of discouragement affected school children is shown by the further data indicating that in the first half of 1921, 507 children ended their own lives against 225 for the same period in 1920, an in- crease of about 125 per cent. The editorial from which the above data was obtained recommends that efforts be made "to give parents (and it might well have included teachers) a better understanding of youthful problems and perhaps a more sympathetic attitude towards some of the tragedies of childhood." However, consideration for the suicides-"the sons and daughters" whom modern civilization thus causes "to pass through fire to the Moloch"-is a small part of the problem of the thousands who fail to adjust themselves to life in a way to bring hap- piness and success. Lack of physical and mental health, childish atti- tudes of dependence and self-indulgence, conflicting motives and fail- ure to discern and re-act with both zeal and intelligence to the realities of living are handicaps often too great for our young folks to deal with successfully. Some technique must be devised for discovering and re- moving these blights upon their personalities. It will be an intricate process but it must be done if our sons and daughters are to be made capable of dealing, successfully with the increasing complexities of mod-
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ern civilization. Parents and citizens should bestir themselves and lend encouragement to all such efforts in this crisis which threatens to strike at the very roots of our civilization.
Co-operation of Citizen-Organizations
The Parent-Teachers Associations, the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts and the health organization committees of the Reading Women's Club, the Anti-tuberculosis Society, the Neighborhood Betterment Association, and other organizations have made, each in its own particular way, important contributions to the child welfare of the community during the past year and each has met with more or less active or passive re- sistance from some individuals who from selfishness or prejudice or lack of understanding opposed their efforts. Both of the Parent-Teachers Associations, by studying conditions in their respective schools, by pub- lic lectures and discussions, and by co-operating in remedial measures, have rendered substantial service. As an outgrowth of the public meet- ings of the Prospect-Street-School Parent-Teachers Association, a private class of women, comprised of mothers and teachers, has for more than a year been engaged in an intensive study of "the Mental Hygiene of Childhood" and "The Mechanisms of Character Formation."
The work in Scouting bears a close relationship to work in the schools, especially in matters of health and character formation, and should receive the support of parents and the hearty co-operation of teachers and school officials. While Scouting for boys is generally ap- preciated, the value of Scouting for girls is sometimes called in ques- tion. As a matter of fact, Scouting is probably much more necessary for the girls than for the boys because the boys have more athletic games and greater freedom of opportunity for self-fulfillment and means of achieving, self-reliance and self-direction.
The Health Committee of the Reading Woman's Club with the co- operation of the local branch of the American Red Cross and of the Massachusetts Anti-Tuberculosis Society and other local organizations provided a school nurse until September 1921. At that time the em- ployment of the School Nurse was taken over by the School Committee and the Health Committee undertook the establishment of a Dental Clinic for school children at the Grouard House. This has been in suc- cessful operation since October 1921 with very satisfactory results. The Neighborhood Betterment Association continued the enterprise in- augurated in previous years by maintaining the skating pond on the west side of the town.
Owing to these preventive measures or to other causes the schools have been comparatively free from sickness and a higher percentage of attendance has been maintained. Efforts have been made systematical- ly, especially in the High School, to establish in the pupils a right men- tal attitude which is essential to efficiency and a sound morale. Special attention has been given to measures for the removal of childish atti-
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tudes of dependence and lack of self confidence and of childish self- indulgence and defective self control and social adjustment. These evils in one form or another are the cause of nearly all the failures in school. In nine cases out of ten lack of success is caused by the pu- pil's failure to adjust his selfish instincts to the requirements of his social environment and this failure to make proper adjustment is due to infantile and childish attitudes which should have been outgrown and laid aside but unfortunately are allowed by unwise and too indulgent parents to become fixed too persistently in the child's personality.
School Support
In times of financial straits every household has recourse to the old joke of "robbing the baby's bank" to tide over the emergency. In these times of diminished purchasing power of the dollar without a cor- responding marking up of valuations, tax rates have mounted necessarily to high figures and pressure has been exerted to reduce expenditures. Unfortunately, in some quarters there has arisen a persistent and in- sidious propaganda in favor of "robbing the baby's bank", that is, radi- cal retrenchment in school support. Something like this actually took place after the Civil War and the schools did not recover from it for more than a quarter of a century. Citizens not sufficiently interested in the welfare of the schools to ascertain the facts have insinuated in vague ways that the Reading schools were too expensive and the chief cause of the high tax rate. As a matter of fact, according to the statistical tables of the last report of the Massachusetts Department of Education, in the group of 75 towns of over 5,000 inhabitants the general tax rate of Reading was third from the highest which the tax for school support was 42nd from the highest. Although Reading has an unusually large percentage of its pupils in the High School and would therefore be ex- pected to have a relatively high cost per pupil, yet Reading's cost per pupil was less than the average for the group of towns of over 5,000 population. Taking the High School alone the average cost per pupil for the group was $101.02, while in Reading it was only $88.23. These facts are conclusive evidences of economy and conservatism in the finan- cial management of the Reading schools in comparison with other towns of her class. However, the problem of adequate school support and available sources of revenue is not peculiar to Reading. The president of the National Education Association said recently: "The right devel- opment of education in America will require far reaching changes in the methods and ideals of revenue raising." The Department of Superin- tendence of the National Education Association at its meeting in At- lantic City, February 1921, designated this problem as the most vital one now confronting school administrators. The American Council on Education has appointed a commission of recognized specialists in edu- cation, taxation, and business to conduct a comprehensive investigation of educational finance in the United States, on a scale never before at-
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tempted. One hundred and seventy thousand dollars has been appro- priated for defraying the expenses of this study by the Commonwealth Fund of New York, the Carnegie Corporation, the General Education Board, and the Milbank Memorial Fund. It has been truly said that "The Education of its Children is the Biggest Business enterprise of any community." Certainly no enterprise can be more important.
In order to place the full responsibility where it belongs on those elected by the voters for that particular purpose, "two important meas- ures affecting school committees throughout the State have been filed by Dr. Payson Smith, commissioner of education. The first bill gives school committees exclusive power to determine the amount of money to be appropriated and expended for school purposes. It contains a referendum clause, making it effective in any city or town upon its ac- ceptance by the voters. The second bill gives school committees in each city and town exclusive control over school buildings, including repairs and the appointing of janitors."
School finance and school administration must be organized as a business enterprise, divided responsibility eliminated, and efficiency methods of organization, cost accounting, and evaluating the product maintained. Education has become a highly intricate process, a kind of engineering, requiring a well-organized personnel each of whom is some- what of a specialist in a particular line. The ungraded school in the little red school house was in keeping with the simple life in the midst of which it functioned but would be as inadequate to cope with the educational requirements of the complicated life of modern urban com- munities as the old-fashioned horse and buggy would be to supply their transportation facilities.
Teachers' Salaries
At the beginning of the past year the minds of the Reading teachers were unsettled about the matter of salaries. Different groups of teach- ers presented petitions to the School Committe asking for further an- nual increases extending over a period of five years or more until a maxi- mum was reached about fifty per cent higher than existed at that time. These requests so far as they related to increases beyond the current year were disregarded but the maximum for 1921 was advanced about $200 for High School teachers and about $250 for others. There were some variations to make equitable adjustments. The schedule recom- mended in the report last year was followed so far as possible. A mna- jority of the teachers seemed to accept this adjustment as fairly satisfac- tory for that occasion. Business depression and wide spread unem- ployment in industry since that time has led to a popular misconception regarding the present status of the supply and demand for teachers and the wage necessary to secure such teachers as the patrons of the Read- ing schools expect. Good teachers are still scarce at any price. Even
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ordinary ones who are merely tolerably satisfactory are far from plenti- ful and demand salaries very close to the maximum received by our best teachers with years of experience. The principal of a neighboring High School has been searching for at least two months for a head to his commercial department without engaging anyone yet. Inquiries at sev- eral of the Boston Teachers' Agencies reveal the fact of a shortage of candidates enrolled. The business depression and unemployment has affected very little the supply of teachers and their wages thus far. The notion that teachers have reached the peak of their advance has little justification in present conditions either of supply and demand or of the teachers' minds. To the plea that the tax payers cannot afford to pay teachers any higher salaries, President D. B. Waldo of the Michi- gan State Normal School at Kalamazoo, in an article in the Journal of the National Education Association on "Teachers Salaries" makes the following reply: "There is undubitable evidence of the ability of the United States to pay adequate salaries to the teachers of our public schools. This evidence may be enumerated under four heads. 1. Cen- sus reports each decade indicate a tremendous production of new wealth. Our total measurable wealth is estimated at the sum of $300,000,000,000. We produce $60,000,000,000 in new wealth annually. Farm values in -. cluding lands and buildings increased from the sum of $30,801,000,000 in 110 to $67,795,000,000 in 1920. 2. State and Federal reports of the banks' savings deposits are a definite index to vast accumulations and indicate tremendous wealth. Banks' savings deposits in Michigan stood at $134,924,000 in 1907. In 1920 savings deposits for this same common- wealth stood at $525,671,000-an increase of 296 per cent. For every single year from 1907 to 1920 banks' savings deposits in Michigan show an increase over the preceding year. 3. Another sure index of rapidly increasing wealth is shown in the net incomes of corporations. In 1910 this total net income for Michigan was $95,666,000. In 1918 this total net income of all corporations in Michigan amounted to $338,729,000. 4. That our ability adequately to support a system of public schools is limited only by our desire for public school service is clearly indicated in our expenditures for luxuries. Edith Strauss, head of the Woman's Activity Division of the Department of Justice, during the high-cost of living campaign, compiled statistics which indicate that the average family has been spending $345 a year for luxuries. Included in the total amount is $2,110,000,000 spent for tobacco, $800,000,000 for cigar- ettes, $500,000,000 for loose tobacco and snuff, and $510,000,000 for cigars. The total expenditure for automobiles is put down at $2,000,000,000. The total amount spent for candy is $1,000,000,000, for soft drinks $350,000,- 000, for chewing gum $50,000,000, for perfumes and cosmetics $750,000,- and for furs $300,000,000. It seems to be clear as daylight that we have not reached the limit of wise expenditure for public-school education when our schools, public and private, cost less than one-half of our annual tobacco bill."
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High School
The advance enrolment of pupils in the High School in September exceeded all previous records; there were about four hundred twenty. This is about forty more than last year's record and necessitated the addition of about an equal number of new desks for pupils. The High School in 1921 is about one-third larger than it was in 1918. Attempts to off-set in some degree this large increase in the number of pupils without making a corresponding increase in the number of teachers on the staff has been made by curtailing some of the subjects. All classes in English formerly recited daily but were reduced last year to four times a week. Penmanship was omitted as a separate subject and introduced as part of Business Practice and Bookkeeping. This year it has been necessary to reduce all History classes from five to four periods a week, to omit Office Training as a separate subject and com- bine certain elements of it with Commercial English and Senior Type- writing, and to omit Spelling, as a separate subject, and combine it with English. Altogether these would amount to about forty-two periods of teaching a week; equivalent to the assignment for one and a half teachers. It should be said however that the saving by this method is largely temporary since, if the number of periods in a subject is re- duced, pupils the following year usually offset it by choosing an addi- tional subject. Laws passed by the legislature in the past two years have made compulsory the teaching of U. S. History, Civics and Physical Training and Hygiene to all pupils in Elementary Junior High and High Schools.
The rapid growth of the High School as well as the requirements of the other schools led the School Committee to consider the advisability of employing a man to devote his whole attention to the High School Principalship, thus relieving the Superintendent of Schools from double responsibilitet allowing opportunity for more attention to the details of supervision. With this thought . in mind, Mr. Edward V. Atwood, A. M., formerly Principal of the High School in Whitefield, New Hamp- shire, was engaged as Assistant Principal with the expectation that as soon as he had gained sufficient familiarity with the administration of the School he would become the principal. Mr. Atwood has demonstrat- ed unusual ability as an administrator, as well as teacher, and is fully capable of assuming the principalship whenever it is deemed expedient.
The cafeteria lunch established in the High School about a year ago, under the direction of Miss Berthold of the High School faculty, has proved popular and satisfactory from every point of view. It is self- supporting. Manual Training in the High School has proven itself to be very advantageous for certain types of boys. A variety of work is carried on, varying in difficulty from elaborate wood carving to simple chicken coops and small articles for home use. Many repairs to the school building have been done and eighteen fine birch tables were made for the lunch room, also stage properties for operettas and plays.
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The High School Student Council which was established about two years ago has been further developed under Mr. Atwood's guidance and is a helpful factor in the management of the school, as well as af- fording opportunity to its members to gain valuable experience that should develop qualities of leadership.
School of Homemaking
The different activities carried on at the Grouard House consti- tute what might be called appropriately a School of Homemaking. Girls from the Elementary Schools, from the Junior High School, and from the Senior High School, study at the Grouard House, sewing, cooking, can- ning, care of the home, home nursing and care of the baby. The den- tal clinc is also located here. The Reading Teachers' Club has held sev- eral meetings with refreshments at the Grouard House. Food for the Highland School teachers' and pupils' lunch is prepared here also by pupils under the direction of the teacher of Domestic Science. Taken al- together it is one of the busiest places in the school system. Over two hundred different pupils come to the Grouard House daily for instruc- tion besides those that come to the Health room and Dental Clinic.
Junior High School
The number of pupils in the Junior High School increased this year to nearly three hundred. The two fifth and two sixth grades located in the same building bring the total number of pupils in the ten rooms well up towards the five hundred mark. These elementary grades should be removed to a building near Reading Square as soon as possible and the whole of the Highland building devoted to the use of the Junior High School. The salient features & be requirements for a new build- ing near Reading Square were outlined in my report for nineteen hun- dred eighteen and again referred to in last year's report. The necessity is becoming each year more urgent. The Junior High School continues to attract the attention and favorable comment of educators from other towns and cities. Except for its over-sized classes it compares very fav- orably with other Junior High Schools in the State both in organiza- tion of curriculums and in the efficiency of instruction.
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