USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Reading > Town of Reading Massachusetts annual report 1923 > Part 11
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To provide such training is clearly a public responsibility. Educa- tion in general, including vocational education for the youth, is Democ- racy's most important business. Democracy in education means that in the field of education opportunity shall be extended equally to all-to give all a fair start. This is the educational ideal inspiring those who are administering the Federal Vocational Education Act; it is the ideal which inspired Congress in passing the Act; and it is traditionally the ideal of education in our demoracy.
Yours faithfully, (Signed) HERBERT HOOVER
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Due progress has been made in the Reading department as evidenced by the financial statement of the returns from actual production on home projects by the students in Agriculture. Each year we are learning how to get greater and more lasting returns from labor and money spent on these home projects. The importance of this sort of work which corre- lates earning and learning can hardly be overestimated. During the four years of the course the student in agriculture is in actual worldly contact with conditions as he will find them upon graduating. He will not step from a possibly theoretical class room agriculture to a seriously real and practical agriculture involving perhaps losses of time and money but he will simply spread out from a producing career limited chiefly by the time element into a broader and fuller service which will involve his entire working time. Below is given a summary of the financial statement as returned to the State Board of Education.
Number completing project 24
Costs of Materials involved
$4,486.88
Cost of pupil labor 3,053.50
Market value of products produced 7,638.08
Total earnings
10,691.60
Average production per pupil 445.48
Based on the cost of the course it will be noticed that the pupils earned over two dollars for every dollar spent for instruction. The average return throughout the United States for courses such as given here at the High Schools is one dollar for every dollar spent for instruc- tion. Efficiency in production based on good technique and good theory accounts for this high production.
Poultry formed the back-bone of our project work. Reading is an excellent poultry center and we make the production of eggs one of our strong courses.
The ex-service men continue to be with us and I am pleased to re- port that they are making satisfactory progress. Several of the men are making outstanding successes of their project work. They show keen in- terest and their attendance is very good.
We are attempting to make our farm visits more effective by requir- ing each student to keep a diary. In this daily record are included such items as (a) What did I do today? (b) What new thing did I do today? (c) What did I notice today? (d) What did I learn today? By requir- ing the students to keep this diary faithfully and including other items such as expenditures and receipts and also labor hours the instructors can keep very well posted on the progress and work of the student dur- ing the summer. These diaries are checked up every week or ten days when the instructor makes his farm visits.
A new system of checking financial returns on blanks furnished by the State Department is in use. This system enables the instructors to keep a weekly financial record on every project.
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We hope during this coming spring to introduce a new unit course in Dairy Bacteriology. Most of the necessary equipment is now on hand and the course will not require any material outlay. It is our plan to serve the Reading public in checking up bacteria in the Reading milk supply, as well as to give the boys instruction in this very important branch of dairying. This course will be carried on in co-operation with the School Nurse.
This year as in the past the people of Reading have been very kind in allowing us to use their farms, trees, and animals as demonstration work shops.
Thanking you for your hearty co-operation and support, I am
Yours very truly,
RUDOLF SUSSMANN, Agricultural Instructor
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REPORT OF PRINCIPAL OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL
To Mr. Adelbert L. Safford, Superintendent of Schools.
Dear Sir :- The first thing that comes to my mind as I submit this report is the splendid reception which I have received on all sides. Never before have I entered a community in which the spirit of friend- liness and co-operation was more whole-hearted and universal. Such an environment is very inspiring to a public servant.
"Education is the process by which the individual comes into con- tinually increasing possession of himself and his powers through con- tinually increasing participation in the race achievement." This state- ment suggests certain changing conceptions relative to the educative process which are especially pertinent to the Junior High School. We no longer think of the child and the curriculum as either being widely separated or opposed to each other. They are rather to be identified together but as representing different degrees of progress in the same process. The achievements of the human race have been and always will be a result of experience based upon past experience and leading into further experience. The child, which at birth is very immature represents certain possibilities of passing through the same experiences which the race has already passed through. It is the job of the school therefore, with the teacher as the directing agency to supply the neces sary medium and stimuli in which, and as a result of which, the child experiences and finds satisfying solutions to felt needs, just as the race did before him.
The progress of race achievement has been to a certain extent a process of trial and error, and the results have not always been in ac- cordance with social welfare. It is wise therefore that the school should profit by the experiences of the race and arrange its curriculum in accordance with approved aims physically, intellectually, morally, and socially. Furthermore, lack of time and the difference in inherited abil- ities of the individual would not permit each child to attain worth while progress in all lines of human achievement. It is primarily the chal- lenge of that need that largely justifies the Junior High School movement. I do not wish to be misunderstood relative to the above statement. I am aware that the Junior High School was originally organized for the sole purpose of more quickly and effectively preparing pupils for the Senior High School. I am also aware that the Junior High School is still in the experimental state, perhaps, as regards some of its more definite aims and purposes. But educators are agreed, I think, upon the basic principle-namely, that following the integrating period of the element-
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ary school, an attempt should be made to discover that line of work which each child is best adapted to pursue with greatest success and satis- faction to himself and to society.
Perhaps the more universally accepted conceptions of the Junior High School, as resulting from discussion and experimentation, are set forth as follows by Professor Briggs, of Columbia University: "First, that it should afford an earlier beginning of a more or less conventional secondary education; second, that it should furnish trade training for those who will soon enter work; and third, that it should explore the interests, aptitudes, and capabilities of pupils and start each upon studies leading to a suitable goal."
A study of the Reading Junior High program of studies, as printed in Miss Barrow's report of 1920, shows that our school has been organized in accordance with the above conceptions in so far as the size and the facilities of the school would permit. The academic course is formulated to meet the needs of those pupils whom intelligence and achievement tests, together with home conditions, point toward college; the commer- cial, manual training, and home-making courses explore the interests and abilities, and lay the foundation for continuation work along these lines. The courses are so organized that the pupil, upon entering the Senior High School, may change courses, if conditions warrant, with com- parative ease and without a great deal of lost time. At the same time, these courses give a much better preparation for citizenship than form- erly to those who will drop out of school in the near future. Through all these courses, we find a continuation from the elementary school of those subjects, such as the social sciences, drawing, art, and music, which have an integrating value because of the facts, ideals, and appreciations which are developed.
I wish to call your attention to the "Reading Home Making School" which is housed at the Grouard House. This school offers courses in Domestic Science, Sewing, and Mother-Craft. The home-making school is significant because of the fact that it not only teaches future home- makers how to cook, to sew, and how to care for a home, but it provides the opportunity for the girls to actually do these things under real home conditions which are as free as possible from the artificiality of the average laboratory. This school is, I believe, an excellent illustra- tion of an effort to organize our schools, more in accordance with actual life conditions, to the end that our boys and girls may measure up more nearly to the requirements of successful living.
I am pleased to report that the Highland School has nearly com- pleted the purchase of an Acme S. V. E. Moving Picture Machine. This machine is licensed for use with standard width non-inflammable films, and is considered the best available for school purposes. Educators are just beginning to realize the possible value of motion pictures in school work, largely through the efforts of the "Society for Visual Education." A great many films are already available and more are being prepared on
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geography, history, literature, and health. I believe that these kinds of pictures will not only supplement the text-books in teaching the above subjects, but will be of immeasurable worth in establishing worthy ideals, attitudes, and appreciations. These are the factors, by the way, which function most strongly beyond the school in determining adult behavior.
Some changes have been made this year in the management of the school lunch. The food is prepared as formerly at the "Home Making School", as a part of the work in domestic science. Lack of space makes it necessary to serve the lunch in the corridor at the Highland School. This is not wholly desirable but seems to be the best arrangement that can be made at present. The installation of an electric dish-washing machine last Fall, which was purchased from the lunch account funds, and the building of closets makes it possible now to wash and store all dishes at the Highland School. This results in a big saving in time and effort, as formerly all dishes were washed and housed at the Grouard House. In the past, the money received from food furnished to the lunch from the Grouard House has been turned into the Town Treasury. The town in return supplied all materials used in connection with the lunch except soups, cocoa and milk. This year, however, the raw mate- rials for food to be used in the lunch has been furnished by the lunch and the money has been credited to the lunch account for the purchase of more materials to be used in the preparation of the lunch. I am glad to report that the quality of the lunch is proving satisfactory and that it is entirely self-supporting. This department is personally supervised by the Assistant Principal, Miss Page, who is entitled to a great deal of credit for her work.
In accordance with an established custom, the senior class each year presents the School with a gift as a parting testimonial of gratitude and good will. The Class of 1923 presented the School with a portrait paint- ing of their Principal, Miss Barrows. The portrait, which was painted by Mr. Lyman E. Fancy, of the Faculty of the Junior High School, very ap- propriately hangs in the Principal's office as a glowing tribute both to the Class of 1923 and to the memory of Miss Barrows.
Permit me to mention some of the more pressing needs of the Junior High School. In last year's report, attention was called to an increase in enrollment which has been quite marked during the past three years. This increase results from a growth of population which is significant because of its stability and freedom from any fluctuating elements char- acteristic of a more highly industrial community. I believe that any plans that are made for the future of the schools should be made on the courage and conviction that Reading is destined to grow steadily. The character of her citizens confirms that belief.
This growth of forty-six pupils in the enrollment at the Junior High School between 1920 and 1923 has resulted in a congested condition which is very acute. We have six regular class rooms originally intended for the Junior High School Department. The problem of even seating the three hun-
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dred enrolled pupils this year has been solved by filling those six rooms beyond their normal seating capacity and, as last year, by using the only other available room in the building which is located on the second floor. This room, by the way, should be used as an opportunity room for the benefit of pupils who need special coaching in some of their work. Classes are being conducted in the assembly hall, corridors, and in the fifth and sixth grade rooms during the noon recess. The physical training classes are compelled to meet in the boys' basement for lack of a more suitable place. The School Nurse is forced to carry on her work in the teacher's rest room.
Lack of space necessitates large classes, some of which run as high as forty-five pupils. Under such conditions it is impossible for a teacher to adapt her work successfully to the individual needs of the pupils and to give each pupil a fair deal. More failures may be attributed to this cause than to any other factor. We are very much in need of an addi- tional teacher to spend her entire time working with those pupils who need special coaching.
In closing, I wish to express my appreciation of the splendid co- operation which I have received from the teaching corps They are earn- est, conscientious workers. My relationship with each teacher has been very pleasant.
Respectfully submitted,
RAYMOND W. BLAISDELL.
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REPORT ON STANDARDS AND GUIDANCE
Mr. Adelbert L. Safford,
Supt. of Schools, Reading, Mass.
Dear Sir :- I herewith submit, for your consideration and approval, the fourth annual report of my work in "Standards and Guidance." With your wise supervision of the work I have kept to the main objec- tives of my work as outlined in the Town Report of 1920.
The first step was to become personally acquainted with the pupils themselves. This has been a real pleasure. Not only do I know all the boys and girls in school today from the first grade through the Junior High School and those who have gone to High School during those four (4) years but it has also been delightful to have conferences with parents and by so doing to make a closer bond between the home, the parent, the child, the teacher and myself, and to bring about the better under- standing of our common problem.
Our common problem as I quoted last year is "to make the individual pupil equal to the task he is trying to escape or so modify the task that he can perform it, or give him another which he can do with satisfaction." This is "our job"' on the first day of each new year and we begin in the first grades on that very first day of the school life of the child.
In the first year, in the first grade of Primary we have grouped the children according to their mental age. This has essentially reduced non-promotion from 33% to a minimum of twenty-four (24) pupils for all the first grades of Reading or to 13%. Non-promotions above the first grade have decreased because we illuminate the word SUCCESS and are always trying to blot out that other word FAILURE.
Miss Taylor with her class, the Pre-Primary, adjusts the work indi- vidually, as far as possible, with forty-two (42) pupils, so a wonderful preparation is actually made for the real work of the first grade the second year. Each year many of her class go on and cope successfully with the work of the second grade. Aside from the fact of the economic gain of twenty-one per cent (21%) in non-promotion by grouping the children carefully the very first month of the very first school year there is no sense of failure or unhappiness in the mind of the parent and child for the child is happy in what he is doing and succeeds in performing that task.
Each year you have added equipment for the development of the boys and girls. The children learn to take care of this constructive material, therefore we are fortunate in Reading. We can teach because
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we have books, supplies and materials with which to teach. Our books for the study of Reading have been supplemented from time to time. Silent reading is being taught more and more each year in each grade.
Here is a record of actual accomplishment in one of our First grades, showing the work of three successive years 1920-21-22 and of three years previous, 1919-1918-1917. This record happened to have been kept by the teacher herself and it reveals the possibilities of SUCCESS when you get the right start. The right start in this case is careful "homogenous" grouping according to mental age.
First Grade Reading
Year
A Div.
B Div.
C Div.
1917
8
5
3 Books read
1918
6
4
No C Div.
1919
10
8
5 Books read
Dearborn Group Tests Used in 1920
1920
10
9
6
1921
13
11
10
1922
12
10
10
1923 Sept.
3
3
0 to Jan. 1924
Beyond the first grade our per cent of non-promotion is very low. Here and there in the grades we have pupils who profit exceeding much by the repeating of his grade. The parent realizes this need as much as the teacher or I. The child when he finds himself doing the grade work over, feels a keen satisfaction in finding that he can do the work well with the upper half of the class.
In the four years of my work the pupils who have won a double pro- motion have exceeded the number of those who "stay back".
This does not mean that all pupils promoted are either A or B class. There are, in each class, some C's who because of age and improvement in work should be given the opportunity of advancement. These same pupils usually respond to the stimulus of advancement and many times show greater improvement the succeeding year than those of the upper groups.
Miss Alda Parker in the opportunity class now, in four years has had seventy (70) children in her room. To many of these seventy children school would never have meant much because' each child's need was very special. Miss Parker always helps the child find himself and "fits the work to the child" rather than "the child to the work". Last June, 13 of the 16 pupils in her room were promoted to a regular grade. They are at the writing of this report doing well in the grade where they are now placed.
The age-grade table for this year shows we have still boys and girls above the fourth grade who ought to be given more attention by being in another Opportunity Room. They are over age for the grade where
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they are, handicapped by a poor start, by sickness, by moving about from one place to another, and by lack of school advantages. We teachers try to adjust and help them but each pupil needs much special individual attention. Only a special class room would solve each individual problem. Such a class might be formed with profit in connection with the Highland School.
The above report not only reveals the satisfaction which must come to the boys and girls of our school as they successfully progress each year from grade to grade. It also reveals the economic side the lack of wastage in time and energy to the child and expense to the town.
This table indicates the growth of the school population below High School since 1920. It also indicates our present congested condition from first grade to High School at the center of the town and a steadily in- creasing registration at the Chestnut Hill School even after the elimina- tion of one grade,-the 6th now sent to the Highland School.
High- Chest.
Yr.
Union Center
land
Hill
Prospect
Lowell Jr High
Totals Grades 1-6
1920
172
236
189
43
172
150
260
962
1921
160
235
178
56
171
156
290
956
1922
166
236
184
62
177
123
302
948
1923
181
251
188
63
148
127
309
958
Conditions as regards number are quite ideal today in both the Lowell Street and Prospect Street Schools. The reason for the congestion in the center of the town is the incoming of many children new to Reading. Compare if you will this excerpt from my report of last year :-
"From Sept. 11 to Dec. 31 we have the following record, Grades 1-6: Enrolled 494 boys; 432 girls; total, 926. Absent Sept. 11, 17; entered later. Entered Reading School from out of town, 100. Left Reading Schools, 46. Transfers within the town (dis- trict to district), 36."'
With this report for 1923:
"From Sept. 11 to Dec. 31, 1923, we have the following record, Grades 1-6: Enrolled, 497 boys; 461 girls; total, 958. Absent Sept. 10, 13; entered later. Entered Reading schools from out of town, 112. These were mainly in the center, 91. Left Reading schools by leaving town, 41. Transfers within the town (district to district), 19."
Beginning September, 1924, a provision will be necessary to relieve this over-crowded condition. All along the line from first grade through sixth grades and in Junior High there is congestion. Fifty pupils have been registerer in each sixth grade of the Highland School. Hardly less than that figure are in each room of the Union Street, Center, and Fifth grades, Highland School.
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We have all tried to see that each one of the 112 newcomers is help- fully and carefully adjusted to his work. We find that our grades are up to any standards in other towns from which pupils come to us.
When we learn of the grade or placing of one of our Reading boys or girls who has left town, we find that he not only has kept the grade which he had in our schools but has often moved on a grade.
This statement brings me to the third step in my work,-the use of scientific tests and scales for judging the work of the school. As I have explained earlier, testing begins in the first year. The big reason for testing is to gain a better understanding of the child's capabilities
From first grade to Junior High School, Arithmetic Progress tests were given, in co-operation with the Harvard Graduate School of Edu- cation. The results of these tests revealed regular progress each year, grade by grade throughout our whole system.
Our Spelling tests give stimulating effect in that subject and offer regular progress and ever-increasing interest.
On January 23, 1924, all the classes below. High School are to enter at the same hour into a State Wide Spelling Contest in co-operation with the School of Education, Boston University. A report of results will be given later.
Again, in Arithmetic the Courtiss Standard Tests give each class each year a progressive review of the four fundamental processes. Two months daily use of these tests shows an increase of 50% gain for some of the classes in Speed and Accuracy. We use these tests in Grades 4, 5 and 6.
More and more each year we are developing the problem side of Arithmetic adapting the problem to the every-day need of the individual. Thought reading or Silent Reading claims more and more of our time each succeeding year. So the THREE R's are foremost in the school cur- riculum of today.
During each year of my work I have tried to work out some problem of especial value to our boys and girls. Last summer a very careful study was made of the present Freshman class of the High School. Each student entering from Junior High was qualified for entrance by age, record of school work, record in scientific achievement tests for English, Science, History, Arithmetic made for high school entrance, by knowledge of special abilities and disabilities and by intelligence test, or test of mental ability.
The class made an excellent record, which confirms excellent native ability and good progressive, developmental teaching. The report re- flected great credit upon their teachers in the Junior High School and the Eelementary grades.
In the four years of my work in the schools you have made especial effort to unify and complete the equipment for each grade and room of each building. The teachers are most helpful by suggesting what they
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would like best for their teaching. While we have uniformity, there is much individuality on the part of every teacher.
In our games, in the health work of Miss Brown, in music and in art, in our co-operation with the public library, and in our working together we see the "Men and Women of Tomorrow" in the boys and girls of today.
My work has been a pleasure under your supervision with the co- operation of the splendid corps of teachers the attitude of both parents and children for the fullness of true education in right living.
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