USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Reading > Town of Reading Massachusetts annual report 1923 > Part 9
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"We could be indifferent to everything if only we could be sure that while national currencies collapse, while moral currencies collapse, while intellectual currencies collapse, the education of the young was not collapsing."
Another current article on Education opens with the following quo- tation from President Coolidge: "The thing which the world needs most is a proper spiritual conception of human relationships." The article goes on to say "the gloomy forebodings of such far-seeing thinkers as- Hilaire Belloc has had at least this good effect-they have called atten- tion to the fact that we are living in a fool's paradise if we imagine that democracy can run itself. There are two principal forces which make. for the ultimate success of democratic endeavor. One is legislation, and the other education. If education fails to measure up to the require- ments of the democratic state, if its administration is bad, its upkeep too expensive, its curriculum not fashioned to meet the growing demands made upon it, we have reached a situation fraught with the direst possible consequences." "The plain man rightly conceives of education as the surest means that has been developed to make certain the preservation of himself and his children."
James Harvey Robinson, author of "Mind in the Making," has re- cently written this: "If human intelligence is to be raised to a point where it can cope successfully with the burning problems now facing mankind, it can only be done by revolutionizing the minds of the young." Similar quotations from recent books and magazines affirming the su- preme importance of sound education at this crisis could be continued almost indefinitely, They all agree in stressing intelligent moral re- sponsibility in conduct as the dominant aim of education. One writer says in closing his argument "if we educate at all other points but fail to educate at the point of responsibility, we shall inevitably come to no good end." Yale University has recently issued a pamphlet on the Purpose and Value of a College Education by Arthur Twining Hadley. He says, "What a well-trained man has been really acquiring in school, in college, and in after life is not a body of facts but a set of habits ; not a system of more or less specialized knowledge but a group of mental
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powers that go with his habits. Education for citizenship, if rightly con- ceived, is a training directed towards the development of these powers. It is not a process in which the teacher is chiefly concerned with im- parting knowledge to the student. It is a process in which the student by his own efforts under the teacher's guidance or outside of it develops power to get the information he needs, from time to time, and apply it to the conditions which come before him. For the successful conduct of the business of citizenship we must develop these three powers: Self- government, public spirit, and constructive thought. There is no royal road by which we can get the kind of knowledge which will teach us to exercise them. It is a thing we must work out for ourselves. Not that we have to work it out unaided. We get help from the graduates, from the Faculties, and from our own fellow students."
There can be no question but that such conceptions of educative aims raise grave problems in respect to the curriculum, the personnel of the teaching corps, the size of classes and many other details of school man- agement both administrative and financial. Reading teachers are more and more becoming conscious of these growing demands for socializing education and are studying hard to learn the best ways for meeting the needs of the present situation. They need the sympathetic encour- agement and support of the citizens. Many of the teachers are taking university extension courses and all are reading thoughtfully current educational literature and endeavoring to give Reading children the benefit of the best in educational practice.
Adapting Education to Individuals
In adjusting school facilities to meet the requirements of pupils as individuals, the work of Miss Whittemore, Director of Standards of Scholarship and Education Guidance, in co-operation with the principals and teachers has proven to be of great value. Through a careful study of each child's personality and an adjustment of school tasks to fit in- dividual needs, the conscientious pupil is enabled to be uniformly suc- cessful in his efforts and gain thereby a constantly renewed interest and enthusiasm. Reading pupils are enjoying unique advantages in these matters of which further details will be found in Miss Whittemore's report.
Junior High School
The following sentence is taken from last year's report of the Prin- cipal of the Junior High School, Miss Alice Barrows: "In closing let me say that the school is doing today the best work in its history and that the fact is due to the earnest work and faithful co-operation of our splendid corps of teachers."
The passing of Miss Barrows after forty-three years of service as a teacher in Reading schools was an event of profound significance. A volume might be written upon it without exhausting the materials, for the story of her services to Reading, but Miss Barrows, as becomes a
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true teacher, trained her pupils and her associate teachers so that they could carry on the good work without her when the necessity arose. For years to come the influence of Miss Barrows will continue to be a potent factor in Reading schools as it has been for so many years past. Much credit is due to Miss Page for the efficient manner in which she carried on the work of the Principal of the Junior High School during Miss Barrows' illness and completed the year after her death. Miss Page has been associated with Miss Barrows twenty-four years. Miss Hood, who had been with Miss Barrows twenty-one years, rendered valuable assist- ance to Miss Page in this work.
Mr. Raymond Blaisdell, the new Principal of the Junior High School, is a graduate of Bates College and has had experience as Principal of a High School and Superintendent of Schools of a district of several towns in Maine. Miss Page will continue to devote a part of her time to admin- istrative work as Mr. Blaisdell's assistant.
The number of pupils in the Highland school has increased so much that many of the classes are far too large for the most effective work. In my report for 1918 a plan was outlined for relieving the Junior High School by providing a new building near Reading Square to take care of the fifth and sixth grades belonging to the Centre district and now occupying four rooms in the Highland building. All that was said in this report five years ago is still pertinent and some time a new building at the center must be constructed, but another project has been thought of that might relieve the Junior High School and put off the building at the center until the building of residences has been further developed and the future needs of the Centre district become more clearly apparent. The new project alluded to above consists of erecting a new building fac- ing School street on the Highland School lot and connecting this new structure with the present Highland School by covered corridors. . In
this new building would be instructed the pupils constituting the Fresh- man class of the Senior High School. In other words, the Junior High School would be extended to three years and the Senior High School shortened to three years. This is known among educators as the 6-3-3 plan : Six years Elementary, three years Junior High School, and three years Senior High School. This is now regarded as the standard organi- zation of the Junior High School throughout the United States. Many considerations in the local situation in Reading make such a change seem feasible and desirable.
The Senior High School has enrolled since September, 1923, over five hundred pupils. This number of pupils, according to the specifications for a standard high school issued by the Massachusetts Department of Education and the New England Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, requires twenty full time teachers: that is, one teacher for every twenty-five pupils. There are at present available for class use just twenty rooms, large and small, in the High School, including laboratories, gymnasium, manual training room, library, and music supervisor's room,
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but not counting the general assembly hall. It is evident that further growth in the present Senior High School can be accomplished only by exceeding the standard size of classes. As a matter of fact, the process has been going on for the past three years, as indicated in Mr. Atwood's report. Many of our High School classes are already over-size owing to the number of pupils increasing faster than the requisite number of teachers have been added. A similar situation exists in the Junior High School. Many of the classes contain between forty and fifty pupils in- stead of twenty-five as required by the best practice. This condition can- not be corrected by the obvious remedy of employing more teachers, unless we have more rooms in which the additional teachers may meet their classes. A suitable new building adjacent to the present Highland building would relieve the present Junior High School and, if a third year were added to the Junior High School in place of the present first year of the four-year High School, the Senior High School thus relieved of one class would probably have ample room in the present building for several years to come. Future growth of the Junior High School would be provided for by the removal a few years hence of the fifth and sixth grades to a new elementary school building at the center near Reading Square. As two or three years would be required to prepare plans and erect such an addition to the Highland School, immediate action in deter- mining the policy to be pursued and starting the plan adopted would seem to be clearly indicated. I recommend that the School Committee give this matter early consideration.
Senior High School
Since the Public High School should provide for the needs of all its pupils, it must have a somewhat flexible program, but at the same time one that is definite and adequate for each of the purposes which it serves. These aims may be classified roughly for discussion under several heads: As, (1) preparation for entrance to higher educational institutions; name- ly: Colleges, Schools of Technology, Schools of Business Administration. and Higher Accounting, Normal Schools and Special Schools dealing with a great variety of subjects, such as pharmacy, dentistry, military. naval, or diplomatic service of the United states, applied mechanics, in- dustrial chemistry, applied forms of agriculture; (2) preparation for service in business offices, more particularly as stenographers and typists, but also as bookkeepers and general office assistants and later as assistant agents in administrative or sales service; (3) preparation for mechanical vocations in manufacturing and the trades and for casual employment in cases where no special abilities or aptitudes have been discovered that serve as vocational objectives.
In regard to the first aim, preparation for entrance to higher insti- tutions, I think pupils from Reading High School have entered, since I have been in Reading, all of the kinds of institutions mentioned above and undoubtedly others not mentioned. The last report of the College
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Entrance Examination Board gives the number of pupils who have taken examination from each school during the past five years. In pro- portion to its size Reading High School stands very high on the list, having sent many more than Wakefield and Stoneham and as many as or more than some cities. In My. Atwood's report figures from a few schools are given. The whole list would make Reading appear in a favorable light in this respect. There have been among pupils from Reading High School some failures to pass college entrance examinations, but, when it is considered that in many college entrance board examina- tions fifty per cent or more of all the candidates fail to pass, it is not surprising that we should have occasionally some failures. This, how- ever, is reassuring that in those cases where pupils from Reading High School have taken the examinations over in the fall, they have been able almost without exception to pass successfully. The success of our pupils in their college work after entrance has also been very encouraging. I think we have had more failures in college by a few pupils who did part of their preparatory work in other high schools than with the whole number who had all their preparation in Reading High School. It is true, however, that in the past three years the increased enrolment of pupils without a corresponding number of additional teachers has not only in- creased the size of college preparatory classes and decreased the time to be devoted to each individual but it has made necessary as in French, for example, the mixing of college and non-college groups. In such cases less stress must necessarily be given to college examinations. Another factor that materially affects the problem is the fact that more pupils are applying for entrance to the colleges than the colleges can take care of. As a result the college selects only those that appear most desirable. It is therefore increasingly difficult to gain entrance to any particular college. Higher standards of scholarship and personality are being re- quired and probably this will be so increasingly for some time to come. We must not only maintain the standards of the past; we must raise them if we wish our pupils preferred in the selection of candidates for admis- sion to higher institutions. This means that for college preparatory pupils at least we should not exceed the standard size class and should not mix college preparatory pupils with other groups having a different purpose than passing the College Entrance Examinations.
In regard to the second aim of the high school, the preparation for service in business offices, I feel that the Reading High School is func- tioning well and has gained an enviable reputation. This is partly due to the excellent course of training and partly due to the excellent char- acter and personality of our pupils. We have been told frequently by employing agencies that customers ask especially for a person trained in Reading High School.
In regard to the third aim mentioned above, namely, preparation for mechanical vocations and the trades, Reading High School is doing a reasonable amount for a town of its size and can point with satisfaction
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to many graduates during the past ten years who are making a success in these fields. The High School Agricultural Department (following the excellent work in home gardens carried on by the Junior High School) continues to be one of the leaders in the State in its own particular line. Reference to Mr. Sussmann's report will give many interesting details of the progress of this work in Reading The Manual Training work in the Junior High School and in the Senior High School, while not elaborate, is accomplishing a splendid service for Reading pupils in many ways-not only for those who will follow a mechanical trade as a vocation but also for the future surgeon who needs to develop a skilful handling of tools and for the hundred and one vocations in which a cer- tain amount of mechanical dexterity is a necessary, if an incidental accomplishment. The manual training work connected with the Junior High School has been established for many years and needs no special word of appreciation at this time. The work in the Senior High School was established more recently by the present instructor, Mr. Boehm, and is now functioning in a thoroughly satisfactory way. The interest is keen, the work turned out is of a high order, and the pride of good workmanship and artistic skill is very commendable. Pupils in this de- partment exhibit very satisfactory attitudes toward their work which indicate that they will be able to apply what they are learning to) prac- tical situations in later life.
There are many pupils in the schools whose general abilities do not warrant the expectation of success in entering college or in other situa- tions requiring a high degree of mental power. It is necessary, how- ever, for these pupils if they are to be contented, self-supporting, and happy to find some new field of service in which they are useful and feel that they are a success. To this end a great deal of attention is being paid to studying the personality of each pupil-not only his schol- arship in particular branches but his intellectual powers as revealed by various formal tests and by the projects that he successfully performs. But far more subtle and significant than his intelligent quotient is the pupil's general attitude towards life, his moral outlook. This must be developed and perfected through the pupil's participation in the social relationships developed in the activities of the school itself. Here must be embodied in reality in the life of the school the practice of those sound principles of moral idealism and democracy-in-practice out of which our most hallowed institutions of the home, the church, the state, and the intri- cate fabric of our commercial and industrial life have been formed
The following indictment of our civilization is from the New York Commercial:
"Are we a civilized people? This question may properly be asked after reading the figures given below and which cover the arrests from April, 1922, to April, 1923-12 months-for crimes committed in the city of St. Louis, with a population of 772,897, according to the census of 1920:
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Robbery
11,267
Petty larceny
3,118
Assault and battery
2,068
Burglary
837
Grand larceny (over $25)
832
Assault with intent to kill 506
Concealed weapons
432
Murder
415
Wife abandonment
279
Fraud
262
Burglary and larceny
209
Rape
191
Forgery
86
White slavery
74
Highway robbery
68
Embezzlement
57
Receiving stolen goods
56
Arson
86
Burglars' tools in possession
12
"Notice that only arrests are given. Many more crimes, for which there were no arrests, must have been committed. In no city is it pos- sible to say that for every criminal deed an arrest followed.
"Besides the problem that the figures quoted predicate-and that problem is the problem of most other American cities of size-what public matter now being agitated surpasses it in importance or demands more careful consideration to the end that civilization in the United States be saved from complete destruction ?"
The supreme problem of education is the moral problem and it is particularly acute at the age when youth is throwing off the parental tutelage characteristic of childhood and, sometimes a little too confidently, seeks to pursue an independent course. It is a situation that challenges the teacher's powers of understanding human personality and his in- genuity in appealing to the pupil and influencing him, by precept and by example, towards a right attitude in all the situations of life, in order that he may be able so far as his abilities permit to be "equal to the situation." An editorial writer recently wrote of Dr. Lyman Abbott: "He spent his life opening men's minds. He did not break them open by force. He opened them gently as the sun opens a flower-gently, ir- resistibly, and without damage. Lyman Abbott was a strong character but he had the rare quality of controlling his strength so that it never was applied in jerks. He applied a constant unremitting pressure to the things he wished done and moved large bodies with little friction and less noise and he did this without wrenching or straining himself. He lived a long life and an active life of constant work until his eighty-seventh year. None of his vitality was consumed in the fires of anger, impa- tience, or envy. In the creed he practised these things did not belong."
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It is the high privilege of the teachers of youth in like manner to open their minds not "by force" but "gently, irresistibly, and without damage as the sun opens a flower."
The Examination Question
The following editorial by "Uncle Dudley" of the Boston Globe touches upon such a vital matter in our school work that I am quoting it entire. Mr. Parker, also, in his report, as chairman deals with this fundamental aspect of the work of the schools. I commend both dis- cussions to the serious attention of the teachers and all others concerned with formulating the policies of instruction in the schools. The ultimate test is the performance test-not what the pupil has memorized but what he can do, the work he can perform, the service he is able and willing to render. This is the ultimate goal of education.
"And you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned noth- ing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality."-Plato Phaedrus.
"The average school and college examination is a relie of barbarism which only survives amongst us because we are still looking for an ade- quate substitute. Meanwhile, Prof. Lowes of Harvard has grasped one dilemma-horn of this angry bull of pedagogy. One of his courses is on the English romantic poets of the lyth century, and students taking it were allowed to bring as many books as they pleased or could carry into the examination room with them.
"How would this constitute any examination ?
"These romantic poets are significant as exponents of the thought of their time. In order to discuss them intelligently one would need to know the surrounding cultural, historical, and social conditions which went to form their minds. Now if the examination questions merely asked you to parrot back a futile array of dates, quotations, and bio- graphical details, of course to take books into the examination rooms would defeat its object.
"But if the examination asked you to discuss the intellectual currents and cross-currents which swirled through the minds of these men and through the life of their time, then, of course, your books would be merely convenient reference works from which to draw illustrations for your thesis, and savers of time and energy from the acquisitive side of learning to be applied more profitably on the creative side.
"Creative, yes. But how creative ?
"The authorized description of this new form of college examination says : 'The purpose . . was to eliminate the "24-hour memory" that can pass an examination but retain nothing of the course in after years. In- stead, it aimed to give the students an opportunity to show that they have critical ability, and that they know where to look for information and how to apply it.'
"This is, of course, a valiant and praiseworthy endeavor to escape from the factory-system standardized quantity production of college education thrust upon our great universities by the enormous growth of their enrollments. Any first-rate college teacher knows that under such conditions he is not teaching; he is merely, to use Dr. W. A. Neil- son's phrase, 'dictating text-books,' and the first time Professor Bliss Perry found himself facing a lecture room of 500 boys his opening words were: 'Gentlemen, this is a calamity!'
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"But even supposing Professor Lowes' plan does provide some exodus from this land of bondage for our large universities, we shall still be wandering in the wilderness unless the pilgrimage of education ad- vances from being primarily an affair of critical and acquisitive schol- arship to being one of creative activity.
"The words 'critical ability' occur in the quotation above cited. They are significant. The dominant tone of Harvard College-of most col- leges-is critical rather than creative. Of course this is to some extent necessarily the case. Boys of from 17 to 25 years are usually too in- experienced to embark on any very ambitious creative work, no matter how gifted they may be. College instruction, at its best, would tend to be a teaching of skill with tools combined with a careful fostering of whatsoever creative faculty could be found in the student. But to do this two-fold task requires men of exceptional caliber and personality.
"Prof. Baker who teaches the writing of play; Prof. Copeland, who teaches English composition, and Prof. Davison, who leads the glee club, are distinguished examples of this power. But they stand out at Har- vard, or indeed anywhere, in contrast to the prevailing tone of critical scholarship. That this should be so is nothing strange. These creative personalities are as rare as they are precious (the late Prof. William James was one) and they do not domesticate or institutionalize any too easily. An institution which catches one (let alone a whole faculty of them) may count itself lucky. Aside from a certain group at Oxford, and from the recently disbanded one at Amherst; and aside from the dom- inant influence now existing at Reed and at Antioch Colleges, it would be hard for the present writer to name any institutions where the creative spirit predominates over the critical. It is not suggested that the critical spirit is entirely sterile. There is, of course, creative criticism. But it is secondary.
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