USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Reading > Town of Reading Massachusetts annual report 1924 > Part 12
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The successful realization of this latter aim necessitates a carefully planned program of educational guidance which will involve every mem- ber of the teaching corps. Through special club work, home-room organ- ization, student government activities, and correlation of such subjects as English and social studies, an effort should be made to consciously direct student activities toward definite, worthy objectives. With these thoughts in mind, we have tried to include a plan of educational guid. ance in our program with the following definite objectives:
1. To give re-inforcement work in the basic subjects to those who are most in need of it.
2. To give an opportunity to pupils to discover and develop in- terests in worth-while activities not provided for in the regular program of studies.
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3. To develop leadership.
4. To create and foster a consciousness of and an attitude for ac- cepting moral and civic responsibility. This is attempted not only by discussion but by student participation in school administration.
The re-inforcement work is being carried on through the organiza- tion of remedial clubs which meet for a half-hour on Monday and Tuesday. It gives the teacher an opportunity to work individually with a small group of pupils who, for various reasons, are having difficulty in their work. The clubs which we have organized supplement work in English, arithmetic, geography, history, spelling, and penmanship. Admittance to the remedial club is compulsory, and is upon the recommendation of the teacher in whose subject the pupil is deficient. The pupil remains in the group only long enough to remove the deficiency and then is dis- missed. Although admittance to groups for this type of work is com. pulsory, pupils are encouraged to regard them as a special opportunity to get help in solving their difficulties. Both the English and arithmetic teachers have reported that a few of the pupils have requested the privi- lege to enter the remedial clubs.
The second objective is being attempted through the organization of opportunity clubs of sufficient variety to meet the various interests of all the pupils. These clubs are wholly elective and meet at the same time as the remedial clubs. This means that every pupil belongs to two clubs either remedial or opportunity, all the time. If it is necessary for a pupil to join a remedial club, one opportunity club is dropped temporarily until the re-inforcement work is completed.
Experience has developed some weaknesses in the club work which however, can be overcome. In order to make the work most effective, especially in the remedial clubs, the groups must be small. This means that the school should be organized on the platoon system with one platoon doing club work while the other is having music or lunch, thus freeing about two-thirds of the teaching force for the club work. I also believe that the remedial clubs should be sponsored by the teacher of the subject which the club work supplements. That teacher has a better com- prehension not only of the subject matter but of the particular needs of the pupil seeking re-inforcement work. This plan is being followe.l. in so far as possible and seems more satisfactory. It is sometimes difficult to impress pupils and even parents that the opportunity club work offers a chance for creative work on the part of the pupils and is not an enter. tainment period. This objection can be overcome by the club sponsor who must so carefully organize the work that it is really worth while and does satisfy felt needs.
On Friday of each week, all pupils meet with their home-room teach- ers for one-half hour. At that time any matters pertaining to the wel- fare of the school may be discussed. Reports are often made from the student council, and pupils are urged to express their opinion on matters of civic and moral responsibility which are being discussed.
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A short time ago a student council organized. This council, which comprises one representative from each home room, meets with the Principal the first and third Monday of each month. Thus far, the council has acted more as an intermediary between the Principal and the home rooms. Questions for discussion may originate from the Principal, the home room, or in the council meeting itself. Recommend ations of the council are either presented to the student body for a'- proval at the assembly period, or to the home room groups at their Friday meeting, or at both times.
Most of the home rooms are organized so as to place definite re- sponsibility upon as many pupils as possible. Some pupils have charge of attendance, others keep the blackboards tidy, and still others have the plants to care for. In some cases, the home room period on Friday is conducted wholly by the pupils themselves under teacher guidance. In one room the organization takes the form of a betterment club with President and Board of Directors. Each home room is allowed to organ- ize as it sees fit, thus developing initiative by both the teacher and the pupils.
Each one of the ten groups have elected two officers, a Captain and a Lieutenant, who act as agents of the group. Thus far, they have only functioned during the filing and have simply reminded forgetful pupils that they were not complying with traffic regulations. The traffic regu- lations are simple. Pupils are asked not to push, not to run on the stairs or in the corridors, not to talk loudly, and to keep to the right. The sys- tem is working well. The filing is noticeable because of its freedom but "freedom within the law." It is natural and orderly as opposed to any suggestion of militarism. The Student Council has recently recom- mended that the Captain and Lieutenant of the groups function in the class room as well as during the filing. The basis for this action is the thought that individual and group behavior is a group responsibility and should not devolve upon the teacher as is so often necessary. The student body has not yet acted upon the recommendation. The Student Council is also working upon a plan whereby the group officers can deal more effectively with the individual pupils who persist in not co- operating for the interests of the group and school.
Because of a change in the length of periods, every group does not have physical training every day. These groups are allowed a ten- minute recess in the middle of the forenoon on days that their physical training class does not meet. The groups have been allowed to go out of doors for recreational exercises in charge of one member of the group who has been specially trained in the leaders' club. The work has gone smoothly and provides one more medium through which leadership qualities are developed.
My explanation of student activities has been rather lengthy, but I wished to show that we are really trying to organize a plan for educa- tional guidance with worthwhile objectives in mind. It is one thing to
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teach civic and ethical virtues necessary for worthy home membership and constructive citizenship; it is a very different thing to make those virtues function in practice. It is a slow and often discouraging process, but the ends in view are very much worth the effort. I can see that prog- ress has been made. As I have already said, the filing is good, the lunch period is orderly and yet free from unnatural restraint, the co-operation of the pupils with group officers and leaders, although far from ideal, is commendable. I anticipate greater success in the future.
The only other important change in the Junior High School has been made in the length of class periods. These periods have been length- ened from forty to sixty minutes. This change is in agreement with more recent Junior High School practice and, I believe, is pedagogically sound. We should no longer consider the class period wholly as a testing period where the question and answer procedure predominates. It should be a time for constructive work with the pupil actually doing something. rather than assuming the usual receptive attitude with the teacher doing the work. There should be some testing to measure progress and dis- cover needs; there should be the assignment of work with careful at- tention to motivation and anticipation of difficulties; there should be the creative work of the pupils with the teacher acting as a stimulating and guiding helper. Sixty minutes is not too long a period for this type of work. There is, of course, a big danger that the teacher will utilize the time unwisely by doing too much talking herself. I feel, however, that the longer period is working out advantageously, and will show greater value as the teachers become better acquainted with its possi- bilities.
Permit me to call your attention to last year's report relative to. crowded conditions at the Highland School. The need for additional facilities is keenly felt. I hope that the town will be able to adequately. meet the situation in the near future.
In closing, I wish to thank all those who have in any way contributed to the success of the school during the past year.
Respectfully submitted,
RAYMOND W. BLAISDELL
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REPORT ON STANDARDS AND GUIDANCE TO AUG. 1, 1924
1
Mr. Adelbert L. Safford,
Supt. of Schools, Reading, Mass.
Dear Sir :- At your request I herewith submit my fifth report of my work as Director in Standards and Guidance. This report covers the period from January 1, 1924, to August 1, 1924, when I resigned my position to be married. At your request, also, I feel that I am permitted to review -certain phases or features of my work.
First of all, I wish to say that all of the good results of this depar- ture in school administration were made possible by the co-operation of all individuals concerned in any way with the public school system of Reading and with the co-operation of all of the town's social agencies. In the former group I include the School Committee, the Trustees of the Public Library, you, the Superintendent, who was ever ready for conference and ever helpful with suggestion and counsel, the clerk in your office and at the Highland School, the School Attendance Officer, the School Nurse, the principals, the teachers and the parents, and the most important factor of all, the individual child, all working co-operatively for the present and so for the future welfare of the child. In the latter group I name the Pre- School Clinic, the Habit Clinic, the Playground Committee, and the Tuber- culosis Committee. I have enumerated these helps because at some time and more often many times each has helped to solve the problem at hand- in fact every agency of the town which promotes the public welfare of the community as related to its boys and girls. The boys and girls of today are the Men and Women of Tomorrow. These same youth are the town's greatest asset or as we have seen through columns of our daily newspapers it is possible for them to be the nation's greatest liabilities.
In the more than four years of my work, I kept to the objectives of my first year's plan but broadened the horizon as the work went on. The first step was to become personally acquainted with the pupils themselves. This was not altogether easy or altogether difficult for I had been teaching many years in the Junior High School in departmental work where I knew about 300 pupils each year.
With the ideal in mind, that if we
"Build today, then, strong and sure With a firm and ample base Then ascending and secure Shall Tomorrow find its place."
I began my work with the little ones entering the first grade. My plan was with the aid of the teachers to start each individual right in his
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first days in school to insure happiness during the very first year and to continue in this watchful care from grade to grade until upon entry into High School or into the work-a-day world he could say that his early education had been "days well spent" in the school room. In the first grade I used the Dearborn Group tests. In the middle grades the Hag- gerty and Otis Classification. In the upper grades Junior High, the Na- tional Intelligence Tests. For individual testing I used Binet Simon test. The Dearborn Group Tests were used in the first grades as a means of finding out in a simple direct way what a child had acquired from his en- vironment before entering school. This plan for four years succeeded ad- mirably. The children were grouped so that they proceeded step by step as fast as their growth allowed. Non-Promotion from grade 1 to grade 2 was reduced from 36% to 14%. From the second grade on to Junior High School the number who gained a double promotion overcame the number who remained in the same grade for two years. It is and always will be a marvelous wonder to me to realize fully how plastic, how impressionable, how responsive these little "tots" of the first grade are and how with the skill of your teachers of their first-grade that they not only learn so much but acquire so many desirable traits of character,-dependability, self- reliance, kindness, initiative, responsibility and oftentimes real leadership in the right direction.
Last May and June a serious problem presented itself when we had to consider in the Union Street, the Center and the Highland Schools, grades 2 to 6, the placing in each classroom under one teacher at least 50 boys and girls. Today 30 and not over 35 pupils is considered as large a number as is possible for a skilful grade teacher to understand, to plan her work for, and to keep herself and her class up to the highest pro- fessional standards of effort and achievement along all lines in the New Education. In the Reading schools of a not very distant future, I see smaller classes and the opportunity for even broader education than is being given today.
All along the line there were boys and girls to whom I gave special attention. Perhaps it was a personal interview. It may have been special help a little more than what the teacher had time to give. It may have been special adjustment to class because the pupil was too far advanced for his class or because he was strong in one subject and weak in another. The latter might require co-operation with the home for special outside work, or a plan for working in two grades. Again there might be some illness or some other physical handicap. Whatever caused one pupil to stand out apart from his group, then it was that we, the teacher and I with the parent had a problem to solve. So many times, you, the School At- tendance Officer- Mrs. Mingo, the School Nurse-Miss Brown and Miss Parker (now Mrs. Robert G. Totten) worked together with us on these special problems. In May of last year, we established the Habit Clinic under Dr. Olive M. Cooper. I am sure a better ground of understanding between Mother and Child in special problem cases has been obtained by this co-operative agency of the state which was to be had for the asking.
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Right here I wish to quote from my first report of 1920: "The first step was to become personally acquainted with the pupils themselves. So the work began :-
1. By proper adjustment in so far as possible of the children, at the beginning of their school life in the primary grades, to the best environment for their first year of school.
2. By careful adjustment to the right grade and class of those pupils who were enrolled for the first time in the schools of this town, coming from other towns and cities of this and other states.
3. By special provision for the pupils of the Opportunity Room, fitting them into grades and classes where they could secure the best advantages in different subjects." Right here I may add, in 1924, that during the four years, now almost five years, that this room has been opened with the usual average registration of 15 pupils, over 100 boys and girls have had special individual programs under Mrs. Totten and were restored or re-instated in regular class rooms.
"4. By re-adjustment of any pupils in the several grades and classes where they could advance most evenly and smoothly for their special needs.
5. By observing carefully and directing extra work for mid-year pro- motion of those pupils whose standing in their group justified more rapid advancement." (I have followed from year to year with careful oversight these boys and girls who earned double promotion, between the years 1920- '24. They are the Honor and Maximum Honor and the pupils of good high standing in their classes today.)
6. By giving personal help daily to individual pupils, Grades 1-6 and to Junior High students also.
The above plan was faithfully carried out all through my 4 3-5 years of service.
Again, I quote from my first report :
"The second step each year was to 'check up' failure." Angelo Patri inspired me to this task and he says :- "Sometimes I wonder if most of the failures of the adult world did not start in the class room." So I tried to "Open the school out wide", "to take a mistake as a challenge to our power to help. A failure is but a bugle call to rise up and press forward." So we played the game in every grade class-room, from day to day, week to week, and on through the years of "Beat My Own Record." Aside from the fact of playing the game of "Beat My Own Record" there is the fact that each pupil was held accountable and read his own account just as the adult is conscious of his success by the accounting that he can render for his day's service. This idea of each pupil's checking up on his own work corresponds with the project of the Junior High School, the note book in History, Biology or Chemistry of the High School and latterly to the reports sent in by the student who is taking University Extension Courses.
James A. Moyer, Director of the University Extension Courses says :- "At its best, teaching by correspondence affords opportunity for individual
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instruction of a high type. The instructor's attention is focussed upon the definite problem presented by the student's actual tangible work. He can make his corrections and explanations in no less tangible fashion. His written words do not vanish in the air to be forgotten or recalled in dis- torted form, they are a material record for the student to see and ponder."
The third step in my work was to use standardized material for testing in the everyday subjects as games to play,-to verify the judgment, to see that everybody was able to carry his share of the load and to experience the stimulus of succeeding along with his fellows or of advancing more rapidly.
After over four years of careful investigation I have found that the I. Q. or Intelligence Quotient which indicates a person's natural native mental capacity, and the E. Q. or one's Educational Quotient which deter- mines what one has actually acquired educationally sinks into the back- ground when the A. Q. or the Accomplishment Quotient which is the re- lation of the two former, one to the other, surpasses what in your mind you think is impossible to be achieved by certain individuals. Many times it comes home to us that the person who takes his TWO talents and makes them gain TWO talents more deserves and ultimately does receive the highest rewards. However, again, in all my work I have tried to advance, promote the pupil with rich endowment,-the Ten talent gifted one who has the responsibility of LEADERSHIP resting upon his shoulders and is now in the training school of service for his fellow men.
Each year I have made a special study by comparison with other towns of similar school population of the standing of our own grades in Writing, Spelling, Reading, History, Geography and Arithmetic.
Last June I prepared a report on an instensive study in Spelling which was carried on in every grade from the second through the sixth and through the Junior High School. Only five pupils failed to take the tests and they were in quarantine.
The tests were given for these reasons:
1. To supplement the State Wide Scientific Spelling Contest in which Reading ranked 17 among the 78 towns of Massachusetts.
2. To determine better just where supplementary drill should be given.
3. To better direct every day's spelling lesson, to give help where help is needed to relieve the skilful pupil in spelling of unnecessary drill preparation for a lesson in which he was already proficient.
4. To better understand the poor results in the subject of READING and other allied subjects.
We are using the Buckingham Ayre's Scale, the Thorndike Word List, -the first three thousand words, and the McCall Morrison Scale for our scientific work in spelling.
Below is a report of the State Wide Spelling Contest which proclaims
Modern Methods Better Than Old
Nine-year-old pupils spell better than pupils of the same age 45 years ago according to reports from studies made by Boston University. A
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survey conducted in 1879 in Norfolk County, Mass., included three words common to those of the recent survey. The average spelling scores of 9 year old pupils on "which, "' "whose, " and "too"' in 1879 were 69, 54 and 23, respectively. A spelling test recently conducted in 78 Massachusetts towns and cities showed that pupils of the same age scored 76, 60, 79, respectively, on the same words.
The School of Education of Boston University plans to conduct a state-wide language contest this year by means of standardized tests. Last year a similar contest was held in spelling.
During the years 1923-'24 the Public Library . has co-operated with the grades and with the Junior High by purchasing three copies of graded reading as provided in lists by the State Library Department. In the aggregate their purchase meant fully 500 books available for our boys and girls. A pupil's reading record was begun in the third and fourth grades to be extended each year. Dr. Horace G. Wadlin presented 43 certificates to pupils all through the grades who had read at least five books of the approved list. I leave it to you to consider the values derived from the love of the best in literature, art and science.
These lines of investigation and study in your schools have of them- selves brought about a unity of thought and purpose in standards and guidance. A program of studies has almost been rounded up. The Read- ing schools through your unsparing zeal are now supplied with the best of up-to-date carefully selected material for Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Geography and History. For three years the Reading teachers have been working out by study and investigation of all material for Language a rather defined grade program. The time is ripe for decision of a graded course suited to Reading's need.
I am confident that my successor, Mrs. Ida C. Lucas, will "carry on" the work which I began. Her rich experience and her interest in the welfare of boys and girls will make for the highest good of all in the schools of Reading.
Last June I was able to hand to Mr. Blaisdell, Principal of the Junior High, a more complete school record than ever before of each pupil enter- ing the Junior High. This record confirmed the pupil's grade 1-6 record of school work, gave also his ability to cope with the work of the next grade, and also gave helpful suggestions for his sure advancement.
On August. the first, I was able to leave with you at your office for the personal benefit of the High School Principal and the Dean of Girls a careful more detailed record of each student entering the High School that no time should be lost for the student's best adjustment to courses and subjects. I, now, for two years have made this report and have received favorable comment from the Harvard Graduate School, the University of Michigan and the Leland Stanford University of California.
I also made this year Age-Grade Records 1920-'24 which you may wish to include in your report.
CHILD STUDY DEPARTMENT SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, PUBLIC SCHOOLS DIAGRAM OF WORK
THE CHILD
NORMAL
SUPERNORMAL
RETARDED
PSYCHOPATHIC
DELIN QUENT
AGENCIES SENDING CHILDREN
SCHOOLS
PARENTS
COURTS
SOCIAL WORKER
PHYSICIANS
THE LABORATORY
FAMILY HISTORY
HISTORY
PERSONAL SCHOOL HISTORY MENTAL from PARENT, from SCHOOL
EXAMINATION| EXAMINATION
PEDAGOGICAL OBSERVATION, SOCIAL REACTION
PHYSICAL EXAMINATION
STATE INSTITUTION
DIAGNOSIS and RECOMMENDATIONS
DOUBLE PROMOTION
DEBARRED
RETURN TO GRADE
WORK PERMIT
MEDICAL ATTENTION
SPECIAL CLASSES
CHANGE OF ENVIRONMENT
TUTOR
SIGHT- SAVING
SPEECH
DEAF
ORTHO- PEDIC
MENTALLY RETARDED
PARENTAL
PART TIME
OPPOR- TUNITY
FOREIGN
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The diagram which I include as a part of this report was taken from the Journal of the National Educational Association and in a concrete way gives at a glance just what the new educational administration is doing to safeguard the CHILD in our complex civic life.
With pleasantest memories of my nineteen years of service in the public schools of Reading, I conclude this report.
Respectfully submitted,
FANNIE WHITTEMORE ROBINSON. January 16, 1925.
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REPORT OF DIRECTOR OF STANDARDS AND GUIDANCE August 1 to December 31, 1924
Mr. Adelbert L. Safford,
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