USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Reading > Town of Reading Massachusetts annual report 1925 > Part 9
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The year 1924-1925 has been a very successful year in most of the different departments of school life. In many of the schools there has been exhibited by teachers and pupils a commendable spirit of interest and enthusiasm in the school work undertaken. In this connection we should remember that the amount of benefit derived by any pupils from the work in question is to be measured by the interest and work which each individual puts into it. The attention of our citizens to the various reports of the heads of different departments is earnestly solicited. They will bear a careful reading. The table presented by the Principal of the Senior High School, showing the number of pupils taking college entrance examinations, in comparison with other High Schools in the vicinity of Reading, is very surprising :
Wakefield 7 prepared to take College Entrance Examinations
Reading 19
66 ( 6
Stoneham 4 66 66 60 in the year 1925.
Of course it is to be presumed that other pupils from these schools entered college by certificate or possibly by examinations not given by the College Entrance Examination Board.
The report on Health is well worth reading, as showing the importance of Health in any really true educational course of instruction. The Committee would like to enlarge upon this most important phase of vital school work, but refrains from so doing, trusting that every citizen, who is interested in the most important work that can claim our thought and attention, will study carefully the several reports presented in this report of 1925.
The two members of the School Committee whose terms of service expire on February 28th, 1926, are Leone F. Quimby and Walter S. Parker.
The School Committee has had many meetings during the past year in regard to enlarged school accommodations. We are unanimous in the opinion that the Junior High School should be built immediately on the lot on Temple Street recently purchased by the town.
In consideration of the urgent need of doing something for the "new comers" in town, we have asked for a small amount to enable us
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to open an evening school some time during the present year. English and elementary subjects will be taken for study.
Someone has said, "Our hopes are often in direct antagonism to our higher interests, because their realization would eliminate the training, which prepares us to use gifts, rewards, and gains of every kind." Nothing could be more unfortunate for a boy than the sudden acquisition of knowledge. If knowledge could be gained by speculation, as fortunes are often made, it would become as vulgar and useless as such fortunes usually are. For the best part of education is not the deposit of informa- tion which it leaves in a man's mind, but the concentrated and intelligent force into which it merges all that is strongest and best in a man's nature. The process through which the pupil is compelled to pass in order to gain knowledge prepares him to use knowledge wisely when he finally gets it.
The only true measure of a man's success in this life is to be found in the growth he has made, not in the achievements he has put to his credit. The chief value of these achievements is the evidence they furnish of growth.
The end of education is the development of a strong manly and womanly character and this can be gained only by work and struggle.
For the School Committee :
WALTER S. PARKER, Chairman
RUTH A. LUMSDEN
ALBERT R. SHEPARDSON
LEONE F. QUIMBY
MARION B. TEMPLE
JOSEPHINE L. FOWLER
December 31, 1925.
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REPORT OF SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, 1925
To the Honorable, the School Committee,
of the Town of Reading, Massachusetts:
Ladies and Gentlemen :- The year nineteen hundred twenty-five has been one of concerted effort in the Reading Public Schools and a rela- tively high standard of achievement has been maintained throughout the system. We are still very far from the full attainment of our ideals of what we conceive to be possible through education but in all departments there are manifest the dispositions to sustain that which is good, to improve that which we see should be made better, and to press forward persistently towards what President Eliot so aptly called "the ever- receding goal," the best that human instrumentalities may achieve.
Two Major Problems
There are two outstanding general problems requiring scientific study, determination of the consensus of public opinion of the policy to be pur- sued and the organization of a technique of procedure.
A Building Program
One of these problems has to do with the very concrete and practical question of a suitable building program to satisfy the present and pro- spective requirements of the pupils to be educated in our schools. Some details of the situation were discussed on pages 161-2 in the town report for 1924. At that time an addition to the Highland School was con- templated. Such an addition would have covered practically all the available land leaving no playgrounds or room for future expansion. Further study of the requirements for future growth and a more com- prehensive survey of the best means of serving the needs of all parts of the town led to a change of plan and the purchase of about ten acres of land located between Temple Street and King Street in the rear of residences on the easterly side of Summer Avenue. It is now proposed that a new Junior High School building shall be erected on this land immediately, and that, when the increased school enrolment warrants it, the present Senior High School shall be taken for use of the Elementary Schools of the Center district and a new Senior High School building be erected adjacent to the Junior High School. By such an arrangement some facilities may be used in common by the two schools thus avoiding duplication.There might also be a saving in heating and Janitor service and in the teaching force required for special subjects.
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The Problem of School Methods
The second outstanding general problem of the present school situa- tion is the improvement of school methods and procedures to keep pace with the increasing difficulty of pupils in adjusting themselves to life situations in a civilization constantly becoming more complex and worldly wise. Bernard Shaw says the trouble today is that the social machin- ery is too complicated for men-so complicated that civilization is on the verge of breaking down. President Hopkins of Dartmouth is reported in the press as saying that the selective process of admission to Dartmouth College "is an attempt to winnow out from among the applicants those men of intelligence and mental power who have greatest promise of living usefully and helpfully among their fellows in the society of their time." "When all is said and done the college does not and cannot change the self of any man. It can, however, offer assistance, guidance, and some- times inspiration for a man to distinguish between his baser and his better characteristics and can help him through the involved labyrinth of his personality to find those qualities of wisdom, industry, goodness and size the mastery of which is available to him." "The great oppor- tunity of the college in its relations to any man is that it may offer him guidance to himself." The function of the public school should be and is the rendering of the same kind of service of personality-"guidance," "assistance," and "inspiration"-on a more elementary scholastic level and since we have the pupils younger and in a more plastic state we may hope to mould them to a greater degree within the limits of their en- dowments to live "usefully and helpfully among their fellows in the society of their time." This requires on the part of the teachers a sym- pathetic attitude that will win the pupil's respect, and confidence; a technique of arriving at an understanding of the pupil's defects, and a method of remedial guidance that shall enable the pupil to restore him- self to a wholesome and optimum functioning of his powers. The studious endeavors of our teachers to understand and put into successful opera- tions the newer and more scientific procedures in education have con- tinued throughout the year with undiminished vigor and enthusiasm. In every school there are many evidences of alertness and intelligence exercised by the teachers in seeking to make improvement, as well as in maintaining traditional standards of excellence. Progress has been made in causing the schools to contribute more effectively :- to broadening the pupils' experience in successful adjustments to life situations; to facili- tating and directing the process of "growing up" to self-reliance, self- direction, initiative and creative enterprise; to removing the attitudes of timidity, feelings of inferiority and fixations on childish wishes and practices. The monthly "habit clinic" maintained by the State treats the more serious cases which are referred to it by the Director of Standards and Guidance. While we know that any worth while education must have a solid framework of intellectual discipline, we are more and more recognizing that our "likes" and "dislikes" (whether we are conscious of
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them or are totally unaware of their presence) are the driving power or the inhibiting brakes that energize or retard whatever we do and that judicious and efficient emotional control are as essential to the proper functioning of the human machine as the gasoline control is to the operation of the automobile. Human energy needs to be conserved as much as or more than any other sort of energy. Expertness in the tech- nique of managing one's emotions is indispensable to successful living. Our whole teaching staff is giving attention to the pupil's emotional control as revealed in attitudes, behavior, enthusiasms and resistance -. To establish right habits in this respect is a fundamental objective of the educative process. More and more the project method, involving "purposeful activity" on the part of the pupil, is being introduced into our lesson plans. Also the teachers are trying to have their assignments definitely and scientifically laid out in a way to gain a specific knowl- edge, or a power to perform or an understanding of a principle. The tests disclose completely the pupil's attainment or lack of attainment of these specific objectives so that any failure in the test will be diagnostic of the particular points where the pupil needs further instruction or help. In order that pupils may not be too dependent on the teacher and sit idly waiting to be "called on", the assignments are made self-explanatory like correspondence school lessons and are self-checking and self-correct- ing as far as possible. In this way every child knows definitely what he is to do and is able to a large extent to go ahead independently without regard to what others are doing and without the teacher's personal attention.
The Opportunity School and New Classes
For several years past a special class has been maintained for pupils from all parts of the town who did not learn easily from books. By adapting the work to individual needs and by personal attention from the teacher "opportunity " was afforded for the pupil to be successful in his work and progress, hence the name Opportunity School. Recently this school was moved to the Channell house on the Highland School grounds and another teacher and group of pupils added to the school. The new group is made up mainly of older pupils who need the same special atten- tion received by the pupils in the younger class. A program of teaching by practical projects as well as by books is being worked out in this school. A new class was organized in the Center School in the room vacated by the Opportunity Class. Also one teacher's classes in the Junior High School were sent to the Grouard House and a new fifth and sixth grade room organized.
Senior High School
A survey of the standing of graduates of Reading High School at- tending colleges during the past two years shows very gratifying results. I believe that the school is functioning as a preparatory school for college in a very satisfactory manner at present. At a time when the
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colleges are stiffening their entrance requirements, many of our grad- uates at Harvard, Radcliffe, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Wheaton and elsewhere are gaining admission and standing high in their classes. Any pupil with ability of college grade can prepare successfully for any college in Reading High School. Moreover, the majority of such pupils complete the requirements for passing the entrance examinations in four years while some of the principals of neighboring high schools in larger cities openly say that five years are necessary for preparation for college entrance for all except the ablest pupils. Other departments of the High School are also functioning successfully. It is only necessary to look into the Reading banks, town offices and other business offices to see the efficient services being rendered by graduates of our Commercial department. There are large numbers of them employed in Boston and elsewhere and the demand is greater than we can supply. Several em- ployment agencies have told us that our graduates are preferred because of their superior all-round training and for their generally pleasing personalities, good character and good habits. Many of our graduates take advanced courses in Boston University, School of Business Adminis- tration, or School of Secretarial Science, and report that their preparation in Reading High School has proved a thorough foundation for advanced courses.
Junior High School
The Junior High School has made rapid progress in the past three years. Miss Page carried forward the plans under way when she took charge, developed a number of original improvements, and, since Mr. Blaisdell became principal, has helped to maintain the traditional ex- cellences of the school as well as to co-operate in the numerous new developments. Four lines of reorganization have been carried out that are of major importance: 1. The guidance club work modeled after the plans of the Holmes Junior High School in Philadelphia and described in the book by Thomas-Tyndall and Myers entitled Junior High School Life. This is the second year of the successful operation of these clubs. 2. The introduction of General Mathematics which included elements of geometry and algebra as well as arithmetic. This also is in its second year of successful operation. 3. Reorganization of the daily program into six hour periods instead of eight forty-five minute periods. As these hour periods include supervised study, group discussions, and lesson as- signments as well as class recitations, it will be seen that there are plenty of activities to occupy the full period profitably if properly organized. There are not as a rule separate preparatory study periods as in the Senior High School. In many cases the text-books are kept in the class room and the pupils have access to them only during the class period. 4. The introduction of Social Studies by combining geography, history, civies, and more or less of elementary sociology and economics. The purpose of this reorganization is to present the facts of these subjects in such a manner that the pupils will see more readily their practical
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application to real situations in life. This is the first year of this subject in Reading but it has been in operation in other towns or cities in Greater Boston-particularly in Newton and in Medford. Several outlines of this subject have been prepared. The one we are using was made by Professor Rugg of Teachers College, Columbia University. It runs through the three years of the Junior High School. Miss Hood has been developing a plan of teaching English by the project method and has obtained very interesting and satisfactory results. Miss Page has been developing her work as Dean of Girls and she and Miss Hood have been attending the course given for deans of girls by Dean Franklin of Boston University.
Visiting Teachers
. Some of our citizens who have heard of the visiting teacher work carried on in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and elsewhere have not in all cases been aware that the duties of our Director of Standards and Guidance, Mrs. Lucas, our Nurse, Miss Brown, and our Attendance Officer, Mrs. Mingo, were all organized on the plan of the visiting teacher as outlined by Mr. Nudd in charge of the New York Office of the Visiting Teacher Organization. The plan of work by home visitation was dis- cussed with Mr. Nudd when Miss Whittemore was beginning her work as Director of Standards and Guidance and the staff has been supplied from time to time with all the publications of the Visiting Teacher organiza- tion. The nurse visits the home on matters of health, the attendance officer on matters of behavior, and the director of standards and guidance on matters of mental health, promotions, and study habits. She also helps conduct the monthly habit clinic. Mrs. Fowler is the Director of the Habit Clinic and of the Pre-school Clinic.
Transportation of Pupils
A new plan of transportation of pupils to school by the Mason "Bus" service is proving very satisfactory and is a notable improvement over conditions existing previous to the inauguration of this service. The personal attention that pupils receive, the good order maintained in the busses and the comfort and convenience of the splendid vehicles used- all contribute to the success of the enterprise.
Reports of Department Heads
I commend to your careful attention the reports from the principals and other officials. All our administrative officers are doing excellent work individually and are co-operating whole-heartedly in team work that I have never seen surpassed in its fine spirit and freedom from jealousies or personal animosities. Everybody seems ready to help every- body else with perfect good will. I wish to thank all the members of the Committee for their guidance and support in carrying through the year's work.
Respectfully submitted,
ADELBERT L. SAFFORD, Superintendent.
December 31, 1925.
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REPORT OF PRINCIPAL OF SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL, 1925
Mr. Adelbert L. Safford, Supt. of Schools, Reading, Mass. Dear Sir:
I am submitting my yearly report for the twelve months ending December 31, 1925.
Attendance
The total number enrolled in September 1925 in Reading High School was 558.
Number of Girls-285.
Number of Boys-263.
Special efforts have been made to improve the regularity of attend- ance and we have succeeded somewhat in doing so. The matter of a mild winter has undoubtedly helped considerably. In cases of poor at- tendance or repeated tardiness we have urged the parents strongly to consider the effect upon scholarship. We are compiling statistics to show this dangerous effect. It is our experience that poor attendance goes hand in hand with poor scholarship and poor deportment. Work lost through absence can seldom be made up satisfactorily. Statistics gathered at the Fitchburg, (Mass.) High School show that 20% of the pupils who are irregular in attendance fail. The increase in numbers and regularity of attendance create a problem in accommodations which have about reached their limits. We feel strongly that it is one of our prime duties to inculcate right habits in our pupils. The additional seating and teaching facilities made available by dividing the large physics laboratory into two rooms has amply justified the expense in- volved. I suggest that you investigate the possibility of reconstruct- ing room "B" or room "D" in a similar manner.
Health
Stand straight! Sit straight! Be straight! This is the basis of our health programme, so ably carried out by our two new gymnasium instructors assisted by the school nurse and school physician. We are indeed fortunate in having Miss Nelson and Mr. Aldred as physical instructors for our young people. Both have splendid training and high ideals. Physical training is given twice a week to every boy and girl unless excused by a doctor. The boys' and girls' "varsity" teams are simply an outgrowth of this general fundamental health training. This is as it should be.
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College Requirements
Many parents do not understand that a considerable gap exists and exists rightly between work that should be sufficient requirement for graduation and work that fits for college standing. Preparation for col- lege is a combination of skill on the part of the teacher and intellectual power on the part of the pupil. Either may fail, but no outsider is justified in deciding which factor is at fault until he has all the evi- dence in any particular case. The fact that a student enters college and fails is often looked upon by parents as proof that the school has failed to give the proper background for success. A study of this whole problem by many educators has shown this line of reasoning to be more likely to be untrue than not. There are however three reasons any one of which is much more likely to be the cause and will produce failure on the part of the college student. These reasons are (1) The work in the college in which the student finds himself is hard, and its entrance examinations easy. (2) The pupil may have found too many distractions in college and with no one to look after his daily work has needlessly failed. (3) The school from which he came may have been clever enough to get him through the examinations which he did not comprehend himself. This last reason is not likely to be the case of the public school but rather of the private institution. The colleges are safeguarding against this in their "comprehensive examinations" which include not only the passing of a certain set examination but also an examination of the student's complete scholastic record. In our case we can point with pride to many successful college careers of pupils from the Reading High School. Last year I gave the results of a study of the success of our pupils in college. The results are substantially the sante this year as last. If anything, they are slightly better. Quot- ing from last year's report the figures for rank in college are as fol- lows: A-12%: B-34%; C-35%; D-14%; E-5%. Less than 5% left college on account of scholastic failure, for some who failed repeated their year and went on. It may be of interest to you to note the fig- ures pertaining to those who entered college directly from Reading High School each year during the last six years.
Year
No. in College Course
No. entering directly from R. H. S.
No. going to another school for 5th yr.
1920
18
13
2 2
1921
25
20
01 2
1922
21
19
3
1923
21
18
3
1924
31
16
5
1925
25
16
3
Total
141
112
18
-
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In nearly all cases the students who went to another preparatory school went for social, not scholastic reasons.
The following table gives the number who prepared to take col- lege entrance board examinations as compared with our neighboring towns:
NUMBER OF PUPILS TAKING COLLEGE ENTRANCE BOARD EXAMINATIONS
Figures taken from records published by the college board
1921
1922
1923
1924
1925
Total
Enroll.
Reading
19
12
15
15
19
80
585
Stoneham
0
5
2
3
4
14
630
Wakefield
8
7
9
10
7
41
675
Woburn
14
15
11
9
15
64
706
Punchard
10
5
7
11
6
39
286
Medford
11
8
18
29
26
92
1320
Methuen
5
4
10
3
3
25
335
Marblehead
5
4
5
6
3
23
339
Malden
27
35
21
30
35
148
1300
Wellesley
32
21
25
29
31
138
238
Winchester
16
19
35
31
23
124
447
Norwood
16
11
11
3
2
43
606
Saugus
9
3
5
4
4
25
486
Danvers
11
6
10
6
8
41
450
Dedham
10
8
14
15
10
57
600
Everett
9
21
17
19
14
80
1500
Arlington
42
30
22
17
37
148
960
It is my opinion that the Reading High School has been extremely successful in college preparation in the last fifteen years, at least. Just recently I received notice of exceptional work in English, Latin and History done by our pupils in one of our leading colleges. A pupil who will apply himself can successfully enter any college in the United States from our four-year college course. This is based on the assump- tion that he has college ability. However, in common with other prin- cipals with whom I have talked, namely those of Cambridge, Medford, Arlington, Stoneham, Framingham, Weston, I believe a fifth year in high school, especially for the younger pupil, is of tremendous and lasting value to those who wish to go on to college.
Criteria for Secondary Education
When all is said and done the high school of today does not exist for the college pupil only. For the schools which rest on the foundation of popular will it is not to be expected nor is it fair that the objectives shall be so narrow. There are types of mind that learn by doing rather than by reading. Our several courses are justified on the grounds that the public school is for all the people. To stir the imagination, to en- hance the inclination to think, and to impart knowledge by which worth
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may be measured, and to make mental processes subject to self-discipline are some of the objectives of the programme in the Reading High School. We desire and I believe are accomplishing much in the direction of ful- fillment of the promise of the founders of free public schools, "That a finer race of honest men consecrated to religion, morality, and good gov- ernment would follow the establishment of public education."
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