USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Reading > Town of Reading Massachusetts annual report 1927 > Part 10
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There is a distinct need for better correlation of work at the Walter S. Parker Junior High School. In the penmanship work, Miss Cameron has an understanding with her pupils that their penmanship progress will not be determined as much by the quality of writing done in the penmanship period as by the quality of writing in the other classes, as English or Social Studies. The other teachers are co-opera- ting in this matter and there are bound to be good results. There should be more of this type of activity.
"Since language is the tool of thinking, every teacher is neces- sarily a teacher of language in proportion as he stimulates thinking in his own field." This statement implies the generally accepted principle that clear thinking and good expression go hand in hand, and that one is the outcome of the other. This principle necessitates that all teachers become co-workers in the teaching of the English language, and that improvement may be expected to be in proportion to the actual func- tioning of that principle in practice. Motivation in expression demands that there be something vital for the pupil to express, and that there be real opportunities for expression. Conditions determining real opportunities for expression are dependent upon normal and natural situations and felt needs for expression largely as a result of thinking. The above requirements are more often complied with in the depart- ment of Social Studies, for instance, than in the English class. Con- sequently, the social study teacher has an excellent opportunity to be a real teacher of English expression. Furthermore, expression must be guided. Guidance in better expression demands attention to certain mechanics of expression that foster the formation of habits of correct- ness in both written and oral expression. Some of these are: habits of correct usage; correct pronunciation ; good enunciation ; good form, order, and arrangement as to margins, spacing, paragraphing, capitali- zation, punctuation, etc. Habits fostered in the English class must not be counteracted by non-contributing conditions in other classes. English teachers must take the initiative in supplying the original stimuli, in fostering a desire for correct oral and written speech, and in develop- ing an attitude of self-checking. The other teachers must help to complete the process of habit formation.
The major part of the health work belongs in the department of physical training, particularly that part dealing with personal hygiene.
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However, part of the health education belongs in the social study program under the heading of Community health and hygiene. Again, general science deals quite vitally with health education in the scientific aspects of hygiene. Obviously, health education can be taught most effectively, when each of the above departments know what the others are contributing, and their relationship to the ultimate aim.
Much could be said regarding the possibilities for correlation of the business practice, shop work, printing and mathematics; for corre- lation of art with the other subjects; finally, the correlation of most of the subjects with the extra curricula activities such as dramatics, etc. A good deal is being done, but much more would be desirable.
A complete consideration of educational guidance in the junior high school would require much more space than is available in this report. The junior high school has many functions to perform. It must carry on the integrating education of the elementary school that aims to make the pupils like minded, similarly skilled, and similarly informed in many respects. It must also lay the foundation for, and to some extent begin a defferentiating education resulting eventually in the choice of a vocation based upon individual aptitude and capacity. In this kind of a program, each pupil's progress should be followed in detail in an effort to become more familiar with him-his environment, social tendencies, past record, limitations, and strong points. A good deal of the work in the first two years of the junior high school is general in content so as to give a sort of pre-view of the different major fields of activity ; to give the pupil as much actual experience in these various fields as possible in order that the pupil as well as the teacher may have a more intelligent basis upon which the pupil must make a future choice of school offerings. Thus we have the appearance of General Mathematics, General Science, General Shop, Elementary Business Training. All of these courses offer through material in itself worth while, an opportunity for the pupil to get some experience and at least a bird's eye view of what he must later choose from. With the departmentalized work, each teacher is making a certain con- tribution to the objective, but there must be a definite organization to co-ordinate and bring together in usable form the information and results necessary to aid and advise pupils in solving the problems that arise in connection with their school progress. This is the particular job of the educational guidance department. The guidance workers are regular teachers specially trained for their work, and are given suffi- cient time for their special duties. The guidance worker has access to intelligence and achievement information, facts regarding behavior, and habits of work. The activities of pupils in and out of school are fol- lowed closely and information secured regarding interests, aptitudes, strength and weakness. The guidance worker depends upon the class teachers, home-room teachers, and other agencies for information They employ personal interviews with pupils, group interviews, and
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class interviews for certain purposes. If the work is well done, the guidance department presents an agency that follows intelligently and sympathetically the progress of each boy and girl. It offers construc- tive aid for the pupil, and at least helps him take his next step forward with a greater assurance of success.
A beginning was made this year in the organization of a guidance department at the Walter S. Parker Junior High School. The three teachers assigned to guidance work, have not been relieved suffi- ciently from their regular teaching duties to make much headway with guidance work. However, at a conference in the fall, they did make out a definite plan of procedure that is hereby submitted :
List of Activities pertaining to the Guidance Program to be directed by the three class advisers, working in conjunction with home- room teachers and subject teachers.
1. To offer a general course in occupational problems and information.
2. Case conference period-Ethical guidance-An attempt to help the pupils construct a code of ethics for themselves. To be introduced in the home-room period on Wednesday.
3. Supervision of pupils' participation in extra-curricular activities.
4. Supervision of Remedial work.
5. Handling results of tests-psychological and achievement.
6. Pupils leaving school-in as far as possible to anticipate those pupils.
7. Home contacts-particularly, special cases.
8. Make observation preparatory to recommendation for three year program after pupil leaves Junior High School.
9. Three year follow up.
The three class advisers, in their first conference, decided to begin work on these activities at once as time permitted.
It is strongly recommended that facilities be made available in the near future to carry out fully the program suggested above.
In closing this report particular mention is made of the spirit of unity and good will that characterizes the teaching corps. I fully realize that whatever success is achieved at the Walter S. Parker Junior High School is due to their united efforts in making the school a credit to themselves and to the Town of Reading.
Respectfully submitted,
RAYMOND W. BLAISDELL, Principal.
Walter S. Parker Junior High School
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WALTER S. PARKER JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL Building Commission
Appointed Members JOSEPH D. KNIGHT, Chairman HENRY R. JOHNSON ROBERT E. PARKER
School Committee 1926-1927
ALBERT R. SHEPARDSON (Deceased)
MARION B. TEMPLE JOSEPHINE L. FOWLER
DR. HAROLD A. CARNES MALCOLM C. DAVIS, Secretary
1926 RUTH A. LUMSDEN
1927
CARL M. SPENCER
ARTHUR W. COOLIDGE
Architects
Adden & Parker
Heating Engineer
Frank W. Howard
Landscape
Harry E. Smith
General Contractor P. G. DeArmond & Son, Westboro Heating & Plumbing J. S. Cassedy, Cambridge
Town voted to purchase site
June 8, 1925
Voted to proceed with construction
May 24, 1926
Corner Stone laid
November 7, 1926
Building occupied
September 7, 1927
Dedication
October 18, 1927
Cost of site
$20,000
Cost of building and equipment
Cost of grading
$387.500 $30.000
BOILER
JANITOR
COAL
TRANS- FORMER
TAN ROOM
TAN ROOM
VASSACL
STORACL
UNPACKING ROOM
GYM STAIR HALL
PLENUM CIANDER
PLESUR CHADDER
CORRIDOR
SHOPS
CORRECTIVE GYMAASICA
GIRLS LOCKLO ROOM
STAIR MAL
-
. . .
Basement
LOBBY
TEACHERS
BOYS' CYMIASIVA
CLASS ROOM
WORTI 1 LACALRS
TEACHERS
GIRLS C & BOYS'
JANITOR
CORRIDOR
COMERLICE
CLASS ROOM
CLASS ROOM
CLASS VOOM
GIRLS' CTR.
CIQLS' CYMMASION
INSTRUCTOR
First Floor
BOYS' GYR
STRUCTOR
LASST
ELECTRIC SERVICE
DOYS LOCKER ROOM
DICYCLE ROOM
PRINTING
cour-
LIBRARY
200
CLASS ROCA
CONF
FORLI TOILET
STORAGE
CORRIDOR
UPPER PART ~ CYRIASIDES
C1135 LOOM
CLASS
200M
CLASS ROOM.
CLASS 200M
CLASS ROOM
CLASS ROOM
TURSES'
Second Floor
.
.
CAFETELIA
SEWING DOOF
COOKING ROOM
GIRLS BOYS TOILETTOILET
Fas ...
F
CORRIDOR
DRAWING LOOK
CESERAL SCIENCE
GENERAL SCIEICE
CLASS LOOM
CLASS LOOM
CLASS ROOM
Third Floor
GYM
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REPORT OF THE CENTRAL PRIMARY SCHOOLS 1927
INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL
Grades 1-4 and grades 5 and 6 combined, in the Highland School
Mr. Adelbert L. Safford,
Superintendent of Schools,
Reading, Mass.
Dear Sir :- This year the Central District includes the Primary Grades 1-4 in the Union Street, Center, and Highland schools, and the Intermediate School, made up of all fifth and sixth grades combined in the Highland School. In the Union Street School there are first and second grades and in the Center School second, third and fourth grades. The Highland School has one room of first and second grades, one room of third and fourth grades; three rooms of fifth grades; four rooms of sixth grades, and one room of fifth and sixth grades combined. The Oportunity School in the Channel House and the Home-making School in the Grouard House are organized as departments of the Highland School.
Two rooms at the Center School are not being used as class rooms but one will probably be required next year, as the second and third grades are crowded and the number of pupils entering the first grade at the Union Street School was the same as last year in spite of the redistricting.
At the beginning of the year the 90 pupils entering the first grade were given the Detroit Kindergarten Intelligence Test, which is an individual test. They were grouped according to their mental age.
Last year the Courtis-Smith Picture-Story Reading Method was used with the youngest group in the first grade with such satis- factory results that it has been introduced in all the first grades. With this method each pupil works independently and progresses as rap- idly as he can do the work. If a pupil is absent for a long period he can work with a lower group even in another room, if necessary. In this way no time is lost as the older and quicker children do not have to wait for the slower ones and the slower children get more individual help. It is very interesting to watch the progression and see how quickly some of the pupils learn to read. There is a great deal of hand work in this system so that the pupils learn many things besides learning to read. After three months' work with this method, the highest group are able to read other primers.
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We have had students from the Salem State Normal School and from the Lesley Normal School as student-teachers in this building.
The work in the Center School is the same as in previous years. The two rooms which are not used as class rooms are used by the student-teachers from Salem Normal School for divisions of classes from other rooms. In this way the study periods are shortened and much individual help can be given. One room is used by the school nurse for physical examinations and is to be fitted up as an exhibition room to show the health work being done in the schools. We hope some time to use it as an open-air room for a special class.
In the Highland School the rooms used for the first four grades are crowded, so that it may be necessary to re-district the town again or use another room for these grades.
The organization of all the fifth and sixth grade pupils in the Highland School instead of having some of them in the outlying dis- tricts is the newest plan in the school system. The session is from 8.30 to 2.30 and the work is departmentalized. The periods are shorter than in the Junior High School, but, after two years' training here, the pupil, on entering the Junior High School, should have no difficulty in adapting himself to new conditions.
Some parents feel that the session is too long for pupils of this age but with the time spent with physical training and the lunch period taken out the time spent on academic work is no longer than by the two-session plan. In fact many mothers have reported that their children do not get so tired as they did with two sessions. The attendance has been unusually good and the tardiness much less than under the two session plan. This was surprising, as it was feared that many would be tardy on account of the earlier opening hour. By having one session and organizing the fifth and sixth grades in this way it was possible to have each week lessons in manual training for the boys and sewing and a home-making course for the girls. We are fortunate in having Mr. Boehm of the Senior High School staff for the manual training. The boys have taken hold of their manual train- ing with great enthusiasm. Lively activity was shown in planning different articles to be made, such as footstools, tabourets, and tool chests. Many little "Lindy's" have built their own "We's." The boys work out their own ideas for their own good, which in turn must be for the good of the community. The objective of the sewing is to take up work and projects which shall meet the needs of everyday life. In the fifth grade, the girls are taught different stitches and the kinds of material appropriate for the project. Also a discussion on weaving cloth is given to acquaint the girls with the warp and woof of the material. The sixth grade girls learn different kinds of mending, buttonholing, sewing on buttons, and an embroidering stitch. Once a week the girls go to the Grouard House. One week they have sew-
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ing and the next instruction in home making. The home-making course is new for these grades and is correlated with science and health. Under home management are discussed such topics as water, air, heat, lighting of the house, furnishings and care of the home, cleanliness, laundering, and family health, with special reference to the girl's own share in the home. House and floor plans are made and color harmony and the placing of furniture are studied. The girls are taught what a well-planned kitchen is and have an opportunity to work out their plans and help in the care of the kitchen. In con- nection with the cooking they learn the purpose of food and the im- portance of a well-balanced menu.
The girls of the sixth grade also have a class in mothercraft with Miss Brown, the school nurse. By demonstration they are taught how to care for the younger children in the home. This is very im- portant as many of the girls have to be "little mothers." At the same period the boys are given their lesson in fathercraft. Father- craft is a sub-topic in civics or citizenship, which stresses the home duties that belong to the boy. It begins in personal hygiene, em- phasizing cleanliness and sanitation in the house and out of doors. The boys are given a problem and through practical play-experiences they learn that fathers have a duty in the home a's well as the sons. The practical play-experiences stimulate effort along many lines, keep- ing constantly in mind usefulness in the home first and later branching out to usefulness to the community. A community consists of many homes, so the first lessons in good citizenship may well pertain to the welfare of the home.
At the beginning of the year the students were given physical examinations, so that any defects might be discovered and remedied. In connection with physcial education, which includes school-room gymnastics, out-door group games, and some apparatus work, we have health periods when personal hygiene and right habits and principles of living are taught. A trained teacher spends almost the whole of her time on this work.
Having one session necessitates the pupils having their lunches at school, although those who live near are allowed to go home for lunch. The room formerly used as the school committee room has been made into a well-equipped kitchen. Here the pupils may buy their whole lunch or soup, milk, cocoa, ice cream, cookies, and other food to supplement the lunches brought from home. The lunches are eaten in the class rooms or the assembly hall, under the supervision of the teachers. After the lunches are eaten the pupils return their dishes to the kitchen, stack them in piles and place their papers in the waste basket and the garbage, if any, in a pail. The rooms and hall are put in order and if the weather is suitable the children go out on the playground for a few minutes relaxation.
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The Opportunity School has two classes, as it had last year. One group is doing Primary work and the other is doing work up to the sixth grade. The primary group is using the Courtis-Smith Pic- ture-Story Reading Lessons with remarkable success. Pupils who had attended the first grade for two years without learning to read are mak- ing rapid progress and several will be able to attend a regular second grade class next year.
In spite of the fact that many of the projects are new, I feel that the work is being done in a very satisfactory manner. We shall be glad to have any suggestions whereby we may improve what we are trying to accomplish.
Respectfully submitted, M. GRACE WAKEFIELD.
REPORT OF THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT 1927
Mr. Adelbert L. Safford, Supt.,
Reading, Mass.
Dear Sir :- I herewith submit the report of the health depart- ment for the year ending December 31, 1927.
This department has continued to operate along the same gen- eral lines as in previous years. For some time past investigators have shown increasingly significant evidence of the close relationship that exists between the condition of the body and that of the mind: that the mind is a function of the body and the child's physical condition is registered in his mental states in a very important and definite manner. For this reason the school has no more engaging problem than in securing and maintaining of physical fitness among the pupils under its charge. This, however, can only be accomplished by bring- ing into co-ordination the forces essential to the attainment of such a goal; namely, the home, the school, and the child's own interest.
Within the school itself there is need for co-ordination. Any health program to be fully effective must be an integral part of the school system. There is at all times continuous and conscious effort on the part of the health department to fit in with the rest of the school program.
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Medical Department
For the past three years a complete physical examination has been given to the first grade children, those of the opportunity school, and to special cases. This year the work has been extended to include all the elementary schools. From September to the Christmas recess 768 children have been given physcial examinations. The total number of defects found was 313, tabulated as follows :
Enlarged tonsils, adenoids, or glands. 167
Defective teeth 115
Heart conditions 10
Suspicious chest conditions 2
Hernia
8
Miscellaneous 11
The number of children with postural defects is not included in the above figures. If they were included, the aggregate number of defects would be materially increased. There is need for posture work in all our schools and it is hoped that in the near future the service which is now available in the Highland, Junior High, and Senior High schools may be extended to the first four grades.
The making of the physcial examination has required a great deal of time on the part of both the school physician and the school nurse. The subsequent follow-up by the school nurse in cases where defects were found has meant an additional expenditure of time and effort. The value of the physical examination, however, is a point which has always been emphasized by the department and we feel that the results obtained have warranted the effort which the work en- tailed. Many of the defects have already been corrected; several are under treatment; and one pupil is awaiting admission to a State san- itorium, as a result of the findings at the time of the school examina- tion. The parents have co-operated in the enterprise to a gratifying degree.
From the standpoint of public health, as well as from the broad standpoint of education, the significance of the pre-school child has within the last few years received new emphasis. Sir Arthur New- sholme, late principal medical officer in England, observed that the chief value of medical inspection of school children has been to dem- onstrate the extent to which children of school age are suffering from defects and disease which might have been prevented or minimized by attention to the pre-school period. Our local Pre-School Clinic has been an outgrowth of this same observation and has tone remarkable work in supervising children's health up to school age. Last year the clinic conducted a round-up of children about to enter school. In order to alleviate the work at the Pre-School Clinic, as well as to re- duce the number in the first grades to be examined in the fall, clinics were held in May and June at the Lowell Street School, the Prospect
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Street School, and the Union Street School, to examine children who were coming to school in September. At the same time and during the following two months cases were also examined at the Pre-School Clinic. Altogether 74 children were examined and approximately 40% were found to have physical defects. The correction of defects through the summer was disappointingly slight.
In addition to the health examinations, a monthly inspection has been made by the school nurse for the detection of contagion, for superficial physical defects, and for cleanliness. Daily inspection in cases of contagion has been made by both Dr. Henderson and the nurse. All pupils in the elementary schools have been weighed and measured three times during the year and the underweights have been weighed monthly.
Physical Education Department
Health education can be promoted only by emphasizing all as- pects of health: physical, mental, social and moral. Upon this basis the physical education activities in our schools make a considerable contribution to the general health program. One of the most import- ant inter-relationships of physical education with other aspects of health education is in the psychology of motivation. It is an important and striking fact that pupils in order to be fit to take part successfully in games and sports will observe all rules of health.
A notable addition to the physical education department of the town has been the placing of a trained physical education teacher in the Highland School. This means that the Highland, Junior High, and Senior High schools are adequately covered by trained physical education teachers. There is now need for supervision of the lower grades so that the work may be increasingly more preventive and less corrective in the upper grades, as it necessarily is under the present arrangement. With such supervision and the organization of a central posture clinic our physical education program would cover the whole period of the child's development up to the completion of the Senior High School.
The corrective posture work which has been undertaken by Miss Nelson and Mr. Aldred in the Senior High School deserves com- mendation.
Clinics
The Schick clinic functioned from March 18th to April 14th with an average attendance of 91 children. Clinics were held on March 18, March 22, March 25, April 7, and April 14. There has been very little diphtheria in Reading for the past five years. With the inven- tion of a definite prophylaxis against diphtheria, such as we have in the Schick test and in immunization, there is no excuse for any diph- theria in our town.
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This past year completes the seventh year of the Dental Clinic. There have been no changes in the staff or policies of the clinic during the past year. A report of the work at the clinic for the school year 1926-27 is as follows: 305 examinations; 260 prophylaxes ; 1401 fillings ; 415 extractions; 115 treatments. Two hundred and ninety-four chil- dren attended the clinic, with an average of four visits each. Eighty-two new children were enrolled and two hundred seventy-five completed cases were discharged.
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