USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Reading > Town of Reading Massachusetts annual report 1927 > Part 11
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A small re-examination clinic for underweight children was held by the State Department of Health May 27th, at which time cases which had been examined the previous year were re-examined.
All pupils who are tuberculosis contacts were examined at North Reading Sanitorium during April and May. The service which is available at the state sanitorium is a great asset to our tuberculosis- preventive work. At the consultant clinic at the sanitorium any suspicious case may be referred for chest examination, X-Ray, and tuberculin test. At the present time three of our Reading children are patients at North Reading. All are improving and happy in the environment that provides for the all-round development of the child.
Health Education
Great emphasis has justly been placed in education upon the in- corporation of health teaching into the various other school subjects and projects. This has been especially well worked out in the ele- mentary grades and many of the teachers are doing excellent work. The work is not confined to one part of the day or week, but is taught in connection with the language work, oral and written, spelling, games, as well as in song, crayon, and poster work. This is done in such a manner that the health work becomes more correlated with all other subjects and the pupils necessarily gain the common sense of Good Health Habits in a diversified manner.
The health instruction in the Junior High School comes under three departments : social studies, science work, physical education. Social or community health is the phase of health education which is covered in these grades.
In all the health teaching the positive aspect of health is kept uppermost in mind. The new health text books which were put into grades 3, 4, 5, and 6 this past year have been an asset to the health education program.
Other Agencies
The public health work of any community may be said to prosper to its fullest extent when there exists in that community un- deniable evidence of a hearty co-operation between its official. social, and health agencies. The successful outcome of the efforts that have been directed toward the establishment and maintenance of our Den-
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tal Clinic furnishes a satisfactory demonstration of what can be done by several agencies working in co-operation for the common good. Our dental clinic, financed by the Red Cross and the Tuberculosis Committee and supervised by the school nurse, is continuing to render a valuable and needed service to the school health program.
Again this year, through the efforts of the Good Health Commit- tee, Mrs. C. C. White, Chairman, sufficient money was raised to send fourteen children to the Health Camp at Sharon for a period of eight weeks. This same committee has provided milk for underweight child- ren, money for tonsil operations, and has assisted the school nurse in many and various ways.
The splendid support of such organizations contributes an in- dispensable part to the school program and their services are greatly appreciated.
In concluding this annual report, I desire to express sincere appreciation of the efforts of all those who assisted in any way in the general health program of the schools.
Respectfully submitted,
MABEL M. BROWN, R. N., School Nurse.
REPORT OF THE MANAGER OF SCHOOL LUNCHES 1927
Mr. A. L. Safford,
Superintendent of Schools,
Reading, Mass.
Dear Mr. Safford :
Herewith I wish to present a report on the progress and con- dition of the School Lunches, which seem to me to perform an im- portant part in promoting the health of the school children. These lunches fall under the following three heads at the present time :
1. Midmorning Milk Lunch, consisting of a bottle of Grade A milk with crackers, cost 25c. a week, served in all buildings to pupils of grades 1 to 4 inclusive. Grade A milk is a high-grade, pasteurized milk with 4% butter fat and subject to certain other regulations laid down by the State.
2. Luncheon at the Opportunity School, served at noon.
3. Regular Cafeteria Lunches, served in the Highland School to all children of grades 5 and 6; in the Junior High School to grades 7, 8, and 9; and in the Senior High School to grades 10, 11, and 12.
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The mid-morning Milk Lunch is served at about 10 o'clock. Where underweight children are unable to obtain money for it, the teacher or the Tuberculosis Committee is usually able to supply it gratis. We wish more children would take advantage of this lunch, as milk is the perfect food for children, furnishing the vitamines neces- sary for growth. The luncheon at the Opportunity School is pre- pared and served by the children themselves, under Miss . Guarnac- cia's direction. All eat together; the younger ones at their seats and the older children at tables. Working together, they clean up, wash dishes, and then go out to play a while before beginning the afternoon's work. With this small group the teachers have opportunity to teach table manners, correct eating habits, and, by having the older children help the younger ones, instill the spirit of helpfulness and leadership.
The Highland School Lunch, served at noon, consists of soups ; a hot special dish which is different every day, such as: meat-loaf with mashed potato or other vegetable, macaroni and cheese, fish chowder, lamb or beef stew; sandwiches; rolls; cocoa, milk; ice cream; fruit ; cookies; puddings; and such other things generally as children of that age should have. What was formerly the school committee room on the second floor has been made over into a well-equipped kitchen and store room. The children take their lunches to their re- spective rooms or the assembly hall and eat under the supervision of their teachers. The Principal, Miss Wakefield, is teaching the child- ren to choose wisely and welcomes suggestions from parents concern- ing the lunch their children should have. In addition to wise choosing of food she and the teachers are trying to have the children eat slowly, behave politely, and leave nothing on their plates or the floor. is a pleasure to visit the Highland School and note how well these
It children respond and with what skill they deposit the soiled dishes in neat piles on the tables and their papers in one pail and a very small amount of garbage in another. The Junior High School and Senior High School pupils might well emulate the example of the 5th and 6th grade boys and girls in their manner of eating their lunches. The Highland School Lunch started with no assets and quite a number of liabilities in the way of bills for supplies but is paying its own way. At present this lunch has the services of one full-time woman.
The Junior High School Lunch is housed in the new, fine- equipped cafeteria which seats over three hundred at one time. Lunch is served in two sections, from 11.30 to 12, and from 12 to 12.30. Lunch consists of soups, hot specials, sandwiches, cocoa, milk, ice cream, cookies, puddings, vegetables, fruits, and salads. Prices are made as low as they can be and pay expenses. No item is priced over 10c. at the present time. A good lunch can be bought for 25c. or thereabouts, while the child who brings his own sandwiches can supplement them by such items as cocoa, 4c .; ice cream, 5c .; soup, 7c .; or other food at just as reasonable rates.
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The Senior High School Lunch is running along much the same as it has been doing for the last five or six years. This lunch now employs one full-time woman and two part-time women. It has always been self-supporting and furnishes at low cost a good nourish- ing lunch at about the same prices as are prevalent at the Junior High School. A favorite hot special here is Hamburg loaf and mashed potato. Parents are urged to visit this lunch and see for themselves the quality of food served and how well the students manage with their lunches, even though they have only rough benches to sit on and no tables whatever.
There is no question but that the health of the school pupils has improved in the Senior High School since the hot noon lunch was inaugurated about six years ago. We expect corresponding results in the Junior High School and the Highland School. At the present time the School Nurse and the lunch management is starting a survey to find out just what every pupil eats for his noon meal, whether he eats it at home or at school. The idea of this survey is to stress right eating habits and the wise selection of food, where the child has the choice, as he has at the school lunch counters. The eating of a large quantity of candy is discouraged in all the lunches. In fact, candy is sold only during a small part of the lunch time in the Junior High School and the Senior High School and this comes at the close of the luncheon period. In the Highland School there is oversight of the teacher to prevent too much candy with the lunch. Consideration is being given to the banning of all candy except the home-made varieties or sweet chocolate. Children need a certain amount of sweets, but many children place it too far up in the list and need watching in this respect. Here, again, the lunch management asks advice and the co-operation of the parents.
So far as it is possible, we feel that it is better for children to have something hot and substantial at noon. At the schools we know the children can get what they need. Probably nearly all who go home have a good nourishing meal. In case a child can bring his own sandwiches, we wish he would buy from the lunch either soup or the hot special, so that he would have something warm. Then, if he has a few cents left, a little candy or ice cream may be added for dessert. The parents can help by telling the children what to buy with the ` money they have. Most children will do what their parents ask them. The aim of the lunches is to give the children what is best for them. and is not the making of money. Therefore, we do not urge the sale of any one item because there is a profit to be made. We have to pay expenses, but that is all.
Respectfully submitted,
ABIGAIL H. MINGO, Manager of Lunches.
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REPORT OF STANDARDS AND GUIDANCE 1927
Mr. Adelbert L. Safford, Supt. of Schools,
Reading, Mass.
Dear Sir :- In submitting this report for the year ending Dec. 31, 1927, I wish to express my thanks to you, the teachers in our schools and all others whose whole-hearted co-operation has made possible the successful work of this department.
During the year the work has gone steadily forward though seriously limited by the absence of Miss Wadleigh who has been out on sick leave since the opening of the schools in September. In a discussion of school affairs recently the remark was made that, "Out- side of the school department there are not a dozen persons in town who could give an intelligent answer if asked to explain the work of the Department of Standards and Guidance." While this is doubtless an exaggeration there may be enough truth in the statement to make it worth while to try to outline the program briefly in non-technical terms.
This department exists for one purpose only and that is to see that each child is so adjusted in our school system that he is working happily, learning to take his part in community life well, developing in a normal manner physically, intellectually, and morally. In order to accomplish these ends the work naturally divides into several different lines.
1st The director must visit the schools and keep in such close contact with the pupils and teachers that any problems arising may be known and considered promptly.
2nd She should become personally acquainted with the parents so as to know that side of any situation needing adjustment and to help secure that close friendship and co-operation between the home and the school which is necessary for the best interests of the child.
3rd This department must watch the personnel reports of each child to see if he is learning to live well with his companions.
4th It must be in close touch with the Health Department of the schools to know if there is any condition of physical or mental health that must be considered in planning the school routine.
5th It must watch carefully the intellectual development and make any necessary adjustments in the school curriculum and procedure.
Ever since we outgrew the little ungraded district school we have realized more and more that our system of grading, of examina- tions and report cards is pitably inadequate to measure the pupil's progress and needs. It was to meet this deficiency that experiments with tests were begun about twenty years ago. As was to be expected
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many mistakes were made at first and many fine theories had to be discarded before these tests were brought to the present stage of efficiency where their value cannot be questioned though in some cases it may be exaggerated. Tests can be divided roughly into three classes, intelligence tests, achievement tests and diagnosis tests. The first claim to measure more or less accurately the native ability of the pupil regardless of his schooling. This claim may be too broad but they do indicate at least the ease or rapidity with which a pupil can master the ordinary school subjects. One child may be able to learn twice as much arithmetic in one term as his neighbor on the left and only half as much history as his neighbor on the right.
The achievement tests measure just what he has accomplished in his school work. He may take one at the close of the year and another at the close of the following year and the results will answer among others the following questions :
(a) Has he gained a year, or more, or less ?
(b) Is he up with the majority of children of his own age, or above them, or below them?
(c) In comparison with his ability to learn as shown by the results of his intelligence tests is he doing all that we should ask of him?
The diagnostic tests are quite different from the preceding. These are given to enable the teacher to locate the trouble where progress is unsatisfactory. An example of this is the subtraction tests now being given. Just what thing is it that John does not know that causes him to fail to reach the 100% grade in this process? Is it because he is not just sure whether 5 from 9 leaves 5 or 4 or is his difficulty caused by a zero somewhere in the example or has he failed to quite grasp the method of taking 78 from 176 even if he can sub- tract 148 from 376 with no trouble. The diagnostic test will show each individual's difficulty and he can receive special drill on that one point and not waste his time on the thing that he already knows.
In Reading as soon as possible after a child enters school he is tested and grouped with those with whom for the present he can work to the best advantage. We all realize that one child develops much more rapidly than another. From now on grouping and testing go hand in hand up to the Senior High School. Testing is never done for the sake of records or statistics but only as one of the means of measuring the pupil and placing him where he can work to the best advantage. This grouping is often misunderstood. It is based often on temperament as much as on scholarship or ability. There are in every school ambitious nervous children that it would be criminal to push and 'another group of equal ability who have no intention of doing any more work than is absolutely necessary. This is only one illustration of grouping methods. Each year the grouping is based
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on class-room work, results of tests, the opinion of the teachers with whom the pupil has worked and often on home visits and conferences with the parents.
There is no set program of tests but they are given when there is need to study a class, a group, or possibly just an individual.
The guidance side of the work requires a large share of the time of the department. Individual cases must be straightened out where the pupil gets out of adjustment with the school. The causes must be found, difficulties either smoothed out or faced bravely and surmounted in such a manner that the pupil is a stronger and better boy or girl than he or she was before. The guidance in the choice of studies begins in the sixth grade where the child at the end of the year is forced to make a choice of an elective for the Junior High School. It is during the three years of his stay in this school that perhaps the greatest need for guidance exists. No one outside of the school teachers knows how many shipwrecks in the Senior High School are caused by mistakes in the courses selected. In these schools where the instruction is entirely departmental and a teacher sees a hundred or more pupils daily and none of them for more than sixty minutes at the longest there is little opportunity to become acquainted and the pupil fails to get the advice needed.
One feature in the ideal school of our dreams is that every pupil will have a personal friend in the school organization to whom both he and his parents can go freely to talk over all the problems that trouble and confuse him and thereby get help in finding the right answer.
Vocational guidance cannot be ignored in the Junior High School where many pupils are making choices that will affect their future work. We expect to begin this month a brief survey of the different occupations open to boys and girls so that they may begin to get accurate information to help them in their decisions.
As the school nurse sends a pupil whose physical condition is unsatisfactory to the skilled physician so this department has the aid of the Habit Clinic in solving difficult problems of mental health. This has met once a month during the past year and has been very helpful in the work.
The achievement clubs have done good work the past year under the fine supervision of Mrs. Rolland Perry. A poultry club is at present doing very good work under the leadership of one of the high school boys in the Agricultural Department, Eldridge Munnis. There are also two girls' clubs in the Junior High School, a food club and a clothing club.
Respectfully submitted,
IDA C. LUCAS, Director.
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REPORT OF THE ART DEPARTMENT 1927
Mr. Adelbert L. Safford,
Superintendent of Schools, Reading, Mass.
Dear Sir :- Herewith I submit my 6th annual report of the Art Department. Since our department consists of drawing and art appreciation, we no longer call it the drawing department but the art department. It may be divided into several parts: namely, drawing, painting, design, handicraft or construction, and art appreciation.
Drawing
Through drawing the pupils cultivate the habit of observation and develop the power to judge form, line, and proportion. Among the many things drawn are people, animals, furniture, buildings, trees, holiday objects, all leading into pictorial composition. It also in- cludes the theory of perspective, the foreshortening of circular and rectangular planes, the relation of objects at different distances.
Memory Drawing
Drawing from memory is always amusing and interesting to pupils and teacher. In these lessons the teacher suggests the picture to be drawn,-something or some one seen almost every day. This may be your mother, your school, your church, your dog or your cat, your automobile. The drawings are saved but never corrected by the teacher. The pupil draws from memory the best he can, observes again, returns to class and redraws or corrects his first drawing. The purpose of memory drawing is to aid in forming the habit of recalling mental images and to provide opportunity for practice in applying principles which have been learned through drawing by imitation and from objects.
Drawing from Imagination
Drawing from imagination is drawing from description or from imagined mental pictures. It includes drawing from memory, as it employs previous knowledge of form to express original ideas. Some of our best work developed from the following suggestions: Imagine and draw a circus parade going through Reading ; picture in your mind the first Christmas, Mary and Joseph, the Christ child, the wise men, the interior of the stable, and so on; incidents pertaining to the Indians, the Pilgrims, or poems that have been suggested by the pupils. We cultivate the imagination until it becomes vision.
Painting
Painting involves the use of many mediums and the intelligent handling of color. We teach color terminology and color harmonies,
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in general, in commercial art, in design, in pictures, in the home, and in dress. Colors may be light or dark, bright or dull, soft, hard, receding, formal, most becoming, stimulating, decorative, warm, cold, light absorbing, restful, etc. Colors may represent danger, courage, royalty, holiness, knowledge.
Design
The pupils develop their own original designs from the ideas and rules that are given them or from nature. Design may be geo- metric, naturalistic, abstract, or conventional. The designs are applied to useful objects which are constructed in class.
Posters
Posters involve drawing, color, and design. They carry illus- trations which connect with travel, health, school activities, proverbs, and many other things.
Handicraft
Several phases of handicraft are presented in order to give the pupils the thrill of making a decorated useful article for themselves or for Christmas gifts. All sorts of tools from a knife to a modelling tool are used, involving careful thinking, neat and most accurate work- manship.
Costume Design
Costume design is presented to the boys as well as to the girls and the basic instructions are not affected by the changing fashions. It teaches the pupil how to apply the principles of color and design to their clothes. The same may be said of the household appreciation course.
Masterpieces
Appreciation is the keynote of picture study. We must acquaint the children with the masterpieces, to interest them in our American art and to teach them how to judge pictures, sculptures, and archi- tecture. This course also includes the biography of the artist, his thought behind the picture, and the beauty in the picture. These are some of our leading questions: Does the picture interpret the title ? Does the picture really need a title? What time of day or year is it? Is the composition good? What is the center of interest? The picture shows but one moment of time. What is suggested there- fore? Past, present, or future? What have others said, written, or sung about it? What reminder of personal experience is suggested? What natural prenomenon is shown,-a storm? wind? or sunshine? How does the artist do this? What is told by the action or facial expression ?
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Criticism
Criticism of any art work is constructive, definite, and of an encouraging nature. We try not to criticise a drawing directly but indirectly by presenting illustrative, inspirational material. The day has passed for the teacher who continually looks over the shoulder of a boy or girl who is strugging to create. Children are sometimes nervous and sensitive and work best alone. The question of art is not a, ,question of facts but a question of thoughts and ideas. Many children show their personality in art when they fail to show it some- where else.
At this time I wish to thank all those who have been interested enough to help.
Respectfully submitted, M. ADELINE LAHAISE.
REPORT OF THE SUPERVISOR OF SCHOOL MUSIC 1927
Mr. Adelbert L. Safford,
Superintendent of Schools,
Reading, Mass.
1: Dear Mr. Safford :- I submit herewith a brief report of the work of the Music Department and 'resulting musical activities in the schools. In my report of last year, I mentioned several plans for the future which I hoped might be realized. I am very glad to be able to state that in the main these plans have come true, or are in a fair way to do so. The new series of music books have proved to be all that we hoped and are universally liked by teachers and pupils. Supplementary music books for grades, and separate pieces for Junior and Senior High School choruses and glee clubs are also desirable, and, I hope, may be procured in the near future.
The Grade Schools
We need fear no comparison with our work here. Earnest and painstaking efforts on the part of the teachers have resulted in splendid achievement. The regular work is well done, and more, which I shall touch on later in this section. The first and second grades are singing plenty of rote songs and will have a large experience in singing good music in this fashion before they start to learn the theory of it. Special attention is given to quality of tone, resulting in the development of light, smooth, expressive singing. Monotones are
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receiving careful individual attention, and the number to be found is steadily decreasing. The third grades are learning by imitation and comparison the first principles of reading music and know a large number of songs. These pupils show a growing appreciation of songs and singing, of inner meanings and of lovliness in expressing them. Fourth grades can read very well and find a great deal of pleasure in using this newly acquired power in reading more and more music. We are laying continued emphasis upon appreciation of songs, ear-training, reading, rhythm and tone quality. The fifth and sixth grades at the Highland School are doing most excellent work. An orchestra has been organized and rehearses regularly. It is small but promising. Throughout all schools we are developing the sense of rythm by the use of simple folk dances, clapping, marching, skipping, and the like.
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