USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Reading > Town of Reading Massachusetts annual report 1927 > Part 9
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The past year the class has made periodical tests of the school milk supply, and his done some testing for individuals. This is the Babcock Test for butter-fat. We hope soon to be equipped for bacterial count work.
The coming year a course in automobile repairing will be given, conducted by Mr. O. L. Dickinson in his shop on Mt. Vernon Street. A flock of shiny flivvers in perfect mechanical condition is just over the horizon. The boys will be in the shop four days a week for three months. This course is a new one at this school and its aim is to give a thorough working knowledge of the repair and maintenance of automobiles, tractors and gas engines.
Following are a few figures of interest for the past year : Enrolled in course September, 1926 21
Enrolled for more than two months
17
Enrolled June, 1927 10
Completed Ownership Projects-Poultry 5
Completed Ownership Projects-Garden
4
Completed Ownership Projects-Swine 10
Supervised work completed 8
(This is work other than ownership projects)
Total hours worked 9528
Total money earned
$3,149.51
High man for the year-Eldridge Munnis Hours worked 914
Earnings $ 579.13
The figures for the year and the summary sheets of work done show that as a rule the boy who does supervised work, i. e., who works for a high class poultry man, farmer or market gardener, earns more and probably learns more than the one who confines his work to a single project, and the boy who does both has the best chance in
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experience gained and money earned. All but four in the class did both project and supervised work. Two gardens netted over $250.00 and one poultry project over $100.00 .
The supervised work has been done on home farms and under the direction of local market gardeners and florists. Mr. Christensen has sometimes employed the entire class for rush jobs.
In addition to all this the boys have assisted in the care of the school property and athletic field, have upheld their part in sports and school activities, and have done creditable work in their other studies. One of our boys is Junior Club leader.
The department sent exhibits of its work to the Union Agri- cultural Meeting in Worcester last. January and to the Agricultural Teachers' Conference at Bristol County School in August. On the whole the year has been a happy and prosperous one for the depart- ment.
In closing I wish to thank both you and Mr. Safford for many helpful suggestions, also Mrs. Lucas for her keen interest and assis- tance in some of the problems of the year.
Very truly yours,
HERMON T. WHEELER, Agricultural Instructor.
REPORT OF THE PRINCIPAL OF THE WALTER S. PARKER JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL
Mr. A. L. Safford,
Superintendent of Schools,
Reading, Massachusetts.
Dear Sir :- In my fifth annual report I wish to discuss the facilities and use of facilities provided in the new Junior High School, changes in the subjects or subject matter, class room procedure, so-called extra-curricular activities, the need for correlation of work, the need for extension of work in guidance.
It is needless to say that the Walter S. Parker Junior High School is a source of pride and satisfaction to those more directly concerned with the functioning of the school. It should be a source of pride to every citizen of Reading. The building and its facilities for junior high school work have received considerable publicity during the past five months through the medium of the local newspaper and through public discussion. However, even with the danger of repeti- tion in some respects, I feel that a brief description of the building and
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the facilities provided therein is justified in the report. The statement that follows was prepared by the architects, Adden & Parker, at the time when the building was dedicated, and was intended for distribu- tion to the citizens of Reading. I fear, however, that it did not receive wide circulation.
Description of Walter S. Parker Junior High School-Reading, Mass.
To the observer from outside the new building appears as a very simple red brick structure of Georgian Colonial flavor, with a minimum of stonework or other trimming. The choice of style and materials was largely influenced by the need for strict economy in first cost and in upkeep in years to come; the shape, by the decision to build a build- ing which could later be added onto, providing facilities also for the High School, and saving a duplication of certain features common to both the Senior and Junior Schools. So, while the building as it stands is a complete unit in itself, it was planned and designed as a part of a Senior-Junior High School Group, the whole to be completed at such time in the future as the needs of the school system demand. Two large brick stacks which dominate the west facade of the building contain vent and boiler flues. The south stack will be removed and replaced by a tower when the Senior High School is added and this tower will form the central feature of the completed group.
Any school building erected today must consider the best edu- cational practices of the present, must look ahead to meet evident future needs, and must be elastic enough to permit such changes as experience may require. The new Walter S. Parker Junior High School has been built to provide the facilities for housing the program of studies carefully worked out in advance with the expert advice of Dr. Jesse B. Davis, Professor of Secondary Education in Boston University. Provisions have been made for a three-year course taking in the first year of the old High School.
The new building provides many facilities which were not available in the Highland building or in the High School building. The cafeteria which is housed above the auditorium is a notable feature including tables to seat about three hundred pupils at one time and a kitchen equipped with all the apparatus for storing, preparing and cook- ing all the food served. Two ranges, dish washer, Kelvinator refriger- ator, ice cream cabinet, steam tables, vegetable sinks and elevator to basement for supplies are provided.
The shop facilities, housed in the basement in a room over a hundred feet long, are particularly good. The south end of the room has been partitioned off for printing equipment provided for a group of fifteen. Next to the printing room is located the wood-working shop with its equipment for fifteen boys. Between the wood-working shop and the general shop are placed the machines which can be used by both shops and which include a hand and circular saw, one lathe,
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one edger and a grinder. The general shop is equipped to do work in sheet metal, forging and elementary electrical work. The shop policy of all good Junior High Schools is not to train expert workmen; it is rather to acquaint them with the different kinds of tools and to make them more or less skilful with their hands in using tools-the kind of knowledge and skill that every layman ought to possess. The training is sometimes spoken of as pre-vocational. It gives the boys at least an appreciative knowledge of various trades and helps them to discover any latent abilities connected with the use of tools.
The Household Arts department is located on the top floor in two large rooms, one for sewing, and one for cooking. The cooking room is laid out on the unit kitchen plan. Each unit is planned for four girls and contains all of the facilities and equipment found in a well-planned kitchen. This arrangement is most strongly recommended because it is more nearly like the home conditions and consequently there is much greater carry-over value from the school to the home kitchen.
One of the best features of the school is the equipment for physical training which is housed in the north end of the plant. The 60 ft. x 80 ft. gymnasium is on a level with the main floor and is well lighted and ventilated. A drop curtain divides the room into two smaller gymnasiums 40 ft. x 60 ft. each, one for the boys and one for the girls. Directly below the gymnasium in the basement are the shower rooms and gymnasium locker rooms which are easily accessible by means of separate staircases.
Two instructor's rooms are provided with private toilets, closets and windows into the gymnasium. Also in the basement between the girls' locker room and the shop, is a small corrective gymnasium the size of a regular class room. This will make it possible for the Junior High school to carry out a program of corrective gymnastics which is very much needed. Excellent facilities for outdoor physical training and athletics will become available on the level area east of the school when money for the surfacing is appropriated by the town.
The library is located on the second floor facing the courtyard and will seat fifty pupils at one time. Connected with the library and so located that they can be supervised by the Librarian are two small conference rooms. These rooms make possible conferences between pupil and teacher or among small groups of pupils working on a common project. Opposite the library are two classrooms separated by a folding partition. By this arrangement, two rooms may be thrown into one for forum work or to provide a study hall. These rooms will be used this year for seventh and eighth grade mathe- matics in connection with the plan of individual instruction which has been adopted. At the north end of the corridor on the second floor
.
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is a room equipped for the use by the school nurse and physician. It will also serve as a rest room for girls.
The outstanding features of the very attractive auditorium are the sloping floor and large stage. The stage is really big enough so that large groups can participate in dramatics which are popular in the Junior High School. Also the compact layout of the Assembly hall makes it particularly well adapted for pupil speaking which is now considered so important a part of the child's school training.
The art room is on the top floor. Its north lighting, large sink, cabinets and drawing tables make it admirably well equipped for its purpose.
The two general science laboratories are also on the top floor. These rooms are equipped in accordance with best features for Junior High School science including sink, teacher's demonstration table, stor- age cabinets, flat top pupils' tables connected with gas anl electricity for experimental purposes. Between the two laboratories is a storage room for general science supplies, and a work room where the teachers may prepare their experiments and get ready for the day's work.
Excellent toilet facilities are provided for boys and girls on each floor. Also there are emergency toilets in the rear of the auditorium. Drinking fountains are found in each corridor. The building is excep- tionally well supplied with stairs and exits.
The plant is divided into three units, each one of which may be shut off from the other two and used independently. One unit houses the main school; one the gymnasium, showers and lockers; one the auditorium and cafeteria. Both auditorium and cafeteria are capable of enlargement and adaptable to the use of both Senior and Junior Schools upon the completion of the former.
There are approximately 30 classroom units in the present building. Throughout, corridor and general toilet room floors are con- crete on steel framing, as is also the auditorium floor; elsewhere the floors are of wood, the roof is wood construction with tar and gravel top, and the corridor floors are covered with linoleum. All stairs are iron and cement and main stairways are enclosed in unplastered brick walls.
The lockers for pupils' clothing are steel, distributed in the corridors throughout the building. Except in the auditorium, finish is of oak, stained.
The building, which is designed to accommodate in excess of eight hundred pupils, is admirably planned and equipped to give each boy and girl the facilities which should pertain to a modern Junior High School.
I wish to supplement the above statement regarding actual use. Nearly five hundred pupils are eating their lunch daily in the cafeteria. Some of them bring their lunch in part from home and purchase milk, hot cocoa, or hot soup; some secure all their lunch at the school. The
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pupils are organized around the tables in home-room groups. The procedure in the cafeteria is determined to quite an extent by student organization, but each home-room group is supervised by the home-room teacher. This type of organization makes it possible to give attention to habits of eating and individual behavior. At the same time an effort is made to preserve a feeling of relaxation and sociability that should characterize the luncheon period. Pupils have been encouraged to wash their hands before going to the cafeteria, but as yet the effort has not met with much success. The general standard of conduct sought is that which is found in any desirable public lunch-room.
The shop facilities have been well-stated above. I feel that the general shop policy in the junior high school deserves more elabora- tion. In an age when specialization seems to be the key note, there is a tendency to overlook very real dangers of over-specialization. Franklin K. Bobbitt of Chicago who is recognized as one of the outstanding authorities in the country on curriculum making has well said that whereas most of the productive work of the world is being done and will continue to be done by specialized occupations, yet a good deal of the world's work must always be done by unspecialized activities. For example. when it becomes necessary to call in the electrician to complete a connection on the electric washing machine, or the carpenter to instal a simple device for kitchen convenience, the resulting waste to society of time utilized, of efforts expended by the telephone exchange, office help, and postal service stamps over- specialization as uneconomical. Furthermore, if an individual cannot recognize the trade marks of a job well done, or, because of ignorance, allows a plumber in slack season to consume twice the amount of time necessary to complete a simple plumbing job, over-specialization has made the average individual incapable of meeting unforseen emergencies, and encourages parasitism. The above examples ought to give more meaning to the statement that "the shop policy of all good junior high schools is not to train expert workmen; it is rather to acquaint them with the different kinds of tools and make them more or less skilful with their hands in using tools-the kind of knowledge and skill that every layman ought to posess." Then if the state- ment is added that the shop activities should give the boy at least an appreciative knowledge of various trades and help him to discover any latent abilities connected with the use of tools, the position is well taken that the general shop is not only an important part of the junior high school but that it is justified as part of the prescribed work for all. There is still a long road to travel before the specific activities have been determined that will best contribute to the above objective, and before teachers can be secured who are expertly trained for the job. Nevertheless, progress is being made and there is every hope for future success.
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Space will not permit a detailed discussion of policy relative to the Household Arts and elementary business training. However, the same argument in general applies as in the shop activities. In the junior high school much of the work is general and unspecialized rather than strictly vocational. By means of material in itself worthwhile the junior high school should give a pre-view of general fields of activity for the purpose of developing unspecialized abilities and appreciation, and broadening information in the general fields of activity. It gives the pupil more of an opportunity to discover latent abilities and to more intelligently plan future work with a greater degree of success.
Some changes or alterations in subject matter have been effected this year that deserve mention. The first has to do with the shop work and has been discussed in the previous paragraph. The strictly wood-working unit has been retained, but to that has been added the units in general shop and printing. The printing will probably never be justified as prescribed work for all, and yet it posseses exceptional educational possibilities for some pupils because of its appeal and close correlation with many of the subjects of the curriculum such as English, spelling, mathematics, and art. The activities of the other shop units are gradually being organized in accordance with the policies suggested above. For example, the outline for a course in home mechanics is now being prepared by Mr. Draper of the Manual Arts Department for possible use next year. No changes have been made in the pro- gram of studies for the ninth year pupils except in the units of health and civics which have previously been offered one-half year each. The unit of health or hygiene has been made a part of the work in physical training and one period per week is allowed for that phase of physical education work in the ninth year. The unit of work in community civics is now included in the course in social studies that is required for all throughout the junior high school period. This eliminates a certain amount of duplication that previously existed in the seventh and ninth grade work, and also makes it possible to follow through the Rugg outline of social studies as suggested for the junior high school.
The Rugg plan of social studies has been used in Reading Junior High School long enough, perhaps, to merit the following comments in its support. A course in social studies, whether it be history and geography as separate units of study or it be something else, has for its object a training in citizenship which is one of the cardinal principles of secondary education. A training in citizenship, if it is to be effective, must to some extent at least make the individual conscious of, interested in, intelligent about, and responsible for duties, interests, usages, and problems that have their foundation in the various fields of sociology, economics, geography, civics, social and politi- cal history. For at least ten years educators have in print and oral speech proclaimed that schools were not facing the need and yet
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school practice is just beginning to do something about it. Writers on secondary education are nearly unanimous relative to the following matters: (1) The policy of teaching history chronologically is wrong. The material is all good to know if time permitted, but much of it is not essential to an understanding of social phenomena. Furthermore, the average pupil, as Dr. Jesse B. Davis says, never gets beyond the middle ages. History in its treatment has not dealt sufficiently with the development of present day social problems. (2) Geography has either not been taught at all in the secondary school or it has developed into an acquisition of fact information. (3) In the courses offered, current industrial, social, political, economic, and moral problems have either not been adequately treated or not even mentioned. (4) Factors of differentation in society that make social integration very difficult have been disregarded for the most part. Some of these have been mentionad by Douglass as (a) different conceptions of the value of democratic government and functions of public officials; (b) differ- ences that produce sects ; (c)misconceptions as to freedom of speech ; (d) different standards of living.
All that has been said indicates the need of a scientific basis for determining the abilities and qualifications necessary for good citizenship. Harold O. Rugg and his associates at Columbia University have undertaken that problem and the pamphlets that are being used in the Walter S. Parker Junior High School are the experimental edition of materials prepared by the above authors. The materials may be open to criticism in some respects, but they are at least a decided step in the direction of more intelligent, better citizenship.
Much has been said in previous reports regarding improvement in class room precedure. This phase of the Junior High School work has received a good deal of publicity in the past few months through newspaper articles contributed by some of the departments. This report, then, will limit itself to general underlying principles motivating class room procedure in the junior high school. In the elementary school the pupil is largely dependent upon the teacher. She encourages, scolds, or dictates as the situation may require. The pupils' specific activities are planned for him from hour to hour. In the senior high school the situation is quite different. The pupil is expected to shoulder a good deal of responsibility both for conduct and scholastic achieve- ment. The class period is for the purpose of checking up assigned work and for the development of new work. However, the preparation is done outside the class period and the pupil is placed upon his own resources in seeing that it is done. Obviously, the successful transition from one extreme to the other is not a matter of over night achieve- ment, as the pupil mortality in the 9th year of the old 8-4 organization proved. It is clearly one of the functions of the junior high school to provide a gradual transition from the elementary school to the senior high school. The pupil must learn to accept more responsibility for
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behavior, must develop good work habits, must learn to supply himself with materials for work, to carry jobs through to completion, to budget time, to be responsible for all of the required work satisfactorily done within the limits of his rate of achievement. In short, the pupil must acquire initiative, independence, and resourcefulness. Many of the teachers at the Walter S. Parker Junior High School believe that results can best be achieved by use of the so-called "Individual Method" which is being used in modified form in various places but notably in Bronx- ville, N. Y., and Winnetka, Ill. The adoption of the "Individual Method" in the Walter S. Parker Junior High School does not utilize all of the features of the original plan. It does, however, stress the organization of the classroom as a workshop and the class period as a work period, in which the teacher directs and supervises the learning by the child, but gradually shifts responsibility onto the pupil for his progress. Furthermore, the Reading plan utilizes the individual, short-period as- signments based on different levels of achievement, that guarantees that each pupil will do all of the required work in accordance with his rate and capacity of achievement. It also enables the teacher to be definitely (not vaguely) familiar with each pupil's problems as to weak and strong characteristics and scholastic needs. For a more detailed statement relative to this phase of the school work at the Walter . S. Parker Junior High School reference is made to articles that recently appeared in the Chronicle dealing with the "Individual Method" as applied to mathematics, social studies, and English, also to an article prepared by Mr. Belmore of the social study department and appearing in the February issue of the Massachusetts Teachers' Federation paper, "Common Ground." 7 1
The junior high school in practice is doing a good deal toward eliminating the distinction commonly recognized between the so-called extra-curricular activities and the other activities of the curriculm. In this group of activities are included club work, orchestra, student organization, school paper, etc. From the point of view of self activity (learning by doing) interest, and co-operative learning, these special activities possess exceptional educational values. Douglas has said that "the final aspect of socilization of secondary education is the development of the so-called extra curricular activities." The orchestra and club work at the Walter S. Parker Junior High School show about the same level of achievement as last year. The student organization has been more active in some respects and less active in others. The department of public works in conjunction with the depart- ment of safety did a very commendable piece of work in the Fall in regulating traffic on the school grounds, and in preventing pupils from using the short cut across the railroad tracks. Electric lights are needed along the entrance to the school in order that individuals attend- ing evening activities at the school may see to travel in the paths and not on the lawn. The first issue of the school paper, "The Parker Quill,"
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is now in the print shop. This paper is sponsored by Miss Warren of the English Department and Mr. Draper of the Printing Department. The ninth grade pupils enjoyed a very attractive Christmas party in December. A good deal of attention was given to preliminary instruc- tion in etiquette and proper procedure, and the pupils who attended acquitted themselves admirably. An Athletic association has been organized at the school, and very successful boys' and girls' basketball teams have been developed. The spirit and morale of the school as a whole is very good.
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