USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Reading > Town of Reading Massachusetts annual report 1934 > Part 12
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Desirable Restorations
As soon as is economically possible, shop and domestic science work
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should be returned to the grades. What they teach is of value in itself, Even more important probably is the part they play in the education of the whole child, in giving incentive, and in providing the only type of work with which some children can successfully comp. te.
Guidance work, both educational and vocational, in the secondary schools should again receive the full time attention of a specialist in that field. It is probably impossible for the school to pick for the child a specific line of work. It can, however, render him invaluable service through directed study and individual counselling in giving him a better understanding of educational and vocational fields and in helping him to see for what broad field of work he is best fitted because of his inter- ests and abilities.
The need to again have another opportunity class is explained in the report of the Elementary Supervisor.
Salaries
As soon as it is at all possible to do so salary cuts should be restored. According to a study published on January 23, 1935 by the Massachu- setts Teachers Federation, 136 Massachusetts communities have al- ready made restorations entirely or in part. It is apparent that Read- ing is not now in a good position to compete for the type of teachers it desires. Three positions were made vacant by resignations at Christ- mas time. Two of those positions have been filled, and we feel that we are fortunate in the teachers secured. Yet, in seeking those teachers, it was evident that many desirable persons were not interested in our positions at the salaries we pay, and, what is more to the point, that there are available at that pay very few of the type of teachers that Reading desires. The teachers are the schools. If Reading wishes to secure good new teachers and to keep those now on the force, it must express that wish in its salary schedule.
Parental Co-operation
The people of Reading are interested in their schools. Their co- operation and backing are evidence of that fact. Such a situation is highly desirable, for the schools can operate at maximum efficiency only when there is complete understanding and co-operation between the schools and the parents. There must be mutual understanding of one another's problems. Parents have always been welcome visitors. I wish not only to renew this invitation, I advise the parents to visit the schools even more often.
Questions and difficulties regarding the work the children are do- ing, marks, things that have happened in the schools, etc., will inevitably arise. I would urge that the parents go directly to the teachers and principals on these matters, for ordinarily a better understanding of seemingly difficult situations will tend to clear them up.
This report is necessarily quite general in nature because of the
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brief time that I have been in Reading. I commend you to the follow- ing reports of the other supervisory officers for more specific details.
In closing I wish to express sincere appreciation for the help and co-operation that has been extended to the schools and to me. The community as a whole and many of its public and private agencies have been most helpful. I am especially indebted to the school staff and to the School Committee.
Respectfully submitted, ARTHUR E. PIERCE.
REPORT OF THE ATTENDANCE DEPARTMENT OF THE READING PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOR 1934
Mr. Arthur E. Pierce,
Superintendent of Schools,
Reading, Mass.
Dear Sir :
In conformity with the usual custom I am herewith submitting for your consideration and approval a report for the year 1934 of the work in attendance.
This department endeavors, in co-operation with other agencies in the school and community, to keep the children regularly in school so that they may receive the great benefits which may be derived from a. democratic educational system. It is hard to believe that there is need in a community like ours for this sort of work, but even here we have a certain amount of indifference, ignorance, and illiteracy, which, com- bined in most cases with certain other factors, such as poverty, make for poor school attendance. Consequently, there is need for continued and vigorous effort along this line. As I have stated many times be- fore in my reports, this work is not police work. It is distinctly social service as it means finding out the cause of the absences, of the tardi- nesses, explaining why children should not be dismissed for trivial rea- sons, what makes them wish to play truant and misbehave. When the fundamental causes are discovered, then and only then can we apply corrective measures. Consequently, the person doing this work in the schools must have an intimate knowledge of the children and their families, must be able to make personal contacts properly, must be familiar with other social agencies which can or should co-operate, and must have had experience in handling difficulties of this nature. I am glad to note that you, as did Mr. Safford under whom I worked so long, fully realize the need of continuing this work along social service lines.
The enrollment in our schools for the year ending in June 1934 was 2,317. This is a net enrollment and does not include the so-called "supplementary" list which contains the names of children enrolled.
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ยท elsewhere in the state before entering the Reading schools for the school year 1933-34. With the supplementary list included our enrollment is slightly larger and of course would give a true picture of the cxact number for the year. The total for the year, therefore, is 2434 pupils. October 1, 1933 we had in actual membership 2,297 children in all grades from the first to the post-graduate year in the high school inclusive. October 1, 1934 our age-grade table showed a total of 2312 It is clear that our numbers are increasing each year and in June 1935 our total will be still larger.
AGE GRADE TABLE Reading Schools, Oct. 1, 1934.
Grade:
Ages
5 6
7
9 10 19 8 11
12
13 14 15 16
17
18 19 20 Tls
1
67 110
2 62 107
2 54 61
29 7 153
4
3 99
66 27 8
1 204
5
10 100 67 28 6
2 213
6
7 67 94
19 8
1 3 76
77 24 7 3
8
9 64 79 28 5
9
16 59
64 27
3
10
3 73 87 10 57
33 58
13 1 7
32 2 166
12
9 59
62
14
177 4 210 151 17 10 28 1 1 188
Sub-Normal 1
2
7 3 6 6 9 2
39
Ungraded
Totals 69 174 183 199 206 205 191 139 181 192 190 166 126 35 6
2,312
The School Census taken in October 1933 by the seniors of the High School gave us 325 children between the ages of 5 and 7 years ; 1,372 between the ages of 7 and 14; and 392 between the ages of 14 and 16 years. We keep census cards on file for all these ages and for those over 16 and under 21; the latter in order to have available information for working certificates. We have also filed away cards which go back to at least ten years previous to 1934 for those who have moved away, died, or reached the age of 21 years. This year's census has not been fully checked as yet due to pressure of other work in the office, but no doubt the seniors have done a good job in rounding up nearly every- one in town of school age.
Work certificates have been issued to few this year because con- ditions are not favorable for young people who wish to go to work. In addition to this is the fact that young people in Reading quite gener- ally remain in school between the ages of 14 and 16 and many between
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1
197 /
2
27 2 200
3
7
196 190
11
4 2 2 8
13
10 and 21 are still in school here or elsewhere adding to the sum of their knowledge and training for the future. Reading has always been conspicuous for the number of minors who continue in school through the high school and beyond.
Naturally my work does not lie especially with the group of homes which tries so hard to add to the education of their children, but is confined almost exclusively to those homes where we find our under- privileged children. We have more of these than most people realize. Backed by the authority of the law regarding compulsory education, the interested support of the School Committee, and the aid I receive from other sympathetic individuals and from our social agen- cies, public and private, I hope to continue in 1935 along the same lines as in the past. This means follow-up of reported cases, visits to the homes to investigate conditions, interesting the proper persons or so- cieties where they can be of service, and enforcement of school regu- lations so far as possible without recourse to the courts. Twice this year we have gone to the court for help, which has been forthcoming. Two boys are now in Chelmsford where they are receiving the benefit of regular schooling, clean and healthy environment, and wise training in citizenship. This they could not receive in their homes and both were following a path that would eventually lead them into crime when they were sent to the county training school. I fear that some other cases must soon be referred to the court for disposition, as we are not making any progress with them ourselves at the present time.
Respectfully submitted ABIGAIL H. MINGO Supervisor of Attendance
REPORT OF THE MANAGER OF THE SCHOOL LUNCHES FOR YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31, 1934
Mr Arthur E. Pierce
Superintendent of Schools
Reading, Mass.
Dear Sir :
At this time I wish to submit a brief report concerning the opera- tion of the School Lunches for the past year. As you know, there are three of these cafeteria lunches run in the schools; one at the Senior High School, one at the Junior High School, and one at the Highland School. They have been run in the same way as during the years pre- ceding this one and always the cooks have tried each year to give better service and more appetizing choices for the children who pa- tronize them. Our menus, which have been passed on to you from time to time, show the prices to be relatively low and the choices relatively good. We have made one distinct improvement to which we wish to
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call attention; that is, we are now serving the very best grade of ice cream for the same price at which we formerly offered the regular grade last year. This French-American ice cream, so-called, has a higher butter fat content as well as a lower bacteria count and more solid content. In every way it is better and with it goes a very crisp and tasty cone, the best we can buy. We urge the parents of the chil- dren who eat at our lunches to come themselves and eat lunch there once in a while.
The lunches have managed, in spite of the low prices and the lack of buying power of the children, to end the year with all bills paid and some stock on hand to start with in 1935. When one realizes that the town subsidizes the lunches only in so far as the quarters are furnished, with gas for cooking, (or electricity in one school), and that all the help, some equipment, and all food are paid for from the receipts, he understands that there must be in the personnel very careful and eco- nomical persons.
We have been fortunate in retaining the services of these faithful workers. Without high grade help it would be impossible to maintain our very high standards of cleanliness and quality. We welcome in- spection for these factors, which, combined with pleasing and courteous ways with the children and teachers, characterize our lunch room women. There is much more need of these qualities here than appears at first. Children need to be met everywhere by courtesy and kindness if we expect them to show these characteristics to us. This element of graci- ousness I expect our women to show. Women who have lived in high grade homes themselves are the type we wish to have serving our children in Reading, who, in large part, come from such homes.
As to plans for the future, we are open to suggestions if anyone can give us concrete examples of such improvements as we are able to handle without running into debt. At all costs we have to keep on the right side of the ledger. When we can't do that, we shall have to close. We feel that we are doing a service to the children and hope we may be able to continue for some time to come in much the same way and with much the same results.
The Committee has had from time to time financial reports show- ing receipts and expenditures, and I am sure they understand that our aim is merely to insure a very small margin of profit in order to meet bills and payrolls as they come along. As I have stated above, the close of the year finds us entirely out of debt with a small amount of goods on hand to start the new year with.
Respectfully submitted ABIGAIL H. MINGO
Manager and Treasurer of Lunches
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REPORT OF THE PRINCIPAL OF THE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
Mr. Arthur E. Pierce Superintendent of Schools Reading, Massachusetts Dear Sir :
It is most fitting to note at the outset of this report that the United States from coast to coast is celebrating the 300th anniversary of the American high school. How vastly different is the modern high school from the first free public high school of 1635. The Boston Latin School three hundred years ago offered a handful of boys the Latin Classics as their preparation for living, and history records that the graduates became as a whole useful citizens. Today twenty-three hundred high schools, with a quarter of a million teachers and administrators, are training six million boys and girls to be useful citizens. That the greatest bulwark that we have against oppression, communism and revolution is our public schools, and more especially our public high schools, no reasonable person will deny.
The history of the school system in Reading is one of which its citi- zens can be justly proud. Settled by citizens who were accustomed to recognize leaders and elect them to govern their town departments in a truly American manner, Reading was assured of a good school sys- tem. What is best for the children has in the past been the slogan of Reading fathers and mothers, and there is no reason to doubt that this necessarily fundamental concept for the safeguarding of our public school system still continues. Here in Reading, as in all American communities for three centuries, thinkers and statesmen have known that .the only agency calculated to lead to social well-being is a public school system. The school system, however, is not education; it is only the "administrator of public instruction and serves a useful pur- pose only as it transmits to the children the essentials of civilized life."
As noted in former reports, the public at large still measures the quality of its high school by those who succeed in entering and re- maining in college. On this score the Reading High School has always rated high as a study of records and reports will show. The faculty, however, is equally concerned with the educational results attained by the non-college pupil. By its comprehensive plan and by the varied educational opportunities afforded by the Reading High School, a defi- nite attempt is made to adjust teaching procedures to the capacities of the pupils. Whenever the life interests of the individual pupil can be determined, an effort is made to help the pupil prepare for this ob- jective. Members of the faculty are continually trying to find out the life interest of the pupil so that they may be of most help in directing the learning of those in their charge.
The faculty, however, recognizes that we are all living in a practi- cal world and that throughout life runs a thread of minimum essentials
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which we must master if we are to be educated and of social value to our community. There is no disputing the fact that the individual must come into adjustment with the world and that the world will not adjust to him. Fortunately in Reading we have avoided the pit- falls of "soft pedagogy" and have clung tenaciously to certain funda- mentals of learning. The mastery of the vernacular, proper grounding in the manipulation of figures, an intelligent understanding of the print- ed or written word, and a knowldege of the traditions of civilization with special emphasis on their application to our present day problems of living, would seem to be the mimimum results that could be reason- ably expected of a public school. To quote from a speech by Professor Henry W. Prescott: "The art of living happily and effectively is in a large measure the same for all of us so far as education properly so- called may contribute to it. In my opinion the objective of general ed- ucation should be first, the development of clear thinking leading to in- telligent action; second, convincing and persuasive expression as a medius of expressing thought; third, the development of an imagination sensitive to the effects of literature, music, and the plastic arts; fourth the knowledge and understanding of the past and the environment of the present in those respects that vitally affect intelligent activity in our present day world."
In all our courses, and especially those not in the college curricula, we aim to use such methods as will develop valid reasoning as exempli- fied by fundamental established laws. We avoid in our teaching as much as possible stuffing the student with purely descriptive material and lay stress on the practice of rigorous thinking. In our general curriculum we stress each year English (with constant reference to grammar to emphasize the close interrelation of valid thought and clear expression) ; reading within capacities of the individual so as to develop an appetite for a continuance of this civilizing agency; mathe- matics in some form because of its usefulness in any walk of life as well as the value it has in developing a disciplined intellect; a social science, with special reference to the social, economic and cultural consequences of the industrial revolution which has so profoundly affected modern life; and a natural science which helps us to understand the meaning of the world about us. This, then. is the backbone of our general course in which we find most of our pupils. It is our aim to develop habits of critical analysis and close reasoning rather than to develop an encyclo- pedic mind.
Winston Churchill, just home from the Boer War, gave his cousin, Shane Leslie, at Eaton, the following advice: "Don't turn your mind into an ammunition wagon. Turn it into a rifle to fire off other people's ammunition." This is the philosophy behind our examinations in which we firmly believe. We believe this is one way to keep up the morale of scholarship, just as athletic morale is kept up by competition. The
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public honors the boy or girl who can do things and prove his worth under test. Of course, good tests can be developed in some subjects far better than others. This is another reason for our fundamental general curriculum for all. It gives the student a broader view of the progress he has made and a better measure of the mental power he has developed.
Latin
From time to time certain subjects drop from the curricula of schools. After a period those of really fundamental value re-appear. In the past few years there has been a tendency, because of economic reasons and because of the fact that non-scholastic pupils have in- creased in number in the high schools of the country, to look askance at the teaching of Latin and higher mathematics. Even to consider the elimination of these subjects is, of course, absurd. There will, we hope always be pupils in our schools who have high scholastic ability and these, as well as the non-scholastic pupil, should receive their share of attention. I quote here from Henry C. Morrison, former Commis- sioner of Education in New Hampshire, now of Chicago University. "The subjects which were chiefly prized as instruments of mental train- ing, notably Latin and mathematics, lent themselves readily to disci- pline in the proper intellectual sense. When they were taught well, there was little room for vagueness and uncertainty. More than that, the character of the material itself and a long pedagogical tradition made it comparatively easy to teach well. When an equation was solved, it was solved, and the process could be proved. When a sentence was construed, it was construed, and the purely logical import was clear. When the pupil did his work, he came to grips with reality and the sub- ject matter lent itself easily to constraint on the part of the teacher. Intellectual discipline .... was thus administered, at least so far as the subject itself was useful in cultural development. The process is far from being as easy in the physical sciences and still less in the social sciences. In these fields, a similar end can be achieved only by severe logical arrangement of subject matter for teaching purposes. Thoroughgoing instruction in Latin was capable of yielding true learn- ing products, or personal adaptations in the field of insights in the structure of language, and that is pretty nearly equivalent to instruc- tion in the thinking process itself."
Home Study and Subject Mastery
So many pupils fail because they will not apply themselves to the daily task of learning each day's lesson thoroughly. The learning pro- cess is an individual matter. The individual must do his own learning, and by himself. The teachers lead the way, explain, help, demonstrate, but the student must do his own learning. When a student (often the parent) complains that he is not interested in his subject, in most cases it means that the student has neglected the study of his assignments
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and, therefore has not mastered the subject. "Interest is but the name of a piece of learning after the latter has been incorporated and by reason of which the latter breeds more learning." I wish to urge on the parents the necessity of their co-operation in the matter of home lesson preparation.
Health
The educatability of an individual depends, of course, on many fac- tors. Prime among these is the question of health. Under the general guidance of Director of Physical Education Philip W. Althoff and Di- rector of Health Mabel M. Brown, there has been developed a good workable health program. All students are carefully weighed and measured three times a year, physical exercise is prescribed for all, and home conditions are investigated and measures taken to render as- sistance and give advice wherever needed. Our general program for physical education is better than ever. It includes not only the usual competitive sports but also many carry-over activities, such as swim- ming, riding, tennis and rhythmic dancing. No child needs be without healthful exercises. Not only the physical education teachers partici- pate in the direction of this program of athletics for all, but several of our class room teachers who are qualified lend a hand.
As reported in other years, the lighting in the senior high school is bad. While there is considerable current used in producing light on dull days, the location of the electric lamps is such that much of the illumination is wasted. The light rays are not properly directed. The best lighting engineering skill should be employed to correct this serious fault which is apparent to even a non-technical observer. We can learn an important lesson from bill board advertisers. They know how to illuminate their boards, so he who "runs may read." Why should not our school blackboards be as well lighted as a sign board, advertising many things which are undoubtedly of far less value to our growing youth than the subject matter presented to them on our school boards?
Guidance
In the Reading High School the principal is the chief guidance officer. He has, however, the very able assistance of the entire faculty. Our home room system lends itself splendidly to a guidance program. which, because of its impersonal and non-institutional nature, is ideal. Students have a daily half hour in their home rooms. Home room teachers have a personal record of their students as a basis for advice. Proper adjustment of courses, directive rather than corrective methods, and a knowledge of the personal ambitions of the pupils is the basis of our guidance program. Whenever the individual fails to respond to the established stimuli of his school environment and the reason is found to be lack of understanding on the part of the home, action is taken by some member of the faculty to contact the home. More often
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than not satisfactory results ensue. We are continually expanding this program.
Music
The Reading High School Band has achieved more than a local reputation for excellence. Starting as a small unit five years ago it is now a sizable organization of more than thirty pieces. This organi- zation, as well as the orchestra and chorus, has mastered worth while scores and has added much to the cultural atmosphere and pleasure of school life. Coupled with a course in music appreciation and one in voice culture, our music department, under the direction of Mr. Samuel A. W. Peck, is at last beginning to take its proper place in our educa- tional program.
Enrollment
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