USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Reading > Town of Reading Massachusetts annual report 1945 > Part 11
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8. On the whole, the students have done well on their first jobs, as the majority are still working for the same firms. This indicates not only efficiency on the job, but also a well-adjusted personality. It may also, however, indicate lack of ambition.
9. Although the National Clerical Ability Test and the job folder did not figure prominently during these years, they will become increas- ingly important when jobs are less plentiful.
10. The average student found English the most valuable subject in spite of its unpopularity while in school.
11. Most of the students reported history as the least helpful sub- ject. This is probably due to two reasons : first, girls in the commercial department, strangely enough, do not particularly like history; second, history is one of those subjects whose direct influence is difficult to trace but whose indirect influence can be of great importance.
12. Although there is no co-operative work plan at the Reading High School, most of these students did part-time work while at school. Whether or not this will continue when jobs are less plentiful is ques- tionable. It would be desirable for all to do part-time work as part of their training, particularly if it were done under a trained high school supervisor.
13. Many students seem to feel that the school helped them a great deal socially as well as scholastically.
14. The principal weakness seems to lie in the fact that inadequate preparation is given in office machines. This is due to lack of sufficient machines for proper instruction, lack of space to keep these machines, and lack of time (both for students and for teachers) for proper in- struction.
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0000
00
0000
000
Commercial Class, Senior High School
The High School issued last spring a detailed program of studies to aid its own students and the 9th grade of the Junior High School to de- velop thorough teacher-guidance a pattern of courses which would most nearly meet individual objectives. It was so made that a student desir- ing to enter any profession, trade. or other work could see how the High School could help him. This publication was of great assistance both to teachers and pupils.
During the last two or three years Reading High School teachers, due to the decline in enrollments, have had the opportunity to accomplish much more intensive and individual work with students. This has in- creased the per capita cost somewhat though it has demonstrated what can be done with smaller classes.
High School Building Needs
During the summer the superintendent made a study developing a plan for a Senior High School, which would be economical, yet contain ade- quate facilities for 800 students to pursue an academic program and utilize service units such as auditorium, library, cafeteria, gymnasium, etc., of sufficient size to care for 1000 students as the numbers increased. As an initial step in this study the High School teachers were asked to present their ideas concerning adequate space and accommodations for their work. Many conferences were held with the principal in shaping up the fundamental elements of the plan. These conferences, together with con- siderable research and school visiting, resulted in the following outline of good, economical accommodations for a functional high school of 800 students :
1. Site-not less than 15 acres. (The Connecticut School Building Code recommends a minimum of 10 acres for an 800-pupil school. The standard published by N. L. Engelhardt, Associate Superintendent of the New York City Schools, is 20 acres. Many of the midwestern communi- ties are acquiring very large acreage-looking toward a developing air age. Incidentally, a trip through Massachusetts, Connecticut, Eastern New York and Long Island showed that many schools were built on 25 to 50 acres of land, and usually away from the center of population.
2. Twenty-three academic class rooms-the present High School has 16.
3. Three science rooms including laboratories with small storage rooms between them.
4. Commercial rooms would include two typewriting rooms -on'e large and one small (for advanced students). This latter room would be separated from a business machine room by a glass partition (for eco- nomical supervision)-and a rather large bookkeeping room.
5. An auditorium with a capacity of 1000 seats, with stage, two small dressing rooms, a stage craft room in which scenery can be con-
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structed and with adequate cupboard and storage space. Fire exits from the stage were also included.
6. Large double gymnasium similar to that in the Junior High School, with adequate locker and shower space for both boys and girls. A team room was included so that members of the visiting team could use the showers in the general locker room thus saving expense for sep- arate showers.
7. Library to seat 100 pupils with two small rooms at one end, one of these rooms to be used for a work room and the other for reference material.
8. Cafeteria in which 375 pupils could be served at a time. In a room of this capacity 1000 pupils could be served in three shifts. Ade- quate kitchen facilities and a small teachers' eating room were planned.
9. Music room for instrumental classes located near the stage so that there would be little need to carry instruments a long way in order to set up an orchestra or band in the auditorium pit.
10. Home economics was planned in a long double room with glass partition between the sewing and cooking units. Off one side of this room two small rooms were planned, one as a demonstration room and one as a workshop for upholstery, slipcover making, etc.
11. General shop for Industrial Arts where general wood and metal work would be taught as well as automobile and airplane mechanics, drafting, graphic arts, etc.
12. A large room was planned for the work in art. At one end there would be benches for crafts work and at the other for drawing, paint- ing, poster work and the like. In such a set-up one teacher could super- vise all the work until the classes became too large.
13. Nurse's and physician's rooms. The area of a standard class- room was divided so that there would be ample space for an examining room, nurse's office, eye testing space, rest room, and a dental clinic which would replace the present clinic in the Grouard House.
14. Principal's office. Adequate space was provided for easy hand- ling of the business of the school by arranging for a general office, principal and vice principal's offices, storage and mimeograph room and two small conference rooms for guidance counselors. This would give accommodations similar to those we now have but sufficient space has been added so that the general office and guidance work can be done more efficiently.
15. Superintendent's office and School Committee room would be located on the other side of the general office from that of the principal's office so that the maximum economy can result in use of secretarial and. clerical help and general office accommodations.
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Industrial Arts, Junior High School Shop Work
16. Miscellaneous rooms. Adequate facilities have been planned for lavatories, boiler room, storage room for books and supplies, a visual education room, two teachers' rooms, one for men and one for women, and two small auxiliary rooms for student activities.
The specifications for these rooms were drawn up with great care and approved by the School Committee after thorough study and dis- cussion. They were then given to the architect as the basis for his work in drafting a building to house them.
The development of the curriculum to be taught in this building has been so planned that very little additional teaching force will be neces- sary unless and until the increase in enrollment warrants. The plans of the building have been so made that curriculum changes can be incor- porated without the necessity of structural changes.
If the building were placed at Birch Meadow, rooms could be added from time to time without difficulty as the school population grew. A building so situated would still be adequate - with sufficient additions, for the predicted maximum growth of the high school population in 1970.
Our heritage rests in our youth and the better we can provide for their training and education, the more guarantee we have of the con- tinuation of our democratic way of life.
Junior High School Education
The Junior High School organization was established in Reading some 25 years ago after a thorough study of its benefits by the school administration at that time.
The development of elementary schools in the town has been planned to dovetail with the Junior High School plan. This is what is called the 6-3-3 plan.
Educators, physicians, social workers and others had recognized and studied the peculiar need of young people in this rapidly changing life- period of from 12 to 15 years of age. They found young people of this age needed to be treated as individuals and to explore all sorts of inter- ests as try-outs to find themselves and to make better adjustments to people of their own age and to the world in which they must take their places. They sorely needed guidance from teachers who were special- ists in their own fields and students of pupil behavior. The Junior High School offered this opportunity.
This organization is distinguished by certain definite purposes which have often been outlined. Among them may be found the fol- lowing :
The Purpose of the Junior High School
1. To make a better adaptation of the courses of study to the needs of the early adolescent period.
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3. The work of the upper grades did not articulate with the work of the first year of the senior high school.
4. Pupils were taught and handled en masse.
5. The number of pupils in grades seven and eight were too small to organize a modern program with economy.
6. The traditional activities and studies of the old type school did not recognize the budding and diversified interests of early adolescence, and as a result, the discipline, the mode of instruction, and even the theory of class administration failed to meet the mental, emotional and vocational needs of adolescence.
Reading's Junior High School is providing for its pupils a well rounded education based on the abilities of its pupils. It is thorough in its instruction in subject matter and is doing excellent work in its guid- ance program. It is also providing opportunities for pupil participation in, and contribution to, the many school and class activities. The Student Council is a real institution in which membership is highly prized. One teacher has developed a guidance chart which holds a great deal of promise. Boys taking required shop work in the seventh grade are scored on skill with tools, workmanship attitudes, special aptitudes, ability to do a job well, economy of time in doing a piece of work, cooperation with others in a common job, etc. These scorings are entered on a guid- ance card and sent to the home-room teacher so that she may know her pupils' strengths and weaknesses in order better to help them.
The curriculum of the Junior High School covers a variety of studies and meets almost any interest or combination of interests which pupils may have and since all the pupils of the 7th, 8th and 9th grades are brought together in one building, the town has been able to afford the equipment and facilities which have been of material help in making the instruction as rich as possible.
The program of the school is outlined as follows :
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JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL PROGRAM OF STUDIES
Grade 7 Required
Grade 8 Required
Grade 9 Required
5
* English
6
English
5
* English
5
Mathematics
5
Mathematics
5
Social Studies (Geography)
5
Social Studies (American History) ..
5
Practical Arts
...
2
Practical Arts
2
General Science
.. .
3
General Science
2
Assembly
1
Music
3
.
. .
..
. .
1
Activity of Study
1
Activity of Study
Business Training 4
4
Latin
4
French
4
General Science
4
General Shop
4
Elect One
Business
Training
4
Practical Arts
4
Latin
4
** Part Time Elective Subjects ___ 2 Periods Art
Music
Study
Foods
Clothing
General Shop
Printing
Woodworking
Mechanical Drawing
* Work in English includes: Spelling, Reading, Literature, Language, Composition.
** All ninth grade pupils must elect 1 Full Time Elective and 1 Part Time Elective. # Mathematics in the 9th grade is required, but a variable; offered as (1) Algebra, (2) General Mathematics, (3) Social and Business Arithmetic.
1
Physical Education
..
3
Physical Education
Activity or Study
20
Art
2
Art
1
Assembly
1
Assembly
** Full Time Elective Subjects
27
31
į Mathematics Social Studies (Civics, Social Problems)
5
Physical Education and Hygiene 3
3
2
Music .
1
Home Economics (Food & Clothing)
4
French
Rhythm Band, First Grade
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Reading has now grown to be a town of 13,000 and the pattern of its schools is fairly well established.
Elementary School at Work
In the Elementary grades there have been a number of activities which have increased educational opportunities for both pupils and teachers. Among these, the following have been especially significant :
Issuance of State Guides
The State Department of Education this year has issued Elementary School Guides for the primary grades, for Health, and for Art. They have been helpful in checking our own work and giving a foundation for the future development of our curriculum. The study of school readi- ness, school admission, and first grade objectives, written by Dr. Law- rence A. Averill, and issued by the State Department of Education was particularly helpful in studying our own situation in Reading.
Each teacher has been given a copy of these guides for study and to use as material for discussions at teachers' meetings. In introducing the guides, the superintendent analyzed the purpose and objectives of the Elmentary School and suggested checking their content with cur- rent practices in the classroom.
Dr. Averill pleads for the development of kindergartens and a later school entrance age for school systems not having kindergartens. He states that "approximately 20 per cent of children fail in the first grade, -and traditionally, at least, all of these (first grade failures) must begin to read right away in spite of the patent unreadiness of the greater part of them to undertake a reading program. Failure and frustration which result at the first grade level from premature encounters with formal reading are quite as devastating to the personality of the primary child as they are to the older children who fail in any other school area." He further states "that to introduce children whose mental age is less than six years six months to formal reading is to court pedagogical disaster for them, both now and in subsequent grades." This means that the average child of 6 years 6 months chronologically should delay formal reading until he is older. This reflects on our early school entrance age of 5 years as of April 1st of the school year just preceding the September entrance. Our teachers have found that both children and teachers find adjustment difficult because the children are not sufficiently mature to profit by group instruction. This is particularly true since Reading schools have no kindergartens in which pre-reading readiness is devel- oped. Certainly our schools could rise to higher attainment if our pupils, on the average, were more mature when we got them. A solution, how- ever, may be found in the establishment of kindergartens.
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Curriculum Revision
A group of teachers representing each grade in the elementary school is working with the superintendent on a revision of the school curriculum. The State Department Guides form a basis for work. The projected curriculum will be in the form of units of work for each grade. Every unit will have its objective, its content material, its method of de- velopment of learning of the content by the child and its specific out- comes in skills, knowledge, attitudes and relationship with the child's own world. These units will make use of the child's interests and the material used will be on the level of the child's ability. At the end of each unit and at the end of all the units for a given grade, checks will be made to evaluate the results in terms of the child's attainments.
The development of this unit curriculum should give teachers a great deal of help in guiding the growth of their pupils.
Transportation Problems
During the war school transportation was restricted by the Office of Defense Transportation. The war ended just before school opened in September and the 1945 budget did not permit additional bus trips. The School Committee did obtain money for an additional bus at the opening of school. At present all Elementary school children living a mile or more from Pearl and Highland Schools are given bus passes to ride to school in the morning and home at night. The transportation budget for 1945 is $7220. If this service is continued in 1946 at the same rate, the amount to be appropriated must be $11,200.
A study of the desires of the parents in the Pearl Street district re- vealed that many wished their children to have lunch at the school-pre- ferably a hot lunch in the winter-and others wished to have their chil- dren return home at noon, particularly if noon bus trips were provided. This raises the question as to whether the establishment of a cafe- teria in the two largest schools would be of more permanent benefit than transportation home at noon. The first would involve an outlay for cafeterias which, when once established, would be self-supporting and the second would entail a heavy expense which would be continually re- curring or increasing. The proposed articles in the town warrant include an estimate of the cost of both these alternatives. The trend throughout the country is to establish cafeterias in Elementary Schools especially where the school systems receive the aid of the State and Federal gov- ernment through the War Food Administration, which partially covers the noon lunch expenses.
W. F. A. Lunch Project
We have just completed our first full year serving noon lunches in the Junior and Senior High Schools and milk in the Elementary Schools under a cooperative agreement with the War Food Administration.
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Last year 17,231 lunches were served in the Senior High School and 35,827 in the Junior High. The number of bottles of milk consumed was 40,602 and 76,048, respectively. In the Elementary School 89,002 bottles of milk were distributed. This makes a total of 53,058 lunches and 205,- 652 bottles of milk. The lunch, including a bottle of milk, costs students 15 cents each and represents about 24 cents worth of food. The school system received 9 cents for the serving of each lunch including a bottle of milk. In the Elementary schools, each child paid 2 cents for a bottle of milk. The total expense of the project for the year was $27,128.06 and the income $28,188.43. Of this income, the State and Federal govern- ments contributed $6,066.06. In other words, the pupils in the Reading schools profited by the government's participation in the lunch program by being able to purchase more food for their money than they other- wise could. The Federal Government authorities believe this is a wise investment in the health of school children.
Religious Education
On October 1, 1945, pupils of the 9th grade were excused from school at 1:30 p. m. to form the first week-day religious education classes in Reading. These classes are sponsored by the Reading churches. The classes opened with an enrollment of 26 pupils at St. Agnes' Church and 42 at the Church of the Good Shepherd, a total enrollment of 68. At present the total enrollment is 53. The Junior High School has made ar- rangements to excuse pupils to attend these classes during the activity period so little or no loss is experienced by the pupils in their academic classes.
Increase in Visual Aids
Army Training Courses have demonstrated the importance of visual aids in learning. Recently, Harvard Business School has announced that in keeping with these Army findings "the school plans to lay greater emphasis on visual aids. Motion picture slides, posters and other types of visual material will be utilized beyond anything attempted in the past. Officials at the school believe that visual aids can be valuable in all of the courses." If visual aids are important tools for learning in the col- lege, they are much more important in the instruction of younger stu- dents in our public schools. Mr. Perry has made a special plea for the provision of money for these aids on the Junior High School level. He states that "tests have demonstrated that as a result of the use of visual aids, including motion pictures, film strips, slides, charts, pictures, models and recordings, people learn 35 per cent more in a given time and retain what they learn much longer, due to the increase in attention and interest." The budget this year includes $200 for these very import- ant materials.
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Health Program
The health program has progressed this year in spite of the many difficulties existing because of the war period. Physicians and dentists have been drafted and those remaining at home have been over-bur- dened. As a result, the school nurse has been extremely busy. Her work has been multiplied by an extraordinary number of home calls because of lack of doctors' services.
The most serious condition arose from poliomyelitis. There were seven victims among the school children of Reading. A widespread epi- demic of grippe, intestinal grippe, and, in some instances influenza oc- curred in November. Colds were more prevalent than usual. Because of these conditions, the nurse recommended a careful check on these dis- ases by parents and the keeping home of children not able to come to school.
The school nurse reports that the most pressing health problem at the present time is how to increase the available dental facilities. The number of children in need of dental care has greatly increased. The number of dental certificates or notes indicating that all needed dental work has been completed is only 3 per cent of the elementary school en- rollment as of December 31, 1945. It has been customary in the pre-war years to have a much higher percentage. Under the stimulus of an in- tensive educational campaign some years ago, the figure of 87 per cent was reached. The ideal of 100 per cent has never been reached nor can it be reached without added dental clinic facilities. Dental care has a di- rect bearing on the health of every child and, because it is so, an urgent plea is made for more extensive support of the school dental clinic.
The institution of a health counselor plan at Senior High School was accomplished. All pupils who have been absent on account of illness report to Miss Nichols the first period. An inquiry into the nature of the illness is made; where contagion is suspected, or known, or a fol- low-up needed, the case is referred to the doctor or the nurse. There is an excellent opportunity for much pertinent health teaching along the lines of personal hygiene in this plan. Junior High School has followed this plan for seven years.
The supervisor of health was appointed to the Steering Committee to prepare a curriculum guide for the secondary schools. She was also granted a scholarship to attend a health workshop at Harvard in July.
The Tuberculosis Program in our Reading schools has been carried on for seventeen years. During those years, research has continuously gone on and thinking has changed. The incidence of tuberculosis in the High School group is high enough to warrant X-raying for at least once during the High School period with careful follow-up. An annual place for X-raying the sophomore class is recommended by Dr. Zacks of the
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State Dept. of Public Health and Dr. Henry Chadwick, pioneer and out- standing leader in tuberculosis prevention.
Last February, all High School students and teachers were given the opportunity to be X-rayed. Films were purchased by the Reading Tuberculosis Committee and an X-ray technician from the State Dept. of Public Health took the pictures. Ninety-two per cent availed them- selves of this privilege, no tuberculosis was found, and two follow-up cases were reported.
Diphtheria Prevention Work-It is our aim to immunize in the infant and pre-school group, a group hard to reach. The ideal is 100% im- munization upon entering school. Our record for 1945 was 87%.
Pre-School Registration-Registration of children entering school in last September was held in March. One hundred and ninety-eight chil- dren registered school entrance. Of this number, all had the requested examination and returned the physical record card to school.
Every effort has been made to make our school health program an integral part of the community health program and to base the program in the school on community as well as school needs.
Word of Appreciation
I wish to add a few words in appreciation of the members of the Reading School Committee who have worked on the common problems confronting the schools in these difficult war years. The Committee members have given generously of their time in studying transportation problems, personnel problems, school building problems, salary schedule problems and the many other problems which constantly confront a school system. They have worked earnestly and hard in the interest of the pupils in our schools. I am happy to work with such a committee.
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