USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Wilmington > Town of Wilmington Annual Report 1913-1914 > Part 10
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Text Books
Your supplies, paper, notebooks, etc., have been ample since the time that I have known your schools. Your textbooks, however, were in very poor condition, being badly worn and also being insufficient to equip all the pupils.
You have authorized me to make such orders during the past year as will tend to put your textbooks on a good basis. This fact together with the increase in enrollment has made the sum expended on textbooks larger than ordi- nary. It is a fact that while your books are much better than a year ago, there is still considerable to be done. There are several schools where two rooms are sharing together the same set of books.
Penmanship
A decided interest has been taken by your pupils in business writing as indicated by the Palmer awards earned
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by various students. During the past calendar year the following merits for excellence have been won from this town: Two Teacher's Diplomas; 57 Palmer Buttons, gained by sending in to the A. N. Palmer Co., twenty-five accept- able drills; 17 Palmer Pins, granted for one hundred ac- ceptable drills, and 6 Student's Certificates, granted for the completion for all the drills in the Manual. Parents can do much by encouraging pupils to persevere in this very useful accomplishment. It is possible for every pupil who is willing to pay the price of patient and persistent work to make great progress in a single year.
School Buildings
The estimated value of your school buildings are as follows: New High $35,000; Old High $7000; Walker $7500; Whitefield $12,000; North $1500; South $1500; East $1200; West $1500. The new building is equipped with the most modern furniture on the market, heating and ventilation plants being as near perfect as is known. The Old High, which will be used as a grammar building, is heated and ventilated, the furniture will be adjustable. The White- field and the Walker are well heated and ventilated, and equipped with adjustable furniture, with exception of one room in the Walker. The South is well heated and ventil- ated for a school without a basement. The three remaining schools should at a suitable time be equipped with ad- justable desks and with "jacketed " stoves. The latter arrangement can be provided at small cost by cutting an aperture, say ten inches square, under the stove, and a wooden trough bring air directly from out of doors to this
aperture. The stove is enclosed with a sheet iron jacket, leaving a number of holes at the top equalling in total area the area of the hole beneath the stove. When a window is lowered at the most remote side of the school- room the heating and ventilating qualities of the stove are greatly increased. That is, the stove is turned into a simple hot air furnace. I once had one of these jackets fitted up at a cost of $12 which worked splendidly after several years of service.
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Lunch Serving
It seems to me a very essential part of school life in those schools where pupils are obliged to remain throughout the noon intermission to exercise an oversight, or take care of them, at the long noon recess.
Fortunate is that school when the teacher as well as the pupils spend the "nooning " at the schoolhouse. You have four of these outlying schools. In one of these, the West, a lunch club is being conducted; the other schools are at the time of this writing considering this. Miss Jessie Carter at the West school sets a small table each noon, has the remaining children seated at nearby desks, and daily serves hot chocolate to some twenty pupils. Very few parents whose children take their lunches will fail to appreciate the value of what Miss Carter is doing. Not alone is this scheme good from a health viewpoint, but the lesson taught by a skillful and enthusiastic teacher may readily make the lunch period one of the most valuable half hours of the day.
Household Arts
The opening of the new building and the splendid equip- ment of a laboratory by the Woman's Club give us the opportunity to engage a teacher of the Household Arts, or Domestic Science, at once. The town of Wilmington is fortunate in that it is about to have the opportunity to offer to its girls a course in home building. Theory and practise should go hand in hand in order to develop the most useful form of education; either is badly handicapped without the other as a complement of itself.
I wish to quote from the latest bulletin issued by the United States Bureau of Education, and prepared by Prof. Benjamin R. Andrews, of Columbia University.
" To the child the home furnishes the intellectual and moral life with the fundamental attitudes that control in all other relations. It is here, if anywhere, that the average adult finds the personal satisfaction and development which
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is the central experience of living. For all its members the home is the center of life's satisfactions, and in it we live. This personal life of the home can be strengthened and enriched by well considered plans and by better home ideals. Strength and satisfaction in the home relationships form a prime problem. The breaking down of the family bond is to be overcome by strengthening that bond, by enriching the home experience of the individual, child and adult alike. This is the only cure for the divorce evil. Our education for the home will be a sorry thing indeed if it concerns simply the household arts of cooking and sewing and house care, unless it teaches us the arts of home making, of living in families in such ways as to bring in- creasing personal satisfaction as the years go by. It is just this strengthening of the personal life that education for the home is ultimately to furnish. We need to teach home making too if we would reach the child. The child has become schoolminded; all other knowledge reaches him through the school, and the school can therefore increase the child's interest in and respect for his home. . .. The application of science to everyday affairs has created a new home making, the facts of which are now assembled ready for teaching; the educational attitude of child and adult alike makes teaching the easy and natural process in this field as in all others. The social demand is as unmistakable as it is justified that this knowledge must be applied to the home here and now by means of the school. Our communities, States, and the whole country are wel- coming educational efforts for the benefit of this oldest, most personal, most significant of human institutions, the family and the home .... Household Arts education has for its controlling purpose the preparation of the girl for efficient and profitable service either as a manager of a household or servant, or waitress, or cook, whether this service be rendered in her own home or that of another."
It devolves upon us, therefore, to select a thoroughly equipped and competent teacher for this new course, feeling
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that it is possible that her work through the school may have an effect upon the entire community. While it is too early to give the details of the course, I will say that I hope that the new department will be made as much real school business as any other part of the school, and that I hope that this department will be able to serve hot lunches to the students at cost, and that I also hope that it may be- come feasible to conduct a class of adults out of school hours, possibly growing into an afternoon or evening class. In short, I shall feel that we are not living up to our op- portunities if the new teacher does not become a "leader " among the women of Wilmington.
Statistics and Attendance
You will see by the table of statistics that you have a total enrollment of 561 for the year while there are 504 pupils actually in school at the time of making this report. You will see that the per cent of attendance is ninety-two, which means to me eight per cent of the effectiveness of the school service has been lost.
The attendance officer, Mr. Samuel Rice, reports that he has made eleven official visits during the past year, and in several cases was obliged to threaten prosecution before the pupils were sent to school. The following sections from the laws of the State are given to the attendance officer to govern his actions and will be equally useful to parents who may be unfamiliar with them.
Ch. 320, Sect. 1, Acts of 1913.
Every child between seven and fourteen years of age, every child under sixteen years of age who does not possess such ability to read, write, and spell in the English Lan- guage as is required for the completion of the fourth grade of the public schools of the city or town in which he resides and every child under sixteen years of age who has not received an employment certificate as provided in this act and is not engaged in some regular employment or
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business for at least six hours per day, or has not the written permission of the superintendent of schools to engage in profitable employment at home, shall attend a public day school in said city or town * * during the entire time the public schools are in session.
Sect. 2. Every person having under his control a child as described in Sect. 1 shall cause him to attend school as therein required, and if he fails for five day sessions or ten half day sessions within any period of six months to cause such child to attend school, he shall upon complaint by an attendance officer and conviction thereof be punished by a fine of not more than twenty dollars.
Conclusion
In conclusion I wish to bespeak the co-operation of parents; they may do much for the schools by visits and consultations with teachers, and by encouraging the pupils of the high and grammar grades to do systematic study out of school.
I wish to ask your careful consideration of the sub- reports which follow and form a part of this report.
Lastly, I wish to express my appreciation for the loyal co-operation of the teachers and the strong support of the School Board. I am a firm believer in "team work;" without it all plans must fail.
Respectfully submitted,
CHARLES L. RANDALL.
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WILMINGTON ROLL OF HONOR
(Perfect in Attendance)
One Year: Elliott Conant, Olive Carter, Frank Peabody, Robert Barrows, Harry Quigley, Arthur McLaren.
Two Terms: George McLaren, Walter Buck, Miriam Buck, Evelyn Durkee, Myrton Sheldon, Kenneth Choate, Joanna Reagan, William Reagan, Rose Doucette, Olive Surrette, David Sullivan, Dorothy Buckle, Kenneth Carter, Mabel Carter, Mary Denehy.
One Term: Bernice Bisbee, Francis Hancock, Evelyn McGrane, Mabel White, Albert Laroche, John Dane, James Devine, Catherine DeVose, Philip Park, Nellie DeVose, Francis Hoban, Mary Devine, Florence White, Florence Stack, Stanley Cady, Florence Carter, Alice Bedell, Percy Christiansen, James Denehy, Margaret Howard, Reginald Canada, Helen Hart, Frances Hancock, Esther Carrier, Mary Currier, Lulu Hemeon, Nellie Robinson, Avis Rooney, Robert Grady, Joseph Hollis, Stanley Webber, Mildred Justice, Edna Miller, Helen Foley, Catherine Pettingill, Blanche Wedge.
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THE REPORT OF THE HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL
The Superintendent of Schools:
Sir: Kindly find herewith my fourth annual report of the High School.
In this most important epoch in the history of our High School, it seems to me that ideals, since they play such an important part in education, ought not to be forgotten. Ideals are the dynamoes, energizers of life. Young and old alike endure irksome and soul-grinding toil to actualize ideals. The price of success is unremitted labor and this labor can be obtained and endured only under the ever present imperative of an ideal to enter higher and higher realms of achievement. He who has no ideals is the most hopeless being on earth. Therefore, to help pupils to form ideals is a most important function of a school.
This brings us to a consideration of how ideals govern the emotions, the thoughts and the deeds of life. "Effective ideals," says Bagley, "derive the greater part of their power from the specific habits that have been developed during the formative period of life." For instance, the ideal of work grows out of the specific habits of industry; such as studying, writing, taking care of a garden, “ doing chores," practicing music, washing dishes, or making a bookcase. Out of all of these habits of industry is built up the general ideal of work. In like manner, ideals of courtesy, of efficiency, punctuality, honor, reliability, self- respect, altruism, self-sacrifice, clear thinking, obedience,
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duty, etc., are mentally constructed out of specific habits of courtesy, of efficiency, punctuality, honor, reliability, self-respect, clear thinking, etc. Conversely, the actualizing of ideals of feeling, thinking and willing depends, in a large measure, upon previously established specific habits. For example, a pupil who has already built up many specific habits of industry, such as sweeping, clearing off the table, mowing the lawn, getting his lessons each day, is a thousand times more liable to realize his ideal of work than the one who has formed few, if any, specific habits of industry. Since it is a very important duty of a school to give its pupils desirable habits and ideals and since the formation of habits and ideals is a long, tedious and often disagreeable process for both teachers and pupils, it follows that going to school is more than being entertained. School is a place of joy, of interest, but it is also a place of forming habits and ideals and, hence, a place of work, of thought, of deeds in which much that is disagreeable and sometimes hated must be done, if the school is to do its duty to its pupils and the community.
It sometimes happens that a pupil enters school with undesirable habits, such as the use of poor or coarse language, discourtesies, disobedience, bluffing, laziness, and lack of self- respect with the corresponding ideals. Such a pupil must break up his old habits, which is a long and painful process, and he must substitute new ones, which require much per- severance before he can even get effective ideals. In so far as the school fails to make, at least in part, a new boy or girl out of such a pupil just in so far that school is a failure.
In the thousand and one ways in which school life gives opportunity, specific habits out of which ideals of refinement, punctuality, honor, cleanliness, dependability, self-respect, altruism, accuracy, self-sacrifice, obedience, duty, work, economy, service, patriotism, generosity, self-control and such like must be formed. Education, in a large measure, is, on the one hand, progressive habituation continually
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idealized, and, on the other hand, ideals continually habitu- ated.
An ideal that is much needed in a democracy like ours is the ideal of good judgment. Hence, slipshod habits of thinking, guessing, basing one's judgments on one's feelings, on rumor, on gossip, prejudices, personal likes and dislikes, of drawing conclusions from inaccurate or no observation or investigation, must not be permitted by any teacher. It is one of the important duties of every teacher to build up habits of drawing valid conclusions from well-considered data in every recitation of every subject in the curriculum, so that the pupils may be equipped with habits of accurate thinking out of which the general ideal of good judgment may be constructed.
One of the great movements of the twentieth century has for its aim the development of the social consciousness, the attainment of the social attitude. The importance of a desirable social attitude cannot be questioned. The whole world is one family. There is no place for the anti-social and the selfish in the life of today. Every word and deed has its social aspect. Therefore, the school must make it a duty to help its pupils build into every habit of thought, feeling and conduct, an element of community welfare, so that, aided by a knowledge of history, civics, science, econo- mics, contemporary social problems, and by actual participa- tion in the social activities of the school, there shall be an efficacious element of social welfare in the ideals of life, and, therefore, an altruistic career.
Ideals have much of their basis in specific habits. Litera- ture, history, art biography, science, the industries and trades, household arts and science, companions, magazines, all aid the pupils to generalize these specific habits into ideals and give them emotional and volitional qualities to make them effective.
Too much commendation cannot be given to the Woman's Club for equipping a room in the High School for the prac-
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tice and study of the Domestic Arts and Sciences. The pupils, therefore, now have an opportunity to form habits and ideals of household management, economy, efficiency, thus adding to the prosperity and happiness of the home life of Wilmington.
Respectfully submitted,
F. W. CARRIER, Principal.
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SUPERVISOR OF MANUAL ARTS REPORT
Mr. Charles L. Randall,
Superintendent of Schools, Wilmington, Mass .:
Dear Sir: I herewith submit my first annual report for your consideration.
The outlines of the drawing work for the grades have been typewritten and the lessons worked out and gone over with each teacher. The work is taken up by months, there being two lessons planned for each week. Drawing is classified under three heads, representation, construction and decoration.
In the primary grades the work since September has included nature drawing, object drawing, color study and freehand paper cutting. The illustrative work continues throughout the year and the little folks take a great interest in it. Both colored crayons and scissors are used, and the subjects are taken from out-of-door life, home life, nursery rhymes and stories.
Much time will be given to illustrative drawing and paper cutting in the first two grades, for the child's world is made up of games and toys. He is familiar wich the scenes about him and enjoys the holiday seasons and delights to express his thoughts.
The construction work which is to be taken up during the next three months affords a study of measurements, training the children in the use of the ruler and requiring accuracy.
The pupils in the grammar grades are learning to see things correctly and to represent them artistically. Our
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work this fall began with nature study, rendered in pencil and color.
During November and December, much time was spent on object drawing. We shall continue along this line of work for another month and great stress is being laid on the principles of ordinary pencil drawing, perspective and foreshortening. Construction or manual work, design and mechanical drawing will have prominent places in our outline.
The work at the High School is classified under two heads, freehand drawing and mechanical drawing. The freehand class includes all the freshman girls and several from the upper classes. Nature drawing, object drawing and color work have been taken up since September. Char- coal drawing from still life and casts, pencil technique will be carefully studied during the rest of the year.
The mechanical drawing class includes all the freshman boys and several from the upper classes. Already we have studied view drawing, working drawings and developments and printing. The work for the rest of the year will include orthographic projection, intersection of solids, parallel and angular perspective, shadows, machine and architectural drawing. The aim of the work of this class is to give a practical training and knowledge and to prepare pupils for higher schools.
Along with the drawing work I hope that we may have time for some picture study. I think that all school children should learn to know the great artists and their most famous pictures, so that when they see a picture by Raphael, Corot or Michael Angelo they will be able to recognize it at once and to tell something about the man who painted it. We have the education of the coming generation in our hands and we must teach them to select the best that there is in life for themselves. We must cultivate in them a taste for the beautiful and best in literature, art and music. In order to do this we must teach them good design in everything and then our markets will not be flooded with
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so much useless stuff, for the store keeper has to cater to the desires of the public.
The few months that I have been in Wilmington, have been filled with faithful co-operation and effort on the part of both teachers and scholars. I wish to thank the teachers and Superintendent heartily for their co-operation and support in carrying on my work.
Respectfully submitted, GRACE A. JENKINS.
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REPORT OF INSTRUCTOR OF MANUAL TRAINING
To the Superintendent of Schools:
Sir: Kindly find herewith my report as Instructor of Manual Training.
Perhaps, the best way to state what is being done is to name some of the aims which I am trying to realize. An effort is being made to train the pupil to handle, with some degree of skill, the common tools, such as the saw, plane, bevel and square. I am trying to have the pupils realize the value of accuracy in measuring, sawing, planing and the other processes necessary in making a finished piece of work, no matter how simple. Pains are being taken to have the classes realize what workmanship is and to have the pupil do finished work.
Another aim is to make the work useful, thus keeping the interest of the pupil.
One of the great ends of Manual Training is to interpret the field of Arts and Crafts in ways adapted to the child and adolescent so that each one may make an intelligent choice of the vocation he would like to follow. For instance, a boy can find out whether he would like to work with tools or not and also find out whether he has an inclination or not towards the trades. Manual Training helps the pupil to discover himself.
Most of the work of this year consists in laying a founda- tion for next year's work. Since the work of one year is a preparation for the work of the next year, a boy, ac the end of five or six years of instruction, can attain some skill
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in workmanship and have some idea of how to plan out and do a piece of work. In other words, the pupil is ex- pressing himself, realizing his idea with the aid of tools, lumber, drawings, etc., and at the same time, accurately testing that idea by its product. Monroe says, " Manual Training is the means of expression in terms of form, color, materials and muscular activity, a most definite process in the formation of habits or the shaping of character." Manual Training appeals to both the head and hand, both of which are necessary. It takes necessarily several years to attain this aim, especially since the pupil is working only an hour and a half a week for forty weeks a year.
Respectfully yours,
WILLIAM F. BERESFORD.
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REPORT OF MUSIC SUPERVISOR
Mr. C. L. Randall, Superintendent of Schools.
Dear Sir: I herewith submit my report in music for the year 1914.
This year we have seen some very satisfactory results of our music work. Everywhere the pupils are showing more ability and freedom in reading at sight; they are now solving problems in time and tune for themselves through well-presented principles. Music is a science and the mastery of its signs and symbols will permit the reader to translate the language of music with ease and under- standing. Special emphasis has been given to tone pro- duction, not only must sight reading be developed, the class must sing with correct tone. The results of this rest largely upon the regular teacher in as much as the vocali- zations and drills must be practiced frequently. The teacher need not be a soloist, but she must be able to sing before her class with a light tone, to give good models that the pupils may imitate correctly, and also be able to correct faulty tones when they occur.
Our out-schools are doing especially well. One must consider the various conditions the teacher meets here and realize that she must do more ingenious work for the results she obtains. In every grade I have found that the teacher has met the requirements, has been exact in her teaching and has co-operated with the special teacher for higher standards of school music.
In every grade, and especially the lower, considerable board work is done. I believe this is one of the most
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direct means of clearly presenting a subject. At present the teachers are compelled to spend a great deal of time in erasing and ruling and I would suggest that in each school- room one or more staves be painted upon the blackboard.
Last year the High School was pitifully incomplete with but three classes, many of the boys' voices were inadequate for the bass part, but time has solved the dilemma. The large entering freshman class was a welcome addition for it had in its numbers good singers for all parts. It is need- less to add that they are a substantial class, numerically. Previously a number of our good singers have left school, but at present we are pleased to recognize a very interesting chorus which is gaining steadily in ability and confidence. I trust that last year's efforts will not be accepted as an example of what has been done in previous years or that will ever be duplicated.
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