USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Wilbraham > Wilbraham annual report 1878-1879, 1887 > Part 3
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When we build a store, a post-office, or a church, we, instead of locating it in the center of the town, put it where it will best accommodate the public. Why not locate our school-houses in the same way ? Why should one child on one side be permitted to control ten on the other ?
Why should one dollar on one side control ten on the other ? This building is for the benefit of a certain sec- tion of the town why should not the majority in that section be permitted to say what site shall be selected ?
It has been suggested that the house be placed on the land now owned by Mr. Baldwin, east of the Chapel, bounded by the mountain road on the west and south, the east line commencing on the highway under the hill near a large maple tree, extending northerly to land
23
owned by Warren Collins, thence due west to the high- way. This, it looks to us would be a meeting half way for those who insisted upon having the house at the foot and those who were willing to come to the brow of the hill.
For this situation we would say, that it is not in so bleak a place as on the hill, would be a pleasant location overlooking the village and pure spring water could be procured near by.
As to the building we would say, that should it be thought best, the present building might be moved upon the lot, another built similar to it, the same porch with entrances on opposite sides answering for both, yet the rooms be as distinct and separate as though upon differ- ent lots.
In a former report we suggested that the Cross house be sold and the Merrick (No 3.) house be moved to some point further south. The Cross house having been sold, it is desirable that the house No. 3 be moved to some point near the " Green " and be remodeled so as to meet the wants of that part of the town.
We recommend for the coming year the following sums:
For schools,
$1,800 00
Permanent repairs,
50 00
Total,
$1,850 00
Respectfully submitted,
J. M. FOSTER, JASON BUTLER,
School Committee of
A. J. BLANCHARD,. Wilbraham.
ROLL OF HONOR.
NAMES OF SCHOLARS WHO HAVE BEEN NEITHER ABSENT NOR TARDY DURING ONE TERM.
Nellie Atchinson,
Mary F. Beebe,
Louisa Richards,
Ellen Downing,
Frank Lyman,
Abbie C. Phelps,
George Lyman,
Hattie Darrah,
Emma Lyman,
Bessie M. Pease,
Cora Pease,
Clara Rice,
Maggie Donahue,
George Darrah,
Mary Warner,
Eugene D. Keyes,
Sadie Campbell,
Mary Powers,
. Harry Clark,
Nellie Powers,
Eddie Clark,"
Edith Corbin,
Maggie McDonald,
Mattie Pease,
Fannie French,
Minnie Patterson, Katy Powers, James McDonald,
Joseph French, Annie Foskit,
Walter Powers,
Albert Pease,
Frank Quinlin,
Minnie Hoyt,
James Kelley, Eddie Kelly,
Fannie Coote,
Rosa Stevens,
Annie Bruce,
Willie H. Foster,
Lucy Howard,
Ernest Hoyt,
William Bruce,
Edwin Howard,
Willie Brooks, Willie Howard,
Lizzie Alexander, Clifford Moody,
Frank Bradway,
Tommy Mack,
Louisa Nichols,
Gracie Spencer,
Herbert Morgan, Arvilla Butler,
Flora Brown,
Fannie Squire,
Frank Howard,
Charles Bradway,
25
Nettie Bell, Lizzie Fenton, Ella Brooks,
John Ferry, Albert Blodgett, Frank Ashley.
NAMES OF SCHOLARS WHO HAVE BEEN NEITHER ABSENT NOR TARDY DURING TWO TERMS.
Bridget Quinlin,
Frank Tupper,
Lilley B. Pease,
Homer Tupper,
Minnie Rice,
Mary Hastings,
Susie Mack,
Katy Beaty,
Mary Howard,
Gracie Houghton,
Henry Blodgett, Perlin Nichols,
Eugene Hill.
NAMES OF SCHOLARS WHO HAVE BEEN NEITHER ABSENT NOR TARDY DURING
One year, John FitzPatrick. Three years, Henry Day. Six years, Luther Bruner. 4w
STATISTICAL TABLE.
NAMES.
Length of Schools in
months.
Wages of Teachers
per month.
Whole number of
Scholars.
Average Attendance
No. of Scholars under
five years of age.
No. of Scholars over
fifteen years of age.
Total Wages of
Incidentals.
Permanent Improve-
Total of School Money
Expended.
| No.
Sum.
Fall.
Win.
Sum.
Fall.
Win.
Sum.
Fall.
Win.
Sum.
Fall.
Win.
Sum.
Fall.
| Win.
Sum.
Fall. 1
| Win.
1 Atchinson,
2
3|
27 0027 00
28 80
28 80
28 80
28 80
30 60
29
30
32
26
27
37
2
2
1
0
250 20
51 85
330 12 A. M. Corbin,
M. A. Pease, M. M. Robbins, L. A. Albray, A. M. Corbin,
J. A. Bosworth. M. L. Foster. L. A. Albray. A. M. Corbin.
5
Collins Depot.
22
23
3
28 80
28 80
30 60 28 80
39
57
33
31
46
24
1
0
0 0
250 20 86 40
59 12
309 32 H. H. Vining, 96 40
H. H. Vining,
Geo. A. Warner. Delia Gates.
6 |Butler, 7 Glendale,
22 23
23 22
3 3
28 80 25 20
28 80 25 20
27 00
10| 11| 11
35 8
25 9
26 2 .1 8
1
0
00
1
21 55:
34 81
313 36 A. C. Prindle, 275 96 L C. Knowlton,
A. C. Prindle, M. L. Foster, T. C. Beebe,
A. C. Prindle. Chas. Brewer,
Totals,
!
19} 191 24 196 20 196 20:237 60 197 215.222 169 180 176 9 6
1
21 5 20 1,791 90 228 19 183 05 2,203 14
-
0
1 250 20|
19 66 28 07
269 85|L. A. Albray,
3| Merrick, 4 Wright,
23
2222
3|$28 80 $28 80 $30 60
9
$250 20 $40 65 $58 88 $349 73 M. A. Pease,
234 90
23 49
258 39 M. M. Robbins,
4 Langdon,
23
3
30 60
29
33
21
26
27
18
1
1
0
0
0
0
5
0
10 00
3
.
1
35 65
27 51
30 60
39
30
32
0
0
1 2
250 20 219 60
1 2
21
1
0
0
0
3
28 80
24 27
26
34
21 22
28
32|
23
22
1
0
1
AKJAKNAKJAKO
3
Advanced, Primary,
27
of Scholars,
Teachers.
ments.
NAMES OF TEACHERS.
Old bills amounting to $23 00 have also been paid.
·
REPORT
OF THE
Superintending School Committee
OF WILBRAHAM.
For the Year Ending March, 1861
A. J. Blanchard
SPRINGFIELD: SAMUEL BOWLES & COMPANY, PRINTERS 1861.
Penciled notes
Teacher Dist NOT. Chopin, Glendale
.
are
2
1
Con
10
most office
5
G
F
.
...
₹
2
0
REPORT.
OUR system of Common schools proposes to furnish the means of a fair education to every child in the Common- wealth. Its design is, that no youth, male or female, na- tive or foreign born, shall reach maturity without a thor- ough acquaintance with our text-books of the school-room.
To attain a result so desirable is not beneath the notice of State Legislation, and an annual appropriation of nearly $100,000 ; one half of which goes directly to the district schools; the other half sustains Normal schools, Teachers' Institutes and Associations, and the members of the Board of Education. Still the success of the system in each town will depend upon the town itself. The schools in Wilbraham will be just what Wilbraham chooses to make them.
In this view, it will be the principal object of this our Annual Report, to refer to some of our necessities in or- der to the more perfect success of our Common Schools. While the Committee believe that our schools, for the past year, have been at least equal to those of previous years, we are painfully sensible of the fact that they have not done for our children all which they are intended, and may be expected to accomplish.
SCHOOL ROOMS.
The first essential to a good school is a comfortable, well- arranged, tasteful, school-room. Some of our school- " The attack was
schroot to and 1 1 1
2
?
as
2
5 4
rooms are a positive disgrace. They are so uninviting, so inconvenient, so rough, so ragged, so open to frost, that one half the value of the instruction is entirely lost. Take a child from the comforts of the fireside, from his low, easy chair, from a room neatly ceiled, painted, and carpeted, and set him on a narrow strip of board, with an upright back, where his feet must dangle in the air six mortal hours, where he must of necessity either shiver or scorch, where the plastering is broken, and the door pannel kicked through, and the stove funnel tumbling down, where the dirt and jack-knives of four generations have done their worst on ceiling and window, wall and desk, and he feels very much as if you had shut him up in prison. His comfort is not sufficiently consulted, his taste is not pleased, his mind is not satisfied, and in all ordinary cases, he will find his lessons very dry and dull, will come to them as a task, will shirk all he can, and go through the required routine with little interest. The school-room often holds the "balance of power" between love of play, and sense of duty to books-it may be the one thing which spoils, what would otherwise be, a good school.
SCHOOL APPARATUS.
Our school-rooms need something more in the way of furnishing. At least one whole side of the room (at pro- per height for all ages), should be filled with black-board. The more it is used, the higher it will be valued. In our Normal Schools scarcely a recitation is conducted without the indispensable black-board. Every school room should be furnished also with a set of good Outline Maps. Their success for a part of the year in Districts Nos. 3, 4, and 12, (where they have been placed by private enterprise,) has been complete. Geography has been redeemed from its dullness, and taken rank as a pastime; the greatest inter- est has been awakened ; and the knowledge acquired is reli- able and permanent.
These two, a large area of blackboard, and Outline Maps the Committee regard as essential, and are unani-
.
5
mously of opinion that money should be appropriated from public funds to furnish them for every school. Other apparatus, as spelling and reckoning tables, charts, globes, orreries, geometrical figures, &c., &c., may be added to almost any extent with profit.
QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS.
We need well-qualified teachers, with a few exceptions we may say better qualified teachers. We refer to qualifica- tions of various kinds. Obviously there must be a thor- ough acquaintance with the text books in use. Not the books in use twenty years since, or in another town, but the books used here and now. Not ability to hear the rec- itation by comparing the answer given by the pupil, with the answer in the book, or ability to work out a problem by a blind mechanical conformity to a written rule; this is not enough. There should be a thorough mastery of all the books used, at least, and a perfect familiarity with their contents, in order to teach well. A profound ac- quaintance with any subject is the best preparation for simplifying.
Your committee have been surprised at the very low standard of attainment set before many, who offer them- selves as candidates for the important, and responsible po- sition of school teacher.
We cannot refrain from advising any who wish for schools, to examine themselves in the various text books to be used, before presenting themselves to the examining com- mittee. We should be unfaithful to our trust, if we should issue certificates to persons whom we find to be grossly ig- norant of the principles they are called to teach.
Among the qualifications of a teacher, we assign a high rank to a special preparation for the work. To impart in- struction well, to train the young mind aright, to give it a symmetrical and healthy development, is a complicated and difficult art. It as truly requires study and skill as the art of painting. Practically, this is lost sight of. The prevailing idea with some seems to be, that those who can
6
do nothing else, may apply for schools, and get them if they can, without regard to the question of fitness or un- fitness. So far as this idea prevails, especially if it prevail among those who have the management of our schools, the schools will of necessity be poor.
We have great facilities for the training of teachers. Our four Normal Schools, at Salem, Bridgewater, Framingham and Westfield, are supported by the State at an expense of about $15,000 annually. At these schools some five hundred young men and women are studying the art of im- parting instruction, with very great success. Deservedly, the graduates of these schools are the most popular teach- ers. The school at Westfield has been crowded to reple- tion, and numbers turned away for lack of accommodations, and yet the Principal declares in 1859, " I have not been able, this Fall, to supply one-half the demand." The Report of the Board of Visitors for the same year goes on, " Wherever Normal Teachers have been most em- ployed, the people seem most desirous of securing their services, and from the same places come the largest num- ber of persons to qualify themselves for teaching."
The time is fast coming, nor can it come too soon, when some such course of special preparation will be insisted on as essential to every teacher.
We commend this matter to parents who expect to make teachers of their sons and daughters. We com- mend it to the sons and daughters themselves, that they may be qualified to take high rank in their chosen profession.
At these schools, text-books are furnished, no tuition is demanded, and to such as need it, pecuniary aid is af- forded, by an appropriation from the State, to an amount not exceeding $1.50 per week.
Next in value to Normal Schools are Teacher's Insti- tutes. By all means let the teacher attend upon these as often as practicable.
Another qualification is, a decided interest in teaching and love for children. A person who loves neither the child
7
nor the work, who thinks the little ones are always in the way, and were only made to be cuffed and kicked out of it, should never think of teaching. Success in such a case is not reasonably to be expected.
In other matters, we all regard experience as quite needful to the highest success. Before you contract with a house- carpenter to put up your tenement, you wish to know not only that he owns good tools, and has served a regu- lar apprenticeship, but you inquire here and there of his employers, " Is he skillful ? Is he faithful ? Has he proved himself master of his trade ? Does he put in good timber ? Does he make good joints ?" It is reasonable not only that our teachers should be required to acquaint themselves with their profession, but it is reasonable that we should prefer to employ those who are not entire strangers in the school-room.
Teachers should be prepared to do something more in the way of introducing general exercises to interest the whole school at once, to enliven and refresh the pupils, to break up the monotony of the daily routine. Nothing is better than singing, both for diversion, and good, healthy influence. Where this is impracticable, there are a mul- titude of other resorts readily suggested to an active mind, or learned, by observation, from other schools.
MONEY.
We need to appropriate more money for the support of our schools.
Last year we raised by tax $1600 only for this purpose ($200 less than in 1859) ; to this were added from other sources $175 56-making in the aggregate, to sustain thirteen schools, $1,775 56. This gives an average to each of $136 58. Deducting, say $15, for incidental ex- penses, (see Table) and we have left $121 58 for each school. Allowing twelve weeks for vacations in the year, and forty weeks for school, we shall have an average of $3 03 to pay for the services and the board of the teacher, per week.
8
The amount is too small ! We can not cut the coat out of the cloth! So, to make the best of a bad thing, we must hire a good teacher for a few weeks, and hear the complaint, " our school was too short too amount to any- thing ;" or, in order to make a show of doing something, we must employ the cheapest teacher possible, and be told, " our money has been wasted." Your Committee have found it impossible to procure the best teachers at the lowest wages. If we can be instructed how to get forty weeks of first-rate school out of $121, we are ready to listen ; if not, our inevitable conclusion is-more money !
Take another view. The whole amount of taxes assessed in town last year was $5,442 49. For schools, we appropriated $1,600, for ordinary repairs on highways and bridges, $1,000. The Committee respectfully suggest whether a few hundreds might not have been saved from the highways, and turned over to the schools, with advan- tage. In the late Report of the Selectmen of Ludlow, it appears that more than six times the amount spent on highways was appropriated to schools, (Highways, $155; Schools, $958.)
Again, $1,775 to educate 392 children, gives $4 50 to each pupil under fifteen years. Or, if we add 55 who have attended school over fifteen, (and who, for the most part, are the last to be excluded,) we shall have 447 schol- ars, and $4 00 to each.
The average to a scholar in Longmeadow (1857-8) was $6 34. Nor is this an unfair comparison. The average throughout the whole State (see Report 23d) in 1858-9, was reported at precisely the same figures, $6 34 to each scholar. To rank with our neighboring town, nay, to come up to the standard of the State as a whole, we should have expended for schools $2,485 28,-an ex- cess over the amount actually expended of $709 72.
Have we not some aspirations to a higher rank than is indicated by these figures ?
Once more. The average wages per month paid to male teachers throughout the State, (1858-9) was $48 90,
.
9
including the value of board ; to female teachers, $19 02, (23d Report). At these rates, our school money would have given us only eight weeks and four days of man's school for the whole year, or twenty and one half weeks of woman's school ! instead of forty weeks, which we desire.
The short schools to which we are limited by the amount of money raised, (if we aim for the best teachers) are not enough for our children. They would hardly be sufficient, if the whole period, from the age of five to fif- teen, were spent in school. But when we consider that a large proportion of our boys get only ten or twelve weeks of schooling, instead of forty, and in many cases so brok- en up, at that, as to lose half its worth, we cannot be surprised that so many find themselves full-grown men in stature, while their necessary education for the most prac- tical purposes has scarcely commenced. Many of them will go through life, dwarfed and crippled-men of vastly less influence and rank than they might have been, but for their scanty privileges.
In behalf of these boys, we ask a more liberal appropri- ation, that we may give them the best school possible while they do attend.
We believe that on principles of the soundest economy we should raise more money for schools ; the investment will purchase a kind of moral insurance against pauper- ism and crime.
The objection that " thirty years ago we used to have plenty of schooling, with the same, or even a less amount of money " does not meet the case.
Let it be considered, first, that then the districts were larger, and the number of schools less ; it is very plain that if a given amount of money will support twelve schools for five months, it will support six schools ten months. It is a law to which we must submit, as an in- evitable necessity, that the wages of good teachers have been advancing, and will continue to advance. We are obliged to pay more for hired help, more for board, more for fuel ; and we must under the same rule expect to pay
2
10
more for the services of school teachers. We can afford to pay more. We have better markets for our produce, and can sell for cash.
Again, more is required of teachers now in the way of preparation. If the teacher must give a year of special study to the work of fitting herself, she has a right to de- mand, and she ought to receive, better pay. And she will receive it from those who know what is the best thing for common schools. If we alone ignore this law of pro- gress, and determine to make no advance upon the old rate of wages, nothing can save our schools from ineffi- ciency and disgrace. Our neighbors will outstrip us in the race, and instead of being the seventeenth in the county of twenty-one towns as reported in 1857-8, we shall soon fall back to the extreme end of the list.
In 1859, our State increased the General School Fund from one million and a half to three million dollars. The towns raised fifty thousand dollars more than in 1858-and shall we stand still-shall we go backwards, while all about us are making advance !
PARENTAL INFLUENCE.
We need a more general and earnest cooperation on the part of parents. Fathers and mothers can injure or elevate the schools exceedingly, and in a great variety of ways. We can only glance at a few.
They will injure the school very much if they allow petty, local divisions, and jealousies, to break up the har- mony of the district.
Parents often do much to injure a school by thought- less fault-finding with the teacher. No judicious parent will gratify this propensity (even if the school is not all it should be,) who has the interests of the school at heart- certainly he will never do so in the presence of his children.
Parents will do much to benefit a school by manifesting an interest at home, in the studies of their children. Talk with them about their lessons-inquire at least from week to week what advance they are making-encourage them
11
to tell you when they have done well in recitations and deportment, and you will soon perceive the quickening influence.
Fathers and mothers should manifest their interest in the school by devoting an occasional half day to visiting the school. This is one of the old stereotyped exhorta- tions we know, but like that against idleness, needs often to be repeated. The schools do suffer from your neglect- they would be greatly improved by this trifling attention- such attention as you never fail to show to those who are performing any kind of manual labor in your employ. Do not let the teacher feel that she is left to do her work alone.
Parents will do well for their school by getting a com- mittee whom they can trust, by whatever name they are called, and then putting the whole thing into their hands, with some expression of confidence in their ability and fidelity. Let them arrange, without interference, as to books, terms, teachers, &c. Reasonable men will always be ready to receive advice, they desire it, but so long as they are responsible for the schools, they must be allowed to decide in all doubtful questions.
Parents should be at more pains to secure the uniform and punctual attendance of their children. They should be willing to practice more self-denial, work the harder themselves, or hire more help if their children cannot otherwise be spared to attend school.
They should take especial pains to provide all necessary books, even to spelling, and writing books, immediately on the opening of the school,-much valuable time is annually lost from this neglect.
THE DISTRICT SYSTEM.
The Statute provides that a town may, at any time, abolish the school districts therein-and further, requires that " every town divided into school districts shall, at the annual meeting in 1863, and every third year thereafter, vote upon the question of abolishing such districts," (see Rev. Statutes, ch. 39, Sec. 4).
12
In case you should vote for the change, the effect would be, in general, to erase all district lines, and put the whole management of all the schools into the hands of the town at large. Your Committee deem it proper to call your at- tention briefly to this subject. . We wish, at the outset, to bespeak for it an unprejudiced, impartial examination.
Do not be alarmed at the sound of the word abolition, it proposes to abolish nothing without repaying that which shall be of more value.
Do not think your personal interests are to be left un- cared for, the object is to guard all those interests with increased vigilance.
Above all, do not allow your honest eyes to be so blinded by unworthy prejudices, but that you can look candidly at both sides. We ask only that you consider as independ- ent men the probable effects of the contemplated change, and are entirely willing to leave the decision with your- selves, we would not, if we could, put the responsibility elsewhere than on the vote of the whole people.
In answer to a possible objection about the transfer of district property to the town,-the Statute provides that not one dollar shall be taken without an equivalent re- turn. All such property in the various districts is to be appraised and paid for out of the Town Treasury. (Rev. Stat. 221).
Another objection has been made, that the new system will give the district no voice in its own concerns, because it does not allow them to vote for a Prudential Committee man. In answer to this let it be remembered, you will all have an equal voice in the election of the Town Com- mittee,-if there should be a member of this Committee in each district, you would without doubt, have his nomi- nation in your hands, if not so many, you would each have your representative in turn in the Board,-and if you are served by the same man under the new system as under the old, what possible difference can it make wheth- er you call him Prudential Committee or Superintending School Committee !
13
Is it the title which inspires confidence ? can no one serve you faithfully and wisely, unless he wears this very excellent prefix prudential to his name ? the objection amounts to little, if anything, more than this, and cannot we think, have much influence with thoughtful men !
PROBABLE ADVANTAGE OF ABOLISHING DIS- TRICTS.
1. We should avoid the constant trouble about the legality of the action in school meetings, and indeed about the legal existence of the district itself. Says the Secre- tary of the Board, "The district itself is a questionable organization, more frequently than otherwise, it has no legal existence ; and whenever a vote authorizing the levy of a tax is resisted, the courts usually find it difficult to sustain the proceedings of the district." (Rep. 23: 76 p.)
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