USA > Rhode Island > Annual report of the Board of Education : together with the Annual report of the Commissioner of Public Schools of Rhode Island, 1875 > Part 11
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WARREN .- The year has been a very pleasant one ; pleasant, because it has plainly been one of profit and progress in the culture of our chil- dren and youth. We have reason to congratulate ourselves and the community on what we have thus far achieved, and look forward to the future with confidence and hope. The schools have steadily improved in their character and grade, and the system we have adopted seems to be steadily working itself into a more practical and perfect thing .- S. K. DEXTER, Supt.
WESTERLY .- Though some of the teachers were young and inexperi- enced, I am happy to say that, with few exceptions, very good work has been done in the school room, in the several districts, and many of the teachers deserve special commendation.
The classification could have been better, and far more satisfactory in a majority of the schools, and the teaching would have produced better results, if there had been a more liberal supply of school books.
In but one school district has any trouble arisen of a serious charac- ter ; and it is to be hoped that the unhappy division which proved so inju- rious to the school in this district, will only be remembered as an evil to be guarded against in the future .- H. M. EATON, Supt.
WEST GREENWICH .- Schools and Teachers .- The schools of our town, for the past year, will compare favorably with those of preceding years, both as to the efficiency of teachers and the progress of the scholars. With one or two exceptions, good order has been maintained.
There has been no school in district No. 5 the past year, there not be- ing scholars enough. There will probably be children enough to have a school the coming year .- CHARLES F. CARPENTER, Supt.
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DISCIPLINE.
BRISTOL .-. A person who once visited a large school, said to the teacher, who had one hundred pupils under his care : "How can you manage so many different dispositions, and keep them in order?" The teacher replied that he could get on very well with the one hundred scholars, but the two hundred parents caused him a vast deal of trouble. Almost all teachers meet with a similar experience. Parents who object to having their children obey the rules, made by the Committee and en- forced by the teachers, characterizing them as useless and arbitrary, are not aware that such a course often produces a bad effect upon their own children, making them impatient under restraint of any kind, and the best interests of the school suffer in consequence. Such persons forget that the laws of the land are made, not for the good citizen, but for the criminal, but both are amenable to the same laws. So in the schools. If all families were well regulated, there would be no need of rules and regulations, but the Committee have found that it is absolutely impossi- ble to manage eight hundred pupils without them. A few do not require the regulations which the many do, but they have been carefully consid- ered and established for the greatest good of the greatest number, and must be submitted to by all. There is no royal road through the Public Schools, and it is to be hoped that there never will be any distinctions made in them, excepting those arising from excellence of deportment and scholarship.
All persons who consider the welfare of the schools, will, whenever it is possible, sustain the course pursued by the teachers, in their trying, difficult and responsible positions .- R. S. ANDREWS, Supt.
EXETER .- When older pupils cannot obey the reasonable requirements of a teacher, they should be dismissed until they learn that, of all pupils attending school, whether large or small, obedience is required .- WILLET H. ARNOLD, Supt.
HOPKINTON .- Laxity of discipline will ever tend to demoralization. From my own experience as a teacher and school visitor, or Superin- tendent, I am of the opinion, that no school can the best succeed where whispering, or communicating by writing, or otherwise, is allowed, per- mitted, or winked at. For a teacher to say that he cannot wholly stop whispering and communicating, is but to confess a lack of competency to manage or govern a school. Failure to entirely suppress whispering and communicating, or to secure order, should work a forfeiture of one's certificate. The rules and regulations made by the School Com- mittee, (as required by law,) positively require every teacher to banish whispering from the school-room, and it becomes the imperative duty of the Superintendent to see that every school is freed from that hydra- headed source of evils. Teachers, therefore, must conform their schools to rules enjoined by the Committee. Scholars, also, should not be al- lowed to leave their seats, except by permission, and only then, when found to be necessary. For noise made by moving around the room,
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and even the movement itself, is a disturbance of the quiet which should ever reign in the school-room. No scholar should be allowed to scribble, to tear up paper and make litter around his desk. A school-room should be a model of order, quietness, stillness, studiousness, decorum, gentili- ty and perfect recitations. And not until teachers are required to thus manage their schools, may we expect the best results. And parents must consent at least to allow teachers thus to govern. And all incor- rigible pupils, who refuse to submit to such regulations, must be expelled from our schools, and not permitted to disturb and demoralize them .- S. S. GRISWOLD, Supt.
NORTH KINGSTOWN .- A few instances of refractory scholars have given rise to unpleasant occurrences. They have been promptly met, however, by the teachers in charge, and only one scholar has been ex- pelled from the Public Schools during the past year .- A. B. CHADSEY, Supt.
NORTH SMITHFIELD .- It is probably true that home discipline is not so rigid and exacting as in a former age. Hence the government of our schools is made a correspondingly harder process. There is not that respect for age, wisdom and authority, that once existed. Still it is be- lieved that the mild, yet firm, government that has characterized most of the teaching has been, and is more efficient in securing the proper ends of the school room, than the more brutal appeals to fear, that once existed. Instances of determined and long-continued disobedience have been very rare. But the Committee would like to see more courtesy and civility shown to strangers who pass by the school houses, a stronger public sentiment in favor of respect for teachers, and gentleness and politeness toward fellow pupils. In short, the cultivation of what the French call " the lesser morals ;" a regard of which little things would add greatly to the charm and profit of school days, flying so swiftly away, and yet leaving an indelible impress upon the character of after life .- CALVIN R. FITTS, Supt.
WARWICK. - Government and Discipline .- The discipline and govern- ment of a school is very much affected by the government and good order of the locality in which the school is situated. Let a school be located in a farming district where order is observed, and where law is respected, and a thousand chances to one the school is orderly and re- spectful. But let a school be located in a village where all classes of population are mixed together, where half of the education is the educa- tion of the streets, where children are left unconfined to ramble at will, and to seek their own pleasures and to carry out their own devices, there you will find the labors of the teacher impeded, hindered and ofttimes rendered abortive, by the system of street instruction in which the child has been educated. The parent supports the child in insubordination or rebellion, the trustee or trustees, as a matter of course, are influenced more or less by public opinion, and the teacher is discharged, not on account of any demerit, but simply because he or she is not in accord with the lawless spirit of the neighborhood. I do not mean to say that this spirit prevails to any considerable extent in the districts of our town, but its influence is felt in very many localities, that perhaps are entirely ignorant of the disturbing element in their community. The
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questions introduced by my predecessor, I. O. Seamans, Esq., have been continued, as embracing all that was needed in the direction indicated, and to him should be accorded great praise for the able and efficient man- ner in which he directed the keeping of the registers of the various schools. I also perfectly accord with his suggestion in regard to the furnishing of apparatus for the Primary and Intermediate departments of the public schools of this town. Also in regard to building fires, tak- ing care of school-rooms, crayons, water pails and other necessary expenses of carrying on of the schools .- W. V. SLOCUM, Supt.
WARREN .- Some of the special features of the year have been noticed. Others not so pleasant remain to be noticed. Many cases of discipline have of late occurred. Some of them the Superintendent has settled ; others of a graver character have been referred to the Committee.
The work of our schools, as we conceive it, is specially to impart in- struction and enforce ordinary discipline. When ordinary discipline fails, such as demeriting and mild forms of punishment, it is due to the schools and the teachers that such pupils be expelled. For these are not reform schools .- S. K. DEXTER, Supt.
WESTERLY .- There have been no expulsions during the year. A few scholars impatient of restraint have been removed from the schools by their parents and guardians .- H. M. EATON, Supt.
WOONSOCKET .- Good discipline has been the pride of the schools of New England. Her social order and respect for law have been justly attributed to the faithful enforcement of subordination in her Public Schools. Confidently has she challenged a comparison of results with other theories maintained in different sections of the country. In re- spect to reverence for authority and cheerful obedience to it, the private school, where the conceits of the pupil and the pleasure of parents are more largely consulted, has always proved a comparative failure. In the simple work of instruction, the habit of instant obedience is essential to the best success.
But how shall obedience be secured? This is the question which most sorely perplexes, at times, the best teachers and the truest friends of schools.
Towards securing the proper discipline in the schools, the law and the courts sustain teachers and committees in the exercise of the following powers :
[Chapter 53, Section 10, of the General Statutes of Rhode Island.]
" The School Committee may suspend, during pleasure, all pupils found guilty of incorrigibly bad conduct or of violation of the school regulations."
The School Committee have power, in order to maintain the purity and discipline of the Public Schools, to exclude therefrom a child whom they deem to be a licentious and immoral character, although such char- acter is not manifested by any acts of immorality within the school .- Sherman vs. Charlestown, 8 Cush., 160, 1851.
4-
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The following is taken from the charge of Judge Lord in Common- wealth vs. L. M. Chase, Superior, Ct. :
'" The relation between the teacher and the scholar is a peculiar one. It partakes, while the pupil is in school, of a parental character, and is absolute, and without appeal from any quarter when exercised within its proper limits. A good parent desires to co-operate with the teacher, and is thankful for any proper correction of his child. A good teacher de- sires to aid the parent by training his pupils in habits of good order and obedience to authority. Between the school and the home the jurisdic- tion of the teacher and parent is concurrent.
If a teacher sees or knows a boy to violate the laws, if he finds him acquiring habits of a dangerous character, if he sees him becoming vicious and his example injurious to others, or calculated to affect his own standing at home or at school, it is his duty to interfere to restrain and reform. For this purpose it is his right to punish, to a reasonable extent, if no other method will avail. But the teacher must be careful not to transcend in severity its (the law's) humane and proper limits."
These references are given under the impression, and with the fear, that the sense of the importance of good discipline is not what it ought to be in the community. There has seemed to be, in some instances, such a deteriorating of discipline, as to call for the voice of warning and coun- sel.
Who should judge of tlie proper method of procedure in any given case of insubordination but the teacher, who is cognizant of all the facts as no one else can be? His position is, at times, most trying ; and the neces- sity of preserving authority is so great, that it were better he should not choose the best method than that he should fail of securing obedience. It is true, however, that should he habitually choose unwise measures, or should he regard the rod as the panacea of all disorders, then it would be right to withdraw confidence from him. But at that moment such a teacher ought to be dismissed. On the other hand, if he have approved himself as a considerate, patient and humane man, whether ought there not to be extended to him, in the discharge of his most delicate and re- sponsible duties, a generous trust? If it were right for a teacher to dismiss every unruly pupil from school, as many advocate, the difficulty were easily solved. But in that case the rebellious boy is but removed to the street, a rebellious boy still. At a moment when he especially needs discipline, he is permitted to escape it altogether ; and he goes on, meeting no restraint, until he has, by some overt act, made himself amen- able to the criminal law. Between almost any method of discipline and dismissal from school, the former is the less of the two evils.
It is earnestly recommended to parents that in cases of apparent wrong or injustice, they should seek an interview with the teacher, that explan- ations may be made, and perfect harmony between the school-room and the home preserved .- C. J. WHITE, Supt.
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DUTIES OF PARENTS AND CITIZENS.
BRISTOL .- If parents fully realized the importance of sending their children regularly and promptly to school, the labor of teachers would not only be more easily, but also more effectively performed, and the progress of the pupils much more satisfactory .- R. S. ANDREWS, Supt.
COVENTRY. - Much has been said and written about perfecting our system of public schools, but only give us the active co-operation of the men and women of the town and we have no fears of the result of the system .- H. L. SPENCER, Clerk.
CUMBERLAND .- it is important to hold the schools up to the point of excellence already reached, and no effort should be spared to raise them still higher. To do this the friends of education must be vigilant, un- tiring and liberal, and ready to perform much work for which they will never receive any compensation in dollars and cents. Both day and evening schools must be guarded against injury from reactionists. Our public schools are the safeguard of our country's free institutions, and determine the possibilities of civil and moral eminence among the poorer classes, and as such should receive a cordial and generous support .- C. W. BURNHAM, Supt.
EAST GREENWICH .- No judicious parent will listen to the unfounded complaints of children or encourage them in finding fault with the teacher. If a district is so unfortunate as to be saddled with a poor teacher, the school will be much better if they have the support and en- couragement of parents, and the efficiency of a superior teacher is some- times destroyed by their unwise interference .- D. C. KENYON, Supt.
EAST PROVIDENCE .- We take occasion to remind parents of the im- portance of visiting schools. More frequent visits will insure much greater efforts on the part of both teachers and pupils. Every person who sends children to school, ought to visit the school at least once during each term. Those who perform this duty, find it an agreeable one, and also find their children more earnest than others in their studies, and ambitious to excel in scholarship and deportment.
The Superintendent has made during the year, one hundred and seven visits to the various schools of the town.
The trustees of the several districts have, with few exceptions, com- plied with the requirement of the law, in regard to visiting schools .- AHAZ BASSETT, Clerk and Supt.
EXETER .- The education of the rising generation should interest us all. And when I speak of education, I do not mean simply to pay at- tention entirely to the development of the intellectual faculties, but I mean that we should strive to educate the heart as well as the head.
Our children need to have instruction in the principles upon which the foundations of our government were laid, and to have their character stamped in the image of our forefathers, who bequeathed to us freedom
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and country, and who would rather have lost a right hand, than to have brought a stain upon the fair pages of our history. Our success in the future, as at the present, must come from the wisdom exercised in the choice of officers to fill the Executive, Legislative and Judicial depart- ments of our government ; from the intelligence and goodness of our people ; and from their love of country and their enthusiasm in sowing the seeds of virtue, temperance and learning, in the hearts of their chil- dren. None but an intelligent man, can poll an intelligent vote. And in proportion as ignorance and superstition predominate, just in proportion are our free institutions endangered. In conclusion, let us all be instructed by the wise man : "Get wisdom ; get understanding ; forget it not, neither decline from the words of my mouth. She shall give to thy head an orna- ment of grace, a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee."-WILLET H. ARNOLD, Supt.
FOSTER .- The education of the rising generation imposes the most sacred duty upon the citizens of the State, that can be imposed upon them by any circumstance, because education is the only foundation upon which a Republican government can permanently stand .- GEO. S. TIL- LINGHAST, Supt.
HOPKINTON -Parental influence is often adverse to good order and the best interests of a school. Parents should remember, that they virtually relinquish their hold on the child, when sent to the school, and consent to have their children under the supervision, management, and discipline of the teachers and school officers ; and that there is a right way to obtain redress, and that is through the proper school officers. Parents who never visit the school room are but poorly qualified to judge of the merits or demerits of cases reported to them by their children.
Our common schools ought to be, and may be made, almost as com- petent as the academies, seminaries and other select schools. Only let the spirit and letter of our school system be carried out; let parents if they do not advise, consent to have their children disciplined ; let dis- tricts select their most competent men for trustees and other officers, let trustees secure the most competent teachers, let school committees and superintendents be faithful to their sacred trust ; and town councils see that all truancy is stopped, and vagrancy, and absenteeism not al- lowed, and the common school would soon accomplish its beneficent and sacred mission, and be elevated to that rank among the educational in- stitutions of our State and country which is its privilege and duty .- S. S. GRISWOLD, Supt.
JAMESTOWN .- As a general thing in any district a school is just what those who send their children make it. If you hire a man to work on a farm, you see that he does the work properly that is required of him ; and he, knowing that you have an eye to his work, will try to do it as will please you, but if you should, in the Spring, when he first comes, say to him "The work is on the farm, do the best you can," then leave him until the season is over, who would be to blame if the labor had not been properly performed? Now we think it is very much the same with the schools. If parents will not visit the schools and see how the teacher and scholars are getting along, and then complain, no one is to blame but themselves.
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In District No. 2, during the Summer term, neither Superintendent, Committee nor parents visited the school, but the complaint was, the school was not good. Who was to blame? Your Committee has no doubt that if all who should have been interested had co-operated and assisted the teacher, the school would not only have been good ; but all might have been satisfied. We have had some difficulty by parents taking their children out of school, but it is always those that never visit the school, and all they know of the trouble is what their children tell them, forgetting that there are always two sides to a story. What we want is for all to put their shoulder to the wheel, help the teacher, en- courage the scholars in the proper way, see that they are at school every day, provided with suitable books, and cease to hear the cry that our schools are not what they ought to be. Parents, the schools are just what you make them. We wish we could impress upon the minds of you all, the importance of sending your children every day and not leave it at their option to go or stay away just as they choose .- ELIJAH AN- THONY, Chairman.
JOHNSTON .- I was present in some one of the evening schools nearly every evening during the entire session. I find but few visitors were present. This is all wrong. Parents and friends should make it a point to often visit their schools, and see for themselves whether the teacher does his duty, and whether the scholars comply with the rules and regulations. By this means the efficiency of our schools would be enhanced, and much of the antagonism between teachers and parents be obliterated .- W. A. PHILLIPS, Supt.
LINCOLN .- The prospect of elevating the masses to a standard of high intelligence and refinement, is not always as encouraging as we could wish, but as the standard by united effort is raised higher and higher, the prospect brightens in the dim distance, and we see the light of science radiating in all its beauty. Such prospects should urge all to more strenuous and unceasing labors. until the human heart is touched by influences which will awaken every chord of the holier feelings and make them vibrate in unison with the world of beauty, love and good- ness.
Never was there a time in the history of our country, in which there ยท was greater need of earnest and faithful labors in the great cause of ed- ucation and sound learning than at the present. Never were there such great inducements held out to the philanthropist to put forth every effort to benefit those around him ; and never so great and imperative need of making our schools what they should be for the instruction of the youth of our land.
With such high purposes and animated by a spirit of benevolence, phi- lanthropy and religion, we can all discharge our duties beneficially to our country, usefully to our race and generation, honorably to ourselves, and when we are called to go hence, leave our work as the richest legacy that we can bestow to the rising generation .- School Committee.
NEWPORT .- Scholarship and good manners are not the fruit of zeal- ous, devoted teachers alone. It is our firm conviction that vigilant, af-
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fectionate, thoughtful attention from parents, in behalf of the child, is of primary necessity. Where parents meet the teacher in the school-room, manifesting interest in the routine of the scholar's work, incentives alike to the teacher and scholar are apparent. Co-operation between parent and teacher is absolutely essential. We earnestly plead for livelier sym- pathy between the two. The highest trust committed to us is the care of children. Personal acquaintance with a teacher is a duty that parents owe to a child. If our experience is of value, we plead justly for a deeper interest in our schools on the part of parents, personal knowledge of the teacher, frequent visits to the school-room, a manifestation of the same interest in the child as in case of illness. Who would commit the child to a physician's skill without personal presence, to explain peculiarities of temperament, symptoms of feared disease, in fact, to offer most wil- ling devotion in aid of the sufferer? Yet the precious child, with pow- ers almost beyond human conception, if properly directed, well trained and guarded, is entrusted to the teacher, in the majority of instances, without a word from either parent from the beginning to the end of his school life .- THOS. COGGESHALL, Chairman.
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