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 9
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Kindred to this evil of irregular attendance, is the habit, which has already extended too far, of getting dismissed from school for the most trivial purposes-visiting, running of errands, &c., &c. Engagements are permitted by parents which are entirely inconsistent with a hearty in- terest in the work of the school. Parties, entertainments and the like, are allowed to engross more and more attention, till you not infre- quently hear the parents say, "We shall have to send our sons and daughters away to school. They have too many outside engagements. They are going here and there every evening in the week." Would it not be well, in such parents, to exercise a little decision and prevent such absorbing interest being taken in pastimes and festivities ?
Absenteeism and Truancy .- The number of truants and absentees in Woonsocket is four times as large as in many, if not in most towns and villages in Massachusetts. The Superintendent of Schools in Brookline in his last annual report, used this language :
" The truant officer reports that for the three months previous to the date of this report, but six cases of truancy have come under his notice, and all but one of these were cases of the first offence, and that to the best of his knowledge and belief, there are but three or four children in town who should be in school. but are not. These cases have been in- quired into, and were found not amenable to law."
In this community there are hundreds of children who ought to be in the public schools, but are not ; and nobody inquires into it, and nobody seems to feel that the blame lies at his door. How long this indifference can continue, it is impossible to say. It may be that the present fan- cied security may continue till the evils of ignorance and vice come to judgment in riot, bloodshed, anarchy. That can be done in Woonsocket which has been done in other localities. Truancy and absenteeism can be controlled. It only needs that the community be aroused, be in ear- nest, and do its duty. There is law enough ; what is needed is its en- forcement, and a place to which to send incorrigible cases. The school committee of last year brought this subject of the suppression of tru- ancy and absentecism' to the attention of the Honorable Town Council of this town, in a memorial setting forth the magnitude of the evil in this place. The Council received the memorial and referred it to a
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committee of three : Hon. Thomas Steere, L. W. Ballou, Esq., and Rev. C. J. White, who were to report such ordinances and suggestions as might seem to them required. It seems appropriate that their report should be inserted here, that it may reach the eye of many who ought to take a deep interest in the subject.
Woonsocket, Feb. 10th, 1874.
To the Town Council of Woonsocket-Gentlemen .- The Committee to whom was referred the memorial of the School Committee, respecting the truants and absentees from schools, respectfully present the following as their Report :
Immediately upon appointment we proceeded to inquire what action in the discharge of the duties respecting children of school age devolv- ing upon the Town Council, could and ought to be taken.
It was found that the Statutes, chapter 57, paragraph 2, and the rea- son of the thing, require that there shall be a suitable place of instruc- tion or confinement, to which the minor convicted of truancy or absen- teeism can be sent. It was found that no such place exists. It was inquired whether an ordinance, authorizing commitments for truancy and absenteeism to the Providence Reform School, would be approved by the Commissioner and sustained by the Justices of the Supreme Court. To this inquiry it was replied that as at present constituted and conducted, the Providence Reform School is not a fit place for children of such tender age as those would be, committed for truancy and absen- teeism ; and furthermore, the law did not contemplate commitments to that institution for the said offences. It was intimated, however, that steps would be taken looking to the establishment of a proper institu- tion. This committee, therefore, has delayed its report to this time, in the hope that such a suitable place of commitment being provided, greater efficiency could be given to such ordinances as might be rec- ommended and to the provisions for their execution when they were adopted. It seems to us, however, wrong to delay longer. It is uncer- tain, though the subject is still in consideration by the friends of educa- tion in the Legislature, when a suitable place will be provided. Mean- while the evils of truancy and absenteeism are increasing. The follow- ing ordinance is therefore recommended :
It is ordained by the Town Council of the Town of Woonsocket, as follows :
Section 1. Any person between the ages of six and sixteen years who shall be a habitual truant and not attending school, or without any regular and lawful occupation, or growing up in ignorance, shall, when convicted thereof, be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding twenty dol- lars for any one offence ; complaint in such cases being made to the Court of Magistrates.
It is recommended that the Town Council appoint three persons, whose duty it shall be to make complaints in cases of the violation of said ordinance.
It is further recommended that the aforesaid officers be authorized and directed to take annually a census of the children of school age in the town, and make a record of their ages, occupations, and such facts in
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regard to their attendance at school as they are able to learn ; and in cases of violation of the said ordinance, to proceed against the violators in due form of law.
It is further recommended that the said officers cause to be printed the foregoing ordinance, together with chapter 155 of the General Statutes of Rhode Island, and have the same properly posted throughout the town for the information of parents, and to protect superintendents and agents from the importunities that otherwise might be made be made upon them.
It is further recommended that the said officers be required to notify superintendent, agent, or other proper person, of any mill or manufac- turing establishment where any minor is illegally employed, and if, within one week, the said minor is not discharged, then it shall be their duty to prosecute in due form.
It is further recommended that the officers aforesaid be required, if they shall discover in the performance of their duties, cases of poverty demanding the relief of the town, to report the same to the Overseer of the Poor.
Signed,
CHARLES J. WHITE, L. W. BALLOU, THOMAS STEERE.
What action the town council has taken upon this Report is not known. It is hoped there will be no hesitation in taking some forward step in the matter. The superintendents of mills and manufacturing establish- ments, so far as they have been seen, have recognized the baneful effects of the absenteeism now existing, and the only expression they have made that might be construed as a dissent, is to this effect : "Let the law be enforced in all the State, and we will cheerfully co-operate. To enforce in Woonsocket alone might work serious injury to our manufac- turing interests, and not benefit the children, who would be removed to other towns where no objection is made to their being employed in the mills." Without intending to say an unkind or an uncharitable word, is not the substance of this statement, true as it is, just this : " If I do not this wrong somebody else will ; therefore I will do it." Having the law, its enforcement must begin somewhere. Why not in Woonsocket. Is it desirable to wink at a fostered ignorance until it becomes the con- trolling element in social and political life, as it now is in South Caro- lina? God forbid ! The law is as follows :
[General Statutes, chapter 155.]
SECTION 21. No minor under the age of twelve years shall be em- ployed in or about any manufacturing establishment, in any manufac- turing process, or in any labor incident to a manufacturing process.
SEC. 22. No minor under the age of fifteen years shall be employed in any manufacturing establishment in this State, unless such minor shall have attended school for a term of at least three months in the year next preceding the time when such minor shall be so employed ; and no such minor shall be so employed for more than nine months in any one calen- dar year.
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SEC. 23. No minor who has attained the age of twelve years, and is under the age of fifteen years, shall be employed in any manufacturing establishment more than eleven hours in any one day, nor before five o'clock in the morning, nor after half-past seven o'clock in the evening.
SEC. 24. Every owner, employer, or agent of a manufacturing estab- lishment, who shall knowingly and willfully employ any minor, and ยท every parent or guardian who shall permit or consent to the employment of his or her minor child or ward, contrary to the provisions of the next three preceding sections of this chapter, shall be liable to a penalty of twenty dollars for each offence, to be recovered by complaint and war- rant before the justice court in the town in which such child shall reside, or in which the manufacturing establishment in which such child shall have been employed shall be situated, one-half thereof to the use of the complainant, and the other half thereof to the use of the district school of the district in which such manufacturing establishment shall be situa- ted, or, if in the city of Providence, to the use of the public schools of said city.
SEC. 25. Every such complaint shall be commenced within thirty days after the offence complained of shall have been committed, with right of appeal as in other criminal cases."
CHARLES J. WHITE, Supt.
BOOKS.
BARRINGTON .- Text Books and Maps .- The change of readers and arithmetics authorized last year, has been generally completed, and i an- ticipate that the substitution of Monroe's readers for Hillard's and Sar- gent's, and of Hagar's arithmetics instead of Eaton's, will prove a decided advantage to the schools.
A map of the State of Rhode Island has been furnished at the expense of the town, to the schools in the second and the third districts, and a set of Prang's chromos, illustrating the subject of natural history, has been presented to each of the schools by a member of the school com- mittee .- I. F. CADY, Superintendent.
Books used in the Schools .- Arithmetics, Eaton's and Hagar's ; Gram- mar, Greene's and Harkness'; Geography, Warren's; History, Good- rich's and Anderson's ; Penmanship, Potter & Hammond's; Readers, Monroe's ; Spellers, Leach's ; Physiology, Cutter's and Steele's ; Algebra, Greenleaf's ; Botany, Gray's .- School Committee.
BRISTOL .- Text Books .- No changes have been made in the text-books during the year. The committee are of opinion that some other grammar, should be substituted for Quackenbos', the one that has been used for some "years in the schools, but which has been found, in some respects, objec- tionable. It is quite possible, also, that a different algebra, from those now in use could be introduced into the High School, to advantage.
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SCHOOL COMMISSIONER'S REPORT.
BURRILLVILLE -At a meeting of the committee, held in August, Monroe's series of readers were adopted for the schools in the town, in place of Sargent's, which had been used for many years .- School Com- mittee.
Though there is no State law requiring the purchase of text and re- ference books for the general use of the different schools, yet the law of common sense at once requires that each district should have for its own property, a set of text-books' for the teacher's desk, and a good dictionary of the English language for the benefit of every pupil.
Numeral boards, charts, blocks and any of the inventions by which the mind may be assisted, through the eye, are also desirable. I would however, through you, most carefully recommend to the several school districts, that their rooms be immediately supplied with a full set of text- books, and a large English dictionary, at the expense of the districts. Some teachers, not knowing whether they are to teach more than one term in the same school, and with their limited salaries, do not feel able to purchase the needful text-books ; and the system of borrowing continu- ally from the scholars, is a poor one. How, too, when we desire for our children a full knowledge of the right pronunciation and correct de- finition of English words, can this desire be gratified, unless they have at school, as well as at home, some ultimate authority at hand to which an appeal may at any moment be made. The best lexicons, in addition to a good teacher, are indispensable in acquiring any language. Even the best teachers and the most celebrated writers feel the need, at times, of referring to a standard dictionary. How then shall we perfect our scholars, or how can they so much as approximate perfection, without such a ready reference book? Need we say anything further than that there is a want, in nearly all of the schools in the town, of proper text and reference books, which being supplied by the districts, shall be as much under the care of the trustees as the school houses themselves. Were a simultaneous movement in the direction of a supply to be made, a liberal discount could doubtless be obtained of the publishers of these needful books .- WILLIAM FITZ, Supt.
CHARLESTOWN .- There has been a change in the text books during the year. The Analytical Reader and Speller have been adopted in place of Sargent's Standard Series .- WM. F. TUCKER, Supt.
COVENTRY .- A uniformity of text books in the four towns in Kent County would be a great saving to many poor families, who are moving from one factory to another, who are obliged to purchase a new series of books, which necessity, sometimes keeps them from our schools.
H. L. SPENCER, Clerk.
CRANSTON -A change of readers being imperatively necessary, the Committee, after a thorough examination of several series, decided to introduce the "Edwards and Webb Analytical Readers." Circumstances beyond our control delayed the introduction of the new readers, until quite late in the year, but the increased interest displayed by both teachers and scholars throughout the schools, is satisfactory evidence that the introduction of the Analytical series was a wise movement, made none too soon.
.
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Much as parents object to a change of text books when proposed, there are very few really interested in the education of their children who do not rejoice, after the change is affected in view of the renewed interest that the scholars usually display in their studies.
The change of readers was speedily followed by a change of Arithme- tics, Eaton's series being substituted by Hagar's series. In view of the change of readers just made, and the unsettled condition of business, the introduction of the arithmetics has not been pressed as it otherwise would have been. The direction was given that whenever new books were needed, Hagar's should be purchased, but the time has come when the change ought to be made without further delay. The undoubted superiority of Hagar's arithmetics, over all others now in use, and the . confusion of classes necessarily produced by the present arrangement, render it necessary to complete the change at once.
While upon this subject of Text Books, I take the liberty of expressing my decided opinion, reached after a careful review of the arguments on both sides of the question, that there should be in our State some au- thority to decide what text books shall be used in all our public schools. Such an authority would be quite as likely to decide wisely, as are the various local boards upon which the duty of deciding at present devolves. With a population as migratory as is a portion of that in our manufac- turing districts, the saving in cost of books would be no inconsiderable item. Under the present arrangement, it is a surprise to newly elected school officers, to find themselves suddenly transformed into objects of interest to that very useful, but occasionally rather too persistent class of our citizens, the book agents .- D. G. ANDERSON, Supt.
CUMBERLAND .-- The exchange of readers, commenced during the pres- ent year, has been completed. No other change has been made, though there is a general conviction that a change of arithmetics and geogra- phies would be beneficial. In making any change, it should be kept distinctly in mind that the primary book of every series is the most im- portant. Many teachers depend in a great measure upon the text book. The first one should be a good one, therefore, that the child may compre- hend it, become interested in the study, and also receive correct views at the beginning. In our village schools the children enter the mills and shops so young that the primary book is the only one of the series that the larger portion of them are ever likely to master. And those who continue their studies can do better with an inferior book of a high grade if the primary instruction has been of the right kind and quality.
C. W. BURNHAM, Supt.
EAST GREENWICH .- At an adjourned meeting of the School Committee held August 30th, agreeable to notice previously given, it was voted to adopt Monroe's series of reading books in place of the readers now used in the public schools of this town, upon the terms proposed by the publish- ers, the change and introduction to be made under the direction of the superintendent .- JAMES H. ELDREDGE, Chairman.
EXETER .- One change in text books has been made during the past year. At a special meeting of the committee in May, Warren's series of geographies were substituted for Cornell's .- WILLET H. ARNOLD, Supt.
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SCHOOL COMMISSIONER'S REPORT.
HOPKINTON .-- The Spencerian system of writing has been introduced into all of the schools. The writers have been quite thoroughly classi- fied, so that as far as practicable, the pupils in each department write the same copy at the same time. Stoddard's Intellectual, Primary and Juvenile Arithmetics have been introduced, in accordance with your rec- ommendations, at a cost of $29.20, and 17 cents per copy, and have done a good work for the schools. Barnes' One-Term History of the United States has been introduced, as recommended, at a cost of 94 cents per copy. This History is a good work, and ought to be in the schools generally. In the Higher Department of the Graded School in No. 9, a class of thirty made good progress. Bryant & Stratton's sys- tem of Book-keeping has been introduced into the High School at Hope Valley, where quite a large class studied it with good proficiency. The cost was 67 cents for the book, and 65 cents for the blanks per copy. Warren's Geography has been introduced into the Graded School. at Ashaway. This work ought to supersede Cornell's, being a superior work in many respects. All the labor of procuring these books, delivering them, collecting and paying for the same, I have performed gratuitously, re- ceiving no compensation by discount or otherwise, and every pupil has had the books put into his hands at the simple cost from the publishers and the express charges delivered at Hopkinton City. The time I have thus expended has been some ten days of self, horse and carriage, all of which has been willingly given for the benefit, as I hope, of the schools .--- S. S. GRISWOLD, Supt.
LINCOLN .- During the past year, your committee have deemed it ex- pedient to introduce into the various schools of the town, Monroe's Series of Readers, and to give permission to the teachers to use Leach's Spelling Book, if, in their judgment, any change was advisable. In order to secure uniformity in text-books, the following list is recom- mended by the committee ; and the teachers are earnestly requested to use these books as far as possible, and no others.
Monroe's Readers ; Warren's or Cornell's Geographies ; Leach's or Sar- gent's Spellers ; Greene's Grammar ; Quackenbos' Arithmetics ; Good- rich's and Quackenbos' History of the United States ; Potter & Hammond's or Payson, Dunton & Scribner's series of Writing Books ; Webster's or Worcester's Dictionaries .- School Committee.
NORTH KINGSTOWN .- The introduction of new text-books for the schools, the past year, has, in the main, been quite satisfactory, with some few exceptions, where the parents have failed to understand the necessity of such change, have raised objection, and in some quarters attempted opposition and even resistance ; but their own reflections have, doubtless, convinced them of the error, and all have finally ac- quiesced in the recommendation of the Committee, and the new text- books have been adopted in all the districts throughout the town. It is due to the teachers of the several schools, to say that they have co-ope- rated with the committee, in facilitating the exchange of books. Reading the scriptures and singing has been practiced in nearly all the schools. A few teachers claim exemption from singing on the ground of wino musical talent," but I am glad to say, that in most of the schools, this
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useful and cheerful exercise is practiced from two to four times a day, and the scholars seem all the happier for this healthy and pleasant ex- ercise. But few scholars, however, are furnished with singing books. The teachers have, in some instances, exerted themselves to make up the deficiency by borrowing, and even begging books for use in their schools, while others for want of voice or lack of interest, have made little or no effort to introduce singing into their schools. To overcome the difficulty of trying to sing without books, I would. respectfully sug- gest that the town make an appropriation to purchase singing books for the use of schools, in each district, to be put in charge of the teachers, to be kept by them for use only in the school room, and to remain the property of the several districts. This appropriation need not be large, as it is believed that an average of twelve or fifteen books to each dis- trict will be sufficient to meet their wants, and if furnished, will give permanency and uniformity to this branch of useful instruction .- A. B. CHADSEY, Superintendent.
NORTH SMITHFIELD .- Text Books Adopted by the Committee .- The Frank- lin Series of Readers ; Sargent's Speller ; Webster's and Worcester's Dic- tionaries ; Greene's Grammars ; Hagar's Series of Mathematics ; Warren's Geographies : Anderson's Histories ; Payson, Dunton & Scribner's, and Potter & Hammond's Writing Books ; Cutter's Physiologies.
During the year your committee have adopted the Franklin Series of Readers compiled by the same excellent author of the series displaced. In one of the schools, books of this series have been used for more than a year, the committee permitting their use at the request of the school. When scholars become so familiar with the selections of a reader that they feel no need of studying them, some newer and fresher selections will better subserve the purpose. We have also displaced Cornell's geographies by Warten's, believing the latter work to be nearer the standards of advanced knowledge in geographical science .- CALVIN R. FITTS, Superintendent.
PORTSMOUTH .- School Books authorized by the School Committee .- Readers, Sargent's ; Spellers, Sargent's ; Arithmetic, French's ; Geogra- phy, Cornell's ;" History, Scott's ; Dictionary, Webster's.
At a special meeting held February 9, 1874, Joseph Coggeshall was appointed a committee to procure a copy of " Webster's Unabridged Dictionary " for each and every district in the town, provided that the Commissioner of Public schools is of opinion that the committee have power to use the money appropriated by the town for public schools for that purpose .- School Committee.
SCITUATE .- The exchange of readers and arithmetics, which was com- menced last year, has been completed. The work done was manifestly much needed. Monroe's series of readers, now in use, are of a superior character. The exchange of books is attended with difficulties, and it should be undertaken only when it is really demanded. I do not think other changes are required at present, unless it be the displacement of Greene's Grammar, and the substitution in its place of Swinton's Lan- guage Lessons, a work of rare excellence and small expense .- J. M. BREWSTER, Superintendent.
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SCHOOL COMMISSIONER'S REPORT.
SOUTH KINGSTOWN .- Only one change has been made in text books during the past year. At a meeting of the committee, Nov. 10th, 1873, it was voted to substitute for Sargent's Readers (for a number of years heretofore in use in the town) the Analytical School Readers, published by Taintor & Co., N. Y., so far, and as fast as new classes were formed. The subject had been before the committee for several months, and after thoroughly examining the series, as well as other modern works, they were adopted with only two dissenting voices.
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