1859-1860 School Committee Report

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8 expose the school to the obvious and manifold disadvantages, both moral and physical, arising from being crowded into a room so inadequate in size, and inconvenient in location. The Committee think that the school needs only reasonable accommodations, with the application of a firm and strict discipline, to make it what the community have a right to demand. These good results depend on the wisdom and for- bearance of the community as well as on the teacher. The pupils should never be encouraged in regarding it as an open question, whether the teacher shall have their respect or not. They should be told that he is entitled to it as a right ; that they are bound to yield it ; that, even at the worst, no change in their feelings towards the teacher can excuse them in a disregard of his orders, and in violations of propriety in or out of school -hours and the school -room. The supply of school -books to the pupils at a price simply covering the cost at wholesale, and charge for transportation, has been attended to ; and the report of the Agent is ap- pended. No change in the books prescribed for use has been made during the year. To each of the schoolrooms there has been furnished a set of the books appropriate to the school, for the use of the teacher, in accordance with the vote of the town authorizing the Committee to do this. The whole expense has been $30.66. A detailed account of the names and price of the books thus furnished is entered in the records of the School Committee. The number of persons in town on the first day of May, A.D. 1859, between the ages of five and fifteen years, was 370. The amount received from the State School Fund for 1859 was $81.27. The sum raised by the town for the support of schools for 1859-60 was $3,700, — to be apportioned as follows : viz., $1,000 for the support of the High School ; $1,600 to be equally divided between the Adams and Hancock Schools ; and the remaining $1,100 to be divided equally between the Howard, Bowditch, Warren, and Franklin Schools. 9 Burlington, Lincoln, and Winchester have sent some pu- pils to our schools, for which no compensation has yet been received. In the too general carelessness respecting a constant at- tendance, it is pleasant to note the fact, that in the Centre Grammar School, during the Winter Term, nine pupils were not absent at all ; and, of these, one only was marked for tardiness once. In the liberality of its appropriations, in proportion to the number of pupils and to its taxable property, the relative rank of Lexington among the towns of the State has fallen the last year, in comparison with the preceding. In regard to the average attendance of its pupils, it has advanced from being the hundred and ninety-second to be the hundred and forty-third. L. J. LIVERMORE, CHARLES TIDD, C.onzmittee, HOWLAND HOLMES, 2