1861-1862 School Committee Report

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4 PRIMARY SCHOOL, Miss HOWE has fully met our anticipations. The examination, at the close of the year, was truly de- lightful, both for its own merits, and as giving assurance that this interesting school is to be retained at the point of excellence which it reached under the two preceding teachers. The grammar -department of this school was under the care of Mr. S. H. NICHOLS. He found it in a poor condi- tion, and he left it so. During a part of the year, the appearances were considerably encouraging; and it was not beyond hope, that this school was about to recover some of the good standing of former years, and which it is fully entitled to by the good material regularly supplied to it from the school below. What the malign influence is which persistently intervenes to hinder so desirable a re- sult, it would not be profitable to discuss in this place, or to endeavor to distribute it in proper proportions to the several sources which may be supposed to contribute to it. It will do more good for all concerned to continue in cor- dial and harmonious endeavors to remedy the evil, with a confidence that there is no obstacle that may not be over- come in the way of the good order and general success of this school. We feel it only just to say, that, in our opi- nion, the teacher was possessed of many of the most essen- tial qualifications of his office in a high &gree ; that he endeavored to exercise a beneficial moral and religious influence ; and labored, in general, with diligence and con- scientiousness. It can be no special reproach to him that he did not fully succeed, where so many have failed before. We feel that the HIGH SCHOOL needs no eulogy from us. Itself is its own sufficient commendation. It is well, how- ever, to call attention to the fact, that its numbers have much exceeded those of any previous year. At the begin- ning of the year, there were sixty-seven pupils. This number was soon reduced to about sixty ; which remained the number to the end of the year. During the Fall 5 Term, the number was just sixty ; and but one left during the term, fifty-nine being present at the examination. The average attendance was a fraction over fifty-nine. In the Winter Term, there were also sixty pupils. Again, one left in the middle of the term ; and the other fifty-nine were all present at the examination. The average attend- ance was a fraction over fifty-nine. In other words, the average attendance for the last two terms was more than ninety-eight per cent of the whole number of pupils. The interesting and important fact thus appears, that the attendance at this school is, by a large difference, more constant than in any other school in town ; showing that distance of residence from the schoolroom is not ne- cessarily a hinderance to regularity in attendance. We mention a single example. One pupil, who lives two and a half miles from the school, has been a member two years and a half, and has not been absent or tardy once ; and this instance differs only in a small degree from many others. Moreover, the same fact shows that distance is no detri- ment to the health of the pupils ; since one reason of the constant attendance is, of course, their general exemption from illness. In accordance with the intimation given in the last year's Report, those pupils who had completed the studies pre- scribed for a three -years' course, and who yet wished to remain and prosecute their studies farther, were allotted to the several lower classes as assistant teachers, with such arrangements as best secured the supervision of the princi- pal in every class. It is not supposed that the results have been altogether as good as might have been attained by the employment of an experienced assistant, giving her whole time to the work : still they have been very good. We have no doubt that this portion of their work has had its own peculiar and special advantages as to those who have performed it, or that the classes intrusted to them have done better than they would, with the limited time the teacher could have given to them, if he had been