1864-1865 School Committee Report

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6 labored as zealously and faithfully as in previous years. We speak of facts that force themselves on our notice. We know that the task of the teacher of this school is a difficult one, and rendered more so by the presence of a large school of older children, whose manners and habits exercise a great influence on the younger. One pupil has been lost to the school by death. HANCOCK GRAMMAR. —Miss STETSON has fulfilled the ex- pectations, entertained a year ago, in all that relates to the progress of the school in studies. Generally, the scholar- ship has been such as to meet reasonable demands. In some respects, the last examination showed a thoroughness not often equalled in our schools of the same grade. In regard to the discipline of the school, using the word in the broadest sense, as standing for the whole moral condition, there is much wanting to what is justly expected of such a school. The order in the,, room has not been of a high character, and the defect has been still more apparent out- side of the schoolroom. Rudeness of act and speech, carelessness and abuse in the treatment of the build- ings and surrounding property, want of courteousness to passers-by, and, in general, a coarse and turbulent style of conduct, have characterized the school, as compared with its own condition in former times, and that of the other schools in town generally. These things prove a great and radical defect somewhere in the influences acting upon the school. The facts are easier to be seen and stated than the explanation of them. We simply call attention to the matter, as one of the profoundest importance to the future character of the young, who are here receiving the im- pulses that will most likely shape their future lives. It calls imperatively for the united efforts of committee, teacher, and parents, to correct the evil as far as possible. One thing, in justice to the teachers of the two schools 7 last named, should be said. The whole number of pupils in the three departments has risen to a hundred and forty. More than a hundred, consequently, have to be shared be- tween the two upper departments. Comparing the expense of the several schools in town, and the number of pupils attending each, it appears that those of the Hancock School cost an average of a little over six dollars ; less by more than a dollar than any other school in town, and but a little more than half that of the Adams School. In fact, the teachers of the two schools under consideration are over - tasked ; and it is not strange that the consequences are seen in the state of the schools. If the steady increase of the numbers of children attend- ing school at the Centre continues, it will soon be necessary to establish another school. A primary school, placed somewhere near the railroad -crossing, would accommodate the children better than the present arrangement, and re- duce the Centre School to manageable size. This might prevent the need of doing what perhaps will otherwise be deemed, sooner or later, expedient ; namely, the employ- ment of a man at the Centre, which would involve an in- crease of expense greater than that of an additional primary school, after the first cost of preparing the room. ADAMS PRIMARY. — Miss HowE has fully sustained her previous character, and, at the closing examination, pre- sented the school in a condition every way gratifying to our desires in its behalf. We think it likely this school has been benefited, in some measure, by the improved condi- tion of the grammar department for the last two or three years. It suffered much from absence caused by sickness, during the winter, — a quarter part of the pupils being absent on examination -day. No other indication of the evil effects was apparent. The school is worthy in the highest degree of the approval of its friends.