HomeMy WebLinkAbout1854-1855 School Committee ReportREPORT
OF
THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE
OF
LEXINGTON,
FOR THE YEAR 1854-55.
BOSTON:
PRINTED BY DAVIS & FARMER,
18 EXCHANGE STREET.
1855.
REPORT
OF
THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE
OF
LEXINGTON,
FOR THE YEAR 1854-55.
BOSTON:
PRINTED BY DAVIS & FARMER,
18 EXCHANGE STREET.
1855.
REPORT,
Yours Superintending School Committee, fellow -citizens, now
submit for your consideration, their Annual Report ; giving such
further information pertaining to the condition and wants of your
schools, as their labors the past year have enabled thein to obtain.
We cannot but express our gratification in the degree of success
with which most of our schools have been conducted during the
past year.
The South-east Grammar Department, under the care of a
gentleman of ability, gave the Committee fair satisfaction. In
the Primary, although in the charge of a lady of acknowledged
talents, we have not found that happy state of things we could
wish. From some cause or other, there were wanting that
harmony and sympathy between teacher and pupils, so essential
to a good degree of success. We believe the teacher to have
been faithful according to the best of her judgment, and your
Committee found the school, at its close, in quite as good condition
as, under all circumstances, they had anticipated.
Of the Winter School in the North-east District, taught by a
gentleman, one of the Committee, it does not become us, perhaps,
here to speak. His great experience and success, as well as your
long -reposed confidence in him, render further remark wholly
unnecessary. The Summer School, also, appeared to have sus-
tained itself. The order was good, and the final examination
satisfactory.
The School in the North District, taught in summer by a lady
always acceptable as a teacher, whose moral influence also, on the
school, was most happy ; and in winter by a gentleman of promise,
while there was much in it to commend, did not, at all times,
exhibit that degree of order, stillness, and attention to studies,
4
which is highly desirable. Could this defect be remedied, we
think that a marked improvement would soon manifest itself.
A fault of a similar nature, but more noticeable, was observed
in the South District School. The Summer School, taught by a
lady of refinement, and of rare felicity of disposition, was held,
perhaps, in fair degree of order by the gentler means of persuasion
and love ; instruments, at all times needful, and most commendable
in school discipline, yet oftentimes resisted and greatly abused, by
those for whose best good they are employed.
We regret to say that the Winter School, in respect to order
and discipline, was decidedly objectionable. Its teacher, a lady
from the Normal School, manifestly of talents, of commanding
deportment, and apparently amiable disposition, failed to secure
even that degree of order which her more fortunate predecessor
had done, although using perhaps, the same persuasive instru-
mentalities. And yet, when we saw so many things to commend,
we could not but believe, that there may be many a locality in this
Commonwealth, where she would meet with all that success, which
she could reasonably expect, and which her talents deserve.
The West District School has been necessarily interrupted, in
the past year, by that which reflects additional honor on this
town,—the erection of another commodious and beautiful school-
house, making, within four years past, the fifth. It appears, by the
register, that the school was in operation but four months and a
half during the year.
The teacher was a lady who had long been familiar with the
duties of the school -room ; who was observed by the Committee
to preserve good order and discipline, to be faithful and perse-
vering, and the exercises at the close, taking into consideration the
above-named interruption, appeared with credit.
The Centre Grammar School has, for the two years past, been
entrusted to a gentleman well tried and approved. Zealous in his
profession, with order at the helm, his labors have been attended
with success. The good attendance at examinations and during
term -time, on the part of parents and friends of the school, have
evinced commendable interest. The Primary Department during
the year, has had the services, successively, of two teachers, both
well approved, and who deserve to be here reported favorably.
Your Committee have also the pleasure of reporting, for the first
time, a High School in our midst. We congratulate our fellow -
citizens that they have erected this monument of high honor to the
5
town, thus meeting the wants of our community, and doing,
according to their ability, what we believe will be instrumental in
making our other schools what they ought to be, and hence, of
becoming a lasting blessing. It will be recollected that the school,
at first, was instituted for two terms, as an experiment. The ex-
periment was tried, gave good satisfaction, and at our March
meeting an appropriation of one thousand dollars for the coming
year, was promptly voted, and with great unanimity.
This unanimity may be supposed to be the result, chiefly, or in
part, of two considerations. First, your Committee were fortunate
in securing the services of a gentleman as Principal, who has given
a high degree of satisfaction.
Again, our citizens, with commendable care, were at first fearful
lest such an enterprise should in some way impair the credit and
efficiency of our District Schools. But, on further reflection, large
numbers, if not all, became convinced that, not injury, but benefit
to our District Schools would thereby be likely to accrue ; that
the High School, in reality, is but part and parcel of our Common
Schools, becoming an additional spring in our educational machi-
nery, giving efficiency and regularity to all its movements.
Indeed, the advantages to be derived from a system of perfect
gradation and classification, are far too numerous to be given in
detail, in a report like this. It is sufficient to say, that we may
now secure a better education for our children ; one that shall
prepare them, on our own soil, and under our own eye, for any
sphere or profession in life, short of what is commonly supposed
to depend only on a collegiate education; an object, certainly of
paramount importance, when we reflect how much greater now
than formerly, is the demand, in the various departments of life,
for a more thorough and extended education.
While we cannot but look with satisfaction on whatever indica-
tions there have been given, in our schools, of moral and intellectual
progress, we would not, as our duty demands that we should not,
be insensible to any defects still manifest in them. Defects and
evils in them we certainly do find, in a greater or less degree.
And among these we must not fail to mention the lack of constant
and punctual attendance. It is a startling fact, mentioned in one
of the reports of the late Secretary of the Board of Education, that
during one year while he was in office, of the $477,221,24, raised
in the Commonwealth for the support of our Public schools, more
than two hundred thousand dollars were directly thrown away,
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through irregularity in the attendance of scholars, this voluntary
abandonment of privileges.
What manufacturing, commercial, or agricultural enterprise
would not speedily turn bankrupt, should its laborers absent
themselves for a corresponding portion of the time ? Is the matter
under consideration, a less dire calamity, a subject for less surprise
and regret, because it is an educational businss ?
But an item of loss is here involved, which no labor nor skill
can ever repair. Time, once lost, is lost forever. The spring -time
of life once past, cannot be restored. Would that parents were
fully sensible of the momentous interests here involved !
It is also very desirable that there should be as few changes of
teachers as possible ; and though we do not think that this town
is peculiarly faulty in this respect, yet it would doubtless be much
to itsadvantage if changes of this sort were less frequent than
they are. One obvious way to accomplish this would be to give
the Superintending Committee authority, whenever a teacher is
wanted, to give public notice of the same, and to appoint a day
and place for all who wish to be candidates for the situation to
meet and be examined ; thus giving the Committee an opportunity
from probably quite a number of candidates, to make a more ju-
dicious selection for a particular school, than otherwise could be
made. The General Committee are held responsible, in a great
measure, for the character and success of the schools, and, therefore
the voices, now raised and borne every year through the School
Committee's reports, from almost every town in the Commonwealth,
to this effect, is but the cry of common justice.
Your Committee proposed to call your attention to some re-
marks on defects in reading ; pointing out what seems to thein, its
special bearing on the first years of the scholar's life, and hence, on
our Primary Schools, where, without controversy, the first seeds
of excellence or defect are sown. We only say, be specially
guardful of these springs of our after habits of thought and action,
of good or evil. Watch over them with a mother's care. First,
in the order of time, they are first also in importance. Other
departments in education are important and indispensable, so is
this also. Not to the highest and most enduring purpose shall we
raise our educational pyramid, though its cap -stone appear solid as
granite, and polished as a mirror, if there be defect and rottenness
at its base.
Cousin, the French philosopher and educationist has uttered
7
the celebrated proverb, as is the teacher, so is the school."
Possibly, this may be the embodiment of an important truth under
a monarchical government, where the schools depend but little
upon the social influences of the neighborhood where they exist.
Without modification, however, it will fail to apply to us, where
everything emanates from the people. With us, it should rather
be said, as are the parents, so are both -the teacher and the
school." And here we are reminded of a point of supreme import-
ance ; a point where the power of mere money ceases, and our
schools pass from the jurisdiction of material, to that of moral in-
fluences, and we hesitate not to affirm that, if they are not.
moulded and vivified by the latter, it were better they had never
been founded.
And now, as we are penning these closing remarks, on this nine-
teenth day of April, ever memorable in the eyes of our citizens and
of the civilized world, the varied demonstrations of joy, that greet
our ears, remind us of what our fathers did for us : of the blood
they freely shed on the fields of Lexington, that we, their children,
in long succession, might enjoy those free institutions of popular
education, and of religion, without which, houses, and lands, and
even life itself, were of but little worth. It is our happy lot, in the
less turbulent, and more peaceful manner, in the stillness of our
Sabbath worship, and in the order and efficiency of our common
schools, to carry out to its final consummation, that, which they so
sacredly guarded, and for which they died.
Sacred to their memory be our churches and our schools !
While our children are maturing their intellect in the one, may
their affections be unfolded and ripened in the other. Thus, only,
can they become " that happy people whose God is the Lord."
Respectfully submitted, for the Committee,
ELIPHALET P. CRAFTS.
IRA LELAND. School Com-
ELIPHALET P. CRAFTS. mittee of
CHARLES TIDD. Lexington.
TABULAR VIEW.
DISTRICTS.
TEACHERS.
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ki
Gi
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O
A
F
F
N
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.r
U
Ui
M Y
I0
oz
O'
y
U
y
C
O
4' co ,„ c„ cn c Whole Number of Scholars
r-. co co -.i co co -a o 0 in Winter.
ca co ca to ca t
0 N' C t\D 14' C.,c c,, Average attendance in
'CO crit ca v m co Winter.
Q' ts•D N N CO Cn t..D c,
c' 0 L 0 0 0 '' 0 Wages per Month in
e' Summer.
C, 114. t{a ts•D tO l,. C71 C.. c71
c' 0 0 0 H'LSD0 '—` 0 Wages per Month in
0 Winter.
Scholars over Fifteen Years.
o '-. rs t.., ca of Age in Summer.
ca Scholars over Fifteen Years
ts•D CA co ',a ca of Age in Winter.
CENTRE GRAMMAR . .
CENTRE PRIMARY
SOUTH-EAST GRAMMAR .
SOUTH-EAST PRIMARY
SOUTH
WEST
NORTH
NoRTH-EAST . , , •
HIGH SCHOOL . . . .
Thomas Ii. Barnes .
Olive L. Weston : 2
Mary F. Barnes . s
John D. Marston
Susan E. Rice
W. Cushman
L. M. Wellington5
H. R. Stearns . . S
Lucy A. Downing .
Geo. W. Robinson .
Lucy B. Fiske . .
Charles Tidd .
Martha F. Fanning
Geo. W. Dow . .
4
4
5
5
2
4
4
3
3-4
3-4
3-4
1-2
3-4
4 3-4
4 3-4
4 1-2
4 1-2
4 1-4
1 3-4
3 1-3
3 1-4
3
9 1-2
9 1-2
9 1-2
9 1-2
9 1-4
4 1-2
7 5-6
8
6
46
61
49
64
36
30
51
36
41
38
48
38.6
37
28
24
34
28
38.15