HomeMy WebLinkAbout2546 Report of the "committee appointed to consider questions of supervision and courses of study in our public schools," no date but presumed 18861.
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[in pencil] pg 132
The committee appointed to consider
the questions of supervision and courses of
study in our public school schools - report the
following suggestions and recommendations.
Our schools are suffering from lack
of supervision and from the restless desire of
parents to have their children get on
We cannot expect adequate sys-
tematic or even intelligent supervision for a
long period by a school committee whose
time is occupied with other duties
The question presents itself - how are
we to get what is so urgently demanded
without subjecting the town to a large expense
We need a supervisor certainly as
competent as any teacher we now have in
our schools and cannot obtain, or if by
chance one is obtained, we cannot retain
him for less salary then we are now
paying the principle of our High School.
There is a Statute that provided
that two or more towns may unite in
employing a superintendent who shall
have the supervision of all the schools
in said towns under such conditions
as the towns may agree upon. Such
arrangements have been made to a
very limited extent, and it is improbable
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that Lexington would be satisfied with any
plan of this kind feasible to be made -
It is suggested that a woman might
be employed at less expense -
There can be no objections to a
woman superintendent, but we are con-
fident that a woman competent for the
work will command (quite) as large as sal-
ary as a man -
To employ any person for a
partial supervisor, that is, for a super-
vision of the lower grades of schools will be
unsatisfactory - We want some one
with a comprehensive view of education
and who is capable of grasping the
whole plan of our system from the lowest
primary grade through the highest grade
in the High School.
No doubt we should get the best
results by employing a superintendent in
addition to our present corps of teachers,
but Lexington already stands high in
the amount of money raised for the
support of schools, especially per scholar-
and no doubt the proposition to add
not less than $1500 to our appropriation
would seem extravagant-
We think such a course will
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not be practicable for several years and
that we are not justified in adopting
it - or in giving up the plan of super-
vision - without at least giving the method
we here suggest a trial -
We have a High School,
the average number of scholars in which
is 37.5. The expense of the school
during the past year has been nearly
$3000 (2885)- The school is we believe
now in competent hands and we shall
as a rule always have experienced teachers
in charge of that school.
The daily sessions of the school con-
tinue during the greater portion of the
year from 8 A.M. to 1 P.M.
The plan we suggest is, in short,
to put the supervision of all schools
into the hands of the principle of that
school - to require him to devote such
portions of the afternoons with an occasional
forenoon as may be necessary for the
work - and in this way to secure for
all our scholars some benefit from the
experience and ability for which we
make a large outlay-
We foresee the objections that are at
once ready to be made -
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The principal of the High School no
doubt will say - "I am already earning
my salary" - We have no doubt of
it - Every faithful teacher does that
twice over - and our further answer is
if we do not pay him enough - pay
him more -
He may further object "My time is
all taken up now" - "I require my after-
noons and evenings and preparation for
my schoolwork" - We answer we
know it all, but a competent, enthusiastic
teacher will always find a way for doing
whatever is required of him.
We regret to impose this additional
burden, but the exigencies of the case
required it - We are a small town
but from the character of our people and
our situation we require the best instruc-
tion and supervision in our schools, and
we feel that we must for the present
rely on our High School principal to
relieve us.
He may further say, and in
this objection some of the parents may
join - "If I am required to do
this it will of necessity be to the injury
of the High School" - Our answer is
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the injury will be only temporary and very slight
if at all -
Indeed it is possible to adopt the plan
suggested without interfering with the course
of study or the exercises of the school as they
are now followed -
We further answer - the benefit that
must result from this plan will immediately
be felt through the other grades of school and
cannot fail at no distant day to elevate
and improve the High School to a wonder-
ful extent -
But if there are any who still
contend that this plan will be an injury to
the High School - we answer, then let
it be so - the benefit to the many will
be a hundred times far greater than the injury
to the few.
We can far better afford to neglect
if it need to be the High School than to
allow slip-shod unsatisfactory methods to prevail in
the lower grades - Take care of the
Primary Schools and the High School
will take care of itself - Build upon a weak
or faulty foundation and do what you will
to the structure you can never make it
strong - Let instruction and dis-
cipline in the primary grades be faulty
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and the High School can never cure it.
Our position on this point is so
nearly an axiom that it seems almost
a waste of time to state it - Every one
admits it - and yet the tendency is to
lavish our attention and our money on
the High School, with its ample apart-
ments for a few and to reduce our appro-
priations to the minimum and to neglect
the primary grades in crowded school
rooms -
The chief object of the public schools
is to give a good common school educa-
tion to the many -
Only a small percent of our
pupils enter the High School - The
education of the mass is finished, in the
Grammar School or in the grades below
it - Is it not of the utmost im-
portance then that we devote a fair share
of our money and by far the greater part
of our attention and supervision to the
lower grades -
Is it not of the utmost importance
that we provide teachers for these grades
fully as competent for their work
as the teachers of the High School are for
theirs -
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Is it not of the utmost importance
that we provide a generous course for the
lower grades of those practical studies
that are so essential in every day
life and see to it that the work in
every grade is well done before the pupil is
advanced to a higher.
Is it not desirable that these schools
in which the education of so many is
finished should afford opportunities
for more work in business Arithmetic a
nd English - a practical acquaintance
with ordinary Bookkeeping and some
knowledge of Physics and English History -
Every one will agree that one
position upon this branch of the sub-
ject is correct, but there is hardly a
parent who has a child in the upper
class of either grade who is not anxious
to have him get into the next - and
who will not oppose any plan that
looks to the improvement of the studies
or the methods in the lower grades - if
it in any measure delays his getting
on -
We suppose every member of this
committee has been approached by
parents, one perhaps who has a
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daughter in the Grammar School and
is "so anxious that she should get into the
High School because she isn't learning
anything in the former" - or another
who has a boy in the Primary School and
it is necessary that he should be promoted
to the Intermediate because some boy
with whom he plays is in the latter -
and has been besought not to favor any
plan that would delay their desires.
It is not our purpose to discuss
or recommend any plans that need inter-
fere in anyway with the system of pro-
motions or with the courses of study
now followed in any of the schools.
We are only pleading for that super-
vision that will tend to improvement
in methods of discipline and methods
of instruction - a supervision that
will be filled through our whole school
system, and from which we believe we
shall get far better results than we now
do from the money we devote to school
purposes and we are willing to leave
the questions of imperfections in courses
of study and the evils of hurried advance-
ment to be gradually remedied by
such supervision -
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We believe we can get a very satisfactory
supervision in the way we have suggested
without great additional expense -
To the argument that it seems a pity
to disturb the High School when it is so
popular and when the work there is so well
and harmoniously done - We answer If
this state of things did not exist we should
not think of trying the experiment -
The time to make the trial is when
the school is in good condition and when
we have teachers in whom we have con-
fidence -
Such supervision would of course
be under the direction and control of the
School Committee and would in no way
interfere with such care as they might be
able to give -
We therefore respectfully recommend that
the town by vote required the school committee
to appoint the Principal of the High School
for the time being Superintendent - who
under the direction and control of the
School Committee shall have the care and
supervision of the Public Schools - and
we further recommend an appropriation
of three hundred dollars for such service and
the expenses connected therewith -
over
Report of Committee
appointed to report in
relation to supervision
& courses of study
in public schools.
Pg. 132 Vol II
1886
Report of Committee
Pg 249
Carleton A Staples
Edward G. Porter
Edward P. Bliss
Albert Bryant
Chas A Wellington
[illegible]
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