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cility has been attained, two, three or more years, is lost. Instead, now, of this dull, mechanical exercise, we would have reading pursued as a study, and treated. as other studies. A lesson should be given out, and the scholar should be required to prepare himself upon it. He should be examined critically, as well as listened to while reading. The subject and character of the piece, the meaning of obscure words, the accent, emphasis, inflection, pitch of voice, should be made topics of question and answer in each lesson; and the scholar should be required to make his own application of the rules to each paragraph. He should be taught to read a humorous piece, humorously; a grave piece, gravely; an ironical piece, ironically; a rhetorical piece, rhetorically. All those nice points which give spirit and life to reading, and make it one of the most desirable accomplishments, should be constantly inculcated. * *

SCHOOL COMMITTEE.-S. W. Banister, Chas. E. Stevens, E. N. Colt.

ent.

(1845-6.) SELECTIONS FROM REPORT. ** We have been gratified at the unusual number of visiters,-parents and others,-present at the examinations. This is well. At several examinations, we have seen over thirty visiters presWhen we have met with discouragements and perplexities in the schools, and have seen how parents have felt but little interest, and how teachers have not been wise, we have at times been disheartened. But we have steadily persevered in our interest and labors,-and though, as we have before specified, we have been, and are, dissatisfied with three of the fourteen sessions of our schools for the season, yet, of the remaining eleven sessions, we speak in praise. *

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We have to say, also, in this connection, that we have attended, in the most careful and scrupulous manner, to the examination of the teachers, and have been uninfluenced and unawed by any. And most certainly, we never should allow teachers to commence school, unless they were well grounded in the main studies. * *

Nothing falls heavier on our ears than to hear some say, after the close of the school, "Our money has been thrown away."

What we have to recommend, on this whole subject, is, kindness, freedom from prejudice, moderation, decision, when necessary, the inculcation, by parents upon their children, of right views of submission, of study, and of treatment of teachers.

SCHOOL COMMITTEE.-S. W. Banister.

LANESBOROUGH.

(1844-5.) SELECTIONS FROM REPORT. * * In reviewing the condition of the Common Schools in this town, a serious question arises, Do they fully answer the great end for which they were instituted? Are they as perfect as imperfect means and agencies can make them? Are they at least as good as they were even three years ago? The opinion of your committee gives a decided negative to these questions. Whose, then, is the blame? Is it found in the system,—in the superintendence,-in the teachers, or in the town? or should it be shared by them all? Let us ascertain the truth of this matter, that we may apply, if possible, the remedy, for vital interests are at stake, the honor, usefulness and welfare of our children, and, consequently, through them the welfare of our common country. In the opinion of your committee, the root of this matter may be traced to the town itself, in the miserable sum with which it hopes to educate 300 children. For this great object we appropriate $400,— -a large sum, it is true, in itself considered, but what is it, for a town so wealthy and intelligent as this, to bestow upon the education of so many children? Why, it would not keep shod so many horses. And shall we feel less interest in our children's good, than we feel in the brute which perisheth? We cheerfully grant $1000 a year for the repairs of roads ;-is it more important to accommodate those who travel through this valley with a smooth highway, than it is to fit our children for the creditable discharge of all the duties which may devolve upon them through life? The

consequence of so small an appropriation is, short schools and cheap teachers,— often raw, inexperienced, destitute of learning, or manners. Hence select schools are resorted to, to supply that instruction which the Common Schools do not furnish, and the Common Schools sink into insignificance and contempt. Thus it should not be. Our Common Schools should be among our best schools. They should continue nine, or even ten, months in the year, and the best teachers which the country affords should be employed. Double your sum hitherto raised, and such a reformation may be effected; or even raise it to $600, and, although it fall vastly short of the average sum on a scholar raised by the towns of this Commonwealth, it will greatly increase, if judiciously applied, the means of a good Common School education. At all events, add $100 to the amount raised, which will only be about $1 72 on a scholar, the sum raised by Cheshire, while New Ashford raises $3 91,—and then there will be only 200 towns that raise more than we do, while now there are almost 300.

Nor does your committee consider the present mode of dividing the school money the most just or salutary. Let the dividend be made, not according to numbers, but in the ratio of attendance at school.

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Your committee, in closing, have one word to say in regard to the government of the schools entrusted to their superintendence. As few cases, perhaps, of insubordination have occurred, as exist elsewhere; nevertheless, there is much which requires amendment,-in the manners of the larger boys, especially. They may be under proper restraint during school hours, but, at other times, they are often rude and boisterous, and regardless of those proprieties which become their age and station. An experience of 23 years as school committee, has convinced me of the facts, that those schools were the best governed, and the scholars the most mannerly, where the law of kindness, regulated by firmness and decision, banished the cudgel and the ox-goad from the schoolroom. There may be instances where the rod may do good, but too often its use is the want of self-government on the part of the teacher, and its effect, the hardening of the hearts and the blunting of the sensibilities of those who might be improved by suitable appeals to their better feelings.

SCHOOL COMMITTEE.-Samuel B. Shaw.

(1845-6.) SELECTIONS FROM REPORT. * * Your committee are happy to be able to state, as a general fact, that the year just closed presents no inconsiderable degree of improvement compared with the preceding, and that this improvement has resulted, in no small degree, from the more general competency of the teachers employed. To expect much progress in the former, without the requisite qualifications in the latter, is to expect an effect without a cause,—a bountiful harvest without the preparatory means. But while many of the teachers, employed the past year, had added the experience of years to the requisite amount of knowledge, your committee have been astonished at the almost total ignorance even of the rudiments of learning of some who offer themselves as the instructers of others. Cases occur where the candidate cannot even read a single sentence without hesitation, and without the most ludicrous mistakes; or distinguish a noun from a verb. It is an unwelcome task to assure the applicant that he has mistaken his calling;—that his mission is evidently to some other field of labor. Nevertheless, our honest conviction that such had far better exercise their physical powers, (the only ones which they possess,) in threshing oats, than in threshing boys, obliges us to use some degree of firmness in this matter.

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In connection with this subject, your committee would take leave to add that several of our teachers availed themselves of the privileges of the Teachers' Institute, holden in Pittsfield, the last autumn, and derived from its session many useful hints, of which they availed themselves the past winter. The continuance of such associations, by presenting facilities for comparing the results of individual experience, the comparative merits of text books, different modes of government and mental training, and for listening to well-digested lectures upon subjects of practical utility to every teacher, must be productive of great good; and the benevolent hand which supplied the means of furnishing so many, in different portions of the State, with these advantages the past year, will doubtless reap its merited reward.

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The North District.-No school could be better governed, yet not a single case of corporal punishment occurred during the winter. Firmness, mildness and decision were found to answer a better purpose than the ferule, or the birch; and appeals were made rather to the better feelings of the children than to their backs, or fears. May such government and its results become universal in these nurseries of knowledge and virtue!

SCHOOL COMMITTEE.-Samuel B. Shaw.

LEE.

(1844-5.) SELECTION FROM Report. * * From this rapid survey of our district schools, during the year past, we think it will appear obvious that they have been, in general, more prosperous than in most former years. This we are inclined to attribute, partly, to the holding of teachers' meetings, during the winter, for the purpose of discussing questions relating to the best mode of instructing and governing schools. The teachers have expressed themselves much interested and benefited by these meetings. * *

SCHOOL COMMITTEE.-W. B. Bond, A. Nash, Ransom Hinman, Caleb Phinney.

(1845-6.) SELECTIONS FROM REPORT. ** We are convinced that a greater improvement can and ought to be made in our Common School system in this town; and one very important item is to increase the length of our schools.

We find, upon examination, that the present average time of our schools is eight months out of twelve,-being two thirds of the year,-leaving one third of a year, or four months, vacation, which, if taken equally in spring and fall, is two months at the end of a term.

It would seem, at first view, that the money raised by taxation, the Massachusetts School Fund, and, (in the Hopland districts,) the land money, would be sufficient to keep every school in town in operation the year round, as is the practice in most of our eastern towns. But the practice of using the public money, in part, for wood and board, has curtailed the length of the schools; and whether this be a wise and equitable measure, or not, the committee do not undertake to determine; yet, if the practice be continued, they would recommend to the town to raise, at least, an additional sum of $250, for the support of our Common Schools, which would, together with the said School Fund, &c., make a dividend of two dollars for every child between the ages of four and sixteen years. And this sum would only bring us up on the Graduated Scale, of 308 towns in the State, to No. 190, even below the following towns in our own county, viz, Washington, Peru, Tyringham, Stockbridge, Becket and New Ashford; whereas we now stand on the scale of 294 to 308, within 14 of the lowest number of the State. As to the wages of school teachers, the town of Lee has been as liberal in that respect as any town in the county, and a little more so, according to the last reSo far, it is commendable; for, "the laborer is worthy of his hire," especially the faithful school teacher.

turn.

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We would say a word as to the inconsistency of the parents and guardians who neglect to visit schools, and this has become a great fault in our town. We prepare a schoolroom, raise money, hire a teacher, place him over our children, set him to work, and then comes the consistency,―never go nigh him! never spend a single hour, during the four or six months' time the teacher is employed, to inspect his mode and manner, his qualification and ability, or witness the good or ill success of his management. Not so in our cominon domestic affairs,-with our hired men and girls. When they are set to work in the field and in the kitchen, we inspect them often. So long as this indifference is manifested by parents, our Common Schools will not flourish as they ought; the ambition of both teacher and scholar is crippled by this neglect, and money badly laid out.

While some of your committee were so highly gratified to witness the great number of spectators who were present, on two successive days, in the examination of our academy scholars, at the close of the last quarter, they could not but

reflect that, if half the zeal should be manifested for our Common Schools, the result would be a prosperity proportionate to that of our flourishing academy.

SCHOOL COMMITTEE.-W. B. Bond, Ransom Hinman, Caleb B. Phinney.

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LENOX.

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(1844-5.) SELECTION FROM REPORT. * During the summer terms, the experiment, of assembling the schools together for an examination, has been tried. It succeeded beyond the most sanguine expectations of its friends. The only source of regret was that all the schools did not join in it. Three districts assembled, and a large and highly respectable number of citizens attended. The exercises, on the part of the schools, were conducted with great taste and spirit. Eloquent and appropriate addresses were made by gentlemen of eminence; and we think we hazard little in saying that all present were pleased and fully satisfied of its utility.

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SCHOOL COMMITTEE.-Henry H. Cook, Daniel D. Kendell.

(1845-6.) NO SELECTION FROM REPORT.-SCHOOL COMMITTEE.—Henry H. Cook, George Fitch, Oliver Dewey.

MOUNT WASHINGTON.

(1844-5.) No Selection from Report.- -SCHOOL COMMITTEE.-H. W. Lamson, Benjamin Moore.

(1845-6.) NO SELECTION FROM REPORT.- -SCHOOL COMMITTEE.-John Campbell, Benjamin Moore.

NEW ASHFORD.

(1844-5.) SELECTION FROM REPORT. * The great business of directing and training the moral and mental powers of our children is not the work of a moment or a day. They learn one thing to-day and another to-morrow. Every influence brought to bear upon the minds of the rising race, at school, abroad, or at home, goes to make up their education and form their character for time; and each example to which they are exposed will tell far in the annals of another world-and we of the present generation must give an impress and stamp to the next, which will remain when we are in the dust. How desirable, then, and of what untold importance, that our youth, for whom we feel so intense an interest, should be exposed to no influence or example but such as will confirm them in upright and honorable pursuits!

SCHOOL COMMITTEE.—Phinehas Harmon, N. F. Roys, Wm. E. Johnson.

(1845-6.) No SELECTION FROM REPORT.chas Harmon, Hosea Beach, Ephraim Farington.

-SCHOOL COMMITTEE.-Phin

NEW MARLBOROUGH.

(1844-5.) SELECTION FROM REPORT. ** Your committee feel constrained to notice particularly the present condition of our school books, which we consider very bad. During the two years past, we have complied with that section of the statute which made it our duty to prescribe a list of books to be used in our schools, but have not enforced the use of those only. Some of our merchants have purchased books in conformity with the list; others have entirely disregarded

it. Some teachers have regarded the prescription, while others, and usually those who are the least competent, have constituted themselves the judges, and indulged in preferences of their own. Some parents have duly regarded "the powers that be," while others have declared that they would furnish their children with such books as they pleased, law or no law. When, under such a state of things, our schools have been visited, every variety of class books has been found, from the most practical and approved works of the present date, down to the obsolete of by-gone days. In one district, six kinds of geography were found in use. In another, five authors in arithmetic, and in many others, such a variety as to preclude entirely the practicability of classification.

The

When visiting the school at Mill River, which, during the past year, has been very good, your committee witnessed, with both pleasure and pain, the following operation. A class in Daboll's Arithmetic were called upon for recitation. black-board was used with much ability for the purpose of illustration. About fifteen minutes were spent in running over nearly all the rules of that author;— when the teacher, being compelled by circumstances which he very much regretted, but could not very well control, decided that this class had occupied their proportion of tine. They were accordingly dismissed, and a class in Smith's Arithmetic were called upon to take their places, who went through nearly the same process, used up about the same amount of time, and were, in like manner, shoved off to make room for a third class, who recited in an able manner from Adams's Arithmetic, occupied about one fourth of an hour, and were hurried away to make room for something else.

Like cases have been witnessed in almost every school in town, where three fourths of an hour have been appropriated to recitations in arithmetic, and divided into three and sometimes more parts, simply because the classes are not furnished, as they should be, with uniform books; thus virtually throwing away half an hour, or two thirds of the time appropriated to that particular science.

SCHOOL COMMITTEE.-J. A. Rising, A. Smith.

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(1845-6.) No SELECTION FROM REPORT.-SCHOOL COMMITTEE.-Chester Fitch, J. A. Rising.

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(1845-6.) SELECTIONS FROM REPORT. * * It is a truth not to be disputed, that the moral culture of the scholars is too greatly and too generally neglected by the teachers of our primary schools. "This is a lamentation and shall be for a lamentation." It is not here intended to be affirmed, that the teachers of our schools are persons of immoral habits or of irreligious sentiments; nor that they do not regard good manners and correct principles in their scholars as of the first importance; but they are eager to push forward their several classes with such rapidity, as to gain the meed of praise from the committee of examination. They seek fame as school teachers, because they expect to convert this fame into pecuniary capital. Hence the moral training of the children is attended to with less care than their correctness and proficiency in book knowledge. As a general fact, the character of the man takes its rise at the family fireside and in the school

room.

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