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ANNUAL REPORT
SCHOOL COMMITTEE
CITY 0> BOSTON 1908
SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8 1908
SCHOOL D0CU3IENT NO. 8 — 1908
ANNUAL REPORT
SCHOOL COMMITTEE
CITY OF BOSTON
1908
CITY OF BOSTON
PRINTING DEPARTMENT
1909
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BOSTON ?
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• .*• "•• •*• "*•,.*'• •' '
RKPORT.
SCHOOL SYSTEM.
The public school system of Boston comprises^ one Normal
School, two Latin Schools (one for boys and one for girls),
ten High Schools, the High School of Commerce (for boys),
and the Mechanic Arts High School (for boys), sixty-four
Elementary Schools, one hundred ten Kindergartens, one
School for the Deaf, five Evening High Schools, fourteen
Evening Elementary Schools, five Evening Drawing Schools,
and a special school on Spectacle Island.
STATISTICS.^
The following statistics are for the school j^ar ended
June 30, 1908, except those giving the number of children
in Boston between the ages of five and fifteen years, and
the number attending public and private schools, which are
from the census taken September 1, 1908:
Number of children in Boston between the ages of five and
fifteen, Sept. 1, 1908 111,450
Number attending public schools, Sept. 1, 1908 83,494
Number attending private schools, Sept. 1, 1908 17,060
Whole number of different pupils registered in the public day
schools during the year ended June 30, 1908: Boys, 55,478;
girls, 53,053— Total 108,531
REGULAK SCHOOLS.
Normal School.
Number of teachers 16
Average number of pupils belonging 212
Average attendance 207
1 June 30, 190S.
2 Other and more complete statistics may be found in School Documents Nos.
2 and 6, 1908.
4 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
Latin and High Schools.
Number of schools 14
Number of teachers 308
Average number of pupils belonging 8,021
Average attendance 7,535
Elementary Schools.
Nvimber of schools 64
Number of teachers 1,966
Average number of pupils belonging 81,934
Average attendance 74,672
Kindergartens.
Number of schools 110
Number of teachers 209
Average number of pupils belonging 5,606
Average attendance 4,245
SPECIAL SCHOOLS.
Horace Mann School for the Deaf.
Number of teachers 16
Average number of pupils belonging 144
Average attendance 124
Evening Schools.^
Number of schools 19
Number of teachers 320
Average number of pupils belonging 2
Average attendance 7,674
Evening Draiving Schools.
Number of schools 5
Number of teachers 25
Average number of pupils belonging 2
Average attendance 439
Spectacle Island Scliool.
Number of teachers 1
Average number of pupils belonging ■ 11
Average attendance 10
RECAPITULATION.
Number of schools:
Regular 189
Special 26
Total 215
iThe Central Evening High School is organized in two divisions, Division I.
holding sessions on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings; Division II. on Tuesday
and Thursday evenings. Thus there are practically two sets of pupils and but one set
of teachers. For statistical purposes the two sets of pupils reported by this school
are added together, while the teachers are counted but once.
2 These figures are not available for the term 1907-08.
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 5
Number of teachers:
In regular schools 2,499
In special schools ' 362
Total 2,861
Average number of pupils belonging:
In regular schools 95,773
In special schools • 155
Total 1 , 95,928
Average attendance:
In regular schools 86,659
In special schools 8,247
Total 94,906
THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM AND ITS NEEDS.
The directions in which the activities of the School Com-
mittee have been exerted during the past year are stated
quite fully in the report of the Superintendent published last
July and more briefly in the following pages.
Many of the larger problems connected with the reorganiza-
tion of the school system undertaken by the new School
Committee during the past thi-ee years have been completed,
and the attention of the Board has lately been turned especially
to the immediate and pressing question of school finances.
The inadequacy of the appropriations for the maintenance of
the public schools, and the many vexatious economies that
have necessarily been practised for a number of years have
seriously hampered the efforts of the Board, its officers and
the teaching force, and have vitally affected the interests of
the many thousands of pupils attending the schools. It is
impossible to maintain the school system even at its present
standard under the financial limitations imposed upon the
Board by existing laws, and it is the intention of the School
Committee to submit to the Legislature of 1909 the following
statement in support of an application which it proposes to
make for remedial legislation that will provide more adequate
appropriations for the public school system of this city.
t.* Exclusive of evening schools.
SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
Statement in Support of Application of School
Committee of the City of Boston for an Act
TO Provide Additional Appropriations for the
Support of the Public Schools of Said City.
THE PRESENT LAW.
The total amount that may be appropriated in any one
year by the School Committee of the City of Boston for the
support of the public schools is established by Chapter 448 of
the Acts of 1901 at a sum equal to $3.40 upon each SI ,000
of the average valuation of the city for the three years imme-
diately preceding. Of this amount of S3. 40, not less than
forty cents upon each $1,000 is required to be appropriated
solely for new school buildings, lands, yards and furnishings,
and not less than twenty-five cents upon each $1,000 must
be appropriated solely for repairs and alterations of school
buildings. This leaves a sum not greater, than $2.75 upon
each $1,000 to be appropriated for general school purposes.
THE PROPOSED LAW.
The School Committee of the City of Boston desires that
the law defining the amount which it may appropriate for the
general support of the public school system of the city shall
be substantially in accordance with the bill it has presented,
a copy of which is hereto annexed. This bill aims, in brief.
Note 1. — The School Committee is also authorized to appropriate annually under
Chapter 295 of the Acts of 1907, solely for physical education, a sum equal to four
cents upon each $1,000, and may also appropriate, under Chapter 357 of the Acts of
1907, a sum equal to two cents upon each $1,000 for nurses in the public schools. As
these two appropriations provide for new and definite extensions of public school
work they are mentioned only in passing and need not enter into the consideration of
the general cost of the school system, except as they may be necessarily referred to in
other connections.
Note 2. — It should also be said that the forty cents for new school buildings has
been appropriated by the School Committee but once, and in that instance the appro-
priation order of $446,000 was vetoed by the Mayor, and the sum of $90,000 was
substituted therefor and approved by the Mayor.
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 7
to increase the amount applicable to general educational pur-
poses from the present rate of $2.75 upon each $1,000 of the
average valuation of the city for the preceding three years, to
the amounts that follow:
For the year ending January 31, 1910 $2 85
31, 1911 2 95
31,1912 3 05
31, 1913 3 15
« « 31, 1914 and thereafter 3 25
In support of this application for remedial legislation the
following statements of the conditions prevailing in the public
schools are made.
EXPENDITURES FOR THE YEAR 1908-1909.
The expenditures of the School Committee of the City of
Boston for the financial year beginning February 1, 1908, and
ending January 31, 1909, for general educational purposes
have been as follows :
Salaries of teachers $2,906,230 89
Salaries of officers 103,824 56
Salaries of janitors 246,779 72
Fuel and Ught 134,020 94
Supphes and incidentals. (See Note 3.) 162,449 50
Total (See Note 4.) $3,553,305 61
Reference to the preceding statement shows that of the
money expended for general school purposes, 81.7 per cent
was expended for salaries of teachers, 2.9 per cent for salaries
of officers, 6.9 per cent for salaries of janitors, 3.8 per cent for
fuel and light, 4.6 per cent for supplies and incidentals.
Note 3. — This amount does not include $14,000 transferred to the Board of
Schoolhouse Commissioners, and expended by them for the rental of temporary school
accommodations .
Note 4. — This amount does not include the sum of $44,644.10 appropriated for
and devoted to physical education under the provisions of Chapter 295 of the Acts of
1907; nor the sum of $21,676.27, expended for nurses under the provisions of Chapter
357 of the Acts of 1907.
Note 5. — The School Committee also appropriated for repairs and alterations of
school buildings, purchase of school furniture, and maintenance of the Schoolhouse
Department, the sum of $319,500, an amount equal to twenty-five cents upon each
$1,000 of the average valuation of the city for the three preceding years. This amount
was transferred to the Board of Schoolhouse Commissioners, and expended by them
for the purposes indicated.
8 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
SALARIES OF TEACHERS.
The total expenditure for salaries of teachers can be reduced
only by paying smaller salaries or by employing fewer teach-
ers. A careful canvass of the situation, covering several
years, has demonstrated that neither of these courses can be
followed without serious detriment to the schools.
No person at all conversant with educational matters will
for one moment entertain the opinion that the teachers in our
public schools are overpaid or that they do not perform their
duties faithfully and efficiently. If the schedule of compen-
sation be inadequate, it becomes practically impossible to
secure new teachers of good ability. The profession of teach-
ing becomes constantly and increasingly less attractive, and
a supply of well-trained, efficient and accomplished teachers
can with difficulty be obtained. The School Committee has
given long-continued and careful consideration to this sub-
ject and is not aware of any means by which a substantial
reduction can be effected in the schedule of salaries of teachers
without doing grave injustice to a body of faithful pubHc
servants, many of whom are now underpaid in proportion to
their duties and responsibilities, and without working serious
and perhaps irreparable injury to the public school system as
a whole.
Neither can the total number of teachers be lessened. In
an effort to reduce the total expenditure for salaries of teach-
ers without reducing the schedule of compensation which is
already too low, the school system has been repeatedly and
carefully canvassed and teachers whose services were not
absolutely required in the positions they were then occupying
have been transferred to other schools or districts, thus
reducing the number of new teachers appointed.
On the other hand there is great need for additional teachers
so that the quota of pupils per teacher may be reduced. The
feature of the organization of all schools calling for the most
immediate and careful consideration is the size of the classes.
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 9
Few teachers can handle, with any hope of success, classes
numbering from fifty to sixty pupils. None can do it
for any length of time without impairing their health. The
excessive number of pupils to a teacher seems to be the
parent of most of the ills from which the schools are suffer-
ing — ills on the discipline side and ills on the instruction
side. The School Committee has long recognized this great
evil, and during the year 1906 adopted amendments to its
regulations that provide for successive and annual reductions
in the quota of pupils assigned to each teacher in the elemen-
tary schools. Owing to the financial limitations under
which it has struggled, it has been able to make but little
progress in this direction, although it fully realizes the
importance and value of the step it desires to take.
If the interests of the public schools are to be properly
served, the total expenditure for salaries of teachers should
be increased rather than diminished.
SALARIES OF OFFICERS.
There has been expended for salaries of officers during the
past year the sum of $103,824.56. Under the title officers
are included the higher executive and supei'visory officials,
namely, the superintendent, assistant superintendents, secre-
tary, auditor, business agent, schoolhouse custodian and their
assistants. The School Committee is satisfied that the
compensation of these employees is established on a very
reasonable and economical basis, certainly not exceeding,
and probably not equalling, the salaries paid for positions of
equal importance in other branches of the public service.
While the School Committee has no present intention of
adding to the number of its officers, it is convinced that the
number of such officials is as small as is consistent with the
duties they are required to perform. No reduction in the total
amount of money expended for salaries of officers can be
made, either by reducing the salary paid or by decreasing
the number of such officials.
10 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. S.
SALARIES OF JANITORS.
There has been paid to janitors during the past year the
sum of $246,779.72. The schedule of compensation for
such service is purely automatic and depends entirely upon
the amount of work to be performed in each building as
determined by actual measurements. The janitor himself
is, in a sense, a contractor, and is required to do certain definite
and prescribed work, and to employ and pay such assistants,
including engineers, firemen, scrub women, etc., as he may
require. After paying his assistants, the amount left for
the janitor himself is probably less, and certainly not more,
than is necessary for the securing of reliable men to whom
it is safe to entrust the property of the city and the lives
of the school children. This schedule for janitor service
has been in effect for several years, and has recently been
highly commended in a report of the Finance Commission,
and recommended by that Commission for adoption in
other city departments.
FUEL AND LIGHT.
The cost of fuel and light for the same period has been
$134,020.94. The School Committee has had repeated
conferences with the officials of various gas and electric
illuminating and power companies and has succeeded in
obtaining some reduction in the cost of both gas and electric-
ity consumed in school buildings. It has also devoted a
great deal of time and energy to the consideration of the
cost of fuel, and is persuaded that its contracts for the very
considerable amount of coal required by the school system
have been concluded on as advantageous terms to the city
as it was possible to obtain. The School Committee has
exercised constant and unceasing watchfulness over the
consumption of fuel and light, and has insisted that teachers
and janitors shall practice the utmost economy in this direc-
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 11
tion. It is not aware of any method by which the cost of
these necessary items can be reduced.
SUPPLIES AND INCIDENTALS.
For supphes and incidentals there was expended during the
past year the sum of $162,449.50, exclusive of S14,000 trans-
ferred to the Board of Schoolhouse Commissioners for the ren-
tal of temporary accommodations.
In general, the term supplies is applicable to material neces-
sary for the educational progress of the children; for exam-
ple, text books, supplementary books, writing books, paper,
pencils, globes, maps, charts, scientific apparatus, typewTiters
and material for manual training, drawing, kindergarten
classes, sewing, cookery, etc. The term supplies also includes
those items necessary for the care of the school building; such
as brooms, brushes, soap, etc. The term incidentals includes
items not directly related to the educational progress of the
children; such as postage, the taking of the school census,
the payment of tuition for Boston wards in other cities, and
the printing of records, school documents, minutes of the
School Committee meetings, etc.
Since expenditures for salaries of teachers, officers and
janitors, and for fuel and light, are fixed by schedule or deter-
mined by absolute necessity, the item of supplies and inci-
dentals, amounting to but 4.6 per cent of the amount
expended for general school purposes, is the only flexible one
in the entire school appropriation. This item has therefore
been the one in which the most serious deficiencies have
occurred, and in which the lack of adequate appropriation
has been most keenly felt. For many years the supplies have
been lamentably insufficient, while greater and still greater
economy has been urged and insisted upon in order to avoid
serious deficits.
The Normal School furnishes a good illustration of existing
conditions. After careful consideration, a request was made
on behalf of this school for an appropriation of $6,000 to be
12 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
devoted to the purchase of books and apparatus. This
amount was reduced to $1,500 and subsequently, owing to
the necessity for the most stringent economy, was refused
entirely. The school, therefore, received practically nothing
in the way of supplies, and is to-day lacking a sufficient num-
ber of text-books in some subjects to provide one for each
pupil, to say nothing of the absence of a reference library, and
a general deficiency in illustrative material, apparatus, and
equipment. The department of science in this school made a
request for sixty books essential to its work. It received three.
In the Girls' High School pupils are allowed but three
hours per week practice on typewriting machines, because of
the lack of a sufficient number of machines. A similar con-
dition prevails in all the high schools. Though the number
of high school pupils increased 1,822 last September, the
School Committee was unable to buy additional typewriters.
It should not be assumed that this paucity of educational
equipment is confined to the high schools alone. The most
serious results are felt in the elementary schools where the
deplorable effects of unwise but necessary economies in this
direction are most manifest and injurious. Many pupils are
not supplied with all the regular text-books nor with a sufficient
number of supplementary reading books. Educational material
of all kinds has necessarily been supplied in meagre quantity.
Some sections of the city have special endowment funds set
aside for the purchase of supplementary material not regu-
larly furnished by the School Committee. For some years
the income of these funds has been partially diverted to the
purchase of regular school supplies and has alleviated to some
extent the effects of rigorous economy. Schools not so for-
tunate as to possess these special funds are in serious need of
additional books and illustrative material.
COMPARISONS WITH OTHER CITIES.
A comparison with the expenditure for text-books and sup-
plies in the other cities of Massachusetts will serve to show
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT.
13
that the per capita cost for these items in Boston is lower
than can be accounted for by any superior ability to secure
favorable prices because of purchasing in large quantities.
The following figures are furnished by the Secretary of the
State Board of Education:
Comparative 'per Capita Cost of Text-books and Supplies.
1897.
1907.
Average.
Springfield
S3 89
$3 17
2 74
2 27
2 57
2 40
1 95
1 42
2 01
1 82
1 47
1 66
1 38
1 79
1 10
1 43
2 13
1 41
1 65
1 87
1 52
84
1 51
1 58
1 93
1 73
1 23
2 11
1 84
S3 58
2 74
2 72
2 04
1 94
2 50
Beverlv
2 31
Everett
2 17
1 95
2 39
1 73
1 91
1 87
Brockton
1 82
Maiden
2 16
1 95
2 14
1 70
2 32
1 88
1 13
1 S3
1 49
2 21
1 53
2 21
1 82
Pittsfield
1 81
Medford
1 76
1 75
Taunton
1 71
Worcester
1 66
Haverhill
1 63
Marlborough
1 62
1 57
Lawrence
1 54
1 53
Fitchburg
1 53
1 51
Cambridge
1 43
1 06
1 23
1 64
58
85
1 50
1 50
Waltham
1 48
1 44
1 35
1 35
14
SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
Comparative per Capita Cost
of Text-books and Supplies. — Concluded.
1897.
1907.
Average.
$1 29
1 10
1 21
86
$1 28
1 20
1 08
1 29
1 00
$1 29
1 15
Wobum
1 15
1 08
1 00
Comparative per Capita Cost of Text-Books and Supplies
during 1907.
High.
Grammar.
Primary.
Kindergarten.
Average.
Cambridge
Newton
$4 89
5 42
7 -21
6 GO
3 86
$1 31
3
2
$$0 58
13*
36*
$$0 35
90
1 92
95
34
$$1 62
2 74
2 56
2 10
1 00
2 75
Boston
1 43
46
I 23
* Grammar and primary combined.
An exactly accurate comparison is impossible because
of minor variations in methods of accounting and no-
menclature; for example, in New York the first four grades
are called primary, while in the Massachusetts schools only
the first three grades are included under that heading. After
all possible allowance for such variations has been made,
the main fact is still evident, namely, that the per capita
expense for supplies in Boston is lower than it is in most other
places. Though a difference of a few cents per capita seems
insignificant, yet when this difference affects each of more
than a hundred thousand pupils the total amount is consid-
erable, and when this saving is extended over several years
it is evident that the cumulative lack of educational material
has reached large proportions. There is every reason to
believe that the schools in all the surrounding communities
are better supplied with books and material than are the
schools of Boston.
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT.
15
REASONS FOR THE PRESENT CONDITIONS.
There are two principal reasons for the present condition
of the school finances ; ^rsf, the diminishing ratio of increase
in the assessed valuation of the City of Boston, and second,
the increasing number of pupils enrolled in the schools,
and especially the proportionate increase in the number
of pupils attending high schools.
THE DIMINISHING RATIO OF INCREASE IN THE ASSESSED
VALUATION.
The average assessed valuation of the city for the three
preceding years is by law the basis upon which the appro-
priation for school purposes is made. These valuations
as assessed on May 1 for the years 1889 to 1908, inclusive,
are given below.
The actual amounts used in determining the averages
upon which appropriations for school purposes are based
are less than the amounts given below by the amount of the
abatements granted between May 1 and December 31
each year.
Valuation, May 1.
Increase.
Increase
Per cent.
1889
1890
1891
1892
1893
1894
1895
1896
1897
1898
1899
1900
$795,433,744
822,041,800
855,069,415
893,975,704
924,093,751
928,109,043
951,367,928
981,269,914
1,012,582,209
1,036,099,418
1,089,736,252
1,129,175,832
$26,608,056
33,027,615
38,906,289
.30,118,047
4,015,292
23,258,885
29,901,986
31,312,295
23,517,209
53,636,8.34
39,439,580
3
35
4
02
4
55
3
37
43
2
51
3
14
3
19
2
32
5
IS
3
62
Average
1 1 years
3.24%.
16
SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
Valuation May 1.
Increase.
Increase
Per cent.
1901
$1,152,505,834
1,191,274,616
1,220,457,323
1,236,953,562
1,259,745,681
1,289,704,987
1,313,471,556
1,327,662,338
$23,330,002
38,768,782
29,182,707
16,496,239
22,792,119
29,959,306
23,766,559
14,190,782
2.07
3.36
2.45
1.35
1.84
2.38
1.84
1.08
1902
Average
4 years
2.31%.
1-903
1904
1905
1906
Average
4 years
1.79%.
1907
1908
The act that established the present rate of appropriations
for school purposes was passed in 1901. The average increase
in the valuation of the city, as assessed on May 1 of each year,
from 1889 to 1900, inclusive, was 3.24 per cent. When the
Legislature passed the act referred to, it undoubtedly did so
upon the assumption .that this rate of increase would continue
thereafter. This rate has, however, since that time dimin-
ished in the most astonishing manner. The average increase
in the assessed valuation for the four years immediately
following the passage of the act (1901 to 1904, inclusive) was
2.31 per cent, and for the last four years (1905 to 1908, inclu-
sive) was 1.79 per cent. Emphasis should also be given to
the fact that for the past fiscal year, 1908, the increase in
assessed valuation was but 1.08 per cent.
This diminution of increase in the assessed valuation of the
City of Boston has caused a corresponding diminution in the
increase of funds available for school purposes. During the
past seven years it has caused the income of the School Com-
mittee to fall largely below the amount that the conditions
in 1900 warranted the Committee to expect, and for the
future it will evidently have a still greater effect in decreasing
the expected school revenue.
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 17
INCREASE IN NUMBER OF PUPILS.
The second important reason for the present financial con-
dition of the schools is the increasing number of pupils
enrolled in the schools.
The attendance in kindergartens has shown a material
increase. The total number of kindergarten pupils enrolled
on October 1, 1902, was 4,541. On October 1, 1908, this
number had increased to 5,576. Owing to financial condi-
tions, kindergartens have not been established in a considera-
ble portion of the city. If the kindergartens had been estab-
lished wherever requested, this total number would have been
more than doubled.
In evening schools, also, there has been a very remarkable
increase in attendance. The total attendance in evening
schools has increased from 7,941 on December 1, 1902, to
13,934 on December 1, 1908. This large increase has been
due to the necessity of affording evening school instruction
to recent arrivals in this country and to the remarkable
demand for evening school instruction in various lines.
Though these schools are in session for a much shorter period
than is desirable, and though a much larger number of pupils
are assigned to each teacher than is conducive to good instruc-
tion, yet the total expenditure has imposed a heavy burden
upon the finances of the school system.
In the elementary schools there has been a continued
growth. The average increase during the past seven years,
taken from the reports of October 1, has been 1,396 per
year. This number is nearly equal to the average number of
pupils comprising an entire elementary school district, and,
if located in a single district, would require for their proper
housing and instruction, two additional school buildings, a
principal, sub-master, master's assistant, first assistant in
charge and twenty-nine other teachers each year. The
additional expense involved in instructing these pupils alone
18 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
absorbs nearly the entire increase in revenue due to the
increasing assessed valuation of the city.
Still more marked has been the condition with reference to
high school instruction. The reports of October 1 for each
year since 1902 show the following increases in the number
of high school pupils :
1902 405
1903 281
1904 401
1905 342
1906 217
1907 559
1908 {See Note 6) 1,822
Total gain 4,027
Average gain per year 575
The above table shows clearly the enormous growth that
has taken place in the high and Latin schools. The average
annual increase of 575 pupils is greater than the total attend-
ance in any but the larger high schools of the state. The
increase in pupils is equivalent to the addition each year of a
new high school, and, if located in a single district, would
require for their proper housing and instruction a new
building, with a principal and twenty teachers of various
ranks.
These additional high school pupils have not only increased
the amount expended for instruction, but they have rendered
necessary the erection of suitable buildings for their accom-
NoTE 6. — In September, 1908, was first felt the result of the action of the School
Committee in reducing the elementary school course from nine to eight years. The
increase in the number of high school pupils was over three times the average increase
of the past seven years, and the increase in the expenditure for high schools over the
preceding year, while it cannot be stated definitely at the present moment, is believed
to have been in the neighborhood of $75,000. This great increase in the number of
high school pupils which took place last September will still more seriously affect
school finances for the fiscal year beginning February 1, 1909. The effects of this-
change in the elementary school course have so far expressed themselves only for
five months of the current year, but will, of course, continue for the full twelve months
of the next fiscal year. It is to be anticipated, also, that this change in the elementary
school course will result in another large increase in the number of applicants for admis-
sion to high schools in September, 1909.
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 19
modation. In 1901-02, four new high school buildings
were erected, located respectively in East Boston, Dorchester,
South Boston and West Roxbury. In 1907 the series of
high schools locatal in each of the suburban districts was
completed by the erection and occupation of the new Charles-
town High School. There was also completed in 1907 the
Normal School group of buildings, which provides accom-
modations for the Normal School, the Girls' Latin School,
and temporary quarters for the High School of Commerce.
The High School of Commerce, which opened in 1906, has
already demonstrated its value, and there is good reason to
believe that when furnished with a suitable building and
equipment, this school will provide a new and valuable type
of practical education that will be of great worth to the youth
of the city and a distinct aid to the business interests of the
community. More recently, the Girls' High School of Prac-
tical Arts has been established for the purpose of offering
similar opportunities to girls. Although it has not yet been
possible to provide adequate and suitable accommodations
for this school, its immediate popularity warrants the behef
that a successful future is assured. This month, January,
1909, an addition to the Mechanic Arts High School, con-
taining twenty-six class rooms, has been completal and
occupied. Thus, after many years of serious embarrass-
ment caused by crowded conditions, this school has been
provided with adequate accommodations.
The new school buildings that have been erected for
approximately the last ten years are very much more expen-
sive to operate with regard to fuel, light and janitor service
than the school-houses of earlier days. This is due, of course,
to the great development in school architecture that has
taken place not only in Boston but throughout the country
generally, and to the improved methods of heating, ventila-
tion and sanitation which are now regarded as essential in
a modern school-house.
20
SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
PROPORTIONATE INCREASE IN HIGH SCHOOL PUPILS.
The increase in expense is affected, not only by the
increase in the actual number of pupils mentioned above, but
also by the growing proportion of high school pupils, as
indicated in the table below:
Average Number Belonging.
High
Schools.
Elementary
Schools.
Per cent
High.
Per cent
Elementary.
January, 1901
5,800
6,208
6,555
6,860
7,263
7,604
7,782
8,296
10,123
71,692
73,403
75,336
76,991
79,163
80,506
82,428
82,433
82,916
7.48
7.80
8.00
8.18
8.40
8.63
8.63
9.14
10.88
92.52
1902
92.20
1 903
92.00
1904
91.82
1905
91.60
" 1906
91.37
1907
91.37
1908
90.86
" 1 909
89.12
By reference to the foregoing table it will be observed
that the number of pupils attending high school increased
from 7.48 per cent in 1901, to 10.88 per cent in 1909. Since
the per capita cost of instruction for high school pupils is
at least twice the per capita cost of instruction for elementary
school pupils, this increased proportion of high school pupils
has caused considerable increase in expense.
The School Committee is not responsible for this rapid
increase in high school attendance except in so far as it has
been instrumental in providing high school instruction that
has proved profitable to pupils and satisfactory to parents.
It has, however, welcorned the evidence of a growing con-
fidence in the high schools on the part of the citizens as
expressed in the ever-increasing demand that their children
be furnished a high school education. The School Committee
has made every effort to meet this demand, and notwith-
standing the serious financial limitations, it has up to this
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 21
time been able to provide accomodations for every pupil
desiring either high or elementary instruction without resort-
ing to half-time classes as has been done in other large cities.
The strikingly large increase which in recent years has
taken place in the number of high school pupils is a phenom-
enon not peculiar to Boston. Throughout Massachusetts,
and in all other parts of the country where public schools
are well supported, the same increase has attracted attention.
It is one indication of a growing popular interest in the
public high school — an interest that has been further mani-
fested elsewhere by generous appropriations of money for
buildings and equipment, and by a disposition to enlarge
the range and function of high school instruction. It will
be w^ll, therefore, if we keep the larger destiny of the public
high school in mind while considering measures affecting
its present stability and growth.
RATIO OF INCREASE IN PUPILS EXCEEDS RATIO
OF INCREASE IN REVENUE.
In addition to the increase in pupils indicated above,
attention should be called to the fact that the rate of increase
in the number of pupils enrolled in the public schools is
greater than the rate of increase in the assessed valuation
of the city. While the assessed valuation (less abatements)
of the city of Boston has increased from $1,076,710,367 in
the year 1901, to $1,277,830,274 in the year 1908, or 18.7
per cent, the number of pupils in the day schools on October 1,
and in the evening schools on December 1, has increased from
91,101 in 1901, to 112,975 in the year 1908, or 24 per cent.
SUMMARY.
To sum up this theme: Although the most rigorous
economy has been practiced, the School Committee finds,
itself in a position, w^here, without remedial legislation,
it will be absolutely unable to maintain the schools at the
22 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
present rate, to pay its teachers the salaries that are now
estabHshed, or to furnish the pupils in the public schools
the supplies that they need. This unfortunate situation is
due, first, to the fact that the average increase in the valuation
of the City of Boston is barely one-half of what it was eight
years ago; second, to the fact that the number of pupils
attending the public schools has increased much more rapidly
than the assessed valuation, and that the proportionate num-
ber of high school pupils has increased. It is further affected
by the increased cost due to improved methods of heating,
lighting, ventilation and sanitation, and to increased cost of
janitor service.
PRESENT FINANCES.
The School Committee faces an extremely difficult financial
situation for the fiscal year beginning Februaiy 1, 1909.
The expenditure for salaries of instructors will necessarily
increase materially because there will undoubtedly be a con-
siderable additional number of children seeking admission to
the public schools. Judging by the experience of previous
years there will be a gain in the total number of pupils of about
3,000. The average annual increase in expense in this item
for the past seven years has been $93,136. The extra large
number of pupils admitted to the high schools in September,
1908, will materially increase the expenditures for teachers'
salaries with the result that the increase for the year 1909
will reach and probably exceed $120,000.
There will be no substantial increase in the item for salaries
of officers. The average annual increase for this purpose
during the past seven j^ears has been $2,469. For the year
1909 it may be conservatively estimated at $2,000.
The cost of janitor service will show an increase for the
ensuing year because of the completion of several new build-
.ings that will then be occupied for school purposes. The
average annual increase for the past seven years has been
$10,309. The increase in this item for 1909 may therefore
be conservatively estimated at $12,000.
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT.
23
The completion of new buildings and the enlarged attend-
ance in evening schools will increase the cost of fuel and light.
The average annual increase for the past seven years has been
$7,477. The increase in this item for 1909 may therefore be
conservatively estimated at $10,000.
To offset these increases in expense, which reach a total of
$144,000 without including the item of supplies, the School
Committee will have the increase in revenue due to the
increase in assessed valuation as shown below:
Basis of
Appropriation.
Amount produced
at $2.75 per $1,000.
1909
1908
$1,300,863,964 00
1,277,830,274 00
$3,577,375 00
3,514,033 00
$63, 342 00
It will require over $80,000 in addition to the $63,342
increase in revenue, to meet the unavoidable increases of
$144,000 in the four items mentioned above, and even that
amount makes no allowance for the deficit in supplies, nor
for the fact that the supply of coal in the bins February 1
was at least $15,000 below normal, an amount which must
be made up during the year.
The condition is one that demands more than a theoretical
discussion. Unless some relief is afforded, the School Com-
mittee will face a situation in which it will be necessary
1. To furnish practically no school supplies to the school
children of the City of Boston, or
2. To reduce the salaries of teachers, or
3. To incur a large deficit.
The first course is impossible because the appropriation for
supplies and incidentals has been curtailed for many years in
order to meet other needs of the system, and the result to-day
is that there is a large deficiency in books, maps, charts, and
other educational material. It is impossible to state exactly
the amount of money that will be required to meet this
24 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
deficiency because the standard that constitutes a proper equip-
ment for a school is not definitely fixed. It is probable that
$300,000 could be wisely expended in equipping the schools
with much needed books and other educational equipment.
It is not expected that this amount can be immediately sup-
plied, but certainly during the next three years at least the
amount specified should be expended in addition to the usual
annual appropriation for supplies and incidentals.
The second course is impossible because under the increased
cost of living and the diflficulties of instruction with large
numbers of pupils and meagre equipment, the present salary
schedule is scarcely sufficient to prevent able teachers from
accepting ' appointments in surrounding communities, even
though the salaries paid in these communities are apparently
lower than those paid in Boston. Any reduction of the
present salary schedule would, as has been formerly pointed
out, be highly detrimental to the welfare of the schools.
The third course is impossible because the School Com-
mittee is bound, as trustees of public funds, to administer
the schools in accordance with the desire of the people as
expressed by the Acts of the Legislature. It is the function
of the School Committee to secure the best possible results
with the funds available, but it has no authority to maintain
schools on a basis that will permanently involve expenditure
in excess of the amounts legally appropriatal.
NEED OF LEGISLATION.
The first need of legislation is to furnish funds sufficient to
make up the existing deficiency in supplies and incidentals and
to provide the necessary books and other educational equip-
ment.
The second need of legislation is to furnish funds sufficient
to maintain the salary schedule for teachers as at present
established.
The third need of legislation is to provide funds for the
reasonable expansion of the school system. No school system
can serve its best purpose that does not accommodate itself to
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 25
the growing demands of the community that supports it.
At present the school system of the City of Boston is covering
but partially and inadequately certain fields of endeavor, and
has not attempted at all certain others that might, with
great profit to the community, be entered upon. If the
increase in funds asked for is granted, the School Committee
will be able to perform more acceptably some of the things
now attempted, and to carry into effect certain new and
much needed forms of education. Some of the more urgent
needs are as follows :
(a.) To establish day industrial schools, with short terms,
for boys and girls, above fourteen years of age who have
completed the elementary school course,
(6.) To enlarge the opportunities for industrial educa-
tion in the evening schools.
(c.) To modify the instruction in the elementary schools,
so as to adapt it more nearly to the industrial conditions of
the present time.
(d.) To maintain during a larger portion of the year
evening schools, in which illiterate minors and recently
arrived immigrants may acquire a knowledge of English and
receive instruction in civic ideals. A greater expansion of
evening school education in this direction is imperatively
demanded, because of the large number of immigrants who
become a part of our population each year, and who should
have ample opportunities to prepare themselves for self-
respecting and useful citizenship.
(e.) To carry into effect the regulation already adopted
by the School Committee, which provides for the gradual
reduction of pupils to a teacher in the elementary schools to
a basis of forty-four instead of fifty or sixty, as is fre-
quently the case at present. It is obvious that even accom-
plished teachers cannot do their best work with too large
classes, and those of less ability are still more seriously impeded
in their efforts to maintain discipline and to give instruction.
On the other hand, such conditions result in irreparable
26 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
injury to the pupils who cannot obtain that measure of
individual attention necessary to insure the best results.
(/.) To have the schoolrooms swept and the windows
washed more frequently than is now possible under existing
financial conditions. The importance of frequent cleaning
of schoolrooms both to the health and the comfort of the
occupants needs no argument. The present schedule requires
each room to be swept twice each week. One additional
sweeping per week would cost approximately $36,000 per
year. Anything adding to the quantity of light obtainable
in the schoolroom is of importance. Under the present
system windows are washed only twice a year, and between
these infrequent periods they become exceedingly dirty and
keep out a considerable amount of light. This is partic-
ularly striking during the winter months, when the days are
short and cloudy days frequent. Each washing of the
windows costs approximately $4,000. Not less than four
washings per year should be provided for.
(g.) To re-establish the evening lectures which were a
source of great benefit to many people but which the School
Committee was forced to abandon for lack of funds.
(h.) To improve the professional equipment of teachers
and thereby to assist the pupils in the most vital respect by
the working out of a plan for Normal School extension.'
INCREASE IN REVENUE PRODUCED BY PROPOSED LAW.
There remains to be shown the additional income that
will be produced by the proposed law, and to indicate the
items for which it would probably be expended.
The average assessed valuation (less abatements) of the
city for the three years prior to 1908 was $1,277,830,274.
This amount was the basis for the school appropriation
for 1908. The basis for 1909 is $1,300,863,960. This is
an increase of 1.80 per cent over the preceding year. Assum-
ing that the rate of increase for the next, five years will hold
up to this per cent of 1.80, though the table on pages 16
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT.
27
and 17 indicates that a lower rate of increase probably will
prevail, the income resulting each year in excess of that of
the preceding year, both from the increase in the assessed
valuation and from the proposed additions, is shown in the
table given below:
Increase in Revenue Over Preceding Year.
Basis of
Appropriation
Assuming Annual
Increase of 1.80
per cent.
Regular
Increase at
$2.75 per
$1,000.
Proposed
Additional
Increase.
Total Increase
Over Preceding
Year.
1909
$1,300,863,960 00
1,324,279,511 00
1,348,116,542 00
1,372,382,639 00
1,397,085,526 00
$1,422,233,065 00
1,447,833,260 00
1,473,894,258 00
1,500,424,354 00
1,527,431,992 00
$63,342 00
64,392 00
65,551 00
66,731 00
67,932 00
at $3.25 per
$1,000.
$130,086 00
134,768 00
139,. 578 00
144,517 00
149,588 00
$193,428 00
1910
199,160 00
1911
205,129 00
1912
211,248 00
1913
217.520 GO
1914
$81,729 00
83,200 00
84,698 00
86,222 00
87,774 00
$81,729 00
1915
83,200 00
1916
84,698 00
1917
86,222 00
1918
87,774 00
The greater portion of the additional revenue indicated
above will be absorbed by the regular and unavoidable
increase in expenditure, due to the greater number of pupils
and the corresponding increase in the number of buildings,
teachers and janitors, and in the amount of fuel, light, sup-
plies and incidentals that will be necessary. The average
annual increase in these items for the past seven years was
$117,017. It is evident that the increase in some of these
items will be greater during the next five years than they
have been dm'ing the past ; for example, the gain in teachers'
■salaries will be greater than heretofore because of the larger
proportion of high school teachers. For the year 1909
the total increase (exclusive of supplies) as shown on page 24
will be approximately S144,000. It is safely conservative
*28
SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
to estimate the average annual increase in expenses neces-
sary for the next five years at S150,000. If this amount
is deducted from the annual increase in revenue, the remain-
der in each case will show the amount of money available
each year for purposes other than maintaining the present
standards of the schools. These amounts are shown in
the following table :
Increase in
Revenue.
Increase in
Expense.
Net Balance
Available.
Total Surplus
Available
Over 190S.
1909
$193,428 00
199,160 00
205,129 00
211,248 00
217,520 00
$150,000 00
150,000 00
150,000 00
150,000 00
150,000 00
$43,428 00
49,160 00
55.129 00
61,248 00
67,520 00
$43,428 00
1910
92,588 00
1911 .-
147,717 00
1912
208,965 00
1913
276,485 00
The amounts indicated in the second column will be needed
in order to provide for the regular growth of the schools.
The available surplus indicated in the last column above
will be used to meet the other two great needs of the schools ;
first, to make up the deficit in supplies, occasioned by past
economies, and amounting to approximately $300,000;
and second, to make the improvements and expansions
of the school system that must be made in order to have
the school system fulfil its proper purpose.
The amount produced by the first ten cents will scarcely
suffice to meet the most urgent demands for books and sup-
plies, but will enable the School Committee to complete the
fiscal year ending January 31, 1910, without resorting to any
of the three methods indicated on page 24.
Twenty cents upon each one thousand dollars of valuation,
which the accompanying bill provides for the second 3^ear,
will enable the School Committee to maintain the schools as
they are, and to make up about one-third of the deficiency
existing in supplies and incidentals.
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 29
Thirty cents per thousand dollars additional, the amount
provided for the third year, will enable the School Committee
to maintain the schools at their present standard, and to make
up the major part of the deficiency in supplies and incidentals.
It is only when the amount of forty cents per thousand
additional is reached that there begins to be any sur-
plus available for the second proposition, namely, the perfec-
tion and expansion of the school system along some of the
many lines indicated on pages 26 and 27.
In the fourth year the amount so available will be approxi-
mately $209,000 and in the fifth year $276,000. This is but
a small increase of the total income of the schools and is in
fact a very limited amount to allow for the improvement and
expansion of the school system. Too much cannot be said
about the urgency of reducing the number of pupils per teacher,
the desirability of extending the instruction in English among
illiterate foreigners, or the necessity of establishing some form
of industrial training. The inadequacy of the net surplus
available is shown by considering the cost of some of the
urgent needs of the schools.
To instruct 83,000 elementary school children with 50
pupils to each teacher will require 1,660 teachers; with 44
pupils to each teacher, 1,886 teachers will be required. These
226 additional teachers at the maximum salary of $936 per
year would cost $211,536. At the minimum salary of $552
per year the cost would be $124,752. Since these teachers
would not all be on the maximum salary at the same time,
the actual cost would be somewhere between the amounts
named and would probably be in the vicinity of $175,000 per
year.
To increase the opportunity for instruction in English to
foreigners in evening schools and to offer but moderate oppor-
tunities for industrial training in evening schools will cost
$50,000 per year.
To establish day industrial schools will increase ex-
penditures and will require an amount that cannot be
30 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
determined in advance, but even a moderate beginning will
cost from $75,000 to $100,000.
To sweep the floors once more each week will cost $36,000
per year. To wash the windows oftener will require $4,000
for each additional washing.
It is not to be inferred that all these items must be delayed
until the fourth or fifth years. If the School Committee is
assured that the revenue asked for will be available in those
years, it will be enabled to make moderate beginnings in some
of these lines before that time. Without such assurance, it
would m.anifestly be unwise to enter upon a plan of operation
that would soon require more than the available resources.
Neither is the expansion of the school system limited
solely to the available surplus indicated above, because the
establishment of some of the items suggested, while increas-
ing expenses in one line, will ultimately reduce the expendi-
tures in others; for example, the establishment of short term
industrial schools for pupils between the ages of fourteen and
eighteen years would provide a type of education probably
costing more per capita than elementary school instruction,
and less per capita than high school instruction. It would
cause some pupils to remain in school longer than they now
remain, and would thus increase the expenditures for educa-
tion. On the other hand, it would attract from the high
schools certain pupils now attending these schools, and would
decrease to that extent the expenditure for high schools.
The immediate effect would undoubtedly be a greater total
expenditure for school purposes than would be necessary
after the normal condition of affairs had been established.
The estimates above are based upon an expected annual
growth in the assessed valuation of the city and a continued
increase in the number of pupils attending the schools. Any
falling off in the average annual increase in the number of
pupils will diminish the average annual increase in expendi-
tures, and by that much increase the amount of money
available for the perfection and expansion of the school
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 31
system. Any falling off in the average increase of valuation
will diminish the revenue and by that much decrease the
amount available for the expansion and perfection of the
school system. Even under the most favorable circumstances
the amount available will not be sufficient to meet adequately
all the legitimate demands for improvement or expansion
that will be continually confronting the School Committee.
SUMMARY.
To sum up this theme: An increased appropriation is
needed for the pubHc schools because the limit of economy
has been reached, and without it the public schools cannot
be maintained at their present standards.
Everything has already been done that system and economy
can accomplish to reduce expenses and still there are insuffi-
cient funds to maintain the school system even on its present
basis. More money must be provided in order to make up for
the excessive economies of the past in the matter of supplies
and incidentals. The School Committee must have the addi-
tional appropriations specified in the accompanying bill for
the years 1909, 1910 and 1911 in order to make the schools
more effective in the directions pointed out. It must also
have the appropriations asked for in the accompanying bill
for the years 1912 and 1913, if the school system of Boston is
to continue to meet the reasonable needs of the community.
COMPARATIVE EXPENDITURES FOR SCHOOLS.
No community needs better educated children than Boston,
yet Boston spends a smaller proportion per $1,000 of assessed
valuation for education than does any other city in Massachu-
setts. The following table is computed from data furnished
for each city by the officials thereof :
32
SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
Pro Rata of Expenditures for School Purposes to Tax Levy.
(.Exclusive of Land and New Schoolhouses.)
1905.
1906.
1907.
1 908. Average.
1. Everett
2. Chelsea
3. Maiden
4. Northampton.
5. Marlborough..
6. Somerville. . . .
7. Pittsfield
8. Melrose
9. Wobum
10. Brockton
11. Medford
12. Worcester. . . .
13. Gloucester. . . .
14. Springfield. . . .
15. Lynn
16. Lawrence f- • •
17. Quincy
18. Cambridge. . . .
19. Lowell
20. Fitchburg
21. Salem
22. Holyoke
23. New Bedford..
24. Beverly
25. Newburyport.
26. Newton
27. Boston
$7 31
$7 56
»7 76
$7 67
7 12
6 90
7 36
6 85
6 02
6 32
6 65
7 01
6 12
6 25
6 44
6 28
6 16
6 01
6 15
6 15
5 75
5 88
6 02
6 38
5 87
5 65
6 22
6 15
5 70
5 41
6 53
6 15
5 56
5 82
6 07
5 87
5 31
5 34
6 27
6 03
5 42
5 69
5 57
5 86
5 29
5 37
5 51
5 92
5 28
5 17
5 47
5 42
5 27
5 23
5 20
5 31
4 77
5 45
5 42
5 17
4 95
4 98
4 97
5 10
4 78
4 87
5 GO
5 04
4 77
4 86
5 03
4 90
4 33
4 84
5 19
5 07
4 72
4 SI
4 44
4 59
4 47
4 63
4 74
4 68
4 34
4 54
4 63
4 69
4 27
4 44
4 70
4 61
4 26
4 82
4 33
3 75
3 89
4 13
4 34
4 54
3 73
3 87
4 03
4 29
3 05
3 05
*3 07
*3 09
S7 57
7 06
6 50
6 27
6 12
6 01
5 97
5 95
5 83
5 74
5 63
5 52
5 33
5 25
5 20
5 00
4 92
4 89
4 87
4 64
4 63
4 55
4 51
4 29
4 22
3 98
3 065
t Not including repairs and alterations.
* Includes physical education and nurses, but not pensions.
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 33
The above table includes all cities in Massachusetts except
Fall River, Haverhill, Taunton, North Adams, Waltham
and Chicopee, from which the necessary information was not
received.
CONCLUSION.
The public schools of the City of Boston need money
because the basis of the average valuation of the city upon
which the appropriation is computed has not been a constant
but a diminishing one. They must have it or the public
school system will suffer materially. They must have it
in order to enable the public school system of Boston to
adapt itself better to the needs of the community, and to
accomplish more to protect the health of the children.
The future of Boston largely depends upon what the
School Committee accomplishes in these directions. New
England's only hope of competing successfully with the
rest of the United States lies in the superior education of
its inhabitants. Unless that be maintained. New England,
poor of soil, and of meagre natural resources, is bound to
lose more and more its standing in the economic life of this
country.
No community can spend money better than for the
education of the young. As President Eliot says: "If the
American people were all well-to-do they would multiply
by four or five the present average school expenditures
per child," and again, "The expenditure in those parts
of our country where it is now smallest ought to be raised
as rapidly as possible to the level of those regions where
it is now greatest; and in those regions where the expenditure
is now most liberal it ought to be doubled as soon as possible. "
If Boston is to have a future, it must spend more money
for the education of the children in its public schools. If it
wishes to maintain its great educational system as it has
been conducted in the past even, it must make up for the
deficiency caused by the falling ofT of the increase in its
own valuation. The best wav to increase the valuation of
34 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
the City of Boston is to spend more money upon the educa-
tion of the children in the City of Boston.
When the urgent and increasing needs of the pubUc school
system are considered, the larger appropriations proposed in
the accompanying bill seem scarcely adequate, but in view
of the general financial condition of the city the School Com-
mittee does not feel that it can consistently ask for more.
The proposed act is as follows :
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.
In the Year One Thousand Nine Hundred and Nine.
An Act Relative to Appropriations for the Support
OF THE Public Schools in the City of Boston.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in
General Court Assembled, and by the authority of the
same, as follows:
Section 1. Section one of chapter four hundred of the
acts of the year eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, as
amended by section one of chapter four hundred and forty-
eight of the acts of the year nineteen hundred and one, by
section one of chapter one hundred and seventy of the acts
of the year nineteen hundred and three, and by section one
of chapter two hundred and five of the acts of the year nine-
teen hundred and six, is hereby further amended by striking
out the whole of said section and inserting in place thereof
the following:
Section 1. The school committee of the city of Boston,
in each year, by vote of two-thirds of all its members, taken
by yeas and nays, may make an appropriation in one sum
for constructing and furnishing new school buildings, includ-
ing the taking of land therefor and for school yards, and the
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 35
preparing of school 3'ards for use, and may also make an
appropriation in one sum for repairs and alterations of school
buildings, and may make such other appropriations by items
for the support of the public schools as it deems necessary.
The total amount to be thus appropriated for the public
schools of the city and their support, in addition to the money
which may be given therefor, the income collected, the
balance of appropriations of years preceding such year, and
the money which may be authorized by acts of the general
court passed prior to the year nineteen hundred and nine
and not repealed, shall not exceed the following sums for
the periods specified, to wit:
For the financial year ending on the thirty-first day of
Januar}^, in the year nineteen hundred and ten, three dollars
and fifty cents ; for the financial year ending on the thirty-first
day of January in the year nineteen hundred and eleven, three
dollars and sixtj^ cents; for the financial year ending on the
thirty-first day of Januar}^ in the year nineteen hundred and
twelve, three dollars and seventy cents; for the financial year
ending on the thirty-first day of January in the year nineteen
hundred and thirteen, three dollars and eighty cents; for the
financial j^ear ending on the thirty-first day of January in
the year nineteen hundred and fourteen, and for each finan-
cial year thereafter, three dollars and ninety cents upon each
one thousand dollars of the valuation on which the appropria-
tions of the city council are based; and the amounts which
may be so raised shall be appropriated by the school com-
mittee as aforesaid, and shall be a part of and be met by
taxes within the tax limit ; and of said amounts not less than
forty cents upon every such one thousand dollars shall be
appropriated solely for new school buildings, lands, yards, and
furnishings as aforesaid, and not less than twenty-five cents
upon every such one thousand dollars shall be appropriated
solely for repairs and alterations of school buildings.
Sect. 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage.
36 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
PENSIONS FOR TEACHERS.
The long anticipated pension act for the benefit of the
public school teachers of the city which the new School Board
had pledged itself to use its best efforts to secure, became
effective in the passage of Chapter 589 of the Acts of 1908.
This subject has been so fully discussed in the preceding
annual report of the School Committee, and more particu-
larly in the latest report of the Superintendent, that it is
unnecessary to make any extended reference to its provisions,
which are, briefly: A maximum pension at the rate of $180
for teachers who have attained the age of sixty-five, or
who have completed thirty years of public school service,
at least twenty of which have been in the public schools
of Boston, and a proportionate amount for those who may
be retired after a less number of years of service.
Thirty-six teachers have already been retired under the
provisions of this act, and at the following rates :
No. Amount of
Pension.
32 $180
1 150
1 126
1 120
1 (Died December 28, 1908.) 114
Of the teachers thus retired, sixteen were sixty-five years
of age or older, the average age being sixty-three.
In 1900 an act was passed by the Legislature establishing
a Teachers' Retirement Fund which applies to all teachers
who have entered the service since its passage, as well as
to those employed at the time of its enactment who elected
to accept its provisions. The annuitants of this fund are
paid at the rate of $180 per annum, and the fund is supported
by contributions, at the rate of $18 per year from each of its
members.
The pension maximum of $180, added to an equal amount
which is now paid to the annuitants of the Teachers' Retire-
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 37
meiit Fund, makes a total of $360, which sum is equivalent
to the return of a principal of $9,000 invested at 4 per cent.
A considerable number of teachers also belong to the
Teachers' Mutual Benefit Association, a purely voluntary
organization supported wholly by its members, and which
pays its annuitants at the rate of $78 per annum.
xVlthough these several amounts payable to retiring teachers
are small in themselves, yet in the aggregate they are
sufficient to be of considerable importance to those who
need them most and whose future has been in many instances
a matter of grave and personal concern and anxiety.
AGE LIMITS.
The most important legislation adopted by the School Com-
mittee during the year had to do with the establishment of age
limits for the teaching force. The problem of dealing with
superannuated teachers has been long recognized as of serious
importance, not only in this city but elsewhere as well, and
has been dealt with in various ways. It is not easy to say at
what time an individual teacher becomes ineffective and a
detriment to the school in which he or she is employed. In
many cases the limitations caused by age and infirmity come
on so gradually that the decrease in vigor and enthusiasm, in
the grasp of details, and in teaching power, is realized only by
comparison of periods considerably separated from each other.
If it were possible to deal with a large system employing nearly
three thousand individuals in the same way as with a small
group, it would perhaps be practicable to determine the point
at which the superannuation of the individual takes place;
but if this method be attempted in dealing with large numbers
of persons, all or nearly all of whom would not unreasonably
seek to establish their continued fitness for service, it would
be impossible to avoid suspicion of favoritism, and endless
difficulties would arise in deciding upon the merits of indi-
vidual claims for special consideration because of valuable
services rendered in the past.
38 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
That the children in the public schools should be taught by
vigorous and efficient teachers admits of no question. That
there are a number o£ teachers in the service whose advanced
years indicate that they must have passed their prime is
equally true. The establishment of the Teachers' Retirement
Fund and of the Pension Fund have operated in the direction
of reducing the number of elderly teachers, but in the absence
of some definite rule on the subject, it did not appear probable
that the number of retirements would be sufficient to prevent
the accumulation of superannuated teachers in the system.
The Committee, therefore, has adopted a general rule which
provides for the retirement of members of the supervising and
teaching staff on the thirty-first day of August next follow-
ing the attainment of their seventieth birthday.
While the enforcement of this rule will compel the retire-
ment of some teachers who consider that they are still rendering
efficient service, nevertheless, the time is rapidly approach-
ing when even they must yield to the inevitable abatement
in physical and mental vigor consequent upon old age ; and if
the spirit of the true teacher contains the essential element
of personal devotion to duty and the sacrifice of personal
ambition during the period of youth and middle age, it would
seem that it should also prove equal to a gracious and uncom-
plaining retirement from service when the years of greatest
efficiency have been spent.
Coincidently with the rule just referred to, the School Com-
mittee adopted another regulation which places the maximum
age limit at which new teachers may enter the service at forty
years, although this rule does not affect holders of certificates
issued prior to January 1, 1909, nor does it include the follow-
ing positions: Principal of a school or district, director or
supervisor of a special subject or department, instructor of
military drill, medical inspector of special classes, or super-
vising nurse. These exceptions in executive or administrative
positions were made because it was deemed wise to recog-
nize the fact thcit ripeness ot judgment and breadth of view
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 39
in dealing \\ith problems of .school administration frequently
are not attained before early middle life.
The Board subsequently adopted a further amendment to
the new rule on this subject which provides that the restric-
tions as to the maximum age at which a new teacher ma}^ be
employed shall not affect the promotion of teachers already
in the service.
The decision of the Committee in these matters was not
arrived at without embarrassment and hesitation, due to its
desire to avoid inflicting disappointment and hardship upon
individuals who are especially entitled to all reasonable con-
sideration. In the larger aspect of the question, however, the
rights of the children to have the services of thoroughly effi-
cient and capable teachers cannot with justice be disregarded,
nor should sympathy for the individual teachers be made
paramount to the welfare of the pupils. In taking this step,
therefore, the Committee is satisfied that it has acted with an
eye to the interests of the school system as a whole, and in
accordance with the principle that the claim of the individual
must be subordinated to the common good.
FIRST PROMOTIONAL EXAMINATION.
The first of the promotional examinations for teachers in the
service, prescribed under the rules and regulations adopted by
the new School Committee, was held on October 5, 1908.
This particular examination was for teachers appointed
between September 1 and December 31, 1906, it being optional
with teachers appointed between October 1 and December 31
of that 5^ear whether they should take the October, 1908,
examination or wait until the following May. Those who
deferred taking a promotional examination until May, 1909, did
not, of course, receive the increase of salary to which they would
have been entitled on January 1, 1909, by successfully passing
the October examination. The total number of teachers who
were then examined was ninety-two. Because of some mis-
understanding with regard to the effect of this first
40 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
examination whereby certain teachers would not receive
an increase in salary, the School Committee authorized the
Board of Superintendents to hold a supplementary examina-
tion of the same character in December for the benefit of
these who had failed to take advantage of the opportunity
given them in October, and two teachers availed themselves
of the privilege. The total number of teachers taking the
first promotional examination was therefore ninety-four, all
of whom, with but a single exception, passed successfully.
It is clear, therefore, that the apprehension felt by some
of the teaching force that the promotional examinations seri-
ously threatened their continuance in the service and were
intended to emphasize delinquencies rather than to encour-
age professional improvement and to stimulate continued
interest in school work, was not well grounded.
PAYMENT OF SUBSTITUTES.
While the regular teachers in the public schools have
been paid the amounts due them during the closing week
of the month in which their services were performed, the
numerous substitutes employed were not so fortunate, and
received at the close of each month only the amounts they
had earned up to and including the middle of the month.
Thus, they were practically in the position of having two
weeks' pay, which they had actually earned and to which
they were entitled, withheld for another month, while the
regular teachers, whose compensation was much larger and
who, therefore, might be assumed to be more easily able
to wait, received their salaries promptly.
To remedy this situation, the injustice of which was appar-
ent, a plan was devised, beginning in October, whereby a
special pay roll is made out, promptly after the last working
day in each month, from certifications made by the Super-
visor of Substitutes from reports of the school principals,
verified by the records in her office. Little, if any, serious
difficulty has been experienced in putting this plan into
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT.
41
operation, and under the new method the substitutes
receive the amounts due them from two to three weeks
earHer than was possible under the former arrangement.
ADDITIONAL SCHOOL ACCOMMODATIONS.
In accordance with the provisions of Chapter 450 of the
Acts of 1907 an additional amount of $1,000,000 became
available this year to meet the cost of additional school
accommodations, and appropriate action was taken by the
School Committee and by the Board of Schoolhouse Com-
missioners to proceed with the following items of this nature :
School District.
Number
of Pupils.
Estimated
Cost.
1. Edward Everett District, elementary school, upper grades. . .
616
1,760
$125,000
450,000
5.000
4. Blackinton District, elementary school, upper grades
5. Dudley District, elementary school, lower grades
6. Henry L. Pierce District, High School (Dorchester High) . . .
7. Longfellow District, elementary school, lower grades
704
52S
420
352
140,000
105,000
125,000
50.000
Item No. 1.
Edward Everett District. — New Edward Everett School, situated on
Stoughton street, Dorchester, to contain fourteen class rooms, a manual
training room, cooking room, and an assembly hall, will be completed and
ready for occupancy in September, 1909.
Item No. 2.
Brimmer District. — Abraham Lincoln School, situated on site bounded
by Ferdinand, Melrose and Fayette streets, to contain forty class rooms,
a manual training room, cooking room, and an assembly hall, will probably
be ready for occupancy in September, 1910.
Item No. 3.
Eliot District. — Administrative office, completed and occupied Sep-
tember 9, 1908.
Item No. 4-
Blackinton District. — Bishop Cheverus School, situated on site bounded
by Moore and Chaucer streets, East Boston, to contain sixteen class
42 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
rooms, a manual training room, cooking room, and an assembly hall,
will be completed and ready for occupancy in September, 1909.
Item No. 5.
Dudley District. — Nathan Hale School, situated on Cedar street,
Roxbury, to contain twelve class rooms, will be ready for occupancy in
September, 1909.
Item No. 6.
Henry L. Pierce District. — Dorchester High Annex, situated on Lithgow
street, Dorchester, to contain eighteen class rooms, wood working room,
metal handicraft room, mechanical drawing room, and wardrobes in base-
ment for boys and girls, will be ready for occupancy latter part of 1910.
Item No. 7.
Longfellow District. — Addition to Longfellow School, situated on South
and Hewlett streets, Roslindale, to contain eight class rooms and a
cooking room, will be ready for occupancy in April, 1910.
With the exception of a few portable buildings, and the
addition to the Francis Parkman School-house, no new
school-houses have been completed and occupied during the
year. The progress made with regard to the items author-
ized in 1907, and referred to in the annual report for that
year, is as follows:
Item No. 1.
Agassiz District. — Extension to Francis Parkman School, situated on
Walk Hill street, Jamaica Plain, consisting of six rooms and hall, occupied
in September, 1908.
Item No. 2.
Wells District. — Third-story addition to Winchell School, situated on
site bounded by Blossom and Parkman streets, containing six rooms,
occupied September 11, 1907.
Item No. 3.
Bennett District. — Two-room addition to Hobart-street School, situated
near Brooks street, Faneuil, occupied October 31, 1907.
Item No. 4-
Adams Distinct. — Four portable buildings, occupied October 25, 1907.
Item No. 5.
Prince District. — Addition to Mechanic Arts High School, situated on
Belvidere and Dalton streets, occupied January 4, 1909.
ANNUAL .SCHOOL REPORT. 43
Item No. 6.
Phillips District. — Peter Faneuil School, situated on site bounded
by Joy and South Russell streets, West End, containing seventeen class
rooms and a manual training room, will probably be ready for occupancy
September, 1910.
MECHANIC ARTS HIGH SCHOOL ADDITION.
The. addition to the Mechanic Ai'ts High School-house, to
which reference was made in the report of last year, has been
completed, _ and the twenty-six additional class rooms were
occupied on January 4, 1909. Thus after many years of
inadequate facilities the school is now in a position to care
properly for its pupils, and to meet the steadily increasing
demand for the course of instruction it offers without resort
to various makeshift arrangements and the establishment of
colonies in other school buildings.
FRANCIS PARKMAN SCHOOL DISTRICT.
One new elementary school district has been established
during the year, namely, the Francis Parkman, at Forest
Hills. The building bearing this name was originally a four-
room structure, completed and occupied in 1900. In 1903
an addition containing four rooms was placed under con-
tract, and was completed and occupied in September, 1904.
In 1907, as stated above, a further addition of six rooms
and an assembly hall was authorized, which was completed
in September, 1908.
The residents of the neighborhood had long been extremely
anxious that this school should form a separate and inde-
pendent district apart from the Agassiz, and made urgent and
frequent representations to the School Committee to this
effect. The desired action was taken and a separate district
established accordingly, dating from September 1, 1908.
COMMITTEES ON PLANS FOR SCHOOL BUILDINGS.
Two permanent committees, consisting of principals of
schools, have been appointed to examine plans for school
44 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
buildings submitted by the Board of Schoolhouse Commis-
sioners to the Superintendent, and to advise with him as to
the suitabihty of the proposed buildings for the educational
purposes for which they are intended. The committee on
elementary schools consists of three elementary school prin-
cipals, to which will be added the principal of the district in
which a new building is to be erected, and the assistant
superintendent in charge of that district. The committee
on high school buildings is made up in the same manner, but
of high school principals. The permanent members of these
committees will, of course, acquire considerable experience
with respect to plans of school buildings, and their advice
will be of very great assistance.
PLAYGROUNDS,
This subject has been so comprehensively and recently
treated by the Director of School Hygiene (see Appendix C
to Superintendent's Report, July, 1908, School Document
No. 7) that it seems unnecessary to add anything thereto in
this report, except perhaps to outline briefly the general plan
for conducting the playgrounds under the original arrange-
ment with the Board of Park Commissioners which terminated
on October 31, 1908, and the plan which was then deter-
mined upon for the discharge of the new duty imposed by
statute upon the School Committee.
The first section of Chapter 259 of the Acts of 1907, which
authorizes the School Committee to make certain appropri-
ations for, and enlarges its powers in respect to, physical
education, provides that it may organize and conduct physical
training and exercises, athletics, sports, games, and play in
various buildings, yards, and playgrounds under the control
of the School Committee, or upon any other land which it
may have the right to use for this purpose.
The next section of the act authorizes the School Committee
to use such playgrounds, gymnasia, or buildings under the
control of the Park Commission as the School Committee
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 45
deems suitable, and under such reasonable regulations and
conditions as the Park Commission may prescribe.
At the request of the School Committee, the Board of
Superintendents and the Director of School Hygiene prepared
last year, and submitted to the School Committee, a plan
for the work to be done by it under this act, specifying some
eighteen playgrounds which they considered might be suit-
able for the purpose, and outlining the conditions which
they thought should be agreed upon with the Park Depart-
ment. This plan involved the furnishing by the School Com-
mittee of such new buildings as might be considered necessary,
also the furnishing and installation of the additional apparatus
and supplies required. The School Committee also undertook
to employ and compensate the instructors needed in connec-
tion with the conduct of these playgrounds, while the con-
struction, maintenance, lighting, and heating of buildings,
the care of grounds, the furnishing, installation, and repair of
apparatus on premises then under the Park Department, was
to remain under the exclusive control of that department.
The plan submitted by the Board of Superintendents and
the Director of School Hygiene was approved by the School
Committee at its meeting on April 6, 1908, and sent to the
Park Commission for its consideration. The Park Commission
then called the School Committee's attention to the undesir-
ability of having on the same playground tw^o different sets of
employees, under the control of different departments, and
while it expressed its willingness to continue to care for the
physical maintenance of the playgrounds, suggested that a
more harmonious arrangement and better results could be
secured if the officials of the School Committee were to have
supervision over, and control of, the Park Department
playgrounds and employees as well as of the employees of the
School Committee.
This was agreed to by the School Committee, and at the
meeting of the Committee held on May 4 the following order
was passed:
46 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
Ordered, That the Park Department be requested to continue the
employment of such instructors, laborers, and attendants in buildings at
present employed upon Park Department playgrounds which have been
transferred to the supervision and control of the School Committee, as the
Director of School Hygiene may request.
In pursuance of this agreement the School Committee,
through its Department of School Hygiene, and acting, so
far as the supervision and control of the Park Department
employees was concerned, as agent of that department,
established a system of daily reports of services rendered by
those employees of the Park Department who work on the
school playgrounds, and certified to the Park Department
the hours of labor and the wages due each of such employees,
at the rates previously established by the Park Department;
and the Park Department continued to compensate its
laborers and employees in the same manner as it had pre-
viously done.
The adoption of this arrangement saved the Park Depart-
ment the necessity of employing an overseer or supervisor of
their employees engaged on playgrounds upon which the
School Committee, in accordance with the act, conducted
physical training and exercises, athletics, sports, and play;
and inasmuch as a supervisor or teacher in charge of each
playground would be necessary, the School Committee was
able, without additional expense, to furnish the information
required by the Park Department in respect to its employees.
This arrangement, of course, also ob\dated any conflict of
authority between any employees of the Park Department
and the teachers employed by the School Committee.
It should be remembered, moreover, that the School Com-
mittee never asked to be given the additional work specified
in this act; that it was of a character which had not hereto-
fore been undertaken by any School Committee; that the
Committee had not developed any well-considered plan
for the additional work put upon it, and did not have in its
employ the laborers, watchmen, etc., required to take care of
the playgrounds. The arrangement outlined above was
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 47
of course pureh^ experimental and tentative, as neither the
Park Commission nor the School Committee was able, at the
inauguration of this new feature of school work, to deter-
mine what playgrounds controlled by the Park Department
were suitable for use by the School Committee for the pur-
poses specified by the act.
The arrangement thus briefly outlined terminated on Octo-
ber 31, and a new arrangement betw^een the School Committee
and the Park Commission has recently been adopted, which
in brief, provides that the School Committee shall have
the use and control of such children's corners in the park
playgrounds as may be deemed suitable for its purpose,
including all children's corners now in existence and such
additional ones as may be mutually agreed upon between
the Board of Commissioners of the Park Department and
the School Committee; that the School Committee shall
meet all the expenses of furnishing instructors and supply-
ing and caring for equipment and apparatus, etc. ; but, as a
matter of convenience, the Park Department has agreed
that the school officials may call upon the park employees
to assist in caring for the apparatus and grounds; and the
School Committee has agreed to pay bills submitted by the
Park Department for the services rendered by its employees.
The Park Department is to have entire charge and con-
trol of the other portions of playgrounds, and of the buildings
and gymnasia belonging to that department, as well as the
physical care of grounds, walks, trees, etc., and is to meet
the expense of caring therefor; but it is agreed that the
School Committee may, without expense to it, have the
use of such playgrounds as may be mutually agreed upon,
from the close of school until 5.30 o'clock daily (Sundays
excepted) and on Saturday forenoons during the periods
from April 1 to July 1, and from September 1 to Thanks-
giving Day; and at such times during the periods from July
1 to September 1, and Thanksgiving Day to April 1, as may
be mutually determined.
48 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
Perhaps it may be well also to call attention to the fact
that the main purpose of this act was to enlarge the powers
of the School Committee in respect to physical education,
and to provide funds for that purpose; and that the act
required the School Committee to organize and conduct
physical training and exercises, athletics, etc., in the buildings,
yards, and playgrounds under its control. The School
Committee has endeavored to carry out the provisions of
the act, and has extended and enlarged the physical training
and exercises, etc., formerly provided for, and has organized
and* conducted physical training and exercises on certain park
playgrounds as outlined in this statement, as well as in a
number of school yards.
It should be borne in mind, however, that while the act
says that the School Committee shall ''use" such play-
grounds, gymnasia or buildings as it deems suitable, it
nowhere says that the School Committee shall have charge
of the maintenance of those grounds. The act simply pro-
vides that it shall "use" such playgrounds as it considers
suitable, and shall both "organize and conduct physical
training and exercises, athletics, sports, games and play,
and shall provide proper apparatus, equipment and facil-
ities for the same. "
RECIPROCAL ARRANGEMENTS WITH OTHER CITIES AND TOWNS
FOR ADMISSION OF PUPILS TO HIGH SCHOOLS,
Each 5^ear a considerable number of applicants seek
admission to the Latin and high schools who have pre-
viously attended the elementary schools of other cities or
towns, and having taken up residence in Boston are entitled
to school privileges in this city. Heretofore such applicants
have been required to pass the regular entrance examinations
for admission to the Latin and high schools, no official recog-
nition being given to their previous acquirements.
This course seemed in a large measure unfair and out
of keeping with the general custom of educational institu-
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 49
tions to give credit for work done in other institutions of
equal rank. In June, therefore, the Board amended its
regulations to provide that graduates of the public elemen-
tar}^ schools of other cities and towns making a reciprocal
arrangement, approved by the Board of Superintendents,
and pupils of such schools who have been promoted to the
seventh or a higher grade, and who present to the principal
evidence of satisfactory scholarship, shall be admitted to
the Latin schools, and if graduates of such elementary schools
shall be admitted to the high schools without examination.
Many of the cities and towns in the vicinity of Boston had
been in the habit of pursuing this plan with respect to the
graduates of the Boston elementary schools, and welcomed
the opportunity to enter formally into the proposed arrange-
ment, and other school authorities likewise hastened to
accept the proposition. This reciprocal arrangement is
now in effect between Boston and some twenty-two cities
and towns in Massachusetts, mostly in the vicinity of
Boston.
HIGH SCHOOL OF COMMERCE.
The second annual report of the Advisory Committee
of Business Men of the High School of Commerce speaks
encouragingly of the substantial progress which has been
made by this school during its second year. The entering
class numbers 230 and, with the probability of increase of
demand, it is safe to say that the school will attract at least
1,000 pupils as soon as accommodations for that number
are available.
The following extracts from the report of the Executive
Committee of the Advisory Committee will be found of
interest :
The plan of organization, which has been put fully into operation during
the current year, is proving as effective as anticipated. Each department
of work has a head, a master selected for his experience and ability. The
work is thereby thoroughly organized, the details are worked out, and the
possibilities of each branch are thus approximated in a way which the
50 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
former organization would have made very difficult. The head of a depart-
ment shares in the responsibilities of the school, makes investigations
necessary in the development of the courses, keeps up the standard of his
department, and in general shares in the executive work of the school.
That a vocational school holds the interest of pupils is proven by the
excellent showing made by the school in the matters of membership and
attendance. Some twenty boys have dropped from the rolls since Septem-
ber. An examination into the causes for leaving shows but a very few who
left from discouragement and lack of interest, which are the usual reasons
attributed to the large percentage who drop out of high schools, especially
in the first year.
The extension of the school day from five hours to six hours as recom-
mended by the Business Men's Committee, has proven in every way valu-
able. Recitations are finished at two o'clock, the usual time in Boston
high schools. The extra hour is devoted to a variety of school activities.
At this period come the gymnastic exercises, the meetings of modern lan-
guage associations, the debating societies, and so on. For certain pupils
the period is a time for study, for others opportunity is offered to go to
the library. Students who desire additional assistance in their studies
may at this time find their teachers and receive help. The period effects
two valuable purposes. The bright pupil has opportunity to do additional
work and the slow pupil has a chance to get the assistance necessary to
enable him to keep abreast of his class.
Modern conditions demand a wider scope of work from the school than
at present offered. The present four-year course for youths who give
their whole time to schooling can be profitably supplemented by the addi-
tion of other opportunities for young men who can give but a part of the
time .to education. It is quite probable that a comprehensive plan of
"part time" instruction can be made at any time when proper facilities
will have been made available. The introduction of this hitherto untried
system of instruction would necessitate the co-operation of business houses,
inasmuch as it involves school work for a portion of the day ordinarily
devoted to business. Doubtless the co-operation would be forthcoming,,
since it is becoming more and more evident that greater efficiency is the
result of better training, and that greater efficiency is a growing business
necessity. In many parts of Germany the business men willingly excuse
certain of their employees for a short period of the business day, recog-
nizing that it is for the interest of the employer that his men should receive
the added school training.
A beginning in part time education can be made in the school next fall.
A fifth year is now offered to high school graduates. It is already planned
that special opportunity shall be afforded for extended work in particular
fields of commercial science. The course of study at present adopted can
be easily adapted so that students may follow a part time schedule, i. e.,.
part of the time in the business house. Students by this arrangement
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 51
might spend three hours per day in the school and the remainder of the day
in a business house. There is sufficient promise of success in the suggestion
to recommend its trial.
That an evening high school of commerce is needed is apparent. The
pronounced success of the bookkeeping and typewriting courses in the
already established evening high schools is some indication of the large
demand which would be met by offering the richer and more fundamental
work which a liberal school of commerce can offer. The New York School
of Commerce, Accounts, and Finance, chiefly an evening school, has shown
pronounced success and is filling for the City of New York a service which
Boston at present lacks. The local Y. M. C. A. has been quick to see this
need, and is even now supplying by private enterprise a need which the
community owes free to her citizens.
It is obvious from the foregoing that the need of a building, properly
located, properly equipped, is pressing. This need can be appropriately
urged even at a time when the city finances are heavily burdened and other
needs for money are apparent. Certain economies are unprofitable even
in the hardest times. The sacrifice which a present appropriation involves
will be amply repaid by the accruing advantages which this practical form
of vocational education bears in promise.
The Advisory Committee of Business Men has continuously for the year
past urged the necessity of appropriating money for a new building and
feels that it is justified, from the importance of this type of education to
the community, in urging again the taking of immediate steps to place the
school, already successfully in operation, upon a proper basis. The maxi-
mum capacity of the present buikling, five hundred and twenty-five, will
be overtaxed in the forthcoming September. Since the graduating class
of 1909 numbers only fifteen there wiU be practically no chance in the
present quarters to take entering students in the fall of that year. The
suggestion has been made to colonize in some unused school rooms in other
parts of the city a group of students, say one hundred and fifty, who might
thus be trained under the school methods and supervision although not
under the roof of the school itself. It is doubtful if such a plan would
prove effective if applied for more than one year. The success of the work
depends upon the influences and special equipment of the school itself,
conditions which cannot be easily reproduced in isolated colonies.
It is satisfactory to note that the suggestion that traveling scholarships
be established has been made possible for the forthcoming summer through
the public spirit of certain Boston business men. Two such scholarships
are rendered available at once. It is planned to use them as follows: Two
young men from the senior class of the school are to be sent on a trip of
visitation and observation to the east coast of South America. They will
visit such larger cities as Buenos Ayres, Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro,
Santos, etc. The young men will be chosen upon examination in such
subjects as modern languages, economics, and knowledge of commercial
52 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
conditions in South America. The successful candidates will upon return-
ing make to the Business Men's Committee an official report covering the
results of their investigations.
The good results to be effected by these scholarships are many. Chief of
all, perhaps, is the spreading of the idea amongst our young men of the
importance of foreign markets, the necessity of preparing carefully and
specifically for this new and promising field of enterprise, and the acquaint-
ance, first hand, with the commercial conditions in foreign countries where
we may have trade expectations — a knowledge which at present is sadly
lacking. The students of the school will be interested, and enthusiasm
will be developed by the reports of the student representatives, the whole
subject to be made more real and attractive than hearsay evidence or book
knowledge can effect. It is believed that the traveling scholarships will
result in great good to the teaching force as well as to the scholars.
During the current year three courses of lectures have been delivered at
the school by men who are expert in certain branches of business theory
and practice. A course of twenty lectures upon the local industries of
Boston, by Mr. Frank W. Noxon. These were given to the students of the
second year. Mr. Nathaniel C. Fowler, Jr., gave a course of ten lectures
upon the theory and art of advertising before the senior class, and Mr.
Garrett Droppers gave a course of ten lectures upon Municipal Govern-
ment also to the senior class. Each of these topics comes in the course of
study laid down by the Board of Superintendents, but from the nature
of the subjects can be better treated by experts than by regular teachers
of the school who have not the time nor facilities to make extensive
studies in special fields.
Courses by laymen have been very largely employed in the New York
School of Commerce, Accounts, and Finance, and have proven eminently
profitable. A similar testimony is given by the Boston High School of
Commerce. It is recommended that these courses be continued in subse-
quent years and upon a somewhat larger scale. The sum appropriated by
the School Committee during the present year, $375, was insufficient, so
that the course in advertising was only obtained through the generosity
of Mr. Fowler who made no charge. A sum of $750 is recommended for
the pursuance of this work during next year.
As was voted at the October meeting of the Business Men's Committee
a circular letter was addressed to a considerable number of business houses
asking contributions in small sums for the equipment of the commercial
museum and the commercial hbrary of the school. It is gratifying to
note that the response has been generous, and that the sum now subscribed
seems sufficient to effect the results expected in the appeal.
The Executive Committee has carefully considered the course of study
offered at the school. It is of opinion that the course is well designed and
wisely and efficiently administered. The Committee takes the liberty of
suggesting only one modification, and that only if it seems feasible to the
school authorities. It hardly seems to the Committee that the important
subject of accounting receives quite as much attention as is desirable. If
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 53
the Committee is right in its view the school authorities will surely take
favorable action on the suggestion.
The accompanying circular letter recently sent to business houses
explains the matter of summer employment. This plan, which has proven
so valuable in apphcation, is the direct result of the suggestion of the
Business Men's Committee. It is earnestly hoped that in spite of the
present depression of business sufficient places will be found for the boys
who -VA-ill be candidates during the coming summer.
Following is the letter:
" Dear Sir:
"As perhaps you know, the High School of Commerce has been estab-
lished to give young men an education with the definite intent of making
them efficient in commercial enterprises. Business men who are closely
in touch with the work of the school feel that the pupils will benefit by
any experience which during their school course they can secure in actual
business affairs. We therefore wish to obtain for a number of our pupils
the opportunity to work in a business house during the summer vacation.
If you care to grant this opportunity in your own firm, we would ask
permission to send to your employment agent one or two properly selected
young men from our upper classes.
" The young men who will thus offer their services desire chiefly to secure
experience: whatever work you assign to them they will be willing to
undertake, and whatever compensation you think they earn they will
accept. In general, however, our pupils are preparing to engage in one
of the four following lines: Accounting, Buying, Selling, Secretarial Work.
It may be that the vacations which you give to your employees will
render acceptable the services of a beginner in one or more of these depart-
ments. As our pupils wish to secure work in the line they hope even-
tually to enter, we should be glad to know in which of these departments
applications would be welcome.
" We venture to hope that beyond the satisfaction which the services
of these young men may give, the merchants of Boston will feel pleasure
in forwarding in this way the work of the city's public High School of
Commerce. The young men will carry to you our estimate of their abili-
ties; in return, we should be glad to receive the estimate formed of them
by their superiors in the houses they enter. By this exchange of estimates
both the pupils and the school can benefit. Co-operation of this sort
between German commercial schools and German business men has given
to German commerce the ascendancy it now holds. In our own country
the Commercial School of the University of Illinois has secured like
co-operation with excellent results. By the urgent advice of our Advis-
ory Board of twenty-five business men, we now ask your help in obtain-
ing for our school a practical laboratory in the business houses of Boston.
" The plan which is outlined above was tried last summer in the case
of second and third-year pupils, all of whom earned the commendation
of the business houses in which they were employed. They returned
54 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
to school with statements in regard to their abihty from their employer,
and proved to be better fitted by their summer experience to profit by
the instruction which this school gives.
" We should be very much pleased to receive your offer of co-operation
in this matter of summer employment.
" Yours very truly,
" Frank V. Thompson,
"Head Master of the High School of Commerce."
The dinner given by the Advisory Committee of Business Men on
February 10, 1908, was in every way a success. Some three hundred busi-
ness men were in attendance, and the character and interest of the audi-
tors did not fail to elicit commendation from all present. The speakers
were President Eliot, Rev. Thomas I. Gasson, S. J., Mr. Frank A. Vander-
lip of New York, Mr. J. L. Richards, Supt. S. D. Brooks, Mr. J. J. Storrow,
Chairman of the School Board. The pul)lic impression of this occasion
was in a marked degree helpful to the good of the cause of progressive
commercial education.
The practical character of the school is shown in the methods employed
in bringing before the students the important elements of success in
commercial life. At weekly intervals, in the main assembly hall, are
held talks by business men. Men prominent in business circles and
qualified to speak from experience make addresses before the school.
These meetings have informed and inspired the students and have enforced
in the minds of the boys the serious puipose of the school. Another prac-
tice, contributing in a less degree to the same result, has been the efforts
of the boys themselves. At weekly intervals the young men of the senior
class address the -assembled school upon commercial topics. These topics
may come as a part of their advanced study of economics, or may be
subjects in which the young men have had experience in connection with
summer positions in business houses. The young men who are most
successful in these presentations will be selected for the honor parts
in the graduation exercises. It is planned to give the graduation exer-
cises a distinctive character and to supplant the traditional forms with
efforts which will portray the special purposes for which the school was
instituted.
Visits to business houses by groups of students are conducted at inter-
vals throughout the year, so that students have opportunity to observe
first hand the actual workings of business establishments.
The young men who took the South- American trip referred
to in the foregoing report gave an excellent account of the
journey before the Business Men's Committee in December.
They have also spoken before several trade organizations,
notably the Boston Credit Men's Association in November,
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 55
and each of them has been giving a series of talks to the
other pupils of the school. One of the holders of the scholar-
ship is emplo5^ed afternoons and Saturdays in one of the largest
corporations in the cit}^ where his foreign experience will
probably lead to his being employed permanently in one of
its foreign departments. The other scholarship holder is
employed afternoons and Saturdays by one of the large
wholesale dealers in chemicals in Boston.
girls' high school of practical arts.
This school, established in 1907, entered upon its second
year with a largely increased attendance. There were about
300 applications for admission to the entering class. There
w^as room for only 200.
To meet the demand for admission, the third floor of the
old Mather building was fitted to provide two class rooms
and a room for work in millinery. The Ward 20 Wardroom
has been used as an assembly room, gymnasium, and for
classes in music. A school kitchen was installed in the
Lyceum Hall building, and an apartment rented at 30 Church
street to provide room for the classes in household science.
In this way it has been possible to take care of five
sections of pupils of the first year, and three sections of the
second year.
The need of more convenient and commodious quarters
for this school is most pressing.
The pupils of the second year were allowed to choose one of
the three following lines of industrial w^ork: Dressmaking,
millinery, and household science. In addition to the special
subject chosen, the girls are given enough work in the
other lines to enable them to meet the general needs of the
home.
The various departments, academic and industrial, are
correlating their work in a way to make the teaching practical.
For instance, as a part of the class-room work in English,
the girls are required to give, with illustrative material, oral
56 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
demonstrations of processes of work learned in the industrial
classes. As the chemistry will be closely connected \\dth the
food work of the cooking laboratory, and the textiles of
the dressmaking room, so the physics will have to do with the
action of stove and furnace, of gas and electricity in the
home, and the care and understanding of simple machinery.
In the Art Department special attention is given to the
various problems in color and design that arise in the work-
rooms.
During the year the head-master spent some time in the
study of the industrial schools for girls in Great Britain,
Germany and Switzerland. Much valuable information was
thus obtained concerning methods of instruction and equip-
ment of workrooms, which will be put in practical use as
rapidly as possible.
The interest and enthusiasm of teachers and pupils alike
are evidence that the school is offering a plan of education
that will meet the needs of a large number of the girls who
graduate from the elementary schools. The school should be
located in a central place and provided with a building of
adequate size.
OPEN-AIR CLASS.
In September, a communication was received from the
Boston Association for the Relief and Control of Tubercu-
losis asking the School Committee to furnish a teacher for
the instruction of the children in the camp maintained by
the association on Parker Hill, which it was proposed to
continue during the coming winter if the School Committee
would co-operate in the work to that extent. The Board
took favorable action on the application, and a regular
teacher was assigned to the class.
In November, Dr. James J. Minot, the President of the
Association, came before the Board and was heard with regard
to the desirability of establishing open-air classes as a part
of the public school system, and the beneficial results that
might be anticipated to result from the adoption of this
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 57
plan. It was also pointed out that the experimental class
which was being conducted on Parker Hill would soon have
to be discontinued unless other accommodations could be
found for it, because of contemplated building operations
that would compel its removal. The immediate result of
this conference was the passage of two orders by the School
Committee, one, appointing a commission of eminent Boston
physicians, consisting of Dr. James J. Minot, Dr. Joseph H.
Pratt, Dr. Edwin A. Locke, Dr. Elliott P. Joslin, and Dr.
Thomas F. Leen, to investigate and report on the subject
of tuloerculosis and the more or less allied subject of malnu-
trition among the public school children, with a view to the
adoption of measures whereby the health of children may
be safeguarded, and the progress of disease checked. The
report of this commission may be expected early in 1909.
The other order asked the Board of Park Commissioners
to allow the use of a part of the refectory building in Franklin
Park for the proposed open-air class. Pending action on the
part of the Park Commission with regard to the use of this
building, an effort was made to find other and more suitable
accommodations, but without success. Such unoccupied
school buildings as were available were not at all suited for
the purpose in view, nor could a locality that was on the whole
as desirable as the one in Franklin Park, be found.
In response to an inquiry made by the Park Commission
as to how soon it would again be safe for the open-air class to
be housed in a tent if the temporary use of a part of the refec-
tory building should be allowed, reply was made that May 1
would be as early a date as it would be safe to rely upon.
The attention of the Park Commission was also called to
various considerations which had governed the School Com-
mittee in its action in this matter. Among them are :
1. The desirability of reaching an intelligent conclusion
as to the real value of such a class.
2. The failure of the School Committee to secure suit-
able accommodations elsewhere.
58 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
3. The opinion of the best medical authority in the
community that the hves of at least a majority of these
children would be sacrificed if remedial measures were not
promptly taken.
4. The assurance that the proposed use of a part of the
refectory building would not in any way jeopardize the health
of persons frequenting the park, nor be dangerous to those using
that part of the building devoted to library purposes. It is
understood that the children whom it is proposed to place in
the school are to be carefully examined before assignment, and
only those admitted who are in the incipient stage of tuber-
culosis, or who are of the pre-tubercular type. No advanced
cases of tuberculosis, for the care of whom the city has made
other provision, will be admitted to this class.
5. Finally, whether the proposed use of the building in
question was within the original purpose contemplated when
parks were established by the city. To this the reply was
made that no definition made at any one time is a safe rule
for the future; for example, the primary and original view of
the duty of the School Committee was that it should provide
for the instruction of children, yet it is charged to-day with
many responsibilities not thought of at the time it was created.
The Park Department formerly had little to do with play-
grounds and out-of-door gymnasia. The Common was
originally a pasture. In short, it would seem that the broad
view to take is, that any city department should do what it
reasonably can for the benefit of the community, and, in this
particular case, that the health of children is a matter of
vast importance whether the problem be viewed from the
humanitarian or from the economic standpoint.
Favorable action was taken by the Park Commission late
in the year, the necessary alterations and repairs in that part
of the refectory building devoted to class purposes were under-
taken by the Schoolhouse Department, and the first public
open-air class will begin its sessions in these accommoda-
tions on January 18, 1909. Kitchen acconmiodations were
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 59
provided in the basement; a room upstairs suitable for the
accommodation of thirty pupils was fitted out for school-
room purposes in case of extreme inclemency of the weather.
A shack was built on the roof forming school-room acconnno-
dations for twenty-five pupils. In this structure class-room
exercises have been conducted daily. The desks and seats are
on movable platforms, so as to allow changing position in
order to ensure each child the greatest amount of direct
sunshine on his body during the whole course of the day.
Each child is provided with a canvas bag in which he is
encased during the school-room exercises. During the noon
hours (12 to 2) the child rests, encased in his canvas bag and
rolled in a blanket, exposed to the sun on the roof of the
refectory. A fixed program combining rest, physical exer-
cises, breathing exercises and regular school exercises is
carried out daily. A daily chart of weight and temperature
of each child is rigidly kept. The children are examined
ever}^ two weeks at the clinic of the Municipal Tuberculosis
Hospital. A nurse from the Tuberculosis Hospital \dsits the
home of each pupil in the school and acquaints the teacher
with home conditions likely to be a cause of the mental retar-
dation of particular chUdren. When a child is pronounced by
the physician at the clinic to be free from disease he is
returned to his appropriate grade in the regular school course,
and the school nurse takes up his case and returns him at
regular intervals to the clinic for re-examination, so as to
anticipate any return of the disease.
Since October 21, 1908, there have been thirty-nine cases
of tuberculosis admitted to this class. Fourteen children
have had the disease arrested and have been pronounced
cured and returned to the regular grade schools. Four others
have left the school on account of removal from the city. At
present there are twenty-one children in the class. All cases
have increased in weight, ranging from three pounds to seven-
teen pounds. The Boston Association for Relief and Control
of Tuberculosis supplies sleeping bags, overcoats, and blankets;
60 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
and also provides the matron and kitchen assistants. The
School Committee pays the cost of street car transportation
of the pupils, and the Boston Association for Relief and Con-
trol of Tuberculosis provides them with breakfast, dinner and ,
luncheon, for which each child pays ten cents a day. The
actual cost of the food alone is about twenty cents a day.
EXTENSION OF TERM OF EVENING SCHOOLS FOR FOREIGN-
BORN PUPILS.
One of the most important phases of the great develop-
ment of the evening schools that has taken place, especially
during the last few years, has been in the instruction of pupils
of foreign birth. The immigrant arriving in this country
finds it of immediate and practical importance to acquire a
working knowledge of the English language ; in fact, in many
cases his actual livelihood depends upon it, and the pressure
of the conditions surrounding him impels him to seek this
knowledge at the most available source. The advantages
offered by our evening schools along these lines speedily
become known to him, and he usually hastens to avail him-
self of them. Hence the immigrant, even of adult years, is
found in annually increasing number in these schools, and
with his thirst for knowledge is coupled a keen appreciation
of its economic necessity to him, and his progress is therefore
generally rapid and satisfactory. This teaching of foreigners
in our evening schools has continued for so many years that
the problem of efficient instruction is now well understood^
and there is little difficulty in finding teachers well skilled in
this department of the school system. The elementary even-
ing schools in some sections of the city are almost wholly
composed of pupils of foreign birth, and the instruction in
English, which forms the most important part of the course,
is supplemented to a veiy large extent by equally valuable
instruction in civic ideals, and earnest and necessary efforts
to inculcate an appreciation, not only of the rights, but also
of the duties of self-respecting and useful citizenship.
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 61
While in many cases the native-born pupil who enters an
evening school, because of other matters of interest or amuse-
ment engaging his attention, fails to complete the term, and
thereby compels too frequent reorganization of classes, the
foreigners are usually punctual and regular in attendance,
and view the closing of the evening school term with dismay
rather than with hopeful anticipation.
Recognizing the great importance of more extended even-
ing instruction for foreign-born pupils, the School Committee
late in Februaiy, determined to continue evening classes for
the instruction in English of such pupils after the close of the
regular term, and, notwithstanding the difficulty it was
experiencing in maintaining the school system upon inade-
quate appropriations, devoted $500 to this purpose. It is
very doubtful if the expenditure of an equal amount for any
other educational purpose has met with more sincere appre-
ciation by a group of pupils, and it is hoped that it will be
found possible in the near future to establish and conduct
similar classes for a larger part of the year than has hereto-
fore been practicable.
EVENING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL.
In November, 1907, the School Committee called the atten-
tion of the State Commission on Industrial Education estab-
lished under chapter 505 of the Acts of 1906, to the free evening
industrial drawing schools maintained by the city, and
requested the commission to visit and inspect these schools,
to approve their location and the courses of study and methods
of instruction pursued therein, to the end that the state
should aid in their maintenance. The commission, however,
in view of an opinion rendered by the Attorney-General,
replied that it would be unable to take any action in the
direction suggested, and could not legally accept any schools
in operation which are now required by public statute to be
maintained.
62 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
In September of the current year the Board passed an order
requesting the superintendent, in co-operation with the Com-
mission on Industrial Education, to formulate and submit a
plan for the establishment and maintenance of an evening
school of industrial training and design, with such branches
as might be deemed expedient, to be conducted by the School
Committee, with the aid of the Commonwealth, under the
provisions of the act referred to.
The result of this action w^as the establishment of a central
school for industrial training, named the Evening Industrial
School, in the Mechanic Ai*ts High School-house, with branches
in Charlestown, East Boston, Roxbury, and in the Public
Latin School-house on Warren avenue. The course of study
for this school and its branches, as finally adopted, includes
free-hand, mechanical, machine, and architectural drawing,
ship draughting, tool and jig making, steam engineering, and
related courses in industrial mathematics.
One principal was appointed at a salary of -$8 per evening;
one assistant-principal at $6 per evening; a first assistant in
charge for each of the four branches of the school at a sal-
ary of $6 per evening; and the compensation of the regular
assistants, or teachers, was fixed at a minimum of $3 per
evening for the first year of service, $4 per evening for the
second year, and for the third and subsequent years of ser-
vice $5 per evening.
This action by the School Committee was approved by the
Industi'ial Commission, who appointed the School Committee
agents of the commission in the management of this school.
Thus the free evening drawing schools, so long a part of our
school system, no longer exist, but in their place has been
established this new school which, with its branches, presents
the same opportunities that were formerly provided in the
evening drawing schools, and also offers by its broader cur-
riculum and improved facilities far greater advantages than
were available in the past.
The city profits in a financial way by the change as the
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 63
state now assumes one-fifth of the cost of conducting the
school and the finances of the School Committee are thus
relieved to that extent.
EXCHANGE OF TEACHERS WITH PRUSSIA.
By an arrangement made under the auspices of the Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching for an exchange
of teachers between this city and Prussia, Mr. Lyman G.
Smith, of the High School of Commerce, is now teaching in a
gymnasium at Harburg, Germany, and may in the spring be
transferred to Berlin. In exchange, Dr. Johannes Adler has
been accredited to the Boston schools by the Prussian Gov-
ernment, and assigned to the High School of Commerce where
he is now serving. Under this arrangement the visiting
Boston teacher is given a year's leave of absence for study
on half pay, under the provisions of the rules, and is paid by
the Prussian Government 150 marks (about $37.50) a month.
The visiting Prussian teacher receives no salary from his own
government, but is allowed reduced rates on transportation
by the influence of his government and is paid by the City of
Boston at the rate of $50 per month. The influence of Dr.
Adler in the High School of Commerce has been very marked.
He has given a vividness and an interest to the study of the
German language which it did not possess before, and which
it is difficult to bring into mere book teaching of modern
languages. He gives frequent talks in German on the customs,
habits, and industries of his country, at the same time refer-
ring to a large map which is in sight of the class. His pupils
exhibit marked interest in these exercises, and give every
evidence of profiting very largely by them.
This opportunity of enjoying the services of an able and
skilled German teacher in a school whose special purpose is
to fit its graduates to fill important positions in the commer-
cial world is undoubtedly of great value and might well form
a permanent feature of the work of the school.
In pursuance of this plan, a second German teacher is
64 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
expected to arrive early in 1909 and will be assigned to service
in another high school.
SPECIAL CLASSES IN GERMAN.
In June a communication was received from a committee
representing the principal German societies of the city,
stating their wish to conduct Saturday morning classes
in some school-house for the instruction in German language
and literature of any child between seven and fourteen
years of age who might desire to attend, no distinction being
made with regard to the religion or nationality of the pupils.
The United German Clubs also agreed to assume all the
expense of conducting these classes and desired only that
the School Committee should allow the use of three class
rooms in a school building conveniently located. Subse-
quently, the petitioners interested in this movement reorgan-
ized under the name of the United German School Alliance
of Boston, and established classes in three rooms in the
Wyman School-house, Jamaica Plain, on Saturday morn-
ing, September 19. The success of the movement far
exceeded the expectations of its promoters. The accommo-
dations provided proved from the start absolutely inade-
quate, and, with the approval of the School Committee,
the use of six rooms in the Lowell School-house was granted
instead of the three rooms in the Wyman School-house, and
the classes were at once transferred. The progress of this
interesting and somewhat novel departure in this city at
least, will be watched with much interest.
BOSTON SCHOOL BULLETIN.
On June^ 1 the School Committee authorized the Board
of Superintendents to issue from time to time a School Bulle-
tin in printed form, the object being to allow the Superin-
tendent, Assistant Superintendents, and other school officers
opportunity to give to the schools such full information
and facts as may tend to increase the ease and effectiveness
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 65
of administration; to note the nature and desired effects
of additional or changed legislation; to call attention to
and describe professional activities in progress; to empha-
size particularly successfu? phases of educational endeavor
in Boston or elsewhere; and to outline, or to discuss, edu-
cational policies. In brief the purpose of the Bulletin is
to place before each member of the force the aims, purposes,
and activities of the administrative and supervisory staff
of the schools.
It is believed that the Superintendent's circulars which
have hitherto been the only means of conveying such infor-
mation cannot unaided meet conditions in a large school
system. These circulars are neostyled and cannot be easilj^
and economically produced in large numbers, and they are
therefore seen by a very small fraction of the teaching corps.
The space these circulars afford permits only very inadequate
treatment of any topic.
The Bulletin, in its time to time issues of 3,000 copies,
four pages each, promises to remove an existing handicap
to general efficiency, namely, the lack of means of com-
munication between the Mason-street offices and the schools.
SEMI-MONTHLY PAYMENT OF JANITORS.
For many years it has been the custom to pay janitors'
salaries in equal monthly installments, and this plan seemed to
be acceptable to a large majority of the janitor force. In a
number of cases, however, it was alleged that this method of
payment worked considerable hardship to individuals,
many of whom were obliged to make weekly payments to
their assistants, while they received their own compensation
but once a month. During the last tw^o years repeated appli-
cations were made by representatives of the janitors to have
the salaries paid weekly instead of monthly, and the reasons
advanced in support of their desire were of considerable
force. There were, however, certain difficulties in the way
of making the desired change. All city employees are paid
66 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
by the City Treasurer, and the schools are visited each
month by paymasters who personally pay the teachers and
the janitors employed in the several buildings. To rearrange
the trips of these paymasters in order that they might visit
each school-house weekly would have involved a large
additional expense, and have made necessary a general
readjustment of their schedules. A far more serious objection
was the effect the change would have upon the finances of
the School Committee for the first year, which would result
in the school appropriation of that particular year being
charged with the total compensation of janitors for a period
of thirteen months instead of twelve. This, of course, would
operate only during the initial year, but would mean that
the appropriations of that year, which are absolutely limited
by law and cannot be increased, would be called upon to meet
an additional expenditure of about $20,000. This was out
of the question, as the School Committee for years has been
obliged to exercise the strictest economies in order to avoid
serious deficits.
Repeated conferences were held between the School Com-
mittee and representatives of the janitors' association, who
showed no desire to embarrass the School Committee in this
respect, although maintaining the justice of their claim,
which the Committee willingly admitted. An arrangement
was finally adopted by which, beginning March 1, the School
Committee should prepare semi-monthly pay rolls for the
janitors, and the latter arrange with the City Treasurer,
with the assistance of the School Committee, some con-
venient way of receiving their compensation.
Under this plan the total additional expense to be borne by
the school appropriation for the current financial year would
be reduced from $20,000 to $10,000 approximately, and the
School Committee agreed to arrange, if possible, to pay
twelve and one-half months' salaries within the current
year.
While the janitors were, of course, extremely desirous that
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 67
their application for weekly payments should be granted,
they recognized that the finances of the School Committee
could not possibly in one year admit of this plan being carried
into full effect, and the arrangement arrived at was in the
nature of a compromise which, by the exercise of a good deal
of care and economy on the part of the Committee, was
successfully put into operation.
COMPENSATION OF JANITORS OF EVENING SCHOOLS.
The method of determining the compensation of janitors
of the evening schools which had been in effect for several
j^ears, while an improvement over the former plan, had
given rise to a good deal of dissatisfaction, owing mainly
to ambiguities in its provisions. Consecjuently the different
constructions of the real meaning of the schedule by the
accounting department of the School Committee and by the
janitors affected, while petty from a financial point of view,
provoked serious and perhaps justifiable complaint on the
part of the janitors.
The principal objections to the plan formerly in effect were :
The arbitrary decisions that it was necessary to make as to the
real meaning of some of its provisions ; the difficulty of applying
the schedule, making the work of computation and auditing
unnecessarily long and expensive; its unfairness, in that it
did not pay proportionately for work done. The Business
Agent, therefore, undertook the preparation of a new schedule
which was adopted by the Board, and which possessed the
advantages of simplicity and fairness — simplicity, in that the
janitor can easily determine for himself the amount which is
due him for any period of time, thus removing a source of
misunderstanding and dispute, and I'etlucing to a minimum
the work of computation and auditing; and fairness, because
the same rate of payment is provided for all work done.
The increase in the item of salaries of janitors under the
new schedule will not exceed by more than §400 the expendi-
68 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8. .
tui'c of last year, assuming that the length of the evening
school term and the number of buildings occupied remain
unchanged.
The principal difference between the old and the new
schedule is in the method of computation. Under the first
plan the salary of the janitor was figured on a monthly basis,
while the new plan is on a per diem basis. An evening school
month is an uncertain quantity, while there can be no differ-
ence of opinion as to the number of evenings the schools are
actually in session.
The new plan was adopted by the School Committee in
June, and went into effect with the beginning of the 1908-09
term of the evening schools.
USE OF INTOXICATING LIQUORS BY JANITORS.
It appears to be the steadily growing custom on the part of
corporations employing large numbers of men, to insist upon
total abstinence as a condition of employment, especially in
positions in which there is a large degree of personal responsi-
bility for the lives or safety of others.
While the janitors of our public school-houses as a class
have been singularly free from well-grounded criticism for
their use of intoxicants, and complaints of that nature have
been extremely rare, the Board felt that the responsibility
attaching to this position is so great, and the possibility of
serious harm resulting to the children under its charge so
alarming in case of intoxication on the part of a janitor in
charge of perhaps a complex and important heating plant,
that it should have a rule on the subject, not because it felt
that such a rule was especially needed for the conduct of
those already in the service, but rather to establish a definite
policy in the matter. The Board, therefore, adopted the
following rule for janitors and engineers on October 19,
1908:
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 69
The use of intoxicants, or being under the influence of intoxicants,
while on duty or on school premises, or their habitual use, or the
frequenting of places where they are sold, is prohibited, and is sufficient
cause for dismissal.
TRUANT OFFICER FORCE.
The duties of the truant officers are increasing each year, and
in addition to investigating and dealing with cases of truancy
they are now required to perform additional duties which
have been imposed upon them by Legislative enactment.
Among them are: Visiting workshops and mercantile
establishments with reference to the illegal employment of
minors ; requiring illiterates over sixteen and under twenty-
one years of age to attend evening school ; exercising super-
vision over minors under fourteen years of age who are
licensed by the School Committee, and seeing that immigrant
children of school age are promptly placed in school. They
also act, unofficially, as charitable agents for the overseers of
the poor, and for various philanthropic organizations and
individuals in providing food, clothing, medical attendance
and medicine to those in need of assistance. The work of
the truant officers is very far from being limited to the ordi-
nary hours of school or even a business day. Many of their
evenings are devoted to calling upon the fathers of children
who have come under the observation of the officers, and
enlisting the interest and support of the parents in influencing
their children to observe school regulations.
The fact that a large number of children of school age
may be found on the streets during school hours is far from
indicating any lack of efficiency on the part of the truant
officer force. There are about 100,000 children in the public
day schools. The sessions of all or part of the schools are
suspended from time to time for various and proper reasons.
For example: There may be a heavy storm in progress
at about 8 o'clock in the morning, by reason of which
70
SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
the no-session signal may be given, and the schools sus-
pended, while later in the day, the storm may cease. On
such days the number of children on the streets would be
noticeable, and the reason for it forgotten or not consid-
ered. There are also a number of Jewish holidays in the
year, and for this reason classes composed wholly or largely
of children of this faith may be dismissed, while other classes
are in session. The sudden illness of a teacher and the
possible inability to secure a substitute at short notice occa-
sionally requires the dismissal of a particular class. There
are about 17,000 pupils attending the parochial schools, and
the holidays in these schools do not always coincide with the
holidays in the public schools. In addition, there are days
when a considerable number of children, sometimes several
hundred, are excluded from school by order of the Board
of Health because of possible exposure to contagious disease.
The extent and variety of the duties performed by the
truant officers may be seen by reference to the following
statistics which are for the year ending August 31, 1908:
Truant Statistics for the Year Ending August 31,
Whole number of cases investigated by the several officers .
Number of transfer cards investigated
Number of census cards investigated
Number of immigrant cards investigated ....
Number of new pupils put into school
Number found to be truants
Number complained of as habitual truants . . . .
Number sentenced to the Parental School ....
Number placed on probation
Nimiber complained of as absentees . . . . .
Number sentenced to the Parental School ....
Number placed on probation
Number complained of as habitual school offenders
Number sentenced to the Parental School ....
Number placed on probation
Number returned to the Parental School for violation of parole
Number complained of as neglected children ....
Number placed in private homes
Number placed in charge of the Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Children
1908.
48,470
9,839
461
393
404
5,827
192
125
67
18
5
13
3
1
2
14
19
9
10
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 71
Number complained of for not complying with Chapter 383,
Acts of 1906 11
Number paying fines under this act 4
Number placed on probation 7
Number complained of for not complying -nath Chapter 65,
Revised Laws 1
Number paying fines under this act 1
Number complained of for violation of city ordinance ... 5
Number paying fines 4
Number placed on probation ' . . 1
Number complained of for larceny 3
Number found guilty, sentenced, appealed to Superior Court . 3
Number of mercantile establishments inspected for the illegal
employment of minors 340
Number of children found illegally employed and returned to
school 227
Number of children found without working certificates, and
forced to procure same 113
Number of children provided Tvith shoes by the officers . . 71
Number of pieces of clothing collected and given to
needy children 17
SALARIES OF TRUANT OFFICERS.
When the Committee took up for consideration in June the
schedule of salaries for teachers which, under the law, it
is obliged to fix annually, it seemed advisable that the general
plan which provides that practically every teacher shall enter
the service on a minimum salary and advance by successive
steps to a fixed maximum, should also be applied to truant
officers who may hereafter be employed, and the Committee
therefore adopted the following schedule for the position:
First year, Sl;080; annual increase, $80; maximum, $1,400,
which is the salary of the officers already in the service.
LICENSED MINORS.
An act was passed by the Legislatui'e in 1902 (Chapter 531)
providing that the issue of licenses to hawkers, pedlers, and
bootblacks under the age of fourteen years in the City of
Boston should be vested in the School Committee instead of
in the Board of Aldermen, as had previously been the case.
The number of licenses issued under this act has steadily
72 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
increased from year to year. In 1908 3,057 licenses were
granted to minors under the age of fourteen as compared
with 2,447 licenses issued in 1903, the first full year after
the passage of the act.
The exercise of proper supervision and control over these
licensed minors has become a matter of considerable impor-
tance, and in January of the current year the Board adopted
an amendment to its regulations which allowed the Superin-
tendent to assign one of the truant officers to act as super-
visor of licensed minors, and in February such an assignment
was made.
The devoting of the entire time of one officer to this impor-
tant matter has resulted in a much better enforcement, not
only of the letter, but also of the spirit of the law relating
to the employment of minors generally, and in the correction
of some abuses that had not previously received the atten-
tion their importance deserved.
It should be noted in this connection that very close and
cordial co-operation exists between the Juvenile Court and
school officials in dealing with the problems in which they
are mutually interested.
In December the regulations relating to the issue of licenses
to minors were redrafted, a number of unnecessary restric-
tions and conditions existing in the old regulations elimi-
nated, and the whole chapter relating to this subject improved
and simplified. The more important changes made were as
follows :
Badges are loaned instead of sold, and as they are thus
the property of the city it is easier to secure their return
after the expiration of the licenses, or for other good and
sufficient reason, than if they were the property of the holder.
The minimum age at which a minor might receive a license
under the former regulations was ten years. This minimum
has been increased one year, and no license is now issued to
a boy under eleven years of age.
The old regulations prescribed no hour at which a licensed
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 73
minor might begin to ply his trade. It was found that a
large number of boys who held licenses failed to secure the
minimum amount of sleep required to preserve their health;
that going late to bed they were out at 5 o'clock in the
morning, or even at an earlier hour, in order to increase their
earnings. Later in the day, while in school, exhausted nature
enforced her claims, and, especially during the morning ses-
sions, such boys were absolutely unable to keep awake, and
spent in sleep the time that should have been devoted to
study. The new regulations, by prescribing that newspapers
shall not be sold by licensed minors under the age of fourteen
before 6.30 o'clock in the morning, seek to improve former
conditions, and to insure to the boys a longer time for sleep
and rest.
PROTECTION AGAINST FIRE.
The Cleveland fire catastrophe aroused great anxiety not
only on the part of parents, but in the minds of the
School Committee as well, as to the sufficiency of protection
of the public school children of this city against a similar
accident.
The Chairman of the School Committee, with the Superin-
tendent, made a personal investigation of a large number
of our school buildings, and the Schoolhouse Custodian was
instructed to, and did make a careful examination of every
school-house to see if anything had been left undone that
would contribute to the safety of the inmates in the event
of a fire occurring therein.
The efficiency of the fire drill was repeatedly tested in
nearly every school, and the Chairman reported that after
visiting unexpectedly about thirty-five school buildings
located in widely separated districts, he found that the prin-
cipals had conducted fire drills faithfully and efficiently, and
that the order and rapidity with which the children leave the
school buildings in practically every case upon the sounding of
the fire-alarm signal are a great credit both to principals and to
teachers. Various changes in the fire drill as generally prac-
74 SCHOOL DOCUMENT NO. 8.
tised, and in the mechanical means for giving the fire signal,
as well as improved means of egress from school buildings were
suggested and discussed in the course of the investigation,
and were called to the attention of the Board of Schoolhouse
Commissioners which proceeded to give them due attention.
GRADUATION EXERCISES.
Early in the spring a communication was received from the
Common Council suggesting that an inquiry be made into
the advisability of confining graduation exercises to the
school rooms, more especially with a view to diminishing the
expense to parents of children participating. The cost attend-
ing the graduation of pupils both from the elementary and the
high schools, is often a matter of considerable importance to
parents, especially the expense of what are considered suita-
ble dresses for girls, and this inquiry was welcome, inasmuch
as it afforded an opportunity to take up a question to which
some attention might profitably be paid. The communica-
tion from the Common Council was therefore referred to the
Board of Superintendents, who presented the following report
on the subject:
The Board of Superintendents is of the opinion that it would be
unwise to change the place of graduation exercises from the assembly
hall to the several class rooms, as any slight decrease in the expense of
graduation to the parents, followng such a change, would be more than
offset by the loss of certain results which are highly desirable, and which
come from a public graduation held in an assembly hall. A school diploma,
representing as it may three, four, or eight years' work on the part of
a pupil, should be awarded with appropriate ceremony and dignity.
Graduation exercises held in an assembly hall possess a value and have
an influence that should not be underestimated. They bring the school
to the notice of the community in a manner that no other school function
can; they tighten the bonds between home and school; they are an incen-
tive to public spirit; they promote civic improvement and pride of citizen-
ship; they foster the social and educational ideals of the community;
they exert many other formative influences.
The Board of Superintendents is of the opinion that "The attending
expenses to the parents of children participating in such graduation
exercises," may, and ought to be diminished. Principals, teachers, and
parents should unite in insisting on much less display on the part of the
pupils, and on a becoming simplicity of dress.
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT. 75
A copy of this report was sent to each school principal,
with the following additional information and suggestions :
The Board of Superintendents would also remind the principals of
certain customs that have in the past prevailed at the graduation exer-
cises of a few schools. The present practice in some schools of prohibiting
the presentation of flowers is called to your attention. If flowers are
allowed, they should not be distributed to the graduating pupils while
they are on the platform. Gifts, other than flowers, for the graduating
pupils should not be permitted.
While recognizing that principals and teachers have done much to
reduce the expenses of graduation, the Board of Superintendents would
urge them to further efforts in the future.
In a certain evening school in this city last year a public-spirited
woman offered a small cash prize, which was to be expended in amiice-
ment for the winners, to encourage the wearing, on the evening of gradu-
ation, of white dresses, the cost of each not to exceed $1. Seven pupils
accomplished the end and were complimented by the principal of the
school and the assistant superintendent. This year's class in the same
school numbered thirty-six; of this number fourteen wore one-dollar
dresses; four, two-dollar dresses, and thirteen, dresses that were left over
from the previous summer. The Board of Superintendents highly approves
of this simplicity in dress, and commcnfls its adoption to future graduates.
Mr. William H. Fiirber, Principal of the Prescott District,
who died after a brief illness on January 24, 1908, was born
at Winslow, Me., on February 19, 1859. He entered the
semce of the city as a sub-master in the Prescott District on
January 22, 1890. On September 8, 1896, he was elected
principal of the same district, in which position he remained
until his death.
Mr. Furber's eighteen years in the service of the school
system of this city were characterized by a marked devotion
to duty and an admirable spirit of progress. He was genial
and sincere, and his loss was a very serious one to the school
whose affairs he had conducted for more than twelve years.
JAMES J. STORROW, Chairman.
GEORGE E. BROCK,
DAVID A. ELLIS,
JAMES P. MAGENIS,
DAVID D. SCANNELL, M.D.
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