Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1879-12-03
The Quincy Experiment. .---No. 1.

parture at Quincy, Massachusetts,, that the
details of the plan and its workings may be
better understood by those who are endeav-
oring to get their own schools out of the
ruts in which they may be running, we
quote very liberally from a paper on the
subject by the Hon. Charles Francis Adams,
Jr., a member of the school board of Quincy.
1t appears that the object of the experiments
was to secure, if possible, thoroughly good
common school education at reasonable
cost and the two points, excellence and
economy, were to be kept constantly in view,
neither being subordinated to the other.
In presenting to the town their annual re-
port on the condition of its schools in 1873,
the Quincy committee used the following
language; " A retrospect of ten years will
discover no very remarkable results. Ten
years ago the children read and wrote and
spelled about as well as they do to-day; and
the fundamental rules of arithmetic were as
thoroughly taught then as now. And at
present, as in the past, most of the pupils
who have finished the grammar course
neither speak nor spell their own language
very perfectly, nor read and write it with
that elegance which is desirable. This
seems to show that point has been reached
which is near the natural term of such force
as our present system of schooling is calcu-
lated TO exert p
ain this report" says Mr.. Adams, " the
committee certainly used the mildest pos
sible language which the circumstances per-
mitted. The Quincy schools at that time
were neither better nor worse than those of
the surrounding towns; they were, indeed,
fairly to be classed among those of the
higher order, such as are usually looked for
in the more populous and well-to-do CON-
munties in the immediate vicinity of Bos-
ton. As such they had gone along year
after year, and stood not unsuccessfglly the
test of the formal committee examinations
to which they were annually subjected.
Those examinations were study for the
humorist. A day was publicly assigned for
each school, aud on that day the children
were present in their best clothes the
benches were crowded, and a tolerable repre-
sentation of parents and friends occupied the
vacant spaces of the room. The committee
sat upon the platform in dignifed silence,
and the teacher conducted the exercises over
safe and familiar ground to a triumphant
conclusion in some peculiarly unnatural bit
of childish defamation. Then the chair.
man and other members of the committee
were asked to crafty the children with a
few remarks, which it is unnecessary to say
were always of highly commendatory char
acter. The whole thing was sham. After
it was over the committee knew nothing
more about the school than they did before
it began.
| "In 1873, however, change was intro
duced. The examinations assumed wholly
new character. A special branch of studies
was assigned to each member of the com
mittee, and, during the examinations, the
of the instructors. The result was deplor.
able. The schools went to pieces. Among
other things, for instance, it was found that
the A and b grammar scholars throughout
the town could parse and construe sentences,
and point out the various parts of speech
with great facility, repeating correctly and
with readiness the rules of grammar appli
cable in each case yet when called upon to
write an ordinary letter they were utterly
unable to apply the rules and principles they
had so painfully learned, or to form single
sentences. or to follow any rule of compost
tion. So, also, as respects reading. Rote
reading, so to speak, that is the practiced
reading of certain familiar pieces in given
readers, had been brought to point of very
considerable perfection. If the examination
was not carried too far, the classes could be
shown off to great advantage Where the
severer test of sight-reading, that is the read
ing of an ordinary book which the scholar
had never seen before it was put by the ex-
aminer into his hands-when this test was
applied, the result was simply bewildering.
The greater part of the scholars could merely
stammer and bungle along, much as a better
educated person does when reading a book
in some language with which he is only i'm
perfectly acquainted. In other words. il
appeared, as the result of eight years school.
teaching, that the children, as whole, could
neither write with facility nor read fluently.
"The fact was that the examinations had
shown that the school system had fallen
into rut. A great multiplicity of studies
had in one way and another been intro
duced, and each was taught by itself The
eyer-present object in the teachers mind
was TO pass creditable examination and
10 insure this, he unconscionsly turned his
scholars into parrots and made meaning
less farce of education. 1t was, in a word,
all smatter, veneering and cram. 1t was a
simple question with the committee whether
they would leave things as they found them
or attempt wholly new departure. There
was no middle course open. As affairs stood
it was plain that great waste of the public
money was steadily going on that is, the
statistics did not show that the town wa:
spending an undue amount on its schools
but of the amount it was spending not fifty
cents out of each dollar were effectively
spent. This waste could only be remediec
in one way. The cost of the schools coulc
not be reduced, but their quality could b,
improved. 1t was absolutely useless, how
ever, to look for any steady improvement
through the efforts of individual members
of the committee. They were busy men
and they were not specialists in education
Committees elected by popular vote are en-
tirely unequal to any sustained effort anc
only through sustained effort can the spir
necessary to any permanent improvement
be infused into teachers, aud steady direc
ton given to it.
alt was determined, therefore, to ask tn,
town to employ superintendent of schools
and to put the working-out of the new sys
TEN in his hands. This was done, and il
the spring of 1875 the necessary authorit,
was obtained. And now the first seriou
difficulty presented itself in the practica
selection OF a superintendent for it is
noticeable fact that, large and costly as tn