Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1899-07-14
superintendent whitsker's Report.

superintendent Whitaker's Report.
Hobart X. Whitaker, superintendent of
the schools, reviews carefully the work
during the past year. He says in regard to
attendance:
During the year our work has been bad
ly interrupted by illness among pupils.
From Thanksgiving through the winter,
the general prevalence of mumps, measles,
severe colds, and similar diseases detained
many pupils at home-the total absences
for a day often running as high as 100 TO
125, an average of one to every six or
eight pupils. OF course this has meant a
great loss of time, and a corresponding in
crease in the burdens of the teachers.
Great care has been taken, however, to
look after these children upon their return
to school, and the result has been compar-
atively few failures in promotion. In some
cases pupils who had fallen behind, but
whose work has shown capacity for ad-
vancement, have been promoted on condi-
ton that work next year shall be kept up
to a satisfactory standard. In this way
we have avoided the injustice of seeming
to punish a pupil for what 1t was not in
his power to prevent.
Mr.. Whitaker devotes considerable space
to the important subject of pupils health.
He believes in the necessity of a school
physician, whose duty il shall be to test by
examination the eyes and ears at least of
every pupil. Proper exercise and recreation
as well asproper b lbits of work and suitable
care for the health could then be recon-
mended. The increasing number Of girls
whose health gives way in school forces
these facts upon our attention.
Mr.. Whitaker speaks of the diversion of
attention to too many things outside of
school. And by this 1 do not mean the
necessary care caused by household duties,
or work upon the farm, or in the shop. A
reasonable amount of such work would be
beneficial in many instances. Nor should
any objection be urged against legitimate
amusement and recreation. But amuse-
ment which means late hours, with the ex-
element and exhaustion of the ball room,
can not be otherwise than harmful.
Whatever interferes with regular hours
of sleep means heavy heads and clouded
intellects. Yet, if this were all, the case
would not be so bad. The result is not
merely poor work in school; it is the over
taxing of the pupils nervous system. A
fruitless effort is made to save the health
by lessening work in school and, finally,
the pupil fails to complete the High school
course, or completes it at all too great a
cost.
Teachers must exercise the utmost care
in the school room. Defective light, strain
ing of pupils eyes in the use of black
boards, unsanitary conditions due to over
heated and poorly ventilated rooms, must
not be tolerated. 1t is imperative that
there be heartiest cooperation on the part
of parents and teachers in making the
surroundings of children, both for work
and play, such as tend to their physical
welfare.
An effort has been made to simplify
work in the grades somewhat by
dropping some of the non-essentials
and modifying other lines of work.
1t would seem more reasonable In
the early years, when by nature the
child is acquiring words and facility in
their use, to emphasize reading and Ian
guage, and leave the more complex pro-
cesses of arithmetic to the time when the
child will be better able to master them.
1 believe there is a growing conviction
among school men that we have been
spending too much time in arithmetic and
that results do not justify the effort.
Work in the High school has gone on
this year with good results. / am graft
fed to report here an increasing spirit OF
J study and order, deeper sense of respon-
sibility, and much more lively apprecia-
tion of the scope and meaning of such a
school. Each year brings out larger
number of pupils planning for continued
study elsewhere, and each year shows
fewer pupils dropping out before the com
pletion of the course. From June to Sep
TENDER, '9s, but one pupil, aside from the
graduated class, left the school. This is a
record hard to match. While it is not
probable that such a report can be made
every year, the fact remains, it ought to be.
The suggestion of the Hon. Mr.. Dilling-
ham in his recent address before us, that
parents see to it that their children al
least finish the High school course, is a
pertinent and valuable one. Ihope it may
receive practical sanction In every house.
hold represented in our schools.
A few figures may be of interest
here as showing the number of pupils