Historic leaves, volume 5, April, 1906 - January, 1907

---

‘ [80] name. This school was more unfortunate than its neighbors. The board had appointed for the summer term a female of high character, but sudden affliction in her family prevented her continuance. At a late hour another lady was chosen, after the school had been closed for some weeks. She taught one month, and after another recess a third lady was found for eight weeks. A child who attends such a school from the age of four to sixteen will have been under the plastic hand of perhaps twenty-four different teachers, or more than he has cousins or family relations. James Hovey, a graduate, next taught the school eight months. Average, thirty-one out of forty-five, and second term, thirty-three out of fifty-nine. The first class made manifest progress, and the penmanship of the whole school was creditable.’

‘In all the above schools instruction is given in penmanship, reading, orthography, grammar, arithmetic, history, geography, and sometimes to a few in algebra, natural philosophy, and astronomy. Some of the teachers may fail to make their pupils good readers for the obvious reason that they are not good readers themselves. It is not surprising that these schools have been stationary for the last ten years. Therefore the board would recommend for Milk Row, Prospect Hill, and Winter Hill an essential alteration in their school establishment. They ought to be placed under the same arrangement with the schools of the peninsula. The board would change these three district schools into primary ones for the younger children, and recommend that a grammar school or high school be established in the Prospect Hill district, making four annual schools. For this purpose it would only be necessary to raise the schoolhouse in that district so that a good schoolroom may be made in the basement story for a primary school. This would give an average for the four schools of fifty scholars. In the high school one master would be sufficient at present, and he should be qualified to teach in all branches of English study and in the ancient languages. His salary need not exceed $600. The whole amount now paid to teachers in these three districts is $990; by adding $240, four permanent teachers can be procured under the new ’