Punchard High School - Prism Yearbook (Andover, MA)

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REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS To the School Committee of Andover. Ladies and Gentlemen: I have the honor to submit my nineteenth report which is the forty-fifth in the series of similar reports. These reports, naturally, are more or less alike in the subject matter treated. However, as each year ends there is something of especial interest. It is not likely that all of the report will interest all people. It is likely, however, that some part of the report will interest all and that everyone will find something of interest in it. SCHOOL ACCOMMODATIONS The last of May 1934, looking forward with the hope of an improved and much enlarged school plant, the School. Department at the request of the Building Committee vacated the old Punchard School building. This building was extensively used. The upper floor had for years been the assembly hall for the high school. On the first floor there was one high school class room, special room, a sewing room, a manual training room, and the stock room. In the basement there was a coat room and a store room for the manual training department. Soon after these rooms were vacated and the activities housed in them re-located as best they could be under the circumstances, the tearing down of the structure began. Before the summer was over, the parking area and play grounds between the old Punchard and John Dove were covered with bricks and large areas of the lawn about the high school were either covered with debris or made unsightly by the removal of turf from one area and the piling up of the same in other areas. Confusion about the grounds was accompanied by an even greater confusion in the administration of the schools. Every available space including basements and stairways has been utilized for classes. The sewing room was transferred to the basement of the Stowe School, the special room to the basement of the High School, the manual training to the basement of the Jackson School. Convenient accommodation for the assembly of the high school pupils has not been possible as there was no place that could be utilized as the hall in the old Punchard had been. The town authorities were generous in offering the use of the Town Hall but the distance from the school and many engagements for the hall made it practically impossible to make any free and general use of this offer. In addition to this, beginning in September 1934, it was necessary to have two sessions in the High School. The three upper classes came in the morning and the first year pupils in the afternoon. All these changes caused considerable confusion and naturally diminished somewhat the efficiency of the school work. However, when the new development is completed all this unpleasantness and inconvenience will soon be forgotten in the enjoyment of new accommodations. COURSES OF STUDY The subjects of music, home economics, art , and manual training have been very seriously interrupted this year through the necessity of having two sessions in the senior high school and also the forced use of basements and corridors for class rooms. Each department, however, has carried on with more success than could possibly have been expected. Miss Sweeney, supervisor of music, is to be especially commended. She has succeeded in carrying on all her regular work along with an orchestra, glee club and the band. These musical organizations have taken part in many programs. A great deal of attention has been paid to music appreciation. This has been done to a large extent through various musical clubs and the Damrosch programs which come weekly over the radio for the grades.

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REPORT OF PRINCIPAL OF PUNCHARD SCHOOL To the Superintendent of Schools and the Trustees of the Punchard Free School. Gentlemen: I have the honor to submit my twenty-fifth annual report as principal of the Punchard High School. A new record of enrollment has become a regular feature of these reports. The number for the fall term of 1934 is 494. In September after the old budding had been razed, two sessions of the school were scheduled, one for the three upper grades from 8 untU 12 noon, and the other for the ninth grade from 12:30 to 4 :30 P. M. On the whole the arrangement has worked better than we had hoped. It is hardest on those teachers who have classes in both the morning and afternoon sessions with only a half-hour interval between. It must bring its difficulties to parents who have children in both sessions of the high school and others in the grades. Probably the greatest losers by the two session plan are the 9th grade pupils. They are so separated from the rest of the school that they have no opportunities for the contacts with the older pupils which should be a part of their education. The lack of any room for a school assembly or even a class meeting is keenly felt. A continuation of this condition would result in a very considerable loss of morale and school spirit. The good nature with which all concerned have accepted the situation deserves high praise. The situation is such temporarily that we are avoiding changes in our program of studies but are devoting a good deal of thought to the future when the reorganization possible with the new building shall take place. For the same reason we are keeping our requests for new teaching material as modest as possible. There is every indication that many vital questions concerning public secondary education must be settled in the near future. The bill for the extension of the compulsory school a ge two additional years, which has been introduced in several successive legislatures, now has the backing of the State Department of Education and of the American Federation of Labor and has been advocated by Governor Curley in his inaugural address. It seems sure to pass. This will not only increase the number of high school pupils but will inevitably bring in a group ill-equipped for the academic work of the secondary school. That we must eventually adapt our program of study to the needs of such pupils is a simple corollary of the proposition that every youth is en titled to secondary school education at public expense. There is, however, a serious question as to whether an individual may not forfeit the right by negligence, laziness or sheer indifference. Furthermore there seems to be a law of diminishing returns for many young people in formal education a point is reached where the best efforts of teacher and pupil alike seem to produce little farther development. Should such pupils be encouraged to stay in school? In trying to find answers to these and similar problems we shall undoubtedly revise our curriculums with the needs, of pupils and of the society in which they are soon to take their places as the measure of values. We must not shut our eyes to the tremendous changes that are taking place in the environment of every citizen. These necessardy involve careful revision of the subject matter of our educational offering from time to time. But in making changes in our menu it is imperative no substitute a soft mental pap for solid nourishment of proved value. No school training is of permanent worth which does not involve training of the will by the setting of tasks which require some work. It is discouraging to have parents ask that their children be transferred from one course to another because they don ' t like the subject very well or they find it rather hard. No one today is asking that school work be made disagreeable on the old theory that bitter medicine is better than that with a pleasant taste, but there is danger that in the attempt to secure an adaptation to individual needs and abilities we shall lose sight of the necessity for creating habits of application arid persistent work which are the foundation of successful living. Finally it should be remembered that to teach the subjects included in a modernized program requires instructors of broad sympathy, well-balanced learning and with a high degree of tact,