Stoneham High School - Wildlife Yearbook (Stoneham, MA)

Page 9 text:

Ulla Slnnehmn High ,School ,Authentic that a third of that time is spent in the jolliest and healthiest supervised play. Of the other two-thirds, one is given to academic work and one to the learning of some useful art or trade. In other words, the Gary idea is to substitute the supervised play in .the schools for the non-supervised play in the streets. ' - School is compulsory five days a week for ten months, but the building is kept open the year round. The pupils may take their long vacation any season of the year they please. It is both surprising and interesting to know that over one-half the scholars come back on Saturdays, evening and vacation quite as much for their studies as for their sports. The school plant is utilized evenings largely -by adults and older boys and girls, who work in the mills. Theatres, plays, and supervised dancing are also held in the school certain evenings of the week. This ideal school includes beside the academic equipment, a play- ground, garden, park, school farm, social center, library, and a work-snop in charge of trade-union masters where carpentry, cabinet making, plumb- ing, housepalnting and practically all the important trades are taught. The girls have classes in all branches of domestic science. The teachers are specialists, who teach one subject only. The old-fash- loned grade room, where the children recited all their lessons to the same worn out teacher, has been abolished. There is a room where arithmetic is taught, others are occupied exclusively with English, Latin and so on. The playground, workshop, and classrooms are always tilled. One third of the children are at play, one-third are in the shops, and one-third are in the classrooms all of the time. 'When the division which ls in the class- rooms has iinished its studies, it passes out to play: those in the shops, in turn, come in to till the classrooms, and those who were at play go into the shops. -School is thus a succession of work and play. As said before, economy is manifest, for just three times the number of pupils may be accommodated in a school of this kind as in the ordinary American school. , If a child is deficient in arithmetic, he may for a few days give up his play, remain in the same room for the next period and have the work over again with the incoming class. In Gary, the individual child is trained and the studies are -fitted to his needs, instead of the -child trying to adapt himself to studies perhaps wholly unsuited and distasteful to him. , Once in a while a lad presentshimselt at the principal's office announc- in-g that he is going to leave school. Why, John, what's the trouble? the principal asks. Are you tired of your studies? Yes, I am, replies John. What would you like to be, John? Well, sir, answers John, I think l'd like to be a plumber. That's a good trade, my boy, the principal agrees. Then he suggests John drop his studies and devote all his time'to learning the trade in the plumber's shop. Perhaps John finds out that he doesn't like plumbing. If so, he can test the Work in all the different shops until he Ends a trade suited to his tastes, 7

Page 8 text:

imp ,stanelpmr High School Authentic A 7 it rr a ry :Pm Ebcperiment in Zffhlxnatinn Qfirst Qinnnx-I-liha ,Stefxms A God didn't create Provincetown, said an old native once to Charles Burton. It washed there. It might be said with equal significance that out of the bed of Lake Michigan was washed up Gary, Indiana, a city whose site was so sandy and drear that wmhen a few years ago, a moving picture concern wanted a iilm showing a. scene in an African desert, camels and all the necessary para- phernalia were sent to Gary. Where seven years ago there was a population of a scanty three hun- dred, the United States Steel Corporation has caused to spring up a bustl- ing city of forty thousand, modern in every respect. As its population, representing thirty nationalities, increased, the few schools proved insuillcient to meet the new demands. Something had to be done. When Mr. Wm. A. Wirt, the newly elected Supt. of Schools, was asked his opinion of the schools already built, he said, Well, you've made an ex- ceedingly bad beginning. . Why, they're built on the most modern American lines, the steel men protested. Exactly, replied Mr. Wirt, that's just what's the trouble with them. He then explained his plan of an ideal school. When they understood that his system would do the Work of three modern American schools, they were moved by this demonstration of 60011011152 And so it happened that Gary obtained the finest school system in the country, not because it was so rich, but because it was so poor. Under this system, the kindergarten, primary, grammar, high school and two years of college are in one school. This, in a large measure, solves the problem of pupils' leaving school, for as there are no graduations from grammar to high school, the pupils find no convenient stopping places. They are promoted by subjects rather than by grades: for example, in mathematics. a pupil might be in the eighth grade, while in Latin he might he a. sophomore in high school. This feature is ibetter economically, for it is cheaper to have completely equipped centers than to duplicate such equipment in many smaller centers. Nowadays, 'boys and girls have too much time on their hands, 1 con- dition which leads many to habits of vice and idleness. In Gary, this sit- uation is met by the fact that the school day is from nine until six and E

Page 10 text:

Uh: Sinnzlyxm High ,School LAxdl-gexuii: He has the advantage of being able to experimentiin school, and does not in after life have to drift from job to job-forever seeking but never finding the Work for which he is 'best fitted. The different shops are not only self supporting, but are an annual source of income to the schools, for the boys learning the different trades do the entire repairing. The school grounds which are divided into two parts, one for the girls and the other for the boys, are kept immaculate by them. In each part are swimming pools, sand pits, tennis courts and, in fact, every con- ceivable kind of playground apparatus and equipment which has been almost entirely planned and built by the pupils. Woe to him who molests any shrubbery which they have planted in the rich, black soil. One remaining feature deserves brief mention. Mr. Herbert Roberts, who visited the schools, in a spirited report, says in part: One of the basement rooms in the Emerson school bears the legend-- Boyville Council Chamber K Mayor and C1erk'S Oilice. Inside is a semi-circle of aldermanic chairs with the mayor's siege d' honneur at the top. Here the representative council of Boyville, elected by the duly qualified voter, meets and passes its law. The other day, it passd ft law making the kids cut out going over people's vacant lots in the school neigh- borhood. Did it themselves. The boys called for more garbage cans for Gary and a stricter enforcement of the cigarette law. The fact of the busi- ness is that in live years' time, the kids of Boyville will be running that town of Gary and running it right. ln live years the Gary schools will own the whole works and everybody in it. Truly, the Gary Schools are an alma mater, a fostering parent in the good old Latin sense of the Word. . ' The Maman nf 'igesterhag zmh filnhag Sermtb Qinnur-Faiherhe BXTSEUU We are told by wtise men that we can know only by contrast. After we have tasted something bitter, we know by contrast what is sweet if we haveexperienced pain, we understand pleasure. Consequently, it is often well to contrast our lot with that of people who have lived under less for- tunate conditions. Girls, can you carry yourselves back in imagination about two hundred years? Imagine yourself strolling to school with your sister of yesterday- not to learn the three R's, reading, 'ritin.g, and 'rithmetic, as your ibrothers do : but to learn only the househld arts of cooking, knitting, weaving, gar- ment making, and the like. After completing this narrow system of education what future do you face? Splendid courses in universities, seminaries or business colleges? Oh, no! Your task is to win a husband. You must first flll a chest with