Cumberland County ME Archives History - Schools .....Report Of Superintendent Of Schools 1932 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/me/mefiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 24, 2007, 2:08 pm REPORT OF SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS To the School Committee and Citizens of Bridgton, I submit my twelfth annual report: The annual town report is the only medium through which I can reach every taxpayer. I intend to present some facts for your thoughtful consideration. Read and ponder these facts as you would the report of the directors of a business in which you had money invested. Indeed, education is the biggest business in which our people are engaged. The nation's investment in 1931 was $3,200,000,000. Our educational system is a great stabilizer of business. Nearly thirty million boys and girls, young men and young women must be clothed, fed and housed while they attend school. To teach this vast army requires one million, twenty-nine thousand teachers. Schools make business and business can well afford to support schools. There is no depression in the school business. Bridgton's enrollment has increased over four and one-half per cent. We are proud of our standard of living among the common people. It is education that has created the demand for all products beyond the bare necessities of food, clothing and shelter. However, the present unprecedented business depression proves that education has not kept pace with the needs of society. Our political and financial leaders have plunged the country into chaos and so far have failed to find a real remedy although plenty of tonics have been suggested. Crime, among the young, is on the rampage. War is still taking, its toll of blood and treasure. The task which lies ahead of your children and mine is the most complicated any generation has- ever faced since the world began. Capital has been organized and labor has been organized and each has been so absorbed in getting, two dollars for one or one dollar for nothing that they failed to see the breakers ahead. Now we are on the rocks. If the ship of state does not go to pieces (and it will not) we would better make a new start. Where shall we start? In the public schools. Employ the best brains in the country to teach citizenship. If we can pay a baseball player $80,000.00 a season to knock home-runs, we can pay our teachers a living wage to train our children how to make this world a better and safer place in which to live. We need more and better education as we never needed it before. The men and women of tomorrow are in our schools today. They look to us to give them the education they need. If you want a fit world in which to spend your old age, look to the training of your children. This training is being trusted more and more to agencies outside the home. The most important of these is the school and the most important item of the school is the teacher. Economy is the slogan of the hour. It is a good one and ought to have been placed in the headlines several years ago. Since schools take a considerable portion of the local tax money they at once become a point of attack. The average citizen sees a rather large amount of money disappear and only a small amount of it reappear in tangible form. He sees a new building or a new fence or some playground equipment but he does not see a teacher trying to convince a boy that he ought to get his lesson by his own effort instead of copying it from his neighbor. He wants his son or daughter to learn self-control and fair-mindedness and healthful habits. He may do some preaching but he has not much time for teaching. That is expected of the public school teachers. What these lessons properly taught will be worth to the boys and girls and to the community no man can estimate in dollars and cents. So without giving the matter much thought, Mr. Average Citizen says: "Oh, well, one teacher is as good as another. Let the law of supply and demand take its course. Cut the school money and nobody will know the difference." Cost of instruction is the largest item of our school budget. If the budget is severely cut it means a cut in wages, which are already too low. If teachers' wages had been inflated as were other wages, they could stand a cut. To cut them now is to put teachers in the class with unskilled labor; to make their vocation a job and not a profession. The value of labor may vary because the value of the product varies. The value of an education has steadily increased and was never greater than it is today. Bricklayers, plumbers, carpenters, railroad men, shoeworkers and many other workmen have long been organized and have regulated their own wages. Teachers have never been organized for wage increase. They have always taken what the public more or less grudgingly doled out, and in only a few places, in very recent years, have their incomes been a living wage. By living wage I mean an income that will allow teachers to pay their board the year around, to dress, study, travel and enjoy some recreations and still leave sufficient for a savings investment that will provide a living when they have outlived their usefulness as a teacher. A living wage would depend on the locality where the teacher works. I could show you the average salary of our elementary teachers, which is $17.51 per week per year, is not a living wage. Too many people look upon teaching as a job. Too many teachers themselves consider it as such. Good teaching is not a job-it is a profession. It is fast becoming as scientific as medicine and as exacting as the law. We hear it said that there is a surplus of teachers. There is not a surplus of GOOD teachers; there never has been and there never will be. It requires more than a diploma from a normal school or college to make a good teacher. What we want now is teachers to teach children, not subjects. Teachers with imagination to see beyond the four walls of the schoolroom. Teachers who see the capabilities and possibilities in each child and teachers with skill and judgment enough to develop them. Such teachers are seldom out of a position. They are worthy of their hire. I can fill our teaching positions with teachers at much lower salaries but they will be poorer teachers and our children will suffer for it. Have not we "mortgaged the birthright" of the next generation about enough? Is it not wiser to sacrifice some of our own pleasures or luxuries? Let me remind those who have no children that the security of their property and the safety of our country will soon be in the keeping of the boys and girls now in our public schools. The school committee has reduced the budget $2,000.00. No salary increases are planned. Further reduction of the budget will certainly cripple the school department. Let us economize, by all means, but not at the expense of the children who are in no way to blame for the "hard times." There have been few changes in the teaching force since the last report. We were Very sorry to lose Mrs. Wight, English teacher in the high school. She was a superior teacher in her department. Her place was taken by Mrs. Edith Nunan, who came well recommended and is doing very satisfactory work. Miss Barbara Pike replaced Miss Ruth Alhquist at South Bridgton and Mrs. Ntceros [sic] returned to her school at primary B from which she was given a year's leave of absence. Physical education in the schools presents a perplexing problem. The state requires a rather extensive program which is difficult for the average classroom teacher to carry out. Two years ago the town appropriated $400.00 for instruction and equipment. The directing of the work has been in charge of Mrs. Grace Howard, who is considered one of the best in the state. Unless another appropriation as $360.00 is made we shall have to lose her services at the end of the present term as we have reached the end of our resources. I heartily endorse what Mrs. Howard quotes relative to athletics, especially as participated in by girls. I hope sometime to see three changes in our school athletics. First: the girls' physical education and athletics in charge of a competent woman. Second: less time and energy put into developing one winning team and more time devoted to teaching the fundamentals of team play to all students with competition between local groups. Third: a public willing to back an athletic program for the sake of the benefit to the players and not solely to beat some other school. Such an enlightened public will not ridicule the coach and players when the team fails to defeat their opponents. Beginning with the fall term the half-day session plan for sub-primary and grade one was established at primary A. It has some objectionable features but on the whole seems the best way to relieve the conjested condition. Band practice has been continued regularly once a week under the direction of Richard Sanborn. Progress would be much more rapid if parents would help by setting a definite time for home practice. It is discouraging for- the ambitious players and for the leader when a few make the rehearsal their only practice period. We earnestly solicit the cooperation of parents in this matter. I wish to thank the citizens for their generous financial support and the school committee for cooperation and kindly advice. Respectfully submitted, GUY M. MONK, Superintendent of Schools Additional Comments: Extracted from: ANNUAL REPORT OF THE MUNICIPAL OFFICERS OF THE TOWN OF BRIDGTON MAINE For The Fiscal Year Ending February 1st 1932 Together with the Report of School Officials BRIDGTON NEWS PRINT File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/me/cumberland/history/schools/reportof44gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/mefiles/ File size: 10.1 Kb