FACTORY SCHOOL. 123 THE FACTORY SCHOOL IN FALL RIVER, MASS. It is natural that a State in which the manufacturing interest is so prominent a feature as in Massachusetts, should be the first to apply her time-honored ideas of universal education to the mill operatives. Here we find a class of people, who, from poverty or indifference, deprive their children of school privileges, in order to receive their wages. The Commonwealth, not satisfied with giving ample and excellent public schools, makes education compulsory on them, or what amounts to the same, fastens restrictions upon the children which, if enforced, virtually drive them into the school-room. Chapter clxxxv of the General Statutes reads as follows: SEC. 1. No child under the age of ten years shall be employed in any manufacturing or mechanical establishment within this Commonwealth, and no child between the age of ten and fifteen years shall be so employed, unless he has attended some public or private day school under teachers approved by the school committee of the place in which such school is kept, at least three months during the year next preceding such employment: provided, said child shall have lived within the Commonwealth during the preceding six months; nor shall such employment continue unless such child shall attend school at least three months in each and every year; and provided, that tuition of three hours per day in a public or private day school approved by the school committee of the place in which such school is kept, during a term of six months, shall be deemed the equivalent of three months' attendance at a school kept in accordance with the customary hours of tuition; and no time less than sixty days of actual schooling shall be accounted as three months, and no time less than one hundred and twenty half days of actual schooling shall be deemed an equivalent of three months. SEC. 3. Any owner, agent, superintendent or overseer of any manufacturing or mechanical establishment, who shall knowingly employ or permit to be employed any child in violation of the preceding sections, and any parent or guardian who allows or consents to such employment, shall, for such offence forfeit the sum of fifty dollars. Previous to April, 1868, this law had been enforced nowhere in the State except at Lowell and Lawrence. In these cities, the mill children were made to attend the regular public schools. The evil results of this plan are at once apparent. A number of pupils defying classification and very irregular in attendance were distributed among the regular classes. The teacher could with difficulty do justice to either portion of his pupils. Observing this difficulty, Mr. Tewksbury, Superintendent of Schools in Fall River, set about devis ing a plan which should be free from these objections. Having found the agents and superintendents of the various corporations ready to coöperate with the school officers in this matter he made the necessary arrangements (to quote his own words) to establish "ungraded schools sufficient to accommodate one-fourth of these children at a time, leaving the remainder employed, and at the end of three months returning them to the mills and taking out another fourth, and so on, until each child had attended school three months." Even this plan presented some difficulties, but it has been found to succeed admirably. This factory school was organized April 20th, 1868, with one male principal and two female assistants. At first there were present about one hundred and fifty pupils, but the average attendance up to January 1, 1869, was two hundred and one; meanwhile six hundred and twenty-six scholars were received and discharged into the mills. At the end of his twelve weeks at school, every child received a certificate, without which he could obtain employment in no mill. Since that time the school has increased in numbers and in efficiency, and it now has the confidence of all interested in it. Some of the difficulties expected have not appeared, and good results, not anticipated, have come to light. The children themselves regard the school as a relief from the long hours of labor in the mill as a sort of vacation. They are earnest and enthusiastic in their study, and return to the mill refreshed, often carrying back traces of new habits of attention and industry. Overseers testify to an improvement in this class of laborers since the school has been in operation. At the present time the number of children between the ages of ten and fifteen, employed in the mills of this city is not far from one thousand. On the first of January, or about this time, every mill is visited either by Mr. Hicks, the principal of the school, or by Mr. Read, the truant officer. One-fourth of all the children employed in each mill is called out. At the end of the week after the visit, these children are paid off by the overseers and are told to present themselves at the school on the following Monday. This they very generally do, for both parents and children have learned that the latter cannot obtain employment unless the sixty days attendance are rigidly fulfilled. If a boy is away from school a week after his divis ion is summoned from the mill, he must remain at school a week later than his division. Seldom is one more than a fortnight in arrears. At the end of the twelve weeks of study, each child is presented with the following certificate, or card, duly made out :— School Certificate. 1870. For the First Term of the year, ending March 31. This certifies that.... day of.......... ...has completed on this.... ..the term of three months in school, in accordance with the provisions of the law. Age........ Residence..... M. W. TEWKSBURY, Supt. of Schools. DIRECTIONS. This certificate is good until the first of January, 1871. It is to be taken by the Overseer when the child is employed, retained during the time he is at work and given to him when he laves to obtain work elsewhere, or to attend school. No child under fifteen years of age, has a right to be employed in any manufacturing establishment, unless he can present such a certificate to the employer. Certificates of 1869 are good until the child is called out of the mills to attend school in 1870. To avoid difficulty and ensure impartiality, each division is furnished with cards of a different color. Those for the first term are red; for the second, yellow; for the third, green; for the fourth, blue. When released from school duty, the scholar may enter the mill again. Then the overseer takes his card and retains it until, nine months later, the same child is called to school again. April 1st, the mills are a second time visited and a second division of about two hundred and fifty is summoned. These are in turn sent back when their hundred and twenty half days are completed. This operation is repeated July 1st. On October 1st, the fourth division is withdrawn together with all new comers during the year. So much for the system. The school building, formerly occupied by a grammar school, is centrally located on Anawan street, and is supplied with ample playgrounds and shade trees. The general direction of the school, under the Superintendent of Schools, is entrusted to the Principal, Mr. Charles R. Hicks, who has had the school from its organization, and to whose success the public exhibitions-often visited by gentlemen from various parts of the State-abundantly attest. He has at present four assistants, one of whom, Mrs. Pitts, has charge of the second room with ninety pupils. These teachers labor the year round without any vacation. The difficulties of their task one can easily sec. They have the children for twelve weeks only; during the other forty their minds are under any other influences rather than habits of study. It is wonderful with what zeal some of the little fellows take hold of the work, however. They seem to comprehend how much this opportunity is worth to them. But others of course need all the spurs which a teacher can apply. The branches taught are mainly arithmetic, reading, writing, and spelling. Geography is introduced nearly every half day as a general exercise but without a text-book. In arithmetic, attention is paid mostly to the earlier portions,-addition, subtraction, etc., and federal money. Some advance even into interest. The aim in this, as in all other studies, is to give them the operations most useful in after life. Theories and reasons they have no time to discuss. In the study of reading they are taught to pronounce correctly and express thoughts intelligibly. Usually spelling is united with this exercise, the words in one or two paragraphs being assigned for them to learn. Three days in every five they write in little pass books twenty words given out by the teacher. These are corrected, and on Friday there is an oral exercise reviewing the sixty words thus written. Beside the writing above mentioned, twenty minutes every day is spent in writing in copy-books. Drawing is introduced to some extent. Gymnastics and singing are daily exercises. In addition to these regular exercises, the teachers aim to vary the course by introducing any facts which can render the future life of the pupils more pleasant to themselves, or more useful to the community. In Salem, I hear, there is a school numbering less than a hundred, composed of children employed in the Naumkeag Mills. In this the scholars of the forenoon are laborers in the afternoon, and vice versa. The children receive two-thirds the wages they would if they labored full time. There, however, there is only one corporation. The same is true of the school at Indian Orchard. The same plan in our city would require a number of schools and occasion great expense. SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 127 The success of our factory school is evident at this early date. To the Superintendent who devised the plan, to the teachers who have faithfully executed its details, and to the School Committee under whose direction all has been done, great credit is due. But it is in the future, when these who are pupils now shall come to exercise their influence upon the community, that its fullest and best effects will be seen. Even the few weeks-at most only sixty-which the child spends at school, between the ages of ten and fifteen, may become, and to many undoubtedly will become of untold value. FALL RIVER, Mass., March, 1871. SCHOOL SUPERVISION. It has been said, and with great truthfulness, that "the most important branch of administration, as connected with education, relates to school inspection." It is asserted by some careful observers, that the Dutch schoolmasters are decidedly superior to the Prussian, notwithstanding the numerous Normal Schools of Prussia, and the two or three only in Holland, and this superiority is attributed entirely to a better system of inspection. This is the basis on which the whole fabric of their popular instruction rests. The absence of such a thorough supervision of schools as is maintained in Holland, with such admirable results, is the weakest part, I think, of our Massachusetts system. What is needed for all our schools, and what is essential to their highest efficiency, is a constant, thorough, intelligent, impartial and independent supervision. Comparatively few persons possess the varied qualifications so indispensable to success in this delicate and important work. So important was it regarded by the distinguished author of the Dutch system of inspection, that after a long life devoted to educational labor, he said, "Take care how you choose your inspectors; they are men whom you ought to look for lantern in hand." The great majority of school-committee men to whom by statute the supervision of our schools is confided, by their own acknowledgment discharge this duty very imperfectly. There are very few men |