Arithmetic-Elementary, completed. Geography--No. I, completed. Drawing-Books III. and IV., analytic. Music, etc., as before. Oral instruction, as in Sixth Grade. EIGHTH GRADE. Language-Fifth Reader; oral and written spelling all new words from reader and geography. Grammar and composition taught orally. Arithmetic-Common School, to fractions. Drawing-Books IV. and V. NINTH GRADE. Language-Reading, U. S. Reader; oral and written spelling all new words from reader and geography; analysis of words begun. Grammar, etymology, composition, continued; declamation. Arithmetic-Common school, to involution. TENTH GRADE. Reader; spelling, oral and written, Language--Reading from U. S. HIGH SCHOOL. FIRST YEAR. First Term-Book Keeping, or Arithmetic reviewed. English Analysis; Latin Grammar and Reader, or German. Algebra begun. Second Term-Algebra continued. English Analysis; Latin Grammar and Reader, or German. Physiology begun. Third Term-Algebra completed. Rhetoric; Latin Grammar and Reader completed, or German. Physiology completed. Compositions, declamations, reading, spelling and etymology of words, music, drawing, penmanship, etc. SECOND YEAR. First Term-Geometry begun. Rhetoric; Cæsar, or German. Zoology begun. Second Term-Geometry continued. Cæsar, or German. Zoology completed. Third Term-Geometry completed. Sallust, or German. Botany begun. English Literature begun; English Literature completed; Composition, declamation, reading, spelling, music, etc., as before. THIRD YEAR. First Term-Natural Philosophy. General History; Cicero, or German. Botany completed. Second Term-Natural Philosophy. General History; Virgil, or German. Chemistry. Third Term-Logic. Virgil, or German. Chemistry. Composition, declamation, reading, spelling, music, etc., as before. TEXT BOOKS. The following is a list of text books in use: Independent Readers, first five books of the series; Anderson's U. S. Reader and History; Monroe's Sixth Reader, in High School; Our World Geographies; Hager's Arithmetics; Greene's Grammar and Analysis; Krusi's Drawing; Spencerian Penmanship; Bryant & Stratton's Book Keeping; Harkness' Latin Grammar and Reader; Ahn's German Series; Tenny's Natural History of Animals; Gray's How Plants Grow; Loomis' Algebra; Loomis' Geometry; Hitchcock's Physiology. GRADATION. The public schools comprise four departinents, each of which may be regarded as a school complete in itself, and yet all are dependent upon each other in an ascending order. These are known as Primary, Intermediate, Grammar and High School. The Primary comprises grades one, two, three and four; the Intermediate, grades five, six, seven and eight; and the Grammar, grades nine and ten. The grades are distributed to rooms according to numbers in grades and capacity of rooms. In the Central building, for convenience, are distributed two grades to each room; grades one and two to A room, two and three to B room, three and four to C room, etc., thus keeping the highest class of any room the same grade as the lowest class of the next higher room. By this arrangement it is easy to transfer pupils from a crowded room to one less crowded, without affecting the gradation. In the West Ward there are in some rooms two, and in others three grades. Pupils are promoted from grade to grade as fast as their proficiency in studies pursued will permit. Applicants for admission to the High School are required to pass an examination (oral and written) in which an average standing of not less than 75 per cent. shall be attained, in the following subjects: Arithmetic, Geography, Grammar, U. S. History, Reading, Spelling, and Penmanship. BUILDINGS. During the school year ending March 31, 1874, the Board purchased sites for two new school houses, viz., for the West Ward House, six lots of John Deere, Esq., in his Addition to the City of Moline, costing $3,000; for the East Ward House, part of a block of H. R. Edwards, for $1,500 in bonds. The Central House was erected on the old site, by J. G. Salisbury, at contract price of $25,000, though its actual cost is reported at $26,653.16. This building contains the High School. It occupies a beautiful site upon the bluffs, commanding a view of the three cities, Davenport, Rock Island and Moline, the Government Works, the river, and for miles in either direction. It is an ornament to the city, in fine architectural proportions, and its beautifully terraced grounds, covered with large elms, oaks and maples, render it one of the most pleasant spots within the city limits. The building is heated by steam, lighted with gas, and fitted up with all the best modern improvements. The West Ward House was erected during the same year, at a contract price of $14,000, by Messrs. Raper, Turner & Kerns. Its actual cost as reported by the Board, was $14,812.54. It is also a fine building, with pleasant rooms and well shaded grounds, and admirably adapted to the comfort and convenience of pupils and teachers. The aggregate expenditures for this school year were $67,529.14. The number of teachers employed was fifteen; the number of pupils of school age in the district, 1,533. The following year Prof. Lyman Gregory was elected Superintendent, and has continued ever since efficiently to discharge the duties of that office. He is a zealous and earnest worker in behalf of public schools, in the most thorough and comprehensive acceptation of the terms. By his efforts, combined with those of the Board and the efficient Secretary, a constant endeavor has been made at a higher state of perfection in all the departments of the schools, and a good degree of progress has been attained. TEACHERS' MEETINGS. Since the adoption of the present system, it has been a standing rule to hold teachers' meetings every month. The progress of these is referred to in the several annual reports and show very satisfactory results. The Board in their second Annual Report, for the year ending March 31, 1875, say: "The monthly meetings required by our rules have been very generally attended. A better and an increasing interest has been manifested in the exercises, and their usefulness as a part of our educational system fully demonstrated. Here the matter to be taught is discussed, and the manner in which it can be best presented to the class is more fully developed. Here the earnest, thinking teacher can-and generally does-manifest the capacity and ability to teach, and here the indifferent and the unworthy can be detected. More systematic work and better preparation will yield still better results." The interest in these meetings so increased that by the next Annual Report they had become semi-monthly. The following is from the Superintendent's Report for the year ending March 31, 1876: "The teachers have met for the discussion of school work and for mutual improvement, every two weeks. "The subject of English Literature has occupied a portion of the time during each meeting. Considerable interest has been manifested by nearly all. We have not yet, however, attained the maximum degree of enthusiasm desired. "The mechanic or business man who neglects opportunities of increasing his knowledge of the details of his business, soon finds that others who are ready to keep pace with modern growth, at whatever cost of individual effort, are gaining the patronage which he desires. The teacher is subject to the same inexorable law. The school room is the work shop in which only the most conscientious, careful, skillful and energetic workman is profitably employed; a studio in which artists, not amateurs, should find patronage. "The interests of the Public Schools are too great, too varied, too farreaching, to be lightly entrusted to the keeping of the careless or indifferent. "The good teacher puts all time, interest, affection, soul, life into the work, and the amount of labor he is willing to perform is limited only by the amount of his strength." Again in the report for 1877 it is said: "The teachers' meetings have been continued semi-monthly, with increased interest. Discussions, class exercises, model recitations, selections and original essays have constituted the exercises of each meeting." TRAINING CLASS. In pursuance of a resolution of the Board, adopted July 5, 1875, a Training Class was organized at the opening of the fall term, under the instruction of Miss Hageboeck. The Superintendent recommended, if this class is to be continued, that the conditions of admission thereto be the passing an examination, which shall be equivalent to graduation from the High School, and that the full time of the class for the year be devoted to the work of training. This class has been continued, and has been found one of the most beneficial institutions of the public school system. It has consisted of pupils from the Senior class of the High School, who intend to devote themselves to teaching, and Primary teachers from the Central Building, under the instruction of Miss Hageboeck, and has furnished many competent teachers, both to fill permanent places and temporary vacancies in the home corps of teachers, and to supply other schools. We extract the following from the last annnal report to the Board of Education : "Fewer changes than usual have been made in our corps of teachers. We in the main have been fortunate in retaining most of our former teachers, as well as in our selection of others to fill the vacant places. As a whole, we think our corps of teachers has never been excelled. All have tried to do well. Most have succeeded. The general success of those who have received positions, as they have completed our course of study, proves that we have in our own school the material for successful teachers. But if we would realize all we have anticipated from our own pupils, our Course of Study must be revised and extended; and even when that shall have been mastered, their acquisitions must be supplemented by at least a year's thorough drill in a training school, before they can feel competent to fill the teacher's desk. We hope to see these facilities furnished our young men and women at home. But until this is done, or until they shall elsewhere qualify themselves for the proper discharge of the teacher's duties, they must not complain if we go abroad for such teachers as ought to be furnished in our own schools. The time happily has passed, when the super ficial can secure positions through the influence of friends. Position and preferment should be the rewards of hard study, strict discipline and thorough preparation. When our pupils shall present evidence of these qualifications, places will be cheerfully given them in our corps of instructors. DISCIPLINE. The discipline in the public schools of Moline is strict yet paternal in its character, keeping in view the best improvement of the pupils. Upon recommendation of Prof. Gregory, corporal punishment has been almost entirely, if not wholly abolished. The views of Mr. Gregory are set forth in the following extract from his report to the Board in 1875: "In a graded school like ours, where pupils are gathered from families of all kinds, the intelligent and the ignorant; those who inculcate habits of obedience on the one hand, and disobedience on the other; those who second the efforts of the teacher, and those who habitually and openly condemn such efforts, there will always arise necessity for discipline, and when milder means have failed, the last resort must be to corporal punishment or expulsion. It is questionable in my mind whether it is ever the duty of the teacher to inflict corporal punishment. Necessity for such punishment seldom arises with pupils from well-governed families, and then the difficulty is always better adjusted by an appeal to the parent. It is my opinion that the responsibility of the pupil's good behavior should be placed where it properly belongs-upon the parent. A freer use of the power of suspension, and a total abolition of corporal punishment from the schools, will, I think, prove beneficial. "I do not think our schools should be made reformatories for children who are ungoverned and ungovernable at home. When it is discovered that we have pupils of vicious habits, whose influence upon others is pernicious, they should be placed in a reform school, or at least kept from communicating their evil courses to the well-disposed. Many parents allow their children to run the street nights, mingling with the saucy, the vulgar and the profane, learning all sorts of mischief; or, if they are kept at home, permit them to read books and papers which fill their minds with trash, and then wonder why our schools are not better governed. |