July 15, 2013 No. 232 Principal’s Report, 1910 Hopedale in July The Joy Fountain in Mendon - An article on it, including information about its Hopedale-connected donor, and photos taken before and after recent damage. After sending out No. 231, the sentence about Mr. Mesmeheimer traveling to his Draper job from Hopkinton by barge prompted a question which asked if there had once been a canal between Hopkinton and Hopedale. The answer is no; years ago the word barge was sometimes used to refer to a large horse-drawn wagon. I first saw it used that way in Ida Smith's article in Hopedale Reminiscences. "At one time twenty-five women, all clad in bloomers, went in a barge to Worcester to attend a Women's Rights Convention. They attracted so much attention that the police were called upon to protect them." Dictionary.com - barge -See deifinition 5. During the past two weeks I've made additions to pages on General Draper Now and Then - Dutcher Street School Lake Qunisigamond Recent deaths <><><><><><><><><><> There has been a great improvement in regard to truancy, there having been no case for the year, and but one case of corporal punishment. While this is still allowed as a last resort in extreme cases, the committee discourages its use, and in the long run feel that the result is more satisfactory without its use, and in the long run feel that the result is more satisfactory without than with this means of correction. For the School Committee, Frank J. Dutcher, 1893. A region intended for use by all citizens (the Parklands), including women and children, is not the place for drunken carousals, and after noting several violations, the commissioners succeeded in arresting four out of six parties who had brought intoxicating liquor on the premises, and they were served by the court with the maximum penalty for such offence. Report of the Park Commissioners, 1903. <><><><><><><><><><> Report of the Principal of the High School Mr. F. G. Atwell, Superintendent of Schools Dear Sir: I have the honor to submit herewith my report of the past year. The school year began Sept. 6, 1910, with an entering class of 23 and an enrolment of 43. Since that time three pupils entered and three have left. In the administration of the school we have set a certain minimum of deportment, industry, and scholarship below which no pupil may go. The deportment has given us practically no trouble. We have insisted upon habits of industry within the school and have encouraged them without the school as best we could. Our failures in scholarship have been due to indolence or inability. To obtain our scholarship requirements we have first of all appealed to the parents and in most cases we have been very materially helped, while in other cases we have not. Then as a last resort we have dropped the pupil from the class in which he was doing the poorest work, thereby making him a special student, and advised him to work harder on the remaining subjects. Seven pupils have been dropped in this way. The choice is, here as elsewhere, work or fail, and the indolent, feeling that there is no place for them, are gradually getting to work or leaving school. In the electing of subjects we have recommended that pupils who intend to continue their studies beyond the high school do not elect physics or chemistry earlier than their third year. Pupils following academic courses are being well provided for, and our courses are sufficiently broad to meet the requirements of practically all of the higher institutions. The school is represented at present by twelve students in nine different higher institutions of learning. Considerable apparatus has been added to our laboratory equipment during the year so that now we are very well prepared to do the required work in elementary physics and chemistry. Throughout the year regular work has been done in singing, public speaking, debating, and current events, and considerable interest has been shown in all of these branches. Last May a prize speaking contest was successfully given in the town hall, and the proceeds have been partly used in defraying the expenses of athletics in the school. Basket ball (as it was written in those years) grounds have been laid out in the rear of the school building, and the game furnished good healthy exercise for all of the boys as long as the weather permitted. During the summer vacation, the three plaster casts of the Parthenon frieze, given to the school by the Roundabout Club, arrived and have been placed in position. These, together with the pictures which have been presented by the various classes after graduation, add greatly to the beauty of the interior of the school building. In conclusion, I wish to thank the committee for their generosity and loyal support, the superintendent for wise and sympathetic counsel, and my associates on the faculty for hearty cooperation in carrying on the work of the school. Respectfully submitted, John K. Fenner, Principal There are two sentences that particularly caught my attention in this report. The first was that this was evidently the first year for prize speaking. That continued up until I was a junior in high school which was the 1957-58 school year. At that time every sophomore and junior had to memorize a speech and deliver it in front of the entire student body. Back then, the school day would start and end in the main room. All four classes, about 125 students, would be there. A few would walk to the platform at the front to speak each day until all sophomores and juniors had had a turn. The best were selected to give another address at an evening event called prize speaking, which for many years was held at the town hall, but it was at Memorial School after that was built. That came to an end when the school population became too large for the main room system to be continued. The main room was divided into three classrooms and much to my relief, the speaking program was discontinued. The second item is the one about basketball. I'd like to find out when it progressed from a schoolyard recess activity to a formal sport. I remember that it was played at the town hall until the Draper Gym was built. Hopedale History Ezine Menu HOME |
