GARY SYSTEM IS EFFICIENT, TRIAL SHOWS
The most impressive features of the new Gary teaching system are the efficiency of the system and the activity and the evident pleasure that the children take in their work.
The pupils are given the same amount of book study as formerly, but where they were kept in one place practically all of the session they are now changed from books to auditorium work, then to manual training, domestic science, sewing, then to the playground.
No one after seeing the bright happy faces of the children and the wonderful results accomplished in special training, would have anything to say against the Gary system, parents declare. Everything is systematized to the last degree, and the whole school moves like clockwork from one form of school work to another.
Crawford school, which was formerly crowded with 168 pupils, easily accommodates 258 under the present system.
The most noticeable results are seen in the manual training and domestic science departments, where the pupil is given rein to follow his or her bent.
Beginning with the second grade, the children are taught measurements and dimensions by building houses and furniture with paper and sticks. The youthful workers have obtained very creditable results. They take considerable pride in their work.
The boys in the upper grades have made practically all the furniture in the Crawford school, including hat racks, benches, window boxes for flowers, and tables for the domestic science department. This latter department is preparing to serve cafeteria lunches for the scholars at noon.
Much practical experience is afforded the pupils in work about the school, such as painting, concrete work, care of furnace, and plumbing, which they do under competent direction.
The present system not only affords a wider range of activities in the school, but also permits time each week for study outside of the school proper, such as religious teaching in the churches, which was often impossible under the old system, as the pupil was so exhausted with his studies that he had little ambition for outside study.
In spite of the new activities, the fire drill has not been overlooked, and Crawford school, with its increase of 100, was emptied in one minute at a recent visit of the deputy state fire marshal.
The fact that the Falls schools have doubled in numbers during the last eight years is a fair illustration of the growth of the town. There was only 600 when Superintendent Richardson took charge eight years ago. There are now 1,250 in school, a gain of 215 in the last year.
The average cost of teaching is $1.95 a month per pupil.
The Akron Beacon Journal October 11, 2016
FIRE DRILLS IN FALLS SCHOOLS
School authorities realize the necessity of fire-drill in order to protect the lives of the school children and every effort is taken by them to make this drill, which is required by state law, as efficient as possible.
The high school building, which is the largest of the three [school] buildings, is emptied in a little over a minute. Fire-drill is held at unexpected intervals and the pupils fall into their places and march out of the building in perfect order and without confusion. Fire companies are organized among the boys of the high school whose duties are to man the fire hose and chemical apparatus which are found on every floor of the building.
At Broad and Crawford schools fire-drills are also held in much the same manner. Owing to the smaller size of these two buildings they are emptied in much less time than is the high school building.
Danger from fire in these two buildings is at a minimum as the buildings are erected practically fire proof, the chief object of the fire-drill here being to prevent a panic among the pupils in case of a fire scare or a small fire.
The Akron Beacon Journal February 11, 2017
