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 The Junior High School Movement in 
 Massachusetts* 
 
 Chester R. Stacy 
 
 Bridgewater Normal School 
 
 I N 1907 the State Normal School at Fitchburg began to organ- 
 ize the seventh and eighth grades of its training school 
 so as to give differentiated work in these two years below the 
 high school. This school, then called “The Practical Arts 
 School,” but recently and more properly rechristened “The 
 Junior High School,” was designed to give pupils more of an 
 opportunity than the conventional graded school offered to 
 follow the lines of their natural aptitudes, and also better to 
 provide for those pupils who were not likely to enter the high 
 school. Four curriculums were offered which have since con- 
 stituted the typical program in a full-fledged Junior High School, 
 namely: the academic, preparing for the general high school 
 curriculum with entrance to higher institutions closely in mind; 
 the commercial, fitting for the high school commercial studies, 
 or for elementary office work; the practical arts for boys, offering 
 the ground work for the common trades; and the domestic arts 
 for girls, equipping them for the simpler duties of home-keeping. 
 
 In the fall of 1914, Somerville organized one of its grammar 
 schools, the Forster, into a junior high school so as to include 
 grades seven, eight, and nine. The success of the experiment 
 has led the school department to adopt the plan for the whjple 
 city. Confronted with the problem of over-crowding in all the 
 elementary schools and the high school, it is believed that the 
 way in which this problem can be solved, in the words of Super- 
 intendent Clark, “with the best regard for educational efficiency, 
 of economy, and for convenience of pupils is by establishing 
 four junior high schools so located as to accommodate the entire 
 city.” The present ninth grade of the elementary school is to 
 be eliminated and the schools organized on the 6-3-3 plan. 
 
 Springfield has what are locally termed “central grammar 
 schools,” into each of which the upper grades of a given district 
 
 * In part from the Eightieth Annual Report of Massachusetts State Board of 
 Education, 1915-1916. 
 
 ( 343 ) 
 
344 Educational Administration and Supervision 
 
 are gathered. Several of these schools are in reality junior high 
 schools because they offer departmental instruction, some differ- 
 entiation of work, including a foreign language as an elective, 
 and promotion by subject. The tendency is to transform the 
 ninth grade into a year of secondary work of junior high school 
 character, and to extend more completely and formally this type 
 of organization throughout the city system. 
 
 Boston has what are called “intermediate classes” in the 
 various school districts of the city. In these classes children 
 are given “a choice in the seventh and eighth grades between 
 the ordinary curriculum and what might be called the high school 
 preparatory or intermediate plan.” Recent reports of Super- 
 intendent Dyer and Assistant Superintendent Burke indicate 
 a confidence that in the near future junior high schools will 
 become a fundamental part of the city’s school system. More- 
 over, the report of a committee of experts investigating the 
 Boston schools at the request of the Finance Committee has 
 recommended such organization on the score of both educational 
 efficiency and economy. 
 
 Chelsea, like its neighbor, Somerville, has relieved the con- 
 gestion in its high school and at the same time increased its 
 educational opportunities by inaugurating a junior high school 
 system operating on the 6-3-3 plan. In a large wing of the 
 Shurtleff building and in an extension recently completed at the 
 Williams School, two of the largest school plants in this part 
 of the country, junior high schools have been organized with 
 three curriculums, — general, commercial, and industrial. A 
 third school, the Carter, is also organized on the junior school 
 plan except that the third year class cannot be accommodated 
 until a new building, now under construction, is finished. 
 
 Beverly, since 1911, has offered to its eighth grade pupils four 
 different curriculums: the general, business, manual arts, and 
 household arts. Consolidation has been made in different build- 
 ings according to the curriculum; the general curriculum being 
 offered at several schools, the business curriculum at one special 
 school, and the manual and household arts curriculums at another 
 special school. These curriculums are open to any pupil in 
 the city promoted from the seventh grade. The school depart- 
 ment hopes for the completion of this reorganization through 
 the establishment of a junior high school. 
 
345 
 
 vr&. n 
 stl i 
 
 Junior High School in Massachusetts 
 
 Arlington, a growing suburb of Boston, opened its new high 
 school building a year ago, and assembled in the vacated, old 
 high school building the eighth and ninth grades of the entire 
 town organized as a junior high school. A citizens’ committee 
 of five, appointed to investigate and report upon additional 
 school accommodations in a report just published (Nov. 24, 
 1916) “is of the unanimous opinion that plans for such accom- 
 modations should be developed with a view to continuing the 
 junior high school policy recently adopted by the school com- 
 mittee,” and “that there should eventually be two junior high 
 school buildings, one at each end of the town.” 
 
 Beading, another suburban town, has had in operation for 
 about the same length of time the “Intermediate School.” For 
 a number of years the upper grammar grades had been consol- 
 idated in the Highland School, with the manual arts,' physical 
 training, and domestic science available. Conditions, therefore, 
 were particularly favorable to reorganization. Grades seven 
 and eight constitute the new school, the high school remaining 
 unchanged. 
 
 The town of Plymouth opened its first junior high school in 
 1914 in a new four-room building into which were gathered two 
 seventh and two eighth grades. Departmental teaching and 
 differentiated work are offered, and a close articulation is made 
 with the senior high school. Teachers of typewriting, chem- 
 istry, and physics divide their time between the two schools. 
 The success of the school is so manifest to the community that 
 they are enlarging the junior high school plant. 
 
 Ipswich is another recent example of the establishment of a 
 junior high school, into which the upper grades were gathered 
 instead of being scattered in several different buildings in close 
 proximity to each other. 
 
 Franklin had already consolidated the seventh and eighth 
 grades in two schools near the center of the town. By an easy 
 readjustment, all the seventh and eighth grades were brought 
 to the upper floor of one building and a small junior high school 
 established. 
 
 In 1912 the school department at Easton brought all the eighth 
 grades of the town into the high school building and by combining 
 them with the freshman class of the high school organized the 
 intermediate school upon the 7-2-3 plan and offered five cur- 
 
346 
 
 Educational Administration and Supervision 
 
 riculums: academic, commercial, practical arts, domestic arts, and 
 agriculture. Now that a new eight-room building has provided 
 the necessary room the school is organized on the 6-3-3 plan. 
 
 Amherst last year organized in a small separate building in 
 the center of the town a junior high school under conditions 
 favorable to the satisfactory development of junior high school 
 ideals in smaller towns. The fact that the junior high school 
 is on the same lot with the new high school building makes possi- 
 ble the introduction of differentiated courses in the junior high 
 without increased cost for equipment. The junior high pupils 
 make use of the high school gymnasium, printing shop, wood- 
 working shop, cooking room, sewing room and assembly hall. 
 In this way the expensive high school plant is in constant use 
 from 8:30 in the morning until after five o’clock in the afternoon. 
 
 Medford is to have a large new building solely for junior high 
 school purposes. 
 
 The city of Everett has probably laid the foundation for a 
 junior high school by consolidating the ninth grades in a new 
 central building with some departmental work and a little differ- 
 entiation of studies. Other places have gathered the highest 
 grammar grade or two into the high school building with the 
 idea of developing six-year high schools. A few cities, Cam- 
 bridge and Brockton, for example, are hoping to solve tem- 
 porarily, at least, their problems of over-crowding by enlarging 
 the regular high schools. They contemplate having junior 
 schools eventually and are preparing the way by organizing 
 departmental teaching and differentiated work in some of the 
 elementary schools. Other cities, like Quincy and New Bedford, 
 are looking forward to junior high schools as the sole promise 
 of an effective means of overcoming the difficulties of congestion 
 and at the same time promoting the educational interests of 
 the children. 
 
 The list of places mentioned above is not complete because 
 this movement is so steadily progressing that it is difficult to 
 present an up-to-date record of cities and towns committed to 
 this plan. 
 
 Additional Remarks 
 
 Since a former article* was written a little progress in further 
 developing a course for junior high school teachers has been made 
 
 * The Training of Teachers for Intermediate Schools. 
 
Junior High School in Massachusetts 347 
 
 along two of the four lines mentioned; namely, (1) the grouping 
 of major subjects which normal school students may take, and 
 (2) in defining the aims and selecting to a small extent the sources 
 of the material used in the course in the psychology of early 
 adolescence. 
 
 Grouping of Subjects 
 
 The grouping of subjects in which the student aims to qualify 
 as a departmental teacher can be neither very rigid nor perma- 
 nent as the situation is at present. We have much to discover 
 by experiment and research with regard to the way the different 
 studies align themselves in the minds of learners as a result of 
 native interests. The two other factors in the determination 
 of this grouping are the demands of the field and the logical 
 contents of the different studies. Since the assignment of sub- 
 jects to the individual teacher is likely to be varied, or even 
 erratic, owing to either the peculiar requirements of different 
 schools or tq the lack of clear-cut ideas as to the proper combina- 
 tions on the part of principals making the assignments, only 
 the latter factor, subject contents, is regarded as the controlling 
 one. 
 
 Two further considerations in arranging the groups are, first, 
 not to specialize too narrowly and, second, not to include so 
 many subjects in any one group that the aim of departmental 
 work is defeated. Somewhere between these two extremes of a 
 very deep knowledge of only one subject on the one hand and a 
 superficial understanding of many subjects on the other will lie 
 a workable mean. Moreover, two demands come from the 
 field, one from large schools having finely differentiated courses 
 where one teacher may be employed upon a single subject all 
 the time, the other from smaller schools where program arrange- 
 ments necessitate a teacher’s carrying two or even more subjects. 
 In teaching in either kind of school, preparation extending beyond 
 one given subject, such as history, is desirable. The teacher 
 needs not only a considerable body of well-organized knowledge 
 of the study she teaches, but she needs also a pretty thorough 
 understanding of intimately and vitally related subjects. For 
 instance, an adequate comprehension of the development of 
 civil government depends upon an understanding of the great 
 movements of history and a broad conception of commercial 
 
348 
 
 Educational Administration and Supervision 
 
 geography, to say nothing of locational geography. In other 
 words, whether a teacher gives instruction in one subject or 
 three her vision must be broader than the domain of just one 
 study. When she teaches one subject such as history, her intelli- 
 gence along kindred lines will make her teaching of her specialty 
 all the more effective. When she teaches in a small school, she 
 can be more readily adapted to a situation calling for specialized 
 work in two or three kindred subjects. 
 
 Briefly stated the scope of work includes (1) a general founda- 
 tion for the first year, (2) specialized work on majors and general 
 work on minors for the second and third years. The groups we 
 have adopted, each subject in a group being a major, are these: 
 
 1. Geography, history, and civics. 
 
 2. Geography, science (general). 
 
 3. Mathematics, science. 
 
 4. English, history, and civics. 
 
 5. English, geography. 
 
 6. English, a modern language. 
 
 7. Special combinations of any of the above subjects with 
 
 gardening or playground work or athletics. 
 
 The student elects one group. The required professional 
 studies, psychology, school management, practice teaching, etc., 
 are also majors. 
 
 It should be understood that this grouping having for its aim 
 preparation for department teaching is tentative in the sense 
 that further light is likely to be shed upon our problems as we 
 try out these plans. And prompt modification or readjustment 
 will result from suggestions of sound experience. 
 
 Psychology 
 
 The great tasks of the teacher are to control and to instruct. 
 In the accomplishment of these ends, two factors are vital, first, 
 a just and sympathetic understanding of the children or youths 
 who are to be educated, and second, a sound, broad knowledge 
 of the studies to be taught. Psychology should contribute 
 effectively to the first end by pointing the way to the selection 
 of the best methods of discipline and of teaching for any given 
 stage of development of pupils. 
 
 It is now well agreed that the growth of the individual, phys- 
 ically, mentally, socially, and morally, instead of proceeding at 
 
Junior High School in Massachusetts 
 
 349 
 
 an even and uniform rate from infancy to maturity, may be 
 divided into fairly well-defined stages. Each stage to be sure 
 has certain fundamental characteristics in common with the 
 others but each also has special modifications of these char- 
 acteristics, all contributing in a specific way to the full develop- 
 ment of the individual. (For a comprehensive treatment of 
 these different ages, see Lee’s “Play on Education,” and Kirk- 
 patrick’s “The Individual in the Making.”) Furthermore, it 
 is accepted that that period known as adolescence is one of 
 peculiar importance in the passage from babyhood to manhood 
 and that up to the present this vital peiiod has not been taken 
 into account sufficiently in dealing with pupils from eleven to 
 sixteen years of age in our public school practice. 
 
 The junior high school teacher dealing, as she must, with this 
 age of early teens ought to know the ins and outs of this period. 
 She should know her boys and girls with all the intimacy, insight, 
 sympathy, and appreciation possible. If she does not know 
 with some thoroughness this interesting human subject all her 
 subject matter, such as history, English, mathematics, and 
 science, will be of little avail. Her great task of character build- 
 ing will be futile and her success as an instructor will be slight. 
 
 These considerations define our aim in teaching psychology 
 to those students who are fitting for junior high school teaching. 
 There are three phases to our presentation of the subject: 
 
 1. A study of general educational psychology. 
 
 2. A study of the stages preceding adolescence, namely: 
 
 a. Infancy to three years of age. 
 
 b. From three to six years. 
 
 c. From six to twelve years, as a preliminary to 
 
 3. The more intensive and specific study of the age from 
 twelve to sixteen. 
 
 As to materials there is no text so far as the writer knows that 
 can be used in the way we expect to use an ordinary text-book. 
 Furthermore, there are few sources of information upon early 
 adolescence aside from Dr. G. Stanley Hall’s great work “Adoles- 
 cence.” No other writer speaks with the same authority and 
 other contributors in this field all pay allegiance to Dr. Hall as 
 the great pioneer and master in this special field. This work 
 is too voluminous to be of much use as a classroom source. His 
 small book entitled “Youth,” a very great abridgement of two 
 
350 
 
 Educational Administration and Supervision 
 
 large volumes, is not satisfactory as a text because it is too gen- 
 eral. His “ Aspects of Child Life” will be found very helpful 
 in a supplementary way. 
 
 “The Pedagogical Seminary” in which much of Dr. Hall’s 
 material first appeared and which contains other contributions 
 of note in this particular field is the next best source. Mention 
 has been made of Mr. Lee’s inteiesting suggestive book and also 
 of Mr. Kirkpatrick’s volume. These two could well be used 
 as texts for the preliminary study covering all the different 
 stages of growth, and so to a small extent could Professor Tyler’s 
 “Growth in Education.” Principles of Secondary Education, 
 edited by Dr. Paul Momoe, is rich in general material and Prof. 
 Whipple’s chapter on the psychology and hygiene of adolescence 
 is very adaptable in particular. “The High School Age,” by 
 King, and “The Psychology of High School Subjects,” by Judd 
 are serviceable. 
 
 It will be noticed that these contributions are to the whole 
 period of adolescence and that the exploration of the narrower 
 field of the age of pubescence and the two or three following 
 years, onl>, is yet to be made. But as the junior high school 
 becomes more and more the agency by which we educate boys 
 and girls during this particular stage, we may be certain that 
 the heightened interest on the part of a growing number of 
 schoolmen will bring forth a larger and better organized body 
 of material for our use in training teachers.