Curriculum

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In his report for 1891, Middleborough Superintendent of Schools Willard T. Leonard laid out his vision of the role of the local schoolhouse. “The great object of the schools is to prepare the children for future usefulness. While not wholly ignoring the physical and the moral, their main work is a careful and patient training of the mind. All their energies are bent in this direction …." Towards this end, Middleborough’s school curriculum was developed.

The one-room school curriculum, itself, varied greatly, dependent as it was on the differing levels of development within each building, and though patterned upon the curriculum in the central schools, that of the suburban school was typically modified to meet the needs of a mixed grade room.

To assist teachers in ungraded schools like the Green who were confronted with the challenge of teaching a student body of varying ages and abilities, in November, 1895, a curriculum was developed and introduced into the suburban schools, including the Green. Each school was divided into three sections based upon the grades present, and a relatively rigid schedule established.

Until the early 1900s, the elementary school curriculum in Middleborough was established for nine grades, all of which (outside Middleborough center) were housed in a single ungraded school. Superintendent Bates became increasingly dissatisfied with this arrangement and recommended an eight-year course of study for students before entering the high school. “I believe with a shorter course better application on the part of the pupils would be gained and less of dawdling would be noticeable in the schoolrooms.”

With this view in mind, the elementary school curriculum was revised, and in 1911, a further overhaul of the suburban school curriculum was proposed for implementation in the fall of 1912. In September, 1917, a revised course of study in arithmetic, reading, language, grammar and geography was instituted for the entire school system, with the course of study in the primary grades being better outlined. “It is hoped by this systematic outline to be able to carry on the work more uniformly and with a more defnite aim.”