Tri-Counties Genealogy & History by Joyce M. Tice 1897 Year Book of the New York State Reformatory at Elmira

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Previous reports from the New York State Reformatory School of Letters have so fully set forth the aim and nature of the work for the intellectual training of the inmates at the Reformatory, that no extended report is necessary at this time.

As an aid in understanding what follows, let your imagination picture for a moment, an immense ladder, very wide and broad at the top as at the bottom. On this ladder are to be found the fifteen hundred men of the Institution.

At the foot of the ladder are the illiterates, men who cannot read and write at all, or only with difficulty. Knowledge of figures and numbers is with them confined to the fact that a dime is ten cents and that a quarter is a bigger sum of money, while a dollar is beyond their powers of expression.

The next round of our ladder has men of a little more power of expression and knowledge of figures; and so we may continue in imagination until at the top of the ladder we find men who are studying with pleasure and profit, Percentage and its applications, History, Literature and Ethics.

SCHOOL DIRECTOR’S GENERAL REPORT 47

The following is a schedule of the classes or steps of the ladder as at present arranged:

Class	Section	Instructor	No. of Men
Set 1	-	Cons. No. 6627	75
Set 2	1	Cons. No. 7160	46
Set 2	2	Cons. No. 8106	46
Set 3	-	Cons. No. 8199	106
Set 4	-	Cons. No. 8001	68
Set 5	1	Cons. No. 6884	54
Set 5	2	Cons. No. 6875	59
Set 6	1	Cons. No. 9367	69
Set 6	2	Cons. No. 6067	68
Set 6	3	Cons. No. 7995	71
Set 7	1	Cons. No. 6582	55
Set 7	2	Cons. No. 7195	53
Set 7	3	Cons. No. 6073	57
Set 8	1	Cons. No. 7494	54
Set 8	2	Cons. No. 7959	54
Set 8	3	Cons. No. 8013	58
Set 9	1	Cons. No. 7093	39
Set 9	2	Cons. No. 8047	39
Set 9	3	Cons. No. 7423	38
Set 10	1	Cons. No. 8236	22
Set 10	2	Cons. No. 7958	24
Kindergarten		Cons. No. 7814	29
Special Foreign		M. R. Wolfe	20
Deaf Mute		Cons. No. 6314	1

Class	Section	Instructor	No. of Men
"I" 1	-	Cons. No. 8106	82
"I" 2	1	Cons. No. 7160	63
"I" 2	2	Cons. No. 8199	59
"P" 1	1	Cons. No. 8001	39
"P" 1	2	Cons. No. 6627	38
"P" 1	3	Cons. No. 6884	43
"P" 2	1	Cons. No. 7195	55
"P" 2	2	Cons. No. 8236	53
"P" 2	3	Cons. No. 7405	51
"P" 3	1	Cons. No. 8047	47
"P" 3	2	Cons. No. 6582	46
"P" 3	3	Cons. No. 7367	48
"P" 4	1	Cons. No. 7958	39
"P" 4	2	Cons. No. 7494	37
"P" 4	3	Cons. No. 7959	41
"P" 5	1	Cons. No. 7093	44
"P" 5	2	Cons. No. 7423	49
"P" 6	1	Cons. No. 6067	28
"P" 6	2	Cons. No. 7814	30
Kindergarten		M. R. Wolfe	43
Special Foreign		Cons. No. 6314	20
Deaf Mute			1

(Note, 1. One hundred thirteen men are excused from school on account of teaching, or having graduated, physically disqualified, or being in the Third Grade. Note2. "I" refers to Intermediate Classes: "P" to Primary Classes.)

48. NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY.

CLASS	SUBJECT	LECTURER	NO. OF MEN
"A"	History	Prof. W. H. Chapman	212
"A" & "B"	Literature	Prof. W. H. Chapman	455
"I" 1,2,&"P" 1,2	Nature Studies	Prof. W. H. Chapman	483
"A", "B" except 2d Grade	Ethics	Prof. W. H. Chapman	325
All classes below "P" 2.	Am. History	Prof. A. E. Upham	473

Our figure of the ladder is not quite correct, however, in its application, since all the men do not begin at the bottom. Each man on entering the Institution is placed on the highest round of the ladder to which his mental grasp enables him to cling and from which he may progress upward.

That the men are climbing upward is shown by the following figures:
 

Class	No. of men in class Sept. 30, 1896	No. of these men remaining in the same class Sept. 30, 1897	No. of these men who have been promoted or left in the Institution
Foreign	25	3	22
Kindergarten	21	9	12
"P" 6	75	12	63
"P" 5	140	4	136
"P" 4	152	8	144
"P" 3	99	6	93
"P" 2	121	7	114
"P" 1	151	5	146
"I" 2	112	8	104
"I" 1	121	0	121

These figures are for language only. Those for arithmetic are substantially the same.

There were one hundred reductions of men to lower classes during the year.

The staff of the School of Letters during the past year has consisted of a resident School director, a non-resident Lecturer in Literature, History, Ethics and Nature Studies, and a Normal Class of inmate teachers, from thirty to forty in number, under the training and direction of the School Director. The School Director also has an inmate Secretary, who carries on the clerical work connected with the School of Letters.

The Normal Class during the past year has held its sessions twice a week. As a rule the members of this class feel the responsibility of the

Positions which they hold and have labored heartily and intelligently with the School Director to bring the men under their care, up to the standard required for promotion in grade. How well they have succeeded during each month of the past year is indicated by the following figures.
 

Month	Arithmetic Division			Language Division			Averages
	Passed	Failed	Passed		Failed	Passed		Failed
October 1896	69	31	79		21	74		26
November 1896	72	28	73		27	73		27
December 1896	74	26	78		22	76		24
January 1897	66	34	80		20	73		27
February 1897	65	35	74		26	70		30
March 1897	55	45	76		24	66		34
April 1897	59	41	73		27	66		34
May 1897	60	40	78		22	69		31
June 1897	76	24	81		19	79		21
July 1897	73	27	78		22	76		24
August 1897	71	29	77		23	71		26
September 1897	78	22	67		33	73		27

Total yearly average—Passed 72%; Failed 28%

Each year brings new methods and ideas into the science of Pedagogy. It is the aim of the School Director to examine these carefully and make use of the latest real additions to the art of teaching. Every teacher must decide for himself between good and bad methods, but in the work of the School of Letters the good ideas must again be sifted to find those which are practicable for men under the given conditions.

For instance, many of the latest and best methods for Kindergarten work among children cannot be used at all in the Kindergarten work of the School of Letters, from the very fact that the pupils are men, with the maturity of men in many respects, an not good little boys and girls who are anxious to please their teacher.

The principles of teaching must always be the same but their application must vary with the varying conditions.

Her for example is a practical problem which confronts a teacher in the Reformatory: Of the various motives on which teachers rely on to quicken their scholars—fear, hope, innate curiosity, rivalty, desire to excel, and a sense of duty—which can be appealed to by Reformatory teachers? The latest Pedagogy warns us that in the case of children that appeal to fear should be abandoned, that rivalry is harmful that innate curiosity, hope, sense of duty, desire to excel are the proper motives to use in teaching. Now in the case of a man imprisoned for crime on the indeterminate sentence plan, whose school record helps

50 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY

to determine the length of his sentence, does not the fear that his sentence will be prolonged if he fails in school, become his leading motive for quickening without any choice on the teacher’s part; or looked at from another standpoint, is the good motive, of hope of an early release, the pupil’s incentive? There is great reason to believe that in the majority of cases, fear is the ruling motive for the performance of school work and brings in its train a multitude of pedagogic evils. There is the one desire to "pass," to get just enough phrases and rules into one’s head to enable him to get through an examination; to forget what has been learned as soon as the immediate occasion for its use is over, and at last but not least, the desire to remain in a low class where it will be easy to get good marks, regardless of whether one learns anything or not.

To be sure we must not overlook the fact that there are some good features in this ever present motive of fear.

I cite this only to show how different the work of education in a reformatory is from work in out public schools. It is a distinct branch of educational work. How to bring into play the motives of hope, innate curiosity, etc., under the given conditions of the Reformatory discipline, is the problem which confronts us. This and like problems must be met and solved by special methods, since the common devices of pedagogy are not applicable.

With the completion of the new Trades School buildings and consequent placing at the disposal of the School of Letters of the old buildings, we hope to be able to accomplish more and better and better work. Our classes which are now meeting in corridors, halls and other places, inconvenient as regards noise, light, etc., will then be brought into commodious school-rooms, and, it is hoped, more hours will be devoted to school instruction.

Respectfully submitted

1. E. Upham