School Credit for Home Work
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Title: School Credit for Home Work
Author: L. R. Alderman
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* * * * *
[Illustration: FEEDING HER BIRD
Mabel C----, aged 12, Algona, Washington]
SCHOOL CREDIT
FOR HOME WORK
BY L. R. ALDERMAN
CITY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS
PORTLAND, OREGON
FORMERLY SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC
INSTRUCTION, STATE OF OREGON
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO
The Riverside Press Cambridge
COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY L. R. ALDERMAN
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The Riverside Press
CAMBRIDGE. MASSACHUSETTS
U.S.A
TO THE MEMORY
OF
MY FATHER AND MOTHER
Who made their boys happy partners in the work of the home and farm
PREFACE
It has been a surprise and a delight to me, as this book has been
in progress, to learn of the many different ways that people have
worked out these home credit plans. It has been as if I could see
into many happy schoolrooms. Letters from mothers and fathers
boasting of the accomplishments of their children, have brought
to me a little glow from the hearthsides of many homes. A father
brought his boy--or rather the boy brought his father--up to see me
and talk over what the boy was doing at home. The father boasted
of the boy's fine garden, his big pumpkins, his watermelons that
would attract the neighbors. Johnny almost burst the top button off
his vest with pride as his father praised him and patted him on the
head. After this happy meeting, the father and the son got on the
high wagon seat and rode home; and as I saw them going down the
street, I could imagine what they talked about. Such glimpses help
to make a school man's life worth while; and I have had many of
them as I have been writing this book.
For the fact that this book exists at all, I am indebted to my wife,
who has helped me with every part of it, and to Mr. and Mrs. C. C.
Thomason, of Olympia, Washington, who believed in the book from
the first. Mrs. Thomason has also done much work on the book; she
has gathered all the illustrative material, visiting many schools
and writing many letters. She and my wife have done most of the
organizing of material, and have gone over the manuscript together.
To Miss Fanny Louise Barber, of the Washington High School,
Portland, I am grateful for her careful reading and revision of
several chapters. I owe thanks to Mrs. Sarah J. Hoagland, of Belt,
Montana, for the true and vivid stories she has sent me; and I am
thankful to all the home credit teachers, with whom we have been
corresponding, for their painstaking answers to our letters, as well
as for the valuable plans that they have originated.
L. R. ALDERMAN.
PORTLAND, OREGON,
_November 16, 1914_.
CONTENTS
PART ONE
I. INTRODUCTION 1
II. MARY 7
III. THE SPRING VALLEY SCHOOL 11
IV. WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE ALGEBRA? 24
V. HONORING LABOR 34
VI. HABIT-BUILDING 39
VII. THAT OTHER TEACHER AND THAT TEACHER'S LABORATORY 46
VIII. STELLA AND SADIE 53
IX. A STORY AND LETTERS FROM TEACHERS 60
PART TWO
I. ILLUSTRATIVE HOME CREDIT PLANS 71
II. HOME CREDIT IN HIGH SCHOOLS 156
APPENDIX 167
INDEX 177
ILLUSTRATIONS
FEEDING HER BIRD _Frontispiece_
SPRING VALLEY SCHOOL 12
PICNIC LUNCHEON, SPRING VALLEY 20
JOE IN THE GARAGE 28
WORK CREDITED AT SCHOOL 36
EARNING HOME CREDITS 42
O. H. BENSON POTATO CLUB 88
HIGH SCHOOL BOYS IN RAILROAD SHOPS 156
SCHOOL CREDIT FOR HOME WORK
PART ONE
I
INTRODUCTION
The child is a born worker; activity is the law of his nature.
FRANCIS W. PARKER.
This book is simply the narrative of the working-out of an idea.
The idea first came to me from memories of my own home, where tasks
were assigned to us children and were made to seem important. With
my father, the work was always carried on in the spirit of a game,
and the game could be made as interesting as any other game; in
the meantime something was being done that was worth while. Among
many other memories there comes one of our laying a rail fence by
moonlight, after a freshet had taken the other fence away; when
the game was to get the line completed before the moon went down.
I can still see father laying rail on rail, and enjoy his glowing
enthusiasm at our accomplishment. The fence still stands. Besides
seeking to make the work interesting in itself, father had a device
to put a value on time for his boys by giving us free time after the
tasks were completed to do as we saw fit.
The desire, after I became a teacher, to put myself in the enviable
position of my father as an inspiring influence with children,
was the motive that took my thoughts out of the schoolroom into
the homes of my pupils. Should not the school be simply a group
of people come together for improvement, with the teacher as
their best friend, ready to discuss and promote everything that
seems worth while? We found it easy to talk at school about the
things the children were concerned with out of school. One spring
my pupils carried home, from our little boxes at school, cabbage
plants and tomato plants to become members of their families for the
summer. Later we had a county school fair for the exhibition of the
children's clear jelly and fine bread and vegetables and sewing and
carpentry. The schools were trying to recognize "the whole child."
This book is written in the hope that parents, teachers, and
children may be helped to work together more joyously and
harmoniously on the real problems of life.
When I was teaching in the University of Oregon in the spring of
1910, I wrote and had published in the Oregon papers the following
article:--
We all believe that civilization is founded upon the home. The
school should be a real helper to the home. How can the school
help the home? How can it help the home establish habits in
the children of systematic performance of home duties so that
they will be efficient and joyful home helpers? One way is for
the school to take into account home industrial work and honor
it. It is my conviction, based upon careful and continuous
observation, that the school can greatly increase the interest
the child will take in home industrial work by making it a
subject of consideration at school. A teacher talked of sewing,
and the girls sewed. She talked of ironing, and they wanted to
learn to iron neatly. She talked of working with tools, and
both girls and boys made bird houses, kites, and other things
of interest. Recently a school garden was planned in a city and
one of the boys was employed to plow the land. Seventy-five
children were watching for him to come with the team. At last
he came driving around the corner. _He_ could manage a _team_.
He drove into the lot, and a hundred and fifty eyes looked
with admiration at the boy who could unhitch from the sled and
hitch to the plow; and then as he, "man-fashion,"--lines over
one shoulder and under one arm,--drove the big team around the
field, all could feel the children's admiration for the boy who
could do something worth while. And I have seen a girl who could
make good bread or set a table nicely get the real admiration of
her schoolmates.
The school can help make better home-builders. It can help by
industrial work done in the school, but as that is already
receiving consideration by the press and in a few schools, I
shall not in this short article treat of it.
The plan I have in mind will cost no money, will take but little
school time, and can be put into operation in every part of the
State at once. It will create a demand for expert instruction
later on. It is to give school credit for industrial work done
at home. The mother and father are to be recognized as teachers,
and the school teacher put into the position of one who cares
about the habits and tastes of the whole child. Then the teacher
and the parents will have much in common. Every home has the
equipment for industrial work and has some one who uses it with
more or less skill.
The school has made so many demands on the home that the parents
have in some cases felt that all the time of the child must be
given to the school. But an important thing that the child needs
along with school work is established habits of home-making.
What people do depends as much upon habit as upon knowledge.
The criticism that is most often made upon industrial work
at school is that it is so different from the work done in
the home that it does not put the child into that sympathetic
relation with the home, which after all is for him and the home
the most important thing in the world. Juvenile institutions
find that they must be careful not to institutionalize the child
to such an extent that he may not be contented in a real home.
In my opinion it will be a great thing for the child to want
to help his parents do the task that needs to be done and to
want to do it in the best possible way. The reason why so many
country boys are now leading men of affairs is because early in
life they had home responsibilities thrust upon them. I am sure
that the motto "Everybody Helps" is a good one.
But one says: "How can it be brought about? How can the school
give credit for industrial work done at home?" It may be done by
sending home printed slips asking the parents to take account of
the work that the child does at home under their instruction,
and explaining that credit will be given for this work on the
school record. These slips must be used according to the age of
the child, so that he will not be asked to do too much, for it
must be clearly recognized that children must have time for real
play. The required tasks must not be too arduous, yet they must
be real tasks. They must not be tasks that will put extra work
on parents except in the matter of instruction and observation.
They may well call for the care of animals, and should include
garden work for both boys and girls. Credit in school for home
industrial work (with the parents' consent) should count as much
as any one study in school.
To add interest to the work, exhibitions should be given at
stated times so that all may learn from each other and the best
be the model for all. The school fairs in Yamhill, Polk, Benton,
Lane, Wasco, and Crook Counties, together with the school and
home industrial work done at Eugene, have convinced me most
thoroughly that these plans are practicable, and that school
work and home work, school play and home play, and love for
parents and respect for teachers and fellow pupils can best be
fostered by a more complete coöperation between school and home,
so that the whole child is taken into account at all times.
After the home-credit schools of Mr. O'Reilly and Mr. Conklin were
well under way, I received many inquiries about the home credit
idea. As I was then State Superintendent, I had a pamphlet printed
by the State Office, describing the workings of the plan, and had it
distributed to Oregon teachers. Fifteen thousand copies were also
printed for Mr. Claxton, Commissioner of Education, in the summer
of 1912, and distributed by the National Bureau to superintendents
and teachers throughout the United States. Since this pamphlet has
been out of print there have been many inquiries sent me about home
credit, and I hope that this book may answer some of them.
II
MARY
The brain and the hand, too long divorced, and each mean and
weak without the other; use and beauty, each alone vulgar;
letters and labor, each soulless without the other, are
henceforth to be one and inseparable; and this union will lift
man to a higher level.--G. STANLEY HALL.
The idea of giving school credit for home work first occurred to me
when I was a high-school principal in McMinnville, Oregon, in 1901.
Often, in the few years that I had been teaching, I had felt keenly
a lack of understanding between school and home. As I was thinking
over this problem, and wondering what could be done, I chanced
to meet on the street the mother of one of my rosiest-cheeked,
strongest-looking high-school girls. I saw that the little mother
looked forlorn and tired. There was a nervous twitch of the hand
that adjusted the robes about the crippled child she was wheeling
in a baby buggy. I had frequently noticed that Mary, the daughter,
who was one of the very poorest students in her class, was on
the streets the greater part of the time after school hours. I
thought, "What value can there be in my teaching that girl quadratic
equations and the nebular hypothesis, when what she most needs to
learn is the art of helping her mother?"
In the algebra recitation next day I asked, "How many helped with
the work before coming to school?" Hands were raised, but not
Mary's. "How many got breakfast?" Hands again, not Mary's. "I made
some bread a few days ago, bread that kept, and kept, and kept on
keeping. How many of you know how to make bread?" Some hands, not
Mary's. I then announced that the lesson for the following day would
consist as usual of ten problems in advance, but that five would
be in the book, and five out of the book. The five out of the book
for the girls would consist of helping with supper, helping with
the kitchen work after supper, preparing breakfast, helping with
the dishes and kitchen work after breakfast, and putting a bedroom
in order. Surprise and merriment gave place to enthusiasm when the
boys and girls saw that I was in downright earnest. When I asked for
a report on the algebra lesson next day all hands went up for all
the problems both in algebra and in home-helping. As I looked my
approval, all hands fell again, that is, all hands but Mary's. "What
is it, Mary?" I asked. "I worked five in advance," she replied with
sparkling eyes: "I worked all you gave us, and five ahead in the
book!"
Since that day I have been a firm believer in giving children credit
at school for work done at home. We did not work home problems every
day that year, but at various times the children were assigned
lessons like the one mentioned, and scarcely a day passed that we
did not talk over home tasks, and listen to the boys and girls as
they told what each had achieved. The idea that washing dishes and
caring for chickens was of equal importance with algebra and general
history, and that credit and honor would frequently be given for
home work, proved a stimulus to all the children, and especially to
Mary. Her interest in all her school duties was doubled, and it is
needless to say that her mother's interest in the school was many
times increased as her heavy household cares were in part assumed by
her healthy daughter.
A few weeks after the first home credit lesson Mary brought her
luncheon to school. At the noon hour she came to my desk, opened
her basket, and displaying a nicely made sandwich said, "I made
this bread." The bread looked good, and must have been all right,
for she ate the sandwich, and it did not seem to hurt her. She came
again wearing a pretty new shirt-waist, and told me she had made it
herself, and that it had cost just eighty-five cents.
After Mary graduated from high school she went out into the country
to teach, and boarded with her uncle's family. Her uncle's wife was
ill for a while, and Mary showed that she knew how to cook a fine
meal, and how to set a table so that the food looked good to eat.
She made herself generally useful. Her uncle came to my office one
day and told me that Mary was the finest girl he ever saw, and that
every girl like that should go to college, and that he was going to
see that she went to college if he had to sell the farm to send her.
She went to college, but it didn't take the farm to send her.
III
THE SPRING VALLEY SCHOOL
An excellent result of the absence of centralization in the
United States.... The widest possible scope being allowed to
individual and local preferences, ... one part of our vast
country can profit by the experience of the other parts.
JOHN FISKE.
Kindly convey my blessing to that genius of a teacher in Spring
Valley, the same to stand good till judgment day.
WM. HAWLEY SMITH.
Mr. A. I. O'Reilly, in the school at Spring Valley, Oregon, was
the first to give systematic, certified credit for home work. He
originated the idea of having a prize contest for credits, and
put care for health and cleanliness on the list of home duties.
Dr. Winship classifies new educational suggestions as dreams,
nightmares, and visions. The remarkable success of Mr. O'Reilly in
his home credit school should place his ideas in the "vision" list.
Spring Valley is a rich farming district in Polk County, Oregon,
about nine miles from Salem. Mr. O'Reilly took the school in the
fall of 1909. He rented a farmhouse about half a mile away, brought
his wife and little boys out from Dakota, where he had served as
county superintendent, and went to work building up his school.
He gained great influence with the boys and girls, and was much
respected and thoroughly liked by everybody.
He noticed that on each big, well-developed farm in the neighborhood
there was a great deal of work for the boys and girls to do, but
that they did not as a rule do it with cheerfulness and interest.
He wanted, if possible, to change their attitude of mind. So, with
the hearty approval of his board of directors, he arranged to give
school credit for home work. This was in the fall of 1911. Various
tasks that the children ought to do he put into a list, and allowed
a certain number of minutes credit for each one.[1] The three
children having earned the greatest number of credits at the close
of the nine school months were to receive three dollars each, and
the three next highest, two dollars. The money was to be allowed by
the school board, and put into the savings bank to the credit of the
prize-winners.
[1] The details of Mr. O'Reilly's plan are given in Part Two, pages
73-77.
Every one of the thirty-three pupils in the school was enrolled
in this new kind of contest. The registering of the credits each
morning meant extra work for the teacher, but it brought extra
results. The prospect of a bank account for the winners incited
the children to learn for the first time something about banks and
banking. There was a "we-are-doing-something" atmosphere throughout
the school.
[Illustration: SPRING VALLEY SCHOOL, OREGON, WHERE HOME CREDITS WERE
GIVEN, 1911-1912]
In answer to the query of some visitors if this giving of credit for
home work did not interfere with school work, Mr. O'Reilly pointed
to the record in the county spelling contest, in which his school
had earned 100 per cent that month.
The county superintendent, Mr. Seymour, had announced that a banner
would be given to his rural schools showing that they were standard
schools as soon as they should meet certain requirements. These
requirements were well-drained school grounds; school building
properly lighted, heated, and ventilated; schoolhouse and grounds
neat and attractive; sanitary outbuildings; walk made to building
and outbuildings; individual drinking-cups; the purchase each year
of one standard picture; thorough work on the part of teacher and
pupils; the enrollment of every pupil in the spelling contest; and
an average of 95 per cent in attendance. Spring Valley was the first
school in the county to receive the banner and become a standard
school.
The county superintendents of Oregon were assembled at Salem in
January, 1912, for the purpose of grading teachers' examination
papers. They were much interested in what they heard of Mr.
O'Reilly's work at Spring Valley and accepted with great pleasure
the invitation of Mr. Seymour to visit the school. As that day in
Mr. O'Reilly's school is significant, I wish to quote an article
about it written by T. J. Gary, superintendent of Clackamas County.
Mr. Gary's article was printed in one of the Oregon City papers in
January, 1912.
Last Saturday seventeen county school superintendents and the
superintendent of public instruction drove through the wind and
rain to Spring Valley, Polk County, to attend a parent-teachers'
meeting. Why? Because we had heard much of a new plan that was
being tried out by the teacher, pupils, and parents of the
school in that beautiful valley. Did we go because it was a
new plan? No. If we should try to investigate every new plan
we would be going all the time. We went because we thought we
saw a suggestion, at least, of a solution of two very important
problems: "How to bring the school and the home into closer
relation," and "How to make the boys and the girls in the
country love their home."
We arrived at the Spring Valley School at 10.30 A.M. and
observed first a board walk from the road to the schoolhouse
door and a well-drained school-yard free from all rubbish, such
as sticks, pieces of paper, and so forth.
Upon entering the room we observed that the directors had made
provision for the proper heating, lighting, and ventilation
of the schoolroom. On the walls were three nicely framed
pictures, the "Sistine Madonna," "The Christ," and "The Lions,"
all beautiful reproductions of celebrated works of art. The
building was a modest one, much like many school buildings we
find through the country, but there was about it that which said
plainer than words can say it, "This is a well-ordered school."
Looking to the right, we saw on a partition wall, on the floor,
and on the side wall, a variety of articles: aprons, dresses,
doilies, handbags, handkerchiefs, kites, traps, bird houses, and
various other things made by the boys and girls of the school.
At the left in the other corner of the room were loaves of
bread, pies, cakes, tarts, doughnuts, and other tempting things
prepared by the girls and boys. The writer sampled various
edibles, among them a cake baked by Master Z----, son of our
ex-superintendent, J. C. Z----. I can cheerfully say that it was
the kind of cake that makes a man want more.
These things were all of interest to us, but the one thing we
were most curious to know about was the system the teacher had
of giving credits for home work; not school work done at home,
but all kinds of honest work a country girl or boy can find
to do. Pupils were given five minutes credit for milking a
cow, five minutes for sleeping in fresh air, five minutes for
taking a bath, and so on through the long list of common duties
incident to home life in the country. The rule of the school is
that any pupil who has earned six hundred minutes may have a
holiday, at the discretion of the teacher. If the pupil asks for
a holiday to use for some worthy cause the teacher grants it,
providing it does not interfere too much with the pupil's school
work.
Space will not permit my giving a more detailed account of the
plan. I trust that enough has been given to show the principle
involved. The teacher was subjected to volley after volley of
questions from the superintendents, but was able to answer all
of them with alacrity. The chairman called upon the parents to
give their testimony as to the success of the movement. I cannot
write here all that was said, but will give two statements as
fair samples of all.
One good motherly-looking country woman said: "Before this plan
was started I got up in the morning and prepared breakfast for
the family, and after breakfast saw to the preparation of the
children for school. Now, when morning comes the girls insist
upon my lying in bed so that they may get breakfast. After
breakfast they wash the dishes, sweep the kitchen, and do many
other things as well as make their own preparation for school. I
think the plan is a success. My only fear is that it will make
me lazy."
One father said: "I have two boys--one in the high school and
Jack, here. It was as hard work to get the older boy out in the
morning as it was to do the chores, and as Jack was too young
to be compelled to do the work, I let them both sleep while I
did it. Now, when the alarm sounds, I hear Jack tumbling out of
bed, and when I get up I find the fires burning and the stock at
the barn cared for; so all I have to do is to look happy, eat my
breakfast, and go about my business. Yes, it is a great success
in our home."
At this point Superintendent Alderman said: "Jack, stand, we
want to see you," and Jack, a bright, manly-appearing country
boy of fourteen years stood blushing, while we looked our
appreciation.
One man told of the many things that his daughter had done,
whereupon it was suggested that she might do so much that her
health would be in danger. A pleasant smile flitted across
the face of the father as he said, "Daughter, stand and let
these men see if they think you are injuring your health." A
bright, buxom, rosy-cheeked girl--the very picture of health and
happiness--arose while we laughed and cheered.
To the question, "Does this work interfere with the work of the
school?" the teacher pointed to the record of the school in a
spelling contest that is being conducted in this county, and
read "100 per cent for this month; 98.12 per cent for last," and
said, "No, I find that the children have taken more interest in
their work and are making more progress than before."
When alone, after time for reflection, I thought, "One swallow
does not make a summer" and one school does not prove that this
is a good plan. In Spring Valley the conditions are ideal,--a
board of directors who do their duty, a citizenship that is
far above the average, girls and boys from well-ordered homes
of a prosperous people, a teacher who would succeed anywhere
with half a chance, a wide-awake, sympathetic county school
superintendent,--and yet I thought if this is good for the
Spring Valley School, might it not be a good thing for all our
schools? I have not reached a conclusion, but have had much food
for thought, and am more than pleased with my experience and
observation.
What do you think about it, gentle reader? Is it a passing
fancy? A fad, if you please? Or is it a means for training boys
and girls to habits of industry and to a wholesome respect for
honest toil? Will it bring the home and the school into closer
relation? And will it cause the country boys and girls to love
their homes, to love the country with its singing birds, its
babbling brooks, its broad fields and friendly hills?
There was not a school in the State that responded better to any
movement initiated by the State or county than the one in Spring
Valley. Every pupil was greatly interested in the boys' and girls'
industrial and agricultural contest which Oregon carried on that
year for the first time. The children raised cabbage plants at
school, protected from the cold by a tent that Mr. O'Reilly
provided. They planned to sell them to the neighbors in order to
get money for seeds, but were sadly disappointed, when they came
to school one morning, to find that a cow had broken in during the
night and destroyed almost every plant. The owner of the cow paid
them the value of the plants, but they were never quite so happy
over the fund as they would have been if the plants had been allowed
to grow.
Six weeks before the end of the school year Mr. O'Reilly began
making Saturday trips to Salem to arrange for the fair with which
he intended to close the school. The merchants subscribed liberally
for prizes both for the children's work and for the athletic events
which Mr. O'Reilly had planned for the afternoon. A local piano
house sent out a piano for the occasion, and an amusement company
put up a merry-go-round, and stands for lemonade, ice-cream,
and all the rest that goes with a first-class picnic. The picnic
was held in the grove a short distance from the schoolhouse. Mr.
O'Reilly and the neighbors had made a platform for which the
children's work formed the background,--dresses, bird houses, fancy
work, cakes, bread, and other articles,--and had made seats of rough
lumber for the crowd. And a crowd it was, for the whole county was
interested in the Spring Valley School. This was one of the first
local fairs in connection with the county school fairs which were
held throughout the State, and the awards were also to be made to
the children who had earned the most credits in the home credit
contest.
[Illustration: PICNIC LUNCHEON COOKED AND SERVED BY SPRING VALLEY
CHILDREN]
We drove out from Salem in automobiles. On reaching the grove we
found it filled with teams tied everywhere, and many automobiles
standing about. Promptly at ten o'clock the school children marched
down from the schoolhouse in an industrial parade, carrying things
that they had made or raised in the garden. A pretty sight they
were, as they took their places on the reserved benches in front,
all in their best clothes, most of the girls in white dresses of
their own making.
The Governor of Oregon was there, and made the first address. At
the close of his talk, the Spring Valley children sang in voices
as clear as the birds, "There is no Land Like Oregon," and were
most heartily cheered. After the remainder of the addresses and
songs came the most breathless part of the day, the awarding of the
school-credit prizes for the year's work. A member of the school
board read the list of winners, and took occasion to express the
appreciation that the district felt for Mr. O'Reilly's work. He
assured the audience that the people of the district considered the
plan one of the very finest that they had ever known, for it put
the children in the right attitude toward their work, and gave the
parents the feeling that they were assisting in the work of the
school. Never in the history of the community had there been such a
year.
The judging of the industrial work was then carried on, while
the Spring Valley home-credit girls set the long tables for the
luncheon, which they had prepared without assistance from their
mothers. We all envied the three women up on the platform tasting
the cakes, and were glad when the ribbons were pinned on, for
we knew then that the dinner would begin. The blue ribbon for
cake-making by children under thirteen was awarded to a boy, Arthur
Z----. The governor and I placed this lad between us at the head of
the table, and he gave us very generous portions of the prize cake.
This was Mr. O'Reilly's last day with the Spring Valley School. The
next year he was chosen one of the rural school supervisors in Lane
County, and he is still there making an excellent record. A recent
letter from him briefly takes up the later history of his Spring
Valley winners in the home credit contest. He says:--
Evangeline J---- was one of the winners. She is doing finely
in high school, and still winning prizes at fairs. She leads
her class in domestic science in the Eugene High School. She
has eighty dollars in the bank, sixty-one dollars and fifty
cents earned from prizes. You know the home credit started her
bank account with three dollars. Golda B---- is another. She
is attending the high school at Sheridan. Her standings are
fine. She very seldom has to take examinations. She has about
seventy-five dollars in the bank. Jack S---- has finished the
eighth grade, and is going to attend high school in Eugene this
year. His bank account is thirty-seven dollars and fifty cents.
Mabel S---- has finished the grades and will go to high school
in Hopewell this year. Her bank account is thirty-eight dollars.
She has a piano her father got her, and is doing well in music.
Verda R---- attends high school in Eugene this year. The other
winners are still little ones, and are attending school in
Spring Valley.
IV
WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE ALGEBRA?
Present interest is the grand motive power.--ROUSSEAU.
An objection to the introduction of new subjects is that
children are already overworked in school. There is, however,
a precaution against overwork; it is making school work
interesting to the children. To introduce new and higher
subjects into the school program is not necessarily to
increase the strain upon the child. If this measure increases
the interest and attractiveness of the work and the sense of
achievement, it will diminish weariness and the risk of hurtful
strain.
CHARLES W. ELIOT.
When I was county superintendent in Yamhill County I used to talk
much of the home credit plan in local institutes. One day when I
was explaining how the plan worked, and how I had given credit in
algebra for home activities, a teacher arose in the audience and
said he was willing to go almost any length with me, but he thought
it was going too far to give credit in algebra for what was not
algebra. "Is it not dishonest?" he asked, "and will it not teach
dishonesty? Besides, if you give credit in this way for things not
algebra, _what will become of the algebra_?" This is an unsettled
problem: what _will_ become of the algebra? True, Mary got more
algebra! I put this unsettled question alongside of another. I was
arguing for the consolidation of schools in a little district near
a larger district, and had tried to show that consolidation would
be much cheaper, and would bring greater advantages, when a man
stood up and said that he agreed in general with the plan but that
it would not work in this district, "for," said he, "this district
has a cemetery deeded to it, and if the district should lose its
identity, _what would become of the cemetery_?" As these questions
are similar, I put the algebra into the cemetery.
I believe in algebra, but in order to teach algebra I believe it is
first necessary to see to it that the child is in a constructive
frame of mind. He should be in harmony with his surroundings. When
Mary became interested in her home, she was in a mood to work
problems in advance. When her home was neglected, her algebra
problems were all in arrears.
Even though we omitted the consideration of the health, the
morals, and the working ability of the pupils, the home credit
system would be justified as a part of the school work because
of its revitalizing effect on the regular school work. The
teacher who succeeds in touching the hidden springs of youthful
interest is doing more for humanity than the man who discovers the
much-sought-for method of bringing static electricity out of space.
A child, or a man either for that matter, is a dynamo of energy
when interested. Many people think that children in school are
overworked; in my opinion they are more often underinterested. One
little lad of about five, taking a Sunday walk with grown people,
told his father that he was very tired, that his legs fairly ached,
and that he would have to be carried or else camp right there. A
member of the party (I wish I could remember his name, for he was
a good child psychologist) said to the boy, "Why, sure, you don't
have to walk. I'll get you a horse." He cut a stick horse and a
switch. The boy mounted at a bound, whipped his steed up and down
the road, beating up the dust in circles around the crowd. By the
time he reached home he had ridden the stick horse twice as far as
the others had walked, and had not remembered that he was tired.
My first trial of home credits convinced me that children would
do better school work because of the plan. I have letters from
many teachers through the Northwest bearing me out in my opinion.
I quote: "It stimulates to better work in school." "The teachers
notice an improvement in school work along all lines." "It has
helped to make our school, in some respects at least, as good as any
in the county, according to the county superintendent's own word. A
member of the board says the children have never made such progress
since the school was built, and all say these children have never
made so much progress before." Tardiness is reported to be much less
in home credit schools.
A prominent Western dairyman remarked that arithmetic had always
been a hopeless subject for him. He declared that arithmetically
he was "born short." A listener inquired if he had any trouble in
keeping accounts, in figuring out the profits on each dairy cow,
or in doing other problems connected with his farm. He replied
very quickly, "No, not at all. I don't have any trouble with
anything except arithmetic." Home credits take into account the
out-of-school mathematical activities. So the boy who has measured a
cord of wood, laid out a garden plot, figured out the costs, income,
and profits of feeding a pig for a year, or solved any problem that
comes up on the farm, will be considered to have done something in
arithmetic.
From Auburn, Washington, comes a story of the effect of giving
school credits for garage and shop work. Joe, a boy of seventeen,
who had attended high school for a year and a half, had earned only
three academic credits, and his other work was below passing. The
superintendent, Mr. Todd, called a conference with Joe's parents
and, to use his own expression, went after Joe "with hammer and
tongs." After much discussion, the superintendent finally asked the
father and mother what the boy seemed most interested in outside of
school. Exchanging a troubled glance with his wife, the father said
that as soon as Joe got out of school he rushed straight to Meade's
garage. So the superintendent went to the garage, and found that Joe
could be taken into Mr. Meade's employment for the afternoons. Again
he called Joe to his office, and said to him, "Now, see here.
You are going on with your regular subjects here in school, and in
addition you are going to do some work down in Meade's garage. Mr.
Meade is going to grade your work and send in his report to me. If
you make good there it will help out your record here. You will get
pay for your work, too. You have got it in you to make good, and I
know you will. What do you think about it?" "I think it's bully!"
exclaimed Joe.
[Illustration: JOE IN THE GARAGE, AUBURN, WASHINGTON]
Joe had failed in his geometry, but as soon as he took the position
at the garage his work in geometry improved. It was about Christmas
that he began working, and at the time of the report several months
later he was doing well in his mathematics. The credit he received
from the garage counted toward his marks for high-school graduation.
Mr. Meade, incidentally, was very much pleased with his part in the
transaction, and sent in his reports with religious regularity.
Not only Joe, but some half dozen other boys in Mr. Todd's school
at Auburn are now "farmed out" in this manner, and work downtown
under regular contract. They are mostly boys who had lost interest
in school, and were at the dropping-out stage. Mr. Todd's plan is
similar to the one in use at Fitchburg, Massachusetts.
Herbert M----, of Minnehaha, Washington, is such a busy boy at home
that he does not have time to look at a book after he leaves school.
This year, 1914, Mr. W. E. Dudley, the principal of the Minnehaha
school, began to give credit for home work and allowed the credits
obtained to be applied where most needed. The first month of school
this year Herbert's arithmetic grade was below 65 per cent; his last
month's grade in the same subject, without adding any credits, was
above 95 per cent. At first Herbert needed his extra credits applied
to his mathematics to obtain a passing grade. But for some cause his
work in arithmetic has improved wonderfully.
If you care to get up at five o'clock and go through the day with
Herbert it may open your eyes as to what an industrious boy of
fifteen does at home. He is always up early, for before the day's
work begins he milks two cows, feeds three "skim-milk" calves and
eight head of cattle, pumps water for them, and feeds nine pigs.
He is then ready for a hearty breakfast. One morning in March,
Herbert and his father agreed that harrowing was more important
than going to school. So he worked five hours, harrowing four and a
half acres. Herbert did not lose credit at school, for his teacher
approved of his morning's work, as he knew how important it was.
He was at school before the one o'clock bell rang, had a game of
ball with the boys, and was ready for his lessons of the afternoon.
At four o'clock he hurried home, and this is what he did before he
went to bed. First, he herded six cows for over an hour, milked two
cows, fed his skim-milk calves, got in the wood, fed the chickens,
gathered the eggs, cleaned two barns, fed the eight head of cattle,
pumped water for them, fed the pigs, and turned the separator ten
minutes.
While Herbert has had some trouble with his arithmetic he does fine
work in composition. At the children's fair at Spokane in October,
1913, he won fifteen dollars in cash for the best essay on caring
for a skim-milk calf, and a pair of scales as second prize for
an essay on how to handle a farm separator. Here are Herbert's
prizes for three years: In 1911 at the county fair at Vancouver,
Washington, he got the second award, a diploma, on his farm exhibit;
in 1912 as first prize on farm exhibit he won a trip to the fair at
Puyallup; in 1913 at the Clarke County fair he received ten dollars'
worth of garden seeds as second prize on farm exhibit, fifteen
dollars in cash for judging dairy cattle, while together with his
parents he won seventy-five dollars for the best adult farm exhibit;
and at the children's state contest, 1913, he received the first
prize, fifteen dollars, for the skim-milk calf essay.
A boy in one of the Portland, Oregon, schools had trouble with his
spelling, getting a mark of only 4-1/2 on a scale of 10. Soon after
home credits were put into use by his teacher he came to her and
anxiously inquired if he could help out his spelling grade with a
good home record. The teacher graciously assured him that he could.
The boy brought in each week one of the very best home record slips,
and in some mysterious manner his spelling improved as his hours of
work increased. He does not need his home record to help out his
spelling grade now, for last month he received more than a passing
mark, 7-1/2 in his weak subject. The knowledge that there was help
at hand relieved his nervousness, and gave him confidence.
V
HONORING LABOR
She ... worketh willingly with her hands ... and eateth not the
bread of idleness. Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let
her own works praise her in the gates.
PROVERBS XXXI, 13, 27, 31.
We are still paying a heavy price for slave labor; for instance, the
idea that it is undignified to cook has come down through the ages
of slaveholding, and has got into some people's blood. The school by
taking into account home tasks can make them seem worth while and
thus dignify their doing. Many persons do not work because their
ideals are made at school, and their heroes are those who did not
win honor at labor, or, at least, the labor of these heroes is not
emphasized.
In the case of Mary, the work she did at home transformed her from a
heedless girl into a sympathetic helper. She had the idea that too
many young people have, that it is more honorable to study algebra
than to wash dishes or to cook a meal. The minute that she saw
that they were considered equal she no longer held back from the
home work, and when in a constructive frame of mind she not only
did the home work but did her algebra too. There is not a normal
American boy who shrinks from a piece of work because he thinks it
is hard. On the contrary, he likes the man's job, and seeks out the
hard things and tackles them. He avoids the things he thinks are not
worth while. So it becomes a matter of the child's point of view
whether he likes his work or not. Too often it is the case that the
child never hears it suggested that there is any merit in home work
within itself. He has the idea that he goes to school to get an
education, and works at home because he has to. Many parents frankly
tell their children that they should study well at school so they
can make a living "without working."
When we give home work its proper recognition, and the child comes
to understand that there are different degrees of efficiency and
skill in doing it, the work will take on a new color. Many are the
reports that have come in from parents in home credit districts
saying, "There is nothing left for us to do in the way of chores.
The children used to seem indifferent about the work, and did as
little as they could. Now the boys get up before we do instead of
waiting to be called, rush downstairs to make the fires, and go at
the chores, while the girls go into the kitchen and start breakfast."
While youth is the time for play, yet children like to work too.
Since we have had the school gardens in Portland we often find
the playgrounds vacant, and the gardens near by well filled with
children at work. We often hear that children should not have
responsibilities; yet we find that the successful men of to-day are
the ones that bore burdens early. A number of successful business
men in Portland were recently talking together of their boyhood
days, and each one said that he had had to assume a great deal of
responsibility before he was twelve years old.
The importance of "percentages," "credits," "grades," or "standings"
in the minds of school children, especially in the upper grammar
classrooms, is surprising to a stranger. Even the drawing teacher is
begged to give marks. "But there are the drawings, arranged in
the order of their merit, on the screen. They can see which are the
best!" No, they want a mark. "To raise our standings," they say.
[Illustration: WORK CREDITED AT SCHOOL, WESTON, OREGON]
Of course, we all feel that "marks" in school have but a temporary
purpose; that they are to furnish a motive to serve until a better
motive can be substituted. Home work may be encouraged at first by
the wish for "higher standings," or a prize, or a holiday; but many
other influences are likely to come in to keep it up.
This is not the place to discuss the teaching without marks that
is practiced in a few modern schools. In most schools the system
of giving percentages is firmly established. The honoring of
achievement in the schools, by marks or otherwise, has always been a
great power in helping the school studies move along. But only part
of the available energy has been used. There are vast reservoirs of
power which may be put at the service of education and which as yet
have scarcely been tapped.
I hope the giving of marks will never be the main consideration
with those who follow the home credit idea, but rather the giving of
honor. Too long have pupils' out-of-school industries been ignored
at school as though they were something to be ashamed of. Whether
we give formal credit or not, let us give honor at school for home
work.
VI
HABIT-BUILDING
Habit second nature? Habit is ten times nature.
THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.
Habits plus ideals make character. The establishing of right habits
in youth can best be done by coöperation of parents and teachers. So
far as we take habit-building as our aim, education becomes definite
and concrete.
At the close of his famous chapter on "Habit," William James says:--
Could the young but realize how soon they will become mere
walking bundles of habit, they would give more heed to their
conduct while in the plastic state. We are spinning our own
fates, good or evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest
stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never so little scar....
Let no youth have any anxiety about the upshot of his education,
whatever the line of it may be. If he keep faithfully busy each
hour of the working day, he may safely leave the final result
to itself. He can with perfect certainty count on waking up
some fine morning to find himself one of the competent ones
of his generation, in whatever pursuit he may have singled
out.... Young people should know this truth in advance. The
ignorance of it has probably engendered more discouragement and
faint-heartedness in youths embarking on arduous careers than
all other causes put together.
One habit that works for success is industry. How easy it is for a
bright boy or girl to get through school without acquiring anything
like a habit of being industrious, even in learning book lessons!
If he is quick-minded, as he has only to keep up with the average
child, he needs little or no work to give him a good standing in
his class. The alert child often gains all required information by
merely listening to the other pupils. Thus we often find failures
among those bright pupils whom we expected to find successful,
because they did not learn to dig and could do only what came
easily. Most occupations demand more than an acquiring attitude of
mind. They demand vigorous exertion, and the seeing to it that the
thing is done. But how is there to be any assurance that the child
is forming habits of industry if there is not coöperation? The child
tells the parent that he has to prepare his lessons and so he gets
out of work at home; he makes the plea that he is tired out by home
tasks so that he may not be given hard work at school. So he misses
the work habit entirely.
Politeness--a show of consideration for the rights and feelings of
others--is partly a habit. Careful watching by parent and teacher
is needed to establish this consideration as a permanent attitude
of mind. It is with much pleasure that I note that many of the
home credit cards bear the items, "Cheerfulness," "Kindness,"
"Politeness," "Keeping temper," "Doing before told," "Care of
language," "Courtesy to parents," and the like. And it is with very
great pleasure that I receive letters from parents and teachers
saying that the attitude of the children in these things is becoming
a habit.
[Illustration: ALGONA, WASHINGTON, GIRL, AGED 12, EARNING HOME
CREDITS
Elizabeth G---- and her mother have a small blackboard in the
kitchen and here they keep a record of all the work Elizabeth does]
Neatness and personal care are habits that mean much to any one.
Some grown people cannot help being neat. Others apparently cannot
be neat no matter how much they try. Something is always wrong. It
is a habit formed when young, perhaps before the age of twenty. In
Mr. O'Reilly's list he included sleeping with window boards in,
bathing, caring for the nails, brushing the hair, cleaning the
teeth, and going to bed by nine o'clock. Personal care has been
given a place on the Portland home credit record[2] which is now
used in some of the schools. Algona, a home credit school about
twenty miles from Seattle, uses the Portland personal care section,
including bathing, brushing teeth, sleeping with open windows, going
to bed before nine o'clock, and attending church or Sunday school.
In looking over the first home credit slips that came in, the Algona
principal found that Nettie, a girl of thirteen, had earned just 7
per cent out of the 100 per cent given for a perfect record in the
personal division. She had earned more than the required two hundred
and ten minutes for the week in the regular work department at a
hard round of preparing meals, washing dishes, sweeping, feeding
the poultry, scrubbing, and so forth. But Nettie had slept with her
window closed, had not brushed her teeth, had not taken a bath,
nor had she been in bed at the required hour. Nettie was obviously
unhappy over the grade her card received in comparison with the
grades of her schoolmates. Before the next report day she had in
some way secured a toothbrush, that effective means of promoting
civilization, and had made sufficient improvement in her personal
care to secure 65 per cent. Her grade for the third week was 72 per
cent, and for the fourth, 93 per cent. Her fourth week's report
showed a hot bath, toothbrushing twice a day, window open every
night, and that she was in bed before nine every night but two.
What her reform will mean to the entire family it is interesting to
conjecture.
[2] For the Portland Home Credit Record card, see p. 120 _ff._
"Be careful about that voice, Ella," directed a teacher. Ella arose
at her place, a thin, stooping girl of about thirteen. She read her
passage of the lesson in a voice scarcely audible to the visitor
across the room. A few minutes later the visitor was looking over
some home credit report slips. "Here is a girl who did not sleep
with her windows open," she said. The teacher took the blank,
studied it a minute, then replied, "This is the first time that
child has brought in a home credit slip. Do you recall my reminding
a little girl about her voice? That is the girl, and this card may
explain her voice quality."
All the pupils except two in a little Washington town learned to
sleep with their windows open. Upon inquiry it was found that one
girl could not open her window, as it was made for admitting light
only, being built solidly into the wall. In the case of the other
child, the parents absolutely refused to endanger their daughter's
health by letting her breathe night air, no matter how many faddists
insisted that it was necessary!
Some members of a church were discussing the problem of the spirit
of incipient immorality that they felt was prevalent among children
in the neighborhood. A home credit teacher showed the speakers a
number of the first report cards she had received, which disclosed
the fact that very few of the pupils under her care were ever in bed
before nine o'clock. A few months later she took occasion to display
again her pupils' home credit cards and with pride pointed out that
almost every child was going to bed early, before nine o'clock. "It
had grown to be a habit with the children to be up late," she said.
"The immorality talked of was not yet in actual existence among
the children, but through their outside evening associates was
gradually working itself in. The children had only to be reminded in
a substantial way that it was not only desirable for them physically
to retire early, but that they were to receive recognition in their
school standing for so doing, and they at once happily complied."
VII
THAT OTHER TEACHER AND THAT TEACHER'S LABORATORY
We are just beginning to discover that the rural school has
a fine laboratory for practical educational purposes, in the
neighborhood environment of the school. With the development of
scientific agriculture and domestic arts in many of our modern
country homes this laboratory is constantly improving.
_Kansas State Agricultural College Bulletin, 1914._
There is a general idea among teachers that parents will not
coöperate with them. This, I believe, is founded upon the assumption
that because they cannot, as a usual thing, coöperate in textbook
work they will not coöperate in other things. But both parents
and teachers want the same results accomplished. If these are to
be attained it means partnership work, the parent and that other
parent, the teacher, working together; or one might say, the
teacher, and that other teacher, the parent, working together.
I have been surprised to find to what extent parents will coöperate
with teachers if given a chance. Mrs. Brown goes to the schoolhouse
on a bleak afternoon. She is greeted warmly by the teacher, Miss
Smith, and given an arithmetic text to follow while the class
recites. The lesson is on decimal fractions. Now, Mrs. Brown didn't
have decimal fractions during her school days, so the recitation is
quite meaningless to her. She is glad when the class is over, and
does not find time to visit school again that term. But if she is
asked to prepare a luncheon for the picnic at the close of the year,
or asked to assist in any social function at the schoolhouse, she
spends her time for the school, and is glad to do it.
In Eugene, Oregon, several years ago I found that the women of the
city were enthusiastic in aiding the schools. Thirty-two women gave
up Monday afternoon to teaching the girls sewing, while the boys had
military drill. At a social center meeting at Hover, Washington,
the suggestion was made that it would be well if one of the mothers
would come to the school building occasionally to help the girls
with their sewing, as the eighth-grade pupils would have to take an
examination in the subject in May. So many mothers volunteered to
undertake the task that a schedule was made out whereby a sewing
period could be had every afternoon, and no mother be on duty
oftener than every two weeks.
At Myrtle Creek, Oregon, domestic art work is carried on in this
way: the teacher gives instructions in the work that is to be done;
in cooking, for instance, recipes are given, talked over, and
written down. The girls then go home, and actually do the work, and
make a report to the teacher. They must have the signatures of their
mothers for all the work they do. This is managed with a home credit
report card.
Mrs. E. H. Belknap, a progressive rural teacher near Jefferson,
Oregon, said in a recent letter: "We learn how a cow can be fed and
cared for, so as to produce the greatest amount of butter fat. That
is well, but we regard it of far more value for the boy to go home,
apply the knowledge learned, and produce the butter fat. He is now
worth something to the world, and able to turn his education into
dollars and cents at any time. The girl takes the book, and reads
how to make butter. She goes home, tends the milk, churns, and makes
the butter, learns how really to do the work. She has called the
attention of the entire family to the amount and quality of her
butter obtained from proper feeding and handling of the cow by the
boy."
And yet it is said that nothing can be done in the small school in
domestic science because there is no equipment. In every home there
is ideal equipment if we mean the equipment the children are to use.
If we are preparing for life, why not use the equipment we must
use in life? Best of all, in using the home laboratory there is an
immediate purpose. None of us can get much out of an exercise when
it is done just for an exercise. There is the dinner to be cooked,
the bed to be made, the ironing to be done; somebody must do it.
And the dinner, the bed, and the ironing are to be put to the test
by some one who sees real values. There is no doubt that one of the
things schools most lack is purpose.
It might be said that to stimulate a child to want to do things
is only half the problem. "If children do things without expert
instruction they may do them wrong, and thus get a faulty habit."
But I think more than half of the problem is solved when we create
the desire to do a thing. The greatest fault of present-day
education is that we constantly try to teach a child how to do a
thing without his desiring to do it, or even knowing the reason
for doing it. On the other hand, I once knew a country girl who
had never seen a domestic science equipment, and who lived in a
community where there was no one housekeeper especially noted;
yet with her strong desire to be a fine housekeeper she learned
something good from each neighbor, and for excellent results, and
for economy of time and material, her daily practice would put the
average domestic science teacher to disadvantage. However I am not
arguing that domestic science should not be taught at school; I
certainly believe it should. But I do claim that it is worth while,
and is absolutely necessary, first to create the desire to _do_ the
things that are to be _taught_. To do things without a purpose is
like trying to eat without an appetite.
A pamphlet published by the Kansas State Agricultural College on
"School Credit for Home Work: The Laboratory of the Rural School,"
makes these practical points:--
Could there possibly be a more favorable condition for teaching
Domestic Arts than in the rural school from which the girl
goes every evening to a busy home where she is needed to take
part in the actual work of housekeeping? It is here that the
girl has a chance to put into actual practice the things she
has learned at school. Here the home has the chance to realize
immediately upon the investment it is making in the education of
the girl. If sanitation, ventilation, sweeping and dusting, care
of the sick, preparation of foods, care of milk, water supply
and uses, bathing, care of health, sewing, proper clothing,
etc., are taught in our schools, and if the laboratories are
in the immediate neighborhood, and the girls and boys must go
into them to stay overnight, they should be used. Likewise, the
vegetable gardens at the homes should be made the experimental
plots for the school, after the best seeds have been selected,
best methods of preparing, fertilizing, and planting the soil,
best-known methods of cultivation and maturing the crops, have
been taught. The actual experimental work should be carried out
in the home gardens by the boys and girls. Proper records can be
kept, and the boys and girls will be anxious to get back into
school, after the out-of-doors summer experiments, to compare
reports, and renew another phase of their educational work.
In agriculture the fields, stock, buildings, etc., about the
schoolhouse should be studied and used. These are the real
agricultural laboratory. The real problems of actual farming are
present, and the methods of work and the ways of handling the
fields and the stock are the available resources of the school
as a part of its actual laboratory. In this connection study
the dairy cows, the feeding of cattle, hogs, and horses, types
and breeds of farm horses, cattle, hogs, and sheep. In every
community there are many opportunities for type studies--such as
fields of alfalfa or wheat or corn; a dairy herd; valuable and
well-bred horses; beef cattle; hogs or sheep; a silo, or types
of farm machinery, and farm buildings.
It is natural for a child to want to assume home responsibilities,
but there are many things that interfere unless a special effort
is made. The school itself has been a great offender in weaning
children from their homes and from natural living. This, of course,
is not strange when we consider that the school started out to make
lawyers and ministers, and not home-makers. Yet one of the great
needs of the time is to make people home-loving, and to have those
wholesome habits that come from sharing home responsibilities.
Anything is worth while that will make the child once taste the joy
of doing a useful thing well.
VIII
STELLA AND SADIE
Through ignorance ye did it.--Acts III, 17.
"Let the school go on just as it has. What business is it of the
school to meddle with the home work? Of course most children do
certain chores at home, but why confuse the work of the home with
the work of the school?"
Have you heard this speech? I have heard it several times. Does
justice demand that we know what pupils do outside of school? Must
the teacher know home conditions in order to teach efficiently? I
have in mind a true story that answers these questions and shows
the injustice of teaching children when one knows little or nothing
of their home life. I am sure most teachers have had similar
experiences.
In a certain schoolroom in a certain town I noticed one day two
girls in the same class sitting near each other. The contrast
between them was so great that I became interested in them, and
found out something of their history and circumstances. Stella, the
younger one, eleven years old, was a perfect picture of rosy health.
Her brown hair was beautiful and most becomingly arranged. Many
women would have been delighted to wear such furs as she put on at
the noon recess. Well dressed and well nourished, she had the look
of one much loved at school and at home, one to whom life was all
happiness.
Stella is the only child of wealthy and doting parents. If we
should follow her home we should find a well-kept modern house,
and we should see that the mother who greets her at the door is
just such a mother as we should expect for such a girl. While the
evening meal is being prepared, her mother sits beside her at the
piano, and helps with her practice, and when the father comes in,
the three sing together until dinner is announced. After dinner
her mother helps her with her Least Common Multiple and Greatest
Common Divisor. They all discuss her composition and then her mother
asks her to read aloud, and reads to her. Promptly at nine o'clock
she goes to bed in just the kind of room a little girl loves. The
windows are opened to the proper width, the heat is turned off, she
is kissed good-night, and is told, "Mother loves you, and Father
will come in and kiss you when he comes home."
In the morning at seven o'clock she is called by a very gentle
voice, and told it is time for Mother's angel to leave her dreams.
Her mother helps her dress, and brushes and braids her hair. "What
will Father's sweetheart have for breakfast this morning?" She will
have grape-fruit and a poached egg on toast. After some fitting
by the seamstress for a new dress to be added to her already full
wardrobe, she is thoroughly inspected and is ready for school. She
is given some flowers for the teacher, and is accompanied part way
by her mother. She is early at school, her teacher kisses her, pats
her cheeks, and Stella is ready for the lessons, the lessons her
mother helped her with the evening before. There she is, happy,
radiant!
Now let us go home with the other girl. Sadie is thirteen, but she
looks much older notwithstanding her frail little figure. Did I say
home? Be the judge. A few years ago her father and her aunt ran away
together, leaving the mother with Sadie and two younger children.
The broken-spirited mother died after the desertion, and the father
and aunt returned, were married, and took possession of the house
and the three children. They now have a baby a year old. The family
live in a tumbledown house at the edge of the city. On entering the
house Sadie receives no greeting from her stepmother-aunt, who is
sitting by a dirty window reading. The child knows what work there
is to do, and goes at it sullenly. After the meal, at which she
scarcely has time to sit down, she has to do up the work, and then
is sent on an errand. When she returns it is nine o'clock and she is
hardly able to keep her eyes open. The Least Common Multiple and the
Greatest Common Divisor are like Greek to her. After she has tried
to study a few minutes, her stepmother disturbs her by throwing
her brother's stockings into her lap to be mended. When this task
is completed, and the potatoes are peeled for breakfast, she goes
upstairs. She tenderly draws the covers about her sleeping brother
and creeps into bed beside her little sister. Though she is very
weary, her starved soul is comforted as she cuddles and kisses her
sister before she drops to sleep.
In the night she awakens, and thinking Harry is again uncovered she
slips over to his bed, like a little mother, and again adjusts the
bedclothes. The baby awakens at five o'clock, and Sadie is called
and told to make a fire and warm the milk. She then gets breakfast,
does the kitchen work, spreads up the beds, sews a button on her
brother's coat, braids her sister's hair, and is late at school.
She came in a few minutes late the morning I visited her room.
The class was trying to make a record for punctuality, and had
tied another room for first place until this morning when Sadie's
lateness set them behind. The teacher was provoked and reproved
Sadie. The pupils showed their scorn in many ways and said she
was the cause of all but three of the tardy marks of the term.
The teacher knew that the principal would ask her why she did not
improve her tardy record. The pupils knew that their chances for a
half-holiday were spoiled as long as "that Sadie Johnson" was in the
room.
This morning especially the teacher wished to make a good showing
because she wanted a place in a larger city and hoped that I would
recommend her. Arithmetic was the first thing on the program. The
principal had boasted of the work of his school in arithmetic. The
work went beautifully, for Stella led off with a perfect recitation.
The pride of the whole class was evident, the teacher was hopeful.
But wanting to see the work of all the pupils, I asked several
questions, and at last called upon Sadie. She didn't know, she stood
abashed, and showed absolute lack of understanding of the subject.
The principal was provoked. The teacher was plainly humiliated,
and said in a tone that was low, but loud enough for Sadie and
several of the children to hear, "The girl is not only lazy, but
feeble-minded."
So it was the whole term. Sadie was tortured each school day,
condemned by the most powerful court in the world, her companions,
led by her teacher. And the reason was that the teacher was teaching
only the six-hour-a-day girl. One does not have to go to Turkey
to see examples of injustice and cruelty. But let us not be too
critical of the teacher. She is tender-hearted and sympathetic. She
weeps over the heroines in books, and has latent longings to be of
service in the world. In this case she did not know the conditions
that made Sadie stupid. If she had been interested in the children's
out-of-school work, and had had them tell her about it, she would
have known that the frail little unkempt girl was compelled to do
a woman's work at home besides trying to get her lessons. Then she
would have seen the tragedy in the child's appealing glance and
have understood her. Some people go through life without finding
an opportunity to do justice, such as was this teacher's. In
ministering to the soul-hunger of this little girl she might have
given the service that she had dreamed of giving. It would have been
the kind of service that is its own reward.
IX
A STORY AND LETTERS FROM TEACHERS
A STORY FROM NEBRASKA, BY MRS. SARAH J. HOAGLAND
One spring found me in Nebraska teaching a school of German and
Bohemian children, only two of whom spoke English. I boarded with a
German family who lived about a mile from the school. In our walks
to and from school I taught the children English. They and their
father were born in Nebraska, but at first none of them could speak
English so that I could understand it, although I understood some of
their German.
The oldest boy--ten years old--lanky, with awkward gait, and fair,
straight-standing hair, had a dogged, sullen look. It was a "home"
look, especially when the father was around, but it left when he was
trying to tell about birds or other interesting things. His telling
me that he intended to work in town as soon as possible gave me a
peep into his heart as regarded home. It was not a happy home. The
father often drank, and at such times he was harsh and cruel. The
mother was meek and subdued. She never had known how to do good
housekeeping. She told me that when a girl in Germany, being large
and strong, she had had to work in the fields instead of learning
housework.
The farm was run down; the house was bare and unhomelike. The
father's voice was often raised in upbraiding in "Low Dutch." He
often had the children rounded up for punishment for starting fires
or other mischief. The seven-year-old boy was more efficient, either
in the home or out, than the ten-year-old boy. I noticed that he had
a better head and intelligence. His efficiency was due to this, not
to any better training.
The mother often cried over the brutality of the father to the
oldest boy. I determined to study the situation, and I found a
remedy. I learned that the father could do practically nothing in
arithmetic. He had attended school for his confirmation--a little
reading in German being the only apparent result. So I taught the
boy arithmetic, and after I had worked with him two hours every
night for several months, he could do addition better than his
father. It was wonderful to see the pride and dawning respect on
the father's face as the boy figured correctly the weight of many
wagon-loads of grain lately taken to the elevator. I knew then that
the unreasonable whipping would tend to stop. I seldom see a father
unreasonable with a boy he can be proud of at school. So the sky was
clear for a time.
But when the press of spring work came on and the father found
he could not afford to employ help, he grew moody and was even
savage again. He drank, and at times I was afraid of him myself.
But I liked the mother. I knew she needed the board money for the
children, and I wanted to see the case of the boy to a finish. So
I stayed on. The lovely outdoor surroundings, too, made me want to
stay. The orchard was beautiful--the finest in the neighborhood.
The birds sang in a large maple at my window. This was a treat to a
flat-dweller. Since then I have ever loved the country.
I often asked the mother what the father was saying to the oldest
boy. I knew as far as the boy was concerned I could help the matter
by influencing him. She said that the father was complaining that
the boy was worthless as a worker. For one thing, he had milked and
left the milk in the barnyard in order to play. The complaints kept
pouring in on the patient mother. The father was working early and
late to get abreast of the season's work. He forgot what sleep was,
and grew thin and haggard and more and more savage.
I felt that only some distinct advance would have effect on either
father or boy. I asked if the boy could drive a horse. He couldn't.
He could not work a single piece of the machinery on the farm. That
is most unusual in Nebraska, for the light soil can be worked by
machinery which a boy can learn to run if he can also guide horses.
The father would not teach the boy--had no patience with him. So
the mother and I made our plans. She approached the father with the
question of getting a team and machine for the boy. It happened
to be a cornstalk cutter that was needed. The father consented,
provided the mother would teach the boy! She had done such work,
though she was not strong enough to do it this year.
But I saw her that Saturday toiling in the hot sun, walking up and
down the rows, touching up the horses. The boy proved most apt.
I soon saw him going up and down alone, still under his mother's
eye, however. The boy seemed to grow two years in importance,
self-reliance, and ambition in that day's work! This training was
kept up out of school hours for some time, and the boy learned to
work other machinery, the last thing a corn-planter.
As soon as the father realized what the boy was doing, he was a
transformed man. The knowledge that he had a helper seemed to clear
the atmosphere. Before this the boy had always kept out of the
father's way. Now he forsook the mother! It was "Papa and me" from
that time in his talk. This new attitude made it all the easier
for the wife, for it was a relief from what had been her greatest
trouble--having to stand between the two.
The father's pride and confidence in his son kept on growing. In
many ways he was just a good-natured big giant, but he turned like
a bear on anything that annoyed him.
I remember the first day the boy stayed out of school to work, how
it seemed to me a deciding day in his life. I rarely like to see
a child stay out of school, but that day I thought the industrial
training much more important than anything I could teach the boy in
those hours of school. He came regularly after the rush of work was
over.
A SCHOOL IN MONTANA: MRS. HOAGLAND'S FIRST LETTER TO THE AUTHOR
Last September I heard your lecture on credit being given in
school for home work. I have tried it lately after working the
children up to grade. I started by getting acquainted with the
homes, finding out what the children did and what they could do
further. I made inquiries as to whether the children, in their
play, left things around for the mother to pick up and so on.
The spirit the work is done in counts, too, in credit given. The
work must be done pleasantly and cheerfully; the mother must be
asked for work; she is not to be hunting the child up to get him
to do the work.
One little girl of eleven made bread from beginning to end,
never having tried it entirely before. She has an overworked
mother. In another home I found the two older children took
charge of a teething baby while the mother, an ex-teacher and
rather delicate, did the housework. The little girl, six years
old, could do dishes and otherwise help the mother. In another
home the boy has grown to be the pride of his father's heart by
forcing the father back into the chair, when he was weary, and
doing the chores himself.
One boy, his father told me two weeks ago, was growing as
dependable as his brother five years older, and helped bring the
cows, herd cattle from one field to another before and after
school and on non-school days. There was much other work, light
in itself, but wonderfully helpful to his father, that was taken
charge of cheerfully.
One child's father had a hired man. The boy did but little.
He is eight years old and large. While visiting there, I saw
his father bringing in coal. I told the boy he would find it
necessary to look up work if he cared for credit. His mother
visited school shortly after this; I was telling her of the idea
and she said she now understood why Bennie had started to clear
the table several times, and so on. We had a very happy laugh
over it. The boy hunts the eggs, gets in the wood and coal,
makes the mash for the chickens, and helps wash the dishes.
Another child, aged thirteen, has to do much outside work, so
she feels good over getting credit for it. It is a kind of pay
that makes her days pleasanter. I believe each child richly
deserves the credit I have given. The results have been to make
the tie between the parents and myself stronger, and I am asked
to come back next year. I have seen a gladder, prouder light
in the parents' eyes concerning their children. It has helped
to make our school in some respects without a superior in the
county, according to the county superintendent's own word. A
member of the board says the children never have made such
progress since the school was built, and all say these children
never have made as much progress before. They are learning, as
far as I can teach them, the honor of labor and the beauty of
being useful, willing, and dependable. I have had a hard battle
to wage here for good, thorough work and application, but the
right has won.
I enclose a report that shows the kinds of work the children are
in the habit of doing.
I am the teacher who spoke to you about the new oats being
brought into the dryland country. It is now being introduced
into another part of Montana where my homestead is. You will
perhaps remember me.
Very sincerely,
MRS. S. J. HOAGLAND.
BENNIE McCOY ADDISON SHIRLEY
_Aged 8_ _Aged 9_
Dries dishes Takes out ashes
Makes fire Gets eggs
Pulled up sunflower stalks Gets coal and kindling
Milks (some) Feeds horses oats (15 head)
Gets in coal and kindling Cleans out barn
Gathers eggs Milks cows sometimes
Brings in wood Drives cattle
Carries ashes out Harnesses up
Smashes big coal for stove Hunts eggs
Turns churn Waters horses
Feeds cats Dries dishes
Gets chicken feed Cooks (eggs, pancakes, coffee)
Feeds sitting hen Sets table
Helps catch calves Fries apples and bakes them
Gets clean hay for chicken nests Peels potatoes
Clears table Fries potatoes
Turns windmill[3] Feeds chickens
Slops hogs Carries slop to hogs
Kills flies Drives to town
Fixed his hand cart
[3] Probably means turns the power on or off.
JOHNNIE MAHONEY LOVILO MURRAY
_Aged 6_ _Aged 5_
Feeds pig Opens gate for calves
Hunts eggs Gets kindling
Waters horse Gets coal
Told where sow and her new pigs Takes care of baby
were when no one else could Closes chicken-house door
find them Carries wood
Minds baby Dries dishes
Hunts firewood Leads horses to plow
MAY MAHONEY ALEEN MURRAY
_Aged 11_ _Aged 7_
Bakes bread Washes and dries dishes
Washes dishes Sweeps floor
Minds baby Does simple ironing
Gets coal and water Gets wood, water, and coal
Gathers eggs Closes chicken-house door
Makes cake Dresses baby
Gets cows Tends baby
Waters horses
Pumps water SUSIE MARCKINO
Sewed a doll petticoat _Aged 13_
Sewed sleeves in waist for little
brother Cooks meals
Scrubs Washes dishes
Irons Scrubs
Cooks meals Irons
Peels potatoes Sews--made a waist and a baby
Takes out ashes dress
Dusts Gets coal
Sweeps Feeds chickens
Makes beds Goes for horse
Airs bedding Brings water
Milks cows Gets hay and feeds horses
Feeds calf Builds fires
Hays horses Turns churn
Builds fires Polishes stoves
Turns churn Cares for young chickens
Feeds chickens Dusts
Feeds sitting hens Salts horses
Sets and clears table
Washes range ROSIE MARCKINO
Polishes cutlery _Aged 6_
Does light washing
Prepares vegetables Gets water
Did dishes with four-year-old sister
when all else were gone
A general little helper
A LETTER FROM MRS. E. H. BELKNAP, MARION COUNTY, OREGON
I believe intensely in an education that teaches the boy or girl
not only how the book says to do a thing, but how, by actual
experience and practice, that thing is best worked out and brought
to perfection....
In this district we have used home credits for two years. First,
in order to make this a success, the teacher must believe in it,
and must be a worker. We have given credits for everything from
plowing to washing the baby for breakfast. As a result we have the
little girls dressing their own hair for school, the older ones
cooking breakfast, washing, ironing, etc. The boys plow, milk, clean
stables, cut wood, feed horses, do all kinds of work for credits;
_doing it, they have become interested in it, and before they knew
it a habit has been formed of doing things at the right time in the
right way_. It is truly wonderful what these children do. Some of
them walk three or four miles, and still earn hundreds of credits in
a week. Some of my girls milk as many as eight cows twice a day, and
the boys plow and harrow acres of ground. They do the work gladly,
too.
Monday mornings we give out blanks to be filled out, signed by
parents, and returned the following Monday morning. We always go
over the cards carefully. _I call the names aloud, and the pupils
report quickly. If extra work has been accomplished I always try to
praise the effort. It is a happy hour when the reports are rendered._
At first we agreed that when any pupil earned six hundred or more
credits he should be entitled to a holiday. Thousands of credits
have been earned, but no one has asked for the holiday! Frequently,
when the pupil has been ill, or forced to miss a day, he has asked
that the credits be applied to blot out the absent marks, and this
has always been granted.
PART TWO
I
ILLUSTRATIVE HOME CREDIT PLANS
Upon the demonstration of the success of the home credit plan in
the Spring Valley School I began to hear of other Oregon schools
that had taken it up and were carrying it on successfully. During
the school year 1913-14, three hundred and twenty-five teachers in
Oregon and in Washington were giving school credit for home work,
while the scheme had been adopted by some schools in other States.
For the aid of those who may contemplate its use, the outlines of
several plans that have been instituted are printed here, together
with excerpts of letters we have received, and cards made out by
pupils. These reports come from teachers who have used the scheme
successfully in various forms. The daily report plans are given
first, and the letters are arranged according to the frequency of
the report from the home to the school.
It will be noted that some teachers use a card that is supposed to
last for a whole year, being returned to the teacher monthly as
school cards are often returned to the parent monthly; others have
cards that are marked daily, and last for only a week. Some teachers
use a contest plan of awards like Mr. O'Reilly's; others add credits
to the average obtained in school subjects; and others do both. The
first user of the parent-signed report, Mr. O'Reilly, used no cards,
but had the children write little notes with lists of their labors
every day for their parents to sign. A bulletin from the Kansas
Agricultural College suggests that pupils should furnish the reports
themselves over their own signatures.[4] The only record of failure
we have was in a school where monthly report cards were used, and
no definite scheme of duties was laid down,--merely so many minutes
of unspecified labor. I find that children are more interested when
their performance of particular duties is recorded.
[4] See Appendix.
I should never advise the wholesale adoption of any one plan, but I
would suggest that superintendents and teachers adapt plans to the
needs of their districts. Several schools have been reported where
an enthusiastic principal has put the plan into operation throughout
his school, regardless of the ideas of his teachers. I find that
teachers never feel inspiration in a work that they do not want
to undertake. Therefore, it would be my suggestion that under no
circumstances should a teacher be asked to use home credits unless
she herself desires it.
DAILY REPORTS
The following is the method which Mr. A. I. O'Reilly originated at
the Spring Valley School, in 1911-12:--
_Rules of the Contest_
1. No pupil is obliged to enter the contest.
2. Any pupil entering is free to quit at any time, but if any
one quits without good cause, all credits he or she may have
earned will be forfeited.
3. Parent or guardian must send an itemized list (with signature
affixed) to the teacher each morning. This list must contain a
record of the work each child has done daily.
4. Each day the teacher will issue a credit voucher to the
pupil. This voucher will state the total number of minutes due
the pupil each day for home work.
5. At the close of the contest pupils will return vouchers to
the teacher, the six pupils who have earned the greatest amount
of time, per the vouchers, receiving awards.
6. Contest closes when term of school closes.
7. Once each month the names of the six pupils who are in the
lead will be published in the county papers.
8. Ten per cent credit will be added to final examination
results of all pupils (except eighth graders) who enter and
continue in the contest.
9. When a pupil has credits to the amount of one day earned,
by surrender of the credits, and by proper application to the
teacher, he or she may be granted a holiday, provided that not
more than one holiday may be granted to a pupil each month.
10. Forfeitures--dropping out of contest without cause, all
credits due; unexcused absence, all credits due; unexcused
tardiness, 25 per cent of all credits due; less than 90 per cent
in deportment for one month, 10 per cent of all credits due.
11. Awards--the three having the highest credits, $3 each; the
three having second highest, $2 each. Awards to be placed in a
savings bank to the credit of the pupils winning them. Funds for
awards furnished by the school district board out of the general
fund.
_List of duties with minutes credit allowed for each_
1. Building fire in the morning 5 minutes
2. Milking a cow 5 "
3. Cleaning a cow 5 "
4. Cleaning out the barn 10 "
5. Splitting and carrying in wood (12
hours' supply) 10 "
6. Turning cream separator 10 "
7. Cleaning a horse 10 "
8. Gathering eggs 10 "
9. Feeding chickens 5 "
10. Feeding pigs 5 "
11. Feeding horse 5 "
12. Feeding cow 5 "
13. Churning butter 10 "
14. Making butter 10 "
15. Blacking stove 5 "
16. Making and baking bread 60 "
17. Making biscuits 10 "
18. Preparing breakfast for family 30 "
19. Preparing supper for family 30 "
20. Washing and wiping dishes (one meal) 15 "
21. Sweeping floor 5 "
22. Dusting furniture (rugs, etc., one
room) 5 "
23. Scrubbing floor 20 "
24. Making beds (must be made after
school), each bed 5 "
25. Washing, ironing, and starching own
clothes that are worn at school
(each week) 120 "
26. Bathing each week 30 "
27. Arriving at school with clean hands,
face, teeth, and nails, and with hair
combed 10 "
28. Practicing music lesson
(for 30 minutes) 10 "
29. Retiring on or before 9 o'clock 5 "
30. Bathing and dressing baby 10 "
31. Sleeping with window boards in bedroom
(each night) 5 "
32. Other work not listed, reasonable
credit
While it is sometimes more convenient to have printed record slips,
it is not necessary. Mr. O'Reilly carried on the grading by having
each child write out his home credit work on ordinary tablet paper.
The great majority of home credit schools have used the plan in 1914
without any printing whatever. It affords the children practice in
written expression.
I give here two sample slips brought in by Mr. O'Reilly's pupils in
the first home credit contest in the United States.
_Tora Mortensen_
Jan. 31, 1912.
Prepared supper 30
Washed and wiped supper dishes 15
Made 3 beds 15
Swept 1 floor 5
Washed teeth 10
Was in bed at 9 o'clock 5
------------
Total 1 hr. 20 min.
(Signed) _Mrs. Emma Savage._
_La Vern Holdredge_
April 16, 1912.
Fed chickens 5 minutes
Gathered eggs 15 "
Split kindling 10 "
Carried in wood 15 "
Swept four floors 20 "
Fed one horse 5 "
Dried dishes 15 "
In bed before nine 5 "
April 17, 1912.
Washed teeth. 10 minutes
Swept three floors 15 "
Put up lunch 10 "
------------
Total 125 minutes
(Signed) MRS. HOLDREDGE.
Superintendent A. R. Mack, of Holton, Kansas, has issued the
following plan for daily reports and the issue of credit vouchers
monthly, in bulletin form. Notice that the pupil who is paid in
money, or in any other way, for home work receives no credit. This
card gives a very desirable emphasis to manners and personal care:--
_Rules_
1. No pupil is obliged to enter contest.
2. Any pupil entering is free to quit at any time, but if any one
quits without good cause, all credits he or she may have earned
will be forfeited.
3. Parent or guardian must send daily to the teacher an itemized
list with signature attached; this list must contain the record of
the work each child has done daily.
4. At the end of each week the teacher may read the number of
credits due the pupil for that week. At the end of each month the
teacher shall issue a credit voucher to the pupil giving the total
number of credits due to the pupil up to date, for home work.
5. The pupil in each grade making the highest number of credits each
month will receive an added credit of 10 per cent of all credits due.
6. The school shall be divided into two divisions. The boy and the
girl in each division in each building receiving the highest number
of credits at the end of each half-year shall be awarded a suitable
medal.
7. The boy and the girl in each division in each building receiving
the second highest number of credits shall at their own option be
awarded a medal or an additional 10 per cent of credits already due.
8. Ten per cent credit will be added to final examination results of
all pupils who enter this contest before November 1, and continue in
it until the end of the year. Those entering school after November 1
must enter contest before January 1, in order to receive examination
credit.
9. Pupils entering the contest before November 1 or January 1 will
be given credit not only on final examination grades, but on
monthly examination grades.
10. In case a pupil enters the contest after November 1 or January
1, credits for home work will apply on monthly examination grades
only.
The following schedule has been adopted:
Grades of 95 to 100, additional credit of half the amount between
the grade and 100.
Grades of 90 to 95, a credit of 3 is given.
Grades of 85 to 90, a credit of 2 is given.
Grades of 80 to 85, a credit of 1 is given.
Below 80, no credit.
11. Any pupil in the first three grades earning 600 credits during a
given month may have a quarter holiday. Pupils in the fourth grade
must make 700 credits; pupils in the fifth grade must make 800
credits; pupils in the sixth grade must make 900 credits; pupils in
the seventh and eighth grades must make 1000 credits for a quarter
holiday.
All holidays are at the discretion of the teacher; _provided_, that
the pupil may not have more than one quarter holiday in any 20 days,
and _provided_, that the teacher thinks that it will not interfere
with school work.
In case deportment is below 90 per cent, the holiday will be refused.
12. Forfeitures--
(_a_) Dropping out of contest without cause forfeits all credits due.
(_b_) Unexcused absence forfeits all credits due.
(_c_) Tardiness forfeits 25 per cent of all credits due.
(_d_) Less than 90 per cent in deportment in one month forfeits 10
per cent of all credits due.
(_e_) Loss of temper forfeits 5 credits.
(_f_) Bad table manners forfeit 5 credits.
(_g_) Impoliteness to elders forfeits 5 credits.
(_h_) Bad language at home forfeits 5 credits.
(_i_) Discourtesy to parents forfeits 10 credits.
(_j_) Unnecessarily soiling clothes forfeits 5 credits.
(_k_) Unnecessarily tearing clothes forfeits 5 credits.
(_l_) Report cards kept home 3 days forfeits 5 per cent credits and
an additional 5 credits for each succeeding day.
(_m_) Forgetting books forfeits 5 credits per book.
13. Once each month the names of the six pupils who are in the lead
will be published in the Holton papers.
14. A pupil who receives compensation for work done, whether he is
paid in money or in any other way, shall receive no school credit
for such work.
_Credit Slip for Primary to Third Grades, inclusive_
Credits.
1. Carrying in cobs or kindling 5
2. Carrying in night wood for kitchen stove 10
3. Feeding and watering chickens 5
4. Dusting one room 5
5. Making one bed 5
6. Wiping dishes 5
7. Washing dishes 10
8. Setting table 5
9. Cleaning teeth 5
10. Combing hair 5
11. Properly preparing for school (washing face,
ears, neck, hands; cleaning teeth and finger
nails) 20
12. Dressing without help, buttoning shoes, etc 5
13. Going to bed at or before 9 P.M. 5
14. Sleeping with window open each night 5
15. Dressing younger child and washing its face 5
16. Caring for younger children half-hour 15
17. Proper use of handkerchief one day 5
18. Cleaning mud or snow from feet 5
19. Practicing music lesson 30 minutes 15
20. Cleaning snow from porch 5
21. Cleaning snow from walks inside yard, each
walk 5
22. Scrubbing porch 5
23. Mending stockings, per pair 5
24. Filling the water bucket 5
25. Returning report card on first day 10
26. Returning report card on second day 5
27. Polishing the shoes 10
28. Getting home before 4.30 and remaining home
30 minutes 15
Other work not listed, reasonable credit.
_Credit Slip for Fourth to Eighth Grades, inclusive_
Credits.
1. Building a fire in morning 5
2. Milking a cow 5
3. Cleaning out a barn 10
4. Splitting and carrying in wood, 12 hours' supply 15
5. Bringing in kindling 5
6. Bringing in coal, per bucket 5
7. Filling water bucket 5
8. Cleaning a horse 10
9. Feeding and watering chickens 5
10. Feeding pigs 5
11. Feeding horse 5
12. Feeding cow 5
13. Blacking stove 5
14. Making and baking bread 60
15. Making biscuits 10
16. Preparing breakfast for family 30
17. Preparing supper for family 30
18. Washing and wiping dishes, one meal 15
19. Sweeping one room 5
20. Dusting one room 5
21. Making one bed 5
22. Scrubbing one floor 20
23. Making a cake 20
24. Practicing music lesson half-hour 15
25. Tending flowers in window 10
26. Working in garden half-hour 15
27. Cleaning snow from sidewalk 25
28. Mending stockings, per pair 5
29. Washing, starching and ironing own school
clothes each week 60
30. Bathing (each bath) 30
31. Cleaning teeth 5
32. Combing hair 5
33. Properly preparing for school (washing face,
ears, neck, hands; cleaning teeth and finger
nails) 20
34. Retiring at or before 9 P.M 5
35. Getting up at or before 7 A.M 5
36. Bathing and dressing baby 10
37. Sleeping with window open each night 5
38. Dressing younger child, washing its face, etc. 5
39. Caring for younger child, each half-hour 15
40. Home study, each half-hour 10
41. Making pies, 10 credits for the first and 5
credits for each additional pie.
42. Ironing one hour 30
43. Running washing machine one hour 30
44. Bringing cow from pasture, 2 or 3 blocks 5
45. Bringing cow from pasture, 8 or 9 blocks 15
46. Errands down town 10
47. Carrying clothes 10
48. Helping prepare the meal 10
49. Pumping a tank of water 60
50. Harrowing 2 hours 60
51. Carrying dinner 10
52. Churning 20
53. Dressing a chicken 25
54. Returning report cards on first day 10
55. Returning report cards on second day 5
56. Polishing the shoes 10
57. Getting home before 4.30 and remaining home
30 minutes 15
Other work not listed, reasonable credit.
_General Rule_
For unlisted work credit will be given. One credit will be given
for every two minutes' work.
Mr. N. V. Rowe, the teacher at St. John, Whitman County, Washington,
describes a novel plan:--
At first I used a credit card arranged after the order of a
meal ticket. The plan was to have the card hold credits enough
for one school day of 360 minutes, arranged by 5's, 10's, 15's,
20's, 25's, and 30's. The idea is all right were it amplified
so as to include a school week. The teacher has a punch, and
punches or cancels credits as presented. I found this took
too many cards for each pupil. Some brought in as high as
360 minutes in credits each day, and even more than that in
some cases. At present I am using a plan similar to a grocer's
manifolding or duplicating book where totals are forwarded each
day. This saves time and in some ways is better than the ticket
plan.
The results have certainly justified the effort here. (1) It
lessens tardiness; (2) it enlists the attention of parents
quicker than anything else; (3) it stimulates to better work
in school; (4) it creates a wholesome rivalry. I have heard
the following objections to it: It requires too much time of
a teacher already very busy; and pupils get a holiday when
they ought to be at their studies. These objections are weak.
The plan certainly has a sound pedagogic principle for its
foundation.
The children get but one holiday a month. In case a pupil is ill
or necessarily absent for a day, it is very convenient to allow
that as a holiday. This helps the attendance record wonderfully,
and is perfectly legitimate, so far as I can see. We have been
doing that way all the present year. Bear in mind, we allow such
as a holiday only when one has not been allowed already for
that particular month. In the register I mark the initial "H"
wherever a holiday is granted, and in this way I keep tab.
At Burnt Ridge, near Alpha, Washington, in Mrs. Venona E. Toman's
school, a postal-card photograph is given as a little reward of
merit for each 1000 credits earned. Five credits are taken off
for coming to school with neck and ears not clean. One hundred and
twenty credits are given to the child who washes, starches, and
irons her school clothes for the week. Practicing music and studying
lessons get ten credits for half an hour; but hard work, like sawing
wood and making a garden, gets one credit for each two minutes.
* * * * *
The following is an excerpt from a letter from the Burnt Ridge
teacher:--
I have the children keep their own records, telling them that I
want them to learn to do their own business. Then their mothers
look over and sign their reports. Without one exception the
parents are pleased with the plan. The mothers tell me that the
children hurry to get all done they possibly can before school
time, as they want their credits to increase. One mother said
there was more trouble now between her two girls because neither
one _wanted help_ than there was before _when they wanted help_.
I require that the work be done cheerfully. One mother said she
believed her daughters sang about their work many times when
they did not feel a bit like it. I notice myself, and others
tell me that it is making a difference in the homes. I think
this one of the best features that has been added to the school
work. It teaches independence, thoughtfulness, and thrift.
MORNING AND EVENING RECORD, WEEKLY REPORT
Marion County, Oregon, uses a card issued by Superintendent W. M.
Smith, which provides for a record of daily morning and evening home
tasks, and a weekly report.
This county forms an object lesson in the correct presentation of
a subject of this kind. Superintendent Smith first picked out a
teacher that he knew had initiative and was able to carry her people
with her. He explained the matter to her in detail and kept in close
touch with her work. Her success was so pronounced that he thought
that it was not necessary to make much effort to extend the plan
into the surrounding districts; he knew it would spread of itself.
And it did; like a prairie fire, he found it leaping over districts
and catching in others, until now it is widely used in the county.
The card is the result of much experience and a few conferences with
some of Mr. Smith's best people.
Notice that honesty of record is emphasized; also observe the
details of dairy work and the care of horses:--
[Illustration:
_Home Credit Blank
School............Dis't No................Teacher..............
Name Age Grade
Object: To secure the cooperation of the Home and the School_
...Day of|Credits| Monday | Tuesday |Wednesday|Thursday | Friday |Total
... 191..|for | | | | | |
|each. |a.m. p.m.|a.m. p.m.|a.m. p.m.|a.m. p.m.|a.m. p.m.|
+-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
1. Bath | 5 | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
2. Teeth | 1 | | | | | | | | | | |
cleaned | | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
3. No. | | | | | | | | | | | |
loaves | 15 | | | | | | | | | | |
of bread | | | | | | | | | | | |
baked | | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
4. No. of| | | | | | | | | | | |
cakes | 10 | | | | | | | | | | |
baked | | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
5. No. of| | | | | | | | | | | |
meals | 15 | | | | | | | | | | |
prepared | | | | | | | | | | | |
(alone) | | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
6. Wiped | | | | | | | | | | | |
dishes | 5 | | | | | | | | | | |
(all for | | | | | | | | | | | |
one meal)| | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
7. Washed| | | | | | | | | | | |
dishes | 5 | | | | | | | | | | |
(all for | | | | | | | | | | | |
one meal)| | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
8. Set | | | | | | | | | | | |
the table| 2 | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
9. | | | | | | | | | | | |
Gathered | 2 | | | | | | | | | | |
up dishes| | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
10. | | | | | | | | | | | |
Churning | 10 | | | | | | | | | | |
butter | | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
11. | | | | | | | | | | | |
Making | 10 | | | | | | | | | | |
butter | | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
12. No. | | | | | | | | | | | |
of rooms | 2 | | | | | | | | | | |
swept | | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
13. No. | | | | | | | | | | | |
of rooms | 2 | | | | | | | | | | |
dusted | | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
14. No. | | | | | | | | | | | |
of beds | 2 | | | | | | | | | | |
made | | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
15. | | | | | | | | | | | |
Blacking | 5 | | | | | | | | | | |
stove | | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
16. | | | | | | | | | | | |
Gathering| 2 | | | | | | | | | | |
the eggs | | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
17. | | | | | | | | | | | |
Carried | 2 | | | | | | | | | | |
in the | | | | | | | | | | | |
wood | | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
18. No. | | | | | | | | | | | |
of fires | 2 | | | | | | | | | | |
built | | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
19. Split| 3 | | | | | | | | | | |
the wood | | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
20. Fed | | | | | | | | | | | |
the | 2 | | | | | | | | | | |
chickens | | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
21. Fed | | | | | | | | | | | |
the pigs | 2 | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
22. No. | | | | | | | | | | | |
of horses| 1 | | | | | | | | | | |
fed grain| | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
23. No. | | | | | | | | | | | |
horses | 1 | | | | | | | | | | |
hayed | | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
24. No. | | | | | | | | | | | |
horses | 1 | | | | | | | | | | |
watered | | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
25. No. | | | | | | | | | | | |
horses | 1 | | | | | | | | | | |
bedded | | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
26. No. | | | | | | | | | | | |
cows | 5 | | | | | | | | | | |
milked | | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
27. No. | | | | | | | | | | | |
cows | 1 | | | | | | | | | | |
bedded | | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
28. No. | | | | | | | | | | | |
cow | | | | | | | | | | | |
stalls | 1 | | | | | | | | | | |
cleaned | | | | | | | | | | | |
|-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
29. No. | | | | | | | | | | | |
of horse | 1 | | | | | | | | | | |
stalls | | | | | | | | | | | |
cleaned | | | | | | | | | | | |
+-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
TOTAL
Reasonable credit may be given for other work. When the answer is
Yes or No as in 8 and 9, etc., write 1 for yes and leave
blank for no.
PARENT:--As one who insists upon absolute honesty being taught, my signature
below certifies that to the best of my knowledge this report is correct.
.................PARENT.
]
* * * * *
Oscar. L. Dunlap, principal of the school at Salem Heights, Marion
County, gives the following explanation of the way home credits were
recognized in his school the first year:--
The first month we gave cash prizes; then this was abandoned and
we allowed 20 per cent to be added to each of any two subjects,
and 10 per cent to any one subject in the monthly tests. We give
twelve questions (answer any ten) and those having 20 per cent
allowance need answer only eight questions, and so on. In my
room the pupils work harder to earn the 20 per cent allowance
than they did to earn the cash prizes; for in this way every
one receives a prize. Some think this is a wrong way to give
rewards. I was myself in doubt at first; but my pupils have
actually worked harder during the past two months than during
the six months before we adopted this plan.
DAILY RECORDS, WEEKLY REPORTS
In Spokane County, Washington, one hundred and thirteen teachers
have used home credits during the school year of 1913-14.
Superintendent E. G. McFarland became interested in the work that
one of his rural teachers started on home credits at the opening
of the schools in the fall of 1913. Mr. McFarland obtained what
information he could on the subject, and then worked out a plan.
This made provision for a daily record for five days, and a weekly
report. At his institute he presented the project to his teachers,
and in January some eighty-one began the work. Others soon followed.
[Illustration: O. H. BENSON POTATO CLUB, MORAN, SPOKANE COUNTY,
WASHINGTON
The members are receiving school credits for club work carried out
regularly. The president is "talking potatoes" to the members of the
club]
The Spokane Chamber of Commerce sent out a story of Spokane County's
home credits to eight hundred and fifty of its correspondents in the
United States and Canada. For a while the superintendent's office
was flooded with letters of inquiry relative to the plan. This shows
the great interest taken everywhere in any movement calculated to
better the child's school and home relationship.
At a parent-teachers' meeting in Spokane a committee was appointed
to assist the principal of one of the schools in keeping the
children off the streets. At that time it was arranged that credit
at school should be given to all children off the streets after six
o'clock, and to those who did not go to evening parties.
Below is the Spokane County plan.
_Bulletin for Teachers: Home Credits_
The following are the rules and reward offered for home work. This
work is to be done during the school week. No one is compelled to
enter this contest and the pupil may drop out at any time.
All work must be voluntary on the part of the pupil. Parents
are requested not to sign papers for pupils if the work is not
voluntarily and cheerfully done.
The rewards for this work are:--
One half-holiday each month to the child who has earned one hundred
or more home credits, and has not been absent or tardy for the
month; also
5 per cent will be added to his final examination. The pupil who
earns one hundred or more credits each month but fails in perfect
attendance will have the 5 per cent added to his final examination.
In addition, the board of directors may offer a prize to the pupil
in each grade who shall have the greatest amount of home credits,
and shall be neither absent nor tardy during the term, or from the
adoption of these rules.
_List of Home Credits_
Personal cleanliness 2 Retiring before 9 o'clock 1
Cleaning teeth 1 Feeding and watering chickens 1
Cleaning finger nails 1 Feeding and watering horses 1
Practicing music lesson 2 Feeding and watering cows 1
Dressing baby 1 Feeding and watering hogs 1
Washing dishes 1 Gathering eggs 1
Sweeping floor 1 Cleaning chicken house 1
Making bed 1 Going for mail 1
Preparing meal 2 Picking apples 2
Making a cake 1 Picking potatoes 2
Making biscuits 1 Bringing in wood for to-day 1
Churning 2 Splitting wood for to-day 1
Scrubbing floor 2 Bringing in water for to-day 1
Dusting 1 Grooming horse 1
Blacking stove 1 Milking cow 1
Darning stockings 1 Working in field 2
Delivering papers 2 Going for milk 1
E. G. MCFARLAND,
_County Superintendent of Schools._
The following statement is made by Superintendent McFarland as to
the effect home credits had on attendance in 1913-14:--
We attribute the increase in our attendance this year in the
schools of Spokane County, outside the city of Spokane, largely
to the Home Credit System and our certificates for perfect
attendance. While the enrollment was 108 less than last year,
yet our attendance was 16,712 days more. At the present rate of
16 cents per day, the pupils earned for the county, from the
State appropriation, nearly $2700 more than last year. With the
same enrollment as last year the increase of apportionment would
have reached approximately $6000.
The credit slip for the school week provides for a daily record of
"chores or work done" from Monday to Friday inclusive. It does not
contain a stated list of duties; the blanks are to be filled in by
the child. The list of home credits is furnished each district,
but the teacher uses her judgment in allowing credit for any
chore peculiar to her locality. On page 92 is given one of these
blanks with the work itemized. Note the evidence of cooperation
between Jessie and her mother. On the mornings when Jessie gets the
breakfast her mother dresses the baby, and _vice versa_.
[Illustration:
_Home Credit Work_
_Dist. No......._
_Name, Jessie Jones._ _Age 12. Grade 6th._
Chores or work done | Mon. | Tues. | Wed. | Thur. | Fri.
-----------------------+------+-------+------+-------+------
Washing dishes | 1 | 1 | 1 | ... | ...
Sweeping floor | ... | ... | 1 | 1 | 1
Making cake | 1 | ... | ... | ... | ...
Making bed | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1
Cleaning teeth | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1
Dressing baby | ... | 1 | ... | 1 | 1
Getting breakfast | 1 | ... | 1 | ... | ...
Music lessons | ... | ... | 2 | ... | ...
Making biscuit | ... | ... | ... | ... | 1
| | | | |
Total for week | 5 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 5
-----------------------+------+-------+------+-------+------
(Signed) MRS. MARY A. JONES,
_Parent's Signature_.
]
* * * * *
Here is a letter from a little girl who earns home credits in a
grown-up way:--
CHENEY, WASHINGTON.
April 27, 1914.
DEAR MRS. THOMASON:
I am nine years old, and in the fourth grade. I think I will pass
into the fifth grade. I like to go to school. My teacher is Miss
Grier. I like her. We get Home Credits in our school.
I haven't any pets, but I have a little sister and a little brother.
They are twins, and were born on my birthday, June 11. Their names
are Ruth and Millard. They are awfully sweet and good, and I like
them a good deal better than pets. I get credit at school for taking
care of them.
Your little friend,
CLARA LOUISE PETERSON.
Report of Clara Louise for week ending
May 1, 1914:--
[Illustration:
_Home Credit Work_
_Dist. No. 18_.
_Name, Clara Louise Peterson. Age 9. Grade 4th_.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Chores or work done | Mon. | Tues.| Wed. | Thur.| Fri.
---------------------------------+------+------+------+------+------
Personal cleanliness | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2
| | | | |
Cleaning teeth | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2
| | | | |
Wiping dishes | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2
| | | | |
Caring for baby | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2
| | | | |
Carrying Water | .... | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1
| | | | |
Sweeping floor | .... | 2 | 3 | 1 | ....
| | | | |
Gathering eggs | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1
| | | | |
Going for mail | 1 | .... | .... | .... | ....
| | | | |
Making beds | .... | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3
| | | | |
Churning | .... | 1 | .... | 1 | ....
| | | | |
Setting table | .... | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1
| | | | |
Retiring before nine o'clock | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1
+------+------+------+------+------
Total for week | 8 | 15 | 17 | 16 | 15
| | | | |
---------------------------------+------+------+------+------+------
(Signed) MRS. J. C. PETERSON,
_Parent's Signature_.
]
* * * * *
Superintendent McFarland has received many letters of appreciation
from teachers and parents in his county. One teacher writes:--
The system helps, in bringing the school and home closer
together by letting the parents see that we count the practical
duties of the house and of the farm of actual value in the
training of the child.
One father is encouraging his three boys to earn more than the
required home credits by paying them a small sum of money for
each additional five credits.
Another writes:--
The teachers have noted many cases of much improved personal
cleanliness, which in itself has been a welcome reward. Then,
you know, improved morals go hand in hand with clean bodies. We
are taking into account the fact that cleanliness on the part of
one child usually forces another to clean up on account of the
inevitable contrast.
A parent writes:--
The home credit system is to my mind one of the most practical
features that has been introduced into the public-school
curriculum for some time. It teaches the children self-reliance,
and encourages them to take the initiative when heretofore they
have been indifferent or careless. Its practical help to the
parents is inestimable, as children in pursuit of "credits"
take innumerable burdens from the parents' shoulders.
This from another parent:--
Regarding the home credit system of the public school, my
sentiment as the parent of two boys attending school is that
it is working fine. It makes my boys ambitious to earn as many
credits as possible, and this system as laid out leads them to
take interest in the practical duties of their home, thereby
saving parents many a step, and training the boys for useful
work. The home credit system also stimulates punctuality in
attending school as well as personal neatness, and regular
habits in going to bed at the right time. _It seems to me that
this credit system to a great extent completes the purpose of
the public school._
One teacher in Spokane County has solved the problem of the rural
janitor with home credits. Like thousands of other girls teaching
in country schools, she had difficulty in keeping the schoolhouse
clean. Beginning in January she offered school credit for outside
work, and she included in her list the care of the schoolhouse. She
reports that the room is kept perfectly now. The floors are swept,
the woodwork dusted, the blackboards and erasers cleaned, water and
wood supplied. This same teacher, Miss Lizzie K. Merritt, says:--
It is not pleasant to work without appreciation. We all know
that we make a short job of the unappreciated piece of work. We
cannot expect a child to stay with a thing as long as an older
person unless he sees a definite reward. I have found that home
credits teach observation, accuracy, and punctuality.
The following is an excerpt from a circular sent out by Mr. Harry F.
Heath, principal of the school at Eveline, Lewis County, Washington,
at the beginning of a home credit contest, stating his plan. This
makes provision for a daily record for six days, a weekly report,
and a voucher:--
_Eveline Public School_
EVELINE, WASH., January 5, 1914.
DEAR PATRON:--
Sometimes, in the rush of classes, we of the school forget
about the home life of the scholar. And many times you of the
home know but little of what is going on at school. In order to
connect more closely for the pupil the influences of both home
and school, I am planning this contest in home work for the next
four months.
In order that the contest may be successful, we ask the sympathy
and aid of each parent. The parent is the judge of the amount of
work done by the pupil, and upon the parent we depend for the
accuracy of the reports. Have the pupil prepare his or her own
list of duties performed, ready for your signature, and make
it your duty to see that the lists are accurate at all times,
neither more nor less than the actual amount performed. All
lists should be dated, and none will be accepted unless signed
by you.
The prizes will not be expensive, and will be given only as
tokens of award. The real awards will be realized during the
course of the contest as set forth by the rules.
Then follows the list of credits and the rules.
A letter from Mr. Heath dated April 21, 1914, tells the way in which
he carried on the work this year. Mr. Heath says:--
In answer to your request for information about our home credits
contest, I am sending some of the circulars which I used at the
beginning, and also some vouchers made by the pupils which I
use to give out weekly credits. I am also sending some sample
slips of credits brought in by some of the pupils. These slips
show credits for an entire week, which has proved to be the
most satisfactory way to have the slips kept. A notebook kept
by me of the weekly and monthly totals, as well as the holidays
granted and forfeitures assessed, is all of the record that our
system has required.
Two progressive business men of Chehalis are furnishing
inexpensive prizes in the form of books to go to the seven
leaders in the contest at its close. Four of the prizes will
probably go to boys, but by the rules at least three are to go
to girls. I find in this community that the boys have much more
opportunity to earn credits than the girls. Hence the rule.
The contest has run for four months and is closing this week.
It has been very well received in the community, a number of
suggestions having come in from parents in the way of additional
credits. One was a request that credits be given for daily
reading of the Bible, and the change was made. In my room, which
is the highest in our two-room school, practically all of the
scholars started, and of the thirty-four at that time in the
contest about twenty-five are still enrolled, and the percentage
would be larger if some of the beginners had not moved away.
The contest was tried for a while in the lower grades but was
not successful there. We limited the points that might be added
to the general average to six in any one month, and most of the
live contestants got their six every month.
I got my ideas of the contest directly from Mr. Alderman's
article, which I found in some paper. It has been on the whole
very successful, and worth while. When I try this sort of work
again, it will be on the plan of regular credits, not in contest
form. I believe the Spokane County plan as used this spring is
one that would prove very satisfactory.
The Eveline "voucher" plan gives the pupil something to watch for.
The first paragraph of Mr. Heath's letter explains the use of these
vouchers. Below are sample vouchers, and copies of slips made out
by the pupils. The pupils rule the columns, and write out their
own records, according to a published list which shows the value
in minutes of each task. This work is good practice for the pupil
in ruling lines and making neat cards, and it saves the cost of
printing cards.
The vouchers, which are taken home, enable each pupil to have at
home, as well as at school, a record of the total amount of his work.
[Illustration: two hand-drawn vouchers]
* * * * *
[Illustration:
_Home Credits_
_Alberta Lemon_ _March 30-April 4_.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Mon. | Tues. | Wed. | Thur. | Fri. | Sat.
---------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------
Slept with window open | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5
| | | | | |
Cleaned teeth | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10
| | | | | |
Swept floors | 15 | ... | 10 | 5 | 5 | 25
| | | | | |
Wiped dishes | 5 | 5 | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | |
Washed separator | ... | 15 | 15 | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | |
Made beds | 10 | 5 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 5
| | | | | |
Dusted rooms | 10 | ... | 10 | 5 | ... | 25
| | | | | |
Got supper | 30 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | |
Wiped milk pails | 5 | 5 | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | |
Peeled apples | 30 | ... | ... | 30 | ... | ...
| | | | | |
Made lunches | ... | ... | 20 | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | |
Washed milk pails | ... | ... | 10 | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | |
Washed dishes | ... | ... | 5 | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | |
Retired at 9 | ... | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | ...
| | | | | |
Mended garments | ... | 20 | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | |
Studied | 10 | 30 | ... | 10 | ... | 20
| | | | | |
Ironed garments | ... | ... | 50 | ... | 215 | 75
| | | | | |
Helped with meal | ... | 10 | 10 | 10 | ... | ...
| | | | | |
Went errands | 5 | ... | 5 | 10 | ... | 5
| | | | | |
Scrubbed | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | 40
| | | | | |
Took bath | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | 80
| ----- | ----- | ----- | ----- | ----- | -----
| 135 | 110 | 165 | 100 | 245 | 290
| 110 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| 165 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| 100 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| 245 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| 290 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| --- | | | | |
|1045 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
---------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------
MRS. A. C. LEMON.
]
* * * * *
[Illustration: _Home Credits_
_Rosa C._
---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11
---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
Made fires | ... | ... | 5 | 5 | 10 | ...
| | | | | |
Preparing meals | 60 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 60 | 60
| | | | | |
Set table | 10 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 10 | 10
| | | | | |
Washed dishes | 5 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10
| | | | | |
Wiped dishes | 5 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10
| | | | | |
Washed milk pails | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20
| | | | | |
Carried in water | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 20 | 20
| | | | | |
Turning separator | 10 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20
| | | | | |
Washing separator | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 30
| | | | | |
Fed pets | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10
| | | | | |
Ironing clothes | ... | 35 | ... | 100 | ... | 400
| | | | | |
Making beds | 15 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10
| | | | | |
Cleaned my teeth | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5
| | | | | |
Slept with window open | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5
| | | | | |
Retired before nine | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5
| | | | | |
Washed baby | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | ... | 5
| | | | | |
Dressed baby | 5 | ... | 5 | ... | 5 | 5
| | | | | |
Sweeping floors | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | 30
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
Total | 185 | 195 | 165 | 270 | 215 | 655
---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
Total ... 1685
CHAS. F. CONRADI.
]
The Cowlitz County, Washington, plan is a daily record for seven
days and a weekly report. The rules governing the work are printed
on the back of the credit card:--
[Illustration:
_Work of Home Record_
_Lavita Fowler_ [_age 12_].
_For week ending March 13, 1914._
----------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-------
| Sun.| Mon |Tues.| Wed.|Thur.| Fri.| Sat.|
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Min.| Min.| Min | Min.| Min.| Min.| Min.| Total
----------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-------
1. Work in garden | ... | ... | ... | 30 | ... | 60 | ... | 90
| | | | | | | |
2. Splitting and | | | | | | | |
carrying in | | | | | | | |
wood | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
3. Milking | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
4. Care of horses | | | | | | | |
or cows | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
5. Cleaning barn | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
6. Care of poultry | | | | | | | |
or pigs | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
7. Turning separator | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
8. Churning | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
9. Sweeping or | | | | | | | |
or dusting | 25 | ... | 20 | 30 | 10 | ... | 20 | 105
| | | | | | | |
10. Washing or | | | | | | | |
ironing | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
11. Preparing meals | ... | 30 | 60 | ... | ... | ... | 40 | 130
| | | | | | | |
12. Washing dishes | 60 | 55 | 45 | 20 | 30 | 45 | 90 | 345
| | | | | | | |
13. Bedroom work | ... | ... | 30 | 20 | ... | ... | ... | 50
| | | | | | | |
14. Sewing | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
15. Caring for little | | | | | | | |
children | 30 | 90 | 60 | ... | ... | ... | 60 | 240
16. Building fires | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
17. Bathing | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | 10 | 10
| | | | | | | |
18. Brushing teeth | 5 | ... | ... | 5 | ... | ... | 6 | 16
| | | | | | | |
19. Sleeping with | | | | | | | |
open window | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 70
| | | | | | | |
20. To bed by 9 | | | | | | | |
o'clock | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 70
| | | | | | | |
21. Attending Church | | | | | | | |
or Sunday School | 10 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | 10
| | | | | | | |
Getting sister ready | | | | | | | |
for school | ... | 15 | 10 | 15 | 15 | 20 | ... | 75
| | | | | | | |
Washing floors | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | 40 | 40
| | | | | | | |
| ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | 160
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
Total | 35 | 35 | 30 | 40 | 35 | 40 | 76 | 451
----------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
I certify that the above is a correct record.
MRS. FOWLER,
_Signature of Parent or Guardian._
]
* * * * *
_Rules governing Credit for Home Work_
To PARENTS OR GUARDIANS:--
The scheme of giving credit at school for work done at home by
the pupils can be made successful only through your coöperation,
and faithful report of the work done.
Every Friday afternoon a Home Work Record Slip will be given
each pupil. Beginning with Sunday all time spent by the pupils
in home work should be entered in the proper place.
Each Monday morning a slip filled in during the previous week
should be returned to the teacher. This slip must be signed by
the parent or guardian.
Extra work may be listed in the blank spaces.
To secure credit at school for his work, the pupil should
average eight hours a week, thirty-two hours a month, at real,
honest, helpful labor that relieves the fathers and mothers of
that amount of work. If this is done, the teacher will add three
credits to the average gained by the pupil at the school during
the month in his studies. Additional credits will be given for
more than thirty-two hours a month at the rate of one credit for
every ten hours' work.
Please coöperate with your teacher in this plan for making work
more worth while to the boy and girl.
LUCIA JENKINS,
_County Superintendent of Schools_.
In the District 61 School, near Bellingham, Washington, taught by
Mrs. Lou Albee Maynard, there is used a system of having the home
credit accounts kept by pupils; the children call it the Ruth and
Grace System.
Here is a plan that solves the problem, if it is a problem, of
putting extra work on the teacher through home credits. Not only is
the teacher entirely relieved of the bookkeeping which the system
requires, but the pupils are engaged in practical bookkeeping while
they keep the records. Checks are made out in regular bank-check
form, and receipts are given.
The Ruth and Grace System is thus described in a neat account
written by Emma Ames, a pupil in the sixth grade:--
Ruth and Grace were girls who wanted to learn bookkeeping. In
order to give them a chance we took up the credit system.
At the end of each week the girls give us a slip of paper ruled
and ready to be made out. The mothers sign it. Each thing which
we do counts so much. At the end of the week these slips are
handed back to the girls, and we receive another. We also get a
check telling how many credits we received the week before.
When we make five thousand credits we then receive a composition
book. Smaller things are also given for fewer credits.
The girls keep in their ledgers each person's work. So if any
mistake is made they will have something to refer to.
We call the system the Ruth and Grace System.
The prize list is as follows:--
Washing dishes...................... 10 credits.
Wiping dishes....................... 5 "
Sweeping............................ 5 "
Making beds......................... 5 "
Baking bread........................ 15 "
Dusting............................. 5 "
Scrubbing........................... 25 "
Practicing music.................... 10 "
Brushing teeth...................... 5 "
Clean finger nails.................. 5 "
Splitting kindling.................. 10 "
Splitting wood...................... 10 "
Carrying water...................... 10 "
Milking cow......................... 15 "
Feeding pigs........................ 5 "
Feeding chickens.................... 5 "
Feeding and bedding cows............ 25 "
Slashing one hour................... 25 "
Getting a meal...................... 15 "
Taking charge of house.............. 50 "
Charge for father one day........... 50 "
Building fires...................... 10 "
Sewing.............................. 15 "
Making an apron..................... 15 "
Carrying wood....................... 10 "
Washing............................. 25 "
Ironing............................. 25 "
The following letter from Mrs. Maynard explains the system further:--
I have been requested to report on our plan for giving credit
for home work as we have tried it. One of my pupils has written
a report of our system which explains our methods nicely. This
has been only a trial, but I am so pleased with results that I
intend to use it whenever there are older pupils who can do the
bookkeeping, for it represents a great deal of work, and unless
the school is a very small one the system would add too much to
the already busy teacher's work.
The girls who are represented by our firm carried on the work on
a strictly business basis. They bought the work of the pupils as
represented by the weekly reports. This work was then sold to
me at a gain of 20 per cent. The girls have worked out a simple
system of double entry in six weeks. We, as a school, have
spent an interesting and profitable time, keeping track of our
work, and of their mistakes, and the various ups and downs of a
business.
We are planning a better schedule of wages, a bank in which
to deposit our checks, and a store where the credits may be
exchanged for little articles which represent the rewards; but
this is all in the making, and may have to wait for another
year, as our school term closes soon.
This is a school whose average attendance is about sixteen.
The people are progressive, and see that we have all modern
appliances: gymnasium, school garden, bubbling fountain,
sanitary toilets, and a good heating system are some of the good
things our country school enjoys.
Some original features are included in a plan in operation in
Algona, King County, Washington. The Algona plan of grading is this:
The actual number of minutes employed in doing the daily chores
is registered. Thirty minutes is allowed for church attendance.
Twenty-five per cent is given weekly for each of the personal care
items, bathing, brushing teeth, sleeping with open windows, and
going to bed before nine o'clock. Half an hour's work must be done
each day, else the pupil forfeits the work done that day. If at the
end of a month the pupil has made an average of 85 per cent on
personal care, and has 85 per cent on home work, his grade average
for the month is raised 10 per cent. For instance, if a boy should
have the required 85 per cent in the home credit department, and
should have an average of 80 per cent in his school subjects, his
final grade for the month would be 88 per cent.
Algona uses a book system of keeping the pupils' weekly home credit
grades. The principal records the final grades for each week, after
collecting the cards from his three assistants. He expects to
substitute the card system for the book another year, using the same
plan of record. Below is given the plan for keeping the records,
together with the work of one boy for a month:--
_Leon Noel's Record in Book_
-------------+---------------+---------------+---------------
Week ending | Minutes | Personal care | Leon Noel
-------------+---------------+---------------+---------------
February 2 | 210 | 100 |
| | |
9 | 210 | 100 |
| | |
16 | 210 | 97 |
| | |
23 | 210 | 97 |
-------------+---------------+---------------+---------------
_Home Work Record of_
_Leon Noel._
_For week ending February 21, 1914._
------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
|Sun. |Mon. |Tues.|Wed. |Thur.|Fri. |Sat. |Total
------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+Min.
|Min. |Min. |Min. |Min. |Min. |Min. |Min. |
------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
1. Working in garden.. | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
2. Splitting kindlings | 15 | ... | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 65
3. Bringing in fuel... | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 35
4. Milking cow........ | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
5. Care of horse...... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
6. Preparing meals.... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
7. Washing dishes..... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
8. Sweeping........... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
9. Dusting............ | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
10. Bedroom work....... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
11. Washing............ | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
12. Ironing............ | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
13. Care of baby....... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
14. Care of | | | | | | | |
chickens........... | 15 | ... | 20 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 95
15. Running | | | | | | | |
errands............ | ... | 60 | ... | ... | ... | ... | 120 | 180
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
A. Bathing............ | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | x | ...
B. Brushing teeth..... | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | ...
C. Sleeping with | | | | | | | |
open windows....... | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | ...
D. Going to bed before | | | | | | | |
9 o'clock.......... | x | x | x | x | ... | x | x | ...
E. Attending | | | | | | | |
Church or | | | | | | | |
Sunday | | | | | | | |
School............. | 30 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | 30
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
Total........... | 65 | 65 | 35 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 150 | 405
------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
I certify that the above is a correct record.
(Signed) MRS. C. D. FRENCH,
_Signature of Parent or Guardian._
A comparison of Leon Noel's home credit record on his slip with the
record in the principal's book shows that while he has 405 credits
on the former he is credited with only the required 210 on the
record. C. C. Calavan, the principal, expects to allow a holiday,
or grant additional credit on school work another year, for credits
above the half-hour a day. The children of the school at first
insisted on making an hour's work the minimum for a day's credit,
but Mr. Calavan decided to start conservatively. It will be noticed
that Leon Noel lost three points in each of the last two weeks of
February. This was because he was not in bed before nine every
evening. Mr. Calavan says he is going to change his plan along this
line next year, granting three or four evenings a month when a child
may be in bed a little later than nine without forfeiting credits.
He believes that a happy, wholesome evening, spent in play with
companions, has a very valuable place in the child's development.
Sunday-school and church attendance has become popular in Algona
since school credit has been given for it. The little daughter in a
non-church-going family had never attended any church services until
it was brought out that the other children at school were getting
credit for such attendance. The parents dressed the little girl for
Sunday school, and sent her off, determined that their child should
not be left out in the home credit game.
A boy's record was perfect, except that he did not have a church
attendance recorded. On inquiry the principal found that Albert's
family was of the Seventh Day Adventist faith, and that the boy
was at church as regularly as Saturday came. He was at once given
credit. The children of the Catholic faith are given credit for
attending the catechism class that meets in the schoolhouse Tuesday
afternoons.
"The people took hold," said Mr. Calavan. "The Parent-Teachers'
Association is enthusiastic over the plan, and is doing all possible
to help. Two decided results that home credits have brought about
are that we have a much neater, better-kept class of pupils, and our
boys are off the streets. Several persons have remarked to me that
the school was doing something with the boys, surely, for they all
seemed to be busy after school."
* * * * *
The system introduced in Portland, Oregon, schools, is the daily
record and weekly report plan. The following suggestions were sent
out early in 1914 by the Portland office:--
_Suggestions for using the "Home Record Slip"_
The regular monthly report card should contain two extra
columns, one entitled "Home Work" and one "Personal Care," and
in these columns the pupil should be marked on the scale of 100.
One hundred per cent in the "Home Work" column would be secured
by a daily record of not less than one half-hour of approved
work for seven days each week.
One hundred per cent in the "Personal Care" column would be
secured by daily practice of numbers A, B, C, and D for seven
days of the week, and for attendance upon some religious
service. Twenty per cent could be allowed for each number and
twenty per cent for attendance at church or Sunday school.
The matter of bathing should not be interpreted to refer
strictly to tub baths, since in large families daily tub baths
are sometimes impracticable, and inability to make a good
showing on the card would have a tendency to discourage.
Different plans of reward for a given number of minutes devoted
to work during a week are outlined in the pamphlet, "School
Industrial Credit for Home Industrial Work." These, however,
may be modified or enlarged to suit. All time, including the
half-hour a day and the amount allowed for all other operations,
should be counted toward a specified total necessary to earn the
reward.
These rules are printed on the back of each home credit record
card:--
_Rules governing Credit for Home Work_
Every Friday afternoon a home work record slip will be given to
each pupil. Beginning with Sunday, all time spent by the pupil
in home work should be entered in the proper space.
Each Monday morning a slip filled during the previous week
should be returned to the teacher. The slip must be signed by
the parent or guardian as an assurance that a correct record has
been kept.
Any work not listed but of value to the parents may be counted,
and the nature of the work specified in the blank spaces.
At the close of the school month, when the report of school
work is made out, in the column "Home Work," the pupil will be
marked on the scale of 100 for actual work of not less than one
half-hour each day, and in the column "Personal Care" on the
scale of 100 for numbers A, B, C, and D, and for attendance at
church or Sunday school.
In addition to credit on the report card, reward may be given at
the option of the principal for a specified amount of time spent
in useful work at home.
For purpose of reward credit of five minutes a day will be
allowed for each operation listed as A, B, C, and D, and twenty
minutes for attendance at church or Sunday school.
The Portland home work record slips are printed by the city office,
and furnished to teachers who wish to use them. On pages 115, 117,
and 119 are given home credit records of Portland children, showing
the class of home work they are doing. A swift review of a child's
record gives the teacher a pretty accurate estimate of his home
environment.
Elsie G., whose card is shown, has kept weekly records of her work
for more than a year. She and some of the other girls make it a
practice to help Miss Wright, their teacher, enroll the records for
the class. The method of crediting is extremely simple, but it seems
to work. The pupils return the filled-out slips the first of every
week; at the end of each month the girls count the slips, and for
every pupil who has brought in four slips they register one credit
in the book. Miss Wright looks over the cards as they come in, and
often makes comment on the work, to the individual, or to the class
as a whole.
[Illustration:
_Home Work Record of_
_Elsie G----._
_For week ending December 19, 1913._
-------------------------+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
| Sun. | Mon.|Tues.|Wed. |Thur.|Fri. | Sat.|
+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+Total
| Min. |Min. |Min. |Min. |Min. |Min. |Min. |
-------------------------+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
1. Work in garden | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
2. Splitting kindlings | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
3. Bringing in fuel | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
4. Milking cow | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
5. Care of horse | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
6. Preparing meals | ... | 25 | 15 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 20 | 135
| 1 | 1+| 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | |
7. Washing dishes | 20 | 25 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 20 | ... | 200
| | | | | | | |
8. Sweeping | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
9. Dusting | 15 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | 15 | 30
| | | | | | | |
10. Bedroom work | ... | ... | 10 | 10 | 15 | 10 | 20 | 65
| | | | | | | |
11. Washing | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
12. Ironing | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
13. Care of baby | 30 | 60 | 45 | 60 | 60 | 45 | 60 | 350
| | | | | | | |
A. Bathing | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | ...
| | | | | | | |
B. Brushing teeth | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | ...
| | | | | | | |
C. Sleeping with | | | | | | | |
open windows | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | ...
| | | | | | | |
D. Going to bed before | | | | | | | |
9 o'clock | ... | x | x | x | x | x | x | ...
| | | | | | | |
E. Attending | | | | | | | |
Church or | | | | | | | |
Sunday | | | | | | | |
School | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
Total | | | | | | | | 790
-------------------------+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
I certify that the above is a correct record.
MRS. G. H. G----,
_Signature of Parent or Guardian._
]
* * * * *
Miss Wright began this home credit work by taking sixteen of the
printed slips and laying them on her desk. The boys left the room to
go to manual training, and the girls then gathered around her desk
and discovered the slips. "What are these?" they inquired, and they
each wanted one to take home. There were just enough for the girls,
but when the boys found out about it they clamored for slips, too.
Miss Wright now leaves a pile of the blanks on her desk every
Friday, and most of the pupils take them. They used to ask to have
the credit applied to raise their standings on their lowest studies
(they are allowed, for instance, to increase a mark of seven in
grammar to a mark of eight for one month), but now they seldom ask
for the increase. They do their home work and record it with no
other incentive than the satisfaction of having a record and the
honor and approval of their parents, teacher, and schoolmates.
The ten-year-old boy whose card is shown here goes on week-ends to
the country, and brings in his record afterward with great pride to
show the other fellows that he has cared for horses.
[Illustration:
_Home Work Record of_
_Henry F. P----._
_For week ending , 19..._
-----------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
|Sun. |Mon. |Tues.|Wed. |Thur.|Fri. |Sat. |
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
|Min. |Min. |Min. |Min. |Min. |Min. |Min. |Total
-----------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
1. Work in garden | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | 10 | 10
| | | | | | | |
2. Splitting kindlings| 10 | 15 | 10 | 10 | 20 | 10 | 10 | 85
| | | | | | | |
3. Bringing in fuel | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 15 | 60
| | | | | | | |
4. Milking cow | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
5. Care of horses | 20 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | 10 | 30
| | | | | | | |
6. Preparing meals | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
7. Washing dishes | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
8. Sweeping | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
9. Dusting | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
10. Bedroom work | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
11. Washing | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
12. Ironing | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
13. Care of baby | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
Feeding chickens | 10 | 5 | 10 | 10 | 15 | 10 | 10 | 70
| | | | | | | |
Feeding rabbits | 10 | 5 | 15 | 20 | 15 | 10 | 10 | 85
| | | | | | | |
A. Bathing | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | ...
| | | | | | | |
B. Brushing teeth | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | ...
| | | | | | | |
C. Sleeping with | | | | | | | |
open windows | x | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| | | | | | | |
D. Going to bed before | | | | | | | |
9 o'clock | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
E. Attending | | | | | | | |
Church or | | | | | | | |
Sunday | | | | | | | |
School | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
Total | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | 340
-----------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
I certify that the above is a correct record.
FLORA H. P----
_Signature of Parent or Guardian._
]
* * * * *
We find many instances, like the following, where boys who at first
had nothing to do, seemingly, but to get in the fuel, have begun to
assist their mothers with the dishwashing, dusting, and cooking.
Not only does this work run up their list of credits at school,
but it causes them to appreciate what mother has to do, gets them
acquainted with their homes, and keeps them off the streets.
And it has other uses for a boy. Henry Turner Bailey says:--
Away from home, as a lonely art student and young teacher in
strange and home-sickening boarding houses, maybe I wasn't
thankful to be able to sweep and dust, to wash and iron and
cook, upon occasion, to sew on buttons, to darn, and to mend.
But perhaps my keenest satisfaction came from my ability to make
a bed. The boarding-house madonnas are not, as a rule, highly
skilled in that gentle art.
In view of my personal experiences I have often wondered
why the advocates of Domestic Science are not more strongly
co-educational. What is sauce for the goose seems to me worthy
to be sauce for the gander,--certainly during the gosling stage.
Every boy should know how to sew, just as every girl should
know how to whittle. Every boy should know how to cook, just
as every girl should know how to swim. Skill in the elemental
arts is a form of what Henderson calls human wealth. All should
participate.[5]
[5] _School Arts Magazine_, May, 1914.
[Illustration:
_Home Work Record of_
_Harold R_----.
_For week ending December 20, 1913._
-----------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
|Sun. |Mon. |Tues.|Wed. |Thur.|Fri. |Sat. |
|Min. |Min. |Min. |Min. |Min. |Min. |Min. |Total
---- ------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
1. Work in garden | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
2. Splitting kindlings| ... | 5 | 10 | 15 | 10 | 5 | 15 | 60
| | | | | | | |
3. Bringing in fuel | 5 | 10 | 25 | 15 | 10 | 5 | 25 | 95
| | | | | | | |
4. Milking cow | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
5. Care of horse | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
6. Preparing meals | ... | ... | ... | 15 | ... | ... | 15 | 30
| | | | | | | |
7. Washing dishes | 10 | 10 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 10 | 60 | ...
| | | | | | | |
8. Sweeping | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | 10 | 10
| | | | | | | |
9. Dusting | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | 10 | 10
| | | | | | | |
10. Bedroom work | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | 10 | 10
| | | | | | | |
11. Washing | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
12. Ironing | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
13. Care of baby | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
A. Bathing | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
| | | | | | | |
B. Brushing teeth | x | ... | x | x | x | x | x | 30
| | | | | | | |
C. Sleeping with open | | | | | | | |
windows | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | 7
| | | | | | | |
D. Going to bed before | | | | | | | |
9 o'clock | x | x | x | x | x | x | --- | 6
| | | | | | | |
E. Attending Church or | | | | | | | |
Sunday School | x | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | 1
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
Total | 23 | 17 | 52 | 57 | 37 | 82 | 101 | 810
-----------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
I certify that the above is a correct record.
MRS. F. M. R.----,
_Signature of Parent or Guardian_.
]
* * * * *
A Portland woman, who is much interested in the schools, says:--
In looking over some of the cards I find that the child soon
learns to do his "chores" in less time each week, that he may
have more time for other work or play, and yet fill out his
record card. This is a great help to the parents.
I know one boy who cannot be induced to go out to an evening
affair because he wants to get to bed before nine o'clock so
that his record card will be perfect. How soon could we dismiss
the Juvenile Court if we could get all children to feel like
that! It is worth while to try.
In Polk County, Oregon, the system has been introduced into rural
schools with marked success. The plan here comprises a daily record,
and monthly reports. Below are excerpts from an article written for
the _Oregon Teachers' Monthly_, by Mr. R. G. Dykstra, who used home
credits in his rural school at Suver, Polk County, in 1912-13. I
should like to direct especial attention to his testimony on the
tardiness record of the district; also to his plan of allowing
credit for a long walk to school.
With the following exceptions I carried out the work as started
in the Spring Valley School last year: I required the pupils to
get eight hundred minutes' credit before taking the holiday
instead of six hundred; the number of minutes' credit for
milking cows was increased from five to fifteen for each cow and
a reasonable amount of credit was allowed for all work not named
in the list of chores; children living over a mile and a half
from school were allowed credit for the distance they had to
walk in proportion to the others, and 5 per cent instead of 10
was added to the end of the year on their final school averages
for the carrying on of the work. Only two prizes were offered
by the District, three dollars and two dollars respectively.
Children seldom took advantage of the holiday given for eight
hundred minutes' credit unless it was used for sickness or
unavoidable absence, as they were encouraged in the knowledge
that a day lost was a day's work lost as well. Tardiness on the
part of any pupil doing the work meant a loss of so many credits
already accumulated.
It would be impossible to enumerate the many things this work
has done for this community, but the following facts may prove
interesting to the reader. During the year of 1911-12, without
home credit work, this school had a record of 95 per cent in
attendance and 59 tardies. For the year 1912-13 just closed,
the record is 98 per cent in attendance and 8 tardies. Part
of the home credits given have been for proper care of body,
sleeping with windows open, care of teeth, hair, etc., and the
result of these requirements has been the showing of a healthier
appearance on the part of nearly all the pupils. The parents
of the district claim that the children are doing more work at
home than they ever did before, and the people feel that their
children are getting an education that will be of value to them
and that the money is being well spent in this kind of work.
The card issued by County Superintendent Seymour is here reproduced
filled out by a pupil. It shows daily records for two weeks on each
side of the card. The five school days only are counted.
[Illustration:
_Home Credit Card_
_North Dallas School, Polk County, Oregon._
_Blanks to be filled in each day. Parents sign before returning
it to teacher. Blanks to be returned each month and a
new one secured._
_Edwin B----._ _February, 1, 1914._
_Pupil's name._ _Month._
M. T. W. T. F. Total M. T. W. T. F. Total
Building fire 5
Milking each cow
daily 5
Cleaning barn, each
animal 5 25 25 25 25 25 125 25 45 45 45 45 205
Carrying wood 10 20 20 20 20 20 100 20 20 20 20 20 100
Splitting wood 10
Turning separator 10
Cleaning separator 5
Churning butter 50 30 30 60
Working butter 10
Cleaning horse 15
Feeding chickens 5 10 10 10 10 10 50 10 10 10 10 10 50
Feeding pigs 10 20 20 20 20 20 100 20 20 20 20 20 100
Feeding horse 5 15 15 15 45 15 15 20 15 15 80
Feeding cows 5 25 25 25 75 25 25 15 15 15 95
Blacking stove 15
Making bread 10
Getting breakfast 50
Getting supper 45
Washing dishes 20
Sweeping floor, each
room 5 15
Cleaning house, each
room 20
Scrubbing floor, each
room 50
Making beds, each 5
Washing clothes 60
Ironing clothes 60
Bathing 30
Arrive at school clean 5 5 5 5 5 5 25 5 5 5 5 5 25
Music lesson
Bed at 9 p.m. 10 10 10 10 10 50 10 10 10 10 10 50
Gathering eggs 5 5 5 5 5 5 25 5 5 5 5 5 25
Cleaning teeth 5 5 5 5 5 5 25 5 5 5 5 5 25
Cleaning finger nails 5 5 5 5 5 5 25 5 5 5 5 5 25
Sleeping with window
open 5 5 5 5 5 5 25 5 5 5 5 5 25
Making pies 10
Cleaning and filling
lamps 5
Errands 5 10 10 5 5
Reading book home 5
Distance school, over
half-mile 5 5 5 5 5 5 25 5 5 5 5 5 25
Total 198 138 198 128 113 755 153 173 173 163 163 825
Teacher and pupils to go over list and agree on time for each thing.
Distance from school more than one-half mile to be given credit for.
Any work not listed that is creditable teacher will give credit for.
Mr. and Mrs. W. H. B----,
Signature of Parents.
]
* * * * *
The card given on pages 122 and 123 came from Miss Veva Burns, the
teacher at North Dallas, with the following letter, dated April 26,
1914:--
I am pleased to explain the home credit system as we use it. I
am sending some of the cards filled out by the pupils. We secure
these cards from Mr. Seymour, the county school superintendent,
and are allowed to use them as we think best....
We have a two-room school, and have divided it into two
divisions, the smaller pupils having five thousand credits as
their aim, while the larger ones work for ten thousand. Of
course the number to be obtained would vary with the opportunity
the children would have to earn credits. On the average, it
takes our pupils about three months to earn the required number.
When they have secured the number, some prize, such as a book,
is given, and they are allowed to start again. Then, at the end
of school, the one who has earned the most is given a special
prize. Also, Mr. Seymour allows us to give ten points on each
child's lowest grade, at the close of school, if he has kept up
his home credit work during the school year. Some teachers give
a holiday as a reward instead of a prize.
The cards are taken home by the pupils and filled out each
evening. If the pupils are too small to attend to the cards,
some member of the family looks after them. We see to it that
the system is thoroughly understood by each family. As each card
is filled out, it is returned to us.
We have a school of over sixty pupils, and all but four are
working on the credit system. We did not urge any one to take it
up, but allowed them to decide for themselves.
This letter is from Miss Miriam H. Rarey, who has taught near
Dallas, in 1914:--
Work done on Saturdays and Sundays does not count with the
exception of bathing. Pupils, as a rule, when they bathe at
all, bathe on Saturday. So I told them they could take thirty
minutes' credit for that, and put it down in Friday's space,
in the hope that it would induce them to bathe at least once a
week. It worked pretty well with some of the pupils, but others
would rather do without the credits than do anything so unusual.
When a pupil gets five thousand credits (every minute counts
one credit) he gets his grade on his poorest study raised 5 per
cent, or if he does not need that, he gets a holiday without
being marked absent. The pupils have all worked pretty hard for
credits, and only a few have asked for holidays. The people in
the district have all been pleased with the results of home
credit and I think it is a good thing. I have seventeen pupils,
and they are all using home credits.
The Idaho plan as sent out by the State Superintendent, Miss Grace
M. Shepherd, in a bulletin to teachers is as follows: Miss Shepherd
issued two mimeographed sheets, one of rules, and one a list of
credits. The blank has a place for a daily record and a report for
several weeks.
_Rules governing Home Work_
1. No pupil is obliged to enter the contest.
2. Parent must sign statement of work done by pupil.
3. Contest closes when school term closes.
4. Unexcused absence forfeits all credits. Unexcused tardiness
forfeits 25 per cent of credits per month. Less than 90 per cent
deportment, 20 per cent of all credits forfeited.
5. Suggested awards:
Names of the six highest at the close of school will be
published in a county paper.
Three highest at the close of school to be offered prize by the
School Board or some citizen.
Five per cent credit to be added to final examination results of
all pupils who enter and continue in the contest.
_Urge the hearty coöperation of the parents_.
[Illustration:
_Record of Home Credit Work_
_Month beginning_ ........................ _Ending_................
..................... _School_ ...................... _County_
Pupils or parents will fill in the following blanks each day and return
to the teacher each month signed by the parent_.
------------------------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--
|M.|T.|W.|T.|F.|M.|T.|W.|T.|F.|M.|T.|W.|T.|F.
------------------------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--
Rising morning without | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
being called 10m. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Building fire in | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
morning 10m. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Milking 10m. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Cleaning barn 10m. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Cleaning each horse 5m. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Feeding pigs 5m. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Feeding horses 5m. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Feeding chickens 5m. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Feeding cows 5m. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Bringing fuel for | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
the day 10m. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Getting breakfast 30m. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Washing and wiping | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
dishes 15m. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Sweeping floor 5m. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Scrubbing floor 15m. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Making beds 5m. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Making and baking | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
bread 45m. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Dusting a room 10m. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Caring for younger | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
children full time | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Washing and ironing | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
school clothes 60m. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Bathing 20m. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Cleaning teeth and | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
finger nails 10m. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Bed at 9:00 p.m. 5m. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Sleeping with | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
window open 10m. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Total | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
------------------------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+-----+--+--
.............................................
_Signature of parent._
]
* * * * *
In Charleston, Washington, Superintendent H. W. Elliott, of the city
schools, put into successful operation, in 1913-14, a plan with
several special features, to which I am glad to call attention. The
plan comprises daily markings by the tally system, monthly reports,
cash prizes to those showing the largest number of home credits, and
some reward to every pupil with credits above a certain specified
number. For the purpose of raising a fund to meet the cash prizes,
his school gave a play; and an autumn fair, in October, was arranged
for the distribution of the prizes for both school and home work.
The credit card is different from any other; it seems to be the most
simple of all the monthly systems.
[Illustration:
_How to Keep the Credits in the Home_
_For every duty the child has done put down | after the name of the
duty the child has performed. Example:_
_Cutting wood_ ||||| ||||| ||||| |
_Taking bath ||||| ||||| || This is to indicate the number of times._
ALL THAT ARE 5 CREDITS ALL THAT ARE 10 CREDITS
Canning jar of fruit........... Music practice (30 min.)..........
Making and baking cake......... Milking cow.......................
Making and baking pie.......... Crocheting (hour).................
Sweeping room.................. Cleaning basement.................
Making bed..................... Making apron......................
Setting table.................. Keeping front yard clean..........
Dusting furniture.............. Keeping back yard clean...........
Making handkerchief............ Keeping sidewalk clean............
Making any other thing......... Keeping alley clean...............
Keeping room ventilated........ Keeping steps and porch clean.....
Splitting kindling............. Politeness to seniors.............
Cutting wood................... Table etiquette...................
Bringing in fuel...............
Blacking stove................. ALL THAT ARE 15 CREDITS
Scrubbing room.................
Running errands................ Up first and building fire........
Taking care of birds........... Sprinkling lawn (1 h.)............
Washing teeth.................. Clerking in store (1 h.)..........
Taking bath.................... Driving team (1 h.)...............
In bed by nine................. Helping with freight (1 h.).......
Up by seven.................... Making and baking bread...........
Helping others dress........... Attending Sunday school...........
Brushing clothes (self)........ Attending Church service..........
Polishing shoes (self).........
Feeding cow or other animal.... ALL THAT ARE 30 CREDITS
Gathering eggs.................
At school with clean Washing clothes (2 h.)............
Hands...................... Ironing clothes (2 h.)............
Face....................... Taking care of baby (2 h.)........
Teeth...................... Preparing meal (family)...........
Nails...................... Cleaning barn.....................
Hair combed................ Cleaning henhouse.................
Carrying papers...................
ALL THAT ARE 40 CREDITS
Making dress (self)...............
Cutting half rick of wood.........
Spading up 400 sq. ft. garden.....
Total........................
Send in report on or before the 10th of each month.
]
* * * * *
Mr.
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