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
PART TWO
ILLUSTRATIONS
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
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.