Transcriber's note:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals.
* * * * *
[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.