center work was held in Roslyn, Washington. At this meeting the
city superintendent, Linden McCullough, explained the school credit
for home work idea. He advised that a vote be taken as to whether
the schools of that town should adopt the plan. The vote showed
that parents, teachers, and pupils were enthusiastic over the idea
and eager to try it. The Woman's Club of the city volunteered to
assist in every possible way. The following from letters from Mr.
McCullough gives the result of the trial:--
Seventy-five per cent of our seven hundred and fifty pupils are
taking advantage of the scheme. Our truant officer says that
every parent he has talked with has praised the plan, for the
reason that all the children do their chores with more spirit.
Our police officers have noticed a falling-off in the number of
children on the streets; so much so that juvenile court cases
are much fewer in number. The teachers notice an improvement in
school work along all lines.
One boy in the fourth grade who was disagreeably indifferent
about his personal care now takes baths regularly, and always
brushes his hair, and keeps his clothing clean and neat. Roslyn
has a large number of foreign people. Teachers in the first
three grades say that parents of foreign children do not grasp
the idea very well, but that older brothers and sisters explain
its workings, and attend to keeping tab on the reports of the
little children.
On the next two pages is a copy of the Roslyn folder. Notice the
entries of mending, cleaning yard, putting away playthings, work
done for wages, work "in father's place of business," home study
(school work), and reading good books.
[Illustration:
_Home Credit Report Card, Roslyn Public Schools_
_Name of Pupil_ ...... _Teacher_ ....... _Grade_ ...
----------------------------------+-----+------+-----+------+-----
|First|Second|Third|Fourth|Fifth
|month|month |month|month |month
----------------------------------+-----+------+-----+------+-----
| | | | |
Caring for cows.................. |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Caring for chickens.............. |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Caring for horses................ |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Caring for hogs.................. |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Cleaning barn or yard............ |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Washing dishes................... |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Sweeping......................... |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Washing and ironing.............. |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Running errands.................. |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Caring for baby.................. |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Washing face and hands........... |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Combing hair..................... |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Cleaning teeth................... |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Going to bed at.................. |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Arising at....................... |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Sewing........................... |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Making beds...................... |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Peddling milk or papers.......... |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Scrubbing........................ |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Knitting......................... |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Mending.......................... |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Cleaning house................... |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Cleaning yard.................... |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Putting away playthings.......... |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Baking........................... |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Carrying kindling................ |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Carrying coal.................... |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Making fires..................... |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Splitting wood................... |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Washing windows.................. |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Work done for wages.............. |.....|......|.....|......|.....
| | | | |
Work, father's place of business. |.....|......|.....|......|......
| | | | |
Caring for flowers............... |.....|......|.....|......|......
| | | | |
Shoveling snow................... |.....|......|.....|......|......
| | | | |
Home study, school work.......... |.....|......|.....|......|......
| | | | |
Reading good books............... |.....|......|.....|......|......
| | | | |
Cooking.......................... |.....|......|.....|......|......
| | | | |
Gardening........................ |.....|......|.....|......|......
| | | | |
Practicing music lesson.......... |.....|......|.....|......|......
| | | | |
Odd jobs......................... |.....|......|.....|......|......
----------------------------------+-----+------+-----+------+------
]
* * * * *
In Wilbur, Washington, a scheme providing for a credit report for
the semester is in successful operation. Here Superintendent E. O.
McCormick carries on the plan by means of two report cards, the one
sent from the school to the home, the other from the home to the
school, every six weeks. The home card is reproduced below.
[Illustration:
_Report Card from the Home to the School_
_For_............................
_Name._
.........................................
_Parent or Guardian._
_First Semester_
-----------------------+-----------------+----------------+----------------
Period | 1 | 2 | 3
-----------------------+--------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------
Subjects |Average |Quality |Average|Quality |Average|Quality
|Time |of work,|Time |of work,|Time |of work,
Answer yes or no |Spent |Good, |Spent |Good, |Spent |Good,
|Daily |Fair, |Daily |Fair, |Daily |Fair,
| |Poor. | |Poor. | |Poor.
-----------------------+--------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------
Sleeping with open | | | | | |
window | .... | .... | .... | .... | .... | ....
| | | | | |
Keeping temper | .... | .... | .... | .... | .... | ....
| | | | | |
Washing teeth | .... | .... | .... | .... | .... | ....
| | | | | |
Time in recreation | .... | .... | .... | .... | .... | ....
| | | | | |
Off streets | .... | .... | .... | .... | .... | ....
-----------------------+--------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------
This report sent to the teacher when the report card is returned to the
school will help raise the standing of your child in its school work.
E. O. MCCORMICK, _Supt_.
The following subjects are of a suggestive nature; you may use as many
as may be applicable to your child. Others not listed may be used. Write
in the blank spaces on the front of this card those subjects under your
observation.
Sawing wood.
Washing dishes.
Care of house.
Care of cows.
Making beds.
Sweeping.
Ironing.
In bed by nine (yes or no).
Building fire in mornings.
Care of chickens.
Churning.
Making bread, biscuits, etc.
Preparing meals for family.
Blacking the stove.
Any work or interest in home as shown by the child should be noted on
the front of the card, under the list of subjects.
* * * * *
Mrs. Elizabeth Sterling, of Clarke County, Washington, was one of
the first county superintendents to get out a card suitable for
use throughout her schools. She strongly urged the teachers of her
county to try the plan, and in 1914 eighty-five teachers were
operating it. This card provides a record for the whole school year,
with a general average for the nine months. To secure credit the
pupil is required to average eight hours per week, or thirty-two
hours per month, at "real honest, helpful labor that relieves the
father and mother of that amount of work." This done, the teacher
is to add three credits to the average gained by the pupil at the
school during the month of his or her studies. Additional credits
are to be given for more than thirty-two hours per month at the rate
of one credit for every ten hours' work. The parent or guardian is
cautioned to keep track of the number of hours that the boy or girl
actually spends per week at any of the kinds of work named on the
credit report card, or any other real work that is not there listed.
The printed list comprises:--
Milking.
Churning.
Turning separator.
Caring for horses.
Caring for cows.
Caring for pigs.
Caring for poultry.
Cleaning barn.
Splitting wood.
Carrying in wood.
Gardening.
Cooking.
Baking.
Washing.
Ironing.
Sweeping.
Dusting.
Sewing.
Running errands.
Making beds.
Washing dishes.
Building fires.
Caring for little children.
II
HOME CREDIT IN HIGH SCHOOLS
Several high schools have sent us reports of their plans for giving
credit for work outside of school. Some of these schools use plans
that differ considerably from those of the elementary schools where
the movement began; they lay emphasis on improvement in work,
and to this end they require that all the work be supervised by
the teachers of home economics, agriculture, commerce, or manual
training. Other high schools try to encourage the habit of industry,
no matter what the kind of work, and offer credit for such tasks as
running errands, delivering groceries, or carrying a paper route. In
my opinion both ideas are good; there is no end to the possibilities
of developing skill in home work under the instruction of one who
really knows how to do it, and there is also great value in the
encouragement of faithful industry in routine tasks.
[Illustration: AUBURN, WASHINGTON, HIGH SCHOOL BOYS IN RAILROAD SHOPS
This is good school equipment. It cost $200,000]
Descriptions of parts of the work of a few high schools are given
here.
In the High School of Santa Monica, California, two credits for
home work are allowed out of the total of sixteen required for
graduation, and pupils with a certain average standing who earn
eighteen credits, two of them for home work, may graduate _cum
laude_.
Below is given a list of tasks for which school credit will be
allowed:--
_One-half credit per year_:--
Regular music lessons, instrumental or vocal, under
a competent instructor.
Making own clothes for school.
Doing family darning and mending.
Preparing one meal a day for a year.
Carrying paper route.
_One-half credit for half-time for a year, or for full time for
summer vacation_:--
Clerking in store, bank, or office.
Cement work, or work in any local trades or industries.
Regular work on a farm.
_One-half credit_:--
Raising one-fourth acre of potatoes, melons, onions,
strawberries, or similar products.
Employment in a dressmaking or millinery establishment
for summer vacation.
_One-fourth credit per year each_:--
Sleeping for one year in the open air.
Retiring at 10 P.M. five days per week for one year.
Taking a cold bath every morning five times per
week on an average for one year.
Walking three miles per day for a year.
Credit will be given for the following according to the amount of
work:--
Public speaking or reciting. Reading aloud to family or to
invalids.
Horticulture. Gardening. Poultry-raising. Bee-culture.
Taking care of cows or other animals. General dairy work.
Sewing for the family. Doing the family laundry. House-cleaning,
bed-making, dish-washing, or any other useful work about the
house.
Getting younger children ready for school every day. Caring for
a baby.
Nursing the sick.
Making a canoe or boat. Taking full care of an automobile.
Perfecting any mechanical contrivance for saving labor about the
home.
Recognizing and describing twenty different native birds, trees
or flowers.
Summer vacation travel with written description.
Playing golf or tennis. Sea-bathing and swimming.
Keeping a systematic savings bank account, with regular weekly
or monthly deposits.
Keeping a set of books for father or some merchant. Doing
correspondence for father or other business man.
Running errands. Delivering groceries.
Singing in church choir. Teaching in Sunday school.
Carpentry work. Cabinet-making, furniture construction.
Working as forest ranger.
[Illustration:
SANTA MONICA HIGH SCHOOL
Date ........................ 191....
I hereby declare my intention of earning ...... credits for home or outside
work by doing .............................................................
...........................................................................
Signature of Pupil .....................................
I approve of the above and agree to observe and certify to the quantity and
quality of work performed.
Signature of Parent ....................................
I hereby certify that ........................ has faithfully performed the
above work, spending on the average ...... minutes per day for ....... days
and is in my judgment entitled to ...... credits.
Signature of Parent or Employer ..................................
Credits granted ............... Prin.......................................
]
* * * * *
In the High School at St. Cloud, Minnesota, great attention is paid
to vacation work as well as to work done during the school year. At
the beginning of the fall term the following questionnaire is sent
to high school pupils, and to elementary pupils above the fourth
grade:
_Vacation Report--Grades Five to Twelve_
School.
NOTE--Teachers are requested to have pupils fill out this blank
carefully. It is very important. Explain each question. Caution children
not to over- or under-estimate.
1. Name ............. Age ............. Grade or Class ................
2. Did you help at home during the summer vacation? ....................
3. Did you take music lessons? ..... Travel? ..... Attend Summer School?
4. Did you do any work along the line of agriculture, horticulture,
gardening, bee-culture or poultry-raising? If so, what? .............
........ Estimate carefully the net profit ................... $.....
5. Did you have a flower garden? .............. Name six or more of the
leading flowers that you raised. ....................................
.....................................................................
.....................................................................
6. Name wild flowers, birds, or trees you have observed this summer.
Flowers .............................................................
Birds ...............................................................
Trees ...............................................................
7. What pieces of hand-work, if any, did you do during vacation?
Wearing apparel .....................................................
Household art .......................................................
Wood ......................... Iron..................................
Cement .............. Give estimated value of such hand-work $.......
8. What electrical contrivance or other home accessory did you
make to save your mother work? ......................................
9. Which of the following home tasks did you do this summer?
Prepare one meal alone daily? ...... Bake the bread? ................
Bake a cake? ....................... Make the beds? .................
Do the washing? .................... Do the ironing? ................
10. Are you sleeping in the open air or with open window? ...............
11. Can you swim 300 feet or more? ..... Did you learn this summer? .....
12. Were you employed elsewhere than at home? ...........................
13. State kind of work done ............ Employer .......................
14. Number of weeks employed ........... Amount earned per week. $.......
15. Total amount of cash earned during vacation. $.......
16. Fair estimate of the value of your home work. $.......
17. Total cash value of your summer work (items 15 and 16). $.......
18. Have you a savings bank account? ... Amount of your deposit. $.......
Principals ascertain amount of deposit for lower grades. $.......
The financial results of this vacation work are summarized as
follows:--
_Total_ _Deposit_
_Cash_ _Home Work_ _Earnings_ _in Bank_
High School $6,393.01 $1744.45 $8137.44 $2793.36
Total for city 16,422.00 3666.15 9559.25 3144.92
Highest individual earnings -- High School $260.00
" " " -- Grades 200.00
Average " " -- High School 76.00
Highest " deposit -- " " 300.00
" " " -- Grades 500.00
Pupils may graduate with honor from the St. Cloud High School by
attaining certain standings and by offering two credits for home or
continuation work. One of the sixteen credits required for regular
graduation may be a credit for home or continuation work.
The list of credits is divided into two parts, outside work and home
work. Among the many outside activities mentioned in the St. Cloud
list, we find:--
Literary society work, or rhetoricals, debate, public speaking,
or expressive reading, one-fourth unit per year.
Granite or paving-block cutting, or work in any of the local
trades, shops, factories, or industries, one-fourth unit for
each summer vacation.
Steady work on a farm, followed by a satisfactory essay on some
agricultural subject, one-fourth unit for three months.
Raising one-fourth of an acre of onions, tomatoes, strawberries,
or celery, one acre of potatoes, two acres of pop corn, five
acres of corn or alfalfa, one-fourth unit.
Running a split road drag or doing other forms of road-building
for three months, one-fourth unit.
Judging, with a degree of accuracy, the different types of
horses, cattle, and hogs, one-fourth unit.
"See Minnesota First" trip under approved instructor, with
essay, one-fourth unit.
Among the home tasks are mentioned:--
Shingling or painting the house or barn.
Making a canoe or boat.
Swimming 300 feet at one continuous performance.
Cooking meat and eggs three ways and making three kinds of cake.
Exhibit.
Doing the laundry work weekly for three months.
Recognizing and describing twenty different native birds, trees,
and flowers.
The Ames, Iowa, High School course outlines out-of-school work in
three departments: agriculture, manual training, and home economics.
I quote from the home economics prospectus:--
Unless the work is ... made to connect with the work in the home
it loses much of its vitality. Our aim is to relate the home and
the school and permit each to contribute its share in making the
work vital, really worth while. The girl ... may carry into the
home some new ways of working, and there will be an exchange of
ideas between mother and daughter as to hows and whys ... that
will result beneficially to both. As the girl carries these
ideas and discoveries back into the school we shall be able to
know better the needs of home and social life, and hence so plan
our work that it may "carry over" into her out-of-school life.
A total of two credits to apply on graduation may be earned in home
economics at the Ames High School. Three hundred points equal one
credit.
Two hundred points each are offered for cookery, general housework
and sewing.
Cooking is to be done for the family at home, and whenever
possible a sample brought to the school for examination,
together with the recipes giving itemized cost, and a signed
statement that the entire work was done by the girl herself. A
list of things to be cooked is given: ten dishes are required,
the other five are to be chosen from the list. The list for the
first year follows; dishes required are marked with a star and
receive seven points credit, the others receive six points.
Some fresh vegetable cooked and served in a white
sauce.
Potatoes in some form.
Tapioca.
Rice.
Macaroni.
Muffins.
*Baking powder biscuit.
*Plain cake, with or without frosting.
*Drop cookies.
*Rolled cookies.
*Pastry.
*Gelatin with soft custard.
Cottage cheese.
Scalloped dish.
Custard, or some kind of custard pudding (bread, rice,
tapioca).
Steamed brown bread.
*Prune whip. }
Marguerites. } One of these required; either may be chosen.
Fondant candies.
Salad with cooked or French dressing.
*Sandwiches--three kinds of filling.
*Bread.
*Baked beans.
General housework includes making girl's own bed each day; daily
and weekly care of bedroom, helping with general housework
one-half hour each day and one hour on Saturdays (sweeping,
dusting, ironing, washing dishes, washing windows, etc.). The
total credit for this is 12-1/2 points for one month.
In the course in sewing, the home work is brought to school
for examination and grading. The list for second year sewing
follows:--
One-third credit--100 points, open to girls who are taking, or
who have completed second year sewing.
Princess slip 50 points.
House dress 75
Shirt waist 50
Woolen skirt 75
Made-over dress 75
Nice dress 100
The High School at North Yakima, Washington, gives credit for work
in music under approved teachers; for practice-teaching (coaching)
by normal students in the grades; and for work in agriculture.
The summer work in agriculture is planned before the close of the
school in the spring.
Each pupil informs the instructor in agriculture as to the kind of
work he intends to do. The instructor visits each pupil several
times during the summer, discussing methods of work, results, etc.,
with him and his employer, and designating pamphlets, bulletins,
and magazine articles for him to read. In 1914, fifty-four pupils
applied for credit for work in agriculture.
_Rules for Summer Agricultural Work in North Yakima, Washington_
1. Students may earn one credit in agriculture toward graduation
by work completed outside of school during the vacation period.
2. At least 250 hours of work must be completed before any
credit will be given.
3. Complete records and systematic reports kept by the
applicant, giving all information required, and signed by the
parent or employer, shall be filed with the instructor in
agriculture every two weeks.
4. Applicants shall secure such information as a result of
reading, study, and questioning experienced workers, as may be
necessary to convince the instructor in charge that the work has
been of sufficient educational value to justify the granting of
a credit.
5. Pupils wishing to receive credit for this work shall make
application for the privilege before beginning the work. Lists
of reference books, kinds and character of notebooks, shall be
designated by the instructor in agriculture.
6. An examination covering the work may be given by the school
authorities.
7. Work may be done along the following lines:
_a._ Vegetable gardening work; keeping results of work done in
complete form.
_b._ Feeding of stock, poultry, etc.; keeping records of foods
used, amounts and results obtained.
_c._ Thinning, picking, packing, marketing, cultivation and
irrigation of fruits, etc.
_d._ Eradication of blight, other orchard diseases and pests;
complete records of attempts to reduce damage done by these
causes.
_e._ Growing of cereal, grass, or forage crops.
_f._ Keeping records of dairy animals; milk testing records for
monthly periods.
_g._ Care of bees, handling of honey, etc.; complete records.
APPENDIX
KANSAS AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE BULLETIN
Mr. John C. Werner, of the college extension division of the Kansas
State Agricultural College, wrote in 1914 a very valuable bulletin
entitled "School Credit for Home Work," the essential features of
which are given.[8] Notice that he recommends that pupils furnish
the reports themselves over their own signatures, as putting them on
their honor is considered valuable, and in justice due them.
[8] For other quotations from this bulletin, see pages 46, 50, and
51.
In a letter Mr. Werner says: "My idea of giving credit is to use the
old laboratory method of requiring the student to do a reasonable
amount of work in a reasonable length of time. This allows for many
of the variable factors that enter into the problem; I think it is
better than to give so many points of credit for each piece of work
done."