V

joeJOE IN THE GARAGE, AUBURN, WASHINGTON

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 mostlyboys 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 foran 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 41⁄2on 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. Hedoes not need his home record to help out his spelling grade now, for last month he received more than a passing mark, 71⁄2in his weak subject. The knowledge that there was help at hand relieved his nervousness, and gave him confidence.

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.

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 minutethat 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 beggedto 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.

westonWORK CREDITED AT SCHOOL, WESTON, OREGON

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 themain 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.

Habit second nature? Habit is ten times nature.The Duke of Wellington.

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 engenderedmore 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 workat school. So he misses the work habit entirely.

Politeness—a show of consideration for the rights and feelings of others—is partly a habit. Careful watching by parent and teacher is needed to establish this consideration as a permanent attitude of mind. It is with much pleasure that I note that many of the home credit cards bear the items, "Cheerfulness," "Kindness," "Politeness," "Keeping temper," "Doing before told," "Care of language," "Courtesy to parents," and the like. And it is with very great pleasure that I receive letters from parents and teachers saying that the attitude of the children in these things is becoming a habit.

earningALGONA, WASHINGTON, GIRL, AGED 12, EARNING HOME CREDITSElizabeth G—— and her mother have a small blackboard in the kitchen and here they keep a record of all the work Elizabeth does

ALGONA, WASHINGTON, GIRL, AGED 12, EARNING HOME CREDITSElizabeth G—— and her mother have a small blackboard in the kitchen and here they keep a record of all the work Elizabeth does

ALGONA, WASHINGTON, GIRL, AGED 12, EARNING HOME CREDITS

Elizabeth G—— and her mother have a small blackboard in the kitchen and here they keep a record of all the work Elizabeth does

Neatness and personal care are habits that mean much to any one. Some grown people cannot help being neat. Others apparently cannot be neat no matter how much they try. Something is always wrong. It is a habit formed when young, perhaps before the age of twenty. In Mr. O'Reilly's list he included sleeping with window boards in, bathing, caring for the nails, brushing the hair, cleaning the teeth, and going to bed by nine o'clock.Personal care has been given a place on the Portland home credit record[2]which is now used in some of the schools. Algona, a home credit school about twenty miles from Seattle, uses the Portland personal care section, including bathing, brushing teeth, sleeping with open windows, going to bed before nine o'clock, and attending church or Sunday school. In looking over the first home credit slips that came in, the Algona principal found that Nettie, a girl of thirteen, had earned just 7 per cent out of the 100 per cent given for a perfect record in the personal division. She had earned more than the required two hundred and ten minutes for the week in the regular work department at a hard round of preparing meals, washing dishes, sweeping, feeding the poultry, scrubbing, and so forth. But Nettie had slept with her window closed, had not brushed her teeth, had not taken a bath, nor had she been in bed at the required hour. Nettie was obviously unhappy over the grade her card received in comparison with the grades of her schoolmates. Before the next report day she had in some waysecured a toothbrush, that effective means of promoting civilization, and had made sufficient improvement in her personal care to secure 65 per cent. Her grade for the third week was 72 per cent, and for the fourth, 93 per cent. Her fourth week's report showed a hot bath, toothbrushing twice a day, window open every night, and that she was in bed before nine every night but two. What her reform will mean to the entire family it is interesting to conjecture.

"Be careful about that voice, Ella," directed a teacher. Ella arose at her place, a thin, stooping girl of about thirteen. She read her passage of the lesson in a voice scarcely audible to the visitor across the room. A few minutes later the visitor was looking over some home credit report slips. "Here is a girl who did not sleep with her windows open," she said. The teacher took the blank, studied it a minute, then replied, "This is the first time that child has brought in a home credit slip. Do you recall my reminding a little girl about her voice? That is the girl, and this card may explain her voice quality."

All the pupils except two in a little Washington town learned to sleep with their windows open. Upon inquiry it was found that one girl could not open her window, as it was made for admitting light only, being built solidly into the wall. In the case of the other child, the parents absolutely refused to endanger their daughter's health by letting her breathe night air, no matter how many faddists insisted that it was necessary!

Some members of a church were discussing the problem of the spirit of incipient immorality that they felt was prevalent among children in the neighborhood. A home credit teacher showed the speakers a number of the first report cards she had received, which disclosed the fact that very few of the pupils under her care were ever in bed before nine o'clock. A few months later she took occasion to display again her pupils' home credit cards and with pride pointed out that almost every child was going to bed early, before nine o'clock. "It had grown to be a habit with the children to be up late," she said. "The immorality talked of was not yet in actual existence among the children, but through theiroutside evening associates was gradually working itself in. The children had only to be reminded in a substantial way that it was not only desirable for them physically to retire early, but that they were to receive recognition in their school standing for so doing, and they at once happily complied."

We are just beginning to discover that the rural school has a fine laboratory for practical educational purposes, in the neighborhood environment of the school. With the development of scientific agriculture and domestic arts in many of our modern country homes this laboratory is constantly improving.Kansas State Agricultural College Bulletin, 1914.

Kansas State Agricultural College Bulletin, 1914.

There is a general idea among teachers that parents will not coöperate with them. This, I believe, is founded upon the assumption that because they cannot, as a usual thing, coöperate in textbook work they will not coöperate in other things. But both parents and teachers want the same results accomplished. If these are to be attained it means partnership work, the parent and that other parent, the teacher, working together; or one might say, the teacher, and that other teacher, the parent, working together.

I have been surprised to find to what extent parents will coöperate with teachers if given a chance. Mrs. Brown goes to the schoolhouse on a bleak afternoon. She is greetedwarmly by the teacher, Miss Smith, and given an arithmetic text to follow while the class recites. The lesson is on decimal fractions. Now, Mrs. Brown didn't have decimal fractions during her school days, so the recitation is quite meaningless to her. She is glad when the class is over, and does not find time to visit school again that term. But if she is asked to prepare a luncheon for the picnic at the close of the year, or asked to assist in any social function at the schoolhouse, she spends her time for the school, and is glad to do it.

In Eugene, Oregon, several years ago I found that the women of the city were enthusiastic in aiding the schools. Thirty-two women gave up Monday afternoon to teaching the girls sewing, while the boys had military drill. At a social center meeting at Hover, Washington, the suggestion was made that it would be well if one of the mothers would come to the school building occasionally to help the girls with their sewing, as the eighth-grade pupils would have to take an examination in the subject in May. So many mothers volunteered to undertake the task that a schedule was made out whereby asewing period could be had every afternoon, and no mother be on duty oftener than every two weeks.

At Myrtle Creek, Oregon, domestic art work is carried on in this way: the teacher gives instructions in the work that is to be done; in cooking, for instance, recipes are given, talked over, and written down. The girls then go home, and actually do the work, and make a report to the teacher. They must have the signatures of their mothers for all the work they do. This is managed with a home credit report card.

Mrs. E. H. Belknap, a progressive rural teacher near Jefferson, Oregon, said in a recent letter: "We learn how a cow can be fed and cared for, so as to produce the greatest amount of butter fat. That is well, but we regard it of far more value for the boy to go home, apply the knowledge learned, and produce the butter fat. He is now worth something to the world, and able to turn his education into dollars and cents at any time. The girl takes the book, and reads how to make butter. She goes home, tends the milk, churns, and makes the butter, learns howreally to do the work. She has called the attention of the entire family to the amount and quality of her butter obtained from proper feeding and handling of the cow by the boy."

And yet it is said that nothing can be done in the small school in domestic science because there is no equipment. In every home there is ideal equipment if we mean the equipment the children are to use. If we are preparing for life, why not use the equipment we must use in life? Best of all, in using the home laboratory there is an immediate purpose. None of us can get much out of an exercise when it is done just for an exercise. There is the dinner to be cooked, the bed to be made, the ironing to be done; somebody must do it. And the dinner, the bed, and the ironing are to be put to the test by some one who sees real values. There is no doubt that one of the things schools most lack is purpose.

It might be said that to stimulate a child to want to do things is only half the problem. "If children do things without expert instruction they may do them wrong, and thus get afaulty habit." But I think more than half of the problem is solved when we create the desire to do a thing. The greatest fault of present-day education is that we constantly try to teach a child how to do a thing without his desiring to do it, or even knowing the reason for doing it. On the other hand, I once knew a country girl who had never seen a domestic science equipment, and who lived in a community where there was no one housekeeper especially noted; yet with her strong desire to be a fine housekeeper she learned something good from each neighbor, and for excellent results, and for economy of time and material, her daily practice would put the average domestic science teacher to disadvantage. However I am not arguing that domestic science should not be taught at school; I certainly believe it should. But I do claim that it is worth while, and is absolutely necessary, first to create the desire todothe things that are to betaught. To do things without a purpose is like trying to eat without an appetite.

A pamphlet published by the Kansas State Agricultural College on "School Credit forHome Work: The Laboratory of the Rural School," makes these practical points:—

Could there possibly be a more favorable condition for teaching Domestic Arts than in the rural school from which the girl goes every evening to a busy home where she is needed to take part in the actual work of housekeeping? It is here that the girl has a chance to put into actual practice the things she has learned at school. Here the home has the chance to realize immediately upon the investment it is making in the education of the girl. If sanitation, ventilation, sweeping and dusting, care of the sick, preparation of foods, care of milk, water supply and uses, bathing, care of health, sewing, proper clothing, etc., are taught in our schools, and if the laboratories are in the immediate neighborhood, and the girls and boys must go into them to stay overnight, they should be used. Likewise, the vegetable gardens at the homes should be made the experimental plots for the school, after the best seeds have been selected, best methods of preparing, fertilizing, and planting the soil, best-known methods of cultivation and maturing the crops, have been taught. The actual experimental work should be carried out in the home gardens by the boys and girls. Proper records can be kept, and the boys and girls will be anxious to get back into school, after the out-of-doors summer experiments, to compare reports, and renew another phase of their educational work.In agriculture the fields, stock, buildings, etc., about the schoolhouse should be studied and used.These are the real agricultural laboratory. The real problems of actual farming are present, and the methods of work and the ways of handling the fields and the stock are the available resources of the school as a part of its actual laboratory. In this connection study the dairy cows, the feeding of cattle, hogs, and horses, types and breeds of farm horses, cattle, hogs, and sheep. In every community there are many opportunities for type studies—such as fields of alfalfa or wheat or corn; a dairy herd; valuable and well-bred horses; beef cattle; hogs or sheep; a silo, or types of farm machinery, and farm buildings.

In agriculture the fields, stock, buildings, etc., about the schoolhouse should be studied and used.These are the real agricultural laboratory. The real problems of actual farming are present, and the methods of work and the ways of handling the fields and the stock are the available resources of the school as a part of its actual laboratory. In this connection study the dairy cows, the feeding of cattle, hogs, and horses, types and breeds of farm horses, cattle, hogs, and sheep. In every community there are many opportunities for type studies—such as fields of alfalfa or wheat or corn; a dairy herd; valuable and well-bred horses; beef cattle; hogs or sheep; a silo, or types of farm machinery, and farm buildings.

It is natural for a child to want to assume home responsibilities, but there are many things that interfere unless a special effort is made. The school itself has been a great offender in weaning children from their homes and from natural living. This, of course, is not strange when we consider that the school started out to make lawyers and ministers, and not home-makers. Yet one of the great needs of the time is to make people home-loving, and to have those wholesome habits that come from sharing home responsibilities. Anything is worth while that will make the child once taste the joy of doing a useful thing well.

Through ignorance ye did it.—ActsIII, 17.

"Let the school go on just as it has. What business is it of the school to meddle with the home work? Of course most children do certain chores at home, but why confuse the work of the home with the work of the school?"

Have you heard this speech? I have heard it several times. Does justice demand that we know what pupils do outside of school? Must the teacher know home conditions in order to teach efficiently? I have in mind a true story that answers these questions and shows the injustice of teaching children when one knows little or nothing of their home life. I am sure most teachers have had similar experiences.

In a certain schoolroom in a certain town I noticed one day two girls in the same class sitting near each other. The contrast between them was so great that I became interested in them, and found out something of their historyand circumstances. Stella, the younger one, eleven years old, was a perfect picture of rosy health. Her brown hair was beautiful and most becomingly arranged. Many women would have been delighted to wear such furs as she put on at the noon recess. Well dressed and well nourished, she had the look of one much loved at school and at home, one to whom life was all happiness.

Stella is the only child of wealthy and doting parents. If we should follow her home we should find a well-kept modern house, and we should see that the mother who greets her at the door is just such a mother as we should expect for such a girl. While the evening meal is being prepared, her mother sits beside her at the piano, and helps with her practice, and when the father comes in, the three sing together until dinner is announced. After dinner her mother helps her with her Least Common Multiple and Greatest Common Divisor. They all discuss her composition and then her mother asks her to read aloud, and reads to her. Promptly at nine o'clock she goes to bed in just the kind of room a little girl loves. The windows are opened tothe proper width, the heat is turned off, she is kissed good-night, and is told, "Mother loves you, and Father will come in and kiss you when he comes home."

In the morning at seven o'clock she is called by a very gentle voice, and told it is time for Mother's angel to leave her dreams. Her mother helps her dress, and brushes and braids her hair. "What will Father's sweetheart have for breakfast this morning?" She will have grape-fruit and a poached egg on toast. After some fitting by the seamstress for a new dress to be added to her already full wardrobe, she is thoroughly inspected and is ready for school. She is given some flowers for the teacher, and is accompanied part way by her mother. She is early at school, her teacher kisses her, pats her cheeks, and Stella is ready for the lessons, the lessons her mother helped her with the evening before. There she is, happy, radiant!

Now let us go home with the other girl. Sadie is thirteen, but she looks much older notwithstanding her frail little figure. Did I say home? Be the judge. A few years ago her father and her aunt ran away together, leavingthe mother with Sadie and two younger children. The broken-spirited mother died after the desertion, and the father and aunt returned, were married, and took possession of the house and the three children. They now have a baby a year old. The family live in a tumbledown house at the edge of the city. On entering the house Sadie receives no greeting from her stepmother-aunt, who is sitting by a dirty window reading. The child knows what work there is to do, and goes at it sullenly. After the meal, at which she scarcely has time to sit down, she has to do up the work, and then is sent on an errand. When she returns it is nine o'clock and she is hardly able to keep her eyes open. The Least Common Multiple and the Greatest Common Divisor are like Greek to her. After she has tried to study a few minutes, her stepmother disturbs her by throwing her brother's stockings into her lap to be mended. When this task is completed, and the potatoes are peeled for breakfast, she goes upstairs. She tenderly draws the covers about her sleeping brother and creeps into bed beside her little sister. Though she is very weary, her starved soul iscomforted as she cuddles and kisses her sister before she drops to sleep.

In the night she awakens, and thinking Harry is again uncovered she slips over to his bed, like a little mother, and again adjusts the bedclothes. The baby awakens at five o'clock, and Sadie is called and told to make a fire and warm the milk. She then gets breakfast, does the kitchen work, spreads up the beds, sews a button on her brother's coat, braids her sister's hair, and is late at school.

She came in a few minutes late the morning I visited her room. The class was trying to make a record for punctuality, and had tied another room for first place until this morning when Sadie's lateness set them behind. The teacher was provoked and reproved Sadie. The pupils showed their scorn in many ways and said she was the cause of all but three of the tardy marks of the term. The teacher knew that the principal would ask her why she did not improve her tardy record. The pupils knew that their chances for a half-holiday were spoiled as long as "that Sadie Johnson" was in the room.

This morning especially the teacher wishedto make a good showing because she wanted a place in a larger city and hoped that I would recommend her. Arithmetic was the first thing on the program. The principal had boasted of the work of his school in arithmetic. The work went beautifully, for Stella led off with a perfect recitation. The pride of the whole class was evident, the teacher was hopeful. But wanting to see the work of all the pupils, I asked several questions, and at last called upon Sadie. She didn't know, she stood abashed, and showed absolute lack of understanding of the subject. The principal was provoked. The teacher was plainly humiliated, and said in a tone that was low, but loud enough for Sadie and several of the children to hear, "The girl is not only lazy, but feeble-minded."

So it was the whole term. Sadie was tortured each school day, condemned by the most powerful court in the world, her companions, led by her teacher. And the reason was that the teacher was teaching only the six-hour-a-day girl. One does not have to go to Turkey to see examples of injustice and cruelty. But let us not be too critical of theteacher. She is tender-hearted and sympathetic. She weeps over the heroines in books, and has latent longings to be of service in the world. In this case she did not know the conditions that made Sadie stupid. If she had been interested in the children's out-of-school work, and had had them tell her about it, she would have known that the frail little unkempt girl was compelled to do a woman's work at home besides trying to get her lessons. Then she would have seen the tragedy in the child's appealing glance and have understood her. Some people go through life without finding an opportunity to do justice, such as was this teacher's. In ministering to the soul-hunger of this little girl she might have given the service that she had dreamed of giving. It would have been the kind of service that is its own reward.

A Story From Nebraska, by Mrs. Sarah J. Hoagland

One spring found me in Nebraska teaching a school of German and Bohemian children, only two of whom spoke English. I boarded with a German family who lived about a mile from the school. In our walks to and from school I taught the children English. They and their father were born in Nebraska, but at first none of them could speak English so that I could understand it, although I understood some of their German.

The oldest boy—ten years old—lanky, with awkward gait, and fair, straight-standing hair, had a dogged, sullen look. It was a "home" look, especially when the father was around, but it left when he was trying to tell about birds or other interesting things. His telling me that he intended to work in town as soon as possible gave me a peep into his heart as regarded home. It was not a happy home.The father often drank, and at such times he was harsh and cruel. The mother was meek and subdued. She never had known how to do good housekeeping. She told me that when a girl in Germany, being large and strong, she had had to work in the fields instead of learning housework.

The farm was run down; the house was bare and unhomelike. The father's voice was often raised in upbraiding in "Low Dutch." He often had the children rounded up for punishment for starting fires or other mischief. The seven-year-old boy was more efficient, either in the home or out, than the ten-year-old boy. I noticed that he had a better head and intelligence. His efficiency was due to this, not to any better training.

The mother often cried over the brutality of the father to the oldest boy. I determined to study the situation, and I found a remedy. I learned that the father could do practically nothing in arithmetic. He had attended school for his confirmation—a little reading in German being the only apparent result. So I taught the boy arithmetic, and after I had worked with him two hours every nightfor several months, he could do addition better than his father. It was wonderful to see the pride and dawning respect on the father's face as the boy figured correctly the weight of many wagon-loads of grain lately taken to the elevator. I knew then that the unreasonable whipping would tend to stop. I seldom see a father unreasonable with a boy he can be proud of at school. So the sky was clear for a time.

But when the press of spring work came on and the father found he could not afford to employ help, he grew moody and was even savage again. He drank, and at times I was afraid of him myself. But I liked the mother. I knew she needed the board money for the children, and I wanted to see the case of the boy to a finish. So I stayed on. The lovely outdoor surroundings, too, made me want to stay. The orchard was beautiful—the finest in the neighborhood. The birds sang in a large maple at my window. This was a treat to a flat-dweller. Since then I have ever loved the country.

I often asked the mother what the father was saying to the oldest boy. I knew as faras the boy was concerned I could help the matter by influencing him. She said that the father was complaining that the boy was worthless as a worker. For one thing, he had milked and left the milk in the barnyard in order to play. The complaints kept pouring in on the patient mother. The father was working early and late to get abreast of the season's work. He forgot what sleep was, and grew thin and haggard and more and more savage.

I felt that only some distinct advance would have effect on either father or boy. I asked if the boy could drive a horse. He couldn't. He could not work a single piece of the machinery on the farm. That is most unusual in Nebraska, for the light soil can be worked by machinery which a boy can learn to run if he can also guide horses. The father would not teach the boy—had no patience with him. So the mother and I made our plans. She approached the father with the question of getting a team and machine for the boy. It happened to be a cornstalk cutter that was needed. The father consented, provided the mother would teach the boy! She haddone such work, though she was not strong enough to do it this year.

But I saw her that Saturday toiling in the hot sun, walking up and down the rows, touching up the horses. The boy proved most apt. I soon saw him going up and down alone, still under his mother's eye, however. The boy seemed to grow two years in importance, self-reliance, and ambition in that day's work! This training was kept up out of school hours for some time, and the boy learned to work other machinery, the last thing a corn-planter.

As soon as the father realized what the boy was doing, he was a transformed man. The knowledge that he had a helper seemed to clear the atmosphere. Before this the boy had always kept out of the father's way. Now he forsook the mother! It was "Papa and me" from that time in his talk. This new attitude made it all the easier for the wife, for it was a relief from what had been her greatest trouble—having to stand between the two.

The father's pride and confidence in his son kept on growing. In many ways he was just agood-natured big giant, but he turned like a bear on anything that annoyed him.

I remember the first day the boy stayed out of school to work, how it seemed to me a deciding day in his life. I rarely like to see a child stay out of school, but that day I thought the industrial training much more important than anything I could teach the boy in those hours of school. He came regularly after the rush of work was over.

A School in Montana: Mrs. Hoagland's First Letter To the Author

Last September I heard your lecture on credit being given in school for home work. I have tried it lately after working the children up to grade. I started by getting acquainted with the homes, finding out what the children did and what they could do further. I made inquiries as to whether the children, in their play, left things around for the mother to pick up and so on. The spirit the work is done in counts, too, in credit given. The work must be done pleasantly and cheerfully; the mother must be asked for work; she is not to be hunting the child up to get him to do the work.One little girl of eleven made bread from beginning to end, never having tried it entirely before. She has an overworked mother. In another home I found the two older children took charge of a teething baby while the mother, an ex-teacher andrather delicate, did the housework. The little girl, six years old, could do dishes and otherwise help the mother. In another home the boy has grown to be the pride of his father's heart by forcing the father back into the chair, when he was weary, and doing the chores himself.One boy, his father told me two weeks ago, was growing as dependable as his brother five years older, and helped bring the cows, herd cattle from one field to another before and after school and on non-school days. There was much other work, light in itself, but wonderfully helpful to his father, that was taken charge of cheerfully.One child's father had a hired man. The boy did but little. He is eight years old and large. While visiting there, I saw his father bringing in coal. I told the boy he would find it necessary to look up work if he cared for credit. His mother visited school shortly after this; I was telling her of the idea and she said she now understood why Bennie had started to clear the table several times, and so on. We had a very happy laugh over it. The boy hunts the eggs, gets in the wood and coal, makes the mash for the chickens, and helps wash the dishes.Another child, aged thirteen, has to do much outside work, so she feels good over getting credit for it. It is a kind of pay that makes her days pleasanter. I believe each child richly deserves the credit I have given. The results have been to make the tie between the parents and myself stronger, and I am asked to come back next year. I have seen a gladder, prouder light in the parents' eyes concerning their children. It has helped tomake our school in some respects without a superior in the county, according to the county superintendent's own word. A member of the board says the children never have made such progress since the school was built, and all say these children never have made as much progress before. They are learning, as far as I can teach them, the honor of labor and the beauty of being useful, willing, and dependable. I have had a hard battle to wage here for good, thorough work and application, but the right has won.I enclose a report that shows the kinds of work the children are in the habit of doing.I am the teacher who spoke to you about the new oats being brought into the dryland country. It is now being introduced into another part of Montana where my homestead is. You will perhaps remember me.Very sincerely,Mrs. S. J. Hoagland.

One little girl of eleven made bread from beginning to end, never having tried it entirely before. She has an overworked mother. In another home I found the two older children took charge of a teething baby while the mother, an ex-teacher andrather delicate, did the housework. The little girl, six years old, could do dishes and otherwise help the mother. In another home the boy has grown to be the pride of his father's heart by forcing the father back into the chair, when he was weary, and doing the chores himself.

One boy, his father told me two weeks ago, was growing as dependable as his brother five years older, and helped bring the cows, herd cattle from one field to another before and after school and on non-school days. There was much other work, light in itself, but wonderfully helpful to his father, that was taken charge of cheerfully.

One child's father had a hired man. The boy did but little. He is eight years old and large. While visiting there, I saw his father bringing in coal. I told the boy he would find it necessary to look up work if he cared for credit. His mother visited school shortly after this; I was telling her of the idea and she said she now understood why Bennie had started to clear the table several times, and so on. We had a very happy laugh over it. The boy hunts the eggs, gets in the wood and coal, makes the mash for the chickens, and helps wash the dishes.

Another child, aged thirteen, has to do much outside work, so she feels good over getting credit for it. It is a kind of pay that makes her days pleasanter. I believe each child richly deserves the credit I have given. The results have been to make the tie between the parents and myself stronger, and I am asked to come back next year. I have seen a gladder, prouder light in the parents' eyes concerning their children. It has helped tomake our school in some respects without a superior in the county, according to the county superintendent's own word. A member of the board says the children never have made such progress since the school was built, and all say these children never have made as much progress before. They are learning, as far as I can teach them, the honor of labor and the beauty of being useful, willing, and dependable. I have had a hard battle to wage here for good, thorough work and application, but the right has won.

I enclose a report that shows the kinds of work the children are in the habit of doing.

I am the teacher who spoke to you about the new oats being brought into the dryland country. It is now being introduced into another part of Montana where my homestead is. You will perhaps remember me.

Very sincerely,Mrs. S. J. Hoagland.

BENNIE McCOYADDISON SHIRLEYAged 8Aged 9Dries dishesTakes out ashesMakes fireGets eggsPulled up sunflower stalksGets coal and kindlingMilks (some)Feeds horses oats (15 head)Gets in coal and kindlingCleans out barnGathers eggsMilks cows sometimesBrings in woodDrives cattleCarries ashes outHarnesses upSmashes big coal for stoveHunts eggsTurns churnWaters horsesFeeds catsDries dishesGets chicken feedCooks (eggs, pancakes, coffee)Feeds sitting henSets tableHelps catch calvesFries apples and bakes themGets clean hay for chicken nestsPeels potatoesClears tableFries potatoesTurns windmill[3]Feeds chickensSlops hogsCarries slop to hogsKills fliesDrives to townFixed his hand cartJOHNNIE MAHONEYLOVILO MURRAYAged 6Aged 5Feeds pigOpens gate for calvesHunts eggsGets kindlingWaters horseGets coalTold where sow and her new pigsTakes care of babywere when no one else couldCloses chicken-house doorfind themCarries woodMinds babyDries dishesHunts firewoodLeads horses to plowMAY MAHONEYALEEN MURRAYAged 11Aged 7Bakes breadWashes and dries dishesWashes dishesSweeps floorMinds babyDoes simple ironingGets coal and waterGets wood, water, and coalGathers eggsCloses chicken-house doorMakes cakeDresses babyGets cowsTends babyWaters horsesPumps waterSUSIE MARCKINOSewed a doll petticoatAged 13Sewed sleeves in waist for little brotherCooks mealsScrubsWashes dishesIronsScrubsCooks mealsIronsPeels potatoesSews—made a waist and a babyTakes out ashesdressDustsGets coalSweepsFeeds chickensMakes bedsGoes for horseAirs beddingBrings waterMilks cowsGets hay and feeds horsesFeeds calfBuilds firesHays horsesTurns churnBuilds firesPolishes stovesTurns churnCares for young chickensFeeds chickensDustsFeeds sitting hensSalts horsesSets and clears tableWashes rangeROSIE MARCKINOPolishes cutleryAged 6Does light washingPrepares vegetablesGets waterDid dishes with four-year-old sister when all else were goneA general little helper

A Letter from Mrs. E. H. Belknap, Marion County, Oregon

I believe intensely in an education that teaches the boy or girl not only how the book says to do a thing, but how, by actual experience and practice, that thing is best worked out and brought to perfection....

In this district we have used home credits for two years. First, in order to make this a success, the teacher must believe in it, and must be a worker. We have given credits for everything from plowing to washing the baby for breakfast. As a result we have the little girls dressing their own hair for school, the older ones cooking breakfast, washing, ironing, etc. The boys plow, milk, clean stables, cut wood, feed horses, do all kinds of work for credits;doing it, they have become interested in it, and before they knew it a habit has been formed of doing things at the right time in the right way. It is truly wonderful what these children do. Some of them walk three or four miles, and still earn hundreds of credits in a week. Some of my girls milk as many as eight cows twice a day, and the boys plow and harrow acres of ground. They do the work gladly, too.

Monday mornings we give out blanks to be filled out, signed by parents, and returned the following Monday morning. We always go over the cards carefully.I call the names aloud, and the pupils report quickly. If extra work has been accomplished I always try to praise the effort. It is a happy hour when the reports are rendered.

At first we agreed that when any pupil earnedsix hundred or more credits he should be entitled to a holiday. Thousands of credits have been earned, but no one has asked for the holiday! Frequently, when the pupil has been ill, or forced to miss a day, he has asked that the credits be applied to blot out the absent marks, and this has always been granted.

ILLUSTRATIVE HOME CREDIT PLANS

Upon the demonstration of the success of the home credit plan in the Spring Valley School I began to hear of other Oregon schools that had taken it up and were carrying it on successfully. During the school year 1913-14, three hundred and twenty-five teachers in Oregon and in Washington were giving school credit for home work, while the scheme had been adopted by some schools in other States.

For the aid of those who may contemplate its use, the outlines of several plans that have been instituted are printed here, together with excerpts of letters we have received, and cards made out by pupils. These reports come from teachers who have used the scheme successfully in various forms. The daily report plans are given first, and the letters arearranged according to the frequency of the report from the home to the school.

It will be noted that some teachers use a card that is supposed to last for a whole year, being returned to the teacher monthly as school cards are often returned to the parent monthly; others have cards that are marked daily, and last for only a week. Some teachers use a contest plan of awards like Mr. O'Reilly's; others add credits to the average obtained in school subjects; and others do both. The first user of the parent-signed report, Mr. O'Reilly, used no cards, but had the children write little notes with lists of their labors every day for their parents to sign. A bulletin from the Kansas Agricultural College suggests that pupils should furnish the reports themselves over their own signatures.[4]The only record of failure we have was in a school where monthly report cards were used, and no definite scheme of duties was laid down,—merely so many minutes of unspecified labor. I find that children are more interested when their performance of particular duties is recorded.

I should never advise the wholesale adoption of any one plan, but I would suggest that superintendents and teachers adapt plans to the needs of their districts. Several schools have been reported where an enthusiastic principal has put the plan into operation throughout his school, regardless of the ideas of his teachers. I find that teachers never feel inspiration in a work that they do not want to undertake. Therefore, it would be my suggestion that under no circumstances should a teacher be asked to use home credits unless she herself desires it.

DAILY REPORTS

The following is the method which Mr. A. I. O'Reilly originated at the Spring Valley School, in 1911-12:—

Rules of the Contest

1. No pupil is obliged to enter the contest.2. Any pupil entering is free to quit at any time, but if any one quits without good cause, all credits he or she may have earned will be forfeited.3. Parent or guardian must send an itemized list (with signature affixed) to the teacher each morning. This list must contain a record of the work each child has done daily.4. Each day the teacher will issue a credit voucher to the pupil. This voucher will state the total number of minutes due the pupil each day for home work.5. At the close of the contest pupils will return vouchers to the teacher, the six pupils who have earned the greatest amount of time, per the vouchers, receiving awards.6. Contest closes when term of school closes.7. Once each month the names of the six pupils who are in the lead will be published in the county papers.8. Ten per cent credit will be added to final examination results of all pupils (except eighth graders) who enter and continue in the contest.9. When a pupil has credits to the amount of one day earned, by surrender of the credits, and by proper application to the teacher, he or she may be granted a holiday, provided that not more than one holiday may be granted to a pupil each month.10. Forfeitures—dropping out of contest without cause, all credits due; unexcused absence, all credits due; unexcused tardiness, 25 per cent of all credits due; less than 90 per cent in deportment for one month, 10 per cent of all credits due.11. Awards—the three having the highest credits, $3 each; the three having second highest, $2 each. Awards to be placed in a savings bank to the credit of the pupils winning them. Funds for awards furnished by the school district board out of the general fund.

1. No pupil is obliged to enter the contest.

2. Any pupil entering is free to quit at any time, but if any one quits without good cause, all credits he or she may have earned will be forfeited.

3. Parent or guardian must send an itemized list (with signature affixed) to the teacher each morning. This list must contain a record of the work each child has done daily.

4. Each day the teacher will issue a credit voucher to the pupil. This voucher will state the total number of minutes due the pupil each day for home work.

5. At the close of the contest pupils will return vouchers to the teacher, the six pupils who have earned the greatest amount of time, per the vouchers, receiving awards.

6. Contest closes when term of school closes.

7. Once each month the names of the six pupils who are in the lead will be published in the county papers.

8. Ten per cent credit will be added to final examination results of all pupils (except eighth graders) who enter and continue in the contest.

9. When a pupil has credits to the amount of one day earned, by surrender of the credits, and by proper application to the teacher, he or she may be granted a holiday, provided that not more than one holiday may be granted to a pupil each month.

10. Forfeitures—dropping out of contest without cause, all credits due; unexcused absence, all credits due; unexcused tardiness, 25 per cent of all credits due; less than 90 per cent in deportment for one month, 10 per cent of all credits due.

11. Awards—the three having the highest credits, $3 each; the three having second highest, $2 each. Awards to be placed in a savings bank to the credit of the pupils winning them. Funds for awards furnished by the school district board out of the general fund.

List of duties with minutes credit allowed for each

Back to Index Next