Credit for Home Activities
First, the extension of school supervision is illustrated by the fact that in a township high school the girls who are taking cooking are required to do each day a certain amount of laboratory work in the kitchen at home. This is reported by the parents, and the cooking teacher visits the homes from time to time to inspect the work. Again, in many agricultural schools home gardening is required as a part of the course. Sometimes a school officer is employed to keep up the supervision of this home work during the vacation period. Another series of examples under this heading is to be found in those systems where miscellaneous home activities are credited by the school on the report of parents. The following quotation taken from Superintendent Alderman’s book on home credits shows how far the matter has been carried in some quarters:
Below is the Spokane County plan.
BULLETIN FOR TEACHERS: HOME CREDITS
The following are the rules and reward offered for home work. This work is to be done during the school week. No one is compelled to enter this contest, and the pupil may drop out at any time.
All work must be voluntary on the part of the pupil. Parents are requested not to sign papers for pupils if the work is not voluntarily and cheerfully done.
The rewards for this work are:
One half-holiday each month to the child who has earned one hundred or more home credits, and has not been absent or tardy for the month; also 5 per cent will be added to his final examination. The pupil who earns one hundred or more credits each month but fails in perfect attendance will have the 5 per cent added to his final examination.
In addition, the board of directors may offer a prize to the pupil in each grade who shall have the greatest amount of home credits, and shall be neither absent nor tardy during the term, or from the adoption of these rules.
List of Home Credits
Personal cleanliness 2 Retiring before 9 o’clock 1 Cleaning teeth 1 Feeding and watering chickens 1 Cleaning finger nails 1 Feeding and watering horses 1 Practicing music lesson 2 Feeding and watering cows 1 Dressing baby 1 Feeding and watering hogs 1 Washing dishes 1 Gathering eggs 1 Sweeping floor 1 Cleaning chicken house 1 Making bed 1 Going for mail 1 Preparing meal 2 Picking apples 2 Making a cake 1 Picking potatoes 2 Making biscuits 1 Bringing in wood for to-day 1 Churning 2 Splitting wood for to-day 1 Scrubbing floor 2 Bringing in water for to-day 1 Dusting 1 Grooming horse 1 Blacking stove 1 Milking cow 1 Darning stockings 1 Working in field 2 Delivering papers 2 Going for milk 1 E. G. McFarland,
County Superintendent of Schools.
| Personal cleanliness | 2 | Retiring before 9 o’clock | 1 |
| Cleaning teeth | 1 | Feeding and watering chickens | 1 |
| Cleaning finger nails | 1 | Feeding and watering horses | 1 |
| Practicing music lesson | 2 | Feeding and watering cows | 1 |
| Dressing baby | 1 | Feeding and watering hogs | 1 |
| Washing dishes | 1 | Gathering eggs | 1 |
| Sweeping floor | 1 | Cleaning chicken house | 1 |
| Making bed | 1 | Going for mail | 1 |
| Preparing meal | 2 | Picking apples | 2 |
| Making a cake | 1 | Picking potatoes | 2 |
| Making biscuits | 1 | Bringing in wood for to-day | 1 |
| Churning | 2 | Splitting wood for to-day | 1 |
| Scrubbing floor | 2 | Bringing in water for to-day | 1 |
| Dusting | 1 | Grooming horse | 1 |
| Blacking stove | 1 | Milking cow | 1 |
| Darning stockings | 1 | Working in field | 2 |
| Delivering papers | 2 | Going for milk | 1 |
The following statement is made by Superintendent McFarland as to the effect home credits had on attendance in 1913-1914:
We attribute the increase in our attendance this year in the schools of Spokane County, outside the city of Spokane, largely to the Home Credit System and our certificates for perfect attendance. While the enrollment was 108 less than last year, yet our attendance was 16,712 days more. At the present rate of 16 cents per day, the pupils earned for the county, from the State appropriation, nearly $2700 more than last year. With the same enrollment as last year the increase of apportionment would have reached approximately $6000.
The credit slip for the school week provides for a daily record of “chores or work done” from Monday to Friday inclusive. It does not contain a stated list of duties; the blanks are to be filled in by the child. The list of home credits is furnished each district, but the teacher uses her judgment in allowing credit for any chore peculiar to her locality.[47]
In Greeley, Colorado, the high school gives credits for courses taken in the Sunday schools. The teachers, under this plan, must be approved by the school authorities and the work must be graded. In many schools credit is given for music taken at home. Sometimes the results of this instruction are examined, sometimes not. In the latter cases teachers are sometimes approved by the school and their work then accepted without further question.