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.
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 41⁄2 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, 71⁄2 in his weak subject. The knowledge that there was help at hand relieved his nervousness, and gave him confidence.