School Credit for Home Work

by L. R. Alderman

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 12¹⁄₂ 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.