School Credit for Home Work

by L. R. Alderman

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.

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."

In the first six grades of the elementary school, where so much depends upon using the child's knowledge which he has gained from actual experiences about home, and the environment with which he comes in contact which is really a part of himself, we have the best basis for his further education. In these grades it will be raising and not lowering our standards when we give credit for home work and add it to the school credits for passing grades. All of the subjects of these grades should be so closely affiliated with the home life of the child as to warrant our doing this. It is so important that the child be engaged in the actual doing of things that the perfect grade of 100 per cent should be divided into two divisions: (1) A maximum of 90 per cent for school work. (2) A maximum of 10 per cent for home work when proper records and reports are kept.

In the seventh and eighth grades and in the high school, work corresponding to the age and ability of the pupils should be introduced and made part of the laboratory work, giving two fifths of a unit of credit. Here written reports of the operations performed should be worked out by the pupils and presented as class work. Classes should visit the dairy barns, feeding pens, gardens, corn or grass fields, orchards, etc. Pupils should carry on considerable individual home work, which should continue throughout the summer as well as winter season. This credit should be counted in agriculture, domestic arts and manual-training courses.

The various contests among the boys and girls, that are conducted in all parts of the state, certainly should be counted worthy of school credit. These contests are directly or indirectly under the auspices of the Agricultural College, and numerous bulletins are sent to the contestants. Many children actually receive in these contests almost the equal of a year's course in school.

Suggestive List of Subjects for Credit for Home Work

1. Agriculture
Milking cows.
Feeding horses.
Cleaning cow barns.
Cleaning horse barns.
Feeding cows.
Feeding sheep.
Feeding beef cattle.
Feeding hogs.
Feeding poultry.
Watering stock.
Churning.
Turning separator.
Tending fires.
Running errands.
Digging potatoes.
Hitching and unhitching horses.
Beating rugs.
Hauling feed.
Pumping water.
Cutting wood.
Carrying in fuel.
Getting the cows.
Gathering eggs.
Tending to the poultry house.
Tending pig pen.
Bedding of stock.
Preparing kindling.
Miscellaneous.
2. Domestic Arts
Preparing meals.
Making biscuits.
Baking bread.
Baking cake.
Baking pie.
Washing clothes.
Ironing clothes.
Caring for baby.
Overseeing home while mother is away.
Scrubbing floor.
Washing dishes.
Wiping dishes.
Making beds.
Sweeping the house.
Dusting rugs.
Airing bedclothes.
Ventilating bedroom.
Dressing the baby.
Canning fruit.
Caring for milk.
Sewing.
Dusting furniture.
Care of self.
Making dress.
Making apron.
Care of teeth.
Setting the table.
Care of sick.
Miscellaneous.
3. Manual Training
Making farm gate.
Making peck crate.
Making chair.
Making clothes rack.
Making pencil sharpener.
Making T-square.
Making towel roller.
Making ruler.
Making picture frame, halved
together joints, end and center.
Making mortise and tenon joint.
Making bookrack.
Miscellaneous.
Making ax handle.
Making hayrack.
Making ironing board.
Making cutting board.
Making tool rack.
Making staffboard liner.
Making vine rack.
Making sandpaper blocks.
Making mail box.
Open mortise and tenon joint (end).
Making halving joint, or angle
splice joint.
Making feed hopper.
Making whippletree.
Making wood rack.
Making bench hook.
Making coat hanger.
Making nail box.
Making table.
Making flower-pot stand.
Making key board.
Making pen tray.
Making mortise and tenon joint
(center).
Making dovetail joint.
Making panel door.
Making work bench.
4. Home Contests
Corn acre contest.
Poultry and pig contest.
Sewing contest.
Potato plot contest.
Tomato contest.
Canning contest.
Garden contest.
Bread-baking contest.
Miscellaneous.

Plan for Allowing Credit

It is absolutely essential in taking up this work that the teacher make a careful survey in her neighborhood of the kinds of home work that the pupils have opportunity to do. The pupils should be put on their honor in reporting their work, and the teacher must work out the amount of credit time the various items are to receive, and from the pupils' reports grade the work. A large number of items should be included and given their relative weight. Quality as well as quantity must be judged by the teacher. This supplies a working basis for coöperation between home and school.

Besides the credits earned in the particular subjects of agriculture, domestic arts and manual training, where 216 hours will add two fifths of a unit, other work may be given some additional credit up to say 10 per cent, as physiology and geography. It is also possible that subjects such as English and arithmetic may be so correlated as to be at least partially considered in connection with the agriculture, domestic arts, and manual training by the composition required and the problems furnished.

It is not expected that any boy or girl will enter all of the contests. Contests which require 216 hours' work should be given two fifths of a unit credit in the subject to which it belongs. If the child in the contest is below the seventh grade, the work should add to his entire school grade up to 10 per cent. The fairness of this plan will appeal to the boys and girls, for the girl or boy who has third, fourth or fifth place in the contest deserves credit as well as the one who wins first place.

It is the object in the credit for home work both to recognize and give credit because of the educational value to the child of such work which he does with his hands, and it is also hoped to develop the child into a better worker, so that the work performed will be constantly of a higher order as the child grows older. In other words, we have a constantly changing variable as the child grows older as to the time necessary to do certain work, and the proficiency with which the work is done. Speed in doing things is not the only consideration, and yet all work should be done with reasonable dispatch.