L. R. Alderman

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 minute that 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 begged to 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.

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 the main 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.