Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1915-03-24
SCHOOLS GIVE CREDIT
FOR WORK At HOME
Would Make Children Ambitious
Out of School.
Beauty in Simple Things; Health in
Simple Living.
ing a Real Science.

the common home making and house,
keeping duties have become an art.
First, the world is swinging back to
first principles and to the realization
o. the beauty in simple things and
| in simple living. In the remarkable
Altman collection of pictures at the
Metropolitan Museum in New York,
it is the woman peeling potatoes
that attracts attention, not only for
the perfection of the work, but for
the charm of the subject 1t Is the
every day, homely acts of woman's
, life that appeal to us and call out
our admiration.
Health is the next reason why
home making has taken its rank IN
the sciences. We know now that
the dust and dirt Of our streets con-
tain all kinds Of poison, only waiting
to find Judgement in our threats and
! lungs to do its deadly harm. So
busting, sweeping and cleaning the
home have become acts of vital ina
portance; they are the great prevent
ives of disease, and no doctor 70 his
laboratory. working over his pre-.
ventive measures is any more inn
portant than is the housekeeper who
dusts with her damp buster, and
dust we'll. There is a movement on
foot in many schools to give school
credits for home work. There are
many plans for carrying this cut,
The general method for the work.
ing out of this idea is to have the
school recognize home work as well
as the home recognize school work.
Many girls and boys cheerfully do
work at school, but when the school
hours are over, they feel that their
duties are discharged, and they look
upon home work with distaste, if not
contempt.
A well-known educator who was
among the first to make use of school,
credits for home work says lone
mother said when you (the teacherl
ask May to perform home duties she
goes at them cheerfully and thinks
them worth while, but when l cher
mother) ask her, she either refuses
or performs them grudgingly. >"
The student seems to have a sort
of kindly feeling for a text book,
but facts are worthless if they are
only facts. We must depart from
the text and make the work of the
school and home go hand in hand.
The facts we learn we must apply and
use. Somebody has said of chemistry
that one of three results was looked
for and obtained: an explosion,
change in color or an evil odor, and
here the experiments stopped with no
realization that almost every change
in life is applied chemistry.
Education has one great purpose
and that is to make good citizens and
good home makers.
A writer in a recent magazine
says: "Habit is strong master and
if the children are allowed to shirk
responsibility of home and life work
until school days are over, and are
found wanting when expected to step
at once into LIES possibilities, it
is not their fault Many a hard
working mother has spared (as/ she
thought) her daughter the drudgery of
home work until she acquired home
for. herself, with the result that
home making was burden and a
task in which she utterly failed to.
make good. -
If conditions today are wrong be-,
cause of extravaganza, waste and
graft in places, high and low, then.
our duty is doubly strong and press
ing. Through the children of today.
who will be men and women tonaor@
row, every days living must be
brought to higher, clearer plane,
We are trying to teach the neces--
sary laws of right living so clearly
that every girl who is a member Of q.
Home Economics class can take her
place as an intelligent, earnest vaiu-
able member of any family group.
With the cooperation of the mothers
our work is strengthened and many
times doubled in value. The cooking
and sewing learned at school shoulda
be repeated at home. The test of
our efficiency as teachers lies in thes
value of the work that the studeng
is able to do, independent Of the
teacher. We use the words Prepare
ton for life, +" "Habit-formatior =
and Efficiency" until someone calls
them educational catch words of the
present day, but we want to attain
here and now everything conducive to
the best life can mean and to do this
is to be somewhere over fifty percent
efficient. ISABEL TROW SERVIS.