I certify that the above is a correct record.
MRS. F. M. R.----, _Signature of Parent or Guardian_. ]
A Portland woman, who is much interested in the schools, says:--
In looking over some of the cards I find that the child soon learns to do his "chores" in less time each week, that he may have more time for other work or play, and yet fill out his record card. This is a great help to the parents.
I know one boy who cannot be induced to go out to an evening affair because he wants to get to bed before nine o'clock so that his record card will be perfect. How soon could we dismiss the Juvenile Court if we could get all children to feel like that! It is worth while to try.
In Polk County, Oregon, the system has been introduced into rural schools with marked success. The plan here comprises a daily record, and monthly reports. Below are excerpts from an article written for the _Oregon Teachers' Monthly_, by Mr. R. G. Dykstra, who used home credits in his rural school at Suver, Polk County, in 1912-13. I should like to direct especial attention to his testimony on the tardiness record of the district; also to his plan of allowing credit for a long walk to school.
With the following exceptions I carried out the work as started in the Spring Valley School last year: I required the pupils to get eight hundred minutes' credit before taking the holiday instead of six hundred; the number of minutes' credit for milking cows was increased from five to fifteen for each cow and a reasonable amount of credit was allowed for all work not named in the list of chores; children living over a mile and a half from school were allowed credit for the distance they had to walk in proportion to the others, and 5 per cent instead of 10 was added to the end of the year on their final school averages for the carrying on of the work. Only two prizes were offered by the District, three dollars and two dollars respectively. Children seldom took advantage of the holiday given for eight hundred minutes' credit unless it was used for sickness or unavoidable absence, as they were encouraged in the knowledge that a day lost was a day's work lost as well. Tardiness on the part of any pupil doing the work meant a loss of so many credits already accumulated.