[1] The details of Mr. O'Reilly's plan are given in Part Two, pages 73-77.
Every one of the thirty-three pupils in the school was enrolled in this new kind of contest. The registering of the credits each morning meant extra work for the teacher, but it brought extra results. The prospect of a bank account for the winners incited the children to learn for the first time something about banks and banking. There was a "we-are-doing-something" atmosphere throughout the school.
[Illustration: SPRING VALLEY SCHOOL, OREGON, WHERE HOME CREDITS WERE GIVEN, 1911-1912]
In answer to the query of some visitors if this giving of credit for home work did not interfere with school work, Mr. O'Reilly pointed to the record in the county spelling contest, in which his school had earned 100 per cent that month.
The county superintendent, Mr. Seymour, had announced that a banner would be given to his rural schools showing that they were standard schools as soon as they should meet certain requirements. These requirements were well-drained school grounds; school building properly lighted, heated, and ventilated; schoolhouse and grounds neat and attractive; sanitary outbuildings; walk made to building and outbuildings; individual drinking-cups; the purchase each year of one standard picture; thorough work on the part of teacher and pupils; the enrollment of every pupil in the spelling contest; and an average of 95 per cent in attendance. Spring Valley was the first school in the county to receive the banner and become a standard school.
The county superintendents of Oregon were assembled at Salem in January, 1912, for the purpose of grading teachers' examination papers. They were much interested in what they heard of Mr. O'Reilly's work at Spring Valley and accepted with great pleasure the invitation of Mr. Seymour to visit the school. As that day in Mr. O'Reilly's school is significant, I wish to quote an article about it written by T. J. Gary, superintendent of Clackamas County. Mr. Gary's article was printed in one of the Oregon City papers in January, 1912.
Last Saturday seventeen county school superintendents and the superintendent of public instruction drove through the wind and rain to Spring Valley, Polk County, to attend a parent-teachers' meeting. Why? Because we had heard much of a new plan that was being tried out by the teacher, pupils, and parents of the school in that beautiful valley. Did we go because it was a new plan? No. If we should try to investigate every new plan we would be going all the time. We went because we thought we saw a suggestion, at least, of a solution of two very important problems: "How to bring the school and the home into closer relation," and "How to make the boys and the girls in the country love their home."