CREDIT FOB HOME PEACTICE IIST AGRICULTURE. 7 



To decide how mucli work is necessary to deserve such credits, 

 proceed as m previous cases. In a 36-week year each recitation period 

 per week calls for 2 hours of home work, which is equivalent to 72 

 hours of unprepared work, and a 5-hour recitation credit would be 

 the equivalent of 360 hours of home work on the same basis. This 

 appears very lai^e and might be more than the authorities would 

 care to recognize, lest it should tend to weaken the other school 

 work. Two or three fifths of this will usually be considered high 

 enough. 



There will rarely be fomid cases where the parents will not be 

 interested in having the pupils take up home projects, but it needs a 

 prearranged plan to msure the kind of cooperation which carries the 

 project to a helpful and successful conclusion. The parents should 

 make an agreement with the teacher before the work begins. It 

 would be best to make a written agreement in which the project is to 

 be outlined and m which the parents agree to certain essentials of 

 cooperation which follow. Oral agreements are less satisfactory. 



ESSENTIALS OF COOPERATION. 



The parent should agree: (1) To permit the pupil to use specified 

 land, animals, and equipment, either as a temporary owner or as a 

 tenant so far as the needs of the project are concerned; (2) to grant 

 the pupil the time needed for the work and to verify and vouch for 

 the time record; (3) to mstruct the pupd in the necessary manipu- 

 lation so far as practicable; (4) to allow the pupil the profits derived 

 from his own labor and management. The last point is not always 

 feasible, particularly where the pupil takes up one phase of the main 

 business of the farm, such as the weighing and testing of milk for 

 a dairy herd. 



The parent must at least give a,n unbiased voucher of the time 

 and expense record, and a statement that the project work was all 

 done by the pupil. In the absence of an advisory committee or an 

 inspector, the parent is the judge as to when the pupd has accom- 

 plished a task successfully. 



Where the pupil's time is much needed by the parent in regular 

 home duties it may be well to advise that the pupil take over some 

 part of that home work as a project. This will insure the cooperation 

 of the parents, although the '^ managerial" income may not come 

 to the pupil. 



The school should not only give credit for work for which the pupil 

 receives pay, but should consider the relative income or profit as one 

 important factor in determinmg the school rank given on the project. 



To insure success, it will be very desirable to have a memorandum 

 of agreement signed by all parties before the project begins; a report 

 in full from the pupil, and a voucher from the parent at the end. 



