CREDIT FOR HOME PRACTICE IN AGRICULTURE, 13 
SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION BASIS OF CREDIT. 
The following questions arise wherever school authorities may 
consider this matter: 
1. What is the status of agriculture in the rural school law of the 
State? Prescribed, permitted, or ignored ? 
2. What bearing have the statutes of the State on prescribing 
home work or study ? 
3. What is the attitude of the community in question on these 
subjects and how far will the local officials support the teacher and 
superintendent in progressive movements ? 
4. Is the present home work of the pupils sufficient and may the 
school work be correlated with it? Or will there be an advantage to 
the homes as well as the school if credit is given for organized and 
supervised school work, and will the parents welcome this plan ? 
5. May it be advisable to assign definite numerical credits for each 
subject in the grades as is usually done in the high school? What 
complications would be added if home work in certain lines were 
given a similar credit? Would such credit be of any real value unless 
its possession would assist in gaining promotion or graduation ? 
So far as possible the superintendent of schools (with the local 
school committee, if they are interested) should agree upon the basis 
of school credit for home work in agriculture, leaving to the teacher 
only the individual application and ranking. These officials should 
first appreciate why school credit is to be given and should decide 
upon the amount of home work to be recognized, its character, its 
ratio to school work and the general method of applying the credit. 
The assignment of values to various projects will be necessarily based 
on farm management studies. Some suggestions along this line 
follow this section. 
Why give school credit?—-Without practice at home or elsewhere the 
textbook course in agriculture would appear to have but little value. 
In the secondary schools it is customafy to require in all branches 
so much work of the pupils that some of it must be done at home. In 
some elementary schools a similar requirement is made but this will 
not be tolerated in some sections as prescribed work. 
Wherever such a requirement is common it would seem desirable — 
that the pupil should take home for study or practice such subjects 
as may arouse home interest and cooperation and detract as little as 
possible from the family life. Required study of agriculture and 
home economics, rural-survey work, and correlations of such work 
with other branches would seem to meet these demands. Home 
practice in the garden or with the flock would seem even better than 
home study. 
Jn such cases the school should require ile projects in connection 
with the school course in agriculture and give a rank on the practical 
