Diligence card
The cards or pictures given out to students as a reward and motivation in elementary school education are called diligence cards (also industrious pictures , industrious tickets or praise slips ) .
Historical
The oldest verifiable diligence picture was issued in 1783 in the form of a decorative copperplate at a Hamburg school. Its caption reads: "Proof that the showers of this, my dear pupil, behaved particularly well in my school this time ...". In the 19th century, the engravings and woodcuts were replaced by lithographed pictures and since around 1870 the chromolithographs printed on high-speed presses have allowed mass, inexpensive production. Its importance as a property worth striving for by children and a treasured treasure must be seen against the background of the largely imagery of everyday life at that time.
Typical inscriptions such as “Dem industrious” or “Continue to be diligent and obedient!” Gave the hardworking cards a clear definition, but their function could also be used, e. B. be fulfilled in Catholic schools with small devotional pictures . In the Protestant environment, the diligence cards played no less important role, as shown by the rewards of merit , which were initially only distributed at Sunday schools in the USA from around 1800 , before they became a means of education in elementary schools there too. Until the 1950s, diligence cards (as well as other corresponding forms of reward, stamp cards, etc.) were unchallenged in use.
The diligence cards today
In the meantime, the hard work card in the sense of a reward for hard work and obedience has largely disappeared from the school system. However, the word has saved itself in the metaphors of the German language and is mostly used ironically when evaluating a performance that is considered to have a low intellectual value.
Even today, however, hardwork cards are still being produced and used in schools (see the offers of numerous Internet providers). As in the past, they serve to motivate, reinforce and reward the behavior of students, only blind obedience and stubborn diligence are no longer rewarded, but social skills or special school achievements. The cards are often artistically designed for children and provided with educational sayings, sometimes they can also be put together to form a larger motif like a puzzle, so that there is an incentive to collect. Motif stamps (e.g. bees ) or stick-on stars are also used as reward forms similar to hardship cards .
The same applies to devotional pictures that were used in church lessons ( communion lessons , Sunday school , children's worship service ) to reward good participation. Also in this context belong wafer pictures that were exchanged among schoolchildren and pasted into poetry albums .
literature
- Real Encyclopedia of Education and Teaching According to Catholic Principles, 1863, pp. 630-632 ( digitized version ).
- Thomas Roth: Busy tickets . In: Christa Pieske: ABC of luxury paper, production, distribution and use 1860-1930. Museum for German Folklore, Berlin 1983, ISBN 3-88609-123-6 , pp. 123–125
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Thomas Roth: Fleißbillets . In: Christa Pieske: ABC of luxury paper, production, distribution and use 1860-1930. Museum für deutsche Volkskunde, Berlin 1983, p. 123 f., With description, but without proof of location.