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TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS ATLANTA - SAN FRANCISCO
MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED
LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
TORONTO
TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
BY
ANNA M. COOLEY, B.S.
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF HOUSEHOLD ARTS EDUCATION
CORA M. WINCHELL, B.S.
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF HOUSEHOLD ARTS EDUCATION
WILHELMINA H. SPOHR, M.A.
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF HOUSEHOLD ARTS EDUCATION
JOSEPHINE A. MARSHALL, B.S.
INSTRUCTOR IN HOUSEHOLD ARTS EDUCATION
TEACHERS COLLEGE
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
NEW YORK
gorfc
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1919
Att rights reserved
COPTBISHT, 1919,
BT THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and elect
. Published September, 1919.
Notfajnnft
J. 8. Gushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO
HELEN KINNE
BY THE AUTHORS
IN BEHALF OF HER MANY STUDENTS AS WELL AS FOR THEM- SELVES, IN PROFOUND APPRECIATION OF HER ENNOBLING IN- FLUENCE AS A TEACHER, FRIEND, AND CO-WORKER, AND OF HER GREAT SHARE IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF IDEALS IN THE TEACHING OF HOME ECONOMICS WHICH HAVE RAISED IT TO THE PLANE WHICH IT NOW HOLDS IN THE EDUCATIONAL WORLD
PREFACE
THE object of this book is to offer suggestions for the organiza- tion, administration, and teaching of the home economics studies. In the preparation of the book the authors have endeavored to adapt it to the various types of persons whose needs they hope to serve.
Before the war these studies were recognized by some as an essential part of the general education of every girl. With the declaration of peace, they assume a new significance and appear as an indispensable part of her education. This is true because every girl needs instruction regarding better and more healthful living, and training in those practices which will enable her to live her daily life more intelligently, to rear her children more thoughtfully, and to serve her community and country more efficiently. These studies are needed by some because they prepare also for certain definite wage-earning vocations. This book draws the distinction between home economics studies as organized for general or liberal education purposes and such lines of specialized vocational training as may have grown out of them.
It is the conviction of the authors that only through a closely woven course involving both theory and practice can the subject matter offered have any real value to the students. The book presupposes courses in the various phases of Home Economics, — practical, scientific, artistic, economic, and sociological, — of greater or less intensity. In other words, it is taken for granted that the student who will use it will be familiar with the scope of the field, and that her course in methods will serve as a means of evaluating and unifying the material she gains through her tech- nical courses, and interpreting it in terms of elementary and secondary school teaching.
vii
viii PREFACE
This book is intended for use as a text primarily in normal schools and colleges where students are in training as teachers of the home economics studies, and by teachers in service. It is hoped that it may also prove of value to superintendents of schools, principals, and directors of schools who have the problem of intro- ducing these studies into the curriculum for either general liberal education or vocational purposes. Social workers, vocational advisers, and lay readers interested in these studies as a phase of the life and education of the girl, will find in this book suggestions which the authors hope may prove of value in introducing these studies under varying conditions.
It is the hope of the authors that in short courses in the training of home economics teachers, instructors will choose from the material presented that which is vital to their specific needs, whereas teachers of educational methods in the field of Home Economics will in many instances find it necessary to expand the material offered by a liberal use of the references.
It is hoped that the outlines and the suggestions for study and review in the various chapters may prove suggestive as a basis for study and discussion in the training classes using this book as a text. It is urged that the instructor in the conduct of her class develop with them original problems appropriate to their own needs as discovered in their practice teaching, or growing out of the needs of their own environment.
Every effort has been made to attack the subject in the light of the new vision of education as a factor in social evolution, and it is urged that teachers who may use the book will constantly consider the trend of events and modify the text to keep abreast of the times. Just as adaptation has been made the burden of the message throughout the book, so it is the hope of the authors that the text will be adapted by the instructors to the peculiar needs of the classes whom it serves, as well as to the world condi- tions as they develop.
TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I
HOME ECONOMICS AS AN ORGANIZED STUDY IN THE SCHOOL PROGRAM
PAGE
CHAPTER I. THE RESPONSE OF WOMANHOOD TO MODERN SOCIAL
DEMANDS . . . . "..-."* v ... . . . 3
Women in colonial times . . . . . . . .3
The effect of economic and social changes on the home . . 8 The responsibilities of women to-day . . . * .. . 13
CHAPTER II. THE RESPONSE OF EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES TO THE
NEEDS OF WOMEN ... . '. . . . 20
Introduction . . . . . ..... 20
The response through elementary and secondary schools . . 21
The response through higher institutions of learning . . . 30
Other educational agencies . . . ' .^ -. . . 31
CHAPTER III. THE DEVELOPMENT OF HOME ECONOMICS IN RE- SPONSE TO THE NEEDS OF THE GIRL . • - • 37 Home Economics in the schools of to-day . . ... 37 The evolution of Home Economics leading up to these studies
in schools of to-day . . * . . . . . 41
The scope of the home economics studies of to-day . ^. . 49 Home Economics in the schools of to-morrow . , .57
CHAPTER IV. THE INTERRELATION OF HOME ECONOMICS WITH
OTHER SUBJECTS IN THE CURRICULUM . . ... 64
The modern tendency in education toward unification of the
curriculum . . . . ..... . . . . 64
The opportunities for correlating Home Economics with other
subjects *, , v • 67
ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART II
ORGANIZATION OF COURSES OF STUDY IN HOME ECONOMICS
PAGE
CHAPTER V. VARIOUS SCHEMES OF ORGANIZATION OF THE ELEMEN- TARY AND THE HIGH SCHOOL 83
Introduction 83
The elementary school ........ 84
The high school 86
The rural school 88
CHAPTER VI. HOME ECONOMICS IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL . 91 Relation of the home economics studies to the work of the first
six grades . .91
Home Economics in the seventh and eighth grades . . . 103
CHAPTER VII. HOME ECONOMICS STUDIES IN THE HIGH SCHOOL. 123
Section 1 124
Introduction 124
Home economics studies in the four-year high school . .125
Section II 166
Home economics studies in the junior high school . . . 166 Home economics studies in the senior high school . . .176 Home economics studies in the small high school . . .179
Section III . 181
Home economics studies in evening classes and continuation
courses . 181
CHAPTER VIII. HOME ECONOMICS IN RURAL SCHOOLS . . . 193
The rural situation . . 194
A field of interest to teachers of Home Economics . . . 195
Home economics extension service . ... . . 200
Home Economics in the rural schools . ... . . 203
Home Economics in the one-teacher school .... 209
Home Economics in the consolidated school , . . . 226
Home Economics in the rural high school . . . . . 232
CHAPTER IX. HOME ECONOMICS IN OTHER ORGANIZATIONS WHICH
CONTRIBUTE TO THE EDUCATION OF THE GIRL. » . 245 Organizations other than schools, which contribute to the educa- tion of the girl along lines of Home Economics . . . 245
TABLE OF CONTENTS XI
PART III PLANNING LESSONS IN HOME ECONOMICS
PAGE
CHAPTER X. SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR CHARACTERISTIC LESSONS IN
HOME ECONOMICS 269
The necessity of planning for a lesson 269
Suggestions for characteristic lessons 270
CHAPTER XI. A STUDY OF BASIC ELEMENTS IN PLANNING THE IN- DIVIDUAL LESSON 288
The importance of careful foresight in planning lessons in Home
Economics 288
The planning of the lesson 292
CHAPTER XII. MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS 309
Good management a phase of good teaching .... 309
Factors that contribute to classroom efficiency .... 309 Administrative problems of the department . . . .319
CHAPTER XIII. STANDARDS FOR TESTING METHODS OF INSTRUC- TION IN HOME ECONOMICS 332
The quality of instruction ........ 332
The aims of instruction 333
The main objects or purposes of instruction in the teaching of
home economics subjects 334
Factors worthy of acceptance as standards in judging method . 335
Home economics studies are social studies 338
The best modern methods are possible 338
PART IV
PERSONNEL, MATERIALS, AND OPPORTUNITIES IN THE TEACHING OF HOME ECONOMICS
CHAPTER XIV. THE TEACHER AND THE SUPERVISOR OF HOME
ECONOMICS 343
The teacher and the supervisor of Home Economics . . . 343
The preparation of teachers of Home Economics . . . 349
The training of the supervisor of Home Economics . . . 355
Xli TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER XV. UTILIZATION OF COMMUNITY INTERESTS IN THE
TEACHING OF HOME ECONOMICS . . i . . 359
The close interrelation of school and world interests . p v- . 359 Possibilities for interweaving school and community interests
through the home economics studies . . . -; . 364
CHAPTER XVI. EQUIPMENT FOR TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS . 374
General discussion of equipment for teaching Home Economics . 374
Various types of school equipment ...... 386
Charts, exhibits, and other illustrative material .... 398
Suggested lists of equipment 401
CHAPTER XVII. LITERATURE 417
Available literature in Home Economics . . . . .417
The division of the bibliography 420
PART V
ADDENDA 449
PART I
HOME ECONOMICS AS AN ORGANIZED STUDY IN THE SCHOOL PROGRAM
TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
CHAPTER I
THE RESPONSE OF WOMANHOOD TO MODERN SOCIAL DEMANDS
I. Women in colonial times.
A. Their life in home and community.
B. The education of girls for womanhood.
II. The effect of economic and social changes on the home.
A. The change in the home activities.
B. The resulting extension of "woman's sphere."
C. The modern home as a social force. III. The responsibilities of women to-day.
A. As citizens.
B. As home-makers.
C. As wage-earners.
With the passing of the years since woman first became recog- nized as an individual in the educational world, there have been many adjustments to meet her changing needs. In order that the reasons for these adjustments may be clearly understood, it may be well to survey briefly the development of woman's work in the home, the community, and the world at large.
Women in colonial times. — Their life in home and community. — The home of colonial times represented practically an independent unit in society. The girl participated with her mother and her grand- mother in the household arts ; and by cooperation with her father and brothers she received first-hand information in the industries which were carried on outside the walls of her colonial homestead. Alice Morse Earle, in Home Life in Colonial Days, quotes from a
3
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4 : TEACHING 'HOME ECONOMICS
paper published in the " American Museum " in 1787, the follow- ing statement of an old farmer :
At this time my farm gave me and my whole family a good living on the produce of it, and left me one year with another one hundred and fifty silver dollars, for I never spent more than ten dollars a year, which was for salt, nails, and the like. Nothing to eat, drink, or wear was bought, as my farm provided all.1
Elsewhere in the same volume, we read :
In recounting the various influences which assisted the Americans to success in the War for Independence, such as the courage and integrity of the American generals, the generosity of the American peo- ple, the skill of Americans in marksmanship, their powers of endurance, their acclimatization, their confidence and faith, etc., we must never forget to add then* independence in their own homes of any outside help to give them every necessity of life. No farmer or his wife need fear any king when on every home farm was found food, drink, medicine, fuel, lighting, clothing, shelter. Home-made was an adjective that might be applied to nearly every article in the house.
The work of woman in colonial days consisted mainly in the transformation of the raw materials of food and clothing and other life necessities into usable form for her own household. The be- ginning of social service in woman's work was found in colonial neighborliness. Although each household was practically inde- pendent as far as the production of the raw materials of food, clothing, and shelter was concerned, nevertheless exchange of services among the various families of a community was a necessity.
In the days of our grandmothers, just as to-day in neighborhoods remote from sources of supply, there was much interchange of serv- ices among families. At times, in lieu of the doctor and the trained nurse, one or two men and women in the neighborhood gave freely of their time, strength, and knowledge based on experience, to those in the community who were in need. In place of the pro- fessional caterer in the serving of meals to large numbers of friends, the women of the community contributed their share to the success of the undertaking. Interchange of service throughout a neighbor- hood provided the service which to-day is done by trained specialists and paid for in currency. It is not strange that with the advent 1 Home Life in Colonial Days. By Alice Morse Earle.
THE RESPONSE OF WOMANHOOD 5
of the new social order there has passed much of the intimate friendship and sympathetic neighborliness which existed under the c order of things.
It is interesting to note that the home duties and recreations of the women in colonial times were very closely allied. A task of unusual proportions was made the occasion of a social gathering and a feast. The quilting bee, the husking bee, and the barn raising were instances of this happy means of eliminating drudgery. " Change-work " in soap making, the making of apple butter, the sewing of rags for carpet, made a social day for two or more women who working alone would have found the tasks irksome. Such interchange of spirit as well as of work caused pleasant anticipation rather than dread of the task to be accomplished.
Within the home, among its own members the preparation for feast days meant the expenditure of much labor; but when this was made the occasion of jubilant cooperation of all members of the family, the size of the undertaking dwindled ; and well-filled larders were not accompanied by the extreme exhaustion of one or two members of a household.
The natural outcome of the internal industries in the home was the centralization of social life in the home. Father, mother, boy, and girl found, either in their own home or in the homes of the com- munity, the recreation which they sought.
The education of girls for womanhood. — Although not dignified in those days by the name of education, woman's life in the home and the community in colonial times offered an ideal preparation for the life which lay before her. The joy and dignity of labor were certain by-products of the well-developed industries of the home. Skill in the processes involved in the household arts was taught by constant participation in the spinning, weaving, candle making, soap making, dyeing, canning, preserving, and other industries carried on in the colonial home.
In comparing the school training of to-day in industrial and household arts with the home training of colonial times, Dr. Luther H. Gulick thus defined the advantages of the latter in its character- building effect :
6 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
From two to four hours of laboratory work per week has taken the place of from six to twelve hours a day of real work with a real mother doing real work for real people in a real home. The result is that our children know more about the use of tools and the physics and chemistry of cook- ing and the art of serving than did our grandmothers. And we are only just beginning to realize that learning how to work has in no respect the character-effect of working, and that being taught is one thing, and work- ing with, is another; and that knowing how, and having responsibility for, are all different in their effects upon life.1
It cannot be denied that the colonial kitchen with its great fire- place and the " hearth fire's ruddy glow," its high settles, its hang- ing crane, its shining pewter, the spinning wheel, the candle molds, made a very natural setting for the practical education of the girl ; and that the highest ideals of home and family life would be nur- tured in the lives of all members of the well-ordered household.
Her training in hospitality and community service came to the girl in colonial times through her home experience as already de- picted. As the daughter grew to womanhood, she was initiated into the neighborly services in which her mother had gained skill by experience. Or perchance she was able to supplement her mother's efforts in her own home by learning how to do from some neighbor whose skill in that particular art surpassed her mother's.
The place of the church in the life of the colonial girl was such that it must be considered as one of the great factors in her edu- cation. The estimate of her religious training as part of her daily life may best be judged by a glimpse into the " Diary of Anna Green Winslow, a Boston School Girl of 1771 " (aged 10 years), edited by Alice Morse Earle.
February 22, 1772
I have spun 30 knots of linning yarn, and (partly) new-footed a pan* of stockings for Lucinda, read part of Pilgrim's Progress, coppied part of my text journal, play'd some, tucked a great deal (Aunt Deming says it is very true) laugh'd enough, and I tell Mamma it is all human nature if not human reason. March 9, 1772
I think this day's work may be called a piece-meal, for in the first place I sew'd on the bosom of unkle's shirt, mended two pairs of gloves, mended for the wash two handkerchiefs (one cambric), sewed on half a border of a
1 Address delivered before the National Education Association, July, 1912.
THE RESPONSE OF WOMANHOOD 7
lawn apron of aunt's, read part of the XXIst chapter of Exodus, and a story in the "Mother's Gift." Now, Hon'd Mamma, I must tell you of something that happened to me today, that has not happened before this great while, viz., My unkle and aunt both told me, I was a very good girl.
Marian Talbot quotes 1 the foregoing selections with the follow- ing comments :
The little girl thought first of how she should be clothed ; the subject second in importance was her soul's welfare — she was a very pious little person, a member of Old South Church. She was industrious and active in housewifery accomplishments, and was trained to take her place as part of the industrial system of which she would become a member, a system in which there was division of labor largely based on sex, because based on the family organization.
She was an accomplished as well as a " strangely industrious little piece of femininity." She learned " dancing, or danceing, I should say," and attended a writing school to acquire the most indispensable and most appreciated of eighteenth century accomplishments — fine penmanship.
She read much, the Bible constantly, and also a " variety of other com- posures." Her instincts and habits were friendly and social, and she spent much time in visiting brides, babies and old folks.
A view of her education would be incomplete if the training she re- ceived from listening to sermons or to the discussion about them should be ignored. Her Bible reading was full of significance to her.
Miss Talbot, in bearing out this last point, quotes from the same diary :
March 11, 1772
Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. Thus King Solomon, inspired by the Holy Ghost cautions, Prov. XXVII, I. My aunt says this is a most necessary lesson to be learned and laid up in heart. I am quite of her mind. I have met with a disappointment today, and Aunt says, I may look for them every day. We live in a changing world in scripture call'd a vale of tears.
Miss Talbot's further comments concerning the education of Anna Green Winslow run as follows :
When she was twelve she was regarded as " finished," and " came out," being invited to a succession of prim little routs, or parties, which she called "constitutions."
If the results of her training be summed up, she is found to be an ex- cellently educated little person, ready to take her place in the family, which, as has been said, constituted the industrial organism of the day;
1 The Education of Women.
8 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
prepared for social life by her reading, writing, dancing, and the ease of manner which comes from constant intercourse with gentle people in human experiences. When to these is added the preparation which she had re- ceived for participation in church life, a life covering activities now known as religious and philanthropic, it is evident that she was indeed well edu- cated, lacking development only on the aesthetic side — the latest to be em- phasized in any community — and the political, of which she does not speak.
The effect of economic and social changes upon the home. — A parallel survey of the home of colonial days and the home of the twentieth century reveals very striking differences ; and woman as the member of the household most intimately related to the processes of the home has naturally been called upon to make extensive adjustments of her interests and her activities.
The change in home activities. — The modern home no longer houses all the essential industries which support life. In the ultra- modern household practically none of the industries exist. The apartment hotel, perhaps, best represents this extreme type. If not furnished by the owner, the suite of rooms which is the home of the family living in it has, perchance, been furnished by an in- terior decorating firm. The family dines in the hotel dining- room. Light and heat are provided by the pressing of a button and the turn of a valve. The rooms are cared for by the manage- ment. The wearing apparel of the members of the family is either purchased at the shops or made by specialists.
The average home to-day is less extreme in its modernism. Cer- tain industries remain ; the individual kitchen and dining-room, with the elements of their attendant industries, survive in spite of the occasional effort toward communal kitchens which will deliver cooked food on order to the individual dining-room. To be sure, the food industries as pursued in the home have been greatly curtailed by the commercial food industries. We find upon our pantry shelves to-day many foods either ready or partly ready to serve which in years past were developed from their raw state to edible form by the housewife. A point of constant discussion among housekeepers to-day is the feasibility of the retention in the home of such processes as canning and preserving, baking, garment-making, millinery ; and with the facilities of the modern
THE RESPONSE OF WOMANHOOD 9
industrial system and the demands of society upon the time and strength of women there is much to be said in favor of her release from these duties in the interest of larger service.
The great world war with its attendant need for food has re- vived the demand for more individual production. This has re- sulted in the revival of home canning and preserving, and in the more careful supervision of legitimate consumption of all com- modities in the home.
The clothing and house furnishing industries have perhaps been most nearly removed from the home. Although in many modern homes some of the clothing of the family is still made at home, and the hangings and table linen are fashioned by the housewife to meet her specific needs, the starting point for her share in the in- dustry is far in advance of her grandmother's; for the fabrics come to her in finished form, while her grandmother spun the flax, the cotton, and the wool, and wove them into cloth before she was provided with the fabric from which to fashion the cloth- ing for her family and the furnishings for her home.
The growing dependence of the home upon organized industry has been paralleled by the increasing introduction of skilled serv- ice into the home. The baby specialist safeguards the health of the infant; trained baby nurses minister to its daily needs. There is a strong tendency toward the specialization of all forms of service necessary to the maintenance of the household. There exist to-day, upon a strictly professional basis, such occupations as that of catering, fine laundering, household managing and con- sulting, fine mending and repairing, home decorating and furnish- ing, menu planning from the standpoint of health and economics, social secretary service, dressmaking, millinery, manicuring and hair dressing.
Is it to be marveled at that with the reduction of woman's responsibilities and services as required by the home she has risen up in her strength and demanded an enlarged sphere for her powers ?
The resulting extension of " woman's sphere" — The removal of these industries and other activities from the home has caused the extension of woman's vision, Whereas, in colonial days, her
10 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
family's needs were supplied largely by the efforts of the combined labors of the members of the household, to-day they are met by the united efforts of an untold army of workmen whose labors are paid for in currency. Production in the household has been super- seded by consumption, although production still holds a place. Woman's share in the business of home-making has become, in large part, the wise saving and spending of the family income. In many cases she has a part, if not an equal share, in the earnings of that income.
As a result of her increased interest in economics, woman is widening her horizon in relation to social conditions. Although possibly a selfish interest at first, it rapidly develops into an al- truistic one.
The health of her family is dependent upon the cleanliness of the milk supply. For the city woman a study of the conditions under which the milk which she buys is produced and distributed develops naturally into an interest in the condition of the men and women who labor in the industry ; while the woman who partici- pates in the dairying industry will naturally extend her interest to the consumers of the milk, and through her influence will be able to increase the sum total of physical health and strength.
Woman strives toward immunity for her family from disease which may develop from contact with unsanitary garments. An investigation into factory conditions and sweatshop labor in order to safeguard the health of her family will result in a sense of responsibility for the welfare of the men and women employed in the garment trades.
The dependence of her own family upon community sanitation in relation to drainage, insect pests, ventilation, etc., will lead into a consciousness of her share in the maintenance of good housing and civic conditions for the " other half." Pure food and clean markets for her own family will result in improved conditions for other individuals whose knowledge is less than her own. An interest in the best of life and health for her own children will, with increasing insight, lead into the will to improve conditions for all children by the enforcement of the Child Labor Laws.
THE RESPONSE OF WOMANHOOD 11
Dr. Luther H. Gulick in an address before the National Edu- cation Association thus expresses the enlarged vision of women :
Woman's work has largely been taken into the community and out of the individual home. Woman is, therefore, following her work into the community. She is taking on the same kind of responsibility in the com- munity which she has always carried in the home. Many of the psychic functions of motherhood she is discharging in the school. She is making playgrounds for children, healthier conditions in schools, fairer conditions for the work of men, women and children in farm, store, factory, shop and mine. The ideal is that of universal motherhood — all the women being responsible that every child is loved, cared for and given a fair chance. She is beginning to see that she is responsible for much of the municipal housekeeping, the conditions in the bakeshops and grocery stores. She is concerned that food shall be pure and water clean.
Dr. Frederick Henry Sykes says : 1
As the city grew up around us, the well went in favor of the city water works; the coal-oil lamp was replaced by gas, by electricity; no more firewood for the small boy to saw and split, we put in a gas stove; the washtub passed out to a commercial laundry ; the slop-bucket was turned to a city sewerage system ; the family cow faded away to a ghostly morn- ing milk bottle; horse and buggy changed to a street car, to a trolley, and the automobile; our few books became a Carnegie library; the sea- shells on the what-not went over to the American Museum of Natural History; the wax flowers, the crayon portraits of our ancestors, to the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts; the front yard went, perhaps, into Central Park and public playgrounds ; of the backyard there was nothing left but a fire escape ; the woodshed shrank to a gas meter ; the cellar, to an ice-box; the open fire, to a radiator. The old poet bade us die for hearth and for home ; but not even the poet of vers libre can inspire any enthusiasm for mortality on behalf of a radiator and a flat.
Have you noted how many of the activities of trained women to-day are in the old fields of woman's endeavor, only the scope has been broad- ened, socialized, and the work specialized? Our mothers were our first nurses, our first teachers, book providers, housekeepers, charity-workers. The new occupations are only the old ones writ large. Our army of trained nurses, our woman doctors, our host of public-school teachers, our women librarians, dietitians, health and factory inspectors, architects, costume designers, settlement workers — what are they but our grandmothers, if I may borrow a phrase from the trenches, not at peace but in pieces ?
Women must still make the individual home; we must count on them also to make the larger home, to civilize the city. To meet our new social needs, women must develop — alert and trained in heart, brain, hand, —
1 The Social Basis of the New Education of Women.
12 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
trained technically, trained socially, trained politically. What society needs is not the stored mind of the student merely, but the dynamic personality, uniting character, culture, vocational fitness, informed in social science, and touched by the spirit of service, of the church militant here on earth. Some women, I don't wonder, shrink at the task ahead, but some women welcome the new responsibilities, opportunities, training, and theirs is the leadership of the future.
Is it to be marveled at that woman with her instinctive vision for the extension of her field of usefulness has risen in her enthusiasm and demanded the privilege of sharing in the enactment of laws which control the welfare of this " larger home " ?
The modern home as a social force. — The slogan chosen by the Y. M. C. A. for its $35,000,000 drive in the fall of 1917, to be de- voted to the welfare of the soldiers and sailors in war service, was evidence of frank appreciation of the social force of the modern home. " Keep the Home Fires Burning " was an acknowledg- ment to the world that no force would have greater power in pro- moting the highest ideals of health and honor among the men of our country than the maintenance so far as possible of the social, moral, and spiritual conditions existing in the best type of American home.
The oversubscription which resulted in a fund exceeding $50,000,000 gave testimony to the faith of the American people in the standard which had been set as the purpose of the drive.
Therefore, the place of the home in the maintenance of the efficiency of the members of the household cannot be overstressed ; and for the woman in the home as partner with her husband in the business of home-making in its greatest significance there exists the grave task of making every member of the household the greatest possible asset to the nation and the world.
Although inseparable, there may be named three phases of social fitness toward which the home should contribute: (1) physical health ; (2) intellectual attainment ; (3) spiritual poise.
The world war has drawn to an unusual extent upon all these qualities in the lives of men, women, and children ; but is it not safe to say that had there been a saner balance among men in these three phases the conflict might have been avoided ; and that with
THE RESPONSE OF WOMANHOOD 13
the long period of reconstruction which follows, the demand for wise judgment and skilled ability will be met in proportion to the capital of each which is given to the individual ?
The responsibilities of women to-day. — As citizens. — The hour has already struck for women in certain parts of our country to assume their share of the responsibilities of citizenship, and uni- versal suffrage seems certain. Woman faces her new task with limited knowledge and experience in the affairs of state. Her in- fluence heretofore has been indirect. The more progressive woman has kept in touch with modern affairs, but the details of accomplish- ing results have not been hers to master. A new problem, then, in woman's life is the wise use of the vote, in the fulfillment of her privileges and responsibilities as a citizen.
Her grasp of the home and its relation to the community, her sense of its importance as a social force, and her consciousness of her share in the extension of the best in home influence should serve as a spur to the conscientious exercise of her new-gained power.
It is difficult to differentiate between the affairs of government that are and those that are not related to " woman's sphere " in its modern scope ; for the home as a setting for every individual and the interrelation of home and government have broken down any barriers which may have existed in earlier years. Suffice it to say that woman must meet her new field of service with the highest degree of intelligence which it is within her power to command; and that she is fortunate in having as a basis for that intelligence an inheritance of human interest and a desire to serve which is to have a greater, even if it must be a less intimate, field of useful- ness than that of the woman in colonial days.
Luther H. Gulick thus defines woman's share in the affairs of government :
Woman is as sure to have the suffrage as the tide is to rise, not because she is as wise, as strong, as skillful as man is, nor because she, like him, is a human being, nor for any other reason of likeness or duplication at all, but because she is different, because the world needs her peculiar and special abilities. It is because she is different, because these differences are fun- damental world needs, that it is necessary that she shall bring these dif- ferences to the service of the world. This fact, whether woman wants
14 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
it or no, the suffrage will force inevitably upon her. Woman has been responsible for the home — so she had her voice. Now she has thrust upon her a new, terrible and glorious responsibility and opportunity for the home and social aspects of the community. We insist that she must speak, but because she is different and not because she is like. The vote is no end in itself. To serve the community in ways in which she is the creator and specialist is the end, and toward this service the women of the civilized world are pressing, most of them unconsciously — a few of them consciously, but all of them inevitably.
As home-makers. — As custodian of the health of the members of her household, and, directly or indirectly, of their intellectual and spiritual poise, the home-maker's modern task assumes stupendous proportions. She dare not depend upon her time-honored instinct in matters of selection, preparation and care of food, clothing and shelter.
One great responsibility of tlie modern home-maker rests in the intelligent expenditure of her own time and energy. A considera- tion of this important phase of her duties will inevitably result in a careful evaluation of her daily routine. Loyalty to home and family has long since ceased to mean complete submersion in the affairs of the home. The modern home-maker realizes an intel- lectual as well as a physical loyalty ; she must be able to inspire and to stimulate to higher thought and achievement, as well as to keep the family well and happy. She will experience a larger life and achieve a greater service to her family and the country's cause if she strives toward a realization of the standard set by Mr. Herbert Hoover during the world war.
Go back to the simple life, be contented with simple food, simple pleas- ures, simple clothes. Work hard, pray hard, play hard. Work, eat, recreate and sleep. Do all courageously. We have a victory to win.
The consumption of time in long processes of cooking and sewing, which may be shortened without physical loss and with intellectual and spiritual gain for herself and her family, indicates a weak basis for the evaluation of essentials. The intelligent and unselfish utilization of their time thus released demands thought and purpose on the part of women.
A present-day advertisement of negative influence thus incites
THE RESPONSE OF WOMANHOOD 15
the housewife to the use of a cleansing powder in the dish-washing process : " My dishes are done in half the time, and I am off to the movies ! " The wise combination of recreation and purposeful toil in the expenditure of her leisure time, which is the result of her readjustment to social and economic conditions, is one of woman's present-day problems. Through education alone can womankind come to a full sense of her importance as a citizen. " The deepest need of woman is her need of being needed " ; and not until she senses the need as a world-cry will she appreciate her value to the world.
To what extent the woman of to-day may wisely divide her time and strength between the individual and the larger home, she alone can decide. Educational agencies should present the case clearly to her in order that she may have a basis for her decision.
Miss Laura Drake Gill in " A Creed of Work for Women " has formulated a working principle for the reconciliation of the home and wage-earning occupations under present-day conditions :
A CREED OF WORK FOR WOMEN
I BELIEVE that every woman needs a skilled occupation developed to the degree of possible self-support. j
She needs it commercially, for an insurance against reverses.
She needs it socially, for a comprehending sympathy with the world's workers.
She needs it intellectually, for a constructive habit of mind which makes knowledge usable.
She needs it ethically, for a courageous willingness to do her share of the world's work.
She needs it aesthetically, for an understanding of harmony relationships as determining factors in conduct and work.
I BELIEVE that every young woman should practice this skilled occu- pation, up to the time of her marriage, for gainful ends with deliberate intent to acquire therefrom the widest possible professional and financial experience.
I BELIEVE that every woman should expect marriage to interrupt for some years the pursuit of any regular gainful occupation ; that she should prearrange with her husband some equitable division of the family income such as will insure a genuine partnership, rather than a position of de- pendence (on either side) ; and that she should focus her chief thought during the early youth of her children upon the science and art of wise family life.
16 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
I BELIEVE that every woman should hope to return, in the second leisure of middle age, to some of her early skilled occupation, — either as an un- salaried worker in some one of its social phases, or, if income be an object, as a salaried worker in a phase of it requiring maturity and social experience.
I BELIEVE that this general policy of economic service for American women would yield generous by-products of intelligence, responsibility and contentment.
As wage-earners. — Woman as wage-earner has entered most of the occupations which are scheduled in the census reports. The present conditions have thrown open the door of opportunity to woman to enter many fields of service as wage-earner wherein she may, if she is educated for it, exert her influence for the improve- ment of conditions, both economic and social.
It seems to have been women's part in civilization to devote their time and strength and money to the alleviation of suffering. This has been true, perhaps, because they are " different " ; they have as a distinguishing feature of their make-up the intuitive faculty of discerning suffering and of wishing to reduce it. In earlier times, women's resources were largely those of the family bank account ; and woman's ability to persuade her husband of the importance of a particular " charity " was in many cases the measure of her devotion to the cause.
As time went on, the old idea of almsgiving in an indiscriminate way gave way to a more systematic method of relief, and various kinds of relief associations, such as charity organizations and settlement houses, have resulted which have proved more effective in the permanent alleviation of distress.
Women have shown great initiative in promoting the constructive method of reducing misery and dependence. Peculiarly significant in this regard is the New York Orphanage at Hastings-on-Hudson, which ever since its inception has been managed by a board of woman governors.
The responsibility of the woman who earns is in many cases an especially important one. If, as often happens, she is home-maker as well as wage-earner, she is called upon to administer her time, strength, and money in both capacities in the most effective way.
In order to be of greatest economic and social value to her
THE RESPONSE OF WOMANHOOD 17
country, she must be well prepared to perform her duties in her home as well as in her chosen occupation. Her dual activities tend to force upon the home the simple methods of housekeeping. The art of modern home-making involves the responsibility of evaluating each article of furnishing, each household process, each delicacy and comfort, each article of dress in terms of the balance between the satisfaction resulting from it and the additional labor it entails.
Her contact with world conditions fits her to judge wisely of world needs; and the demands upon her judgment and advice will increase directly as she assumes her share in the direction of the " larger home." The wise expenditure and investment of her income demands thought and wisdom. Be it large or small, that money above and beyond her needs for the most sensible standard of living must be wisely spent. A knowledge of world needs will regulate her subscriptions to the call for funds ; a keen business sense will be necessary in wise investment.
The woman who earns has, in common with all mankind, the social responsibility of health. She must regulate her expenditure of energy according to her capital. In order to keep her capital intact, and to add to it, she must know :
1. How to select food which will yield the best returns in energy and tissue building.
2. How to dress so that she will be able to conserve the heat yielded by her food intake ; so that she will convey to her asso- ciates and coworkers a conviction of her strong womanly qualities ; and so that she will have the right influence upon the production of textile fabrics and the welfare of garment workers.
3. How to live so that she may keep in touch with the world's progress, in order that she may exert her influence toward that progress; and so that she may continue to grow socially, in- tellectually, and spiritually.
The question may arise, " But why have these needs been es- pecially stressed in relation to the woman who earns? " No claim has been made that she alone needs special training for this respon- sibility ; but for the woman as home-maker the world to-day be-
18 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
lieves in specific training which contributes to both womanhood and home-making, while in the case of the woman in wage-earning occupations, there are extremists who profess to believe that such training is not essential, unless the occupation is one which has developed from an interest in the household arts.
In concluding his article " The Social Basis of the New Education of Women," Dr. Sykes says :
I don't know what the end of life is — what it all means, what we are all after, working for. It seems that what life wants is more life, "to live more abundantly. " There is promise of it.
Let us build on, hopeful of the future, for social justice, for social in- telligence, for social facilities, for a democracy realized in happy, busy, beneficent, effective human beings (as Ruskin describes the truly edu- cated) that are the real wealth of nations. That is the social gospel of the new education for women.
Womankind cannot be expected to achieve immediately her highest ambitions and ideals; but to women of the twentieth century has come the unlimited opportunity to try to scale the heights which stretch before her. With the widening of her vision there will be developed many qualities in her character which have lain dormant because of disuse; and those outstanding char- acteristics which are hers by inheritance and make her " different" will be turned to the best account under the new conception of " woman's sphere."
SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY AND REVIEW
1. List the home and community activities of a modern home-maker in your community. Which of these do you consider worthy of special thought and study on the part of the woman ?
2. Compare the different types of civic responsibility of the woman in the farm home and of the woman in the city and village home.
3. Cite women of history and of the present day who seem to you to have responded to the social demands of their time.
4. Evaluate the various purchases made during the past two years in the furnishing of your home "in terms of the balance between the satis- faction resulting from it and the additional labor it entails."
THE RESPONSE OF WOMANHOOD 19
5. What are the "differences" in woman's make-up which should con- tribute to the betterment of the "larger home" ?
6. Describe the actual life of some woman of your acquaintance who seems to you to have realized the ideals set forth in Miss Gill's "Creed of Work for Women." What do you consider the essential factors in the creed from the standpoint of the title of this chapter?
REFERENCES FOR COLLATERAL READING
The Education of Women. Talbot.
The Social Basis of the New Education for Women. Sykes. Teachers
College Record, May, 1917. The Economic Function of Woman. Devine. Bureau of Publications,
Teachers College, Columbia University. The Business of Being a Woman. Tarbell. Sociology and Modern Social Problems. Ellwood.
CHAPTER II
THE RESPONSE OF EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES TO THE NEEDS OF WOMEN
I. Introduction. II. The response through elementary and secondary schools.
A. Early attitudes toward the education of girls.
B. Modern ideals and present tendencies.
III. The response through higher institutions of learning.
IV. Other educational agencies.
Introduction. — We are coming to appreciate the very large and important part that women are taking in all lines of necessary work, and we can but applaud the splendid way in which they are meeting the demands of society. The attitude of society toward women and their work has changed even as the home of former days has changed. Women can no longer confine their interests and efforts to their own homes, not only because they cannot give fullest self- expression to themselves there, but because society has need for them elsewhere as well. It is a recognized social good for women to widen their interests, to increase their powers of leadership in all kinds of social welfare, and to engage in the production of the world's material needs. In view of this fact there is a growing disposition to permit women to qualify for any position they may choose to fill and to help them to adjust themselves to the new regime in the social and industrial world. To many women this changed social order means an opportunity for self-expression never before realized ; to others it may mean a bondage in the industrial world that strains to the breaking point.
To satisfy both of these classes old social institutions have had to search themselves to determine whether or not they were meeting modern needs, and in many of them there has resulted a change of
20
THE RESPONSE OF EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES 21
ideas and ideals expressed in the new types of work they have undertaken.
The changed home indeed ! But it were just as well to add, the changed school, the changed church, the changed industrial world, and the changed attitude toward women. The past form of the word would better give way to the present participle changing, for the process continues, and it is our strongest hope, that, profiting by the experiences of the past, the generations to come will work out a social order exemplifying the best that is in us and in them, and that women will be more able than ever before to make their full contribution.
One does not need long vision to see that women occupy " a strate- gic position " to-day. The war opened up opportunities and dis- closed abilities that were before undreamed of, and never again can charges of inferiority due to sex be made. Individual differences there may be, but women have been found to have strong per- sonalities, vigorous minds, and physical endurance of surprising quality which have made it possible for them to help to originate as well as to actually carry on the world's work in this great hour of need.
The response through the elementary and secondary schools. — When we contrast the positions held by women of to-day with those held by women of the past we wonder what factors have been most responsible for qualifying them for their places. What agencies have been at work making it possible for women to engage in the professional, commercial, and industrial world and to originate and administer new lines of work when opportunity offers? The removal of industry from the home may be one of the primal causes for all social change, but to education must be given the honor for the advancement made by women during the past half century.
Early attitudes toward the education of girls. — We are first of all indebted to the establishment of free elementary and secondary schools in our country. At first there was a decidedly illiberal attitude shown towards girls' education. During the early colonial times the public felt no responsibility for the education
22 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
of its girls. In fact we read that in 1788 a New England town voted against using any of its funds for this purpose. The home and the dame school were the recognized educational agencies, and girls received all necessary education in one or the other or both. Intellectual pursuits were not considered essential ; re- ligious and industrial training took first place, and those were cared for in the home. The dame schools in the early eighteenth century attended by the few offered major instruction in the three R's and added music, dancing, and sewing. This was considered quite sufficient for social elegance. What mattered it if a woman could only affix her mark to a legal document !
Later, girls were given a little larger opportunity. In some cities and towns where there were not enough boys to fill the schools, girls were given the privilege of attending. In some instances they had the use of the buildings when not needed by the boys, possibly an hour during the day when the boys were otherwise engaged. Dur- ing the summer months, when the boys had their vacations, the girls were given instruction, but it was meager and inadequate. In the more sparsely populated sections the girls were more fortunate. They were admitted to both elementary and secondary schools and shared alike with the boys, for their enrollment was necessary to secure the full quota of pupils to establish the schools.
The year 1825 marks a humorous incident in the progress of education for girls. The city council of Boston voted $2000 to establish a girls' high school. Before the end of the second year the school had become so popular and the applications for admis- sion so numerous that the school committee, not seeing its way clear to finance the demands for more adequate accommodations, abol- ished the school as a failure! Even though to Boston is given the credit for being the pioneer in establishing secondary education, not until 1852 did she make provision for public secondary education for girls.
For a long time throughout the country there was a disinclination to give the same quality of instruction to girls as that given to boys, but as the function of the high school became more wisely defined and the need for women with higher education increased, this
THE RESPONSE OF EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES 23
attitude changed, and to-day we find differences in kind only, where those differences may be sought by the individual.
Modern ideals and present tendencies. — Society no longer questions the advisability of providing free educational facilities for girls and women. Its greatest concern now is that the schools of the country shall meet the needs of the present, and to this end we find our schools like all other institutions undergoing change. A progressive society demands a progressive educational program.
When we realize that only about one per cent of the entire school population enters college and only about five per cent en- ters high school, we feel at once like turning to the elementary school to find the reason. We are so used to thinking of the elementary and secondary schools as educating our children that we credit them with success or failure in their results, forgetting the part played by higher institutions in establishing policies, forming ideals, and training school men and women for their positions. Elementary school practice cannot rise higher than educational ideals, and these are formed in institutions higher up.
1 . Education an important subject of study. — During the past twenty-five years a new interest in education has developed. Always a profound subject of study, it has been given new impor- tance, and just at present nothing is more important than that our educational platform be sound, for the period of reconstruction needs the strongest men and women it is possible for our schools to produce.
As a subject of study education has a recognized place in the university. This makes it possible to study the educational needs of the present. Trained men and women can study the signs of the times in the light of the history of the past with the help of all the arts and sciences that a university can provide. Departments of sociology, psychology, and philosophy are giving some of their best talent to the working out of educational problems, and a science of education is developing.
The educational sociologist is studying the needs of society and is formulating principles which will aid in determining what shall
24 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
be taught ; the psychologist is studying the individual and is for- mulating principles underlying our method of class procedure ; the educational philosopher determines the why of our efforts and guides us in our educational endeavor. The need of the three, the psy- chologist, the sociologist, and the philosopher, is apparent. What one teaches depends so much upon why he teaches it that wise discrimination in choice of subject matter can only follow the line of one's philosophy of education. How one teaches is also so dependent upon the quality of mental and physical habits desired that it is essential to know not only educational psychology but educational philosophy as well, so that our boys and girls will not only be educated but will be educated in the right way for the right kind of social organization.
There are still many in the teaching profession whose zeal for the subjects they are teaching makes them unconscious of the fact that after all they should be teaching boys and girls. More and more the demand comes for professionally trained men and women, and when this demand is strong enough the interests, capacities, and needs of children will take precedence over subject matter and traditions of the past.
2. Changes in the educational program. — As a result of the study of the educational situation we find our educational structure changing. Philosophers would seem to have prophetic vision and patience to work for the accomplishment of that vision, else how could Dewey and others who have worked along similar lines for years, have waited until now to have these ideas universally accepted? We find our educational program built upon the principles they established, undergoing change, slow but sure at present, with every indication that the present crisis will bring more rapid and radical changes. Of just what nature they will be it is difficult to forecast, but we may be assured that the schools of to-day will not be adequate to the needs of to-morrow, and those of us who are responsible must keep our ears to the ground and be quick to make the adjustments demanded by the new social regime. We have faith to plan for an education suited to a democratic society. Our aim still will be to train for a democratic citizenry, but the two
THE RESPONSE OF EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES 25
words democracy and citizenship are so much more meaningful than ever before that our effort will likewise take on a new vitality.
We are encouraged from all sides to modify the present program. The educational philosopher is helping us to establish our ideals; the sociologist is questioning the validity and worth-whileness of our subject matter and is helping us to change our curriculums ; the psychologist is questioning our method and is giving constructive suggestions as to how to proceed ; the general public stands on the side lines applauding or decrying our results, and even the pupils themselves are clamoring for a voice in school affairs, all of which makes the teacher, the principal, and the superintendent conscious that there is great need for weighing and evaluating all theories and opinions and for putting their reconstructed conceptions into practice.
Already new purposes are being felt; new methods are being tried out; elimination and enrichment are commonly used terms in connection with courses of study ; economy of time in learning is being studied ; schools are being reorganized ; the needs of the individual and of society are being analyzed ; and all together there is a seriousness of purpose on the part of educators never before known.
3. New purposes in education. — In deciding what it shall aim to do for its pupils the school is no longer free to focus its attention upon itself, but has instead to determine its relation to the outside world and to appreciate that the pupils within its walls are there to have those experiences which will fit them for life outside the school. Real preparation for life implies participation in it, and until the child is given an opportunity to share responsibility, to perform service for others, to assume worth-while duties, and to realize satisfaction as a result of doing these during the hours he spends at school, it cannot be taken for granted he will have the necessary preparation for life.
To make it possible for the child to experience life, or to partici- pate in life's activities, becomes one of the most important purposes of the school. The modern kindergarten, the modern elementary
26 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
school, the modern secondary school, and all institutions which have a claim on modern educational ideals make use of the prin- ciple that the work of the school should prepare for life outside of school, and of the principle that we " learn to do by doing." We are getting away from the idea that the first eight years of one's school life should be spent only in acquiring the tools of learning, and are substituting in its place the idea that these tools may be acquired through the effort made to solve some of the real problems of life. The purpose of the school has been enlarged beyond that of simply acquiring the use of tools and acquiring subject matter against a time of future need ; educators are realizing that boys and girls must live in the world as social human beings and that their ability to do so later depends upon the opportunity to do so now.
More and more the school is realizing that it must take over some of the functions formerly performed by the home, not because the home is not willing to do what it once did but because the changed conditions make it impossible for the home to assume the full responsibility.
The health of the child once guarded by the mother has become a consideration of the school. Society appreciates that health is a national asset and that people must have strong bodies as well as strong minds, consequently the school is asked to share with the home the responsibility of maintaining and promoting the health of its pupils. The school nurse, the school doctor, the surgical clinic, the dental clinic, the medical clinic, medical inspection, open air schools, the school lunch, public health education, and, best of all, play and playgrounds, all bear evidence that the school is an essential agency through which health and health education must be provided.
Another function that the school shares with the home is caring for the moral welfare of the child. Since education is based upon the principle that moral training accompanies conduct, the school has become conscious that it must stimulate such habits of thought and action as are acceptable to society. It feels responsible for producing in the child such traits of character as are desired in the
THE RESPONSE OF EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES 27
citizen. Through an understanding of the laws of habit and an application of these laws right habits of life may be formed in school.
Still another serious purpose of the school is to educate its pupils to appreciate the industrial world in which we live and also to fit boys and girls for such work as they may have to engage in on leaving school. In the interests of democracy it would seem necessary that all members of the group should be able to engage in some kind of productive work, not only for its own sake but for the sake of valuing the work of others. Before the passing of industries from the home, the school and the home shared more evenly in the responsibility for the industrial education of the child. Boy and girl worked side by side with father and mother in the processes involved in making many of life's necessities, and not only learned how to do the needful things but felt a sympathy with those engaged in similar occupations.
Lest experience in handling materials and a knowledge of modern industrial processes be lost, the modern school, through courses in industrial arts in the elementary school, gives a knowledge of present-day industry, and through the vocational classes and schools prepares pupils for such occupations as they may wish to follow. Vocational education has been a serious subject of study for more than ten years and at present is receiving an unusually large share of attention. The passage of the Smith-Hughes Act is but one evidence of the great interest in vocational education in the United States.
In our modern school education for leisure is given no secondary place. One of the greatest needs of our changing social life is an equipment for spending leisure time more wisely. The work program demands a play program. Machinery has shortened the hours of labor for many ; for others the intensity of labor demands increased leisure. Every one has some time away from work that can be spent in enriching life or that can be used in such a way as to lower the vitality and the morals. Must not our schools give more than a passing thought to this problem?
In the effort to qualify for an occupation and with the utilitarian
28 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
idea ever before us may there not be a tendency to overlook the value of some of those subjects that contribute most to the enjoy- ment of life? Music, art, literature, and other subjects not con- tributing directly to the performance of the day's work, become very utilitarian for the leisure hours. The ability to play, to create, to express one's self in some way should be discovered and developed in the school, and in the modern school we find emphasis given to this phase of living. For no other group does the wise expenditure of leisure need so strong emphasis as for girls and women.
4. New methods of teaching. — It is only natural that the changed purposes of the school be accompanied by changed methods of instruction and that the subject matter, or at least its arrangement, be changed to meet our new ideals. The modern school no longer thinks in terms of discipline and subject matter, but rather in terms of developing the child's resources and fitting him for his place in a democratic society ; and with this thought in mind it becomes the business of the school to provide means whereby the child may not only grow but grow up with such powers of mind and body as our society needs.
The spirit of democracy is expressing itself in our modern school- rooms, and in its presence we have come to feel that our methods of procedure have been autocratic rather than democratic. Teach- ers have made demands upon little children and have insisted upon results quite out of harmony with the laws of child nature and the laws of learning. The same demands have been made of all chil- dren regardless of native interests, capacities, and tendencies ; the same means have been used to get results. With the old ideas of discipline and acquisition of subject matter prevailing, these methods may have sufficed, but since the social efficiency aim guides our work, modern method seeks to understand the individual child and to develop within him, according to the laws of learning, those characteristics that society desires in its members. The school really offers an apprenticeship in citizenship by giving oppor- tunity for practicing those virtues desired in the citizen. Instead of imposing tasks the teacher directs the pupils in the choice of those activities that interest him and are suited to his needs and
THE RESPONSE OF EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES 29
capacities, and as a result the pupil finds joy in school work. Having in mind rather clearly what habits are desired in the child, the teacher can provide opportunities for the repetition of such acts and thoughts as make for strong moral fiber.
If cooperation is necessary in a democracy, the school should provide repeated opportunities for children to work together on some worthy project ; if initiative and ability to organize are es- sential, children must be encouraged to suggest lines of activity and to work out problems which they have undertaken. In a live school learning and saying lessons have given way to stating and working out live problems. The teacher has become a director of activities while the children are learning through doing.
The schoolroom has become a little community, the members of which instead of being controlled from without are learning self- control ; instead of having tasks assigned, they are choosing those tasks they feel must be done. They are learning to choose and to do, to form judgments and weigh values, in short they are prac- ticing citizenship and are feeling their worth as members of a group. As one teacher expresses it, " Our mission is not scholarship but service, not books but boys, not culture but citizens. . . . We are in the business of helping boys to grow to men, all able and disposed to advance the general good."
5. Changed curriculums. — The new purposes in education are likewise reflected in the new curriculums of our modern schools. Curriculums, like methods, have been handed down to us from the past, and it is only with the greatest difficulty that any of the tradi- tional subject matter can be discarded or rearranged. But our pro- gressive society demands that as the dominant interests of society change and as the needs of those who leave our schools change, the curriculums also must change. The answer to, What is most worth while, is continually being sought, and just how to reconcile the needs of the adult in the workaday world into which the child shall pass on leaving school, and the immediate needs and interests of childhood is the problem ever before those responsible for making courses of study. Patrons as well as teachers find difficulty in accepting anything new and often demand a continuation of the
30 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
traditional school subjects. However, the up-to-date school has incorporated many new ideas and has rearranged the old so that the child may use them. The old subjects have been revitalized and new subjects have been added. There is time set apart for industrial arts, giving the pupils opportunity for active occupation and acquainting them with the industrial world in which they live ; and for nature study and elementary science, opening up such abundant opportunity for a closer acquaintance with natural phenomena. There is time for music and art and play; shops and laboratories are in use; connections are made between the school and the home and the neighborhood, all without any loss of subject matter at one time considered so important. The modern curriculum attempts to meet the child's present needs and recognizes that those needs differ from those of the children of yesterday.
The response through higher institutions of learning. — Co- education a factor in woman's progress. — One of the greatest goods to come out of free elementary and secondary education and one that in itself has been such a strong factor in promoting the higher education of women is the opening of college and university doors to women. At present the principle of giving equal opportunity to both sexes at public expense extends from the kindergarten through the university. Society's need for women with higher education began to be felt during the civil war period, when it became necessary to call women in great numbers to the teaching profession. It naturally followed that if women were to instruct in the secondary as well as in the elementary schools further prep- aration than that given in the high school was essential. The western states were largely responsible for establishing coeduca- tional opportunities.
Experience in coeducation has disproved any false notion that may have been held regarding the intellectual ability of women and has been instrumental in opening the doors of graduate and pro- fessional schools to them. They may take their professional train- ing in the same classrooms and laboratories with men, and as they continue to fill the demand for professional service we can
THE RESPONSE OF EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES 31
look for a continued increase in the enrollment of women in these schools.
Other educational agencies. — Extension teaching. — After all, formal educational institutions reach only a limited number of individuals and those for only a limited time. The responsibility of society in helping women to meet life does not end with the school days of the girl. The after school years, the vacation periods and the leisure time of the girl at work are no small con- siderations of those responsible for girlhood. Her social needs and her educational needs increase as the school doors close, for life becomes more abundant after the formal period of education closes and the real need for help in meeting life's problems is by many felt only after commencement day is over. Those respon- sible for public education are meeting this situation by offering instruction in part-time classes and in evening schools. Instruction of varied types may be had for the asking. Go into classrooms and technical laboratories any evening in any large city to prove the need for instruction after school days are over. Girls and women in large numbers are availing themselves of the oppor- tunities to learn those things life is demanding they should know. The type of work is not limited to the solution of industrial prob- lems only ; the earning of more money is not the only consideration of those in attendance. But rather there are problems of social and civic concern, there are moral and ethical values to determine, and the aesthetic nature to satisfy. One has but to read the sub- jects of lectures supported by the Board of Education of New York City to appreciate the variety of interests and needs felt by groups of persons in a metropolitan population ; and similar interests are found in smaller communities.
Colleges and universities through their extension classes scheduled at convenient hours make it possible for many to avail themselves of further opportunity for study.
Great effort is being made to reach all groups of women and to meet all types of needs. Women in the most remote rural sections may share the advantages of those living in more congested ones. Through the Federal Government the educational, social, eco-
32 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
nomic, and domestic needs of farm women are being met, and the isolation of rural life is no longer a barrier to the complete living of women on the farm. The best that the school and the university have to offer may be had for the asking and may be taken directly to the homes of the farmer and his wife as well as to those who live in urban communities.
Paralleling the work of the school and university but operating in ways of their own, other organizations ,are making rich con- tributions to the needs of the girls and women of to-day.
The church. — The modern church has become socialized and is recognizing its worth as an educational agency in the lives of the members of the community. With its club rooms, library, gym- nasium, kindergarten, after-school and Saturday classes, vacation camps, and various other organizations, it is possible for persons of all ages to choose such phases of activity as may enrich then* lives. The social intercourse, the working together for common ends, make for a feeling of community interest absolutely essential to the working out of the ideals of the present. The talking over of common problems cannot but react upon the lives and homes of the group and gives an opportunity for putting into action those principles for which the church has always stood.
The Young Women's Christian Association. — One has but to study the organization of a large city association to appreciate the response that the Y. W. C. A. has made to the educational needs of women. The educational director of an association holds an important position and has many complex problems due to the variety of interests of those who may register in classes. The history of the educational work of the Y. W. C. A. is interesting. It dates back to 1866, when singing was taught in the Boston associa- tion. Astronomy and physiology were added in 1867, penmanship and bookkeeping in 1868, botany in 1869, history in 1874, calis- thenics in 1877. Telegraphy was taught in the Philadelphia as- sociation in 1874. These facts are given merely to illustrate that this great organization has always tried to meet the immediate needs of young women. Academic and technical needs alike have been met through definitely organized courses of instruction, while
THE RESPONSE OF EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES 33
physical education plays a large part in the educational program of any city association.
Aside from any formal instruction which may be given, the Y. W. C. A. through its many activities is a great educational agency and reaches groups that would find it difficult to avail themselves of any other educational opportunity.
The interest of the association in housing conditions, food problems, social problems, and employment and labor conditions has made it of service to a multitude of girls and women in all callings of life.1
Girl Scouts. — With the need for democratic organization so important and the formation of habits of initiative, self-reliance, and self-control on the part of girls so imperative, the Girl Scout movement has come into special prominence. The fine prac- tical program of the organization, adaptable to all localities and all types of girls, makes an especial appeal to the en- thusiasm of girls of scout age. Scouting is constructive and definite, and " its plan develops individual responsibility and capacity in the service of home, community and state. Scouting is fun. Its program succeeds because girls like it. It opens to them pleasures which answer their natural healthy impulses and imagination and at the same time affords them a stimulating share in the interests and pursuits of adults."
Camp Fire Girls. — This organization has also been of intense interest and of educational and social value to many girls. The aims of the movement and the methods of work are based upon the ideas so frequently expressed, viz. — that girls need to engage in voluntary cooperative effort and that provision must be made for them to exercise initiative, resourcefulness, responsibility, etc., in order to become competent members of society. It recognizes the changed economic and social condition of girls and women accompanied by the changed home, and attempts to supple- ment the training given by the home and the school. The types of activities undertaken by the girls to meet membership re- quirements are those that " will most effectively make for physical
1 Fifty Years of Association Work among Young Women, By Elizabeth Wilson. D
34 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
vitality, personal efficiency and spiritual and intellectual vigor as well as to preserve the largest amount of beauty, inspiration and romance in their daily lives/'
Corporations. — The educational work undertaken by depart- ment stores, telephone companies, life insurance companies, textile factories, and other industries and organizations employing women and girls serves a double purpose which is reflected in society at large. The general health, intelligence, and happiness of the great army of women workers assure not only better service and greater returns to the company but greater satisfactions to the employee as well ; women in industry are no small part of our social structure and their welfare affects society very materially.
This type of work is still in its infancy, but the possibilities are great, and with the increase in the number of women wage-earners and the inclusion of women in industrial boards immediate and far- reaching progress must result.
Philanthropic organizations. — The educational work of philan- thropic organizations is varied in character and is administered in a variety of ways. Any organization working with the less for- tunate populations must of necessity direct its efforts toward edu- cating the groups they are helping. The Day Nursery where the mother may leave her child while she is away at work, the Free Milk Station or Diet Kitchen where the child's physical needs are met, the clinic and the visiting nurse all hope to do more than meet the immediate needs. They are doing their utmost to teach and to train the mothers through demonstrations, individual visits to the homes, or in classes, to help themselves.
Club organizations. — The keynote of all present social activity is cooperation, and one of the most effective organizations pro- moting cooperation is the club. Its name bespeaks a purpose and a willingness on the part of the membership to work toward some definite purpose. Girls and women enjoy club membership, and under wise direction and guidance this form of organization has become an effective educational and social agency. The very fact that a group is organized makes it possible to reach a larger number with whatever propaganda is necessary or desirable.
THE RESPONSE OF EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES 35
The need for developing leadership and initiative and the spirit of cooperation on the part of women is especially urgent at this time, when they are to exercise full citizenship. If club activity can help them it is highly desirable to encourage girls to club membership.
The " Eight Weeks Clubs " promoted by the Y. W. C. A., the Camp Fire Girls, and the Girl Scouts, are given national recog- nition ; while various other clubs including the Canning Clubs, Home Economics Clubs, Agricultural Clubs, and Reading Clubs, financed in part by the government and under the direction of the government, are strong evidences of the worth-whileness of this type of organization from the social and educational standpoint, and are but another evidence that society desires to meet the modern needs of girls and women.
The importance of right leadership is more and more appreciated and the demand for trained women is forcing educational in- stitutions to study the problem and to offer courses of study and opportunity for practice to those whose interests and aptitudes lead them to choose this type of educational work.
SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY AND REVIEW
1. What factors have been responsible for the influx of women into industry ?
2. Compare the modern attitude of society toward the education of girls with that of colonial days. Account for the difference.
3. Discuss some of the changing ideals in education.
4. Distinguish between teaching boys and girls, and teaching subject matter.
5. In what ways can our system of education be made more democratic ?
6. How has coeducation influenced society in regard to the higher education of women ?
7. What influence do you think the war will have upon the educational opportunities of women ? Substantiate your opinions.
8. What educational agencies aside from schools and colleges are there in your community? Of what help may you be in strengthening their educational programs?
36 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
REFERENCES FOR COLLATERAL READING
The Education of Women. Talbot.
The Home Economics Movement. Bevier and Usher.
The Family as a Social and Educational Institution. Goodsell.
Education for the Home, Part I. Andrews.
Education of Women. Thomas.
(Monograph on Education in the United States.) School and Society. Dewey. Democracy and Education. Dewey. Schools of To-morrow. Dewey. Changing Conceptions in Education. Cubberly. Educational Readjustment. Snedden. A Modern School. Hanus. Industrial Education. Russell and Bonser. How to Teach. Strayer and Norsworthy. Elementary School Standards. McMurry. The American High School. Brown. A School Master in a Great City. Patri.
Fifty Years of Association Work among Young Women. Wilson. Service Instruction of American Corporations. U. S. Bulletin 1916,
No. 34. Girl Scout Hand Book.
CHAPTER III
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HOME ECONOMICS IN RESPONSE TO THE NEEDS OF THE GIRL
I. Home Economics in the schools of to-day.
A. In response to the needs of the girl.
B. For general education or appreciation.
C. For vocational purposes.
II. The evolution of Home Economics leading up to these studies in
the schools of to-day.
A. The early school records.
B. Cooking schools in answer to the needs of the woman in the home.
C. The contributions of scientists in the development of Home
Economics.
D. The part of the colleges in the development of Home Economics.
E. Other agencies furthering the development of Home Economics.
III. The scope of the home economics studies of to-day.
A. Home Economics defined.
B. The breadth of the field.
C. Confusion of terminology.
IV. Home Economics in the schools of to-morrow.
A. Household arts for all. The needs of to-day reflect the needs of
to-morrow.
B. The problem of training the girl for wage-earning or for home-
making.
C. The responsibility of the schools of to-morrow in training for
wage-earning.
Home Economics in the schools of to-day. — The American home is the center of all American life. From it go forth the men and women who are to mold the thought of succeeding generations in the life of the state and of society in general. The home should present to its growing members the best type of healthful living and sane mental, physical, and moral teaching. It affords the very best
37
38 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
opportunities for some of this education for the larger life which will be lived outside the home or in the new homes which are its offspring. All the arts therefore relating to the home and its efficiency and all the sciences which are applied to home-making should form an important part of the school work of to-day, if we as a nation are to live more sanely, healthfully, and intelligently. There has been brought about during recent years a recognition of the well-ordered home because of its social and civic value, and the home economics subjects have become very important studies in many of our schools. This is due to a rising appreciation of the effect which a well-ordered home has on healthful living, to an in- creased application of science to everyday household affairs, and to the very recently appreciated necessity for thrift and economy in daily living both through earning and spending.
Home Economics in the schools of to-day should endeavor to work towards the maintenance of the best types of home and family life because they are vital forces in the establishment of a sound democracy. These studies, because of the nature of their content, afford just the right opportunity for the training of the girl as a member of society in her own home and in her community associa- tions. They contribute, as all studies rightfully pursued should, towards the development of the social efficiency of the girl. Home economics studies are unfortunately not always planned or pre- sented with this big controlling thought back of them. They do contribute directly to this aim when they are so taught that they increase in the girl a feeling of responsibility as a member of her family group and awaken in her a desire to participate in promoting the welfare of society of which she is a part.
In response to the needs of the girl. — The girl of to-day usually pursues the home economics studies in schools primarily because they are of interest to her. She likes to do, to make things. They form part of her general education or training and she gains through these studies a kind of appreciation for higher standards of home life and methods of conducting the home activities. Many schools in their programs emphasize merely the activities of sewing and cooking, but in many others the scope of studies included in this
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HOME ECONOMICS 39
scheme for the general education of the girl is broader, and the arts and sciences which have practical application in home life are also emphasized.
The needs of the time have forced those interested in practical education for girls to outline more fully their aims or objectives in this work for girls. The work is now being planned more wisely, with the present-day needs of the world as well as the girl constantly in mind. There are many girls who are interested in these studies because of the vocational opportunities for which this field of practical study prepares them. There are others who undertake it because of a direct interest in wifehood and motherhood and the home. By others the work is undertaken as a phase of study of general interest or education.
What are the needs of every girl of to-day in her own home? She needs primarily to know the principles governing healthful living for herself, her family, and her community. This knowledge would prove to her the relation of health to happiness and to the well-being of the individual and society. In order to learn to live healthfully a girl should know how to select, prepare, and use proper food and clothing. She needs also to know about the sanitation of the dwelling in which she lives, the care of food and of clothing in their relation to health, and the care of the children and other members of her family. She needs to learn to make plans for daily living through right opportunities for work, amusement, education, wise saving and spending.
The girl of to-day needs to have inculcated a sane attitude of mind towards woman's work in the home and outside the home as producer and consumer. Her growing privileges in social and political life demand for her training which will develop interest in civic and national affairs. She needs to be taught (through the home economics studies at home and in school) the relation of the modern home to all these economic, social, scientific, aesthetic, and spiritual problems.
For general education or appreciation. — It very often happens that a mother is unable to give her girl any specific training for her most important life work, the maintenance of a home and the rear-
40 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
ing of children in that home. If the girl receives no instruction in school and the mother is ignorant, she remains uninformed and the results are disastrous, not only for this girl, but for succeeding generations. This is a matter for general concern, and it seems quite apparent that every girl should pursue as a part of her general education in school certain home economics studies because they meet the needs of every girl in her daily life. This kind of train- ing for girls is offered in our schools of to-day in courses in elementary and high schools and sometimes in college. The aim of these courses is that of general education, and the time allotted for the work varies from one to five hours per week for two or three years. These are not vocational courses with a view to self-support or vocational home-making, but more general, and can only be said to lay a foundation for more intensive courses with a purely vocational aim in wage-earning or home-making.
For 'vocational purposes. — Some of the home economics studies are presented in our schools to-day with an entirely different em- phasis in their organization from that described above. They may be organized and presented in such a way as to prepare a girl for the period of self-support through which many girls must pass before becoming home-makers and assuming the duties of adminis- tering a home and rearing children.
According to the last U. S. Census report the vocational pur- suits of women may be classified broadly as follows : The oc- cupations fall under the headings of professional, agricultural, commercial, industrial, and home-making vocations. Administra- tors of home economics education are interested in this classification from the vocational study point of view, in (1) home-making as a vocation for girls. This is rather different training from Home Eco- nomics pursued by her for general education, although the general may lead up to this study of vocational home-making. This dis- tinction is usually confusing in any discussion of vocational edu- cation, as no wage is attached to woman's work in her own home, because her economic contribution is not usually rated. It is as a rule only when a girl or woman goes outside her own home to
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HOME ECONOMICS 41
work that she is said to be " earning a living." A girl then may be trained in school for vocational home-making either for use in her own home or in the home of another where she may be employed. This type of training should, however, acquaint her with many lines of study and the home activities as " practiced by the wife and mother in the home." This should be rather more intensive train- ing than that pursued by a girl as a part of general education and should offer greater facilities for practice. This vocational train- ing in home-making may or may not lead to a gainful occupation in the sense of paid service. (2) Vocational work for girls may be of other types than that of home-making. There are many girls who must go to work at the earliest possible moment. Many are interested in vocations relating to commercial and industrial life. There are certain restricted fields of vocational study allied to Home Economics for which intensive training is necessary, as certain vocational industrial vocations growing out of the home economics studies ; as for instance, dressmaking, millinery, designing, catering, tea-room work, fine laundering, occupation as mother's helper, etc. This type of training may be offered in schools in order that the period of apprenticeship may be shortened. The opportunities open to girls in any locality should shape the aim and content of any vocational course along the line of economic demand.
Vocational training in relation to the home economics studies may be offered in high school or in college. Occasionally one hears of vocational training during the elementary school period. Speak- ing generally, however, most of the home economics studies now offered in the elementary and secondary schools in various parts of the United States are of the type described above, that for general education purposes, rather than the type having a vocational objective.
The evolution of Home Economics in leading up to these studies in the schools of to-day. — Home Economics in schools is not an in- novation of to-day. Some phase of study of these arts has for many years found a place in the curriculum for girls in many parts of the United States. The evolution of this work is a most interesting study. It is closely related to a number of movements in education
42 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
which preceded it or ran parallel with it. The kitchen-garden movement with its study of household arts ; the kindergarten in its relationship to the study of home activities ; the manual training movement ; the organization of practical teaching in the land grant colleges and universities ; the demand of home women for special training in practical arts. All of these movements have helped to create interest in this field of study and have focused the attention of educators on the importance of the home in a democratic society and of some of these studies as a part of every girl's training.
The early school records. — 1. The manual training movement. — The early organization of household arts in schools is tied up with the development of " manual training " and its introduction into schools in the eighties, shortly after the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, which was an impetus to this movement. The interest in industrial education during the last ten years has stimu- lated the development of the home economics studies. Special leg- islation in many states has furthered this growth, beginning in 1906 with Massachusetts, the pioneer state in so many educational movements. In a recent bulletin of the Bureau of Education,1 agri- cultural, industrial, commercial, and household pursuits are grouped as occupations for women and studies for which the schools should give training.
Records show that as early as 1798, Boston public school girls spent part of their time on needlework, which was taught by the regular school teachers. In 1821 the Boston School Committee permitted sewing to be introduced into the primary schools and in 1835 into all the second and third grammar grades. Later, in 1854, the Board of Education extended this privilege, and sewing was taught in the fourth grade of the grammar school. It is said that this followed the demand of philanthropic individuals that children of the poor and needy should be taught to sew.
Next to sewing, drawing as a phase of industrial training was introduced by the Massachusetts Legislature in 1870, and was made obligatory in the public schools of the state. This paved the
1 Vocational Secondary Education. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education, Bulletin 21, 1916. 15 eta.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HOME ECONOMICS 43
way for other industrial training, and in 1872 the Legislature of Massachusetts legalized the teaching of sewing and other industrial education.
Although Massachusetts took the lead in introducing industrial education in the United States, there was interest in the teaching of sewing and cooking in other parts of the country as early as 1876. This was largely of a philanthropic nature and started by private initiative for the purpose of improving social conditions. New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and other cities all had classes contributing to the improvement of social conditions. Many of the classes started by private enterprise were finally taken over by the school boards of these various cities.
2. The kitchen-garden movement. — Running parallel with the development of sewing and cooking in the schools was the kitchen- garden movement started in 1877 by the late Miss Emily Hunting- ton of New York.1 The kitchen garden taught Home Economics by means of miniature toys, each pupil having a set of toy models of household furnishings and equipment. Through a program of songs and games the activities of the home were taught. The name kitchen garden was suggested by kindergarten, and Miss Huntington wrote a description of it in her book in 1901.
Kitchen-garden methods have been modified and taught in the lower grades. They have found their way as a more definite system in classes of church schools and settlements, neighborhood houses and the Young Women's Christian Associations. This system has been developed by Miss Mabel Louise Keech2 with equipment which is larger than that used by Miss Huntington. The criticism of the small toys was that they were not real. The results in either case will depend on the organization of the play on an educational basis. The aim was to secure the interest and men- tal reaction through this organized play recreation. The modern plans for housekeeping in flats are really the outgrowth of this early movement.
1 How to Teach Kitchen Garden or Object Lessons in Household Work. By Emily Huntington. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York. 1901.
* Training the Little Home-Maker by Kitchen Garden Methods. By Mabel Louise Keech, Philadelphia. Lippincott. 1912.
44 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
The Kitchen Garden Association of New York developed into the Industrial Education Association in 1884, in recognition of the fact that the home economics studies were a part of the manual training movement, and began a propaganda in relation to this field of work. The object of this association was to train girls in domestic economy and to promote training for both boys and girls along lines leading to self-support. Their aim was also to secure the introduction of these studies into schools and to study methods and systems of industrial education. This meant a new interest and impetus in teaching these and other subjects, for interest was aroused in new methods of teaching as well as in these new school subjects. This Indus- trial Education Association established the New York College for Training Teachers in 1888, which has since developed into Teachers College, Columbia University.
Miss Maria Parloa started the first training of teachers of Home Economics in 1880 in the organization of the normal class at the Boston Cooking School. The chief early sources for trained teachers of home economics for public school work were, in addi- tion to the above, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, established in 1887 ; Drexel Institute, Philadelphia, in 1891 ; and Kansas State Agri- cultural College with its early courses. Mrs. Hemenway in 1888 established a private normal school of Home Economics. This later became the Framingham State Normal School (Massachusetts). Normal training has progressed very rapidly since then and normal schools and colleges are turning out many splendidly equipped teachers.
Perhaps no one is more worthy of notice in relation to the develop- ment of Home Economics in schools and colleges than Mrs. Ellen Richards, who gave her life to the study of the^application of science to the many problems of the household and who for years engaged in promoting education along these lines in schools and colleges. Thus the demand for practical education in our schools had a start. It has grown and developed until to-day "Jife's real activities in relation to the home are a part of the regular program of most schoolgirls. The Smith-Hughes Act recently passed by our Federal government appropriates large sums of money for vo-
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HOME ECONOMICS 45
cational education, and the studies in relation to the home have an important place in this vocational scheme. From very small beginnings through private enterprises has developed this scheme for the country-wide training of teachers for vocational work and the introduction of training below college grade in vocational subjects.
3. The kindergarten movement. — The kindergarten movement followed closely the development of " manual training " and indus- trial education in our schools and is in a way closely related to the development of Home Economics. The home activities form a source of much of the material used in the kindergarten, and the home problems of child care and home management are necessarily those which such a movement would attempt to improve. Prob- lems in relation to proper food and its care, proper clothing, hygiene and sanitation in the home, personal hygiene, home economy, religious and moral instruction of children, are all kindergarten problems as well as those of the home economics field. It may be said then that training in Home Economics begins in the kinder- garten with the desire on the part of the kindergarten teacher to cooperate closely with the home and to supplement instruction given there.
4. Other early interests. — In any review of the evolution of the home economics studies mention should be made of some of the early interests in domestic economy. It has been said that Mrs. Emma Hart Willard discovered Domestic Economy as a school subject and that Miss Catherine Beecher developed it. Mrs. Willard had a private school for girls at Middlebury, Vermont. In 1818 she appealed to the New York State Legislature for a state grant for girls' education similar to that for boys, but in outlining her plans she included " domestic instruction " in her scheme. She believed that a system to guide practice, based on rules and reasons, would improve housewifery, and that housewifery might be greatly improved by being taught.
Cooking schools in answer to the needs of the woman in the home. — No study of the history of the development of household arts would be complete without mention of the many splendid courses in
46 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
relation to the home, established in answer to the demand of the women of the homes. Much has been done for them, especially in recent years, through popular literature and periodicals ; but as early as the seventies there was a demand on their part for some organized instruction along household lines. This began with the demand for cooking schools. These schools of cooking paved the way for instruction in Home Economics in the public schools. They demonstrated the practical value of learning to serve good food at small expense, and showed the need for this type of prac- tical instruction. It has usually followed that private cooking schools developed into public instruction in cookery in the public school systems. This movement spread all over the country with New York, Boston, and Philadelphia as centers.
The contributions of scientists in the development of Home Eco- nomics. — In this early domestic economy movement mention must also be made of the increasing interest in scientific problems relating to the household. One of the world's great physicists, Count Rumford, devoted much of his time to the study of heat in its relation to domestic problems. He thought the household well worthy of study and helped to place all the domestic problems of heating, ventilation, fuels, kitchen ranges, utensils, etc., on a more scientific basis. Count Rumford was born Benjamin Thompson, an American, at North Woburn, Mass., in 1753, and died in 1814 in Europe.
Edward L. Youmans, an American scientist (1821-1887), was also interested in science related to the household. He published, in 1858, his work called " Household Science." Mr. Youmans was a chemist and in this textbook brought together the contributions of chemistry, physics, and biology in their relation to the household.
Another scientist who contributed much to the development of this scientific study of home problems was Mrs. Ellen Richards, a New England woman. Mrs. Richards was graduated from Vassar in 1870 and in 1871 entered the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology as the first woman student. She later became instructor of sanitary science at this institution and served it for over thirty years. Mrs. Richards was famous as a sanitary chemist and was
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HOME ECONOMICS 47
especially interested in the application of science to problems of food, shelter, and clothing. She was the author of many books. " The Cost of Living," " The Cost of Food," " The Cost of Cleanliness," "The Cost of Shelter," "The Art of Right Living," "The Chemistry of Cooking and Cleaning " are perhaps some of the best known. Mrs. Richards was one of the founders of the Lake Placid Con- ference on Home Economics which met yearly at Lake Placid from 1899 to 1908. She was elected first president of the American Home Economics Association, the outgrowth of the Lake Placid Conferences, at the meeting held in Washington in 1909. Mrs. Richards was interested in many experiments in relation to food and cooperative plans of living. No student of Home Economics should fail to study the story of Mrs. Richards' life and work. " The Life of Ellen H. Richards," by Caroline Hunt, gives some idea of this remarkable woman's work and interests. Perhaps no one has given a greater impetus to this field of work, or con- vinced so many people of the national necessity of this kind of ed- ucation in our schools.
Other scientists have followed and contributed scientific study and investigation of such household problems as diet, digestion, nu- trition, dress, health, and amusement. Scientific contributions have also been made by those interested in housing, textile study, management, cost of living and domestic service, and the scientific foundations of this field of education are yearly growing stronger and more interesting.
The part of the colleges in the development of Home Economics. — In tracing the development of Home Economics in our institutions for women one should study the records of state colleges and universities which welcomed this practical form of education. As early as 1872 the State College of Iowa gave lectures on house- keeping. In 1873 the State College of Kansas gave its first in- struction in sewing, and in 1875 a course in foods. In 1874 the University of Illinois, then the " Industrial University, " started to develop home economics instruction and a course of four years leading to the bachelor of science degree in the school of domestic science was planned. Kansas, Iowa, Oregon, and South Dakota
48 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
had departments in their state colleges by 1890. During the next ten years others were added and the number increased to thirty. To-day practically all state colleges or universities have depart- ments of Home Economics. No one agency has helped to develop home economics teaching or has been more effective than the land grant colleges. From the beginning they have recognized the necessity for placing this work on a scientific basis and of main- taining college standards for this field of work.
The colleges for the higher education of women have also helped to advance the cause of home economics education by placing all education for women on a firmer foundation.
Other agencies furthering the development of Home Economics. — In 1913 the United States government founded the Children's Bureau and so contributed to the development of Home Economics.
In 1914 the United States Bureau of Education showed its interest in the development of Home Economics by publishing a series of bulletins on education for the home1 by Dr. Benjamin Andrews of Teachers College.
In 1914 the Smith-Lever Bill was signed by the President. This was the first time specific legislation for the home had been made by the Federal government. This Act provides for " cooperative agricultural extension work which shall consist of the giving of instruction and demonstrations in Agriculture and Home Economics to persons not attending or resident in the agricultural college." By this act Home Economics is taken to the very doors of the people. The Federal money provided for this work is used through the ex- tension departments of the agricultural colleges.
In 1915 the United States government appointed two specialists in Home Economics in the Bureau of Education, Mrs. Henrietta Calvin and Miss Carrie M. Lyford. Through their very sane work and efforts the work of the schools in Home Economics of the entire country is being coordinated and placed on a better basis, and excellent news letters and bulletins of a most helpful kind are being disseminated.
1 Education for the Home. In 4 parts. United States Bureau of Education, Department of the Interior, 1914, Nos. 36, 37, 38, 39.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HOME ECONOMICS 49
In 1917 the Smith-Hughes Bill for Federal money for vocational education was passed. "This bill would provide Federal Aid to cooperate with the various states in the maintenance and support of vocational schools of Agriculture and Home Economics and the Trades and Industries for persons fourteen years of age and over, and in the maintenance and support of schools for training teachers1* for the vocational subjects in these vocational schools." What will be the effect on social life of the development of vocational Home Economics, is a question which is just now most prominent in the minds of teachers of this subject.
The Smoot Bill aims to provide Federal aid for research or ex- perimentation in Home Economics at the land grant colleges through their experiment stations, and is another indication of interest in the problems of the home.
The Lever Bill, passed in August, 1917, provided in connection with the Food Administration Federal money for the appointment of demonstrators and agents for city as well as country work.
The movement is ever onward and upward, and the life of the whole republic will profit because of education for better home- making.
The scope of the home economics studies of to-day. — Confusion very often arises in planning work in the field of Home Economics because of the many terms used for different aspects of it. What is it that makes the multiplicity of terms so puzzling ? One hears and reads many other terms for this field of work besides household arts or Home Economics. Why "is it that the nomenclature for the different branches of this field of study does not always suggest the aims for the group of studies? The haphazard method of intro- duction in some schools proves that aims or objects in work have not been carefully analyzed.
It is known that the home economics studies are very commonly taken by both girls and women, and sometimes the boys too have a share. It is now quite generally conceded that this group of studies is an essential part of a girl's education, but have not boys, too, a right to some of this knowledge which will enable them to live happier and more healthful lives? Should not one consider
E
50 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
why these studies or some of them at least should form a part of the school program of both girls and boys? Women and men together make the homes of our land, and both should understand the problems of home-making and be able to work together to build the home of to-day and of the future. One thinks here of the kind of home in which the biggest and broadest kind of cooperation will be in force, not only within the home itself but in relation to the institutions outside the home. The purity of family life must be maintained if our nation is to prosper, and our social life demands an education which is of value in the home. This is especially true of the social life of this period of reconstruction following the great war. The cooperation of parents with school and church au- thorities in the organization of religious and moral instruction, as well as actual training for the duties of the home, will aid in this preservation of right ideals for home life. The studies called Home Economics have a direct bearing on these very vital things of life, for included in this group are many studies touching all the problems concerned in healthful, sane living. These if rightly pursued are bound to introduce new standards into the lives of our young people, and an attitude towards a life of service and cooperation. In the next few paragraphs the home economics studies will be discussed and the terms defined. The present lack of definition is often confusing and prevents clear thinking along these lines.
Home Economics defined. — Home Economics is a subject that centers around the problems of the home and other institutions whose problems are of similar nature. It includes a study of food, shelter, and clothing viewed from the standpoint of hygiene, econom- ics, and art and a study of the relations of the members of the family to each other and to society. This is a very broad conception of the meaning of the home economics studies, for so often they mean merely cooking or sewing in the girl's program. These are of course two of the very useful activities which are pursued in the home and should form part of the program of work, but alone they will not fulfill these broad aims for this field of study. Is it possible to show why this is true and what the points of difference are between a program which presents only technical work in food preparation
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HOME ECONOMICS 51
or the preparation of clothing and one which is broader in its content?
The breadth of the field. — What are the studies which are included in this group called Home Economics? Perhaps the outlines on the following pages may serve as a basis for discussion and show the relationship of studies within this field. They will at least give some conception of the very rich content afforded. A teacher in the preparation of a course of study for a particular group of pupils should know not only the needs of her particular group, but should also be able to weigh the values of all of these studies in relation to the pupil's aims and needs. A good course of study in Home Eco- nomics for any school is the result of good judgment on the part of the teacher in weighing the relative values of all the studies of this group in relation to the aims or objectives and needs of her par- ticular group of pupils at a particular time. The subject matter of these studies in Home Economics as listed or shown in the out- lines does not form a plan for a course of study, but serves merely to put before the teacher a list of possible studies or topics from which she can prepare her particular course, whether the aims for it are of a general nature, sometimes defined as general or cultural Home Economics, or of a vocational nature.
The studies in the field of Home Economics may be analyzed and outlined from several points of view. In comparing these outlines it will be noticed that they all include about the same topics or subject matter for study. It will be seen that Home Economics is a complex made up of many studies. Agriculture and engineering are also examples of complex studies. It will be noticed also that there are many contributing studies which touch this field, such as mathematics, biology, chemistry, and other sciences, as well as art, history, economics, and sociology. It will be interesting to compare these outlines with the " Syllabus of Home Economics"1 published by the American Home Eco- nomics Association, and also to chart the subject matter as outlined in that syllabus.
1 Syllabus of Home Economics. American Home Economics Association, Cathedral Street, Baltimore, Maryland, 1913. Paper 50 cts., cloth $1.00.
52
TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
OUTLINE I
HOME ECONOMICS STUDIES
Sewing. Useful articles.
Clothing and house furnish- ings.
Selection. Making. Care — mending, launder- ing, remodeling. Conservation in use. Production of clothing materials.
Art — Color, line, design.
Science — Physiology — Hygiene of
clothing — Textiles — Chemistry
— Cleanliness. Economics — Choice of clothing for
family income — Relation to
family income — Relation to
world's industry.
II. Cooking. Food. Selection.
Preparation and service. Care — outside and within
the home. Conservation in use.
Science — Physiology — Biology — Nutrition — Chemistry — Bacte- riology— Hygiene and Sanita- tion in care of foods.
Art — Service of foods.
Economics — Relation to family income — Choice.
Production of food materials. III. Home Management.
Ideals and appreciations in establishing a home.
The budget — division of income.
Selection of the home. Decoration of the home.
Selection of furnishings. Care and repair of house
furnishings.
Division, of labor in home. Care of members of family.
Art — House furnishings and deco- rations — Selection of home.
Science — Chemistry — Bacteriol- ogy — Physics — Sanitation of home.
Ethics — Relationship of members of family to home and com- munity.
Economics — Division of income — Relation of home to outside world.
Sociology and History.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HOME ECONOMICS 53
OUTLINE II HOME ECONOMICS STUDIES The Home and Its Management f. Managerial Service. Ideals in establishing. Division of income. Selection of the home. Decoration of the home. Furnishing of the home. Division of labor in the home. II. Activities within the Home.
Cooking and food Preparation and service problems. of meals.
Purchase and care of food.
Sewing and clothing Making clothing and house problems. furnishings.
Mending clothing and house
furnishings. Purchasing and care of
clothing and house furnishings.
Cleaning. Care and laundering of textiles.
Care of rooms.
Care of furniture and furnishings. Entertaining. Hospitality to friends.
Amusements for family.
Reading, music, etc.
Care of members Children, old people, sick, of family.
OUTLINE III
HOME ECONOMICS STUDIES
A. Clothing.
B. Shelter.
C. Food. A. Clothing.
I. Selection and Purchase of Clothing and Clothing Materials. II. Care and Conservation of Clothing. III. Making Clothing.
54
TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
B. Shelter.
I. Ideals and Appreciations in Establishing a Home.
II. The Budget. How to Divide Income.
III. Selection of the Home and Its Decoration.
IV. How to Select and Purchase Household Furnishing. V. System in Care and Repair of Household Furnishings.
VI. Division of Labor in the Home.
VII. Care of Members within the Home.
VIII. Hospitality within the Home.
IX. Relation of Home to Community Life.
C. Food.
I. Selection of Food.
II. Storage and Care of Food.
III. Preparation of Food.
IV. Serving of Food.
OUTLINE IV
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HOME ECONOMICS 55
Confusion of terminology. — It is true that this field of education for the home has no common terminology. It would probably be very helpful if it had. This lack of common terms leads to a great deal of confusion, especially as much state legislation is being enacted in relation to the teaching of home subjects in schools and it is often extremely difficult to interpret the various laws ; or, to put it in another way, many interpretations of the one law often result because of this lack of definition and differentiation in relation to education for the home. In some states the term domestic science means cooking, while in others it is used to cover the entire field of education for the home, that is, it includes such subjects as dressmaking, textiles, household management and housewifery, household sanitation, and cooking. Under other laws domestic economy is the inclusive term, or household economics or home economics.
1. A common terminology would be helpful. — The term house- hold arts is also used in a number of schools in this large inclusive way, synonymously with home economics. There is some con- fusion in this use because of the publication of the Bureau of Education, Washington, entitled " Vocational Secondary Edu- cation," Bulletin 21, 1916.1 In this bulletin, which is the only Federal publication devoted to the discussion of vocational termi- nology, the term household arts is used always for that type of education in relation to the home which is of a general nature, given for broad appreciation and knowledge. This household arts education, as defined there, is such as one finds in most schools of ele- mentary or higher grades where from one to five hours per week or more are devoted to instruction of this general nature, including manipulative instruction and proficiency as far as time permits. This terminology distinguishes between general household arts for appreciation in schools of elementary, secondary, or some- times college grade, and vocational home-making education, and vocational industrial education. In this bulletin the training for wage-earning as cook or seamstress, milliner, or dressmaker, would
1 Vocational Secondary Education. Department oi the. Interior, Bureau of Education, Bulletin 21, 1916. 15 cents.
56 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
be classified as vocational industrial education; that education which prepares the young woman to perform efficiently the duties of the housewife, as vocational home-making education. This ter- minology is recommended for our use and is being used by many framers of legislative bills in relation to vocational education.
2. Some distinctions between general and vocational instruc- tion in education for the home. — The term Home Economics has perhaps been most generally accepted as the term used most broadly in relation to education for the home. This term was adopted by the American Home Economics Association and by its predecessor, the Lake Placid Conference on Home Economics. In this nomen- clature no attempt has been made to distinguish between the various gradations of the subject, as for instance Home Economics for elementary school, high, normal, or college work. Nor does it make any distinction between home economics instruction which is for general appreciation and that for vocational education within this field ; as, for instance, dressmaking as a vocational study, or food preparation for catering as a vocation. Would not some distinction between the vocational objectives of the home economics field and the general objective for education for appreciation be acceptable? The vocational secondary terminology mentioned above suggests the term household arts for all schools, whether elementary, secondary, or college, where the type of instruction is for appreciation, although in any one of these schools at the same time it is possible to introduce education for the home of a voca- tional nature, that is, vocational home-making and also in the same school vocational industrial education for the training of dressmakers or caterers, etc. Some term is needed for the field of home re- sponsibility which is well rounded and complete. Home manager, home-maker, housekeeper, have all been suggested, but the term vocational home-making education would seem to solve this difficulty. It has been suggested by some of the leaders in vocational edu- cation that Bulletin 21, "Vocational Secondary Education" might well be called the bible of vocational education. Finally it must be remembered, however, that these studies about the home need not always be distinctly vocational in nature, and some distinction
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HOME ECONOMICS 57
in terminology should be made between the general and the vocational training in home economics education.
Home Economics in the schools of to-morrow. — The needs of to-morrow are reflected in the life of to-day. The home economics studies have become an essential phase of the education of to-day because the study is -a social one and the demands of everyday living make it one of prime importance in the life of the girls of to-day. The world is turning to the woman of the home to care for the sick, to nurture the children, to plan and manage through economy and thrift, to save food, clothing, fuel, and supplies of all kinds, and to use her ingenuity in a thousand ways to alleviate the sufferings of the world. It is to the women of all lands that the call comes to maintain the homes of these lands and to upbuild and uplift.
The years before us will be those of readjustment and reor- ganization; there are some signs and influences of the times in- dicating the way. Home Economics will have a prominent place in the school program because it is a national necessity. Society as never before will need all the help which the home through its sustaining influence can bring to bear on the problems of national life and reconstruction during the years following the war. We find ourselves to-day in a whirl of life more complex and puzzling than ever before because of changing conditions. The in- creased cost of living with the numerous complications involved, the problems of labor, the changing conditions of home life, the place of woman in modern industry, are all indications of some of the changes which the future will bring. The schools of to-morrow must be ready to meet these changes and in the schools of to-day these readjustments must begin. The re- sponsibility weighs heavily now upon those interested in vocational education or those planning the development of Home Economics in our schools, in seeing the relationship which this study bears to the development of the modern school, and the effect which this study will have on the future life of our country. The responsibility is a weighty one, of adjusting the pendulum so perfectly that the best studies are offered to our girls, those which will help to make them
58 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
of greatest value to society, the most useful citizens, within and without the home. We must bring to our girls the fullest realiza- v"tion of life, and show them the relationship of the home to national life and progress. A nation is no better than its homes. It has been said, " Remember that the success of the nation of to-morrow depends upon the characters built in the homes of to-day." A real peril is before us when the homes of this land are conducted with lack of intelligence concerning the problems involved and with lack of understanding of the relationship of the individual home to the success of the community and to the life of the nation. The homes must be made centers of life and good influence which will help to develop men and women with a right attitude towards the problems of life. The crying need of to-day and to-morrow is a challenge to men and women who realize that the highest good to be attained in life is through service, and that there must be other interests besides the selfish ones of the individual life.
The schools of to-morrow in planning for the home economics studies must create better standards for home life. The home is the center as well as the background of the activities of the state. The problem of creating better homes is an ethical and a spiritual one, but the spiritual atmosphere cannot be quite right unless the material conditions of the home are properly adjusted.
Household arts for all. — Every girl in the schools of to-morrow will have some training in Home Economics as a phase of her general education, whether she leaves school at the age of fourteen, eight- een, or twenty-five, and without regard to her possible future vocation for self-support during the years before matrimony. This is a matter of common, general welfare, and the future of the state demands that women know how to maintain their homes in an intelligent manner, and to promote the health of the individual members of the family. This means more liberal living, and better health and efficiency for service outside the home.
The problem of training the girl as wage-earner or as home-maker. — One cannot discuss the future problems of Home Economics in our schools without full consciousness of woman's responsibility for work outside the home. One must think also of the home
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HOME ECONOMICS 59
economics studies in their relationship to her future responsibilities as a wage-earner. If the general type of home-making education of the girl will improve the homes of our land, certainly the specific education of girls for their work as wage-earners in shop, office, or factory, in homes or institutions, or on the farm, will add to the wealth of the country and the greater efficiency in business life which is now necessary.
Economic conditions because of lack of men workers and the probable high cost of living because of scarcity of materials will force and attract many women to fields of work outside the home.
Some of these wage-earners will be girls who will go directly into wage-earning occupations at the earliest possible moment because self-support is imperative ; others will add to the elementary school course a high school program or part of it before engaging in a gainful occupation ; and there are some who will have larger opportunities and will delay their preparation for gainful occu- pation until the college period.
The responsibility of the schools of to-morrow in training for wage- earning. — According to our last census of 1910, 8,075,772 girls and women of the United States were paid workers. About 40 per cent of all women from sixteen to twenty years of age were working for wages, and women were employed in 105 of the 116 principal occupations. The world upheaval has broken down every barrier and opened to women unthought-of opportunities for work and service. Every census shows an increase, and probably 12 millions of girls and women of the United States are to-day wage-earners.
This state of affairs places a tremendous responsibility on the school, which has been aware of the great increase in recent years of the number of women engaged in self-support. The modern trend of vocational education in schools is an acknowledgment of this condition of affairs, and the Federal money recently appro- priated will help to accelerate this work. It is well known that but very few of the vast number at work have had any training or preparation for it. It is certain that only as a girl is informed and trained can she hope to take advantage of the splendid oppor- tunities for work and service open to her. This means that the
60 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
schools of to-morrow must make provision for training girls and women for wage-earning pursuits.
According to the census of 1910 women are engaged principally in the following lines of work :
Transportation 106,596
(Telegraph operators, telephone, mail service, etc.) Trade 468,088
(Saleswomen, clerks, etc.) Clerical work 593,224
(Stenographers, cashiers, etc.) Professional service 733,885
(Teachers, physicians, nurses, etc.) Agriculture 1,807,501
(Farm laborers, dairy workers, florists, etc.) Mechanical pursuits and manufacturing 1,820,980
(Dressmakers, factory workers, etc.) Domestic and personal service 2,530,846
(Servants, housekeepers, laundresses, waitresses, etc.)
The schools of both urban and rural localities should open up the fields of wage-earning opportunities for women in their particular localities and should give opportunity in school for certain lines of vocational training needed in the locality. Girls should be in- formed of possible ways of earning money at home if they are compelled to stay at home, and of the opportunities in various fields open to them outside the home. The fields of greatest interest along home economics lines of study, and fields growing out of these studies, have been referred to above and offer unusual opportunities to women and girls for wage-earning and interesting lines of service.
The home economics studies for which general household arts may have been a good foundation, when pursued for wage-earning, may be classified as follows :
1. Vocational industrial pursuits in training of the dressmaker, milliner, seamstress, cook, tea-room manager, caterer, house decora- tor, housekeeper, etc. Courses leading towards these aims or objec- tives will be so organized in the schools of to-morrow that a girl may
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HOME ECONOMICS 61
be able to pursue the studies in training for these lines of work in all-day schools, in part-time classes, during day or evening, either in separate schools or in the high schools, according to the needs of the locality and administrative possibilities. A survey of the needs of the community, factory, shop, or office as well as the needs of the girl should always precede any organization in schools of courses leading towards training for wage-earning.
2. Vocational professional pursuits, as dietitian, institution manager, etc.
3. The home economics studies for which general household arts training may have been a good foundation when pursued for home- making as a vocation or for wage-earning in the home may be clas- sified as vocational home-making education. This should be intensive in character, and the courses should offer facilities for training the girl or woman in the activities of the home as performed by the wife and mother in the home. The household arts which will be a part of the general education of every girl will be the foundation for such a course and lead naturally to it for those girls who know they are soon to become home-makers and wish to prepare them- selves for such duties, or for those who wish to enter on some phase of home service for wage-earning in the capacity of assistant to the home-maker, in the administration of her home and the rearing of her children. Such courses for the training of the woman in voca- tional home-making will be offered in private and public institu- tions, in part-time courses, in units which may be taken gradually until the full aggregate is attained. Opportunities will be offered in such training for practice in the activities of the home and also in the management of a home under varying conditions. This will mean a new type of equipment and a new type of teacher. The specialist in nutrition or costume design will not be in demand for teaching in this field, but rather the woman of home experience who is interested in making the home a center of helpfulness for all members of the family group.
62 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY AND REVIEW
1. What should Home Economics in the schools of to-day aim to do for the girl ? In what ways have the needs of the times affected these aims ?
2. Why does every girl need some training in the home economics studies ?
3. What is meant by vocational instruction in Home Economics as differentiated from instruction for general education in Home Economics?
4. What is meant by the introduction of manual training into the schools ?
5. How did the kitchen-garden movement affect the development of Home Economics in schools ?
6. What were the aims of the Industrial Education Association of New York City?
7. In what way did Mrs. Ellen Richards contribute to the development of Home Economics in schools?
8. How did the cooking schools and classes help further the cause of Home Economics?
9. What contributions were made by the early scientists to the prob- lems of the household ?
10. How have the colleges, especially the land grant college, helped in the development of Home Economics ?
11. What Federal legislation has helped to develop home economics instruction in our schools ?
12. Get all the information possible in relation to the Smith-Hughes Act. How will it affect the development of Home Economics in schools ?
13. How do you define Home Economics as a subject of instruction ?
14. What constitutes a good course of study in Home Economics?
15. Discuss the problems of terminology in relation to Home Economics. How would you distinguish between household arts and home economics studies of a vocational type ?
16. Discuss Home Economics in schools as a factor in the education of the girl for better citizenship, in the life of to-day and to-morrow.
17. In what ways may home economics training lead to self-support either in industry or the home ?
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HOME ECONOMICS 63
REFERENCES FOR COLLATERAL READING
Education for the Home, Parts I, II, III, IV. Andrews. Nos. 36, 37, 38, 39, 1914, Bureau of Education, Department of the Interior, Washington, D. C.
Vocational Secondary Education. Bulletin 21, 1916, Bureau of Edu- cation, Washington, D. C.
History of Home Economics Movement. Bevier and Usher.
Life of Ellen H. Richards. Hunt.
Syllabus of Home Economics. American Home Economics Association, Baltimore, Maryland.
Lake Placid Conference Reports, 1899-1908.
CHAPTER IV
THE INTERRELATION OF HOME ECONOMICS WITH OTHER SUBJECTS IN THE CURRICULUM
I. The modern tendency in education toward unification of the cur- riculum.
A. The need.
B. Correlation of subjects as a response to the need.
II. The opportunities for correlating Home Economics with other subjects.
A. In the elementary school.
B. In the high school.
The modern tendency in education toward unification of the curriculum. — The need. — From a careful consideration of the present demands made upon women of to-day and of their increas- ing opportunities and responsibilities it becomes evident that their education must be such as will best fit them to meet the complexities of modern life.
As has been shown in previous chapters, many of the former home industries have passed out into commercial and industrial enter- prises and women's time has been released to that extent for the performance of other tasks. Many of these processes, however, still remain ; for the most part the preparation of the meals for the family, the repairing and making of at least a part of the clothing, the purchasing of the household supplies, and the rearing of the children are still performed by the wife and mother in the home.
In addition to these have come her larger responsibilities without the home which she cannot neglect because they so closely affect herself and her family within the home : the health and sanitation of the city, the cleanliness of the food supply, the conditions of factories and workers within them, where so many of her garments
64
INTERRELATION WITH OTHER SUBJECTS 65
and supplies are produced. That she may have the time required and the energy necessary for the performance of these larger duties she should make use of all the resources at her command for the reduction of the mechanical processes of the home-making to a minimum. She should know how to organize and systematize, should know the physical and chemical laws on which her cooking and cleaning depend, and should have these in such working order that they will quickly respond to her need. Housekeeping pro- cesses can no longer be left to the rule-of-thumb or lucky chance methods on which they used to depend.
The chemistry and physics which were taught to women and girls when first they made their way into the science courses beside their brothers were such as were applicable to their brothers' field of work, and it is only within comparatively recent times that any effort has been made to apply the same laws of heat and energy and chemi- cal reaction to the fields in which they have the greatest application for women. The charge that women are not interested in science and do not grasp its principles, do not in fact have scientific minds, is due rather to the fact that in the past those principles have been taught through phenomena that do not come into the life and knowledge of women, than that women have any less ability for comprehending the truths of the subjects. To-day all these re- sources must be called upon in order to free household tasks from drudgery and women from the harassment of a round of petty duties that cannot fully engage their time and intellect, and so foster the growth of the discontent and dissatisfaction with the life of the home-maker that is increasingly evident in modern life.
Correlation of subjects in response to the need. — Habits of systematic organization, of ready application of facts in one field to situations in another, cannot be acquired at will, and these habits if desirable should be established through repeated exercise during the formative period of life, particularly the school period. By experimentation psychologists have learned that facts to be remembered must tie up with others already in the possession of the learner, that isolated facts unless impressed with great vividness are quickly forgotten, and it is only as material be-
66 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
comes organized into well-connected systems that it is recalled and becomes useful. Consequently a marked tendency in edu- cation to-day is toward the unification of the curriculum, the careful organization of facts within subjects, the breaking down of the barriers around subjects and the application in all subjects of principles in others that can be reinforced and emphasized by this interrelation. Important topics in history will be the better under- stood and remembered if they are reviewed and reinterpreted in the light of their application in the industrial world; principles of science will be the more usable if taught in connection with their applications to the materials handled in everyday life ; and mathe- matics will assume new meanings if taught through mediums of everyday exchange of commodities and if applications are made to the other subjects in the curriculum wherever possible.
Valuable as is this interrelation of subjects it should neverthe- less be used with care and discrimination, and there have been many instances of its misuse since the principle was first recognized. Vital and worth-while connections only should be thus emphasized. To quote as an instance of valuable correlation, as did one super- visor recently, the fact that the art teacher in planning designs for bags to be executed in the sewing class was careful to put tropical animals under tropical trees — possibly a Molly Cottontail under a cottonwood tree, since this was for a cotton bag — or as did the young practice teacher in physical training who reported to her supervisor that she had taught a certain class to dance the tarantella because she had seen an exhibit of macaroni hanging on the walls of the schoolroom and judged that the class was studying that product, is to follow the letter of the law and ignore its spirit.
Had this particular physical-training teacher known that in history the class was making a study of Italy and Italian peoples, that macaroni was taught as one of the commercial products and staple articles of food of those people, then the tarantella would have been a well-chosen dance to teach as a means of interpreting and understanding a vital part of the life and customs of those people. In one school where true correlation was a conscious principle in the organization of the curriculum the children were
\ INTERRELATION WITH OTHER SUBJECTS 67
taught the dance of the reaping of the flax at the time when they were studying that fiber in industrial arts. And why? Because that dance is peculiar to Belgium in the districts where flax is grown extensively, and is typical of the daily life of the people. The motions of it have grown directly out of the movements made in the pulling, rippling, and hackling of the flax. To fully understand and appreciate the life, customs, and recreations of those people we must enter into that life through participation in those same activities and recreations.
The opportunities for correlating Home Economics with other subjects in the curriculum. — In the elementary school. — In the elementary school period, correlation may be easily and naturally provided for. In fact, in the first two or three grades there seems no valid reason for the curriculum's being other than one big study in which now the arithmetical phases are emphasized, now the historical, now the geographic or social, as the occasion seems to demand. The important thing is to find the subject or subjects that will be large enough and many-sided enough to form the central core from which these various aspects may naturally arise. These studies must not only be of sufficient scope and capable of forming many connections, but must also be of interest to the child and adapted to his needs at his present stage of development and not dependent on the remote future to give them significance and inter- pretation.
1. Industrial arts as a means of unifying the work of the first six grades. — Many schools are at present making use of the study of industrial arts to furnish the unifying central idea for the work of the first six years of the elementary schools. The subject of industrial arts is defined by one teacher of the subject as " a study of the way man provides himself with food, clothing, shelter, tools, and utensils and puts himself on record." With each one of these divisions of the subject the children are in contact from their earliest childhood. In the home, before the school days begin, each one helps in satisfying his daily needs, so that the school has but to take the interest already created in the child and direct it into lines that will have educational value.
68 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
Dr. James E. Russell in his article on "The School and Indus- trial Life" says:1
A well organized course of study in the industries must be the joint work of technical and pedagogical experts. The scientist will be called upon to contribute his share, and his contribution will be no inconsiderable amount. At one stage of the course emphasis may be placed upon the processes of production; at another stage the stress may be upon manufacture, dis- tribution, or consumption. Nature study, agriculture, the fisheries, forestry, and mining will furnish indispensable information. Geography, biology, physics, and chemistry will each add their quota of knowledge. Facilities for transportation, the production and transmission of power, and the agencies of trade and commerce will have a bearing on the problem. But the chief consideration in the course of study is the ordering of the in- dustrial processes by which raw materials are transformed into things of greater value for the satisfaction of human needs. . . . The plan calls for richer courses in arithmetic, nature study, and geography. The quantitative measurements of arithmetic will find concrete application in every step of the industrial process from the first step of production of the raw materials to the end of the series when goods are turned to practical
use The natural distribution of metals, fuels, clays,
and other earth materials, the climatic and physiographic conditions which determine the location, amount, character and availability of our flora and fauna, the factors which control transportation by land and water — these are problems in geography which become concrete and vital in the study of industries. The correlations are so obvious that only a stupid teacher can miss them. In nature study we shall find a real place for the elements of agriculture and forestry; no longer aimless meandering in any scientific field, but definite attention to those occupations concerned with the production of materials good for food, clothing, and shelter, the conditions calculated to give best results, and the resistance which men meet in doing their work. The growing of any crop, even in a window garden, will epitomize the farmer's labors in tilling the soil, supplying plant food, utilizing light, heat, and air, overcoming disease and insect pests, and reap- ing his harvest. Every step takes on new meaning when the learner sees its place in the series of operations culminating in the commercial food supply of his own community, its sanitary regulation and domestic con- sumption. The elements of physiology and hygiene, and of physics and chemistry, are also called into requisition; they are all indispensable in fixing values of industrial products and determining economy in technical operation. What makes for hygienic living is as well worth knowing from the economic standpoint as what mechanical appliance will most increase the output. A proper study of the industries, therefore, I contend, will bring about a unified and closely correlated course in the biological and physical sciences by way of supplying the information wanted by the child in adjusting himself to the real world.
1 The School and Industrial Life. By James E. Russell.
INTERRELATION WITH OTHER SUBJECTS 69
In applying these principles to the work of the schoolroom one teacher made the subject of foods center in the study of the market condition of the city in which the school was located.1 " The study was based on the goods found in the homes of the Third Grade children. The topic of where the mothers get the foods was followed by the question as to where the storekeepers near the homes would get their supplies. Many of the children went to their grocers, and were told that they would go downtown early each morning and buy from the wholesale man and retail stores and markets." A visit to the wholesale market followed, on which visit the children found that fresh vegetables and fruits were shipped in daily from nearby farms, that meat made long journeys in re- frigerator cars; that certain fruits came across the continent or even across the ocean, etc. This information naturally led out into the study of the regions or countries from which the supplies came and the conditions of soil and climate which made it possible for certain foods to be produced in one region when they could not be raised in other localities, and thus made the study of geography and nature study a natural outgrowth of the work in foods. The preparation and serving of some of the foods learned in this market study was a logical conclusion to the course and gave opportunity to learn of some of the great food industries and also of the use of certain classes of foods in the diet.
Similarly in the fifth grade of the same school the work in clothing and textiles gave opportunity for correlation with geography and nature study, history and civics, mathematics and hygiene.2 One project is quoted to show how this correlation is accomplished.
A spool case made of blue linen was one of the gifts which the children made for their mothers at Christmas time. Some of the questions which grew out of this work and out of attempts at solution follow : (a) What is linen used for ? (6) How does linen compare with cotton ? (c) How can we tell the difference between linen and cotton ? (d) From what is it made ? (e) How is flax raised? (/) How is the fiber gotten from the stalk? (0) What are the by-products? (h) What are the manufacturing pro-
1 A Year's Work in Industrial Arts, Third Grade, Speyer School. By Ida M. Bennett.
2 A Year's Work in Industrial Arts in the Fifth Grade, Speyer School. By Clara Bennett Stilmar.
70 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
cesses? (i) How are linens whitened? (k) How are patterns made in linens? (I) What countries produce the most linen? (m) How does the United States rank in linen manufacture?
The questions " From what is linen made? " and " How is flax raised? " naturally tie up with the commercial and industrial geography then being studied because of the questions of soil and climate involved which make certain countries better adapted to the raising of this product than others. They also give rise to problems of arithmetic, such as, " A farmer who plants flax for the seed sows 2^ pecks to an acre, for fiber he sows If bushels per acre. What is the difference in cost of planting if flax seed is worth $1.50 per bushel? Why should there be this difference in planting? " Such a problem not only gives opportunity for applying arithmetic problems to the subject in hand but one explanation of the high cost of the linen fabric. Again the question, " What are the manu- facturing processes? " gives rise not only to the discussion of the various steps in the manufacture of the fabric but leads to a con- sideration of conditions of workers in mills and factories, the needs for sanitary conditions in factories and workshops, and cleanliness and freedom from dust in the making of textiles and textile products.
"How does the United States rank in linen manufacture?" leads to the discussion of the following questions : " Why do we pay duties?" " Is it necessary to have such a high duty ?" "If a duty is too high, is smuggling right? " " Why doesn't the United States raise its own flax? " Through all such questions and problems, habits of purposeful thinking, of weighing values and of forming judgments are being made, which if continued through later school life will go far toward producing men and women who are capable of deciding questions from the facts of the case, and who will not be swayed by their own prejudices nor the propaganda of a partisan.
2. Unification of subjects in the upper grades of the elementary school. — In the upper grades of the elementary school and in- creasingly so in the high school, the work becomes differentiated into the various distinct subjects of the curriculum, and the tend- ency too often is to shut each one off by itself as though it had
INTERRELATION WITH OTHER SUBJECTS 71
nothing to offer to nor receive from any other study. A knowl- edge of what instructors of other subjects are giving in their respective classes would enable the home economics teacher to build into her work such material as would help to reinforce that of the geography, history, mathematics, or any other sub- ject being taught, and at the same time make her subject more vital and intelligible because of its appeal to the previous experi- ence of the child. To illustrate : a certain course in the history of the United States planned for the seventh and eighth grades 1 has for one of its topics, " Effect of the industrial revolution and the new national policies." As the industrial revolution was so largely occasioned by the invention of new machinery for spinning and weaving, the teacher of Home Economics should plan to make her intensive study of the manufacture of textiles parallel to this study in history, contrasting earlier hand processes with the new machine methods so that the pupils may more thoroughly understand all the facts and conditions which led to the industrial revolution and through that understanding appreciate better some of the problems of industry to-day. Similarly, in the section of the same course devoted to agriculture, many of the topics suggested are directly related to home economics problems and should receive consideration in the food study, such as, for example, " The interest of the city as a consumer of rural products. How some of the chief products are produced and marketed. How the city's food supply is protected by legisla- tion; for example, dairy inspection." Field trips to wholesale markets, farmers' markets, dairies, etc., would make the work doubly vital.
It is possible, however, to carry this principle of correlation too far and to weary the pupils and waste their time by the futile repetition in one course of what is being well taught in another. This is but one more argument in favor of close cooperation among the teachers in the school and thorough acquaintance on the part of each with the curriculum in all studies offered. Where such a
1 A Course of Study in the History of the United States, 1789-1840. By Ernest Horn. " Teachers College Record," September, 1915.
72 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
thorough course in a contributing subject is offered, as is the case with the hygiene course as outlined in the Course of Study for the Minneapolis Public Schools,1 the home economics teacher will need merely to recall to mind by judicious questioning the points that are especially connected with her subject, and not take the time to teach in detail the topics that have already been thoroughly taught in the other class. For instance, in that course of study the home economics studies begin in the seventh grade, and in that year in hygiene the topics of digestion, circulation, respiration, excretion, the nervous system, and the physiological effects of exercise are discussed. All of these are directly concerned with the use of food in the body, and the home economics teacher will wish to recall them at appropriate times, in order to strengthen her own work and also to make them more vital to her pupils by their concrete application in her particular field. It would not be necessary, however, for her to consider them in great detail nor spend much time on the general principles involved, but rather to clarify the subjects through their specific applications.
It has not been the custom in the past to introduce science work other than the nature study and geography of the early elementary grades, before the first year of high school or the ninth year. As a very large per cent of the pupils never enter high school, large numbers leave school with little or no knowledge of the physical world by which they are surrounded. There seems no valid reason why these subjects should not form a part of the instruction of the seventh and eighth grades, and it has been recommended that such studies be introduced into grades 7 to 9 under the general title of " Introduction to Science, with special subdivisions of hygienic and chemico-physical study/' and further recommended that the studies should be scientific, although not science in the strict sense. That is, they should follow methods of science, but not its characteristic generalizations.
If the home economics teacher has the proper preparation, this introduction to science may well form an integral part of the home economics course, and its applications and illustrations may well 1 Course of Study for the Minneapolis Public Schools, 1913-1914.
INTERRELATION WITH OTHER SUBJECTS 73
be taken from that field, thus making for economy of time as well as for a surer understanding of the principles.
In the high school. — Valuable as is correlation in the elementary school it is perhaps in the high school that the principle finds its greatest justification. It requires close cooperation among the several departments and instructors to work out a course of study that will make provision for this cross connection, and too fre- quently this cooperation is not found, as the following quotation shows. " In one school the question put a teacher of physics, ' How do you coordinate your work with domestic science? ' was answered, ' I don't believe in coordination. If you teach physics, teach physics ; if you teach chemistry, teach chemistry.' ' But why not economize the pupil's time and energy, get him along faster by teaching some of the principles of both through familiar domestic events? ' He pronounced sentence against himself by replying, f Because I have noticed that children never remember in one department what they learned in some other.' The reply is a text for a volume of commentary on public schools in their relation to citizenship." J
1. Science and Home Economics. — Much of the science work that has been required of girls in the past has not appealed to the pupils as worth while. The physics and chemistry of high school and college have been planned from the standpoint of the needs of the boy, and applications have been made to the devices and appliances of interest in a man's world, but with little or no use in a woman's.
The sciences offer particularly rich opportunities for correlation, and many of the underlying principles on which the home economics subjects are based may be made more clear and forceful by ap- propriate exercises in the science laboratory, while at the same time the sciences themselves become more vital through their association with subjects that have such immediate and concrete interests. To illustrate, — the laws of heat may as well be ex-
1 Studies of the Present Teaching of Hygiene through Domestic Science and through Nature Study. Reprinted from the Bulletin of the American Academy of Medicine.
74 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
emplified in the lighting of the kitchen fire or the heating of the house as in the study of the steam engine; the life history of bacteria gained through the preservation of food as through the pathogenic study of disease; and the nature of acids determined in the removal of rusts as well as through the reaction of potassium oxalate with ferric chloride.
In discussing the question of general science in the high school, Mr. Fred D. Barber of the Illinois State Normal University * says:
The mastery of some two or three hundred abstract laws, together with the solving of several hundred mathematical problems and the perform- ing of fifty or more generally non-significant laboratory exercises is usually recognized as the sum total of an adequate high school course in physics. Such a course has been the bane of life and the Waterloo of thousands if not millions of perfectly normal high school girls. Their frantic effort to surmount this obstacle to their goal, graduation, is pathetic. But who will say that the average girl cannot be interested in and led to appreciate and understand the essential principles of that most difficult portion of physics, mechanics, when we see her sitting confidently at the steering wheel of the family car safely guiding it through the crowded thorough- fare of the city ? The fact is that she is easily capable of intense interest in gears, in revolutions per minute and in differentials as well as in proper mixtures, induction coils, magnetos, spark plugs and storage batteries, provided these be taught, not as abstractions but as vital parts of the car she drives.
But the question arises, Just how is this reorganization of science upon the principles of developing the essential laws and principles out of a study of applied science to be effected ? Or again, Is it possible to organize science materials, while following such a plan, into logical units of instruction having educational value ?
Mr. Barber then suggests a scheme of organization for first year science based on experiences with which the children come in con- tact in their everyday life.
Such courses are given in some high schools, notably the William Penn High School in Philadelphia, the Brookline High School, Brookline, Massachusetts, and the Horace Mann School, New York City.
In a recent report of the " Committee on Correlation of Chemistry
1 Fundamental Considerations in the Reorganization of High School Science. By Fred D. Barber. " General Science Quarterly," January, 1917.
INTERRELATION WITH OTHER SUBJECTS 75
and Home Economics in High Schools " 1 which was appointed by the Central Association of Science and Mathematics Teachers, the committee says in part, " The so-called ' Household Chemistry ' courses which have been offered have been chiefly a series of tests on foods and textiles, teaching few of the fundamental principles of chemistry, and making little intellectual demand upon the minds of the students."
This committee suggests a course which in its judgment would be suited to third year high school pupils and which would have in mind the particular needs of the home economics students, recommending " that the work in chemistry be planned to correlate as closely as possible in subject-matter and in time with the study of foods." They further observe, " In this outline the distinction between organic and inorganic chemistry has been disregarded. This may seem a radical step, but since such a division is chiefly historical, it does not seem sufficient reason for holding to the con- ventional sequence of subjects now found in most textbooks of chemistry, especially since it has not met our needs."
Where it is desired to give a more intensive course in any of the other sciences than is included in the general science course, the same principles should apply, namely, that each science should be taught from its concrete applications to particular uses and situa- tions of immediate need.
2. Mathematics and Home Economics. — Perhaps the possi- bilities of correlation with the natural and physical sciences have been more readily seen and more widely applied than have those of other subjects in the curriculum which find equal opportunity for application in the home. From an economic point of view perhaps there is no subject in which the high school student in Home Economics should be more proficient than in practical mathe- matics. So much of the success and happiness of the home is dependent upon the wise expenditure of the income that every effort should be made to see that our girls thoroughly understand the value of the dollar, the dime, and the penny, and perhaps there
1 Report of the Committee on Correlation of Chemistry and Home Economics in High Schools. "Home Economics Journal," March, 1917.
76 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
is no way in which it can be so effectively taught as through actual calculations in the purchasing power and percentage of loss or saving in certain typical transactions.
Such a course in household arithmetic has been successfully tried out in the Plainfield, New Jersey, High School.1
The arrangement of the course on this scheme gives abundant opportunity for repeated drill on fundamental arithmetical problems, reinforces the teaching of the home economics teacher through actual concrete examples of transactions and typical calculations, and also saves the time of that teacher for the more thorough drill on her own subjects. Particularly is this true in the calculation of dietaries, especially if this section of the mathematics teaching be given parallel with or just preceding the dietetics course in Home Economics.
3. Art and Home Economics. — It must not be inferred from the above discussions and quotations that the foods, sanitation, and management phases of the home economics work are the only ones that offer opportunity for correlations, for such is not the case. There are just as many opportunities for strengthening and en- riching the clothing and textile courses by properly related work in the other high school subjects. To quote from a recent article,2
Clothing is a subject that can easily be brought into close correlation with almost every subject in a school curriculum ; in fact, it involves many subjects as a part of itself. Yet in many schools none of this interrelation is made evident, and the teaching of seams and garments is the sum total of the sewing courses ; not even the materials and the cost form any part of the definite work.
The history of clothing is as fascinating as it is profitable, and through its study we realize how fashions are influenced by the political conditions in a country. The history of a country, in its making, sways the fashions.
Physics is related to the study of clothing, since it is important in dis- cussing protective power against heat, cold and moisture, and in connection with mechanical apparatus, such as sewing machines, shears, irons, and
1 Household Arts Arithmetic. By Katharine F. Ball and Miriam E. West. "School Review," Vol. XXV, No. 10, December, 1917. See also Mathematics Applied to the Household Arts. By Katharine F. Ball. " Home Economics Journal," October, 1916.
2 Courses in Sewing for Elementary and High School and their Correlation with Drawing. By Martha H. French. "Home Economics Journal," February, 1917.
INTERRELATION WITH OTHER SUBJECTS 77
mechanical testing devices. The examination of fabrics and textile fibers with microscope involves optics. Chemistry is related through the action of cleaning reagents upon the various textile fibers and the chemical methods for testing textiles. Physiology and hygiene teach one what to wear in order that the body may be properly protected and at the same time muscular movements, body development, and normal body functions be unrestricted. Languages may be useful for historical books on costume ; but most necessary of all these subjects, and underlying all sewing, should be drawing and design. Where there is no correlation with the art work three reasons usually explain this lack : first, the sewing teachers know so little of the principles and mediums of the artist that they cannot sug- gest correlation ; second, the art teachers know so little of the principles and mediums used in sewing that they in turn cannot suggest means for unifying the work; and third, neither instructor is willing to make the necessary concessions to bring the two subjects closer together, nor does either care to give the time and effort required to develop successfully a series of lessons which shall be sequential both in sewing and in art.
Miss Lura R. Crawford, director of the department of Applied Design in Domestic Art in the Dickenson High School in Jersey City, New Jersey, has been particularly successful in her costume design work in that high school. She believes in the necessity of knowledge of the principles of sewing and dressmaking on the part of the art teacher as a qualification for success in the field of dress design, and one secret of her highly successful course is that she thought it sufficiently worth while to acquaint herself thoroughly with those principles of construction which were of immediate need to make her art work practical and intelligible.
But the art work should not be entirely confined to the cloth- ing work of the home economics course. Its principles find just as wide application in the field of home furnishing and decoration as in costume design. The Los Angeles High School's course in home furnishing and decoration " takes up the problem of the decoration and furnishing of the entire house. It deals with color schemes, cost of materials, kinds of materials used, economic and artistic values, and estimates for specific problems ; visits to deco- rating shops will be included."
4. Social science and Home Economics. — Important as are all the subjects discussed in their relationship to the home economics studies they are of less importance than the understanding of the
78 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
human relationships that exist in connection with the subject, for Home Economics after all is distinctively the study of human re- lationships. When we stop to think of the number of hands through which our food has passed before it reaches our breakfast table, of the number of overspeeded men and women who perhaps contributed to the making of the garments we are wearing, of the number of exploited children who may have been engaged in the preparation of many of our articles of consumption; of the temptation to adulterate food or fabrics we may have brought upon manufacturers by our uninformed demands for cheaper ma- terials, we can readily appreciate how closely we are bound up with others in one big web of mutual responsibility. Our high school girls are old enough to appreciate this interrelationship, and it should be brought before them in some very definite and concrete way before they leave.
One of the best ways, perhaps, is in connection with the civics and economics courses of the high school, preferably in the senior year.
In the bulletin on the social studies in secondary education published by the Bureau of Education 1 the following statements are made. " It is generally agreed that there should be a cul- minating course of social study in the last year of the high school, with the purpose of giving a more definite, comprehensive and deeper knowledge of some of the vital problems of social life, and thus of securing a more intelligent and active citizenship. "
The conflicting claims of the various social sciences — eco- nomic, sociologic, and political — are then presented and the con- clusion reached that " the only feasible way the committee can see by which to satisfy in reasonable measure the demands of the several social sciences, while maintaining due regard for the re- quirements of secondary education, is to organize instruction, not on the basis of the formal social sciences, but on the basis of con- crete problems of vital importance to society and of immediate interest to the pupil."
1 The Social Studies in Secondary Education. Bureau of Education, Bulletin No. 28, 1916.
INTERRELATION WITH OTHER SUBJECTS 79
By way of illustration is given the following :
In actual life, whether as high school pupils or as adults, we face problems or conditions and not sciences. We use sciences, however, to interpret our problems and conditions. Furthermore, every problem or condition has many sides and may involve the use of various sciences. To illustrate the point we may take the cost of living, which is a vital problem from the standpoint of the individual and of society, and may readily have been forced upon the interest of the pupil through changes'in mode of life, cur- tailment of allowance, sacrifice of customary pleasures, change in plans for education, etc. This problem involves, on the economic side, such fun- damental matters as values, prices, wages, etc. ; on the sociological side, such matters as standards of living, birth-rate, etc. ; on the political side, such matters as tariff legislation, control of trusts and the like, and the appropriate machinery of legislation, law enforcement, and judicial pro- cedure.
It is readily seen that many of the questions that would come up in the discussion or study of such topics would be directly con- nected with problems of the home and so would be of interest to the home economics students and should be tied up with topics in that course.
In the Brookline High School l a list of study topics is suggested which is intended to connect the work in economics with that in Home Economics. Under the head of " Study topics belonging to Political Economy and Home Economics " the following topics are suggested :
The consumption of wealth. Food and its relation to labor power. The housing of the poor and its relation to good citizenship. Municipal sanitary regulations. Expenditure versus saving. Division of income. Domestic service (as a part of the general labor problem). The work of superintending a home compared with other economic operations. Child labor. Pure food.
Many more examples of this principle of correlation might be cited, but enough have been given to make the meaning clear and to emphasize its importance. Particular applications must be made by each teacher among the subjects available in her own particular school, and when once the principle is accepted, the alert teacher will find many places for its application.
1 Courses in Domestic Science offered by the High School, Brookline, Massa- chusetts, 1912.
80 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY AND REVIEW
1. Take the course of study of your school and see what subjects other than your own have to offer to your subject and where your subject may help to reinforce others in the curriculum.
2. Ask at least one teacher to cooperate with you in trying out a scheme of correlation for a term and see if your work gains anything by the ex- periment.
3. If you teach all of the subjects in a certain grade, work out a limited scheme of correlation and try it out for a term.
4. What is the most important industry or industries in your neighbor- hood? Have they anything to offer as a means of unifying the work of your grade?
5. One teacher based much of the work of the fourth grade on a cotton glove industry that was located in the town. What would she find in that study besides the processes of manufacture?
6. What is your status in your school as a home economics teacher? Is there any way in which you can form more vital relationships with the school organization?
7. Indicate six projects connected with home-making that might be worked out in the science laboratory under the direction of the science teacher. Do the same for the art teacher.
8. What civic or social problems are now under discussion in your town that are vitally connected with your work and should find a place in the discussions in your classes ?
REFERENCES FOR COLLATERAL READING
The School and Industrial Life. Russell and Bonser.
Democracy and Education. Dewey.
School and Society. Dewey.
Schools of To-morrow. Dewey.
Principles Underlying the Making of School Curriculum. McMurry. Teachers College Record, September, 1915.
Household Arts Arithmetic. Ball and West, School Review, Vol. XXV, No. 10, December, 1917.
The Application of Art Principles to Dressmaking. Crawford. Proceed- ings of the Eastern Arts Association, April, 1917.
The Social Studies in Secondary Education. Bureau of Education, Bul- letin No. 28, 1916.
PART II
ORGANIZATION OF COURSES OF STUDY IN HOME
ECONOMICS
CHAPTER V
VARIOUS SCHEMES OF ORGANIZATION OF THE ELE- MENTARY AND HIGH SCHOOLS
I. Introduction.
A. The adjustment of school organization to the demands of the
democratic community. II. The elementary school.
A. Its aims and purposes.
B. Various lengths of elementary school period under different
schemes of school organization.
III. The high school.
A. Its scope.
B. Its aims and purposes.
IV. The rural school.
A. Its special forms of organization.
Introduction. — One of the very hopeful signs of the times in school administration is the departure from the tradition which made all elementary school courses eight years, and all high school courses four years in length. With much the same spirit with which the world is striving to make the world safe for democracy and democracy safe for the world, educators are undertaking to rec- oncile the interests of pupils and the subject matter, methods,4' and organization of the school system.
In many instances the readjustment is not extreme. For many years, progressive education has attempted to utilize the foremost interests of the child in building up the content of the curriculum, and to organize them into a general scheme which is closely re- lated to the present-day life of the child. Schools have developed which serve the interests of all types of people and community needs ; but it remains for the education of the future to give equal / social value to practical and academic education.
83
84 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
In Schools of To-morrow, Dr. John Dewey enjoins the public school system to assume the responsibility of democratizing all classes of people.1
Two concrete schemes for accomplishing these desirable results have been introduced into some of the public school systems of the country.
I. The reorganization of the division into elementary and high school work, in order that differentiation in interests may early be recognized and turned to account.
II. The establishment of elastic courses of study in high schools which will serve the needs of all types of pupils.
The elementary school. — Its aims and purposes. — In the light of modern educational theory, " the term elementary school is here used to cover that period in education in which the work should be common for all children without reference to sex, future vocation, or social status. It is the period for securing that common information, experience and development necessary to intelligent living in any walk or calling of life." 2
The problem of maintaining democracy in the elementary school is not difficult. When interests are naturally uniform because of
1 It is fatal for a democracy to permit the formation of fixed classes.
There must not be one system for the children of parents who have more leisure and another for the children of those who are wage-earners. The physical separation forced by such a scheme, while unfavorable to the de- velopment of a proper mutual sympathy, is the least of its evils. Worse is the fact that the over-bookish education for some and the over-" practical" education for others brings about a division of mental and moral habits, ideals and outlook.
The academic education turns out future citizens with no sympathy for work done with the hands, and with absolutely no training for understanding the most serious of present-day social and political difficulties. The trade training will turn out future workers who may have greater immediate skill than they would have had without their training, but who have no enlargement of mind, no insight into the scientific and social significance of the work they do, no education which assists them in finding their way on or in making their own adjustments. A division of the public school system into one part which pursues traditional methods, with incidental improvements, and another which deals with those who are to go into manual labor, means a plan of social pre- destination totally foreign to the spirit of democracy. . . .
2 The Industrial Arts in the Elementary School. By Frederick G. Bonser. " School Arts Magazine," November, 1913.
VARIOUS SCHEMES OF ORGANIZATION 85
their universality, the task is obviously simple. It is with the differentiation of interests and training that the problem presents itself for solution.
The complexities of modern life have thrust more and more responsibilities upon the school. As was stated in Part I, Chapter I, the home and community have gradually changed in their power as educational forces. The school has, as a result, been called upon to supplement more of the general education in the life of the child. In addition to the " tools of learning," the schools have become responsible for " useful information, desirable habits of mind and action, cultivated taste and appreciation, and attitudes of social helpfulness, all so developed that they guide in the conduct of life."
Various lengths of elementary school period under different schemes of school organization. — Until a comparatively short time ago the elementary school was generally accepted as an eight-year period. Differentiation in method, subject matter, and interest might be considered during the upper years of the elementary school, but the spirit of the lower school dominated the work.
In many school systems, " departmental work " and Home Economics and shop work as a share of general education gave acknowledgment to the evident need for adaptation to changing interests and needs in the girl and boy. However, the graduation from the elementary school at the end of the eighth grade was made a " feature " in education ; it came normally at about the age of 14 years ; white dresses, duck trousers, and diplomas made the event a too natural " commencement " upon the duties of life.
Furthermore, the high school which followed offered little in- ducement to the practical-minded youth to enter its doors for a four-year period which gave little training for the lives which lay before him.
With the growing conviction that the elements of education if wisely planned and presented could be achieved in six years instead of eight ; and with the knowledge that at the end of the sixth year there comes a natural change in the physical and mental makeup of the girl and boy, the adherence to tradition was broken, and various school systems reorganized their elementary and secondary
86 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
school schemes upon the new basis, e.g. six years for the elementary and six years for the high school.
In schools located in a community where economic conditions demand the early entrance of children into industry, differentiation of work for boys and girls may be introduced into the sixth grade ; in this way children of over-age in the sixth grade may be given the fundamental working principles of the practical arts for general education, before leaving school at the legal age.
As a means of " bridging the chasm " between the elementary and high school, and thus insuring a longer school lifetime for all pupils, Mr. Herbert S. Weet, Superintendent of the Rochester Public Schools, New York, thus bears testimony for the efficacy of the 6-3-3 plan of education : l
Of those who completed the eight-years work last January under the Junior High School organization 94^% have remained for the ninth year work. A year ago in exactly the same community, but under the grammar school organization, only 51% remained for ninth year work. This highly suggests that there were needs among these upper grade pupils that were not being met and that the present Junior High School type of work is meeting these needs.
The old-time uniformity in subject matter and method for all is a thing of the past. In the progressive school of to-day each child is encouraged to achieve these " tools of learning " through his own peculiar interests and capabilities.
The high school. — Its scope. — With the widening conception of the right of every individual to be educated for the life work which he anticipates, secondary education has extended its field to cover all types of schools which immediately follow the ele- mentary school training. It is held by some that all types of pre- collegiate education, offered to adults, even though it be the acquisition of the fundamentals of learning, are forms of secondary education.
Listed, they may thus be designated :
1. All regularly organized high schools.
2. Trade or vocational schools.
1 Educational Administration and Supervision, September, 1916.
VARIOUS SCHEMES OF ORGANIZATION 87
3. Part-time schools.
4. Continuation classes.
Its aims and purposes. — In a bulletin published by the Grand Rapids High Schools for the information and guidance of incoming students and their parents, the following statement appears :
It is the aim of the Junior and Senior High Schools through the studies offered and the student life that is encouraged to develop the moral, physical, and intellectual well-being of all pupils. The attempt is made to lead the growing youth through the storm and stress period of adoles- cence into the maturer years of young manhood and womanhood. In- cidentally every effort is made to lead each pupil to a wise choice of a career and to prepare himself for his best service to humanity in his vocation and as an intelligent, loyal citizen.
The rapid growth of high schools in the United States during the past fifteen years is in itself proof of the fact that the great mass of the people in our country are realizing the importance and value of their training. The time has come when no boy or girl can afford to go out into the world to battle with life without the preparation that may be secured at the hands of the public in the high school.
Secondary education aims (1) to provide liberal education for all as a basis for the highest type of " moral, physical and in- tellectual well-being," and for intelligent, loyal citizenship. (2) To provide specialized training, both academic and vocational, to meet the demands of all types of people, in preparation for their " best service to humanity " in their vocations.
The present plastic condition of the high school curriculum is encouraging evidence of the response of the educational world to the demands of democracy. Because of the lack of uniformity in organization and curriculums of American high schools to-day it is practically impossible to classify them. However, it may be said that there are two lines of readjustment in secondary school ad- ministration which may be noted as indicative of advancement :
(1) The creation of suitable curriculums and types of schools designed to meet the demands of varying interests and anticipated vocations of pupils (as already suggested), and (2) the varying lengths of elementary and high school courses, designed to promote
88 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
school attendance to its optimum achievement, thus increasing the sum total of universal education.
It would be impossible to offer a complete list of the existing types of courses and curriculums in modern secondary education. Suffice it to say that modern education bases its procedure in school organization upon a careful survey of pupil and community needs, and of community opportunities.1
In relation to the adjustment of the length of elementary and high school courses to the demands of democracy it may be said that there is an increasing tendency throughout the country to reduce the time devoted to the acquisition of the "fundamentals" to six years ; and to include the seventh and eighth years of school training in the secondary school course. In this organization, com- monly known as the " 6-3-3 scheme," the high school course is sub- divided into the Junior High School including the seventh, eighth, and ninth years, and the Senior High School including the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth years.
There are various modifications of this scheme of organization. Some schools include seven years in the elementary school and five in the high school, and occasionally only four years in. the high school. Other adjustments occur in the subdivision of the high school course into " 2-4," and " 4-2 " cycles. Occasionally two years of college work are added to the high school course, and college credit given, making the 8-4-2 scheme of organization.
The rural school. — Its special forms of organization. — The rural school, because of its segregation, its limited teaching force, and its responsibility to pupils and community for all the types of training, has a peculiarly difficult problem to solve. In many cases the rural high school has evolved through the addition of high school subjects to the elementary school subjects as the de- mand arose. Another development has been the combination of two or more advanced district schools which have perhaps out-
1 Helpful references in relation to various types of schools and courses are:
(1) Principles of Secondary Education. Monroe. Chapter V. Published by Macmillan Co.
(2) Vocational Secondary Education. Bulletin No. 21, 1916, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education.
VARIOUS SCHEMES OF ORGANIZATION 89
grown the building and equipment of the elementary school where they were first established.
Between the one-room rural school and the consolidated high school which is fed by the output of the numerous surrounding schools there is a wide difference in the ability to meet the present- day demand for adaptation of courses and subject matter to meet the needs of pupils. There is comfort in the remark made by the dean of the college of education of one of our largest universities that " during his boyhood on the farm he had but three months in the year of schooling, which left nine months for him to get an education." 1
Although there has been a smaller number of courses offered in the rural than in the city high schools, there is a growing tendency, parallel to the aroused interest in rural education, to introduce courses of a practical nature. There has been a modification of courses and methods of instruction in the sciences, and the ad- dition of courses in Home Economics, dairying, horticulture, agri- culture, etc., as demanded by the individual community.
A feature found in some rural communities is the two-year high school course. Such schools are to be found in the Mississippi valley ; and California offers financial encouragement to its " grammar-high " schools.
The prospects for the development of rural education are bright ; and there is no doubt that the consolidated rural school offers a fertile field for the promotion of most advanced educational thought.
SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY AND REVIEW
1. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the "6-3-3" plan of organization for the schools of the community which you know best.
2. Suggest concrete opportunities for the schools to further the highest ideals of democracy by means of their organization.
3. What do you consider the most effective "tools of education" which you mastered during your elementary school training ?
4. Why did the "Three R's" more fully meet the needs of our grand- fathers' school training than they do ours ?
1 Education, the Mastery of the Arts of Life. By Arthur E. Mason. "Atlantic Monthly," March, 1918.
90 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
5. What agencies have contributed to your education ?
6. List the vocations open to girls and women for which the democratic high school should provide vocational or prevocational training.
REFERENCES FOR COLLATERAL READING
The American High School. Brown.
Schools of To-morrow. Dewey.
The Education of To-morrow. Weeks.
Report of Committee on the Junior High School, presented to the High
School Masters' Club of Massachusetts. March 17, 1917. Educational Administration and Supervision. November, 1915, and
September, 1916.
Problems of Educational Readjustment. Snedden. A Modern School. Hanus. Principles of Secondary Education. Monroe.
CHAPTER VI HOME ECONOMICS IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
I. Relation of the home economics studies to the work of the first six grades.
A. Industrial arts as a form of organization.
B. Other schemes of organization.
C. Summary.
II. Home Economics in the seventh and eighth grades.
A. The aims.
B. The necessity for understanding the needs of the girls.
C. The time allowance.
D. The scope of the work.
E. Bases for the organization of courses in Home Economics.
F. Home economics studies for the seventh grade.
G. Home economics studies for the eighth grade.
Relation of the home economics studies to the work of the first six grades. — It has been stated in the foregoing chapter that the aim of the elementary school is to " give that common informa- tion, experience, and development necessary to intelligent living in any walk or calling of life." Obviously there are many subjects that can justly lay claim to consideration on these grounds, and as the claim of each has been recognized and each has been added to the curriculum of the school, the program has become more and more crowded and the work become more and more superficial and formal.
For the past few years educators have been occupied in trying to determine the subjects of most worth, and in bringing about some sort of unity among those chosen, to the end that they may become a coherent and unified body of subject matter in the minds of the pupils and not merely a number of isolated and unrelated topics of little practical worth.
91
92 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
Industrial arts as a form of organization. — Of the attempts that are being made to-day to simplify and unify the elementary school curriculum, one that is rapidly coming into favor and use is that of the industrial arts.
1. Definition. — This subject is, as one writer puts it, " a study of the industries by which we are provided with food, clothing, shelter, and other necessities of life," or " a study of the processes by which man transforms the raw materials about him into finished products of higher value to satisfy his needs." Six units of subject matter are usually included in the subject of industrial arts, these being considered the most important and typical of those industries contributing to the needs and well-being of man. These are " how the race provides itself with (1) food, (2) clothing, (3) shelter, (4) utensils, (5) means of recording thought, and (6) facilities for doing the world's work. These six units represent merely an arbitrary division designed to help us in organizing the subject."1
2. Values. — The reasons for choosing for all children such a subject as industrial arts, which is really the study of manufactur- ing, when the great majority of them will never be engaged in any form of the production of commodities, may well be questioned, and in answer to such a question Dr. Frederick G. Bonser gives the following explanation as to the values of industrial arts : 2
A study of the industries or industrial arts in the elementary school is of greater importance than ever before, because of the concentration of industries in factories and shops, away from the home and everyday life of our time. Te information and attitudes desirable about the making of our clothing, furniture, shelter, foods, and other products were once got- ten by children in their own homes and through their own participation. But to-day, if this experience is to be had at all, it must be gotten through the school.
VALUES: INFORMATION. — The proper study of industrial arts should give values of three kinds, namely, information, appreciation, and habits and attitudes. The information most immediately valuable is that which makes one intelligent about industrial products from the standpoint of the
1 Industrial Arts for the First Six- Grades. By Sara L. Patrick. ' ' Proceedings of the Eastern Arts Association," 1917.
2 Teaching the Elementary School Subjects. By L. W. Rapeer.
HOME ECONOMICS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 93
consumer. We all have to select and purchase clothing, but few have to make it. The information all need about clothing is that of economic values, health qualities, appropriateness of various kinds of clothing to various purposes and occasions, and the proper care of clothing. To get this information we must learn something of the various processes in the making of fabrics — spinning, weaving, dyeing, designing, and finishing. We must know the various methods of adulterations, so that we can detect shoddy and other inferior goods. We must know the several tests by which to identify each particular textile material — cotton, wool, linen, and silk. All of these facts help us to judge of values in buying clothing or clothing materials. For furniture, the problem is also one of buying rather than making, for most people. To buy intelligently, we must know the kinds of wood used in furniture, together with their desirability and proper cost. We must know as well the various types of construction — which are substantial and durable and which are not. Many of the problems about foods are also those of food values and cost values — matters of information that help us to purchase and use foods wisely and economically.
APPRECIATIONS. — The second value for the study, that of apprecia- tions, has to do with the cultivation of taste. We desire to train chil- dren to know good standards of form in all products and to like these. We want them to know good design in all its elements, so that they will be able to select furniture, clothing, china, rugs, wall-papers, and all other material products, so that these will be beautiful and in harmony with their purposes. School work should lead the children to know when things are beautiful by all good standards, to like that which is beautiful, and be influenced in their choices by this work.
HABITS AND ATTITUDES. — The third value, that of habits and attitudes, comes as a kind of by-product of the proper emphasis of the other values. The attitude of carefully considering everything made or purchased from the standpoint of its economic value and its qualities of design or beauty naturally results from a consideration of these points in every problem taken up in the school. To avoid the waste of money, to get thoroughly good qualities, to secure designs that are excellent and permanent, is an attitude of very great worth to both men and women. The habits of thoroughness, of carefulness in workmanship, and of thinking a problem through before beginning its execution, are all inherent in the study of industrial arts.
A further and more largely social kind of information, of attitudes, and of appreciations is also included in a study of present-day industries. We should all know something of the factory system of to-day, the large amount of automatic machine production, the kinds of work each worker does, the surroundings of workers as to health, moral conditions, wages, and the relationships of the worker and the employer, the risks of limb and life, and such other questions as enable us to act intelligently as citizens. When we find sweat-shop conditions in an industry, we should be able to do some- thing to help its workers. This we may do by buying from those pro- ducers only who have good conditions and pay living wages, and by helping to pass and enforce laws abolishing improper conditions. Our study of the
94 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
industry should provide us the information, and cultivate in us the appre- ciations and attitudes of mind toward the workers in industry, which will help us to be just to them and aid, as good citizens, in making their con- ditions of work and life wholesome and happy.
In addition to these values the industrial arts as suggested in a previous chapter serve as a means of binding the curriculum into one well-organized, unified whole, as all other subjects may most naturally grow out of or be bound to the study of the industries.
3. Subject matter and organization. — In this book we are con- cerned primarily with industrial arts in its relation to Home Econom- ics, therefore only those phases which have direct bearing on home economics subjects will be discussed. With at least three of the units, — food, clothing, and shelter, — the home economics teacher is directly concerned and she is frequently asked to assist in plan- ning the courses in those subjects for the first six grades even if she does not teach them. In the first two or three grades the work naturally centers around the activities that the children have been accustomed to see carried on in the home or immediate neighbor- hood ; and with this beginning it is an easy step to a study of primi- tive conditions, where simple processes of the conversion of raw materials into commercial products may be made and become the basis for the understanding of the more complicated methods of manufacture in higher grades.
The doll house makes a natural center for much of the work of the first and possibly of the second grade. Typifying the home to the children it easily suggests reproducing the setting of the home and leads to the building of the house, the painting and papering of the rooms and the making of furniture, curtains, rugs, bedding, etc., with which the home is furnished. Providing a family to live in the home naturally brings the dressing of dolls with its accompanying discussion of clothing suitable to the season and the making of garments for the doll family.
Activities carried on within the home quickly suggest themselves and the children eagerly reproduce those activities, — sweeping and dusting the rooms, washing and ironing the bedding and clothing of the doll family, setting the table and having a party.
HOME ECONOMICS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 95
The latter gives opportunity for a study of the foods found on the tables at home or in the grocery store near by and develops into the preparation of some simple food, cookies for the party, a vegetable from the class garden, if the school is fortunate enough to have a garden, or cranberry jelly at the holiday season. The prepara- tion of the dish is accompanied by a study of where the particular food comes from, how it is grown and how it gets to us, just as in clothing some knowledge is gained of the materials from which the doll clothes are made and where these materials come from.
From the familiar field of the home or neighborhood life it is an easy step to primitive conditions to which the children may be led through stories and pictures. These conditions are introduced not so much for an understanding of that period of development as for giving a basis for the interpretation of complex modern conditions and industries. When it is considered that modern manufacturing is but an elaboration of the simple processes prac- ticed for ages back it will be seen that in the light of these primi- tive methods the complicated industries may later be easily grasped and appreciated. For instance, modern milling with its elaborate processes for crushing the grain and separating it into its many different grades accomplishes in the end just what did the Indian squaw with her two stones for grinding and her woven basket for separating the coarser particles from the finer. Likewise the mod- ern spinning industry but disentangles, draws out, lays parallel, and twists the fibers into thread as did primitive woman with her spindle, distaff, and fingers.
As the children gain in experience and pass from grade to grade these modern methods are gradually developed till by the time they reach the fifth or sixth grade they are ready for a serious and fairly comprehensive study of the conditions of modern indus- try and are able to appreciate many of the problems arising in con- nection with present-day methods.
The work should be given to boys and girls alike, for in respect to fundamental necessities boys personally have as much need as girls. Likewise from the social aspects of the work both boys and
96 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
girls need a sympathetic understanding of the perplexing problem of industrial conditions in order to take an intelligent part in the society in which they must live.
The following outline is quoted to show the possibilities in the second grade for the execution of such a project in shelter as has been discussed above : 1
Shelter:
1. Making a simple house form with a frame of wood covered with burlap, containing a door and window, using mica for window-panes ; the top of roof is left open ; the parts are in panels and are easily folded ; the wall of the classroom may be used as one side of the house.
2. Furniture for the house, table, chairs, buffet, bed, bureau, and book- case — made in simple style of wood by screw construction ; each piece is made by two or more children working together.
3. Housewifery, using the house and furniture made, (a) -Care of dining-room : sweeping, dusting, setting of table, washing dishes and laundering linen. (6) Care of bedroom: sweeping, dusting, making of bed, laundering of bed-linen.
Likewise the possibilities of a textile problem are illustrated by the following project quoted from the course of study for the third grades of the Richmond public schools :
Subject matter: Textiles. Correlate with related topics in geography, history and literature.
1. Identification of wool, cotton, silk and linen fabrics. Have pupils
bring samples from home.
2. Classification into vegetable and animal fibers.
3. Study of wool :
a. Sheep raising : Other wool-bearing animals.
b. Washing, shearing and carding.
c. Kinds of wool.
d. Structure of fiber : Its quality and limitations.
4. Textile processes : a. Spinning:
(1) Primitive methods : Wheel and spindle.
(2) Modern methods : Use of machinery. 6. Weaving :
(1) Primitive methods : Indian loom with heddle ; Colonial loom.
(2) Modern methods : Machinery.
5. Uses : Clothing, blankets, rugs.
1 Quoted from Education for the Home, Part I. Andrews.
HOME ECONOMICS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 97
6. Excursions :
a. Observe demonstration of primitive methods of spinning, if pos-
sible.
b. Observe demonstration of loom weaving in special classes.
c. Visit museums to see specimens of weaving by primitive peoples. 4. As a basis for home economics work of seventh and eighth
grades. — As the work progresses from grade to grade it becomes increasingly intensive and complex. Having started with the narrow home environment so as to make the transition from home to school an easy one and having carried through many of the primitive processes involved in textile manufacture and food prep- aration, the children are now ready to widen their interests and broaden their horizons. The industrial arts work naturally be- comes connected with the history and industrial geography studies of the upper grades, and customs and lives of peoples of other lands, their costumes and food products become the center of interest. Questions such as " What do these countries contribute to our food supply?" " Why are we dependent upon foreign countries for most of our textile fibers ?" " From what countries in particular do we obtain certain foods or textile fabrics ? " lead to an understanding of the interdependence of countries and the conditions of climate, soil, or labor, etc., which make it possible for one country to produce commodities economically when others cannot. Also, as the work progresses, it should be organized into longer units more consistent with home conditions, so that an appreciation of the work of the home may be gained and a good foundation for the home economics work of the seventh and eighth grades be laid.
Taking food as an instance, the work of food preparation in the first three or four grades is largely for the sake of illustrating indus- trial processes. Wheat and corn are ground into meal for the sake of learning the processes involved in the manufacture of our flour and corn-meal, and their conversion into muffins or bread is for the sake of showing the use of the product as food. By the time the fifth or sixth grade is reached, however, the children are ready to under- take a more serious study of food, its composition, preparation, and use in the body ; and the foods that are selected should be those which are not only typical products of the countries studied, but
98 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
also those typical of the uses of foods in the body, and which may by proper selection give an elementary idea of balance in diet and combination in a meal. To show the working out of such a prob- lem the following is quoted as typical of fifth grade work : l
The work with foods was carried on largely in the cooking, geography and arithmetic classes. In our geography we studied the phases related to the production, manufacture, and transportation of the products. The cooking dealt largely with their value as food, and the children learned how to prepare them nutritiously and economically. They also became ac- quainted with the main food elements : protein, fat, carbohydrates, water, and mineral matter. In the arithmetic various quantitative relations were worked out. In order to handle much of the data it was necessary to understand decimals, so this work presented a reason for their study. . . .
In the fifth grade we took as our problem in relation to the study of our own city : "Why is New York City so important?" The children with little help developed the reasons for this, emphasis being given to the fine harbor and the facilities for sending the various products here for im- mediate use, to be worked over or to be sent away. On our journey to the farm with the rest of the school in October, we had seen some of the fall fruits and vegetables, and some corn in various stages of preparation for the market near us in New York. Some of the most important of the needs of the city for food were then listed, and the sources of supply briefly located, and the route traced. Flour, one of the most important of the many products sent to us, was taken up for special study. . . .
(a) Wheat Region. . . .
(6) Wheat Manufacturing. . . .
(c) Chief Milling and Shipping Centers. . . .
(d) Shipping Routes. . . .
(e) Wheat-producing Countries. . . .
(/) Wheat as a Food. — After working from the uses of wheat in our own homes into the big wheat industry of the United States, the question arose as to why wheat is such an important food. Grains of wheat were given the children and they found the part out of which bran is made. Then some flour and water were mixed together, making a dough. This dough ball was washed in water, leaving a yellowish, elastic substance. This, we told the children, was largely the gluten part of the wheat. That which was washed out was tested and found to contain starch. This experimenting was supplemented by the use of a Gold Medal Flour chart of a grain of wheat, which indicated the five bran coats, the gluten grains, the grains of starch, and the germ. The children made greatly enlarged drawings of the wheat grain, with the help of the chart, and labeled the different parts.
In these cooking lessons the children prepared cream of wheat, and white sauce, and baked bread. In connection with the first they discussed the
1 A Year's Work in Industrial Arts in the Fifth Grade, Speyer School. By Clara Bennett Stilmar.
HOME ECONOMICS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 99
question as to why cream of wheat makes a good food. This brought in review the food elements in wheat and opened the subject of expense. The cost of a cereal for breakfast was computed in an arithmetic lesson and the result compared with the cost of meat, fish or eggs having the same value in food units. . . .
(</) Other Exercises Connected with the Study of Wheat. — In our Greek history it was interesting to note that wheat was one of the grains in earliest use. The class had already heard the Greek harvest myth of Demeter and Persephone. The Hawthorne version was read to them in several literature periods, and, as they were particularly interested in dramatizing, they suggested playing it. About this time the date on which the fifth grade was expected to entertain the rest of the school in assembly was assigned to us, and the children at once decided to get the play ready for that occasion. The class also used short accounts of the dramatizing, cooking, mapwork, and collections for the news items sent to the Speyer School weekly paper. Those whose papers were chosen for publication were quite proud to read their signed "articles" in the ambitious little sheet.
Corn, rice, potatoes, fruits, eggs, and meats were studied in a similar way, and in connection with each topic certain typical dishes were prepared in the foods laboratory.
After these experiences with foods the class planned to serve a breakfast. In selecting which dishes they would prepare, a simple " balance in diet" was kept in mind. They then learned how to set a table.
For the final preparation the class was divided into groups, each one with certain duties. Two children were voted by the class, one for "Father," the other for "Mother," and there were two invited guests. The rest took turns in serving the different courses and in helping in the kitchen.
Later the cost of the breakfast for each individual was computed.
The finding of the teacher is often an obstacle to the introduction of industrial arts. Since the work forms such a closely related whole, the ideal is to have all the work taught by the regular grade teacher. Where she has not the proper preparation, however, the home economics teacher may offer assistance or sometimes take over the work in food, clothing, and shelter, introducing it at such times as fit into the plans of the grade teacher and always in close cooperation with her.
Other schemes of organization. — 1. As an outgrowth of the other subjects in the curriculum. — The subject of industrial arts, however, is by no means universally taught, though quite fre- quently some phase of home economics work is given throughout
100 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
the elementary school or at least in the later years, grades four to six. In some schools the foods and textile work grow out of the history, science, or art work.
The Francis W. Parker School in Chicago uses this form of or- ganization. Of the " Domestic Science " work the catalogue says :
This department includes cooking, sewing, and home science. In every class this work is either the outgrowth of the grade's study in science or history, or itself starts a piece of investigation which is carried on in the classroom. As a result the work of the department is not isolated but is a component part of the whole year's study. For example, in the second grade the study of primitive peoples is carried into the kitchen and exem- plified by simple ways of milling, of making dough, of applying heat. The fourth grade brings back wild fruits from field excursions and makes pre- serves, jellies, and juices. Here scientific questions arise which are taken back to the classroom and worked out there.
In the early grades the simpler and more picturesque phases of the study are pursued — playing house, setting table for luncheon, washing, cooking, jelly-making, easy weaving. In the later grades the more technical side of the industries is studied — action of yeast, fermentation, food analysis, kinds of stitches, designing and drafting of garments, simple embroidery.
Sewing work is introduced as a rule when a need for it is felt, as in the making of Greek costumes, which are undertaken in con- nection with the study of Greek life in the third grade.
In all of the work so far discussed, the home economics lessons are introduced into the program at such times as they are needed, there being no regular time each day or week that is especially devoted to that phase of work. This demands adaptability and flexibility on the part of the teachers, but is ideal from the point of view of the effectiveness of the work, which can then be introduced at the time when it will be most valuable for purposes of illustra- tion and for reinforcing or clarifying the work in hand.
2. As an organized study in certain of the first six grades. — At other times the home economics work is definitely organized as such and is taught as a distinct subject in some of the elementary grades, seldom beginning earlier than the fourth and continuing through to the end of the elementary school period. It is customary for the sewing and textile work to be introduced first, foods and cooking seldom appearing as a subject in the program before the fifth or more usually the sixth year. In planning such courses the usual
HOME ECONOMICS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 101
method of procedure is to base the course on the fundamental stitches in sewing and the various classes of foods in cooking. But it cannot be too strongly urged that all work, however organized, should be the outgrowth of some definite need felt by the children or as the execution of some project or solution of some problem of value in the lives of the children and of interest to them. Sewing processes should be applied to the making of real garments, whether these be costumes for plays or for historical appreciation, garments for the day nursery or Belgian or French orphans, or articles for the children's own use. It should be borne in mind also that the smaller and younger the children the larger should be the muscular co- ordination required, and work requiring fine stitches and close application should not be introduced until the seventh or eighth grade is reached.
In the foods work the processes of preparation and the classes of foods may as well be taught through the preparation of dishes for a class party, an anniversary occasion or a meal to be served to teachers or other guests as through the formal presentation of a series of lessons on the cookery of starch, protein, or fat.
To show the possibilities of this problem method of organization for the lower grades, the following tentative course of study from the Long Beach, California, schools is quoted :
5th Grade — 1 hour minimum (l£ hours max.) per week. Subject — Home Problems. 5B. What can I do to help Mother?
1. Making simple apron to wear in kitchen.
2. Washing and ironing apron and towel.
3. Morning work at home.
4. Simple cooking processes.
5. Serving — setting table — family service.
6. Cleaning.
7. Bed-making — with doll and doll-bed.
5A. Week's work in the home (brief series in each of following lessons). Monday. Wash day. Tuesday. Ironing day. Wednesday. Sewing and mending. Thursday. Family recreations — wise expenditure, development
of family spirit. Friday. House cleaning. Saturday. Baking.
s r
* ? » -* .,
102 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
6th Grade — 1| hours per week. 6B. School lunch.
1. Study of lunch — manner of packing, what is good, possible cost,
food value.
2. Lunch menus and preparations. Sandwiches — various uses of breads, fillings. Uses of fruit,
Stewed fruit, jelly, uses of canned and fresh fruit. Cookies. Uses of nuts. Uses of eggs.
Custard, hard-cooked, sandwiches, deviled. Use of milk and cocoa. 6A. Study of girls' undergarments. Use of machine. Problem — 1. Bloomers or drawers.
2. Princess slip.
3. Study of materials and trimmings.
It should also be kept in mind that the execution of a project is but one phase of the home economics work, and that the under- standing of the materials used, their suitability for the particular project under consideration, their quality and how to judge it, the processes of manufacture, the conditions of labor under which the materials are produced — the human cost of production — are of even greater importance in the lives of the children than is the proper construction of a garment or the faultless cooking of a dish. The periods devoted to Home Economics may well be divided among discussion, experimentation, and technical processes, and should not be devoted exclusively to practical work in which the time-consum- ing processes -crowd out all possibility of adequate understanding of the subjects suggested above.
Summary. — Whatever the scheme chosen for the organization of the work of the first six grades, where work introductory to Home Economics is given in those grades, the children should come to the end of the period with a certain definite appreciation of the activities, a certain fund of subject matter, and a degree of skill in the technical processes commensurate with the ability of pupils of that age.
In textiles they should know the distinguishing characteristics of the various fibers, something of the manufacturing processes in-
HOME ECONOMICS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 103
volved in the transformation of the raw materials into fabrics, simple methods of testing fibers and fabrics and something of the human relationships concerned in the production of fabrics and garments, — child labor, sweat-shop labor, etc. They should be able to perform the simple hand processes in sewing sufficiently well to produce an acceptable and usable article or garment of simple construction. They should also have acquired, if the work is properly taught, right habits and attitudes toward the work and appreciations of the lives of workers that will tend to put them in sympathy with the world's producers.
In foods they should have acquired an elementary knowledge of the composition of foods, and uses of the various foodstuffs in the body ; something of the combination of foods in meals and simple balance in diet. They should know something of typical food industries and conditions of manufacture and should be able to produce palatable dishes and serve simple meals in a pleasing and attractive manner. In addition they should have learned the simple housekeeping processes involved in the keeping of the kitchen and dining-room in condition, formed habits of cleanliness and order both as to person and equipment, and should have acquired the habits and attitudes in connection with this work which were discussed in connection with the textiles.
This may sound like a too comprehensive program for children of the sixth grade age ; but it must be kept in mind that all the information acquired and the skill developed are expected to be of a very simple type. Its function is to open up the field to the children, arouse their interest in it, develop proper attitudes and sympathies toward the work and lay a foundation for the more intensive work of the seventh and eighth grades. On this founda- tion the work of the upper grades of elementary work may be built, enlarging upon the work already given and giving a broader outlook and vision and a keener appreciation of the home and sympathy for those whose labors go into the production of the goods by which that home is maintained.
Home Economics in the seventh and eighth grades. — The aims. — The work of the first six grades should present a unit
104 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
undifferentiated for boys and girls and adapted to no specific need other than that of furnishing a general appreciation of the world's work and of developing sympathy for the world's workers, which should be the common fund of experience for all. With the advent of the adolescent stage of development, however, comes the demand for courses designed to meet the particular interests and needs of the pupils. The boys are now less interested in the cook- ing and sewing, and go to the shop for wood work or other subjects adapted to their needs, while the girls enter courses now specifically organized as home economics studies.
In these upper years of elementary school there will be found girls with two distinct goals :
1. Those who will continue their education through the four years of high school.
2. Those who must, because of economic pressure, leave school at the end of the eighth year.
In planning a course in Home Economics it is necessary to provide for both groups. In either case the aim of the home economics studies in the seventh and eighth grades is primarily for general education. The course should give to every girl that knowledge and skill in the processes and activities connected with the home which should be an integral part of the education of every young woman, regardless of her future occupation. Stated specifically, the aims of the home economics studies in the seventh and eighth grades should be :
1. To give the girl an appreciation of and sympathy with the problems involved in the conduct of a normal well-regulated home and a disposition to cooperate in its maintenance.
2. To equip her with a body of working principles in food, clothing, sanitation, and hygiene, and an understanding of eco- nomics, elementary science, and social connections that will enable her to take an active share in home and neighborhood activities.
3. To develop definite skill and technique in the handling of materials and obtaining results.
To accomplish these results the course in Home Economics should offer as well-rounded a body of material in relation to foods, cloth-
HOME ECONOMICS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 105
ing, shelter, and right living as it is wise to present to the girl at this age. Fortunately, the present problems in the girl's life offer a tangible basis for the organization of this material; her present share in the care and responsibilities of her home, and in the social life of school, church, and community present very vital interests upon which the home economics course may be developed.
The necessity for understanding the needs of the girls. — While the same type of material is recommended for all seventh and eighth grades, adaptations must be made to suit specific conditions and com- munities. For instance, while the fundamental laws of hygiene and sanitation should be taught to all children regardless of their home conditions, greater emphasis and more time should be spent upon this part of the course in a section of a large city, where over- crowded conditions and insanitary surroundings prevail, than would be necessary in a district where children come from homes where laws of hygiene and sanitation are appreciated and practiced. The same rule holds with other aspects of the home economics work, — adjustments should be made to suit the local needs and demands.
To the end, then, that the course of study may be thoroughly adapted to the class of children which is to be taught, the teacher should, before beginning to plan her course of study, make as thorough a survey as possible of the conditions — sanitary, eco- nomic, social, and spiritual — which prevail in the homes of the pupils. She should also become acquainted with the other work of the grades in order to unify the course of study as closely as possible. Suggestions for this may be found in the chapter on Correlation, Part I.
The following suggestive questions may be found helpful in the making of such a survey : L
What is the average income of the families of these girls ? Are their homes fitted with modern plumbing ? What is the water supply for these homes ?
Have they any connection with a sewage system ? If not, what are the sanitary conditions about the home?
To what extent has the property been kept in repair ?
1 Teaching Elementary School Subjects. By L. W. Rapeer.
106 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
What is the fuel used?
What is the attitude of the family toward :
(a) House furnishings ?
(6) Attractive meal service ?
(c) Taste in dress?
(d) Fresh air?
(e) Flies?
To what extent do the individual families feel a responsibility for the wel- fare of the neighborhood ?
Does the present generation understand and appreciate the work ac- complished by parents and grandparents?
In what way are the foods used by this community influenced by nation- ality and creed?
The time allowance. — The time to be devoted to the course in household arts in the seventh and eighth years will vary with the school system. The length of the laboratory period should be 80 to 120 minutes. If the course can be organized in such a way as to include within its scope, either wholly or in part, the work in hygiene, art, and science, which are usually taught in separate periods, the time for this comprehensive course could be increased to cover the combined time of all these subjects when taught separately. If, however, this organization is impossible, at least two double periods (80-120 minutes each) and one or two single discussion periods (40-60 minutes) should be allotted to the work in Home Economics in grades 7 and 8, in order to make the work worthy of a place in the upper elementary school. This places the work on a par with other subjects in the curriculum and gives credit equal to one half unit each year. The best teacher of Home Economics must have sufficient time to teach properly those subjects which relate so closely to the lives of the girls, for the processes themselves are time-consuming ; and she must also have sufficiently close contact with the girls to know them and to help in guiding them in the development of their ideals in relation to their individual responsi- bilities in home and community.
The scope of the work. — To make the work most effective in these grades, it is not desirable to limit it to a few of the home activities, such as cooking or sewing, but to include as much subject matter and as many processes as are commensurate with the girl's
HOME ECONOMICS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 107
ability to appreciate and perform. The work should be so organ- ized as to include :
(a) Food in relation to its production, selection, cost, care, preparation, and service. (Special emphasis on conservation under present conditions.)
(6) Clothing in relation to its cost and selection from the stand- point of hygiene and personal appearance; its care and repair; garment construction with as much of textile study as the problem in hand warrants.
(c) Shelter in relation to its cost, the choice of its furnishings, and care.
(d) The family — the relation of its members to each other and to the community ; division of income ; budgets; care of individual members.
Bases for organization of courses in Home Economics. — In a recent endeavor to obtain some courses of study in Home Economics that are actually in use, the response most frequently received was that at present no course of study exists nor is one desired. This absence of prearranged lessons was, for the most part, due to war conditions. In an endeavor to work with the various war boards and further their programs in food and clothing conservation, Red Cross and relief work, the plan of lessons was necessarily flexible, since not even those boards themselves knew from one week to the next what would be the most pressing need. But the response was interesting from another point of view as indicating that many teachers no longer feel the course of study as a sacred body of laws from which there can be no deviation, and do feel the needs of the moment to be of sufficient value to permit entire readjustment of plans to fit them. To be sure, there were still found one class sewing on yellow silk pajamas, regardless of shivering Belgian and French orphans, and another giving no consideration to the pressing needs of war economies because " the -children will have enough hard things in their later lives and they should not be burdened with unpleasant realities while in school." It is to be hoped, however, that having once made the break from established custom, teachers will never again return to a slavish following of a hard and fast
108 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
course of study mapped out on the various processes in sewing, or the food principles in cooking, and feel that their whole duty is done when they have taught the subject regardless of whether or not it has met any need in the lives of their pupils.
It is well, nevertheless, to have some scheme in mind, and on paper also, as to the general field to be covered within a given period, leaving the individual lessons to be determined as the need arises, lest the whole become so indefinite as not to have arrived at any goal.
Various methods for the organization of work are in use at the present time. Perhaps the one most widely used, as indicated above, is that of planning work around a core of stitches, seams, and garments of increasing difficulty in the textile field, and around the preparation of dishes typical of the food principles, — protein, carbohydrate, and fat, — in food study. It is obvious that in order to make garments or cook meals at home, these phases must at some time be covered, and the quarrel is not with the subjects themselves but in the manner of presenting them. It is not nec- essary, for instance, to learn to make all the stitches or seams before one can make a garment, nor is it necessary to learn to cook all the typical forms of protein or carbohydrate foods before using them in their natural setting of a meal.
Planning on the basis of a meal or the making of a garment of use to the children has the advantage of placing each lesson in its proper relation to the needs of everyday life as it is met outside of school, and so gives to the work a much greater reality and helps to bridge the gap between the artificial school setting and the home. It has the added advantage of utilizing all the principles at short intervals, providing for their constant re view and repetition. Where there is included with this, discussion of costs and considerations of selection, and buying from the standpoint of hygiene as well as of economy, combined with visits to shops and markets, a much more satisfactory scheme of work results.
During the past few years another form of organization has been steadily growing in favor, that of the project and problem. By this is meant the organization of material around some activity to
HOME ECONOMICS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 109
be accomplished or some definite problem to be solved. Consider- able discussion has arisen as to the use of these terms and the distinction between them. The distinction is not a hard and fast one, for it is obvious that in the carrying through of any activity numerous problems will be met which must be solved before the work can be carried to completion, and it is equally evident that the working out of some related activity may help greatly in clari- fying ideas and in leading to a better solution of problems. Thus if the project undertaken be the making of a garment, problems such as " What kind of material is best suited to this garment ?" " How much shall I need to buy?" " What pattern shall I select for it?" etc., will naturally arise. Likewise if the problem be, " What color shall I select for walls and woodwork in this north room ? " the actual trying out on a small scale of various colors may be necessary or advisable.
But as usually employed the term "project" is used to designate motor activity or emotional appreciation, while the term "problem " is applied to that type of activity which is primarily intellectual.
W. W. Charters, Professor of Education, University of Illinois, in his article on " The Project in Home Economics Teaching " 1 thus defines the term and explains his meaning :
In this paper the project is considered to be an act carried to completion in its natural setting and involving the solution of a relatively complex problem.
Four terms of the definition should receive a few words of explanation.
First, the project is a problem. This differentiates it from reflex and habitual acts such as digestion and respiration, which are normally carried on without the intervention of consciousness, or from knitting or dish- washing when they have become habitual. . . .
Second, the project is a relatively complex problem. Problems have many degrees of complexity. The holding of a paring knife, the placing of a glass on a shelf, or the closing of an oven door, are problems whenever they involve any modicum of thinking. On the other hand, such complicated actions as the preparation of a roast or the canning of fruit are equally problems when they involve any degree of thinking. . . .
Third, the project contemplates the solution of a complex problem as one step toward carrying over of the fruits of the solution into some form of action. For instance, it is possible to introduce the class to the complex
1 The Project in Home Economics Teaching. By W. W. Charters. "Journal of Home Economics" for March, 1918.
110 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
problem of fruit-canning, to view it as a complex of subordinate problems rather than an agglomeration of isolated problems, to teach the steps in the process and the reasons for each, and stop at that point without com- pleting the act of canning. This is the theory of canning without the practice. It constitutes the solution of a complex problem, but is not a project because by the definition of the term performance of the act is necessary. . . .
Fourth, in order that the multi-problem which is carried over into action may become a project it is necessary that the action be completed in its natural setting.
It would seem from this article that Professor Charters uses the terms project and problem synonymously.
Dr. Wm. H. Kilpatrick in his article1 on the project method identifies the project with purpose, — as purposeful activity on the part of the child, — and considers the problem to be one type of project in which the purpose is to untangle an intellectual diffi- culty. He recognizes four types of projects as follows :
Type 1, where the purpose is to embody some idea or plan in external form, as building a boat, writing a letter, presenting a play ; type 2, where the purpose is to enjoy some (esthetic) experience, as listening to a story, hearing a symphony, appreciating a picture ; type 3, where the purpose is to straighten out some intellectual difficulty, to solve some problem, as to find out whether or not dew falls, to ascertain how New York outgrew Philadelphia ; type 4, where the purpose is to obtain some item or degree of skill or knowledge, as learning to write grade 14 on the Thorndike Scale, learning the irregular verbs in French. It is at once evident that these groupings more or less overlap and that one type may be used as means to another as end. It may be of interest to note that with these definitions the project method logically includes the problem method as a special case.
The question may be raised as to how this method differs from that of the organization discussed above, where the garment is made the center around which the work is organized in the clothing work, and the meal in the food study, and the answer is that there is no difference provided the garment and the meal come within the child's purposes and those projects are seen as the controlling factors throughout. The difficulty is that too often the work is the teach- er's choice and the material as presented from day to day shows
1 The Project Method. By Wm. H. Kilpatrick. " Teachers College Record, " September, 1918.
r HOME ECONOMICS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 111
no purpose beyond the immediate lesson, and it is only after a series of lessons of greater or shorter length that their relation to the mak- ing of a garment or to the serving of a meal becomes evident.
The method does not even preclude the planning of work on the basis of stitches and seams, or on the food principles as discussed previously, except that such organization is not likely to come within purposes that children or even high school girls are capable of cherishing. College women engaged in scientific investigation might conceivably undertake the study of starch or protein in food as an end in itself, or the practice of basting, running, and hemming stitches for improvement in technique, but such projects would not appeal to elementary or high school pupils as worth while nor be chosen by them if they were free to make choices for themselves.
This method of planning has both its advantages and its limi- tations. Among the advantages may be cited : First, that it gives a definite goal to be reached, in the light of which activities under- taken or solutions offered may be examined and evaluated. Second, it presents the subject as a whole at the beginning and so gives a reason for the various lessons or steps.
Thus, if the making of a garment is the goal it may be accom- plished in one of two ways : first, as a series of isolated lessons in which the characteristics of fabrics are discussed apart from their use in connection with any one garment, stitches and seams practiced, and finally a garment decided upon in the making of which these various phases will be applied ; or, second, the garment may be decided upon as the project to be undertaken, — the study of fabrics best suited to the garment in hand then becomes a ne- cessity, and the stitches and seams are learned by their direct appli- cation, or at least a motive for their practice is secured. All phases are thus seen in their proper relationships.
A third advantage of the project method is that it makes a much stronger appeal to the interest of the pupils to see the project as a whole and to have a part in deciding upon it and upon the phases that need special study, investigation, and practice.
There are certain limitations to this method, however. It is evident that only such material as is needed for the carrying
112 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
through of the particular activity or the solution of the specific problem is used and care must be taken to see that proper organiza- tion and systematizing of a subject are being secured and that the relationships of the various parts of a study to one another are being grasped. Organization on the part of the pupils is most important if the material is finally to be in usable form as a guide in future situations, and the teacher must provide opportunities for securing and testing it.
Another limitation of this method is the difficulty of securing problems and projects that are vital to the pupils. These should be those of the children's own choosing as far as possible, because of the whole-hearted effort that goes into any undertaking that is peculiarly their own. But where they are unable to decide upon a project for themselves or where an important phase of the subject is being overlooked, it becomes necessary for the teacher to step in, and a high degree of skill is necessary so to present problems or suggest activities that they will appeal to children as worth while and will be taken over by them whole-heartedly as their own.
Home economics studies for the seventh grade. — It has been sug- gested above that the work of the seventh and eighth years should not be confined merely to the subjects of cooking and sewing but should include all the phases of household activities which pupils of that age are able to appreciate and perform.
To give assistance in organizing the work for these two grades it might be well to indicate the center of interest in each, around which the activities may revolve. The girl and her home cannot easily be separated, but during the seventh grade the girl may be the center of thought and her part in the solution of problems con- cerning food, clothing, shelter, and the family may be emphasized. Her problem may be to determine what she should know and do about food, clothing, and shelter in order to do her part as member of her family and of society. Her solutions will be found in increas- ing her knowledge and in developing her ability to do along the various lines of household activity in connection with the following :
(a) Food. — Given definite situations to meet, such as income, health, and conservation requirements, market conditions, etc.,
HOME ECONOMICS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 113
what food shall the girl be able to select, prepare, and serve so that she may be of help in doing the same with intelligence in her own home? This question must be answered in terms corresponding to the question, and will of necessity be worked out differently in different localities.
The various processes of cooking when applied to simple food combinations can easily be accomplished by the girl, and an able teacher will plan to make use of all of them during the year.
Various types of food material representing the several food principles should be utilized, and the effects of dry and moist heat, salt, acids, etc., upon them should be taught as opportunity arises other than through the method of adhering to a stereotyped logical course of study based upon the accumulated knowledge of the scientist. The serving of food in a manner that may be utilized in the home, the care of foods, both before and after cooking, the choice of foods for various occasions should all receive the con- sideration the topics merit and there should be conscious effort on the part of the teacher to include them.
(6) Clothing. — The questions of economy, conservation, hy- giene, and art enter into the solution of clothing problems ; and again the varying conditions of different situations must determine their solutions. The subject matter will revolve around the prac- tical work of the sewing room. The construction of a garment of interest to the girl, such as an attractive apron, a pair of bloomers, a middy blouse, or a Red Cross garment, gives opportunity for textile study in the choice of material, the study of patterns and their economical placing, the study of many sewing processes to be accomplished by hand and by machine, the hygiene of clothing, including the laundering of simple articles, the comparative cost of home-made and ready-made garments, and any other topics of vital interest.
The question of economy and conservation makes the care, repair, and remodeling of garments, and the removal of spots and stains, a necessary consideration. The question of the choice of becoming line and color at once becomes a feature of interest and time should be taken to develop this phase.
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(c) Shelter. — In connection with shelter the girl shares an interest. There are many home activities with which seventh grade girls should be acquainted and which should be utilized as a basis for instruction in school. The care of the girl's own bedroom, the help she can give in the care of other rooms in the home, prob- lems of cleaning in connection with the work in the kitchen, and the preparation of food, are all topics that should be provided for in any course of study and when properly motivated meet with the enthusiastic response typical of the girl at this age.
The following scheme is presented by way of suggestion for the adaptation of the above material based on the problem method. In planning the course the children should cooperate to the fullest extent in deciding on the work of the year and should feel the problems as really theirs.
Suggestions for Lessons in Grade 7 Problems for the Year
Food and clothing are prepared in our homes. What can we learn at school that will make us helpful to our parents at home?
I. Since I wear washable cloth- I. Why does mother take so
ing at school, it takes a great many much care in planning the meals ?
garments. What garments that I (a) Why do I need food ?
need can I learn to make at school ? (6) What foods will give me the
(a) What garments would it be things I need?
possible for me to make? (Simple classification of food.)
(6) Why are cotton garments (c) How must I cook them in
considered best for school wear? order to make them most useful to
(c) How can I trim them so my body? that they will be dainty and yet simple ?
A. Series of lessons on making of A. A series of lessons on the
garments of interest to children, preparation of dishes suitable for
outside garments if possible. luncheon, with special emphasis on
Learning simple embroidery carbohydrate foods. The last les-
stitches or crocheting lace for trim- sons of the series are devoted to the
ming. This problem may be begun planning and serving of a luncheon
HOME ECONOMICS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 115
in class till stitches are learned, then can be finished at home.
Making of garments for Belgian or French orphans, or for the poor family adopted by the class, should be substituted here instead of per- sonal work as long as the need lasts.
Stitches and seams will be taught as the need arises. Machine work will be introduced if not already taught.
1. Suggested Series. Problem. Why are my school clothes made from cotton materials?
Lesson 1. Selection of fabrics.
Lesson 2. Choice of design.
Lesson 3. Interpretation of pat- tern and cutting garments.
Lesson 4. to ... Construction of garment.
at a certain cost, the class making market list and doing marketing.
Suggested Series
1. What shall I bring in my lunch box ?
Lesson 1. Prepare sandwiches; serve with milk.
Lesson 2. Stuffed eggs; served with bread and butter and fruit.
NOTE. — These two lessons give opportunity for food classification and for introduction of needs of body. If they can be arranged so as to come at the luncheon hour it would be better than having the meals served in the middle of the morning or afternoon.
2. If I go home for luncheon what foods should I eat?
Lesson 3. Cookery of vegetables.
Lesson 4- Cream soups.
Lesson 5. Cornstarch pudding.
Lesson 6. Plan luncheon ; make market list; practice simple home service.
Lesson 7. Serve luncheon to mem- bers of class.
B. Breakfast series, emphasis still on carbohydrate cookery.
1. What kind of breakfast do I need before starting to school in the morning ?
Lesson 1. Cook cereal.
Lesson 2. Stewed dried fruit.
Lesson 3. Make cocoa. • Lesson 4- Sauted cereal, or French toast.
Lesson 5. Planning breakfast.
Lesson 6. Serving breakfast.
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Seasonal Problems
Thanksgiving Lesson Prepare something for hospital or poor family in neighborhood.
Christmas Problems
What can we do to make Christmas happy for the family our class has adopted as well as for our own family and friends ?
1. Articles of used clothing or toys may be collected by the chil- dren and mended and cleansed for gifts to the less fortunate neigh- borhood.
In one school, boys in the manual training classes repaired toys need- ing nailing, gluing, painting, etc., while the girls made new clothes for the dolls or laundered and repaired the old ones.
In another school, the name and number of members of a family in destitute circumstances was ob- tained from the Chanty Organ- ization Society and all the classes in clothing and in foods combined to prepare a Christmas box. Clothes were made for the children, money was collected for the mother to buy something for herself, and foods and candies were prepared for the Christmas dinner.
2. Making some simple Christ- mas gift for member of family or friend. Linen material to be used if possible, giving opportunity for study of flax and linen.
II. What can we do to make our sewing-room more attractive? Series of lessons on making home
Lesson 1. Prepare some holiday dish that may be sent to family.
Lesson 2. Make candy. Send some to family, take some home.
2. We like hot breads for break- fast on cold winter mornings. What kinds can I learn to make at school ?
(Series of lessons on flour mix- tures may follow.)
II. What can I learn about the care of my room that will make me better able to help at home?
HOME ECONOMICS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 117
attractive. Redecorating or fresh- ening some room in the school, — sewing-room, principal's office or teacher's room may be used as the concrete problem.
If there is an art department in the school this problem may be carried out in cooperation with it.
III. We must take greater care of our clothing, now that so many little boys and girls have not enough to keep them warm.
(a) How shall we determine whether or not our garments are worth mending?
(6) What different things may be done to clothing to make it last longer ?
Series of lessons on care and re- pair of garments, — removing spots, laundering, patching and mending, etc. A study of wool and woolen fabrics should be included here.
IV. Does clothing have any- thing to do with keeping us well ?
Hygiene of Clothing
These lessons should be devoted to a critical study of underwear, shoes, dresses, and outside clothing and should be abundantly illus- trated with actual garments illus- trating the various points.
Clean principal's office or teacher's room.
NOTE. — This problem may be planned in cooperation with the clothing and textile work and be combined with it.
III. Why is it that nearly all meals have meat for the main dish ?
(a) What does meat do for the body?
(&) Are there any other foods that do the same thing as meat?
(c) How should meat and simi- lar foods be cooked in order to be of most use?
Series of lessons on meat and egg dishes, alone and in combination, emphasizing rules for protein cook- ery.
Lessons on meat substitutes and meat extenders, with study of relative costs.
This series should end in the planning and serving of a more elaborate luncheon to three or four guests.
IV. Our table runners and doilies are soiled from our luncheon. How may we freshen them for the next meal we serve?
Lesson on washing and ironing of table runners and doilies.
118 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
V. What kind of clothing does V. What can I do for the baby the baby need? Can I make a that will help mother? garment for the day nursery? Lesson on bathing the baby,
followed if possible by a visit to a day nursery.
Lesson on preparation of chil- dren's food.
NOTE. — The bathing lesson may be given as a demonstration or a large washable doll may be used on which the children may practice ; or the two methods may be combined.
By the end of this year pupils should have acquired considerable familiarity with tools and utensils and freedom in their use. They should have gained a working knowledge of basic principles both in the making of simple garments and in the preparation of typical foods.
They should have learned the characteristics of the fabrics with which they are working in the clothing classes, and in food study should have learned to select foods with reference to the needs of the body and their combination in a meal. In addition they should have gained an introductory knowledge of phases of the subjects closely allied to the textile and food fields, such as clothing con- servation and hygiene; meal planning, preparation, and service. In addition to this they will have had some experience in caring for the baby, in laundering, and in the care of a home.
In this method of planning no provision is made for learning stitches or seams aside from their application to a garment, though by the end of this year it is probable that most of the common principles will have been taught through the various garments made. Likewise in the food study, matters of routine such as dish- washing and measuring will be taught in connection with their immediate need in a lesson and will be the better learned because the pupils see the use for them.
Home economics studies for the eighth grade. — It is advisable that the home economics studies for the eighth grade be planned in
HOME ECONOMICS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 119
such a way that the girl will have, during the last year of the ele- mentary school, when she is perhaps best prepared to receive it, an introduction to those studies which will give her an appreciation of the significance of a normal, well-regulated home and the benefits it bestows, as well as the possible relationship of this home to the community of homes. This is important, whether the girl con- tinues her education through the four years of the high school or leaves to go to work, or to remain at home at the end of this period.
The problems to be solved by the girls are all very vital and are those which they hear discussed daily in their homes, but the teacher of Home Economics is to help shed new light on methods and ways of solving these home problems which will help the girl to lead a more helpful and healthful life in her family and community.
In order to give the girl an appreciation for normal home life the following topics should be considered and may be stated problem- atically to the girl in introducing her to them. They may be solved in the classroom laboratory or the supplementary school apart- ment or practice house, or some phases of work planned for each :
1. The selection of the home : Where shall we live? Based on the division of income,
sanitation; location in relation to work, school, etc.
2. Decorating the house and How shall we decorate and fur- furnishing it for a certain amount. nish the house in the most tasteful
way, considering expense?
3. The division of the family How shall the family income be income: divided so as to give the greatest
amount of satisfaction?
(a) For food. How much shall we spend for food ?
(6) For clothing. How much shall we spend for
clothing ?
(c) For rent. How much shall we pay for rent ?
(d) For operating expenses. How much shall we spend for
lighting, heating, and other running expenses ?
(e) For savings. How much should my family aim
to save each year ?
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(/) For recreation, etc.
4. Care of the house : (a) Cleanliness.
Housewifery methods. (6) Repairs, refurnishing.
5. The relation of economy to efficiency in the family life :
(a) Saving and spending.
(b) Necessary foods. Values.
Combinations. Serving of.
(c) Home-made vs. ready-made
clothing. Kinds of clothing.
(d) Recreation. Summer vacation. Amusement and use of leis- ure time.
6. Responsibilities of the mem- bers of the family outside the home :
(a) Church associations.
(b) Neighborhood ethics.
(c) Municipal housekeeping. Pure food.
Markets, weights and meas- ures.
Laundry and bakery condi- tions, etc.
(d) Consumers' League. («) Child labor, etc.
What kind of recreation shall we have; where shall we get it?
What should we know in order to keep the house clean and to manage it well?
When shall the house furnishings be replenished ?
How can we spend or save so as to make all the members of the family most efficient ?
Of the time saved, how can it be used to best advantage?
What kind of foods do the various members of the family need ?
What combinations are pleasing in meals ?
How can the meals be prepared so as to have all ready at the same time?
How shall the dinner be served ?
What kind of clothing will the various members of the family need? Shall it be bought ready- made or be made at home ?
What other factors will help to maintain health?
How can I prepare myself to be a helpful factor in the community ? What are my responsibilities?
HOME ECONOMICS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 121
The solving of these problems of the home centers about its activities — the planning of the family income so as to buy a living place of the best possible kind, the best and most nutritious food for the money available, the most suitable forms of recreation for the group, the most advantageous methods of saving, the most satisfactory methods of caring for the home and its individual members.
In choosing the studies and planning the course of daily lessons with its problems, the activities will be emphasized upon certain days, while other periods will be devoted to discussion .of prob- lems. For example : The activities may emphasize the cooking of a well-balanced meal for a family of six at a cost of fifteen cents per capita ; the baking of bread and comparison with the cost of baker's bread ; or again the cleaning of the dining-room and the bathroom, with their related problems of science. It may be the cutting out of a middy blouse to be made at school with the related problems of ready-made and home-made values, or the designing of a suitable school coat or dress. At other times when discussion is in order, the problem may be the division of the family income ; suitable recreation for the family ; ways of saving ; standards for healthful, sane living; selection of suitable textiles for furnishing the bedroom or living-room ; suitable types of furniture to be used ; or actual excursions may be taken as the method of conducting some lessons in order to see and buy the furnishings, if an apart- ment or house is to be equipped.
All these problems or topics should be so arranged in the daily course of study as to offer continuity of thought. There may be a controlling problem for the year stated, as for example : " What are the daily problems of my family — mother, father, three chil- dren, and grandfather? The family lives in Cleveland, Ohio, and has an income of $1500."
This big problem will naturally subdivide itself into the smaller problems which will contribute to the solving of this big controlling idea for the year. The sub-problems may be such as described in the above paragraph — and each of these may often be solved through the execution of a certain project.
122 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY AND REVIEW
1. What arguments would you use with your school superintendent to persuade him to introduce industrial arts into the first six grades ?
2. How would you go about planning a course in industrial arts for your school if you were asked to assist in this work ?
3. Why is the term industrial arts applied to the work of the first six grades and Home Economics to that of the seventh and eighth grades ?
4. In what ways may home economics studies contribute to the aims of elementary education as a whole ?
5. Outline a unit of work for a group of seventh grade girls attending an exclusive private school. For a group of Italian children in the foreign section of a large city. For a group of country children.
6. Will you require all of the pupils in a grade to work on the same type of garment or prepare the same dish ? If so, how much freedom of choice will you allow?
7. Talk over with your eighth grade pupils the field of Home Economics and get their ideas as to what girls of their ages should know about the subject. Let them help plan the work for the year.
8. If you have two eighth grade classes, allow one class to plan its own work and in the other require work of your choosing. Is there any differ- ence in attitude toward the work ? In results obtained ?
REFERENCES FOR COLLATERAL READING
The School and Industrial Life. Russell and Bonser.
School and Society. Dewey.
Schools of To-morrow. Dewey.
Place of the Industries in Elementary Education. Dopp.
Speyer School Curriculum. (For outline of Industrial Arts Course.)
Teaching the Elementary School Subjects. Rapeer.
Home Economics Studies in Grades Seven to Twelve. Teachers College
Record, March to September, 1918.
Teaching by Projects. General Science Quarterly, Vol. 1. The Amy Schussler Apartment. Teachers College Record, January and
March, 1915. The Project Method. Kilpatrick. Teachers College Record, September,
1918. The Project Method in Home Economics Teaching. Charters, Home
Economics Journal, March, 1915.
CHAPTER VII / .
HOME ECONOMICS STUDIES IN THE HIGH SCHOOL
Section I
I. Introduction.
A. Value of a secondary school education.
B. The high school of the future.
II. Home economics studies in the four-year high school.
A. General classification of courses.
B. The home economics studies should have a place in every high
school course for girls.
Section II
I. Home economics studies in the junior high school.
A. Organization of junior high school.
B. The aim of the home economics studies in the junior high
school.
C. Home economics studies for seventh, eighth, and ninth years
for girls who will proceed to senior high school.
D. Home economics studies for the girl who must leave school
to go to work. II. Home economics studies in the senior high school.
A. Home economics studies for liberal education.
B. Home economics studies for vocational training. III. Home economics studies in the small high school.
Section III
I. Home economics studies in evening classes and continuation courses.
A. In evening classes.
B. Continuation classes.
C. All-day vocational schools.
123
124 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
Section I
Introduction. — The value of a secondary school education cannot be estimated. — It has been said that the university trains the leaders of leaders, but the high school trains the leaders of the people. Comparatively few girls and women can have the ad- vantage of the longer period of education. Those who can afford to continue after completing the elementary school course of eight years have often dropped out in a year or two because of lack of interest in the studies which failed to meet their needs. It is unnecessary to argue for the continuance of education through high school but to suggest that the high school of to-day and of to-morrow should meet the needs of the girl — her capacities and interests as well as the needs and requirements of social life as it exists. The courses must be planned in such a way as to meet more fully the physical, social, vocational, and spiritual needs of the pupils. So often in the past the high school course has prepared for college entrance only, rather than for these various needs of the girl, or sometimes it has aimed for the completion of a particular course in high school without reference to the girl's capacities or interests.
The high school of the future will extend its influence. — It will cater to many more groups of people through day and evening courses in short units or series of lessons or in more prolonged courses. The high school of any locality should be the people's university, where each should find something in the secondary field of study which will be of value and help. Such courses may be stepping-stones to greater economic success or prove of in- spiration according to the needs of the individual. To illustrate : a girl engaged in a business office as stenographer may feel her limitations in English. It should be possible for her to go to high school and get, within a relatively short period of time, a course which will assist her to advance in her line of work. Or a dress- maker or girl engaged at machine operating in a factory may wish to return for a short series of lessons in draping of materials or instruction on a new type of power machine or for a course in
HOME ECONOMICS STUDIES IN HIGH SCHOOL 125
personal hygiene, in food preparation and food values, or some other home-making course. Schools of the future will afford this op- portunity. These may not be the needs of another group ; rather it may feel the necessity for instruction along the lines of history, science, and literature, because of the different aims of this group. It is undoubtedly to.be expected that the progressive high school of to-day and to-morrow will be marked by greater flexibility in its organization. It will offer more definite objectives or goals in courses for those wishing to prepare for them, but will not lose sight of the fact that in a democratic scheme of organization studies must be so arranged and coordinated that interchange of courses is possible as the interests, aims, and needs of the pupils emerge.
This chapter will offer some suggestions for the introduction of the home economics studies into the courses of the progressive high school, which is flexible in its schemes of organization and adaptable in its methods of teaching.
Home economics studies in the four-year high school. — General classification of courses. — The courses offered in the high school of to-day may be classified in a rather general way. (1) There are those which may be said to be academic in nature. They pre- pare as a rule for entrance to college or for normal school or in some cases for higher technical institutions. These courses are often designated in the high school catalogues as the classical course, the academic, the Latin scientific, the scientific, the general classical, the general preparatory, the modern English course, according to the requirements of the higher institutions. They aim to prepare the young people for a particular field of interest as they decide to meet the requirements of a chosen college or higher institution. (2) The normal training course in high school may be said to fall in a group by itself. It exists in high schools to-day in many parts of the United States and aims to prepare its graduates to become teachers of all studies in the elementary schools. As a rule these graduates become teachers in the rural schools and often go later to normal schools for more training, after a few years of experience in teaching. (3) There is found offered also in high schools a group of courses which may be said to
126 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
be rather general in their make-up ; that is, in the list of courses prescribed. They are often called the general high school course, the general preparatory course, the home economics course, the household arts course, the homecraft course, or manual arts course. (4) There are those courses which are said to be technical or vo- cational in nature, as for example, the so-called commercial course, the agricultural course, the industrial course, the art course, the practical arts course, the home-making course, the manual arts course, etc. It may be said that the aim of these courses as of- fered in high school is as a rule to prepare for industry, agriculture, commerce, and the home as soon as the high school course is com- pleted ; although by certain adjustments in due season it should be possible for the student to change her course and prepare for entrance to higher technical institutions or other schools for special training.
The place of home economics studies. — The home economics studies should have a place in varying degree, in choice of studies and in differentiation of method, in every course taken by girls in high school. It is the purpose of this section of the book to dis- cuss how the home economics studies may be introduced to meet the needs of the girl who chooses a course in any one of these large general groups as outlined above.
1. Home economics studies for the girl in the four-year high school preparing for college. — The number of girls preparing for college has increased decidedly from year to year for the past ten years. As a rule these girls have had little opportunity to elect any home economics studies, and in but few high school courses are such studies prescribed for the girl preparing for college en- trance in the college preparatory course, the Latin scientific, or other course in this group chosen to meet her special college en- trance requirements. The colleges are becoming more liberal about accepting units of home economics studies for entrance. About 50 per cent of all colleges recognize Home Economics for admission. In the report by C. D. Kingsley 1 of the 79 A.B. colleges accept-
1 College Entrance Requirements, U. S. Bureau of Education, Bulletin No. 7, 1913.
HOME ECONOMICS STUDIES IN HIGH SCHOOL 127
ing Home Economics for admission, 31 recognize not more than 1 unit of the 15 units for entrance, 18 accept 1^ or 2 units for en- trance, 9 accept 3, and 21 accept 3^, 4, or more units. Only 65 of the 203 A.B. colleges do not recognize some one or more specified vocational subjects for entrance, and certain of these 65 colleges will consider such subjects. The lack of recognition of these studies has been due very often to the fact that high school teachers in this field have failed to make the content of the studies measure up to standards which are in a degree comparable to those in other fields of study. On the other hand, teachers of Home Economics must be on their guard, in outlining courses to be offered for college entrance units of credit, that they think not only of the standards but of the needs of the girl to know those things which will enable her to live more healthfully, economically, and wisely while she is pursuing her college course. This has been called the " maldevelop- ment " of work in home-making or home economics studies " into academic pseudo-scientific instruction in order to curry favor for college entrance recognition."
What should be the aim then in organizing the home economics studies for girls choosing courses in this first large group, which have usually, as their ultimate goal, entrance to higher institutions ? They should offer primarily to this girl the subject matter which will help her in her daily home living both during the high school course and while she is a student at college. This help should be given along the line of her needs in the study of healthful food, clothing, living conditions, and the sciences and arts related to these studies.
How much time should be given to these studies? As a rule they have been elective, but occasionally in some high schools one finds a limited amount of time required. Even though elective, the girl preparing for college entrance Under present conditions can devote but a small part of her time to work in this field. The choice of studies, their arrangement and content, must therefore vary from those offered to girls who can take some home economics studies in each of the four years. The following quotation and definition of a unit of work for college entrance from the above re-
128 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
port shows that two hours of home economics studies in laboratory are counted equal to one of studies in classroom. Some phases, however, of the home economics studies may be called classroom studies.
AMOUNT OF WORK REQUIRED FOR COLLEGE ADMISSION Definition of the Unit
The discussion of the amount of work required for admission to college is greatly simplified by the adoption of a "unit" in terms of which all high school work may be measured. Within the last few years nearly all colleges have come to express their requirements in units. There still remains some variation in definitions of the unit, but the following definition is given in the fourth annual report of the Carnegie Foundation as the result of a conference between the officers of the Foundation and representatives of the National Conference Committee on Standards of Colleges and Secondary Schools :
"A unit represents a year's study in any subject in a secondary school, constituting approximately a quarter of a full year's work."
This statement is designed to afford a standard of measurement for the work done in secondary schools. It takes the four-year high school course as a basis and assumes that the length of the school year is from 36 to 40 weeks, that a period is from 40 to 60 minutes in length, and that the study is pursued for four or five periods a week; but, under ordinary circum- stances, a satisfactory year's work in any subject cannot be accomplished in less than one hundred and twenty 60-minute hours or their equivalent. Schools organized on a different basis can nevertheless estimate their work in terms of this unit.
Two hours of manual training or laboratory work are generally assumed to be equivalent to one hour of classroom work.
The following suggestions are offered for a course which must be offered in two half units. These courses may be taken in alter- nate years, but it is perhaps advisable to offer them in the first and second years on account of the pressure of work during the later years due to college examinations, and because, too, it often happens that girls leave high school at the end of the first or second year, and all girls need these studies. The essential aim is that the girl going to college should understand how to live healthfully, and should have instruction along all of these lines contributing to better living. For convenience the course is outlined in four parts, one part for each half year of the two years of work.
HOME ECONOMICS STUDIES IN HIGH SCHOOL 129
Home Economics I. (A year's course, 4 hours per week, \ unit), 1 hour discussion, 2 laboratory periods of \\ hours each. First half year. 20 weeks. 4 hours per week.
General Topic. Clothing studies in relation to healthful and economic
living. Second half year. 20 weeks. 4 hours per week.
General Topic. Food studies in relation to healthful and economic
living.
Home Economics II. (A year's course, 4 hours per week, \ unit), 1 hour discussion, 2 laboratory periods of \\ hours each. First half year. 20 weeks. 4 hours per week.
General Topic. "Applied economics studies," earning, spending, and
saving, or earning and spending wisely. Second half year. 20 weeks. 4 hours per week.
General Topic. " Learning to live," or " The home and its care." Studies dealing with making the living place a healthful, attractive home wherever it may be.
These two years or one unit of work might be abbreviated and offered in one year as a general survey course. The home eco- nomics studies, when offered so as to give the girls a sense of the scope of this field of work, often lead to interest in specialized and advanced work along one or all of these home economics lines of study. It is important that girls going to college should have a knowledge of all the fundamental subjects as suggested in the above four half years of work. The high schools of the past have more often offered the girls going to college a year of cooking or a year of sewing, omitting the vital instruction concerning the selection of clothing and the selection of food and the important problems of sanitation, the budget, the wise spending of money and other topics of great value to the girl in her high school and college living.
The following paragraphs discuss more fully each of the four half years of home economics studies as outlined briefly above, and may be suggestive to those planning combinations of studies for girls, in preparation for more healthful living.
130 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
Home Economics I. (First Year) First Half Year. Selection of Clothing
The emphasis should be placed during this half year on the wise choice of materials and clothing, whether home-made or ready- made. This should include a study of textiles, their prices, kinds and adaptation to use, also inexpensive substitutes, adulteration of materials and information in relation to conservation and care of materials in the home and laundering of textiles. Darning, patching, and care of dress accessories are very important. Some lessons should be devoted to the study of the hygiene of clothing ; its daily use, care, and storage, as a phase of conservation of health and materials. A study of materials, color, line, style in costume as illustrative of a high school or college girl's clothing, in adapta- tion to her uses. Placing the emphasis on the selection of clothing as indicated above does not mean the omission of the making of garments. Some construction of clothing should be offered, based on the previous training of the girl. It is not to be expected that she will become very expert in the making of garments, but that the preparation of even a single garment will give her some knowl- edge of the use of patterns, the sewing machine and the funda- mental principles in the making of garments. All of this will form a basis for judgment in the selection of garments, and this construction of clothing should be taught with this thought in mind.
This series of lessons of eighty hours or twenty weeks of four hours per week might be arranged in four groups or units within the series, of twenty hours of instruction in each. Units I and II in this series might be devoted to the making of a simple shirt- waist dress, by machine, with the topics outlined in the above paragraph controlling the construction. Unit III might treat of costume design and textiles as suggested more fully above; Unit IV, of the care of clothing, also hygiene and conservation suggestions with laundering of textiles and simple renovation of clothing.
Such a series for twenty weeks would be of more value to a
HOME ECONOMICS STUDIES IN HIGH SCHOOL 131
girl proceeding to college, or even to one who left school at the end of these twenty weeks, than the often customary half year or full year devoted to construction of undergarments, fine lingerie, and embroidery.
Home Economics I. (First Year) Second Half Year. Selection of Food
The emphasis should be placed during this half year on the wise choice of food and instruction in food values, through the prepara- tion of meals. The high school and college girl must often take some of her meals, at least, away from home and she should learn how to select wisely, within her means, that food which will furnish the nutritive values for healthful daily living. A course of lessons outlined so as to treat of the preparation of foods in the order of building a fire, washing dishes, cooking meat, fish, making batters, doughs, salads, desserts, will never accomplish this kind of instruction. This type of course is fast disappearing, but still remains in the less progressive schools which are not keeping in touch with modern educational theory and its adaptation to the field of home economics studies.
The studies during this half year should be so arranged that the girl will be given a knowledge of food values in relation to health. She should understand what quantity and kind of foods are necessary for a growing girl and should be taught how to select a balanced ration for a certain period of time. The care of foods in relation to health, the ice-box and its care, the proper handling of foods at home and in the market are important in their bearing on the large topic of selection of food. This does not mean that lessons in food preparation are to be omitted. Preparation of foods in relation to the meal as a whole should be offered, because it will give the girl a fuller appreciation of how to select and com- bine her foods. If she has made white sauce and realizes how essential it is that the starch should be cooked, she will be a better judge of such foods as she selects and will discover perhaps the taste of the starch in the foods chosen. She will be able to judge be-
132 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
tween foods poorly prepared and those which are suitable to eat, and will avoid the places where the preparation of foods is not conducive to health. This half year of study should emphasize also the conservation of food supplies and the wise use of sub- stitutes in relation to the health of all members of the family. Simple dietetics should be studied in relation to selection.
This series of lessons of eighty hours or twenty weeks of four hours per week might be arranged in four groups or units within the series, with twenty hours of instruction in each. Units I and II in this series might be devoted to the preparation and serving of simple dishes for luncheons, breakfasts, and dinners with the emphasis as suggested above. Unit III might treat of conserva- tion and the use of food substitutes through their preparation in addition to such subject matter as presented in Units I and II, with emphasis on the purchasing of food materials and the study of food industries. Unit IV might treat of the preparation of foods in relation to their care in the home, suggestions for prevention of waste and additional consideration of food values.
Home Economics II. (Second Year) First Half Year. "Applied Economics Studies "
Earning money, spending it wisely, and learning to save are topics in which all high school and college girls should be in- terested. Many girls would pilot their ships through different channels if their attention were called to the many lines of oppor- tunity for work and service which are open to girls and women. The high school girl is eager to learn about the necessary quali- fications for these various opportunities. She wishes to know about the training for them and where and how to obtain it and the future outlook in the various fields. Somewhere in the high school course, time should be given to just such subject matter because it is so vital to the girl.
She needs also to learn about her own budget. She may or may not have her own allowance, but at least she can estimate how much she is costing her parents for clothing, etc., and the discussion of
HOME ECONOMICS STUDIES IN HIGH SCHOOL 133
the personal budget leads naturally to the discussion of the family income and its division, which is so important. The high school and the college girl need to understand in these days especially the necessity for thrift.
She should also understand the customs, laws, and rules of sav- ings banks and insurance companies, and the opportunities offered for saving. She should know how to keep accounts, and she should understand the use of bank checks and the principles of simple banking.
This instruction may or may not be offered in some other courses or departments of the high school. The essential thing is to see that the high school girl going to college gets this information, and from the point of view, if possible, of the home and its require- ments.
This series of lessons of eighty hours might also be arranged in groups or units of four series of twenty hours of instruction in each. Unit I might be devoted to the study of various oppor- tunities for wage-earning open to girls and women. These lessons might be given by the vocational adviser in high school or by the teacher of Home Economics if she will prepare herself. Bulletins and information may be obtained from the Intercollegiate Bureaus of Occupation, from the Federal Vocational Bureaus of the De- partment of Labor, located in about fifteen cities of the United States, from the Department of Research, Woman's Educational and Industrial Union, Boston. These sources will suggest litera- ture and other places to obtain information. (See also bibliog- raphy, this book, page 420.)
The girl in high school wishes information about the following points in relation to each vocation, and the talks might well be organized around these as a basis for discussion. Such talks, followed by conference hours, when the girls may consult the special vocational adviser or the teacher of Home Economics if this task fall to her, will be found of inestimable value to the high school girl seeking light along these lines, and will help her to plan her high school studies in a more intelligent way and tend to keep her in school for a longer period of time.
134 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
I. Conditions of Employment.
1. The occupation and various fields of opportunity connected
with it. Define. Its scope.
2. Wages.
3. Hours of work.
4. Vacations.
II. Possible Opportunities in the Vocation.
1. Opportunities from the standpoint of
A. Numbers.
B. Advancement.
C. Service.
2. Relation of the particular vocation to related fields, if any.
III. Training for the Occupation.
1. Where obtainable; conditions; length of training.
2. Cost.
3. Previous training ; experience if any is needed.
IV. Opportunities for Work in Particular Fields because of After-
War Conditions. V. Bibliography or Literature on the Subject.
The second series or unit of twenty hours might be given to the discussion of the girl's own budget. She may or may not have an allowance. Estimates can be made of the division if she has, or of the cost to her parents for certain items. The budget of an unknown girl with an allowance of $5 or $10 per week might be studied. The division for charity or church, for self, for others, for savings, might form the topics for discussion. This study would include also the clothing budget. It would lead to many interesting discussions of ideals, standards, appropriateness, con- servation, healthful living, simple pleasures, and the use of leisure time.
This unit or series would lead up to the next one, Unit III, the family income. A discussion of the allowance for rent, food, clothing, operating expenses, and other expenses will be of value to the girl in enabling her to see her needs in relation to the needs of the family group, and the relative importance of her demands to those of the group. The right division of income makes for happiness of the family group and the wrong division for misery.
HOME ECONOMICS STUDIES IN HIGH SCHOOL 135
Mr. Micawber in David Copperfield expresses in a proverbial way the agony of the difference between income and outgo, when the income does not equal the expenditures. Thrift is a necessary lesson to be emphasized, especially during these days of readjust- ment.
The fourth unit of twenty hours of this series might be devoted to practical banking instruction, drawing checks, balancing check- book; savings; insurance; simple methods of accounts, etc. Every girl needs this knowledge for use either while away at school or at home.
Home Economics II. (Second Year) Second Half Year. The Home, Its Care and Management
This group of studies is especially interesting to the high school or college girl. At this period of her life she is interested in her own room and how to make it pretty. This may well be the avenue of approach to any study of home decoration and of furnish- ing. The care and sanitation of her own room or the home, and problems of personal hygiene, are of great interest at this time. The questions of daily living and personal care are closely akin. Recreation, use of leisure hours, hospitality, and kinds of amuse- ment within and without the home are all vitally important to her, and need to be discussed in order that the girl may plan her days most healthfully.
The studies arranged for this half year may be divided into four groups of twenty hours each. Unit I might be planned so as to take up the principles of house decoration and furnishing, either in relation to the girl's own room at college or at home, or in the discussion of the furnishings of a small house or apartment, where a limited sum is allowed for furnishings. In this connection, if a real house or apartment can be used the work will be much more vital and interesting. If this is not possible, a corner of a large room might be utilized and furnishings borrowed from a local de- partment store. If no other way is possible, scrap-book houses and rooms can be planned for discussion, with clippings from maga-
136 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
zines used to illustrate them. Unit II might be devoted to the sanitation problems, cleaning the various rooms, laundering of household furnishings, repairs, cleaning of metals, glass, etc., system of work in the home.
The third unit might well be devoted to discussion of problems of personal hygiene, the care of the feet, body, hair, teeth, nails ; proper bathing, proper clothing, proper food, air, and sunshine, proper exercise and water, in relation to daily health. Questions of control, the emotions, anger, fear, hate, jealousy, and their effect on the health of the individual might also be discussed.
The fourth unit might take up for discussion plans for daily healthful living. Recreation, hospitality in the home, entertain- ing in a simple way, amusements in the home, reading, music, knitting, and sewing should be considered ; amusements outside the home, concerts, movies, theaters, pleasures which cost little, simple picnics, river parties, etc., might be discussed with profit. Daily exercise should be suggested, such as tennis, hiking, and other simple pleasures. The relation of the individual to the community, the giving of service, the opportunities in relation to organized societies, groups, churches, settlements, home service work through the Red Cross, should be discussed. There are many opportunities to show the girl her social responsibility outside the home.
2. Home economics studies for the girl in the four-year high school preparing for teaching. — In many states the normal schools are unable to furnish sufficient teachers to meet the demands of the one room rural schools of the state. In Texas, for instance, 6000 teachers are employed in rural districts and in Iowa 12,500 annually. There are about 200 public normal schools in the United States doing teacher-training work, but they are entirely inadequate to the needs. Only seventy-two of these have rural departments. However, 22 states provide for the training of teachers in high school. If the 22,000 graduates of these high schools had had home eco- nomics training, their influence would have been valuable in developing home economics in rural schools. The high school graduate either with or without professional instruction often finds her way into the rural school. In the state of Illinois alone 4000
HOME ECONOMICS STUDIES IN HIGH SCHOOL 137
schools are taught by young people who have had no professional training whatever. Two thirds of this group are not even high school graduates. As a rule they must teach all studies, and in some states the present laws require that they must teach some home economics studies, in addition to all of the other studies. The problem then of training this young teacher is a very serious one. The pity is that it is necessary to furnish teachers for our rural schools who have had so little general education. Nevertheless the training in the high school of the rural school-teacher has latent possibilities. In Minnesota to-day 121 high schools are training their seniors or high school graduates for this rural work. As the problem must be met, let us study it in relation to the quantity and kind of home economics studies which should be offered to this high school girl, who will so soon in turn teach them to girls and often to boys in the rural schools.
In the first place, the work should be so planned and arranged during these four years that it is of help to the girl herself ; and in the second place, it must be so organized and presented to her in some course or courses that she will get suggestions and help in relation to the type of subject matter to be presented to rural children and certain methods of presenting it.
In view of the fact that many teachers in rural and small town communities enter the teaching field immediately after graduation from high school, and that there is a growing demand for Home Economics as part of the regular grade work, it is necessary to pro- vide for such students a normal training course during the upper years of the high school.
During the first and second years of the high school course, it is possible in many high schools for the girl taking the general course leading to normal training in the third and fourth years to elect, either as work in science or in Home Economics, some of the studies relating to the home. It is often possible for her to elect from two to four units of work along these lines during the first and second years of her course in high school. This work should be so or- ganized as to be of particular interest and value to her in daily living. The subject matter offered during these two years might
138 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
be outlined as suggested on page 129 and give her a general sur- vey and a feeling for the significance of these home studies as a whole. This survey course would be equivalent to but one unit of credit, and might be offered in the first year with particular adaptations made for this girl and her problem. Other units of work might follow during the first or second year, as, for example, a more detailed course in food preparation and food values and a more detailed course in clothing and textiles, either as half or full units of credit.
In many high schools where normal training is given, from three to five units are required for what is called normal training or peda- gogy in addition to other high school studies. This usually includes the following studies, with approximately this division of time.
Junior or Third Year High School 1st Term 2d Term
Psychology, f unit. Principles of Teaching, \ unit.
Review of Elementary School Observation in Model School, \ unit.
Studies, | unit. Total, Junior Year, 2 units of Normal Training.
Senior or Fourth Year High School
1st Term 2d Term
Psychology and Principles of Teach- History of Education and School
ing, | unit. Management, ^ unit.
Practice Teaching, 45 minutes Practice Teaching for 20-25 weeks
daily, | unit. with criticism, f unit.
Total, Senior Year, 2 units of Normal Training.
The arrangement of these normal studies varies in different high schools, but this is approximately the amount of time devoted to them where the work is offered during two years (3d and 4th).
The relation of the normal training work in Home Economics to the normal training for teaching the general elementary studies in the rural school must be arranged. The psychology and prin- ciples of teaching with observation of teaching in the third year or junior year would lead up to a course in the fourth or senior year
HOME ECONOMICS STUDIES IN HIGH SCHOOL 139
in methods of teaching Home Economics. This must necessarily be brief. It would seem wise to offer this work in methods of teaching Home Economics in relation to a practical course in subject matter in home economics studies in this final or fourth high school year, and to have it accompanied by at least one lesson a week in practice teaching in some of the phases of Home Economics during a full semester, probably the second half year, as a part of the practice teaching work in general elementary studies. One day a week for about twenty weeks with criticism would be very helpful. The practice teaching in this year should have been preceded by observation in the third high school year of lessons in this field of work. A demonstration school and a " teacherage " if avail- able will serve as equipment of inestimable value in this practice teaching, in rural community work in Home Economics. (For suggestions in relation to lesson plans, use of illustrative material, and classroom management, see page 269, Part III.)
This particular combination of subject matter and methods course during the first semester should be planned to give subject matter and methods of teaching each subject along the following lines for sixth, seventh, and eighth grade classes :
1. Food. — The planning and preparing of meals. This should be actual preparation of the school lunch and dishes suitable for other meals, under conditions of limited equipment and cost. Plans for getting supplies and cooperation with the homes should be discussed. Demonstrations of presentation of such lesson by the teacher in charge, with discussion of method, lesson plans, questioning, etc. Use of illustrative materials, plans for getting equipment, its wise use and care should also be discussed.
2. Personal hygiene and appearance, social customs in our homes. — This work might be given in relation to the preparation and serving of the school lunch, table customs in passing food and in table conduct ; eating properly, observance of common courtesy customs at table ; simple lessons in personal hygiene, as care of teeth, mouth, hair, body, nails ; personal appearance, lessons in relation to cleanliness and neatness of clothing, correct carriage, position in walking, breathing properly, etc. Such lessons are often
140 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
very much needed by children, and should be given with illustra- tions and practical demonstrations of the right ways of doing things, followed by practice in actual doing.
A few lessons on the care of the baby and children in the home will prove necessary and helpful.
3. Sanitation of the schoolroom, the school-yard, the various rooms of the home, the outbuildings of the farm. — This series of lessons might start with actual cleaning of the schoolroom, making it attractive with plants and curtains and clean windows and floors. The care of the school-yards and outbuildings and care of the various rooms of the home with credit for home work. This would follow discussions and cleaning of schoolroom. Also sanitation of the farm, location of buildings, care, disposal of waste, care of toilets, cellars, barns. Milk, its care and protection, and labor-saving devices in the farm home.
4. Study of clothing, with emphasis on the care and repair of clothing in addition to the making of simple articles and garments. — Actual articles should be made by the class, adapted to children in rural schools, in grades 6, 7, 8. Simple articles should be made, such as dish-towels, bags, holders, aprons, and simple garments for children, illustrating stitches, principles, and processes in both hand and machine sewing. Lessons in care and repair of clothing are most important, and the utilization of all kinds of scraps both old and new. Discussions should accompany the work which will give these normal students ideas in relation to equipment, how to supply it, and cost. Demonstrations should be given which will show how to present these stitches and processes, the use of illus- trative material and discussion of lesson plans.
During the period that garments for refugees are needed in Europe, these may well be substituted for personal garment con- struction problems. The subject matter in laundering, patching, care, and conservation of clothing materials may well form a part of all such courses of study. It is possible to teach all the necessary stitches, principles, and processes on these as on personal articles ; and the children are always intensely interested in this work or in working for others, either at home or abroad.
HOME ECONOMICS STUDIES IN HIGH SCHOOL 141
This methods course should also help the students to plan a course of study in these home economics studies for sixth, seventh, and eighth grades which will be based on other industrial studies of the preceding years, and should teach them how to arrange a course which will introduce studies of value to the children along these various lines suggested, so that some unity of thought and purpose in this study may be maintained (see suggestions for courses for elementary schools, page 91).
To sum up, then :
The normal training course in Home Economics should be taught in such a way as :
(a) To indicate the scope of the subject matter without loss of thoroughness in the teaching of fundamental principles.
(6) To enable the student to select from the types of material presented the theory and practice best adapted to the needs of the children to be taught.
(c) To show the importance of unifying rather than differentiat- ing the various phases of Home Economics.
(d) To emphasize the opportunities for correlation with other subjects in the curriculum and with the interests of the homes and the communities.
(e) To show the students the value of live problems as the basis for organizing the course.
3. Home economics studies for the girl choosing the general course in high school.
Many girls proceed from elementary to high school with a very vague idea of the meaning of a high school course or the desira- bility of one. They often think they may or may not proceed to college. With this uncertainty of purpose parents and advisers are apt to suggest the rather general type of high school course for these girls. It is a " trying out " time, for this girl and her in- terests and "dominant purposes " may emerge rather slowly. The high school courses should be flexible enough in their arrange- ment to permit her to change her objective when necessary.
Such general courses as outlined by many high schools of the United States are given various titles, such as the general course,
142 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
the home economics course, the manual arts course, etc. This general type of course does not as a rule aim to prepare for college entrance, but provides a rather general education. It is suggested for many girls who cannot afford higher education and who leave school at the end of this period, many to remain at home, either their own or their parents', and others to pursue industrial or commercial occupations of various kinds. Occasionally the general course in high school leads to normal school training. As a rule English, history, and a modern language are required in such a course with some of the sciences. The electives suggested are usually in the field of mathematics, art, and the practical arts. This makes possible rather an extensive program in the home economics studies, which a girl so interested might pursue during the four years of her high school course. In other so-called general courses offered in high school, the home economics studies are re- quired at least during three years.
From 6 to 15 periods a week in home economics studies, including drawing, are offered, and in addition the related sciences, general science, physics, chemistry, biology, physiology with hygiene, and mathematics and economics are possible during the four years. In the addenda will be seen a typical program of this type.
The problems confronting those interested in the organization of the home economics courses for the girl choosing this rather general type of course are very simple compared with the or- ganization of such studies for the girl who has a more limited amount of time in which to pursue this work. This education in Home Economics should enable the girl to share the home re- sponsibilities intelligently and to take her place in community life as a promoter of its welfare. What studies does this girl need to enable her to render this service to home and community is the problem confronting the organizer of such a program for girls. The responsibility of choosing these studies rests with the organizer, as the worth and value of all of the home economics studies are weighed in relation to this girl's needs.
Suggestive sequence of home economics studies for the four years of this general type of high school course :
HOME ECONOMICS STUDIES IN HIGH SCHOOL 143
Time. 6 to 10 periods per week.
First year. — This is the year when the girl entering high school is beginning to become adjusted to what might almost be called a university system of work. She feels lost, as it were, and must find her place and relationships. One of the most helpful things that can be done at this time is to present to her suggestions for possible avenues of study. She is beginning to formulate plans for the future, and begins to think about choice of studies, courses, and particular objectives for life work and service. Such a series of lessons might be outlined as part of one of the home economics courses in the first year, or presented at the regular assembly hour to the whole school. It might be given to the girls of the first year only by the vocational adviser of the school or the home economics teacher, if she is prepared to offer such assistance be- cause of her interest in vocational opportunities through home economics work. This guidance will be of inestimable value to the girl and save time and energy as she plans her high school course. Suggestions have been given on page 133, which may be of value in outlining this unit or series of lessons, whether it be offered as a part of the home economics work or in some other way. It should suggest not only the possible avenues and fields of opportunity open to the high school girl trained in Home Economics, but various possibilities of an industrial, agricultural, commercial, and home- making kind for which the high school may prepare. It might also suggest the particular introductory courses in high school which will prepare for further training after the high school period, in technical fields such as nursing, or business, normal training, etc.
Some of the studies of the first half year may be devoted to garment construction and textile study. Garments for children, for day nursery use, asylums, homes for the aged, may offer oppor- tunities for practice in stitches, processes, use of sewing machine, patterns, etc., depending on the previous training and experience of the girls in sewing and textile study in the elementary school. Even though no previous work may have been taken in the elementary school, this will afford opportunity for instruction,
144 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
either new or supplementary, in this aspect of the home economics work.
During the second half of this first year a general survey course in Home Economics may be offered to advantage. This might be arranged so as to cover some of the topics discussed on pages 130 and 132, Home Economics I and II. This survey should give the girl an idea of this field of study as a whole which she will take up more in detail in succeeding years. Should she be unable to continue her high school course she will at least have had the ele- ments in this field of work and perhaps an incentive for further study. If she has had little home economics work in the elementary school, this will serve as a review and an introduction to what is to follow. This survey course, with the vocational guidance work offered during the first half year, should start her on her high school career in a more intelligent way than most high school girls begin.
Second year. — During the second high school year all of the first half may be profitably devoted to work in food preparation. This should be based on the introductory manipulative work of the grades, and the general science course of the first high school year. The high school work in foods, however, should be closely correlated with the sciences being taught, and the home economics teacher should be so familiar with the studies offered in the related courses in science that she will "tie up " the particular information given in her classes with that offered in the science laboratories, as the science teachers should with the subject matter being offered in the home economics laboratory.
The meal should form the basis for work during this half year, and the food preparation, while similar to that offered in the ele- mentary school or in the survey course, should be more closely tied up with the sciences. The number of foods prepared may be more extensive and include many new dishes for breakfast, luncheon, and dinner. Suggestions for serving should also form a part of this half year's work, and should bear a relationship to the art course in choice of dishes, simplicity of table decorations, color schemes, etc. Marketing, care of food, conservation of
HOME ECONOMICS STUDIES IN HIGH SCHOOL 145
foods with use of substitutes in food preparation, and nutritive values should all be introduced from lesson to lesson in a natural way, as there is need and motive for so doing.
During the second half of the second year more detailed work in clothing may be offered. This should be closely related to the design courses and should have as its aim to teach the girl how to dress attractively and suitably for all occasions, keeping in mind the conservation and economical use of clothing materials. This course should include construction of personal garments, such as kimonos, middy waists, shirt waists, simple one-piece cotton dresses, wool skirts, etc. Whenever possible the use of made-over materials should be encouraged. Darning of1 stockings, patch- ing and mending of clothing and household linens, such as gloves, underwear, table linen, etc., may be provided for by having a mend- ing day or a mending hour once or twice a month, when such problems may be discussed and the necessary instruction given. Running parallel with the laboratory classes in construction of garments may be offered a course of at least one period a week in discussion and study of textiles, their kind, use, cost, and con- servation.
Whenever possible the home economics teacher should cooperate with the art teacher, and the sequence of problems should be dis- cussed so that foresight may be exercised and the designs and patterns for the garment problems discussed in the art classes.
Third year. — During the third year it is possible to offer to advantage a course on the home, its selection, furnishing, care, and management. The home economics work of this year may be devoted to this study, with a discussion period running parallel to the laboratory classes throughout the year. The girls are pre- pared by this time to take an interest in the conduct and manage- ment of an apartment or practice house. If possible such equip- ment should be utilized in the working out of the details of such a course. The following lines of thought may be introduced in such a course, the discussion work being planned for during the single period, and the laboratory practice running parallel to it during the double periods.
146
TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
OUTLINE OF SUGGESTIONS FOR COURSE ON THE HOME
Discussion Period 1. Ideals in selection.
Standards of living, a. Location.
Relation to work. Relation to schools, play
for children. 6. Selection in relation to
one's income.
Light, heating, exposure, air, sunshine, decoration. Needs of family group.
2. Decoration and furnishing of
the home. Finishing of floors, woodwork,
ceiling. Wall colorings.
Kind, sanitation according
to use and exposure. Furnishing of various rooms.
Bedroom.
Bath.
Living-room.
Dining-room.
Kitchen.
Hall.
3. Care of house, b. Outside. a. Inside. Porch.
Walls. Grounds.
Floors. Cesspools.
Furnishings. Barns, etc.
Furniture.
Beds.
Rugs.
Brass.
Silver.
Glass.
Kitchen.
Cellar and other rooms.
Laboratory Practice
Excursion to see certain possible apartments or houses as discussed.
Visits to homes, where certain principles are illustrated.
Cooperation of art teacher in working out color schemes in laboratory, for walls, ceilings, tex- tiles, etc.
Selection of furnishings with thought of certain amount of money for use in furnishing each room. If actual excursions cannot be taken for selection of articles visits can be made to furniture or department stores, or articles ordered from catalogues. Notebooks with clip- pings of magazine furniture may be made if no other way is possible.
Housekeeping problems in care of metals, glass, varnish, woodwork, rugs, etc., worked out in laboratory. Cleaning of certain rooms, making of beds, daily care, methods of pro- cedure, etc. Care of cellar and all of rooms of house.
HOME ECONOMICS STUDIES IN HIGH SCHOOL 147
4. Management of home. System of work.
Daily order. Division of income.
Family budget. Service in home.
Paid.
Cooperation of members of
family.
Upkeep and repairs. Laundering of personal and
household linen,
5. Hospitality and entertain-
ment in the home.
Meaning of hospitality.
Simple entertainments.
Music, reading in the home.
Simple excursions, picnics. Discussion of the relationship and duties of the members of the family to community and civic interests, as church, clubs, social service, Red Cross and charitable activities. Suggestions for possible ways of service.
6. Care of the baby, sick and
old people in the home. Care of the sick. Some ways in which girls can
be of help in home nursing. Personal hygiene.
Making family budgets, also plans for division of labor in making out various schemes for work in the home.
Laundering of household and personal linen.
Use of labor-saving devices.
Repairing of household furnish- ings, varnishing, etc.
Serving simple meals or after- noon teas for Red Cross or school festivities.
Use of library for suggested leading.
Demonstrations in care and bath- ing of the baby.
Preparation of food for baby.
Preparation of simple dishes for invalids or old people.
First aid, care of bed, bedroom of sick, etc.
Demonstration and practice.
This course could be worked out in two parts of three units each half year. The first half might be devoted to the study of the selection, furnishing, and sanitation of the home, and the second half to the management of the house and care of the members of the family. The girls should be made to feel that they can
148 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
contribute at once to the welfare and happiness of the family group, and that it is not necessary to wait until they have homes of their own to utilize the knowledge learned in this course. If a system of credit for home work along the various lines of house- wifery and management can be arranged it will be found an ad- vantageous way of checking up the knowledge gained in the school laboratory. In the home-life high schools of the South, and in communities where the pupils come from a distance and board near the schools, it is possible to work out a series of practice houses which will afford opportunities for all of the home-work outlined to be put into daily practice. Care must be taken, however, that the teacher in charge of the home economics studies at the school does not have the double duty of teacher by day and matron and manager of the practice houses at night. It is impossible for one woman to do both well. Care must also be exercised in planning the work of the students, as it is impossible for a girl to attend to all of her school studies and at the same time to the home duties for a group. If a system of work is planned, it will be possible during one term of the third or fourth year for each girl to carry a somewhat lighter program at school in order to have time for the household work. School credit should be given for this work.
Fourth Year. — By the time the girl reaches her fourth year in this general course, she is prepared through the sciences and the home economics studies for a more detailed course in dietetics as related to the home. If this can be offered in relation to a real problem in living in a practice house, so much the better. The girls can then plan the meals and do the marketing, and work out the quality and quantities of foods necessary. This course should include the feeding of children through the various stages of growth, planning of dietaries based on the 100-calorie portions, with cal- culation of the caloric value of foods and food combination. Type dishes can be prepared suitable for diet in certain common diseases.
During the last half of the fourth year a course in " Home Problems " can be worked out which will offer the girls further practice in the studies which have been taken during the first three years. This half year may be divided into three units. In planning
HOME ECONOMICS STUDIES IN HIGH SCHOOL 149
the studies for this general course in high school, at least seven hours per week should be devoted to the home economics studies. Ten hours per week has been kept in mind in making the following suggestions :
Unit I. Millinery for Home Use Five weeks of ten hours per week. Making of simple hats.
Unit II. Home Problems in Conservation of Clothing
Five weeks of ten hours per week. Remodeling of clothing, utilization of old materials, which have been laundered at the school or freshened for use. Trimming of old hats, remaking, use of old materials in cutting down and making of garments for chil- dren, use of old shirts, stockings, underwear for small garments or household mops, dishcloths, holders, etc.
Choice may be made of one of the following units during the last third of the year, if the staff is large enough to permit the several lines of study to be offered.
Unit III. Child Study and Care of Children in the Home
Five weeks of ten hours per week. This course is planned for the girl who will soon become a home-maker, in order that she may understand the characteristics of children and also her own de- velopment during the formative period. The influence of heredity and environment and the emotions and habits as they emerge in the development of the individual should be discussed. During part of this course opportunity should be offered for practice at a day nursery or orphanage or through social service organizations, in the care of the baby ; also opportunity for practice in feeding babies, preparation of modified milk, and in preparation of food for older children based on the study of dietetics during the first half of the fourth year.
Unit IV. Making the Graduation Gown
Five weeks of ten hours per week. In this course opportunity should be offered to the girl who wishes to make her own gradua-
150 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
tion dress to do so. Simplicity should be the keynote, — simple design, simple decoration, simple, inexpensive materials. The dollar dresses made by one graduating class recently may well be copied, although they may of necessity be two-dollar dresses to-day because of advance in prices of materials. The girls should plan designs, purchase, and execute this work, based on the instruction received in second year. This should be in the nature of a test of ability and conducted under the direction of the teacher.
Unit V. The Home and Citizenship
Five weeks of ten hours per week. This course should show the girl her relationship to community and civic interests. Field work should be arranged. It should be based on the discussions of the third year and her study of civics and economics. She should be led to see the relationship of the home to national welfare through discussion of the economic problems of the community, state, and nation.
There are many good courses in home economics being offered in all parts of the United States which fall within the general classification offered at the beginning of this discussion, as general in character. The home-craft course offered at the Wadleigh High School, New York, is rather typical, as is also the course at Hollywood High School, Los Angeles, California ; the general course of the Springfield High School, Springfield, Massachusetts ; Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania, home economics course, and others in many sections of the country.
4. Home economics studies for the girl choosing any one of the technical or vocational courses in high school :
(a) Vocational commercial course. — The girl who enters high school with the intention of becoming a bookkeeper, stenographer, or typist chooses the vocational commercial course, because she knows that at the end of three or four years she can secure a business position. This course usually includes filing, office practice, and the regular studies of stenography, typewriting, and bookkeeping, in addition to the prescribed academic studies, with penmanship, commercial arithmetic, etc.
HOME ECONOMICS STUDIES IN HIGH SCHOOL 151
In some high schools girls choosing the commercial course elect the field of salesmanship as the business course, instead of stenog- raphy. This field of work is increasing in popularity, as is illustrated in Boston, where 475 were graduated last year from the sales- manship department of the high school. This course includes, in addition to academic studies, training in department store work, business principles, and practice in various stores in selling goods. The girls are made to feel that this work can be a profession rather than drudgery, as it is so often counted. The store work is no longer routine, but the girls see the relationship of this work to a larger life in all directions.
In these various phases of commercial work, the girl choosing one of these lines of specialization has as her major interest stenography or salesmanship — a business career. She takes the academic studies because they enable her to do her work more efficiently and they are directly related to her needs. The girl has other needs just as vital, as for instance how to live wisely and healthfully, what to eat in order to be most efficient in business life, how to clothe herself appropriately as a business girl, and how to divide her income most wisely and effectively in order to secure the greatest satisfaction. The commercial high school course should provide also for this need of the business girl, and should offer such units in home economics studies as will be adapted to her needs and interests. On page 129 suggestions are made for certain units of work in Home Economics. The program of the commercial girl should be so arranged that some time during her three or four years of high school study it is possible for her to take at least three of these units. The units as suggested on page 129 were planned for the girl preparing for college who has a limited amount of time for the work. The commercial girl is preparing for business and also has a limited amount of time which can be de- voted to home economics studies. In both cases it would be well if the work could be a definitely prescribed part of both courses. While the time of girls in both of these groups is limited, their inter- ests differ. Both groups of girls might be taught in the same sections of the suggested units if the high school is not large enough
152 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
to permit of differentiation in relation to the interests of two groups ; but the applications of work should be suggested according to the needs of the girl going to college and the girl entering business life, in relation to the selection of food, clothing, dwelling-place, and the right use of money.
(6) Vocational agricultural courses (see page 209, Courses of study for rural schools).
(c) Vocational home-making course. — The vocation of home- making is a complex occupation and includes many duties. If one stops to analyze the tasks practiced by the wife and mother in the home they are very numerous. She is cook, seamstress, house decorator, manager, financier, counselor, nurse. The duties in- clude the care of the sick, the training of children, the purchase of foods and their preparation into meals, the purchase, care, and repair and often making of clothing, the furnishing of the home, the plans for spending the family income, — in fact hers has been called an " undifferentiated job," and one which requires all the patience of Job.
The vocational home-making course in high school has, then, as its aim the training of girls in these many duties as practiced by the wife and mother in the home. The home-making course will be offered in the high schools of the future for those not attending the regular vocational home-making course of four years, in short units, either during the day or at night, and will be taken by the older women and young married women as well as by high school girls. Both elementary courses and those advanced in character will be offered in order to meet the needs of those attending. The high school of the future will offer to girls who expect to be married soon an intensive one-year course of training in home-making.
The discussion here deals with the vocational home-making course as offered to the girl in the four-year high school. The girl who will choose this course does so very often because she is domestically inclined or because she knows she does not care to continue her studies beyond the high school period. Many high schools of the United States have offered courses in Home Economics which have included the many studies outlined for this training in home-making.
HOME ECONOMICS STUDIES IN HIGH SCHOOL 153
In fact the high school course elected by the girl as the general, and often called the general course or home economics course or manual arts course, includes these various branches. The varia- tion made in the new type of vocational home-making course is that it will offer not only a greater differentiation of courses but more opportunity for practice in the use of the knowledge gained. It is true that in many high schools the major, called the home economics course, has included some practice in managing a home in a practice cottage or apartment ; but it is quite certain that in the vocational home-making course in the high schools of the future this will be a very important and distinctive feature. The girls choosing this course will reside in the practice house for a certain period of time and have opportunity to practice the knowledge gained in the laboratory courses. This is being done to-day in some of the farm-life schools of the South and in certain localities in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The homes of the high school girls offer a natural laboratory for practice, and if plans and arrangements can be made for sufficient supervision by the teaching staff, a system of work in the homes with school credit can be arranged.
The Smith-Hughes Act, passed in February, 1917, provides for training in vocational home-making. According to the terms of that bill, in cities of 25,000 or over, those choosing the vocational home-making course should devote one half of the day to the voca- tional subjects, such as
Food Study, Cooking.
Home Furnishing and Decoration.
Textiles and Garment-making.
Child Care.
Household Management and Housewifery, etc.
The other half day must be given to the non- vocational and re- lated subjects :
English. Physical Training.
History. Mathematics.
Language. General Science.
154 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
Chemistry. Drawing, Design.
Physics. Industrial History.
Hygiene. Vocational Arithmetic.
Music. Civics and Citizenship Training.
In cities having a population of less than 25,000, the related studies such as chemistry of the household, industrial arithmetic, household physics, etc., may be offered during the half day de- voted to the vocational studies, while the other half day may be used for the more strictly academic studies of English, history, etc. This means that in the larger cities more time can be devoted to the vocational lines of work, if so desired, in fact half of the time may be used for this purpose.1
The following suggestions are offered for planning the vocational home-making work, where half the time for four years may be de- voted to vocational and related studies, about fifteen hours per week. In the courses suggested on pages 141 to 150 the following outline has been suggested for the girl choosing the general or home economics course of four years. The vocational home- making course might be outlined in a similar way with some variations to allow for more practice.
First Year. Elementary sewing.
Practice, garments for refugees and for others.
Survey course in Home Economics.
Vocational suggestions to aid in planning high school course
or later training.
Second Year. Course in food preparation. Serving, conservation. Course in garment-making. Design, conservation. Third Year. Course on the home. Fourth Year. Dietetics applied to home.
Home problems. 3 units to be chosen.
In the vocational home-making course one semester of the last year should be so planned that the girl has opportunity for prac- tice either in the school practice house or in her own home under
1 See Bulletin 28. Home Economics Series. Home Economics Education, No. 2, Federal Board for Vocational Education, Washington, D. C.
HOME ECONOMICS STUDIES IN HIGH SCHOOL 155
supervision. This might be planned for either the first or last semester of the course as outlined above; the students being divided into two groups so as to enable them to pursue the course in dietetics during one half year. While engaged in practice work a girl should choose only one or two units of the home problems suggested.
Another possible variation is to offer, if it seems advisable during the first year, a course in food preparation instead of the survey course. While this is possible and sometimes desirable the survey course of the first year gives the girls an insight into the whole field which is very profitable and enables the girl to see the re- lationship of all the studies to the home economics work. It is true, too, that many girls leaving high school at the end of the first or second year will have a distinct advantage if such a course is offered, for it will undoubtedly act as an incentive for further study along some of the particular lines found to be of interest, or be of value to them in their daily lives if no further opportunity for study is possible. There is of course an obvious repetition in the home course offered in the third year for the girl who remains to complete the four years of training, but this year's work should be fuller with more laboratory practice than that offered in the survey of the first year, and is possible of many variations.
It should be constantly borne in mind, however, in planning courses of training in vocational home-making that the theory and practice of the work at school should be applied directly to the problems of the home and that the girls should be given opportunity for initiative in planning and conducting the home work.
Another thought which should never be forgotten by those plan- ning such courses is that the girls are preparing for home-making and throughout all courses the thought of the home, its atmosphere, standards, and ideals must be of the highest and purest and be kept constantly before the minds of the girls in their plans.
Attention is called to the excellent four-year course in home- making, to be found in the Addenda, which is given at the Worcester Trade School for girls. Miss Hildreth, the director of this school, has found it feasible in this locality to offer a four-year course
156 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
in home-making although given in a so-called trade school for girls. A practice cottage is conducted in connection with this course and all the work of the years is so planned that after com- pletion of four years the graduate will be able to enter wage-earning occupations which are outgrowths of Home Economics if she does not at once become a home-maker or work in the home of her parents or others.
(d) Vocational industrial courses. — Each recurring census shows an increasing number of women in wage-earning occupations. In Part I, page 60, some of the statistics are given. The war has undoubtedly opened some fields of work to women which have been closed in the past. Industry has been made so inviting to girls of high school age that many have left school attracted by the high wages or have been forced into industry through the necessity of the home because wage-contributing brothers have been called to the service. Teachers of all subjects should take it upon them- selves as a special duty to persuade girls whenever possible to com- plete a full high school course. This is especially vital because the women of to-morrow will have many new problems of reorganiza- tion to meet and must be educationally equipped to handle them.
The majority of girls cannot remain for a full high school course and avail themselves of training which will prepare for wage- earning. The high schools of the future will offer short courses of one or two years of intensive training in preparation for wage- earning in industrial pursuits as well as short courses in prepara- tion for commercial business life.
It should be borne in mind that " more education pays." The following page from Pamphlet 270, January, 1917, published by the National Child Labor Committee, 105 E. 22d St., New York City, shows this value of a high school course in wages earned, and argues for industrial training in school for those who are so in- clined and expect soon to enter wage-earning industries because it is impossible for them to pursue a long school course. The illustration portrays graphically the advantages to be gained.
HOME ECONOMICS STUDIES IN HIGH SCHOOL 157
MORE EDUCATION PAYS l
The United States Bureau of Edu- cation says a high school graduate earns on the average
$1000 yearly, 40 years (18 to 58 years) =$40,000
A poorly educated workman earns 1 $500 yearly,
on the average
Increased earnings of the high school graduate, due to four years (720 school days) of ad- ditional schooling
j 44 years (14 to 58 years) =$22,000
=$18,000
Then each additional day spent in school adds $25 to his life's earnings.
WAGE PER WEEK
Untrained Worker
Trained Worker
14
$4.00
(in school)
18
7.00
$10
20
9.50
15
22
11.50
20
25
13.75
31
At 25 years of age, the untrained worker has earned, on the average, only $9 per week; the trained worker an average of $19 per week.
IT PAYS TO STAY IN SCHOOL
Vocational industrial education for girls between the ages of 14 and 18 may be of various kinds, such as training for the art industries, in metal, wood, textile and costume design, and illus- tration ; training for skilled machine operating, novelty work, and industrial work in connection with food preparation, and the clothing industries of dressmaking, millinery, and others. This
1 More Education Pans, Pamphlet 270, 10 cts. Syllabus for the Use of Teachers National Child Labor Committee, 105 East 22d St., New York City.
158 TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS
text is concerned only with the discussion of those vocational industrial courses in high school which are the outgrowth of the home economics studies ; they are briefly those industries which are concerned with the manufacture of clothing and food materials into articles of greater value.
The following four points should be borne in mind in planning any type of vocational industrial course in high school, whether the courses deal with art or other industries or are those which grow out of home economics studies.
1. That all girls entering industry, no matter what line of specialization may be chosen, need some instruction in the home economics studies, and provision should be made for these in their cours