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The methods of teaching employed in education for the home have from the first emphasized practical work, and since the subject is from one point of view a series of processes, skill is a fundamental aim in teaching. Skill, of course, comes with practice. We are seeing, however, that there is here a body of ideas that have worth in controlling action, in developing appreciations, and thus in determining mental attitudes toward home, house work, and family life.

The balance between theory and practice is important, and in striking it probably the danger is of too few ideas and too much practice. Household arts has a long road of scientific endeavor still ahead, but the accomplishments already made in one field-nutrition-indicate the "subject-matter" possibilities of this profession. Laboratories, practice houses, sewing machines, and laundry tubs are essentials; but they may be deadening obstacles unless the student's mind is awakened to the principles that determine processes.

II. STATUS AND PROGRAM OF EDUCATION FOR THE HOME.

The following facts, presented in summary form, indicate the status and program of education for the home in the United States, both in the schools and as a social movement:

A. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES.

1. The special aim of education for the home is to provide that every girl or woman who is later to manage a home shall have preparatory training therefor in vocational classes and schools, in the higher elementary schools, in high schools and postgraduate schools, in technical schools and colleges, and especially in continuation classes in rural and urban communities; and that every actual home maker and housekeeper shall have opportunity to improve her practice by similar instruction regarding the problems of food, clothing, shelter, house management, child care, care of the sick, the personal life of the family, the supervision of expenditures, etc.

2. The new vocational education assumes that every individual is to be trained in some specific vocation or means of livelihood; that every woman is to be trained either in the household arts or in some other vocation, in such a way that she may thereby have a means of support; but assumes further that the liberal education of every individual is not to be reduced in amount, but indeed is to be ultimately extended.

3. Girls shall be free to enter any vocation; and training for various vocations, including home making, shall be open to them. Those preparing for other vocations shall have supplementary preparation for home making.

4. Every individuɛi, man or woman, shall be trained in the fundamental arts of living, many of which center in the home, such as

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health protection; the principles of the selection and use of food, clothing, and shelter; economic principles-as of the expenditure of money; ethical principles-as those of the filial and conjugal relations, etc. But women who largely control home making and who direct housekeeping shall have special vocational preparation therefor.

These principles find expression at various points in our school system and in social organizations.

B. KINDERGARTENS AND KITCHEN GARDENS.

1. The kindergarten, the first stage in formal education, is to be recognized as having important relation to the home, since it transfers the child from the home to the school; its gifts and occupations are in part related to the home; the inculcation of home ideals is one of its objects; and its mothers' meetings directly affect home better

ment.

2. The kitchen garden, an outgrowth of the kindergarten, offers for children from 6 to 12 a program of songs, games, toys, and activities based on the household arts, which has been particularly adapted for social activities in settlements, institutional playrooms, recreation centers, church houses, etc. While furnishing amusement, it instructs regarding household processes.

C. THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.

1. Instruction in household arts in the public elementary schools has been authorized by law in many States, and is now required by law in four States: In Oklahoma by the State constitution; in Indiana and Iowa by law; in Washington by the requirement that children finishing the eighth grade shall take an examination in household arts.

2. In the first six grades household arts should be taught to both boys and girls as part of a wide experience in all divisions of the industrial and fine arts-a socializing, informing study, not primarily vocational, but preliminary to all later vocational trainings whether in trade or profession, and aiming at knowledge, acquaintance, and appreciation of the economic and social world.1

3. In the seventh and eighth grades: (a) For girls who will not go to high school, vocational courses should be offered in home making and in other vocational fields. In all vocational courses liberal training should be continued, and in vocational courses other than home making an element of vocational household arts should be included.2

1 For example see "The Speyer School Curriculum," Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, 1913. pp. 179. 50 cents.

2 See courses of the Vocational School, Rochester, N. Y., and the industrial courses for upper grades, Chicago, Ill.

(b) For girls who go to high school an element of vocational household arts should be given in the seventh and eighth grades.

4. Returns from public elementary schools show that household arts instruction is usually given under the direction, at least, of special teachers. In sewing 62 per cent of the schools reporting had special teachers, and in cooking 96.6 per cent had special teachers; the average (median) salary of the special teacher is $800. Of 390 elementary schools reporting on their household arts instruction, 56 per cent offer both cooking and sewing, 42 per cent offer sewing alone, and 2 per cent offer cooking alone.

Sewing is taught in all grades of the elementary schools, but most commonly in the four upper grades, and somewhat more commonly in the sixth and seventh than in the fifth or eighth grades; cooking is taught especially in the seventh and eighth grades, more in the eighth than in the seventh. Cooking, when taught, is usually allowed 90 minutes a week; sewing, when taught, tends to receive 60 minutes a week in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades, 75 to 80 minutes in the seventh grade, and SO minutes in the eighth grade. In 68 schools, the average (mean) total time given the household arts in all grades was 2 per cent of the total time of all school subjects through eight years. The average school cooking laboratory, whether in elementary or high school, costs $500, and the cost of food supplies for food lessons, as reported by 182 schools, tends to vary from one-half cent to 15 cents (but for half the schools it varies from 2 to 3 cents) per pupil per lesson.

D. THE HIGH SCHOOL.

1. Instruction in home making in high schools has been authorized by law in many States, and in due time will doubtless be required.

2. Household vocational training should be developed to the degree of wage-earning efficiency, even if consciously intended for home use only, and should be offered along with other vocational courses for girls; in such courses liberal training should be included.

3. Required home-making instruction should appear as an element in all high-school courses: (a) An economic, social, and health course for boys and girls alike (at least a half-year course); (b) an additional technical course in household processes, one-half year as a minimum, required of girls who have not had such training.

4. Additional elective courses in home making should be open to students in college-preparatory, commercial, and other curricula of the high school.

5. Many high schools that do not have special teachers of household arts offer applied-science courses related to the household in their chemistry, physics, and biology departments; e. g., household sanitation, household chemistry, household physics, applied biology (food sanitation), for which a number of excellent texts are now available;

and the economics of the household, for which adequate material is at hand.1

6. Private secondary schools for girls have in many instances offered courses in home making, and in three instances, at least, private schools of household arts have been established in this field.

7. Recognition of high-school household science and arts for college admission has been given by 79 colleges and universities; the NorthCentral Association of Colleges has made a formal statement of credit units in this field. The tendency is toward recognition for a limited amount by all institutions.

8. Returns from public high schools indicate that 1,345 high schools gave instruction in home economics to 66,914 students in 1913. Of this number, 370 were boys who took such courses in 57 different high schools. In 1914 fully 2,500 high schools offered instruction.

In 288 high schools reporting details of their courses in household arts, the average (mean) amount of instruction offered is 315 to 320 hours; one-fifth of the high schools so reporting offer a four-year course in home economics; 13.9 per cent require one or more courses in household arts; in high schools offering only elective courses in household arts the average (mean) percentage of students electing the courses is 33 to 35 per cent; in 68 per cent of the high schools reporting there are no departmental divisions in the teaching of household arts; 59 per cent of the schools reporting state that there is cooperation between other departments (chemistry, physics, art, etc.) and the household arts department.

E. RURAL SCHOOLS.

1. Many district rural schools, without formal household arts lessons, are furnishing instruction in food selection and preparation in connection with a warm dish prepared at noon to supplement the children's cold luncheon.2

2. Lessons on food, shelter, clothing, sanitation, expenditures, decoration, child care, etc., may be introduced into the "general lessons" of the district school.

3. The consolidation of district schools makes it possible to provide programs of agricultural and home-economics education in the stronger central schools resulting.

4. The home-making clubs for girls have been successfully affiliated with district schools (for example, those directed by the Kansas State College, Manhattan, Kans.), and similarly the tomato-canning,

1 For example, food instruction in biology courses, Mr. Rexford, Erasmus Hall High School, Brooklyn, N. Y.; household physics, Berlin, N. H.; applied chemistry, Hollywood High School, Los Angeles, Cal. 2 The Washington State Normal School requires of every intending rural teacher a brief cookery course on the warm school lunch.

poultry, and other clubs which train in supplementary household vocations for farm girls are coming under the direction of the rural school.

F. TEACHING HOUSEHOLD ARTS WITHOUT A SPECIAL TEACHER.

1. The giving of credit by the school for household work done by the pupil at home, on reports furnished by parents, is a device operating successfully thus far in many communities to increase interest in the household arts. It may be organized, of course, with or without accompanying formal household arts teaching.1

2. Women's clubs in many communities have organized the teaching of sewing or cooking outside the school curriculum, either by the members giving lessons or by the clubs providing a teacher, and in this way they have often brought about such teaching within the school.

3. The "Crete plan" of domestic science 2 involves the use of home women as teachers; each of a group agrees to teach a definite food lesson on definite days, perhaps once a month, to groups of highschool girls who come to her home; each teacher becomes responsible for some one lesson, as bread, cake, etc., and the pupils come to observe her demonstration, take notes, and practice in their own homes, reporting results.

G. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION LAWS AND THE HOME.

1. Special legal authorization has now been given in a number of States for courses and schools to train for vocations (Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin). Home making is recognized in these laws as a vocation equal in importance to industry, commerce, and agriculture.

2. The unpaid worker in her own family, housewife or other member of the group, is given equal advantages under these laws with the wage-earning domestic employee; and there is recognition of the need that the wage-earning woman in industry and commerce receive training not only for her wage-earning employment, but also, without prejudice, for her "second vocation" of home making.

3. Vocational home-making classes and schools of various types are authorized by these laws: Continuation classes for housewives and home makers, for domestic employees, and for wage-earning women in other fields of employment; prevocational classes in the seventh and eighth grades; general industrial or vocational schools; and schools for home making on the high-school level.

1 See Journal of Home Economics, Vol. V, p. 203.

2 See "Domestic Science-Crete Plan." Department of Public Instruction, Lincoln, Nebr. 1911. 8° 24 pp.

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