2 9 o TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



much more preparation than is ordinarily included under the subject 

 of domestic science in order that she may be competent to develop the 

 personalities of her family in every way. A suitable course for her in 

 order to be of wide value should be a bringing together of all the 

 work of her college days in its bearing upon individual adjustment to 

 society through the medium of the home. The studies of literature, 

 art, music, psychology, pedagogy, child study, emergency nursing, 

 chemistry, physiology, biology, bacteriology, botany, sociology, in their 

 hearing upon home life, will all be necessary for this ideally equipped 

 homemaker. She needs, in other words, to be taught how to control her 

 environment by making use of the knowledge which is available for 

 race progress. 



It is not going too far for the state through its educational institu- 

 tions to require that each woman graduate who goes out from their 

 walls shall be thus equipped for the work which is of greatest value to 

 the state through the home. For instance, the state of Iowa now re- 

 quires a course in pedagogy extending through much of two years for 

 those who wish to have a state certificate to teach. Iowa might well go 

 much farther and require that each woman who graduates from her 

 university shall be prepared by suitable studies for the position of home- 

 maker which sooner or later she may assume. Iowa is a progressive 

 state in many respects. She is the first to put her educational institu- 

 tions under a coordinating board. This board has within its power to 

 take a distinct step in advance by enabling the university to offer 

 studies which are especially suited for developing educated women as 

 homemakers and as guardians of efficient social personality. 



Most state agricultural colleges and state normal colleges have 

 schools of domestic science to train teachers. The state universities as 

 the crown of the educational system need training schools for wives and 

 mothers, with all the advantages which higher education can give. This 

 training must be of the very highest grade and no expense should be 

 spared to make and keep it thus, so that every woman who goes forth 

 from their halls shall be a center of light in the broadest way on the 

 subjects of the hygiene of environment, of nutrition and of activity. 

 If these conditions can be made to prevail in all our educational insti- 

 tutions, it is safe to say that the coming century will mark great vital, 

 mental, moral and social advancement of the human race. Statistics 

 tell us that at the present time 74,908 29 women are enrolled in the 

 higher institutions of learning in this country. If each of these 75,000 

 college women and all who succeed them could go forth from their 

 college life thoroughly prepared for their duties as women a great in- 

 crease in individual and national efficiency might be expected. 



The fact that many women say they " hate house work " does not 

 lessen their responsibility for doing it well since they undertake to do it. 



28 Wm, G. Curtis, "Ages of Universities," Eecord Herald, April 15, 1910. 



