FOOD PREPARATION 295 



great for her task, for the growing child is a many-sided personality 

 interested in many things and the mother being most closely associated 

 with him is naturally his teacher and guide, and must know some- 

 thing of many things in order to come into sympathetic touch with his 

 busy brain. 



We know, however, that divorce frequently comes in families where 

 women are really idlers in the economic field, who have no responsibil- 

 ity beyond a good time and to be supported by their husbands. In 

 these cases idleness, discontent, desertion and divorce are the result. 

 A socialization of industry would be a good thing for this type of 

 women by compelling them to have some definite share in the social 

 service, for we all know that there is no greater cure for the blues and 

 discontent than rational activity. By the socialization of domestic in- 

 dustry, if it could be brought about, the monotony of isolated home labor 

 would be removed. 



The difficulty with the woman who has too much work to do in the 

 home and the woman who has not enough work to do is that they lack 

 expressional freedom, partly from overfatigue and partly from lack of 

 knowledge of the happiest means of self expression. It is a noteworthy 

 fact that Massachusetts, where women are so largely employed in in- 

 dustry, stands forty-first in the matter of divorce, while Washington, 

 where women are not much employed in industry outside the home, 

 stands first, having produced 513 divorces to every 100,000 married 

 couples. All this may go to show that women who are busy in social 

 industry have little time to dwell upon grievances. 



A good broadening course in our schools and colleges with a proper 

 presentation of the duties of adult life would do much to lessen divorce, 

 because after all the home is just what men and women make of it as 

 a public utility in the development of efficient personality. Such a 

 course would serve also to establish a tradition in favor of the home- 

 maker and prevent in some degree the rush of women into outside in- 

 dustries which to many now appear attractive. 



One of the difficulties with our educational system to-day from the 

 kindergarten upward is that it seeks to make hard things easy, from 

 the learning of the multiplication table to easy helps for Latin and 

 kindred subjects. The only really satisfactory way of mastering the 

 multiplication table is by definitely learning it. All through our edu- 

 cational system this spirit of helping children to avoid the hard things 

 which require persistence and application is shown in our home life 

 when neither men nor women are able to endure the hardships and un- 

 pleasant factors which do come up in every home at some time. 



Instead of facing these difficult problems and bringing to bear upon 

 them a rational mentality which will restore order from chaos and 

 strengthen the bond of helpfulness between husband and wife, the 

 husband and wife brought up by our educational system to look for 



