DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 83 



to the proper authority. Two of the girls made a study of the children 

 at the Social Center and then prepared weekly menus for them, also 

 serving the supper to the children each week on the cook's day off. 



The Home Economises Praeticc House: In September 1921 the Alumnae 

 Council placed in the hands of tlie Dean of the Division |1,019, to be spent 

 under her direction m furnishing a house, No. 9 Faculty Kow, given to the 

 Division for use as a Practice House. A co-operative committee from the 

 Alumnae Council, a group of eight senior students resident in the Prac- 

 tice House, and a committee from the Home Economics faculty, formed a 

 joint committee to recommend the purchases which should be made. The 

 students were assigned the problem of surveying the most urgent needs 

 for furnisihings, of investigating prices and of recommending purchases to 

 the other committees. This was valuable training for them in the hand- 

 ling of money, development of business istandards, choice of furnishings, 

 application of principles of house furnishing, textiles and applied design. 



A few articles of furniture had at different times been iJurchased by 

 the Alumnae, looking forward to the establishment .of a practice house, 

 and were temporarily placed in the Senior House. By order of Dean 

 Shaw, acting president, these were transferred to the Practice House, 

 together with such dining room and kitchen equipment ais were owned 

 by Club H (which was no longer functioning). 



Within the Practice House a home life was anaiutained with a family 

 of eight isenior students and a resident instructor of the Home Economics 

 faculty. All food was selected, purchased and prepared by students 

 under direction. Weekly, an amount agreed upon was paid into house 

 funds by the students; this money was spent and all accounts kept by 

 them. The problem was one of applying princij)les of scientific manage- 

 ment to routine of the home, of applying business methods to family ex- 

 penditures, of applying the theory of nutrition, food preparation, textiles, 

 to the actual everyday living under conditions simulating those of a 

 normal home. Much was achieved in the six weeks' residence of the 

 students in re-interpreting to tbem the social, ethical, and moral respon- 

 sibility of the home. Within the year not all that should ultimately be 

 accomplished by such a course was attained, but a significant beginning 

 was made, which, with development, should prove of enduring value to the 

 College, the Division, and the students. 



Home Care of the Child {H. E. 34) : This course was offered for the 

 fall and spring terms at the College. It was primarily planned to be 

 carried out in co-operation with the Merrill-Palmer School, but the de- 

 mand was so pressing upon the part of the students that it was given 

 on the campus also. 



The co-operation of local physicians, nurses, specialists in child psychol- 

 ogy, and child feeding was secured and participation in the courses 

 s'hared. Laboratory instruction was given in child feeding, child care 

 and hygiene, treatment of children's diseases, and students were assigned 

 either groups of children to make a special study of and report, or were 

 assigned to families to 'spend four hours weekly in the care and study 

 of the children of the household. During the spring term an intensive 

 study was made of the children in the Social Center, who come from 

 disabled homes, and tlie effect of environment upon the normal develop- 

 ment of the child. 



Development of Home Economics {H. E. 49) : Beginning with this 



