DEPARTMENT REPORTS. S7 



It helps the student to create hats for ditfereut types and ages, while 

 in the school laboratoiy she works for herself or girls of similar age. 



Co-operation with the Merrill-Palmer i^chool — Detroit: In April, 1921, 

 the Board of Agriculture and the Board of Trustees of the Merrill- 

 Palmer School entered into a plan of co-operation by which six senior 

 Home Economics students per tenu were permitted to study in 

 residence at Detroit and to pursue intensive and special coui-ses deal- 

 ing with the care of children between the ages of fifteen mouths and five 

 years (2) with the special nutritional problem involved in their feeding 

 and (3) also with the social agencies dealing with the home. 



The Merrill-Palmer School equipped a practice house for use as the 

 residence of tlie M. A. C. students and placed at the disposal of the Col- 

 lege, for the instruction of the students, their staff of specialists, con- 

 sisting of Doctor Helen T. Woolley, Miss Lila Skinner, Miss Ellen Miller, 

 Miss Henton of London, England. The Home Economics Division main- 

 tained one of its teaching staff, Miss Lola Yerkes, in residence at the 

 Merrill-Palmer School. This instructor taught the home management 

 practice and lecture (H. E. 31 and 32), and assisted in the care of chil- 

 dren (H. E. 31) and special problems in nutrition (H. E. 15). 



In January, under the direction of Doctor Woolley, the Merrill-Palmer 

 School opened a Nursery School for children of preschool age. The 

 thirty-three children enrolled were under the direct instruction of Miss 

 Henton of the Gj'psy Hill Training School, London, England, an expert 

 in methods of instructing children of pre-school age, who was granted 

 a leave b}' the English educational authorities in order to assist in the 

 establishment of a nursery school in the United States. 



The students assisted the nurse every morning in the health inspection 

 made of the nursery school children upon their arrival, weighed and meas- 

 ured them weekly, assisted the physician in making charts showing the 

 results of their physical examination. 



Three hours daily were devoted to laboratory observations of gr<*aps 

 of the children and specific observations on definite children for the pur- 

 pose of learning to detennine and set standards for normal behavior, 

 motor ability, memory, perception, and formation of habits at different 

 ages. The students in groups planned and prepared the daily food eaten 

 at the noon-day lunch by the children, sat at the table with the children 

 and gained experience in the knowledge of how to give them the proper 

 food habits. 



A series of lectures, extending throughout the term, was given by an 

 outstanding physician, dealing with the physical development and care 

 of children ; another series of lectures by an expert in field and laboratory 

 work in sociology was given. Other persons of Avide experience in special 

 fields were invited to address the students. 



The object of these courses was to round out the Home Economics train- 

 ing of the students. Home Economies should include, as a fundamentally 

 important part of ever}- college course, adequate instruction in the 

 physical, mental and moral care and development of children. To de- 

 ;velop such courses, both in content and method, was one of the purposes 

 of establishing the Nursery School, and to give the student actual ac- 

 quaiutanc-e. with the behavior, mental habits, the proper method of in- 

 structing children, as well as standards for observing reactions, .and in- 

 terpreting results. 



