EDUCATION FOR DOMESTIC LIFE. 523 



vicious, or filthy habits, and nearly as many because their children 

 were ashamed of them ; five have quarreled with daughters or grand- 

 children. These facts show that the home life was defective in 

 those characteristics which tend to bind the family together. In the 

 Elmira Reformatory seven per cent had had a good home, thirty- 

 nine per cent fair, fifty-four per cent poor, showing the preponder- 

 ance of bad home conditions. In conducting a student employment 

 bureau it was found that there was an undue supply of those who 

 wished to do bookkeeping, typewriting, and clerical work, while 

 there was great difficulty in securing any one who could do mending, 

 plain sewing, or ordinary housework satisfactorily. There was a 

 large amount of this domestic work to be performed in the com- 

 munity, but the young women who were obliged to earn a part of 

 their living in college were quite incapable of doing what was 

 needed. Charity and settlement workers continually testify that the 

 women of the laboring classes lack proper training and skill in 

 making home comfortable and wholesome. Without additional 

 illustration, it appears that women are being prepared for everything 

 else than domestic life — the life which, as statistics show, nearly one 

 half of them are living. 



What, then, does the average woman need? In the first place, 

 a thorough manual training. She needs to know how to cook a 

 wholesome meal properly, to put it on the table appetizingly, and to 

 do this with the minimum expenditure of energy. It is one of the 

 most hopeful signs in elementary education that kitchen gardening 

 and household training are being introduced into those schools which 

 the children of the general population attend. The need of this 

 practical domestic training for girls has probably been sufficiently 

 emphasized, but in the general readjustment of occupations and 

 duties going on between men and women, it is more and more appar- 

 ent that boys as well as girls need a certain amount of elementary 

 domestic training. It is a mere fetich, for instance, that women 

 should do all the mending or even have all the care of children. 

 There are many families in which family happiness, comfort, and 

 prosperity would be greatly promoted if the husband and father 

 could, at least in an emergency, take a competent share in the routine 

 work of the household. There are many generous and kindly hus- 

 bands who would be glad to help, but who are incapable through 

 lack of elementary training. Since the bearing and rearing of 

 children is the most important function of women, the mother must 

 be relieved, at least at times, from many of her ordinary household 

 cares. If there be not money enough to hire extra service, it is 

 inevitable that the father should take, at least temporarily, some 

 of these duties, if the family is to be maintained in comfort. 



