FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 157 



fact of making a livelihood be recognized in the school, the girl will be 

 glad to prepare herself for bread winning and will go out proud of 

 her ability to do so. There are girls in every community, as you know, 

 who need something to do, or they go to the bad. Occupation is 

 salvation. Why, then, should not classes in sewing, or cooking, or 

 drawing, or gymnastics be formed? Or a library and reading room, 

 or a garden be opened up, so that these girls may have a chance to use 

 their hands and idle powers? 



This practical education should, therefore, prepare the girl, specif- 

 ically, to earn her living, to be a home maker and housekeeper an dto take 

 her place as a citizen in the world of affairs. 



It is interesting and important to note in connection with the higher 

 education for women, that they still prefer the old profession, that of 

 home-making, if they have the chance to enter it. They remain quite 

 like the women of previous generations in this respect. And why 

 should they not? What nobler vocation is possible for any woman? 

 Woman's duties have so increased in recent years^ — she must be ready 

 to act on school boards, and boards of control, as director or secretary 

 of philanthropic and charitable enterprises, as member of library com- 

 missions or of industrial and civic committees, — so that she must bo 

 informed on history and economics, literature and politics, and the 

 various questions of the day. These enlarge the scope' of education 

 and cannot of course be expected to find place as such in the second- 

 ary schools. But the other points need definite attention. If it be a 

 crime, as Horace Mann once said, for a boy to grow up ignorant of 

 reading and writing, it is equally a crime for a girl to be ignorant 

 not only of these, but of household economics as well. She gets, to 

 be sure, something of this at home, such as cooking, sewing, nursing, 

 but in a haphazard, unscientific manner. We must, therefore, advo- 

 cate the study of domestic art in its various branches, the use of the 

 needle and scissors in dressmaking, millinery, sewing, art embroidery. 

 For dressmaking should be a trade carried on by business methods. 

 Girls need training in the use of the hammer and saw, in wood work 

 and wood carving. A woman need not be thought queer should she 

 know how to use such common tools, nor a criminal if she should actu- 

 ally repair her gate, for instance, when its needs repairing. 



We advocate, also, the use of the pencil in drawing, design and 

 architecture. This teaching may not develop artists, but it does de- 

 velop ability to see things as they are and to put beauty into common 

 things. That designing and architecture are productive fields for 

 woman's activity has been abundantly proven in many instances. 



The girl should have regular study and practice in domestic econ- 

 omy; home-making, sanitary science in its, simpler phases, home-direct- 

 tion, housekeeping in general, as laundering, care of furniture, linen, 

 rugs, marketing and buying. She should be trained in business meth- 

 ods and keeping of accounts, for many a woman's venture has gone to 

 the wall simply because of lack of the knowledge of some fundamental 

 business principles. She must have training in cookery. We are no 

 longer willing as a nation, to eat unpalatable, indigestible messes 

 under unhygienic conditions, nor to submit to the waste once prevalent 

 among us. Scientific cookery aims to eradicate these faults so that 

 we need not be the horror of thrifty European observers, and the 

 despair of eager economists. Practical training in these various sub- 



