No. 4.] DOMESTIC SCIENCE TEACHING. 181 



laboratory is not practical for the masses, and it is the homes of 

 the masses that make the best citizens for the country. 



The health and happiness of the family corresponds to the 

 ease with which the housewife accomplishes her daily tasks. 

 Home life is uplifted and made ideal only through the knowl- 

 edge of the mother backed by the bread-winning capacity of the 

 father. I contend that the public schools of this country are 

 in a great measure responsible for both. 



One drawback in the urban districts is a lack of buildings, 

 and teachers who really know how to teach. Both, of course, 

 mean a little more money spent on schools, but why not, — 

 the children of to-day are the men and women of to-morrow, 

 and as we build our children so the men and women. And this 

 also means less crime, fewer houses of correction and a marked 

 decrease in all forms of disease and degeneracy. As it is now, 

 we rush our children through, crowding into a few school years 

 a lot of educational fads — dreams of honest but impractical 

 reformers. 



My belief is that all domestic science teachers who teach 

 girls over twelve years of age should have a practical training 

 in the management of a house; they should know considerable 

 about architecture, sanitation, the buying of food supplies, 

 construction of stoves, scientific laundry work, and, if neces- 

 sary, should be able to tell why the chimney smokes, how to 

 install running water and adjust or regulate the pump; they 

 should be skilled housewives before they enter the teaching 

 field. Teachers in medical schools are as a rule practical 

 physicians. Teachers in schools of domestic science should be 

 practical housekeepers. 



Books are valuable in a way, but no one ever learned the art 

 of living without observation and practice. Who would 

 employ a book-learned physician? 



Most of the literature on domestic science is superficial, 

 written by people who have no practical knowledge of work: 

 theories are intermingled with everyday needs. 



The agricultural schools in the various States have been able 

 to reach the agricultural men, and they have improved in their 

 methods of farming. Why not help the wives to a better way 

 of doing their work?. Why not teach them how to use a few 



