No. 4.] DOMESTIC SCIENCE TEACHING. 183 



I fully realize the importance of the work done by the 

 domestic science teachers. They have in most cities removed 

 the idea of drudgery from the kitchen, and in many places have 

 improved the kitchen architecture and furnishings; but this 

 teaching must not be restricted to certain districts — it must be 

 universal, and for this reason I feel that we are now at the 

 parting of the ways. 



I should establish these schools after the fashion of the 

 State tubercular dispensaries — a resident teacher, with lectures 

 and practical work two days each week, and three days to go 

 from house to house helping and suggesting, according to the 

 needs of each housewife. All should be taught economy. 



Women as a rule are not wilfully extravagant; in the ma- 

 jority of cases it is sheer ignorance and lack of knowledge of 

 how to use materials. The profession she has undertaken is 

 not one for which she has been trained. The average country 

 mother shields her daughter unwisely from all the unpleasant 

 work that she has done in the kitchen. The daughter is 

 allowed to go to school unhampered; in fact, if she were the 

 daughter of a queen in many instances she could not lead a 

 more idle or more luxurious life. After high school she probably 

 enters college, where she is allowed to take as her major any 

 subject that suits her fancy. She pursues this therne with 

 interest, energy and understanding and graduates with high 

 honors. If she has a fancy for teaching it is satisfied, and she 

 teaches until she has an opportunity to marry. Then every- 

 thing concerning her profession is dropped; she enters a house, 

 which should be a home, absolutely untrained and unskilled in 

 every way. She is naturally wasteful and clumsy. What man 

 under the same circumstances could do better? 



I remember during my active teaching in the Philadelphia 

 Cooking School a young bride entered the practical class — the 

 wrong way, of course, to begin. Practice always follows 

 theory, theory never can follow practice. This woman was 

 making a dish which called for the yolk of an egg, and before 

 I could catch her hand the white was thrown into the garbage 

 bucket. She did not intentionally mean to waste her hus- 

 band's money, but she did not know that the white should be 

 saved for another dish. I find that most housewives throw 



