Land Problems and National Welfare 



small sum considering the interests at stake ; 

 and far less in proportion than the amount so 

 expended in other countries. 



In writing about education, almost uncon- 

 sciously one deals with boys rather than girls. 

 Also, in making changes and reforms, boys 

 certainly receive more consideration than girls ; 

 and yet, if the type and method of instruction 

 given in our elementary schools during the past 

 thirty years has been bad for boys, it has been 

 worse still for girls. For girls — though the 

 future mothers of the coming generation — are 

 taught nothing at school to prepare and fit 

 them for their first duty in life — motherhood ; 

 they are not even taught to be passable house- 

 wives. Now there is not the slightest doubt 

 that girls during their years at the elementary 

 school could be taught some of those practical 

 guiding principles that would make them capable 

 housewives and efficient mothers. 



The three or four " home-making " centres 

 which have recently been started show what can 

 be done in this direction. The girls in the two 

 highest standards are transferred, in classes of 

 14, for a given number of hours' work per week to 

 the "home-making centre," which has its habitat 

 in a separate building near the school, where a 

 kitchen, bedroom, sitting-room, all of the cottage 

 type, are provided, and the girls work there 

 under as nearly home conditions as possible. 



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