May, 19 13 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



191 



Shaw once put it, "The ordinary woman's business is 

 to get married." But what about the women and girls 

 who do not wish to marry merely for the sake of be- 

 ing sure of a home of their own? All, whether mar- 

 ried or single, should know how to make a home. After 

 algebra and geometry, in fact, all along the line with it, 

 comes the fundamental process of supporting life and brain 

 power sufficient to assimilate the problems. Should not 

 our children qualify for this process at the same time, and, 

 if need be, leave out some of the "frills" of modern schools? 



Only few schools at 

 present are giving a course 

 in domestic science, and 

 most high schools are so 

 exacting in regard to home 

 work that there is no time 

 for home-study of this 

 greatest science of all. If 

 we graduate a healthy set 

 of girls we must be con- 

 tent. We parents are to 

 blame for this condition of 

 things. A girl, and her 

 parents, too, should think 

 of what a woman must 

 and should be responsible 

 for. If this were lived up 

 to, we should not have so 

 many absolutely helpless 

 girls turned out into the 

 world each June. 



The thing which we do 

 daily becomes a part of us, 

 as the child with a French, 

 German or Spanish nurse, 

 soon comes to be much at 

 home in a foreign lan- 

 guage. So I say, by all means have this study of domestic 

 science and sewing carried through the whole school course. 

 Again I say, this is the greatest science of all, and let no 

 woman declare to the contrary. The child who begins in the 

 most simple and elemental way has an interest started 

 which will become a part of her, and this interest is what 

 mothers should help along in every way possible. 



Beginning with the grammar school how much may be ac- 

 complished through its eight grades covering the formative 

 period of the child. I do not mean to suggest that all girls 

 will desire to cook, but they will learn to have a greater 

 respect for the art of cooking, and many who do not know 

 that it is an art will find this out, too. The most simple 

 details of housekeeping, the most simple of culinary pos- 

 sibilities may be taught in these years, and Jane and Ella 

 will have a greater respect for the things they have become 

 familiar with in this way. Even though forced to do the 

 work which they find so congenial, at least they are made to 

 understand the processes. 



Of course there are many girls whose mothers are not 

 qualified to teach them, and to these girls the teaching of 

 domestic science in the schools means even more. It would 

 be a great thing if only these girls were to be considered, 

 but I feel that it is a great thing for all girls, no matter 

 what their surroundings may be. It is woman's province to 

 direct the household, a household, some household, and there 

 are a, b, c's to become familiar with in housekeeping as sure- 

 ly as there are in the reading, writing and arithmetic, and the 

 sooner this part of the girl's education is begun the better. 

 It should go side by side all through her years of school 

 instruction with the other parts of her mental training. 



We will, when girls have had eight or ten years of this 

 training in domestic science, see wonderful results, I feel 



AFTERNOON TEA-STRIPS 

 By Mary H. Northend 



For this take strips of bread and toast them a light brown or dry them 



in the oven. For topping, take dates and chop them very fine, adding 



melted marshmallow and spread the mixture over the strips and brown 



in the oven for a moment only 



sure. We will see a change in the attitude toward house- 

 work. It is great, it is noble, to be able to make a home 

 comfortable and artistic in its surroundings, and when girls 

 learn this, they will learn to be less scornful of the processes 

 which make this possible. Perhaps a halo might grow 

 around the once despised dishpan. 



Right here will be the part the college has to play in 

 this greater and larger development. Professor Munster- 

 berg put it in these words: "Every form and curve of the 

 chair and table, every design in the wall paper and the rug, 



every variation of the bed 

 or the mirror, of the spoon 

 or the glass, is a part of a 

 fascinating story of de- 

 velopment. ... A 

 woman cannot take a 

 nobler power from her 

 college life into the tur- 

 moil of the world than the 

 gift of seeing every ele- 

 ment of the home in this 

 wider perspective, that is, 

 substituting the cultural 

 aspect for the trivial one." 

 College training along 

 these lines side by side 

 with other sciences, must 

 make a more complete 

 woman. Following the 

 more elemental training of 

 the schools, it simply 

 rounds out the whole. 

 Some day in nearly all 

 women's lives comes the 

 time when they find them- 

 selves submerged in the 

 material plane of life, 

 forced to engage in the ordinary duties of the home, to 

 drudge, they call it, and it is very hard for them. But if 

 they can bring an intelligent brain and an eager soul to 

 study it from a higher level, instead of the dull hand of 

 the servant's class, how much that is beautiful can come 

 to them even under such trying circumstances. 



What an ideal result to come from the small beginning 

 of teaching cooking in the public schools. But it is pos- 

 sible, for where could results be found in the training of 

 the girls to-day which would be more satisfactory? This 

 is what educators are striving for, the more practical and 

 helpful lines for all students. Surely they will get their 

 reward in their great work, when in years to come we have 

 a sensible homemaking race of young women. 



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 RASPBERRY GELATIN E— By Mary H. Northend 



Prepare gelatine as usual and pour into molds in which Raspberries have 

 been placed. When cold turn out and surround with additional berries 



