home economics teaching, 90 hours; institutional households, 48 hours. It is common knowledge that foods developed as the first division of subject matter; its practical usefulness created the demand, and its close relationships in subject matter to chemistry and physiology won it an easy welcome in the college curriculum. Textiles and clothing ranks next, 240 hours as compared with 360, or two-thirds as large an element in the curriculum as is foods; the other divisions of subject matter-the house, the family, education, and institutional households-together secure a combined time allotment about equal to textiles and clothing. The relative importance of the main divisions of subject matter at present is indicated by the number of colleges reported here as giving such instruction, and, while not including all colleges which teach these various subjects, the figures are doubtless reliable for the comparative situation: Thus, 73 colleges give instruction in foods and nutrition; the same number in textiles and clothing; 68 in the house; 63 in the family and household; 44 give courses in home economics for teachers; and 9 in the administration of institution households; or scaling the number of colleges giving food courses as 100 per cent, the comparison reads: Food courses, 100 per cent; textiles and clothing, 100 per cent; the house, 93 per cent; the family, 86 per cent; home economics education, 60 per cent; institutional administration, 12 per cent. The complete table (2) is to be read as follows: Data for courses on the house are given for 68 colleges (column 2); these colleges allot (column 3) from 16 to 690 hours of teaching to this division of subject matter; the mean or middle value of hours so alloted is 80-84, half the colleges allotting more and half less than this number (column 4); half of the colleges allot between 41 and 132 hours to this division of subject matter (column 5); modal or usual time allotments (column 6) given to it are 36 hours (as given by 7 colleges), 72 hours (as given by 4 colleges), and 108 hours (as given by 4 colleges). Among these 68 colleges giving instruction in this division of subject matter, instruction is given in its various subdivisions, "house structure," "house decoration," "house furnishings," etc., as indicated by the table: For "house structure" by 30 colleges which give from 2 to 180 hours, with the mean value 36-45 hours; the limits including half the colleges, 38 to 54 hours; and the modal hours, 248, 54, 722, and 1082 (i. e., for 3, 4, 2, and 2 colleges, respectively). So for the other subdivisions of subject matter on the house; and so in turn for the other main divisions of subject matter 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, and their respective subdivisions. The interested reader can thus discover the significant tendencies in college teaching at present; and the individual institution can use the table as a measuring stick to see whether its own teaching falls short of, or reaches beyond, the general practice of American colleges as regards the entire home economics curriculum and the various elements of that curriculum. It is worth while to state here the comparison of the number of institutions teaching each subdivision of subject matter and the mean number of hours thereto allotted, remembering that "number of institutions" includes only colleges furnishing complete data; hence these numbers are not reliable for the total number of colleges, but are reliable between themselves for comparisons of the work given by this selected group of colleges. The hours given are "the mean number of hours," which are simply a more accurate kind of “average" numbers. In the 68 colleges included as giving instruction regarding the house, "house sanitation" and "house structure and design" are the two courses most commonly given, the former offered by 35 colleges for a mean of 36 hours, and the latter by 30 for 36-45 hours; while house decoration is a subject of instruction in 24 colleges for a mean of 40-48 hours, house furnishings in 20 for 32-36 hours, equipment in 16 for 18-24 hours, and housework or housewifery in 20 for a mean of 18-24 hours. In the 63 colleges included as giving courses dealing with the social aspects of the household, household management is offered by 35 colleges and home nursing by 35; while economics of the household is taught in 18, domestic sociology in 15, and the care of the child in 10. The mean time devoted to each of these courses is 36 hours (except 30 for the child-care course). In the 73 colleges included as giving food courses, the preparation of food is taught in 69 colleges, and the mean time devoted to it is the longest of any food course-128-136 hours. Advanced food preparation is taught in 53 institutions, with a mean of 80 hours. "Food materials" is taught in 44 colleges for a mean of 54 hours, food chemistry in 37 colleges for 72 hours, and dietetics in 55 institutions for a mean of 60 hours. Other food courses are table service, taught by 31 colleges for a mean of 36 hours; cookery for invalids, by 37 colleges for 36 hours; institutional cookery, by 10 colleges for 24-48 hours; demonstration cookery, by 22 colleges for 32-36 hours; history of cookery, by 6 colleges for 15 hours; and marketing, by 16 colleges for 18-20 hours. In the 73 colleges giving instruction regarding clothing, 53 give instruction in textile fibers and materials for a mean of 36 hours, and 12 give instruction in the manufacture and selection of clothing for 24-36 hours. Clothing courses emphasizing laboratory work are given as follows: Hand sewing, by 49 colleges for a mean of 68 hours; machine sewing by 40, for 72 hours; dressmaking by 40, for 100 hours; millinery by 27, for 54 hours. The care and repair of clothing is taught in 11 colleges for 12 hours. The relation of art principles to the design of clothing is taught in two types of courses: The history of costume, taught in 14 colleges, for a mean of 34-36 hours; and costume design, in 18 colleges, for 48-54 hours. Laundry, theory, chemistry, economics," is taught by 23 colleges for a mean of 18-32 hours, and laboratory practice in laundry in 4 colleges for 32-72 hours. Data on time allotments for the courses for teachers of home economics are furnished by 44 colleges. A course on the home economics movement is given by 14 colleges for a mean of from 40-48 hours; a survey course in home economics by 6 colleges for a mean of 16-80 hours. Courses in "methods of teaching household arts in elementary schools" are given by 22 colleges for 36 hours; " in secondary schools" by 23 colleges for 54 hours; and "practice teaching" by 33 colleges for a mean of 48 hours. The "number of institutions" giving these courses, it should be repeated, is not the total number of colleges offering such instruction; it is that part of the total which furnished complete data; the number of mean hours stated, however, is doubtless a reliable index of the quantity of instruction given for all colleges. TABLE 2.—Allotment of time in colleges or divisions of home economics subject matter— by main divisions and by subdivisions. 1 Figures in parentheses indicate number of colleges giving allotment preceding. |