Chapter XIII.-Home Economics Teacher Training

Studies published by the Office of Education indicate that roughly about one-third of the women registered in 1917 for home economics work were preparing for teaching. Possibly a somewhat larger proportion of the graduates in home economics actually entered teaching.

Since the curricula for home economics subject matter as taught even at the present time is usually much the same for prospective teachers as for others, detailed accounts of the trends in the development of the field are given in the part of the survey on undergraduate home economics.5

The growth of professional education subject matter as a distinguishing element of home economics teacher training, is very largely a development of this century. Prior to 1900 dependence was placed almost entirely upon traditional subject-matter training with very little attention to the largely undeveloped field of professional education. Occasional rule-of-thumb practices based upon classroom experience were imparted to prospective teachers. The idea that the instruction of the teacher should hinge largely upon the needs of high-school students did not then have the emphasis that it has to-day. Professional education for that matter had little to offer in 1900. By 1917 the materials in the field of professional education were utilized to as large an extent as was perhaps justified. This work was largely offered in such courses as history of education, general psychology, courses in principles and theory, and general and special methods. Perhaps most land-grant institutions offered at least some opportunity for observation and to a less extent student teaching. While typically 15 or 20 lessons in observation and student teaching were afforded, such work was more often elective than required and too often was poorly organized and ineffective. Needless to say, considerable redirection of emphasis in all the subjects mentioned has taken place during the past decade.

The organization of home economics education with respect to supervision of public-school classroom instruction was not nearly so well developed before 1917 as it is to-day. Only six State officials,

See Vol. I, Part XI.

largely part-time workers, are listed in Office of Education publications as concerned with State work in home economics immediately before this date. Much of the time of these officials was spent in promoting industrial education programs. A corresponding lack of emphasis on the local supervision of home economics teaching existed in the counties and cities, although perhaps 2,500 high schools offered work in home economics.

Very little material on the strictly professional aspects of home economics teaching was available in print before 1917. There is still a scarcity of material on home economics teacher training when compared with the large quantity of printed material on general education. While large and substantial achievements have been attained in professional home economics teacher preparation, the field is still very much in the making. More attention to the development of research in professional home economics teacher training should undoubtedly be given in land-grant institutions, especially in the larger ones, and in those financially able to undertake extensive research and study. Especially worthy of commendation are beginnings in the field of research undertaken by institutions that have released one or more staff members for part or full time research in this field. The devepolment of graduate work in home economics education has been considerably delayed; and a wider development of this work will be necessary before the full instructional possibilities of undergraduate teaching can be realized.

The passage of the Smith-Hughes Act afforded a very great stimulus for vocational teacher-training and a substantial part of the recent progress in the field of home economics may be attributed to the Federal subsidy provided for by the act although public-school Vocational classes in home economics were not so heavily subsidized as those in vocational agriculture. The States, however, very quickly went so far in their local support of secondary school home economics education that they have more than made up for any lack in Federal support. The demand for home economics teachers is at present quite as heavy in the high schools as for teachers of Vocational agriculture or trades and industries, and is in excess of the demand for teachers of arts and science subjects.

Objectives

The general objectives of teacher training in home economics are derived in the same way as they are for other types of teacher training. The chief emphasis on the part of the home-economics teachers is the preparation of pupils for worthy home membership. However, scores of instructional activities fall under this head. The teacher

of home economics must give recognition to the isolation of many home makers, the diversity of their work, and the difference in the types of activities among homes. Recent changes in modern-day life have in some sections changed these conditions and have brought new responsibilities of an economic and social nature to the home. There is now less manual work but more actitvities of a managerial character. Again, the teacher must provide not only for the needs of girls who have become or are already engaged in the occupation of home making for themselves or for others, but also for girls and women employed in institutional or commercial work. New topics of instruction must be set up almost from year to year in the most progressive public schools and in the teacher-training institutions. In formulating teacher-training aims and objectives it is important to know the general public-school teaching situation in which the trained graduate must work. Thirty-four institutions report that one of their objectives is training of junior high school teachers; 15 rural school teachers; and 14 teachers of elementary grades. Vocational home economics teacher trainers must, therefore, harmonize their special programs with the work of the best elementary and junior high schools, as well as with that of the best senior and regular 4-year nonvocational high schools.

In the vocational all-day schools and classes, one-half of each day must be given over to vocational subjects including home economics, or this subject and the related subjects of science and art. School girls are usually given courses in food selection and preparation, clothing, diet, recreation necessary to maintain good health, work related to the care and training of children and other courses which better enable them to make satisfactory adjustments to family life. It will be noted that the term "vocational home economics," therefore, represents no revolutionary departure from the so-called nonvocational work in its modern development. Fundamentally, vocational home economics denotes an emphasis in an established field of which it is a part, rather than an entirely new field of work.

The great diversity of the work of teachers of home economics is further illustrated by the fact that some of them must recognize the needs of more than 7,000 boys who are enrolled in home-economics courses; 456 of these pupils are in vocational day and evening schools. Home-economics teachers must provide assistance to these boys by helping them become intelligent consumers, by helping them keep physically fit, and by molding their attitudes in such way that they may participate more sympathetically in home and family life. Assistance may also be rendered them in developing standards of good taste, in helping them plan the financing, purchase, or building of homes, and enabling them to become more effective participants in the other multitudinous activities of family life.

Supply and Demand

According to Office of Education statistics, 3.78 per cent of all public high-school pupils were studying home economics in 1910; 12.89 per cent in 1915; 14.27 per cent in 1922; and in 1928, if all pupils are counted without excluding duplicates, 16.48 per cent. A conservative estimate of the number of individual pupils studying home economics in 1928 is 450,000. (See Table 47.)

TABLE 47.-Number of pupils of noncollegiate grade enrolled in home economics during 1918, 1922, and 1928

b. Total all other home-economics pupils reported by public and private high schools, including junior high schools.

30, 799

118,708

175, 944

In 1918, 3,276 public schools and private secondary schools reported they were teaching home economics; in 1922, 7,014 schools; and in 1926, 8,572 schools. Of this number in 1928, 1,160 were allday vocational federally aided units. (See Table 48.)

The total number of teachers of home economics, which includes a very large number of part-time teachers of subjects other than home economics, has grown proportionately with the increase in number of pupils and of schools. No data concerning the exact number of full-time and part-time teachers of home economics are available. There were 1,668 all-day vocational home-economics teachers in federally aided schools in 1928. There were in addition, 2,912 vocational evening school teachers and 229 vocational parttime teachers. (See following table.)