Section 4. DATES OF INTRODUCTION OF HOUSEHOLD ARTS INTO PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

The date of the introduction of household arts into the schools was reported by 444 communities. Only 52 of these (11.7 per cent) had the subject before 1900; 56 introduced it between 1900 and 1904; 156 between 1905 and 1909; while in the three-year period, 1910-1912, the subject was introduced by 166 communities (39 per cent of those reporting). Another grouping of the same returns shows that almost exactly half the total number (213 communities) have added household arts to the school curriculum since 1909. Home education, therefore, as a country-wide movement, is a recent phenomenon; the number of introductions per year reached the maximum in 1911. Whether the fall to 48 in 1912 indicates that the crest of the wave has been reached can not be told. The report for 1913 is for part of the year only.

How has the movement for home economics in public schools progressed geographically? Up to and including 1895 the subject is reported as introduced into the following States only: Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, Ohio, and Wisconsin. By virtue of New York City, New York State might be added to this list. In subsequent years dates of introduction can be given for cities in all States except Arkansas, Nevada, New Mexico, Tennessee, and Wyoming, and home economics is taught in all these States for which exact dates of introduction are not reported. The development of the subject by successive years throughout the various States is indicated, approximately at least, in the annexed table. There is printed in Part IV of this report (Bulletin, 1914, No. 39) a list, by States, of 3,082 cities and towns which were teaching home economics in 1914; and a list of 2,440 high schools teaching household arts. This list is not complete, and one may safely assume from it that household arts is taught in not less than 3,500 or more towns and cities, and in probably 3,000 high schools, in 1914.

Section 5. TOPICS TREATED IN ELEMENTARY HOUSEHOLD-ARTS CURRICULUM.

Returns from 388 schools as to the topics taught in the elementary grades under "household arts," "cooking," "sewing," "domestic science and art," and other titles applied to education for the home exhibit the following facts:

TABLE 3.-Topics taught in elementary curriculum.

In addition, the following topics are taught by one or more schools: Preparing lunches, serving lunches, food production and manufacture, kitchen and flower gardening, food physiology, cooking for the sick, cost of foods, knitting and crocheting, embroidery, raffia and reed work, weaving, braiding, cardboard winding, dyeing, pattern making, cutting and repairing of clothing, basket making.

It is noteworthy that in the case of foods the theoretical aspects, as" food principles," "planning of menus," appear as frequently in these elementary school programs as do "practical cooking" and "table service."

and

The comprehensive subjects of "household management "sanitation" and their practical aspect, "housewifery or housework," appear with approximately two-thirds the frequency of "cookery"; the topics "first aid," "home nursing," and "care of children” are not very generally taught.

In subjects relating to clothing, "plain sewing" appears most frequently. The next most common topic is “practical cookery.” "Dressmaking" is just one-half as commonly taught as is "plain sewing," and "millinery" one-twelfth. The theoretical aspects of clothing, the training of judgment in regard to textile values, and the development of the artistic sense in regard to costume are stressed less than the theoretical aspects of foods, appearing in less than one-half the schools. Progress is needed here, for, after all, the woman of to-day needs training in buying clothing as well as in its making. Art in decoration and furnishing fares even less well than "art and costume," and appears in only one-half as many schools, i. e., in one

fourth as many as teach plain sewing and one-third as many as teach plain cooking.

No attempt was made to canvass social teaching regarding the family, and there was no suggestion of this topic in the data furnished; yet here is a topic by means of which the elementary school must do its part in strengthening family life. Its teaching will doubtless be only incidental to the household-arts program, although it is an important part of the ethical teaching which the elementary school must undertake.

Section 6. ORDER OF INTRODUCTION OF HOUSEHOLD ARTS INTO SCHOOL SYSTEMS.

The elementary school welcomed household arts as a subject of instruction earlier than did the high school. (Table 4.) Of 403 communities reporting the date of introducing household arts into the school curriculum, in 145 household arts had been introduced in the elementary schools alone; in 92, introduction had been made into the elementary schools, followed by introduction into the high schools; in 24, introduction had been into high school alone; and in 29, into the high school, followed by introduction into elementary schools; in 113, the subject had been introduced simultaneously into elementary and high school. Therefore, in 237 cases, introduction was first into elementary schools, in 53 cases first into high school, and in 113 cases simultaneously throughout the lower and higher schools. This indicates that for a subject such as household arts there is a readier welcome in the elementary than in the high school; the initial introduction in the elementary school is approximately four times as frequent as in the high school; and approximately twice as frequent as the simultaneous introduction in elementary and high school. Such is the general order or sequence of introduction.

The same figures state another fact of importance, namely, the relative distribution of household arts at present in elementary and high school. In 36 per cent of the communities (145 reported) direct education for the home is restricted to the elementary grades; in 6 per cent of the communities (24 reported) it is restricted to the high school; while in 58 per cent of the communities (234 reported) it has a place in both elementary and high school. The tendency is doubtless for the subject, if given at all, to be given in both elementary and high school; and if started in elementary or high school alone to be added in the other, although there is a noticeable tendency to give it in the elementary school alone. These figures are probably acceptable as to the relative distribution of instruction, but they do not indicate at all the total distribution in elementary and high schools.

Of 390 communities furnishing data as to the elementary-school curriculum, 7 (2 per cent) offer cookery alone, and 165 (42 per cent)