IV. THE HIGH SCHOOL AND EDUCATION FOR THE HOME.

The American high school is both a college preparatory school and a finishing school. The pull of the college upon it has determined its curriculum in the past, and those students whose education was not to extend beyond the high school were formerly sent through a curriculum whose end point was the college. This is all changing, however, and the recognition that the high school must be the people's great vocational school, fitting for all lines of activity in the community-industrial, commercial, agricultural, household—has become the most fruitful principle in high-school organization. Not that our secondary education should be transformed into trade schools exclusively, but that alongside the college preparatory curriculum should be placed vocational curricula, each with its systematic cultural training as well as its definitely organized technical subjects leading to vocational efficiency in its appropriate field. Granted that nine-tenths of our young people who go into high schools are to go no further than the high school, what manner of course shall they pursue? The last word in education is to conserve all that there is of good in academic cultural training, but to add to it for every individual specialized preparation for some one useful vocation. This means, for our high schools, curricula that are combinations of academic and technical subjects, organized for definite end points of service, in the home and in outside employment.

The vocational dilemma of young women has been noted by many. On the one hand is the growing demand that they equip themselves as wage earners in some outside employment, and, on the other, their own interest in the vocation of homemaking and the social pressure that modern knowledge be applied in housekeeping. The average young woman must command two vocations, actual wage-earning and potential housekeeping. Shall she learn two vocations in high school?

At present the vocational adjustment for girls in high schools seems to be developing about as follows: Some young women choose outright an industrial or commercial course; in such cases there should be time allowed within it for a year or more of work in

household science supplementary to vocational and academic subjects. Some will wish to choose as their vocation the industrial applications of household science and art in cookery, baking, catering, sewing, millinery, costume design, etc. While the full possibilities here are not yet developed, it is obvious that as far as wage-earning vocations can be based on the household arts, the young woman who chooses from this field will get a double educational value, for she will not only have a revenue-producing vocation which can be practiced in the market, but in the event of marriage she has a skill which is directly applicable in the household. A third group of high-school girls will not choose a wage-earning vocation, either commercial, industrial, or the vocations recently derived from the household, but will stand firmly by woman's traditional vocation of home-making. For these evidently a vocational course is needed in which homemaking is as adequately prepared for as commercial work in the commercial curriculum of the high school. Finally, there is the group of girls whose education is not to be completed in the high school, and who choose the college preparatory course. For these there is a double solution as regards training in the home artseither to postpone all training in this field to the college level, or to provide one or more years of household science in the high school as part of the college preparatory course. Because of the uncertainty of human plans, even as to so compelling an ideal as the desire for a college education, it would be the part of wisdom to include a year or more of household science in the college preparatory high-school course, quite as in the vocational curricula other than that of homemaking.

There is evidently needed on the high-school level two types of home-arts training: First, an efficient vocational preparation in homemaking, which will equip a young woman to assume the management of her mother's home or later her own home; second, a training for wage-earning vocations, based originally on the household arts-cooking, catering, baking, sewing, millinery, dressmaking, laundering, nursing (preparatory to nurses' schools), costume design, etc. In these and in all vocational curricula in high schools, there is no thought of mere trade courses, but of combined academic-technical courses that broaden life while preparing for service in a limited field. In the vocational curricula that have no reference to the home, and in the college preparatory course, there should be provision among these broadening courses for one or more years of household science to give some preparation for women's potential profession of homemaker. These types of household courses for high schools are illustrated in some of the following sections. One observation may be made, namely, that the division of instruction into the sub

jects of "domestic science" (cookery) and "domestic art" (sewing) tends to obscure the vocational unit, which is either the general field, housework, or some division-as cooking or dressmaking.

The preliminary recommendations of the committee on household arts of the National Education Association commission on the reorganization of secondary education are: The teaching of cooking and sewing are to be required in the grades; but until so provided, noncredit make-up courses are to be given in the first year of high school for those who have not had work in the elementary school.

In the high school the emphasis should be on the reasons for doing things, and the food work should be given largely from the point of view of applied science; and, in order that the girls may have some science to apply, it is desirable that a course in general science should precede the work in foods or be taken parallel with it. For this reason it seems better to put this course (foods) in the second year of the high school.

The committee recommends one unit of work in the grades and four in the high school; the latter to include a unit of clothing and of food each, a half unit of dressmaking and millinery, a half unit of house planning, decoration, furnishing, and sanitation, a half unit of textile study, and a half unit of dietetics. Three units (two in high school) are recommended as required work and two as elective. "Those who go no further than the high school, those who wish to specialize in household arts, and those who are planning to take up quite a different subject afterwards, are recommended to take the five units." 1

High-school credit for elementary household arts. So long as some students begin household science in high school without preliminary instruction in elementary school, such beginning work in high school should have high-school credit. This seems only fair, especially in a vocational subject. The suggestion of offering makeup courses in high school, to be taken without credit, similar to make-up noncredit courses in the colleges, seems questionable for high schools at least. An interesting precedent is that of the New York State high schools, which give credit for one-half the seventh and eighth grade cooking, sewing, and manual training, and ultimately may give full credit for this grade work.

Section 1. A DOMESTIC-SCIENCE COURSE IN A GENERAL HIGH

SCHOOL-BROOKLINE, MASS.

is

The Brookline, Mass., four-year course in "domestic science given in a general high school which offers five types of courses: Classical, subclassical, general, technical, and business. There is also a domestic-arts course parallel to the domestic-science course. The domestic-science course, outlined below, had last year a registration of 75 out of 270 girls in the school. Girls may elect one or more

1 U. S. Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 1913, No. 41, p. 58.

years, but are encouraged to take the four years. The aim of the course is homemaking; a few girls in the course have gone to college, but the difficulty of securing recognition for home economics is a barrier. A little postgraduate work has been given, and the school has experimented with continuation teaching by a three-lecture course for housewives which was well attended. A practical arts high school has recently been established in Brookline with more pronounced vocational aim in home economics.

Domestic science is defined as including "food and house sanitation and personal hygiene, studied with scientific methods for the purpose of developing efficient homemakers and useful citizens." Domestic science work extends through the four years in the high school, occupying four periods a week throughout the course. topics, by years, are as follows:

The

First year. Chemistry and the physics of heat-two periods a week: 1. Study of flames. 2. Thermometers. 3. Boiling point. 4. Freezing point. 5. Heat production, sources, nature, effects, transference, measure. 6. Water: distillation, solvent power, hard and soft water. 7. Hydrogen; synthesis of water. 8. Study of air and its principal gases. 9. Carbon dioxide. 10. The common chemical elements present in food compounds. 11. Synthesis, typical acid and base. 12. Acids, bases, and salts in connection with food work. 13. Some organic compounds. Definition, sources, formation, and uses. 14. Five food essentials.

Food and its preparation-two periods per week: 1. Study of kitchen equipment. 2. Carbohydrates. Sugar cookery. Starchy vegetables. Cooking of sauces, soups, and purées. Batters and doughs. 3. Protein. Albumenoids, albumen of egg. Preparation of egg dishes; methods based on results of experiments. Myosin. Study of muscle. Cuts of meat. Principles of meat cookery. Preparation of meat dishes. Gelatinoids. Connective tissue, bones, etc. Gelatine dishes. Nitrogenous extractives. 4. Fats and oils. Salad dressings. Beef dripping. Frying. Sauteing. Desserts and cream. 5. Mineral matters. Physiological value and sources of mineral matters in food. Second year.-A. Chemistry of cooking and cleaning. 1. Removal of dust and dirt. 3. Solvents for grease. 3. Soap and soap making. 4. Cleaning metallic surfaces. 5. Removal of spots and stains from wood. 6. Removal of spots and stains from fabrics. 7. Testing food for starch, sugar, fat, mineral matter, and protein. 8. Composition of the body, food essentials, sources of mineral matter, starch, sugar, and protein, comparative cost, foodstuffs. 9. Balancing menus. 10. Simple experiments in digestion.

B. Food and dietaries: 1. Chemical composition, food value, and cost of various foodstuffs. 2. Metric system. 3. Heat and measurements; heat and work; calorimeter. 4. Daily requirements as regards muscle-building and energy-furnishing material. Balancing. 5. Menus planned to meet requirements worked out. 6. Occupation, climate, age, etc., considered.

C. Marketing and food preparation. 1. Practical marketing lessons. 2. Preparation of seasonable menus. 3. The best meals for the least expenditure of time, strength, and material. 4. Food for children. 5. School lunches. 6. Table setting, decoration, and serving.

Third year.-A. House sanitation : 1. Situation and surrounding of the house. 2. Study of soil and building sites. 3. Location from practical and sanitary

standpoints

4. Plumbing materials, construction with plans, care, simple tests. 5. Ventilation, chemical air tests. 6. Heat. Various methods, charts, and heating appliances. 7. Lighting; coal and water gas, acetylene, kerosene. candle, electricity. 8. Study of the plumbing, heating, lighting, and ventilating systems in the high school and at home.

B. Convenient house plans: 1. Principles of mechanical and architectural drawing. 2. House plans and elevations. 3. Plans of the plumbing system.

C. History of home and art in the home: 1. Historical development of the house. 2. Modern American houses. Excursions. 3. Situation and surroundings. 4. Practical and artistical requirements. 5. Finishing, furnishing, and decorating, based on experiments with color.

Fourth year.-4. Bacteriology and household biology: I-1. The microscope and the history of bacteriology. 2. Yeast molds and bacteria. 3. Household applications of bacteriology. 4. Dust and its dangers. 5. The housefly and mosquito. 6. Analysis of air, water, and milk. 7. Fermentation from biological standpoint. 8. The modern theory of disease. 9. Antiseptics. Food preservatives and their effect upon human organism. II. The care of little children and food for little children, III. Home nursing, including the preparation of food for the sick; general diseases and disinfection. IV. Home treatment of simple accidents, cuts, sprains, scalds.

B. Economics: 1. Economic problems of the home. 2. Household expenditures. 3. Division of income. 4. Household accounts. 5. Relation of food to labor power. 6. Saving time, strength, and material în conducting household operations (scientific management). 7. Household industries from the ethical and from the economic standpoint.

C. Chemistry of food and cleaning: 1. Analysis of some compounds used in the household: Milk, olive oil, baking powder, washing powder, silver polish, bluings. 2. Bleaching and dyeing. 3. Test for adulterations and preservatives in milk, butter, cheese, salt fish, dried meats, coffee, spices, salad oil, etc. 4. Preparation of some chemicals in common use in the household.

The Brookline domestic science syllabus also includes a list of study topics suggested for the economics class, and for English themes. For economics: The consumption of wealth. Food and its relation to labor power. The housing of the poor and its relation to good citizenship. Municipal sanitary regulations. Expenditure versus saving. Division of income. Domestic service (as part of the general labor problem). The work of superintending a home compared with other economic operations. Child labor. Pure food. For English themes: How we furnish the house. The system of plumbing in the Brookline high school. The system of ventilation in the high school. The Brookline water supply. The milk supply. Care of milk on the farm and in the home. Yeast and its relation to bread making. Cost of food in relation to its nutritive value. Problems of sanitation on a country place. An electrically equipped house. Our heating plant. Choosing a location.

Section 2. DOMESTIC-ART COURSES DOMESTIC CHEMISTRY: LOS ANGELES HIGH SCHOOLS.

A home-economics course is offered in each of the high schools of Los Angeles, the curriculum varying with the purpose of the particular school, whether general, manual training, or technical. The Hollywood High School has a special household-arts building, which provides unusual facilities for such instruction. The following courses are given in high schools, the precise offering varying in