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tudes on the part of students. It is also inadvisable to attempt to group them with reference to whether they serve immediately practical vocational functions or are primarily intended to provide means of personal and social growth. Two types of classification may be considered, however, upon the basis of data available; the practice with reference to definition of courses as elementary, advanced, or graduate; and a classification into subject-matter fields corresponding somewhat closely to the departmental divisions ordinarily adopted by home economics units.

Lower and Upper Divisions and Graduate Courses

Higher education in general is confronted by several situations and conditions that are especially important to an area of instruction so clearly in process of development as is home economics: First, the junior college as a separate unit or as an extension of the public high school is developing rapidly. Graduates of these institutions in increasing numbers will demand admission to the home economics unit of the land-grant colleges with the expectation that they may secure their home economics degrees without special inconvenience or material loss of time. In other words, the land-grant college home economics units will be asked with ever-growing insistence that they adjust their specializations to permit graduates of junior colleges to enter them without handicap and to complete their work in two years.

Second, the level of general education in the United States tends to rise more and more commonly beyond the training afforded by the high school. The affiliation of junior colleges with secondary education is indicative. Should home economics not contemplate reconstruction of its curricula in such fashion as to provide for two years of upper division work to which admission may be obtained simply and easily by general junior college preparation? Should its first two years or lower division instruction in home economics not be intended for those who are not able or who do not plan to obtain degrees but who wish to prepare for the intermediate types of life occupations for which training can be given in two years upon the basis of graduation?

Third, although there is a tendency to start serious specialization at the beginning of the third year in college, graduate work is rapidly becoming something still more highly specialized and requiring content and method distinct from those of senior college courses. home economics prepared or tending to direct its further development in harmony with these tendencies?

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All these situations are of serious import to those who would determine the future trends of home economics growth. This growth must

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take place during a period of general educational transition. Shall home economics attempt a long-time program of development looking to the traditional 4-year college superimposed upon the twelfth grade or shall it venture to anticipate general changes in educational conditions that will take place during the next two decades?

Some indication of the degree to which home economics is aware of these problems is afforded by present practice in division of courses offered into lower division courses and upper division courses, and as providing either undergraduate or graduate credit in accordance with the formal classification of the student who takes them.

Eighteen of the colleges report that home economics courses are not classified by separation into lower or upper divisions or designated as elementary or advanced work. Twenty-three, however, make this distinction. One of these, Iowa State College, reports junior and senior colleges with elementary courses grouped in the junior college; advanced in the senior college. Eleven of the institutions showing a graduation in courses and classification according to upper or lower division make the distinction by college years, the elementary courses being those offered during the first and second undergraduate years; the advanced courses those offered during the third and fourth years. One institution, Oregon Agricultural College, reports that elementary home economics courses have no college prerequisites, while those of advanced standing have. The University of Wisconsin reports that home economics courses classified as elementary are begun by a general survey course; those of advanced standing, are built upon this foundation.

Whether this classification is really significant or only a formal and perfunctory one is hard to determine. An indication is afforded, however, by apparent failure on the part of the greater number of institutions to insist upon completion by students of lower division work prior to admission to upper divisional classification, and by failure to impose any penalty in the case of students who neglect lower division work until after such time as they obtain upper division ranking. However, five institutions report that upper classmen who take courses in the elementary or lower division group do so with with less credit than is permitted to lower division students taking the same work. On the other hand, 27 institutions make no such reduction and it seems doubtful in these cases whether the course classification into elementary and advanced groups has any very real significance. Incidentally failure to distinguish between upper and lower levels of courses raises the question concerning the validity of such course prerequisites as may be prescribed within the curricula pursued.

Further evidence that home economics courses are not specifically designed to serve the purposes of instruction upon the different

levels of junior college, senior college, and graduate credit is afforded by the fact that of the 1,162 courses offered for undergraduate credit 743 may be taken also for graduate credit. Only slightly more than one-third are given for undergraduate credit alone. Not only is this the general situation when the total number of courses is considered as a single group, but analysis indicates that in only a few of the specialties does the proportion that the number of courses for undergraduate credit only bears to the total number of courses show more conscious differentiation between graduate and undergraduate work. In only two fields are fewer than half of the courses offered available for both undergraduate and graduate credit, in general home economics courses and in health. In the case of the former group of courses only 35.7 per cent are available for graduate credit. This fact, however, can not be interpreted without reservation as representing more careful definition and development of courses in this area.

General home economics deals on the face of it with the general rather than the specialized aspects of home economics instruction. It would seem doubtful whether courses obviously intended for general and survey purposes should ever carry credit upon a level as specialized as graduate work should be. The second phase of home economics instruction that seems to show a more sound realization of distinction between graduate and undergraduate courses is that of health. Only 25.7 per cent of the health courses offered for undergraduate credit may be used for graduate purposes. This proportion is probably more nearly the one that should prevail, yet in this instance the fact has little bearing upon home economics practice, since the health courses offered in home economics constitute but 3 per cent of the total number of home economics courses.

From such evidence as is afforded by facts of the kind just recorded it seems that graduate work in home economics as is the case in other fields in land-grant colleges that have not highly developed graduate schools, is too largely merely a continuation for a longer period of time of the same sort of work that is offered in the undergraduate years. In other words, there is too little distinction between the nature of undergraduate and graduate work. In this respect home economics does not differ from the practice that has commonly been followed during the developmental period of other subject-matter fields and during the early stages of other new colleges and major divisions. Nevertheless, the matter is one that should receive the careful consideration of home economics leaders. Here, as in other phases of retarded home economics development, the solution lies in greater emphasis upon and provision for research work both in the subject-matter field and in the educational aspects of home economics work.

Further classification of home economics courses upon the basis of the customary departmental subject-matter fields serves to indicate the relative emphasis given to the different subjects by land-grant college home economics units. Table 15 summarizes the facts with reference to this classification and also gives data concerning the undergraduate courses that may carry graduate credit.

TABLE 15.-Emphasis upon various home economics subject-matter units and development of work in the same shown by relative number of courses and semester hours offered by 39 land-grant institutions

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Examination of the table shows, in so far as number of courses offered is an indication, that the emphasis is upon two fields, foods and nutrition and textiles and clothing. Six hundred, or 51.6 per cent, of the 1,162 courses offered deal with these subjects, of which 341, or 29.3 per cent, are in foods and nutrition and 259, or 22.3 per cent, in textiles and clothing. Next in order of number of courses offered is applied or related art with 188 courses, or 16.2 per cent of the total.

In spite of the fact that Smith-Lever extension work provides employment in the field of home economics to a large number of women only 12 courses in home economics extension, slightly more than 1 per cent of the total number of courses, are offered by the 39 land-grant colleges reporting. Inasmuch as the work of home demonstration agents should require rather intensive technical home economics training in a variety of subject-matter fields it is sometimes thought sufficient to emphasize these aspects of preparation. However, the portion of this survey that deals with the land-grant college extension services shows two things clearly, first, that the demand for home demonstration agents will increase greatly during

the next 10 years, and second, that the training of the present home economics extension field force is inadequate. If to these considerations be added the increasing emphasis upon all forms of adult education and consequent development of methods and techniques appropriate to such instruction, it becomes fairly obvious that home economics may well give greater attention to courses designed for the special training of home economics extension workers.

In the past such courses as have been offered have not been popular, but even cursory examination of the situation reveals many reasons for their failure to appeal to students. In many instances they have been makeshifts, only slightly related to actual work in the field by practice opportunities, and even more commonly the tone of extension leaders in the institutions has been one of minimizing the practical benefits and advantages that may result from formal training for the field. So much reliance has been placed upon common sense, tact, and energy requirements for extension service that the actual possibilities of psychological and personnel management instruction have been seriously neglected. If home economics extension is to be developed to the extent and upon a plane that is desirable, training must be given comparable to that of high-school teachers although of quite a different kind and emphasis.

It is also somewhat disconcerting to discover that the courses that are directly related to health constitute but 3 per cent of the total number of home economics courses offered. While it is true that health and sanitation are treated in other groups of courses from both their public and domestic aspects, it is extremely probable that the small number of courses offered directly upon the subject reflect an actual deficiency of emphasis in home economics work. At no point does home economics have a better opportunity to provide upon a nonmedical plane a very extensive and extremely technical body of scientific, legal, and social training that should create attitudes and interests upon the part of students which will operate throughout their lives to the advantage of personal living and community welfare. It is earnestly recommended that home economics leaders consider the possibility of utilizing subject matter in the fields of health and sanitation to a much greater extent than at present as a means of accomplishing the objectives of home economics defined by preceding paragraphs of this report.

Although not a matter that concerns the classification of home economics courses by subject-matter fields, one further noticeable and perhaps significant characteristic or tendency became very evident in the examination of the courses listed by home economics departments for the purposes of this survey. This was the frequency with which the word "selection " was included in the course.

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