The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-12-31

Details of What She Proposes.
1t is quite probable that within few
years instruction on domestic science will
be given in some Of the leading colleges for
women, like Vassar, Smith and Wellesley.
Mrs. Ellen S. Richards, of the Massachu-
sets Institute of Technology, herself col
lege graduate, has formulated the opinions
ST many college women upon this question
and presented them in paper on The he
lation of College Women TO Progress and
Domestic Science" which she read recent
" before meeting of the intercollegiate
Alumn@ association.
She says that fer some years eminent
men have taken pleasure in discussing col
lege women rs to their mental ability, their
moral and physical status, their predilec-
tion for matrimony, voting, or the presi-
dency, but that these same men seem to
have ignored considering what kind of
home college women should make, the posi-
tion they should take on the servant ques-
ton, and the influence they should have
on that center and source of political econ
pmy, the kitchen.
Mrs Richards says that notwithstanding
Rll this the college woman has gone serene
ly on her way, making her place in the
world by her practical ability without any
fuss, until she is found today in the thick
Of many fight leader for the right and
for the amelioratiOn of every class. She
says that in the prospectus of Vassar col
lege, issued in 1865, the statement was
made that a young woman in college was
in danger Of forming tastes and habits
tending to unfit her for her allotted sphere.
yASsAR's EARLY COURSE.
And so the managers of Vassar in that
year assured fathers and mothers who
thought Of sending their daughters to
college that domestic economy would be
taught theoretically through text books
and lectures, that visible illustrations
would be furnished in the college kitchen,
larder and laundry, with reference to the
selection of meats, vegetables and other
articles of food, their preparation for the
table, the arrangement of a pantry, the
setting and serving of table, carving,
care of silver and cutlery, washing, iron
ing, and so on, and so on. The prospectus
also announced: Regular hours for sew
ing will be allotted to all the students,
first for the repair of their wardrobes and
then for ornamental or benevolent objects
of their own selection. In these sewing
groups, under the direction of competent
teachers, opportunity win be afforded for
many useful suggestions, and to some ex-
tent regular instruction may be given in
plain and ornamental needlework."
$50 rapidly did the ideas of college edu-
cation for women change" writes Mrs.
Richards, that three years later the only
vestige of this programme left was the
sewing hour and even that has long since
h,1 hot
Is the old idea Of learning to do a thing by
doing it over and over again, the idea of
the trades schools, where the apprentice
has TO go through AL the steps day by day
mechanically till he cannot help doing it
IN a right way. All former efforts to teach
5omestic work in school have been on this
trade school idea. Is it any wonder that
che young women themselves have rem
dered all such attempts more or less futilei
They had a truer idea of the value OF
their time in school and college The
spirit Of the age has evolved a new theory
of education out of the increased knowl-
edge we have gained through the discov-
cries Of science We now can teach the
principles of all trades-that is, the funda-
mental laws of matter and form-in few
months with just sufficient practice TO Illus
lrate principles, and we must bring our
teaching of domestic science into harmony
with the broader education Of the times
SUBJECTS To BE STUDIED.
First, the subject should be put in the
college curriculum on a par with the other
sciences, and as a summing up of all the
science teaching of the course, for chem
istry, physics, physiology, biology, and
especially baCterology are only the stepping
stones of sanitary science. Therefore in
the junior or senior year, after the student
has good groundwork of these sciences,
there should be given course of at least
two lectures a week and folr hours Of prac-
teal WORK, the lectures to treat Of
81 The house and llS foundations and
surroundings from a sanitary view point,
as well as an architectural one.
20 The mechanical apparatus of the
house, heating, lighting. ventilation. drain
age, etc, including methods of testing
their efficiency
81 Furnishing and general care Of
house, including the chemistry of cleaning
-. Food and clothing of a family, APP
piled physiology. chemistry of food, and
nutrition
IS Relation OF domestic service TO the
general question OF labor, with discussion
of present conditions and proposed reforms.
The practical work should consist of:
81 Visits of inspection, accom- panied by
the instructor, TO houses in process of con-
struction, TO those OF good and bad types.
OF both old and new
- Visits to homes where the housekeep-
er has put in practice some or all of the
theories of modern sanitary and economic
living
- Conferences with successful and pro
gressive housekeepers.
- Practical work and original invesUi-
CATION in the laboratory Of sanitary chem
istry.
Think you young woman, after year
of this study, will be less fitted to manage
a modern household than one who has
made beds, washed dishes, or learned darn
ing all through her college courseg / vent
ure 10 say that no work more worthy OF
the collegiate alumne or more far reaching
in its possibilities for good can be under
taken than the formation Of home science
clubs, not only by every association
branch, but wherever half a dozen women
can be found with patience and courage
enough 20 study the local conditions affect
ing home life New York SUM-