El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-05-21

Song DlrQS sing sweeter 5trdln'
Cheer up!
-PL.. McCartv in Boston Traveller
The Domestic Education of Children at
Home.
Mary M. Kingsbury, in the American Kit
chen Magazine, Boston
When we come to consider the
practical value of domestic education,
It seems at first to be obvious, but we
must be sure that we recognize what Is
really practical in all such training.
And here it IL that we moderns must
find ourselves in disagreement with
macy of our predecessors. There has
been the same story in the whole realm
of industry. There is certainly
domestic revolution 10 the tram OF the
in ustrial evolution. When ma
chinery came in it displaced the hand
worker; and the same thing is ge' ting
more and more true in the nome. L
think, therefore, that we should be
sure to re, ain a g. nse of proportion 10
the work OF the house which ID taught
children, laying especial emphasis on
the development of manual skill In
general, rather than in producing any
6SDS CHI duu NY oCNO'oPOA SoAAa 49,
sny particular branch of hOusework
which is likely in the process OF evolu-
ton to be superseded by more
simple and mechanical methods. 1t
should never be forgotten that house.
work is for the convenience OF persons
and should never be an end in itself.
Every new M ,chIne, ev,ry new me-
chanica, Continuance for III tightening
of work in the house means just 20
fraod for i'm nnrtant
purposes. The methods followed in
domestic education should therefore
primarily be those which, while they
inculcate thoroughpess necessary for
the development of the will should yet
invariably inculcate alerLness and
readiness to adapt oce's self to improv-
ed conditions. Ia ell industry we
know that is the most important
element OF success. The defects of all
manual training which specl tllzes TO
such an extent that it renders the
pupil incapable of moving from one &C.
cupation to another are 100 we'll known
to speak of at length 1t should be the
object OF domestic education to peutral-
ize this tendency in industry by seek
ing to develop the adaptability OF the
child a. we'll as to strengthen his will.
Besides the mental and-moral strenR-
theuiug which domestic education en-
b8ll6 anu DeSlQeS PToCsiCoi SSOhO-
mic q Advantages which it obviously 1u-
cures, the last and perhaps most i'm
portant result of good domestic train
ing, Ia it's democratic quality. With
true democracy as with true love one
does not 80 much fall into it as grow
into it. With so many infiue ices
bearing US away from true dem'cra-
cy, with the steady rise OF class pre-
judice and class distrust, the perform
nSkS
probably must, give the mind dem
CORA ic turn which will be useful
enough later on. A respect for labor
is produced by the proper performance
of 1t and a ommOn feeling is engen-
dered by the common performance OF
common tasks. There is still another
point of which l should like to speak
tina interests me especially. And that
is, it seems to me essential that boys
same domestic training. 1t is as nee
essary for one as for the other to have
q trained will aud a steady, capable
b and. Now that women have entered
industry, their only salvation indus
trially is to d versify their occups-
lions. They need training in general
adap,abi itv qui e as much as men. In
the past it has been customary to
divide occupations according to some
preconceived theories of what Is ap-
propriste for men or for women. But
how exceedingly inappropriate is life
with all its change OF circumstance.
Inappropriate but common are all such
changes, in fac, inevitable. 1s it more
appropriate that q man shouldn't
know how to do the washing VIII. his
wife is i'll or that he should know how!
l know at least one poor Methodist
minister in the wilds of Michigan who
thought it more appropriate for him to
do the washing On Mon5ay mornings
than for his delicate wife to do it,.
The fact is there is no fOre-ordained
appropriateness in domestic occups-
ton. apart fir I'm the element OF great
er or less strength. There is only the
adoption Of me ans to az end. And it
is good thing and q practical for a
woman to know little carpentering
and for q man to know how to sew on
his own buttons.
But perhaps some one says "What
then. has Adam Smith lived in vain
and ism t there any such thing as divi-
sion of labor in the family as else
whereof But this.is where the family
does very deeply differ from society as
a,whole. A division of occupations
there NAV we'll be, but in thoss occu-
patiops which relate to the common
life there ought to be q common per-
Torrance, else the division Of labor
will result 10 the division of feeling
and Of thought. II a boy has to make
lis own bed he will not de-pise his sis
ter for making hers. And IL girl car
drive q nail aod understand about run
uing the furnace, she will not feel thai
anybody who can do these simple
things is innately a superior being. II
is not too much to say that one of the
factors that will eventually bring about
that rarest and most beautiful flower
OF life, true m srrisoe, is the proper
domestic education of boys and girls a
home.
Open Fires.
~ am q firm believer" writes q cor
reSpQndent. Gin the moral and sni ri