The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-09-19
Tue TEACHING OF
DOMESTIC SCIENCE

1--WE note with satisfaction that in
many of our best schools for girls, Do
mestic Science is becoming a promi-
nent feature. That which should have
come first, in the education of women,
is coming at last Better late than
never 1.-THE next generation may see
wome4I everywhere educated on lines
that will make them more efficient as
women and not as rivals of men,
The complaint is made and insisted
upon, that the system or lack of system
heretofore prevailing in the education
of women, especially in what is called
the higher education does more harm
than good. considered with reference to
the general welfare of the nation 1t is
claimed, with some show of fact and
reason, that this higher education not
only fails to produce good home max
ers, but that it also actually tends to
drive women from home life altogether.
1t is largely responsible for the new
woman, to whom fame is more attrac-
tive than family, and the clatter of the
club more alluring than the prattle of
children. Her ambitions and high
flown college education have given her
no aptitude for domestic life; on the
y,
the rich fields and fruitful sphere of her
birthright, to wander on barren uplands
and waste her life in trying to do what
men as rule can do better and with
far less sacrifice
The home Is the cornerstone of the
state. More homes and better homes,
might we'll be inscribed upon the ma
TONS coat of arms Any movement,
therefore, for the uplifting of the ideal
home, and for the Improvement of it in
practical ways, should be welcomed and
encouraged. Domestic Science aims to
do this and is doing it. We are glad
that it is finding place. and promi-
nent place in the college course for
women. While it is taking nothing from
the height of the education offered,
it is adding very largely to its breadth
and stability
Domestic Science, as now developed
in our best schools, is not fad or a
fanciful fringe on the scholastic gown.
1t is not simply cooking and sewing,
learning to make bread and button
holes; it is real depa tment of study
as well as practice: a scie ace which calls
upon dozen other scienc IS for the best
fruits of their Investigations; an art
which brings to the use and enjoyment
of everyday life the best products of
mans imagination ard invention. The
name that has been given to it is not
pretentious The mastery of it, in prin-
ciple and practice, is no child's play.
While we cannot admit that any
scheme of education for our daughters
can be too ''high," from an intellectual
point of view, we are convinced that a
purely intellectual training is not the
@aI 4 o,,1x,
women. The social, the emotional, the
devotional elements of a woman's ma
ture are the most potent factors of her
life, for good or evil to herself and to
her race More than man does she needs
many-sided culture, that she may be
prepared for the many interests and IS
sues of life to which she will be related.
But she needs also, as truly as do an
engineer or a physician, to specialize.
She needs a professional as well as
general education. Home making should
he considered and PREPARED for as pro-
fession. It is very important and diff
cult one Economic, sanitary and do
mestic conditions IN general are more
COMPLEX than in the days of our grand
mothers: their self-acquired mastery of
hc>ne arts would not at all fulfil the
needs of our times. While some OF the
mechanical work and manual drudgery
of their day has been eliminated from
the home, many new conditions have
been forced upon it A house notsler in
our day need not learn to weave and
knit and make tallow dips, but she
should know enough to protect her fam
lily from yellow novels and typhoid
fever. She should know how to make
the best and most beautiful home that
can be made with the means at her dis
posal She should be prepared TO meet
and solve the many problems, scientific,
aesthetic. hygienic. economic, Which
arise in the field of her ac-
tivity. For this she needs special train
ing. and that training she may now
have at school in well-managed de-
part1nent of Domestic Science.-The
Living Church.