The San Francisco call., 1910-05-15
MATRIMONY CLASS
LATEST IN BOSTON
Institution Is Established to
Train Girls for Home
Life

Some of the distinguished educators
of Boston have established what is
termed matrimonial school at 10
Chestnut street, on Beacon hill 1t is
their contention that modern conditions
women to become successful house
wives. So they started this school,
where their ideas can be given prac-
tical form. Here group of young
women, some of them from prominent
families in the city, are being trained
five days each week in domestic arts,
which, 1T is believed, will equip them
to become ideal home makers.
FORMERLY KINDERGARTEN
The institution was formerly a kin
dergarten training school, says the
Baltimore News. Recently delegation
of educators called upon the principal.
Mrs. Margaret j. Stannard, and begged
permission to use the institution as an
experiment station for developing new
theories of education along home MAX
ing lines which have gained some
vogue of late. 1t was their belief that
1t was as necessary to train young
women to become good home makers
as 1t was to train them to become
good teachers or kindergartners.
The young women who are pupils at
the school attire themselves in simple
white uniforms, and from 9 o'clock in
the morning until ) in the afternoon are
trained in domestic arts. The course
includes the following subjects, with
which the pupil must be familiar before
she is thought competent to become a
successful home maker: Literature
ethics, child study, household arts,
house building, textiles and sewing
handwork and design, music in the
home. literature for children, home
economics, chemistry, biology, social
home nursing and the care of delin-
quent children.
DAUGHTERS DEFICIENT
Concerning the conditions that
prompted educators to attempt this
experiment, the principal said:
THE old New England home was the
center of many small Industries by
which the daily needs of the family
were supplied and in which each mem
Der of the family, young or old, had a
share. The daughters of the house
helped their mother in the baking and
the brewing, the spinning and the
weaving, and in the care of the younger
children, and by SO helping learned
something at least of the art of home
making. The problems of education
were simple because the means of edu-
cation were limited. Boys and girls
alike learned trades and entered upon
professions by this system of appren-
ticeship.
The home in the present time has
relatively small share in the produc-
tion of that which it consumes. The
factory, the market and the shop sup
ply large proportion of its material
needs, and 1T is often with difficulty
that the younger members of the fam
lily undertake the daily tasks which are
essential to the development of home
feeling. There comes to the modern
home maker with the decrease in physi-
cal labor serious increase in RESPONSE
bility. and she is confronted by new
economic educational problems.
MANY RESPONSIBILITIES
AS buyer she is responsible for, the
health and comfort of the family and
also for that margin of choice which
means higher education, books, travel
and amusement. AS teacher she is re-
sponsible not only for intelligent home
education, but also for the character of
the schools which supplement home
training.
Few women feel prepared to fulfill
these responsibilities and many of them
comes through untutored experience.
The result is a great sacrifice of human
energy and sometimes of human life
The problem of the hour, therefore is
how to modify or supplement the edu-
cation of women SO that they may be
fitted to practice their natural profess
sion, or by preaching its principles raise
the general standard Of nome making.
TAUGHT USEFUL THINGS
The aim of the school is the solution
of this twofold problem. 1t offers to
the girl who is leaving the private
school, the academy or the high school
a year of special training which will
enable her to deal more intelligentIy
and efficiently with affairs of the house
hold. She is taught to cook, to serve
at the table, to cut and make garments,
to buy provisions, furnishings, clothing,
and to take care of all the equipment
of the home.
THE more purely vocational work of
home making required some academic
work to supplement and strengthen it.
The course, therefore, includes some
study of the recent advances in science,
especially in the chemistry of daily
life; the development of the work done
In cleansing the world from dirt and
disease, the great economic movements
that make for the betterment of the
home, as we'll as general discussion of
the current topics of the day, all of
which have their share in making
womanly and responsible women"
Under the head of the family and the
home, the evolution of the family
ethics of the family and the history of
the home are studied, and in studying
life the following branches are inves-
tigated: Home surroundings and care,
books, pictures and music, play and
work, schools, social life and the
church and the Sunday school.
POPULATION OF FRANCE
CnMTJNIIEC To D\NIMDV Z