New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-06-05
The Home-Making Instinct
Crushed by the Schools

ing But this instinct is not encouraged.
Indeed, in most cases Il is pitfully dis
couraged, and not until the time tho girl
reaches the seventh grade-and lots Of them
are not lucky enough ever 10 get there-if
she happens to be in one OF the 80 schools
that teach cooking, she gets a little house
keeping training But by this time habits
have been formed that are very hard 10
break.
IF the children could only Re started
when they first enter school. with their
playing house instinct at its strongest.
Just few little things! They might begin
by busting their desks with a damp buster
and washing their own cups and learning
the cups must be washed with hot water
II the Montressori system can teach chill
dren Of four and FIVE years 10 set and wait
on the table and move about noiselessly.
surely we might accomplish something in
our public schools. It is all go largely q
question Of habit II the childrens eyes
are trained while they are still young they
see at once the crooked picture on the wall
and when they shut drawers they instinct
lively shut them tight. By the time the
children reach the seventh grade, II they
q,
even notice when things are crooked"
OF course, many people say that the chill
dren ought 10 get this training AT home.
but they very rarely get IT there, and when
they do II IS not always of the right kind
Housekeeping advances as do other
sciences. We do not keep house al our
mothers did any more than they kept
house Ike our grandmother.
All these new things about flowers and
folk dancing they are teaching In schools
now are fine but there are new things 10
be taught about housekeeping that seem
TO me just as important.
I'VE may make all the laws we Ike about
pure foods and institute numberless re-
forms in tenement house construction, but
none of them get at the fundamental cause
OF unsanitary conditions, which is ignorance
complete ignorance Of what is and is not
sanitary.
Why, you may remember how we strus-
gled to get open plumbing into tenement
houses, yet ! know Of numbers Of tene-
rent houses that have open plumbing
where they surround the bathtub with
much as did the old wood Enclosed tubs
Then there is the fight we have made for
pure milk. A large can Of milk is delivered
TO grocery store in a poor neighborhood.
the woman who keeps the store leaves the
can open, dust collects on the top OF the
milk, and she puts III her hand and skins
II off. I've seen II happen In different
places. They mean no harm, but they don't
know any better, and their children that
fll our public schools are not being taught
any better.
IF we want healthy and happy citizens
we have got 70 teach them what food TO
buy, how to cook II, the value Of fresh air
and cleanliness and that simple furniture
saves energy and nerves Yet 3H, 800 girls
go out OF our schools each year without
any instruction that touches on this prob
lem.
There ought to be a three-room model
fat for the children 10 copy just as they
cory the teacher as a model for clothes
and manners. 1t need not be elaborate,
but should contain all the things that chill
dren coming from different homes would
meet upon as common ground-the funda-
mentals.
"Of course a great many girls that leave
school early go Into shops and factories or
do piecework, but they must all live in
homes and share part OF the responsibility
for the condition of the home"