Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1914-08-26
DOMESTIC SCIENCE
AND MANUAL TRAINING
Their Purposes and Advant-
ages Plainly Defined
Principal r. w. Adams Tells What
They Are and Why They Should
be Taught in Public Schools.


science, is home economies; and econ
omy means intelligent and careful
management; not merely saving
money. Home economics means the
study of the proper management OF
the home
1t is sometimes argued that the
place for the girl to secure this
knowledge and training is In the
home. The complete and sufficient
answer to that argument is that she
does not there secure it, and that her
mother is not competent to give such
instruction and training, even If she
had the time and inclination to do it
and if her daughter had the time and
inclination to secure it. Every phase
of knowledge indicated as essential
for the proper discharge of the duties
Of the home maker is capable of
being organized for Institutional pur-
poses and it may be taught in the
schools. If it is not dealt with
there, it will be dealt with nowhere
IN any adequate manner.
The woman's instinct is some
times spoken of as a safe guide in
all these matters, but in view of the
results obtained, and in view of the
truths of biological science, such
claim is too abured for consideration. >
There are always some people in
any community who think they know
so much that they can not be taught
anything new. There are men who
will deny that their wives and
daughters have intelligence enough
to vote, and yet will maintain that
their knowledge of the best way of
managing home is perfection itself
impossible of improvement in any
way. These same people used to
think that the only right way to sell
milk was by the quart or pound, re-
CARELESS of its quality; that cow
was COW and one as good as another
if they gave equal amounts of milk;
they looked on hog cholera as dis
pensation of Providence which must
be endured when it came; they be-
lieved men could never fly; they
would still less have believed that
one person could communicate with
another thousands of miles away
without any visible connecting me-
dunn.
Constant study and thought and
4 rIua
the Babcock tester, the flying ma
chine, the wireless telegraph. Our
farms are better than they were /;
conditions of life in country and city
have been improved; careful and sci
entifc research have revealed new
possibilities and splendid results in
the management of our business
interests, our factories and oul farms.
The new barn has been built before
the new house; but why? Isn't it
time that we realized that better
home is worth more than a better
barn? If better hogs, horses and
cattle, why not better babies, and
better boys and girls, and more
healthy men and woman? Why not
improve the unseen conditions of the
house and home? Why not give a
more definite, scientific care to the
feeding and care of human beings as
we'll as cf animals? Why not have
every girl trained to clothe herself
and family of the present or future
with good taste, and in heathful
way, and with proper and reasonable
expense?
1t is the duty of the school to do
that which the home leaves undone
An ideal education consists in being
prepared for any experience that one
may meet anywhere in life; the
fundamental thing in an education is
a knowledge of how to do those
things which a person is sure OF
being called upon to do. When that
part of an education is not gained in
the home, it should be gotten in the
school. 1t is the purpose of domes-
tic science In the schools to meet
these needs which the great majority
of homes have failed to supply. The
statement that your wife or my wife
is an exceptionally good cook is not
an argument of sufficient weight to
disprove the above statement. And
how do we know but even they have
something of value to learn about
home management?
Cooking and sewing are really but
part of a course in home economics
as it is now taught in the best
schools. A thorough study of the
different kinds of clothing material
and their values; how to judge the
worth and value of cloth when buy
ing; how to design and make attrac-