Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-09-07
BUREAU Of EDUCATION
WILL HELP MOTHERS
Bulletins ON Care Of Children and
the Home to Be Furnished
Rural Districts. =

Send all the information You can to
these mothers. We are fifteen miles
from a doctor. So many women die.
Many women in this district live
so to 100 miles from a physician.
I'VE are forty miles from town and
need help for ourselves and our chill
dren."
Eve are twenty-eight miles from the
nearest post office. We need help"
Appeals like these received by the
bureau of education from thousands OF
women throughout the United States
in the past year indicate the need
which mothers, especially in remote
rural districts. feel for advice In the
care and training of their children.
In recognition OF these needs the
home -education division of the bureau
of education has been established. Its
objects are: ITO help parents in the
home education of their children with
reference to health, games and play,
early mental development and forma-
ton of moral habits; to interest boys
and girls. who have left school and are
still at home, by directing their home
reading and study and to further the
education of the parents in the home.
MOCQcr 6clpS bulletins.
To help accomplish this the bureau
Of education co-operates with the Ma
tional Congress of Mothers and par
ent-teacher associations, with view
to reaching as many homes as pos
sible. A series of bulletins on home
educational problems has been pre-
pared and parents desiring advice in
child nurture and homemaking may re-
ceive it from the bureau.
AS basis for further work the home
education division has obtained a
carefully selected list of women in all
parts of the United States to cooper
ate in extension Of opportunities to all
parents for education in home making
County superintendent of schools
were asked to furnish the names of
women in their communities who could
be depended upon for certain amount
of initiative and leadership. Through
the efforts of the 1853 women thus Sc
lected and from other sources the bu-
reau has been furnished with nearly
10000 names of mothers who feel the
need of information on the care and
home training of children. and it is
with these 10000 mothers that a be-
ginning has been made.
Requests of Mothers.
The bulk of the requests are for helm
in the problems of home making and
care of the children. The mothers ask
the bureau for help in choosing 1itcra-
ture, in reading courses for themselves
and for their children. They ask for
bulletins on "home matters" material
for home study for boys and girls, lit
erature on moral training books suit
aEle to children who have completed
the common school course, methods of
bringing together the home and the
school, suggestions for forming sewing
and cooking classes and informa
ton necessary for organizing parent
teacher associations.
Some OF the states. through packet
Libraries and by other means. are
reaching these people who are without
access to the usual sources of ipfor-
nation; but in most localities no effor,
Is made to reach the mothers them
selves with the facts that are essen
! tial to the sound development of the
children and the home. 1t is in this
field that the home education division
| plans to do its work, not by interfer.
ence with local conditions, but as a
clearing house of information for state
| and local authorities.