Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1914-08-12


versity Of Maine.l
so long as there have been homes there
has been a certain kind OF economics
practiced in the home. This may have
been very primitive in its scope, and char
scterized by little or no system, but the
thought OF providing for more than one
day at time not only in regard to food
but in relation to clothing and shelter as
we'll, dates back to the very beginning of
family life.
1t is not until quite recently, however,
that the problem has been approached
with anything like business attitude.
Nearly all other activities have been more
or less rapidly reduced to code OF set
principles and rules which has enabled
the person performing the task to con-
serve as much as possible OF his time and
labor and at the same time get the great
est returns possible under existing con-
ditions. The methods have been stand
ardized and the results OF experiments ac-
cepted as the best solution OF each partic-
ular problem.
In housekeeping and homemaking each
family has been left to itself to solve its
own problems. This is necessarily so to
certain extent. As no two people can
plan and regulate their lives along iden-
ticai lines, so, no two families can follow
the same program in every detail. There
are, however, certain basic principles
which can be used as guides in either case,
and it is the adoption OF these which has
made the development OF organized home
economics possible.
We no longer claim that the art OF
housekeeping is so completely and en-
tirely an inherited gift that 1t does not
need to be developed the same as any
other gift. 1t may he that in the majority
Of cases a girl learns the methods more
readily because of her vital interest in the
problems involved, but it is hardly fair
to expect she can get the full value OF her
time and effort in spending the family in
come without special training, when We
do not Tor moment look for anything
but failure from her brother unless he
prepares himself for the business be
undertakes.
As early as 1870 in our own New Eng
land, women began to wonder why they
should not have systemized training
along the lines of home economics. They
realized that "their business" was carried
on with a severe handicap due to a lack OF
scientific knowledge concerning the ma
terials with which they must work, and
the conditions which prevailed. Efforts
were made to find way. Catherine and
Harriet Beecher were among the first to
give expression to the unrecognized need,
and ''The Treatise on Domestic Economy,
written twenty years later by Catherine
Beecher, is remarkable for its compre-
hensive treatment of the subject.
The work has grown slowly in various
sections of the country and has met with
all the opposition attending any new
movement, but no general definite plan of
organized effort appeared until rather re-
Gently.
The Lake Placid conference In 1899,
called to discuss the matter, seemed to be
the thing needed to crystalize the growing
thought, and since that time the move
ment has been more or less well organized
under the inspiration OF Ellen II. Rich
ards, who became its moving spirit.
Now, there is hardly town which does
not know that home economics training is
available, and there are constantly fewer
who do not begin to realize what it stands
for.
There has been a mistaken idea in
regard to the nature and scope OF the
work - not only in the elementary and
secondary schools but in the train
ing schools as well. Because the tangi-
BILE thing is cooking and sewing, and
the obvious result is prepared food and
made garments, many have concluded
that to be the sum-totsi Of home eco
nomics training.
Because OF the rapidly increasing de-
mand for teachers Of cooking and sewing,
many technical institutes have planned
and offered short courses which could
not in one or two years give much work
outside OF those scbjects dealing with
home economics in its strictest sense.
Even these, however, offered courses in
physiology, chemistry, biology, psychol-
ogy, economics OF marketing, household
accounts, art, house construction, furnish
ings and decoration.
1t has been contended that good cook
or good seamstress could teach the work
required in the elementary schools, but
this is past history. It is now usually
conceded that to teach a subject well a
teacher must have much more knowledge
than she expects to impart and teach
much more than the bare outline OF the
subject covers. This is perhaps more issue
of home economics teaching than any
other, so much OF real life and real living
is involved.
While the child is learning to make a
baking powder biscuit or how to broil q
steak she is learning to work effectively
learning to make each movement count in
order to finish in the given time-learning
accuracy by measuring carefully to insure