New Britain herald., 1915-06-17

every nursery should be laboratory.
 This is the sane ideal which mott yates the teachings of that new cult, Mothercraft And continuing the thought, it's leaders declare that lab oratory is" not a place for haphazard experimentation. In this workroora, above all others, all actions should be based upon laws and carefully thought out principles. -~l
 Woman Should Be Professional.
 'The greatest, profession in the world has been carried on. from the beginning of time, by an army of amateurs. It is now necessary to make of every woman a professional.
 "It is Imaginable to know that 8 stenographer studies for two or three months at the least for the simple task of taking dictation and then transcribing it to a typewriter sheet She does that because no man should think of employing her if she did not know her work with certain degree of expertness. But she is quite willing to accept the most responsible position which the world has to offer her with no other education than a few housewives tales and a mothers instinct which has been raised from the unscientihc ranks of common sense." 4sss
 ''Her husband is quite willing oenl-s ploy her for this task of taking full charge of a human being, which is un- doubtedly more important than talk ing charge of some correspondence. But that is because he knows nothing of this important job, and is quite as culpably negligent as his partner. Cf, -1,i hac 1a matter. If things do not suit it, it can die" .s.H
 Best Impetus From Germany.
 This is the situation as Miss Sarah Constock, investigator, sees it., Miss Comstock has travelled throughout this country and other countries studying methods of caring for and methods of teaching the care of chill dren to mothers and prospective moth CTS. The best impetus has come from Germany, she finds England has done notable work in it's school for nursery nurses. And America is lamentably behind in every respect. She quotes figures to show the truly dramatic quality which our oversight takes.
 I've rank first in national wealth. Our infant mortality rate is estimated as about the twentieth best in a list of thirty-one civilized countries" But she halls as one of the greatest move ments in the world the movement which gives rise to the Mothercraft schools. Three are a few in the west and few in the east. The idea travels slowly, but that is not because the mothers do not want to learn.
 Not Militantly Optimistic.
 1T do not believe that I am mili- tantly optimistic. But I am quite sure that each woman wants to be the best mother she possibly can be. She seizes every bit of information on the subject with avidity. The only trou- ble is that hitherto she has been re- ceiving the wrong sort of information.
 ttMothers' meetings can. be the most excellent things in the world. They are sometimes the most perni- cious. @~leE
 "The person who is in charge of the meeting must be a trained leader. It must be a person who knows his subject, not superf1cially, but in every aspect. When there is an inexper- fenced leader, .or no leader at all, save the woman who knows because she nursed Johnny through typhoid and diptheria without a nurse, the meetings merely become breeding holes for transformation. Instead of science the woman learn superstition. They mistake for laws the exceptions to the laws
 Every community in the coun- try should have some facility for the teaching of motherhood And where the people live so far apart that there al hA Nxyrv AnYs must learn that the government at Washington will send out all possible useful and necessary information for ; the asking"
 The care of child seems to be a wider subject than has hitherto been conceded. To learn it properly, each little girl, when she is in school in the grammar school, in the high school. and in the colleges should learn something of the subject of home 1 making, says Miss Comstock, and adds: "rhe most important feature of nomemaking is mothering. l Merely Preliminary Study.
 ] "It is not necessary that other i studies should be neglected for the teaching of motherhood. But litle,
 a very little, time given each year,
 every year. will go long way. But ] will go long way merely as pre- ] liminary study And this time Is not !; wasted. Even If girl is not looking l forward to motherhood. and every
 normal girl looks forward to 1t. and | most of them eventually become 1 mothers, this teaching is not wasted. I If it is difficult to teach these things at school why not have vaca- ton camps during the summer where these girls can have their laboratory { 1 work, so to speak. There might even be, in connection, kindergarten