The Dallas express. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1893-1970, 1921-03-12
HOME LIFE AMONG me-
GROES IS IMPROVING RAP
IDLY.
Extension Courses Are Prov
ing Of Great Benefit in Teach
ing People How to Live.

Hampton, Va, March 1O.-"For Ne
groes, as for all other people. good
homes mean better individual and
community health nnd happiness" de-
clared Miss Carrie Alberta Lyford,
director of the Hampton Institute
School of Home Econimics, in her
recent Atlantic City address on 'grhe
Home making Needs of the Negro"
delivered before the National Society
ford said:
Training in home-making is the
fundamental need for the girls and
the women of the Negro race. To Sc
cure better homes the Negro popu-
lation must have better paid teach
ers-teachers with wider vision,
more thorough training, and more
painstaking ndustry-teachers with
the ability to fit Negro women to do
their part in the betterment of COM
munity life. The small cottage sim
liar N type to that in which the To-
cal Negro lives, must be provided at
the school in order to furnish oppor-
tunity for the practice of houseworlI
according to the best modern meth
ods and to instill a love for the well
kept home.
Training in home making must
in the schools II improved home con-
ditions are to be realized within a
generation. Extension classes in
home conditions are to be realized
within generation Extension
wives and continuation classes for in
dustrial workers must also be provid-
ed"
signs of Great Progress.
Miss Lyford outlined the operating
Of the Negro Organization Society of
Virginia for securing better health.
better schools, better homes, and bet
ter farms; the awakening of 12.-
100000 Colored people to the need
of more sanitary methods of living,
more faithful school attendance, a
higher standard of home making, and
a greater self-respect": the uplifting
Of community standards through eff
ficient and consecrated Negro leaders:
the cooperating of State and Federal
forces for the Improvement of Negro
rural life She said:
Encouraging signs of improved
conditions are already to be seen In
the home life of the Negro in many
continue to increase in number, the
next generation of Colored youth
will be of increasingly higher type
and better fitted to meet the demands
of modern life. So vital is the i'm
provement of the Negro homes, one
can almost prophesy that the other
factors that are necessary to race
progress and to national development
will readily follow. 1t would be well
II every teacher of home-making in
teaching to be thus vital and could
work with the inspiration on that
such an appreciation of her task
be sure to bring.
Teaching People How to Live.
However. as history has taught
us. each phase of life is so closely
related to many other phases that
women cannot do their work alone.
Social and industrial life must be de-
veloped from every angle. Community
spirit. public health, a progressive
educational policy, a competent group
business and professional men, and
the possession and development of
property--all these elements have
their contribution to make to the
strengthening of home life.
THE training of teachers for the
Negro schools is a matter of serious
import. All teachers must be made to
feel that teaching people how to live
is the most important work to be
done and thai for all women te chers
some fundamental training In home-
making is essential. Normal courses
must be well planned and thorough
and must include practice s,.idns IN the Inc
neaSHno,I nesTly eomparabie mar % to normal home
life. as possible. The teacher must
keeb very closely in touch with the
home and with all the interests of
home-malSers. The normal school can
make a be~inning in the training or
teacher for so wide responsi-
bility by awakening in them the sense
of need for continued growth and de-
velopment
Extension classes in home-making
for the Negro women who are beyond
school age, or who must early leave
school to earn G livelihood, have be-
gun to prove a valuable means of
Improving home conditions and of Sc
curing for the schools the support
that they need Through extension
classes better sanitary conditions can
be secured, the production Of home
supplies can be stimulated, whole
some competition in the sllillful per-
formance of the household arts can
be fostered and instruction can be
given in the feeding of the family.
Such extension courses are a neces-
sary corollary to the successful teach
ing of home making in the schools,
that teachers may have the support
and sympathy of the parents in their
work
"Among the Colored girls the pros
Continued on page S.