s^ 
 
 Eleventh Series, No. i 
 
 September 13, 1919 
 
 l^eacfjersi College bulletin 
 
 Vocational Homemaking Education 
 Some Problems and Proposals 
 
 By David Snedden, Ph.D. 
 
 Professor of Education, Teachers College 
 
 Columbia University 
 
 Published by 
 
 ^cati)tti College, Columbia Wini\}tviitp 
 
 525 West I20th Street 
 New York City 
 
 Hdri 
 
 'O^raph, 
 
Teachers College Bulletin 
 
 Published fortnightly from September to May, inclusive. Entered as second-class matter, 
 January is, iQio, at the Post Office, New York, N. Y., under Act of August 24, 1912. Ac- 
 ceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103, Act of October 
 3, 1917. authorized. 
 
Vocational Homemaking Education: 
 Some Problems and Proposals 
 
 By David Snedden, Ph.D. 
 
 Professor of Education, Teachers College 
 Columbia University 
 
 Published .by 
 
 Ccacfjersi Conege. Columbia Winiiittiitp 
 
 525 West I20th Street 
 New York City 
 
V? 
 
 aV 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 
 I. Problems for Consideration 3 
 
 II. What Are Homes? 6 
 
 III. What Is the Vocation of Homemaker? 8 
 
 IV. Sociological Scope and Standards of the Homemaking 
 
 Vocations II 
 
 V. The "Total Problem" of Vocational Education for 
 
 Homemaking 13 
 
 VI. The "Case Method" of Study 16 
 
 VII. Some General Principles 20 
 
 VIII. Application of These General Principles to Home- 
 making Education 25 
 
 IX. The "Project Method" of Teaching Homemaking . . 26 
 
 X. Federal Board's Bulletin No. 28 30 
 
 XI. Household Arts as Liberal Education 33 
 
 Copyright, 1919, by Teachers College, Columbia University 
 
 Vi'.oM CArD vzcr\o>4. 
 SEr 4 t9a 
 
 ciAsesioo 
 
VOCATIONAL HOMEMAKING EDUCATION: 
 SOME PROBLEMS AND PROPOSALS* 
 
 The education of women and girls for the homemaking voca- 
 tions has evolved to a point where many specific problems can 
 be diagnosed. It is the purpose of this bulletin to state a few of 
 these problems, to suggest some methods for their further study, 
 and to submit certain tentative proposals for criticism. As far 
 as practicable, the methods employed will be those being devel- 
 oped in educational sociology, namely, to base all proposed aims 
 of education upon an analysis and evaluation of these needs of 
 social groups to be realized in and through education, school and 
 non-school. The standards will be those increasingly accepted 
 in the general theory of vocational education. The bulletin is 
 designed primarily for educators engaged in research in the 
 fields of homemaking and household arts education, or in admin- 
 istering state and national legislation intended to promote such 
 education. 
 
 I. Problems for Consideration 
 
 1. Do we possess as yet any definitions of the homemaking 
 vocations sufiiciently specific and concrete to serve as founda- 
 tions for the formulation of satisfactory programs of instruction 
 and training for those vocations? Where can they be found? 
 (It is obvious that definitions expressed only in vague general 
 terms render very poor service.) 
 
 2. Back of definitions of homemaking, do we as yet possess 
 analyses and classifications of homes sufficiently concrete to 
 enable us to determine what are, for given social groups and 
 conditions, optimum degrees of efficiency to be expected of 
 homemakers? (For example, the criticism is often heard that 
 
 * In the preparation of this paper, the writer has availed himself constantly of 
 the suggestions and criticism of students, colleagues, and others too numerous to 
 mention by name. Thanks are due them all for their patience no less than for 
 their courtesy. 
 
 [3] 
 
existing programs of home economics education are based on 
 excessively high home maintenance standards from the stand- 
 point of those whom they are to serve — that they ignore the 
 $900-$!, 200 income class home, in spite of its prevalence.) Where 
 can such analyses be found? 
 
 3. Have we as yet any sufficient survey of the effectiveness of 
 the non-school vocational education for homemaking which now 
 prevails (and always has prevailed, possibly in different forms) 
 in various social groups or income levels? Where can the results 
 of such surveys be found? (It is alleged that programs of basic 
 home economics education now take no adequate account of 
 the effectiveness of non-school education, and therefore fail to 
 utilize its results, cooperatively or as basis of correlation.) What, 
 for specified groups or conditions, are the contributions of such 
 education to (a) ideals and appreciations, (b) technical knowl- 
 edge, and (c) skills, at age levels 1-12, 12-15, iS^iS for non-wage- 
 earners or school attendants, (d) 15-18 for wage-earners or 
 school attendants, (e) 18-22 for home "boarders," (/) 18-22 for 
 home assistants, (g) 22-30 for young married women, etc.? 
 
 4. Is it practicable to distinguish in the actual exercise of the 
 homemaking vocation by given individuals the factors, respec- 
 tively, of "skills," forms of "related technical knowledge," and 
 forms of "related hygienic, social, and cultural knowledge (and 
 ideals)" in such a way as to deduce therefrom the best parts 
 which should be played respectively by home apprenticeship, 
 school education, and undirected experience, in the total edu- 
 cative processes of producing vocational competency? (Home 
 economics classes and courses have heretofore restricted them- 
 selves largely to technical instruction; they seem to have done 
 little to produce the two classes of skills essential in homemaking 
 — manipulative and managerial; and both their methods and 
 results have been freely criticised as "impractical," "over-tech- 
 nical," "excessively wedded to book and laboratory.") Under 
 what conditions can technical instruction alone function in voca- 
 tional competency — (a) as instruction unconnected with home 
 experience for girls 12-16 under conditions of home apprentice- 
 ship, (b) as instruction uncorrected with home experience on 
 part of girls 16-20, (c) as extension instruction to housewives? 
 Does Bulletin 28 of the Federal Board for Vocational Education 
 
 [4] 
 
definitely provide for "training"? How can training in "liome- 
 making arts" be given? Have we as yet any satisfactory analyses 
 of "training" for homemaking at ages 12-14, I4~i6, 16-20, 
 before marriage, after marriage? 
 
 5. In general it is agreed that the best time for vocational 
 education is just prior to the individual's undertaking "full 
 responsibility" work as operative or manager in the vocation 
 itself. When do the following persons usually undertake "full" 
 or "part" responsibility work: farmers' daughters not leaving 
 home until married; domestic servants; women, wage-earners 
 from 16-23, then marrying and discontinuing outside work; 
 home-staying daughters? How far are girls exceptions to above 
 principle by virtue of constant living in homes? How far do 
 girls at 14-16 possess active motives for entry upon vocational 
 homemaking? How far can results of homemaking instruction or 
 training keep in "cold storage" (without application), e.g., in cases 
 of girls 16-22 working for wages, but living at home? How far can 
 "instincts" for homemaking contribute to expected proficiencies 
 — along food lines, clothing, sick-nursing, child care, management? 
 Which of these problems have been well investigated? 
 
 6. To what extent have aims, methods, and administrative 
 organization of home economics education taken shape under 
 limitations imposed by conditions of other forms of education? 
 Why do we think of it chiefly as related to ages 14-18 in high 
 schools? As parallel to liberal arts courses? As dependent upon 
 "laboratories"? As yielding almost no forms of cooperation with 
 homes? How can we provide for investigation of problems of 
 specific aim and method on assumption of "optimum" conditions? 
 
 7. What is the "case" method of study? Is it practicable to 
 procure, within reasonable limits of precision, type "cases" of 
 home practice, preparation for home practice, needs of prepara- 
 tory training, present schemes of school preparation, and the 
 like, and tentatively to analyze and evaluate these? 
 
 8. What are principles of vocational education in general 
 which are capable of application in homemaking? 
 
 9. What is the "home project method" of vocational home- 
 making? 
 
 10. Are the suggestions of Bulletin 28 conclusive? 
 
 11. What is the place of household arts in liberal education? 
 
 [5] 
 
II. What Are Homes? 
 
 The "home" is a very much generaHzed conception. Every 
 person can in a measure appreciate, even visuaHze, a home or 
 homes. But we still possess no adequate analysis of the essential 
 characteristics and functionings of homes of various kinds. Be- 
 cause of the indetermihateness of prevailing "job analyses" of 
 homemaking and the hardly less vague standards of functioning 
 of the home as a social agency, most current proposals and prac- 
 tices toward education for homemaking exhibit endless evi- 
 dences of artificialty and impracticality. 
 
 1. In the most universal sense, the home is obviously a place 
 for the rest and recreation of adults. It is manifestly also a 
 workshop for the elaboration of consumable goods — foods, cloth- 
 ing, beds, social intercourse, worship, education. In its pro- 
 founder aspects it is a means for the nurture of children. These 
 functions are interdependent, interlocked; but, for any given 
 type of home, which are more fundamental, more socially essen- 
 tial, than others? We greatly need concrete analyses of these 
 problems along the lines of the classifications suggested below. 
 
 2. It is, indeed, highly desirable that we should have func- 
 tional analyses of various types of "homes." In the modern 
 world there are many specialized agencies which function, 
 temporarily or permanently, as homes for adults engaged in 
 vocational pursuits — barracks, cantonments, ships, hotels, bache- 
 lors' cabins, dormitories, hotels, Pullman cars. There are hive- 
 like homes for children more or less abnormally situated — asy- 
 lums, boarding-school dormitories, institutional cottages. Homes 
 for monogamous families also exist in several species, from the 
 hotel apartment and housekeeping apartment, the urban "row" 
 or semi-detached house, to the detached urban dwelling, and the 
 farm homestead. 
 
 3. If we assume that, sociologically considered, the primary 
 function of the "home" is to contribute to the rearing of chil- 
 dren, then the various species of "family" homes should be 
 divided into a number of varieties according to scope of their 
 work, and the means wherewith it is to be done. The following 
 at least are some of the types that require extended analysis (the 
 words "normal number of children" denote expectancy of from 
 
 [61 
 
four to six children by time mother is at age of forty) : (a) tene- 
 ment home, no servant help; normal number of children; annual 
 income less than $800 (1900-1914 prices); {b) same, but income 
 $800-$ 1 200; (c) same, except apartment with hot-water and heat, 
 and income $i200-$200o; (d) same, income $2000-$3000; (e) 
 apartment home, one servant, subnormal number of children, in- 
 come $2500-$4000; (/) same, subnormal number of children (one), 
 no servant, income under $1200; (g) apartment, subnormal num- 
 ber of children (two), one servant, income $2000-$40oo; (h) de- 
 tached urban or suburban house, no servant, normal number of 
 children, income under $1000; (i) same, but subnormal number 
 of children, income under $1000; (j) same as (h), but income 
 $1000-$! 500; (k) same, income $i500-$250o; (/) same, except 
 one servant, and income $2000-$4000; (w) detached urban or 
 suburban house, subnormal number of children (one or two), 
 no servant, income $i200-$2000; (w) detached house, normal 
 or subnormal number of children, three or more servants, in- 
 come $70oo-$20,ooo; (0) detached farm home, excess number 
 of children, net income (money and kind) under $700, colored; 
 (p) same, white; (g) same, white, but net income $750-$! 100; 
 (r) farm home, normal number of children, no servant, net in- 
 come $8oo-$iooo; (s) same, net income, $iooo-$i500, irregular 
 help; (/) farm home, normal number of children, two or more 
 servants, income $3000-$io,ooo. 
 
 4. It is also desirable that homes should be classified in 
 terms of the ideals or standards toward which they aspire, as 
 well as the conditions they must meet. What are the "standards 
 of living," or perhaps better, the standards of comfort, toward 
 which are striving: (a) The American-born manual working- 
 man's family? {b) The American-born land-owning general 
 farmer? (c) The American-born well-educated professional man 
 or commercial worker? (d) The colored tenant farmer in the 
 South? (e) The recent Italian immigrant, manual laborer in 
 city? Sociological research is needed to define prevailing types, 
 to evaluate their persistent and their "fluid" ideals. 
 
 5. Of the above types, which are "modal" — that is, statisti- 
 cally most numerous — from the standpoint of the vocational 
 education of prospective homemakers? Which are most preva- 
 lent, or expected to be most prevalent, in given communities? 
 
 [7] 
 
Into which types are the girls whose abilities and favoring home 
 circumstances enable them to "go through" high school likely to 
 fit? Into which types are the girls of a manufacturing city, who 
 leave school at 14-16, likely to fit? What are the types likely to 
 be filled by daughters of poor "renting" farmers? Are we to 
 expect the flat or apartment home to replace the detached house 
 in cities? in suburbs? Are home economics teachers expected 
 to prognosticate the future availability of servant help — and for 
 several income classes of homes considered separately? The 
 probable extension of the apartment or flat type of dwelling? 
 The possible evolution of cooperative housekeeping? Develop- 
 ment of agencies for the cooperative or delegated care of small 
 children? Future possibilities of "boarding" life in nurture of 
 children? Cooperation of the father, on a short wage-earner's 
 day, in duties of twenty-four-hour day homemaking? Probable 
 future size of family in different social groups? 
 
 6. It is suggested that in class work, where not otherwise 
 specified, the term "home" should imply these conditions: de- 
 tached urban house, no servant, from four to six children, $900- 
 $1500 income standard, American traditions. From this, as a 
 point of departure, variants could be described. In many cities 
 the "cold water" (no heat supplied), "walk up" three-to-five-room 
 flat for workingman's families is becoming very common; it 
 means normal number of children at least, no servants, income 
 $700-$! 000. Also the separate land-owner's farm home is very 
 prevalent. 
 
 III. What Is the Vocation of Homemaker? 
 
 Homemaking a Composite Vocation: It is obvious that the 
 vocation of homemaker is composite to an extent characteristic 
 of only a very few other occupations. This remains true, not- 
 withstanding the extent to which certain functions have in 
 America been removed from the homes — such as weaving, teach- 
 ing, food preservation, gardening, and, now, baking, brewing, 
 and garment-making. Compositeness of vocation is ordinarily a 
 sign of primitiveness. When human beings live under primitive, 
 pioneering, or dispersed conditions, there is relatively little sub- 
 division of labor and exchange of commodities. Every primi- 
 
 [8] 
 
tive hunter, fisherman, tiller of the soil, warrior, teacher, and 
 housewife is in large measure and of necessity a jack-of-all-trades. 
 The home retains this character long after it has largely dis- 
 appeared in manufacture, transportation and commerce, because 
 the family is the most universal unit of consumption and especially 
 of the productive processes that just precede or are intimately 
 associated with consumption. Sociologically speaking, we can 
 again affirm that children are the cause of the present composite- 
 ness of the homemakers activities. If children could be as 
 effectively reared in barracks, hotels, or asylums as adults can 
 live and carry on consuming activities in these elaborate organiza- 
 tions of specialized service, then we should speedily see the end 
 of the highly localized home. 
 
 Organization and specialization of service lead to depth of 
 knowledge, refinement of skill, and intricacy of managerial 
 relations. The small "general" farmer, the country store-keeper, 
 the teacher in a small high school, the village mechanic, the 
 country doctor, like the housewife, must always experience the 
 trials of realizing themselves less competent in the special arts, 
 which they must attempt, than the specialists. Utopian sugges- 
 tions that "homemaking" is (or ought to be regarded as) a 
 "profession" render no service in mitigating the hard reality that 
 for the great majority it must long continue a composite of ill- 
 defined and imperfectly standardized arts. 
 
 The first step in the process of defining the vocation of home- 
 maker is that of segregating for detailed consideration some 
 fairly common and constant types of home. The second is to 
 analyze, describe, and, perhaps, evaluate the various prevailing 
 forms of skill, knowledge, appreciation, and ideal now found 
 among those of the practitioners of this type of homemaking who 
 would be judged to be slightly above the average by persons 
 possessed of critical and common-sense judgment. 
 
 Analysis of Type Homemaking Vocation: Let us assume as the 
 type to be considered homemakers in detached village or urban 
 houses, no servants, family budget, $iooo-$i200 per year, 
 American ancestry, normal number of children (two or three at 
 ages assumed for mothers — 28-34), mothers of elementary 
 school general education, no school education in homemaking. 
 Call this type M. Taking one hundred of these at random, we 
 
 [9] 
 
can for convenience classify twenty as A grade (excellent), thirty 
 as B grade (good), thirty as C grade (fair), and twenty as D 
 grade (poor). For purposes of determining prevailing require- 
 ments of the vocation we can confine ourselves to the B grade. 
 The vocational activities of these B grade homemakers can 
 readily be classified under such major and minor heads as those 
 given in the following table; and a consensus of competent critics 
 could assign to these various groups of activities, for the type of 
 homemaker under consideration, crude measures of their relative 
 importance (weightings) along the lines tentatively suggested by 
 the figures here arbitrarily assigned (it is assumed that total 
 optimum competency would be rated at 10,000 units; and that 
 optimum competency in any one division would be rated as given; 
 and that individual MBx might be rated as shown): 
 
 TABLE I 
 
 Classification and Rating of Activities of Type M Homemaker 
 
 Optimum Rating of 
 
 Activity Croup {Majors) Standards Individual 
 
 for Type M MBx 
 
 1. Foods (buying, preparation, serving) 3000 2000 
 
 2. Clothing (buying, up-keep, making) 1500 1200 
 
 3. Household care and up-keep (beds, cleaning, 
 
 etc.) 1000 900 
 
 4. Laundry 500 400 
 
 5. Care of children 3000 1500 
 
 Activity Group (Minors) 
 
 6. Accounting 300 10 
 
 7. Sick nursing 300 250 
 
 8. Housing and furnishing 100 50 
 
 9. Adult sociability 150 150 
 
 10. Garden and yard 150 100 
 
 Detailed Analysis Required: But it is clear that such an analysis 
 as that given above is too crude and general to serve for practical 
 guidance. For one thing, it makes no distinctions between skills 
 and related technical (or artistic and scientific) knowledge. Some 
 homemakers are strong in certain skills acquired purely on the 
 basis of imitation and "trial and success" methods under compe- 
 tent direction; and weak in technical knowledge. Some have 
 
excellent technical knowledge but inferior skills. Possibly a third 
 type of power (or appreciation) should also be distinguished, 
 namely, social insight, or, more adequately, physical, social, and 
 cultural insight. It is also probable that distinctions should be 
 made between manipulative and managerial skills. 
 
 Furthermore, any adequate analysis must distinguish, weight, 
 and evaluate numerous concrete subdivisions in the above 
 scheme. "Skills" in preparing foods are not general, but often 
 very concrete and specific. Skill in bread-making may coexist 
 with lack of it in beefsteak broiling. Competency in making 
 certain articles of clothing may be found alongside of low ideals 
 of up-keep. 
 
 Let it be repeated that the first object of the analysis and 
 evaluation suggested above is to ascertain what powers and 
 capacities are now prevailingly found among homemakers of 
 slightly more than average ability as found in a certain type or 
 class. Such analysis should normally precede attempts to deter- 
 mine what powers and capacities the next generation of home- 
 makers of similar groups should possess as a result of purposive 
 vocational education. In much of current literature on the aims 
 of home economics confusion exists because aspirations are not 
 presented separately from diagnoses of existing conditions; and 
 also because in diagnoses various types and grades of homemakers 
 are jumbled. The problem of vocational education for the girl 
 or woman who in all probability will direct the labor of two or 
 more servants will undoubtedly be found to be different in many 
 essential respects from that of the girl or woman who is almost 
 certainly destined to carry the full load of homemaking by her- 
 self. No less important a:t certain points are distinctions between 
 rural and urban homes, and between homes in apartments and 
 homes in detached or semi-detached houses. Scientific study is 
 certain to reveal other classifications of importance, based, 
 perhaps, upon climatic, occupational, and other considerations. 
 
 IV. Sociological Scope and Standards of the 
 Homemaking Vocations 
 
 I. There are in the United States some 16,000,000 women, 
 chiefly married and widowed, whose principal vocation is home- 
 
 [II] 
 
making. Of these probably 90 per cent are unable to divide 
 work or responsibility with co-laborers; hence they must carry on 
 all phases of homemaking work by themselves — conspicuously 
 the procuring, preparing, and serving of food, the making and 
 up-keep of clothing, laundry work, house care, care of children, etc. 
 For women of this class, homemaking, therefore, at least among 
 white people, presents relatively few variable features, as between 
 East and West, North and South. Hence, homemaking is the 
 most numerously followed of all vocations. Next to it, in point 
 of numbers, is "farming." But "farming" includes many very 
 unlike vocations, from cranberry, orange, asparagus, cotton or 
 sheep growing as specialties to dairy, grain, market garden or 
 "general" farming. 
 
 Domestic service for hire, or favor — specialized and unspe- 
 cialized — may be classified here as "assistant homemaking." 
 
 2. From the standpoint of the sociologist the central fact in 
 homemaking is the rearing of children. The monogamous mar- 
 riage and the home have evolved side by side, most conspicuously 
 in the north temperate zone, probably in chief measure because 
 of their suitability to the rearing of the children — to the making 
 out of children the kind of men and women who could best 
 cooperate in producing and sustaining the valuable elements in 
 civilization. All adults must, of course, have places of temporary 
 or permanent abode; but the beginnings of the most realistic home 
 are laid when a man and woman form a partnership in marriage 
 and soon face their responsibility of rearing through the "pro- 
 longed infancy" the children born of the union. 
 
 3. Endless conventions, customs, and laws have been evolved 
 to perpetuate and to improve the home as a social institution. 
 Most conspicuous is the division of labor between husband and 
 wife. The prevailing American standard, which expresses in 
 fullest development the standards aspired to in other countries, 
 requires that the husband shall be the "money getter" of the 
 family — that he shall produce the marketable goods (or services) 
 wherewith goods for the home can be purchased. The wife is 
 expected to do the "elaborative" or preparatory work required in 
 the home to make goods purchased in more or less raw form 
 suitable for immediate consumption. To the mother falls the 
 prolonged and sustaining care of children, especially when small. 
 
 [12] 
 
To the father falls induction of boys, as they mature, into pro- 
 ductive service. To the mother falls the vocational "by-educa- 
 tion" of the girls. 
 
 a. Space need not be taken here to elaborate the biological 
 concomitants of these sex differentiations of work, attitude, and 
 responsibility. Doubtless the respective "natures" of men and 
 women have become somewhat biologically differentiated toward 
 the best rearing, as well as toward the best begetting and bearing 
 of children. On the other hand, many apparently deeply rooted 
 differentiations are founded only in the social inheritances of 
 customs, conventions, and other "social" habits and traditions. 
 These last can, obviously, be much more readily changed than 
 the former. 
 
 b. A secondary function of the home is to reinforce and 
 develop personality and community of interest in the adult 
 members of the family group. For these it gives a place of rest 
 and some forms of recreation, protection from invasion of 
 weather, and privacy for the social intercourse valuable to the 
 family group. 
 
 4. From the sociological standpoint, therefore, the primary 
 standards of good homemaking are to be found, first in the 
 children brought to approvable manhood and womanhood 
 through this agency; and, second, through the enrichment of 
 personality (health, sociability, culture) accomplished for its 
 adult members. 
 
 a. It is obvious, of course, that each age brings new conditions 
 to assist or restrict the home in the discharge of its social obliga- 
 tions. Schools take over certain functions; adults resort to clubs 
 for sociability and other recreation; the man's workshop is 
 removed to a distance, so that he loses contact with adolescent 
 boys; many productive operations that once gave variety to the 
 work of the wife and opportunities to share work with children 
 are being removed from the home. 
 
 V. The "Total Problem" of Vocational Education 
 FOR Homemaking 
 
 One- great mistake has frequently been made in constructing 
 programs or curricula of vocational education in that teachers 
 
 [13] 
 
and administrators have proceeded to work with existing limita- 
 tions always in mind from the outset. This procedure is funda- 
 mentally unscientific. Programs and curricula should first be 
 worked out on the assumption of optimum conditions; then revi- 
 sions, corrections, reductions, and other accommodations should 
 be made with reference to known and defined limitations or 
 other modifying conditions. 
 
 For example: Assume the problem before us is that of pro- 
 viding vocational homemaking education for certain women who 
 are usually factory hands from fifteen years of age to marriage, 
 who commonly marry at from 22 to 25, whose family income from 
 marriage to forty-five will range from $1000 to $1500 (the 
 mother not being a wage-earner), who will rear from four to six 
 children, and who will live in small urban or suburban houses. 
 It is desired that this homemaking education shall function in 
 reasonably immediate competency when first children are born. 
 Let us assume that we are working in a manufacturing city with 
 large numbers of recent immigrants. 
 
 We know that the actual situations confronting us are endlessly 
 varied. Some of the girls go to work at fourteen, having finished 
 only the fifth grade; others leave after going half way through 
 high school. Some at fifteen have been well trained in home 
 craft by their mothers, some possess little or no skill. Some have 
 been wise "little mothers" and know much about the care of 
 babies, even at twelve years of age ; but most of them will have 
 learned nothing of child care by the time their own first baby 
 arrives. Some of them will approach marriage with considerable 
 appreciation of the responsibilities of homemaking, others will 
 rush in heedlessly. If a good day vocational school of home- 
 making were available, a few of them would stop work and attend 
 it for one or three months in preparation for their new vocation; 
 but most of them would not. If well advertised evening classes 
 in "short units" of homemaking were available, many girls would 
 come for some months, but their interest would center chiefly 
 in making articles of personal wear or adornment or in cooking 
 dishes suitable for "parties"; but a few would do genuinely pro- 
 ductive project work in evening classes. 
 
 Confronted by this heterogeneous and confused situation, how 
 shall we proceed to devise curricula? Efficient procedure cer- 
 
 [14] 
 
tainly requires that we first determine and document in detail 
 curricula and programs on the assumption of clear-cut and 
 optimum conditions. 
 
 1. We can assume as basal these factors: (a) All the girls and 
 women we are to deal with are wage-earners from 14-17 to 21-25. 
 (b) All will marry, and have families, (c) All will be wives of 
 workingmen, having family incomes of $900-$! 500. (d) It is 
 desirable that all families shall live in accordance with "good" 
 American standards. 
 
 2. For the purposes of getting our "total" or "complete" 
 curriculum defined we can assume the existence of these condi- 
 tions: (a) Women engaged to be married and eager to qualify 
 for the vocation of homemaking. (b) The prior experience or 
 home training of these women is so slight and ineffective as to be 
 negligible, (c) The woman free to give three or six months as 
 may be required to "full time" (eight hours daily) for this voca- 
 tional education, (d) The woman living with her parents in a 
 small home which can be used in any and all ways as a "productive 
 shop" for educational practice in homemaking. (e) The woman 
 living in the midst of neighbors among whom she can find oppor- 
 tunities to care for sick or to assume charge of infants when work 
 of this character becomes essential to her program. ( f) The 
 school so staffed and equipped as to give all needed individual 
 instruction, supervision of home projects, laboratory work, 
 related reading, etc. 
 
 In the light of these conditions we produce curricula, programs, 
 courses, projects, etc., having paid due regard to the various 
 kinds of educational products to be produced — skills, applicable 
 knowledge, ideals, managerial abilities, appreciations, etc. 
 Overzealous or "theoretical" teachers might well consider warn- 
 ings and queries at this point: (a) We are not expected to train 
 these young women for a "profession." (b) In view of the 
 multiplicity of operations involved in homemaking, we are not 
 expected to train these young women to be as good cooks as 
 hotel chefs, as good nurses as hospital graduates, as good seam- 
 stresses as those working for wages, or as good teachers of little 
 children as kindergartners. Overambitious standards or ideals 
 here defeat their own aims, (c) What additions to their powers 
 and capacities can we expect these people to make during, say, 
 
 I15] 
 
the first five years of married life, as the burdens of homemaking 
 rapidly increase? (d) Remember, always, that technical knowl- 
 edge not built on experience is apt to be a useless possession, 
 whereas skill, even if unaccompanied by technical knowledge, 
 has a large place in the world. The ideal, of course, is skills, 
 manual and managerial, illumined by technical knowledge and 
 social insight. 
 
 3. Having made our curricula and programs for the situation 
 described above, we can then proceed to make adaptations and 
 adjustments of it for situations like these: 
 
 a. Where young women have had a substantial apprentice- 
 ship in their own homes. 
 
 b. Where it is not practicable to reach young women, but it is 
 practicable to provide two to six hours weekly of training and 
 instruction in regular public schools during ages 12 to 15 or 16. 
 
 c. Where young women are eager for homemaking education, 
 but home facilities for training are unavailable. 
 
 e. Where no school facilities are available and teachers must 
 do all work in the homes of the girls. 
 
 /. Where women can or will take training only after marriage, 
 but where their own homes can then be extensively used for that 
 purpose. 
 
 VI. The "Case Method" of Study 
 
 Probably the most profitable methods of approach to the 
 problems here under consideration from the standpoint of the 
 determination of desirable objectives of vocational homemaking 
 education are to be found in the provision of curricula and 
 programs for typical "case" situations, as illustrated below: 
 
 CASE A 
 
 A woman, 22 years of age, expecting to be married, wishes six 
 months' full-time training in homemaking. She has been an 
 industrial wage-worker for seven years and knows nothing on 
 the "doing" side about homemaking. She cannot cook, set a 
 table, make a bed, or patch a dress. She has had no experience 
 in handling babies, entertaining small children, caring for the 
 sick, buying furniture or keeping household accounts. As a 
 
 [16] 
 
"boarder" or consumer in her own home she has the usual "appre- 
 ciations" of good cooking, well-kept rooms, etc. 
 
 Assume that at 30 she is to have three children, that she will 
 have a five-room house, in a suburban or village community, and 
 that the family income will be $1200 annually. Assume that after 
 marriage she will have to rely largely on herself (not having a 
 mother or other elder person living with her), and that she is 
 ambitious to start married life as a good worker in her new voca- 
 tion as homemaker. 
 
 Assume also the availability of sufificient means to give her a 
 good vocational education — a home as a workshop to meet re- 
 quirements for prepared food, patched clothing, care of babies, 
 on a strictly productive (as opposed to "exercise") basis, as well as 
 books, laboratory facilities, etc. 
 
 Problems to be Solved 
 
 Problem i . What should be the specific aims of the six months' 
 vocational education to be provided? 
 
 Problem 2. What amounts of available time (assume 150 
 working days of eight hours each) should be given respectively to: 
 
 Majors 
 
 a. Foods: selection and purchase, preparation, serving, dis- 
 posal, re-use, dishwashing, etc. 
 
 (a) Skills, practical performance. 
 
 (b) Related technical studies. 
 
 (c) Related social studies. 
 
 b. Clothing: selection, purchase, making, remaking, repair, 
 up-keep. 
 
 (a) Skills, practical performance. 
 
 (b) Related technical studies. 
 
 (c) Related social studies. 
 
 c. Care of house: bed-making, sweeping, keeping articles in 
 order; cleansing furniture, wood, glass, stoves, bathroom fixtures, 
 etc. ; making minor repairs to lights, plumbing, locks, etc. 
 
 (a) Skills, practical performance. 
 
 (b) Related technical knowledge. 
 
 (c) Related social knowledge. 
 
 [17] 
 
d. Laundry, including ironing, etc. 
 (a) Skills, practical performance. 
 {b) Related technical knowledge, 
 (c) Related social knowledge. 
 
 e. Children, including sociability and by-education, 
 (a) Skills, practical performance. 
 
 {b) Related technical knowledge, 
 (c) Related social knowledge. 
 
 Minors 
 /. Household accounting, including especially planning of 
 expenditures, budget making, use of inventories, segregation of 
 expenditures, investment of savings, etc.^ 
 (a) Skills, practical performance. 
 (h) Related technical knowledge, 
 (c) Related social knowledge. 
 g. Housing and furniture: selection, fundamental or long- 
 period readjustments and renovation (not included under "care 
 of house"). 
 
 {a) Skills, practical performance. 
 {b) Related technical knowledge, 
 (c) Related social knowledge. 
 h. Care of sick. 
 
 (a) Skills, practical performance. 
 {b) Related technical knowledge, 
 (c) Related social knowledge. 
 i. Adult sociability and social culture (excluding sociability 
 with children). 
 
 (a) Skills, practical performance. 
 {b) Related technical knowledge, 
 (c) Related social knowledge. 
 j. Yard and garden. 
 
 {a) Skills, practical performance. 
 {b) Related technical knowledge, 
 (c) Related social knowledge. 
 
 Problem 3. What order of presentation of the above subjects 
 would be followed? 
 
 •For some type of homes, and perhaps eventually for all, this should be a 
 major. 
 
 [18] 
 
Problem 4. In each case what provision would be made for 
 training in practical skills? 
 
 Problem 5. How should related technical knowledge be given, 
 and in what relation to practice on productive, useful, skill- 
 forming work? 
 
 Problem 6. Should "practical" exercises (non-productive) be 
 accepted in lieu of productive work? 
 
 Problem 7. How should related social knowledge be given? 
 
 Problem 8. What tests of final competency in each case would 
 be provided. 
 
 CASE B 
 
 Identical with Case A, except that the total time available for 
 training for vocation is three months, or seventy-five working 
 days, of eight hours each. 
 
 CASE c 
 
 Identical with Case A, except that women must continue wage- 
 earning, and can give only four (evening) hours weekly for sixty 
 weeks, divided between two years. 
 
 CASE D 
 
 Identical with Case A, except that women can give only time 
 after she is married and living in her own home. Can then give 
 six afternoon hours in school and twenty-four (or more if neces- 
 sary) hours to productive work in her own home, weekly, for 
 sixteen weeks. Assume teachers with ample time for visiting 
 and supervision of home work. 
 
 CASE E 
 
 Farmer's daughter, 22 years old, eighth grade education. Has 
 always helped in farm home and can perform all ordinary opera- 
 tions with the moderate efificiency produced by home apprentice- 
 ship, including care of small children. Has little technical 
 knowledge or social insight relative to the homemaking vocation. 
 
 Expects to get married within a year, to have a farm house 
 (northern Mississippi Valley), with cash budget of $600 yearly 
 and income in "kind" (owned house, water, wood, vegetables, 
 fruit, milk) equivalent to $250. Assume three children at age of 
 thirty and only occasional household help. 
 
 I19J 
 
Assume possibilities of her attending full time for three months 
 a vocational school of homemaking distant lOO miles from her 
 home. Assume this school to possess all reasonable equipment 
 and teaching force required to carry into efTect such programs as 
 it might decide to be desirable for students of the class of Case E. 
 
 Problem i . What would such a school establish as its standards 
 of vocational proficiency for such a woman? Classify objectives 
 separately under the categories given for Case A, distinguishing 
 under each between practical skill, related technical knowledge 
 and related social insight. 
 
 Problem 2. How will the school test and evaluate the powers 
 and capacities in homemaking possessed by the woman at 
 entrance? How will it correlate these with the new powers and 
 capacities it will seek to produce? 
 
 Problem 3. What will such a school seek to offer as training 
 and instruction under each of the categories given in Case A? 
 Or, what will be its programs of instruction? 
 
 Problem 4. What will such a school provide in the way of 
 facilities for practice? In foods? Laundry? Child care?. Sick 
 care? Housing? 
 
 Problem 5. How will such a school avoid stressing urban 
 conditions? How can it keep solidly in touch with rural condi- 
 tions? 
 
 CASE F 
 
 Identical with Case E, except that the woman has gone to 
 high school and normal school and has taught two years, as a 
 consequence of which her skills and technical knowledge of home- 
 making at the outset are negligible while her appreciations are 
 normal. 
 
 CASE G 
 
 Identical with Case E, except that the woman can give three 
 hours daily to the homemaking school, located one hour away, 
 and the remainder to her mother's home, where productive 
 educational work can be done. 
 
 VII. Some General Principles 
 
 In the framing and passage of the Smith-Hughes Act, granting 
 national aid to certain forms of vocational education, home eco- 
 
 f20l 
 
nomics was included at the eleventh hour. A distinguished 
 member of the Federal Board for Vocational Education has 
 publicly asserted that the home economics provision was a 
 "monkey-wrench thrown into otherwise perfectly good machin- 
 ery." Many teachers of home economics in elementary and 
 especially in secondary schools who were serenely pursuing the 
 even tenor of their way before the enactment of the Smith-Hughes 
 law now find also that that law is playing the disastrous part of 
 money-wrench in their heretofore smooth-running machinery. 
 
 What is the vocational education that prepares for home- 
 making or the work of housewife? Under what conditions is 
 home economics "vocational".? What else can the subject be, if 
 not vocational? These, and many other similar questions are dis- 
 concerting, if not haunting, many of our home economics teachers 
 to-day. They are destined to put to the test not a few of current 
 traditions as to aims and methods of education in fields only 
 distantly related to the homemaking vocation. They show the 
 utter inadequacy of some current interpretations of educational 
 values made by men of strong academic prepossessions. 
 
 The immediate difficulties confronting home economics teachers 
 arise from a few simple but more or less conflicting conditions: 
 (a) Congress enacted the Smith-Hughes law to aid vocational 
 education, and only vocational education, {b) The public has all 
 along believed that the home economics courses which had be- 
 come so generally established in progressive school systems were 
 vocational in intent and results. Hence the public has insisted 
 that schools maintaining these courses should proceed to claim 
 their due share of "Smith-Hughes" money, (c) The administering 
 authorities have in some cases denied that home economics 
 courses as ordinarily found are in fact vocational, and have in- 
 sisted on new and sometimes difficult modifications. 
 
 Now, it is well known that many differences of mind in this 
 imperfect world are due to failures to define terms and standards. 
 How far is this the situation here? On the other hand, sore 
 contests always arise when progressive action is being taken, the 
 very nature of which necessitates discarding of familiar habits, 
 and readjustment of standards. The authorities charged with 
 the enforcement of the law claim that such is often the case 
 here. 
 
 [21] 
 
The history of the evolution of vocational education shows how 
 present confusion in almost all fields of vocational education 
 arises under both the conditions stated above. A few basic in- 
 quiries will make this clear. What does "vocational education" 
 mean? Does it include all those forms of experience, instruction, 
 and training, in school and out of school, which, superadded to 
 the individual's native endowment, finally give him that which 
 we recognize as vocational competency? Then it will be admitted 
 that, in the sense used, everyone, substantially, for thousands of 
 years, has received a vocational education — good, bad or indif- 
 ferent, complete or incomplete, wasteful or economical, as the 
 case may be. In that sense, then, every housewife and every 
 domestic servant in the United States to-day has received some 
 vocational education, although few have received any part of 
 that education through an agency which could properly be called 
 a school. 
 
 We are now on educational bedrock. When and why do we 
 seek to establish schools for vocational education to supplement 
 or replace the other agencies? Only when these other agencies 
 are insufficient to the needs of the time and when a type of a 
 school is invented that can give the education. That has been 
 the history of vocational schools of war leadership, medicine, 
 priesthood, pharmacy, navigation, law, civil engineering, stenog- 
 raphy, telephone switchboard operating, nursing, and elementary 
 school teaching. It will probably be the history of schools of 
 journalism, acting, indoor salesmanship, waiting on table, poultry 
 farming, house carpentry, school nursing, automobile repair, 
 homemaking and engine firing. (It can hardly be said that we 
 have vocational schools for this second group of vocations as yet; 
 current attempts are hardly beyond the experimental stage.) 
 
 Do vocational schools at first undertake to give complete com- 
 petency for a given vocation — complete, that is, as reasonably 
 practicable for the age at which graduation is expected? Rarely 
 ever. Sometimes they assume a previous period of apprentice- 
 ship — as did earlier schools of law, medicine, engineering, and 
 teaching (under the pupil-teacher system in England). Some- 
 times they have counted upon what is in effect an apprenticeship 
 subsequent to schooling — as do present-day schools of law, 
 medicine, stenography, and engineering. Sometimes, however, 
 
 [22] 
 
they have paralleled practice and study in order to dispense with 
 prior and subsequent apprenticeship, as do present-day schools 
 of nursing and elementary school teaching and as some engineer- 
 ing, trade, and farming schools are endeavoring to do. 
 
 It is now good usage to call that vocational education in 
 schools which presupposes previous or concurrent practice of an 
 occupation, extension teaching; all that instruction in the art, 
 science, mathematics, and language of a vocation which antici- 
 pates or precedes practice of a vocation, technical instruction; 
 and all that vocational education which undertakes to teach prac- 
 tical skill and related technical and social knowledge in close 
 correlation as basic vocational education. (But technical in- 
 struction not directed towards, and usually functioning in, 
 vocational practice cannot properly be called vocational edu- 
 cation.) 
 
 In discussing standards for vocational education let us frankly 
 recognize that many professional schools, notwithstanding the 
 years of history behind them, are far from having yet determined, 
 with any useful degree of precision, either their aims or the 
 validity of their means and methods. Even the best engineering 
 schools are to-day only higher technical schools, although some 
 are now attempting, through summer practice, to give a certain 
 amount of skill and managerial ability. In general, their facul- 
 ties still satisfy themselves with the easy assumption that prac- 
 tical skill and mangerial powers are things that must be learned 
 in "the school of experience" — with all the wastefulness and mal- 
 adjustment which that involves. Most varieties of commercial 
 education are still on an essentially technical basis — they do not 
 prepare for a given vocation, but only give the instruction sup- 
 posed to be useful to one beginning what will be practically an 
 apprenticeship in the practice of the vocation. The one sub- 
 stantial exception is stenography and typewriting — here the 
 candidate is, in the best schools, actually prepared to begin at 
 once the commercial practice of her vocation. 
 
 Probably the most disputed question in recent and contempo- 
 rary movements for the extension of vocational proficiency in 
 various callings has been the value of technical instruction in 
 advance of practice. Long before we had basic vocational schools 
 for such occupations as machine-shop practice, electricity, print- 
 
 [23] 
 
ing, carpentry, homemaking and farming, our technical high 
 schools had developed courses of technical instruction in, or 
 somewhat related to, these callings. But practical men have 
 always been very skeptical of the results of such courses. It is 
 true that these schools can easily be administered so that they 
 will select the most promising candidates for the respective occu- 
 pations. A little judicious advertising and testing of entrants 
 will accomplish that purpose. Having selected personalities 
 that are certain to attain success in their callings in any event, 
 it is easy and natural, reasoning post hoc ergo propter hoc, to 
 attribute the success of these students to the instruction they 
 received in school. During recent years a classic example of 
 this kind has been given very wide publicity. A certain tech- 
 nical high school collected data which showed that boys leaving 
 school at fourteen and commencing work at, say, $5 per week, 
 will have been advanced to the point where at thirty years of 
 age they will be earning, say, $15 per week; whereas graduates 
 of the technical high school, possibly starting at age of 18 at 
 only five or six dollars per week will be earning twenty-five to 
 thirty dollars per week at the age of 30. Now, admitting the 
 facts, they, of course, prove nothing as to the value of technical 
 high school instruction and 'training. Every observer of schools 
 knows that only very high-grade boys enter technical high 
 schools ; that of these only the best survive the first year or two ; 
 and that the graduates are a very picked lot, and destined to 
 success in life, schooling or no schooling. 
 
 Among all well-informed educators the conclusion is now 
 generally held that for a large majority of callings technical in- 
 struction in advance of practical applications — which usually 
 means applications in productive work and under commercial 
 conditions — is almost valueless, and sometimes decidedly harm- 
 ful. It is obvious that electrical engineering offers a relatively 
 large volume of technical knowledge. A person of exceptional 
 capacity for abstract thinking can spend several years in master- 
 ing this knowledge — as organized in mathematics, mechanics, 
 chemistry, engineering theory, etc. Then he can begin practice, 
 and apply his knowledge as he finds occasion. But every man 
 familiar with the conditions of higher education is aware that 
 only from one to three per cent of persons between eighteen and 
 
 [24] 
 
thirty years of age are able to develop the powers required, 
 according to current standards, of electrical engineers. 
 
 In pattern-making, on the other hand, skill bulks large and 
 technical knowledge small. The men who ordinarily enter pat- 
 tern-making are usually strong in "mechanical instincts" and not 
 so strong in those powers of abstract thinking which are exem- 
 plified in the study of mathematics. Every educator knows 
 that appeals to common experience will help us here. We should 
 hardly expect a person to profit greatly from several months' 
 instruction in the theory or technique of swimming before he 
 enters the water. The writer once saw an advertisement, 
 "Horseback-riding taught by mail," but he retained the hope 
 that the recipient of these lessons had a horse to practice on 
 while learning. In training a man to be a barber or a girl to be 
 a waitress, it is apparent that only a very little advance technical 
 knowledge could be given with profit. 
 
 In analyzing scores of occupations from this standpoint, it is 
 apparent that two types of considerations are involved, (a) 
 What, in any given vocation, are the relative values of skill and 
 managerial abilities on the one hand, and what we call related 
 technical knowledge on the other? (b) What are the various 
 learning capacities of those who are likely to enter such 
 vocation ? 
 
 VIII. Applications of These General Principles 
 TO Homemaking Education 
 
 It can be readily understood from the foregoing discussion 
 what have been some of the obstacles encountered in various 
 endeavors to develop vocational homemaking education. In 
 earlier stages, when technical knowledge was imperfectly devel- 
 oped, only the practical arts were taught — cooking, sewing, 
 bedmaking, etc. Often, of course, these subjects, as taught in 
 schools, were very superficial and artificial. Then came the 
 enormous development of technical knowledge, especially in the 
 departments of foods, household accounting and household 
 management. Under the head of "domestic art" similar develop- 
 ments of technical knowledge in departments of clothing, hous- 
 ing, etc., were attempted, but with less success, 
 
 [25] 
 
A second stage of evolution in homemaking education came 
 when, under the collective name of "home economics," courses 
 based on the productive activities of the home assumed a largely 
 technical character — it must be remembered that laboratory 
 work, experimentation, and practical exercises are integral parts 
 usually of technical instruction, since, almost never, are they 
 designed to produce basic skills. 
 
 Hence the general demand of competent critics to-day that 
 home economics education, seeking to meet requirements of voca- 
 tional education for homemaking shall: (a) provide for the nec- 
 essary practical experience in productive work required to pro- 
 duce enduring skills, manual and managerial, if it is to be re- 
 garded as basic vocational education; or else (b) connect posi- 
 tively and purposefully with previous practical experience if it 
 is to be regarded as extension vocational education. 
 
 It is denied that vocational competency in homemaking as 
 that is found now in millions of American homes, and as it is 
 desired on behalf of millions more in the future, can be more 
 than slightly produced by technical instruction alone, even if 
 that include laboratory and amateur productive exercises. 
 
 It is recognized that some home economics departments take 
 charge of school lunches. This is good productive practice as 
 far as it goes, even if on excessively large scale for home food 
 preparation, but what schools cover the various fields of foods, 
 clothing, house care, child care, laundry, etc., in this practical 
 way? 
 
 IX. The "Project Method" of Teaching Homemaking 
 
 I. In the total process of producing homemaking competency 
 to function in adult life, we should recognize several distinct 
 stages or even different areas of possible operation. For example : 
 
 a. In girlhood, from six to twelve, it is obviously possible for 
 the mother or for a teacher who can control conditions of time, 
 motive, and familiar implements as can the mother, to train the 
 girl in various specific skills — tea-making, dusting, outing care 
 of infant, darning — and to attach to these and related operations, 
 appropriate technical knowledge, appreciations, aspirations, and 
 ideals. 
 
 [26] 
 
h. From ten to sixteen, at least during the time of transitions 
 from play motives, interests and powers to work motives, inter- 
 ests and powers, it is clearly practicable in the case of a large 
 proportion of girls, to elicit fairly strong interests in amateur 
 homemaking — when the desires and motives are for results 
 functioning as in the adult world of work, but the appreciations 
 and powers are still those of the play stage and spirit, unwilling 
 to tolerate long routines, to search for technical knowledge, to 
 undergo drill or training. 
 
 In many cases this would seem to be an appropriate time for 
 rich ofifering of household arts as general education. Apprecia- 
 tions, insights, aspirations, even ideals, can easily be formed in 
 relation to novel situations in homemaking, where familiarity 
 with, and enforced drudgery in, domestic operations has not bred 
 the blase attitude or even contempt. But teachers should be 
 careful not to confuse the results of this general education with 
 those to be derived from efifective vocational education. 
 
 c. From fifteen to eighteen would seem to be an appropriate 
 time for offerings of basic or extension vocational homemaking to 
 girls who could see clearly ahead of them wage-earning employ- 
 ment as assistant homemakers, as trained employees in the homes 
 of their mothers or others. For the present, of course, little can 
 be done here because popular valuations of the vocations of 
 "domestic service" are so adverse that self-respecting and ambi- 
 tious girls seek non-domestic vocations by preference. 
 
 d. For young women from eighteen to twenty-five, who expect 
 to become independent homemakers, there exist large oppor- 
 tunities for: (a) extension vocational education for those who, 
 like many farmers' daughters, have already had extensive basic 
 experience in a large variety of homemaking operations; and {b) 
 basic vocational education for those who, like a large majority 
 of factory and office employees, have had almost negligibly small 
 experience in, or even contact with, domestic operations. Mo- 
 tives may be strongest just before or soon after marriage. 
 
 e. Other stages or areas could easily be defined, especially by 
 taking account of different social classes. 
 
 2. The "project" is, from many points of view, the best educa- 
 tional device for basic vocational education. It has not yet 
 been tried extensively in homemaking. Its best developments 
 
 [27] 
 
are found in agricultural education. As applied to vocational 
 education, the project is a "job" or unit of productive work, usu- 
 ally of a utilizable or even marketable character, selected and 
 organized as constituting a valuable stage in an educational 
 process. 
 
 3. Homemaking projects illustrated: 
 
 a. A girl or woman of no previous experience undertakes to 
 make ten shirtwaists of exactly the same pattern and material. 
 From the making of the first she gets a large amount of new ex- 
 perience, accompanied by a certain amount of technical knowl- 
 edge, appreciation, etc. In making the remainder she increases 
 her skill, organization of effort, etc. Parallel with her work, she 
 can be helped to insight, as to social, hygienic, and other general 
 aspects of her work. If, after the making of ten shirtwaists, 
 further increments of permanent skill of applicable technical 
 knowledge would be small, then the educational value of the 
 project has largely been realized. Further making of shirt- 
 waists would be valuable for production rather than education. 
 
 h. An inexperienced girl, directed by a competent teacher, 
 gives three hours daily for a month to providing the breakfasts of 
 a family of six. Linked up with the actual preparation of the 
 food and washing of the dishes, will be such technical matters as 
 planning variations in menus, selecting and buying materials, 
 keeping suitable accounts. Related studies of nutrition, markets, 
 technical processes, etc., can easily be linked up to, and inter- 
 preted by, this project by the teacher through lectures, readings, 
 problems, etc. 
 
 4. Scores of other suitable projects, large and small, can be 
 devised. Care of the outing hours of an infant for two weeks; 
 care of a bed-chamber for two weeks; performance of family 
 washing for four weeks; washing and dressing of a child or 
 infant for two weeks; baking family bread for a month; canning 
 four dozen jars of plums; preparation of five successive Sunday 
 dinners; keeping the accounts of a family for six months on basis 
 of "slips" supplied by the family; keeping clothing of three 
 children in repair for three months, etc. For service in schools, 
 those projects should be analyzed in detail, reference readings 
 specifically indicated, and related technical and social studies 
 analyzed in detail. 
 
 [28] 
 
5- Where the previous practical experience of the student 
 justifies the offering of extension rather than basic vocational 
 courses, there may be less place for projects, and relatively more 
 for topics of study, collection of materials and reports, problems 
 for analysis, laboratory exercises, investigations, etc. 
 
 a. For example, a farmer's daughter, age twenty, coming to 
 a short-course, full-time school, who has had much experience 
 with her mother (frequently supplementing her), may be most 
 in need of technical knowledge which she can relate to her already 
 well-assimilated experience. She may most need explanations 
 of the processes she has learned by imitation or rule of thumb 
 methods, including improved processes, accounting, etc. 
 
 b. Where home economics is taught as one subject in a cur- 
 riculum of general education — being paralleled by courses in 
 English, mathematics, physics, etc., it might be possible to give 
 the home economics a Vocational flavor by offering it, in the case 
 of pupils of known home opportunities, as exteiision instruction; 
 but the difficulties are great, and the method is seldom used. 
 
 c. The "project" is often confused with an "exercise" or even 
 with a "demonstration." For the sake of explicitness it would 
 seem best to confine the term to a unit of work which combines 
 productive and educative possibilities, and possessing possibili- 
 ties of repeated performance so as to give skills. 
 
 6. Problems of Project Method: 
 
 a. What should be the "magnitude" of a project? This 
 partly dependent on external character of the work, partly on 
 psychology of learners. Young learners need smaller and 
 shorter time projects than older. Every project should take 
 the learner beyond the play stage of experience into work stage. 
 Short, fragmentary experiences, even in fields of drudgery may, 
 by novelty, sustain play interest for a time. For girls twelve to 
 sixteen, it is surmised that valuable projects should require 
 from ten to fifty hours, no period of application being less than 
 two, and preferably four to six hours. For young women, pro- 
 jects may require 20 to 60 hours, optimum single periods of 
 application (in productive work and related study) being four 
 hours. 
 
 b. What should be the "compositeness" or "complexity" of 
 projects? For best learning purposes, probably, a project should 
 
 [29] 
 
center in one natural or normal "strand" or field of activity. 
 Within one day, a housewife dresses children, prepares meals, 
 makes beds, etc. But a learner can probably make best progress 
 by focusing effort on one or two of these recurrent series of jobs, 
 so as to attend to acquisition of skills, interpretations, etc. 
 On the other hand, the related minor jobs normally belonging to 
 a major job should be included in the project. A cooking project 
 not involving related cleaning up; a laundry project not involv- 
 ing subsequent ironing; a breakfast project not involving buying 
 and accounting — these would probably be unwisely broken. 
 
 c. How can related technical knowledge and social insight be 
 integrated to the project? Eventually we shall probably have 
 hundreds of projects given in detail in booklets, with references 
 to related readings, etc. For the present the teacher should seek 
 to build about each project a series of readings, technical and 
 social. 
 
 d. Should cooperative projects be provided? Occasionally, 
 but not to an extent which will prevent fullest acquisition of 
 individual powers (of execution) and capacities (for appreciation). 
 Cooperative sociability projects are especially good — giving a 
 reception or entertainment, relieving a poor family. Probably 
 also certain projects necessarily of an "observation and report" 
 character — planning the location of a farmhouse, furnishing a 
 kitchen, etc., could be of a cooperative character. 
 
 X. Federal Board's Bulletin No. 28 
 
 {Organization and Administration oj Home Economics 
 Education) 
 
 This bulletin "may be considered as an ofificial answer to the 
 many inquiries concerning matters of policy in home economics 
 education received by the office of the Federal Board." 
 
 In general, the definitions and interpretations found in this 
 bulletin represent the best of available knowledge and practicable 
 expectations in homemaking education. The problems sug- 
 gested below, dealing mainly with questions of objectives, are 
 expected to arise as further developments take place in this field ; 
 but for sake of concrete analysis these problems are here stated as 
 of the present, and with no intention of conveying adverse criticism. 
 
 [30] 
 
1. It is unfortunate that the law uses the term "home eco- 
 nomics" which describes neither a vocation nor the common 
 characteristics of a group of vocations as do the terms "commer- 
 cial," "professional," etc. The words "home economics" will long 
 continue to connote a group of technical studies only, in spite of 
 all effort to the contrary. Educators should now make con- 
 certed efforts to settle on more serviceable terminologies. 
 
 2. Why should it be held that in "separate vocational schools 
 of home economics" which have "but little articulation with the 
 other phases of work of the school system" the courses offered 
 "are usually two years in length, although a few schools offer 
 four-year courses"? Are these arrangements defended? Ought 
 not administrators move steadily toward short, intensive courses, 
 each composed of short units, in vocational homemaking? Will 
 not "long courses" perpetuate the weaknesses of "long course," 
 over-technical, insufficiently practical, industrial, agricultural 
 and commercial courses? 
 
 3. Is it well to try to force the word "laboratory" to include 
 the meanings given on page 33 and elsewhere? Etymologically, 
 the word "laboratory" may mean the same as workshop or place 
 of productive work; but historically and practically, in thousands 
 of industrial establishments, colleges, and other centers of re- 
 search, it now means specially equipped places of experimenta- 
 tion, investigation, testing, and study. It once meant, also, a 
 place of production of drugs; but even this meaning is becoming 
 obscured. To try to use the term in a special sense as designating 
 a place for "practice in all the home activities which are taught 
 within the (vocational) school, such as housekeeping, garment- 
 making, etc.," is to court endless misunderstandings, misdirected 
 effort and perpetuation of old traditions of technical instruction. 
 A laboratory is not a place for the practice of a vocation: 
 that is a farm, shop, office, kitchen, home, or school. Let a 
 homemaking school, using "local (or actual) homes" or "school 
 homes" for practice, have one or more small laboratories for 
 testing, experimentation, etc. ; but call the practice place a school 
 home or an actual home. 
 
 4. Is it wise to provide so extensively for the necessarily arti- 
 ficial equipment suggested on pages 19 and 20? Homes are 
 found in large numbers within a dozen blocks of almost all 
 
 [31] 
 
except country schools. These are real homes, where real pro- 
 ductive work must be done. Judging by experience in other 
 fields of vocational education, artificial equipments of this kind 
 can be used for genuinely laboratory purposes and for demon- 
 stration purposes, but never effectively for practice purposes. 
 More readily than in almost any other field it should prove prac- 
 ticable in homemaking to establish cooperative or part-time 
 arrangements. To realize the maximum benefits, these should 
 be on a project basis. 
 
 5. "Vocational subjects to be selected (for a course in voca- 
 tional home economics) should be determined by an analysis of 
 the occupation." This is, of course, indispensable, but it should 
 be noted that, for practical purposes: 
 
 a. Such an analysis by strands of work or types of daily 
 duty is almost valueless unless it also somehow indicate degrees 
 of proficiency in each. All homemakers in America now, the 
 very poor no less than the good, can cook, serve, repair clothing, 
 care for children, buy furniture. But we want the next genera- 
 tion to do these things better. 
 
 b. Because of the few fundamental types of homemaking and 
 the universality of home activities, central authorities (state or, 
 preferably, national) can make these occupational analyses to 
 best advantage. Individual teachers need much help here, espe- 
 cially while standards are so vague. As suggested before, home 
 economics teachers are usually insufificiently equipped with 
 practical knowledge of home productive processes (as carried on 
 in actual homes) as these should be scientifically analyzed, de- 
 scribed, and evaluated. 
 
 6. "The law provides that schools or classes giving instruction 
 to persons who have not entered upon employment shall require 
 that at least half of the time of such instruction shall be given to 
 practical work on a useful or productive basis." But the Federal 
 Board here holds "practical work on a useful basis" to mean 
 "instruction in vocational subjects designed as preparation for 
 homemaking." Experience will undoubtedly show that this 
 interpretation is indefensible either as good law or good pedagogy. 
 Practical work on a useful basis is just as capable of recognition 
 and of being provided in homemaking as in gardening, dressmak- 
 ing, carpentry, elementary school-teaching, and hospital practice. 
 
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7- Home projects are recommended (pp. 28-34). But the 
 rank and file of teachers can make little or no progress in home 
 project work until the leaders shall have worked out guidance 
 materials no less elaborate than are those now found for labora- 
 tory practice in technical instruction. Many model projects 
 worked out in utmost detail, and hundreds in outline involving 
 close adjustments to varying conditions, are required as pre- 
 liminary to any effective utilization of the project method. These 
 should be available in booklet form. 
 
 XI. Household Arts as Liberal Education 
 
 It is very important that schools of general education, and 
 especially those dealing with girls from 12 to 16 years of age (the 
 period of true amateur spirit of production) should ofTer courses 
 of household arts, conceived very much as are now home gar- 
 dening, scouting, and the best manual training, as a means 
 of genuine liberal education. Such courses should preferably 
 be elective, should occupy from two to four hours weekly, 
 and should center in "project" work and general inspirational 
 reading. For a few girls vocational skills and knowledge will 
 doubtless accrue from these courses, as they do for boys in 
 home-gardening and shopwork; but unless these are regarded 
 as incidental products the "liberalizing" spirit of the work will be 
 spoiled. Probably appreciations and ideals of ultimate vocational 
 significance will also accrue for many, but these also should 
 normally be regarded as incidental or secondary accompaniments 
 for these ages of effective liberal education. A few general theses 
 are submitted: 
 
 I. The fundamental difficulties now encountered in realizing 
 valuable results from home economics instruction by depart- 
 mental teachers with girls from 12 to 16 years of age are due in 
 large part to confusion of purposes between vocational and liberal. 
 The courses offered constitute minor offerings in schemes of 
 education primarily liberal or general; the specialized teachers 
 have in view ends that are somewhat vaguely vocational, at least 
 so far as technical instruction can serve these ends under the 
 circumstances. 
 
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2. The primary purpose of schools for children from twelve to 
 fourteen years of age is the giving of liberal, as distinguished 
 from vocational, education. For pupils who elect to continue 
 their general or liberal education in regular high schools, primary 
 purposes should also be found in liberal education. There is no 
 evidence that a small amount — ^one-tenth to one-third — of total 
 time available, given to vocational education, can be made to 
 function as assured vocational competency. 
 
 3. Household arts for girls from 12 to 16 years of age (and, if 
 motive can be enlisted, for boys as well) can certainly be made a 
 means of liberal education. To effect this will probably require 
 some important modifications in the means and methods now 
 usually employed. 
 
 4. The objectives of liberal education are less easily defined 
 than those of vocational education, the most visible and measur- 
 able outcome of which is power of producing in a specified field 
 and for a prolonged period, valuable service or goods, commonly 
 of the kind called "exchangeable" and the exchangeable worth of 
 which is usually for convenience given a money value which 
 readily serves as a measure. "Liberal" education has as its ob- 
 jectives the product of a variety of qualities, many of which may 
 be included under such terms as appreciations, tastes, sentiments, 
 ideal valuations, ideals, insights, understandings. Liberal educa- 
 tion in a given field — language, literature, science, sociability, 
 art, nature, society, religion, government, agriculture, household 
 arts, urban surroundings, etc., etc. — seeks the humanistic ends of 
 deepened and widened social sympathies. 
 
 It is very difficult to get teachers to understand the difference 
 between, for example, vocational training and amateur execution, 
 because too few teachers have ever been definitely trained for their 
 vocations, as have been physicians, nurses, locomotive engineers, 
 dentists, military officers, and architects. College professors, 
 superintendents, principals of schools, high school teachers, and 
 home economics teachers are rarely, if ever, trained to a deter- 
 minate work of teaching. They have received much instruction, 
 of course, which, more or less vaguely, has been assumed to be 
 necessary to their success as teachers or executives. But for the 
 rest they have "picked up" their vocations in a naive, primitive, 
 and more or less "hit or miss" fashion. Hence, educators find it 
 
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exceptionally difficult to form distinct ideas of what is meant by 
 specified specialized vocational training. 
 
 5. What will be some of the means and methods of "liberal" 
 household arts education? 
 
 a. It must not be obligatory. The girl must be attracted to 
 it, not driven to it. 
 
 b. It must, to the maximum extent practicable, use the girl's 
 own home, yard, bedroom, mother, father, brothers and sisters, 
 pets, dress, health, and aspirations as means of objective inter- 
 pretation, but always only in the friendliest cooperative spirit. 
 Nothing forced or inquisitorial will do here. To a large extent, 
 teaching must be impersonal, reference always being made to 
 "third parties." 
 
 c. Much reliance must be placed on stimulating reading. 
 We have hardly begun yet to produce readings idealizing and 
 interpreting the home, as the army, scouting and business enter- 
 prise have been idealized for boys. Results of individual reading 
 must, of course, be socialized by conference, discussion, reports, 
 etc. 
 
 d. The demonstration of standards by "model apartment," 
 house, room, article of furniture, curtain, bed, set table, dress, 
 home apparatus, should play a part as objectifying means, but 
 due allowances should be made for the "soullessness" of these 
 when they are not in practical operation or use. 
 
 e. Demonstrations of process — cooking, clothes-making, bed- 
 making, washing of baby, gardening — give vitality and concrete 
 interpretation of standards. The apperceiving powers of girls 
 are obviously great here toward the formation of tastes and 
 standards. 
 
 /. Projects are especially valuable as educational means, and 
 naturally the majority will be "home projects" — that is, the in- 
 spiration and direction will come from the school, but the time, 
 place, and, largely, the means of execution will be provided by the 
 home. The range of projects offered by the school should be as 
 extensive as practicable so as to give utmost latitude for choice 
 by learners. Projects for purposes of liberal education should 
 possess elements of novelty, appeal to creative powers, and should 
 enlist all that can best be summarized as "amateur powers." 
 
 [35] 
 
6. What would be some of the specific objectives of household 
 arts organized as a means of liberal education for girls from 12 to 
 16 years of age? 
 
 a. To help the girl to see her own home in its most ideal light. 
 All over southern France, we read, the war-dislocated women will 
 take even one room, a bed, a trunk and a little stove and will 
 make a nest, a home, a haven, a foyer, for frightened, tired, and 
 sleepy children, a place to which the lonesome hard-driven man 
 comes back as to the center of existence for rest, the supreme 
 recreative activities, and social uplift. Only the woman, rich in 
 homemaking instincts, customs, and, perhaps, training, can make 
 the real home. Can we not, by readings, pictures, discussions, 
 model apartments or houses, help to see the home as the little 
 central power plant or cell whence radiates much of the social 
 energy that makes the world go well? 
 
 h. To help the girl appreciate the facts and problems of the 
 financial up-keep of the home through labor given outside. 
 
 c. To appreciate the fact that labor, devotion and management 
 wisely given in the home, are in the highest degree productive, 
 even though not appearing in the United States Census as "gain- 
 ful occupations." 
 
 7. The spirit of the school of liberal education is largely that 
 of high-grade play; the spirit of the vocational school must be 
 that of serious work. Only one worker in ten thousand can afford 
 to pick daisies as he travels the roads of work. The spirit of 
 liberal education is that of the traveler for recreation and 
 enlightenment; the spirit of the vocational school is that of the 
 man who has business at a given destination, which destination 
 he must reach at the earliest possible moment. The spirit of the 
 school of liberal education is diffusive, catholic, rich in varied 
 human contacts; the spirit of the vocational school is one of 
 concentration of effort, singleness of purpose, and contacts 
 limited to those essential in the economic process, that moving 
 toward fulfilment. "Work while you work," is the motto of the 
 vocational school; "play while you play," of the liberal school. 
 
 For interpretations as to what is meant by "liberalizing" 
 education, we must go to such fields as literature, music, history, 
 geography, plastic art, travel, the moving pictures, current read- 
 ing and gardening. 
 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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