Household Administration, Its Place in the Higher Education of Women
General
Household Administration, Its Place in the Higher Education of Women
Home economics; Women -- Education
It has been said that as in the world of life the localisation of
function made the organ subsequently to become responsible for that
function, so may the differentiation of labour develop individual
talents, just as the exercise of our vital activities has led to the
differentiation of parts in a house. Thus, as satisfaction of hunger is
a first necessity, eating made the kitchen, where means for the
gratification of this instinct were localised. By degrees the growth of
men's social and intellectual demands led to the setting apart of a
chamber for conversation; that is, the parlour. Storage of bread called
the pantry into existence; increased refinement necessitated a scullery
for the washing of cups and platters. Centuries, however, elapsed before
the enlarging personality of the individual demanded privacy for the
toilet and the right to isolate himself periodically from the bustle and
publicity of group life. The general provision of separate bedchambers
for each unit of a household is not even yet habitual, though most
desirable in the interests of health. Reparation of the omission will
mark a further phase of social evolution, and will remove one
disintegrating force now continually at work in home life. Here again
the artist will most advantageously collaborate with landlord and with
health authorities to devise means for the suitable satisfaction of this
laudable demand.
Further objections to the adoption of any comprehensive schemes for
training housewives of all ranks are found in the apparent want of time
available for the purpose and the prohibitive cost incurred if the
period of education be prolonged. The best answers to both objections
are found in the movement now active all over Europe and North America
to furnish more and fuller opportunities for this training, and to
extend, not curtail, its duration. More than this: this movement, which
generally originated in the desire to improve home life among the
poorest, has recently extended itself just as generally to institutions
for higher education, upon whose pupils and students its claims are now
recognised. There is no suggestion, for instance, in Germany or England,
Norway or the United States, of restricting the education of girls by
this movement or of prematurely enforcing upon them technical
instruction. The growth of public opinion is due rather to a belated
realisation that the end of all education is the betterment of life, and
that suggested applications to the practical concerns of daily life in
the course of a girl's general education make for the sounder
assimilation of theory by the pupil, and are thus contrived a "double
debt to pay."
The progress of preventive medicine has also introduced another
incentive to the diffusion of this training; for it affords convincing
proofs that the foundation of the national health is laid in the home.
If, however, the foundation is permitted to be imperfect the edifice
must necessarily be unstable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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