Important Meetings.-Some of the meetings to be held in the near future that would be of special interest to Home Economics workers are the meetings of The Department of Superintendence of the N. E. A., to be held at Detroit, Michigan, February 21 to 26. Several allied associations are to meet at the same time. The American Home Economics Association will hold a council meeting and also a general conference. The Thirteenth Annual Meeting of The Religious Education Association will be held in Chicago, at the Congress Hotel, February 28, 29, March 1, 2, 1916. Certain sessions will be devoted to the interests of the home. The Religious Education Association has from its beginning maintained a home department. The American Chemical Society meets at Urbana, Illinois, with the University of Illinois, April 18-21. A program of papers on Chemistry and Home Economics is planned for one of the sessions. The National Conference of Charities and Correction holds its annual meeting at Indianapolis, May 10 to 17. The General Federation of Women's Clubs holds its biennial in New York City, May 23-June 1. Dr. C. F. Langworthy was appointed as delegate from the American Home Economics Association to the Second Pan American Scientific Congress held in Washington, December 27, 1915 to January 8, 1915. Miss Van Rensselaer was designated as alternate delegate. Her name appeared on the program as one of the speakers. Brief Notes.-The American Association for the Study and Prevention of Infant Mortality held its sixth annual meeting in Philadelphia, November 10 to 12, with sessions on Pediatrics, Obstetrics, Economic Aspects of Infant Welfare, Eugenics, Care of Homeless Babies, and Nursing and Social Work. Instead of having the usual exhibits the committee arranged for the Association to visit the various baby-saving activities in Philadelphia. Miss Gwendolyn Stewart, formerly instructor in physiological chemistry at the Santa Barbara Normal School of Manual Arts and Home Economics, is spending this year in the Physiology Department at Stanford University. VOL. VIII, No. 3 THE MARCH, 1916 Journal of Home Economics For those interested in Homemaking. Institution Management, MRS. ALICE P. NORTON, Editor Editorial Board KETURAH E. BALDWIN, Managing Editor MRS. MARY H. ABEL ANNA BARROWS C. F. LANGWORTHY ISABEL ELY LORD GERTRUDE MCCHEYNE, Chairman Extension Education Section Collaborators-The Officers, Members of the Council, and Advisers CONTENTS TEACHERS' COTTAGES AND RURAL HOME ECONOMICS DOMESTIC ART IN THE HIGH SCHOOL COMMERCIAL COurse THE HIGH SCHOOL LIBRARY AND HOME ECONOMICS THE MINERAL NUTRIENTS IN PRACTICAL HUMAN DIETETICS Josephine Preston 109 Clara M. Steele 112 117 Mary J. Booth 118 A METHOD FOR SUPPORTING FINANCIAL RECORDS SUMAC AND ITS USES PASTEURIZING CREAM. THE COMPARATIVE COST OF HOME PREPARED AND COMMERCIALLY PREPARED FOODS 130 132 . 132 The Journal of Home Economics is published monthly by the American Home Economics Association. $2.00 A YEAR. FOREIGN $2.25. SINGLE COPIES 25 CENTS HOW TO REMIT. Remittances should be sent by Draft on New York, Express Order or Postal Money Order, payable to the American Home Economics Association. Currency, unless mailed in a registered letter, is at the sender's risk. CHANGE IN ADDRESS. Notice of change in address should be sent Two Weeks before the date of issue on which the change is to take effect. The subscriber's Old Address should be clearly indicated in addition to the New Address. AMERICAN HOME ECONOMICS ASSOCIATION STATION N, BALTIMORE, MD. Entered as second class matter at the Baltimore Post Office Cottage near Brewster occupied by two young women teaching in adjacent districts Double cottage at Eureka. One side occupied by principal and wife, the other by two women assistants TEACHERS' COTTAGES, WASHINGTON (see page 109) State Superintendent of Public Instruction for Washington The greatest problem in education today is the rural school. The greatest need is for teachers with initiative, leadership, experience, high ideals, character, broad sympathy, and education. Where shall we get them? Some are in the rural school. But on the whole they have not been particularly attracted to the rural school. Why? It is only within recent years that we have recognized the importance of the rural school problem. Since we have awakened to its importance we have readjusted our courses of study to meet the needs of the rural life, and have more and more sought the well trained and experienced teacher for our rural school boys and girls. But we found that we could not keep them after we secured them. They taught often only one year. Why? In the early history of our rural schools the pioneer teachers boarded around. If the family who took the teacher for the week was able to give comfortable and sanitary housing accommodations, all well and good. But if the teacher had to be crowded into family quarters with poorly prepared meals the memory of that week stood out as one of the glaring evils of rural life. We outgrew this "boarding around" and it became the custom for the teacher to board with one family, if that were possible, throughout the term. Sometimes the majority of the families in the neighborhood wanted to board the teacher. Some of our greatest complications arose from 1 Presented at the Eighth Annual Meeting of the American Home Economics Association, Seattle, 1915. the boarding question because often the teacher had to choose from a number of places offered her. If perchance she changed her boarding place after once having selected it, it was certain to bring dissatisfaction. Finally we reached the period in the boarding question when we found the farmer's wife mildly protesting against the teacher boarder. Sometimes it was because the teacher who came out to board expected first class hotel service in the busy farm home. She must either change her point of view or make life miserable for that home. One However the real reason for this growing discontent was because the farmer's wife worked hard during the spring, summer and fall months and counted the winter months as her time for recreation. Then too the farmer himself felt a desire to be relieved of the teacher boarder. farmer said to me one day when I was presenting to him his responsibility to take the teacher to board, "I do not want a teacher sitting around my fireside every evening. I want to be alone with my family once in a while." I thought of that well furnished many-roomed house which he and his family called home and I said at once: "That intrusion is very easily adjusted. Put a stove in one of those fine large well-furnished bedrooms of yours and give the average teacher plenty of wood and you will see very little of her except at meal times." He straightened up with much dignity and considerable spirit and said, "Mrs. Preston, any teacher that would be too good to sit with my family in the evening could simply pack her trunk and leave." Sometimes the argument against the teacher boarder comes to us in a controversy like this: Mrs. A. says, "I boarded the teacher last year; Mrs. B. can take her turn at it this year." Mrs. B. insists that she kept the teacher year before last and that it is Mrs. C's turn. Poor timid Mrs. C. says, "I would gladly take the teacher but we have ten children and only two bedrooms and I do not see how we could accommodate her." The teacher's cottage idea came to us as a last resort. After dealing with this boarding question from an administrative standpoint for a number of years I took the position that no teacher could give her best services unless she was happy and comfortable in her boarding place. I felt that the district had a responsibility in regard to the teacher's housing conditions. For ten years we have been building cottages for the rural teacher where the need seemed to justify this expenditure on the part of the district. |