HOME ECONOMICS CORRESPONDENCE COURSES OF

COLLEGIATE GRADE1

ALICE LOOMIS

Professor of Home Economics, University of Nebraska

People are rapidly learning to turn to their State University for help in all lines. Much information is sought from the College of Agriculture and its Experiment Station, and from the Home Economics Department of the University. The questions range from the feeding of children to why bread becomes ropy and cider from sweet apples will not become vinegar. Extension work has developed partly in answer to these requests for aid. Its contribution has been a vital one of immediate value. The desire for knowledge and inspiration and for training that will make life more intelligible is not confined to the people who want an immediate need satisfied. This desire comes to many college women who are out of touch with school work. They may have had only one year in college or they may perhaps be graduates of eastern colleges who have come to live in isolated homes in new regions. These women desire consecutive work that will lead somewhere. In other words, they wish the equivalent of a college course, by correspondence. In discussing correspondence work in Home Economics of collegiate grade, three distinct questions should be answered: first can it be done; second, if it can be done, is there a demand for it; and third, should the other questions be answered in the affirmative, how can it best be done? In order to answer these questions, a questionnaire was sent out to all the Home Economics departments in land grant colleges. The answers to the first question varied from expressions of honest doubt regarding means of insuring a satisfactory grade of work to the statement that "it can not be done, and if it is done by some other institution, such work will not be recognized." Four state institutions reported that such work is being done.

I. The University of Wisconsin gives the following courses in Home Economics by correspondence, for college credit:

1. General survey of Home Economics. 3 credits.

2. Applied design. 3 credits.

3. Selection and preparation of food. 3 credits.

' Presented at the Conference of Teachers of Home Economics in Land Grant Colleges and Universities, held in connection with the American Association of Agricultural Colleges, Berkeley, Cal., 1915.

II. The University of Missouri.

1. Introduction to Home Economics. 2 credits.

2. Principles of food preparation. 3 credits.

5. Principles of the preservation of food. 3 credits.

III. The University of Nebraska.

1 and 2. Elementary food study. Under certain conditions, by complying with the prerequisites required in residence work and doing the reading required in residence, one-half of college credit will be given, that is, two hours for each course.

IV. The University of California, in coöperation with the Santa Barbara Normal School.

1. General survey of Home Economics.

Courses in infant and adult nutrition, which are not at present given credit, are also given by the Correspondence Department of the University of California.

The experience with other subjects should be useful in answering the question as to whether collegiate work may be done by correspondence. Many of this audience remember that Mrs. Richards' contribution to the Society for the Encouragement of Studies at Home was the development of laboratory work in zoölogy, geology and biology. After a short period of work she realized that the enthusiasm of the members was only one asset and that the attainment of high standards of work was equally necessary. In coöperation with the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, correspondence work in science was planned for college graduates, but this was given up later as opportunities for resident graduate study became more common. One has only to turn to the excellent work accomplished by correspondence study in the University of Wisconsin to realize the advantages of this type of work when it is well carried out. The universal opinion of instructors and students in this institution is that there is more close personal contact and a better acquaintance between student and instructor than in the great majority of residence classes.

It would seem not unwise to say that since science work of college grade has been given by correspondence for a number of years in several of our large universities, the question of the possibility of this method of teaching has been answered.

Granting that it can be done, we may ask whether there is a need for

it. No one will attempt to maintain that the craving mind of a person of college training can be entirely satisfied by the "office boy" training, as Dr. Morgan has called it. As another speaker has said, "All teaching should be planned for the 'track to carry all that it will bear."" It is a principle in pedagogy to appeal to all the experience that the student possesses. It would therefore seem to be logical to conclude that the college woman out of touch with her university and needing help in practical problems might not be satisfied with the same type of information that must of necessity be given to the untrained woman.

At least two classes of women need and appreciate this type of training: first, the college trained homemaker whose knowledge of chemistry and biology or whose training in other lines of work makes her bring a keen mind to the problems which are pressing for solution. Only one who has been in contact with such a problem realizes what an opportunity for mental life such an opening means. As more college women become homemakers and feel the need of expert training for the complex problems they encounter, the question is becoming more common, "Can we not have something different from the practical but often dilute information given by popular magazines?"

Teachers in service are at present confronted with the almost unanswerable problem of how to keep in touch with the progress in their subject. This problem is made especially acute by the fact that a large percentage of teachers have realized that not only was their training inadequate but much of it was absolutely erroneous. It is a common question asked among teachers who have been out of college for a few years, "How much of your subject matter have you had to discard?" Many of us have come to the stage where we almost hesitate to ask an overburdened high school teacher why she is teaching that lactose is the only sugar to use in infant feeding or why she is allowing her students to hold a prejudice against cold storage foods. Almost invariably the response is first a question for information and then the question of where to get more. Often a statement follows that she must "as soon

as she can afford it, take a summer or a year off and go to Columbia or some other school and do some graduate work." The teacher does not always realize that it is not the graduate work which she needs, but a better grasp of the most elementary work.

I hope the time will not be far distant when instead of leaving a discouraged teacher with a list of references used in college work, we can say to her, "Take a correspondence course in this subject from this or

the other university and you will save yourself much time when you enter school again, besides gaining the satisfaction of knowing that you are not passing on erroneous beliefs." Even if laboratory work could not be accomplished outside of residence, it would be valuable to develop correspondence work for teachers whose technique is often much better than their grasp of the subject matter which they are trying to link with it.

Correspondence study is also needed in order to set the definite standards which must come before any subject can gain an unquestioned place in the college curriculum. One person who answered the questionnaire must have misunderstood the grade of work considered, for she answered that no course given outside of the state could possibly meet "local needs." The universality of college standards is too generally accepted to make necessary any argument against "California nutrition" "Missouri home management" or "Wisconsin art and design." Many of us are realizing the unsatisfactoriness of present methods of determining the place of a student in our courses who has come from a college, presumably of first rank. The acceptance of a few definite courses by the leading colleges would be an immense help in the fixing of standards, temporary though they would be, as are all expressions of ideals.

The establishment of correspondence study will allow the development of a much needed method of recruiting teachers of Home Economics. Our chairman has said that there is no greater field of work than ours and it would seem to be legitimate for the administrative officers to look in every place for teachers whose training, broad view, and general experience in educational matters, ability to see and solve problems, coupled with practical training, especially fits them for teaching a subject which makes as varied demands in preparation as does Home Economics. These women may have three-fourths, if not more, of the training necessary to make them excellent teachers in Home Economics. An example may be cited where excellent work is now being done by a teacher of clothing and textiles who three years ago scoffed at the idea of taking up a new line of work. I do not know of any women who have been brought into the Home Economics work by means of correspondence courses, but it is reasonable to suppose that such courses would help college women who may be forced to leave their homes, as well as teachers of chemistry and other sciences, to decide whether this field of work offers the opportunity desired.

The last question to be answered is how can correspondence courses

of desirable grade be most economically developed. It must be clearly realized that teaching by correspondence is a highly specialized form of instruction. It means foresight in the careful collection and organization of all material both laboratory and reference. The personal contact of the enthusiastic teacher can not be compensated for by careful planning, but the appreciation of a teacher for her subject can be carried over to the student if the work is properly organized. This means that teaching by correspondence can never be successful if it is a side issue with over-busy instructors or if it is relegated to instructors who would not be given equally high standing in residence work.

But specialists are expensive and not abundant. Since two cents will carry a letter throughout any part of the United States, and the element of time in sending a letter is negligible, there would seem to be no argument against the organization of the work so that one specialist will do whatever work is to be done in her own line in the whole country. Nebraska University has had a correspondence student in Georgia. There is no reason why this girl could not as easily take her work from Missouri or Wisconsin. The wastefulness of the duplication of effort when "plants are running on part time" is as serious a sin educationally as it is industrially. The suggestion has been made that it might be well for one school to develop work along the line of clothing and another along a different line and so on. The institution whose residence work in economics and sociology, in architecture and in art is particularly strong may be able to develop a better course in house management than another institution more fortunate in other lines.

I trust that it is reasonable to conclude that correspondence work of collegiate grade can be done in scientific lines (and we are not prepared to grant that science is the only basis of Home Economics) and that there is a real need for it. Our next step is to organize the work so that it may be economically administered, to the end that this phase of study may be a contribution, first, in the setting of high standards which shall affect the whole field, and, second, in helping people who have a desire to attain these standards more quickly than they otherwise would be able to do.