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A comparison of junior and senior high school courses of study in home economics

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A comparison of junior and senior high school courses of study in home economics

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Content A COMPARISON' OE..JBNIOR AND SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
COURSES OF STUDY IN HOME
ECONOMICS
A Thesis
Presented to the Faculty
of the School of Education
University of Southern California
u
In Partial Fulfillment
of the
Requirements for the
Degree of Master of Arts
In Education
By
Eva Viola La Mar
■A
June 1933
UMI Number: EP57176
All rights reserved
INFORMATION TO ALL USERS
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In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript
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a note will indicate the deletion.
Published by ProQuest LLC (2014). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author.
Dissertation Publishing
UMI EP57176
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unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code
ProQuest LLC.
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P.O. Box 1346
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This thesis, written under the direction of the
Chairman of the candidate’s Guidance Com
mittee and approved by all members of the
Committee, has been presented to and accepted
by the Faculty of the School of Education in
partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of Master of Arts in Education.
D a te Januaiy ^6 1 1933
Guidance Committee
D. Welty Lefever
Chairman
W. S. Ford
C. C. Crawford
CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I.. THE PROBLEM 1
Nature and purpose of the problem 2
Importance of the problem 4
Related investigation 7
II. METHOD OP PROCEDURE 9
The source of data 9
Materials used 9
Method of interview 10
III.. A STUDY OP THE MODERN COMPREHENSIVE HIGH SCHOOL 13
THE CHARACTER OP THE HIGH SCHOOL PERSONNEL 13.
DIVERSITY IN HIGH SCHOOL ORGANIZATION 15
TYPES OP HIGH SCHOOLS 16
AIMS AND FUNCTIONS 20
Summary 24
IV. OUTSTANDING IDEAS OP MODERN LEADING EDUCATORS_
CONCERNING THE ARTICULATION IN THE JUNIOR AND
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS 27
The junior high school 27
The senior high school 32
Articulation problems 33
Summary 35
ii
Chapter Page
V. -AN ANALYSIS OF HOME ECONOMICS COURSES OF STUDY '40
HOME ECONOMICS EDUCATION 40
THE GENERAL OBJECTIVES OF HOME ECONOMICS 44
The general objectives of home economics
as stated by specialists 44
The general objectives of home economics as
stated in published courses of study 49
Summary 69
VI. A COMPARISON OF THE SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES IN
HOME ECONOMICS IN JUNIOR AND SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS 73
Purpose of the chapter 73
Method of organization 73
A COMPARISON OF THE SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES 78
ILLUSTRATIONS OF TYPICAL SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
IN JUNIOR AND SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL COURSES OF
STUDY 97
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS 105
VII. A COMPARISON OF THE PROGRESSIVE UNITS OF HOME
ECONOMICS IN JUNIOR AND SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS 108
The present school curricula 108
Importance of well trained teachers 109
The placing of progressive courses of
study in present practices 110
JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL PROGRESSIVE UNITS 112
iii
Chapter - Page
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL PROGRESSIVE UNITS . 124
Summary 132
VIII. FINDINGS AND RESULTS OF THE INTERVIEWS 134
Purpose of the chapter 134
Variations of students needs 134
Developing the learning activities 136
The results of the interviews 138
Summary 142
IX. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 145
SUMMARY 145
CONCLUSIONS 152
BIBLIOGRAPHY 1§4
IV
TABLES
Number Page
I. THE TOTAL NUMBER AND PER CENT OF SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
OF HOME ECONOMICS SUBJECTS IN SEVENTEEN JUNIOR HIGH
SCHOOL SYSTEMS CLASSIFIED UNDER THE THREE LEARNING
ACTIVITIES, NAMELY, KNOWLEDGE; HABITS AND SKILLS;
ATTITUDES?, APPRECIATIONS 'AND IDEALS 103
II. THE TOTAL NUMBER AND PER CENT OF SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
OF HOME ECONOMICS SUBJECTS IN SEVENTEEN SENIOR HIGH
SCHOOL SYSTEMS CLASSIFIED UNDER THE THREE LEARNING
ACTIVITIES, NAMELY, KNOWLEDGE; HABITS AND SKILLS;
ATTITUDES, APPRECIATIONS AND IDEALS 104
III. A COMPARISON OF THE FINDINGS OF THE ANALYSIS,
CLASSIFICATION AND SUMMARIZATION OF 2,827 SPECIFIC
OBJECTIVES IN SEVENTEEN JUNIOR AND SENIOR HIGH
SCHOOL SYSTEMS 150
1
CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM
Home economics teachers are aware of the serious economic
and social problems in their communities and are earnestly
attempting to adapt their home economics instruction to present
needs. Their instruction is being carried out in a very con
crete way. The aim of their work is apparently to help girls
and boys to be thinking students, so that they may become in
telligent consumers and efficient producers; to use good judg
ment in making choices and decisions; to adopt good habits, to
form right attitudes, and lay the foundation for their solution
of the economic and social problems of today and tomorrow.
According to Dewey’s statements in a recent article published,
the individualistic stage of social development is being rap
idly changed to one where the development of the individual
1
depends increasingly on external collective conditions. He
further states that one of the functions of education is to
equip individuals to see the moral defects of existing social
arrangements and to take an active concern in bettering con
ditions .
The President of the American Home Economics Association
2
in 1928* after reviewing the changes in home-making during
the past two decades, outlines this viewpoint toward the
modern home:
1 John Dewey, "The Economic Situation: A Challenge to Educa
tion, Journal of Home Economics, Vol. 24 p. 495, June 1932.
2 Lita Bane,"Home Economics Outward Bound."Journal of Home
Economics, Vol. 20, p. 695, October 1928.
2
We will see the home as the place of abode of persons
bound together by ties of affection, a place where affec
tion of parents for one another, for their children, and
among all members of the family, is nurtured and enjoyed,
where the immature are protected and guarded, a place where
one may have rest and privacy, where one may keep his treas
ures, where one may satisfy his individual tastes, where
fundamental culture, consisting of customs, language,
courtesies, and traditions, is conserved and passed on to
the young, a place where altruism and other worthy character
traits are generated and cultivated; a haven, a sanctuary,
a Source of inspiration, and a place where one may enjoy
his individual kind of recreation and share it with others*
The subject matter added recently to home economics
courses indicates that Miss Bane's trend of thought is be
ing carried out in the instruction of home economics
teachers* Family Relationships . is a unit in the present
courses of study that is being given much emphasis. The
problem of creating better homes is an ethical and a
spiritual one,but the spiritual atmosphere cannot be quite
right unless the material conditions of the home are
properly1 'adjusted. Our educational program is built upon
the principles established by leading educators, philoso
phers, psychologists and economists, slow, but sure .at pre
sent, with every indication that the present crisis will
bring more rapid and radical changes* Of just what nature
they will be it is difficult to forecast, but we may be
assured that the schools of today will not be adequate to
the needs of tomorrow, and those of us who are responsible
must be quick to make the adjustments demanded by the new
social regime.
Nature and purpose of the problem* The purpose of
this study is to make a comparison of the aims and content
3
in home economics in the junior high schools with the aims
and content of home economics in the senior high schools,
in courses of study published since 1926 and in present prac
tices, This comparison is made by noting the relationship
at the different levels in the aims and content as set forth
in the form of knowledge, information and facts to be gained;
habits and skills to be acquired; and attitudes, appreciations
and ideals to be developed. This comparison is also, based
on the amount of emphasis placed on the different types of
subject matter in the content of courses of study. Pertinent
relationships and comparisons are"also based on data gathered
by the interview method, by interviewing alert and progressive
teachers. The proportion of time placed on the different
types of subject matter aids in identifying the place of
"emphasis.
The fact that home economics education itself in the
schools is revaluating its purposes, its selected experiences,,
and its methods in the light of changing needs will material
ly affect the findings and will make the conclusions less
general in scope. Home living and home making is a process
demanding the building up of attitudes of mind and apprecia
tions of relative values in every member of the family. One
of the most essential outcomes of this phase of education is
the development of personalities which will intelligently
shape the new home into a form which will stand-the strain of
the changing order. It is hoped that.this investigation will
be of value in planning courses in home economics that will
be of interest to the girls, and will be the means of develop
ing right attitudes and appreciations toward a happy andceffi
cient home life*
Importance of the problem* There is no uniformity at
present in the content or sequence of home economics courses
in the secondary schools. Some of the more progressive se
condary school.home economics courses, while not minimizing
or omitting skill, do give selection of materials; plan of
work; development of right attitudes, and appreciations; and
the establishment of t^e standards and ideals the place of
prime importance•
The home* The home has always been and still is the
great social institution to be considered in relation to the
school; in fact, the home was the first school. It is there
that the fundamentals of an academic nature as well a s those,
of a moral and ethical nature are learned. As the duties of
the home increased with the growing complexity of living con
ditions, the school came into being as a separate organiza
tion, taking over those duties not belonging especially to
the church and relieving the home of the burden of educating
the youth. The close connection which marked the relation
between teacher and parents of the early schools no longer
exists. The nature of the present institutions does not en
courage it. The home has relinquished its early educational
function almost entirely, and now the school finds itself
with an even greater responsibility because it continues to
lower the age of admission and is charged with the task of
turning out the better-trained, more efficient citizen, de
manded in this age of changing ideals. These demands are
ever increasing and doubtless will continue to do so.
Revaluations. Rapidly changing economic conditions and
social conditions are causing home economists, like educa
tors in other fields, to question closely how their teaching
is and should be adapted to present needs. Cognizant of the
need for a careful analysis of the modern home as a basis
for the development of education for it, the alert and pro
gressive home economist is scrutinizing her philosophy, re
stating her objectives, and revaluating the activities and
experiences by means of which she is teaching homemaking.
*
She is alert to the facts that increasingly, education must
concern itself with preparing boys as well as girls for home
living and home making; that certain activities concerned
with the preparation of food and the making of clothing, the
upkeep and care of the home, and the care and development of
children will continue to demand the attention of teachers
and administrators; that intelligent selection of commer
cially prepared foods and ready-made clothing is becoming
an important aspect of home making as well as of personal
needs; and that home living and home-making is a process de
manding the building up of right attitudes of mind and appre
ciations of relative values in every member of the family.
Repetition of subject matter. Another very important
and serious problem is the repetition and overlapping of sub
j#ct matter in home economics, according to the judgment of
specialists in this subject. Home economics senior high
school teachers are constantly coming in contact with the
difficult problem of adjustingtheir high school subjects to
the students enteringtheir classes from the junior high
school. The majority of junior high schools require this
work in the seventh and eighth grades, but in the ninth
grade this work is mostly elective, and unless the girls
choose of their own accord or, are majoring in home economics,
they receive no more training in the junior high schools.
This confusion in the senior high schools makes it difficult
for the teachers to adapt their instruction effectively,
since students desiring to take home economics subjects are
not equally prepared for the work.
According to correct educational procedure the content
of courses should begin with fundamentals and advance in
difficulty from the beginning of the junior high school to
the finishing of the senior high school. Since most all
courses in home economics are elective this educational
procedure cannot be followed, except by majors in this sub
ject. The senior high school classes are filled with stu
dents of unequal preparation in home economics. The
problem then arises,— how do the senior high school teachers
adjust and rearrange their instruction and subject matter
to fit the needs of their students?
We must bring to our girls the fullest realization of
life, and show them the relationship of the home to national
life and progress. The homes must be made centers of good
7
influences which will help to develop men and women with
right attitudes toward the problems of life. We must, also,
give them knowledge of the vocations which are best suited
to their needs, interests and capacities to pursue, if
necessary, when finishing secondary education, as means of
a profitable livelihood.
Related investigation. After malting a thorough study
of the literature on high school home economics work, it
was found that there is much research material relating to
textbooks, courses of study, aims and objectives and organi
zation of home economics, but no investigations have been
made whichcbal with the comparison of the aims and content
in home economics at the different levels, as determined in
this study.
3
An investigation was made by Hilda M. Bouton in 1929,
dealing with the conditions in the public elementary and
junior high schools in the.United States. This study was
based on questionaire replies from fifty-five cities yield
ing detailed information concerning the curriculum and
organization of home economics courses.
4
In 1930, Elizabeth M. Annin made a study of the present
status of home economics in the public secondary schools of
sHilda M. Biouton, "A Study of the Conditions of Home Economics
in the Public Elementary and Junior High Schools' of the United
States" Los 'Angeles, U. S. C. 1929.
4 Elizabeth M. Annin, l ? The Present Status of Home Economics in
Secondary Schools in California^1 1 Los Angelesf U.S.C. 1930.
California based on a questionaire study of detailed
information concerning the curriculum and organization of
courses, but no comparisons were made in the different
types of subject matter.
This study is different from either of the preceding
studies in that it is primarily interested in c omparing the
aims and content in the junior and senior high school sub
ject matter in home economics in both California and other
states; and in comparing the specific objectives as to the
emphasis and proportion of time given to the different
types of subject matter as set forth in the three divisions
of learning activities^ namely, knowledge, information and
facts to be gained; habits and skills to be acquired; and
attitudes, appreciations and ideals to be developed.
CHAPTER II
METHOD OF PROCEDURE
The source of data. The first step in this study was
to determine what information would he necessary in order
to get an adequate idea of what is being given in present
practices in home economics in the junior and senior high
schools in order to make a comparison of the two high
schools. And it also had to be determined how the desired
information could be obtained in the most comprehensive
manner.
It was determined to include junior and senior high
schools in comprehensive high school systems in California
and other states. The reason for this was that the diver
sity of location would give a representative sampling of
what is being done in the United States.
It was decided that the necessary information for this
study could be secured through the library and interview
methods.
Materials used. The materials used have been developed
from two sources, namely, (1) Through the study of recent
publications and courses of study obtained from the Univer
sity of Southern California Library, Los Angeles Public
Library, Long Beach Public Library, and by writing to the
city and state departments of public education. (2) From
the interview method, consisting of personal interviews
with forty alert and progressive home economics teachers,
10
supervisors, and heads of departments.
The purpose of the first source was to secure informa
tion of aims, functions, content, and methods of procedure in
home economics in California and other states, and to analyze,
classify, summarize and compare the findings of the recent
and more important publications as to the similarities and
contrasts of junior and senior high school aims, content and
methods of procedure.
The aims and objectives were analyzed, classified and
summarized under the three divisions of the learning out
comes or activities. In doing this the page was divided
into vertical columns and horizontal rows.
The interview method. The purpose of the interview
method was to secure information through statements of
teachers as to the proportion of time and emphasis given
to or placed on the necessary outcomes of learning, as
knowledge to be gained; habits and skills to be acquired;
and attitudes, appreciations and ideals to be developed.
The interview type was selected because the writer felt
that more valuable data would be secured in this way, since
teachers could be interviewed during the time that school
was in session and actual classroom procedure could be
observed.
Before composing the questions to be used in the inter
view, an intensive study was made of the home economics •
content and methods of teaching. Then a list of questions
was carefully composed in order to bring about results that
11
would be of value to educators and teachers in organizing
i
new and revising old home economics courses in the schools.
The following questions were used:
1. What amount of time do you give to gaining knowledge,
information, and facts?
2. What amount of time do you give to acquiring habits
and skills?
3. What amount of time do you give to developing atti
tudes, appreciations and ideals?
4. Which type of learning activity do you consider most
valuable to the student, the gaining of knowledge; the acquir
ing of right habits and skills; or the developing of right
attitudes, appreciations and ideals?
5. What subjects in home economics are parallel to the
same subjects in the other level of the high schools?
6. What subjects in home economics are contrasting to
the same subjects in the other level of the high school?
7. What home economics subject do you consider most
important to the high school girls' needs when only one subject
can be given?
8. What standardization can be made in the home
economics course of study?
Justification for the questions. The reason for selecting
those questions that were finally used in the interview will be
explained in the succeeding paragraphs.
Questions one, two and three were included to determine the
12
place of emphasis in the subject matter in present practices*
Question four was included to further determine the
trend in home economics subject matter by the opinions.of
teachers*
Question five was included to show similarities in the
two levels of the high school.
Question six was included to show the contrasting ele-
\
ments of the two levels of the high school.
The findings of question seven relates which subject is
most important in each level*
Question eight was included to discover if standardiza
tions either in junior high school or senior high school
could be made*
Method of the interview* After all the desired data of
home economics whieh the writer could recall for the investi
gation were recorded, she then sought to have interviews
with the most alert and progressive teachers, heads of de
partments and supervisors in home economics subjects. By
having a short interview with the principal concerning the
investigation, the writer would secure from him the names
of the chairman and teachers of the home economics depart
ment in his schoolsystern. Teachers, supervisors of city
systems and chairman of home economics departments in
California and other states; and students at the university
i
of Southern California were interviewed. Many teachers
were interviewed in the class room during their free period.
The responses to the questions were noted in as full form as
possible.
CHAPTER III
A STUDY OP THE MODERN COMPREHENSIVE HIGH SCHOOL
I. THE CHARACTER OF THE HIGH SCHOOL PERSONNEL
Daring the past thirty years the differentiation in the
composition of the personnel enrollment has become highly
significant. The present personnel consists of a hetero
geneous student body drawn from every group in the community,
with a corresponding diversity of background, capacity and
future progress. At one time, almost entirely preparatory
in its aims, efforts, and products, the public high school
now sends less than thirty per cent of its graduates to
college, and the number seems gradually to be decreasing.
The general democratization of society, with the widened
opportunities for education and the increased recognition of
the importance of advanced training, has caused the secondary
school to become less selective in its character. The students
of the managerial and professional classes were at one time
almost exclusively enrolled, but increasingly the high school
personnel has become a cross-section of the social groups
of the nation. This change in the character of the personnel
has greatly affected the purposes, functions, organization,
and administration of the high schools. With the development
of the modern comprehensive high school has come a multitude
of problems which are only beginning to receive recognition,
and which are still far from solution. A curriculum that
seemed to meet the needs of the youth of superior intelligence
14
who was preparing for a professional career, did not meet
the needs of the girl who was to become a typist or a clerk,
or of the boy who would earn his daily bread in a machine
shop. Industrial and practical training of all kinds has
been slowly developed for the noncollege preparatory student.
It is urged by those favorably inclined toward the
comprehensive high school, that social stratification and
class consciousness will be stimulated if pupils are enrolled
in schools according to the occupations they propose to
follow. The comprehensive high school, on the other hand,
should overcome this difficulty.
The following statements are made in the Bureau of
Education Bulletin:
When administered by a principal who himself recognizes
the social value of all types of secondary education and
inspires a broad spirit of democracy among teachers and
pupils, the comprehensive high school is a better instrument
for unification. Through friendships formed with pupils
pursuing other curriculums and having vocational and educa
tional goals widely different from their own, the pupils
realize that the interests which they hold in common with
others are, after all, far more important than the differ
ences that would tend to make them antagonistic to others.
Through school assemblies and organizations they acquire
common ideas. Through group activities they secure train
ing in cooperation. Through loyalty to a school which in
cludes many groups they are prepared for loyalty to State
and Nation. In short, the comprehensive school is the proto
type of a democracy in which various groups must have a
degree of self-consciousness as groups and yet be federated
into a larger whole through the recognition of common
interests and ideals. Life in such a school is a natural
and valuable preparation for life in a democracy.5
5 Department of Interior, "Cardinal Principles of
Secondary Education." Bureau of Education Bulletin, No. 35,
p. 25-26, 1918.
1&
-About seventy percent of all high school students,
thirty years ago, came from the highest fifth of human
intelligence, and at present the high school draws its
pupil personnel from every group of the community. There
is a constantly increasing heterogene it^ith resulting di
versity in background capacity and potentiality. Practi
cally all of the modern development is due to the changes
made necessary by this new character of education.
II. DIVERSITY IN HIG-H SCHOOL ORGANIZATION
Preceding 1900 all high schools were much alike; their
curriculums were practically identical. An increasing di
versity in curriculum offerings and in types of organization
has developed since 1900. The movement of re-organization
may be .the reason for much of this diversity. This movement
in secondary education started in the early 1900*s, but it
is only in the past decade, through the wide development of
the junior high school, that it has reached large propor
tions, Statistics from the United States Office of Education
show that there were 387 separately organized junior high
schools, in 1922, and in 1928, the number increased to 1,403.
During this interval the student enrollment of the junior
high schools increased from 206,158 to 839,388. Meanwhile,
the number of combined junior-senior high schools increased
from 1,088 to 2,429. In 1928, there were 904 of these of
the undivided six year type, 765 schools of the 3-3 type,
568 of the 2-4 type, 176 of the undivided five year type,
and 16 of the 2-3 'type. The total enrollment of these
16
schools was 741,941 pupils• There were 494 senior high
schools in 1928, 361 of the 3-year type and 133 of the 4-
year type* Their total enrollment was 379,518*
During 1928 the 4,326 reorganized high schools enrolled
1,960,580 students nearly half of the total public high
school enrollment of 4,217,313 students for that year* Of
those students 862,840 were in the seventh and eighth grades.
Seventy percent of the junior high school— -twenty percent
of the entire high school was in the two grades preceding
the traditional four-year high school*
It is possible that the peak in diversity has been
reached and that a common plan of organization and curriculum
will again become fairly universal* No doubt there will be
local variations and adaptations, but uniformity of design
is becoming apparent*
III. TYPES OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS.
Fairly distinct- types of high schools have resulted
from this diversity in high schpol organization. The
original high school contained within its organization all
that constituted the secondary education of its day. In
time there came into being certain schools which emphasized
particularly some one phase of secondary education. Schools
thus operating have been designated as the specialized typo.
The following are all examples of the specialized type: the
classical or college preparatory school, the high school of
commerce, the technical high school, the high school of
practical arts, and the manual training high school.
1*7
Peculiar problems in organization and methods of administra
tion are obviously present in these high schools. The num
ber of specialized schools is exceedingly small in proportion
to the usual comprehensive type* The modern interpretation
of the comprehensive high school is that it should contain
all of the various phases of secondary education which might
be suggested as possibilities for the specialized type*
Those in favor of the comprehensive high school take the posi
tion that there should be democratization of the school in all
of its aspects, and that this function can be truly performed
only through the solidarity presented by the comprehensive
type*
The advocates of the specialized type insist that the
present age of specialization calls for an efficiency in
specialized training which cannot be properly obtained ex
cept through the emphasis created by isolation* The most
apparent weakness of the specialized schools lies in the
tendency for such a school, once it is thoroughly specialized,
to become at once less specialized and more general* In time,
most specialized schools tend to become increasingly compre
hensive in response to the needs manifested by the pupils*
The trade schools as one type of specialized school has
become somewhat fixed as an industrial or trade school.
There seems to be a re at need for such a school. Its periods
and class methods differ greatly from those used in the com-
\
prehensive school* The segregated school has developed in
some cities with the division of the sexes as the distinctive
18
feature. The organization differs in no important respect
from that of the comprehensive type* Through the desire to
extend the benefits of secondary education to as many
youths of high school age as possible, the continuation
school has been-developed. Ideally these pupils are organ
ized in separate classes to do work that is especially ad
justed to their particular needs. So far as time and
opportunity permit, they can well be treated as a definite
unitv within the comprehensive school.
The school types brought about by the reorganization in
secondary education are, almost without exception, compre
hensive in character. The best known type is the segrated
junior high school which usually consists of grades seventh,
eighth and ninth of the public school* This type in its
truest form is a separate organization of the three grades*
* The work is departmentalised, and the organization simu
lates to a large degree that of the four-year senior high
school.
Another type produced by the reorganization movement
is the six-year school. It usually consists of grades
seven, eight, nine, ten,eleven and twelve, organized as
a comprehensive unit. In communities ifchere it would be
difficult or impossible to have separate junior and senior
high schools this type is especially suited. A variation
of this type is the junior-senior high school, larger than
the four-year school and hence affording opportunity for
some division in the organization of the junior and senior
groups.
•19
The junior college is another type of secondary school
developed in the reorganization movement. Junior colleges
are sometimes found entirely separated institutions, but most
of them, especially the public junior colleges, are closely
affiliated units of the existing high schools. Increasingly
the junior college is being organized and administered as
an integral part of a comprehensive unit of the five or six
highest grades of the secondary school. The last three grades,
twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth, are being treated in
some instances as a unit within the larger organization.
Theoretically, it is now well established that all
children of high school age should be provided with second
ary education* The realization of this goal is now con
sidered possible, though it is obviously some distance away.
There are more than a million young people fifteen or six
teen years old that are not in high school, and more than
twice as many seventeen or eighteen years old. The percent
of persons of high school age attending high school has
increased, however, from four percent in 1890 to fifty per
6
cent in 1926. The average citizen of the present day has
nearly completed a seventh-grade education* In some state's
the average citizen has reached the first year of high
school. Nearly forty percent of the people now receive
some education in the high school.
^ Statistics of Public High Schools 1927-28. United States
Office of Education, Bulletin 1929, No. 35.
20
IV. THE AIMS AND FUNCTIONS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL
The great extension of secondary education into
American life with the resulting change and adaptation of
its character has made imperative the need of determining
what it is all about, of directing its activities into the
most sijgiaificant channels,and of setting up the most worthy
and realizable goals.
Early in its development the secondary school was
influenced by the English conception of preparation for the
professions, and later there came the acceptance of cer
tain German ideas, in emphasis on preparation for the voca
tions, but in general the development of secondary educa
tion in America has been of a unique character.
The conceptions of education which influence current
practice fall in the main in two classes--the old and the
new, or the formal and the functional. The aim of the
former is to fit the individual into a given scheme of
s
things— the adult world order. It seeks to equip the indi
vidual with ready-made stereotyped understandings, values,
and action patterns. Its purpose is to force the indi
vidual into beaten paths of thinking, feeling and acting.
In the new functional conception of education there
is no ready-made adult regime for which the individual
must be prepared, and no static world into which he must
be fitted. There is instead a potential world— a world
which each individual must mold and shape, and create for
himself. The problem of the new education is to guide the
21-
individual in creating his world or worlds. To help solve
the manifold problems, guidance committees have been created.
Whether the individual is to live in a desert or in a
treasure house depends upon his education. He may live in
ignorance and superstition, unaware of science and philoso
phy, or he may build a magnificent world of understandings,
knowledge, and wisdom. He may build a splendid world of
values, or he may go through life untouched by beauty and
unaware of literature, music, art, and the finer things in
human relationships. He may remain on a primitive action
pattern level throughout his days, or he may build a world
' 7
of vast and far-reaching controls.
The functional interpretation of secondary education is
8
best defined by Morrison:
The secondary school, defined in terms of function, is
that period during which the pupil is capable of learning
by study but is not capable of settling his own problems,
controlling his own time and advantageously pursuing special
ized study. He is in the secondary school as soon as he has
acquired the primary tools of learning, namely, reading,
handwriting, and control of the number system. He is out
of the secondary school and is qualified for true univer
sity work when he has attained capacity for self-dependent
study and can utilize his teacher as guide and consultant
instead of as tutor*
i
The definition is not a question of grades nor of years,
^ W. A. Smith, Secondary Education in the United States.
New York, MacMillan Go. Chapter V., 1932.
® H. C. Morrison, f , What*s a Secondary School,” in an
address before the High SchoolSupervisors, Dept, of Supt's.
N.E.A. 1929.
22
but of development. As our best schools are organized
today, however, pupils who are normally developing are in
the secondary school by the third or fourth year and a
few years have fully matured to university level until the
second or third year of college.
At a meeting of the National Council on Education in
Detroit, February, 1931, a report was submitted relating
to the objectives of education. The report included a
summary of the objectives as defined by leading philoso
phers and reformers of past ages, and selected quotations
from the contributions of present-day writers on objec
tives. This report, quoted below, is considered one of
the best of recent definitions of the objectives of
9
secondary education.
The general objectives of all education may be stated
as follows:
1. To promote the development of an understanding
and an adequate evaluation of the self.
2. To promote the development of an understanding
and an appreciation of the world of nature.
3. To promote the development of an understanding and
an appreciation of organized society.
4. To promote the development of an appreciation of
the force of law and of love that is operating universally.
The individual self, nature, society, and God— these
four, and in particular the adjustments which the individual
self must make— constitute the objectives of education.
A full understanding of the magnitude of the task reveals
the need of continuing education throughout the whole period
of life. Our specific undertaking at this time is to show
the part which secondary education may take in helping youth
on its way from lower to higher levels of attainment.
: --- — Division
y Department of Superintendence and Research/of the Nation
al Educational Association, What are the Major Objectives
of Education. National Council of Education, N.E.A. p. 18,
February, 1931.
23
The love of adventure and the desire to create* Two
principles which may he characterized as methods and func
tions should be served by the secondary ashool in its en
deavor to achieve its objectives. The love of adventure
and the desire to create are strong in every normal human
being. The secondary school, therefore, should afford an
opportunity for "adventure** and it should afford an
opportunity to "create.1 1
Life itself is an adventure because it involves risk
and uncertainty, "the frustration of hopes or their
glorious fulfillment" Youth in particular cannot be ex
pected to follow the path of perfect safety. Youth
craves the vivid life, full of experience, and willingly
accepts such hazards as may befall. The love of adventure
is a marked characteristic of adolescence. It is worthy,
therefore, of consideration by the secondary school.
Guidance rather than repression is the key to the problem.
Adventure is not only physical in Its nature; it
reaches out to the whole of life. Wholesome youth reacts
against the dull and drab. It rejoices in whatever is
dramatic in real living.10
Different individuals will find satisfaction in re
sponding in different ways. Through the study of indi
vidual differences and through the application of a wise
programjof guidance, the secondary school may make life so
vivid, so real, so inspiring that the full force of young
10 T. w. Gosling, 'Objectives in Education-Abstract"
National Educational Association Proceedings. Vol. 69
p. 277-280, 1931* *
24
manhood and young womanhood will be expended in constructive
endeavor.
Qreativeness. The impulse to create is strong from
early childhood. To ignore this instinct through the period
of secondary education is to do violence to the nature of
youth. The problem is to discover tbe means whereby this
instinct may find wholesome expression. According to
individual differences it may manifest itself for some through
work with the hands; for others, through intellectual achieve-
t
ments; for still others, through social organization. The
ways are as numerous and as varied as are the individuals
involved.
When our secondary schools give adequate attention to
the expression of the creative impulse, we shall be amazed
at the contributions which youth will make, not only to
the material well-being of the world but also to those in
tangible spiritual values which constitute the durable
satisfactions.
Summary and conclusions. A comprehensive high school
undertakes, through its differentiated curricula and its
diverse lines of activity, to minister to the needs of all
classes of students. It isjby far the most common type—
necessarily so, since the great majority of communities
are able to support only one high school. Yet it is found
in many of the larger centers of population, partly be
cause these communities first established general high
schools when their populations were too small to warrant
any otl^er type, and partly because the general high school
seemed to be the most desirable#
The comprehensive high school may be organized to
carry on the work of exploration and guidance, it is able
to transfer the rstudent from one curriculum to another in
case a mistake has been made in choice of occupation, and
it brings the various lines of vocational subjects, for
it is through the addition of these, in part or1 in whole,
that much of the so-called vitalization of the curriculum
will take place#
The four objectives, stated by the committee on the
objectives of secondary education comprehend the entire
range of human life and of humaa relationships. To attain
these objectives we may include all of the activities and
the procedures appropriate to the education of the student*
The changes in educational thinkingNduring the past
thirty years relative to .secondary education have occurred
which are nearly as phenomenal in the realm of educational
thought as the accompanying changes in enrollment are in a
more material sphere# The curriculum during this period has
been given a major share of consideration. There has been
much conservatism resisting change; traditional school prac
tices have tended to persist; and the whole situation is ex
tremely complex, involving many factors such as pyschological
and social theory. However, a careful atudy of the curriculum
shows that certain significant trends in thinking are relative
outstanding, persistent, and progressive in the sense that the
secondary school is being brought nearer to a realiza
tion of the purposes of democracy*
CHAPTER IV
OUTSTANDING IDEAS OF MODERN LEADING EDUCATORS
CONCERNING THE ARTICULATION IN THE JUNIOR
AND SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS
Articulation* Foremost in educators * minds should
be the child as he progresses from the kindergarten to
the elementary school, from the elementary school to the
junior high school, and from the junior high school
through the senior high school and junior college. There
should be no obstructions in his path; there should be
no gaps or unnecessary duplications. He should pass
without barrier or diversion from each unit to the next
11
higher. John Dewey says:
Articulation is secured only as at each stage of
the school system pupils* activities are directed in
reference to a continuing wholeness of growth.
The junior high school. A well constructed curri
culum is an important element in successful articulation.
The junior high school as the transitional unit is in the
important position of welding together elementary and
secondary education.. The curriculum of the junior high
school should proceed by natural , transitional and pro
gressive order to weld together elementary and secondary
education. This necessitates a continuance of elementary
subjects in a diminishing degree. It implies orientation
11John Dewey, "General Principles of Educational Articula
tion" School and Society. Vol. 29, p. 399-406 Mar.30,1929
2a
in exploratory courses in order to give children a group
of experiences upon #iich.to base judgment for future
work* It implies a gradual increase in secondary
school subjects* The greater unifying influence of the
curriculum is building it around a core of subjects that
begins in the elementary school and continues through
the high school*
Such courses as general mathematics, which include
arithmetic, intuitive geometry, and algebra, which is a
combination of elementary and secondary subjects, have
grown up in the junior high school general courses*
General science, English, social studies, music, home
economics and art are likewise composed of broad units
of a general nature*
These experiences serve as aids in enabling pupils
to make intelligent choices in the.more specialized work
of the senior high school. These experiences may also
furnish bases in the choice of a vocation. A most
urgent need in articulation at the present time is con
tinuity in elementary, junior and senior high schools of
differentiated curricula and varieties of pupil activity
to care for the varying needs, capacities, interests, and
abilities of all pupils.
The one who directs the curriculum should have an
over-view and an understanding of all three units in order
to insure articulation. Meeting of teachers of the same
subjects in each junior high school d epartment v/ith the
29 .
teachers from the contributing elementary school and. with
the senior high school to which they contribute aid in
avoiding duplications and repetitions of subject matter
and help in determining where to make adjustments to ne
cessary situations.
The following objectives by Spaulding will aid in
12
clarifying the purposes of the junior high school.
Junior high school objectives. The fundamental
objectives of the junior high school are to promote!:
1* An organization of subject matter which shall
A. Continue the training begun in the element
ary school in those elements of habit, .
knowledge, and skill which should be a part
of everyone’s equipment.
B. Offer to all boys and girls an insight into
the most important fields of human interest
and endeavor, as a basis for
1. Clearer understanding of their duties and
privileges both as individuals and as a
member of society, and
2. Intelligent choice of their future activi
ties— vocational, avocational, social,
recreational, religious.
C. Offer to all boys and girls an opportunity
to begin training directed toward the
activities tentatively chosen.
D. Provide for those pupils who must leave
school at or before the completion of the
junior high school period training which
shall fit them so far as possible for immed
iate entrance into a suitable vocation.
E. Make possible the progress of each individual
at the rate best suited to his needs and
capacities,
F. Emphasise in a 11 subjects of study those
elements most directly associated with
pupils’ present and future activities and
interests.
Cr. Preserve at each stage a proper balance be
tween the various elements in the pupil’s
12prancis T. Spaulding, The Small Junior High School,
Cambridge, Harvard University Press, p. 15-17, 1927.
30
general training and his specialization*
II* The employment of teaching methods to accord
with present knowledge of adolescent psy
chology, individual differences, and effective
teaching technique.
III. The provision of social experience, both
within and without the recognized curriculum,
which shall fit the individual to become a
generously co-operative member of society*
IV. The establishment of a system of guidance
which shall aid the pupil to determine in
telligently
A. His future lines of activity, of whatever sort.
B. The course of training necessary to f it him
for such activity.
C. His relations with others with whom he comes,
or may come, in contact.
In spite of wide differences in the phrasing of defi
nitions, there seems to be generaLagreement among writers
on the subject that the above purposes are represented in
the Junior HighSchool.
Types of procedure commonly associated with the junior
high school* Contributing to these fundamental objectives
are the types of organization and methods of procedure
which the experiments of large schools have proved so effec
tive that they are commonly associated with the junior
high school reorganization.
Classified according to the purpose to which they
chiefly contribute, those practices which have found most
13
general acceptance are probably the following;
1. In the organization of subject matter:
A. The revision of all subject matter to
^ F. T. Spaulding, loc. cit. p. 17-20
31
eliminate unnecessary material and to give em
phasis to those topics of greatest interest and
value to the adolescent boy and girl.
. B. The organization of subject matter on the basis
of year or half-year units, each worth while in
itself, even though followed by no further study
of the subject.
C. The introduction of general courses (including
"survey" and "try-cut1 1 courses), covering the fields
of
1. Literature.
2. Language.
3. The social studies.
4. Mathematics.
5. Science.
6. Foreign languages
7. The arts (including music).
8. Home-making.
9. Business and commerce.
10.• Industry (for both men and women workers)
11. Agriculture.
12. Occupations in general.
D. Provision for gradually increasing election of
subjects•
E. The introduction of promotion by subject.
F. Admission to specially arranged courses of study,
regardless-of regular promotion, of pupils who
can profit better by the work of the junior high
school than by that of the elementary grades in
which they would ordinarily be placed.
II. In teaching methods:
A* Gradually increasing departmentalization of
instruction, with the employment of more men
teachers•
B. Classification of pupils by ability, as de
termined by study of
1. Intelligence test scores
2. Achievement test scores
3. General school records
C. Supervision of study.
D. The introduction of socialized classwork.
E. - The use of the problem-project method.
F. Emphasis on the objective measurement of
ac compli shment•
G. Interpretation of achievement in relation to
ability.
III. In the provision of social experience: the introduc
tion of
A. Clubs and special student-activities.
B. Intra-mural athletics.
C. Student co-operation in school government.
IV. In the establishment of a system of guidance:
the introduction of a systematic program of
guidance, in addition to that afforded by the
subject-matter offerings of the school, involving:
A. The appointment of advisers definitely re
sponsible for the guidance of individual pupils.
B. The systematic use of intelligence and achieve
ment tests.
C. The securing of all possible information re
lating to pupils' interests, abilities, and needs,
as shown through:
1. Their general s chool records, and
2. Observation of their out-of-school activi
ties and environment.
V. For the better accomplishment of all the purposes
of the junior high school:
A. Inclusion in the junior high school organi
zation of grades seven, eight and nine..
B. Separate housing of these grades.
0. The organization of a separate staff of
teachers and the provision of special super
vision for these grades.
The senior high school. The senior high school con
tinues the functions of the junior high school. The major
purposes of the junior high school, which have been ascribed
* to it are not finally achieved, for, in a somewhat different
form, they appear in the senior high school. It is evident
that there is a need for the re-organization of subject
matter, for those subjects studied by all pupils have, in
many cases, been insufficiently socialized or unified. The
home economics, industrial, agricultural, and commerial
curricula are in the process of making.
According to statements made by Douglass, the senior
high school, which completes secondary education must make
provision for a more or less complete training in the fields
chosen as a result of the work in the junior high school.
By means of the differentiated curricula each pupil will be
able to pursue, once his decision is reached, work systemati
33,
cally, planned with reference to his needs as an individual
and as a member of society. This opinion is shared by many
who are engaged in administration procedures. Such curri
cula will also parallel the broad zones of human activity
and will be arrived at through analysis of present and
probable future demands of industrial , business, profession
al, and social life.
Articulation problems. Perplexing problems have re
sulted from the rapid development of the junior high school
movement which have confronted teachers and administrators ^
14
in adjusting their courses of study. Among these are:
1. A lack of mutual understanding of the basic
philosophy underlying the different educational units.
2. The absence of a consistent scheme of organiza
tion and administration that carries over from the ele
mentary to the junior high school and from the junior high
school to the senior, high school.
3. A lack of sequence in curriculum content and in
teaching procedure adapted to the child in his development
as he passes through the different educational units.
4. The existence of certain unadjusted detaiIs in
supervision.
Certain means of procedure have been suggested that
may aid in bringing about better relationships between the
different school units. It is necessary in the beginning to
have established a basis upon which to build an articulated
system. A clear statement of the purpose of each unit,
^ A. A Douglass, Secondary Education^ Boston, Houghton
McMillan Co., 1927 p. 47.
34,
based upon the physical, psychological, social, emotional,
and moral needs of the pupils in these units, should be
formulated. A better understanding should be developed
through intervisitations* The way in which the philosophy
of each is carried out in practice, and the organization of
a continuous progran will enable the pupils to progress
easily. The following factors will serve to illustrate this
15.
point:
1. Homogeneous grouping of students
2. Departmentalization of subjects
3. Guidance program ■
4. Counselors* record to checkstudent
5. Promotion
6. Citizenship
/*?• Study habits
8. Curriculum
Articulation between the junior and the senior high
school. Articulation between the junior and the senior
high school has been quite difficult since there is great
divergence in curriculums, subject matter, social and
physical problems of the pupils, complexity of organization,
and variance in teaching personnel and in tradional set-up.
According to Koos, the obligation for the performance
of these functions, the achievement of democratic secondai’ y
education, the recognition Of individual differences, the
recognition of the nature of the child at adolescence, and
the fostering of transfer of training, lies with almost
equal weight on the two units of the new secondary school.
15 Proctor & Riccardi, The Junior High School. Stanford,
Stanford University Press, 1930, p. 4.
35
The two remaining functions exploration and guidance;
and training in the fundamental processes must be treated
differently in the two units. Although they are functions
of the full period of secondary education, the burden of
their performance rests more heavily on the junior high
school than on the senior high school. The junior high
school must stress exploration and guidance, which in the
nature of things must precede occupational and other speciali
zation. A characteristic of the pupils in both units is
adolescence which must also be recognized. Early adolescence
may require somewhat different treatment from that of the
16
latter portions of the period.
SUMMARY OP THE CHAPTER
The secondary school* In considering the functions
of the secondary school, it should be borne in mind that
secondary education is a continuous and unitary process and
there is at base no such thing as junior high school or
senior high school education. The lower secondary school
begins secondary education, and the upper secondary school
terminates it. The objectives and functions and process are
the same in either case, aside from the fact that they are
adapted to, and interpreted in, terms of different stages
of growth and development.
All the functions of secondary education that have been
stated are operative on both levels of the secondary period.
L* V. Koos, The American Secondary School. Chicago,
Ginn & Co., 1927, p. 170.
Each level must recognize the needs, interests and problems
of the adolescent, the lower level ministering primarily
to the early adolescence and the upper level to the latter
adolescence• The curriculum should be organized on a general
basis, and there is much need of diagnostic testing, the
upper level demands further exploration, but on a less
elemental and general basis than the lower level*
Integration* Of paramount importance is the continuance
of common integrating education* There is much need of so
cial integration on both levels* Elemental social-civic
needs appear to be eminent on the lower level. These must
make heavy demands upon the core curriculum, and upon cer
tain basic extra-curriculum activities. On the upper level
there is acute need of integration within the cultural and
moral-social realms. This should have important bearings
upon a curriculum which has thus far accorded too little
recognition to literature, music, art and conduct.
Individual differences in the secondary school.
Adaptation to individual differences is operative on both
levels. Psychological differences; especially, are im
portant on both levels. Social differences are more com
pelling on the upper level, due to the fact that many
pupils are approaching the end of their formal education*
The implications are obvious. There is need of judicious
curriculum differentiation on a large scale, particularly
on the upper level.
Our main problem at present and for some time to come ""™*
37
will be to keep all individuals under the influence of the
secondary school as long as possible. This means in the
very nature of the case that we may hope to achieve the ideal
of universal secondary education only by degrees first,
on the lower, level, and then on the upper*
Sequence in current practice* There'is little evidence
of sequence in current practice* Pupils repeat in the
senior high school much that they did in the junior high
school, and there is further repetition in the junior
college. Self-dependence is the product of progressive
growth and development in effective and purposeful living.
Hence, there is need of ample opportunity for such living
throughout the secondary period. Moreover, the school
should organize this programof educative living on a
sequential basis in order that it may at all stages tax
and challenge the pupil's capacities and resources*
Creativeness. Greativeness is a product of progress
ive growth and development in creative living. lhat has
been said of s elf dependence is in a large measure true of
creativeness. The problem of the secondary school is to
organize its programs in the form of a continuous and in
creasingly exacting medium of constructive living. This
will require time. Current trends show that the solution of
this problem is slowly getting under way, but as yet there
is little that is consistently encouraging.
Guidance; The guidance function, is operative on the
lower level. It naturally goes hand in hand with exploration*
3a
There is continuous need of it, however, on the upper level
since each new vista calls for new orientation and new de
cisions.
Recent methods of developing articulation. Some of the
methods used for the development of articulations are:
vertical supervision with the subject supervisors working
through both units, the use of the same department heads
for both units, the formulation of definitely announced
aims for each unit and clearly stated objectives for each
subject or department, intervisitation of teachers and inter
assignments of teachers, training and experience of teachers
in more than one unit, over-lapping committees of teachers
to deal with problems affecting articulation, the appointment
of a director of secondary education with authority to unify
and supervise the units involved, correlated and continuous
personnel methods, continuity of the recognition and adjust- '
ment of individual differences, and the working out and opera
tion of a plan of continuous advancement from grade to grade
rather than a formal and definitely marked transition or
promotion points.
Conclusion. When every means of obtaining true arti
culation has been exhausted, when the philosophy underlying
each unit has been clearly enunciated and is understood by
all other units, when the scheme of continuous organization
and administration . . h a s . * been carefully developed, when
supervision has been adequately provided; when the teaching
technique and curriculum content have been adapted to the
various needs of the pupils, when all this has been com
pleted, all claims to true articulation will become as
1 1 sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal1 1 unless there is har
mony and good feeling among the teachers and administrators,
the spirit of sympathy,and co-operation must exist. Inter
visitation means nothing if prejudice and misunderstanding
exists. The acid test of the effectiveness of all the ele
ments that contribute to true articulation is, '•Has the
child progressed happily and unhindered, to the extent of
1 * 7
his powers, from one educational unit to the next?1 1
^ Proctor and Riccardi, op. cit.
40
CHAPTER V
AN ANALYSIS OP HOME ECONOMICS COURSES OF STUDY
The purpose of this chapter. The purpose of this
chapter is to give a representative sampling of the general
objectives of home economics as stated by specialists and
in city and state courses of study in different sections of
the United States, and to show in a general w ay the trend
of the learning activities by analyzing and classifying the
general objectives under the three divisions of learning
activities such/ acknowledge to be gained; habits and
skills to be acquired; and attitudes, appreciations and
ideals to be developed.
I HOME ECONOMICS EDUCATION
The place of home economics in secondary education.
The challenge of higher education to home economics
is for a more comprehensive philosophy on which to base its
program, a subject matter better adapted to all students
whether men or women, a more definite contribution to other
subjects in the curriculum, and fundamental researches on
the problems of family relations and effective home life.
The challenge of the liberal arts college to home
economics can only be met by providing new courses that
will be general enough in their subject matter and compre
hensive enough in the philosophy underlying them to appeal
to both men and women and to serve to stimulate in youth
an intelligent interest in the problems of the home and
family life. 18
* * - 80.C.Carmichael,"Home Economics in Higher Education,1 1
Uournal of Home Economics, Vol. 24, No. 10, p. 851. Oct.1932.
The main work of the home economists in the past has
been the development of a system of training for homemaking
as a vocation. During more recent years, the sociologist
has been studying the home from the standpoint of its rela
tion to a changing social order. The psychologist has made
available many new data on the nature of the child. The
health expert and the nutritionist have gathered much
valuable information on the conditions affecting the
physical health and growth of the child. Considerable
attention has been given to the problem of parent education.
All these studies are important and have made their contri
bution to the understanding of .the home and family life and
to their development. But the interpreting of all these
findings in terms of family relationship has never been
sufficiently emphasized. A knowledge of child nature and
his health needs, the house in which we live, the food and
clothing with which we are provided, a budget on which to
operate the home, and instructions to parents, are all im
portant consideration^ but the heart of the problem of mak
ing home life effective, lies in making the relationships
that exist among the members of the home group most con
structive and satisfying.
The Home. The home provides for the interplay of per
sonalities, and this makes possible the integration of the
personalities within the family group; but to date there are
very little scientific data available which interpret the
way in which this interplay may be made constructive.
42
Research in this field would he of great practical value.
It would help to focus the attention, of all those interested
in the field of intimate human relations, on the most funda
mental of all influences affecting individual development
and social progress.
In the past home economics in common with most phases of
education has seemed to be ’ ’subject matter” centered rather
than student centered. Many teachers are now increasingly
conscious of the needs of students and are endeavoring to
meet these needs through modification of the subject matter
and the methods for which they are responsible.
Adolescence. The students are affected by the emotional
changes in themselves and the changing environment which
come during adolescence. In order to understand their
problems it is necessary for the teacher to have some appre
ciation of the basic needs of human nature, especially as
they are manifested during adolescence.
The need for security which is life long, is expressed
largely in terms of physical comfort in early infancy but
later is obtained through affection, approval, economic .
security, social adequacy and intellectual ability. Since
everyone feels a lack of security in certain aspects of his
life, compensation often appears by means of exaggeration
of some ability, social, intellectual or financial in order
to cover up the deficiency. Because of the need to be
attached to some one emotionally, there may be a strong
transfer of affection, from the family which is absent, to
some person who is present if the student leaves home to go
4,3
to school or take a position.
In his attitudes toward authority the student is
usually reflecting his experiences with parental authority
and domination. If he has been completely dominated, ex
treme self-assertiveness on the one hand or submission on
the other, may be the result depending upon the trend of
his personality. He may resent rules and regulations and
try to defy them. His initial attitudes toward older
students and faculty are usually a reflection of former ex
periences rather than merely the result of present conditions
and may be modified if this is undex-stood by the students
19
and adults and he is treated accordingly.
Conflict has long been thought to be a characteristic
of adolescence. The student who is in the process of try
ing to resolve such conflict needs help and understanding.
If he is able to face situations as they are, including him
self with his assets and liabilities, a solution is possible*
If he has been so spoiled that he is unable to face reality,
20
the outcome is more uncertain.
Rivalry may be transferred from the family to personal
relationships with others. Through competition the student
may be trying to retaliate f or hurts acquired earlier in his
19 Gr. H. Elliott, Understanding the Adolescent Girl, New
York, H. Holt and Go., 1930, p. 40.
2oH. A. Overstreet, About Ourselves, New York, W. W.
Norton and Go. Inc., 1927, p. 20.
i
life or he may express his disappointment in a health am
bition to succeed.
Since everyone heeds "recognition and response" in both
personal and professional relationships, the school has a
responsibility for each student in order to help him achieve
satisfactory recognition and response from others. "Many,
are thwarted and withdraw within themselves to conceal their
hurt and disappointment. * * Above all the adolescent needs
responsibility, the opportunity to adventure and freedom
to grow.
This is a time to think, to revalue our ambitions, to
reexamine our aims and to rediscover our ideals in every
field of education. Programs in home economics education
should be made, however, only in the light of the present
situation and in accordance with an adequate philosophy of
home economics.
II. GENERAL OBJECTIVES OF HOME ECONOMICS TEACHING
The general objectives for high school courses in home
economics as stated by specialists. The general objectives
of secondary education form the foundation upon which Home
Economics must develop. Home Economics is being recognized
more and more as a social study concerned with the improve
ment of home-making and life within the home and community.
Appreciation of the beautiful as applied to an attractive
home, hospitality, and social contacts which home life affords
21 L. C. Pressey, Some College Students and Thgir Problems,
New York, Richard R. Smith, Inc., 1931, p. 10
45
are but a few of the ways in which home economics can k
contribute to the leisure time objective.
4
Freely interpreted, the major objectives of home
economics teaching may be considered as three in number:
to give an understanding of the function of the home, to
indicate possible sources of useful information regarding
present day homes, and2to provide training in the pro
cesses of home-making.
The aim of general home economics as stated by Koos
in "The American Secondary School”: The purpose of general
home economics education is to help to secure and to main
tain the best type of home and of family life as vital
forces in American society....
The aim of general home economics in elementary and high
schools should be: First: to prepare the pupils for helpful
and worthy memberships in their present homes by establish
ing such standards of character as will result in considera
tion of the comfort and convenience of others and in willing
service for the common good. To accomplish this aim, it is
necessary to develop skills in the use of household materials,
utensils, and machinery; to inculate such personal habits
x. and standards as to-focas, clothing, and surroundings as will
insure good physical health; to train in thrift, economy, and
business methods that the pupil may appreciate the problems
confronting the adminstrator of the family income; to apply
to daily life the fundamental laws of beauty, of color and
form.
♦ •
Second: To give prevocational training to such girls
as may discover within themselves special abilities for
those occupations and industries that have evolved from the
household crafts.
Home economics has inspiring possibilities. vCould we
at once achieve the aims, general and specific, of home
economics as these have been set forth...we would go far in
attaining many of the aims of the secondary school and there
by contribute generously to the enhancement of life in many
relationships. There would be large contributions along
civic-social-moral lines, not only through an improved home
life, but in many respects in which the community at large
would be concerned. There would be influences for the eleva
22 Lita Bane,"The Major Objectives of Home Economics Teach
ing1 , 1 Journal of Home Economics, Vol. 19, p. 211, March 1927.
46/
tion of standards of recreation and of aesthetic apprecia
tions. There would be a tendency toward a better state of
individual and community health. The subject, both in its
general and intensive forms, would have a notable bearing on
the occupational life of women. Furthermore, several of the
functions of the secondary school would be served, among
them guidance, the recognition of individual differences, the
democratization of education on this level, the recognition
of the nature of girls at a time when homemaking interests
are waxing to maturity, and even transfer of training. But
this subject, in common with all others, will need to under
go much improvement in content and in methods of presenta
tion before it will contribute all that is inherent^in it
toward complete education of youth in our schools.
Illustrative list of objectives. The junior high school
home economics committee suggests the follo¥/ing as home
economics general objectives for junior high schools.24
1. The development of:
A. An understanding of the relation to health of:
(l.) Foods, as determined by their nutritional
value, their preparation and their appe
tizing quality.
(2.) Clothing, as determined by materials and
styles.
(3.) Home sanitation, as determined by the per
sonal hygiene of the members of the family
and their care of the home.
B. Good health habits relative to the use of food
and clothing and the care of room and home.
2. The development of a sense of personal responsibility
to contribute as a member of the family to the general
well-being and happiness of the home circle and to
assist in home tasks.
3. The development of ability and dexterity in the mani
pulation of domestic materials, tools and machinery.
4. The development of an understanding of individual and
home needs and costs, as related to food values and
23 Leonard V. Koos, The Arnericai Secondary School, Ginn & Co.
1927, p. 480-81
24 Department of Superintendence, MThe Junior High School
Curriculum1 , 1 Fifth Yearbook, 1927, p. 362-364
47.
to quality and appearance of materials; some practice in the
making of individLial and domestic budgets.
(5. ) The development of an appreciation of aesthetic
qualities as related to dress, to the furnishing of the
girl*s own room and her home and in an elementary way to the
use and laying out of yards and grounds.
(6.) The development of a desire and ability to partici
pate in home activities; both the work and social activities
within the family and the hospitality activities incident
to social contacts with others not belonging to the family.
(7.) The development of an appreciation of the home as a
place in which to spend leisure hours and the gaining of
ability to spend such leisure hours in ways that will contri
bute to the improvement of the individual and the home.
The purpose of the committee has been to formulate a
course in home economics that will function in the present
day life of the pupils because it recognizes their needs,
abilities and interests. The above statements of objectives
show that the cardinal principles of education are served by
home economics teaching, and that the girls should acquire
not merely ”skills and information,” but also right atti
tudes, good habits, and ideals of health, citizenship, lei
sure and work.
One of the members of the Home Economics Committee
suggested that number V,. VI, and VII, of the above objec
tives were better a.dapted to the age of high school or
university students. This is doubtless true; still a few
well-planned lessons with these objectives in mind might
be of lifelong value to girls who leave school at the end
of the ninth grade.
48
The general objectives of home economics as stated by
25
Douglass. The general objectives of home economics as stated
by Douglass are as follows:
Home membership: Knowledge: Habits, Interests, Ideals.
(!•*<) Knowledge of social importance of family.
(2.) Knowledge of duties of parenthood.
(3.) Disposition to participate in affairs of family
of which one is a member.
(4.) Knowledge of food values, clothing values.
(5.) Ability to budget income, to effect savings.
(6.) Reasonable skill in cooking, sewing, and other
home arts (girls).
(7.) Skill in mechanical processes in upkeep of home (boys).
Aimg^of general home economics suggested by lima L.
Badgley. b Hie following aims of general home economicswere
suggested by lima L. Badgley:
(1) To appear and be attractive to her friends; eg*,
adorn herself, be socially pupular, be a leader,
to excel.
(2) To express her individuality in her clothing,
manners, and conduct; to establish acceptable
standards in each*
(3) To share in the activities of her household; eg.,
care for her room, make her own clothing, take care
of younger children, assist in the buying and pre
paration of food, assist with the general house
work, etc.
(4) To have health; to lay the foundation in health
knowledge, overcome such prejudices and establish
such habits as will insure her normal physical,
mental, emotional, and social development.
(5) To contribute to the total health of her family.
(6) To share with others a family income, which must
satisfy the wants and desires of all the members
of the household.
25 A. A. Douglass, Secondary Education, San Francisco,
Houghton, Mifflin Do., 1927, p. 446.
lima L. Badgley, ”The General Aims of Home Economics,”
University High School Journal, Vol. 8, p. 221-56, February,
1929.
49,
(7) To understand and appreciate the importance of
the time and effort expended by the homemaker
(mother) in terms of economic and social value
to the family.
(8) To contribute to the social life of the home by
helping to establish a wholesome and happy rela
tionship with her parents, brothers, and sisters,
and by sharing with them her experiences outside
of the home.
(9) To come to appreciate the responsibility her
parents share with her in making her education and
social life possible.
• (10) To gain such a perspective of the home life of the
nation that she can create a standard, by which to
evaluate her own family life and to develop an
ideal standard for her own family.
The general objectives of home economics in the Oakland
27
High schools. The general objectives of home economics in ithe
Oakland course of study for Junior high schools were classi
fied under the necessary outcomes of learning such as knowledge,
habits and skills, attitudes, appreciations and ideals.
Knowledge:
(3) Opportunities for the wise use of leisure which
will insure normal physical, mental, social and
emotional development.
(7) A working knowledge of the processes carried on
in the home and the skills commensurate with
the girl*s needs.
(8i An understanding of the importance of time,
effort and income, and the ability to use them
12, Habits and skills:
(5) The desire and ability to participate in home
activities.
(6} Proper health attitudes and habits.
( 7)
(8)
Oakland City Schools, Courses of Study for Junior High
Schools. 1929, p. 14
50,
„3.. Attitudes, Appreciations and Ideals:
Ci> The ability to appreciate and enjoy beauty
in everyday living.
(i:), The development of standards of good taste
in the selection and use of all those things
with which the girl chooses to surround
herself.
(4); Stimulation of social consciousness and sense
of responsibility for service.
( &X
(6)
The General Objectives of home economics in the Oak
land junior high schoo^courses of study are based upon this
guiding principle: MThe curriculum can best prepare for
effective participation in future living by providing first-
f f O O
hand experience for present living. The primary purpose
of teaching home economics is to help girls ' ‘create a more
abundant life in their individual homes as they exist at the
present time.* Contributions to this are made through the
above statements classified under the different types of
learning activities.
29
Senior High .School. The home economics curriculum
committee in the Oakland senior high school has suggested
generalaias under each division of home economics as fobds,
clothing, home problems, and homemaking. These objectives
are stated as followst
Kinyon and Hopkins, Junior Home Problems, 1928, p.12
Oakland City Schools, Courses of Study for Senior High
Schools, 1930.
Clothing objectives: 51
!•* Knowledge:
(li To extend the knowledge of becomingness and
suitability in dress as outlined in Clothing I and II through
an intensive study of wool and silk problems.
(2) To develop greater speed in garment construction,
to plan and execute with greater independence, and to develop
further the ability to apply principles of color and design in
the plannin^and selection of clothing.
(5) 1 To read understandingly fashion notes.
(6) To trace present-day designs to historical and
national sources.
^2* Habits and Skills:
(2)
(3) To emphasize technique and finishes for various
fabrics.
(4) To increase ability to observe seasonal changes
in style, fabrics, and finishes.
"13* Attitudes, appreciation and ideals;
(2)
(6)
Foods III objectives:
Knowledge:
(7) To gain knowledge of the industry of food preserva
tion and to gain some skill in preservation of food in the home*
(8) To acquire the knowledge and skill necessary in
planning, preparation and serving of meals.
:2m Habits and skills:.
(71
(81
3. Attitudes, appreciations and ideals:
(9) To develop an appreciation of the physical and
social importance of the family meals.
Nutrition, objectives:
1. Knowledge:
(ill To learn how the science of nutrition is applied
to every-day life.
53
,3. Habits and skills:
(12) To bring about combined effort in community
nutrition work, thus contributing to community health ‘ and
well-being.
Attitudes, appreciations and ideals.
(13) To lead the student through a study of concrete
problems and activities to think of herself not only as an
individual but as a member and community group with definite
social and economic responsibilities, and so prepare her for
more effective living*
problems and activities to think of herself not only as an
individual, but as a member of a family and community group
with definite social and economic responsibilities, and so
prepare her for more effective living.
Zm Habits and skills;
Homemaking Courses I and II objectives:
1% Knowledge:
(15 3 To aid the girl to meet her immediate problems
as a member of the family group and to lead her to appreciate
the responsibilities that a home entails.
Habits and skills:
To aid in formation of good habits relative to
the use of food,clothing, and shelter, with emphasis on their
relation to health and economy.
(lo) To acquire a scientific attitude toward health
and particularly toward the choice of food.
Home problems: Objectives:
1* Knowledge:
(14) To lead the student through a study of concrete
(13)
(14)
' .3. Attitudes, appreciations and ideals:
(13)
(I4j
53
(17) The development of an appreciation of the home
as a place in which to spend leisure hours and ability to
contribute to the improvement of the individuals and the home.
3* Attitudes, appreciations and ideals:
(15)
(17)
The general objectives of home economics in the Harris-
30
burg high school. The Harrisburg home economics committee
has suggested that in order to keep the curriculum up to
date, we must study life about it and in so doing consider
the following.
•(l) The objectives in a satisfying home life which com
prise efficient homemaking.
(2) The activities of the home maker.
(3) The provision for training for the necessary home
activities with special emphasis on those problems where
efficiency is lacking in the performance of managerial tasks.
(4) The necessity of constantly examining what is
taught in home economics to vitalize teaching.
The committee has adopted the aim of general home
31
economics as stated by F. G. Bonser:
The aim of general home economics include a general
appreciation of high ideals, high purposes, enthusiasm for
service, and an interest in the enterprise of homemaking
with a vision of its possibilities. The aim in vocational
home economics include all that general home economics in
cludes plus productive skill and managerial efficiency.
The time element is larger and the individual responsibility
of the student is greater.
^ Harrisburg City Schools, Courses of Study in Home
Economics. 1928.
^ F. G. Bonser, Courses of Study in Home Economics,
Harrisburg City Schools, 1928, p. 8.
54
32
The Louisiana state course of study. The Louisiana
course of study in home economics was revised in 1929 for the
purpose of providing a satisfactory guide containing sugges
tions that would provide a constant help to teachers in direct
ing a homemaking program* This course of study was prepared
through the united efforts of a large group of home economics
teachers working in cooperation with the home economics "
division of the state department of education* T* H. Harris,
Superintendent of Public Education, has stated the following;
which shows the trend of subject matter in this course:
Home economics is no longer classed as a fad. All
thoughtful persons agree that good homes where parents and
children live in happy companionship, where comfort, sound
health, and an absence of drudgery prevail, and where
children schooled in obedience directed by self-control,
are the guardians of our institutions and liberties* The
persons who have studied the question agree that high school
girls who complete courses in homemaking under the leader
ship of cultured, trained teachers of home economics are
much better equipped to discharge the duties of mothers and
directors of home activities, on account of the instruction
which they received in well-managed home economics depart
ments *
We submit the material with the hope that the teachers
of home economics may be able to use it in a manner to create
in the minds of high school girls a very deep appreciation
of the importance of good homes, and to give them the instruc
tion that will enable them to discharge efficiently the duties
connected with homemaking, thus adding to the security of
American ideals*
Content* The problems, subject matter and accompanying
learning activities are organized around the family, the home
and various duties ordinarily performed by the mother and
daughter for the general welfare and happiness for thdTb in
32 Louisiana State Dept, of Education, Courses of'Study in
Home Economics* Baton Rouge, Bulletin No. 160, 1929.
55
the home. The procedure followed considers some of the
changing factors in home life and endeavors to organize home
making problems around normal situations, which experiences
should assist in the development of the individual, and give
such training in appreciation, skills and managerial ability
as will be most helpful to the present needs of the girl and
future homemaker. A sequence of subject matter has been
arranged that will insure the continuity of the homemaking
program.
The general objectives of home economics for high schools
33
in Pasadena. The general objectives of home economics for
high schools in Pasadena are the followingrstatements which
have been analyzed and classified under the three types of
learning activities; namely, knowledge to be gained; habits
and skills to be acquired; and attitudes appreciations and
ideals to be developed:
I. Heaith
A. Nutrition
1. Knowledge
To gain knowledge of the nutritive value and function
of foods, and practice in planning well-balanced meals
which will maintain a high standard of health and pro
vide for the needs of all members of the family.
To grow in ability to read intelligently advertise
ments, newspaper and magazine articles and to discard
that which is misleading and unscientific, thfts avoid
ing harmful food fads and practices.
2. Habits and skills
To establish good food habits and attitudes.
To develop ability to prepare food so as to preserve
its full nutritive value.
33 Pasadena City Schools, Courses of Study in Home Economics
for H&gh Schools, 1929
50
3. Attitudes, Appreciations and Ideals
To establish good food habits and attitudes.
B. Sanitation
X. Knowledge
To gain knowledge of the sanitary handling of food
in the markets and at home, and of the sanitary
disposal of garbage and waste by the family and by
th e c onmrun i ty •
G. Personal and clothing hygiene
I. Knowledge
To gain practice in the formation of general health
habits which have to do with posture, elimination of
waste products, exercise, fresh air and sunshine,
sleep and recreation.
D. Personal and clothing hygiene
1. Knowledge
To gain knowledge of hygiene of person and clothing
with such appreciation as will result in improved
personal appearance and health.
2. Attitudes, appreciations and ideals
To gain knowledge of hygiene of person and clothing
with such appreciation as will result in improved
personal appearance and health.
E. Efficient working conditions
1. Knowledge
To gain knowledge of factors which should be con
sidered in planning working conditions so that
health may be maintained, and practice in regulat
ing these conditions such as ventilation, lighting
and placing of equipment.
2. Habits and skills
To gain knowledge of factors which should be con
sidered in planning working conditions so that health
may be maintained, and practice in regulating these
conditions such as ventilation, lighting and plac
ing of equipment.
F. Home care of the sick
2. Habits and skills
To develop ability to care for minor illness in the
home.
( S r . Mental hygiene
3. Attitudes, appreciations and ideals
To appreciate the Importance of establishing right
mental habits and their relation to our physical
well-being.
57
II. Command of fundamental processes needed for further
growth.
1. Knowledge
To gain knowledge of the fundamental principles
underlying child care, preparation and service of
food, proper food balance and cost, marketing, food
preservation, selection of clothing for the family,
garment making, and care of the home. To gain
knowledge of sources of information relating to
foods and nutrition, clothing and textiles and house
hold management and child care.
To gain knowledge of agencies of welfare in the
community.
2. Habits and skills
To afford opportunity for practice in the funda
mental skills in performing certain minimum house
hold activities.
To develop ability to budget income and weigh
values~ regarding time, energy and resources.
3. Attitudes, appreciations and ideals
To develop taste in dress and in home furnishings,
and appreciations of beauty in texture, color and
design.
III. Growth in vocational fitness and a vocational resource
fulness.
1. Knowledge
To gain kno¥/ledge of such phases of home maid, ng as
satisfy the students immediate needs, appreciation
of the importance of the profession of homemaking,
and a growing realization of the responsibility of
the father and mother for upholding high standards
in maintaining a home.
2. Habits and skills
To develop a desire to explore one*s own interest,
aptitudes and capacities and ability to evaluate
vocational opportunity in occupations allied to
homemaking, such as costume designing, interior
decoration, cafeteria and tea room management,
teaching, (nursery s chool and kindergarten), child
dentistry and child physchology.
3. Attitudes, appreciations and ideals
To gain knowledge of such phases of homemaking as
satisfy the student*s immediate needs, appreciation
of the importance of the profession of homemaking,
and a growing realization of the responsibility of
the father and mother for upholding high standards
in maintaining a home.
5a
IV. Citizenship: Cooperation, followership, self-
dependence, and world-mindedness.
3. Attitudes, appreciations and ideals
To appreciate the spirit and purpose of family life,
the child as the central interest in the family,
and the care and training of children as the most
vital function of the home.
To realize that training in most home membership
is training for citizenship and that right social
attitudes in the home assure right social atti
tudes in the community.
To gain knowledge of social attitudes which should
be stressed in the home such as (1) attitude to
ward authority (obedience); (2) attitude toward
reality (conception of truth, of telling the truth
and of facing facts); (3) attitude toward property;
and (4) attitude toward love and affection.
V. Minimum character development
2. Habits and skills
To develop the following habits:
A. Cleanliness of person and of home
B. Thrift in buying and using food, clothing
household equipment and furnishing
C. Accuracy in measurements and computations
of costs.
D. Industry through practice in evaluating time.
E. Reliability through working out projects that
call for continued effort and careful attention to
detail.
F. Resourcefulness in locating and using informa
tion pertaining to foods and nutrition, clothing
and textiles, and household management and child
care •
G-. Initiative by being able to create something
which expresses one's self, of being able to think
a problem through and organize it before starting
out.
H. Cooperation by working with classmates on joint
plans and by working on school and community pro
jects.
I. Service through practice in serving family
and school.
J. High ideals as to the quality of one's work by
continued practice in judging one's own work fairly.
sa
34
Vermont state course of study in home economies. The
general aim of the Vermont course of study is as follows:
The aim of this course of study is to aid the home
economics teacher in giving a broad course in home economies,
one which will meet effectively the needs of each individual
community in the state and to help her in teaching the stu
dent those fundamental principles which will give an appre
ciation of a homemaker*s job, and an opportunity to apply
certain fundamental processes so that she may understand-
ingly assume her share cf responsibility as a member of a
family,
Illinois state course of study in home economics for
high schools, ^ The Illinois home economics committee in
curriculum revision has adopted the major objectives of
home economics teaching as considered by Lita Bane, in the
Journal of Home Economics for March, 1927:
Freely interpreted, the major objectives of home economics
teaching may be considered as three in number:;to give an
understanding of the function of the home, to indicate possi
ble sources of useful information regarding present day .
homes, and to provide training in the processes of homemaking#
36
Saint Louis course of study in home economics. The
general objectives for high schools in Saint Louis were ana
lyzed and classified and are stated as follows:
1. Knowledge:
(1) To obtain a general knowledge of the arts and
sciences allied to the home.
(2) To acquire knowledge and habits of foods,
clothing and sanitation that will assist in
maintaining health*
(3) To learn the use and care of household equipment.
(4) To learn how to assist in planning and perform
ing the home activities*
34 Vermont State Department of Education, Courses of Study
in Home Economics for High Schools, Bulletin No.l, Part V,1928*
33 Syllabus of Home Economics for the High School* Univer
sity of Illinois Bulletin, No. 19, p. 12, 1930#
33 Saint Louis Gity Schools, Courses of Study in Home
Economics for Senior High Schools, 1927
60
2. Habits and skills:
(5) To cultivate right habits toward home
responsibilities.
(2)
(3)
(4 )
3. Attitudes, appreciations and ideals.
(6) To acquire ideals and appreciations of the
home as a social institution*
The general objectives of the Colorado state course
of study* ^ ~ ’
The general objectives of home economics in the
Colorado state course of study for the high schools were
analyzed and classified under the three types of learning
activities such as knowledge to be gained; habits and skills
to be acquired; and attitudes, appreciations and ideals to
be developed, and are stated in the following paragraphs*
1 • Knowledge
(1) To prepare the student to select intelligently
foods that will meet her own requirements.
(2) To acquaint students with some 6f the factors
that govern the choice of foods necessary to
the needs of other members of the family
group, the infant, the pre-school child age,
the rapid growing boy, parents, and elderly
members of the household.
2. Habits and skills
(i)
(3) To help the student to acquire better techni
cal skill to the degree that it shall enable
her to: (a) render better personal service to
the immediately family group* (b) better re
cognized standards for food products.
(4) To develop some ability in preparing food com
binations that shall be at once pleasing to the
eye as well as palatable.
(5) To promote habits of thought and the desire to
seek for truth through providing stimulating
laboratory problems.
3. Attitudes, appreciations and ideals
(3)
(5)
(6) To give an incentive to continue food study after
°'{ Colorado : State..Dept'i’ of; Education, A Course of Study
for the Public Schools. Voi. 3, 1926. ~
61,
3* Attitudes, appreciations and ideals
(6) school days are over#
38
State high schools of North Dakota# The general aim
of home economics in the North Dakota course.of study for
junior and senior high schools can best be stated in this
quotation: uto give the girl a well-rounded conception of
the many studies contributing to worthy home memberships.
The high school girl will both contribute and derive
more benefit from her home by developing certain apprecia
tions, skills and an ability to solve problems. Throughout
the food courses, clothing, home nursing, and child care
courses the formation of right health habits has been em
phasized. Training and home management should give the girls
appreciation of all the responsibilities of the home maker,
while child care, and home nursing, should teach them how to
deal intelligently with the smaller children in their own
homes and their neighbor’s homes.
The generaL objectives for the Massachusetts high
39
schools. The general objectives of home economics for high
schools in Massachusetts are in accord with the following
seven cardinal principles of education as set forth by the
commission on the reorganization of secondary education.
The direct aims are worthy home membership, health and voca
tion; the indirect aims of home economics are, command of
39Massachusetts State Department of Education, Suggestions
for the Organization and Administration of Home Economics Edu
cation. Bulletin No. 4, 1931.
^ North Dakota State Department of Public Instruction,
Syllabus for Home Economics, 1926.
fundamental processes, citizenship, worthy use of leisure
time, and ethical character.
The worthy home membership aim as it contributeslto
home economics education calls for the development by the
individual and group of those attitudes.and practices which
contribute to happy family and community life; of knowledge
which gives an economic understanding of the money, social
use, and labor incomes of the family; of skills which make
possible a command over home routines as well as the in
crease and enrichment of leisure time.
The health aim may be carried out intelligently by boys
and girls who have a knowledge of home practices and ideals,
conditions and standards of living, housing, of the selec
tion, use, and care of clothing, and of the selection, com
bination, preparation and serving of food. This is a co
operative responsibility of all the departments in the
school program.
The Massachusetts home economics committee also states
that a knowledge of vocations should help children appreciate
the great art of living, should help them to realize their
personal responsibilities as members of society and should
help them discover special abilities and capacities, talents
and interests, that may be developed as a means to economic
independence. All girls and boys should gain a better appre
ciation of homemaking as a vocation.
63
The general objectives of home economics for junior and
senior high schools in the San Francisco course of study.
The general objectives of home economics in the SanFrancisco
course of study were analyzed and classified under the three
types of learning activities and are stated in the following
paragraphs:
40
Junior high school
1. Knowledge
(1) The development of an understanding of the
relation to health of: (a) foods, as determined
by their nutritional value, their preparation
and their appetizing quality (b) clothing, as
determined by materials and styles (c) Home
Sanitation, as determined by the personal hy
giene of the members of the family and their
care of the home.
(4) The development of an understanding of indi
vidual and home needs and costs, as related
to food values and to quality and appearance
materials; some practice in the making of
individual and domestic budgets.
2. Habits and skills
(1) The development of good health habits rela
tive to the use of food and clothing and the
care of room and home.
(3) The development of ability and dexterity in
the manipulation of domestic materials, tools
and machinery.
(6) The development of a desire and ability to
participate in home activities; both the work
and social activities within the family and the
hospitality activities incident to social con
tacts with others not belonging to the family.
(7) The development of an appreciation of the home
as a place in which to spend leisure hours and
the gaining of ability to spend such leisure
hours in ways that will contribute to the im
provement of the individual and the home.
40 San Francisco City Schools, Courses of Study in Home
7 6 Economics for junior High Schools, 1928.
64
41
Senior High school
1. Knowledge
(l) To acquire knowledge and habits of food, cloth
ing and sanitation that will assist in maintain
ing health.
(4) To develop a broader knowledge of art's and
sciences allied in the home and to vocations in
home economic fields
2. Habits and skills
(1) To acquire knowledge and habits of food, cloth
ing and sanitation that will assist in maintain
ing health.
(2) To develop a degree of efficiency in homemaking
skills.
(6) To develop a wise use of leisure time and in
creased enjoyment of life.
Junior high school
3. Attitudes and appreciations
(2) The development of a sense of personal respon
sibility to contribute as a member of the family
to the general well-being and happiness of the
home circle and to assist in home tasks.
(5) The development of an appreciation of aesthetic
qualities as related to dress, to the furnishing
of the girl's own room and her home and in an
elementary way to the use and laying out of yards
and grounds.
(6) The development of a desire and ability to par
ticipate in home activities; both the work and
social activities within the family and the hos
pitality activities incident to social contacts
with others not belonging to the family*
(7) The development of an appreciation of the home
as a place in which to spend leisure hours and
the gaining of ability to spend such leisure
hours in ways that will contribute to the im
provement of the individual and the home*
Senior high school
3. Attitudes and appreciations
(3) To create right attitudes toward home and
family life, and to train for worthy membership
in a home.
(5) To develop a right attitude toward community
life and the recognition of the importance of
the family group in society.
^ San Francisco Gity Schools, bourses of Study in Home
Economics for Senior High Schools5 1928.
65 ,
Senior High school
3* Attitudes and appreciations cont.
(6) To develop a wise use of leisure time and in
creasing enjoyment of life.
(7) To appreciate more fully the value of each indi
viduals contribution to family and society.
The general objectives of home economics education for
42
the State of Indiana. The general objectives of home eco
nomics in Indiana are in hearty accord with those which have
been set up by the central committee as general objectives
of secondary education. These objectives were analyzed and
classified and are stated in the following paragraphs:
To teach the students to do better the desirable home eco
nomics activities which they will perform anyway, to reveal
high activities, and to make them both desirable and to an
extent, possible.
Junior High school
1. Knowledge
(6) To develop a working knowledge of home processes
and a degree of skill in doing them commensurate
with the age and present needs of the child.
2. Habits and skills
(1) To teach pupils to do better the home activities
which they are doing.
(3) To provide experience in such activities.
(4) To develop proper health habits and attitudes.
(6) To develop a working knowledge of home processes
and a degree of skill in doing them commensurate
with the age and present needs of the child.
3.Attitudes and appreciations
(2) To stimulate interest in further activities.
(4) To develop proper health habits and attitudes.
(5) To establish right attitudes toward home and
family life.
^ Indiana State Department of Public Instruction, Courses
in Home Economics for High Schools, Curriculum Btklletin No.
100 G-3, 1930*
60
Senior high school
1. Knowledge
(1) An understanding of health in relation to foods,
clothing, home, and community sanitation, de
veloping a desire to practice health habits*
(9) A desire for future study of home problems and
familiarity with sources from which health may
be attained*
2. Habits and skills
(2) An ability to contribute as a member of the
family to the general well teing and happiness
of the home*
(4) A desire to anticipate and to participate in
work and social activities of the community*
(5) An increased ability and desire to plan for
and to use leisure hours in every way that
will contribute to the well being of the indi
vidual and the home*
(6) An ability to apply the fundamental princi
ples in meeting new situations in the home.
(7) Some ability and joy in sharing in the physi
cal, mental, and social development of young
children.
(8) Ability to apply fundamental principles in
meeting new situations in the home*
3* Attitudes, appreciations and ideals
(1) An understanding of health in relation to
foods, clothing, home and community sanita
tion, developing a desire to practice health
habits*
(3) An appreciation of aesthetic qualities as re
lated to dress to the furnishing of the girl’s
room and to the interior and exterior of the
house in which she lives.
(4) A desire to anticipate and to participate in
work and social activities of the community*
(5) An increased ability and desire to plan for
and use leisure hours in.every way that will
contribute to the well-being of the individual
and the home.
(7) Some ability and joy in sharing in the physi
cal, mental and social development of young
children*
(10)A desire for traits of character needed for
living satisfactorily with others.
67
The Texas state course of study» The general objec
tives of home economics in the Texas public high schools
have been revised to meet the needs of the high school girls
in their relation to the function of family life as analyzed
below:
(1) Personal development and adjustment:
(a) Good physical and mental health habits as the basis
of personal well-being, (b) character traits as standards
for conduct (c) intellectual and esthetic tastes and
interests (d) social traits essential for self-expression
and satisfactory contact with associates.
(2) Ability to make and maintain satisfactory relations with
others:
(a) Members of her own family (b) girl friends (c) little
children (d) older women (e) members of opposite sex
(f) schoolmates (g) teachers.
(3) Attitudes essential for satisfactory standards in family
relationships:
(a) characteristics desirable in all such relationships:
(suggestive list): Open-mindedness, fair play, love,
honesty, impartiality, objectivity, generosity, considera
tion, initiative, perseverance, loyalty to persons and
ideals, ability to face reality.
(b) relationships involved: Parent to child, child to
parent, child to brother and sister, parent to parent,
members of family to employed help, and members of family
to community.
(4) Information on various subjects essential to the good
functioning of the family life: Health, physical and
mental, finances, nutrition, clothing, housing, child
development, recreation and social activity, right
family relationships and loyalties, interrelations of
person, family, and community interests and activities.
(5) Skills, techniques, and abilities essential to the effi
cient functioning of the family: Maintenance of standards
for physical and mental health, management of family fi
nances selection, buying, preparation, serving and care
of food; selection, buying, construction, care of cloth
ing; selection, care and use of equipment and furnishing;
44 Texas State Department of Bducation, The Teaching of
Homemaking» Vol. 8, Ho. 5, Part I, II, III, 1932.
68
The Texas state course of study.
(5) selection, financing and care of the house; care and
cont*management of children; provision for recreation and
social activity; personal management; maintenance of
interrelations of family and community interests and
activities•
The San Diego course of study* The general objec
tives of home economics in the San Diego high school are
stated in the following paragraphs:
a Knowledge, appreciations and habits of good health
with respect to: personal hygiene, (2) home and com
munity sanitation (3) nutrition (4) clothing and
health relations.
b Understandings of, and preparation for worthy home mem
berships through development of:
(1) Correct attitudes toward home and family life in
cluding: (a) feeling of responsibility toward home (b)
knowledge of activities carried on in the home (c) abil
ity to perform the various household processes (d) Appre
ciation of womanfs work in the home.
(2) Recognition of home and family relationships and
the place of the family in the community.
(3) Ability to budget the family income.
(4) Ability to weigh values relating to expenditures.
c Ideals and capacities for wise use of leisure time
through: (1) Development of higher capacities for
wholesome enjoyment of life (2) Development of ability
to participate in social activities involving:
(a) Hospitality (b) social contact. (3) Development
of ability to improve the appearaace of the individual
and the home through:
(a) appreciation of aesthetic qualities as related to
dress
(b) appreciation of beautification in the home as
related to home furnishings.
^ San Diego ^ity Schools, Courses of Study in Home
Economics for High Schools.
69,
III. SUMMARY
The challenge of higher education to home economics
is for a more comprehensive philosophy on which to base
its program. This challenge can only be met by providing
new courses that will be general enough in their subject
matter and comprehensive enough in the philosophy under
lying them to appeal to both men and women and to serve
to stimulate interest in the problems of the home and
family life.
A n the studies majie by the sociologists, pscholo-
gists, health experts and nutritionists in reference to
the home and family life are important and have made their
contribution- to the understanding of the home and family
life and to their development. But the interplay of all
these findings in terms of family relationships has never
been sufficiently emphasized. The heart of the problem
of making home life effective, lies in making the rela
tionships that exist among the members of the home group
most constructive and satisfying.
High school students are affected by emotional changes
in themselves and the changing environment which comes dur
ing adolescence. In order to understand their problems it
is necessary for the teacher to have some appreciation of
the basic needs of human nature, especially as they are
manifested during adolescence.
70
Home economics education in common with most phases
of education has changes from “subject matter1 1 centered
to “student*1 centered• Many teachers are now increasingly
conscious of the needs of students and are endeavoring to
meet these needs through modification of the subject
matter and the methods for which they are responsible.
Many research studies have been made to determine the needs
of the students in the community* It has been stated that
one school system should be the largest unit for which a
course of study should be written#
There is such a great divergence in the methods used
for stating the general objectives of home economics that
it is difficult to analyze these statements, with much
accuracy as to the proportion of emphasis given the differ
ent types of learning activities. And a single type of
learning activity is rarely ever produced in teaching.
For example, in the acquisition of information, the student
also cannot help but acquire some skills in reading, think
ing and memorizing; some attitudes toward the subject ivith
reference to the characters, objects or movements to which
the information pertains; and some habits, interests and
ideals, positive or negative.
In analyzing and classifying the general objectives
as stated by curriculum specialists, it was discovered
that three specialists give approximately equal emphasis
to the three divisions of learning activities# The home
economics committee for junior high school systems give
71
fifty percent of the time to developing attitudes, appre
ciations and ideals; twenty-five percent to gaining know
ledge, facts and information, and twenty-five percent of
the time to developing right habits and skills, according
to the number of statements of objectives listed for each
learning activity. One supervisor of a teacher training
institution gives the same emphasis as the above committee.
When the general objectives of twelve courses of
study in home economics were analyzed, classified and
summarized, different results were shown, in..this analy
sis, three courses of study give equal emphasis to the
three different learning activities; seven of the twelve
courses emphasize the development of right attitudes,
appreciations and ideals, and two courses of study em
phasize the development of right habits and skills*
This would indicate that the majority of high school
systems place the most emphasis on developing right atti
tudes, appreciations and ideals.
The majority of curriculum specialists give the same
results since the home economics committee for junior high
school systems consists of several members.
Immediate aims are liable to modification from one
pupil generation to another due to the changing social
conditions. Ultimate or general aims which mark off the
broad fields of human endeavor remain relativeljr the same
from one generation to another. These general statements
of aims and objectives are of paramount importance in
72
selecting material on instruction. It also serves as a
guide post to investigators in their search for desirable
material of instruction.
Finally in considering the functions of the secondary
school, it should be borne in mind that secondary educa
tion is a continuous process. The objectives, functions
and processes of the junior and senior high schools are the
same, aside from the fact that they are adapted to and
interpreted f ±n9 terms of different stages of growth and
development*
CHAPTER VI
A COMPARISON OP THE SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES IN HOME
ECONOMICS IN JUNIOR AND SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS
Purpose of the chapter. The purpose of this chapter is
to discover which type of learning activity is emphasized in
city and state courses of study in junior and senior high'
schools: (1) by analyzing and classifying the specific objec-
tives of all the subjects in home economics under the learn
ing activities, namely: knowledge to be gained; habits and
skills to be acquired; and attitudes, appreciations and ideals
to be developed; (2) by summarizing and comparing the results
of the findings of the first purpose; (5) by illustration of
typical specific objectives in comprehensive junior and
senior high school systems.
Method of organization. The specific objectives of each
unit in the courses of study in city and state school systems
were analyzed and classified under the three divisions of
learning activities, namely: knowledge to be gained; habits and
skills to be acquired; and attitudes, appreciations and ideals
to be developed. In doing this the page was divided into three
vertical columns and several horizontal lines. The names of
the subjects in home economics were written in the spaces be
tween the horizontal lines; and each vertical column was labeled
at the top, with a different learning activity. Each learning
activity was then given a number. Number one was given to rep
resent knowledge, number two to represent habits and skills;
and number three to represent attitudes, appreciations and
74
ideals. Slips of paper one inch wide and the length of the
course of study to be analyzed were made and placed on the
left hand side of the objectives. The objectives were then
numbered according to the corresponding type of learning
activity they represented# The number of times each different
learning activity appeared in the list of objectives, was
recorded in the corresponding column.
When the objectives of all the subjects in home economics
had been analyzed and classified; and the number of times the
learning activities appeared was recorded, the numbers in the
vertical columns were summarized.
The total numbers of specific objectives in each learning
activity, for all the junior high schools, were summarized
separately; and the total numbers of specific objectives in
each learning activity for all the senior high schools were
summarized separately. The findings were changed to a per
centage basis in order to show clearly the proportion of
emphasis in each learning activity, namely, knowledge to be
gained; habits and skills to be acquired; and attitudes,
appreciations and ideals to be developed. A comparison was
then made of the findings of the junior high schools with
the findings of the senior high schools.
The total number of specific objectives in each learning
activity for each junior high school was changed to a percent
age basis and the same procedure was followed for each senior
high school in order to show clearly tha comparison in per
centages for each school system.
75.
Difficulties encountered* Some objectives, stated in the
form of a complex or compound sentence, contain more than one
type of learning activity and, sometimes all three types of
learning activities are expressed in one sentence* In this
case the writer has written the full sentence as it first
occured and later has only given the corresponding number;
under the learning activity where it occurs again. This ex
plains the numbers given without an objective written oppo
site the number* The reader will find the objective above,
opposite the same number.
Illustration of typical specific objectives* In illus
trating the typical specific objectives of the junior and
senior high school courses of study the page was divided
into two vertical columns. The specific objectives of the
junior high school were written in the left hand column
under the learning activities which they represent, and the
senior high school objectives were written in the right hand
column under the learning activities which they represent.
The reason for this illustration is to show the comparison
more specifically*
The educative process*The educative process is explain
ed in toe general theory of curriculum construction stated by
\
Monroe, Hindman and Lundin.^6
The educative process. The child learns as the result of
of his own activities - perceiving, thinking, doing and feel
ing: The outcomes of these activities are designated as con
trols of conduct (abilities) or achievements. Most of the
46
Monroe,Hindman & Lundin,Two Illustrations of Curriculum Con
struction. Bui« No..39* Urbana,Ill. Uni.of 111*, 1928, p 7-14.
76
learning activities in school oecur in response to exercises
set by the teacher and are based on or have to do with
books, pictures, apparatus, and the like* These are called
materials of instruction* A child's achievement-i*e*, what
he loams is determined in part by the materials of instruc
tion provided for his use* The learning exercises he is
asked to do and the instructional procedures to which he is
subjected are also potent factors, but they are partially
determined by the materials of instruction* Hence, the
materials of instruction sustain an important relation to the
educative process and the achievement of pupils**..*♦*
General character of immediate objectives; Analysis
of controls of conduct* I* Specific habits: Motor skills
and fixed associations* Under this head are placed all
those outcomes of learning activities that function as auto
matic or largely mechanical controls of conduct. II. Know
ledge or adaptive controls of conduct* Under this head of
knowledge are grouped those controls of conduct (abilities)
that function in overcoming difficulties presented by new
situations. III. General pattern of conduct* These In
clude ideals, attitudes, interests and tastes. Their
general character is suggested by the ideal which may be
thought of as a general pattern to which conduct will con
form in a variety of situations* 7
Approach to the determination of objectives by Bobbit*8
The problem of determining immediate objectives is that of
determining just which particular foundational and function
al controls of conduct are needed for desirable adult life*
A preliminary step in the determination of immediate objec
tives is to formulate a description of the kind of adult
life that is desirable. The following statement is typical,
as stated by E. C. Hayes,9 in his Introduction to the Study
of Sociology: “Education is the development of the indi
vidual by means of his own activity, in response to the
social influences, toward a realization of the values of
^ Monroe, Hindman & Lundin, Two Illustrations of Curri
culum Construction. Urbana, 111., Bureau-of Educational
Research, Bulletin Ho. 39, p. 7-14, 1928#
Bobbitt, How to Make a Curriculum, Boston, Houghton,
Mifflin Co., 1924.
49 E. C. Hayes, Introduction to the Study of Sociology,
New York, D.Appleton & Co*, Chap• 35, 1918 "™
11s
life, and participation in the development of a society
where the values of life will be realized by each in pro
portion to his capacity for such realization*
A detailed analysis of aims necessary* To aim in
instruction at social efficiency in general, or even at one
of the more definite objectives (as command of the funda
mental processes), is to shoot blunderbuss fashion* The
objectives of secondary education must be subdivided and
analyzed in detail before they can exert the influence
they must exert either in curriculum building or in teach
ing* Under fundamental processes, for example, must be
clearly shown the more general divisions, such as oral,
written, and graphic expression, mathematical and reading
ability, scientific concepts, and the like, which go to
make up the general heading* These in turn must be fur
ther subdivided into specific facts, principles, habits,
powers, interests, attitudes, and ideals. Complete analy
sis will furnish the curriculum-builder the materials
for his course of study, and the teacher with objectives
for daily lessons.
Perhaps there is no place where clear thinking is
more needed than in the matter of immediate educational
aims. Those engaged in the work of instruction are able
as a rule to explain readily the general purpose of this
or that subject. However, the gap between the theoreti
cal explanation and class activity is often wide.
A. A* Douglass, Secondary Bduca 11 on. San Francisco,
Houghton, Mifflin Co., 1927
I
I. A COMPARISON OP THE SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
78
Oakland course of study. The specific objectives of the
following subjects in home economics in the Oakland junior
and senior high schools were analyzed, classified, and sum
marized under the necessary outcomes of learning activities
such as, knowledge; habits and skills; and attitudes, appre
ciations and ideals.
Junior high school subjects
50
Home plahhing and dinners
Pood in relation to health
Clothing construction
Home activities
Clothing and hygiene
Color and design in
relation to clothing
Historical background for
American cookery
Clothing
Total number of objectives
Total percent of objectives
Senior high school subjects
Clothing III
Clothing IV
Clothing V
Foods III
Nutrition
Home Problems
Homemaking I
Homemaking II
Total number of objectives
Total per cent of objectives
51
Know
ledge
2
5
5
5
5
4
9
38
30.4
4
6
4
3
1
1
3
2
24
29 *6
Habits
and
skills
2
4
12
4
5
10
3
9
49
39.2
5
7
4
- t 4
1
2
4
2
29
35*8
Attitudes,
appreciat ions
and ideals
2
3
4
5
8
8
4
4
38
30.4
3
7
4
4
2
1
4
3
28
34.5
50
Oakland, Course of Study in Home Economics for Junior
High Schools. Oakland City Schools, 1929.
51
Oakland, Course of Study in Home Economics for Senior
High Schools. Oakland City Schools, 1930.
79
The Louisiana course of study* The specific objectives
of the following subjects in home economics in the Louisiana
high schools were analyzed, classified, and summarized under
the necessary outcomes of learning activities such as, know
ledge; habits and skills; and attitudes, appreciations and
ideals.
Junior high school subjects52 Know-**'.*Habits
ledge and
skills
Attitudes,
appreciations
and ideals
Earning, spending, and
saving 1 1 2
Everyday manners 1 2 2
Personal appearance 1 1 3
Pood and health 1 2 1
Health and hygiene
2 3 1
Clothing, and textiles 2 6 3
Care of home 1 1 2
Beautification of home 1 2 2
Pood and nutrition 3 2 2
Total number of objectives 13 20 18
Total percent of objectives 25.5 39.2 35.3
Senior high school subjects^
Family and community
relati onships 2 1 3
Pood and nutrition 2 5 3
Health and hygiene 3 2 2
Art in relation to home
economics 2 2 1 3
Clothing and textiles 2 3 4
Child care and training 2 1 2
The home and its management 3 5 2
Child care and training 1 2 2
Food and nutrition 3 3 1
Clothing and related subjects 3 2 2
Art related to home making 1 1
Advanced clothing and
costume design 1 1 1
Advanced food and nutrition 2 1 1
Home nursing 1 1 1
Total number of objectives 28 28 28
Total percent of objectives ^ 33.3 33.3 33.3
52.
'Louisiana, Courses of Study for Junior High Schools.
Baton Rouge, La., 1929.
53
Louisiana, Courses of Study for Senior High Schools,
Baton Rouge, La., Bulletin No. 160, 1929.
80
The Indiana course of study§^The specific objectives
of the following subjects in home economics in the Indiana
high schools were analyzed, classified and summarized under
the necessary outcomes of learning activities such as, know
ledge; habits and skills; and attitudes, appreciations and
ideals*
Junior high school subjects Know Habits Attitudes,
ledge and
skills
app re c i ati ons
and ideals
Home problems 3 2 5
Poods 2 3 3
Clothing 2 3 3
General home economics (foods) 3 7 3
The house 2 2 2
Child development 3 2 5
Total number of objectives 15 19 21
Total percent of objectives 27.3 34.5 38.2
Senior high school subjects
Home relations 2 2
6
Clothing 4 6 2
Social usage 3 3 5
Home management 6 7 7
Home nursing 7 3 3
Child development 6 2 2
Clothing I 2 2 5
Poods I 3 4 2
Poods II 5 1 2
Euthenics:
Family and social relations 6 2 1
Nutrition 5 2 2
Clothing 4 4 2
Income management 2 2 2
Total number'of objectives 55 40 42
Total percent of objectives 40.1 29.2
30.7
Indiana, Courses of Study in Home Economics for the
Public High Schools» Fort Wayne Printing; Co.. Bulletin
100 G-3, 1930*
81
The Long Beach course of study# The specific objectives
of the following subjects in home economics in the Long Beach
high schools were analyzed, classified and summarized under
the necessary outcomes of learning activities such as, know
ledge; habits and skills; and attitudes, appreciations and
ideals*
Junior high school subjects5^ Know- Habits Attitudes,
ledge and appreciations
skills and ideals
Food choice and preparation 2 2
1
Clothing choice and construction 1 2 2
Home problems 3 2 2
Personal appearance in
relation to dress 2 2 2
Family meals 1 1 1
Total number of objectives 9 9 8
Total percent of objectives 34 . 6 34.6 30.8
Senior high school subjects5^
Clothing I 1 1 1
Clothing II 1 2 1
Clothing III 1 1
Celection of clothing 1 1 1
Foods I 4 3 1
Foods II 2 2 1
Foods III 3 2 1
Dietetics 2 1 1
Home management 3 1 2
Home nursing and child care 4 3 1
Total number of objectives 21 17 * 11
Total percent of objectives 42.9 34.7 22.4
55
Long Beach, Courses of Study in Homemaking for Junior High
Schoolsr Long Beach City Schools, 1929.
56
Long Beach, Courses of Study in Homemaking for Senior High
Schools, Long Beach City Schools, mimeograph sheets, 1929.
82
The Pasadena bourse of study* The specific objectives
of the following subjects in home economics in the Pasadena
high schools were analyzed, classified, and summarized under
the necessary outcomes of learning activities such as, know
ledge to be gained; habits and skills to be acquired; and
attitudes, appreciations and ideals to be developed*
Junior high school subjects^ Know- Habits Attitudes,
ledge and appreciations
skills and ideals
Clothing 1 1 2
Clothing
2 4 2
Clothing
2 4 2
Foods 1 1 2
Foods 3 2 2
Home problems 1 1 1
Social customs and hospitality 2 2 2
Total number of objectives 11 14 11
Total percent of objectives 30.8 38.8 30.8
Senior High school subjects5^
Clothing 2 2 3
Foods 1 1 1
Homemaking 1 1 1
Clothing 1 1 1
Homemaking 1-2 2 2 1
Household management 2 0 2
Millinery N 4 1 4
Dietetics 1 1 1
Total number of objectives 14 9 14
Total percent of objectives 37.8 24.4 37.8
57
Pasadena, Courses of Study in Home Economics for Junior
High Schools, Pasadena City Schools, 1928.
58
Pasadena, Courses of Study in Home Economics for Senior
High Schools. Pasadena City Schools, 1929.
83
The Vermont course of study.59 The specific objectives
of the following subjects in home economics in the Vermont
high schools were analyzed, classified, and summarized under
the necessary outcomes of learning activities such as, know
ledge to be gained; habits and skills to be acquired; and
attitudes, appreciations and ideals to be developed.
Junior high school subjects Know
ledge
Habits
and
skills
Attitudes,
appreciations
and ideals
Food and health 2 2 1
Clothing I 4 3 2
Food II 3 4 2
Clothing II 2 4 3
Total number of objectives 11 13 8
Total percent of objectives 34.4 40.6 25«t>
Senior high school subjects
Laundering 5 1 1
The house and its care 2 4 5
Nutrition III 4 2 2
Family relationships and
social ethics 3 7 4
Child care and training 2 2 2
Household and personal budgets 3 2 2
Civic responsibilities of
homemaker 2 1 1
Total number of objectives 21 19 17
Total percent of objectives 37. 33.3 29.7
Vermont, Courses of Study in Home Economics for the
Junior-Senior High Schools,State Board of Education, 1928.
84
The San Francisco course of study. The specific objec
tives of the following subjects in home economics in the San
Francisco high schools were analyzed, classified and summa
rized under the necessary outcomes of learning activities
such as, knowledge to be gained; habits and skills to be
acquired; and attitudes, appreciations and ideals to be de
veloped#
Junior high school subjects^
Textiles
Handwork
Machine processes
Food and its composition
Home kitchen and its care
The preparation and serving
of a simple breakfast
The home luncheon or supper
The box lunchebn
Choosing of suitable pattern
and material
Bloomer construction
Clothing and health
Dining room, its furnishing
and care
Table setting and service
Selection of pattern and
material
Slip, nightgoim,pajama,
construction
Bedroom its furnishing
Simple dinner, planning and
preparation
Commercial pattern
Choice of material
Costume design
The relation of personal
hygiene to correct dress
Food preservation
Linen '
Simple dietetics
Invalid cookery
Picnic lunch
The home, its meaning
House plan
Know- habits attitudes,
ledge and appreciations
skills and ideals
2 4
2 4 2
2 4
2 1
1 2 3
1 3 3
2 2 1
1 2 1
1 1 1
1 2 4
2 2
2 2 2
1 1 1
1 2 3
1 1 1
1 1 1
1 3 2
1 2 1
1 1 3
6 2 7
1 1 3
3 2 3
5 3
1 1
1 1 1
1 1
1 9
4 2
6 0
San Francisco City Schools, op. cit.
Junior high school subjects Know- habits Attitudes,
ledge and appreciations
skills and ideals
House furnishing 1 1 1
Use of pattern 1 3 1
Use of machine attachments
Making a wash dress emphasiz
1 1 1
ing finishes 1 1 2
Meal planning 2 1 3
Marketing 1 1 1
Laundering
2 1 2
Care of infant 4 2 2
Woolen dress 3 2 4
Cooking for pleasure 1 1 1
Embroidery 1 1 * 1
Millinery 1 2 1
Household linens 1 1 1
Total number of objectives 64 59 90
Total percent of objectives 30. 27.7 42,3
Senior high school subjects^!
Foods 3 2 1
Food and hospitality 1 1 3.
Nutrition 1 1 1
Clothing 3 1 6
Clothing
Selection of clothing and
1 1 1
fabrics 1 1 1
Principles of clothing selection 1 1 1
Clothing 10 2 1 2
Clothing 11 1 3 1
Millinery 1 1 2
Science of the household 3 2 5
Nutrition for high school 2 2 2
Citizen-homemaking course 3 3 2
Total number of objectives 23 20 28
Total percent of objectives 32.4 28.2 39.4
61
San Francisco City Schools, op, cit.
86
The St. Louis course of study. The specific objectives
of the following subjects in home economics in the St. Louis
high schools were analyzed, classified and summarized under
the necessary outcomes of learning activities such as know
ledge to be gained; habits and skills to be acquired; and
attitudes, appreciations and ideals to be developed.
62
Junior high school subjects Know- Habits Attitudes,
ledge and appreciations
Skills and ideals
Home activities 34 19 42
Clothing 19 16 16
Foods 4 5 1
Cloth 3 3 1
Foods 4 7 2
Cloth 5 3 4
Foods 6 8 3
Total number of objectives: „ 75 71 69
Total percent of objectives 34.9 33. 32.1
63
Senior high school subjects
Foods I 4 2 3
Foods II 4 2 6
Cloth I 6 3 4
Cloth II 3 3 4
Child Care 3 0 3
Home Projects I 5 2
6
Home Projects II 4 1 6
Horae Projects III 3 3 4
Home Projects IV 7 2 7
Total, number of objectives ^9~
18 43
Total percent of objectives
^ St. Louis City Schools,
St. Louis City Schools,
39.
op. cit.
op. cit.
18. 43.
87
.64
Los Angeles course of s tudy. The specific objectives
of the following subjects in home economics in the Los Angeles
junior and senior high schools were analyzed, classified and
summarized under the necessary outcomes of learning activities
such as kno\?iedge to be gained; habits and skills to be ac
quired; and attitudes, appreciations and ideals to be de
veloped.
Junior high school subjects Know Habits Attitudes
ledge and
skills
appreciati
and ideals
Homemaking (foods) B7 and A7 1 2 2
Homemaking B8 and A8 2 4 5
Homemaking B9 and A9 3 5 2
Clothing B7 4 3 4
Clothing A7 4 4 4
Clothing A9 8 12 8
Total number of objectives ■5T* 30 25
Total percent of objectives 28.5 38.9 32.4
Senior high school subjects
Foods I and II 5 8 4
Dietetics I and II 1 1 1
Clothing III and IV 1 5 2
Dress design 1 1 1
Millinery 1
7 3
Household chemistry 1 1
1
Household management 2 2 4
Cosmetology 1 1
1
Hume nursing 5 8 7
Practical home arts 1 1
1
Homemaking* for commercial girls 5 3 3
Clothing I and II 1 • 5 2
TotaL number of objectives 25 43 30
Total per|cent of objectives 25.5 43.9 30.6
^ ^os Angeles City Schools. Courses of Study in
Home Economics, 1929.
.§8
The Fresno course of study*65 The specific objectives of
the following subjects in home economics in the Fresno junior
and senior high schools were analyzed, classified and summa
rized under the necessary outcomes of learning activities
such as, knowledge to be gained; habits and skills to be
acquired; and attitudes, appreciations and ideals to be
developed*
Junior high school subjects
Food preparation and human
nutrition (low seventh grade)
Food preparation and human
nutrition (high seventh grade)
Clothing (low eighth grade)
Clothing (high eighth grade)
Clothing (low ninth grade)
Total number of objectives
Total percent of objectives
Know Habits Attitudes,
ledge and appreciate
skills and ideals
2 2 2
4 2 2
3 1 2
3 1 2
2 2 4
14 8 12
41*2 23.5 35.3
Senior high school subjects
Food preparation and human
nutrition 4 2 2
Clothing 2 2 4
Millinery 1 1 1
Tailoring 1 1 1
Citizen homemaking 2 . 2 3
Total number of objectives 10 8 11
Total percent of objectives 34 * o 27.5 38.
Fresno City Schools, Courses of Study in Home Economics
for High Schools, 1927*
,89
The Hew York state course of study in homemaking?®The
specific objectives of the following subjects in homemaking
were analyzed,classified and summarized under the necessary
outcomes of learning activities such as, knowledge to be
gained; habits and skills to be acquired; and attitudes,
appreciations and ideals to be
Junior high school subjects
Homemaking I
Family meal preparation
Meals for special occasions
and special cookery
Clothing and textiles
Total number of objectives
Total percent of objectives
Senior high school subjects
Homemaking IV (advanced cloth
ing)
Homemaking III (foods)
Homemaking V (house decoration
and furnishing)
Homemaking (costume design and
advanced dress)
Total number of objectives
Total percent of objectives
developed.
Enow- ::Habits Attitudes,
ledge and appreciations
skills and ideals
3 4 5
4 6 2
3 4 5
10 14 12
27.7 39* 33.3
4 4 5
4 6 2
3 0 6
3 5 5
14 15 18
29.3 31.9 38*3
00
New York State Department of Education, Courses of
Study in Homemaking, 1929
90
The Denver course of study. The specific objectives of
of the following subjects in home economics were analyzed,
classified and summarized under the necessary outcomes of
learning activities such as, knowledge to gained; habits
and skills to be acquired; and attitudes, appreciations and
ideals to be developed#
Junior high school subjects^?
Foods
Clothing
Foods II
Home problems
Foods of other people
Clothing and millinery
Advanced sewing
Total number of objectives
Total percent of objectives
Know- Habits
ledge and
skills
2
4
7
3
1
18
33.3
6
5
5
1
1
2
1
21
39.
Attitudes,
appreciations
and ideals
2
1
4
2
1
3
2
15
27.7
Senior high school subjects68
Dress appreciation and
clothing construction 4
Applied costume design 2
Meal planning and food pre
paration 4
Feeding the family 3
Homemaking and child care 10
Total number of objectives 23
Total percent of objectives 29.1
3
1
6
3
9
22
27.9
8
3
7
4
12
34
43.
67
Denver City Schools, Courses of Study in Home Economics
for Junior High Schools« 1926
68
Denver City Schools, Courses of Study in Home Economics
for Senior High Schools, 1926
91
Spokane course of study*69 The specific objectives bf
the following subjects in home economics in the Spokane
Junior high schools were analyzed, classified and summarized
under the necessary outcomes of learning activities such as,
knowledge to be gained; habits and skills to be acquired; and
attitudes, appreciations to be developed*
Junior high school subjects Know- Habits Attitudes,
ledge and appreciations
skills and ideals
Food facts
2 1 1
Marketing 1 1 1
Dinners 1 1 1
Food preservation 1 1 1
Home nursing 1 1 1
Child care and training 1 1
Clothing-personal appearance 2 2 2
Underwear 1 1 1
Outer clothing 1 1 1
Tailoring 1 1 1
Millinery 1 1 1
Family and social relations 1 1 2
Home management 1 1
Civic welfare 1 1
Total number of objectives 16 12 16
Total percent of objectives 36 *4 27*2 36.4
Spokane City Schools, Courses of Study in Home Economics
for Junior High Schools, 1929
?e
The Oregon course of study. T h e Oregon state department
of education made a survey in home economics of the state,
which indicated that a two year course for ninth grade and
above would serve the needs of the greater number of Oregon
high schools. The course of study for the seventh and eighth
grades will be prepared later. The specific objectives of home
economics in the Oregon course of study were classified,
analyzed and summarized under the necessary outcomes of learn
ing activities such as, knowledge to be gained; habits and
skills to be acquired; and attitudes, appreciations and ideals
to be developed.
Senior high school subjects
Home economics I
Foods
Child care and guidance
Dress construction and
appreciation
Arrangement and care of
girls* bedroom
Home economics II
Foods
Family relationships
Clothing
Child care'
Total number of objectives
Total percent of objectives
Know- Habits Attitude,s,
ledge and appreciations
skills and ideals
2
3
1
2
3
2
2
1
16
27.1
3
1
2
2
3
2
3
1
17
28.8
5
1
2
3
3
5
4
3
26
44.
Oregon State Department of Education, Home Economics
Courses of Study for High Schools,Pivision of vocational
Education, 1929.
93
The Compton course of study. The specific objectives of
the following subjects in home economics in the Compton Junior
and senior high schools were analyzed, classified and summa
rized under the necessary outcomes of learning activities such
as, knowledge to be gained; habits and skills to b© acquired;
and attitudes, appreciations and ideals to be developed*
Junior high school subjects?! Know- Habits Attitudes,
ledge and appreciations
skills and ideals
Foods (low seventh grade) 7 2 4
Clothing (high seventh grade) 9 14 5
Foods (low eighth grade) 4 9 4
Clothing (high eighth grade) 7 13 12
Child care (high eighth grade) 14 9 13
Foods(low and high ninth grade) 10 18 14
Total number of objectives 51 65 52
Total percent of objectives 30.3 38.7 31*
Senior high school subjects?^
Clothing and textiles 6 13 10
Clothing 11a 4 3 4
Clothing 22a 3 3 3
Homemaking 4 4 4
Foods 11a 2 2 2
Foods 21a 2 2 2
Total number of objectives 21 27 25
Total percent of objectives 28.8 37. 34.2
71
Compton City Schools, Courses of Study in Home Economics
for Junior High Schools, 1932
72
Compton City Schools, Courses of Study in Home Economics
for Senior High Schools, 1932
The Massachusetts course of study. ^ h ^ specific
objectives of the following subjects in home economics were
analyzed, classified and summarized under the necessary out
comes of learning activities such as, knowledge to be gained;
habits and skills to be acquired; and attitudes, appreciations
and ideals to be developed.
Junior high school subjects Know Habits Attitudes,
ledge and
skills
appreciati
and ideals
Foods in relation to health 2 5 6
Clothing 4 5 6
Home management
2 5 5
Total number of objectives 8 15 17
Total percent of objectives 20. 37.5 42.5
Senior high school subjects
Clothing I and II 3 2 5
Clothing III and IV 3 2 5
Foods I and II 3 2 5
Foods III and IV (nutrition) 3 2 5
Home management 3 2 5
Total number of objectives 15 10 25
Total percent of objectives 30. 20. 50.
73
Massachusetts State Department of Education, Courses of
Study in Homemaking, Bulletin No. 4, 1931
9a
The San Diego course of study?4The specific objectives of
the following subjects in home economics were analyzed,classi
fied and summarized under the necessary outcomes of learning
activities such as, knowledge to be gained; habits and skills
to be acquired; and attitudes, appreciations and ideals to be
developed*
Junior high school subjects Know- Habits Attitudes,
ledge and appreciations
skills and ideals
Clothing construction 3 3 2
Food and health 5 4 2
Clothing 3 2 5
Hygiene and invalid cookery
Budgeting, purchasing,construc
6 5 4
tion, repair of clothing
Textiles, hygiene of clothing,
6 7 11
tailoring
Foods, etiquette, marketing,
dietetics and woman in
7 7 7
relation to society
Foods, child care, home nursing
6 5 9
household management 8 7 7
Total number of objectives 44 40 47
Total percent of objectives
Senior high school subjects
33*6 30.5 35*9
Clothing 100 2 4 5
Clothing 200 1 3 1
Clothing 300 4 3 3
Clothing 400 2 3 3
Millinery 100 1 2 3
Millinery 200 2 3 3
Foods 100 3 3 3
Foods 200 2 4 3
Foods 300 4 5 4
Foods 400 3 1 2
Home nursing 100 4 4 2
Home nursing 200 5 3 4
First aid
2 5 2
Total number of objectives 35 43 38
Total percent of objectives 30.2 37* 32.8
74
San Diego City Schools, op* eit*
96.
The Texas course of study*75 The specific objectives of
the following subjects in home economics were analyzed,classi
fied and summarized under the necessary outcomes of learning
activities such as, knowledge to be gained; habits and skills
to be acquired; and attitudes, appreciations and ideals to be
developed*
Junior high school subjects Know- Habits Attitudes,
ledge and appreciations
skills and ideals
Horn© economics Aa
Unit I Everyday courtesies 1 2 4
Unit II Food and health 5 6 3
Unit III Child care
Home economics Ab
Unit I Personal grooming and
1 7 4
clothing 5 5 3
Unit II First aid
Unit III Home care and
4 4 4
beautification
Home economics la
3 4 5
Unit I Food and health 4 11 7
Unit II Guidance of children
Home economics lb
4 4 4
Unit I Personal relationships
Unit II Personal grooming and
3 5 7
clothing 5 8 4
Total number of objectives 35 56 45
Total percent of objectives
Senior high school subjects
Home economics 11a
25.8 41.1 33.
Unit I Foods 6 7 6
Unit II Household equipment 7 4 8
Unit III Home nursing
Home economics lib
5 5 7
Unit 1 Clothing 6 10 4
Unit II Clothing the infant
Home economics Ilia
7 7 4
Unit I The family and community 6 4 5
Unit II Entertainment 3 4 4
Unit III Nutrition and health 3 3 5
Unit IV Guidance of children 3 3 6
Unit I Advanced dress 4 4 4
Unit II Managing the home 3 3 4
Unit III Home decoration 6 5 12
Total number of objectives 59 59 69
Total percent of objectives 31.6 31.S 36.8
^ Texas' State Department of Education, op# cit*
97,
II. ILLUSTRATIONS OF TYPICAL SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES IN
JUNIOR AND SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL COURSES OF STUDY
Food and nutrition courses7^The Louisiana specific ob
jectives of the eighth grade food and nutrition course and
the tenth grade food and nutrition course were analyzed and
classified under the three divisions of the learning activi
ties and placed in parallel columns to show more specifically
the similarities and contrasts of the specific objectives in
the two levels of the secondary school#
Junior high school j
1# Knowledge
, \ (2) To enable the girl to
plan, prepare, and serve simple
meals for the family
(4) To give the girl an
understanding of the proper
care of food
2. Habits and skills
(2) To enable the girl to
plan, prepare, and serve simple
meals for the family.
(3) To develop some skill
in manipulative processes in
preparing and serving simple
and wholesome food.
(5) To develop some skill,
resourcefulness, initiative,
and independence in work#
(3)Attitudes, appreciations
and ideals
(1) To develop an appre
ciation of the value of good
food and health habits.
(6) To establish high
ideals and proper standards of
cleanliness and orderliness in
the unit devoted to meal
preparation.
Senior high school
1# Knowledge
(1) To develop ability in
planning and in preparing meals
to meet the needs of the whole
family*
(2) To enable a girl to
select and buy economically
those foods commonly used by
families with moderate incomes*
(5) To learn some of the
causes of malnutrition, the
accompanying physical character
istics, and some remedial
measures#
2. Habits and skills
(3) To acquire further
ability in entertaining and act
ing as hostess in the home#
3. Attitudes,appreciations
and ideals
(4) To develop some appre
ciations of the cost, time, and
energy required in serving
meals of all types.
Louisiana State Department of Education, op. cit. p.46 and
p. 115#
98
Clothing courses. The Louisiana specific objectives
of the eighth grade clothing and textiles, and the tenth
grade clothing and related problems course were analyzed and
classified under the three divisions of learning activities
and placed in parallel columns to show more specifically the
similarities and contrasts of the specific objectives in the
two levels of the secondary school*
Junior high school
1. Knowledge
(3) To give some under
standing of the importance of
good design in underclothing.
(4) To promote and main
tain health through compre
hensive understanding of its
relationship to underclothing.
(2).To develop ability to
select clothing that is suit
able, comfortable, attractive,
and economical.
2. Habits and skills
(5) To develop ability
taponstruet simple cotton
garments that form a part of
a girl*s wardrobe.
(6) To develop some
skill, and interest in the care
and repair of clothing.
(7) To develop habits of
neatness and cleanliness.
3. Attitudes, appreciations
and ideals
(1) To develop appre
ciation of appropriate under
clothing.
(6) .
(8) To promote and main
tain good standards of work.
(2)
Senior high school
1. Knowledge
(1) To develop further
ability in dressing suitably
and becomingly for all
occasions.
(2) To develop ability in
planning, buying ready-made gar
ments, buying fabrics, and in
making clothes inkeeping with
the family income.
(6) To develop ability in
selecting standards and desir
able fabrics for garments.
2. Habits and skills
(2)
(4) To enable a girl to
acquire further skill in hand
ling cotton, linen, sl>lk, wool,
and other fabrics.
3. Attitudes, appreciations
and ideals
(3) To develop an appre
ciation of clothing problems
for the whole family.
(5) To develop an appre
ciation of good design and
appropriate color for various
types of costumes and accessories,
(6)
77Louisiana State Department of Education, op. cit. p. 80
and p. 122.
99
Courses in foods. 7® The Oregon specific objectives of
the ninth grade foods course and the eleventh grade foods
course were analyzed and classified under the three divisions
of the learning activities and placed in parallel columns to
show more specifically the" similarities and contrasts of the
specific objectives in the two levels of the secondary school*
Junior high school
i
!• Knowledge
(2) To give sufficient in
formation about food to enable
the girl to plan, purchase, care
for, prepare and serve meals
suitable for her family in ah
economical, efficient and
attractive manner.
(3) To help the girl to
understand what constitutes a
sanitary, convenient kitchen
and how to organize work to
save time and strength.
2. Habits and skills
(1) To help the girl
develop food habits which will
make her a better member of her
family group and to lead her to
think about the important re
lation of food to health.
(2)
(4) To develop ability to
interpret recipes and to judge
products•
(5) To encourage home
practice of procedures and
practices learned in school.
3. Attitudes,appreciations
and ideals
Senior high school
1. Knowledge
(3) To give further know
ledge and improve skill in the
planning, purchasing,preparing
and serving of healthful,
economical home meals.
(4) Ability to select
well balanced meals in public
eating establishments.
2. Habits and skills
(1) Ability to preserve
food by practical home methods*
(3)
(5) To give experience in
entertaining which will de
velop ease in social relation
ships.
3. Attitudes, appreciations
and ideals
(2) Ability to determine
when it is practical to can at
home and when to buy commer
cial products.
(i)
(3)
(4 )
(6) To give an appre
ciation of the problems of food
production and marketing.
Oregon State Department of Education, op. cit. p.16.
100
Courses in clothing.79 The Oregon specific objectives
of the ninth grade dress construction and appreciation course
and the eleventh grade clothing course were analyzed and classi
fied under the three divisions of the learning activities and
placed in parallel columns to show more specifically the simi
larities and contrasts of the specific objectives in the two
levels of the secondary school#
junior high s'chool 5
1. Knowledge
(1) To develop the ability
to apply art principles to the
selection of ready made gar
ments and to the planning and
construction of garments made
at home.
(4) To teach the care and
repair of clothing.
2. Habits and skills
(1)
(3) jTo teach the ele
mentary processes of clothing
construct!on.
(4)
3. Attitudes, appreciations
and ideals
(2) To lead girls to realize
that one may be well dressed in
simple inexpensive clothes.
Senior high school
1. Knowledge
(1) To develop judgment
as to when it is best to buy
and when to make clothing.
(7) To develop ability to
appear well dressed on one's
own share of the clothing
budget*
2. Habits and skills
(5) To develop ability
and judgment in the care and
cleaning of clothing.
(6) To develop more skill
in clothing construction and
in the use of various materials.
(7)
3* Attitudes, appreciations
and ideals
(D
(2) To develop ability to
judge when it is wise to re
novate clothing.
(3) To develop ability to
choose sewing and finishing
processes most satisfactory to
use on each type of garment
and material.
(4) To give an appre
ciation of the responsibility
of being well groomed.
7Q
Oregon State Department of Education, op. cit. p. 24
and p. 46.
103.
Clothing: courses. *80 The following speoifie objectives
in the Pasadena courses of study in junior high clothing and
in senior high clothing were analyzed and classified under the
learning activities; and placed in parallel columns to show the
similarities and contrasts*
Junior high school
1. Knowledge
(3) To learn the following
new sewing processes: necklines,
facings, collars, cuffs, bands,
plackets, lace application,
plaits, gathers, shirring,waist
and skirt joinings, set-in
sleeves and fastenings.
(6) To become familiar with
interesting sources of informa
tion on clothing selection and
construction. To be resourceful
in the use of illustrative and
visual material.
2. Habits and skills
(1) To continue the prac
tice of good working habits
acquired in 7-1 clothing*
(2) To review and to de
velop to proficiency the sew
ing processes learned in 7-1
clothing.
3. Attitudes, appreciations
and ideals
(4) To learn to appreciate
and practice the use of good
lines, color and texture in
dress.
(5) To select a commercial
pattern suitable for material
and occasion. To follow pattern
directions independently.
(6)
Senior high school
1. Knowledge
(1) To enable the girl to
select clothing which is dur
able, hygienic, suitable to
the occasion, and becoming to
the individual.
2. Habits and skills
(3) To master the pro
cesses in clothing construc
tion, thus making possible
'the subsequent construction
of any garment of clothing.
3. Attitudes, appreciations
and ideals
(2) To appreciate woman*s
responsibility in purchasing
serviceable fabrics within the
means of the family income,
thereby affecting the standard
of supply and demand in the
textile world.
80
Pasadena City Schools, op* cit.
Food in relation to health courses.81 The following
specific objectives,in the Oakland junior high food in re
lation to health course and the senior high nutrition course
were analyzed and classified under the learning activities;
and placed in parallel columns to show the similarities and
contrasts•
Junior high school
1. Knowledge
(1) To learn the indications of
good health and the factors, which
contribute to it*
(2) To gain a knowledge and appre
ciation of sanitary habits in handling
food*
(3) To gain a knowledge of the
terms used in modern food preparation.
(4) To acquire a knowledge of the
classes of foods and their effect upon
health.
(5) To plan,prepare,and serve
attractively, a well-balanced meal
suitable for breakfast. ,
(6) To acquire the knowledge that
nutritive properties determine the
choice of food for lunch.
2. Habits and skills
(5)
(7) To develop the ability to
c&oose a school lunch adequate for
growing children at the least cost.
(8) To develop good eating habits
as an aid to health.
3. Attitudes Appreciations and ideals
(2)
(4)
(5)
(9) To acquire some ability to pre
pare foods suitable for the packed
lunch •
Senior high schools
1* Knowledge
(1) To learns how
the science of nutri
tion is applied to
every-day life.
2* Habits and skills
(2) To bring about
combined effort in com
munity nutrition work,
thus contributing to
community health and
well-being.
3. Attitudes,appre
ciations and ideals
(3) To acquire a
scientific attitude
toward health and
particularly toward
the choice of food.
Ol
The Oakland City Schools, op. cit* p. 20-38.
103 -
TABLE I
•THE TOTAL HUMBER AND PERCENT OF SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
OF HOME ECONOMICS SUBJECTS IN SEVENTEEN JUNIOR HIGH
SCHOOL SYSTEMS CLASSIFIED UNDER THE THREE LEARNING
ACTIVITIES; NAMELY, KNOWLEDGE; HABITS AND SKILLS;
ATTITUDES, APPRECIATIONS AND IDEALS
Junior
high school
Knowledge
Habits
and skills
Attitudes,
appreciations
and Ideals
Number per cent Number per cent Number per cent
Oakland 38 30*4 49 39.2
38 30.4
Louisiana 13 25.5 20 39.2 18 35.3
Long Beach 9 34.6 9 34.6 8 30 .8
Indiana 15 27.3 19 34.5 21 38.2
Pasadena 11 30*6 14 38 .8 11 30.6
Vermont 11 34.4 13 40.6 8 25.0
San Francisco
64 30.0 59 27.7 90 42.3
Ei« Louis 75 34.9 71 33.0 69 32.1
Los Angeles 22 28.5 30 39.9 25 32.4
Compton 51 30 . 3 65 38.7 52 31.0
Massachusetts 8 20.0 15 37.5 17 42.5
Fresno 14 41.2 8 23.5 12 35.3
Denver 18 33.3 21 3a 15 27.7
New York 10 27.7 14 39.0 12 33.3
Spokane 16 36.4 12 27.2 16 36.4
San Diego 44 33.6 40 30.5 47 35.9
Texas 35 25.8 56 41.1 45 33.1
Totals ‘ 454 31.0 515 35.0 504 34.0
104
TABLE II
THE TOTAL NUMBER AND PER CENT OF SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
OF HOME ECONOMICS SUBJECTS IN SEVENTEEN SENIOR HIGH
SCHOOL SYSTEMS CLASSIFIED UNDER THE THREE LEARNING
ACTIVITIES; NAMELY, KNOWLEDGE; HABITS AND SKILLS;
ATTITUDES, APPRECIATIONS AND IDEALS
Senior
hight sbhool Knowledge
Habits
and skills
Attitudes,
appreciations
1 and ideals
Number per cent Number per cent Number per cent
Oakland 24 29*7 29 35.8 28 34.5
Louisiana
28 33.3 28 33.3 28 33.3
Indiana 55 40.1 40 29.2 42 ? 30.7
Long Beach 21 42.9 17
•
to
11 22.4
Pasadena 14 37.8 9 24.4 14 37.8
Vermont 21 37.0 19 33.3 17 29.7
San Francisco 23 32.4 20 28.2 28 39.4
Saint Louis 38 39.0 18 18.0 43 43.0
Los Angeles 25 25.5 43 43.9 30 30.6
Compton 21 28.8 27 37.0 25 34.2
Massachusetts 15 30.0 10 20.0 25 50.0
Fresno 10 34.5 : 8 27.5 11 38.0
Denver 23 29.9 22 27.9 34 43.0
New York 14 29.8 15 31.9 18 38.3
Oregon 16 27.1 17 28.8 26 44.0
San Diego 35 30.2 43 37.0 38 32.8
Texas 59 31.6 59 31*6 69 36 .8
Totals 442 32*7 424 31.3 487 36.0
105 .
.Ill* SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
The findings of the analysis of the specific objectives
of home economics subjects In junior high school systems*
The findings' of the analysis, classification and summari
sation of 1,473 specific objectives of home economics sub
jects in seventeen junior high school systems show that 515
objectives, or thirty-five per cent, the largest number and
per cent of objectives, were classified under the learning
activity, habits and skills to be acquired; 504 objectives,
or thirty-four per cent, the second largest number, were
classified under the learning activity, attitudes, appre
ciations and ideals to be developed, and 454 objectives or
thirty-one pdr cent, the smallest number of objectives, were
classified under the learning activity, knowledge to be
gained, as shown in table one page 103.
According to the largest number of objectives classi
fied under each learning activity, nine junior high school
systems place' emphasis on acquiring right habits and
skills; four systems place emphasis on developing right
attitudes, appreciations and ideals; two systems place
emphasis on gaining knowledge; one system places equal
emphasis on knowledge, and attitudes, appreciations and
ideals; and one system places equal emphasis on knowledge,
and habits and skills.
The findings of the analysis of the specific objectives
of home economics subjects in senior high school systems.
106
The findings of the analysis, classification, and summari
zation of 1,353 specific objectives of home economics sub
jects in seventeen senior high sehool systems show that 487
objectives or thirty-six per cent, the largest number and
per cent of objectives were classified under the learning
activity, attitudes, appreciations and ideals to be de
veloped; 442 or 32*7 per cent, the second largest number
of objectives were classified under the learning activity,
knowledge to be gained; and 424 or 31*3 per cent, the
smallest number, were classified under the learning activity,
habits and skills to be acquired, as shown in table two page 104.
According to the largest number of objectives classi
fied under each learning activity eight senior high sehool
systems place emphasis on developing right attitudes, appre
ciations and ideals; four systems place emphasis on gaining
knowledge, facts, and information; four systems place em
phasis on acquiring right habits and skills; and one system
places equal emphasis on the three learning activities*
The illustration of specific objectives* In analyzing
the specific objectives listed in this chapter it will be
noted that within the same course of study and in different
courses the amount of emphasis varies according to the
subject matter taught.
Conclusions* The findings of the analysis, classifi
cation and summarization of 2,827 specific objectives in
home economics subjects in seventeen junior and senior high
107
school systems, finally show that the emphasis varies only
from one to four per cent in both the junior and senior
high school courses. These findings would indicate that the
. i
emphasis placed on the different learning activities are
closely related and much the same. And in one of the
systems the per cent of emphasis is the same. Emphasis
is placed on developing right attitudes and appreciations,
and developing a desire for and interest in right standards
and ideals in the senior high school;iSysterns, and in the
junior high school systems emphasis is placed on acquiring
right habits and skills.
109
CHAPTER VII
A COMPARISON OF THE PROGRESSIVE UNITS IN HOME ECONOMICS
IN JUNIOR AND SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS
The present school curricula# What is written into
the curriculum makes a world of difference to every teacher
and to ©very child. Through the course of study the schools
seek to pass on the knowledge, habits and skills, attitudes,
appreciations and ideals that the best minds and finest
spirits of the nation cherish for all citizens. Teachers
in daily touch with adolescence have a very vital contribu
tion to make. They are being asked to suggest improvements
in the course of study which it is their daily task to
interpret. Through valuable literature, recent publications,
educational journals, local and national meetings; these
efforts of individual teachers, cities, and states are being
co-ordinated into one mighty effort to make our curriculum
worthy of the children of today and the America of tomorrow.
The recognition that a course of study does not really
exist until it lives in the activities of teachers and pupils
has led to the rejection of the old method of making courses
of study. To-day, the course of study that a skillful
teacher does not see until it is handed to her in final
printed form is an anachronism. It has no place in a^aodem
school system. Teachers give life to courses of study by
living and re-living them with their students. In this way
courses become a reality in the live3 of pupils. The more
109
expert the teacher Is, the more real the course of study
becomes* An educational objective has a greater chance of
being re-lived when a teacher has given thought to it,
understands it, and helps formulate it.
Importance of well trained high school teachers. High
school courses of study live only through the activities
of teachers and their students; In many cities, the teachers
are acquiring first-hand knowledge of the courses of study
by helping build and revise them under the leadership of
specialists, by reading the best literature on the subject
of the curriculum, by analyzing present American life needs,
by becoming familiar with the local environment in which the
adolescent students are growing up, and, by evaluating the
existing local courses of study, high school teachers are
in a position, not only to help in compiling the course of
study, but of still greater importance they are able to
make it a part of the lives of their pupils. Well trained
and experienced teachers also bring to the problem of
course of study revision an understanding of adolescent
life that comes from association with developing adole
scence; the study of their abilities, Interests, and growth
wants; and the special needs of the individual adolescent.
Teachers who have faced the problem of curriculum re
vision have a better understanding of what life means and
what they are training students for. First of all, they
have to build for.themselves a philosophy of life and of
education. They are faced with these questions: What are
110
the general aims of education? Why do I teach? What de
sirable knowledge, habits, skills and attitudes should
the adolescent youths develop through each subject in each
grade? As a result of thinking through these questions
while making contribution to the building of the course of
study, teachers can do the job of teaching better to-day
than they did yesterday*
The placing of progressive high school courses of
study in present practices*Progressive courses of study
may only be given a chance to prove their worth by being
put into practice by conscientious and well trained
teachers who have the privilege of using them. In many
cities, local courses of study have been revised and the
new courses will be tried out in classrooms this fall#
Honest interpretation of existing courses la a service
which can be rendered by every teacher, along with con
structive criticism to those who are charged with the
problem of curriculum revision* Go-operative effort
over a long period of time will do much to produce courses
of study that will train students, not only successfully
to meet present civic, vocational, and social demands, but
also to aspire to life more abundantly* In this way,
civilization advances*
High school teachers may take new courage from the
thought that they are not working alone, in their study
of curriculum problems and in the conscientious testing
out of new courses, but as a part of a great National pro-
Ill
gram to improve the courses of study of our public schools#
The home economics curriculum presents many problems
in present-day issues in home economies teaching# Some of
the more important issues are as follows: the newer basis
for food lessons in the family meal, for clothingkessons
in wardrobe planning; the subject matter that is at present
developing in family relationships, home life and hospi
tality, in home furnishings, in child care and training and
in managerial responsibilities. The adjustment of labora
tories and equipment to serve new needs, and the relation
ship of the home economics department to the school and the
community life are also present-day issues.
The teacher of home economics is faced with class
room problems as frequently as is any teacher of the schools#
Those problems which have to do with the right selection
and rejection of subject matter, depending upon the interests
of pupils, their age and maturity life, are of paramount im
portance according to statements of leading educators.
In the following paragraphs the writer will attempt
to show the present trend of the home economics courses in
junior and senior high schools in different sections of the
United States by giving a description of the progressive
units. The junior high school courses will be given first
and then the senior high school courses will be given.
The specific objectives of some of the units have been
analyzed and classified under the three divisions of learn
ing activities, such asJknowledge, habits and skills and
112
attitudes, appreication and ideals*
I. JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL PROGRESSIVE UNITS
Progressive courses in home economics* A progressive
course in homemaking was developed recently in the junior
high school in Winnetka, Illinois* lihis course was develop
ed to replace existing foods and clothing electives which
were rather specialized in character and placed a great
deal of emphasis upon laboratory skills and rather little
upon home attitudes and home atmosphere*
The results of a questionaire, that had been sent to
parents to determine the effectiveness of the existing
foods and clothing electives showed that in manyrihomesrinem-
bers of the family did little actual cooking and sewing
and did not expect their girls to acquire much skill in
those lines; hence, there seemed to be no justification
for requiring courses in foods and clothing,in their
community, but the majority of parents approved training
in other aspects of homemaking*
Therefore, a very'general required course has been
outlined which is exploratory in character and gives the
child a point of view in homemaking* Emphasis is placed
on information and discussion of the many subjects that
homemaking entdils* Very little time is devoted to prac-
S
tice in manipulative skills, since such practice may be
received by doing at home the many tasks children of that
age are able to do*
113
Individual problems, such as caring for the sick,
caring for younger children, reading a book on homemaking,
preparing home luncheon, serving home dinners, offering
suggestions and food preservation have proven valuable and
popular.
Girls of all abilities must spend at least one hour
a day for twelve weeks in the class. It is found satis
factory to allow certain days during the twelve weeks for
the girls to work out their individual problems. The
accelerated pupil will find time to work upon many more
individual problems than the slower pupil*
Homemaking is a prerequisite for the other home
economics electives, including foods, clothing, home
nursing, (taught by the school nurse), family life
(taught by a biology and social studies teacher), and the
nursery school elective (taught by an instructor in the
day nursery).
This plan'gives each pupil a broader conception of
the whole field of homemaking and also offers opportunity
for specialization and the acquiring of skills in the
particular phases of the subject which seem most interest
ing to the individual pupil. Class procedure and home
activities for many of the group topics are indicated in
the brief outline which follows:
Foods in relation to health". After the subject has
been discussed, each girl keeps a "Correct Food and Health
Habits” chart which is taken home when the school nurse
sends home the results of the pupil* s physical examination.
GJrls who show no symptoms of mainourishment are encouraged
114
to keep the record for at least one month for the purpose
of inculcating good food habits* Undernourished girls are
expected to keep the record during the entire twelve weeks#
They plan their individual lessons around the diet of an
underweight child. When, as occasionally happens, the
girls in the foods and homemaking classes do not wish to
eat between meals because they are overweight, they serve
the dishes which they have prepared to the underweight mem
bers of the class#
The home breakfast# Home work is encouraged in connec
tion with this subject. A breakfast chart is available
upon which the girls keep a systematic record of the number
of times they have set the table, prepared cereal or fruit,
or performed any of the other breakfast tasks. After a
certain period, the charts are returned with the parent*s
signature, and credit is given according to the amount of
work accomplished.
Family relations. A week is spent on a discussion of
ideal homes, causes of broken homes, a girl*s responsibili
ties in maintaining an ideal home, traits a boy or girl
should possess to contribute to happy family life, and proper
use of leisure time.
The school lunch. This topic emphasizes the selec
tion of we11-balancecT lunches in the school cafeteria.
The girls plan an assembly program in which they give a
play or short talk on the subject of balanced lunches.
They also prepare helpful posters for the cafeteria, and
several of them assist the teacher in the inspection of
trays in the lunch line and offer suggestions to pupils
on balanced lunches.
Entertaining in the home. The duties of a hostess are
disc us se d unde r thi s topic • t)nce each week before the
weekly faculty meeting, two girls volunteer to serve tea to
the teachers after school. The food is prepared by one of
the classes during a class period.
Everyday manners.
Learning to dress comfortably, suitably and attrac
tively.
Fabric study.
Garment construction. Time is allowed for one simple
garment to be made#
Housekeeping. A housekeeping chart is available so
that the girl may keep a record of the housekeeping duties
she has performed at home over a definite period of time.
Marketing for the home is included in this topic.
The girl*s room* The girls are encouraged to take care
1.15
' i
of their own bedroom, to suggest ways of making them
attractive and to make some article which is needed*80
New York course of study in homemakingThe home-
making department in the Nathaniel Hawthorne Junior High
School began revision with the following aim in mind*
If home economics "stands for the ideal home life of to
day unhampered by the traditions of the past,1 1 then the
emphasis of the curriculum must be placed upon the
activities of the girls and their experiences* Consider
the girl and her desires*
This course is in the experimental stage* It con
sists of three units; foods, clothing and home management
taught by three teachers* The year is divided into three
units of about thirteen weeks each* Each teacher instructs
ten different classes a week. The work done in each class
varies, depending upon the interests and capacities of
each particular class*
For example, the eighth grade girl this year began
with clothing; in December, she went to the foods labora
tory, and in April, she will enter the home management
class* The ninth grade girl started with home management,
then went to clothing, where she will have about sixteen
lessons as the making of a graduation dress, which is the
project for the unit. This leaves five lessons for work
in dietetics in the foods laboratory*
This program of studies runs parallel to her home life.
It was found that the pupils enjoy it much better than hav-
80 Bertha Gehrke, "Homemaking in the Junior High School in
Winnetka,Ill*, Journal of Home Economics*24: 524-528, 1932.
81
New York State Department of Education, Courses of Study
for Junior High Schools* Albany, 1931, p. 313-317*
116
ing one subject all the year, and although it makes more
work for the teachers, they prefer it too*
The seventh grade girl has four units during the year*
After completing a unit of foods, she has a unit of home
management in the apartment* She then goes to the shops for
a period of four weeks, talcing the place of the seventh
grade boys who come to the foods laboratory* This program
leaves five weeks for her to learn the running and care of
the eleptric sewing machine, seam finishings and the use
of commercial patterns in preparation for the eighth grade
work in clothing*
The aim in sending girls to the shops is to give them
a general idea of handling common tools used in simple re
pair work around the house, such as the braceand bit,
chisel, hammer, monkey wrench, saw, pliers, plane, screw
driver and soldering iron* fee jobs to be done may be re
pairing of wires of electric appliances, cleaning the
stopped drain in the sinks or tubs, changing washers in
the faucets; soldering a hole in metal, sawing a board or
driving a nail*
Besides the repair work, the girl completes one
problem, choosing the articles she wishes to make* This
may be a problem in metal work such as the making of a
cooky cutter, a sugar scoop, dust pan or whisk broom holder;
or in wood such as rolling pin, chndle stick holder or a pin
tray, book ends, etc*, The girls enjoy these few lessons
and learn the uses of tools*
11.7
Homes are feminine in part only; it is necessary that
men as well as women understand the principles involved in
successful homemaking. Tioward this end, the boys have been
given a unit in cooking. They show interest and apprecia
tion and are delighted with the actual practice in the
laboratory•
The aim in presenting this unit to the boys is to give
them knowledge of kitchen equipment, its arrangement and
care, to acquire a moderate amount of skill in preparation
of a few simple foods, and most important of all, the proper
selection of foods for a growing boy#
Homemaking is required in the seventh, eighth and
ninth grades. The time allowance is 110 minutes a week, or
a double period#
The homemaking department consists of a clothing la
boratory, a food laboratory, a demonstration room and a
four-room apartment for the home management work.
In clothing the garments made are the choice of the
girls# Pajamas,kimonos, dresses and separate skirts are
the garments thatfiere made during the year of 1931#
Eight unit kitchens, duplicating home conditions con
stitute the food laboratory. The course of study in foods
is made out on the meal, plan#
Home management work. Home management work is taught
in the demonstration room and the apartment. In this
course, there are units of house care, laundering, house
hold decoration, child care, home nursing, budgets, home
relationship and hospitality#
Meals# Meals which have been planned and purchased
by the girls are served in the dining room of the apartment•
118
Often at the noon hour the groups will invite teachers as
their guests* The seventh grade girls are working on the
project of entertaining their mothers at an afternoon tea*
Much interest was exhibited when we made the draperies,
curtains, linens, and bed linens for the apartment* We
are developing in our girls the ability to assume responsi
bility and we are duplicating home conditions as nearly as
we can. We are giving our pupils a broader appreciation
of the home and family relationship through the apartment
than can be obtained through laboratories alone*
Child care* For the child care unit we are planning
to borrow a few children from a nearby orphan asylum for
the day • The girls are to care for them and prepare the
mid-day lunch.
Field trips. We take the classes on field trips
whenever an opportunity presents itself in order that
pupils may learn the latest improvements for homes*
Demonstration classes. The Westchester Lighting Com
pany has helped us on the subject of lighting the home,
and also sent us an instructor to aid in making lamp shades*
A cake contest was held during ‘ ’Cirls* Week” last
year and after the prizes were awarded, the girls served
tea and the cakes to the mothers present*.
We take every opportunity to plead with the mothers
•to allow the girls to practice at home what they learn in
school. A little material wasted is nothing compared to
the experience gained.
The practices and technics used this year may be
changed next year as conditions change and as we get new
light on the pupils1 needs*
We feel that after our pupils have been ’ ‘exposed*
to this work as outlined, something is materially wrong
if an interest in the practical work presented has not
been aroused. Through the girls* testimony we know that
such an interest is aroused--at least in the majority of
cases— and so we believe that the course has justified
itself*
119
82
Home problems# The following unit, the family, is one
of the units in present practice in home problems in a pro
gressive school system*
Unit IV. The Family:
Problem 1. What is the difference between a house and home?
What makes a home?
Specific aims. (1) To appreciate the home^ (2) to appre
ciate the responsibilities that the individual members of the
family have towards the home* (3) to respect the rights of
others sharing the home.
Method* Classes formulate a definite of home and study
definitions given:
*It takes a heap o1 livin* in a house to make it a home.*
(1) Houses are built of brick, or of frame, but a home is
built upon love, cooperation, happiness, contentment, and
many other things.
(2) A house becomes a home when it Is a happy and restful
place in which to live.
(3) A home is not measured by the amount of money spent on
its furnishings. A person may live in a palace and be a
stranger there, or he may live in one room and be at home*
(4) A mother is the head of the home. She keeps the home
clean and orderly, prepares the food, and is there to love
and comfort us and help us to be happy.
(5) At work or in school, each of us is just one of many.
In our homes each one of us occupies an Important place and
we count for something there.
(6) In a real home each member is ready and willing to offer
something to the common good as well a s to take that Which
is offered by others.
(7) The home is a place to rest from the work-a-day world;
a place from which we go ready to do our work in the world
refreshed in mind, spirit and body.
82 Pasadena City Schools, Course of Study in Home
Economics for Junior High Schools, Pasadena, 1929.
120
(8) A young man in talking of a home spoke in this way,
*WeIl, I canft seem to describe it# You have to have cleaa
hands and a pure heart all the time#
(9) "Togetherness* is the keynote of a successful home*
(10) These are some ways in which people have described the
homes
(a) A world of strife shut out, a world of love shut in#
(b) The place where the small are great and the great
are small#
(c) The place where we grumble the most and are treated
the best.
(d) The place where our stomachs get three square meals
a day and our hearts a thousand#
(e) The only place on earth where the faults and fail
ings of humanity are hidden under the sweet mantle
of charity*
(11) Home is not bounded by the four walls of a house#
It is the heart of Life#
To it Life comes.
In It Life is nurtured, ideals bom, knowledge gained#
Upon it the strength of the nation is built#
(12) Holmes says -
Where we love is Home#
Home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts#
Standard of attainments. To appreciate what home
means to the individual member of society#
i
121>
83
Ninth) grade / clothing , course. The following speci
fic objectives are given in a course of study for ninth
grade clothing^ requiring two semesters of time to accomplish*.
I* Knowledge:
(5) To enable her to select, interpret, test and alter
simple patterns*
(7) To help the girl understand the importance of eco
nomical practices in regard to her clothing*
(9) To help the girl to understand the relation of
clothing to health and comport.
II. Habits and skills:
(2) To help her apply these principles by solving prob
lems which are typical of those that she will meet in every
day life.
(3) To give her sufficient skill to enable her to select,
make and care for plain underwear, household linens, wash
dresses and children*s clothing*
(4) To teach her to use and care for sewing machine and
sewing equipment*
(6)(To develop ability in the girl to recognize the
common textile fabrics and to know their important charac
teristics.
III. Attitudes, Appreciations and ideals.
(1) To develop in the girl an understanding of the
principles of clothing and art which she will use in her home*
(5<>
(8) To develop in the girl a desire to keep account 1
of her expenditures.
(10) To help the girl to secure satisfaction in wearing
becoming, well made, inexpensive garments.
(11) To develop in the girl, desirable4 standards of per
sonal appearance and cleanliness.
(12) To foster in the girl an interest in her home and
a desire to do her part in its maintenance.
(13) To create in the girl a desire for further study
in clothing*
The above analysis of the specific objectives under
the necessary outcomes of learning activities such as know
ledge, information and facts; habits and skills, and atti
tudes, appreciations and ideals, shows the most emphasis to
Kansas State Agricultural College Bulletin, High
School Clothing Course, Manhattan, Division of Home Eco
nomics, Vol. XIII, No. 5, 1929.
122
be placed on attitudes, appreciations and ideals according
to the number of statements given of each learning activity;
habits and skills second; and knowledge third* Or compared
in percentage, attitudes, appreciations and ideals constitute
fifty percent; habits and skills twenty-eight percent; and
knowledge twenty-two percent, approximately*
84
Food and nutrition. The following paragraphs consist
of the specific objectives, problems, suggested procedure,
subject matter and activities in a food and nutrition course*
Objectivesj
1. Knowledge :
(1) to give some information of food preservation, and
develop ability in preserving surplus food in the home.
(2) to give additional information on foods and nutri
tion so the girl may better plan, prepare and serve meals
that fulfill the needs of her family.
(3) to develop understanding of the work invovled in
preparing simple, wholesome meals for the family and guests*
(4) to know something of the advantage of careful
planning and time schedule in meal preparation*
2* Habits and skills:
(5) to develop some skill in evaluating food markets
on the basis of sanitation*
(6) to develop some skill in handling money and in se
lecting the best food for the money available*
(7) to develop some ability in keeping family accounts*
3* Attitudes, appreciations and ideals:
(8) to inculcate a spirit of hospitality in connection
with simple meal service or entertainment in the home and
school*
84
Louisiana State Department of Education, Courses of
Study in Home Economics, Baton Bouge, Bulletin Ho. 160,
1955.
123
Problem One: Preservation of foods (ten lessons)
Problem and suggested procedure:
a. To can, preserve and otherwise prepare foods for
further use by storage* Use experiments to show effects
of temperature, light and moisture as related to organisms
and food spoilage.
b. Canning: (1) Study types of equipment used for
canning foods and decide which is economically better for
home use* (2) Have girls test jars to be used for foods*
Construct a water-bath canner* Can fruits and vegetables
in glass jars*
c. Jelly and preserves: (1) Base selection of fruit on
results of tests for pectin and acid* (2) Compare the use
of flannel and double cheesecloth bags for extracting juice.
(3) Discuss use of commercial pectin* (4) Make jelly qnd
conserves from seasonable fruit*
Subject matter and activities:
a. Preservation of foods; (1) Causes of spoilage:
(a) bacteria (b) molds (c) yeast. (2) Methods: (a)
drying (b) refrigeration (c) canning (d) preserva
tives: 1* Spices, 2. Acids, 3. Salt, 4* Smoke,
5. Harmful chemicals*
b* Canning: (1) Equipment: (a) Canners (b) Containers
1* Class, 2. Tin, (c) Accessories. (2) Poods in glass:
(a) selection (b) preparation: (1) Pood (2) Containers.
(c) Methods; (1) open kettle (2) cold pack (3) hot pack
(d) storing.
c* Jelly and Preserves: (1) Selection of fruit
(2) Extraction of juice (3) Testing for pectin (4) Pro
portion of sugar, fruit juice, or fruit pulp*
Problem Two: Dinners: (fifty lessons)
a. To develop ability in planning, preparing and serv
ing simple informal dinners for a family of varying ages,
activities and conditions of health.
b. Plan dinners for various occasions.
c* Serve mother-daugher dinner; father-daughter dinner,
or father-son dinner*
Home practice and home projects. The above specific ob
jectives of the food and nutrition course were analyzed and
classified under the necessary outcomes of learning activities*
124
II. SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL PROGRESSIVE UNITS
85
Family relationships and home finances. The following
is a progressive unit in family relationships and home fi
nances.
Aims:
(1) To develop within the girl an appreciation of her
family, and an understanding of her part as a member of that
group.
(2) To help the girl develop traits which will make her
a better member of her family group.
(3) To lead her to think d>out the problems and responsi
bilities of home and family.
(4) To give the girl an understanding of the home as an
important center of economic consumption.
(5) To give the girl a sense of responsibility of the
correct expenditure of her share of the family income.
(6) To help the girl'develop standards for home expendi
tures in keeping with the income.
An understanding of the problem of her home and family
\
helps the girl to be a better member of that family. Good
family life is the result of determined effort on the part of
its members. Wise expenditure of family income requires
planning. Each member of the family should share in the re
sponsibility of planning the income.
In many of the more progressive secondary school home
economics eourses of study, selection of materials, plan of
work, and establishment of standards, are given the place of
primary Importance, and skills and habits, the place of seo-
85Kansas State Department of Education, op. cit. Part
XX, p. 19.
125
\ondary importance* This is shown in the statement of out-
comes and aims in many progressive schools in home economics.
In the following paragraphs this statement will be verified.
Manual of homemaking education for the high schools of
Alabama?* *
The desirable outcomes to be attained by each girl are
a growth and aP improvement in her ability:
(1) To select food in relation to her individual needs
and those of the family*
(2) To plan, prepare, and serve wholesome meals within
the family income*
(3) To develop acceptable standards of skill in all
work of the home*
(4) To dress suitably and becomingly, taking into con
sideration the family budget*
(5) To plan and make clothing which can be economically
constructed in the home*
(6) To select ready-made garments best suited to her
individual needs*
(7) To have a well-groomed appearance on all occasions*
(8) To plan and perform satisfactory units of work in
the home, making those adjustments which the situation demands.
Philadelphia course of study in home economics?7 The
objectives, projects and units in foods are given in the
following paragraphs* This course is elective for any pupil
not majoring in home economics, and may be taken any term in'
tenth, eleventh or twelfth years. The objectives were ana-
88 Alabama State Deprtment of Education, The Manual of Home
Making Education for High Stehools, Division of Vocational
Education, 1929*
87 State Department of Education, Courses of Study in Home
Economics for Senior High Schools, School District of Phila
delphia, 1930.
126
lyzed and classified under the learning activities.
Objectives:
1. Knowledge:
(1) To teach the relation of food to health.
(2) To emphasize the necessity of an adequate diet
and to familiarize the pupil with the components of such a diet.
(3) To stress the economic factors that enter into 4
the food problems of the individual and the family.
2• Habits and skills:
(4) To center attention on the social values in right
ly planned, prepared and served meals: .
3. Attitudes, appreciations and ideals:
Project One: TShat do I need to know about health in order
that my ideas and practices will be in accordance with modern
standards of health?
Unit 1.
Modem attitudes regarding health
(a) Personal regard for health
(b) Employer attitudes
(e) Community interest in health
(d) Nation*s health protective and health promotive
activities.
Unit 2.
Optimum health
(a) Explanation
(b> Essential factors
Unit 3.
Health as a business asset
Unit 4.
Conditions effecting health of employed persons
Household management. The specific aims, problems and
standards of attainment in the household management are given
in the following paragraphs. This course is a required course
for all girls not majoring in home economics and is given in the
twelfth grade.
Pasadena City Schools, op. cit.
127
Specific Aims*
1• Knowledge:
(1) To have the students understand a simple and
sanitary way of living.
(3) To have them understand modern economic and
social conditions and take advantage of them when oppor
tunity offers*
3. Attitudes, appreciations and ideals:
(2) To set a standard of living that is commensurate
with the ideals of the American people.
(3) To have them understand modem economic and so
cial conditions and take advantage of them when opportunity
offers.
Problems:
(1) To know how to choose a site for a home.
(2) To know the advantages and disadvantages of the
different kinds of building materials for a home.
(3) The evolution of the present house.
(4) To become acquainted with some of the most pro
nounced types of archi tecture•
(5) To study a house plan for a family of four in order
to know and understand conveniences, comfort and beauty.
(6) To know the basic principles of ventilation for
home, school, city and public buildings.
(7) To understand heating plants.
(8) To have an intelligent and scientific understanding
of light and color.
(9) To know scientifically the properties of water and
how to properly place it in our house.
(10) To know how to properly care for the wastes in a
house.
(11) To draw a house plan so as to understand technique
and to know how to read plans student may encounter. To apply
all principles learned previously to this plan.
(12) To know how to finance a home.
(13) To know how to landscape a house.
128
Standards of attainments s
(1) A knowledge of the physical and climatic conditions
which affect the home life, health and comfort*
(2) To understand the best building material for money,
locations, style of architecture and needs of family*
(3) To have the student realize the present house is the
result of the manner of living of the human race through many
centuries*
(4) To know the principal and outstanding types of archi
tecture of today*
(5) To have the student know a few standard measurements
of parts of houses and furnishings and to become familiar with
pleasing proportions and arrangements*
(6) To be always conscious of properly ventilated rooms*
To know What to do if the rooms are not constructed well for
proper ventilation*
(7) To understand the principles of heat, its control
and best methods for various buildings in various climates.
(8) To know the principles of lighting. To know the
best methods of lighting your home. To be intelligent on the
lighting of any public or private building*
(9) To know a proper standard for water for family use*
To know how to watch for and correct impurities in water. To
know proper installation of water carrying system in the home.
To know good water fixtures. To know, and have the proper
desire to care for a good system.
(10) To know the danger of wastes, their care and dis
posal in the house. To understand municipal waste control
and to develop a desire to help carry it out in any way.
(11) To understand, read, enjoy and intelligently criti
cise house plans. To be able to intelligently discuss with
and suggest to architect, plan for onds own house* To make
plans and build onds own house if opportunity arises.
(12) To know first whether it is advisable in your condi
tion to own or rent. To knew how to go at it intelligently,
to build and pay for your own home if advisable to own.
(13) To inspire students with a desire to have an attrac
tive outdoors*
12a
Social arts course. The following paragraphs con
sist of the specific objectives and an outline of the content
of a social arts course given in the Franklin High School,
Los Angeles, California* This is a course for both boys and
girls.
Objectives:
Home. The development of interest in the home as a
human institution by thorough discussion of marriage, home
responsibilities and parenthood.
Family♦ Psychology of human relationships. The know
ledge of the social elements of the family problems.
Individual. Increased ability to cooperate in the
family life by graciously using the home as a social center.
(1) Activities aiding in development of the individual
in the family group.
(a) Provision of shelter (b) Provision of food
(c) Etiquette (d) Provision of clothing (e) Management
(f) Special care of children (g) Health of family.
(2) Activities aid ing in providing environment con
ducive to healthy state of mind.
(a) Influence of music, art and literature in
the home (talks by teachers of each).
(b) Constructive treatment of emotional life of
family. 1.Aiding in formation of good habits, honesty, self-
control, cheerfulness, courage 2.Working against bad habits,
fear, anger, worry, jealousy.
(c) Encouragement of all Intellectual advancement.
1. List of books and magazines in home 2. Value of books*
(3) Activities to develop social qualities: Tact, poise,
cooperation, leadership, refinement, courtesy.
Term paper on any subject relating to the home or
community activity.
Talks by authorities on different subjects. Reports
on all topics discussed.
89 Los Angeles City Schools, op. cit*
130
90
A high school unit in home and family relationships♦
In revising their course of ;Study the department of home
economics in the public high schools of Kansas City, Missouri,
has organized new units of work typified by the one on home
and family relationships herein described*
The first step in the reorganization was to evaluate
the work thenfceing done* A questionalre was distributed to
learn what types of work in the home, the girls of Kansas
City were actually doing and also what parents felt the
school should offer as homemaking education* Analysis and
study of the returns gave the basis for the new curriculum
in home economics*
Part of the material included in this unit was suggested
by the information collected* However this unit, organized
in May 1931, Is in part the outgrowth of a thesis study of
the contribution made by home economics high school courses
throughout the country toward the direct betterment of home
life* This study was based on a questionaire sent to 250
supervisors and instructors of home economics, a survey of
city and state courses of study, a review of recent books
in the field, and a resume of current articles on the subject*
Home and family relations* Information from the two
above sources suggested the following a^Siesirable attainments
for high school pupils studying home and family relations4
To acquire an interest in developing those traits that make
strong character and forceful personality, to learn what con
stitutes a worthy member of the home and community, to desire
Beneta Reid, nA High School Unit in Home and Family
Relationships,” Journal of Home Economics, Vol* 24, No* 11,
p. 982, 1932.
131,
to contribute one’s share towards the improvement of the
home and of the community*
The approach to the unit is made at the opening of the
school in the fall through brief discussion of plans for
the year, and as a part of the year's work, a self-improve
ment project is suggested* In the discussion of the im
provement of One’s personal appearance someone usually asks
why some people are more attractive and agreeable than
others. Another may wish to know why some people have more
friends than others. Still another may suggest the things
that a girl may do to make herself more useful in the community*
Such discussion will without doubt lead back to the pupil’s
early training and may easily result in the conclusion that
the influence of the home is a strong force in molding
character and personality. In this way, the class is en
couraged to state the problem: "TShat must one do to make
oneself a more attractive and more useful member of the home
and of the cummunity?w
Problem solutions. Solutions to this problem that would
naturally be suggested by the class are developed in the
unit as follows:
(1) Develop character and personality by analyzing de
sirable qualities of character, personal appearance, con
versation and poise and stability.
(2) Form worth-while friendships by evaluating friend
ships, qualities to be desired in friends, kinds of friend
ships, and means of acquiring friends*
(3) Observe approved social customs in the home, at
school, in public places and on social occasions#
(4) Make worthy use of leisure through home, outside
agencies, nature, travel, vacations and avocations#
(5) Enow and appreciate the purpose of the family by
studying its origin, function, development and changing
character, as well as problems of the modem home#
(6) Strive to make home life better by learning to appre
ciate common causes of family troubles, Influence and respon
sibilities of individual members, responsibilities of the
community to the home and family, and principles upon which
to build a home#
The last two topics because of their importance should
receive the major part of the time devoted to this unit;
namely, five weeks with five fifty-minute periods each# It
132
can readily be seen that the material offered might well con
sume the time of a semester or a whole year* However, experi
ments indicate that intense interest may perhaps be better
attained by concentrated effort for a short time only; hence,
the suggested time*
It is suggested that care and precision must be used
in planning and carrying out this type of work. It may best
be kept very Impersonal and taught largely through discussion
of life experiences and carefully selected reading material,
both informational and recreational.
Summary and conclusions. Through the courses of study
the schools seek to pass on the knew ledge, habits and skills,
attitudes, appreciations and ideals that the best minds and
finest spirits of the nation cherish for all citizens.
Hbme economics teachers in daily touch with adolescence have
a very vital contribution to make. They are being asked to
suggest improvements in the courses of study which it is
their daily task to interpret.
The home economics curriculum presents many problems
in present day issues in home economics teaching. Some of
the more important issues are as follows: the newer basis
for food lessons in the family meal, for clothing lessons
in wardrobe planning, the subject-matter that is at present
developing in family relationships, home life and hospital
ity, in home furnishing, in child careWid training and in ^
managerial responsibilities. These present day issues are
presented both in the junior and senior high school courses
133
of study but in a more elemental way in the junior high
school*
The progressive units in home economics in this chap
ter in junior and senior high school courses of study show
the modern trend of curriculum making* In both levels of
the high school, the courses of study show that emphasis
is placed on developing right attitudes and appreciations,
and developing desires for right standards and ideals*
Research work is being done by both junior and senior
high school committees* Present courses of study are be
ing evaluated and quest!onaires are distributed to learn
what type of work in the home the girls are actually per
forming, and what parents felt the schools should offer as
homemaking education* The analysis and study of such re
turns gave the basis for many of the progressive units in
this present ehapter.
134
CHAPTER VIXI
THE FINDINGS AND RESULTS OF THE INTERVIEWS
Purpose of the chapter. The purpose of this chapter
is to give the results discovered through interviewing forty
home economics teachers, heads of departments and super
visors in junior and senior high school systems, and make
comparisons of the emphasis and proportion of time that
instructors place on the three divisions of learning activi
ties, namely; knowledge to be gained; habits and skills to
be acquired; and attitudes, appreciations and ideals to be
developed, in teaching junior and senior high school sub
jects.
Variations of students1needs» The fundamental prin
ciples in each home economies subject are common to the
needs of most all the students enrolled in these classes,
but there is a great variation in the needs of individual
high school students* Effective adaptation of instruc-
tiontion to individual differences is now generally recog
nized as essential in attaining the highest level of effi
ciency in teaching. An important phase of this adaptation
is effected by differentiating the learning exercises so
that each student will be assigned those learning activi
ties that are compatible with his capacity to learn. Com
pliance with this procedure increases the teacher's task
in devising and selecting learning activities.
155
In addition to providing each student with exercises
compatible with his capacities, the plan of differentia
tion facilitates quantitative differences in achievement*
Since students differ in capacity to learn it is inevitable
that their achievements will also differ unless there is a
/
compensating variation in the time devoted to a given
course* As our schools are organized, it is not feasible
to make provision for the necessary variations in time*
Hence, differences in achievement are to be expected, but
the teacher should endeavor to control them.
Most all courses of study in home economics have been
made rather complete in outline and suggestions as an aid
to give variation of material for the instructor. This is
not meant to conflict with the elasticity in the program
or the expression of the teacher’s individuality. The sub
ject-matter, methods and procedures selected for the courses
of study may seem consistent with the best practice cur
rent in any one system; but each instructor must decide
which units need to be emphasized or omitted or what others
need to be added to care for the^requirements of her parti
cular students or school*
)
These general principles for the differentiation of
courses of study are tentatively presented for eonsidera-
91
tion by different committees as follows:
_
Vitalizing the High School Curriculum, National Education
Association Research Bulletin Vol.7 No.4 p.186,Sept.1929.
136
(1) The differentiated subject-matter for a specific
group should be elastic in content, so that it can be modi
fied to meet individual needs as well as group needs*
(2) Differentiation of courses of study does not mean
that the public school should develop a series of wholly
distinct courses for different groups of pupils* There will
always be certain minimum essentials which all pupils should
seek to acquire* The percentage of the curriculum made up
of these minimum essentials will probably be greater in the
elementary than in the junior and senior high school* It is
important in a democracy that certsin information shall be
the common heritage of all* Insofar as they are able to ac
quire it, all children should have the best of the social
heritage*
(3) The aims, objectives, and outcomes of all subjects
should be set forth for different ability groups* For the
most part, there should be a common background for these
aims* The methods and emphasis are necessarily different,
as are the immediate objectives and outcomes; but the same
ultimate aim of education should guide all teaching* The
same philosophy of education is back of whatever differen
tiation is made*
(4) The course of study should recognize that the rate
of progress will not only vary between the different ability
groups, but also within each group* Even though the prac
tice of homogeneous grouping is followed, there will be a
considerable range of capacity and a variety of backgrounds
and needs within each group*
(5) Much study, research and experimentation are need
ed to determine the amount and quality of work which may
rightly be expected from pupils of different levels of
ability* HSfhereas, no amount of research will make it possi
ble to mechanize education, it will offer a guide in deal
ing with both individuals and groups#
Developing the learning activities* The dominant aim
in teaching is often the imparting of knowledge as in
teaching the structure of a living organism; the develop
ment of some interest or attitude, as the appreciation of
good literature or music; or the development of some skill,
as in typewriting* Also, the technique of developing the
special type of learning activities may be differentiated
137*
and again combined where two or more types of learning
activities are aimed at, without change in their essen
tial nature#
The psychology of imparting information and that of
acquiring habits and skills is better developed than the
psychology of developing attitudes, appreciations and
ideals. Attitudes, appreciations and ideals are unlike
knowledge and skills in that they cannot be approached
directly and in a simple fashion. The acquisition of a
skill or the learning of a date or any sort of fact is a
thing which may be assigned as a lesson for a day or
longer, and the teacher and learner may proceed conscious
ly and directly to facilitate the learning process.
Ideals, attitudes and appreciations are not developed
in this way. Yet, are powerful influences and determi
nants of human and social progress and happiness, and once
acquired, they continue to function long after the bulk
of information has been forgotten#
Every class period leaves its impress'upon ideals,
attitudes and interests of the pupils* Attitudes are con
stantly being formed and modified toward school; atti
tudes toward religion, political parties, vocations,the
opposite sex, education, and tastes or prejudices toward
school subjects, methods, and what not. It is important
for the teacher to know that while ideals, attitudes and
interests may be determined somewhat by the teaching of
school subject matter, they are also very easily influenc-
ed by all forms of school experiences•
High school students attitudes and ideals are in
fluenced by ideas and conduct of their fellow students,
and by the standards of their fellows, and of their
teachers as they come to know them in the daily school
work* Reflection and day-dreaming stimulated by the
reading of literature, biography or other thought stimu
lating material are means whereby the student forms atti
tudes* The qualities of a teacher as fairness, force
fulness, aggressiveness, pleasantness, poise and good
judgment do much to help shape the ideas and attitudes
with pupils. All sorts of student activities help to
mold the character of/s tudents. *3hey are continually be
ing strengthened or reshaped by experiences within and
outside of the class.
Attitudes, ideals and interests are constantly be
ing generated and modified in the direct class work.
Among the objectives of the high school subjects, includ
ing the household arts, are the development of ambitions,
standards, desires, tastes, prejudices, opinions and
interests?^
The results of the interviews. The results of the
interviews are given in the succeeding paragraphs:
Forty teachers, supervisors and heads of departments
in ten different school systems were interviewed by the
writer during the years of 1929 and 1931.
Harl R. Douglass, op. cit. p. 24-28
139
All persond interviewed stated that the proportion
of emphasis devoted to developing the learning activities
varies according to the subject matter taught, needs,inter
est, abilities, and age of the students and their social
and economic status. However, the writer secured statements
dealing with approximations.
Seven junior high school systems give one third of the
time to knowledge, from one-half to two-thirds of the time
to habits and skills, and from one-sixth to one-fourth of the
time to developing attitudes, appreciations and ideals. Two
systems devote two-fifths of the time to knowledge, and three-
fifths of the time to develop right habits and skills, and
teach the development of right attitudes and appreciations
incidentally. One junior high school system placed the most
emphasis on developing right attitudes, appreciations and
ideals*
The amount of emphasis placed on the different types of
learning activities varies more in the senior high schools,
more individual work is done in the senior high schools.
Seven senior high school systems give approximately one
half of the time to developing right habits and skills, and
from one-sixth to one-fourth of the time to gaining knowledge
facts, and information** All of the systems studied have one
or more classes where the dominant aim is to develop right
habits and skills, and the amount of the time given to de
veloping right attitudes and appreciations, incidentally^
depends much on the kind of training the instructor has
140,
received* And the knowledge gained in such a course is mostly
in the form of methods of procedure and discussion of the re
sults of the processes*
Several school systems teach one or two home economics
subjects where the dominant aim is to develop right attitudes,
appreciations and ideals; and the majority of school systems
give one or two home economics courses where the dominant aim
is to gain knowledge, information and facts*
The three senior high school systems, remaining, devote
two-thirds of the time in developing habits and skills, from
one-sixth to one-third of the time in gaining knowledge, and
from one-tenth to one-fourth of the time in developing atti
tudes, appreciations and ideals*
The place of emphasis in developing the learning: acti
vities as stated by home economics instructors* Eight home
economics instructors stated that the most emphasis should
be placed on acquiring right habits and skills; ten instruct
ors interviewed stated that the most emphasis should be
placed on gaining knowledge, facts and information, and
twenty-two instructors stated that the most emphasis should
be placed on developing right attitudes, appreciations and
ideals*
Parallel subjects in home economics education* The
parallel subjects in home economics education in all the
high school systems visited are foods one, and clothing one*
These subjects are given as elective in both junior and
senior high school systems and when credit is given in the
141
junior high school for completing the subject the senior high
school recognized the same credit.
The contrasting courses. The contrasting courses in home
economics education consist of all the courses except foods
one and clothing one. The nomenclature of the courses are much
the same, as foods, clothing, homemaking and family relation
ships, but the content and method of procedure differ greatly
as to the needs, interests, age and capacities of the students.
The majority of junior high school systems visited gives the
following nomenclature for the home economics subjects: food
and health, home problems, family meals, foods one, clothing,
clothing and personal appearance, art in relation to dress,
home nursing, family relationships and clothing one. The
majority of senior high school systems visited give the follow
ing nomenclature for the home economics subjects: clothing one
and two, advanced clothing and costume design, art in relation
to dress, textiles, selection of clothing, foods one and two,
advanced foods and nutrition, household management or home-
making, home nursing, and family relationships.
The most important subject in home economics as stated
by home economics instructors. The most important subject in
home economics in both the junior and in the senior high
school is homemaking, according to the opinion of all the home
economics instructors interviewed. This subject should consist
of units in clothing, foods, home management, and family re
lationships, Such a course should give a broad view of home
economics education. The emphasis should be placed on develop
ing right attitudes, appreciations and ideals. Four senior
142
high school systems give such a course for all girls in the
eleventh or twelfth grade who have not elected an$ home
economics during their high school period# The outline for
such a course is given in this study in chapter seven, page
126.
Standardization of home economics courses of study# The
majority of home economics teachers, heads of departments,
and supervisors stated that no standardization in home
economics courses could he made in either junior or senior
high school systems#
Summary of chapter# Through this study by means of the
interview method it was discovered that the majority of junior
high school systems place the most emphasis on acquiring habits
and skills and the least emphasis on developing attitudes and
appreciations and ideals, and that one-third of the time is
devoted to gaining knowledge. The majority of the senior high
school systems, also, place the most emphasis on acquiring
right habits and skills and the least emphasis on developing
right attitudes, appreciations and ideals. One-sixth to one*
fourth of the time in the senior high school is devoted to
gaining knowledge# The most emphasis is placed on acquiring
right habits and skills in both junior and senior high school
systems, and the least emphasis is placed on developing right
attitudes and appreciations, and developing a desire for right"
standards and ideals, according to the amount of time that
home economics instructors devote to each learning activity#
But the proportion of time in the junior high school systems
143
•«
is two-thirds and the proportion of time in the senior high
school systems is one-half* This would indicate that the
junior high school systems place more emphasis on acquiring
habits and skills than the senior high school systems*
The least emphasis is placed on developing right atti
tudes, appreciations and ideals by both the junior and senior
high school systems but the proportion of time in each school
.system is different* The junior high school systems devotes
from one-sixth to one-fourth of the time and the majority of
the senior high school systems teach attltildes, appreciations
and ideals incidentally, and when the occasion arises. The
dominant aim of some senior high school subjects is to teach
attitudes, appreciations and ideals while in the junior high
school such a subject was not discovered by the writer* This
may indicate that more emphasis is placed on developing atti
tudes and appreciations, and on developing a desire for right
standards and ideals, in the senior high school than in the
junior high school*
The learning activity, knowledge, facts, and informa
tion to be gained receives second place in both the junior
and senior high school systems* More time is—devoted to
gaining knowledge in the junior high school systems than in
the senior high school systems in the majority of systems.
One-third ofthe time is devoted in the junior high schools
while the senior high school devotes from one-sixth to one-
fourth of the time.
The majority of home economics teaehers, supervisors,
144 /
and heads of departments stated that the most emphasis in
teaching should he placed on developing right attitudes,
appreciations and ideals•
Foods one and clothing one are the parallel subjects
in home economics education according to statements of in
structors, * ' ■ *
The contrasting courses in home economics education
consists of all the courses except foods one and clothing
one*
Homemaking, a subject consisting of some units of all
the main s&bjects in home economics education, is the most
important subject to the high school students when only one
subject can be given in the school system; or when only one
subject i£"'taken during the high school period.
Standardization ( cannot be made in home economics courses
of study according to statements made by the majority of home
economics instructors.
CHAPTER IX
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
145
I. SUMMARY
Summary of an analysis of professional literature. A
summary of the analysis of professional literature in relation
to the similarities and contrasts in the aims and content of
the junior and senior high school courses of study indicates
that secondary education is a continuous and unitary process.
The junior high school begins secondary education, and the
senior high school, or upper secondary school, terminates it,
and in some instances the junior college. The aims,functions,
and processes are the same in either case, aside from the
fact that they are adapted to, and interpreted in, terms of
different growth and development. Each level must recognize
the varying needs, interests, and problems of the adolescent
student.
The high school personnel has become a cross-section of
the social groups of the nation. This change in the character
of the personnel has greatly affected the purposes,functions,
organization and administration of the high schools.
The four objectives, stated by the committee on the
objectives of secondary education comprehend the entire
range of human life and of human relationships.
A careful study of the curriculum shows that certain
significant trends in thinking are relatively outstanding,
persistent, and progressive in the sense that the secondary
146.
school is being brought nearer to a realization of the purposes
of democracy#
A well constructed curriculum is an important element in
successful articulation. The great unifying influence of the
curriculum is building it around a core of subjects that begin
in the elementary school and continue through the high school*
The most urgent need in articulation at the present time is
continuity in elementary, junior high and senior high schools
of differentiated curricula and varieties of pupil activity
to care for the varying needs, capacities, interests, and
abilities of the students*
There is little evidence of sequence in current practice*
In home economics education like other fields of education
the center of interest has.shifted from the class to the
student in the class. The problem of the new education is to
guide the individual in creating his world or worlds. To help
solve these manifold problems guidance committees have been
created* The duty of the teacher in this new type of school is
to awaken new interests, to stimulate pupils to new educational
activity, to extend appreciations in new directions, to connect
the work of the school with life in a better way, to widen the
horizon of ambitious youths, to stimulate them to develop for
themselves larger and better ideals for life service, and to
prepare for socialized living in our complex, economic and
political life*
A new emphasis has been placed on the desirable learning
activities in home economics teaching as these find expression
147
in knowledge to be gained; habits and skills to be acquired;
and attitudes, appreciations and ideals to be developed. The
problem in teaching has come to be that of so stimulating
the student to educational activity that he will educate
himself*
Home economics is a subject which is fundamentally a
response to social and economic needs. It deals with com
modities essential to everyday living, and with human re
lationships as they exist in the personal lives of individ
uals, Obviously then, home economics as a school subject Is
less possible of standardization than are some other subjects
which are more easily organized in terms of their inherent
content*
Family life with its many intimate relationships
constitute a galaxy of experiences which are highly charged
with emotion*
Any education which deals with this area must take into
account the complications these experiences invoke. The home
economics teacher becomes more than an ordinary educator, she
must be an Interpreter, a guide and an example* In no other
respect is it so important that she know the families of her
i
students and the influences and the resources of ' “ the' community*
What she teaches as facts is of relatively little importance'
y
In comparison to the attitudes and the confidence she is able
to develop. The goal of meeting students1 needs through curri
culum, courses and every day experiences, challenges the
intelligence , the emotional stability and the social vision
148
of the teacher, but especially the home economics teacher
who because of her subject matter, her close contact with
students and her ideal of training for family life and
parenthood, is in a strategic position.
The home economics curriculum may be tested on the
basis of its effectiveness in; meeting the needs of the
students in terms of both subject-matter and methods.
Attention should be centered on the student rather than
subject-matter. Subject matter is used as resource material
for problems and is drawn upon when, and as much as needed.
-There is need for keen understanding and sympathetic ob
servation on the part of members of the teaching and ad
ministration staff. Intelligent and tactful handling of
problem cases is essential if confidence in faculty judg
ment is to be built.
The findings of the analysis of the specific objectives
of home economics subjects in the junior high schools. The
findings of the analysis, classification and summarization
of 1,473 specific objectives of home economics subjects in
seventeen junior high school systems show that 515 objectives,
or thirty-five per cent, the largest number and per cent of
objectives were classified under the learning activity,
habits and skills to be acquired; 504 objectives, or thirty-
four, per cent, the second largest number, were classified
under the learning activity, attitudes, appreciations and
ideals to be developed, and 454 objectives or thirty-one
per cent the smallest number, were classified under the
learning activity, knowledge to be gained.
The findings of the analysis of the specific objectives
of home economics subjects in the senior high schools* The
findings of the analysis, classification, and summarization
of 1,353 specific objectives of home economics subjects in
seventeen senior high schools show that 487 objectives, or
thirty-six per cent, the largest number and per cent of
objectives were classified under the learning activity,
attitudes, appreciations and ideals to be developed; 442
objectives, or 32*7 per cent, the second largest number,
were classified under the learning activity, knowledge to
be gained; 424 objectives, or 31.3 per cent, the smallest
number, were classified under the learning activity, habits
and skills to be acquired.
A comparison of the findings of the two levels of the
secondary school* A comparison of the findings of the
analysis,classification, and summarization of 2,827 specific
objectives in home economics subjects in seventeen junior and
senior high school systerns,finally, shows that the proportion
of emphasis varies only from one to four per cent, as shown
in table three on page 150. The junior high school systems
place one and seven-tenths per cent less emphasis on gaining
knowledge, than the senior high school systems; three and
seven-tenths per cent more emphasis on acquiring habits and
skills; and two per cent less emphasis on developing right
attitudes, appreciations and ideals than the senior high
school systems. These findings would indicate that each
learning activity receives approximately the same
150
TABLE III
A COMPARISON OF THE FINDINGS OF THE ANALYSIS,
CLASSIFICATION AND SUMMARIZATION OF 2,827
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES IN SEVENTEEN JUNIOR
AND SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL SYSTEMS
School systems Knowledge
Habits
and
skills
Attitudes,
appreciations
and ideals
Per Per Per
cent cent cent
Junior high school 31.0 35.0 34 . 0
Senior high school 32.7 31.3 36 .0
Difference 1.7 3.7 2.0
153.
proportion of emphasis. ?
A summary of the findings through the interview method.
By means of the interview method it was discovered that the
majority of junior and senior high school systems place the
most emphasis on acquiring right habits and skills, and the
least emphasis on developing right attitudes, appreciations
and ideals. But the proportion of time in the junior high is
two-thirds and in the senior high the proportion of time is
one-half. The learning activity, knowledge, facts, and
information to be gained receives second place in both the
junior and senior high school systems, but more time is
devoted to this activity in the junior high school in the
majority of systems.
A summary of the findings of the analysis and comparison
of the recent and progressive courses. The progressive units
in home economics in junior and senior high school courses of
study show the modern trend of curriculum making. In both
levels of the high school, the courses of study show that
emphasis is placed on developing right attitudes, appre
ciations and ideals*. Research work is being done by both
junior and senior high school committees* Present courses are
being evaluated and questionaires are distributed to learn
what type of work the schools should offer as homemaking
education. The analysis and study of such returns gave the
basis for many of the progressive courses analyzed in this
thesis..
II. CONCLUSIONS
152
From this analysis and comparison of the aims and
content of home economics subjects in junior and senior high
school systems some very significant and interesting facts
and trends have been noted. The facts which seem pertinent
will be given.
1. An analysis of professional literature indicates
that each level of the secondary school must recognize the
varying needs, interests, capacities, and abilities of the
adolescent students.
2. A well~construeted course of study is an important
element in successful articulation.
3* Curriculum specialists give equal emphasis to the
three different learning activities.
4. The majority of home economics courses of study
give the same general objectives for junior and senior
high schools, and emphasize the development of right
attitudes, appreciations and ideals in those objectives*
5. A comparison of the findings through an analysis,
classification and summarization of 2,827 specific
objectives of home economics subjects in seventeen junior
and senior high school courses of study indicates that each
learning activity receives approximately the same proportion
of emphasis.
*6. By means of the interview method the findings indicate
that the majority of junior and senior high school systems
place the most emphasis on acquiring right habits and skills.
7* The most emphasis should be placed on the development
of right attitudes, appreciations, and ideals according to
the opinions of home economics instructors.
8. An analysis of progressive courses of study indicates
that the majority of jnnior and senior high school systems
in progressive schools emphasize the development of right
attitudes, appreciations, and ideals.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
154
I. BOOKS
Almaek, John G., Research and Thesis Writing, Boston*
Houghton Mifflin Co., 1930, 310 p.
Bobbitt, Franklin, How to Make a Curriculum. Boston,
Houghton Mifflin Co., 1924, 292 p.
Brown, Clara M., and Haley, Alice H., The Teaching of Home
Economics. San Francisco, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1928,
395 p.
Crawford, Claude C., The Technique of Research in Education,
Los Angeles, University of Southern California, 1928,
320 p.
Douglass, A.A., Secondary Education. San Francisco,
Houghton Mifflin Co., 1927, 649 p.
Douglass, Harl B., Modern Methods in High School Teaching.
Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1926, 544 p.
Elliott, G. L., Understanding the Adolescent Girl. Hew York,
H. Holt and 6o., 1930, 134 p.
Hayes, B.C., Introduction to the Study of Sociology.
Chicago, D.Appleton and Co., 1918, 400 p.
Hopkins, L.T., Curriculum Principles and Practices. Chicago,
B.H. Sanborn and Co., 1929, 617 p.
Kauffman, Treva E., Teaching Problems in Home Economics.
Chicago, J.B.LIppincott Co., 1930, 172 p.
Kinyon, Kate W., and Hopkins, L.Thomas, Junior Home Problems.
New York, Benj• H. Sanborn and Co., 1928, 214 p.
Koos, L.V., The American Secondary Sohool. San Francisco,
Ginn and Co., 19&7, 740 p.
Morrison, H.C., The Practice of Teaching in the Secondary
Schools, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1926,
450 p.
Overstreet, H.A., About Ourselves. New York. W.W.Norton and
Co. Inc., 1927, 300 p.
Proctor, Wm., and Ricciardi, Nicholas, The Junior High School.
Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1930, 309 p.
155
Pressey, L.C., Some College Students and Their Problems,
New York, Richard R. Smith Inc*, 1931, 39 p*
Robinson and King, Learning Excercises, D.C.Heath and Co*
San Francisco, 1928, 314 p*
Spaulding, F.T., The Small Junior High School. Cambridge,
-Harvard University Press, 1927, 210 p*
Teuton, and Struthers, Junior High School Procedure.
San Francisco, Ginn and Go*, 1926, 370 p.
Uhl, Willis L*, Secondary School Curricula, New York,
The MacMillan Company, 1927, 425 p.
4
II. PERIODICALS
Badgley, lima L*, ”The General Aims of Home Economics,”
University High School Journal, 8: 221-256, February,
1929.
Bane, Lita,”Home Economics Outward Bound,”Journal of Home
Economics, 20: 695-700, October,1928.
Carmichael, O.C., ”Home Economics in Higher Education,”
Journal of Home Economics, 24: 851-860, October,1932.
Department of Interior, Cardinal Principles of Secondary
Education,” Bureau of Education Bulletin. No.35, p.25-26,
1918.
Department of Superintendence and Research Division of the
National Educational Association, What are the Major
Objectives of Education. Detroit, National Council of
Education, p• 18, February, 1931.
Department of Superintendence of the National Educational
Association. ”The Development of the High School
Curriculum, Sixth Yearbook. Chap. 21, 1928.
Department of Superintendence of the National Educational
Association, ” The Junior High School Curriculum,”
Fifth Yearbook* Chap* 16, February 1927.
Department of Superintendents of the National Educational
Association, "Five Unifying Factors in American Educa
tion,” Ninth Yearbook. February, 1931.
Dewey, John,”The Economic Situation: A Challenge to Education”
Journal of Home Economics. 20: 695-500, June 1932.
156
Dewey, John, "General Principles of Educational Articulation1 *
School and Society, 29: 399-406, March 30, 1929.
Gehrke, Bertha, "Homemaking in the Junior High School,"
Winnetka, Illinois, Journal of Home Economics. 24: 524-
528, June 1932.
Gosling, Thomas W., "Objectives in Education-Abstract,"
Proceedings of the National Educational Proceedings, 69:
277-280, 1932.
Monroe, Hindman and Lundin, "Two Illustrations of Curriculum
Construction," Bureau of Education Research Bulletin.
No. 39, p. 714, Urbana, Illinois, 1928.
Reid, Beneta, "A High School Unit in Home and Family Relation
ships," Kansas City, Missouri, Journal of Home Economics,
24: 982-986, November 1932.
^Vitalizing the High School Curriculum," National Educa
tional Association Research Bulletin. Washington, D. C.
Volume 7, No. 4, p. 186, 1928. “
III.COURSES OF STUDY
Alabama State Department of Education, Manual of Homemaking
Education for High Schools. Division of Vocational
Education, 1930.
Colorado State Department of Public Instruction, Courses of
Study for High Schools. Denver/ Colorado, Vol. 3, 1926.
Compton City Schools, Courses of Study in Home Economics for
Junior High Schools. Compton, California, 1932.
Compton City Schools, Courses of Study in Home Economics for
Senior High Schools. Compton, California, 1932
Denver City Schools, Course of Study Monograph No. 12, Home
Economics for Junior High School. Denver, Colorado, 1925.
Denver City Schools, Courses of Study Monograp' No. 13, Home
Economics for Senior High School. Denver, Colorado, 19&5,
139 p.
Fresno City Schools, Courses of Study for Junior High Schools,
Fresno, California, 1927, 80 p.
Harrisburg City Schools, Courses of Study for High Schools.
Harrisburg, Pa., 1928, 30 p.
157
Illinois, Syllabus of Home Economics for the High Schools of
of* Illinois, Bulletin No. 19, University of Illinois,
1950, 94 p.
Indiana State Department of Public Instruction, Courses in
Home Economics for High Schools. Bulletin No. 100, C-3.
and Bulletin No. 107-D. Fort Wayne, Indiana, Fort Wayne
Printing Co., 1930, 267 p.
Kansas, High School Clothing Course, Division of Home Econom
ics, Vol. 13, Bulletin No. 5, Manhattan, Kansas, State
Agricultural College, 1929, 60 p.
Louisiana State Department of Education, Courses of Study in
Home Economics for the Public Schools,of Louisiana,
Baton Rouge, Bulletin No. 160, 1929, 170 p.
Long Beach City Schools, Homemaking Courses of Study for
Junior High Schools. Long Beach, California, 1929, 328 p.
Los Angeles City Schools, Courses of Study in Homemaking for
Junior and Senior High Schools, Los Angeles,California,
1929, 25 p.
Massachusetts, Organization and Administration of Home
Economics Education in the Public Schools, Department
of Education Bulletin No. 4, 1931, 50 p.
#
New York State Department of Education.Courses of Study in
Homemaking. Division of Vocational and Extension Educa
tion, Albany, 1929, 20 p.
New York State Department of Education, Courses of Study
for Junior High Schools. Albany,N.Y. 1931, 404 p.
North Dakota State Department of Education, Syllabus for
Home Economics in the Junior and Senior High Schools.
Bismarck, N.D. 1926, 50 p.
Oakland City Schools, Courses of Study in Home Economics for
Junior High Schools, Oakland, California, 1929, 260 p.
Oakland City Schools, Courses of Study in Home Economics for
Senior High Schools. Oakland, California, 1930, minep-
graph sheets.
Oregon State Department of Education, Home Economics Courses
of Study for High Schools. Division of Vocational
Education, Salem, Oregon, 1929, 60 p»
Pasadena City Schools, Courses of Study for Foods» Diatetics
and Nutrition. Curriculum Monograph No. 30, Pasadena,
California, August 1930, 200 p«
158
Pasadena City Schools, Courses of Study for Home Management,
Curriculum Bulletin No* 31, Pasadena, Calif.,1930,214 p.
Pasadena City Schools,Courses of Study for ClothingJSurri-
culum Monograph No. 32,Pasadena, California,l§50,162 p.
Saint Louis City Schools, Home Economics for Junior High
. Schools, Curriculum Bulletin No.19, Saint Louis, Mo.,
1927, 65 p.
Saint Louis City Schools, Home Economics for Senior High
Schools, Curriculum Bulletin No. 20, Saint Louis, Mo.,
1927, 112 p.
San Diego City Schools, Courses of Study in Home Economics,
San Diego, California,1928, 45p.
San Francisco City Schools, Courses of Study in Homemaking
for Junior High Schools, Curriculum No.106. San
•Francisco,Calif.,1928,150 p.
San Francisco City Schools, Courses of Study in Homemaking
for Senior High Schools,Curriculum Bulletin No. fe05.
San Francisco, California, 38 p.
Spokane City Schools, Home Economics for Junior High-Schools,
Spokane, Washington, 1929, 64p.
Texas State Department of Education, The Teaching of Home-
making, Vol.8 No.5,Part I,Hand III,Austin, Texas,
1932, 250 p.
Vermont State Department of Education, Courses of Study in
Home Economics, Part V. No.l, Rutland, Vermont, The
Marble City £ress, 1928, 85p.

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Asset Metadata

Creator La Mar, Eva Viola (author)

Core Title A comparison of junior and senior high school courses of study in home economics

School School of Education

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Education

Degree Conferral Date 1933-06

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag education, home economics,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Advisor Lefever, D. Welty (committee chair), Crawford, C.C. (committee member), Ford, W.S. (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c30-42279

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