TRAINING FOR SERVICE

It is obvious that the efficiency of the work of these various organizations can rise no higher than the level of efficiency and training of the workers available for such service. It is, therefore, most important that the materials necessary for the rendering of these services be made available at the earliest possible moment. Such materials include compilations of data with reference to the different groups, courses of study developed so as to meet the needs and educational possibilities of the women, devices such as pictures, slides, charts, films, for getting and holding attention of persons unused to study, often weary and overstrained and lacking confidence in their own power to learn.

It is also clear from the experiences of these various agencies that, while giving this instruction is essentially an educational problem, it is for the time so intimately connected with the whole question of understanding the needs of the housewife in the different foreign-born groups, of developing a method of approach and of organization, and of trying out methods of instruction as well as experimenting with different bodies of material, that for some time to come experimentation and research should be fostered at many points.

There should, for example, be accumulated a much larger body of knowledge than is now available with reference to the agencies existing among the foreign-born groups in the various communities from whom co-operation could be expected; there should be a much more exact body of fact as to the needs of the various groups of women; at the earliest possible moment the material available with reference to these household problems, child care, hygiene and sanitation, distribution of family income, should be put into form available for use by the home teacher, the class teacher, the extension workers, and the woman's club organization. In the Appendix are some menus of four immigrant groups, which illustrate the kind of material which would be useful.

By stipends and scholarships promising younger members from among the foreign-born groups should be encouraged to qualify as home teachers and as classroom and extension instructors in these fields. This would often mean giving opportunity for further general education as preliminary to the professional training, for many young persons admirably adapted to the work come from families too poor to afford the necessary time at school. Scholarships providing for an adequate preparation available to members of the larger groups in any community, would give a very great incentive to interest in the problem and to further understanding of its importance on the part of the whole group.

In addition to scholarships enabling young persons to take courses of considerable length, there might be stipends enabling older women of judgment and experience to qualify for certain forms of service by shorter courses. Those who can speak enough English could take advantage of certain short courses already offered by the schools of social work. Others who do not speak English could be enabled to learn enough English and at the same time to learn to carry on certain forms of service under direction.

As has been suggested, lack of resources in face of an enormous volume of educational work is one factor in this lack of teachers trained to meet the needs of women in the foreign-born groups and of material adapted to their class or home instruction. The question, then, has been raised as to whether the supply both of teachers and of material could be increased and whether, if these resources were available, they would be utilized by the great national administrative agencies to which reference has been made.

The following plan has been approved as thoroughly practicable by leading officers and members of the American Home Economics Association, including several heads of departments of home economics in the state colleges, by other educators interested in the field of home economics, as well as by representatives of the States Relations Service, the Bureau of Home Economics Department in the United States Department of Agriculture, the Federal Board of Vocational Education, and the Home Economics Division of the United States Bureau of Education. The unanimous judgment of those consulted is that if such a plan could be carried out for the space of three years, the Federal service would be vivified and enriched and the educational institutions enabled to develop training methods from which a continuous supply of teachers and teaching material could be expected.

OUTLINE OF PLAN

I. Creation of committee composed of officers of American Home Economics Association, representatives from the United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Home Economics, the States Relations Service, the Home Economics Division of the United States Bureau of Education, the heads of departments of home economics in the state colleges, the technical schools and teacher-training schools, Federal Board for Vocational Education.

II. Increasing supply of teachers and teaching material.

1. Provision for assembling material in food, household management, including expenditures, and child care, particularly, and adapting this material to the needs of the members of the different foreign-born groups, by supplying salaries for two persons experienced in teaching, who would devote themselves to the preparation of classroom material, leaflets, charts, etc.—$2,400

$4,800

2. The granting of stipends to graduate students who would work at institutions approved by the committee and who would do practice teaching with such groups. In the assignment both of the stipends and of the institutional patronage, the interests of both urban and rural women would be taken into account by supplying scholarships for ten graduate students to teach under supervision and to assemble material under direction, these to be awarded by the committee with due regard to needs of rural and urban women—$750

$7,500

3. Securing the services of several highly skilled home-economics teachers, under whose supervision the practice teaching, and the preparation of these students would be carried on, and developing through advice teaching centers for the use of such material wherever possible, by supplying salaries for four persons to supervise and direct teaching—$4,000

$16,000

4. Securing teachers who are experienced housewives, who with short courses might assume certain teaching functions, supplying stipends, $75 a month for four months ($300) for fifty women who, selected under rules drawn up by the committee, would take short training courses, to be organized under the direction of individuals or departments or institutions approved by the committee

$15,000

III. There would, of course, be necessary a director of the work, who could be either one of the salaried teachers chosen as leader or an executive secretary. In any case clerical expenses and the costs of certain items incident to the instruction would be required.

The experiment should be assured for a term of three years.