He found an interesting and affable group of men who knew as much about the schools in his home county as he did.
“Teaching is a splendid field for service just now in Idaho,” they told him. “The supply of trained teachers is entirely unequal to the demand, and there is such a shortage of teachers in other states that we cannot import from outside as we used to do.”
“Do you prepare teachers for the grades here?” asked Father.
“No,” they told him, “that is done at the state normal schools. Our work is along other lines. We prepare high-school teachers, principals, and superintendents, and give special training to teachers of agriculture, home economics, music, and physical education.”
Even though Father was on the school board at home, this array of names was a bit confusing, but he found familiar ground.
“This home economics,” he said with a show of confidence—“really cooking and general housework gone to college, I’d say. We’ve just installed an outfit for it in our home school that cost a lot of money. I’ll have to see what you have here.”
Home Economics—A Booth in the Christmas Bazaar
At the other end of the long corridor he found the laboratories of the Home Economics department, complete and modern in their equipment. There was a fragrance in the air like baking-day at home, and a group of white-aproned young women were bustling about, very much intent on their work.
