HOME SCIENCE AND MATRIMONY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20282, 15 December 1927, Page 10

HOME SCIENCE AND MATRIMONY.

The Home Science Department of Otago j University is active in the instruction j of young women in those arts which I make for domestic felicity and health, i and is bravely doing its part in raising i the standard of well-being in the homes j of the Dominion. It is a good sign that j there has been a large demand for in- l struction of the kind which the school provides. The graduates go forth and carry on the good work in other educational institutions, and so the knowledge of the domestic arts is disseminated more and more widely. It may be presumed that a recognition of the fact that graduates in home science possess qualifications of an attractive kind is indicated in the circumstance mentioned by the Dean of the Home Science Faculty in her annual report, that 60 per cent, of them have entered the married state. This, she suggests, augurs well for the future homes of the Dominion, but is discouraging to the Government, which offers bursaries as an inducement to students to train as home science teachers. A somewhat delicate question is thus raised. Are the home science graduates, then, to be accused of ingratitude in accepting Governmental assistance when, having had their training, they throw up their work as teachers in order to put into practice the precepts of their alma mater within the limits .of homes of their own ? If the home science graduate is regarded by the sterner sex as a treasure particularly worth appropriation, it is difficult to see that anybody is to blame. That many home science graduates should be setting up in establishments of their own is, in any case, not at all remarkable. Of young women who enter the teaching profession a large proportion drift into matrimony. Who should be better qualified, it may well be asked, than the holder of a diploma or degree in home science, to practice housewifery in the most practical spheres—a New Zealand home? The hope can only be expressed that these homes may be shining examples, reflecting within their orbit a large amount of credit upon the Home Science Department of Otago University. Professor Strong suggests that as the home science graduates average four years of teaching the Government has no cause to quarrel with the return upon its investment. Perhaps the Education Department may be a little dubious on this point. But it will simply have to agree that the claims of education have little chance against matrimony. Nor can it resist the logic of the reasoning that if a young woman is specially trained in domestic lore it is perfectly natural that she should prefer to practise rather than preach it. But if the demand for home science graduates as practical home-makers is going to become so keen that there will be none left to do the teaching a disturbing position will be created.