HOME SCIENCE ALUMNAE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25566, 20 June 1944, Page 3

HOME SCIENCE ALUMNAE

A meeting of the Home Science Alumnae Association was held last week at St. Helens Hostel. ' The speakers for the evening were Miss Stewart Hamilton, of the Pre-school Educational Centre, and Professor Strong, a former dean of the Home Science School.

In her opening remarks. Miss Hamilton said that it was the major task of the educator to-day to develop within the individual a philosophy of life to equip him with the qualities necessary to sustain •a healthy nation and build a better community. The value of the nursery school lay in the fact that it formed a transition between the home and the school. Even when children came from good homes they derived much benefit from attendance at the nursery school, in the building of good habits, mental and physical, at an impressionable age. Training of this kind was often lacking in the modern home. In conclusion, Miss Hamilton said that she considered that nursery schools and kindergartens run by trained personnel 'w.ere a necessary part of the reconstruction programme where education was concerned.

Professor Strong said the ultimate aim of home science was " the betterment of living conditions through conscious endeavour for the purpose ' of securing healthy, happy, and efficient human beings." In nursery schools and kindergartens children were trained for intelligence, responsibility, and voluntary cooperation. In a modern home science school classes in child development should be an important part of the course. “ Today, the women of New Zealand are urging the training of ’ household helpers,’ ’’ Professor Strong said. "It .is claimed that without this help they cannot care for their homes and cannot have children. There is also an agitation for training nurse girls. No one doubts that women need help, but is it the resppnsibility of the Government to furnish it? It seems to me,” she said. “ that the responsibility of the G’overnment is to establish nursery schools and kindergartens, where desired, so that the young toddlers can be trained by specialists and thus free- the mother ior her home work. This would meet the situation far better than producing maids and nurse girls. Parent education groups would help the mother to continue the right kind of training in tire home. " I should like to see the present domestic science classes in the elementary schools abandoned," Professor Strong said. I do not feel that the cookery and Housewifery taught under 'present condi • tions are meeting the objective desired. Instead, I would have all girls given a full term of home making at the end of Standard VI.. The course would include discussions of family relationships, and it would be all to the good if the boys would participate in these talks. Such co-opera ■ tive work would lead to that essential training in self-discipline, mental, physical, and moral, without which we cannot “°Pe A? build U P a better world.” r, l ‘he conclusion of the meeting Mrs John McCrae expressed the appreciation a. the alumnae members to Miss Hamilton and Professor Strong for their addresses.