Not less are the higher and more abstract duties of the homemaker served by the kind of house she lives and works in.  In a hundred details the homemaker should be able to increase the efficiency of the “place to make citizens in.”  A common mistake in building produces a house which adds to, rather than lessens, the burdens of its inmates.  More often than not this is the result of a misapprehension of what houses are for.

There are many large mansions in our villages and cities built for show and display of wealth in which no one will live today.  These houses are being torn down and sold for junk.  The modern home is built for one purpose only, a home.

We must therefore teach our boys and girls that houses are for shelter, work, comfort, and rest, and to satisfy our sense of beauty, not to serve as show places nor to establish for us a standing in the community proportionate to the size of our buildings.  We must teach them to measure their house needs and to avoid the uselessly ornate as well as the hopelessly ugly.  We must teach them to consider ease of upkeep a distinctly valuable factor in building.  But most of all must the homemaker be taught that the comfort and well-being of the family come first in the making of plans.

Few persons possess sufficient originality to think out new and valuable arrangements for houses; therefore we must see that their minds are rendered alert to discover successful arrangements in the houses they are constantly seeing and to adapt these arrangements to their own needs.  Unless their minds are awakened in this direction, the majority will merely see the house problem in large units, overlooking the finer points of detail which mean comfort or the opposite.

I recall spending a considerable number of drawing periods in my grammar-school days upon copying drawings of houses.  I recall that we became sufficiently conversant with such terms as front elevation, side elevation, and floor plan to feel that we were deep in technical knowledge.  But I do not recall that anyone suggested any question as to the suitability of these houses for homes, or opened our minds to consideration of the fact that house building was a proper concern for our minds.  It was merely a case in which educative processes failed to function.  They do things better now in many schools.  But we should not rest until all of our prospective homemakers have opportunity to obtain practical instruction in home planning and building.

Matters pertaining to heating, ventilating, and plumbing are easily taught as resting upon certain definite, well-understood principles.  Here the personal element is less to be considered, and scientific knowledge may be passed on with some degree of authority.  Our courses in physics, chemistry, and hygiene can be made thoroughly practical without losing any of their scientific value.  Especially in our rural schools should matters of this sort receive careful