The prevalence of divorce places before young men and women sad examples of mismating, of incompetent homemakers, of wrecked homes.  We can scarcely estimate the blow struck at ideals of marriage in the minds of girls and boys by these flaunted failures.  Nor can we even guess how many boys and girls are led to a cynical attitude toward all marriage by their daily suffering in families where parents have missed the real meaning of “home.”  However practical we may become, therefore—­and we must be practical in this matter—­we must never overlook the need for parents to give home life an atmosphere of charm.  No one else can take their place in doing this.  Hence it is their first duty to make homemaking seem worth while.

The home must take the lead also in giving the idea of homemaking as a definite and scientific profession.  The school may teach the science, but unless the home shows practical application of the scientific principles, it would be much like teaching agriculture without showing results upon real soil.  Skillful teachers recognize the home as a valuable adjunct to their school equipment and are able by wise cooeperation to use it to its full value.

The home, in its character of laboratory for the school of domestic theory, must possess certain qualifications.  Like all laboratories, it should be well equipped.  This does not mean necessarily with expensive outfit, but with at least the best that means will allow.  It implies that the home shall be recognized as a teaching institution quite as much as the school.  Like other laboratories, it must be a place of experiment, not merely a preserver of tradition.  The efficient laboratory presupposes an informed and open-minded presiding genius.

[Illustration:  Courtesy of L.A.  Alderman First crop of radishes and lettuce at the Alameda Park School, Portland, Oregon, June, 1916.  Even in the primary grades children may learn much about the science of growing things]

[Illustration:  Bringing exhibits to a school fair in Tacoma, Washington.  Skillful teachers who recognize the home as a valuable adjunct to the school equipment encourage the children to make gardens at home]

The greatest service that the home can render in the cause of training girls for homemaking is probably close, painstaking study of its own individual girl—­her likes, dislikes, aptitudes, and limitations.  Home-mindedness shows itself nowhere so much as in the home; lack of home-mindedness shows there quite as much.  The results of such study should throw great light upon the problem of the girl’s future.  Combined with the observations recorded by her teacher during year after year of the girl’s school life, this study offers the strongest arguments for or against this or that career.  Frequent and sympathetic conferences between parent and teacher become a necessity.  There is then less likelihood of opposing counsel when the girl seeks guidance toward her life work.