In what ways has household work been relieved of its drudgery since your mothers were girls?

What labor-saving devices have been introduced in your home?

Make a report on labor-saving inventions for the household (see references at end of chapter).

What are some labor-saving household devices that could be made by boys and girls (such as fireless cookers, iceless refrigerators, etc.)? (See references below).  Can your school help in such projects?  To what extent could (or do) boys’ and girls’ clubs undertake such projects?  Is there any leader in your community who could direct or advise in such projects?

Is the kitchen in your home properly arranged to save steps, labor, and time in doing kitchen work?  Consider plans for improvement.  Consult parents.

Does experience in your community confirm the feeling of the women quoted on page 104?

Are there any cooperative enterprises in your community that relieve the housekeeper of household labor, such as cooperative laundries, creameries, etc.?  Are they a business success?  Have they improved conditions of home life?

What is the difference between a “cooperative” laundry and an ordinary laundry such as may be found in most towns?  Does one relieve the home more than the other?

What other business enterprises are carried on in towns that relieve the home of work?  Why are such business enterprises not conducted in the same way in rural communities?

Is there any special interest in home improvement in your community?  Who or what has brought it about?  What can you do to encourage such interest?

READINGS

“Lessons in Community and National Life”:  Series C, Lesson 20, “The Family and Social Control.”

For an extensive list of titles of publications relating to the home, send to the United States Bureau of Education for its Bulletin, 1919, No. 46, “Bibliography of Home Economics,” especially section viii on “The Family,” and section X on “The House and Household Activities.”  Among the many titles given in this are: 

Earle, Alice Morse, “Home Life in Colonial Days” (Macmillan).

Gillette, J. M., “The Family and Society” (A.  C. McClurg).

Thwing and Butler, “The Family” (Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Co.).

Gilman, Charlotte P., The Home (Doubleday, Page and Co.).

Talbot and Breckenridge, “The Modern Household” (Whitcomb and Barrows, Boston).

Addams, Jane, The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets (Macmillan).

Ellwood, Charles A., “Sociology and Modern Social Problems,” chapters on the family (American Book Co.).

Scott, Rhea, “Home Labor-Saving Devices” (Lippincott).

Foght, H. W., “The Rural Teacher and his Work,” Part I, chap. iii.

U. S. Department of Agriculture, Office of the Secretary, Reports 103, 104, 105, 106: