It is obvious that the efficiency of the work of these various
organizations can rise no higher than the level of efficiency and
training of the workers available for such service. It is, therefore,
most important that the materials necessary for the rendering of these
services be made available at the earliest possible moment. Such
materials include compilations of data with reference to the different
groups, courses of study developed so as to meet the needs and
educational possibilities of the women, devices such as pictures,
slides, charts, films, for getting and holding attention of persons
unused to study, often weary and overstrained and lacking confidence
in their own power to learn.
It is also clear from the experiences of these various agencies that,
while giving this instruction is essentially an educational problem,
it is for the time so intimately connected with the whole question of
understanding the needs of the housewife in the different foreign-born
groups, of developing a method of approach and of organization, and of
trying out methods of instruction as well as experimenting with
different bodies of material, that for some time to come
experimentation and research should be fostered at many points.
There should, for example, be accumulated a much larger body of
knowledge than is now available with reference to the agencies
existing among the foreign-born groups in the various communities from
whom co-operation could be expected; there should be a much more exact
body of fact as to the needs of the various groups of women; at the
earliest possible moment the material available with reference to
these household problems, child care, hygiene and sanitation,
distribution of family income, should be put into form available for
use by the home teacher, the class teacher, the extension workers, and
the woman's club organization. In the Appendix are some menus of four
immigrant groups, which illustrate the kind of material which would be
useful.
By stipends and scholarships promising younger members from among the
foreign-born groups should be encouraged to qualify as home teachers
and as classroom and extension instructors in these fields. This would
often mean giving opportunity for further general education as
preliminary to the professional training, for many young persons
admirably adapted to the work come from families too poor to afford
the necessary time at school. Scholarships providing for an adequate
preparation available to members of the larger groups in any
community, would give a very great incentive to interest in the
problem and to further understanding of its importance on the part of
the whole group.
In addition to scholarships enabling young persons to take courses of
considerable length, there might be stipends enabling older women of
judgment and experience to qualify for certain forms of service by
shorter courses. Those who can speak enough English could take
advantage of certain short courses already offered by the schools of
social work. Others who do not speak English could be enabled to learn
enough English and at the same time to learn to carry on certain forms
of service under direction.
As has been suggested, lack of resources in face of an enormous volume
of educational work is one factor in this lack of teachers trained to
meet the needs of women in the foreign-born groups and of material
adapted to their class or home instruction. The question, then, has
been raised as to whether the supply both of teachers and of material
could be increased and whether, if these resources were available,
they would be utilized by the great national administrative agencies
to which reference has been made.
The following plan has been approved as thoroughly practicable by
leading officers and members of the American Home Economics
Association, including several heads of departments of home economics
in the state colleges, by other educators interested in the field of
home economics, as well as by representatives of the States Relations
Service, the Bureau of Home Economics Department in the United States
Department of Agriculture, the Federal Board of Vocational Education,
and the Home Economics Division of the United States Bureau of
Education. The unanimous judgment of those consulted is that if such a
plan could be carried out for the space of three years, the Federal
service would be vivified and enriched and the educational
institutions enabled to develop training methods from which a
continuous supply of teachers and teaching material could be expected.