Spring Arbor University - Echo Yearbook (Spring Arbor, MI)

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OftGANiZAT 10(V5 ACT II ITIZS

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HOME ECONOMICS Home Economics is a subject th.it centers around the problems of the home and other institutions whose problems arc of similar nature. It includes a study of food, shelter, and clothing viewed from the standpoint of hygiene, economics, and art and a study of the relations of members of the family to each other and to society. We believe this study to be an indispensable part of the general education of every girl because it affects the future life of our country. It has been said, Remember that the success of the nation of tomorrow depends upon the characters built in the homes of today.” While the problem of creating better homes is an ethical and spiritual one, yet the spiritual atmosphere cannot be quite right unless the material conditions of the home are properly adjusted. If this is true, it is important that women know how to maintain their homes in an intelligent manner and to promote the health of the family. Home Economics is one of the recent subjects in the high school curriculum. It was taught very little before 1910, but since that time it has increased rapidly in popularity. The factors influencing the introduction of home economics were many. Home experience was no longer supplying adequate training for homemaking. As labor-saving devices came into wider use, the child’s contribution to household tasks was less necessary. The making of many household materials was transferred gradually from home to factory, and there became less and less opportunity for the child to have actual contact with the production end of homemaking. In many cases the mothers found it necessary to work outside their homes with the result that they were not able to give their daughters such training as they themselves had received from their mothers. The fact that home economics has been so widely accepted indicates that it is filling a real need in American education. In meeting this need, the introduction of a Home Economics Department into the curriculum of Spring Arbor Seminary and Junior College shows a marked advancement toward greater efficiency in preparing our young people for future activity. Orpha M. Knowles. Page PorIn-eight

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THE STUDENT-FACULTY COOPERATIVE GOVERNMENT Jf ever the world needed young people who realize their responsibility to others, it is now. It is obvious that the irresponsibility of the young people of our country is not altogether due to their faults; but it is more likely due to the fact that they have not had the opportunity to develop the sense of duty which they should have developed. When they are living at home with their parents, they arc carefree to a great extent. It is right for them to be partially free from responsibility while they are in their childhood; but when they arc of high school or college age, it is time for them to feel their tesponsibility. It seems to be a tragedy that so many young people, after having gone through high school and college, do not realize that their existence involves duty as well as pleasure. The student-faculty cooperative government of Spring Arbor Seminary and Junior College, which was organized in 1927, has proved to be a means by which the students have been made to feel that they were responsible to others, thereby causing them to develop a sense of duty. It would be preposterous for the students to have entire control of the government; but, with the faculty taking the part of the upper house and also having control of the supreme court, the students taking the part of the lower house and having control of the inferior court, the student-faculty cooperative government affords a valuable training for the students in politics that they could not get otherwise. It is almost impossible to disassociate politics and responsibility. The continuance of the student government in Spring Arbor Seminary and Junior College is not necessary to the successful running of the school. Here is where the need comes in: The students need just the type of training which the student-faculty cooperative government alone can give. Henry Ryckman. Mayor. I'uue Flflu