In my first report I discussed the curriculum of 7th and 8th grades in Arizona in the U.S.A. I treated especially the things which belong to the field of clothing and food. This time I want to discuss those things which belong to another field. As in every unit which is included in each field, the content and treatment are explained considerably in detail. There we can see how individuals should behave at home and how to build the foundation of democratic human relations. And there we find many attractive examples of how to teach pupils. Since these are quite helpful to our homemaking education, I want to point them out here and consider them.

View full abstract

Last spring with Miss Smey's permission I introduced an article of hers, "Nutrition Education in the Elementary Schools" which appeared in Journal of Home Economics Number 5 (May, 1958) to Kateika Kyoiku (Home Economics Education), a professional monthly magazine in Japan. Later, I was given a booklet "Home and Family Living in the Elementary Schools" by Miss Smey. After reading this article, I wish to introduce it to home economics teachers who are studying the new curriculum which was published in 1958. In comparing the teaching in Great Neck, New York, and in Japan, I found some constructive suggestions for our home making education in the elementary schools for the future. They are as follows : 1. Educational administration Great Neck is under a township system. Japan is under the centralization of the administration of the Educational Ministry. 2. Establishment and realization of curriculum Great Neck's project has been in effect for 15 years. In Japan, from 1947 to 1958 the curriculum was revised four times. Even though there was some reason for frequent change because of the post war period, this is not desirable for good educational work, I feel. Frequent alteration does not allow us satisfactory observation of the effectiveness of educational activity. 3. Portion of each area in curriculum Great Neck emphasizes nutrition and consumer education much more than Japan does. 4. My suggestions for future home making education in elementary schools in Japan a. Shorten areas now devoted to sewing and housing. b. Increase and emphasize nutrition and consumer education. Home and family living are changing according to social and economic changes in the community, nation and the world. In home life the use of commercial products increases more and more. Sewing and cooking skills are simplified and shortened by progress of scientific technology and economic growth. This simplification will increase in the future. However, it will be increasingly important to have knowledge of nutrition, food selection, meal planning, and commercial products.

View full abstract

It is well known that boiling of water or aqueous solutions must be carefully observed in the cooking practice. The author intended to know about the contribution of fundamental education (elementary, middle and high school) to the correct understanding of "boiling" prior to the lecture of cooking for the freshmen at the Tokyo Gakugei Daigaku. Students were requested to observe the elevation of temperature of the test liquids while heating and to record the temperature at which the boiling may be taking place. Samples were chosen in kind and size as for common cooking practice. It was suggested from this inquiry that these students have had an incomplete knowledge on boiling of the distilled water at 99±1℃. This status became improved by the teaching to increase the number of students who can find the correct boiling point. In conclusion, the problem on boiling must be carefully understood as an item of cooking practice at the middle school.

View full abstract

This research has been taken up for the purpose of making children cultivate the habit of putting on their clothes for themselves without help of others as early as possible. In order to attain this purpose two problems must be solved. One is : what kind of clothes are most suitable for children to form such a habit? The other is : what is the best way of teaching children how to dress and undress for themselves? As the methods of bringing about the solutions for these problems, first, investigations have been carried on as to what kind of clothes are usually being worn by children today, and how far children are able to put on and take off those clothes for themselves with no assistance of others. Next, experiments have been made, and the results of them have been filmed with a 8mm camera. By these experiments and films it has been observed how different are the actions of a child in the processes of dressing and undressing in each of those cases when the clothes are of different designs, and what are the difficulties felt by a child in each case. Conclusions based on these observations have been drawn to answer the two questions mentioned above.

View full abstract

In order to find the ground for setting the standard of the school-children's ability in the arts of home-making by inquiring into the actual conditions, I investigated the ability in 'slicing' and 'handling a needle' of the pupils of Tsu Primary School attached to Mie University. The results are as follows : (1) In the fifth grade, the difference in ability between the boys and girls was scarcely recognized, but in the sixth grade the girls were distinctly superior in ability to the boys, especially in 'handling a needle.' (2) By drilling, the pupils of the sixth grade obtained better results than those of the fifth grade and the girls obtained much better results than the boys in both grades. To improve boys in 'handling a needle' is difficult, but the difficulties seem, in part, to be due to their mental state (psycological elements).

View full abstract

I have previously surveyed the teaching materials of clothing at the primary, junior and senior high schools. In this thesis, I am going to study them centering on one piece dresses. Without regarding the fashion, there has been a conspicuous trend among adults and younger women to prefer two piece dresses to one piece dresses. Some say that they use one piece dresses for only a short time in the summer; still more say that they have no need of them. As a teaching device in junior high schools, one piece dresses are easy to handle in some ways. I, therefore, wish to determine how the students think about them and use them. I hope this thesis will contribute some data for the management of one piece dresses as a teaching material for junior high schools.

View full abstract

This report was made on the result of the teaching of Naminui (hand sewing) using the long needle in a fifth grade in the elementary school. The result of this study compared with the use of the short needle is as follows : (1) Since using of Yubinuki (sewing ring comparable to a thimble) is easy when sewing with a long needle, children can move their fingers correctly and retrogression does not take place even though they stop their training for a certain time. (2) Children using long needles were able to sew for longer periods of time than those using short needles. The count of Harime (a needle stick into the cloth) was much more than we expected. And also the sewing was less crooked and in looked fine. Eventually, the school children could understand how to sew without so much trouble. Investigating the sewing at home, we found that the Unshin is becoming less important because of the popularity of the sewing machine and the increasing of the ready made clothing. Therefore, to teach them to use the long needle is much better than to teach them to use the short one.

View full abstract

Since the elementary and basic food classes in the fifth and sixth grades of elementary school are restricted to meeting only two or three times a year, it is difficult for the children in these two years to really learn how to cook. However the teachers should study how to gain the best results in these few practice periods. Group study is very important in these classes, for different students can prepare different dishes which may be eaten by others. In this way children can get an idea of many different foods. This article is an appraisal of the effectiveness in group teaching. It analyzes the actual conditions, the specific character of the group and its activities.

View full abstract

In the sixth grade of the elementary school "Fried Eggs" is used as a teaching material in cooking. Since there are many problems concerning individual taste or the way of cooking, I made this study and report in order to find the scientific basis of fried eggs. Keeping the heat very low and constant, if we put the eggs into the frying-pan the temperature of which is about 100〜130℃ at the bottom, without water, and fry them for 3.5〜4.5 minutes with the lid on, the white coagulates thinly and covers the yolk. An egg cooked in this way is pleasant to the taste and easy to digest. On the other hand, if water is added at the same time as the eggs, even if the temperature of the frying-pan at its bottom is high, the eggs will be cooked after 2〜3 minutes and this result is also desirable. The latter way is considered better for the school children because eggs cooked in this way are less likely to scorch. Better results are always obtained with fresh eggs. The survey as to the preference between eggs with light colored yolks or eggs with coagulated white over the yolks showed that there was little difference in the choice of the pupils. However, many adults preferred the latter.

View full abstract

These investigations were made with a view to grasping the actual state of young unmarried women's dresses in a local city of medium size and finding some ways towards better clothing as an important branch of a better mode of life. Utsunomiya City is a typical local city and was taken up as best suited for this purpose. Young women subjected to these investigations were office girls, hospital nurses, department store workers and farming girls, for these four vocations cover the majority of young women in Utsunomiya. The items imvestigated were as follows : 1. Number of dresses possessed per woman (265) (checked by vocational and age group) 2. Numbers of ready-made dresses, dress made to order, and home-made ones. (268) 3. The ratios of the money spent on clothes and on cosmetics to salary. (270) 4. Ways and places of the perchasing of the clothes. (270) 5. Hours spent on different activities of a day such as house-work, office-work, farming-work or commutation. (vocationally classified) (270) (The figures in the parentheses show the number of the answers received.) The result shows : Generally office girls have steady and rational clothing plans, which is the proof that they have received a better education or training in domestic matters and also that they love to make plans for future homes of their own. Shopgirls are very showy in appearance, while hospital nurses excel others in the number of dresses; this may be partly because they are paid higher and prouder of being an independent woman. It seems that farm workers can hardly afford to take care of their dresses probably because they are very busy in their work and because they were brought up in old customs. We hold that the most desirable dresses for young women should be, first of all, neat and fit for their particular working places. This being satisfied, their dresses can be said to be sound or beautiful. No steps towards rational clothing would come to the purpose without this consideration.

View full abstract