ly it to the education of the prospective
homemaker.

Take the one question of the "installment plan." Where, if not in the
public school, can we fight the menace offered to the inexperienced
young people of the land by this method of doing business? And where
in the public school if not in the arithmetic class? Consider the
possibility of lives spent in paying for shoes and hats already worn
out, of furniture double-priced because payment is to be on the "easy
plan," of families always in debt, with wages mortgaged for months in
advance. The pure science of mathematics will be of little avail in
fighting this possibility, but "applied arithmetic" can be a most
effective weapon.

In our geography classes we may find time for the study of food and
clothing products, of their sources, their comparative usefulness, and
their cost. We may learn whether it is best to buy American-made
macaroni or the imported variety; whether French silks and gloves are
superior to those made in America; what "shoddy" is, what we may
expect from it if we buy it, how much it is worth in comparison with
long-wool fabrics, how to know whether shoddy is being offered us when
we buy. Countless other matters concerning the markets and products of
the world will repay the same sort of treatment.

[Illustration: One of the class exercises in the model school home
shown on page 115]

[Illustration: The correct serving of meals forms part of the class
work in this same home]

Food questions are opened up by study of our meat, vegetable, and
fruit supply. Every town may make this a personal and immediate
problem. From whom did Mr. Blank, the local grocer, obtain his canned
tomatoes? It is sometimes possible to follow up those canned tomatoes
to their source. In one investigation of this sort they were found to
have passed through six hands. The arithmetic class may pass upon the
question of profits and comparative cost between this and the
"producer-to-consumer" method.

The art work of the schools may also contribute generously to the body
of homemaking knowledge. For the average girl the designing and making
of Christmas cards and book covers, or even the prolonged study of
great paintings, is a less productive use of time than the designing
of cushion covers, curtains, bureau scarfs, or candle shades. In a
certain town in New England considerable effort was expended in
bringing about the introduction of art work in the schools a few years
a