nity from the eugenic or
economic standpoint. According to the report of the Commissioner of
Education of the United States the percentage of pupils studying some of
the more important subjects in the year 1909-1910 is stated as follows:[30]

Latin, French and German 83 per cent.
Algebra and Geometry 88 " "
English Literature 57 " "
Rhetoric 57 " "
History 55 " "
Domestic Economy,--including
sewing, cooking and household
economies 4 " "
If only barely four per cent. of the girls in our high schools are studying
subjects which directly contribute to their efficiency as home-makers, what
are the prospects for worthy parenthood in the light of the fact that
seventy-five per cent. of all women between the ages of twenty and
twenty-four are married?

The function of the high school, so far as girls are concerned, is to
conserve health, to train for domestic efficiency and motherhood, and if
necessary for economic independence. It must also furnish the stimulus for
mental culture and direct a proper aspiration for social enlightenment. The
curriculum should include biology, hygiene, psychology, home beautifying,
the story-telling side of literature, music and a few other studies tending
to make woman more like woman than she is to-day. When we have this,
teaching for mothercraft will be more nearly realized.

From the eugenic standpoint the present system of education is not
satisfactory. To attain our end it is essential to devise other means of
education. It must be remembered, however, that no system of education
alone can ever enable us to achieve our end, no matter how perfect the
system may be. Education can only draw out what is in the child; it cannot
draw out what is not there. What the child is, depends upon its heredity.
The pedagogic ability of the school-master will never make a genius.

A child's mind may be likened to a block puzzle, each block representing a
part of a picture, which can only be completed when they are all arranged
in their correct places. Each block is an ancestral legacy,--the child's
heritage--and to find its proper place in order to complete the [31]
character picture--to solve the riddle of the jumbled blocks,--is the duty
of the educator. He can only manipulate what is there, and the test of his
system will depend upon his ability to solve the puzzle