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EDITORIAL old that ha! ills! been forgmu-n for a whileiis now being called "education for pri an." I suppose thlS IS. What has commonly been considerctl "cultural education." Presumably it is the sort of education that makes us good company for ourselves, though of course it doesn‘t stop there. Anything that makes us more understanding, more interesting. is bound to rub off a little on the people around us. Certainly it mother's education is pretty sure to reach through to her children. ’ EDUCATION FOR PRIVACYâ€"Something new in educatinnior perhaps it is something How is a woman, tied at home with a young Family. going to continue her education? The most obvrous way, of course, is through books. A mother who had raised .1 most creditable family of thlt'teen children, so amazed me “'llh the breadth of her reading that I asked how she had found time for it, and she said. "I never sat down to rock a baby that I didn‘t have a book tn my hand.” ' Perhaps it is harder in these days with the mam- outside claims on a woman's intereste her own organizations, her children‘s extra»school activities to supervise, the public causes that claim her supportito find time for reading. hut Edna St. Vincent Millay. concerned about the possible fate of a book of her poetry. appealed not to the schools and colleges to save it. but to homekeeping women in their kitchens. She wrote: "Women at your toil. \Vomen at your leisure. Till the kettle boil. Snatch of me your pleasure. \Where the broom straw marks the leaf, Women quiet with your weeping Lest you wake a workman. sleeping. Mix me with your grief ..,I)o not let me die." The mother who reads to her children and reads wit/J them may he absorbing more than she knows for herself. And doesn't a woman often get a bit of vicarious education through helping children with their homework? One woman suggests that the most practical adult education for a mother is to follow her children through school. right up to Grade XIII. (If she can!) Some understanding of art is generally considered good "education for privacy”ian under- standing that helps us, not to be an critics, but to enjoy pictures and through pictures to become more aware of the beauty and interest in the things around us. A mother who wanted her children to see good pictures for this very reason. got inexpensive prints and hung them around the kitchen walls at a child‘s eye level. Among them was the Avenue at Beauharnois. the well- known "Avenue of Trees." And the mother knew she had accomplished her purpose when her little girl came running in from school and said "Why Mother, the trees on our road meet inst like that." A catalogue of prints of great pictures can be had from the National Art Gallery: and the study kit on "Canadian Art and Artists" can be borrowad from our Extension Service Loan Library by anyone interested. This kit was compiled for individuals as well as for groups. In music, what about the women who were accomplished musicians before they were married and who dropped their music just when it could have been giving pleasure to the” families; and when it could have provided a needed interest and outler for themselves. an "education for privacy"? I think of a woman in an old-fashioned farmhouSe years ago who. every winter. had the parlor organ moved out to the big kitchen where it was always warm. so that she could have a bit of music with the familyâ€"0r by herselfâ€"whenever she had a few spare minutes. “'5 amazing how much of Canada's culture has come out of its kitchens; how" many busy homekeeping women have a hunger for more learning. In our last ISSUE-We discussed the Women‘s Institute as an educational organizationâ€"education for homemakmg, education for 85119111 knowledge, education through social service. The Institute'wnh a wellrplanned pro- gramme Can give a lot of encouragement to "education for privacy, mo. fizz/W WINTER 1959