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Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students
True, there is some excuse for young women not choosing house-
work for an employment because those who hire kitchen girls gener-
ally treat them as servants. Frequently the employers do not respect
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them, but treat them as if they were unworthy to be members of the
family. They do not give them the privileges they give the seamstress,
the copyist, and the teacher of music.
But there can be no employment more important than that of
housework. To cook well, to place wholesome food upon the table
in an inviting manner, requires intelligence and experience. The
one who prepares the food that is to be placed in the stomach,
to be converted into blood to nourish the system, occupies a most
important and elevated position. The position of copyist, dressmaker,
or music teacher cannot equal in importance that of the cook.
A Reformatory Work
Time is too short now to accomplish that which might have been
done in past generations; but we can do much, even in these last
days, to correct the existing evils in the education of youth....
We are reformers. We desire that our children should study to
the best advantage. In order that they may do this, employment
should be given them which will call the muscles into exercise.
Daily systematic labor should constitute a part of the education
of the youth, even at this late period. Much can now be gained
by connecting labor with our schools. In following this plan the
students will realize elasticity of spirit and vigor of thought, and
will be able to accomplish more mental labor in a given time than
they could be study alone. And they can leave school with their
constitutions unimpaired and with strength and courage to persevere
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in any position in which the providence of God may place them.
Because time is short, we should work with diligence and double
energy. Our children may never enter college, but they can obtain
an education in those essential branches which they can turn to a
practical use, and which will give culture to the mind and call its
powers into exercise. Very many youth who have gone through a
college course have not obtained that true education that they can
put to practical use.—
Testimonies for the Church 3:148-159
.