Judy's Reviews > The Home-Maker

I'm impressed with DCF -- her thinking was ahead of the times. This was written in the early 1920s, just about 100 years ago, yet much of it still rings true. She had a doctorate in Romance languages from Columbia University which she must have earned not long after the turn of the century, maybe c 1904 (at which time she would have been 25).

About the time this book came out, she wrote an article entitled, 'Marital Relations' which was published in the Los Angeles Examiner. In it, one sentence in particular summarized the pivotal issue in this novel:

We could realize that every human being is different from every other, and hence each couple of human beings is different from every other couple: and, within the limits of possibility and decency we could leave people free to construct the sort of marriage that is best for them.

This story also expresses her ideas about the responsibilities of a parent and the way children learn. She brought the Montessori teaching method to the U.S. and essentially describes the method using an anecdote about 4-year-old Stephen and his experience with an egg beater. The parent doesn't interfere but rather watches as the little boy struggles to coordinate his hands to make it work.

And she tackles the issue of materialism. As she says, ideally children should learn how to create rich, deep, happy lives without great material possessions. But, she declares, that would be considered heresy.

The first several chapters were somewhat of a struggle, but by the end (which had an unexpected twist), I came to appreciate this book and will find a place for it on my shelves.