From Woody's Couch

OSU could never be called an orphans’ home, but it did once include a program through the Department of Home Economics that focused on the care of orphaned babies.

The Home Management House, run by the Department of Home Economics, was established to teach young women how to run an efficient home and life skills, such as finances, nutrition, and child care. At first these courses were mandatory for all senior women, in place of cadet training required of male students.

Eventually, this requirement was dropped, and the Department of Home Economics established an apartment, and then a house, in which these practical experiences could be taught. The house moved to several locations; its last site was the Alumni Scholarship House on 11^th Avenue near Canfield Hall.

These practical experiences included the care of real children: In the early days (1918-1920s), the department ran a nursery school on weekdays and at large events on campus, such as agricultural fairs. Many students also were sent to help out at the homes of married students or graduates of the department who had young children.

During the 1930s, as at many colleges across the country, OSU’s Home Management House introduced a program in which young women could learn mothering skills using a “practice baby.” At that time, groups of young women lived in the Home Management House for half a quarter as part of the coursework for all Home Economics majors.

Every few days, each resident rotated duties: cook, assistant cook, laundress, household manager, and “baby director.” So, for about a week each quarter, students had to change diapers and provide everything else the baby needed. The babies apparently came to the House when they were about three months old and were returned to the adoption agency when they were a year old, to be put in foster care or to be adopted.

The practice of having students take care of practice babies was discontinued sometime around 1958 at which time babies belonging to OSU students were dropped off during the day, as a sort of day care center.

Learn more:

“Coeds In Management House Provide Cozy Home And Family For Orphan Babies” The Lantern, August 21, 1947

“What Were Practice Apartments?” Cornell University Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections 

“‘Practice babies’: An Outdated Practice, Rediscovered” NPR, January 6, 2011

“A Controversy at Eastern Illinois State Teacher’s College” Eastern Illinois University

Filed by C.N.