This sounds like something straight out of a sci-fi movie but this occurred at "all sorts of colleges" across the U.S from the early 1900's until 1969.
From Cornell University...
Beginning in the early 1900s, collegiate home economics programs across the nation included "practice house" programs designed to help female students learn "mothercraft," the scientific art of childrearing. At Cornell each semester, eight women students lived with a resident advisor in the "practice apartment," where they took turns performing a full range of homemaking activities in a scientific and cost-efficient manner.
In 1919, the first practice baby, named Dicky Domecon for "domestic economy," came to Cornell. Cornell secured infants through area orphanages and child welfare associations. Babies were nurtured by the students according to strict schedules and guidelines, and after a year, they were available for adoption. Prospective adoptive parents in this era desired Domecon babies because they had been raised according to the most up-to-date scientific principles.
By 1969 practice apartments were dropped from the Cornell curriculum.
More from NPR...
1 comment:
I don't know whether to laugh or shake my head...although, women "and" men can stand to have more education on child care and rearing.
I remember my first experiences holding other people's babies. Those practice babies obviously had angels on duty protecting them.
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