fourth floor feminism | sociable speculation

This is a beautiful collection of correspondence surrounding the article my Nan wrote in 1963 for the Journal of Agriculture's Farm and Home section, which you can read below. I feel the letters speak for themselves! THE LITTLE ONES AT HOME by Johanna Bowen Journal of Agriculture, Farm and Home Many adults look upon the play of the tiny child as merely a way of passing the time and of keeping him out of the way between meals and bed. To the little one, however, playing is living. It is all-important and very, very real. Above all it is the beginning of the child’s education. Correspondence between Alwyn and Johanna All thanks to my fabulous Aunt Felicity for her discovery of the correspondence to do with the article, and transcribing all the letters. COPY of handwritten letter “ASHBY” Gingin Sept, 30th [1963] Dear Mrs Bowen, Thank you for your letter (of last October!) to the “Journal of Agriculture” with ideas for the “Farm and Home” section. As you say, there are...

This article, written by my Nan, was published by Department of Agriculture WA’s Journal of Agriculture in July 1964 for the “Farm and Home” series. My Nan trained as a Kindergarten Teacher in the very early days of Kindergarten in WA and at the age of 23 she was in charge of a cutting-edge Kindergarten in North Perth. In an interesting side note, she was also a Voice Actor for the radio plays on the ABC during that time; my Nan is way cool, and a person who always brings out imagination and stories from the people she meets. As with her writing on Women’s Liberation , I find this article fascinating for its practical love and respect for children and their play, and the respect for the incredibly important educational role of parents in the home with young children. As is consistent with the way I was brought up, this educational role is about the parent being the educator and guide, not simply the provider of education from other people and sources. My Mum and her mother...

My Nan and Papa were great storytellers and their children are preserving their writing and sending it out to their grandchildren to read. Mostly the stories are anecdotes from real life and stories told to their children. This piece of writing from my Nan about Women’s Liberation was a surprise inclusion, but I was particularly glad to read it, because it was a testimony to the daily hard work, from my grandmother’s generation onward, of women intent on social and political reform. If you want to see exactly how my Nan embodied the ideas in the writing below when imparting her own practical advice for women educating children in the home, here is her article for the Journal of Agriculture . Even more interesting is the correspondence between my Nan and Mrs Alwyn Scott of the Journal of Agriculture . These thoughts on Women's Liberation also show that while extraordinary strides have been made in attitudes towards women since my Nan wrote this piece, there is still a long w...