PRACTICAL COOKERY IN GIRL’S SCHOOLS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5237, 5 January 1878, Page 2 (Supplement)

PRACTICAL COOKERY IN GIRL’S SCHOOLS.

The School Boards of Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee, and other towns in Scotland, have recently had under their consideration the necessity for practical instruction in cookery in girls’ schools. Taking advantage of Mr, Buohir aster’s visit on other business, the School Board of Aberdeen convened a meeting for the purpose of hearing his views bn the subject. Mr. Buckrnaster said he had over and over again urged the necessity for real practical cookery. Demonstrative lessons were no doubt useful in awakening an interest and giving useful hints ; but to stop there was to fail in the true purpose and object of the teaching. The public interest in lectures and demonstration was fast passing away, and all attempts to get at the wives of working men and girls who had left school had in most cases been a failure. Neither a penny lesson nor a free admission would induce them to attend. What female teachers might do, and ought to do, as preparatory to this practical work, was to give short object lessons on food, hygiene, and physiology, with such experiments or illustrations as were within the capacity of the children. Mr. Buckrnaster recommended practice kitchens in connection with girls’ schools. In these kitchens, which he said were to ho in,the form of a parallelogram, each girl was to have Cl sijuaro feet, and eacli kitchen was to have twelve fireplaces—six on eacli side of the room—such as the girls had in their own homes. There was to he a small dresser and table, with two or three saucepans and plates ; and from the lighting of the fire to the placing of whatever had been cooked on a table, as if for a meal, and washing up was to bo done by each girl. Ho had fixed the number at twelve, because no teacher could superintend the practical instruction of a larger number. Thu cooking was to be par excellence the cooking of the worlcing classes in the places where these school kitchens were established. Ho found in one place fish largely consumed, iu another broth, in another pig’s fry, in another bacon ; and although many things were common, these specialities must bo considered. ’ The food cooked could always bo sold at a cost to cover the materials. These school kitchens were to he open like an ordinary school—twelve girls in the morning and twelve in the afternoon. A less time for prac-

tical work was of no value. Each girl would require fifty hours’ instruction, in twenty-five lessons of two hours’ duration. In such a kitchen 120 girls would be taught weekly, and about 220 would annually pass through the school practice kitchen. The fire-place, dresser, table, and appliances could be provided, in Scotland, for £5 a , girl. And the annual coat of such a school, including the salary of the teacher, would be £1 a girl. It was for them to consider whether this instruction in its relation to the after life of tho girls was worth a pound. School boards if they thought proper could erect school kitchens, and engage the services of a competent teacher; but in places where there were no school hoards—and there were many such places in England—tho difficulty would be greater. It was no part of bis business to indicate how the money was to be raised. There ought to he no difficulty if the object was sufficiently worthy.