HOME SCIENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 June 1922, Page 6

HOME SCIENCE.

WHAT CHILDREN ARE TAUGHT. One of the compulsory subjects for girls in the secondary schools is “Home Science.” But this subject, it appears, has no particular relation to the home, and the secondary school teachers -are asking that it should cease to" be compulsory. They placed the matter before the Minister for Education on Wednesday. The teachers explained to the Minister that home science as defined in the syllabus was a subject of very little practicable value. It was purely theoretical. It embraced such subjects as /‘the relative density of solids, liquids and gases,” and Boyle’s Law of the elasticity of gases. “There are many girls on whom this theoretical training is absolutely wasted,” said a teacher. “A great deal of the home science syllabus has nothing to do with good and very little to do with the home except in the most indirect fashion.” The Minister for Education: Who prepared the syllabus ? Mr. T. R. Cresswell: The University people. They seem to have prepared most of the courses for the secondary schools. Miss Coad: The subjects are not connected with the work of the home and they cannot be grasped by many of the girls. Yet this home science is compulsory and the practical work of home training is an optional subject. The Minister for Education expressed surprise at the position and Mid that he would look into it.