DINNER IS SERVED

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 156, 19 June 1942, Page 22

DINNER IS SERVED

HEN I was at school I can femember regarding the domestic science class as the highlight of the week, perhaps because, although I was no educational theorist, I recognised it as more tangibly fruitful of result than the time devoted to the more academic subjects. And ever since the day when I drew my first batch of scones from the school oven I have been interested in the teaching of domestic science, When I heard, therefore, that the Kowhai Intermediate School, Auckland, was breaking new ground in the teaching of my favourite subject I rang the headmaster and asked if I might" come round. "Come to lunch," was his reply. He explained that the school had recently been equipped with a model flat, and that here the girls received training in the actual running of a home. A three-course meal was served in the flat every day, and I could judge for myself the suc¢ess or failure of the new domestic science scheme. Training in Social Behaviour I arrived a little early. While we waited for the bell, the headmaster, J. F. Wells, gave me some idea of the part played by the flat in training of the children for "réal life situations." "In running the flat the children are hot learning merely how to cook and serve a meal," he pointed out. "They are also wtting training in social behaviour. From the educational point of view thete’s as much to be learnt from being a guest as there is from being a cook or a hostess." He went on to point out that a thirdform at an intermediate school consists almost entirely of boys and girls who are going Straight on to a job in factory or office, and that in this year as much as possible has to be done to train the pupils to cope with such real life situations. The flat was merely one part of this training. ‘The running of the flat was in the hands of the third form girls, but the boys co-operated by doing some of the outside work and growing vegetables in the school garden. And each day a certain number of guests were ‘invited, members of the staff, fellow pupils, parents, or chance visitors such as myself.

"The trainitig develops two sides of the child’s nature," went on Mr. Wells, "the practical and the social. The girls get experience of all the practical aspects of running a house-cooking, house cleaning, waiting at table, acting as hostess, doing the shopping. Each week eight girls take charge of the flat. They work in four divisions, two hostesses, two waitresses, two cooks, and two maids, and change over each day so that all types of work are covered in the course of the week. "When the gifls are hostesses the flat is theirs for the day, and the others cooperate to make that day successful. The hostesses plan the menu, invite the guests, do the marketing, and arrange the flowers: They also supervise the work of the others. But perhaps the hardest part of their job is to effect introduc. tions at lunch and to keep up the conversation at table, as well as setting an example in table manners. "The waitresses set the table and serve the meal, the cooks do most of the prepatation, and the housemaids clean the flat and wash the dishes, In the afternoon the girls spend part of their time working out the food-value of the dishes served and reckoning up their household accounts." Luncheon is Served At this moment the bell rahg. Mr. Wells escorted me through the playground to the door of the flat. I knocked, The doot was opened by a trim parlourmaid in cap and apron. I wished I had had a card me with. I whispered my name. She preceded me along the hall to the door of the dining room, paused impres‘sively on the threshold, announced "Mrs. -_-_-_!" in ringing tones. The hostess advanced with outstretched hand. There were several other guests already assembled. I was introduced to each. Two, I surmised, were members of the staff, the rest pupils. One guest had not yet atrived. We sat down meanwhile and the two hostesses conversed agreeably. My conversation was sadly ham(Continued on next page)

Intermediate School Pupils Get Training In "Real Life" Situations

(Continued from previous page) pered by the fact that I had forgotten the names of all the people to whom I had been so meticulously introduced by the hostess. My shame was the greater in that everybody else seemed to have remembered mine. I recalled Mr. Wells having told mé¢ that on entering the school each pupil was given an Intelligence Rating, a Dexterity Rating, and a Social Aptitude Rating, and recalled that one of the tests for the social aptitude was an ability to remember

names and faces. The hostesses and the other guests all seemed to have a very high Social Ability Quotient. Table Talk We sat down to dinner. Grace was said, the hostess rang a bell, and the waitresses appeared with the soup. By this time I had regained my conversational feet a little, for by hearing other people addressed I had picked. up two other names which I hoped to be able to work into the conversation somewhere. The hostess at the far end of the table introduced the topic of clothes rationing. I seized the opening. So did several others. I retired abashed. But by this time conversation needed no coddling. We disposed of clothes rationing, started on tea, sugar, wool, the housing shortage. Lightly and briskly the conversational ball bounded from player to player. The solitary male guest concentrated on his soup. By the time the meat came in I felt emboldened to manipulate the conversation for my own ends. I asked about the flat. It had been going almost a year now, I learnt, and was very popular with the children. Other pupils at the schook paid ninepence for lunch, members of the staff a shilling, and this helped to finance the running of the flat. And every Monday morning the pupils who were to be guests at the flat during the week assembled at the table for manners drill. :

"You see the flat isn’t just for the benefit of the girls who run it." explained my hostess, "it’s a training ground for the guests as well." Children Teach Parents "And what do the mothers think about it?" I asked Mr. Wells when I met him after lunch. "Does much of it carry over into the home?" "Yes. I meet several parents of our third form girls who tell me indulgently that they get all the new recipes and methods tried out on them. I’m not so sure about the social side of the business. but even though the girls can’t play hostess at their home tea-table yet, I’m sure that when they have homes of their own they will remember the training they received in the flat here, and that they and their families will therefore be able to live more graciously than they

mignt otherwise have done,"

M.

B.