Yorkshire Boys Learn To Sew

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32384, 25 August 1970, Page 2

Yorkshire Boys Learn To Sew

(Bv CAROLS LYDERSI LONDON. Up in Yorkshire, men are not supposed to know what a bottle of washing-up liquid looks like and if given a tea towel use it as a napkin. But a tiny chink has appeared in the masculine armour at a co-ed school in Leeds. There, the boys are learning cooking, darning, sewing, and ironing and, what is more, are thoroughly enjoying their efforts at homemaking. The headmaster, Mr Oliver Smith, said: “I believe schools should prepare pupils for life in general, not only for a career, and marriage is a very important part of life.”

As well as the more domesticated skills, he has introduced classes on buying or renting a house and raising a mortgage. He sees that his pupils learn how to spend money wisely, how to rave, and how to invest. Their trips out of school

include visits to housing estates, and to furniture stores, where they compare design and value for money. Recently, the achool set aside an area for the pupils to convert into a flat. They bought and renovated old furniture, chose their own colour schemes, and then set to work on the decorating. Each week, a different group takes over the running of the flat and the cleaning of every room from kitchen to lavatory. They are allowed to entertain relatives to teashopping for the menu gives them practice in balancing the budget But the programme is not one-sided. The girls get lessons with the boys in woodwork and metal work, so that each sex is equally at home in what have been the traditional tasks of the other. Certainly, with so many wives working after marriage—in Britain they have to if ends are going to meet—it is time that more schools followed suit.