SYDNEY LEADS THE WAY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 974, 15 November 1910, Page 9

SYDNEY LEADS THE WAY.

■ domestic science. The announcement mode by tlio Minister for Public Instruction recently that special training in domestic economy and hygiene, is to bo provided for our girls, says the "Sydney Morning Herald," has given fresh hope to the women who have been working so hard and 60 long for a .Domestic College; and the news that it is proposed to make a special grant this year for the purpose promises the establishment of the college within the not-too-distant future. I There is only one way of adequately I teaching school girls the domestic arts, j and that is by establishing a collego of I domostic science, where sufficient teacli--1 ers can be trained to supply all the ! schools iu the State. The long asked-for Domestic College is not intended to be merely a'place for training domestic servants, as some people seem to imagino. Certainly .it is proposed to have separate courses for those who cannot spare the time for the full training, and it is hoped that many women—domestic servants and others—will take advantage of these opportunities. But the chief object of the college is to prepare teachers to go into the schools and teach, littlo girls the

rudiments of housekeeping and homemaking. It is not enough to have a dozen or so teachers giving lessons here and thcro in cooking and cleaning—as we have at present—for under this system it is inevitable that many, girls never get an opportunity to learn the household arts. If our girls are all to have their chance of becoming good housewives, the only way is for housewifery to be taught in every school in the lana, and to form as important a part of the-curriculum as Knglishor arithmetic. ■ ' . The objection has been Taised that home is the place where girls should learn tho household arts, 'and that their school hours should bo spent more profitably. Undoubtedly home is the place; and the ideal way for a girl to learn housewifery is in her mother's kitchen. But, unfortunately, the rank and file of mothers are incapable of instructing their daughters in an art which they themselves have never really mastered; they manage to get along, more or less successfully; but, . generally, they • liave had to buy their exeprience by many failures, and have little or no idea of the reason why certain things should be done in certain ways. . ■ . Unfortunately, too, there are many girls who leave the schoolroom to go straight into the workroom, and their chances of learning the housewifery arts are few and far Between. For the majority of Australian .mothers. are almost. too considerate of their daughters, and when a girl is at school or going to work she takes very little share in the housework. No one would wish to sec a young girl spend all her hours between the school or shop and the kitchon; but there are manv lit-

Unfortunately, too, there are many girls who leave the schoolroom to go straight into the workroom, and their chances of learning the housewifery arts are few and far Between. For the majority of Australian .mothers. are almost. too considerate of their daughters, and when a girl is at school or going to work she takes very little share in the housework. No one would wish to sec a young girl spend all her hours between the school or shop and the kitchon; but there are many little'duties a girl might perform before leaving home, in the morning, which would give her healthy exerciso, and at the same time develop her housewifery instinct. . But the majority of mothers prefer to do these things themselves rather ; than run tho risk of over-tiring their daughters. Bo the girl who leaves school to enter a shop or office gets practically no chance of learning the most fominine of arts, unless she has iiad some domestic training at school. ■ How important it is, both to the individual and the nation, that.she eliould have such training, is being more generally recognised. every day. , Tho health and happiness of tho community depend on the power of its women to make homes, and as house-' keepers andi cooks are not born ready made, one of tho first duties of tho educationists i 6 to train them.