SCHOOL TEACHERS' VIEW OF COOKING LESSONS.

Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 75, 26 September 1898, Page 2

SCHOOL TEACHERS' VIEW OF COOKING LESSONS.

The following report on the present position of the cooking instruction has been drawn up by the Committee appointed by the Wellington Educational Institute : — ITour Committee was instructed in this report to make clear the position with respect to the introduction of cooking or other such subjects into the schools, and to this end it would like to have the following faots plainly noted. Inspectors, teachers, and all experts are agreed that there is more now in the syllabus than can be done, and to the outbide public even it must be apparent that to give efficient and thorough instruction in 13 subjects in a week of nominally 25 hours, with an absenteeism varying from 10 to 20 or even 30 per cent., is to attempt the impossible. 2. Neither Boards, nor Inspectors, nor teachers have power to make any alteration in the syllabus in the direction of leaving out subjects. Therefore every hour of work spent on any new subject, such as cooking, must be taken from the time of the other ordinary work, which will be just so much the worse done. 3. Girls have now to pass practically the same examination as the boys. It is absurd, therefore, to expect them to take an extra subject. 4. That before the Board attempted to introduce cooking, steps should have been taken to get the syllabus proportionately reduced. 5. It is on these grounds that teachers must feel objection at present to tiie introduction of any new subjects into the schools. It is not the subjects themselves that teaohers object to, but the impossibility of the position. 6. That cooking is taught under the English code is not evidence that it can be taught at present in New Zealand. The two codes are nowise comparable. In conclusion, your Committee wishes it to be understood that in this report it is not advocating, nor is it opposing, the introduction of any new subject proved to be suitable. It im only pointing out the impossibility and harm of attempting to do so under existing conditions'. At the same time it points out the risk of lowering the general standard of education in our schools by experimenting with anything thai may be only a passing popular demand. — (Signed) Clement Watson, Chairman of