No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 159 



training and domestic science. The girls should learn carpentry and 

 the boys cookery. VN'hile these lessons are in progress, the arithme- 

 tic lessons may be in the line of household accounts and the meas- 

 urements of the grocery and the workshop. Each of the home 

 sciences must, for the younger pupils, be reduced to its lowest terms. 

 It is quite possible to teach the fundamental principles of cookery 

 in a dozen lessons, and so long as we must eat, every boy and girl 

 should be taught how to select and prepare simple foods. 



Among the different branches of domestic science, the fact that 

 cookery is so closely related to individual and social welfare, nat- 

 urally throws into prominence its directly practical side. From the 

 educational point of view, which takes into account all the pupil's 

 relations in life, the claims of cookery to a place in our school cur- 

 riculum is stronger still. As a means of giving opportunity for the 

 practical application of principles already set forth, as a form of 

 labor requiring concentrated attention, forethought and planning, 

 as well as deftness of execution^ and for linking together all the 

 other studies pursued, there is nothing equal to cookery. Its advant- 

 age, as hand and brain work combined, it shares with all the other 

 forms of domestic science; but inasmuch as it gives gentle and 

 healthful exercise, it is better than sewing or drawing, the two forms 

 of hand-work most often taught to girls. 



Three different methods of teaching cooking are in use: The demon- 

 stration method in which the teacher, with or without the assistance 

 of the pupils, does the work which the pupils observe and are ex- 

 pected to practice at home; the group method in which several pupils 

 combine to prepare a single dish, and the individual method in which 

 each pupil prepares a dish, using small quantities of material. A 

 combination of the three will be found best suited to public school 

 conditions, giving the preference to individual work whenever the 

 nature of the material and the size of the class permits. 



The lower the grade into which- the branches of domestic science 

 are introduced, the greater the number of children benefited thereby. 

 This is one argument among the many which might be offered for 

 inaugurating the reforms in the lower grades wherever possible. 

 The oijposite course is that which was at first adopted, putting do- 

 mestic science in the highest grades. From this it is gradually work- 

 ing down and the scheme of education will not be at its best, until 

 this work is begun in the kindergarten by changing it more or less 

 to a kitchen garden, such as Emily Huntingdon has introduced so 

 successfully into the New York schools, and which she calls "a sys- 

 tem of teaching little children the rudiments of housework in a 

 bright and cheerful way." 



In some of the largest cities, hand-work can be carried through all 

 the grades of the schools. If in the smaller towns it is not intro 

 duced into the lowest grades, it should not be delayed beyond the 



