160 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE " Off. Doc. 



seventh grade. It is a common error to give such instruction to the 

 high school girls rather than to the younger grades. As has already 

 been stated, the lower the grade the greater the number of children 

 benefited, as many children leave school at the end of the seventh 

 or eighth grades. But there are other and weightier reasons. As a 

 little girl is delighted to try experiments she has seen grown people 

 perform, she is more ready to follow the teacher's directions because 

 she has not formed decided views of her own. There is also the 

 chance that she is not yet bound to the American idea, that if an 

 article is cheap it cannot possibly be good and, therefore, she may 

 be taught to make savory dishes at small expense. A girl of sixteen 

 is strongly prejudiced in favor of the method to which she has been 

 accustomed at home and will not readily try anything new. Boys 

 are easier to teach because they know less of wrong housekeeping. 



What has already been accomplished in the various cities of the 

 United States, is the strongest argument possible for a wider disper- 

 sion of the same methods. These good results are the more re- 

 markable, in the light of the few years since domestic science was 

 introduced into the public schools. In the fall of 1885, cookery was 

 made a part of the course in the grammar schools of Boston. In 

 1890, attendance was made compulsory for every girl in the seventh 

 grade. Now over a hundred cooking classes, containing fifteen to 

 thirty-six pupils each, are maintained in connection with the public 

 schools of Boston. Cookery has formed a part of the regular course 

 of study in Philadelphia since 1890. Brooklyn, N. Y., has in its pub- 

 lic schools a course extending over four years. Yonkers, N. Y., or- 

 ganized this department in 1892. Since 1892, cookery has been 

 taught in the public schools of Minneapolis, and with such success 

 that one member of the school board said recently that "now 'they 

 could give up almost any branch easier than their cooking classes." 

 In this city the girls range from eleven to eighteen years of age and 

 come from the seventh and eighth grades. The course of lessons 

 is made as practical as possible; "much attention is paid to the 

 chemistry of cookery and the aim is to teach the pupils to prepare 

 nutritious foods in an economical and attractive manner." What 

 is true of this school is true of them all and they are now widely 

 scattered from the east to the west and from north to south. 



As to the cost of maintaining this department, the incidental ex- 

 penses are much less than one would expect. In one school where 

 150 girls received twenty lessons in practical cooking and kitchen 

 work, just 142.50 was expended and a quarter of this was for fuel. 

 In another school it cost only two dollars per pupil to give a large 

 class of girls one lesson a week for the entire school year. 



The desire for this class of instruction and the appreciation of its 

 worth has not yet reached the stage where it is demanded by the 

 smaller towns. This much-to-be-desired condition can be reached 



