222 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 



home-life should do much to create an alert interest in common domestic 

 experiences. Until fourteen years of age the same course of general 

 science is just as useful for girls as for boys ; but later there should in 

 most cases be a different objective. The academic science syllabuses 

 followed with success in boys' schools make little appeal to girls ; to meet 

 this difficulty in Irish secondary schools we substituted a course of 

 Everyday Science, with special emphasis upon domestic experience 

 and hygiene ; while providing a good general foundation, it is less 

 quantitative than the course for boys, and has proved an unqualified 

 success. 



In girls' schools there is need for better correlation between the teaching 

 given in the laboratory and the kitchen ; the subject taught in both is 

 really one and the same, yet too often the science teacher and the teacher 

 of housecrafts ignore the educational existence of each other. I believe 

 we shall not get the best out of either of these aspects of domestic science 

 until both are taught by one and the same person. In classes for adults 

 there is some justification in treating the subject purely as a craft 

 dominated by rules and recipes, but in schools we should direct the 

 instruction towards the development of scientific habits and reasoned 

 action. Less advance in the purpose and methods of instruction has 

 been made in this most adaptable of subjects than in other practical 

 studies. 



Training Schools of Domestic Science. — The remedy lies with the 

 training schools. Training in Domestic Science not only ensures quick 

 and congenial employment but provides the best possible preparation 

 for married life. The leakage from the profession is doubtless great, 

 but we need not regret the cost of training to the State or to the indi- 

 vidual, since it provides for the future homes of the nation intelligent 

 and skilful management combined with an ability to teach. Some 

 training in the art of teaching young children should form part of the 

 equipment of every woman ; it is at least as important as a knowledge of 

 domestic arts and household management, and is an aspect of girls' 

 education which has not yet received serious attention. There can be 

 little doubt that the training schools are accepting students immature 

 both in age and educational attainments, and are in consequence com- 

 pelled to undertake much instruction which could have been given in 

 the secondary school. 



A sound knowledge of general science and considerable experience of 

 the domestic arts should be an essential condition for admission to a 

 training school, which could then devote itself more intensively to pro- 

 fessional training, and so prevent the present tendency to undue prolonga- 

 tion of the training period. The instruction in science should concentrate 

 upon the bearing of scientific method upon teaching and of science upon 

 domestic experience. The preparation of dishes does not supply the 

 most suitable material for practice in the teacher's art, it is too dogmatic ; 

 there should in addition be lessons on science and hygiene argumenta- 

 tively treated. Learned lectures upon subjects beyond the comprehension 

 of the students should be avoided, as they create the feeling that science 

 is an unpractical and ornamental fringe to training. In the kitchen as 



