HOME-MAKING SCHOOL.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] Siu,—My attention has been called to a letter on the Servant Problem in your issue of September 13th, mentioning a training school for girls at Derby, and I think your readers might be interested in a few details of this school. It is certified by Government, is situated two and a half miles out of Derby in lovely country surroundings, and is intended for girls of good moral character, sound health and constitution, who wish to become capable housewives or domestic servants. The whole of the housework is done by the pupils, who are divided into sets, each thus learning the duties of cooks, laundry, scullery, house and parlourmaids, by actually filling these posts themselves. The full course of instruction lasts forty-eight weeks, and the teaching staff consists of four trained teachers who hold first-class diplomas. My Committee had become dissatisfied with that part of their work which claimed to "train" girls, and bad also become convinced of the superficial effect of the many experiments made in various directions to teach home-making by classes for in- struction in laundry, cookery, &c., because training in a residential school is essential ; it enables a girl to conduct the internal management of a household on the best possible principles, whether in her own home or in domestic service. And not only does this residence teach her how the work should be done by practical experience, but also how housekeeping money should be spent, the right way to shop, the value of different kinds of food, &c., each girl in turn being responsible for ordering in and paying for supplies. As well as these advan- tages the country air and good food have a wonderful effect upon the children at that quick-growing age, thirteen to eighteen. The school has now been opened nearly two years, the number of pupils steadily increases, but though we have still too many vacant beds, it appears to the Committee that it is answering the aims for which it was opened, and surely if in olden days (as some appear to think) home duties too much absorbed the thoughts and time of women, in these days it is needful to try and impress on the rising generation that the "purest patriotism is home-making," and that "what her homes are England will Hon. Secretary. Derby and Derbyshire Association for the Help and Protection of Girls. St. Mary's Gate, Derby.
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