COMMON THINGS.
ltiss Rriumrr Corrrrs has followed up the example of Lord A,shburton hi the endeavour to promote what may be called direct instruction in the proper business of life, the teaching of " com- mon things "; and we may promise ourselves great.results from this small beginning. In June last year, Miss Burdett Coutts offered- 501. to be divided into three sets of prizes,—to school- mistresses in schools connected with the Church of. England who have pupil-teachers apprenticed to them, one .prize of 51., four prizes of 41., and five of 3/. each; to the pupils in the. Whitelanda Training Institution ten prizes of 1/. each; • and to the female pupil-teachers schools connected with the Church of England, apprenticed in the county of Middlesex, under certain conditions, eight prizes of 10s. each. The prizes were not great in amount ; but it is evident that young women in humble life would find them valuable additions to the fund for clothing or other useful purposes ; and it would be felt that success in attaining the prize from Miss Burdett Coats, under- such circumstances, would be a great guarantee for future success in life. A paper was prepared showing the candidates the subjects on which they were to be examined; the answers to be given partly in writing. The subjects were—food, its price, qualities, and preparation ; clothing, its materials •and making ; household arrangements with respect to the preservation or restoration of health ; the duties el servants; the management of children.; the manage- ment of the sick. These ware supposed to be the subjects that would particularly form the duties of women in domestic life ; the philanthropic) lady's chief object being.to increase that part of school-tuition which would render the pupils." femininsand do- mestic," and would enable the teachers to form guides and ex- amples for that admirable purpose. Nor did Miss Burdett Coutts limit herself to the offering of money and the drawing-up of papers: she went to the several sehools where the pupil-teachers were at work, examined the schools under the schoolmistresses, and formed her judgment on the distribution of the prizes from her own observation as well as from the replies of the candidates. The result was, that the five-pounds prize was withheld-- partly because none of the competitors aimed, at it—partly beeause the subject for which it was to be given, the -proper method of teaching -common things, does-not appear "to have attracted atten- tion, not having been put forward properly among the subjects . encouraged by the Committee of Council on Education. The exa- minations took place on the 14th of this month, at the Whitelands Training. Institution ; where the candidates passed the day in their exercises, and finished it at tea with Miss Burdett Coutts:; the great heiress and a Countess sharing the meal with-their humble
protegAes. - - All this is excellent.. Miss Burdett Coutts-has lent her means and her social influence to promote a part of education hitherto neglected, but henceforward to be recognized as one of paramount importance. The want of it is shown in the replies of the candi- dates, parts of which have been published in a small volume which has been sent to us by Archdeacon Sinclair. These pas- sages exhibit a capacity for writing which certainly could not have been expected from the same class ten years ago. The de- ficiency which most strikes us is a. manifest want of searching or detailed possession of some of the commonest knowledge that would be required from the domestic managers of a working man's home. Let us take two examples. Comparatively few of the candidates grapple closely, in detail, with the subject of clothing. One of the best under this head. is Catherine Elizabeth M'Intyre ; who appears to possess a sharp in- sight into the relative usefulness, durability, and healthfulness of different materials, though her description_ is brief and scanty to the extreme of meagreness. In the passages given from the other candidates, the replies are still more meagre, though the writing still shows intelligence. But the teaching of common things " un- der this head would give to teachers, and through them-to the mane^ gers of the working man's home, such .a knowledge of the ma- terials of dress, their origin, qualities, and price—the eause of higher and lower prices, of greater or less healthfulness and dura- bility, with the different modes of manufacture, and, the. different fashions of make—as would enable her to select the best materials for her purchase with reference to a far-seeing economy, to health, to convenience in working. This knowledge might teach the women how to buy the materials and make the garments ; or it might perchance teach them that it would better economy to devote their tune to some kind of employment at which practice would render them expert, while it would enable them to judge of the
materials in purchasing, and then of the make under the hands of the artisan. The mistress of the-working man's house-might save money otherwise expended in clothing, in wear and tear, in sick- - ness, and in many other ways, if she knew the reasons for her choice in the under-clothing of her husband. and the clothing of
her children and herself. How few women do this ! How cone,
monly they are at the mercy of the slop-shop or. of the second,. hand clothes-shop; purchasing their things entirely by the tariff
of price ! And we must confess that the extracts from- the essays of the pupil-toachers- do not show that they are masters of the subject, and able to beeither examples or.-tutors..
Cooking.is an art still more necessarily domestic,. and:still more practical and tangible in its treatment The French housewife
has, by empirical rules, an. art of using up all the. materials
which she can purchase • at the butcher's, the green-grocer's, or the grocer's in such a way that not. a Particle will be wasted ;
while she will lay out less money than an_ Englishwoman of her own class. The French housewife has been taught more of the art of cooking. In this country we have a much greater com- mand of materials, and our working classes receive generally higher wages ; but -from a want of knowledge they waste their materials, and do not satisfy either palate or stomach.. The sub- ject is handled in these " Lessons on Common Things" by the teachers and pupil-teachers, who give a few- general rules—for the making of a. four-pound loaf, the choice of different grains, the preference of boiling over Teas • or frying : but the remarks are too general, or they are too -mi of the _nature of partial re- cipes. We cannot judge decisively from little extracts out of small essays hastily composed in reply to questions, _but the man- ner of presenting these fragments of replies is such as tsraake us believe that the writers have-neither a comprehensive nor a detailed knowledge of the subject. It is not enough to know " the best joints " out of beef; but.the teacher of the working man's cook ought
to know the mode of -using every part of an ox, from the cheek to the tail, from the ear to the hoof; ought -to know, all the vegeta- bles, their season, qualities, price, mode of cooking their corn- binations, and the proper markets for them, so that she should be able every day in, the year to know all the dishes that can be prepared—which is cheapest, which is most esteemed—which best
for a man out of work.to save his purse, which best for the man in work to keep up his strength. Independently of the saving or
of the economical nutriment to, be got out of the. dish, there is something. also in the-satisfaction of the palate; in-short, the cook who understands her science and. art, has in her hands saving, health, and the comfort of the tlaily meal._
Whether under the Committee of Education or: not, the. curri- culum.of education for the working classes, male or female, will be incomplete until we.have professors who can give detailed as well as theoretical instruction upon these branches of a_ practical education,
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