This exaggeration of the function of education expressed by the word multiplicity deserves a little consideration, for it would appear that our educationists overlook the fact that the organism with which they have to deal is going through the most critical period of its existence. At the very time that children are rapidly undergoing the process of physical development, there is superadded the acquirement of elaborate mental knowledge, and when bone and muscle and sinew are in the active processes of transformation and growth, then it is that the intellectual faculties are spurred on at a killing pace. The child leaves school in the afternoon with a load of home lessons to be prepared for the following day. The very meaning of the word school has become distorted ; instead of being a medium for imparting instruction, it threatens to become merely a building in which the lessons learned at home S. 1003. G 98 THE ART OF LIVING IN AUSTRALIA. overnight are heard, and besides this, if the school is thus to become simply a place for hearing lessons, the office of schoolmaster must correspondingly suffer. This. I hope will never be, for it would at once take away all personality from the teacher, and transmute him into a mere auditory machine. His individuality would become lost in the official, and teaching as teaching resolve itself into a stereotyped function ; and this latter consideration leads me to remark that one man has the gift of impart- ing knowledge, in which another fails entirely. One instructor has a way of putting things so that they are retained in the memory of his pupils for ever, while another so fails to express himself that not one clear idea is carried away by his hearers. The chief pui-pose of education should be the prepara- tion of the young for thek adult life. As Agesilaus the Great observed when one asked him what boys should learn : " That," said he, " which they shall use when men." But the futm*e of the two sexes diffei-s entirely after school life is over. It will follow, therefore, that there should be an essential difference between the educa- tion required for the boy and that for the girl. In our present day system of education, however, there is too much a disposition to make no such distinction. The boy in the greater number of cases is the bread-winner, and has to rely on his own exertions, whether they be manual or mental. The gui, on the other hand, looks forward to the destiny of housewife. This aspect of the educational problem certainly deserves to have more atten- tion paid to it than it has yet received. StiU a step in the right direction has been made by James Piatt, the author of many valuable works on currency, finance, &c., who advocates that business habits and kindred matters should be taught to all youths. Of course it is not SCHOOL COOKEBY-INFLUENCE ON DAILY LIFE. 99 intended that the sole object of education should be the principles of money making, but at the same time there is a considerable amount of truth in his contention. But the chief purpose I have in view is to advocate a thorough and systematic teaching of Cookery to girls. In the re- maining part of this chapter, therefore, I shall endeavour to bring forward reasons in support of my proposition. COOKERY INSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND, NEW SOUTH WALES, AND VICTORIA.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

This exaggeration of the function of education expressed by the word multiplicity deserves a little consideration, for it would appear that our educationists overlook the fact that the organism with which they have to deal is going through the most critical period of its existence. At the very time that children are rapidly undergoing the process of physical development, there is superadded the acquirement of elaborate mental knowledge, and when bone and muscle and sinew are in the active processes of transformation and growth, then it is that the intellectual faculties are spurred on at a killing pace. The child leaves school in the afternoon with a load of home lessons to be prepared for the following day. The very meaning of the word school has become distorted ; instead of being a medium for imparting instruction, it threatens to become merely a building in which the lessons learned at home S. 1003. G overnight are heard, and besides this, if the school is thus to become simply a place for hearing lessons, the office of schoolmaster must correspondingly suffer. This. I hope will never be, for it would at once take away all personality from the teacher, and transmute him into a mere auditory machine. His individuality would become lost in the official, and teaching as teaching resolve itself into a stereotyped function ; and this latter consideration leads me to remark that one man has the gift of imparting knowledge, in which another fails entirely. One instructor has a way of putting things so that they are retained in the memory of his pupils for ever, while another so fails to express himself that not one clear idea is carried away by his hearers. The chief purpose of education should be the preparation of the young for their adult life. As Agesilaus the Great observed when one asked him what boys should learn : " That," said he, " which they shall use when men." But the future of the two sexes differs entirely after school life is over. It will follow, therefore, that there should be an essential difference between the education required for the boy and that for the girl. In our present day system of education, however, there is too much a disposition to make no such distinction. The boy in the greater number of cases is the bread-winner, and has to rely on his own exertions, whether they be manual or mental. The girl, on the other hand, looks forward to the destiny of housewife. This aspect of the educational problem certainly deserves to have more attention paid to it than it has yet received. StiU a step in the right direction has been made by James Piatt, the author of many valuable works on currency, finance, &c., who advocates that business habits and kindred matters should be taught to all youths. Of course it is not intended that the sole object of education should be the principles of money making, but at the same time there is a considerable amount of truth in his contention. But the chief purpose I have in view is to advocate a thorough and systematic teaching of Cookery to girls. In the remaining part of this chapter, therefore, I shall endeavour to bring forward reasons in support of my proposition. COOKERY INSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND, NEW SOUTH WALES, AND VICTORIA.

The art of living in Australia