to put children in the way of temptation if you can
avoid it ; but if by any chance you do find it gone, spare
no effort to bring the offender to confess. A teacher
may often lose more of her money than she can well
afford, but also be sadly on the wrong side in her
weekly bills, unless she is very careful. Of course, this
is only common in very low neighbourhoods, and then
she must always face the probability that in her class
she has some professional thieves ; but it is not unknown
in the best schools, as any head teacher will witness.
It is better to sell at a loss than not to sell at all,
and a very ingenious idea has lately been suggested by
one whose experience and work in South London has
been of inestimable service to all domestic economy
teaching. She suggests that food enough to make up
a dinner for four or six should be sold at a certain price
at 12 o’clock, and that this should be ordered before
the lesson and paid for. She finds that mothers whom
hard necessity compels to go to work are glad to
think that their little ones will have a hot dinner even
if she is out. Another arrangement found satisfactory
is the use of the food cooked in the centres in providing
cheap meals at school for children.
The willingness and anxiety of the poor to buy good
food at a cheap rate in preference to buying at the
so-called cheaper places is demonstrated by the
pathetic little rows of waiting children outside the big
fish shops on Saturday evenings. Surely if these big
firms find it beneficial to do this, it will be a good
thing for teachers, whose wares have already served an
educational purpose, to do the same.
As long as this does not impose extra work on the
teacher, and encroach on her much-needed noontide
rest, so that she is unfitted to conduct her afternoon
TEACHING DOMESTIC ECONOMY 61
class, and also does not involve the serving of the
meals in a room used for teaching in the afternoon
(both of which the Act* condemns), it may prove
useful both educationally and economically, but thirty-
two is the outside number.
As in the chapter on syllabuses I have advocated
a combination of dishes suitable (for second and third
course girls) for dinners, etc., and suppers for either
sixteen or thirty-two, I propose in the following pages
to give the dishes suitable for such meals. Each child
would then cook for one or two persons. For this I
shall presuppose two workable ovens — not one of which
is merely useful for heating plates.
A teacher should first of all make herself thoroughly
acquainted with the cheap pieces of meat at the best
local butcher, and explain to him that she is working
her classes on a scale which will secure him custom
for these pieces.
On pp. 62, 63, 64, and 65, the reader will find a list
of good reliable meat at London prices, so that a
teacher can judge for herself as to the comparative
prices she ought to pay.
The practice of sending the children to look round
the shops and pick up meat is theoretically good, but
it is practically bad, as it generally results in tainted
meat being palmed off on them. Let them go to fetch
it by all means, and thus become acquainted with the
prices of the various parts.
With regard to fish, if there is a local man who goes
round with a cart at regular times, his fish may
generally be relied upon, and in London excellent fish
may often be bought in this way.
Page 27
Presented as published in 1908. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
to put children in the way of temptation if you can avoid it ; but if by any chance you do find it gone, spare no effort to bring the offender to confess. A teacher may often lose more of her money than she can well afford, but also be sadly on the wrong side in her weekly bills, unless she is very careful. Of course, this is only common in very low neighbourhoods, and then she must always face the probability that in her class she has some professional thieves ; but it is not unknown in the best schools, as any head teacher will witness.
It is better to sell at a loss than not to sell at all, and a very ingenious idea has lately been suggested by one whose experience and work in South London has been of inestimable service to all domestic economy teaching. She suggests that food enough to make up a dinner for four or six should be sold at a certain price at 12 o’clock, and that this should be ordered before the lesson and paid for. She finds that mothers whom hard necessity compels to go to work are glad to think that their little ones will have a hot dinner even if she is out. Another arrangement found satisfactory is the use of the food cooked in the centres in providing cheap meals at school for children.
The willingness and anxiety of the poor to buy good food at a cheap rate in preference to buying at the so-called cheaper places is demonstrated by the pathetic little rows of waiting children outside the big fish shops on Saturday evenings. Surely if these big firms find it beneficial to do this, it will be a good thing for teachers, whose wares have already served an educational purpose, to do the same.
As long as this does not impose extra work on the teacher, and encroach on her much-needed noontide rest, so that she is unfitted to conduct her afternoon
class, and also does not involve the serving of the meals in a room used for teaching in the afternoon (both of which the Act* condemns), it may prove useful both educationally and economically, but thirty-two is the outside number.
As in the chapter on syllabuses I have advocated a combination of dishes suitable (for second and third course girls) for dinners, etc., and suppers for either sixteen or thirty-two, I propose in the following pages to give the dishes suitable for such meals. Each child would then cook for one or two persons. For this I shall presuppose two workable ovens — not one of which is merely useful for heating plates.
A teacher should first of all make herself thoroughly acquainted with the cheap pieces of meat at the best local butcher, and explain to him that she is working her classes on a scale which will secure him custom for these pieces.
On pp. 62, 63, 64, and 65, the reader will find a list of good reliable meat at London prices, so that a teacher can judge for herself as to the comparative prices she ought to pay.
The practice of sending the children to look round the shops and pick up meat is theoretically good, but it is practically bad, as it generally results in tainted meat being palmed off on them. Let them go to fetch it by all means, and thus become acquainted with the prices of the various parts.
With regard to fish, if there is a local man who goes round with a cart at regular times, his fish may generally be relied upon, and in London excellent fish may often be bought in this way.