History and present status of instruction in cooking in the public schools of New York city

Pupils' exercises on lesson on tea and coffee 63 Syllabus of lesson on digestion 64 Pupils' exercises on lesson on digestion , . . 65 Syllabus of lesson on fuel and combustion 66 Pupil's exercise on lesson on fuel and combustion 67 Syllabus of lesson on chemistry of cleaning 67 Pupil's exercise on lesson on chemistry of cleaning 69 Notes from the children's exercise books 69 5 ILLUSTRATIONS. rase. Plate I. Girl cooking 41 II. Bunch of wheat 50 III. Fig. 1, Girl paring potatoes ; Fig. 2, Girl kneading oread 52 IV. Fig. 1, Yeast plants as seen under the microscope; Fig. 2, Cross section of grain of wheat as seen under the microscope 53 V. Fig. 1, Milk as it appears under the microscope; Fig. 2, Potato starch as it appears under the microscope 54 VI. Diagram of cuts of heef 61 VII. Fig. 1, Diagram of cuts of beef; Fig. 2, Diagram of cuts of lamb 61 VIII. Fig. 1, Small loin, or porterhouse; Fig. 2, Rump of beef; Fig. 37 Potato 1 61 IX. Fig. 1, A piece of beef as seen under the microscope; Fig. 2, Indi- vidual beef fibers as seen under the microscope 61 X. Fig. 1, Branches of tea and coffee; Fig. 2, Cereals 63 XI. Fig. 1, Apparatus for generating oxygen; Fig. 2, Articles used in cleaning 67 XII. Fig. 1, Sewer traps: A, co-trap; B, o-trap; Fig. 2, Sink, showing "half-co" trap 69 6 HISTORY AND PRESENT STATUS OF INSTRUCTION IN COOKING IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF NEW YORK CITY. INTRODUCTION. By A. C. True, Ph. Dv Director, Office of Experiment Stations. Courses in manual training, including among numerous subjects instruction in cooking, have in recent years been widely introduced into public and private schools of different grades in this country. While at first encountering many objections regarding both their the- oretical and practical value, they have steadily increased in favor among school officers and the people who support and patronize the schools. It has been found possible, as regards many of the subjects taught in these courses, so to adjust the relations of the practical exercises to the general educational features as to maintain the interest of pupils in the more routine processes of education, while at the same time fur- nishing them with some degree of practical skill and knowledge of direct utility to them in the various industries on which the livelihood of the masses of our population depend. Another effect of manual training, which has already been observed and which will increase in importance as such instruction is more widely diffused, is largely to divest the common industries of those elements of drudgery which tend to make them very distasteful to our more intelligent youth. When the operations of the household, the farm, and the shop are shown to call for trained skill and scientific knowl- edge in order that they may be most easily and efficiently performed, it becomes apparent that these vocations, as well as the so-called profes- sions, offer abundant opportunities for the exercise of educated brains. Life in these industries is no longer a dull round of routine without beauty or the hope of better things. UI am going to an agricultural college," said a farm boy this summer, "because I believe that what I shall learn there will enable me to get more out of my land and give me more interest and pleasure in niy daily work on the farm."