Cookery.

Almost everyone who has considered the matter is agreed that the education given in public elementary schools is largely unsuitable, and fails, therefore, in its object. We have always maintained that book learning is predominant solely by reason of its cheapness. But many individuals and some educational authorities are boldly taking the matter in hand, and are devising a more rational curriculum. This will certainly include a greater amount of hand and eye training, a fuller attempt to develop the body, and an endeavor to make the education suit the circumstances i.e., to give the child that knowledge and skill that he needs to enable him to adapt himself more suitably to his environment. Among the subjects that will be taught to all girls, and not merely, as at present, to a select few will undoubtedly be cookery At a recent meeting of the Northern Union of Domestic Economy Associations, Miss Dunn read a paper entitled 'Science in the Kitchen' She repeated a statement that is often made nowadays, but which needs to be said again and again until it has impressed itself upon the national consciousness and then become reflected in the practice of cooks and housekeepers. It is that the indifferent health that seems to be the curse of the time is more often than not due to faulty nutrition, the direct result of errors in diet. The thermometer and the scales must become kitchen utensils. Perhaps more important still is the possession of a simple knowledge of the value of food from the point of view of nutrition.

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