Ontario. Department of Education

“ There is still the curd of milk to examine. The use of the senses does not allow us to definitely decide what food substance the curd is. Tell the pupils it is protein, or find the name by a process of reasoning, thus: Recall the fact that babies live for several months on milk alone and during that time build all tissues of the body. Milk, therefore, must contain all tissue-building substances. Review the food substances which are necessary to build all body tissues—mineral matter, protein, and water. We have found the mineral matter and water in milk, but not the protein. ”

“ The fruit is a house to protect the seeds, and is made most attractive and delicious, so that animals will be tempted to eat this part, and thus assist in the dispersal of the seeds. The fruit has comparatively little food value as building material. The seed contains the stored material to build new plants, and therefore is the most nutritive part of all. It is the only part of the plant which contains an appreciable supply of building food, that is, which can take the place of eggs or meat in the diet. ”

“ The series of lessons on vegetable foods being finished, it is a good time to take a salad lesson. All salads were originally made from fresh young plants or salad greens, and though any food material is now used for the purpose, the subject seems to follow naturally the lessons on plant food.
The pupils should derive unusual pleasure from this work. The dishes made are most attractive and appetizing, besides affording an opportunity for each member of the class to display individual artistic skill. None of the principles are new, so that the lesson will be really a review. ”

“ As meat is rather a complex food the teaching of which involves a good many lessons, and as it does not lend itself as well as other foods to the making of dishes useful in practice work, it seems wise to defer the study of it until the Senior Form is reached; the ability and home needs of the pupils should decide this. The season of the year should also be considered. It is wiser to take meat lessons in cold weather because it is then more pleasant to handle and easier to keep. ”

“ On the day of the lesson it will be necessary to have a piece of meat showing the three parts—fat, bone, and muscle. A lower cut of the round of beef has all these parts, and the muscle is sufficiently tough to show its connective tissue plainly. For the study of fat, a piece of suet is best, as it can be easily picked apart to show its formation.
In examining fat meat and lean meat it is essential that, at least, every two pupils have a piece, as close scrutiny is necessary. One or two samples of bone will suffice for the class.
No definite amount of work can be laid down for any one lesson. ”

“ All nature supplies us with food. The three great divisions of nature are animal, vegetable, and mineral, and from each we obtain food, though most largely from the animal and vegetable kingdoms.
Animal food is some part of an animal's body or some product of an animal: examples—meat or fish, milk, eggs. ”

“ STUDY OF FOOD
The pupils have been working with some of the well-known foods in all of their recipes and should have a fair knowledge of how to prepare them in simple ways for the table. It is now time for them to learn what these foods contain for the use of their bodies. Much of this part of the work can be taught in rooms without special equipment. An earnest teacher, with a few articles from home, can make the study interesting and valuable. ”

“ From the bread lesson, the pupils have learned that working the water into the gluten or much handling of flour after it is wet, makes a mixture firm and tough. In pastry there must be enough gluten to stick the ingredients together, but its elastic quality is undesirable. For the latter reason also, a small amount of water is used.
In the cake mixtures, it was found that the use of fat in the "butter cakes" made the framework tender and easily broken, so in pastry the same means may be employed. Fat of some kind is mixed with the flour to act on the gluten and destroy its toughness. ”

“ Household Management teaches us about the home.
2. A home includes two main ideas:
(1) A house, (2) a family.
3. In connection with a house we must consider:
(1) The lot, (2) the plan, (3) the furnishing, (4) the cleaning.
4. In connection with a family we must consider:
(1) Food (buying, cooking, serving) , (2) clothing (buying, sewing, mending) , (3) education, (4) home nursing.
Tell the pupils that a housekeeper should be informed on all of these points, but little girls can expect to study only a few of them, such as questions of food, clothing, and cleaning. ”

“ The home practice work may be taken at the beginning of a lesson or during the time the food is cooking. It may be quickly ascertained by the pupils rising in order and stating simply the name of the duty they have done or the dish they have made unless they have had poor results, [38] when the nature of these should be told. If there have been failures, the pupils should, if possible, give reasons for these and suggest means of avoiding them in future. ”

“ The pupils should be trained to enter and leave the room in the same order as in their other classes. Each pupil should have a definite working place and should not be allowed to "visit" others during the class.
While at work, it is wise to allow the pupils as much freedom in talking and movement as possible, so as to portray the home life. They should be taught, however, that when their conduct interferes with the order of the room or the comforts and rights of others, they must suppress their inclinations. During the time of teaching there must be perfect quiet and attention. ”

“ One of the benefits of placing Household Management in a Course of Study is that it relates the knowledge gained in school to the home life.
The Household Management teacher has great opportunity for this correlation. She should be more than a teacher of household duties. She should lead the pupils to see the importance and necessity of mastering the other school subjects. Wherever interest in these subjects has already been established, this interest will form a basis for development in many Household Management lessons. ”

“ When ready for the lesson, ask the pupils to look at the contents of the glass, and they will observe a difference of colour where the cream has risen. Nature itself has divided the milk into two parts. Pour off the top part and feel it. It feels greasy. Butter is made from this part. We have found fat—a carbonaceous food.
Move the milk around in the glass and let the pupils see that it is a liquid. Tell them that all liquid in a natural food is mostly water. We have, therefore, another food substance—water, a builder and regulator. ”

“ The cost of supplies is often accountable for group work, but lack of utensils or oven room may make it a necessity. In some lessons, individual work with normal quantities may be obtained by allowing the pupils to bring the main ingredients from home; for example, fruit for a canning lesson. The finished product is then the property of the pupil who has made it.
The cleaning which always follows the use of the equipment is preferably done in groups. ”

“ With the foregoing principles of bread-making in mind, the class should be able to make any bread mixture. Each pupil should have entire responsibility for the process of making one small loaf of plain bread. About half a cup of liquid, mixed with the other necessary ingredients, makes a good-sized loaf for practice. Smaller loaves than this give little chance for manipulation.
In Household Management centres, where the pupils come from other schools for the lesson period only, the process will have to be divided into two lessons. ”

“ Too much vigilance cannot be exercised during the first year of practical work, when habits are being formed. It is much easier to form habits than to break away from them.
6. While nothing less than the best work should be accepted from the pupils, it requires much discernment to know when fault should be found, in order to avoid saying or doing anything that would discourage them.
7. As Household Management is a manual subject, the teacher is advised, as far as possible, not to spend time [39] in talking about the work, but to have the class spend their time in doing the work. ”

“ With a little guidance the pupils can do most of this for themselves. They know that milk serves all building purposes in a child's body, and must, therefore, contain mineral matter. Eggs build animal bodies, and must contain this substance also. Meat is the animal body that has been built, therefore meat has this substance; but we shall find in the meat lessons that there is no mineral matter in fat and that the cook cannot dissolve it out of bone, therefore muscle or lean meat must be eaten to obtain it. ”

“ The meaning of cooking:
Cooking is the application of sufficient heat to make a change in the food.
2. Reasons for cooking food:
(1) To make some food digestible.
(2) To change flavours and make some food more appetizing.
(3) To preserve food.
(4) To kill harmful germs in food.
3. Kinds of heat used:
(1) Dry heat—heat, only, is conveyed to the food.
(2) Moist heat—heat and moisture are conveyed to the food.
4. Different ways of applying dry heat:
Toasting, broiling, pan-broiling, sautéing, frying, baking.
5. Different ways of applying moist heat:
Boiling, simmering, steaming, steeping. ”

“ Animals require water, mineral matter, protein, sugar, starch, and fat.
4. Plants require the same; but the seed being a storehouse part of the plant, it will not have sugar, and water has to be supplied when the new plant is to be formed. [119]
5. Seeds contain, therefore, mineral matter, protein, starch, and fat.
Note 1.—Seeds will grow in water until their stored food is used: they must then be planted in soil, to get further nourishment.
Note 2.—The two fuel foods, starch and fat, are not found together in abundance in seeds; one or the other will be much in excess. ”

“ Nature Study.—Animals and plants furnish us with most of our food, and familiarity with these is necessary to the housekeeper. A knowledge of the structure of animals is essential in studying the cuts of meat; the structure of plants and the functions of their different parts give a key to the value of vegetable food. ”

“ Seeds, too, contain building material for new plants; therefore, the building mineral matter must be stored in their cells. Hard water is known by the lime it contains, therefore this, if drunk, assists in the formation of bone.
The class must be told that the mineral in the juices of plants is mainly for regulating purposes; that is, to keep our bodies in order, or as we say, healthy. When they get out of order, we usually go to a doctor to be regulated or made well. The medicine which he prescribes often contains some mineral in solution, perhaps iron. ”

“ Care of the diet.—Recovery from sickness in many cases depends more upon the right kind of food than on medicine. The importance of proper diet should have been impressed on the minds of the pupils by their lessons on food, in the Junior Grade of Form IV. They may now be shown that, in sickness, the [220] responsibility of the choice of food is transferred from the patient to the doctor or nurse. Hence it is most important that a person acting as nurse should be trained in food values and proper methods of cooking. ”

“ Fish may be cooked in any way similar to meat. As the flesh of fish contains food substances which are very easily dissolved in water, boiling is not a good method of cooking to choose for this food. Steaming, baking, and frying are more suitable. ”

“ The training of the previous years should have formed good habits of work and have given experience in ordinary cleaning, and in the cooking and serving of the simple food materials. Through this training the pupils should also have been impressed with the value of food, and should have learned the sources of food and of all well-known household materials. ”

“ The serving of food is incidentally a necessary part of nearly every lesson in cookery, as the pupils usually eat what they prepare. In regular class work the bare work table is used, and each pupil prepares a place for herself only. ”

“ Since the end of the week, in many schools, is chosen for a break in the usual routine, Friday afternoon seems a suitable time for Household Management lessons.
Under such limited conditions, it will be necessary to group the larger pupils into one class for practical work, and it may be necessary for the pupils to take turns in working. In some cases, the teacher must demonstrate what the class may practise at home. ”

“ Food gives strength or energy by being burned inside the body. There is a fire burning in our bodies all the time we are alive, the fuel being food. What do we require from the fire in our homes? We require heat. The fires in our bodies give us heat also. Any fire gives off both heat and energy. State another use of food to the body. Food produces heat and energy in the body. ”

“ In rural schools, the time of each lesson must be comparatively short, though no Household Management teacher should spend more than forty minutes on purely theoretical work without a change of some kind. ”

“ METHODS OF SANITATION
Since bacteria are too small to be seen, it is very hard to deal with them. The housekeeper has the following ways of protecting the household:
(1) By having all drain pipes trapped:
(2) By keeping the house free from lodging places for bacteria:
(a) Keep the house clean and free of dust.
(b) Wash garbage pails and sinks daily and scald them and drain pipes at least once a week.
(c) Keep the refrigerators, cupboards, and receptacles for food clean, and allow no spoiled food to remain in them.
(d) Wash and sterilize the soiled clothing once a week. ”

“ Add the sugar and simmer ten minutes longer. Take out the fruit, and, if necessary, boil down the syrup, then pour it over the fruit.
Lessons V, VI, etc.
While studying vegetable food, practice will be given in nearly every lesson in the preparation and cooking of vegetables or fruit, but after the completion of this series of lessons, these foods should be prepared and cooked with more intelligence and interest. For this reason, there may be, at the last, one general practical lesson devoted to vegetables and fruit, to review and impress the facts that have been taught. ”