Norwood (1943)

Notes on the text
Preliminary pages Membership, Contents, Introduction

Part I Secondary education
Chapter 1 Nature of secondary education
Chapter 2 Secondary education as it is
Chapter 3 Secondary education as it might be

Part II Examinations
Chapter 4 Existing examinations
Chapter 5 The reorganisation of examinations (i)
Chapter 6 The reorganisation of examinations (ii)
Chapter 7 The Inspectorate

Part III Curriculum
Chapter 8 The curriculum in general
Chapter 9 Physical education
Chapter 10 Religious education
Chapter 11 English
Chapter 12 History
Chapter 13 Geography
Chapter 14 Mathematics
Chapter 15 Natural science
Chapter 16 Modern languages
Chapter 17 Classics
Chapter 18 Art, music, handicrafts
Chapter 19 Domestic subjects
Chapter 20 Education for commerce
Chapter 21 Wales and the teaching of Welsh

Conclusions and recommendations
Appendix A Note on the Central Welsh Board
Appendix B List of witnesses
Index

Report of the Committee of the Secondary School Examinations Council appointed by the President of the Board of Education in 1941

London: HM Stationery Office 1943

Chapter 19 Domestic subjects
[pages 127 - 130. In the printed version this is Part III Chapter XII]

At the outset we must define what meaning is attached to domestic subjects in this chapter. We find this definition to be necessary because we are aware of a tendency to include under this heading a general oversight of health and physical welfare, orderliness and neatness and behaviour at school meals - in fact to embrace all aspects of physical life at school.

We are thinking mainly of schools with an age range up to eighteen years, and we limit the province of domestic subjects to needlework, cookery, laundry and housewifery; we make reference to hygiene and nursing, but we do not intend these last topics to be included whenever we refer to domestic subjects.

The grounds for including domestic subjects in the curriculum are variously stated in the evidence submitted to us: briefly, they are, first, that knowledge of such subjects is a necessary equipment for all girls as potential makers of homes; secondly, that the subjects have the advantage of offering a practical approach to theoretical work; they teach thinking through doing and help to awaken interest in other subjects; thirdly, that, for girls who are likely to go on to domestic science colleges or to take elsewhere courses which may lead to a variety of posts, they are necessary subjects and should therefore be taught at school.

The first of these reasons seems to us to be of fundamental importance both in its assumption and in its consequence. It is assumed that the majority of girls do not receive at home a training sufficient to turn them into good makers of homes. If this is true - and we cannot disprove it - then the opportunity of some minimum course of training at school is a necessity for all girls as girls and the training at school must necessarily take nothing or little for granted and must start from the beginning.

The second reason views the matter from a different angle and bases the claims of domestic subjects on educational values. For many girls, it is felt, domestic subjects provide a centre of interest natural and congenial to them: certain other subjects, for example natural science, are seen to have a meaning if they are related to something which has a dominant appeal. Further, the practical nature of domestic subjects evokes a ready response in girls whose abilities do not lie in the field of academic studies; through practice they are led to some appreciation of theory.

The third reason is confessedly vocational; a girl is going to take up some occupation in which knowledge of domestic subjects is necessary and she desires to be sufficiently prepared at school to enter upon a course of training.

While these three motives for learning and teaching domestic subjects are sufficiently familiar, their implications do not seem to us to be always understood. The first implication is that for different girls different treatments of these subjects are needed. Those for whom they furnish a valuable medium of education clearly need an appropriate course, conceived and treated to suit them; those whose education can most fittingly be carried forward through other media need a course which aims at giving them the practical knowledge and skill which it is held should be the possession of all. The second implication is that the place assigned to these subjects in the curriculum must not be the same for all; if for some girls they are an integral part of the educational process, since without them mental development would suffer, then for those they must be begun at a point in the school course, and continue for a time, determined by strictly educational considerations; if on the other hand for other girls they are not regarded as essential in the way just described, then their place in the curriculum, the age at which they are studied, the length of the course and its treatment are all affected.

Accordingly we take the view that every girl before she leaves school should have had the opportunity to take a minimum course which would give her the essential elements of needlework, cookery and laundrywork. At what point in the school course such instruction should find its place we do not say; some schools will think it more appropriate at one stage, other schools at another stage. All we would do is to make the suggestion that, for the purpose which we have in mind at the moment, an intensive course rather than a course thinly drawn out over several terms may offer positive advantages.

For many girls much more than the minimum course is clearly desirable. Whereas in the minimum course underlying principles with appropriate practical application would be stressed, in the longer course practice would occupy a more prominent place, the aim being to develop a craftsmanship which would lead to the establishing and the understanding of principles. For this longer and fuller course the necessary time must be given. Again, different views may be taken as to the best age at which such work should be begun, the scope of the syllabus and the time necessary for covering it.

Similar discretion should in our opinion be left as regards the framing of courses for sixth form girls. At this stage the scope and treatment will call for special consideration in view of the age of the girls and their purposes. We invite special attention to courses which combine individual and social interests, which give specialist training based upon scientific principles, which offer intensive courses in homecraft allied with a general training in other subjects. Such courses are suitable for different groups of girls.

A number of subjects sometimes loosely grouped under the head of domestic subjects have been brought to our notice; they are such subjects as pre-nursing courses, hygiene, first aid, parent-craft.

With the institution of pre-nursing courses in sixth forms we have the utmost sympathy; the nursing profession in our opinion ought to draw increasingly from girls who have reached the stage of sixth form studies. We hope, therefore, that suitable teaching and facilities will be more commonly available in future, and that with this end in view those responsible for the arrangements for entry to and training in the profession will be ready to cooperate to an increasing extent with school authorities. With regard to the other topics we feel it impossible for us to make any general recommendations.

Successful teaching of hygiene and related subjects seems to us to depend entirely upon the right relation between teacher and taught; accurate knowledge, a right method of approach, a sympathetic attitude of teacher to pupil and pupil to teacher, and the confidence of each in the other are such essential prerequisites to any suitable treatment of these subjects that their inclusion in school instruction must remain a matter for school authorities. The kind of topic included under these subjects sometimes falls to the care of the teacher of physical education, or of the teacher of natural science or domestic subjects or of the school medical officer.

No one without full knowledge of the staff of a school can possibly say whether these subjects should be taught at that school or not, how far they should be carried, how they should be handled or by whom they should be taught. All we are prepared to say is that, if a school feels that for certain pupils at a certain stage of their school career it is desirable that there should be instruction in the subjects indicated above, and if suitable teaching and appropriate conditions are or can be made available, then the school should be free to offer such instruction.

The view has been expressed that as a result of the experience of the war women have undertaken work which hitherto has been regarded as men's work, and men have found themselves increasingly concerned with domestic matters; it is therefore suggested that girls should have the opportunity of learning handicraft and boys domestic subjects. We do not ourselves contemplate a state of affairs in which every boys' school would have a kitchen for the teaching of cooking and every girls' school a workshop. Normally, we believe, such opportunity must be offered to those who desire it through Scouting and Guiding and similar interests. In coeducational schools, however, facilities are already available and in some of such schools a few boys show themselves interested in cooking and a few girls in carpentry. This is a development which we would bring to the notice of coeducational schools in general.

If we seem to have made recommendations which are vague and general, it is because we think we are dealing with a subject in the process of making, not because we regard it as unimportant or unnecessary. On the contrary, when we consider that all boys and girls will be at school for a longer period, we feel that the scope of domestic subjects, their proper treatment, the time to be devoted to them, and the stage or stages in the curriculum which would be appropriate, should all be carefully considered, if necessary, by a special enquiry. The whole question is bound up with that of the imperfect housing of a section of the population, in rural areas and particularly in the overcrowded areas of the towns, and a flood of light has been thrown on the results of these conditions by the experiences of evacuation [i.e. the forced removal of people from large towns during the second world war]. It is clear that the teachers in the schools should know the home conditions of the parents, and should try to secure their cooperation: their syllabuses should reflect what is possible and practical, and lead on to better things by carefully planned steps. The schools themselves cannot cure the social evils which exist; but if other agencies can produce housing conditions for all, which make civilised life possible, the schools can be powerful allies in teaching the next generation how to use them. More liberal provision in equipment and material and time will probably be found to be necessary, but this is one more illustration of what we believe to be true, that the best results will follow if each individual school is left free to tackle its problem in the way which will most help its own pupils.