PRACTICAL EDUCATION,—COOKING, ETC.
By George I. Butler
IN THE REVIEW, two weeks since, reference was made to “Educational Matters,” and the importance of practical education. Eld. Haskell referred to the testimony concerning the importance of practical education in the preparation of food. It was stated also that the best educators were becoming interested on the same subject, and that many were deciding that education should become more practical. The State Register, published at the capital of Iowa, and a leading paper of the State, recently published the following article on this subject, showing what is being done in this line at the State Agricultural College, and the popular interest now being taken in the subject:— The social event of Des Moines the past week was the Cooking School, conducted by Mrs. Mary B. Welch, wife of the president of the State Agricultural College, and who herself occupies one of the practical chairs of that important State institution. The school has surpassed all expectation, the intelligent women of Des Moines who have attended it being delighted with it, and a great and practical, and we hope lasting, good accomplished by it. Mrs. Welch is in charge of the Experimental Kitchen of the Agricultural College, a department she originated, and has ever since conducted, and in which position she has wrought a decided work of great value to the State. Indeed, the practical features and merits of that institution are little known and less recognized by the State. It surprises the people, when they come in contact with it, by the practical merit of the work. Two years ago it made its first exhibition at the State Fair, and the whole State was surprised at the showing it made. Every person of intelligence saw in it the one great attraction of the Fair. Mrs. Welch appeared with it, and showed to the public in practical form the good work of the Experimental Kitchen, and added materially to the public understanding and appreciation of the excellent character and scope of the work of the college. Now, through Mrs. Welch’s school here, the attention of the State has again been called to the real, practical features of the college. How thoroughly she understands the science, art, or common sense of cooking,—whichever is the right name for it,—the complete success of this school is ample proof. There was no sham about it, no mere pretense. It was the actual skill of superior and yet practical cookery, taught by an intelligent and refined woman, happily able to impart such instruction, and to prove that cooking may be made attractive even to the most refined and fastidious of women. Indeed, while she taught how to cook and to cook well, she at the same time popularized cooking, for which let us all be thankful to her. In her double mission of teaching good cooking and teaching women to like to cook, she is the true evangel of the time. This world needs nothing more just now than a cooking mania—or, rather, a mania to know how to cook well. In some homes, where the good-wife still does the cooking herself, good cooking is not yet a lost art; but in the homes where the women neither cook nor know how to cook, and hire any one they can get to pretend to do the cooking, civilization is found to be a good deal of a failure. So, if intelligent, refined women like Mrs. Welch, who is as cultured in literary work as housewifely skill, and who at once manages a home that is fairly a poem in its practical order and elegant refinements, and fills a professor’s chair in a college faculty, can and will lead in the good work of popularizing cooking, and in inducing intelligent, refined women to become more earnest in the good cause of better cooking, let us bid them Godspeed, and encourage them all we can. It is hard work, and especially so to women of the slender strength of Mrs. Welch, who is the wonder of all who know her, for the great and increasing amount of work she does. She is a woman to be proud of, and a woman that Iowa is proud of; and in her mission of mingled literary and practical work, is doing more to advance and elevate and honor woman and home than all the woman-suffrage societies we have in the State. This is an interesting article. The statement that “this world needs nothing more just now than a cooking mania—or, rather, a mania to know how to cook well,” shows how people of intelligence feel on this subject. Who can say that this is not the truth? Certainly those who have traveled much, and suffered from modern cookery would not deny it. It must be evident to every reflecting mind that education concerning that which is most useful and most important—that which is most used in every-day life—is the education that is needed. While it is true that one important object of education is mental discipline, it is also true that this needed discipline can be obtained in learning something useful. We study grammar for the discipline obtained, but especially that we may learn to speak and write correctly. We study arithmetic to learn to reckon; geography, to learn about the earth; physiology, that we may know ourselves. These and many other studies are very useful, and we obtain discipline of mind while acquiring knowledge concerning them. If these positions are true, surely no one will deny the importance of knowledge concerning the proper preparations of food. By means of this our life itself is sustained. The health of every part of the body is dependent upon it. The greatest philosopher would soon die if not properly sustained by food. Education in this, as well as in various branches of handicraft and in the mechanic arts, would be a great advantage. Then many educated persons would not be as helpless as babes when left to engage in the activities of life. The shape this subject is assuming in view of what the testimony teaches is but another evidence that the Lord is guiding in this work. Those testimonies, so despised by some, contain instruction on these points fully up to the most advanced system of education developed by the foremost educators of the age. They are not the work of fanaticism, but contain the soundest common sense. We are glad that steps are being taken to put this instruction into practical effect. We hope our brethren will avail themselves of the opportunities offered in the establishment of schools on the Pacific coast and in New England.