Economic and financial section > Problem of nutrition

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Such teaching is of an essentially practical character, and theory
is only included to explain practice, or to imbue the girls with love for
the home and for the modest and yet noble domestic tasks which they
will be called upon to perform.
Similar aims are evident in the syllabus of the higher elementary
schools and teachers’ training schools.
9. This insistence upon really practical domestic economy instruction
has grown more pronounced in the last few years. In the large towns,
and particularly in the Department of the Seine, suitably equipped
classrooms under specially qualified mistresses have been opened.
In the rural areas, the Department of Elementary Education has
made an attempt, in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture, to
develop continuation courses in household management, and in these
classes teaching on nutrition has come to occupy a very important
place. The co-operation of the Department of Technical Education
under the Decree of June 1934 makes it possible to carry on such
instruction in the continuation classes.
10. The extension of the school age would have an excellent effect
upon the development of training in household management, which
might then be introduced throughout the country.
Although the children are too young for their mistresses to inculcate
any but the very simplest ideas, at least in the elementary schools,
the spreading of practical knowledge, even in the most modest homes,
could not in the long run fail to exert an excellent influence on the
methods of housewives.
In this connection, the elementary schools—even without the
specialisation which could scarcely be expected of them—can make a
vital contribution to the improvement of public health, particularly
in the matter of nutrition.
(b) Secondary Education. — 11. Domestic economy is not included
in the secondary-school syllabus. Nevertheless, as the result of local
initiative, optional classes in cookery and household management
have been organised in certain of the girls’ lycees.
(c) Agricultural Instruction. — 12. Domestic agricultural training
is at present given either in the fixed or travelling schools of rural
housekeeping or in temporary classes, with a short term of instruction
in special subjects, such as domestic economy and cookery. Nutrition
teaching occupies an important place in the syllabuses of all such
classes.
In schools of rural housekeeping, the syllabus generally followed
is that of the National School at Coetlogon, after adaptation to the
social background and average intelligence of the pupils.
Such instruction is of an essentially practical nature ; the pupils
take their midday meal in common and, in the boarding establishments,
the evening meal also. They prepare their meals themselves under the