A cookery lesson at Onslow Drive School in Dennistoun, 1916. On the back wall of the cookery classroom are posters illustrating various cuts of meat. A teacher dressed in pinafore and cap stands in front of a blackboard on which there are instructions for the preparation of boiled cabbage.
The classroom is well equipped with various utensils on the shelves of the back wall and a substantial amount of crockery stacked on the Welsh dresser to the right. Each girl has a bowl, cutting board and two knives and each appears to have a potato on her plate. The girls in the foreground are wearing very sturdy boots.
Cookery, needlework and "domestic economy" (the name for training in other aspects of managing a household) became important subjects for girl pupils in the curriculum under the Glasgow School Board. The intention was to provide girls with the basic skills required to find a job after leaving school (domestic service remained the most common source of work for young women in the early 20th century) and to manage a household and provide nourishing meals for their families once they married and had children. Boys were often taught woodwork, shoe making or tailoring skills, to develop manual skills that would help them find a trade when they left school.
Reference: D-ED 5/11/6
Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Libraries Information and Learning
Keywords:
boiled cabbage, boots, children, cookery lessons, cooking, crockery, domestic economy, domestic science, domestic servants, domestic service, girls, Glasgow School Board, kitchen furniture, manual training, Onslow Drive School, potatoes, primary schools, pupils, school kitchens, teachers
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