It is expected that all teachers in the cooking classes will have had a special normal training for the work ; but even with such training a few suggestions from one who has had a large experience in both the practice and the teaching of cookery may be helpful.

No definite rules can be given that will apply to all schools. Teachers must govern the classes and adapt the instruction as circumstances require, but it is of the first importance that the order and discipline of the public schools should be maintained in the cooking classes. Pupils must be required to dress neatly and appropriately. A large apron or tire, a holder suspended by a tape from the belt, a hand-towel at the side, and a cap to cover the hair entirely, are necessary. Rings and bracelets should not be worn during the lesson.

Personal cleanliness must be insisted upon. Many people who consider themselves neat have objectionable habits, and a word of caution will be given against such as have been observed frequently in pupils. The hands and nails should be perfectly clean ; wash the hands always before beginning work and as often during the lesson as there is need. Wiping them on the towel at the side will often be sufficient, and should always be done just before touching any food.

Never allow the pupils to use their handkerchiefs or their aprons in the place of a towel or a holder, or to work with sticky or floured fingers, or to rest their hands on their faces or hair, or to lick their fingers, or to use their handkerchiefs without immediately wiping their fingers, or to taste with the mixing spoon without wiping it before using it again, or to use a hand-towel as a dish-towel, or the hand-basin for food, or to do anything that is not neat and cleanly. The only way to cure pupils of untidy habits is to be sure that your own example is perfect in that respect, then be watchful and let no fault, however trivial, pass unnoticed.

In classes of fifteen pupils, three may be housekeepers, and the cooking may be done by the remaining members working in groups of two, three, or four, according to the number in the class. The kitchen work may be divided among the three according to the rules for housekeepers. These duties may be shared in alternation, so that all the pupils may learn both the cooking and the kitchen work.

The pupils should do all the work of keeping the class-room in order, except the weekly scrubbing of the floor. The room should be left in perfect order at the close of every lesson. This part of the training should be considered of equal importance with the cooking and should never be slighted.

During the lesson the pupils should work under the direction of the teacher and not from the text-book. Let the principles be explained, the receipts be given orally, and then let each step of the work be done as directed by the teacher.

Endeavor to draw out what the pupils already know, and let them think for themselves rather than cram them with a multitude of facts. The pupils may study the text-book after the lesson, and prepare at home the dishes they have learned to make in the class, and at the next lesson report the result, that the teacher may keep a record of the work done at home.

Examine the classes frequently on the previous lessons. Do not allow them to repeat verbatim any of the text in the book, but question them in such a way that they may be taught the art of expression. The receipts should be memorized, for the pupils should know how to prepare all the dishes in daily use without referring to a book.

It is advisable to follow the order of the lessons in the book as far as practicable, but sometimes changes must be made. Afternoon classes should take Lesson VI. before Lesson V., and XV. before XIV., in order to finish the work begun in the morning class, and to economize in the use of material. In the spring sessions it may be advisable to have the baking lessons come before the invalid cookery, and thus avoid the heat.

The amount of material used at each lesson will vary with the number in the class, and the teacher must use her own judgment as to how much to provide. As small an amount as will suffice for thorough instruction should be the rule always. Many of the receipts may be halved, but the majority of them are already as small as practicable, and they have purposely been made as economical as we can make them and have the result satisfactory. More dishes are given in some lessons than can be prepared in the school hour. The teacher will select such as are in season and are adapted to the class, not confining the instruction to the one dish that is being made, but leading the pupils to suggest other dishes that may be made after the same general rule.

Pupils should never be encouraged to think that any part of the preparation of food is disagreeable or unworthy of their best effort.

The teacher should keep in mind that the object of the lesson is not to prepare a certain amount of food to eat or to sell, but to develop the powers of the children, the mental with the manual, and not the one to the exclusion of the other ; to teach them to work understandingly, so that by being trained in youth to do well and intelligently the common daily duties of the home, they may be better fitted for the arduous duties of mature life, and become better and more useful women.