Subiaco Domestic Science Centre (1935).
An interesting article about the training of women teachers in domestic science at the Subiaco Domestic Science Centre in 1935. The women were qualified teachers and expected to teach 'housewifery' in schools and in particular country schools after graduating from the course.
Three years earlier in January 1932, there was another interesting article published in the West Australian about the inclusion of domestic science in the Western Australian school curriculum. The teaching of domestic science subjects where once taught to prepare women for their role in the home and as domestic help were now used boost student's opportunities for gaining employment.
The course at the Subiaco Domestic Science Centre was run by Miss E. Butler. This is the first on three posts about the achievements of unmarried women living and working in Subiaco. The next two posts are about unmarried women living and working in Subiaco, the matron of the Children's Hospital in Subiaco who died in 1929 and the following post is about a headmistress from Subiaco who when she died donated her savings to the Shenton Park Dog's Home.
The articles and photograph is from Trove, the database at the National Library of Australia. No copyright infringement intended.
West Australian, 12 December 1935.
SKILL IN HOUSEWIFERY. Students Exhibition at Subiaco.
METICULOUS skill in method and execution was shown in the work displayed by the women student teachers at the Subiaco Domestic Science Centre yesterday. Under the senior domestic science instructor, Miss E. Butler, the students have completed a special six months' course and after Christmas will teach a certain amount of housewifery at different country schools.
During the course the teachers have gathered a thorough practical knowledge of cookery, laundering, handicrafts, upholstery and needlework. The exhibition was opened by the Director of Education (Mr. J. A. Klein), who congratulated Miss Butler and the students on the excellent work done. Mesdames Klein, M. P. Troy, P. J. Wise and L. Mason and Miss M. Tewers (Organiser and Inspectress of Household Management for the Education Department) were present.
The upholstery was perhaps the outstanding section, the articles made by the girls also being an important lesson in economy. It was hard to believe that the attractive seats, bedroom boxes and glory-boxes upholstered in brightly coloured chintzes and shadow tissues were made from oblong and square butter boxes, while the roomy, well-sprung armchairs showed no trace of their humble origin. Wallpaper was used with good effect to transform sweet tins into wastepaper baskets. Hatstands and cushions were other articles in this section.
The home-made jams, with their cellophane covers and neat labels, maintained a high standard. Including Cape gooseberry, various marmalades, grapefruit, strawberry and lemon, the jams looked clear and appetising. Set out neatly on a long table the cakes, biscuits, Cornish pasties, tarts, fish cakes and savouries were cooked for examination purposes. The Christmas cakes were artistically decorated, but one cake was not iced to show the richness of the mixture.
With the shining whiteness that only careful washing and starching can give, the laundry work was praiseworthy. The exhibition also included cupboards made from boxes, and books containing examples of all types of mending, sewing and. embroidery.
Sunday Times, 15 December 1935.
IN CONNECTION with the Teachers' Domestic Science Course, a fine display of work was held at the Subiaco centre last Wednesday afternoon. The teachers attending this course are all certified teachers, and the course was to prepare them for teaching domestic science in country schools.
The course includes cookery, laundry, housewifery, home upholstery, and home-making as re-gards furnishings, etc. The display was a splendid one. and the teachers, equipped with such a comprehensive knowledge of the working of the home, will be able to render excellent service in the country. The course was held under the direction of Miss E. Butler, senior domestic science instructress of the Education Department, in association with Miss M. E. Tewers, inspectress and organiser for domestic science in the department.
West Australian, 6 January 1932.
DOMESTIC SCIENCE.
INSTRUCTION IN SCHOOLS. The Field for Development.
Seventeen years ago, Miss M. A. Wylie became organiser and inspector of domestic science for the Education Department. There were then 16 centres at which this subject was taught. A few days ago Miss Wylie severed her connection with the work and her successor this year will have the oversight of 33 centres, of which 22 are full-time and the remainder part-time.
Miss Wylie told an interviewer that domestic science was an extremely popular subject with the girls. In the part-time centres, she explained, an assistant teacher of domestic science was attached to the ordinary school. In the full-time centres a fully-qualified instructress was in charge. All teachers, both part-time and full-time, in addition to possessing domestic science certificates, held the ordinary teacher's certificate.
A full-time centre had a number of contributory schools, which sent girls for instruction from the 6th, 7th, 8th and sometimes 9th standard. At Perth Modern School, however, the domestic science department was part of the school and no outside classes attended for instruction. In the Perth Central and Fremantle Central divisions there were respectively five and four centres. Other centres in the metropolitan area were established at East Perth, Subiaco, Leederville, Midland Junction and Claremont. In the country there were full-time centres at Bunbury, Collie, Albany, Northam, Kalgoorlie, Kalgoorlie High School and Geraldon, and part-time centres at Wagin, Katanning, Pingelly, Beverley, York, Narrogin, Toodyay, Kellerberrin, Moora, Pinjarra and Harvey.
Each full-time centre took on an average 220 girls per teacher each week and each part-time centre took 20 to 40 girls, the total enrolment for the State being about 5,500. Girls attending schools classified below Grade IV. did not receive instruction, proceeded Miss Wylie. These were mostly small schools in country districts, and the position was due principally to lack of funds to provide equipment and arrange for household management assistants.
One step towards the solution of this difficulty would be the fitting and equipping of a railway coach as a travelling domestic science school. Success had attended schools of instruction conducted on these lines in Queensland and Victoria, giving girls in outback districts some of the advantages enjoyed by those in the towns.
Increasing Popularity.
Domestic science has become much more popular with the passing of the years, she went on. 'We have now have a more comprehensive syllabus than formerly and, judging from the letters received from parents, the work being done is greatly appreciated". In 1928 the Public Examinations Board approved of domestic science as a subject for the Junior examination.
The subjects taught consist of cookery, laundry work, housewifery, home nursing hygiene, dressmaking, millinery and home-making, the last mentioned including upholstering. Lectures have also been given for a number of years in connection with the Rural Domestic Science Course held each year by the Agricultural Department, in conjunction with the University.
While development has taken place, however. Miss Wylie said that there remained much to be accomplished to bring the work into line with recognised systems of domestic science teaching in other parts of the world. One of her desires, which the absence of funds rendered extremely improbable of fulfilment for some years, unless some public-spirited individual sponsored the scheme, was to see established a training college for teachers, of this subject.
At present, training of domestic science teachers was carried out either by means of a monitorship or by a special six months course of instruction to qualified teachers. These special courses were held only occasionally, when a shortage of instructresses was pending. At the end of such a course the teachers were qualified for appointment as part-time household management assistants.
Eventually they qualified for higher positions by taking further examinations in higher grade work.
Scope For Improvement.
"For a young country such as this," declared Miss Wylie, "the system has its advantages, but the time in the not far distant when there will be a greater demand for a more continuous supply of domestic science teachers and a college will be found necessary."
In England, New South Wales and Victoria, where domestic science colleges are established, teachers may complete a full training in two or three years and classifications and status of an instructress largely depend on her time of service. Miss Wylie went on to say that she would like to see established also, in the near future, a domestic arts college where girls, on leaving school, might qualify along vocational lines, instead of dropping some of the most important domestic subjects taught at the domestic science centres.
Many of these subjects had monetary value in the commercial world and would afford more avenues for the employment of girls. Such a college should be residential so that the girls might live in it for periods of from three to six months and be given not only further training in the subjects now taught but, in addition, facilities for obtaining instruction in horticulture, vegetable gardening, bee farming, poultry keeping, jam making and fruit preserving, as well as many of the arts and crafts for which women were specially adapted.
Such a college could award diplomas which would give the holders a standing in the community as domestic science workers. The tendency to deprecate the position of a domestic servant lad greatly diminished in recent, years, but there was still a certain amount of prejudice to be overcome and the establishment of a domestic arts college would materially assist in dispelling that prejudice.
