The Feeding of School ChildrenBulkley, M. E. (Mildred Emily)
History
The Feeding of School Children
Bulkley, M. E. (Mildred Emily)
School children -- Food
From the first great stress was laid by the Board of Education upon the
educational aspect of the meals. "The methods employed in the provision
of meals should be not merely such as will secure an improvement in the
physical condition of the children, but such as will have a directly
educational effect upon them in respect of manners and conduct."[249]
"The school dinner may ... be made to serve as a valuable object-lesson
and used to reinforce the practical instruction in hygiene, cookery and
domestic economy."[250]
Footnote 249:
Board of Education, Code of Regulations for Public Elementary Schools
in England, 1908, p. ii.
Footnote 250:
Report on the Working of the Education (Provision of Meals) Act up to
March 31, 1909, prefatory note by L. A. Selby-Bigge, p. 6.
In many cases this advice was totally disregarded. The second report on
the working of the Act contains many examples of the utter lack of
discipline prevailing in some centres. In one case "no attempt to teach
orderly eating was made; there was a certain amount of actual disorderly
conduct, throwing bits of food at each other and so forth." In another
case where the meals were served in a small outhouse in the playground,
the "table was a low locker.... On this a newspaper was spread, and
there was hardly room for more than six children to sit round it. Other
children sat on low benches where they could, holding their bowls on
their knees ... about fifty partake of the dinner, but there is not room
for more than twelve at a time, and then it is a scramble.... The food
(Irish stew and bread) was good but everything else was as bad as could
be." At another centre, we read, "the dinner is eaten in a perfect
pandemonium of noise. Nine charwomen of a rather low type attend to
about 470 children."[251]
Footnote 251:
Report on the Working of the Education (Provision of Meals) Act for
the year ended March 31, 1910, pp. 8, 9.
It is encouraging to note that there has since been, generally speaking,
an improvement in the service of the meals. But "there are still areas
in which the educational possibilities of the meals have not been
realised, or, if realised, have not received the attention which they
deserve"[252]--a statement which we can amply corroborate.
Footnote 252:
Report of the Chief Medical Officer of the Board of Education for
1911, pp. 278, 279.
The different methods in vogue may be classified roughly under four
heads, according to the place in which the meal is served, _i.e._ (_a_)
in the school, (_b_) in eating-houses, (_c_) in "centres," or (_d_) in
the home.
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