The misfortune is that in these subjects there is no definite standard,
and each school trains after its own fashion. The money for technical
education was gained by a side wind, and the passing of the Act found
the country unprepared, no organised system of instruction or of
training for teachers being in existence. As experience is gradually
accumulated the different agencies at work will probably make
comparison of methods and adopt to some extent a common system and
standard. In this connection it should be mentioned that though women
have no place upon County Councils, they may be and are appointed upon
the local committees for carrying out the Councils’ schemes, and in
this way they are able to take an active share in educational work.
It cannot at present be foretold what shape this large enterprise
will eventually take, but it seems likely that for some time to
come the teaching of domestic subjects will form an important and
considerable opening for women. It is fortunate that it is so, since
many are thereby enabled to find congenial employment who have no
taste for the purely literary side of education. In time permanent
institutions for domestic instruction will probably be formed in the
large centres of population--indeed such a movement has already begun.
The superintendence of work at these centres, which will also embrace
outlying districts, must give rise to good appointments, and it is
well to bear in mind that these will certainly fall by preference to
women who besides technical knowledge have received a good general
education, and possess powers of organisation and management. Women
so qualified will probably be highly paid. The rank and file may not
impossibly find their earnings diminish as their numbers increase;
at present their services are at a scarcity value. In view of the
certain extension of this branch of teaching work it is worth while for
girls or their parents to consider whether (viewed as a wage-earning
instrument solely) a course at a school of domestic economy, requiring
at most two years, and costing a comparatively small sum (say £15 per
annum), is not more advantageous than three or four years at Oxford or
Cambridge, costing from £70 to £100 a year. In the ordinary branches of
teaching, as I have shown, a woman seldom earns more than £150 a year,
and teaching is almost the only breadwinning occupation followed by
women graduates. I know teachers of domestic economy who make as much
or more in the winter months, and have the summer free for either rest
or self-culture.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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