The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-12-23
DID COWLES DOTHIS?
Said To Have Sent High
School Girls Hustling
For the Cooking
Class.
PRESIDENT JONES' OPINION
Contends that the Abolition Of
the Class Was Proper
Novelties ManyAu
thorities.

No wonder there is much disappointment
among the nice young ladies of the High
School since there is to be no more cooking
class.
And after we were sent out" complained
one, with tears in her eyes, ''by Mr.. Elijah
5. Cowles every day for three whole weeks
to get the petition signed and the nasty horrid
people in the board to refuse it."
Mr.. Cowles and those who think with him
IN the board conceived the idea of tacking on
kitchen to every school in the city.
The girls were to be instructed in scientific
dlshwashlng and ultimately graduate into
hrst-class young pot WALLPAPERS and pan
wrestlers They were to know how to cook
everything from mud pie to perigord pie
and command an army of pots and kettles.
When President Jones and his confreres
sat down on this plan Mr.. Cowles drafted
petition requesting the board not to abolish
the cooking school and went down to the
High School during school session and sent
out every day for three weeks lot of the
girls with copies of these petitions for sigma
lures. Their parents during there weeks
tondly imagined their children were hard at
work with studies, instead of which they
were roaming about the streets going from
door to door asking in timed pleading way,
''Oh, if you please, won't you sign this, so We
can have a cooking school3' The result of
the extensive canvassing was that ITO names
were added to Mr.. Cowles' petition. 1t
didn't work, however The board was
obdurate and refused to reconsider.
Since that refusal great number of people
have wondered why the board should object
to this class of training on the public school
course and that these reasons might appear,
NEWS reporter found Mr.. John NJ Jones
in his Office in New York yesterday and asked
him to say why the cooking class was
abolished
MR.. JONES INTERVIEWED
hncran
putting aside mass of private business to
answer the question fully, sat meeting of
the finance committee of the board in
November last prior to the last meeting of
the fiscal year, in looking over report from
the superintendent prepared at my request,
as to how many teachers could be spared
from other schools in an emergency if re-
qu1red elsewhere, it was found that by max
ing such probable transfers and with a small
balance on the salary fund added to the sum
paid to the experimental cooking teacher,
the board would be able to provide all
teachers required in the public schools for
the coming year, without asking for any
further appropriation from the Board of
Finance. 1t must be remembered that by
the charter we must not exceed our approp-
riations Aside from this financial reason it
was the opinion Of all the members of the
finance committee Of the board that the
cooking school was useless expenditure and
as far as we could ascertain was detrimental
to the best interests of pupils. The cooking
class was diversion and a lounging place
rather than source of practical knowledge.
Before taking any action 1t was aScerualned
that those interested in educational matters
were against the establishment of manual
training in our schools In Detroit the board
of education there sought to appropriate
S60,000 for that purpose. The board Of
aldermen of that city, acting like our board
OF finance, refused to appropriate the sum-
A number of private citizens in the city Of
fered to subscribe $780, 600 for the cooking
school, ETC., but after mature deliberation the
Educational Board refused the offer, believ-
ing that it would saddle the city with bur-
dens, the responsibility of which the board
cared not to shoulder. In Milwaukee the
cooking school question was rejected on
similar grounds of utility and economy. st.
Paul also decided against the plan. Supt.
Aaron Gore of Denver, in his annual report
to the board there, said that the larger part
of the school world could find no sufficient
reason for paying from the public treasury
for instruction in a field that forms SO small
a part of the industries of the great public.
1t is special training and only few can
avail themselves of it.
sit would seem that ample accom-
mediation should be made for all if for few.
The state is not justified for class provision
in its Institution. That which should be
taught should be general not special
THE DUTIES OF THE STATE.
SIN Brooklyn" Mr.. Jones continued. 'sthe
Board of Education proposed to spend money
for manual training from money approp-
rated for this purpose. They were st )pped
by the corporation counsels opinion, which
told them that it was illegal, and if they did
SO they would be able to charges of mis-
demeanor. Now in New York, commits
sioners were appointed to revise the course OF
studies in common schools. They are in ses-
sion now. Mr.. j. Schuyler Crosby, formerly
a member of the New York Board of Educa-
tion, recommended certain changes to the
commissioners. Among these the most inn
portant is that the number of studies shall
be reduced He says that the idea of giving
an academic education to the majority
of children is essentially fallaeious.
1t is SO because eight out of ten people be-
long to the great industrial class, and are
compelled to leave before finishing the
course; thus deriving no benefit from higher
and more ambitious features of the curricu-
lum. He recommend plain elementary course
in English, embracing American history,
could acquire the knowledge of
how to become intelligent citi-
zens If it were the proper functions Of
government to give the people a luxurious
and purely ornamental education, the child
rem are not able to improve the opportunity
and are in fact retarded rather than profited
by its presentation. Neither the obligations
nor the circumstances of the average citizen
warrant the present system provided in our
public schools. The proper function of
free education is to make good American
citizens, and its bene6cent forces should not
be enfeebled and dissipated by nonsensical
chimerical experiments.
THE FINANCIAL SIDE.
Mr.. Jones then turned his remarks upon
the financial side of this question, and showed
that it wasn't only for the paltry 800 a year
salary to the experimental cooking teacher,
but if those who advocated the plan had their
way, every school in the city would have
kitchen attachment and the 500 would rap
idly increase to s., ,000
He showed that the Board of Education
has increased its expenses year by year. The
appropriation for this year is 1851, 1854, and
of that $2S5, ,332 is for teachers salaries The
number of teachers in the High and other
schools have increased from time to time,
but the number of graduates is not so large
as 1T was in former years when there were
fewer teachers. A great many pupils fail to
pass the examination from year to year, and
what is to be inferred from the facta Is it
not apparent that the children are over
worked and oyertaxed! 1t is certainly not
the fault of the teachers They are earnest
in their work, but the number of studies is
so large that children cannot be proficient in
all. They merely get smattering.
Our policy as board ought to be in the
line of retrenchment and reform. We should
keep our expenses within our appropriation,
and if there should be any balance left, that
balance should not be wasted hnt shouId fall