Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1894-05-27
BLIND GIRLS CAN COOK

A blind cook would seem to be an
anomaly, vet Superintendent Lyman
Pease, of the Wisconsin School for the
Blind, az Evansville, has Of late demon
strated that blind girls can not only be
taught TO prepare food IN an appetizing
way, and by scientific methods, but
they can also be taught the care and
management OF a stove and the use OF
kitchen utensils.
A course in housekeeping has been
one OF the features of the school for
some time, but cooking lessons have
only recently been added TO ii. This
was done not 10 make professional cooks
Of the girls, but because Mr.. PeSse, re-
alizing how difficult IL is TO secure
profitable employment for blind girls,
thought it wise 20 teach them TO be val
liable assistants either in the kitchen
of their own homes or Ia those Of their
friends.
With this aim In view the cooking
lessons at the State school differ from
those in ordinary schools in one impOr-
portant particular, for while at the ordi-
nary cooking school the pupil is taught
the use OF various improved utensils and
is encouraged 20 make use OF them, the
blind girls are given only the same sort
OF things 10 work with as are TO be
found ia the average kitchen. The
girls used a wood stove instead or gas
or hard coal range, aud instead OF hav-
ing a hot water boiler they are required
20 keep the kettle filed and hot as cOun-
try wives must. They are also taught
TO be- exquisitely clean, and whenever
a
may soil their hands they are obliged to
WASH them before going on with their
ordinary work.
Knowing that the stove is a danger
Gus element in a kitchen where blind
girl is at work, particular attention has
been paid 70 IL ia the course Of lessons.
The stove is not protected with guards,
and the girls are required 70 learn by
clos 5.attention,aud'Dra ctiCehOw 10 avoid
any danger when making fires or work
ing over the stove.
So successful has the cooking school
at the school for the blind proved that
8 ''kitchen garden" section has been
added 70 she kindergarten work, similar
in theory to the usual kitchen gardens
At kindergartenS. and so arranged that
passing from 10 the girls enter the cook
ing school thoroughly prepared for its
work.
1--WE started the work on broad
gauge ambition, writes Superintendent
Pease in an article in which he de-
scrlbes the new departure. "In fact,
our work was mapped out the same, as
to results, as il would have been for
seeing pupils. PerhapSI ought TO at
tempt a justification Of such work by
giving more complete expression 10
my thought. People who rely upon
their eyes cannot understand the limit
of the restrictions placed upon blind
people. We may imagine difficulties
which do not exist Hence, in beginning
3 new line OF work, would give IL
sufficient scope to include all the essen
tlals, the same way as l would were we
teaching seeing children. When we
meet difficulties which we cannot avoid,
difficulties 70 which we must yield be-
cause they are peculiar to blindness, We
have lost nothing, because the educa-
tiOn is complete 70 that point; and we
may have found the imagined difficult
ties to be only imaginary"
A list Of dishes which have been pre-
pared by totally blind girls in the school
includes all kinds of bread, cake,
roasted and broied meats, various
ways OF preparing vegetables, the
making Of jelies and preserves, pickles,
and so on. Reading IL over one cannot
fail to DO surprised at the scope Of the
work done. In weighing materials and
testing cooking the senses OF touch and
taste are wholly relied upon, aud II is
wonderful how extremely delicate in
their powers Of diSeernment these
senses are when developed to their ut
most.