The Senior Fourth class is the preparatory class for entrance into the high school, and for many girls it is the final school year. For this reason the Course of this year should cover as many of the remaining household operations as possible.
The training of the previous years should have formed good habits of work and have given experience in ordinary cleaning, and in the cooking and serving of the simple food materials. Through this training the pupils should also have been impressed with the value of food, and should have learned the sources of food and of all well-known household materials.
The training of this last year, while continuing the Junior work, should also emphasize the household processes that require greater mental development to understand and greater practical skill to carry out. It is the border year between the public school and the high school, and must necessarily anticipate the elementary science of the latter. In this year more responsibility should be given to the pupils and more originality should be expected of them. Where they have hitherto followed recipes and been given rules, they should now follow principles and deduce rules.
Of the several topics outlined in the Course for Form IV Senior, it is advisable to start with the preservation of food. Fruit and vegetables are most plentiful when the school year opens, and September is the most opportune month to preserve these for winter use. Facts concerning food preservation may have been taken incidentally in previous lessons, but now the subject should be systematically taught, so that canning, preserving, and pickling may be intelligently practised.
PRESERVATION OF FOOD
CAUSE OF DECAY
The lesson may be introduced by referring to the unusual attention given to fruit at the time of ripening. The economical housekeeper takes certain foods when they are most plentiful and preserves them for use when they are not in season. Some foods require special care to keep them from decaying. The decay is caused by the action of microscopic plants called "bacteria", which get into the food.
BACTERIA
It is difficult for any one to get a correct conception of bacteria; especially is it so for children. The teacher should be most careful not to attempt to give the class unimportant details, but the few necessary facts should be made very clear and real. The following points should be impressed:
1. Bacteria are plants. (This fact should be kept clearly in mind.)