Collected papers on physical and military training / by Sir Lauder Brunton.
- Brunton, Thomas Lauder, Sir, 1844-1916.
- Date:
- 1915
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Collected papers on physical and military training / by Sir Lauder Brunton. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.
106/336 page 12
![Feeding and CooJcinr/. difficulties to be met? First, by providing nutritious and iippetising food at a cheap rate for the children of those who are ignorant and slovenly, but who are able to pay for the materials of a good meal, and only cannot or will not cook it properly. Secondly, by providing food for the children of those who are really unable to buy a sufficient quantity of food, to say nothing of its quality. With all diffidence I may suggest that both of these difficulties may to a certain extent be met by cooking classes attached to each school, at which the children not only cook but eat the meals. The quantity to be prepared every da/ would allow greater opportunities for fill the girls to learn cooking. The food, which could be supplied at a small rate to those who could pay, would probably be more appetising than what they could bring with them from home, or perhaps even than they could obtain at home if they were able to go there between the school hours. There can be no doubt that pauperising the people by the provision of free meals is inadvisable, and whatever parents can ]Day for their children they ought to be made to pay; but the State has already determined that whether they will or not they must have education, and if tlie child is starved the whole provision which the State makes for its education is lost, so that it seems to me that if the parents will not feed the child it should be fed at school,and the authorities should comedown upon the parents for recompense just as the authorities come ■down on the parents for allowing the child to remain away and lose the opportunities jjrovided for its education. In cases where the parents cannot really afford to provide proper sustenance for the child it would probably be really cheaper in the end to feed it at the public expense. As my friend Dr. Eichholz has very clearly put it, if we feed these children while they are growing we now spend money, but if by so doing we enable them to grow into strong men and women, and to utilise the education which is given to them, we enable them in later years to earn their own livelihood, and very likely keep them and their children off the parish. We spend on them in their youth, but we save a good deal more than this expense in later years by keeping tliem off the rates. If a](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21358497_0108.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
