ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how far the more backward children in secondary schools are a problem to the housecraft teacher and whether it is in the interest of the children themselves to deviate from the normal patterns of housecraft teaching. Every secondary school has some less able children, but the degree of backwardness varies considerably and while the comment that a child ‘cannot read’ means a fair lack of fluency in one school, in another it means complete inability. Some housecraft teachers take their share of D stream classes willingly enough but find the task discouraging, others enjoy the children and choose to teach them. Since housecraft is taught to children of secondary school age, a certain fluency in reading, writing and number is usually taken for granted, with the result that it sometimes seems quite impossible for certain children to cook a dinner, for they cannot yet read.
