Open Collections Program - Student Dialogue

Open Collections Program > Women Working > Teachers > Soap and Settlements > "Housekeeping Class"

Some 8th Graders Discuss the Photograph "Housekeeping Class"

CLARE: Well, it’s not necessarily, like, a school, but just a place where they’re going—like, they might all know the teacher, and they’re just, like, girls who live near her—
REBECCA: And others. Yeah.
CLARE: —and she’s willing to teach them how to do this. And it’s, like, in her own house. And they’re just learning—
ZACH: But then why would they all have the same little hat on?
CLARE: Well, because hats—you’re supposed to wear them—it’s like, the proper—
JOSIE: To keep your hair out of—
CLARE: —like, attire to wear when you’re cooking.
JOSIE: It’s like, our lunch ladies have to wear those, like, nets.

This exchange was part of the longer discussion below.
For teacher commentary and the entire context of these conversations, download the case study Using Women Working Resources in Schools.

JOSIE: I have a couple things to say. One, it does look kind of like a school now—
ZACH: Yes, that’s what I was going to say. Yeah. There are other sounds of agreement.
JOSIE: —it looks like a school, or like something that, like, all the girls had to get together and, like, go to this class, because, um, like, you have something to do when they get older.
TEACHER: …What makes it look like a school now? I chose to focus on her first thought. Fortunately, the idea that the girls were preparing for when they got older reemerged later.
JOSIE: Um, ’cause there’s an adult, and there’s children gathered around her, watching what she’s doing—
ZACH: They’ve all kind of got the same uniform, too. They’ve all got the same little hat—
DAN: —with a hat—it’s the same on all the girls—
ZACH: Exactly.
DAN: And then different on, like, the older woman.

DAN: …It’s just—it seems like a house—which is kind of weird. ’Cause it feels like a school—like, looking at it, you can see all the kids—it looks like a school, but then, like, just the way it looks, and the way it kind of—seems like it’s set up—

CLARE: Well, it’s not necessarily, like, a school, but just a place where they’re going—like, they might all know the teacher, and they’re just, like, girls who live near her—
REBECCA: And others. Yeah.
CLARE: —and she’s willing to teach them how to do this. And it’s, like, in her own house. And they’re just learning—
ZACH: But then why would they all have the same little hat on?
CLARE: Well, because hats—you’re supposed to wear them—it’s like, the proper—
JOSIE: To keep your hair out of—
CLARE: —like, attire to wear when you’re cooking.
JOSIE: It’s like, our lunch ladies have to wear those, like, nets.

TAMIKA: Yeah, I basically thought the same thing. Like, another lesson—like, not in as a school [sic] but, like, having—like, they probably, like, all have, like, their own homes, but then, one mother, like, volunteered to teach them—all housekeeping stuff, or whatever. Like, they made some of their own—class out of school. That’s what I thought—just, like, another lesson, like, comparing those two (this photograph and that of the "Washing Lesson").
TEACHER: And so, the woman in—the woman here would be the mother, you think?
TAMIKA: Yeah, the mother of one of them, or just volunteered to, like, do something.
ZACH: She doesn’t really look like a mother. She looks too young—to me.

ZACH: It looks like they’re paying good attention. Everyone tries to talk at once.
CLARE: If you’re, like, invested in what you’re doing, then everyone leans on the table and is, like, interested in what they’re learning. So that’s, like—no matter what time it is.
ZACH: They’re not exactly leaning on the table.
JOSIE: Yeah. But they’re all trying to see.
DAN: They’re all, like, staring.
ZACH: Yeah. Staring.

REBECCA: I don’t think it’s something that you just, like, go over with your friends—you know, like, hey, let’s go, like—
JOSIE: Hey, let’s go learn how to cook!
REBECCA: I think it’s definitely a class—
CLARE: I think they’re being required to learn how to cook by some adult figure in their life, like their parents, and they—might all know each other, like, from the community that they live in.

For teacher commentary and the entire context of these conversations, download the case study Using Women Working Resources in Schools.