The Making of a Trade School — Reading Companion

Employers were prejudiced against such instruction, for girls trained in former technical schools had not given satisfaction in the workrooms. The parents of the pupils felt that they could not sacrifice themselves further than the end of the compulsory school years, but must then send their children into wage-earning positions. It was impossible to obtain state or municipal aid, and it was known that the experiment must be costly, for: (1) A trade school must be open all the year for day classes, and for night work when needed (schools usually are open from eight to ten months). (2) The work must be done on correct materials, which are often expensive and perishable; but pupils are too poor to provide them, therefore the school must plan to do so. (3) The supervisors must be well educated, with a broad-minded view of industry, capable of original thought, and having a practical knowledge of trade requirement (women of such caliber can always command the best salaries). The teachers and forewomen also must combine teaching ability with competence in their workrooms; but as the market wishes a similar class of service and gives excellent wages to obtain it, the school must offer a like or even a larger amount. (4) Teachers of highly skilled industries are expert, usually, in but the one occupation, such as straw hat making by electric machine or jewelry box making; consequently, even if the student body is small, the teaching force can seldom be reduced without cutting off an entire department or a trade. A trade school differs from the high school in this particular, for in the latter, when necessary, two or more academic subjects can be taught by the same instructor.

Another difficulty confronting the school at the beginning was, that while numerous occupations in New York are open to women, there was reason to think that some of these were not well adapted to them. Little was known at that time of the trades offering opportunities for good wages, steady rise to better positions, satisfactory sanitary conditions, and moderate hours of labor; of the physical effect of many of the popular occupations; of the specific requirements of each kind of employment; of the effect of the working girls in their workrooms and in their homes; of their health and how to improve it; of the needs and wishes of the employers; of the relation of the Trade Union to trade instruction, and of labor legislation already operative or which should be furthered. Before deciding on courses of instruction in the Manhattan Trade School some accurate knowledge of these facts had to be obtained.

The selection of definite trades was made after five months of investigation in the factories, workrooms, and department stores of New York City. In general, it can be said of the occupations chosen that they employ large numbers of women; require expert workers; training for them is difficult to obtain; there is chance within them for rise to better positions; the wages are good, and favorable conditions, both physical and moral, prevail in the workrooms. Some trades employing women were rejected, as they failed to meet necessary requirements, while others were not chosen, as there was little chance in them to rise on account of men's trades intervening. Slack seasons occurring in many otherwise good employments were considered, and plans were made whereby the worker could be enabled to shift to another allied trade when her own was slack. If a girl gains complete control of her tool she can adapt herself to other occupations in which it is used with less difficulty than she can change to a trade requiring another tool. Women's industries, to a great extent, center around the skilled use of a few tools. These tools were selected as centers of the school activities, and the connected trades were radiated from them. The most skilled occupations were found to require the use of the sewing machine, foot and electric power, the paint brush, the paste brush, and the needle. Statistics show that teaching the use of this last tool will affect over one-half of the women wage-earners of New York, of whom there are at least 370,000. In addition to the general scheme of fitting a worker so that she may take up another allied occupation in slack seasons, specific training for this purpose is given to those students who choose trades where the busy season is short and of frequent recurrence.

The curriculum includes instruction in the following trades; the courses are short and the teaching is in trade lines:

I. Use of electric power sewing machines.

1. General Operating--(cheaper variety of work--seasonal; fair wages. Better grade of work--year round, fair and good wages, piece or week work): Shirtwaists, children's dresses (cloth and cotton), boys' waists, infants' wear, children's clothing, women's underwear, fancy petticoats, kimonos and dressing sacques.

2. Special Machines--(seasonal to year round work, depending on kind and demand, wages good): Lace stitch, hemstitching, buttonhole, embroidery (hand and Bonnaz), and scalloping.

3. Dressmaking Operating--(year round, wages good): Lingerie, fancy waists and suits.

4. Straw Sewing--(excellent wages for a short season, but the worker can then return to good wages in general operating): Women's and men's hats.

II. Use of the needle and foot power sewing machines.

1. Dress and Garment Making--(seasons nine to eleven months, and fair to good wages): Uniforms and aprons, white work and simple white embroidery, gymnasium and swimming suits (wholesale and custom), lingerie, dress embroidery, dressmaking (plain and fancy).

2. Millinery--(short seasonal work, low wages, difficult for the average young worker to rise): Trimmings and frame making.

3. Lampshade and Candleshade Making--(seasonal work, fair pay). This trade supplements the Millinery.

III. Use of paste and glue: 1. Sample mounting (virtually year work, fair wages). 2. Sample book covers, labeling, tissue paper novelties and decorations (seasonal and year round work, good wages). 3. Novelty work (year round work, changed within workroom to meet demand, wages good). 4. Jewelry and silverware case making (year round work, wages good).

IV. Use of brush and pencil (year round work, good wages): Special elementary art trades, perforating and stamping, costume sketching, photograph and slide retouching.

_Note._ Year round work, in general, includes a holiday of longer or shorter duration, usually without pay.

The school is open throughout the year in order to train girls whenever they come--the summer months being slack in most trades are especially desirable for instruction. The tuition is free, and in cases of extreme necessity a committee gives Students' Aid, in proportion to the need. Entrance to day classes for girls who are from fourteen to seventeen years of age and who can show their working papers or be able to produce documentary evidence of age, if under sixteen, can occur any week.

Each girl who enters, after selecting her trade, is given a typewritten paper showing the possible steps of advance in her chosen course. She takes this home in order that the family may know what is before her. She can by special effort or by outside study lessen the length of her training. The first month in the school is a test time. If the girl shows the needed qualities she is allowed to continue.

During the month of trial her instructors decide what she needs and if her chosen trade is the best for her. The right is reserved to make a complete change if her health will not stand the one she desires, if she has no ability for it, or if she gives evidence of special talent in another direction.

Industrial Intelligence

Every student has, as a part of her trade education, such academic work, art, and physical training as seems necessary; when she passes certain standards she is then allowed to devote full time to her selected occupation. It is not possible for a worker who has skill with the hand and no education to back it up to rise far in her trade. There is many a tragedy in the market of the woman whose poor early education prevented her from getting ahead. Accurate expression, whether oral or written, the use of arithmetic in simple trade transactions or detailed accounts, the ability to grasp the important factors in any situation and then to go to work without waste of time or motion, are required for positions of trust and for supervision in any workroom. It was soon discovered that the girls entering the school know arithmetic in an abstract way, but are at sea when asked to meet the ordinary trade problems. They are inaccurate in reading and copying; they cannot write a letter of application, conduct correspondence, make out checks, or keep simple accounts. They are ignorant of the laws already made which concern them and of their own relation to future laws. They have no ideals in their trade life. They need to see the relation of their chosen trade to the country, of their work to their employer's success, the effect they may have in bringing about a better feeling between the employer and the wage-earner. A practical, immediately available business education is absolutely essential to make workwomen of executive ability. Therefore specific trade instruction in arithmetic, English, history, geography, and civics was planned to supplement and enrich the trade courses.

Steady progress has been made in determining the kind of cultural trade instruction which will best assist such young wage-earners. A new field in practical education had to be opened, and subject matter which could be of service in the workrooms selected from it. The many trades of the school had to be studied in order to know their needs. The work has grown more valuable each year and has proved itself to be a truly necessary part of the curriculum. A concrete evidence of its worth is the fact that many of the girls in slack seasons have taken clerical positions and have been complimented on their grasp of the subject, their orderliness, their ability to think, and their reliability. Naturally all departments unite to develop character in the students, but the Academic Department feels this to be a special aim. Pleasure in the subject of instruction, followed by mental and moral improvement, has indicated clearly that the academic dullness which is shown at entrance comes frequently from lack of motive in former studies. The interest is all the more encouraging as there are many handicaps in the teaching, for the students enter at any time, are graded by the trades they select, and are placed in the market as quickly as possible; hence the work cannot be uniform in its advance. Nor is the academic work a help to the girls in their business life only, for such subjects as the keeping of accounts, the consideration of the cost of living, and the value and price of materials are of direct use also in home life.

Trade Art Instruction

Courses in Trade Art were also organized as a fundamental part of the instruction. Each trade has its own art, and the school has tried to adapt the work in the studios to each different occupation. It recognizes that the art applied in dressmaking differs from that in millinery, and this again from that required for decorating jewelry boxes and calendars. It consequently offers each student the kind of elementary art training needed in her trade. The time is too short to develop designers, but it does help a girl to be more exact, resourceful, and useful in her workroom, and often enables her to make a higher wage. A worker who can place trimming, adapt designs to new purposes, stamp patterns, draw copies of garments, and combine color attractively is especially desirable in her chosen employment.

The young wage-earner of New York is much handicapped by her poor physical condition; heredity, poor habits of life, and unsanitary homes show their effects upon her. The girls who come to the school are young enough to remedy many of their defects. In a few months they will be in positions demanding eight or more hours a day, in which they must strain every nerve and bend all of their energies to meet the standard brought about by trade competition. The Physical Department of the school studies the health of each girl and trains her to care adequately for it. The specific treatment needed by some of the students takes them many hours a week from their department work. While this has its disadvantages, it is felt to be more important to improve the physical condition than to develop skill alone when the health is too poor to stand the strain of exacting positions. It is often difficult at first to persuade parents that such close attention to health is necessary. The results, however, in the majority of cases have proved the wisdom of this procedure.

Immediately after entering the school and being assigned to a department each girl must report to the school physician. Beginning with the family history, a complete record of all the important events relating to her physical life is taken. She is closely questioned as to all bodily functions, and a careful record is kept of irregularities. Eyes, ears, teeth, nose, throat, and feet are likewise examined, and measurements are taken of height, weight, and the principal expansions. After the examination, instruction as to treatment is given, if any is needed.

The work in the gymnasium has three purposes: invigorative, reactive, and corrective. Every girl who is not restricted on account of physical defects takes the prescribed gymnastic work. Nor has this a physical effect only, for through the active games such qualities as judgment and accuracy, self-control, and the harmonious working with others are developed. Slow, uncertain, vague movements denote lack of mental quickness and strength. Motor activity, rightly directed, leads to poise of mind as well as of body. These girls live mostly in crowded localities of the city, where free exercise is unknown. The school aims, as far as possible, to supply the lack of wholesome outdoor life and give joyous active exercise. Talks on hygiene are a regular part of the work and aim: (1) to give each girl a knowledge of her body and of its functions which will enable her to care for her health in an intelligent manner; (2) to show her the relation of food and its preparation to her physical condition; (3) to establish in her mind ideals of correct living which can be made practical in her surroundings; and (4), recognizing the right and desire of every girl for amusement, to create a love for wholesome and simple pleasures that will take the place of the too strenuous and often unwise recreations which tend to undermine the health of the girl who works.

The Lunchroom and the Cooking Classes

From the opening of the school, hot soup, hot chocolate, or cold milk had been served daily, at two cents a cup, to those wishing to supplement the cold lunch which they had brought from their homes. The teachers also had an opportunity of buying a simple, hot meal which was prepared by one of their number, assisted by students who aided in the preparation, serving, and clearing away. At first the average girl felt she could not give much time to her trade training, consequently such time had to be devoted to making her able to command a living wage. The hope, however, that in the future the opportunity would come for offering increased domestic training was never forgotten. The opening at the school of a temporary workroom for unemployed women during the financial stress of 1908 provided them with regular work and pay. It was advisable also to serve nourishing lunches daily to these underfed workers. There was already a simple lunchroom in the basement of the school, containing such bare necessities as plain tables on horses, long wooden benches, a gas stove with four burners, a few cooking utensils, and a closet filled with inexpensive china. The complete cost of equipment had been $300.

The school was now, however, face to face with the need to feed daily more than 500 people--teachers, workers, and students--and yet no additional money could be spent for equipment. The necessity was so great, however, that in addition to the usual lunches a hot, nourishing meal was given daily to the hundred workers in the temporary workroom, for which they paid one-half of the price of materials.

With this inauguration of regular cooking it seemed especially desirable to take the opportunity of training at least some of the students in the selection, care, and preparation of food. The majority of these girls will be the mothers of the next generation, and yet they know nothing of food values or food preparation. This is evident from the daily lunches they bring and from their discussions in the class on hygiene. On the other hand, girls who can remain but a few months in the school have a serious need to face, that of self-support, for the wage for unskilled girls ($3.00) is not sufficient to live on with decency. The physical, mental, and moral future of these young girls demands that they should be able to make more than this pittance. In the few months during which the majority are in attendance both a trade training and a knowledge of cooking cannot be given, therefore the former must take the precedence. The school has been able to prove, however, that girls educated there can command a fair wage in trade, but that a longer time given to this training will enable them to obtain better positions and salaries. Hence an increasing number have been willing to remain longer, giving even a year or more to preparation. It was with this latter class that the time was ripe to offer some training in lunchroom cookery which could teach them what could be procured at low prices and yet be nourishing; how to prepare food at home, and how to use the hot table often found in an up-to-date factory. For this purpose, therefore, some simple additional equipment was installed and a daily menu was offered, comprising inexpensive, attractive, wholesome dishes, at the lowest possible cost. Many of the students care for so little variety in food that all of the necessary elements for building strong, healthy bodies are not supplied, hence they are under-nourished. They require encouragement to even try the food which is essential for improving their physical condition. The girls have taken great interest in their lunchroom cookery. They appreciate the inexpensive menus and admire the simple table decorations. Gradually they have given up spending their few pennies for poor fruit, cake, or candy at some cheap shop, and now purchase nourishing dishes cooked by the students at the school.

The cooking course connects directly with the talks on hygiene. The plan of work is the following: (1) Twenty girls are chosen at one time. These work in two groups of ten each, and for six weeks have daily one-hour lessons. This gives them thirty lessons, which is almost equivalent to what the public school offers in a year, but, being concentrated into daily work and practical use in the lunchroom, is of equal, if not greater, efficacy. (2) The students set the tables, cook a definite part of the lunch, dish the articles, prepare the counters, sell the various dishes, keep and report sales, and clear the counters afterward. The groups alternate in order that preparing food, watching its progress, and taking it from the stove may be done by all with a minimum loss of time from their trade instruction. (3) The selection of girls to take the course is made from (_a_) those who can remain long enough in the school to combine trade training with the simple cooking course, (_b_) those who have such poor health that a knowledge of what to eat and how to cook it is the first consideration, and (_c_) those who are already little housekeepers in their homes, as their mothers are incapacitated or dead.

After several months of experience it was felt that the six weeks of constant practice was well worth while. More elaborate courses of cookery would demand a more thorough kitchen equipment, entailing much expense, and would require students to remain a longer time in school. With the present arrangement they learn the most important cooking processes in a very practical way, and discuss the relation of food to themselves and to their families.