Manhattan Trade School for Girls, New York; New York (N.Y.); School management and organization
In general, it may be said that the untrained girl has to take the best
place she can find, without reference to her ability, her physical
condition, or her inclination. The most desirable trades are seldom open
to her, for they require workers of experience, or, at least, those who
have had recognized instruction. Even if a green girl enters a skilled
trade, she cannot rise easily in it, and is apt to be dropped out at the
first slack season. The sort of positions open to her have usually
little future, as they are isolated occupations that do not lead to more
advanced work. Illustrations of these employments are wrapping braid,
sorting silk, running errands, tying fringe, taking out and putting in
buttons in a laundry, dipping candy, assorting lamps, making cigarettes,
tending a machine, and tying up packages. These young, unskilled girls
wander from one of these occupations to another; their salaries, never
running high, rise and fall according to the need felt for the worker,
and not because her increasing ability is a factor in her trade life.
After several years spent in the market, she is little better off than
at her entrance.
Some Difficulties of Organization
It was to relieve this serious situation that the Manhattan Trade School
was founded. It began its work in the face of great discouragements.
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
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