There seem to be 14 of the 750 boys who had been working long enough at a trade and were sufficiently pleased with the prospects for the future to make one safe in saying that they would probably complete their apprenticeship—although this conclusion may not be justified. These 14 were distributed as follows:
| Blacksmith | 1 |
| Brass worker | 2 |
| Carpenter | 1 |
| Electrician | 3 |
| Machinist | 3 |
| Plumber | 3 |
| Sheet-metal worker | 1 |
| —— | |
| Total | 14 |
This study of Mr. Chatfield's shows that not only were very few of the boys between the ages of 16 and 19 receiving vocational experience that would train them to be useful to the state in the maintenance of defense or in the other interests of the state as outlined in the bill, but also boys of these ages are likely to change their work rather frequently. There were 184 of these 750 boys who had been out of school between three and four years when this study was made. Of these 184 boys 41 were still working at the job they first had when they left school, 47 were on the second job, 41 were on the third job, and 13 had made eight or more changes.
I know of no study which more clearly points out the "blind alleyness" of the employment of children. However, some of us, including Dr. David Snedden of Columbia University, feel that a better term than "blind-alley occupations" would be "occupations involving juvenile employment." To us the evil of errand-messenger, clerk, or office-boy service is not that boys wander into or are thrust into a line of work which may be a blind alley, but rather that no provision is made in the public-school system for giving the boys a short preparatory training helpful to them in this temporary service, and that no training which would help them to get out of such work is given them in the office, store, or factory. If society would frankly recognize that there are juvenile employments and that boys might well work in them while they are juveniles and yet be trained through such work, and apart from such work in continuation schools, to discover themselves and to prepare themselves for other work, we might develop a constructive educational program.
This study certainly shows the waste of the boy power of the state and proves conclusively that there is need for the state to grapple consciously with the problem of conserving its youth; and when one reads this summary of an accurate and previously unpublished report, one is led to believe that William James, John Dewey, Liberty Hyde Bailey, and John Finley are right in their contention that there should be a mobilization of the boy force of the state looking toward conservation of the boy power that it may lead into training for skilled work, into citizenship, into sturdy health, and into right living.
CHAPTER VIII
RED CROSS AND OTHER COMMUNITY WORK
Thoughtful people are becoming disposed to criticize the present methods employed in many of our sewing, cooking, and millinery classes. It is felt that the girls in these classes, through the work which they do, think of themselves first, last, and all the time. They spend time on embroidery to cater further to decorative instincts long established by custom without much thought as to artistic values. They spend half a year making graduation dresses which they may wear before admiring parents. They copy the latest fashion in hats without thought as to utility or beauty. They knit feathery neck pieces and neglect stocking darning. They laboriously sew by hand articles which had better be made on a machine.
Our girls must learn to think of others than themselves. Their sewing and millinery must get away from the individual-problem idea. Of course girls must learn to sew by hand, especially when the home in these days teaches so little in the way of hand sewing. But after they have learned to sew by hand, they should not continue to use hand sewing on work that should be done on a sewing machine. Of course it is wise to train girls to make some of their own clothing, but to make this clothing without regard to study of textiles or adaptation to personal needs or the eternal fitness of things is not in accord with the educational purpose of our schools, which is to train personal character as well as to develop skill in domestic arts. When the family hosiery needs darning, and the small children of the family need clothes, and the schoolgirl needs a middy blouse or a school uniform, it is unwise to spend so much energy on continuing a type of domestic art which lacks the socialized appeal necessary to conform with modern social needs and modern industrial methods.
The teachers of household arts are beginning to see the need for reform. Many are bringing into the school life such problems as the mending and darning of the family clothes; cooking school luncheons; managing day nurseries for babies of working mothers; making table and bed linen for hospitals; making jams and jellies for charitable societies. Such teachers have welcomed the opportunity offered by the present war to forward the new idea of socializing domestic-arts work. They have been impatient of the dilettante work which they formerly did when their girls practically wasted hours of school time in making things which could be bought for less than the cost of materials, to say nothing about the cost of time of the girls themselves, who are in school but a few years at best—years when they should be receiving instruction in subjects which have real training values. These progressive teachers have desired that their girls develop more speed; that they receive training helpful in meeting the actual trade conditions in dressmaking and millinery shops; that they learn to work together on some common problem which all may see is worth while and for a purpose which is larger than themselves. Red Cross work has given these teachers the opportunity which they sought. They believe that the Red Cross work during the war may easily be converted into community work after the war is over. Hospitals, charity organizations, orphan asylums, and homes are always with us. The great appeal now, obviously, is Red Cross work. The permanent appeal is always the need of the home and the community.