New York City: (1) City Government, (a) Officials, Mayor, Commissioner, Borough President, Aldermen; (b) City Departments. (2) Citizenship, (a) Who are citizens, (b) How to become a citizen, (c) Duties and privileges of citizens, (d) Aliens. (3) Child Labor Laws, (a) School attendance, (b) Working papers, how obtained, (c) Hours for work. (4) Factory Laws for girls over sixteen years old. (5) Sweatshop labor. (6) Tenement House Laws. (7) Trade-Unions. (8) Commerce and Industries of New York. (9) Philanthropies.
Industries
Aim: To furnish the worker with a background for her trade and to help her to see her place in the working world of today. 1. A generalized view is taken of the main steps in the early progress of the race. 2. Textile materials are discussed as to their values, their uses, their cost, the processes of their manufacture, the comparison of foreign and domestic goods, with reasons for the differences, and the connected problems of arithmetic which the students will meet. These subjects help the girl to "get next" to what she is working with every day and to arouse interest in her personal connection with the subject. The English girl whose father was once employed in a lace house in London brings mounted specimens of that sort of handwork to the class; the Hungarian brings hand-spun articles from her mother's bridal outfit; the Italian presents a skein of raw silk taken from the family's treasure box, and the girl from Roumania brings an embroidered bed cover. The student whose mother does not believe cotton ever grew on bushes asks that she may verify her own statement by taking home a real cotton ball. A Labor Museum is being collected to give reality to the instruction, and exhibits from it, which show the steps in the manufacturing of the fabrics and of other familiar articles, are put up in the classroom when needed. A bulletin board provides for the numerous clippings brought by the students or teachers.
Arithmetic
Aim: The fundamental aim of arithmetic is to give the pupils working methods for the problems that occur in trade practice. To make the correlation clear to the girls, workroom methods of presentation and phraseology and the customary materials are used. Sewing and operating students make hems, tucks, and ruffles to actual measurements; novelty girls cut and arrange cards for samples in accordance with their workroom demands; and millinery students work out the measurements for hat frames as closely as varying styles permit.
With the fundamentals of trade problems established, arithmetic is further developed along special lines of trade to meet the demands of the business world. The trained worker should not only be skilled in the manipulation of tools and materials, but she should be able to compute her own problems, such as estimates for garments, how to cut materials economically, the cost of one garment or article as related to the cost of many of the same kind, the prices, and similar trade questions. The ability to deal with these subjects adds materially to the value of a skilled worker.
The central scheme of the course is to lead the pupil to prompt and accurate mental calculation. This is stimulated by frequent oral drills in trade problems and business problems involving short methods of computation. The extent and progress of this work are regulated by the ability of the class.
The following outlines show the adaptation of arithmetic to the different trades:
Operating: (1) Cutting of gauges, (a) For hems, (b) For tucks. (2) Tucking problems, (a) With gauges, (b) As formal arithmetic problems. (3) Ruffling problems. (4) Time problems, Department time schedules as basis for the work. (5) Factory problems. (6) Income, expenditure, savings. (7) Bills and receipts. (8) Computation of quantity of material required for garments, (a) By measuring garments, (b) By use of patterns on cloth, (c) Economy of material. (9) Problems based on above work. (10) Civic problems.
Sewing: (1) Cutting of gauges, (a) For hems, (b) For tucks. (2) Tucking problems. (3) Ruffling problems. (4) Computation of quantity of material required for garments, (a) By measuring garments, (b) By use of patterns on cloth, (c) Economy of material. (5) Problems based on above work. (6) Store problems. (7) Bills and receipts. (8) Income, expenditures, savings. (9) Textile problems. (10) Civic problems.