Girl stenographers need a full high school course for its educational value and for maturity. Girls going into other clerical positions can qualify with a year or two less of education; but immaturity in any case puts them at a disadvantage.
Boys' training, for those who cannot remain in school, should be compressed into fewer than four years. Immaturity in the case of boys is not a great disadvantage.
Bookkeeping has general value in the information it gives about business methods and for its drill in accuracy. To some extent it may aid in the development of reasoning.
Much of the bookkeeping in actual use in business consists in making entries of one kind only and in checking and verifying. Understanding of debit and credit, posting, and trial balance, is the maximum practical need of the younger workers.
Penmanship demands compactness, legibility, neatness, and ease in writing; also, the correct writing and placing of figures.
The chief demand of business in arithmetic is for fundamental operations—adding and multiplying—also for ability to make calculations and to verify results mentally.
Undergraduate experience in school or business offices may be a valuable method of acquainting students with office practice and routine and with business organization and business standards.