قراءة كتاب The Making of a Trade School
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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.
Trade Orders
The handwork in the various departments falls into three grades: 1. Practice work, which not being up to the standard is ripped up and used again. 2. Seconds; fair work, not quite up to the school standard for trade work. This is sold at cost to the students or to needy institutions. 3. Trade work; up to the standard. This is sold to the trade or to private customers at regular market prices. This feature of the school work, entailing, as it does, the taking of many varieties of orders from the outside factories and workrooms, has proved itself to be an important educational factor. After six years of experience in utilizing orders from the outside workrooms, it can be said that this part of the instruction serves the following purposes: (1) It provides the students with adequate experience on classes of material used in the best workrooms; these girls could not purchase such materials and the school could not afford to buy them for practice. (2) The ordinary conditions in both the wholesale and the custom trade are thus made a fundamental part of the instruction. Reality of this kind helps the supervisors to judge the product from its trade value (amateur work will thus be rejected), and the teaching from the kind of workers turned out. Through the business relation the students quickly feel the necessity of good finish, rapid work, and responsibility to deliver on time. (3) The orders bring in a money return and thus aid the school in the expense for material. (4) The businesslike appearance of the shops at work on the orders and the experience trade has had with the product have increased the confidence of employers of labor in the ability of the school to train practical workers for the trades. The school is constantly urged by trade to increase its order work, but its unfaltering policy is to take only the amount needed for educational purposes. (5) The business organization and management required in the adequate conduct of a large order department can itself be utilized for educational purposes, and has its value for training students who show promise of becoming good stock clerks.
Trade workers are employed in the business shops connected with the various departments. These assistants have proved their value in making the best utilization of the order work. They facilitate the completion of the work on time and help train the girls to feel responsible for their share of it. As the students work slowly at first, and as their hours in the shops are interrupted by other studies, the trade workers, when necessary, continue with or complete the articles while the girls are absent. They make possible the tradelike organization of the shops, for each one has around her her own little groups of assistants, and she teaches them while she also works. Constant repetition of the same process ceases, after a time, to be valuable to a student, hence her time must not be wasted by too simple work or by unnecessary details. It often happens also that an article may require expert work in its completion which the students cannot yet do; the trade workers select for each girl the process which will be of value to her, and then do the work the students cannot do or should not do.
The following lists will show the class of orders which have been demanded by trade and turned out by the school:
Operating Department Orders: 1. Trade Work: Ribbon run on webbing for suspenders, infants' dresses—eight different styles, children's aprons—two different styles, hemstitching and