The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-17
FOR FEMININE READERS
SCHOOL WHERE THE CARE OF chill
DRTN is TAUGHT AS A PROFESSION.
Standard of the Teaching Profession
Going Away for the Summer.

Boston has a school for nursemaids at
which the care of children is taught as If
for profession. 1t is the first school of the
kind to be started in this country. Here in
New York, says the Sun, there is a school
connected with hospital for the training
Of nursemads, but this is devoted to in
struction in the care of sick children
A New York wonan who. has just re-
turned from Boston tells some interesting
things about the new Institution and its
work. When questioned she said, with a
great deal Of enthusiasm:
1.-THE Boston School of Nursery Maids is
a great thing. / wish we had a dozen here
in this city, for we certainly need them.
No woman who has ever watched the fat,
lazy, elderly, experienced nurses or the care
less, indifferent, pert, saucy ones with their
precious charges in Central Park on a
bright, warm afternoon can fail to realize
this: The elderly nurses are good enough
IN their way, I'll grant, but they are too
set In that way, and absolutely refuse gen
orally to take advice from the mother of
the little ones they are hired to care for.
Inose or the other type are frequently will
ing to take advice, but they forget to follow
1t. The wonder to me is not that children
gr ON =, up SO bad. but so good.
IhiS Boston School for Nursery Maids is
connected with the West End Day Nursery,
and from the start was intended to train
young girls. The first year of it's existence
1t has always f1ourished. At present there
are twenty or thirty girls in the school,
, nney Nv. i've In pleasant home connected
with the nursery, and their lessons are
learned as systematically as children in a
school learn theirs. No person under eigh-
teen years of age or over thirty is received
as pupil, ana each applicant must con-
sent TO give ten months to the course of
STUDY, or she is not allowed to enter She
must nave common school education and
come we'll recommended as to her moral
iC al
provide herself with supply of plain under
wear, TWO wash dresses, ten white aprons
ihaun t ana shoe bags and so on. During
her ten months course she is boarded and
Iooged at the expense of the school and re-
ceiyes IS monthly.
II was pleased to observe that the promo
teIS nau succeeded in attracting a very in
Iellgent. refined type. of girl to the school
Many or them are girls who have become
cnlldren in well-regulated home at S. a
week than to stand behind a counter ali
DAY at $3-or even Sc, the sum received by
pest paid shop girls-a week.
Tnere are six day nurseries in Boston
ana they offer a fine field in which these
g lriss may receive practical training. At
permanent home and the others live at the
nursemaids' home. Those residing in the
gay gay nurseries go, of course, to the school
9ally for lectures and other instruction. A
director OF nurses and a medical director
preside Jointly over the school, and if, after
one months probation, a girl is found to be
unfit physically, morally or mentally to as
sumo the care of children she is dismissed"
!. When asked about the course of instruc-
tlon the authority answered:
Inc students in this school are taught
everything pertaining to the proper care Of
lnfants and small children. They receive
ihorough training in bathing them properly,
In what clothing is best for a child under
varying conditions, and how to put it on
ana take it off, and all about diet. They
are also taught to do plain laundry work
mending."
Ave- fha
children as we'll as robust ones?
Yes. for the training would be incom-
plete without that Mind you, these nursery
maids are not taught to be trained nurses
IN the sense that we commonly understand
that term, but their school is next door to
an infants hospital, and each has an OPP
portun1ty to study infant diseases The in
structors discourage their pupils in believ-
ing that they are able to care for a really
sick child without a physician and its
mother, but. at the same time, it is an I'M
derstood thing that they do not consider
them sufficiently experienced to go into
service unless they know how to care for
a signify ailing child, or to detect disease
so that proper treatment can be commenced
in the nick of time. A summer hospital for
children has been established on one of the
islands in Boston harbor, and here the
maids also get much experience along this
particular line of their profession.
The faculty at this school is composed CT
the matrons of the six day nurseries and a
number of special lecturers. These lecturers
TAX to the girls on such subjects as the need
VI II uSl1ulu6SS on Ln6lr part ana the great
crime of frightening children, and they
teach them also what to read to children
what kind of stories to tell them and how
TO play kindergarten games with them. The
matrons also teach them a great deal about
kindergarten work.
Places are found for the pupils in private
IAN two months before they graduate.
The wages paid by the family are turned
over to the school by the maid, and from
the latter she continues to receive S. a
month. The employers make frequent re-
ports OF the maids capability to the school
during her two months Of service and so
FAR not one unfavorable report has been re-
ce1ved since the school first opened it's
doors Many of the graduates have been
taken permanently into the households
where they served on probation before re-
celving their certificates of proficiency. A
class of eight graduated not long ago On
leaving the school they had to pledge them
selves not to ask above IS a week during
their first year of service This experiment
is being watched with the greatest interest
In Boston. Some mothers have an idea that
they do not want trained nursery maids for
rear that they might prove too highly
tightly. The general opinion prevails, how
ever, that intelligent young women, trained
to sense of responsibility in the care of
children, will not only revolutionize life for
the children, but for the mothers For nv
part, I'd like to see the day dawn when COM
petition between trained and unframed
nursery maids should become so great as
to drive all of the irresponsible creatures
who presume to make a business of nursing
children into training school, or into some
other field of labor.