The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-01-26

hands and fingers without giving the
pupil full knowledge Of any particular
trade. That, it is claimed, can easily
be obtained by a student whose fingers
have been educated. In the manual
school girls were taught sewing and
drawing. and the rudiments of practical
housekeeping were inculcated Best of
all, though. in the advanced hand edu-
eating schools they were made to work
in wood. A girl learned to carve wood,
saw off a board and even to drive a
nail. Beyond a doubt woman edu-
Gated in a manual training class will
be able to hang her own pictures,
tack down her own carpets and to
know what is the matter with her
kitchen stovepipe.
The west. always first in adopting
improved ideas, began the manual
training for girls as well as boys; the
east followed. Toledo has the credit of
being the first city to open manual
training classes in connection with its
public schools; thence the system
spread throughout the country.
Then came the next step forward.
That was the full fiedged trade
school for girls. Boston has a model
technical school of this kind-Simmons
college. A man-Mr. Simmons-gener-
ously furnished the money to build
and equip it; women did the rest. Sim
mons college is notable in respect to
one of the essential features of a prop
er trade education. It is nobly fitted
from the hygienic and ethical stand
point.
What the moral and hygienic consid-
Grafton is worth can be judged from
the environment of the little girl who
went into the old time shop or factory
to learn a trade. If to a factory, she
was too often under the orders of a
coarse mouthed foreman, ignorant of
all refinement, unpleasantly familiar
with the girls. She was thrust into an
unclean. unventilated shop destitute of
proper appliances for washing herself
j when her work was done. Has a noble
/ womanhood any chance for life in such
surroundings?
/ The Simmons trade college for girls
is clean, airy, perfectly ventilated and
provided with Mushrooms, a restroom
and library. It is comfortab bly, heated
i in winter and cooled in summer. Best
Of all, it's teachers are educated, re-
fined men and women, associat ton with
whom is a liberal education for the
trade school girl. Thus the girl herself
while she learns her trade becomes a
neat, gentle hammered. refined and pure
minded woman. What this means to
the daughters of poor Russian. Polish
and Italian immigrants may be mag
ined. A girl is taken from the poorest
surroundings in which it is possible for
a decent human being to exist and is
trained in the way of the cleanest, most
enlightened civilization. The eager
ness with which the daughters of these
poor people grasp for better things. the
real power and ambition they manifest,
makes it a great pity that there IS not
room to accommodate half that apply
for admission to the few technical
schools already organized.
The girls trade school movement is
only in its infancy. Here is a field, in
| the building up of such schools, in
which millionaire men and women may
exploit themselves gloriously and make
their permanent impress on the institu-
lions of their country.
No reference to trade schools for wo-
men must omit the share the Young
Women's Christian association has had
in the training of girls for honest work
Long ago. in even the small cities, this
organization established free classes in
sewing and housekeeping, in stenogra-
ply, typewriting and other trades for
women. so far as they had room and
means, and many a girl today is sup
porting herself comfortably and hap
PLY through the occupa ton she learned