The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-11
TECHNICAL SCHOOLS
 FOR GIRLS.

given by Postum Co.,. Battle Creek, Mich. A woman's first right Is the right Co
 live. That being granted. tt is plain tnes
 her greatest need 6 financial indepond- llsatlon get this financial independsnce by
 proxy-that Is. they have husbands or fathers to support them. The rest must
 take care of themselves or starve or go
 to the poorhouse or to the bad and de
 as surely as, if a little more slowly than, when they expire of starvation.
 Admitted, again, that a woInans first right Is to her life. her next right, then. will be. to an occupation whereby she may earn livelihood. The need of
 schools for boys to learn how to work
 was plainly shown in this country about a generation ago, but the like crying need in case of girls educators and phllan- 1 thropists shut their eyes to until within safely provided for, the girls may come in and take what is left. In q few of the largest cities of the Union have been opened technical schools for girls. The school Of work iS an Outgrowth of the kindergarten idea. The kinder
 garten In America was planted by two wo-
 men, Miss Peabody of boston, and Miss Blow of St. Louis. In It's primary man.
 ual training classes the teacher found
 that little girls learned to use their hands
 and fingers quite as adeptly as the boys do. The kindergarten opened view oi the next step in education before Ameri'
 can eyes. That step had already been taken in Germany. 1t was the introduce ton of manual training into the common sshool. For 200 years we had been eau eating chiIdren's brains without refer
 ce either to their hearts or hands. Col
 lege graduates among men were seeking
 places as street car conductors. Women teachers became a drug in the market So that employment for the old tIny ones
 could not be found. The old style school
 mistress was inclined to look down upon
 all manual labor and even now and then
 to pride herself on not knowing how go
 much as ito wash her own handkerchief. The public school hand training had per- force to include girls as well as boys.
 There is a difference between the manual training school and the trade school. Manual education gives an all round use and development of the hands and fingers without giving the pupil full knowledge of any particular trade, That, U IS claim ed, can easily be obtained by q student
 whose fingers have been educated In the
 manual school girls were taught sewing and drawing and the rudiments of prac- tial housekeeping were inculcased. Best
 of all, though. in the advanced hand ed- ueating schools they were made to work in wood A girl learned to carve wood. saw off a board and even to drive nall. Beyond a doubt woman eoueated ti manual training class Will ne anie to nans her own. pictures, tack down her own car
 pets and to know what IS the matter with her kitchen stoyepipe.
 The West. always first in adopting iIl-
 proved ideas, began the manual trainine for girls as well as Tor boyai the East
 followed. Toledo has the credit of being
 the first city to open manual training
 classes fin connection with it's public
 schools; thence the system spread
 throughout the country, i. N-,5n
 Then came the next step forward. That
 was the full fedged trade school for girls.
 Boston has a. model technical school of this kind-Simmons College. A man--Mr. Simmons-generously furnished the money to build and equip #; women did the rest Simmons Co-4ege is notable in re- spect to one of the essential features of a proper trade education It ;s nobly fitted f ons the fygienlc and ethical stand point.
 ation is worth can be judged from the environment of the httis girl who went into the old time shop or factory to learn a trade. If to a facsory, she was too often under the orders of a coarse mouth ed foreman, ignorant of all refinement. unpleasantly familiar with the girls. She
 was thrust Into an uncIean. unventilated