Daily Kennebec journal., 1913-05-31
Why Girls Leave School.

The idea that children leave schoC
to go to work, because their parent
need the money, is vigorously com
batted in bulletin just issued b.
the United States Bureau of Educa
ton. The authors of the bulletiI
have made careful study of trad,
and labor conditions among girls in
Worcester, Mass. preliminary to the
establishment of trade school for
girls. They find that from one half
to three-fourths of the girls at work
in the factories could have had fur
ther schooling if they had wanted to
or if their parents had cared to insist
upon it.
The survey showed that the number
age who leave school is constantly
increasing. During the past hve
years many more girls betweens those
ages left the Worcester schools than
can be accounted for bys increase m
population.s Only about II per cent
of them had finished the.~sSraIaslaEs
schools; most of them left in the
sixth and seventh grades.
Why did the girls leave school?
Various reasons were assigned by the
girls themselves. Some thirty girls
said they did not like school,"
could not get along with the teach-
err. were not promoted: or wanted to
60 to work. Two We're working to
help pay for a piano. One of these
was cash girl of IA years who had
left the ninth grade to go to work IN
a department store for 81. later s2 30
a week. Another was a girl of 10
from the eighth grade, who went TO
work in a corset factory for 81 and
rose to s4s2. Still another girl was
taking music lessons and contributing
to the payment on the piano.
Twenty seven girls were found at
home. In some cases they had left
to help in housework, while few had
left at a time of temporary stress and
then had not returned to school. -Four
girls had changed places with the
mother. who worked in a corset fac
tory, laundry. or some such place,
while the girl. whose wage earning
power was small, kept house for the
mother of the children.
Curious differences as to what the
parents thought they could afford
were discovered: THE mother of
family of eight children. living in ap-
parently direst poverty, would have
been glad to have sacrificed and
pinched still further to have had her
daughter stay in school longer, II she
would. The mother of another family
of six, living in comfortable apart.
ment house. with hardwood floors,
piano, and other luxuries. said her
daughter wished to stay in school lon
ger, but the burden of supporting the
family WdS lOO DCdSy loi thS As~~-s~~
. to bear alone: so the girl was taken
out of school to go to work. A visit
to Swedish family revealed car
penter and his wife, washerwoman
who had just built and owned new
three apartment house. Yet
the 15-year-old daughter with g
seventh grade education had been sent
to work in a paper goods factory at y
a week THE question Why did yot
leave SCHOOL, was put to- some 33e
more mature workers in the corset
trade. Ninety -one3per 8dent. ofPthese
women had left the school between
the ages tof 1a add 1e. and fully SC
per cent. because of their dislike OF
school or because they wanted to &C
to work. OF "A workers in clothing
factory IS per cent. had left schoo
between the ages Of 13 and Is, 20 pei
cent. of their own yolition."
In the opinion of the authors of thu
found in Worcester emphasize th'
imperative need for special trainin'
of a practical sort for girls betweei
the ages of 13 and 15. In the mail
the children left school simply be
cause they disliked the school worl
Not getting the kind of training the
might have liked and would hav
profited by. they blindly Joined th
army Of shifting, inefficient, discor
tented girls that go from one monotf
nous factory job to another, and, b'
cause of their lack of training, rare
rise above the class of low-paid, III
skilled workers.
Labor Parties to Prevent War.