The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1917-12-20
.jl0HEN a boy leaves school
SMA about the first thought
HKH that enters his mind is,
}ZJu "Whera can I oct a

N&SESy4BEH that enters his mind Is,
ggSSSgy Where can | get a
job9" He isn't particular about
what kind of job he gets; his one
idea is to make some money. If
some one should ask him, What
kind of a job do you expect to
get with the schooling you haveg"
he would hesitate in answering, or
say, Anything will do"
Instead of sending lad out into
the world to knock about from one
thing to another, he should have
been given ideas or perhaps a little
experience in several different
trades while at school, and no doubt
he would finally pick out some
trade to which he was most adept.
Of course it is folly to try to
make a doctor or lawyer out of a
lad that is interested in electrical
engineering. BY finding out what
a boy likes best and then help him
to cultivate his ideas brings far
better results than trying to make
him learn something he doesn't
care for.
Take young man just leaving
school who has no idea of what he
wants to be. Perhaps he gets a
job on some messenger force; next
he tries driving delivery wagon;
then he is a clerk in some store at
about seven dollars a week. AT
eighteen or nineteen years of age
he has a sudden awakening to the
fact that he is not getting ahead,
nor earning enough money to live
as he wants to live. He then real
ICES that he must have some kind
of a trade. Perhaps he takes
course in some business college,
only to find out later that he will
never be successful in that line of
work, and has lost both time and
money. He then tries photo-en-
craving, but another obstacle lies
i'm his path, for he has weak eyes
and they will not stand the strain.
By chance he gets an opportunity
to learning the plumbing or steam
fitting trade, and finds, to his de-
light, that he has at last found his
place. At biz age he should have
had his trade learned, whereas he
is just starting in. and must work
three or four years before he is a
first-class man. He then wonders
why he had never tried this kind
of work before. Of course this is
a mere conjecture, but the same
thing is happening daily in fact.
One way to let boy start learn
ing his trade is worked something
like this: Two boys who have the
desire to learn the same thing are
taken to firm that handle this
kind of work, and arrangements
made for these two to hold one job.
One boy works two weeks while
the other goes to school. On the
Saturday at the end of the two
weeks the boy going to school
must report and work with the
other one. This is done so that he
will know just what is expected OF
him and he can take up the work
the following Monday without
causing a delay.
If in a reasonable length of time
either boy is found unsatisfied OF
unsatisfactory, he is tried else.
where until he finds something
suitable and can then direct bis
energy to this one thing, and in
most cases. has his trade learned
before he is twenty. Each boy
gets small wage which is saved
for him, 80 by the time he leaves
school he has a small capital to
start in on.
But even this method is very in.
adequate. because the number OF
trades where it can be worked are
limited. Many of the large con-
Germs have their own schools where