Page:The Girl Who Earns Her Own Living (1909).djvu/135

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making a grave mistake. In any schoolroom, where an hour a day or perhaps a few hours each day are given to work on material provided by the pupil, to be made into a hat for her own wear, the training cannot be so thorough as where the worker spends eight hours a day with her needle, working on materials for which an employer pays and which she must neither waste nor spoil. Moreover, the teacher in a private class does not like to offend the student who is paying for tuition, and who may recommend the school to other pupils, so she kindly but injudiciously overlooks careless stitchery, slovenly work, and inefficient methods, and thus the student-worker acquires habits which no forewoman in a good shop would tolerate.

One of the most famous endowed schools for the technical training of women makes this announcement in its year book: "Millinery Course. Five days a week—three months. Applicants should be sixteen years of age, at least, and must be able to do simple sewing. The student provides her own materials for classroom work, and is recommended to have on hand old materials which may be renovated and used in making and trimming hats. A course in simple business methods is given on one afternoon each week. Two afternoons are devoted to drawing hats, that ability may be gained in