cal high schools the sewing course covers four years
work. During the first two years all girls are required to take plain
hand and machine sewing three and three-quarter hours a week. In the
third and fourth years they may elect either millinery or dressmaking,
and special courses in these subjects are provided for girls who wish
to prepare for trade work. The aim of the sewing course as stated in
the outline of the East Technical High School is "(1) Preparation for
efficiency in the selection of the materials used in sewing and the
construction of articles relating to the home and family sewing: (2)
laying the foundation for courses in college, normal school, or
business school." A two year elective course in sewing is provided in
the academic high school as a part of the home economic course. The
aim of this sewing, which is called domestic art, is stated thus:
"Problem--my personal appearance is one of my chief assets. What can I
do to improve it?" Dressmaking and millinery classes are conducted in
the night technical high schools to teach girls how to make their own
clothes and hats.

The manual training sewing in the fifth and sixth grades cannot be
considered as furnishing any important contribution in the training of
those who will make their living in the sewing trades. Much the same
must be said of the work in the technical high schools. It is taught
not for the purpose of securing quick, accurate hand or machine
stitching, but to enable the girls to make a few garments for their
personal use. Due to the fact that very few of the girls who become
wage earners in these trades remain in school after the completion of
the elementary course it is doubtful whether the technical high school
offers a hopeful field for practical training. The work in the
elementary schools is so hampered by lack of equipment that the
results, from the standpoint of trade preparation, amount to very
little.

ELECTIVE SEWING COURSES IN THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

The reduction of retardation all through the grades is of fundamental
importance to any plan of vocational training. The age of 15 is the
final compulsory attendance age for girls, and those who enter at six
and seven and make regular progress should be in the first or second
high school year by the time they reach this age. Last year there
were, however, 1,170 fifteen-year-old girls in the Cleveland schools
who were from one to seven grades below normal. Instead of being in