Maple Avenue Evening High School - Progress Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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g Vocational Mechanicalf Drawing By AUGUSLI' FLAM ' A ' Head of Mechanical Drawing Dept. A HE students in Mechanical Drawing in Maple Avenue Evening High School are drawn from a number of industries. An average class of fifteen students one term represented no less than twelve different occupations. Store clerks, carpenters, machinists, toolmakers, steam fit- ters, electricians, and salesmen are just a few to indicate the wide variety of experience brought to the work. I As a rule students seldom expect to enter the profession of drafting, although some have done so. When questioned as to what they expected the course in Mechanical Drawing to give them, the answers have' been found as varied as interesting. One man is desirous of being able to put his inventions on paper 5 another, so that he may be able to read blue prints, a third, so that he may attain a position of greater responsibility in his own line of work, a fourth brings in a specific problem from his own job. One prospective student asked if he could be prepared within three or four weeks for an opening in a drafting room which he knew existed. Men who spend daily from eight to ten hours and often longer at their work and then are willing to go to school for several hours more in the evening, must surely have something in their makeup worthy of recogni- tion. The aim of the Mechanical Drawing Course is to give the student as nearly as possible what he most requires, and that which will be of great- est assistance to him in his efforts to round himself out into an expert in the particular line of work he is engaged in. The equipment of the school has been very limited, but the work has been mapped out so that a student enteringican begin without any more tools and equipment than the school can give him. After the first three or four evenings he can generally decide whether he likes the work and the instructor well enough to continue, and is then expected to provide his own . Page ,Fifty-three

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expressed the utmost satisfaction with their Work and have requested that they be given first chance Whenever others graduate. I Appended is a sample of many letters received by this department at- testing to the genuine quality of the instruction given: Acetylene Welding Class , HUNTER NICHOLSON Welding Contractor 209 Terminal Sales Bldg. Los Angeles, Calif., Feb. 28, 1923. Mr. D. G. Davies, Welding Instructor, Maple Avenue Evening High School, Los Angeles, Calif. Q Dear Sir:- I take great pleasure in recommending the acetylene welding class of the Maple Avenue School to anyone who desires to learn acetylene Welding. The men who have learned to weld at your school and who have come under my observation, have made good. I think anyone who wishes to learn welding of all metals and who will attend your classes with a determination to learn, will obtain an education that will fit him to hold a position in any branch of the welding industry. Hoping for your continued success, I remain, Yours truly, HUNTER NICHOLSON. Page Fifty-two H7777

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instruments. Often it is found after an evening's trial that an applicant is not capable of doing the type of Work required in drafting. He may,- due to physical or mental defects,-be unable to measure distances with any degree of accuracy, or he may find it impossible to settle down to the steady nerve and eye straining effort so essential to successful draftsman- ship. If such is the case he is promptly advised to drop the subject and try something different. After he has completed six or seven drawings, the student is taught tracing. The Work is planned so as to approximate as nearly as possible, practical drafting room Work. The complete course consists of some 30 plates, each of which must be drawn and traced. The tracing cloth is furnished by the school. If all the Work is satisfactorily done, a certificate is issued to the student. The subject matter of the course embraces the common elements with which the beginner in a drafting room is most apt to come into contact. That those graduating have been able to utilize what they were taught, is amply attested by the fact that positions have been secured by several and that they have had no trouble doing the Work re- quired of them, and, in fact, gaining advancement. It is not claimed that a few months night school Work will fit a man to be a draftsman, but it has been demonstrated that the classroom Work, if faithfully done, will give ' Mechanical Drawing Class Q Page Fifty-four