Springfield Trade High School - Beaver Yearbook (Springfield, MA)

Page 10 text:

Teh Heel UReASD hae BA Ve ie kh [e ) Our Vocational School in the Early Days. Mr. Egbert E. McNary First Principal Here were true high lights in the early days of the Vocational School. First, only the Machine department, in the Technical High School Building. Next, in a Taylor Street loft, Woodwork and Machine—rats among the feet of the students— the first graduates and their jobs. State and city co-operation came. The school grew and was moved to Pynchon Street where Printing was added and Related Work seriously begun. Soon civic need forced the moving of the school and steps were taken to provide the present building. Growth goes on and more boys, and girls as well, are learning trades. How many foresaw this growth in the old days? Egbert E. McNary

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DH Beet RAY Din BoA Ve tiek if History of Girls’ Division of Trade School By Mrs. Margaret C. Ells In 1919 a law was passed in the State of Massachusetts, which com- pelled the youth, who left school to go to work under the age of 16 years, to attend a Continuation School four hours each week. This law became effective in Springfield in 1920, so on September 8, 1920, some five to six hundred girls, between the ages of 14 and 16 years, were summoned back to a newly organized Continuation School for four hours each week. The first year, the Girls’ Continuation classes were housed in the High School of Commerce, but in 1921 they were transferred to the Old Hooker School on Main Street, (now the Girls’ Trade School) where the Continu- ation boys were also housed. Mr. Caroll W. Robinson was the principal of this school. During the first years of the Continuation School, girls under 16 had little difficulty securing positions in industry. In 1928 and 1929, it became increasingly difficult for girls to secure positions, first, because the employer wished to get girls a few years older, and second, and most important, was the demand of the employer that the girl be given some definite trade training. “If your girls were trained, we could employ them. Why don’t you train for some specific work?” said the employers, and the girls began making reports such as, “If I knew how to run a power machine, I could have secured a job this morning”’, but under the Continuation School plan, there was not time enough at school to give trade training. It was very evident that there was a need of training for the girls, and a demand for it from employers. As girls were laid off in industry, they returned to the Continuation School each year and asked to be allowed to continue beyond the age of 16 years, as one girl expressed it,“I want to attend this school, as here you are in closer touch with industry, and more apt to get a position.” And so they returned after age 16, when they were no longer obliged to attend, until in 1933-1934, the majority of the girls attending Continu- ation School were over 16, while those under 16, the compulsory group, had steadily decreased. On January 29, 1934, the Continuation School which had been in existence for fourteen years became a part of the Trade School, and the Girls’ Division of the Continuation School became the Girls’ Trade School. Mr. George A. Burridge, for many years principal of the Boys’ Trade School, was made the principal of both schools, as they were consolidated into one Trade School, though in different buildings. Mrs. Margaret C. Ells, who had been head of the Girls” Division of Continuation School, was made assistant principal of the Trade School, in charge of girls’ work. The first trade courses to be organized were Trade Dressmaking and Foods and Catering. Power machines were assembled and placed for the dressmakers, and a class room was fitted up and decorated for use as a Tea Room to train Foods girls in waitress service. In the general department, short unit courses in Vocational Home- making and Winding and Soldering were organized for the girls who needed specific units of training to discover abilities, so as to secure em- ployment. On January 29, 1937, we were three years old as a Trade School, and on June 18, 1937, we look forward to the graduation of twelve or thirteen girls who will have completed the required Trade work. This marks an epoch in the Springfield Trade School as the first girls are to graduate just twenty-five years later than the first boys.

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Me Meh Ve OAR IN REID) Ase AY ag in 9 John Granrud Suverintendent of Schools “The industries of Springfield no longer train their workers through the system of apprenticeship. The problem of preparing boys and girls for vocational pursuits which are just as honorable, just as respectable, and often more renumerative than the professions is being solved by the unusually efficient faculty of Trade School. A new building large enough to accommodate the large number of pupils who should have this type of training is urgently needed.”