course. The technical course requires three and three-quarter
hours a week of sewing during the first two years. The student may
elect trade dressmaking and millinery during the third and fourth
years.

Very few girls who can afford to spend four years in high school ever
become dressmakers or factory operatives. If the school system is to
do anything of direct vocational value for them it will have to begin
further down. Most of them leave school before the age of 17 and the
years between 14 and 16 represent the last chance the school will have
to give them any direct aid towards preparation for immediate
wage-earning.

For successful work in machine operating the class must be large
enough to warrant the purchase and operation of sufficient equipment
to give the pupils an opportunity for intensive practice. The only way
this condition can be secured is by concentrating in large groups the
girls who need such training. Little will be accomplished in training
for the sewing trades without specialization, and specialization in
small administrative units is impossible. The teaching and operating
cost in a school enrolling, say 200 girls, who want the same kind of
work, can be brought within reasonable bounds. In a school where the
total number who need specialized training does not exceed 10 or 15
the cost is prohibitive.

In the opinion of the Survey Staff a one or two year vocational course
in the sewing trades should be established. The entrance age should
not be less than 15. Courses should be provided for intensive work in
trade dressmaking, power machine operating, and trade millinery. A
conservative estimate of the number of girls who could be expected to
enroll for courses in these subjects is 500. A trade school might be
established where only this type of vocational training would be
carried on, or it might be conducted in the same building with the
trade courses for boys recommended in a previous chapter. In either
case the number of pupils would be sufficient to warrant up-to-date
equipment and a corps of specially trained teachers.

Training for the sewing trades consumes more material than any other
kind of vocational training. For this reason economical administration
requires some arrangement for marketing the product. During the latter
part of the course the school should be able to turn out first-class
work. The familiarity with trade standards the pupils obtain through
practice on garments which mu