Another writes: The crucial test of knowledge of English is composition. One who can read good literature intelligently and can write English with purity, force, and clearness has sufficient command of the knowledge to meet the needs of anyone except a professional instructor. In the light of these replies, and from what we hear and read on all sides, we have a pretty good basis from which to figure out the essentials which should enter into the training of a stenographer. Native ability, the quality known colloquially as "gumption," scholarship- these are the things required to make stenographic service effective. Not the least important of these requisites is gumption, used in the sense of ready perception and discrimination, quick discernment, acuteness, common-sense. The stenographer who has not gumption is a nuisance, and the uneducated one a living evidence of sin on the part of some school. But what shall we do with the students who lack this sense of the relation of things? Don't try to make stenographers of them, that is all. Advise them to take some other course, or keep them at other work until the quality of gumption is acquired. In this day of liberality in school matters there is seldom any excuse for mistake in the selection of the trade or profession best adapted to any student's particular abilities, acquirements, and the time at his disposal. No matter what other sins we may have to answer for, let us see to it that turning out poor stenographers isn't one of them. There is no sense in it, no cause for it. Young men and women who haven't gumption enough to get a serviceable knowledge of good English and to broaden out along general educational lines should not be allowed to continue the stenography course in any school. We, as teachers of technical branches, are responsible for the quality of the work we turn out in exact proportion to the power we have of creating the standard of qualifi-. cation. The proprietary schools are not more free in this respect than the public schools, and the teacher of business subjects who does not feel that his responsibility is always first to the profession he represents fails in that highest attribute of a teacher, that which makes for character in his students. Business education within the scope of secondary schools naturally divides itself along two lines, bookkeeping and stenography. Necessarily these two courses of study overlap, and there are those who advocate that, especially in the public schools, there shall be only the one commercia course, made up of bookkeeping and correlated branches plus stenography and typewriting; but it is hardly fair to the students who wish to prepare for positions as bookkeepers only to make stenography and typewriting obligatory. Ability to do business and record business are the requisites of a bookkeeper or business manager. The successful book keeper need not be able to write shorthand nor operate a typewriter, but the successful business stenographer must know something of bookkeeping and business practice, commercial paper, etc.; hence, it is the stenographic course which, in the secondary schools, should require the longer time and greater preparation. If there is any one person in a business office who should be well educated, it is the amanuensis. The brains of his employer flow thru his fingers, and the correctness of the rendition depends as much on the stenographer's literary ability as on his skill as a shorthand writer and typist. He must possess the seven cardinal virtues of business : honesty, accuracy, self-reliance, punctuality, industry, neatness, secrecy. The cultivation of these qualities during the training period should keep pace with the growth in perception and knowledge, manual dexterity, and mental nimbleness. Within the last ten years stenography has developed into a profession almost limitless in its opportunities for advancement for both men and women. Business school employment departments, the typewriter companies, and other agencies of supply cannot begin to meet the demand. for competent stenographic help. There need be no feeling of rivalry. between the departments of shorthand in the public schools and the private business schools. Both working together will not turn out capable 'stenographers in greater numbers than business demands. Especially is this true of male stenographers. Last year the employment bureau of one prominent typewriter company placed 16,247 stenographers in seven of the largest cities of the United States. Of this number less than 29 per cent. were men, altho the number of calls for men stenographers thru these seven agencies alone footed up 40 per cent., a fair average of the discrepancy between the demand and the supply for this kind of stenographic help thruout the United States. The government pays men stenographers $1,200 a year at the beginning, which is increased to $1,400 in six months if the service is satisfactory; but even at these figures Uncle Sam cannot secure all the men stenographers he needs. And the demand is equally great from business and professional offices. This demand for men stenographers does not indicate any desire on the part of the government or of business or professional offices to supplant women stenographers. Last year's marvelous increase in the number of women stenographers placed in good positions indicates that stenography has opened up to women a source of permanent as well as profitable employment; but there is a class of stenographic work for which men are especially desired, and it will be matter for congratulation if the public schools are more successful than the private schools have so far been in inducing young men to fit themselves for amanuensis work. By making the course sufficiently thoro on the side of business training, the stenographic course should attract both sexes equally. I herewith submit a course of stenography which will probably require two years of high-school time, because of the long vacations, short hours, and class plan of work: . Stenography.-Theory of stenography, according to system used. After the textbook part of the work, with daily drill in phonetics, carefully planned dictation exercises leading to accuracy and speed in taking and transcribing business letters, literary, legal, scientific, and historical matter, contracts, specifications, etc. Time: Thruout the course. Tests: (1) Ability to take new matter easily at a minimum rate of one hundred words a minute and read back in the same time; (2) ability to write in one hour from 6,500 to 7,500 words of new matter, covering a wide range of business subjects, general information, legal papers, contracts, ordinary correspondence, etc., and to make correct transcriptions of same on the typewriter in not to exceed six hours; (3) ability to take lectures, sermons, testimony, depositions, etc., and transcribe same correctly. Typewriting.-Expert or piano method (correct position; proper stroke; location of keys not dependent on sight; use of all the fingers; continuous movement of the carriage, the hands writing as the eyes read); word exercises; study of leading machines; plain copying; copying from rough draft; legal and business papers; invoicing and tabulating; making carbon copies; duplicating processes; letter-press work, indexing, and filing; writing from dictation; speed drills; arrangement of subject-matter as to headings, margins, spacing, paragraphs, etc.; adjusting the matter to the size of the paper. Practice Daily thruout the course to insure nimble fingers, pliable wrists, quickness and accuracy of sight in following copy, keen development of the sense of location. Tests: (1) Ability to copy plain manuscript or printed matter at the minimum rate of thirty words a minute for one hour, the transcript to be well arranged, accurate, free from erasures or faulty typing; (2) ability to write accurately from dictation, a half hour at a time, new matter at a minimum rate of forty-five words a minute. Bookkeeping.-Thoro grounding in the elements of single and double entry bookkeeping; business practice; simple transactions introducing the ordinary record books; business forms; practice in making deposits and keeping bank account. English language.-Spelling, pronunciation, word study, composition, punctuation, letter writing, grammatical principles, rhetorical principles; diction, synonym, essays, writing, sum and structure of the paragraph, impromptu writing, proof reading. Literature.— English and American classics, with particular attention to prose style; selected reading, as a basis for speed practice in both stenography and typewriting; selected plays of Shakespeare. History and biography.-American, English, and general. Biography, history, and literature can well be handled thru dictation, weekly quizzes, and assigned readings. Arithmetic.- Practical problems covering every subject of business arithmetic; daily drills in rapid calculation; speed practice in fundamental principles, particularly addition; metric system; wages and pay-rolls; foreign money and exchange. Current events.-Daily discussions, oral and written. Correspondence (treated as a special subject).-Arrangement and style of letters; exercise in correcting, condensing, expanding. Study of letters relating to special subjects, contracts, sales, credit, collections; social letters and forms; telegrams, circulars, business cards, etc.; paper and envelopes — quality, weight, sizes, etc. Business forms and customs.- Commercial paper, invoices, vouchers, bills of lading, and manifests, discounts, securities, collections, filing devices, card indexes, etc. Penmanship.- A plain, rapid business hand. Time, one hour or more a day until proficiency is attained. Commercial geography.—A general survey of the subject, with emphasis on the commercial, industrial, and economic geography of the United States. Transportation treated specially. Commercial law.-Fundamental principles governing the ordinary activities of business, paying particular attention to contracts and negotiable paper, principal and agent, common carriers, bailment, partnership, etc. Civics (general survey of the subject).- Constitution of the United States; principles of government. Dictation of any good text on civil government. Elementary science (taught principally thru dictation).— Natural history, chemistry, physical geography, geology, physics. Conversation and impromptu speaking.—One hour a week. In my school this course had been in operation for a little over three years, and has resulted in stenographers of creditable mental development and intellectual power. The average time for the completion of the course has been fifteen months. We work on the credit plan, and how long it takes any student to get the number of credits required for graduation depends entirely upon himself, his previous preparation, natural ability, application, and the number of hours he works each day. He may at any time ask for an examination on any subject of the course, and, showing the required proficiency, he is given credit. In conclusion, I take the liberty of quoting from a paper read by Mr. Charles McGurrin before the National Shorthand Teachers' Association last year: Allow me to suggest a thing which has long been a handicap to school men and educators in stenography and typewriting, and which, in my opinion, should be corrected at the earliest possible moment, namely, that of the too short period of tuition prevailing in the schools thruout the country. The fault is due, in my opinion, to the custom inaugurated in the early instruction in these branches. There was a time in the earlier days when shorthand writing was taught in but few schools in the country; when the classes were very small indeed; when it was regarded as an indifferent, unimportant, and unprofitable branch of the college; when the teacher was one who himself had learned for the sole purpose of teaching. Six and eight months within which to perfect a pupil for the work is, I believe, the average period now obtaining in the majority of schools. This time is much too short, and especially in this day now that typewriting has taken its place as a co-ordinate necessity with stenography, and demanding such careful and thoro instruction. DEPARTMENT OF CHILD STUDY SECRETARY'S MINUTES FIRST SESSION.--WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 1902 The first session of the Child-Study Department was called to order in the assembly room of the East High School Wednesday afternoon, July 9, by President H. E. Kratz. The following program was presented: "New Lines of Attack in Child Study," Frederick E. Bolton, professor of the science and art of educa tion, University of Iowa, Iowa City. Vocal solo, Mr. J. Austin Williams, "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes," Dressler. "The Child-Study Department of the Chicago Public Schools," Miss Angeline Loesch, volunteer assistant, Chicago child-study department, Chicago, Ill. Vocal solo, Mrs. Maud Ulmer Jones, (a) "Daisies-Hawley; (b) "When Song is Sweet". Gertrude Sans Souci. "What Our Schools Owe to Child Study," Theo. B. Noss, principal of Southwestern State Normal School, California, Pa. Discussion by John Dewey, professor of philosophy and education, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill. President Kratz appointed the following Committee on Nominations: E. A. Kirkpatrick, Fitchburg, Mass. Mrs. Helen L. Grenfell, Denver, Colo. The department adjourned. SECOND SESSION.-FRIDAY, JULY II The second session of the Department of Child Study was held on Friday afternoon, July 11, in the East High School assembly room, President Kratz in the chair. The program was as follows: Vocal solo, Mr. Crosby Hopps, "Come Into the Garden, Maud "-Balfe. "How Far Does the Modern High School Fit the Nature and Needs of Adolescents ?"- Reuben Post Halleck, principal of Boys High School, Louisville, Ky. Discussion by E. G. Lancaster, professor of psychology and pedagogy, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colo. General discussion. The Committee on Nominations reported as follows: For President-G. W. A. Luckey, Lincoln, Neb. For Vice-President - Stuart H. Rowe, New Haven, Conn. For Secretary- Susan F. Chase, Buffalo, N. Y. The secretary was instructed to cast the ballot of the department nominees as officers for the ensuing year. The ballot was so cast and the officers declared duly elected. The department then adjourned. KATE A. HOPPER, Secretary. |