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One girl was seriously disturbed because several saleswomen had, in her judgment, been unjustly discharged from her department. Those who left were, she believed, doing their work by honest methods and according to high ideals, while those who remained constantly violated the higher principles of salesmanship. She felt that it would be wrong to remain in the store without expressing her convictions and she was prepared to resign if the management wished her to do so after hearing her report. The moral support of the school gave the necessary impetus. She put the matter frankly and fully before the management, who received her suggestions gratefully. As a result, the department was reorganized on a new and more liberal basis, and the buyer gained the respect and cooperation of his subordinates. The new spirit will doubtless spread to other departments.

Six years after graduation a pupil asked if she might return for a postgraduate course. Unfortunate home conditions necessitated her return to the industrial world as a wage earner, and she felt that renewed courage would be hers if she might attend the school for a while. She is now an assistant buyer, the only woman occupying such a position in a well-known specialty house.

Many other examples might be given showing the confidence which the girls feel in the school-a confidence based on the foundation of practical helpfulness for which the training stands.

The pupils are met socially as frequently as possible after graduation, not only for the sake of the friendly contact, but because, at the same time, a closer relation between the graduates themselves is fostered. They are held to the school and to each other by an alumnæ association and by class meetings. Each class elects a secretary before graduation, and the secretaries organize social gatherings of all the alumnæ, thereby bringing the girls from the different classes together in the only organization to which they all belong. These meetings are sometimes purely social in character, but usually a part of the evening is given over to the transaction of business and to an informal address by the director of the school, describing and interpreting the development of the work since the last meeting.

Chapter VII.

THE TEACHERS' TRAINING CLASS.

In the early days of the school of salesmanship the sole aim of the director was the development of a school where saleswomen should receive adequate training for their work. That this development was gradual, in line with the very conservative attitude of the merchants toward department-store education, the historical account has shown. The whole plan was, indeed, regarded as an educational experiment, and little thought was given to the probable outgrowth of the future.

The school represented a new and needed form of education, and, worked out as the experiment was, on a sound and comprehensive basis, with due emphasis on the occupational as well as the social requirement, it soon attracted the attention of educators and business men outside of Boston. The director of the school was urged to establish similar schools in other cities, but circumstances made this impossible. Men interested in the movement then asked for teachers, who, trained in Mrs. Prince's methods, would be able to carry on the work elsewhere. At the same time women who saw the opportunity in the new field were asking for the privilege of studying under Mrs. Prince. At first it seemed impossible to undertake the development of this new line of training, which, it was foreseen, would involve large responsibility.

A teachers' class was, however, the inevitable outcome of the success of the experimental school of salesmanship, and with its establishment the permanency of the work became assured. It was in 1909 that the first attempt was made to train a teacher for an outside position, and this was done in response to a request from merchants in Providence, R. I., who desired to start a cooperative school similar to the one conducted at the Women's Educational and Industrial Union. The Providence school was organized and carried on by the teacher trained for the purpose until she left to accept a position as educational director in one of the leading stores of the country. During the next two years eight women were given special training under Mrs. Prince's personal supervision, and all were quickly placed in desirable positions. At the end of this period (June, 1912) it was manifest that with increasing demands for teachers from all parts of the country, and a rapidly growing list of applicants for training, a

An instructor

definitely organized teachers' class was necessary. already experienced in the training of teachers was engaged to assist the director in developing a comprehensive course of study. The next year (1913) the school became affiliated with Simmons College, a technical college for women in Boston, and the course for teachers. of salesmanship has since that time been included in the curriculum of the college. By this connection the school received some financial support from the college, which also provided much needed classrooms and equipment. The method of administering the course and the teaching staff were not affected by the change.

From the first, the choice of candidates was considered of great importance, for they, as leaders of the new movement, were to set standards of department-store education for the entire country. In spite of the good accomplished by the school of salesmanship, some of the business men still held the opinion that the most successful teacher of salesmanship must be a person who had grown up in a store, while the director of the school believed that a woman with a liberal education and the right understanding of vocational training would be a more influential teacher than one who had had only business experience. The director was soon proved to be unquestionably right. In the experience of the school the few purely business women who have attempted educational work have failed to grasp the significance of the larger issues and have been unable to stimulate powers of thought in their pupils. Constructive work of this kind is too far removed from the experience of the average business woman to enable her to make the best and fullest use of her opportunity. Consequently, nearly all of the 80 students who have taken the teachers' training course have been college or normal school graduates with some instinct for business, a broad social interest, and an aptitude for teaching. That the work demands teachers of a high degree of ability was strikingly brought out by Mr. Harlow S. Person, the director of the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration, in an interpretation of the meaning of the word "training." He said:

The word "training" may not mean the same thing to all of us; some understand training with respect to a given objective; by "training" I mean the whole complex of educational processes-those in the classroom and those outside the classroom, but more or less under the control of educational authorities whose purpose is, in addition to the imparting of information, the wise selection of those who shall be trained for the specific purpose, the development of capacity for independent investigation and for thinking, for forming sound judgments, and for constructive imagination, and a development of a capacity for prompt adaptation to the environment in which is to be performed the service for which the training is designed.1

At this point, it will be well to show how the teachers' course prepares the students to work toward the high ideal of the pro

1 Quoted by permission from an address delivered by Mr. Person, Jan. 19, 1916, at an Employment Managers' Conference, Minneapolis.

fession which Mr. Person has so well expressed. The course is divided into four parts: (1) Work done in active connection with the school of salesmanship; (2) conferences with the director; (3) academic and professional subjects; (4) store work.

The requirements of the first division have already been partially explained. The students attend all sessions of the school, observe the methods of teaching, do practice teaching under supervision, and give individual assistance to the pupils assigned to them. At the close of the morning session, the teachers' class has a conference with the director, Mrs. Prince, who helps the students to interpret the many different phases of their work, discusses with them the broader aspects of the movement and its relation to the most progressive activities of the time, and reports to them the most significant results of her speaking tours.

The afternoon sessions are devoted to the study of the following subjects:

Applied psychology.-Ordinary business situations are examined in order to analyze out of them some of their psychological principles. The work involves a review of the fundamental principles of psychology, an application of these principles to various department store methods, and a study of the increased efficiency in department store transactions that may be developed through the conscious application of psychological principles.

Education. The course includes discussion of teaching methods, teaching principles, lesson plans, lesson criticisms, and courses of study. The work of the regular instructors, as well as that of the teachers in training, is discussed. Courses of study for different types of schools are planned.

Textiles. The course comprises a study of the history of the textile industry, including the evolution of the present manufacturing processes from the primitive forms. The major and minor textile fibers are studied both scientifically and from the standpoint of utility. Students make extensive collections of silk, wool, linen, and cotton fabrics, with compilation of important facts in regard to them. Mills and factories are visited for the observation of processes.

Economics, or welfare work from an economic standpoint.-This course familiarizes the student with the various agencies-public, semipublic, and private-that tend to increase the well-being of the store employee. Different methods of welfare work carried on in department stores and industrial establishments are examined with reference to their economic as well as their humanitarian value. Beneficial agencies under direct control of the public, through town, municipal, State, or Federal regulations, are studied. This includes the examination of the laws regulating hours and conditions of labor-especially of women-wage laws and age limit for school children. The activities of the city board of health, the State board of health, and the Federal Children's Bureau form topics of study.

A substantial background of practical store experience is considered as necessary a part of the teachers' as of the saleswomen's course. Before entering the school, each student is required to obtain at least two weeks' selling experience in a large store. This gives her a general acquaintance with the personnel, system, and atmosphere of a department store, and makes the beginning of the course far more intelligible to her than it would otherwise be. No regular school

sessions are held on Monday, this day being set apart during the entire year for work in the stores. Until after Christmas, the students devote their Mondays almost exclusively to selling, for salesmanship, with all its hardships and privileges, is best learned behind the counter. During the busy month of December when all school sessions are suspended for both classes, the members of the teachers' class take positions involving more or less responsibility. With their well-trained minds and vigorous interest in the selling problem, the students are able to master details of technique and management in a far shorter time than would be possible for the less well-educated saleswomen. Hence, by the time the holiday season has arrived, they are in great demand for positions of trust in the stores. In December, 1915, three students were engaged by a large New York store for the book department in which one of them acted as floor manager. Two others had their expenses paid to a middle-western city that a store in which a graduate teacher had already demonstrated the value of the training course might have their help at the most exacting season of the year. One was made head saleswoman and head of stock in a handkerchief department, and the other was at once set to work investigating the reasons for the weakness of an unprofitable department. Her discriminating study of conditions was so productive of results that she was offered a permanent position at the end of her three weeks' term of service. Twenty of the students were placed in the toy department of one of Boston's largest stores. Here they fulfilled various functions, most of them having some executive responsibility. Two acted as "service shoppers," helping customers to decide what gifts to buy and suggesting timely purchases which might easily have been overlooked.

After Christmas much less time is given to the work of selling, for the other activities of the store must be investigated and understood. Accordingly, the students work at bundle desks, learning the specific duties of cashier and examiner, at the same time discovering the personal qualifications needed in these positions; they visit the receiving, marking, and shipping departments, and the credit office; opportunity is given for work under a floor manager, and the employment managers sometimes allow one or two students to sit quietly in the office while applicants are interviewed. The facilities provided for the convenience of customers are looked into and the arrangements made for the comfort and well-being of the employees are the subject of careful study. The advertising and mail-order departments are studied; stock and alteration rooms are visited and work is done in them when practicable; observations are made of the policy and methods of various special departments— the transfer, adjustment, lost articles, information-which have to do with the minor details of dealings with customers. "Service

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