Women's household
occupations, so far as retained in the home, are unspecialized. Each
well-trained household worker does or supervises much the same range
of things as every other. To give the entire range of household
occupations to all girls is a simple and logical arrangement.
But man's labor is greatly specialized throughout. There is no large
remnant of unspecialized labor common to all, as in the case of women.
To all girls we give simply this unspecialized remnant, since it is
large and important. But in the case of men the unspecialized field
has disappeared. There is nothing of labor to give to boys except that
which has become specialized.
A fundamental problem arises. Shall we give boys access to a variety
of specialized occupations so that they may become acquainted, through
responsible performance, with the wide and diversified field of man's
labor? Or shall we give them some less specialized sample out of
that diversified field so that they may obtain, through contact and
experience, some knowledge of the things that make up the world of
productive labor?
Cleveland's reply, to judge from actual practices, is that a single
sample will be sufficient for all except those who attend technical
and special schools. The city has therefore chosen joinery and
cabinet-making as this sample. In the fifth and sixth grades work
begins in simple knife-work for an hour a week under the direction of
women teachers.
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