Self-supporting students in certain New York city high schools

Front matter

LB OOJ.A

SELF-SUPPORTING STUDENTS

IN

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Self Support in New York High Schools 7

II. The Self-Supporting Student 14

Chapter I Self-support In New York High Schools

In a great city like New York there are numerous opportunities for a high school pupil to earn money and pay wholly or in part his expenses while in school. Part-time positions of various kinds are open to boys and girls. Many small stores depend upon high school students to take and deliver orders after school hours, and larger stores employ students to assist in caring for the extra trade on Saturdays. The newspapers of the city give a number of school boys employment for a few hours each day, and delivering papers or caring for news-stands makes it possible for many a boy to remain in high school. The long summer vacation instead of being a period of rest, is used by a small army of boys and girls to earn money to meet the needs of the next school year.

Working for salaries is not the only way in which boys and girls are helping themselves in securing an education. Many families own small stores or stands, and children devote free hours to assisting parents in caring for the family business. Assistance rendered parents in this way frequently makes it possible to economize in hiring clerks and thus the child is permitted to remain in school. Work of this type is, therefore, a kind of self-support.

The following study has to do with New York City high school students who are working. The first investigation covered 3,395 boys and 2,578 girls; the second, 161 boys who were studied intensively; the third, groups of co-operative students 1 from three high

1 Co-operative students: Students who are taking vocational courses and who work in pairs, alternating between the school and a position. In New York City high schools this means every other week in school.

schools. The study deals with the part-time work the student is doing from two points of view, that of the student and that of the school. The economic status of the boy's family, the position in terms of wage paid, hours required and effect on leisure time, and the vocational value of work done, are parts of the problem from the students' standpoint. The marks of working students, their elimination from school, and their regularity of attendance and punctuality are considered from the standpoint of the school. Whether students who work outside of school hours are able to do as high a grade of school work as others do is investigated. Inasmuch as co-operative classes in high schools give students who might otherwise leave school because of economic pressure an opportunity to support themselves in part, these students are studied to see to what extent their half-time work interferes with their school work. Finally, an effort is made to find out what the high schools are doing to help the working student, and the ways in which schools can be of greater assistance to the student who must support himself.

A preliminary study was made of Erasmus, Eastern District, De Witt Clinton, and Wadleigh high schools. Erasmus is in a residential section of Brooklyn and probably presents less opportunity for self-support and less need on the part of the students for outside work than the other schools studied. Erasmus was therefore not included in the final investigation. Eastern District is a Brooklyn high school with a large percentage of students of foreign-born parentage. De Witt Clinton is a boys' high school on the west side of Manhattan with a large attendance of Jewish boys. Wadleigh is a girls' high school in which, at the time this study was made, the students were mostly American born and to a large extent of American parents. Preliminary questionnaires covering the activities of the students for one week were sent to the three high schools. (A copy of this four by six questionnaire card will be found in the appendix.) In two of the schools the principal, and in the third the head of the English Department, distributed the cards to the teachers with a request that they be filled out by the pupils without comment from the teacher. This was done in the three schools on Tuesday or

Wednesday, February 23 or 24, 1915, and covered the work done by the pupils during the week February 14-21. Several investigations previously made of the earnings of high school students had included the entire year. The possibility of inaccuracy because the student failed to remember his earnings for such a long period was so great that a shorter period was used in this study. The student was asked to state what he had done each day of this week and how much he had earned. In order to save embarrassment pupils were told that "boy" or "girl" instead of their names might be written at the top of the card. Some of the girls in Wadleigh and a few in Eastern District followed this suggestion. In general the students gave complete information under their own names.

The study of the effect of co-operative work on students' marks was made after classes had had one semester on half time in school. These classes in Bushwick and Washington Irving high schools were used because they were doing the same academic work required of fulltime students. Unfortunately, the only available way of studying these students was the unsatisfactory method of using teachers' marks. Only those co-operative students were studied who according to their teachers were doing the same work in school that was expected of students on full time.

Finally, a more detailed study was made of some of the boys in De Witt Clinton High School. A questionnaire was prepared to supplement the printed card. This was used with a dozen students and somewhat modified before it was used with the whole group of 161 students. (A sample of this modified questionnaire will be found in the appendix.) Interviews were held with these 161 students during which the questionnaire was filled out and any further information which seemed of value secured. These boys were selected at random as far as possible. They were chosen from the* study hall where a large and constantly changing group of students may be found at almost any hour. They come from all grades and are apparently as representative a group as could be found. The interview was held at the back of the large stage in the auditorium, and boys were sent to the interviewer in groups of two and three by the student monitors.

In the course of investigating what the schools in New York and other cities were doing to assist self-supporting students, an interesting plan was found in the newly organized work of De Witt Clinton High School and this is described somewhat in detail with suggestions for making the work more efficient.

A brief summary of the study is here given the reader. The various points in this summary are presented at length in the following pages, together with the data secured in the various investigations and a discussion of their significance.

Data from 3,395 New York high school boys show from one-seventh to one-sixth of them engaged in remunerative work during the week studied, and of 2,578 girls approximately one in twenty was working for wages during the same period. Special studies of students in one of the high schools show from one-third to one-half the boys working for money at some time during the year.

From the same studies it is evident that from one-seventh to twosevenths of the girls and from one-sixth to one-fourth of the boys are assisting parents at home at any one time during the school year.

Economic Status

Of a special group of high school boys who reported as to the use of their money 21 per cent were supporting themselves, and several were supporting their families in addition. In the same group, boys who were engaged in remunerative work were living in apartments averaging 4.99 rooms each, while the boys who had not been working lived in apartments averaging 5.68 rooms in size. Those boys who were employed ten hours or over per week came from homes which averaged a room smaller than homes of boys who did no work.

In this group of students parents of children not working were a little more frequently the owners of their business than parents of children who were working for wages. Parents of children who were working without wages were much more frequently the owners of their business than parents of children who were not working or who were working for money.

[10 1

In the group of 3,395 high school boys those born in the United States of American-born fathers were less likely to be working than those of foreign-born fathers. Boys of foreign-born fathers were less likely to be working when they themselves were born in America rather than abroad.

Brothers and sisters of working boys in the small group studied intensively were less frequently graduates of elementary schools than was the case among brothers and sisters of boys who were not working.

In the same group boys who were not working lived in apartments renting for $11.60 a month more than the apartments of boys who were working for wages, as shown by inquiries of the janitors.

Position

The boys and girls who were working in the high schools studied were earning wages which varied greatly. In one high school the median wage per hour for boys was 18 cents; in another 25 cents. For girls the median wage per hour was 30 cents in the two schools studied.

The number of hours worked per week for wages varied greatly, being twelve as a median in one school for boys and seven as a median for boys in another school. Girls worked a smaller number of hours per week, the median being six and four and a half in groups of girls from two schools.

Of a group of De Witt Clinton High School students those who do not work report for the week studied more recreation than students who work. This holds true for the number of different kinds of recreation, for the number of times any recreative activity was engaged in, as well as for the total number of hours devoted to recreation. A comparison of students working for wages ten hours or more per week with students not working, shows the latter to have had almost twice as much recreation from the standpoint of hours, kinds, and number of recreative activities engaged in. Long hours of work outside school greatly decrease the attendance of school boys at movies and shows, and the data indicate that participation in athletic sports suffers even a greater reduction.

In the small group of boys studied the most common way of securing a position was found to be reliance on friends. Calling on employers and answering advertisements were given as next in popularity.

Boys earn money in a great variety of occupations. The most popular is working in stores or offices. Twenty-seven per cent of the students working for wages in one school and 20 per cent in another were so employed. Taking orders and delivering for stores, work connected with the distribution of newspapers, and employment as pages in public libraries are popular occupations. The girls' work is much less varied and practically all the girls from whom data were received were earning through teaching, working in stores or offices, or as waitresses or nurse maids.

In most cases there is no relation discernible between the work the boy is doing and the future occupation he intends to enter.

The School and the Working Boy

In the small group of students studied, boys working do not appear to be handicapped in their school work in so far as school marks are an indication. This conclusion is supported by another study in which boys who are working at least up to twenty hours a week are given as high marks as boys who are not working.

There is more elimination from school among the boys who work than among the boys who do not in the case of 100 boys selected at random from each of two schools, half of whom were working.

In the small group of students, boys who were working were less regular in their attendance and a little more likely to be tardy than boys who were not working.

In co-operative work in two schools studied the students seemed to be suffering little or no handicap from the half time devoted to work. There seems to be a tendency among the co-operative students studied to do just average work, and the distribution range of their

[12 1 marks is smaller than in the case of students in regular courses. Co-operative work furnishes a means of helping the boy who must support himself to remain in school.

In a large high school the appointment of a special teacher to advise with students and assist in placing those who must work is advocated. The interest of the home, employer, and school must be taken into consideration, and a central bureau organized where the work of the different high schools can be systematized and the information of the co-ordinators 1 of the different high schools utilized.

Finally, the English system of secondary scholarships is described and contrasted with the policy of the Board of Education in New York City.

1 The teacher who supervises the student in the shop or office and correlates the work of the classroom with the outside work.

Chapter II The Self-supporting Student

The first study of self-support in New York City high schools covered 5,973 students in the three high schools, De Witt Clinton (a boys' high school), Eastern District (a co-educational school), and Wadleigh (a girls' school). Each student filled out the questionnaire card shown in the appendix, and stated whether he had worked with or without pay the previous week, what kind of work he had done each day, how long it took him, and how much his daily earnings were.

Later an intensive study was made of 161 boys in De Witt Clinton High School covering the two vacation months, July and August, and the first two months of the school year, September and October.

Number of Students Working

Because of irregular programs, absence, and refusal to co-operate, it was impossible to secure returns from the total registration of the schools studied.

In Wadleigh High School returns from the students were especially poor, and but 53 per cent of the girls in the classes studied gave the information requested. Special effort would doubtless have resulted in more complete returns, but the small number of girls working did not seem to justify the expenditure of additional time. Of the 1,322 in this school who filled out the cards 58 reported that they were working for money, and 206 that they were working outside of school hours but were receiving no wages in return for their work. In Eastern District High School where the students filled out the cards much more generally than in Wadleigh, the number of girls working for wages was but 69 out of the 1,256 who gave returns. In Wadleigh 4.4 per cent of the girls reporting were working for wages, while in Eastern District the percentage was 5.5. Positions for girls Saturdays and after school hours are doubtless more difficult to find and are not so varied as in the case of boys. In Wadleigh High School 15.6 per cent, while at Eastern District 361, or 28.7 per cent, of the girls were working at home without receiving pay. These girls are doing housework or assisting in parents' offices and stores. In Eastern District High School 115, or 17.3 per cent, of the boys were working for wages during the week studied as compared with 386, or 14 per cent, in De Witt Clinton. Of the Eastern District boys, 26.8 per cent were working without wages, and but 18 per cent of the De Witt Clinton boys were in this class. The investigation of the work done during this one week showed that from 20 per cent of the girls in Wadleigh to 44 per cent of the Eastern District boys were doing some work outside of school hours either with or without pay.

This data, it must be remembered, were the results of a study covering but one week in the spring of 1915. This was a school week and the data are not indicative of conditions during vacation periods. In order to determine to what extent students work during the summer this question was included in the study of the 161 boys in De Witt Clinton High School. These boys were interviewed during November, 1915. The questionnaire used in these interviews with 161 students in De Witt Clinton High School, a copy of which will be found in the appendix, covered the vacation months of July and August and the school months of September and October, 1915. These 161 students were as nearly a random selection from the student body in De Witt Clinton High School as it seemed possible to make. 1 The method of selecting them has been previously explained. It is possible that in a few cases boys may have come to interview the investigator at their own request. Some of these boys were employed

1 In order to determine to what extent this group of 161 boys represented the student body of De Witt Clinton High School, the nationality of the students comprising the group of 161 studied was compared with the nationality of the 2,731 who had been studied previously and who represented 88 per cent of the average attendance in the seven upper classes, the only classes from which data

[15 1 and desired to give information about their work. On the other hand, some of the boys were under the impression that an effort was being made to find positions for boys, and in two or three cases boys not at work who wanted something to do came to apply for a position. Of the 161 boys interviewed in De Witt Clinton 104, or 65 per cent, had been working the previous summer either for wages or at home without pay. Eighty-three, or 52 per cent, had been working for wages.

This study of 161 boys gave a more representative picture of the amount of self-support among high school students during the school year than the study of one week's activities made the previous spring, as it covered two months of the school year and was also made under direct supervision of the investigator. Of these 161 boys 91, or 56 per cent, had been earning wages at some time during the four months. In addition there were 28, or 17 per cent, who had worked without receiving pay. A total, therefore, of 73 per cent of the group studied had been working. In this special group the week before the investigation there were 49, or 30 per cent, of the boys at work for wages, and 44, or 27 per cent, working without wages.

There is considerable difference in the results of the two studies, both made in De Witt Clinton High School. So far as the investigator was able to ascertain, both studies were made at a period which was neither particularly favorable nor particularly unfavorable for securing work. In accounting for the discrepancy in the results it were secured. The results shown below indicate that at least from the standpoint of nationality the group was very representative.

Birthplace of

Per Cent op

Group of 2,731

Studied

Per Cent of Group of 161 Interviewed

Father

Child

United States

Italy

Italy

United States United States Russia

United States Italy

United States Austria

15 26 16

3 1

18 7

14 22 16 3 1 20 14 must be remembered that the latter study in which the larger figures were secured was made through a personal interview with the student, that there was opportunity to explain to the boy the purpose of the study, and that each boy was told that the data secured were to be kept in the possession of the investigator, no teacher or other person having access to them. On the other hand, the former and larger study had been made through the schools, the cards being distributed and collected by the class-room teachers. One factor in reducing the percentage of boys who reported themselves as working in the study made through the teachers, was unwillingness on the part of some of the pupils to have the fact of their employment known. 1

In an investigation 2 made entirely independent of this study early in 1917 of amount of work done by pupils in De Witt Clinton High

1 This is illustrated in the following cases:

Case No. 87. Born in Russia, seventeen years of age, sixteen of which have been spent here, in the sixth semester of the high school, this young man is employed three hours each school day and twelve hours Saturdays and Sundays as an optician. In summer he works twelve hours a day. He receives $15 a week in summer and $9.00 in the school term. He lives in a flat of four rooms and has no older brothers and sisters. His father is a cloak maker and does not own his business. The family speak Yiddish at home. He stated that there was no time for recreation. He has been working since he was nine years old when he began at $1.40 a week. He did not want to give the information requested and would answer the questions only when assured that his name would not appear on the answers and that the information would never be used in connection with his name. Even then he said that he preferred not to give the name and address of his employer.

Case No. 124. This boy was born in New York sixteen years ago of Russian parents. He is in the seventh semester of the high school. His father is a dentist and the family live in an eight-room apartment. Their home language is English. He plays in an orchestra in one of the largest hotels in the city from half -past ten to two o'clock each evening. During the summer he played seven hours each day. In summer he received $50 a week; in winter he is paid $75. He belongs to a union and was very anxious that this information should be absolutely confidential as he felt that were the facts known he might not be able to keep his position. In the three days program given the interviewer he reported as recreation, attending a theater on Saturday, playing in a symphony orchestra on Sunday, and spending several hours on the street Sunday afternoon. He also mentioned the fact that at home he played cards frequently.

2 This investigation was made under the supervision of Mr. Edward C. Delaney, of De Witt Clinton, who has organized the office in which boys are placed in half-time positions.

2 [17 1

School, returns were received from 4,483 boys, or all the students on the register the second week in January, 1917. Boys who worked but two or three weeks or earned less than $10 during the year are not included in the number of "working boys." The boys who were working for their parents are not counted as working boys. There were 1,437 boys who received pay for their work during the year, or 32 per cent of the group. 1

The English department of De Witt Clinton High School in 1914 found of 3,431 students 770, or 22 per cent, earning money at some time during the year. 2

NUMBER OF STUDENTS WORKING

Number Studied

Number Working

for Wages

Number Working Without

Wages

Spring, 1915

Wadleigh

Spring, 1915

De Witt CHnton

Spring, 1915

Girls 1322

Boys 3431

Boys 4483

Boys 161

115 69

17.3 5.5

4.4

178 361

26.8

28.7

15.6

November, 1915

° Study made by the English Department. 6 Study made by Mr. Delaney.

Mr. Delaney's figure corrected to correspond with results of other studies made, by excluding students in first semester.

The Working Boy and His Position

There are three problems in connection with the boy who is wholly or in part supporting himself, which it is here proposed to discuss.

First, the economic status of the working boy is a fundamental problem. Is the boy who is working doing so because he is obliged

1 If Mr. Delaney had omitted the first semester students, as was done in the two investigations previously made, he would have had 1,177 students out of 3,360 working, or 35 per cent.

2 From a manuscript report of this study.

to? Do boys who are working come from poorer families than boys who are not ? What do rent and size of apartments, father's business, and educational opportunities of brothers and sisters indicate with regard to the status of working boys ?

Second, the problem which has to do with the boy's position. Is he required to devote too many hours to the work? Does the work interfere with his recreation? Is he well paid for his efforts or is there a tendency to exploit him?

Third, the problem which deals with the educational value of the work the boy is doing. What kind of work are students doing? Is there any relation between this work and the work the student will later enter?

Economic Status of Family

Data regarding the economic status of the families of working boys were secured through the answers to questionnaires which dealt indirectly with financial condition. Students were asked the question, What do you do with your money? The answers to the question asked on the card indicate that a large number of students are working after school hours in order to support themselves in part or wholly. In De Witt Clinton High School 113 boys, or 29 per cent, of the boys working for money reported that they were using their earnings in supporting themselves. Twenty-four boys, or 21 per cent, of those working for money, and 19 girls, or 27 per cent, of those working for money in Eastern District High School, and 5 girls in Wadleigh gave similar reports. In De Witt Clinton some of the replies were, "Enable me to go to school"; "Self-support, no help from home"; "Keep up home"; "Support mother and brother"; "Support family and myself " ; " Support home." There were 238 boys in De Witt Clinton and 57 in Eastern District, and 51 girls in Eastern District and 23 in Wadleigh, who reported that their earnings were used for incidentals including school expenses, car fare, clothing, books, lunch, etc. A few of the students were saving their money. (28 boys in De Witt Clinton and 21 in Eastern District were doing this.) In each of the two schools 5 boys gave as the reason, preparation for college expenses. Five girls in Eastern District and 3 in Wadleigh reported that they save their money.

In the group of 161 boys studied in De Witt Clinton High School there were but 46 of the 91 earning money who answered the question regarding use of their money. Ten of these were self-supporting, and 3 of these 10 not only supported themselves but supported their families wholly or in part; 22 used their money for general and school purposes. Nine boys wrote that they saved their money, and of these 2 reported that they were saving their earnings for college expenses. Finally 5 boys reported that they turned their money over to their parents.

That the necessity for self-support is a considerable factor in elimination from school is indicated by the results of numerous studies. Estimates of the importance of economic pressure as a cause of elimination vary from 20 per cent to 85 per cent. 1 The difficulty of estimating the proportion of students leaving school because their families need their earnings is apparent as soon as an attempt is made to reduce economic pressure to definite terms with which another investigator can work and secure similar results. As a matter of fact the statement of the child and his parent obtained during a visit at the home must for the present be relied upon.

Mary Flexner found apparently that 376 [526— 150] of a group of 666 children, or 56 per cent, between the ages of fourteen and sixteen had gone to work because their earnings were needed at home. 2 Helen T. Wooley found that "only 27 per cent of the families were believed to require the earnings of the children, while 73 per cent had apparently no such economic need. 3 She was studying a group of 650 families in which native-born white children had left school at the age

1 These studies deal generally with children in the grammar grades.

2 A Plea for Vocational Training, Survey, Volume XXII, p. 650. Miss Flexner states that school records give 526 children as leaving school from necessity, and that interviews in their homes developed that 150 children left school for reasons other than economic "thus reducing the number of those whose earnings were needed at home from 526 to 380." The latter figure is apparently an error. Mary Van Kleeck in citing this study, Working Girls in Evening Schools, page 106, states "that apparently 380 out of a total of 530, or 72 per cent, left school because of economic pressure." Miss Flexner's study indicates that there were 666 students in the group rather than 526, or the 530 Miss Van Kleeck used.

3 Charting Childhood in Cincinnati, Survey, Volume XXX, p. 601.

[20 1 of fourteen. Mary Van Kleeck reports that of 108 girls who had left school before the age of sixteen, "Exactly half the number said that they left school to go to work because their earnings were needed at home." 1 C. D. Jarvis found that of 699 students who undoubtedly would leave school during the year, 278, or 40 per cent, were leaving because "family needs help." 2 In the report of the Superintendent of Schools in St. Louis 3 there is an analysis of the causes of 3,567 cases of elimination in the public schools. "Poverty" and "increasing the family income" are assigned as the reason 3,041 children, or 85.3 per cent of all, had for dropping out of school. In a study made by Dr. Anna Y. Reed in Seattle, Seattle Children in School and Industry, published in January, 1915, economic pressure is said to have been the cause for leaving school in the case of 132 out of 486 eliminations among high school boys and 62 of 336 eliminations among high school girls. According to this study 24 per cent of the students leaving high school left because of economic pressure. In a study made in Massachusetts, "The report of those who left school from necessity is 2,450 out of 5,459," or 44 per cent. 4 Alice P. Barrows found that "Only 20 per cent of the families visited had a per capita income of under $1.50, and on the basis of the government standard of income only 20 per cent of the children had to leave on account of economic pressure." 5 Ernest L. Talbert states that of 217 families represented " 118 gave the economic cause as determining the leaving of school; 31 of these were found to be entirely able to send their children to school," which leaves 40 per cent who withdrew from school for financial reasons. 6 In another study of 605 children, 177,