Part 9

TEACHERS.

Honolulu’s teaching force, like its population, includes representatives of the four corners of the earth:

American 100 Hawaiian or Part Hawaiian 32 British 10 Chinese 7 Portuguese 6 German 1 Japanese 1 Other Foreigners 6 —— 163

These are all first-grade certificate teachers, earning salaries of from $600 to $1,000 a year. Teachers are on duty five days in the week, from 9 a. m. until 2 p. m., and the school year is nine months, with a total of three months’ vacation. The salary schedule is substantially the same as in other communities of this size, but the school day is shorter by two hours than it is on the mainland. The community is paying its teachers for their eighth year of service $75 a month—about the same pay a stenographer receives at the end of her first year’s work, with an even greater scarcity in supply, and a far more urgent need. Teachers here, as indeed they do everywhere, complain of the small pay, and those spoken with expressed a preference for longer hours and more pay.

A number of teachers were spoken to with reference to the wide discrepancy between the social and community aspect of the public and private school work in Honolulu. It was suggested that a teacher’s institute would do much to stimulate such activity, by giving opportunity for the interchange of thought among the teachers in Honolulu and those from other sections of the Islands who have a considerable amount of social activity with their school work.

This would seem to be an admirable plan, and the steamship companies might be induced to grant special rates for such an occasion so that attendance would not be an unduly heavy financial burden. Reduced transportation is usually obtained for teachers’ conferences.

A number of the teachers were interested in the question of getting into closer touch with the children in their homes, and are planning to meet the parents at an early date.

There are only six teachers on the waiting list at present while on the other hand groups of children of school age continue to be seen on every block during school hours. Either the required accommodations are not yet provided, or else the compulsory law is not being enforced.

In the private schools there are forty women teachers receiving salaries ranging from $450 to $1,500 a year, and living expenses. In several instances salaries are not paid for the summer vacation; but teachers have the privilege of living at the school without expense.

While the maximum salary is greater than in the public schools, the private school work includes a comprehensive social program noted in the chapter on “Public Amusements,” which calls for much service outside of school hours.

The Territorial Teachers’ Association could do much if it would interest itself in the social problems of the city. Sociologists are coming to agree that in last analysis the teacher and the policeman are the forces which may be regarded as capable of becoming the strongest bulwarks of social betterment. Some place the policeman’s opportunity first; but in considering Honolulu’s problems I should say that the teacher might at any rate be entitled to equal consideration.

NURSES.

There is a wide divergence of opinion in the community concerning the question of nurses and where the supply ought to come from. At present there are about thirty-five private nurses officially registered at the Sanitorium, who earn $25 and $30 a week. This number, I am told, fairly supplies the normal demand in Honolulu; but the nurses come and go, and not half a dozen have ties which make them an integral part of the community.

Queen’s Hospital employs regularly sixteen nurses at $50 a month and living expenses, and a head nurse at $75 a month and living expenses. This means an expense of $875 a month. A hospital of this size located in a community of the type of Honolulu should be able at an expense of $250 a month and living expenses for a superintendent of nurses and an assistant, to train a class of fifteen girls at no cost to the community other than their living expenses and about $150 a month of an allowance for their uniforms, books, etc.

Native girls who have taken hospital training on the mainland are not only giving the best of satisfaction but are earning salaries far higher than it would be possible for them to secure in any other way.

The corps of district nurses, who receive salaries of $90 a month and have continuous work, is constantly receiving additions, and the demand for this class of help in various institutions is constantly increasing.

As at present organized the three separate hospitals, Queen’s, the Children’s and the Maternity Home represent an outlay for plant and running expenses which might easily be materially lessened. A consolidation of the Maternity Home and the Children’s Hospital would not only be an economy, but would give both institutions an opportunity to give thorough training to a corps of children’s nurses, as well as to give maternity and children’s diseases practice to nurses taking training at Queen’s Hospital. Such a course is customary in other cities.

If the consolidation could be effected and a resident physician placed in charge, it would not only place both institutions on a higher basis, but would leave the supervising nurse free to train the proposed nursing classes. This would mean to subscribers to both institutions an opportunity for truly efficient giving—which in turn means the consideration of community needs first, last and always; and making a dollar perform 100 per cent of its work.

Only recently while visiting a family in Camp 2, a young baby fell from the second story porch and struck its head in falling. Owing to the necessity for immediate medical attendance it was impossible to take it to the Children’s Hospital, and the child had to be rushed down to Queen’s Hospital.

I know of nothing that is better worth doing in the community than making these changes in the hospital regime, and instituting a course of training for nurses. If the matter were given newspaper publicity young women of the city would undoubtedly furnish good material for the classes.

STENOGRAPHERS.

A circular letter sent to eighty-eight representative employers of stenographers in Honolulu, supplemented by further personal inquiry, indicates that there are about 100 women stenographers employed in the city at present, at salaries from the $40 or $60 a month usually paid to beginners, up to $100 and $150 paid those having experience from a year to eight, ten and twelve years. Over 50 per cent of the salaries range between $100 and $135 a month, and the average for all is $90 a month. As compared with mainland salaries this average is unusually high, but on the other hand the average of ability is higher and reports indicate that the stenographers in Honolulu have a generally higher level of school training than is reached in communities where numerous commercial schools, accepting pupils of any grade of intelligence who can be persuaded to take their course, have flooded the market with a supply of incompetents willing to work for any wage.

There are only three complaints of incapability, two of them being on account of lack of English, and one for lack of concentration. The others reported not capable or expert have not yet had a year’s experience, and could not reasonably be expected to have reached their full efficiency.

Vacations with pay range from one week to a month, and a number of firms allow two or three months every three years, presumably for the trip to the mainland to tone up, which is a general custom in the islands.

Hours range almost uniformly from 9 a. m. to five p. m.

There is no public stenographic office in Honolulu. Transients and others who have occasional work are dependent on securing an unemployed stenographer haphazard, or having work done in the evening or on Sunday. This works to the disadvantage of both employer and employe, for while the latter may and in some cases does double her regular salary by overtime work, yet the strain on her physique, and especially on her eyes inevitably brings bad results.

Successful stenographers elsewhere make the largest earnings in this field of work, and veritable fortunes have been piled up by some of the large offices who make a specialty of reporting conventions, legislative inquiries, meetings, etc.

A capable stenographer should have High School training or its equivalent; unless exceptionally equipped with English. Even then High School English is desirable and a fund of general information is a valuable asset to those qualifying for secretarial positions. Of the thirty-four stenographers reported as trained in Honolulu, all but eight have such training, which undoubtedly has much to do with the high average of ability.