Economic Reform - THROUGH PRATT INSTITUTE
Art Teachers coming out of the Main Building, n.d (c.1891)
Source: Pratt Digital ArchiveECONOMIC IMPROVEMENT FOR ALL
“It seems to me that nothing could be more democratic than the ideal Pratt Institute. Here are girls who have known the pinch of want taking up the work for a trade. Near by is a girl who comes from a household where are many children, and she acquiring the knowledge for use in helping to clothe younger brothers and sisters. Side by side with these may be found the society girl, who is going into the thing for fun, but soon finds it no joke; the wealthy girl, who is managing a mission sewing room.”
Article by James Campbell
Students in the Art Studio, c.1891
Source: Pratt Digital Archivethrough his students
Charles Pratt's relentless fight to incorporate students from all walks of life into one classroom had become a reality, and the institute allowed incredible economic development of the students. Unlike most colleges of the time, Pratt Institute had a large number of female students, especially in the Domestic Science department that was specifically incorporated to better aid women into integrating themselves into society while also helping them learn essential skills. The Institute had 1200 students in this department, all women; there were a few women who were a part of the manual training classes also. The Domestic Science Department taught women essential skills that would help them get jobs once they graduated - especially teaching jobs.
"With regards to graduates of the fine arts program – The first graduate course went out in 1890, yet already sixty-one are employed in different parts of the country. Some are supervisors of drawing in large cities, others are teachers of drawing in normal schools and in high schools, and directly or indirectly are influencing the work of 5000 teachers and more than 245,000 students.
Sixteen of the 44 teachers are earning an aggregate of $12,950, or an average of $893.75 each….have trained 704 women as stenographers and bookkeepers. Of this number 486 have taken positions at an average salary of $12 a week."
Article by James Campbell
Dressmaking Class, c.1900
Source: Pratt Institute ArchiveFOR the love of one's work
Quote 7 (online-audio-converter.com).mp3“Third, learn to do a difficult thing. Never be afraid to work. The best years of your life are those in which you work, long, hard, patiently. There would never be any labor strikes if people had pleasure in their work.”
Pratt Institute looked to teach students to first work for themselves; unlike its contemporaries at this time, Pratt did not teach students to create with the objective of selling. Charles Pratt believed that if he taught his students to work for themselves first, they would be inspired to create unique specimens of work instead of mindlessly producing work for the market. Although this was an overarching industrialization philosophy and Pratt wanted to produce a workforce for the Era of Industrialization, he realized the mindless production of products would not result in the love for one's work.
He believed that the students would have to love their work for them to succeed in it. Once the students had created work that was to their satisfaction they were eventually allowed to access markets to sell their products; in 1889, the students from the Technical Department had sold products worth $1000. For Pratt, economic reform in society could best be achieved if students were taught to love their work.
It was for this reason he took great displeasure in workers unions - he thought it was because they derived no pleasure in their work that they were induced to conduct these unions.