Safety First or Career ? SIR,—Althou g h an inexpert typist, I
would dispute with Miss Ophelia Dane (in your issue of April 21st) that to learn typing and shorthand is the last resort of the young woman who has tried one or more trainings and decided that a secretarial course is better than doing nothing. It is far, far better. A secure knowledge of both typing and shorthand and a good average speed are a firm foundation, often neglected, for practically any job a girl can take up. In jobs varying from that of confidential private secretary to an author (often the peak ambition of many of the young) to hospital -alintiner or missionary in New Guinea, -these
accomplishments are always an asset, never a useless bit of learning acquired in a moment of frustration.
I once read an article in an American magazine by the principal of one of the big colleges in the U.S.A., in which he said he invariably encouraged his graduates to learn typing and shorthand as an invaluable asset which would help them in any career they finally adopted.
As a private citizen, who has never had any actual career, I can only add my own testimony that, while being wife of an M.F.H. or helper with the Oxford University Appeal, I have never regretted an all too brief training taken in 1917, preparatory to a clerkship in the Naval Ordnance Department of the Admiralty, which ironically was at that time considered immeasurably superior to that of a typist.—Yours truly, Dunllchity Lodge, By Inverness, Scotland. CECILIA KNOWLES.
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