The girls of the normal schools of France are working very hard, knitting, sewing, making hospital supplies, in the intervals of their school work; also acting as laundresses, secretaries, bookkeepers, etc. They are not old enough to be nurses. In addition to the work for the armies, they give a part of their time to work for other students. They are providing for the girl students of the normal schools in the invaded districts, many of whom were obliged to make long journeys on foot, clad in summer clothes, with no chance to carry even a change of clothing with them. The school at Fontenay appealed to the normal schools for aid for its students; other appeals followed, some from schools in the districts from which the invaders were driven out. Very soon in all the normal schools of France girls were cutting and sewing, providing new garments, or garments from their own supply, to be sent to the towns in the north of France. Some of these supplies are held in reserve for the towns that are still to be liberated. One teacher writes: "Our young girls are glad to come to the aid of their fellow students who are not known to them but who are coming to seem nearer as I have them learn about the schools, read the letters that are received, etc. Anything which makes real and tangible the responsibility of this friendly help ought to be encouraged."
As the need arises, our secondary-school girls will respond in like manner.
The preparation needed to initiate Red Cross work in any large way in the schools of a state is considerable. There is a good deal of organization and consequent detail connected with it. The domestic-arts teachers of a school district or county ought to be called together and instructed in the minutiæ of garment-making and surgical dressings. With the blue prints, photographs, and written specifications already issued by the Red Cross headquarters at Washington these teachers could then work out a full set of directions for each article which would be specific and graphic. These could be printed by the state printer or, better, by the boys in a vocational school. In addition, moving-picture reels of processes carried on according to the most modern methods of workroom procedure could be shown to those who have not been in contact with present-day modes of work.