G BIS ON' Glass L C 104-; ^ Book 1^1 -pe of course may be regarded as being planned for a group of individuals who because of their superior, earnestness and ambition and apprecia- tion of their needs are prepared for a more thorough training than would otherwise be practical. In a number of schools that have been iu the lieUl for a long time, and whose experience therefore is significant, there has VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 137 been a distant tendency of courses of this type to develop. Ex- perience shows that industries are constantly changing and that men do not always follow the narrow path that they mark out for themselves. Often it happens that persons who think they know exactly what their future work will be, find themselves, a few years later, in some related field. For such persons, there- fore, breadth of industrial training is quite as important as depth of training; and one of the most valuable things that practical education can do is to cultivate the versatility and adaptability that new conditions and new opportunities require. The com- posite technical or trade courses, because of their length and the variety of subjects that they include may accomplish this more fully and satisfactorily than courses organized in other ways. They, therefore, have an important place, and it would be a mis- take to try to substitute other types of evening instruction for them. VOCATIONAL TRAINING IN CHICAGO SCHOOLS' Before we accept the argument for a dual board of control for vocational education we should find out what the schools are actually doing that warrants the charge that they are failing to provide practical education. Chicago can show full-fledged voca- tional schools, industrial and technical courses, and well-equipped organization for the practical training of youth in the regular routine of high and grammar schools. The cosmopolitan high school, one in which cooking and blacksmithing are given in the same building with Greek and art, is not merely a possibility but a working actuality in this city. A brief summary of conditions will convince anyone that within the last half-dozen years Chi- cago has been rapidly spreading educational advantages to all classes of people. All of this is being done under the manage- ment of a single or unit board of education. In the first place, the administration has perfected an organi- zation to manage work for vocational and industrial education. One district superintendent gives his entire time to the problem 1 By John T. McManus, Chicago Normal College. School Review, 23:145- 58. March. 1915. 138 SELECTED ARTICLES of connecting up the schools with industrial needs of the city. Then there are two supervising officers for vocational and techni- cal courses in the high schools, both appointed within the last year or two. In addition to these persons there is a supervisor of household arts and sciences for the schools and a supervisor of industrial work in the grades. In the second place, the advocates of the dual system of con- trol have argued that the teachers now in the schools are aca- demic and not practical enough to meet the needs of the industrial education of children. They cite the passing of the old manual- training school, which owed its failure partly to the theoretical and academic teachers who took charge of it. Whether this bit of history be true or not as regards manual-training schools, the present vocational schools of Chicago are safe from that danger because they have practical teachers to handle the work in indus- tries and vocations. The following regulations make clear the practice in the city schools. On October 19, 1910, the superin- tendent of schools reports that the work of giving technical instruction in the evening schools to young men and women engaged in the industries has been greatly handicapped for want of teachers who have had a trade experience necessary to equip them for giving the proper kind of instruction. Teachers with good technical- school training, but without experience in the industries, may be had, but such are not competent to do the work required because of the lack of actual trade experience. The right kind of teachers is hard to find, and if the superintendent is given authority to employ such persons when found, their services may be made available at once in the evening schools. The superintendent, therefore, recommends that section 118 of the Rules of the Board be suspended, and that authority be granted to the superintendent of schools to issue temporary certificates to graduates of technical schools of good standing who have had the necessary experience in the trades and to employ them as teachers in the evening schools, subject to the approval pf the committee and of the Board, such certificates to expire at the end of the school year. The superintendent requests emergency authority to act at once on this matter. This request was granted.* On January 8, 1913, the superintendent recommends that authority be granted to the superin- tendent of schools to issue when necessary temporary certificates to men and women with the expert experience that equips them to give practical instruction in their trades, such certificates to expire at the end of the school year; to assign said teachers in the day school, subject to the ap- proval of the Board; and to place said teachers on the regular schedule for I Proceedings of Board, 1910-11, p. 242. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 139 technical teachers in the high school if the assignment be a high school, and on the regular schedule for manual-training or household arts teachers in the elementary school, if the assignment be to an elementary school.* At the present time, in the high schools, night schools, and elementary schools, there are many men and women teaching who have had the most complete and successful trade exprience in the world of industry. A list of a few of the schools and the courses where teachers of this type are employed will refute the argu- ments of the advocates of dual control that the schools cannot get "practical" teachers to do the work required and demanded by the business world. In eight of the high schools of the city there are full four- year courses in technical instruction now in operation. The teachers in these schools are in the majority of cases "practical" men, the others being school men with college training in tech- nical subjects but no trade experience. Crane Technical High School Woodwork 3 practical men (from the trades) Woodwork 5 college-trained men (no trade experience) Foundry 2 practical men Forge 2 practical men Machine shop 2 practical men Electrical i practical man Electrical i with some practical experience Lane Technical High School Woodwork 2 practical men Woodwork 5 college-trained men Foundry i practical man Forge 2 practical men Machine shop 3 practical men Electrical i practical man Electrical i college-trained man Lake Technical High School Woodwork 2 practical men Woodwork i college-trained man Foundry i practical man Forge 1 mechanic Machine shop i practical man Bowen High School has all practical men in shop and foundry. Schurz High School has three practical men and one man without trade experience in its shops. Senn High School has two practical men and three college mechanics. Hyde Park High School has all practical men in its shops. Harrison Technical High School has all practical men in shop and foundry. * Proceedings of Board, 1912-13, p. 659. 140 SELECTED ARTICLES The above list of eight high schools does not contain all of the men in technical work now employed in the various schools of the city, but it gives an idea of the extent to which men with trade experience have been brought into the work of teaching. In the commercial courses and the courses for girls there exists the same proportion of teachers with actual commercial and trade experience as shown in the technical courses/ Work in accounting and stenography and office preparation is carried on by students under teachers directly from offices and commercial employments. Women with experience as milliners, dressmakers, managers of dining-rooms, and shop workers are in many cases in charge of classes in the Flower Technical School for girls and other high schools of the city. The night-school classes are taught in a majority of cases by men and women with trade experience. Such courses as sewing, and dressmaking, millinery, bookkeeping, stenography, chemistry, electricity, mechanical drawing, freehand drawing, printing, and agriculture are in the hands of teachers who know their jobs by actual experience. There is absolutely no excuse, so far as getting practical trade people to teach, for a dual control of our schools. Chicago can show this class of teachers in all of her high schools. Of course the difficulty of getting a man or woman experienced in the in- dustries and at the same time a competent instructor of boys and girls is felt now, but would in no way be lessened by a dual sys- tem. It is recognized in the schools now, where such persons have been taken in from the trades, that not all of them will ever become first-class teachers, but the vast majority of them soon learn through association with the regular academic teachers how to do the work. It is this sort of association between the two types of teachers that will make possible the success of the work of each class, and a dual system would therefore defeat the end of good teaching. If we turn now to the courses offered in the city schools for vocational and industrial training, we are struck by the rapidity with which this work has been taken over into the regular school curriculum and made an organic part of the schools. People who wish to establish vocational schools, in addition to the schools ^ Of the 37 teachers of stenography, bookkeeping, commercial law, and commercial geography who entered the day schools during the past year, 26 came direct from the business world; the others had been teachers of com- mercial subjects in other schools. In the commercial department of the evening schools, 40 teachers with practical experience were added. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 141 already in operation, must be blind to the fact that such schools are already working very efficiently now under the unit manage- ment. Notice the various branches now in operation ; 1. Industrial centers in 20 elementary schools. (There would have been 46 of this type of school this year if money had been available.) In these schools children in the upper grades — the sixth, seventh, and eighth — are furnished opportunity to enter upon vocational training. 2. Prevocational courses in the technical high schools. Here boys and girls over-age but behind in school work are instructed in vocations. 3. Two-year vocational courses in all of the 22 high schools of the city. These courses are eleven in number as follows : accounting, shorthand, mechanical drawing, designing, carpentry, pattern-making, machine shop, electricity, household arts, print- ing, horticulture. Two or more of these courses are given in all the schools and most of them give practically all such courses. 4. Four-year vocational courses as follows : commercial, office preparatory, technical, general trades, household arts, arts, and architecture. In addition to the regular technical high schools, these courses are given in most of the regular high schools where the general, the science, and the normal preparatory courses are given. 5. Apprenticeship courses in several industries : carpenters, electrical workers, plumbers, machinists, sheet-metal workers. 6. Two-year college course for technical education and engi- neering. 7. Evening school courses in more than twenty vocational subjects. A careful study of the following items will show something of the status of vocational education in Chicago : I. Industrial centers: On May 3, 1911, "the superintendent of schools reports that a division should be made in the elemen- tary course of study at the beginning of the sixth grade for the purpose of providing an industrial and a general course for pu- pils, each of which will meet the requirements of graduation and entrance to high school."^ Again on January 24, 1912, the superintendent returns to this subject and reports that in accordance with this authority, the superintendent, after conference with members of the education department, arranged for two courses of study. 142 SELECTED ARTICLES and the new division — the industrial course — was printed with the general course of study, and distributed to all of the schools before the opening of September, 191:, so that teachers and principals might be familiar with the tentative plan proposed. As this is the first arrangement of a course of study along these lines, it has been necessary to give consideration to all the details, and up to the present time it has not been possible to determine whether there will be money available during this year for the two extra teachers of industrial and vocational subjects who will be required in each school in which the new division of the course is introduced. As it now appears that enough money will be available to provide these teachers, and as a number of requests have been received from principals of schools like the Jackson and Von Humboldt, situated in congested districts, for the in- troduction of a course which will keep pupils longer in school and fit them better for their vocations, the superintendent recommends that authority be given to introduce the new course at the beginning of the new semester, and to assign the two additional teachers at each school selected by the superin- tendent for the introduction of the course.^ From letters of principals and teachers in these schools we give the following items : (i) "In two years sinc'e opening center, membership in the eighth grade is 86.9, while for two previous years it was 73-I-" (2) "While pupils devote only half as much time to academic subjects as formerly, yet they cover the grade work and the results are creditable." (3) "We have better attendance since opening, and children have less desire to go to work." (4) "Attendance in these grades is larger and more regular than ever before." (5) "Pupils over fourteen remain. Mending in the homes is attended to and cooking and housekeeping are done better. Many pupils go to Flower and Lake Technical schools." (6) "Membership is larger than ever in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. The children are happy in their work. The joy of doing things with their own hands gives them encouragement that they, too, are becoming a vital part of the great world about them." (7) "Attendance 1913 (before opening), 97.16; in 1914 (first year), 97.72; graduates 1913 were 34, in 1914, 47." (8) "This work promotes attend- ance and pupils will not miss a cooking, sewing, or manual-training class." (9) "An unusual number of girls have gone to work in private families." (10) "Increased attendance — Keeps older boys in school." (11) A decided .decrease in the number of work certificates issued to pupils in grades hav- ing this work." (12) "Improved attendance." (13) "Fewer boys ask for work certificates and more boys over fourteen in grade than in previous years." (14) "This industrial work has materially affected our attend- ance. Many more pupils now remain in school until they complete the elementary course. In 1913, before opening this industrial center, 63 pupils were accredited to the high schools. During 1914 we graduated 97 pupils, a gain of 54 per cent in number of pupils completing the grammar grades." > Proceedings of Board, 1910-11, pp. 873-74. ^ Proceedings of Board, 1911-12, pp. 523-24. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 143 2. Prevocational figures: Crane No report Flower Cooking and sewing 76 Harrison Various lines 35 Lake No report Lane Woodworking 48 Forge 60 Machine shop 24 Printing 60 Foundry 20 Total prevocational reported 323 For the two-year vocational, the four-year vocational, the two-year college courses, see the following tabulation of the high school work of the city. This tabulation (Table I) was compiled from reports of the principals made in January, 1915, and shows the relative numbers taking the courses offered in the high schools. If one remembers that the two year vocational course was opened in 1910 he may appreciate the rapidity with which it has grown. This growth has not been at the expense of the general course, but indicates an increased number of boys and girls attending high school. A summary of the commercial work being done in the two- year courses of the high schools of Chicago made in November, 1914, gives the following results :^ Business English studied by 5,352 Stenography studied by 4,i95 Bookkeeping studied by 3.045 making a total of 12,592 enrollments in the classes of the high schools in the two-year studies fitting for offices and clerical work in the city. Apprentice classes are conducted in the schools at the present time and have enrolled in the different lines of work: Carpenters 236 Plumbers 1 74 Electrical workers 83 Machinists ." 24 Sheet-metal workers (until recently) 30 Total in attendance 547 Classes are to be opened at an early date for printers, bakers, and druggists. Most of this work can be carried on and is being * This summary includes Morgan Park High School. 144 SELECTED ARTICLES carried on with the facihties already at hand with perfect case and effectiveness. The arguments for a dual system that would double the school plants because there were no opportunities for the industrial workers in the present school organization have no validity so far as the apprenticeship courses are concerned, be- cause they have been accommodated from the first and can con- tinue to utilize the present school plant almost indefinitely.^ In the two-year college engineering course the following work is given. This work has been given in two of the high schools of the city and has been successfully carried on. First year : mathe- matics, science, English, gymnasium are required, while modern language, shop, science, design are elective. Second year : mathe- matics, science, English, gymnasium are required, and shop, science, engineering, modern language are elective. A summary of evening school attendance for November 5, 1914, shows the following work and attendance : Household courses: Women High-school sewing and dressmaking 987 Elementary sewing 680 Millinery 276 Cooking, high school i77 Cooking, elementary 335 Total household courses Men Women Bookkeeping 767 321 Stenography 862 1,323 Special business course 213 58 Commercial law 91 7 Total commercial courses Industrial subjects: Chemistry 188 18 Electricity Woodworking Pattern-making Machine shop Foundry Forge Mechanical drawing 1,247 Freehand drawing 95 Printing 123 Agriculture 36 Total industrial subjects 4>04i Total household, commercial, and industrial 10,126 * An advisory board consisting of a member of the union concerned, a member of the employes' association, and a member of the Board of Educa- tion plans the course and conduct of the work. Commercial classes: 744 943 84 30s SS 201 Total 987 680 276 177 335 Total 1,085 2,185 271 206 744 984 84 30s SS 201 1,259 117 123 40 2,446 3.639 VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 145 Other classes: English, for foreigners 8,809 2,650 ii.4S9 Elementary grade work 2,886 994 3,880 Regular high-school subjects 1,704 814 2,518 Physical education 264 413 677 Classes for deaf 2 9 11 Total other classes 18,545 Grand total, less 295 counted twice 28,376 Grand total for first quarter last year 21,839 Evening schools have been easily managed by the single or unit system of control and have been extended as rapidly as money was available for them. A dual control would simply add to the expense of the taxpayer by requiring a duplication of building and apparatus for the evening schools where now there is sufficient of both in the regular schools. It is evident from the growth of vocational and industrial courses in the schools of Chicago that what is needed is more money to foster the work already begun and not an entirely new set of schools. PROBLEMS OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION UNDER PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION' However much one may wish to avoid the indelicate refer- ence to the rope in the house of the hangman he is forced to do so unless he would deliberately fail to discuss the subject of con- trol in industrial education. The question is fundamental in any discussion of principles and policies regarding industrial edu- cation. The conditions of efficient control must be set up by some agency, whether unit or dual, or by a combination of both. I have been impressed with the strength of position of each side in the classic controversy now occurring. My own expe- rience leads me to believe that an effective industrial school can- not be organized, established, and placed upon a going basis with- out the degree of freedom best in promise under the system of dual control. I am also convinced that there is considerable danger in building up two educational authorities such as the 1 By Frank V. Thompson, Assistant Superintendent of Schools, Boston, Mass. National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education. Proceed- ings. 1916:337-46. 146 SELECTED ARTICLES dual system threatens ; in creating divisive influences that would threaten to separate educational forces into two unco-operative, competing, and hostile camps. The adherents of the dual system have in mind the success of a single type of school ; the advo- cates of the unit system, the permanent good of the educational system. I have sometimes thought that a compromise plan might be possible, namely, the adoption of a temporary dual system during the period of foundation, organization, and experi- mentation ; afterwards, at a stated time, five years as a sugges- tion, turn the going concern over to the major forces vested with general control of educational affairs. In Boston, there has been much suggestive precedent for this proposal, not in the names unit and dual, but in procedure similar to the idea contained in plans termed unit and dual. Many present endeavors in our schools were originated under private philanthropic, or public- spirited control. This was true with respect to the kindergarten, sewing and cooking, and manual training. The Trade School for Girls was thus founded and operated for some years ; voca- tional guidance and salesmanship are similar instances. Many other cities very likely can point to similar occurrences. The his- tory of the development of industrial education, administered by the state educational authorities of Massachusetts, shows some points of similarity to the experience of Boston. Originally when the active promotion of industrial education was in progress and when the fundamental basis for procedure was being studied there was established an independent industrial educational com- mission ; subsequently the administration of industrial education was placed under the charge of the (reorganized) State Board of Education. The influence and contribution of the original commission were perpetuated both in the procedure transmitted and in the laws incorporated into the statutes relating to indus- trial education, which provided that approved schools be inde- pendent schools. The factor of independence is the essential condition, as I conceive it, of effective vocational industrial schools. There is possible no easy transition from the general school as now main- tained or from the technical high school to a type of effective industrial school. Many communities are still unconvinced of the truth of this proposition and are either trying to effect the impossible end or are proposing to make the attempt. Some of those who have tried and failed have concluded that the trouble VOCATIONAL EDUCATION I47 is In the project itself and have not seen that the difhculty was merely in the method used. There is no type of school which is so dependent upon favoring conditions as the industrial school. Conditions must be favorable regarding methods of instruction, qualifications of teachers, size of classes, furnishings and equip- ment, location of buildings, amount of floor space for pupils, quality and quantity of material. A defect in any one of the above may easily render abortive the proper functioning of the other factors. The figurative illustration of the chain with the weak link becomes literal with respect to the operation of the industrial school. Modern productive plants show the same situation — each worker on the complicated product must per- form his operation correctly or else the finished product is worth- less; in fact, the product becomes worthless at the point of the first mistake because the succeeding operations are wholly con- ditioned upon the accuracy of the former operations. It is not strange, consequently, that an effective industrial school should show the same sensitiveness to conditions which characterize the highly organized industries for which it is preparing young per- sons to enter. Our general schools are not adjusted to measure- ments of millimeter exactness; but they are adjusted to varia- tions of far more generous margins. The point of view of the general school through precedent, circumstance and super- imposed restrictions shows of necessity compromise, approxima- tion and variable standards. The general school has justly won commendation for its achievements in view of hampering con- ditions. Its function has been general and it has been generally successful. The general school cannot, however, "by taking thought, add a cubit to its height." It cannot assume a new, technical and highly specialized function and be successful, for it lacks the proper point of view, the necessary resources and an adequate background. There are impractical idealists who believe that we can over night raise a million men who can protect our liberties against the onslaughts of technically trained and well disciplined troops of possible aggressors; but the wisdom and judgment of our experts on these matters indicate that the plan of the idealist is futile, that we must technically train and equip our defenders by special methods and under the direction of skilled and experienced instructors. Our general schools in many sections of the country are playing the part of the generous and patriotic volunteer in industrial education, but the task, 148 SELECTED ARTICLES again, is too technical and specialized for their recognizably good intentions. Let us proceed to discuss the positive and constructive side of the question. How^ may we effectively meet some of the problems of industrial education? First, there is the problem of teachers. Proper teachers at present do not exist so we must undertake to create them. The conclusion that suitable teachers for industrial schools are at present non-existent is based upon certain assumptions regarding the qualifications of teachers in industrial schools. The general principles underlying these assumptions were well stated at the seventh annual meeting (Grand Rapids) of the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education. Teachers in industrial schools must pos- sess primarily a generous background of industrial experience. Expertness in the art of teaching is likewise desirable, but if we must sacrifice, temporarily, one or the other the second quali- fication is the less important. If faced with the dilemma it is more reasonable to conclude that the worker in industry can im- part the knowledge of his craft, than that the teacher who knows how to teach them can teach what he does not know. The ac- quisition of the art of teaching is far easier than the knowledge of what to teach. We proceed upon this same assumption with regard to teachers in our regular schools. An analysis of the amount of time devoted to what to teach and how to teach will show a like relative proportion of knowledge of subject matter and technique in the art of teaching. The normal school student has devoted already twelve or more years to the study of what to teach before he spends his two or more years in the study of how to teach. The long preliminary period constitutes for the normal school student a proper prevocational or experience back- ground for teaching in the regular schools, but not so for the teachers in the industrial school, since the former has in view instruction in the regular school, but the latter must train young people for a wholly different environment. If we could imagine a situation where a candidate for teach- ing in the regular schools had spent his preparatory years in industry and then by means of a short period of training in the technique of teaching assume the function of teacher in a regular school, we should have a condition no less absurd than the attempt to convert a regular teacher into an industrial teacher by means of a short term experience in industry. We must apply VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 149 the same logic to the industrial school that we apply to the regu- lar school. The best background for each kind of teacher is found in the appropriate experiences which each will find in his own field — the regular teacher in the domain of the regular school; the industrial teacher in organized and competitive in- dustry. We must go to industry consequently for our indus- trial teachers. Industry will give the proper experience and point of view. But we must add to the fundamental background technique in the art of teaching. The effective industrial teacher ought to know two trades, the trade which he is to teach, and the trade of teaching that which he knows. There do not exist today, obviously, the resources or insti- tutions, except in isolated instances, for training persons skilled in trades in the art of teaching. Nor can we meet the problem by simply adding industrial training courses in our already estab- lished normal schools. The skilled worker whom we wish for our industrial teacher is not financially independent so that he can dispense with his wages during the period that a normal training requires. What can be done is more difficult to define than what can't be done. The city of Boston with the assistance of the state educational authorities is attempting to meet the two conditions deemed essential for proper trade instructions by the following plan. Regarding the qualifications of trade experience, any one of three requirements is demanded. (a) Eight years' experience in industry, three years' appren- ticeship or equivalent and one year of foremanship or equivalent — and academic accomplishment that of the elementary school or equivalent. (b) Five j^ears' experience in industry, one year of which spent in foremanship or equivalent and academic ac- complishment that of the high school or equivalent. (c) Three years in industry, one year of which spent in foremanship or equivalent and academic accomplish- ment that of the higher technical school or equivalent. No candidates to the qualifying examinations for positions as teachers in industrial schools are admitted unless they shall have successfully pursued an approved course of training for teachers in industrial schools. Such a course has been con- ducted during the past two years by the state educational depart- ment. The course is conducted two evenings a week for a period I50 SELECTED ARTICLES of twenty weeks by instructors representing both the city and the state. Instruction in the technique of teaching as well as in trade processes are continued in the school for teachers already employed. Thus both preparatory training and improvement training are attempted in the plan under operation. It is evident that only in improvement training can our industrial teachers reach the stage of development in the techniqufe of teaching which our graduates of normal schools possess in the regular schools. Our pedagogical convictions regarding all kinds of ef- fective teaching are leading us more and more to see the im- portance of improvement training in all grades of schools ; and in this matter our industrial schools may possess equal advan- tage with all other types of schools. It is my conviction that city and state administrative authori- ties having charge of industrial education may devote them- selves energetically and hopefully to the matter of improvement training of teachers already employed in industrial schools. Teachers in our regular schools are made effective largely upon the basis of experience in the class room. Timely guidance, sug- gestion at the time of need, appreciation of problems actually encountered are essential elements in the attainment of power in teaching of whatever character. Preliminary instruction for industrial teachers is necessary, however, but it is chiefly useful as an eliminating factor. The preliminary course will discover the person with aptitudes and tastes for the work. The pre- liminary course, indeed, is largely prevocational enabling indi- viduals to determine their fitness for the work. The real voca- tional work of teaching is reached only under the conditions of actual performance. The conditions of work to which the industrial school are sensitive have been enumerated. The selection and training of teachers, organization, floor space per pupil, materials and prod- uct, equipment, methods of instruction, type of school, are all elements of vital importance in the success of any kind of indus- trial school, but the limits of this paper do not permit to each topic the detailed discussion which has been attempted with re- gard to the selection and training of teachers. Growing experi- ence is creating an accumulation of evidence and conclusion upon all these important matters and the administrator charged with responsibility for industrial education will do well to acquaint himself with the material so rapidly becoming available. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 151 The question of proper types of schools which shall furnish industrial education has been considered of prime importance by the National Society and rightly so. As a general statement it is safe to say that cities of the first rank in size need all types of schools, chiefly as a means of experimentation at present to see through a fair competition of types which kind should be expanded or multiplied to meet major needs. The city of Boston has one or more schools of the following types : Prevocational schools for boys and girls of twelve years of age and over — in the elementary school stage of instruction ; day trade schools (separate) for boys and girls fourteen years of age and over; continuation schools — with prevocational programs — for work- ing boys and girls between fourteen and sixteen years of age ; co-operative industrial courses, in general high schools following the usual plan of alternate weeks in shop and school ; evening classes for men and women regularly employed in industrial occupations. We have not the type of trade extension continua- tion school found in Wisconsin by reason of the fact that we have no adequate law under which to operate the schools of this useful character. What is our experience showing us regarding the relative worth of these different kinds of schools? Chiefly that the schools are not competitive at all, but are supplementary to one another. Even when schools receive pupils at the same age one type will meet the needs of crtain young people and the other type of school is better suited to boys and girls with other necessities. The day industrial school and the co-operative in- dustrial courses may be taken for contrasted types for brief con- sideration. The day industrial school has the boy or girl wholly within its control, both for shop practice and for related instruc- tion; while the co-operative course connected with a general high school shares its burden on equal terms with industry. Though each of these two types of schools effects the same end with pupils of the same age and capacities they are both appar- ently necessary for rendering adequately available opportunities for industrial education. Those who know specifically the con- ditions in industry regarding apprenticeship or that beginning stage which is akin to it for which there is no recognized name, realize that co-operative relations between shop and school are difificult to establish under the best of conditions and difficult to administer when actually established. If we are to do something 152 SELECTED ARTICLES in the way of industrial education without delay and render it available to a considerable number of boys and girls we cannot do it solely on the co-operative method. Ideally considered, the co-operative method seems to be the better plan ; it is cheaper in cost of instruction, less expensive in equipment and plant, and pedagogically more sound in that the objective side of the work has a basis which is exact and not imitative. Lacking all these superior advantages the day industrial school is at present the more useful type of school. As apprenticeship or something akin to it comes more and more back into industry, the day industrial school promises to lessen in importance and the co-operative course to gain in the same ratio. As far as we can see, however, from indications at all discoverable the day industrial school should exist as a type ; at least, until industry is radically differ- ent in character from what it is today. We have, perhaps, over emphasized the needs of industry in our discussions about indus- trial education. What about the child who wishes to enter in- dustry? Suppose that industry did maintain an apprenticeship system appreciably better than that at present obtaining. Indus- try under competitive conditions will seek the individual most naturally immediately adaptable and will reject the one who shows initial difficulty but who may under patience and sym- pathy prove eventually efficient. What agency will deal with the child on the basis of his own needs and aspirations? The child has the right to expect that some agency, social or other, may meet him half way. If democracy of opportunity for the child is to exist in industrial vocations something akin to the day in- dustrial school must be maintained as long as present conditions in industry persist. We may hope, however, that conditions in industry respecting apprenticeship will improve so that the less burdensome type of co-operative school may be substituted, but in the meantime the door of opportunity for the child must be kept open by means of the social agency known as the day indus- trial school. A brief experience in Boston with compulsory continuation schools for boys and girls between 14 and 16 years of age is giving interesting information hitherto not realized. After adopting an improved working certificate plan (1913) we found upon appraising results that several formerly undisputed assump- tions were not tenable. We found that we had much over-esti- mated the number of 14-16 children who are working; actually only one-sixth of this group leave school to go to work. An- VOCATIONAL EDUCATION I53 other assumption to the eiifect that children leave school in larg- est number at the age of 14 proved untrue. We found that chil- dren leave in equal numbers at 14, I4j4, 15 and I5>4. At 16 the greatest number leave school. The effect of the compulsory (optional by cities) continuation school law upon employment has been to decrease the number but slightly. Business and in- dustry in our section of the country for the past ten years have been gradually adjusting to a higher age of employment. Child labor legislation has been a factor in this movement. There are those who predict that the new minimum wage law will have a decided effect in reducing the number of workers between 14 and 16. The boys and girls in our compulsory continuation schools number roughly about 4,000, and come from about 1,300 differ- ent employers. They come from every conceivable source of em- ployment, department stores, factories, printing establishments, messenger offices, and elsewhere. An analysis of the kind of service rendered by these boys and girls in their place of employ- ment shows that it is in reality messenger work of one kind or another. The boys perform this service in larger proportion than the girls — for the girl is employed in productive work at a distinctly younger age than the boy. Trade extension work for boys and girls in the continuation school is obviously impossible except for the few — mostly girls— because these boys and girls have usually no trade connections. Prevocational work, consequently forms an important part of the program. Through contacts with industry and through guid- ance on the part of the teachers in the school the young worker may form some adequate notion of what he would hke to do when he has reached the age which will enable him to secure employment of progressive trade or business character. The _ prevocational work of the continuation school may in its later stages approach the border line of trade preparatory instruction, but the time of instruction is too short to permit of definite re- sults of this character. All of the young workers are put into what is called general improvement classes upon entrance into the school, and after periods of from two to six weeks are sent to prevocational or to trade extension classes as their needs de- mand. Trade preparatory work to pupils in the out-of-work group can be profitably given when limited to one-process work such as simple power machine operating for girls. General improvement work simply means the three R's of 154 SELECTED ARTICLES the grades but motivated so that the boy or girl who failed to respond to this work in the grades may see it in a new light ; the work is, furthermore, individualized so that the pupil may realize that we are trying to assist him in his needs and not seeking to make him absorb a course of study. The problem of the continuation school for children between 14 and 16 is far more social in character than industrial ; but the continuation school may play an important part in the general problem of ad- justment of the young person to industry. The conditions of success for continuation schools are fully as critical as for in- dustrial schools, but, here, a different set of causes obtain. The main factors must be given great attention in establishing con- tinuation schools. One of these is the working child himself, and the other is the social and industrial environment into which the working child has suddenly been projected. Our regular schools will not be successful in an attempt to undertake this work without far-reaching readjustments. The working child has more often than not left the regular school because of his failure to respond to the methods and resources there obtaining. The size of divisions, elasticity of programs, specially selected and instructed teachers, expert and competent directors are essential elements for a successful undertaking of the work of continua- tion schools. In Boston, teachers of prevocational and industrial work are chosen by the same method as are teachers in industrial schools. Teachers of non-vocational work are chosen from the regular day schools, but they are selected on the basis of special fitness and are given training in the theory and practice of con- tinuation school instruction for a period of one year preceding the assumption of the new duties incident to continuation school instruction. At whatever angle we view our complex and rather unstable social structure to-day we see in prospect, change, adjustment and new conditions. Not one of our social forces toward which human hopes and fears turn but is face to face with a problem of stress and effort. The question of industrial education is simply one of the many and gigantic problems demanding prompt and courageous endeavor. In an era of preparedness — not only military but industrial and social — those of us who serve in the seemingly unmilitary side of activity have a place and impor- tance in svirvival and supremacy no less essential than those who march in serried tread and bear the glittering weapons symboliz- ing national security and might. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 155 VOCATIONAL EDUCATION' To many of us the questions of the so-called dual or unit control are not fundamental at all. The fundamental questions are, first, as to what constitutes sound pedagogic theories as to the aims and methods suited to vocational education in schools, and secondty, the most effective organization and administration of the means designed to realize them. There are fewer mys- terious and uncertain features in vocational education, whether carried on by school or by other agencies, when such education is rightly interpreted and defined, than in the fields of the so- called general or liberal education. Vocational education — not as carried on in schools, of course — is the oldest as well as even yet the most widely distributed form of education of all, since all grown men and women have always had vocations for which, with some measure of purposiveness, they have been trained in the home, the field, the workshop, the commercial establishment or on shipboard. Vocational education is, irreducibly and without un- necessary mystification, education for the pursuit of an occupation. In all stages of social development men have always sought, with more or less conscious method, to train their youth efficiently to follow a vocation — to hunt, fight, fish, farm, work metals, weave, bake, trade, transport, teach, heal, lead in worship or to govern. Vocational education is not all of education — never was that fact more clearly recognized than to-day; but vocational education at the right time and of the right kind is supremely important — and of that fact we have recently been in danger of losing sight. Hence questions as to what constitutes right vocational educa- tion, when and by whom it shall be given, and how it shall be effectively correlated with other forms of education, are just now of the greatest importance. It has long been recognized that vocational education for many of the leading callings could no longer be successfully carried on by the historic methods of apprenticeship. Hence have appeared in succession vocational schools for the training of lawyers, the- ologians, military leaders, physicians, pharmacists, dentists, teach- ers, engineers, navigators, accountants, architects, telegraphers, stenographers and many others. Vocational schools for delin- * From Comment on John Dewey's article, by David Snedden. New Republic. 3:40-2. May 15, 1915. 156 SELECTED ARTICLES quents and for children without homes were organized many j'ears ago by philanthropists. More recently the state itself has entered this field. In many of our cities far-sighted men have been active in establishing vocational trade schools as a means of extending educational opportunities. Now, many of us have been forced, and often reluctantly, to the conclusion that if we are to have vocational education for the rank and file of our youth as well as for the favored classes, we shall be obliged to provide special vocational schools for this purpose, because the historic agencies of apprenticeship training have in most cases become less rather than more effective as means of sound vocational education. A few industries are in- deed still so organized as to be able to give good vocational edu- cation, and it may be that as a result of movements now taking place others will readjust themselves so that in them workers can be assured of progressive development of their capacities. But in general, modern economic conditions are such as to impair rather than enhance the capacity of employers to give satisfactory vocational training. The mobility of labor has enormously increased in the western world, and more particularly in America. Competition among the various units of a given in- dustry has, with rare exceptions, become keener, and the success of a given employer is often dependent upon his abilit}' to attract immigrant labor or to lure skilled workmen away from his com- petitors. American manufacturers have long been accustomed to await a supply of foremen and competent workmen from Euro- pean countries. Western railroads by paying higher wages at- tract firemen, engineers and mechanics away from Eastern roads. The city emploj'er tempts country-trained hands. There are some indications that a wise cooperation among em- ployers, now beginning to be manifested in certain fields, will soon remedy this condition of affairs. Already the printers of America have joined forces to establish vocational schools for their ap- prentices. Railroads are stealing workmen from each other far less than formerly, and some of them now systematically train their own workmen. A few large manufacturers have established successful schools for machinists. But it is not yet clear just how far this movement can be carried, in view of the competitive con- ditions still persisting in such fields as the building trades, the manufacture of textiles, the food-packing industries and numer- VOCATIONAL EDUCATION I57 ous smaller lines of manufacture. It is hardly to be expected that government can effectively force all employers to cooperate in the important function of training workers. The function of the state in this as in other fields of educa- tion is clear. The state should consider the good of the indi- vidual and the needs of society, and where private agencies can- not accomplish a desired end the collective action of the state must be enlisted for this purpose. This is fundamentally the reason why the various commonwealths of the United States now, in greater or less degree, assist such special forms of vocational education as engineering, agriculture and even law and medicine. Massachusetts, usually conservative as regards state support of higher schools, nevertheless maintains a free agricultural college, makes large contributions towards engineer- ing education, and supports three schools designed for the train- ing of leaders in the textile industries. In the light of recent experience it cannot be successfully contended that the state is unable to establish and maintain suc- cessful vocational schools for the various trades, for farming, for home-making, and for the different commercial pursuits. The pedagogic problems to be encountered are doubtless many and difficult and are made doubly so by the academic preposses- sions of the men who are likely to be put in charge of these vocational schools. It is not yet clear how economically state- supported vocational education can be administered, nor is it in every case demonstrated that it is expedient, as a matter of social policy, to have the state or the nation support such schools. But the time has passed when the feasibility of such training could be questioned. When and under what conditions a youth should be per- mitted to enter a vocational school is yet debatable. In Massa- chusetts the law carefully provides that a youth shall be eligible to enter a vocational school only at the time when he is equally eligible to leave the regular public schools and to become a fac- tory or farm hand. The administrative theory under which Mas- sachusetts vocational schools are being conducted assumes that the youth ready to embark on wage-earning who instead turns aside for a period in a vocational school, should be able to concentrate his efforts largely in learning the occupation selected. It is not desirable to blend so-called liberal and vocational edu- IS8 SELECTED ARTICLES cation at this period, it being always within the possibilities of the youth to continue in the regular or general elementary or high school if he so elects. It is sometimes asserted that vocational education given by schools under state support is beneficial chiefly to employers. It is incredible that men acquainted with the economic conditions of our time, the competition of employers for labor and the mobil- ity of labor itself, should take this view. In every occupation in the country there is constant competition for superior ability, as is manifested in the varying wage rates usually found. The only sound point of view is to regard vocational education as being primarily of significance to the boys and girls concerned, and ultimately, of course, to society as a whole. If vocational education does not result in greater productive capacity and if greater productive capacity does not result in a larger share to the laborer, then, indeed, are the times very much out of joint. The question of so-called dual versus unit control is merely one of securing the greatest efficiency. In most states we al- ready have the dual control, if we wish so to style it, of our various special vocational schools of agriculture, industrial train- ing for delinquents, etc. In point of fact there can be no such thing as ultimate dual control of any stated type of school, since administrative bodies must owe their creation to some single state agency, such as the legislature, the governor as authorized by the legislature, or local administrative agencies as created by legislative enactment. Such so-called dual control as one finds in Wisconsin or as it existed in Massachusetts from 1906 toigio, simply represents an attempt to put in immediate charge of a special form of education a group of persons who are primarily interested in its successful development, and who may be able to bring it to the point of view of practical men in that field, Business men generally are suspicious of the so-called academic mind in connection with vocational education. They feel as- sured neither of the friendliness nor of the competency of our schoolmasters in developing sound industrial education. For that reason they often favor some form of partially separate control, at least at the outset of any new experiment. If vocational education is to be successfully established in those states where academic tradition strongly persists, it may prove absolutely essential that some form of separate control should, at least temporarily, be inaugurated with a view to ob- VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 159 taining best results. School men, however well-intentioned, are apt to be impractical and to fail to appreciate actual conditions. Some successful beginnings of vocational education of the kind discussed in this paper have been made in Massachusetts. The present stage of development would not have been reached if it had not been for the activities of the Commission on Industrial Education during the years 1906 to 1910. The ultimate merger of this body with the Board of Education may have represented what should happen in every state after particular forms of development have arrived at some degree of maturity. CO-OPERATION OF AGENCIES' The several studies of vocational education show the need of such training for both boys and girls, while making clear the dangers to be avoided and the way to avoid them. A really suc- cessful vocational educational system is possible of attainment only by means of the hearty co-operation of both employers and employees with the public. Employers and employees are the best judges of the kind of industrial instruction needed and whether it can best be given in the pubUc school or in the shop. Such studies as the "Vocational Education Survey" of Richmond, Va., which constitutes Bulletin 162 of the Bureau of Labor Statistics are needed in other cities, to furnish the basis of facts for the right kind of vocational education. INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION AND THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR'' An argument, I take it, is not required of me in support of industrial education, nor any exposition of the purposes or ideals of industrial education. You know what industrial education is and what are its purposes and ideals. The question in your minds is perhaps with reference to myself as a representative of organ- 1 From "Work of the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics in Its Relation to the Business of the Country," by Royal Meeker. Annals of the Ameri- can Academy. 63:269. June, 1916. 2 By Samuel Gompers. Manual Training and Vocational Education. 16: 329-39. February, 19 15. i6o SELECTED ARTICLES ized labor. Do I know what industrial education is, and what are its purposes and ideals? But as my personal knowledge is of very little consequence to anyone, except as a sort of reflex of the knowledge of the millions of workers, the question is, in fact, does organized labor understand what industrial education is, and what are its purposes and ideals? Finally, if it does understand these purposes and ideals, does it approve of them? And will it cooperate sincerely in the development of tried and proven rational schemes of industrial education? A great part of my life and energy has been devoted to com- bating wrong-headed notions about the attitude of organized labor with reference to every sort of social and economic ques- tion. These questions have increased in number and in variety with the development of industrial civilization. The need for efficient industrial education for our boys and girls is now more urgent than ever before. Nor is the need of educational training for greater efficiency confined to the factory or the shops ; it is manifest in the home life, and in demands for instruction in domestic economy. The factory system and modern industrial organization have resulted in such high specialization that only what have been referred to tonight as the tag-ends of industry have been left to women in the homes, and in modern industrial establishments the subdivision of labor has gone on to such a degree that workers perform the same set task a thousand, or ten thousand, or a hundred thousand times a day. The same task is automatically repeated again and again without knowledge of its relation to the rest of the industry for the sole purpose of gaining time and speed. I repeat that if ever industrial educa- tion was essential it is essential today. We cannot turn back the wheels of industry, but we can make the knowledge and the effectiveness of the workers such that they will have some com- prehension of the entire article produced and of every branch of the production. In the work I have sometimes felt that the presumption is always against labor — that it is always assumed as a matter ot course that labor is by a sort of "natural depravity" and strange blindness, opposed to everything, including everything that is for its own interest. Sometimes it is assumed that this opposition is due to pernicious temperament on the part of labor leaders, and sometimes that it is due to simple ignorance and incapacity to understand complex social conditions. The workers are essen- VOCATIONAL EDUCATION i6i tially honest and sincere, and let me assure you, the degree of their ignorance is not so great as the presumptuous and super- cilious often assume it to be. It may be difficult to cram into twenty minutes' time all that may be necessary to say with reference to the attitude of organ- ized labor toward industrial education, but I shall endeavor to comply with the limit set. You should know that organized labor does not oppose the development of industrial education in the public schools. In- deed, that would not at all fairly indicate the attitude of organ- ized labor. I say to you that the organizations constituting the American Federation of Labor have been for years engaged in the work of systematically providing industrial education to their members. This instruction has been given thru the medium of the trade union journal and schools established and maintained by them. Organized labor, I repeat, is not opposed to industrial education. It is eager to cooperate actively in instituting indus- trial education in our public schools. The workingman has too little time, and can therefore take but little interest in any other sort of education. You will agree with me that there is absolutely no reason why labor, organized or unorganized, should oppose the sort of industrial education proposed here in Richmond, and I can assure you that labor does not oppose anything without good reason. When it has good reason to oppose so many things why should it oppose anything without reason? Need to Distinguish between Public and Private Interest Organized labor has opposed and will continue to oppose some enterprises which have been undertaken in the name of industrial education. It has opposed and will continue to oppose the ex- ploitation of the laborer even when the exploitation is done under the name of industrial education. It may continue to regard with indifference, if not with suspicion, some private schemes of indus- trial education. With regard to such enterprises where they are instituted by employers, organized labor is from Missouri — it will have to be shown that the given enterprise is not a means of exploiting labor — a means of depressing wages by creating an over supply of labor in certain narrow fields of employment. Organized labor cannot favor any scheme of industrial edu- l62 SELECTED ARTICLES cation which is lop-sided — any scheme, that is to say, which will bring trained men into any given trade without regard to the de- mand for labor in that trade. Industrial education must main- tain a fair and proper apportionment of the supply of labor power to the demand for labor power in every line of work. Other- wise its advantages will be entirely neutralised. If, for example, the result of industrial education is to produce in any community a greater number of trained machinists than are needed in the community, those machinists which have been trained cannot de- rive any benefit from their training, since they will not be able to find employment except at economic disadvantages. Under these conditions industrial education is of no advantage to those who have received it, and it is a distinct injury to the journeymen working at the trade who are subjected to a keen competition artificially produced. Industrial education must reach the needs of the worker as well as the requirements of the employer. I can see that in some respects the most difficult task before industrial education is that of maintaining an equilibrium of supply and demand of efficient artisans, and equilibrium as nearly perfect as is physically possible. How shall this most difficult problem be solved? How shall such an equilibrium of labor supply and demand be maintained and industrial education be entirely freed from any suspicion of working injury to labor by causing a maladjustment of supply to demand? The answer to these questions seems obvious. There is in my opinion only one way to avoid the difficulty, only one way in which to avoid the danger of working serious injury to labor — working injury in spite of the very best intentions to benefit labor. The only way to avoid working an injury to labor under the name of industrial education is to find out what is the demand for labor in a community. In a word, it seems to me the only safe basis for understanding industrial education in any com- munity is the basis which, as I understand, has been established here in Richmond. Industrial education should be in every in- stance based upon a survey of the industries of the community — upon an accumulation of facts regarding the employments in the community. Upon such a basis the public schools may properly proceed to provide for the particular industrial needs of the com- munity, and with such an accumulation of data in hand there can be no excuse if industrial education does not prove to be of undoubted benefit to labor and to the community. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 163 Industrial education comes close to the life and happiness of labor. It involves the means of livelihood for the workingman. The test of efficiency of industrial education is wage-earning power — not simply increase in efficiency of labor to produce. It is perfectly possible for industrial education, even when provided by the public schools, if it is not organized with regard to the industrial needs of the community, to increase the productivity and efficiency of certain groups of labor and at the same time to reduce the wage-earning power of the laborer in those groups. There is nothing mysterious in this. It would result from the working of a universal economic law. To the extent that indus- trial education is not precisely adapted to the needs of the com- munity, it will tend to have exactly this result, namely, it will in- crease the productive efficiency of certain groups of labor and by bringing into these groups an oversupply of labor will tend to economic deterioration. I can assure you that no disposition will be found anj'where among workingmen to oppose this effort to make our schools more democratic in serving the real bread-and-butter needs of the community. Let me tell you further that labor — organized labor — has been active for years to secure this end, active in its efforts to make the public schools do precisely that which some misin- formed people even think labor opposes. In 1903 the American Federation of Labor at its annual convention appointed a com- mittee on education. What sort of education interested the dele- gates of that convention? It was not that education which deals with the syntax of dead languages ; it was not even the education which deals with the development of the fine arts, or with the systematic teaching of the science. These are all of them legiti- mate ends of education and the American Federation of Labor approves of these educational ends, but the sort of education which the American Federation of Labor was particularly in- terested in, and the sort of education which was under considera- tion when this committee on education was appointed in 1903, was industrial education. This was more than a decade ago and during the entire period which has elapsed since the appointment of the committee the American Federation of Labor has been active in fostering and furthering every legitimate enterprise for the industrial education of workers. I will ask Mr. Prosser how long the National Society for the i64 SELECTED ARTICLES Promotion for Industrial Education has been working in this field. (Mr. Prosser answered "About eight years.") We have been working for industrial education for more than a decade. This committee appointed in 1903 was to consider what the trade unions themselves could do to make up for the deficiency of the public schools. The trade unions whose members paid taxes to support the public schools were not getting from those schools the sort of education which they needed to enable them to become skilled, efficient, and better paid workingmen. They were getting, in so far as they got anything at all, a sort of education which had for them very little value, and they there- fore took under consideration the possibility of organizing a scheme of education which would be of value to them. Now when the public schools come forward with a proposi- tion to provide the sort of education needed by the workingmen, do you think that they are going to oppose that undertaking? I do not think so. In fact I know that they will welcome any such development. Official Action by The Federation. In 1904 another committee on education was appointed, and again in 1905 another committee, and again in 1906. In 1907 the A. F. of L. at its annual convention resolved that "we do en- dorse any policy or any society (this I may state included and had special reference to the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education) or association, having for its object the raising the standard of industrial education and the teaching of the higher technic of our various industries." The committee to which this resolution was referred reported it "decided to record itself in favor of the best opportunities for the most complete and best industrial and technical training ob- tainable," and it recommended an investigation of industrial school systems. In 1906 the committee on education tested "with satisfaction the splendid progress accomplished by the Executive Council along the lines of industrial education," and submitted to the convention a set of resolutions in which it stated that "industrial education is necessary and inevitable for the progress of an in- dustrial people." Industrial education was before the convention of 1909, at VOCATIONAL EDUCATION i6s which time I myself stated in my report that the A. F. of L. favored pubHc industrial education, and opposed only narrowly specialized training under the control of private interests. Or- ganized labor has always opposed and will continue to oppose sham industrial education, whether at public or private expense. It has opposed and will continue to oppose that superficial training which confers no substantial benefit upon the worker, which does not make him a craftsman, but only an interloper, who may be available in times of crisis, perhaps, as a strike breaker, but not as a trained artisan for industrial service at other times. Industrial education must train men for work not for private and sinister corporation purposes. I refer to this by way of explaining what it is that has at times in the past aroused labor's opposition to what has been un- fairly called industrial education. It will be found that wher- ever labor has opposed what has been put forth as industrial education, the enterprise called industrial education has been something entirely different from that which Richmond is insti- tuting in its public schools today. To the 1909 convention of the American Federation of Labor I took pleasure in submitting this : "That since technical educa- tion of the workers in trade and industry is a public necessity it should not be a private, but a public function, conducted by the public and the expense involved at public cost." You people in Richmond are doing today precisely what the committee of the A. F. of L. recommended five years ago should be done. In 191 1 the A. F. of L. came forward in support of a bill in Congress providing for national aid in establishing vocational education in the public schools of the country. Since that date up to the present time the A. F. of L. has consistently, per- sistently, and unremittingly advocated the establishment of in- dustrial education in the public schools. The sort of industrial education which Richmond is institu- ting is the one and the only sort of industrial education which can enlist the sincere cooperation of trade unionists and should receive the cooperation of employers as well. It is equally to the interest of the employers as of labor, that workingmen shall be trained for real efficiency. The efficient worker produces more and by virtue of his efficiency makes for a higher economic, in- dustrial, commercial, and social development. I believe that the welfare of labor depends to a very large extent upon the develop- i66 SELECTED ARTICLES ment of industrial education, and that in this case at least, the welfare of the employer, and of the community is equally in- volved with that of the workingman. In the matter of industrial education there is absolutely no controversy between labor and the employers of labor — provided always that the industrial edu- cation is what it purports to be — industrial education, organized by the public schools for the benefit of the youth of the com- munity. Organized labor represents the fathers and mothers of the youths, and the fathers and mothers are not going to oppose the best interests of their own children. Those who wish documentary proof that organized labor has for years been actively agitating for the institution of industrial education in the public schools, I shall be very glad to provide with such proofs. They are spread through the annual reports of every covention held by the A. F. of L. beginning with that of 1903 and including that of 1914. In 1910 the Federation pub- lished a preliminary Report on Industrial Education, and in 1912 a full report of its Committee on Industrial Education, ap- proved in conformity with a resolution of the convention held in Denver in 1908. Education and Industrial Competition. Let us approach this question from an entirely different angle in order to bring out clearly labor's interest in the development of industrial education. American industries are producing in competition with the industries established in other countries. In normal times, when these other countries are not engaged in warring upon one an- other with wonderfully ingenious and effective instruments of wholesale murder, they are none the less strenuously engaged in a warfare of industrial competition. I use the word "warfare" in this connection because no other word seems adequately to sum up the strains and rivalries of industrial competition be- tween nations, but I would not wish you to assume that I think that there is any very close analogy between the conflicts of or- ganized militant wholesale murder and the contests of industrial education. Industrial rivalry is beneficent, not malign; it is a condition of social progress, not of rapine and destruction. Industrial competition and rivalry is a condition of improv- ing material welfare, and of advancing civilization. In a word. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 167 industrial competition is a warfare of progress, and in this war- fare no nation can maintain its industrial supremacy, nor can any nation insure the progressive improvement in the material welfare of its people, which does not adopt the most effective devices of the industrial world struggle. It is well known to you, who are all of you informed regard- ing the development of industrial education, that this sort of education has been adopted very generally by those nations with which the people of the United States — the workingman as well as the employer of labor — must compete. Industrial education of the workers, even extending to workers in the unskilled em- ployments, has been, for example, Germany's chief method of industrial conquest. With this means Germany has entered not only foreign markets, but even our own domestic market in many lines. What does that trade mark with which we have all be- come so familiar in recent years "Made in Germany" mean? It means simply industrial education of the workers of Germany. Largely by virtue of that education, Germany has been able to produce commodities and to place them in our own markets, and in many cases has been able to displace the American product. This successful competition of Germany does not mean that Germany has depended upon cheap labor to enable her to pro- duce cheaply. We can compete with cheap labor in any line, because cheap labor is in fact, and in the last analysis not cheap labor at all. On the contrary, it is the most expensive and least profitable labor. No community which depends on cheap labor in the sense of underpaid labor can win out in international competition against a nation which depends upon intelligent, thoroly trained labor. Thoroly trained labor produces cheaply not because it is underpaid but because it is efficient. And thoroly trained efficient labor can demand high wages because of its intelligence, efficiency and organization. Is it not clearly to the interest of the workingmen of the United States that they should be put upon the same level of competition as that occupied by workingmen of foreign countries with whom they must compete? Are not the workingmen vitally interested in maintaining American industries in competition with foreign industries? If these industries decline it is the American workingman who is thrown into the ranks of the un- employed — the American artisan who is depressed into the ranks of the unskilled. In this process the standard of skilled labor is i68 SELECTED ARTICLES degraded and unskilled labor is subjected to a new sort of com- petition which inevitably weakens its condition. The process of industrial progress is reversed. Instead of making the skilled workman more skilled and at the same time lifting the unskilled worker into the ranks of the skilled, the skilled worker is forced down into the congested mass of unskilled labor. Perhaps, however, even this deterioration of labor is not the chief consideration. No civilized nation can maintain its self- respect on any other basis than that of competing in industrial rivalry on the basis, not of ignorance but of intelligence, on the basis not of cheap labor but of efficient, well trained labor, on the basis not of brute manual labor, but of skill and proficiency. We do not wish to compete with Europe as the Chinese com- pete with the whole world. We could not do that and retain our self-respect. We could not do that without adopting Chinese methods of work which would mean a minimum of rest and food, no recreation, and a maximum of hours of labor. If we are not willing to adopt Chinese methods, we must adopt weap- ons of industrial progress which have enabled European nations to advance in material welfare in competition, not only with the Orient, but more especially in competition with the United States, and with other countries in which have been available as a basis of industrial development vast natural resources. The period is almost past when the United States can depend upon cheap raw materials obtained with comparatively little labor from its mines and virgin fields. It is entering a period when it must depend upon the equalities of human labor. Under these conditions industrial decline is the only alternative to industrial education. Do you think that organized labor is going to advo- cate a policy of industrial decline — a policy of competing on a basis of cheap labor, instead of trained and efficient labor? Do you think it is going to advocate the adoption of Chinese meth- ods in its competition with Europe? I can assure you that the American workingman will not accept any such solution of the problem. He will insist that competition will not be upon the basis of cheap brute labor, but of efficient intelligent skilled labor, which means that he will in the future, as he has done in the past, insist that the instruction in our public schools be made democratic; in a word that the public schools generally shall in- stitute industrial education, and that that education shall be based upon an exhaustive study of the industries to determine what VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 169 sort of industrial training is required and is most conducive to the physical, mental, material, and social welfare of the workers, the community, and that which holds out the best hope for America's workers, her citizenship, the perpetuity of our repub- lic, and fulfilment of its mission as the leader in the humani- tarianism of the world. INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION FOR GIRL'S' If we wish to know the special demands of working-women there is no way so certain as to consult the organized women. They alone are at liberty to express their views, while the educa- tion they have had in their unions in handling questions vital to their interests as wage-earners, and as leaders of other women, gives clearness and definiteness to the expression of those views. If organized women can best represent the wage-earners of their sex, we can gain the best collective statement of their wishes through them. At the last convention of the National Women's Trade Union League in June, 1913, the subject of industrial edu- cation received very close attention. The importance of continu- ation schools after wage-earning days have commenced was not overlooked. An abstract of the discussion and the chief resolu- tions can be found in the issue of Life and Labor for August, 1913- After endorsing the position taken up by the American Feder- ation of Labor, the women went on to urge educational authori- ties to arm the children, while yet at school, with a knowledge of the state and federal laws enacted for their protection, and asked also "that such a course shall be of a nature to equip the boy and girl with a full sense of his or her responsibility for seeing that the laws are enforced," the reason being that the yearly influx of young boys and girls into the industrial world in entire ignorance of their own state laws is one of the most menacing facts we have to face, as their ignorance and inexperience make exploitation easy, and weaken the force of such protective legis- lation as we have. Yet another suggestion was that "no working certificates be 1 From "Trade Union Woman," by Alice Henry. Copyright 1915. by D. Appleton and Company. 170 SELECTED ARTICLES issued to a boy or girl unless he or she has passed a satisfactory examination in the laws which have been enacted by the state for their protection." In making these claims, organized working-women are keep- ing themselves well in line with the splendid statement of princi- ples enunciated by that great educator John Dewey : The ethical responsibility of the school on the social side must be inter- preted in the broadest and freest spirit; it is equivalent to that training of the child which will give him such possession of himself that he may take charge of himself; may not only adapt himself to the changes that are going on, but have power to shape and direct them. When wc ask for coeducation on vocational lines, the ques- tion is sure to come up : For how long is a girl likely to use her training in a wage-earning occupation? It is continually asserted and assumed she will on the average remain in industry but a few years. The mature woman as a wage-earner, say the woman over twenty-five, we have been pleased to term and to treat as an exception which may be ignored in great general plans. Especially has this been so in laying out schemes for vocational training, and we find the girl being ignored, not only on the usual ground that she is a girl, but for the additional, and not-to-be-questioned reason that it will not pay to give her instruction in any variety of skilled trades, because she will be but a short time in any oc- cupation of the sort. Hence this serves to increase the already undue emphasis placed upon dr)mestic training as all that a girl needs, and all that her parents or the community ought to expect her to have. This is the only one of the many cases when we try to solve our new problems by reasoning based upon conditions that have passed or that are passing away. In this connection some startling facts have been brought forward by Dr. Leonard P. Ayres in the investigations conducted by him for the Russell Sage Foundation. He tried to find the ages of all the women who are following seven selected occupa- tions in cities of the United States of over 50,000 population. The occupations chosen were those in which the number of women workers exceeds one for every thousand of the popula- tion. The number of women covered was 857,743, and is just half of all the women engaged in gainful employment in those cities. The seven occupations listed are housekeeper, nursemaid, laundress, saleswoman, teacher, dressmaker, and servant. No less than forty-four per cent of the housekeepers are between twenty- VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 171 five and forty-five. Of dressmakers there are fifty-one per cent betvv^een these two ages; of teachers fifty-eight per cent; of laun- dresses forty-nine per cent, vv^hile the one occupation of which a little more than half are under twenty-five years is that of sales- woman, and even here there are barely sixty-one per cent, leaving the still considerable proportion of thirty-nine per cent of sales- women over the age of twenty-five. It is pretty certain that these mature women have given more than the favorite seven years to their trade. It is to be regretted that the investigation was not made on lines which would have included some of the factory occupations. It is difficult to see why it did not. Under any board classification there must be more garment-workers, for in- stance, in New York or Chicago, than there are teachers. How- ever, we have reason to be grateful for the fine piece of work which Dr. Ayres has done here. The Survey, in an editorial, also quotes in refutation of the seven-year theory, the findings of the commission which inquired into the pay of teachers in New York. The commissioners found that forty-four per cent of the women teachers in the public schools had been in the service for ten years or more, and that only twenty-five per cent of the men teachers had served as long a term. It can hardly he doubted that the tendency is towards the lengthening of the wage-earning life of the working-woman. A number of factors affect the situation, about most of which we have yet little definite information. There is first, the gradual passing of the household industries out of the home. Those women, for whom the opportunity to be thus employed no longer is open, tend to take up or to remain longer in wage-earning oc- cupations. The changing status of the married woman, her increasing economic independence and its bearing upon her economic re- sponsibility, are all facts having an influence upon woman as a wage-earning member of the community, but how, and in what degree, they affect her length of service, is still quite uncertain. It is probable too, that they affect the employment or non-em- ployment of women very differently in different occupations, but how, and in what degre they do so is mere guess-work at present. If there has ever been voiced a tenderer plea for a universal education that shall pass by no child, boy or girl, than that of 172 SELECTED ARTICLES Stitt Wilson, former Socialist Mayor of Berkeley, I do not know it. If there has ever been outlined a finer ideal of an education fitting the child, every child, to take his place and fill his place in the new world opening before him, I have not heard of it. He asks that we shoui \ submit ourselves to the leadership of the child — his needs, his capacities, his ideal hungers — and in so doing we shall answer many of the most disturbing and difficult problems that perplex our twentieth century civilization. Even in those states which make the best attempt at educating their children, from three-fourths to nine-tenths, according to the lo- cality, leave the schools at the age of thirteen or fourteen, and the present quality of the education given from the age of twelve to sixteen is neither an enrichment in culture, nor a training for life and livelihood. It is too brief for culture, and is not in- tended for vocation. Mr. Wilson makes no compromise with existing conditions; concedes not one point to the second-rate standards that we supinely accept; faces the question of cost, that basic difficulty which most theoretical educators waive aside, and which the public never dreams of trying to meet and overcome. Here are some of his proposals. The New Education (he writes) will include training and experience in domestic science, cookery and home-making; agriculture and horticulture, pure and applied science, and mechanical and commercial activities with actual production, distribution and exchange of commodities. Such training for three to six millions of both sexes from the age of twelve to twenty-one years will require land, tools, buildings of various types, machinery, fac- tory sites by rail and water, timber, water and power sources. As all civilization is built upon the back of labor, and as all culture and leisure rests upon labor, and is not possible otherwise, so all cultural and liberal education, as generally understood, shall be sequent to the produc- tive and vocational. The higher intellectual education should grow out of and be earned by productive vocational training. Hence our schools should be surrounded by lands of the best quality obtainable, plots of lo, 50, 100 and more acres. These lands should be the scene of labor that would be actually productive and not mere play. In such a school the moral elements of labor should be primary, viz.: joy to the producer, through industry and art; perfect honesty in quality of mate- rial and character of workmanship; social cooperative, mutualism and fel- lowship among the workers or students; and last, but not least, justice — that is, the full product of labor being secured to the producer. He plans to make the schools largely self-supporting, partly through land endowments easier to obtain under the system of taxation of land values that is possibly near at hand in the Golden State, for which primarily the writer is planning. The other source of income would be from the well-directed labor of the students themselves, particularly the older ones. He quotes VOCATIONAL EDUCATION I73 Professor Frank Lawrence Glynn, of the Vocational School at Albany, New York, as having found that the average youth can, not by working outside of school hours, but in the actual process of getting his own education, earn two dollars a week and up- ward. Elsewhere, Mr. Wilson shows that the beginning of such schools are to be found in operation today, in some of the best reform institutions of the country. TRADE AGREEMENTS AND INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION' The term "trade agreement" is applied to all those arrange- ments under which the conditions of employment are governed by an agreement made between an employer or an association of employers and a union of which the employees are members. Such agreements prevail over a considerable part of American industry. Exactly what part of the workmen are covered by the systems of trade agreements cannot be stated since no census has ever been taken. The nearest approximation is the number of persons who are organized into trade unions. Since the policy of far the larger part of American trade unions is to replace in- dividual bargaining by trade agreements, the number of trade unionists tends to approach the number of those covered by such agreements. But the two are not identical. In the first place, a considerable part of the trade unionists are working in establish- ments in which the union is not as yet able to establish trade agreements. In some unions the numbers of members so work- ing is very small, so that it may fairly be said that the entire membership is working under joint agreements. In other unions, where, perhaps, a vigilant and hostile employers' association exists, or where a strike has recently been lost with the dis- organization of the union as the result, the number of mem.bers working under a system of individual bargaining pure and sim- ple may be considerable. On the other hand, in a number of in- dustries and trades where the union shop is not enforced, but where the conditions of employment are set by trade agreement, 1 By George E. Barnett, Professor of Statistics, Johns Hopkins Univer- sity. National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education. Pro- ceedings. 1916:347-61. 174 SELECTED ARTICLES the number of trade unionists is less than the number of per- sons working under trade agreement. A striking ilkistration of this case is found in the anthracite coal industry. Since 1906 the conditions of employment in this industry have been fixed by agreement between the representatives of the operators and of the workmen who are elected by the union, but at times only a small proportion of the workers covered by the agreement have been members of the imion. It may, therefore, be concluded, that although some joint agreements cover other than trade unionists and although some trade unionists are not working under joint agreements, the overlap in neither case is great. Since also, the two tend to offset each other it may be further concluded that the number of trade unionists is an approximate measure of the number of persons working under trade agreements. According to the calculations made for the United States Commission on Industrial Relations by Dr. Leo Wolman there were in 1910, 2,116,317 trade unionists in this country. Of these 1,900,000 are in the mining, manufacturing, building and trans- portation industries. If we .exclude from the number of persons gainfully employed in these industries, the proprietary, official and supervisory classes, and persons under twenty-one years of age, the percentage of trade unionists is between twenty and twenty-five per cent. At first thought, the number of trade unionists might appear to be so small as to make the subject of trade agreements in their connection with industrial education one of slight importance. But when the distribution of the trade unionists among the gainfully employed is taken into account, the matter appears in a different light, since the trade unionists are relatively more numerous in those industries and occupations in which the problems of industrial education are more impor- tant and more perplexing. For example, according to Dr. Wol- man's calculations, the trade unionists in the printing trades con- stitute 34.3 per cent of all workers 10 years of age and over — certainly not less than 40 per cent of those twenty-one years of age and over. Even this consideration does not fully sum up the extent of the possible relations between the trade agreement and industrial education since within the groups of trades it is almost uni- formly true that the more highly skilled trades are more fully organized. Thus although in the building trades group taken VOCATIONAL EDUCATION i75 as a whole only 16.2 per cent of the workers are organized, forty per cent of the bricklayers and stone masons are members of the union of their trade. Similar proportions in the extent of organization between the skilled and unskilled are found in prac- tically all of the other groups of trades. It may be regarded, that trade-unionism and trade agreements prevail far more therefore, as generally true, although with certain exceptions, largely in the skilled trades than in the unskilled. It is equally true that the problems of technical instruction are relatively more important in the same set of trades. Another consideration that still further magnifies the possible relations between the trade agreement and industrial education is the fact that trade unionists in every trade are more numer- ous in large than in small places. For example, in 1910, 35 per cent of the compositors, linotypers and type setters in the United States were in the union, but a very much higher percentage of these workmen living in cities of 10,000 population and over were organized. Similarly, although only forty per cent of the bricklayers and masons in the United States were organized in 1910, a far larger part of the bricklayers and masons living in cities of 10,000 population and over were members of the union and were working under trade agreements. Since industrial education in most trades can be organized most efficiently and economically in the larger places, it follows that the importance of the trade agreement in its relation to industrial education is greatly enhanced by the distribution of the trade unionists as between small and large places. By no means all trade agreements, however, contain pro- visions concerning the training of workers. The unions may roughly be classified into four groups. (i) The unions of unskilled workers. No rules regulating the training of new workers are found in the trade agreements in these trades for the very obvious reason that the beginner acquires in a very short time the knowledge necessary for the satisfactory performance of his work. (2) The unions in those trades in which the "helper" sys- tem is recognized as the appropriate method of training new workers. Provision for the training of helpers has been com- paratively rare. In the first place, in many trades the helpers have been unorganized and the union of journeymen has not claimed any control over their training. In the second place, in 176 SELECTED ARTICLES many trades, the necessary skill of the journeyman can be ac- quired readily by every helper. (3) The unions in those trades in which the skill and knowl- edge necessary for a journeyman is acquired by a workman per- forming an allied, but distinct kind of labor. In such trades, the two classes of workmen are frequently organized in separate unions, and the more highly trained class of workmen do not as a union concern themselves with the training of the class below them. (4) The unions in those trades in which the skill of the journeyman is acquired by a considerable period of training in the actual work of the trade. In such unions the recruiting of the trade has been given most attention, and the trade agree- ments in these trades almost uniformly contain provisions relat- ing to persons who are learning the trade. In these trades a clear distinction is drawn between those who are learning the trade and those who are proficient. Although the learners may not be admitted to the union and ordinarily are not, the union assumes over them a certain authority. The number of such learners is limited, the term they shall serve is prescribed, and, perhaps, the character of their work is regulated by the terms of the agreement made by the union and the employer. Obviously, a full treatment of the possibilities of trade agree- ments and industrial education would require discussion of at least three of these classes of unions. For example, where the learner is a helper and is organized in the same union with the journeymen, the union might ask and secure the insertion in its agreement with employers of a provision that helpers should attend courses in a trade school as a condition of promotion to the grade of journeyman. It will be admitted, however, that at the present juncture, these classes of trades are not the most important in their relation to industrial education. I shall, there- fore, confine myself to trade agreements in that class of trades in which it is admitted by both parties to the agreement that a lengthy course of training is necessary to acquire proficiency in the trade. Such a class of learners are ordinarily known as ap- prentices. The economic characteristics of the apprentice are, on the one hand, as distinguishing him from persons preparing to enter less skilled trades, the length of the period of training, and on the other hand, as distinguishing him from the helper, the fact that he is less proficient at the particular work on which he is engaged than a fully trained workman. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION I77 Wherever, therefore, apprenticeship, using the word in its broadest sense, exists, the idea of learning is also dominantly present. The helper learns, but learning is not the essence of his employment. He has an independent reason for existence. Even if locomotive engineers were recruited entirely from shop men, there must be firemen. The apprentice, on the other hand, is doing or should be doing, for the greater part of his appren- ticeship, work which is identical with that done by the skilled workmen in the same shop. The greater part of the American trade unions provide in their trade agreements for the regulation of apprenticeship. In 1905 Professor Motley found in his survey of "Apprenticeship in American Trade Unions" that seventy of the one hundred and twenty unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor had apprenticeship rules : The membership of these unions was 900,000 as against a membership of 750,000 in the unions which did not attempt to maintain apprenticeship systems. I am not acquainted with any more recent attempt to survey the field, but it is certain that the proportion is not greatly different at present. In the greater part, if not in all of the trades in which ap- prenticeship remains the recognized method of entrance to the trade, complaints are constantly being made that the apprentice does not thoroughly master the trade. In this company I need only briefly recall to attention the causes of this failure, since the matter has formed the staple of many Surveys. In the first place, with the increasing size of the shop, specialization has become the mark of a well organized plant. The apprentice is, therefore, most conveniently and profitably disposed of by allow- ing him to follow some one operation. The result is that at the end of his apprenticeship he is proficient in only a small part of the trade. Secondly, with the increasing size of the shop and the high specialization, the apprentice receives little instruction. Thirdly, in a considerable number of trades the advancing tech- nique requires that the apprentice shall have instruction of a kind which can not be furnished in the shop, since the knowledge required can only be gained by formal instruction. The trade unions and the employers' associations are well aware of these defects in the present system of apprenticeship. No subject is more ardently debated in their annual meetings; their committees of inquiry are constantly reporting on plans for improvement. Until recently the outcome of their deliberations in nearly all the trades concerned was monotonously the same. 178 SELECTED ARTICLES On the one side, the trade union was convinced that the real obstacle was that the apprentice was not given an opportunity to learn all the dififerent parts of the trade. The result of this conviction was the insertion in the trade union rules and later in agreements with employers of a more or less detailed scheme of apprentice progression. On the other hand, the employers have been of the opinion that it was important to rouse the sense of responsibility of the individual employer. In more recent years, the unions and employers have become convinced that even the most elaborate schemes of progression, and the keenest in- terest of some individual employers will fail, in many trades, to secure the proper training of the apprentice. More and more both sides have come to ask whether it will not be necessary to supplement the training of the apprentice either by instruction concurrent with work in an employer's shop or by an initiatory period of full-time instruction. Since the questions raised are somewhat dififerent, it will be convenient to consider first the case of provision in the trade agreement for supplemental instruction concurrent with work in an employer's shop, e.g. attendance on evening school, part time instruction, and dull season classes. What are the advantages of the trade agreement as a method of securing the addition of training of this kind. There are two other conceivable methods of introducing such supplemental training. The matter may be left to the initiative of the apprentice or to the pressure of the individual employer. The chief advantage of provision in the trade agreement over either of the other methods is that only by trade agreement can the attendance of all apprentices in union shops be secured. Moreover, where the time for instruction is in part or wholly in working hours, it is only by trade agreements that there can be any certainty that all employers "covered by the agreement will make the necessary allowances of time. The argu- ment for the compulsory attendance of apprentices rests on much the same basis as the argument for compulsory education. Just as the state requires attendance upon school, so the trade through its organs of government requires that apprentices shall attend evening school or dull-season school. The only force which can thus render supplemental trade education compulsory is the trade agreement. Ordinarily the employer's association acting alone cannot enforce such a rule upon its members. If such education is not compulsory, the usual experience has been that a number VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 179 of apprentices will neglect the opportunity and that employers in many cases will not require attendance. There will always be some who contend that the value of instruction is greater when it is sought. When it is remembered that apprentices are ordi- narily only from sixteen to twenty years of age, we shall prob- ably not value this argument more highly than we do the argu- ment of those who on similar grounds protest against compul- sory education laws. There is another important advantage in making such supple- mental instruction compulsory. In many cases, the emploj'ers must either pay part of the cost of instruction or make some readjustment of shop organization which involves expense. It is by no means certain that this expense will be recouped en- tirely by the improved efficiency of the apprentice during the apprenticeship period. He may be a more proficient journeyman, but the employer cannot be sure of retaining his services as a journeyman. If, however, the rule extends over the trade so that all apprentices are receiving proper supplemental instruc- tion, the employer has the satisfaction of knowing not simply that his apprentices are being taught properly but that the whole body of apprentices is being well taught. Even though his own apprentices leave him when their apprenticeship is completed, he can secure equally well trained men from the general supply. In this as in other matters relating to the instruction of the appren- tice, it must be borne in mind that the individual employer, unless working under very exceptional circumstances, cannot be expected to do his part unless other employers are required to do theirs. The instruction of apprentices is a trade matter. It seems useless to attempt to improve conditions merely by appeal- ing to the individual employer's interest in his own apprentices. Why should he bear a burden which should be carried equally by all employers? The only device by which all employers, at least all union employers, can be made to give the necessary instruction is by trade agreement. A further advantage of supplemental instruction of this kind should be a better formulation and enforcement of the rules for apprentice progression now found in a considerable number of trade agreements. In most trades, it is regarded as necessary that the apprentice should be moved from one position to an- other in the shop, if he is to develop into a proficient workman. In several, if not all of the trades in which schemes of progres- i8o SELECTED ARTICLES sion have been embodied in trade agreements complaint is made that they are not generally enforced. The reason seems to be that the enforcement of such schemes is and must be through shop committees. In some small shops, there are no committees ; in others, the committees are lax in insisting on the carrying out of the schemes. Some of this laxity is attributable to the fact that the schemes themselves are only loosely sketched and do not commend themselves to the judgment of the employers and workmen. Moreover, there appears frequently to be objection on the part of the apprentice to being transferred from a process with which he has become familiar to a new one. Supplemental instruction if made compulsory by trade agree- ment would necessarily be correlated to some extent with the work of the apprentices. It would follow that pressure of a very persistent and effective kind would be exerted on those em- ployers who failed to afford their apprentices the necessary pro- gression of work. The present decentralized administration of the rule would be supplemented by a centralized oversight through the officers of instruction and the joint committee of employers and workmen in charge of instruction. Moreover. the reluctance of the apprentice to take up new branches of work would disappear if the supplemental instruction inspired him with the ambition to become a proficient and well rounded workman. Finally, the incorporation of provision for supplemental in- struction in trade agreements should react favorably on the char- acter of the instruction. The danger which appears to beset in- dustrial education, perhaps in peculiar degree, is that it may become remote from the needs of the student. Where supple- mental instruction is required for every apprentice, the instruc- tion becomes a regular part of the trade equipment. Conse- quently, the character of the course; is constantly under the supervision of the parties to the trade agreement. There is, apparently, a widespread desire in a number of trades that provision should be made for supplemental, concur- rent instruction. It is easy to understand why the trade imions and employers welcome provision for such instruction. The in- efficient workman is a heavy charge upon the cost of production. The union as representing the interests of the workmen in the trade not merely in the present but also in the future has the strongest incentive to aid in making provision for increasing the VOCATIONAL EDUCATION i8l personal efficiency of its members. It is unnecessary to dilate upon these general advantages, but there is one advantage of such instruction which is peculiar to organized workmen and their employers. Since trade agreements are made by unions and em- ployers of union men, this advantage is important in considering the possibilities of the trade agreement in its relation to industrial education. The prime purpose of every trade union is to improve the conditions of employment in the trade and chief among the con- ditions of employment is the rate of wages. The device which the union employs to raise wages is collective bargaining. There are two form of collective bargaining : the union may through its officers assume control of the bargain by which the labor of each of its members is sold r;id itself make the bargain for the mem- ber as an individual contract, or, secondly, the union may fix upon some general rate of wage applicable to all of its members or to a class of its members. It is only in rare cases that the union can apply the first method ; it cannot put one price on A and another on B according to some rough measurement of their efficiency. The unions, therefore, set some general or standard rate. In the piece working trades such a standard rate affords a practicable measure of the labor of the members. It is for this reason that the earliest and even yet some of the strongest unions are in the piece-working trades. Piece work in some trades has disadvantages but it has everywhere from the stand- point of the union this one great advantage — every member of the union is equally interested in the standard rate. An increase in the rate goes equally to every workman. Even among time workers many unions find little or no diffi- culty in establishing a satisfactory measure for labor. In many unskilled trades, even under individual bargaining, differences in efficiency are so slight that all the workmen engaged are paid at the same rate per day. But this will ordinarily occur only in relatively unskilled employment. In the skilled trades, and it is to be borne in mind that the problem of technical instruction occurs primarily in the skilled trades, the distribution of effi- ciency is frequently very wide. In such trades, the only stand- ard rate which it is practicable to establish is a minimum. But here a difficulty presents itself. If the minimum is put high a certain part of the workers will be unable to secure the mini- mum. On the other hand, if the minimum is placed low, it loses i82 SELECTED ARTICLES its efficacy as a bargaining device for the labor of a considerable part of the members. What the union actually does in nearly all cases is to put the minimum wage high enough to lend sup- port to the wages of the great mass of its members. What be- comes of the inferior workmen when the minimum is placed high? In a few unions where the control of the trade is strong the employer who wishes a man is required to take him from a list on which the men are registered in the order of their falling out of employment. This device keeps in employment the infe- rior man at a wage much higher than he is relatively entitled to. Failing the adoption of such a "waiting list," the inefficient man either seeks work in a non-union shop or becomes a casual worker in the union shops. Taken on in busy seasons, he is dis- charged as soon as a more efficient man can be found. In either case, he becomes a serious problem for the union. Inefficiency is chargeable to a variety of causes, but two stand out prominently — natural incapacity for the trade and lack of proper training. The establishment by joint trade agreement of a system of compulsory supplemental training would greatly re- duce in every skilled trade the number of inefficients. In the first place, those who were by natural incapacity unfit for the trade would be excluded to an extent which is now impracticable. In many trades, the agreements now provide for a probationary period. If after three or six months the apprentice is found to be unsuited to the trade, he is to be excluded. These rules have not been found to work well. The administration is in the hands of the shop committee and as has been noted above this form of administration is ineffective. Moreover, the work of the appren- tice in his first few months of shop work is not ordinarily of such a kind as to afford an adequate test of his capacity. It may be expected that where compulsory supplemental training is instituted a conference will be held by the employer, the shop committee and the instructors as to the capacity of the apprentice at the end of the probationary period. The supplemental Vi'ork may during the probationary period be directed especially to testing the capacity of the youth. In the second place, the im- proved training would reduce the number of those who are ineffi- cient because they lack proper grounding in the elements of the trade. There would still be differences in efficiency due to differ- ences in capacity, but the spread of the efficiency distribution would be greatly narrowed and the problem of organizing the trade would be enormously lessened. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 183 If we turn now from supplemental, concurrent instruction to initiatory and preparatory instruction, the use of the trade agree- ment up to the present has been less frequent. There are four reasons advanced for making such instruction a part of the train- ing of the apprentice : (i) The trade as practised in all except the smallest shops is split up into a number of specialties. If the apprentice is to receive a grounding in the trade as a whole, this must be given him apart from the actual work of industry. (2) In a number of trades, the age at which the apprentice can begin work is higher than the age at which many pupils leave school. As a result, apprenticeship does not follow immediately upon schooling. The two or three years spent in juvenile employ- ment leaves the youth on entering the trade less receptive to formal instruction than he would have been at the time he left school. (3) Even if the apprentice remains in school until the time of actually beginning his apprenticeship, it is felt that the last year or two of his school life can most profitably be spent in preparing for his trade career. (4) The reluctance of many employers to take apprentices is due to the fact that their work in the earlier part of their apprenticeship is unprofitable. If the apprentice had the training of an initiatory year or two years he would be capable of earn- ing his wage, and employers would be willing to have apprentices. Naturally these factors vary in importance in different trades, but it appears to be generally admitted that in certain trades an initiatory period of instruction is desirable. The question then emerges how far the trade acting through a trade agreement will be willing to offer Inducements to the apprentice to pass through this initiatory period. Three forms of encouragement are sug- gested : ( I ) It may be provided that youths who have passed through the initiatory period shall receive a wage equal to or higher than that they would have received if they had come up through the shop. (2) It may be provided that the employers shall give the preference to such youths when taking on appren- tices. (3) It may be provided that the time of apprenticeship shall be shortened by an allowance for the time spent in the pre- paratory trade school. The advantages of the initiatory period of instruction are of much the same kind as those enumerated above as attaching to supplemental concurrent instruction. The standardization of i84 SELECTED ARTICLES the workman through better training and the eUmination of those unsuited to the trade would be attained in even higher degree. Moreover, the inducements which it is proposed to hold out to youths in order to induce them to follow the initiatory course of instruction appear unobjectionable. In a small but dwindling number of trades the ancient right of a father to apprentice a son to his own trade still persists. The provision that youths who have taken the initiatory course should have preference for ap- prenticeship conflicts with that right, but patrimonial apprentice- ship has fallen so much into disuse that no great objection is likely to be made on that score. The difficulty lies not in the character of the concessions necessary to secure the attendance of youths in the initiatory school, but in the fear that an attempt is being made to replace apprenticeship as the method of entrance to the trade. The union and to some extent the employers may ask whether the training afforded by the period of initiatory instruction will serve not simply as supplementary to apprenticeship, but also as an entirely new means of entrance to the trade. The reluctance to relinquish apprenticeship is not confined to the unions. In a recent report of the Commission on Vocational Training of the International Typographical Union, Dr. F. W. Hamilton, national apprentice director of the United Typothetae of America, is quoted as writing : We have endeavored wherever possible to spread sound ideas as to the principles and methods of industrial education, urging everywhere the es- tablishment of continuation work for printers' apprentices in the public schools and discouraging in so far as we were able to do so the establish- ment of vocational schools of printing in the public schools. In cases where such work was well established in the public schools and changes did not seem practicable, we have endeavored to put the schools in such relations to the industry that the work should be done in the most workmanlike manner possible and that an easy way should be provided for the boys who have done well in the schools to find proper places in the shops. ... It [The Typothetae Committee] holds that it is the business of the industry (i) to select the boy, (2) to see about his training. It sees no other way in which a proper adjustment may be made between the boys who are being trained and the industry itself so that the number of boys who are being trained shall not exceed the number who can find employment in the industry. . . . A method which begins with the boy irrespective of the industry, attempts to teach him printing and then leaves him to find a place if he can is fair neither to the boy, to the public, nor to the industry itself. In the same letter, Dr. Hamilton mentions as one of the plans for apprentice training encouraged by his committee : VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 185 Schools supported by a group of printers in which the boy puts in the first year in intensive practical work under the direction of a competent teacher and then goes out into the shop to finish his apprenticeship under the teacher's observation. In brief, then, the unions and to some extent employers ap- prove of initiatory instruction only on condition that it is tied firmly to the apprenticeship system. For example, it is hardly conceivable that a union v^^ould object to a school maintained jointly by the union and the employers in which training was given to apprentices already allotted to particular shops, although as yet not at work in the shops. But let us assume that initiatory training for the trade is offered by a public school to any one who chooses to take up the particular line irrespective of the opportunities for apprentice- ship. A union which completely controls the trade will face this problem without much misgiving since it can exclude such per- sons from the trade or from opportunity to complete their train- ing; it will not concern itself with opposing such forms of voca- tional training. It may even agree to allow such persons as are taken on as apprentices a certain amount of credit for the voca- tional training. A weaker union might hesitate through fear that the entire system of entrance of apprenticeship may break down. It is undoubtedly true that there are important advantages in en- trance by apprenticeship. In the first place, if there are no re- strictions on the number of apprentices the supply of new workers entering the trade is proportioned to the needs of the trade far more exactly than can be accomplished where training for the trade is divorced from industry. Except in those indus- tries where boy labor is profitable an employer takes on a new apprentice only because he needs additional skilled labor. When the industry is expanding, the apprentices increase; when it is stationary, the number of apprentices falls off. Through appren- ticeship the trade draws to itself the necessary supply. There are other advantages : The cost of training is less. The poorer boy who cannot afford the time to learn a trade by school in- struction, can earn something while learning. It is conceivable that a union might reject proposals to aid a system of initiatory training because it desired to maintain apprenticeship. But it is probably not the fear that such a system would destroy the apprenticeship system root and branch that bulks largest in the opposition. Connected with the system of i86 SELECTED ARTICLES apprenticeship in practically all unions which recognize appren- ticeship as the normal method of entrance to the trade is some limitation on the number of apprentices. It is feared by some trade unionists that by the inauguration of a system of initiatory training, the number of apprentices will be increased and the trade will be overcrowded. The limitations on the number of apprentices have other purposes than restriction of the number of journeymen. In some trades, for example, the relative num- bers of apprentices allotted respectively to large and small shops are assumed to bear a relation to the facilities for training ap- prentices. But it is undoubtedly true that the limitations are regarded chiefly as a protection against overcrowding the trade. Obviously the validity of this objection rests on the assump- tion that the present rules do restrict the number entering the trade. There are certain trades in which the number of persons entering is limited by apprenticeship regulation, but, the effect of apprenticeship rules on the number entering any one of the im- portant trades must be very small. When one considers, for example, that the carpenters or printers admit constantly any workman who can get the minimum rate and that at least one- half the shops in the country are non-union, it can hardly be contended that the enforcement of the apprenticeship ratio affects materially the total number entering the trade. As a matter of fact, in the greater part of the trades maintaining entrance by apprenticeship, the union shops have less apprentices than the rules allow them, and the number of apprentices is less than suffi- cient to recruit the workmen needed for the union offices. The reason for this is that the union is especially strong in the larger shops and in the larger cities. Here the trade is more specialized and the advantages at present to the apprentice and to the em- ployer are both less than in the smaller shop. The constant recruiting of the union from the non-union shop means, of course, a constant effort on the part of the union to absorb new material. It is assumed by those who oppose initiatory training that by its introduction the employer would be more willing to take on apprentices and more boys would be willing to learn the trade. What result might reasonably be expected? Would it not simply be that the men needed for the union offices would be trained there and the men trained in non-union offices would be left there instead of being steadily drawn away, thus making it necessary VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 187 for the non-union offices to train up new workmen? The chief change would not be in the total number of apprentices but in the place of their training. In such trades as these a careful can- vass of the situation would probably convince the union that it would be advantageous to favor as far as possible any plan which would stimulate apprenticeship in union shops even if the limita- tions on the number of apprentices were relaxed or abandoned. THE CO-OPERATIVE SYSTEM OE INDUSTRIAL TRAINING' If industrial education means a re-directing and adapting of our education to fit the economic and social needs of our people, then it is a problem which has no single solution. There will be as many school classifications as there are groups of industries, nearly as many solutions as there are types of communities, and there is no single inflexible course of study nor a single line of procedure. The rapid development of the manufacturing interests of our country during the past decade, particularly in the metal-working lines, has increased the problem of finding an adequate supply of labor and of a proper degre of efficiency. The modern sys- tem of production has had much to do with such conditions. The absence of a definite system of factory training has its share of the responsibility. Meanwhile, the public school desires to hold its pupils, but youth wants to earn money, and parents ask the eternal question, "What shall we do for our boy?" The mother sees that if her boy goes to work in the average factory he is likely to fail in learning a trade, while it is almost positive that he will shut the door against that further liberal education which he might get in the high school. Now, let us imagine that the boy is able to say, "Father, the problem is solved. The co-operative school is about to be opened. In it I will become a skillful machinist, able to earn more than a living immediately upon graduation, and I will also have all the benefits of a high school education at the same time." ^ From article by A. D. Dean. National Education Association. Pro- ceedings 1910:612-16. i88 SELECTED ARTICLES The fundamental principle of the co-operative system is very simple. In brief, it is this : The technique or the practical side of the work is taught only in a shop or store which is working under actual commercial conditions ; the Science underlining the technique is taught by skilled teachers in a public school. To many it seems feasible so to organize the public school system that it will be capable of dealing with all these children — those in school and those out of school. It would seem that a solution of the problem would be some system of co-operation between the schools and the factories for training those young .people in industrial and civic efficiency after they have found their work. There are well-defined and distinct advantages in both sys- tems of industrial training — co-operative and public trade school. It is hardly necessary for partisans on either side to overreach in their arguments. The real issue at stake is not whether the co-operative system is the only proper system of training, but, rather, to what extent each system can find its proper place in American education. There is room for both, and an analysis of the principles involved is well worth while at this point. Undoubtedly the co-operative system is economical from the standpoint of school equipment. It places upon the taxpayer almost no burden of taxation, as the existing equipment of com- mercial shops is used. It is obvious, of course, that trade schools are necessarily somewhat expensive. The same may be said of dental, medical, agricultural, and mechanic-arts colleges. But it is doubtful if the public will be willing to make any unjust discriminations based upon financial considerations against a necessary and proper industrial training of the mass of our people who work in the great constructive industries, in favor of those who are engaged in professional work. We must look be- yond such a material argument. It is claimed that educational waste will be avoided in the co-operative system by using foremen in the shops as teachers of shop-work rather than teachers specially trained. Who can guarantee that they will make good teachers? The practical mechanic without pedagogical training may be able to impart to the student the mechanical manipulations of his trade, but if he cannot make the proper connections with the pedagogic end of his work he will be deficient to that extent. Another point in favor of the co-operative system — one which VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 189 comes under the head of educational waste — refers to the fallacy of attempting to give specific trade education in a public trade school to a boy of sixteen years of age when he does not know what trade he wants to learn, or when he can hardly afford to spend three or four years in a trade school without compensa- tion. Another weakness of the public trade school is said to be the break in the continuity of systematic mental effort which will exist between the period at which the boy dropped out of school at fourteen and the trade school period when the boy enters it at sixteen ; this lack of continuity forcing the trade school to gather up the interrupted, loose, and disorganized threads of mental activity. If the advocates of the co-operative system feel that they must oppose the public-trade school movement by such argu- ments, they have at least furnished a valuable contribution to- ward an argument for vocational training between fourteen and sixteen. Such training is intended to arouse a set of industrial interests which will require specific training for their satisfac- tion; the latter training to be given in the trade school, open to ipupils who are sixteen years of age, or in the shops themselves. Open to boys who are sixteen years of age, the co-operative system makes one strong appeal. It gives them an opportunity of earning something. They are earning while learning, whereas under the trade school system they do not earn until they have completed their trade education. The co-operative system makes it possible for a child to continue in school, whereas now he is compelled to take a low-grade, poorly paid, unskilled position perhaps without any future prospects either in money or the ac- quirement of skill. The co-operative system will naturally serve to keep the busi- ness men and employers in constant touch with the public school system if for no other reason than the selfish incentive to get the most out of it for themselves. Given an opportunity to co-ope- rate, it is expected that they will study the schools with their own needs in mind, and as one result they may possibly become interested and aroused enough to better the schools. At least there can be co-ordination between the school instructor and the shop force. So far, in carrying out the co-operative plan in the cities that have tried it, the instructors have been acquainted with the local shop practice. They spend part of the time in the shop igo SELECTED ARTICLES and part of the time in the school. It is their business to observe the students at their work, to study the shop system and any other matter of interest, noticing particularly the everjday shop applications of the various sciences, as mathematics, physics, chemistry and dravv^ing. It is expected that the co-operative system can be applied not only to the machine trades but also to the tailoring, baking, butchering, building or any other trade where the mechanical equipment or natural conditions are somewhat different from the trades which have already adopted it. Already a department store in New York City has introduced the system. Among other things the salespeople are taught psychology and salesman- ship, and are given as much technical knowledge as possible of the things they are selling. In addition they receive a certain amount of general education. In many instances where the co-operative system is employed there is an apparent one-sidedness in the agreement between the apprentice and the employer which it appears might be avoided. While it may be said that all these employers are men of known integrity, on the other hand the success of the whole scheme de- pends entirely on their doing what they ought to do. If an agreement is necessary, it seems as if the employer would be likely to stand in much better light with the public if he also was under an equal bond to fulfill some definite agreement. Undoubtedly there is much of value in the co-operative scheme, but before it can have general indorsement, the public must be assured that the plan is so worked out that it results in all-round training and that the half-time idea does not become a half-waj^ scheme. The pupils that are merely taken into the shops on the half- time or the co-operative plan, may not receive the systematic and progressive advancement in learning the different parts of the industry that is desirable. To a certain extent, the pupils may be exploited for the benefit of the manufacturer, for the money value of the product of the boy's labor often seems to be more determinative to the manufacturer than the pupil's progress in learning the trade. On the other hand, in a public trade school where the work is not carried on under the conditions of a real factory it may be impossible for the pupil to attain a practical skill and efificiency equal to that of a good workman in a factory. Of course much depends on the way the school is conducted. Unless the method of instruction in the school is different from VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 191 that at present in vogue in our manual-training schools, the workman's time as a factor in the cost of production never can be sufficiently demonstrated to a pupil where his presence and wages do not depend upon his active productive ability. Neither can the time that may properly be used and the skill required for the different operations be sufficiently understood by the pupil until the product is put to actual commercial use and the pupil rewarded for his work in proportion to his perception and adjustment of these factors of production. Perhaps this is the strongest argument for the co-operative plan. The co-operative plan has tremendous advantages. In pre- senting it I have endeavored to be fair to both the public, to the school and the so-called "Cincinnati scheme." Certainly the plan is worth trying. It is very largely based upon a German method. The success of the German system is due not only to the fostering care of a central government but in a large measure to social and economic conditions inherent in the situation. In that country it is taken as a matter of course that employers and schools will work together to promote thoro industrial training. In such an atmosphere the co-operative scheme can achieve its highest development. In America conditions are different. Em- ployers have not taken up to the present time, any great interest in the work of the public schools except to criticise them. Neither have schoolmen taken any interest in the labor conditions in our industries. Evidently the co-operative system offers a means of getting together. But if the school authorities adopt this plan simply to avoid spending public money, and emploj^ers take up the scheme simply to throw off the burden of responsi- bility of obtaining skilled labor upon the public schools, simply because they have been negligent in the past in doing what may have been their duty, then the scheme is doomed to failure. The co-operative plan must get beyond selfish, personal motives if it is to be a part of an American system of education. Primarily the schools are managed in the interests of their boys and girls. I would not dampen the ardor of those that favor the co-opera- tive system, but no association of employers can be allowed to dictate a system of public education unless it be along lines which are of direct personal advantage to the boys and girls. Then it will not be dictation, but co-operation, and that we all welcome. 192 SELECTED ARTICLES CONTINUATION SCHOOLS' There are two propositions upon which my whole argument depends. These are as follows : 1. The state possesses no higher treasures than the moral and intellec- tual powers of its youth. This applies to all classes of youth whether des- tined for the trades or the professions. As the Germans say: "No nation can take and sustain a prominent place in the modern world that fails to develop and utilize the powers and ability latent in all classes of its people." 2. "No boy or girl ought to be treated," as Winston Churchill says, "merely as cheap labor. Up to eighteen years of age every boy and girl in the country school, as in the old days of apprenticeship, should be learning a trade (or vocation), as well as earning a living." No person should be permitted to employ the boys or girls during these formative years without assuming some responsibility for their learning a vocation. I expect to show that these propositions require the addition of a new type of school to our system. A fundamental defect in our present school system results from our custom of terminating compulsory school education at fourteen years of age. Everyone will admit that this is too early. We contribute to the support of the public schools on the ground that they are necessary to the perpetuation of our free institu- tions. We urge that a certain minimum of instruction and train- ing is indispensable as a preparation for citizenship, and that the training of character connected with the minimum is of great importance for this preparation. We are permitting our boys and girls to leave our public schools at fourteen, just at the time when they most need guidance and instruction, just at the time when character-building really begins, and just when they should be objects of special attention in our educational plans. Before the age of fourteen the youth is too immature to comprehend the training required by a citizen in a modern state. He has not the judgment and power of resistance to temptations neces- sary for an independent life in modern society. Our school train- ing, therefore, is not carried far enough at the present time to reach its real aim, to provide instruction and training necessary for the solution of the problems of everyday life. Further, the youth who leaves school at fourteen loses and wastes almost the 1 From article by Edwin G. Cooley. National Education Association. Pro- ceedings. 1912:1203-7. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 193 entire results of his eight years in the elementary school before he is of age. The necessity for carrying forward the school instruction be- yond the years of compulsory attendance is becoming more and more urgent. The transformation of the social body, the rapid transition of our people from country life to city life, the de- velopment of the industries and commercial activities demand more from the school than they did in the past. The nineteenth century has made the elementary school, which was often nothing but a reading-school or a school for three R's, a real educational institution for the people. As Friedrich Paul- sen says : It will be the mightiest problem of the twentieth century to build the elementary school as a general and fundamental form of school a new fin- ishing educational institution, or to give to the elementary-school instruc- tion its necessary conclusion in a kind of vocational high school, a school whose problem will be the carrying forward and making fruitful of the general education for vocational activity. The course of education for every position in life should include two grades. The first is the elementary school, whose problem is — apart from the development of the intellectual powers — to provide exercises in the school arts which every suc- cessive instruction presupposes and makes use of. In a democracy this elementary course should be the same for all, and can be communicated to all divisions of the people in one common insti- tution — the elementary school. The second grade has as its prob- lem to advance financial means of the pupils in accordance with the degree of existing financial means and mental powers, and to give real vocational education. This is true of the so-called learned occupations which demand a real scientific training as a preparation for a profession. This is provided by the universi- ties, and the various sorts of technical and commercial colleges, and by our secondary schools. To be fair to all, modern condi- tions require another type of school which, like other schools, presupposes the general training given in the elementary school, but which has as its problem the training for the vocational life of the youth who must leave the ordinary school at four- teen years. This training on the immediately practical, technical side may fall to the vocations themselves, but a school must be provided to supplement this shop training by supplying the knowledge and skill demanded by modem business or industrial 194 SELECTED ARTICLES the school now known as the continuation or part-time school. Care must be taken, however, that this new independent type of vocational school which takes the youth on leaving the ele- mentary school not only provides a practical vocational educa- tion, but also considers the needs of the man and the citizen. The vocations, however, will stand as the central point of every well- regulated life and exercise a reaction upon all the remaining human activities. Nevertheless it should be emphasized that the problem of this new school is providing an education for citizenship, remember- ing that a good citizen must necessarily be able and willing to earn a decent living. We cannot leave the instruction concerning the public duties of man exclusively to party eloquence or to the daily press. This work cannot be done in the elementary school on account of the lack of maturity, experience, and power of comprehension of young children before the age of adolescence. The boy, however, who enters into practical life is immediately attracted by questions of citizenship, and comes to such instruc- tion with all sorts of practical questions. He now has an interest in these questions, and an understanding of their significance which was impossible during the elementary-school period. If this instruction can grow out of concrete facts, and experience can be related to the rights and duties of the pupil himself, we shall succeed in utilizing this interest. In this course we should include some study of politics, of the position of our country among the nations of the earth, of our possessions, our power, our productions, and our commerce. We must not forget that such youth are still boys and girls with an interest in amusements and activity of various kinds. Play and excursions, evening entertainments, and festivals should be carried on in connection with their school work, as they are now carried on in connection with our secondary and elementary schools. Libraries and reading-halls should be provided for such continuation schools, and the wise use of books will be a most important function of the teacher in such institutions. Such schools should be supplied with playgrounds, library halls, col- lections of tools, books, and apparatus, and we should encourage the union of former pupils with the students in the continuation schools. Our problem is with the whole boy, and we must not neglect his recreation. These continuation schools must be com- plete schools undertaking so far as possible the training of the VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 195 whole boy, and not the producing of cheap skilled labor for the employer. These schools are not continuation schools in the sense of being places where the instruction of the elementary school is continued and reviewed, but a continuance of the boy's education under new conditions and with a new point of view. We have up to the time of entering these schools taught subjects, have pro- vided general training, which it was hoped would be later applied to special cases. The continuation school reverses the process and follows the maxims, "Try to expand from your own center," "Proceed slowly step by step in your own way, from the individ- ual to the universal." This means a change of attitude that will profoundly modify instruction in other schools. These schools must not be confused with evening schools which have continued and supplemented our former education. These new schools must have their own organization, their own corps of teachers, and day instruction in suitably equipped school buildings. In the most progressive German cities they have their own buildings, corps of teachers, branches of education, and all that goes with an independent school. There is no lack of interest and power for the carry-out of this ideal among our people. There never was a time when the interest in education agitated the people more powerfully than today. There never was a time when the so-called upper classes felt more fully their obligation to extend the hand to their brothers below to bring them up to a higher and richer life. The supplement to our educational system is necessary. As Friedrich Paulsen says : The education provided for our youth may be compared to an aban- doned ruin: the foundation is laid, a few walls are constructed, then the work is left to the destruction of wind and water^ Our school system can be regarded as finished only when we provide an instruction for all that will fit them for the activities of real vocational life. 196 SELECTED ARTICLES CONTINUATION SCHOOLS FOR CHIL- DREN OF SCHOOL AGE' When we speak of continuation schooling we mean any kind of training adapted to people who are already at work. People with the right outlook on life feel that when they stop growing mentally they decay. When they cease to look forward it is a sign of aging. With this in mind those who have a foundation never stop reading and studying, but how is the great mass of our population to enjoy such happy old age when they have never obtained the fundamentals necessary for self development - — this is a problem worthy of most serious study. The mortality in school attendance, as shown here for the different grades, calls our attention to the need of supplementary work adapted to the needs of those who have quit. According to the 1912 report of the U. S. Commissioner of Education, pages xiv-xv, in 191 1 of children 10 to 14 years old, 8,940,000 or 96.15 per cent, were in school; 15 to 17, 3,060,000, or 55.81 per cent, a drop of 4 per cent, were in school ; 18 to 20, 940,000, or 16.59 per cent ; 21 to 24, 4.75 per cent. There were only 20 per cent as many in the eighth grades as in the first, and only 3.4 per cent as many in the last year of high school. There are two million children between the ages of fourteen and sixteen out of school in this country. Not more than half of these are at work at any one time, or were forced to leave school through economic pressure. The school did not hold their interest and parents tired of insisting on their attendance. Most of these left before the seventh grade, had no knowledge of real value to themselves, never attended school thereafter, and -vvere thrown upon the world at the critical period of adolescence. Citizenship has not been taught before the seventh grade and these young children need instruction in it as well as in trades. "If we need proof that our headless and aimless administra- tion of over $500,000,000 (five hundred million) annual investment in public education is a failure consider the fact that half of all who enter it leave as failures or disinterested by the end of the sixth grade," said H. E. Allies, of Wisconsin. Fifty per cent efficiency is too low for any machine ; why is it accepted for 1 By Frank Harrison. School and Society. 4:617-24. October 21, 1916. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 197 schools? We have provided long enough for the abstract-minded child who has been surrounded by books from infancy, to the exclusion of the "hand-minded" child. In 1910, twenty thousand pupils were in continuation schools at Munich. Ninety-three per cent of the boys and girls under eighteen were at some kind of public school. How much differ- ent such a condition is from that in the United States. Certainly our need of such a system is imperative and immediate. As long as our regular high schools are organized to get ten boys out of five hundred to college we must have continuation opportunities. It seems a sad commentary on the citizens of a country where majority is supposed to rule, that an injustice is done four hundred and ninety boys to help only ten. What more startling statement do we need to show the fail- ure of our elementary school and the importance of further edu- cation for those who leave early, than that "handsome, intel- ligent, supposedly well-educated mechanics of nineteen to twenty- five, had to begin reading in the Wisconsin continuation schools with the primer," a true statement according to the president of the Board of Industrial Education of Wisconsin. Continuation courses should be arranged at public expense to fill the need of short courses without substantial requirements. This is a field in which the Y. M. C. A., Y. W. C. A., business schools and correspondence schools are attempting to operate now. The United States Bureau of Education Bulletin Twenty, page 29, for 1913, shows that Of thirteen million young men in the United Statese between 21 and 35, only 5 per cent have received in the schools direct preparation for their vocations; of every one hundred graduates of our elementary schools only eight obtain their livelihood by means of professional and commercial pursuits, vk'hile ninety-two support themselves by manual labor. And yet we hesitate to help such a majority which must be as far below what is possible as the illiterate is below them now. To-day instead of providing the guidance of continuation schools we use up our youth in parasitic industry, requiring for cheapness' sake unskilled juvenile labor that leaves the child when he has gone through adolescence, without a trade, without ambition, without, in fact, a social life at all. The private trade school, even if well organized, does not fill the purpose of continuation schools. They train men for bosses, 198 SELECTED ARTICLES not workmen. In practically every instance employers have found they are unable to cope successfully with providing education for young employees single-handed. Factory schools are unsatisfac- tory in that it can not be to the interest of the manufacturer to give every apprentice an equally good special and general train- ing. He only concerns himself with the best among them, and not with those of the best character, but with those of the best intelligence and manual skill. Since the state is not willing to pay the living expense of chil- dren, it seems inconsistent to insist upon compulsory full-time attendance at school. The practical way of meeting the situa- tion is to establish continuation schools or part-time classes and make then compulsory. The bringing of children to a public officer, the teacher, gives an opportunity for study as to health conditions that the selfish employer never takes time to consider. It lessens the necessity of entering "blind alley" occupations. About 85 per cent of chil- dren, if unguided, go into jobs that lead nowhere. One object of the continuation school is to give information on each of the processes related to the individual's occupation so that the apprentice does not succumb to continuous work at a minute operation. Principles are taught, and the use of material, tools and machines, in general. Among the many recommendations of a Dominion of Canada Royal Commission in Industrial Training and Technical Educa- tion we find in the 1913 report, (i) Subject-matter should be with real problems of daily life of the students; (2) that teachers shall have had practical experience in the occupations dealt with and be skilful in teaching, enthusiastic and sympa- thetic; (3) that attractive, comfortable and convenient rooms be provided and plenty of equipment; (4) social intercourse is to be stimulated. The continuation school is necessary for those entering in- dustry early to supplement poor home training in morals, civic duty and political rights. With husband and wife both in indus- try, little encouragement is given at home. Especially in over- populated states and cities public help is even more important for girls than boys. Girls must be trained to be mothers and house- hold managers, on the side, while they work for part of the family living. So much has been said about the need of lengthening the age VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 199 of compulsory school attendance that I must defend further my statement that provision should be made for allowing the child to enter industry early. The teacher and educational theorist have become too conceited. They seem to think the only way to become educated is to attend school. The best plan is between the extremes of the school teacher's ideas and of the ideas of R. T. Crane. There is value in general education, but it is a stimulus to laziness. The boy really feels better if he is working, he feels more independent and ambitious, providing he is working under good conditions. He is strengthened physically and learns a trade from a practical standpoint which the school can not pre- sent alone. Thus the combination of the advantages of this with a continuation education would seem a step in advance. Boys who are not inclined to study books find school a drudge and certainly they are not a pleasure and joy forever to the teacher. Let me give one instance which is typical of many I have observed. A lad had been truant and delinquent until the court decided something final should be done as a last attempt at reform. Work was found for him with a reclamation sur- veying crew. He was to obey orders of the chief of the crew as though they came from the court. To-day, less than five years since, he is foreman of the crew and drawing a salary of $3,000 a year. He is happy and the state should be. Why do we wait until boys are steeped in truancy and possibly crime before we respond to their nature and let them work? Dr. J. P. Monroe shows the psychology of this and the loss by not responding to it with part-time schools. He says : The boy wants to make something, to see some tangible result from all these weary hours in school; but the teacher has no idea how to make things, the text-books say nothing about it, and young people who make things are apt to be exuberant, eager, full of questioning. The child's desire to invent is stifled, but he is told he will see the use of the things he is asked to learn by and by. We destroy his individuality with predigested — though nevertheless still indigestible — facts, yet we censure him for exploding, out of school, into mischief, petty crime and worse. The average pupil does not want to go to college, and in nine cases out of ten he ought not to go. From the moment he enters the primary school the boy should be studied to find out if he is really fitted to go to college. He should have the freedom that (WOuld enable him to demonstrate what he is fitted for. Then if he is not adapted to college he should be directed into some trade and into part-time schools. 200 SELECTED ARTICLES The National Association of Manufacturers reported in 1910 on ten points of industrial training, among which are these : Industrial education must consist of skill and schooling and these two parts are of equal importance. They must be organically combined and each will coordinate and supplement the other. The average schoolmaster is incapable of the task, so that half-time schools are feasible and practical. Professor John Dewey, in his "Moral Principles of Educa- tion," relates a true story illustrating what employers think is the matter with school technical training, and which continua- tion school would remedy. There is a swimming school in a certain city where youth are taught to swim without going into the water, being repeatedly drilled in the various movements which are necessary for swimming. When one of the young men so trained was asked what he did when he got into water, he laconically replied: "Sunk." So many of the boys trained in schools to be bookkeepers, merchants, engineers, etc., sink when they get in the water of real business and industry. Frank M. Leavitt, of the University of Chicago, uses the fol- lowing statement, which summarizes what I have to say on this point. The continuation course takes a boy at this critical period and shows him how work and education are correlated rather than things apart. Since there are so many advantages in part-time work, and such a need of school opportunities for children in industry, why is it that we do not provide for it in the United States? Is it because it is new and untried? No. They are of wide use, espe- cially in Germany and England. In England they are mainly evening schols, assisted by na- tional grants, but nowhere compulsory. They are unsatisfactory because (i) youths are tired, (2) teachers are untrained for this kind of work, (3) supervision is difficult. In America, also, they are mainly evening schools. Not all regular high school courses are covered, but some general and much technical work is taught. Large numbers of foreigners go to learn English. The present trend is toward part-time day schools. Lecturing, music and drama are better fitted for eve- ning. Day work makes it possible to develop a special teaching force for it, inasmuch as it would be arranged that the pupils would appear in relays, the same teacher dealing with successive groups, so it would be financially practical to employ specialist VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 201 teachers. But since this takes time away from the employer it will probably require compulsory legislation here as it has else- where. At Fitchburg, Mass., the boy agrees to stay by the employer three years, and the employer agrees to teach him the various branches of the trade. Cleveland provides twelve schools which those going to work before completing the elementary schools must attend six hours a week in the daytime unless over sixteen years of age. Many Swiss cantons, especially Zurich, Lower Austria, and Scotland, have day continuation schools. In Bavaria there were, in 1913, sixteen day continuation schools with five hundred en- rolled. Daytime attendance is compulsory for six to twelve hours a week for all under eighteen in Bavaria, Wurtemburg, Saxony, Baden and Hessen, for both town and country popula- tion. In Germany there are two types, (i) General, (2) Indus- trial. The idea originated in instruction in Christianity in 1870. In 1891 by imperial decree it was made compulsory for employers and parents to send children to continuation schools where estab- lished. For a time the work was done Sundays and evenings, but the tendency now, as in America, is to take six or eight hours a week from work time. Industrial and technical instruction is along the line of work during employment. In Germany the con- tinuation school is not responsible to the ministry of "Public Worship, Instruction and Public Health," but to the departments of trade and commerce and agriculture. Let us now consider some of the points involved in the dif- ferent types of continuation schools. As I have already brought out, there are schools taking but a few hours a week for those with regular jobs, schools taking half a day — so that two young people fill the same desk and the same job each day — and eve- ning schools. The evening school does not warrant attention for people under eighteen. As I have already said, evening schools should be voluntary, but day school compulsory, otherwise employers will prevent their youthful workmen from making use of the opportunity except at night when mind and body are fatigued. The number of public-spirited employers is too small to make voluntary day schools a success. In Cincinnati it was found night work did not attract the apprentice. Ten hours concen- 202 SELECTED ARTICLES trated attention to a machine leaves little energy for study, and the city has many more alluring ways of passing an evening. The first use of the part-time plan in the United States was by the University of Cincinnati Engineering Department in 1906. It has since been started in Fitchburg, Beverly and Quincy, Mass. Conditions in these cities are typical enough to show that some type is adaptable to any community's need. At Fitchburg the course is of four year's duration. The first year is in high school, and the next three years alternate weekly between <^hop and school. The boys are paid 10 cents an hour the first year at work, II cents an hour in the second year, and 12^2 cents an hour in the third year. Because of increased interest, ambition and efificiency, employers find they do not lose by allowing two boys to take turns at a job. Since under the half-time plan only twenty weeks a year are spent in school the time should be spent on subjects of practical value, as English, current events, arithmetic, drawing, civics and sociology, chemistry, physics, electricity and mechanics. Frank M. Leavitt reports that at Fitchburg boys on part time have "no difficulty in keeping up their social standing. They constitute the major portion of football, basketball and base- ball teams, and hold class offices." It is a significant fact that the Quincy continuation school has not lost a boy until the course was completed, when we re- member the per cent that drop out of our elementary and sec- ondary schools. Promotion at Quincy is irregular, the bright go fast, and the average take three years. The school has absolute control of the boys and assumes full responsibility. However, the half-time plan is adapted only to those who are fairly well-to-do, to those whose only trouble is that they are uninterested in regular academic work. For those who can afford to spend but a few hours a week away from work, and who leave school before finishing the eighth grade the tendency is toward the six- to twelve-hour-a-week plan. Here again Cincinnati is one of the best examples, since it has schools for boys who work most of the week but attend school four hours. These boys receive pay for attendance and are docked for absence by employers. The school handles them in groups divided according to proficiency. The cost per pupil, according, to F. B. Dyer, superintendent of schools, is $15 a year. H. E. Miles is accomplishing wonderful things in Wisconsin. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 203 Forty thousand pupils were given vocational education five hours a week in 1913. These children are also paid the same wage as when they worked full time. The Wisconsin law is compulsory for those who are 14 to 16, unless the child has finished the eighth grade. The annual cost per child was $10, or less than half that of the common school, while the cost for similar train- ing before the state took hold had been $300 in private schools. Many problems have remained unsolved, and some new ones have developed for those who are pioneering in this field. It is difficult to make continuation technical schools practical unless industries of a community are homogeneous, and the community can agree that it would be advantageous to supply more and better men for such industry. There is danger of creating more printers, mechanics, etc., than the trade will bear, and it is an expensive proposition to educate a man to a skilled position only to find the labor market in that trade is over- crowded. Many think such is the condition of our stenography and bookkeeping departments to-day. We are making book- keepers only for them to find that they must learn something else in order to get work. Then there is the industrial problem of a disastrous com- petition with adult labor. There is no adequate solution of the difficulty, although a limitation of the proportion of apprentices to journeymen goes part way. Possibly a minimum wage for men would be sufficient. The editor of the Contemporary Review says : At all cost we must avoid the German danger of "over-emphasis of tech- nical training." The object of the continuation school is to develop the whole man. However, "technical and trade training in the German sj'S- tem is only the starting point for the wider general training, for the education in practical and theoretical thinking, in considera- tion for others, in devotion to common interests, in social service for the state community," on the authority of Dr. George Kerschensteiner, of Munich. Around this they weave religion, civics, hygiene, physical development, penmanship, spelling, read- ing, physics, chemistry, etc. Even the "American Federation of Labor Magazine" warns us that there is a growing feeling that in industrial education the human elements must be recognized and can not be so disregarded as to make the future workers 564 SELECTED ARTICLES mere automatic machines. Dexterity must be based on insight. At first thought it might seem necessary to have such an ex- pensive dupHcation of machinery and tools that the plan is im- practical. But such is not the case. The school could be in con- stant use. It should be located in the center of the industrial district and the pupils so organized that some would come in the morning and some in the afternoon, some Monday, some Tues- day, and so on for six days of the week. It should be in the industrial district so it would not be far to or from work, and easily accessible from homes in every part of the city. Germany has found that employers have a more direct inter- est if they bear some share of the cost of the attendance of their apprentices. So they must provide material and cooperate in the selection of teachers and the conduct of examinations. Many employers in England have agreed to pick their appren- tices from those who will go to continuation schools. Since the plan is voluntary in England it has been necessary for the In- dustrial Education Board to take steps along this line to stim- ulate the interest of the boys in the value of attending. For those who are opposed to child labor it is encouraging to note a tendency to discourage exploitation of children when the employer has to bother with compulsory continuation schooling. Dr. Kerschensteiner compliments the American regular schools on the opportunity given for student activity, and says that it is especially adapted to continuation schools, though in Germany it is lacking everywhere. Leagues, societies, frater- nities, associations, debating clubs, music clubs, self-government should be introduced in the system, providing the teachers can enlist them in the service of school interests. Carroll G. Pearse, formerly superintendent of schools, Mil- waukee, Wisconsin, page 571 of the report of the National Edu- cation Association Meeting of 1912 in Salt Lake City, says : , The selection of teachers for continuation schools is of first importance; only the best teachers can be used. People who are in school only a few hours each week must have the best equipment and instruction; their time is precious. At Cincinnati the chief difficulty has not been to secure the interest of the community, employers or boys, but to get prac- VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 205 tical and inspiring teachers. They have come to the plan of taking a man from a shop to handle the school. They try to get one with a liberal as well as practical education. Unless employers have confidence in the teacher they do not like to co-operate. The lack of confidence in the teachers is what makes employers so opposed to technical training in schools of to-day, when there is any opposition at all. Part time in practise would largely meet this. The instructor problem must be the hardest in Germany also, for there is a German saying, "God knows everything, and the German professor knows everything better." One of the main reasons continuation schools have advanced faster in Germany than here is the difference in the character of the industries and school division points. Few American boys become apprenticed. The law says they shall not leave school until fifteen, but at that age they have finished the grade school and should be in the high school. In Germany boys and girls begin apprenticeship at 14, and they are not dissatisfied with using children of this age. Dr. Kerschensteiner says : From an educational point of view it is desirable to make fourteen the age for commencing, for there can be no doubt that working at a trade is or might be an essential factor in the formation of character. Nothing strength- ens character more than honest trade work. Nothing so crystallizes the crude charcoal of childhood into diamonds of humanity as systematic self- directed effort during adolescence. However it must not be allowed to become drudgery. This is where part time or continuation schools step in and expand the blind alley and make possible a future. To this end our gram- mar school should be lengthened two years, which would make the finishing age about sixteen, some would then enter industry and continuation schools, others would go on to high school, which should be extended two years to take what are now col- lege subjects. Then a chosen few would go to a real university of three years leading to an M.A. degree. If the United States is to maintain a place among countries of the best educational advantages it must face this need. There is need of a strong personality to keep a keen civic consciousness on the duty of the state to educate those who must be self- supporting. Professor Leavitt says the interest and optimistic personality of Dr. Kerschensteiner had much to do with making Munich the best example of this type of school. 2o6 SELECTED ARTICLES Political, social and economic conditions are so interwoven with the educational system that any progress or enlargement of the scope of the school will produce vital improvements in American citizenship. Let each state do its share to help rhose millions who enter industry without adequate general and tech- nical training. COMMERCIAL EDUCATION SECONDARY COMMERCIAL SCHOOLS IN GERMANY' From one point of view the middle or secondary commercial schools are the oldest of all types of German commercial schools, for they belong to the general Real- school group. Francke is commonly reputed to have laid the foundation of this modern movement in his organization at Halle (1698), when he set apart a separate secondary school (Padagogium) for those chil- dren who were not going further in their studies, but were look- ing forward to commercial work, administration of estates, and allied undertakings. In 1747^ Hecker founded his first Real- school (an institution that still exists in Berlin as the Konig- liches Kaiser Whilhelms- Realgymnasium), wherein was found a special "manufacturers', commercial and business" class, with commercial correspondence and bookkeeping as important sub- jects of instruction. Had the ill starred Philanthropist move- ment under Basedow and his followers been more sanely and skillfully directed, it might have played a more significant role in the development of the commercial movement, for each of these schools under this aegis had its commercial classes or sec- tions. "Commercial science," whatever may have been the con- notation of that term then, and bookkeeping, appear to have been the chief representatives of business interests in the pro- gram of studies. In Hamburg, in 1803, even the classical Gym- nasium had its so-called classes civicae, which later developed into Realgymnasium. 1 From "Commercial Education in Germany," ip. 139-42. By F. E. Far- rington. Associate Professor of Education Administration, Teachers College, Columbia University. ^ It is interesting for students of educational history to note how nearly this accords with the date of Franklin's plan for an American academy, and the opening of the school in Philadelphia (1743-1749). Each of these move- ments was the beginning of a protest against the traditional educational order in their respective countries, a protest that has only become effective dur- ing the present generation. 2o8 SELECTED ARTICLES The officially recognized differentiation of Gymnasium, Ober- real schule, and Realschule, in 1882, and the equalization of privilege for graduates of the three first named types of insti- tutions in igoo went far toward raising the repute of the modern as, opposed to the classical school, and therefore put these sec- ondary schools with commercial courses in a much more hon- orable position. In the new program of 1901 the Realsclinlcn were officially recognized as forming the lowest and middle grades of the Oberrealschiden, a state of affairs that is not alto- gether to the liking of the German Union for Commercial In- struction. This dissatisfaction became more pronounced since the Realschule began to serve as a middle technical and trade school, rather than as a commercial school. Despite the general commercial activity throughout the land the middle or secondary commercial schools have not devel<)ped so rapidly as the elementary and university grades. THE PLACE OF THE HIGH SCHOOL IN COMMERCIAL EDUCATION* It is a commonplace that European countries, and especially Germany, have in the last decade been striving with particular earnestness to make their schools perform a function in the training of business men. England, France, and Belgium have perhaps not been overenthusiastic in the attempt, but they have been by no means inactive ; and while they have not kept pace •with the strides of Germany, it is yet true that each country has made distinct progress. In England, owing to the comparatively backward state of the whole educational system, the problem is particularly difficult. And consequently, so far as day instruction is concerned, only the merest beginnings of an adequate system can at present be discerned. In all of the Continental countries of importance, however, commercial education, both in quality and in quantity, has gone far beyond the elementary stages. Very naturally we look to Germany for the most significant ven- tures in this new field to educational endeavor, for enterprise in this direction is merely in harmony with the theory of Ger- * By James J. Sheppard, New York High School of Commerce. Journal of Political Economy. 21:209-20. March, 1913. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 209 man education. Those who have read Dr. Cooley's highly instruc- tive report on foreign schools are familiar vifith the general plan and scope of commercial education in Germany. For my present purpose it is sufficient to emphasize one striking difference be- tween the German system and our own. Relatively speaking, no great progress in commercial instruction has been made in the German secondary schools. Training of this kind is pro- vided chiefly in the schools of continuation and of college grade. Of the former there are hundreds. While adequate provision is thus made in Germany for com- mercial instruction at the bottom and at the top, it is a striking fact that not much progress has as yet been made in the middle or secondary field of study. There are, of course, some hohere Handelsschulen and occasional commercial classes, but in gen- eral secondary instruction follows the traditional course. Where it is modernized the modification has been scientific rather than vocational in character. In this country, on the other hand, it is precisely in the secondary field that commercial education has won its greatest success, and where, it seems to me at least, it is to reach its greatest efficiency. Year by year the annual report of the commissioner of education shows striking gains in the number of students of high school grade pursuing commercial subjects. Even more significant, perhaps, is the establishment in the last few years of special commercial high schools in a number of important cities. New York City has two such schools. Others are to be found in Boston, Philadelphia, Wash- ington, Springfield, Mass., Detroit, Cleveland, and Columbus. The American high school, with its absolutely free instruc- tion, often with free supplies as well, and with its doors swing- ing wide to admit all who have completed the elementary school, has no exact counterpart in Europe. It is a thoroughly demo- cratic institution, whereas schools of similar grade abroad work under limitations which seriously interfere with the democratic ideal. Secondary instruction in this country has made enormous strides in the past decade, and perhaps as never before we are now face to face with the problem of deciding the dominating aims of our middle school. In theory at least it has been de- termined that the college-preparatory idea shall be cast aside as hopelessly out of date ; in practice, however, that idea still has a remarkable hold upon the secondary school. I intend to dis- cuss only the commercial aspect of vocational training in the 210 SELECTED ARTICLES high schools, and to point out ways and means for realizing proper ideals in secondary commercial instruction. What are the proper ideals? To begin with, it should be clearly understood that commercial education involves vastly more than familiarity with a few such subjects as arithmetic, bookkeeping, stenography, and typewriting. These are of course fundamental and important, but it is a tremendous mistake to ignore the fact that the business world of today demands a much wider range of training than is provided in the old-fashioned business-school curriculum. In other words, the business man of today requires an equipment which goes far beyond the ability to record business transactions. Recorders have their place, of course, but doers have the far more important function. Ger- many's extraordinary success in building up its foreign trade is due in very large part to the commercial agents who have gone out from the fatherland equipped with a knowledge of a foreign language, conversant with the laws and customs of the .foreign country to which they go, with its economic possibilities, and with its particular commercial needs. It is highly desirable that we, too, should be able to have adequate representation of our commercial interests abroad, but even at home there is a big field for young men whose knowledge of business is broad and comprehensive. I am not claiming that the school alone can give such knowledge, but I do contend that an adequate course of study will put the prospective business man on the right track. I am not arguing for a course of study designed only for those who are likely to be business leaders ; there are a vast number of minor positions and a vast number of youths whose capabilities limit them to such positions. What is required is a course of study wisely arranged to meet the needs of the several types of students. Such a course would make ample provision in the first year or two for the sort of training requisite to employment in minor commercial positions. This can be done without sacrific- ing the necessary continuity in the course for those who carry it to completion. This brings me to a consideration of what may be properly included in an adequate commercial course for secondary schools. My experience leads me to believe that practically all of the standard secondary subjects, with the exception of ancient lan- guages and, possibly, mathematics, may well be utilized for com- mercial instruction. But I hasten to say that this is true only VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 211 if the selection of topics and the method of attack be governed by the dominant aim of the school. In other words, the outlines of courses, in the same subject should differ very widely as be- tween the college-preparatory and the commercial divisions. Largely for this reason I would argue for separate commercial secondary schools wherever community conditions are favorable. The day may come when it will be realized that there is a distinct gain for all classes of pupils in following a method of study dominated by practical rather than college-preparatory aims. In my own city there is a decided tendency to reshape the outlines of study for the several subjects with a view to making them more practical. We of the High School of Commerce have naturally been gratified to note a gradual approximation to our own scheme of studies in a number of the items of the curricu- lum on the part of our sister schools of the metropolis. If this were generally and adequately done there would of course be less need for the separate special school. An adequate secondary commercial course, as has already been implied, will embrace such subjects as English, modern lan- guages, history, science, and art as well as the more technical subjects of bookkeeping, stenography, typewriting, and commer- cial law. It will also give an important place to the study of economics, a subject comparatively new in the secondary curricu- lum but destined to prove, I feel confident, an exceedingly valu- able instrument of secondary training and indispensable in a satisfactory commercial course. It is, however, in the special treatment of these subjects that their commercial value is to be realized. The English instruction of the commercial course will not be hampered by college-entrance requirements, but will fol- low a simple, rational plan with due regard to the interest of the student. It will include such matters as letter-writing with drill on ordinary business idioms ; the composition of telegrams ; the writing and answering of advertisements ; oral and written re- ports on commercial topics ; the preparation of a comprehensive and careful discussion of some particular line of business. Nor will training in effective oral expression be neglected. The power of concise and persuasive speech is of much moment to the business man. In history the emphasis will be shifted from political and military matters to economic and commercial phases. Fortunately the new school of textbook writers are giving us suitable mate- 212 SELECTED ARTICLES rial to work with. In addition excellent special books are now available. Civics in the commercial school will be a first-hand study of the government as it actually afifects the student and will not overmuch concern itself with governmental forms and constitutions. It will emphasize the study of municipal activities and acquaint the student with the business aspects of his own local government. For the last half-decade we have been giving to first-year students in the New York High School of Com- merce a course in the government of the city which to my mind far outweighs in value the usual course in civics which concerns itself with a broad outline of government, federal and state. The latter we do not neglect, but we associate it with the study of American history and reserve it for the mature students. The National Municipal League has been carrying on a campaign for a number of years to secure a place in the high-school curricu- lum for a course in municipal activities and its work is begin- ning to bear fruit. In European commercial schools the study of foreign lan- guages is a conspicuous feature of the program, two and often three such languages being included. There is special need for such instruction abroad where different nationalities crowd close upon one another — international commerce being to them very much what interstate commerce is to us. Obviously no such urgent reasons for emphasizing modern languages exist on this side. Nevertheless a well-rounded commercial course will not neglect language instruction. Apart from their disciplinary and cultural values, the modern languages have a distinctly practical bearing on business life through the opportunities they afford the student of securing an intimate acquaintance with the commer- cial activities of foreign countries. The social and business cus- toms of the several countries, their imports and exports, their commercial relations with us and with one another, may all be studied now in books well adapted to secondary instruction. Ex- perience shows that four years of the study of one foreign lan- guage, with a view to securing facility in its conversational use, can be relied upon to insure a fair degree of fluency in speech. A mere reading knowledge is not sufficient for the commercial graduate who can well dispense with some of the niceties of modern-language study for an equipment of immediate impor- tance to him. Naturally Spanish should be one of the modern languages taught, though I must confess that the opportunities VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 213 for young men well trained in Spanish have seemingly been overestimated. A goodly number of our young men have secured places through their knovvfledge of Spanish but relatively satis- factory openings in Spanish-American trade have not been what might reasonably have been expected. Science has been rather generally disregarded in the typical commercial course and yet the modern industrial world touches science at every turn. One great difficulty with science teaching in the secondary school has been that it has been too scientific. We have really had carefully developed logical courses of the college trimmed down to the secondary requirements. The secondary school and particularly the commercial secondary school should work out its own problem in its own way. Its aim clearly should not be to turn out scientists. That is impossible. It should introduce the student to an interesting field of work where he will acquire a distinct method of study involving doing and seeing things for himself and drawing conclusions at first hand. The peculiar commercial value of such studies as biology and chemistry hardly require statement. Biology, for instance, may be utilized to introduce the student to the raw materials of commerce, their production, growth, and relative values. Topics such as sanitation, prevention of disease, conservation of natural resources, sources of raw materials, plants and animal breeding, development of natural products will form the staple of instruc- tion. In the study of seeds, for instance, the pupil is led to make a classification of all seeds that are of commercial impor- tance. He investigates the method of seed selection for plant- ing, and the relation structure, germination, and efficiency have to the production of good crops and large yields. Then will follow the study of ploughs, harrows, cultivators, as instruments for preparing the soil, and of machines and methods employed in the harvesting of crops. This gives the pupil a meaningful glimpse into the great field of agriculture. Finally comes the study of the milling of the grain and the distribution of the product as a food supply. The student will learn that the find- ings of biology have a distinct bearing upon commercial processes, that all industries which concern plant or animal production are developed only as progress is made in biological research, and that the method of experiment is the only way in which real progress can be secured. Chemistry offers interesting possibilities for commercial and 214 SELECTED ARTICLES industrial application in the study of processes and material?. Obviously the outline of study in biology and chemistry in the commercial course will show wide divergences from the outline usually followed in the general high school. Commercial knowl- edge will be the primary aim and the purely scientific will be the by-product. In New York City and other centers there is a decided tendency to modify the teaching of science in the direc- tion I have indicated. Today one of the chief items in the cost of producing a staple article is the expense of advertising it. The business world spends enormous sums to attract and secure customers, and, in doing so, makes use of many avenues of publicity. Note the numerous advertisements appearing in magazines and other publications, and observe the artistic care evidenced in their presentation. Not only are the illustrations well drawn and at- tractive, but the lettering and arrangement of descriptive matter are also in the best of taste. Clearly here is a hint for the draw- ing department of a commercial school, whose business it should be to develop a course of study centering about artistic lettering and advertising design. Hundreds of articles of commerce today owe a great part of their value to their artistic advertise- ment, and if only for the refinement of taste which it cultivates, the study of drawing in the business school would have a distinct commercial value. It is hardly necessary for me to dwell upon such subjects as may be classed under the head of business technique — arithmetic, penmanship, accounts, stenography, typewriting, and business law — for clearly their place in the commercial curriculum is obvious and well assured. Because of their immediate practical impor- tance they must receive adequate time and attention throughout the course. The commercial graduate properly trained in stenog- raphy and typewriting has a distinct advantage. While it is not desirable for a capable young man to settle down to stenography and typewriting as a permanent occupation, our experience has shown that training in stenography furnishes a stepping-stone to more important business positions. One of our graduates re- cently wrote me on the point. He says : "Starting out, the grad- uate should get his first years of training in a stenographic position. This gives him an insight into the work of the inner office, and I have found from present experience and from con- versations with other commerce boys that the average employer is only too glad to advance to higher positions the stenographer VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 215 who shows that he is above the job." I have in mind now a large number of instances which support this statement, though of course it should be remembered that a well-equipped commercial graduate has abundant opportunity in other directions. There remains for consideration the subject whose rare value for commercial training has been tardily realized — economics. Even our best secondary commercial schools have as yet failed to utilize to the full the possibilities of this subject. Generally speaking, only piecemeal courses of customary college type are offered, when what is needed is a thoroughly graded course, continued through several years. It may well be that some other branches of study may have to yield a place to this new subject. I do not think it would require a great deal of argument to show that mathematics, for instance, has less to offer the intend- ing business man than has economics. The refinements of eco- nomic theory will, of course, find little place in the secondary course. The work should be concrete throughout and closely related to the practical side of business training. It should give much attention to what might be called economic geography. I am well aware that the so-called commercial geograph)^ as it is usually taught, is comparatively valueless. It is of little conse- quence for a student to acquire a lot of facts from a textbook about the statistics of trade. They are soon forgotten and con- tribute very little toward business training. As typical of the sort of economic work I have in mind, I would cite the course we give to first-year students in our school, as described in a statement prepared by the head of our economics department. It is grouped around two main ideas — New York as a manufacturing city and New York as a commer- cial city. We begin with a report on the occupations of the boy's family, his friends, and his neighbors, and a study of the indus- trial life on his block. The student is given the problem of classifying the occupations and grouping the workers according to his classifications. He is then required to study and express graphically the figures from the United States census and the state census for gainful occupations in the United States, New York state. New York City, and Manhattan and Bronx boroughs. Then he combines the figures collected by the boys of his section (40) and his class (500). The results show, of course, that the manufacturing and mechanical pursuits and trade and transpor- tation are the great groups of city industries. We take manufacturing first as being most interesting to the 2i6 SELECTED ARTICLES boy, and we begin the study of the problem of the manufacturer from a table specially prepared by us from the census report on the concentration of important manufactures in forty-seven cities. The problem is formulated as the assembling of raw ma- terial, power, labor, and capital at a place convenient to the manufacturer's market. Each of these factors is studied in detail. The following are some of the topics discussed under labor : population ; its composition ; its growth from immigration, from migration, and from excess of births over deaths ; the effect of an increase from each source upon the efficiency of the workers of the city; the location .and distribution of the labor force throughout the city; the effect of the sanitary regulations of the Board of Health and housing regulations of the Tene- ment House Department, etc., the systems of employment; why the help, handicraft, and domestic systems still survive in this city; the important manufactures of this city, together with the kind of labor they use, and how the labor supply has affected them ; what manufactures are leaving the city on account of the labor; what manufactures are coming in because of an abundant supply of cheap labor ; the distribution of manufactures through- out Manhattan and the greater city, and how this distribution is related to the distribution of labor; how transportation improve- ments modify this distribution, etc. In a similar way are treated the problem of a supply of power, of a supply of capital, of a supply of raw material, and of access to a market. The natural advantages New York has for commerce — its harbors, its inland waterways, its situation, and its hinterland with its products — is the first topic taken up in the second half-term. The improve- ments of these natural advantages and the sharing of the work of improvement on the high seas, throughout the hinterland and in the harbor by the national, state, and city governments, respec- tively, is the second topic. The general idea of a great seaport that the boys formulate from a study of the great ports of the Avorld is that it is favorably situated on the coast where it can draw unto itself the products of the near hinterland and dis- tribute them over the world, and that it gathers together the products of the lands beyond the seas, and distributes them over the near and far hinterland. These topics are worked out in detail like that of the labor supply, already described. The course is concluded with a simple outline of the work of banks, trust companies, and stock exchanges in supplying the necessary capital for manufacture and for trade. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 217 The boy has now secured a generalized and systematic view of the trade and manufactures of his city and has obtained a fund of detailed and specific information about the part he and his neighborhood play in making New York a great city. The boy is studying an economic unity, the metropolitan district, and he is comparing it, whenever possible, with the United States and the world. He has learned to use statistics compiled by others and he has helped compile some of his own. His gen- eralizations are economic generalizations, he has learned to formulate economic principles, and he has observed the operation of economic laws. We believe that this study has supplied him for his future study of economics with a concrete background, which will be filled out in the later years of the course by the study of his civic environment and his more formal study of commercial geography of the United States and of the world. This method of beginning economics can be applied in almost every school. The local economic unit will furnish all the mate- rial that the teacher can utilize. It means work for the in- structor, but the trained and enthusiastic teacher will find the task full of interest to himself and to the pupils. Following upon the study of the city comes a similar study of New York state. The chief extractive industries are considered ■ — farming, fruit-growing, lumbering, mining, etc. — and later the most important manufactures and the transportation and bank- ing facilities. After this study of local commercial geography, the student is ready to go on to a consideration of the economic geography of the United States, taking up such topics as physio- graphic regions and conditions, location and distribution of manufactures, marketing, transportation, exports and imports. He will be called upon to make a careful study of some one par- ticular topic, using material to be found in governmental reports. This particular work is scheduled for the second year. In the third year he will make a careful study of the principal countries having commercial relations with the United States. The study of economic geography gives the pupil an excellent preparation for the short course in economic theory prescribed for the first half of the fourth year. By way of concluding the work the final half-year is devoted to the trust problem or cor- poration finance and the money and banking questions. That high-school seniors can do intelligent and profitable work of this character I think has been clearly demonstrated. Perhaps no other subject is comparable to economics in the inspiration it 2i8 SELECTED ARTICLES gives the student to go on with his studies after the secondary- school days are over. I find our graduates practically unanimous in testifying to the great practical value of the economics course pursued by them. So much for the course of study. Of exceeding importance is the method of teaching. There must be a careful avoidance of the tendency to make commercial training merely or largely informational. The teacher in a commercial school who does not consistently employ the problem method in instruction, who does not strive for the secure real thinking, maj' be doing something interesting but he is not training business men. Much might be said with reference to certain auxiliary fea- tures of the work of a commercial school — its relation to busi- nuess organizations and business men ; its study of vocational opportunities, and its touch with its graduates in the business world. During the past few months we have gathered a mass of interesting information from such of our graduates as we could reach, touching upon the character of the work they are now doing, their progress since graduation, and the scope and quality of their school preparations as tested by their actual ex- periences in business. Our most helpful critics are not the busi- ness men, but our own graduates, who are able to speak defi- nitely of the strength or weakness of the courses prescribed in the commercial curriculum. In conclusion I would say that the commercial school ought not to limit its activity to day instruction. In every city there are hundreds of young men who would profit immensely by the op- portunity of securing instruction in evening courses. Many of these have been day students who were obliged, through neces- sity, to cut short their school career. Many are graduates of general high schools and colleges, who would gladly add to their business equipment. Perhaps the day may come when the com- mercial school may be able to give continuation courses, as is done abroad — say from four to six in the afternoon. If em- ployers could be made to see the advantages of this arrangement, the way would be easy. In this direction some attempt at least should be made to widen the usefulness of the commercial school. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 219 "EDUCATION FOR BUSINESS." THE BOSTON HIGH SCHOOL OF COMMERCE^ The Boston High School of Commerce was opened in Sep- tember, 1906, with 142 pupils. Its membership in succeeding years has been 332, 554, 721, 967, and 1078. Owing to lack of accommodation, the school has been obliged to deny admission to at least 500 boys during the last three years : at present two main divisions of the school are one-half mile apart. These few statements show to a certain extent the demand in the city for the kind of work the school is doing. The object of this paper is to tell as directly as possible what that work is — to show how one school is trying to fit high-school boys for business. The paper tries to set forth some educational practice rather than educational theory. It seems to me eminently fitting to put on the market reports of a few educational experiments at the pres- ent time when so many new theories are being launched forth by educational promoters. In its earlier years, the school was popularly called Commer- cial High School, and even some official publications of the city used that name. The first head master of the school insisted that this was a misnomer. He maintained that a commercial high school centered its work around such distinctly commercial subjects as bookkeeping, stenography, and typewritting, and pre- pared for secretarial positions ; or, as one of the boys of the school said recently in class, for the passive side of business. A high school of commerce on the other hand, he maintained, offers a more liberal course and prepares for the competitive, or active, side of the business. A high school of commerce includes all the work of a commercial high school and more. This point of view has been quite generally accepted in the city so that we now hear but seldom any name other than the High School of Com- merce. The aim of the school can be stated briefly: to give its pupils the best possible preparation for a career of business usefulness ^ By James E. Downey. Journal of Political Economy. 21:221-42. March, 1913. 220 SELECTED ARTICLES in Boston, either municipal or metropolitan. This statement of the aim carries with it the thought that the school takes no con- cern about any of its pupils who may wish to go to college. That work is being done well by other high schools in the city and boys who may wish to go to college are expected to go to one of these schools. It is not the attitude of the school that the boy must neces- sarily show some very decided business bent in elementary- school days to warrant his attendance at the High School of Commerce. The demand for service in the business world is great and varied : if a boy has a general notion that he wishes to enter upon a business career, the school is pleased to receive him, to train him as well as possible, and to try to place him is that avenue of business activity where he can use his capacities to best advantage. The school does not promise to get the boys positions ; that would be unprofessional, and the promise would be a hard one to fulfil, since the actual hiring of boys is done by agencies out- side the school. Our promise is to do our best to secure posi- tions for such boys as make a satisfactory record with us. Thus far our graduating classes have numbered 19, 9, 41, 91, and 113, and no bo}' can rightly complain of the way that promise has been made to apply to him. The course of study is largely a required one. This is so for two reasons. First, the teachers of the school, as a result of their experience and investigation, know better than boys or parents what steps are necessary to ttike them from the level from which they came to the level for which they are ambitious. Second, a man in business often has to do things that he does not like or that he is not fitted for if he wishes to discharge properly the responsibilities of his position in life. For this same reason we oflfer no apology to boys for asking them to do work that they do not like, or that they are not fitted for, when we think that such work is necessarj' for preparing properly for the responsibilities of business life. When they first enter the school, they choose between Span- ish, German, and French. Whichever they take they have to study for their entire four years. This choice is the only one that they have during their first two years. Their other studies are, in the first year, penmanship and elementary bookkeeping forms, elementary science, mathematics (largely commercial VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 221 arithmetic) and English ; in the second year, history and com- mercial geography, mathematics (largely commercial arithmetic), bookkeeping, and English. The third-year studies are bookkeep- ing, typewriting, chemistry, and English, in addition to the re- quired modern language and to stenography (to be followed two years), or geometry, or advanced arithmetic. In the fourth year, besides the modern language the studies are economics, commer- cial law and civil government, English, and typewriting, and, as an additional subject, stenography (continuous elective), or bookkeeping, or chemistry, or solid geometry, algebra, and trig- onometry. During the last two years, instruction is given in commercial design, but this is an extra study which does not count toward a diploma. During the course, lectures are given to the pupils, a report of which will be given separately. Our course of study calls for a fifth-year special course, designed primarily for graduates who wish to come back to school and take a part-time course, and for graduates of other high schools. At present it seems inex- pedient to encourage this course. Practically all studies require five meetings a week. Each pupil is expected to carry five studies. When the school opened, in igo6, the school session in prac- tically all the city high schools was five hours in length, and it was so in the High School of Commerce during the first year. It was pointed out to the school during the year by certain busi- ness men that such hours were hardly consistent with the busi- ness hours of the city, and they recommended a longer session. Those intrusted with the management of the school recognized the argument and accordingly recommended the present hours to the School Committee, and the recommendation was adopted. The school now is in session five hours and fifty-one minutes — from 8 :55 to 2.46. Of this time, ten minutes are given up to opening exercises, 44 minutes to recess and passing, and 10 minutes to light gymnastic exercises. The remainder of the time is divided into seven periods of 41 minutes each. These hours and the home lessons suggest such a plan of life as this for the boys : rise not later than 7 ; play after school until 5 ; study from 5 to 6, and from 7 or 7 :30 until lessons are finished ; and retire not later than 10. School spirit is one of the very valuable assets of any school. Each school has its own distinctive spirit and its own ways of 222 SELECTED ARTICLES fostering it. A school which fits boys for business must have an individuaHty pecuHar to its problem. Special study is there- fore given to the question of having the school spirit help in turning out such young men as are expected from the school. A boy should leave the school with a spirit of being willing to work and of being willing to take whatever tasks are given him to do, within proper limitations ; he should take up his work with pleasure and enthusiasm ; he should be intensely loyal to his employers, and he must measure his worth by results rather than by hours. It is the function of the school spirit to help con- tribute these factors to the boy's preparation. The school spirit of the High School of Commerce is aided by a number of features which may be touched upon briefly. Decided effort is made to keep the pupils happy at their work, while the same effort is made to keep them working all the time. Musical associations are strongly encouraged, and about one- tenth of the school, during school hours under the direction of one of the teachers engage in some one of the musical activities of the school, which include a band, two orchestras, two glee clubs, and a string quartet. Athletics is strongly encouraged and practically all the boys of the school belong to the athletic asso- ciation. No boy whose school record will not warrant it is allowed to represent the school in the practical work, about which more information will be given later. The ideals and habits that go to make up a successful business man are those which are insisted on throughout the school. All these forces working to- gether throughout the school hours and through the medium of studies, most of which are in the course of study for their vo- cational value, have produced a school spirit which is very help- ful in preparing boys for their life-work. In a vocational school, there should be practical work. In a high school of commerce, the opportunities for such practical work are very great. If the co-operation of the stores is neces- sary, the merchants of the city are most willing to co-operate. In Boston, however, the work is able to stand on its feet on account of its own real worth. In but very few cases are the boys of the school taken into a store for practical work merely as a courtesy to the school. Usually the boys earn whatever they are paid. The courtesy from the stores — and it is courtesy we very much appreciate — takes the form of coming for their help to us rather than to the other possible sources in the city. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 223 It almost seems to me that the possibiHties of this practical work in connection with the school are limited only by the eflForts of the teachers and pupils working together in searching out the possibilities. More and more are the boys looking out for them- selves in the matter of getting this practical work. The concern of the school seems to be more and more to foster the tradition in the school that a boy who looks after himself in this regard gets more credit in the official records of the school, on account of initiative shown, than a boy who is placed by the school. The school further concerns itself with so systematizing this practical work that it will be of as much value as possible to the boys. This feature of practical work finds expression in four prin- cipal ways : Saturday work, occasional assignments during the year, work at Christmas, and summer apprenticeship work. In addition, many boys do after-school work ; but this work is fraught with so much danger to the boy's progress in school that official notice is not taken of it. By all means of getting practical experience, the boys of the school earned between $35,000 and $40,000 last year ; at the time figures on this question were collected, there were about 900 boys in school. Saturday work is very much encouraged. Work at Christ- mas time depends on the boy's standing in his class work : only the boys of such a grade of scholarship as warrants it are allowed to take this work. The boys who are sent out for a day or two at a time during the year must also maintain such a grade of scholarship as to warrant it. It is from the summer work, however, that we expect our greatest returns. The importance of this feature can be estimated when I tell you that 65 per cent of the boys worked during the past summer. The 397 boys working under this scheme earned nearly $17,000. This made an average of over $5.00 per week for each boy while he worked. This figure compared with about $10,000 earned the summer be- fore by 352 boys. Moreover, the boys found more of the posi- tions for themselves this past summer : where four years ago the school placed directly 75 per cent of those who worked during the summer, this year the school placed 20 per cent. The efforts of the teachers are now concerned with directing a boy how to find a summer position and where to find one, rather than to find it for him. This practical work of the school is one of its important fea- 224 SELECTED ARTICLES tures : boys plan for it as they do for their other school work. A boy who has had no practical experience before he graduates from the school is considered more or less in disgrace, and is the rare exception. Boys bring back reports for all employment work to which they are assigned ; these reports, filled out by the employers, are placed on file and are consulted from time to time as the need arises. The regular classroom work is supplemented by special lec- tures, which make a decided contribution to the school. Some of the lecturers are paid and some contribute their services. The general purpose of the lectures can be best explained by giving the general nature of several of the courses. One series given to the Seniors is made up of ten lectures on transportation in New England, six on advertising, six on salesmanship, and about twenty on commercial possibilities in South America. Another series of lectures given to the Seniors is made up of ten lectures on "Economic Resources of the United States" and about twenty-five lectures under the general head of "Office Routine" ; in this course are explained various details and incidentals of office work and convention, with demonstrations of advertising and salesmanship. Another set of lectures is given to the Junior class under the general head of "Local Industries" ; it comprises six lectures on the leather business, three on textile industries, three on banks of Boston, three on historical, com- mercial Boston (illustrated), and about twelve on various in- dustries of New England. Another set of lectures is given to the school as a whole upon general business, economic and civic subjects. Too much importance cannot be attached to the need of an efficient teaching staff. Of much more importance than a suit- able building, a favorable location, a proper course of study, abundance of books, supplies, and equipment, is proper instruc- tion for the special need of a high school of commerce, teachers are not yet trained. It will be many years before we have a set of teachers trained for this particular line of work as well as those are trained who are engaged in the classical education. We who are now at work must do our best to meet the oncoming competition in this line of work and also to gather such experience and information as will enable the next genera- tion of teachers to work more effectively. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 225 To get the necessary kind of teachers, adequate salaries will have to be paid. At least six of our teachers have had offers from business houses at advanced salaries. A city will get in the way of instruction just what it pays for. If it wants only $1,000 work done, then $1,000 is enough for salary; but if it wants the benefit of service which is worth $2,000 or $3,000 in the open market, then it must not expect to get it by offering a salary of $1,500 or $1,800. If it wants as teachers men who can prepare boys to take up the more responsible positions in busi- ness organizations, then it will have to offer suitable salaries. The past year has seen perhaps a greater advance in teachers' salaries throughout the country than any year ever before. While we are in the midst of this movement for better salaries for teachers, I wish to enter a special word in advocacy for a salary that will attract suitable teachers into the work of a high school of commerce. A teacher in a high school of commerce must be equipped with a liberal education and good habits of study, and he must further be an authority in the line in which he teaches. He should belong to the distinctly commercial or semi-commercial bodies in his city; he should form a business acquaintance with the best firms of the city, and should frequently be seen in the gatherings of business men ; and above all he should have a great love for his own city and full confidence as to its future pros- pects. One of the questions that is immediately asked about our school is: "What are the alumni doing?" When this question is put to me, I am not sure what kind of answer is expected. The people before me know it takes time to train a person for a particular career. The school has been in existence six years. Its aim has not been to instil into the minds of its pupils get- rich-quick ideas; its object has not been to be able to gather as quickly as possible a set of statistics showing what wage the boys have received year by year after graduation, and showing how the wages compared with those of the boys of other high schools. Such reports as these appeal to me as being more or less sensational rather than professional. The aim of the school has been above all to develop a man, to give him such a fund of knowledge about his own city as was possible, and to give him such vocational instruction as he could assimilate in the four years he was intrusted to our care. We do not mean to say that we are not watchful over our alumni. On the contrary, we are 226 SELECTED ARTICLES very watchful. When we think that they are not progressing so rapidly as we think they should, we try to find the cause and remedy it. When we think that they are trying to progress too rapidly, we do our best to set them right. In general, I should report of our graduates that most of them go into the distributive side of business. Very few go to college. Our principal way, at present, of getting information about our alumni is through a general letter in which we ask the following questions : 1. Mention places employed since graduation, giving dates. Give pay received. 2. Have you worked for any of these concerns during your summer vacation? 3. If you have changed houses mention the reason. 4. What parts of the school training have been most useful to you in your work? 5. How could the school have helped you more than it did? 6. Are there any opportunities for summer employment or permanent (Positions with your firm. To whom should communications be sent? 7. In what lines of work do you find good opportunities for alumni of this school ? 8. Can you give any information regarding other alumni? (Additional suggestions and information will be gladly received.) Information like this will be asked for from our alumni during the first, third, sixth, and tenth years after graduation. One of the lessons we try to teach is that of thrift. This is done in one way by not making continual appeals to attract away apart of the weekly allowance of the boys; in a second way it is done by encouraging the boys to make weekly deposits in the school savings bank. The object and work of this bank can best be shown by making a few extracts from a circular letter sent to the parents of all the pupils in school: The bank has now been in existence in school for nearly a year. The extent to which it has been used by the teachers, pupils, and organizations of the school has more than fulfilled expectations. During the year there were 25 bank days; the total deposits were $2,862.11; 342 accounts were opened; $210.70 was drawn out during the year; the balance in the bank at the end of the school year was $2,651.41; the total number of deposits during the year was 1,968; the average daily individual deposit was $1.44; the average daily total deposit was $106.49; the average total deposit of each depositor was $8.37; average total withdrawal of each depositor was $0.64; average net deposit of each depositor was $7.73. One day each week is known as "Bank Day," and during one period of that day, pupils desiring to make deposits go from their several rooms to VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 227 the banking-rooms and make their deposits, the amount of each deposit being entered upon a "Deposit Card" which will be kept by the pupil. The money so received is deposited in the Home Savings Bank in my name as trustee. When the total amount deposited by any one pupil amounts to $3.00, the Home Savings Bank, on the last "Bank Day" preceding the quar- terly dates on which money goes on interest, will issue a depositor's pass book, and thereafter when the amount deposited by him equals the sum of $1.00, it shall be transferred by the bank to his pass book. Deposits made by the pupils may be withdrawn in whole or in part on any "Bank Day" by an order signed by both pupil and parent or guardian. Deposits of five cents and upward are received. On "Bank Day" the Home Savings Bank sends a representative to the school to receive the deposit of that day, but all clerical work connected with the receiving of deposits is done by pupils chosen for their fitness to do that work. In order that the pupils of the school may, in addition to cultivating habits of thrift, gain practical experi- ence in banking, as much of the work connected with the operation of the bank as is expedient is done by the pupils. They have already elected a Board of Trustees, each home room having a representative on the board, and this board has elected its own officers, a president, vice-president, secre- tary, treasurer, and assistant treasurer. To aid in assuring the success of the High School of Commerce Savings Bank, we ask your earnest co-operation by giving the boys all the encourage- ment you can. There are numerous little ways in which boys can save if they are reminded of them, and it should not be difficult to show them the wisdom of doing so. We earnestly believe that the teaching of thrift goes hand in hand with the training for business which the boys of the High School of Commerce are receiving, and we think you will agree with us that in no way can the school be of greater or more permanent benefit to it's pupils than by helping them to form early in life habits of thrift and economy. Finally, the High School of Commerce Savings Bank does not wish to interfere with an}' scheme of saving which certain boys of the school may be carrying out. In such cases, it is for the boy and the parent to decide as ito whether it would be a wise thing to transfer his savings to the school savings bank. The heads of departments of the school, with their respective departments, are as follows : Oscar C. Gallagher, English depart- ment; Joel Hatheway, Modern Language Department; Winthrop Tirrell, Economic and History Department ; Newton D. Clarke, Mathematics Department ; Raymond G. Laird, Business Tech- nique Department ; Owen D. Evans, Science Department. The work in salesmanship is in charge of Maurice J. Lacey. The men have submitted the following brief reports in answer to the question, "How is the work for which you are responsible meet- ing the needs of the school?" 228 SELECTED ARTICLES Business Technique Department The function of the department of business technique is to ascertain the requirements, in the way of clerical training, that a typical business man would place on the output of our school, and to meet that demand in so far as practicable. Good handwriting is always demanded. In addition to the half-year of instruction that the pupil receives, he is required, in connection with his various studies, to do his written work care- fully and in accordance with the style of the adopted forms. In the Senior year, that he may be sent out to his first position a credit to himself and to the school, one period each second week is given to a review of penmanship. Bookkeeping is taught with the double purpose of giving a training in a bread-winning vocation, and of giving to those who may never become practitioners, such an understanding of the methods and purposes of accounts that they may not be at a dis- advantage from the operations of dishonest bookkeepers, and that they may comprehend to the fullest extent the conditions reflected by business and financial statements. Pupils are drilled in drawing up a large number of forms and papers incident to several types of businesses. Study is made of the accounts of retail and wholesale trading businesses, of commission concerns, and of manufacturing enterprises. In all these instances, the transaction comes to the pupil as nearly as possible in the form and manner that it reaches the real business house, and he dis- poses of the clerical end much as if he were engaged in an actual ofiice. A large amount of very valuable information is secured regarding the administration of these businesses and of the rou- tine of their counting-rooms. That portion of the student body that selects the secretarial course gets the same clerical training as above outlined to the completion of the third year and in addition phonograph}' is taken during the third and fourth years. The dictation given these pupils includes correspondence from a considerable num- ber of businesses, from editorials of leading daily papers, and from congressional matter. The thorough use of one make of typewriter is required, and some familiarity with one or two others is given. Plans are being made to introduce a phono- graph office machine for use in connection with the work of this department. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 229 Mathematics Department The department of mathematics has defined its problem as an attempt to train boys mathematically for the work which they expect to enter. This, from the purpose of the school, means to nearly all the students some form of commercial employment. About 10 per cent may have a higher school in view, and for such boys the usual fitting courses are provided ; but these courses, having nothing distinctive, may be disregarded in any discussion of the work of the department. The work of the first two years is a continuous course in arithmetic, and in such topics of algebra, geometry, and com- mercial arithmetic as can be related to the course and serve to extend the mathematical training of the student. We need here to define what is needed and aimed at in this training. By general agreement among business men, the one mathematical requirement is accuracy. Rapidity is a very minor consideration. Neatness is, of course, an important quality. It is, however, plainly not a special mathematical quality, but ex- tends to all work. But the general demand of business men is for boys who can get things right. Now the problem of obtain- ing accuracy is one of training. The boy must be given prob- lems which he can do, and he must be trained to get them invari- ably right. The average pupil entering the high school has de- veloped no conscience in this particular. He is satisfied to do his work, and take the chances of its accuracy. To develop such a conscience is one of the most difficult problems which we have to meet, and is the aim of all our work. It is not that the boy is unable to do correct work, but that he is indifferent to incorrect work; and he must be trained until the habit of checking, re- peating, and revising answers becomes his settled habit. The method taken is largely that of individual problems. These problems are kept in sets, similar in scope and difficulty, but each different, and each boy is given one to compute and get the correct result. To give more interest, and impart informa- tion, the problems are drawn from sources in which the boys are interested. Some of the sources are : the reports of the Chamber of Commerce of Boston, the reports of the Depart- ment of Commerce of the United States, and the reports of the Department of Agriculture. When a boy has completed the two years' course, we expect 230 SELECTED ARTICLES that he can do these things and do them correctly. He can add, subtract, multiply, and divide integers, decimals, and common fractions with small commercial denominators. He can com- pute simple and compound interest; he can reckon commercial discounts ; he can. figure the bank discount on a note ; he can solve the usual algebraic equations, and can express ordinary problems in algebraic terms ; he can intelligently interpret and compute formulas ; and he can use geometric principles in com- puting such areas, angles, and lines as ordinarily arise in life. This will seem a very small extension of the grammar-school work. But the whole purpose of the mathematical department is to train a pupil to do the few things that he will need to do in the business world and to be absolutely sure of the results of his work. Science Department Since our boys are preparing definitely to enter the business of buying and selling rather than that of producing, they need chemistry rather than physics. In order to allow for the course in chemistry, program requirements forced us to place the phys- ics in the first year ; so it is very elementary. All first-year pupils are required to take fifteen weeks, with five recitations per week, and without laboratory work, in phys- ical geography. The objects are to teach the boy how to get a home lesson, to give him elemental facts in the subject, and to show the relation of the subject to the production of commer- cial commodities. Then follow twenty weeks of conventional physics, with four recitations or demonstrations and one labora- tory hour per week. The subject-matter is diluted to fit the pupil's time and ability. There is individual laboratory work with suitable notebook record. This subject so treated is so fundamental that little attempt is made to make it commercial. It cannot fail to be vocational in its content. All third-year pupils are required to take a full year of chem- istry, with three recitations and a double laboratory hour per week. We do not believe in giving commercial tests before the pupil is grounded in elementary theory; so the first object of this course is to drill in fundamentals. After six months of such work, the pupil has lectures and reference-book work on VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 231 important local industries, with commercial tests in the labora- tory. The topics are paper, glass, fermentation, sugar, milk, petroleum products, fats and soap, dyeing, etc. Such laboratory exercises are given as the Halphen test for cotton seed, the test for formadleliyde in milk, the Babcock milk-fat test, making soap, dyeing, the Fehling quantitative test for invert sugar, etc. Typical industries are visited. The object of the work is to give the pupil a slight idea of the scope of such work, so that if he wishes to elect fourth-year chemistry he may know what to expect. We devote the last two months to descriptive study of the metals, and the laboratory work is an elemental outline of qualitative analysis designed to give some little skill in methods, some knowledge of the relations of the metals, and to drill the fundamentals of chemistry. Through the entire school the work becomes increasingly vocational as the pupil advances. Accordingly, fourth-year chemistry is elective for pupils who have shown interest or power in that line. The purpose is not to turn out expert or half-trained chemists, but to give the kind of training a prospec- tive buyer and seller of merchandise will find valuable. Consid- eration is given to the buying of supplies on the basis of a sci- entific test ; in other words, scientific efficiency in buying is our theme. Our object is to be able to read understandingly a set of specifications involving contract for the purchase of supplies, to understand the purpose of the several tests there indicated, to know what tests are available for the buyer himself, and to know when the buyer ought to pay an expert chemist for an analysis. We take up from this point of view those commodities which Boston merchants handle : fuel, lime, cement, petroleum products, animal and vegetable oils, essential oils, packing-house products, soap, fermentation, starch, sugar, paper, leather, tex- tiles, dyeing, paints, varnishes, rubber, general food products, dairy products, canned goods, preserves, coffee, cocoa, tea, spices, flavoring extracts, etc. We have three hours of lecture, dis- cussion, and reference-book work, lantern slides, and pictures per week, and a double laboratory period. Where we can find sensi- ble tests within the scope of the pupils' time and ability, we make them. Where the tests are too difficult, we may discuss their purposes and theory, or we may ignore them. We have on hand twice as much material as we can handle in any one year. The interest of the pupils is all that could be desired. We try 232 SELECTED ARTICLES to be sane and sensible in what we undertake, and we feel that we are getting results which are well worth while. In the end, if we can turn out boys who are good raw material for a busi- ness house to break in, we feel that we have accomplished all that is possible. We do not prepare boys for college and we pay no attention to college-entrance requirements ; if we discover boys in the early years who intend to go to college, we advise them to go to another high school. But our course is broad enough and cul- tural enough so that if one of our boys discovers himself in his Senior year and wishes to go to college, he is able to pass his entrance examinations. English Department The course in English is determined by the life the boys have to live. It aims, not to fit them for this life, but to live it with them from the start. Thus practical dealing with business sub- jects runs through the whole four-year course. It is as possible to secure correct, clear, and forcible English in dealing with the tangible conditions that everyday buying and selling present, as in dealing with the hazier situations that the college-Imposed clas- sical literature too often suggests. During the first two years special stress is laid upon oral work. Current events, reports of Boston's industries, explana- tions of salesmanship as the boys themselves have practiced it, and criticisms of advertisements in papers, window displays, and bill boards are constantly called for. Business letters — gen- uine letters — are read to the boys for criticism, and then re- written and answered. A special commercial vocabulary is definitely developed. The natural talkativeness of the boys is directed toward debates, and throughout the second and third year inter-room debates are held weekly. During the third and fourth years, commercial correspondence is studied intensively, and with the aid of textbooks the boys are drilled in all the types of communication that they are likely to meet. In the fourth year, too, there is a course in advertising. The theory of advertising — with illustrations at every point — is treated in a course of lectures. Practical application of the points made is secured from collections of good and bad advertisements which the boys make and which fonn the basis of class discussion. After this the boys themselves write advertisements which shall VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 233 illustrate the points considered in the class. In all this work, of course, the principles of effective composition are taught, but the field from which the boys draw their subjects is the business world. It is poor business to have the work done by one department broken down in another ; so the English department and the others co-operate in maintaining a definite standard. The written papers in history, modern language, commercial geog- raphy, and economics are taken by the English teachers and corrected, and the grade of English work thus done on papers in another course is entered as part of the English record. Co- operation is carried on also by the English teachers assigning topics suggested by some other department and drilling the boys in making their answers not only correct, but effective. Literature meanwhile is not neglected, but here the emphasis is different from that of the college-preparatory course. To en- joy a good book, and to be able to tell why he enjoys it, is what we expect of a boy. Certain books are required for careful class reading, among them several on the college list. Besides these, however, every boy must read one book outside of school each month and report upon it in class. The school library contains many volumes of perhaps second grade, as literary standards go, but of vital interest to the boy because of the appeal they make to the creative side of his nature through their connection with the scientific, industrial, and commercial world about him. As far as can be judged, this emphasis upon interest and enjoyment in teaching literature has not dulled the moral or imaginative sensibilities. Modern Language Department Each pupil in the High School of Commerce is required to take one modern language throughout the entire course. There are five recitations per week during the four years. A pupil is allowed to take only the one language. This is chosen at the beginning of the course. Experience has shown that with so heavy a curriculum as that of the High School of Commerce, two languages are not thoroughly learned. Our belief is that a more thorough and intensive study of one language is better in every respect for the pupil, and will be of greater value to him in after-life than superficial training in two or even more. 234 SELECTED ARTICLES The training in the modern languages has two sides, the gen- eral and the special. The course is laid out as follows : The first year is given to elementary grammar. This means in any language the inflection of nouns, adjectives, and pro- nouns, the conjugation of the regular verbs and the more com- mon irregular ones, and the application of the simpler rules of syntax. In every language a certain amount of grammar must be learned and that thoroughly at the outset, for if it is not learned then it will never be acquired at all. The grammar is, however, taught somewhat informally in connection with the reading. A large amount of easy narrative is read. This serves as a basis for exercises in dictation, conversation, and composi- tion. The main purpose of the work of the first year is to acquire the barest essentials of the grammar, to get a correct pronunciation, to acquire a good vocabulary of simple, common words and to attain ease and facility in their use. During the second year this work is continued ; the grammar is studied intensively. This is the grammar year. The reading consists of easy narrative. There is considerable reading at sight; the foreign language is used to a considerable extent in the classroom. There is work in composition throughout the year. The third year is primarily a reading-year. The greater part of the reading material consists of fiction and modern drama. Through the texts read and through the composition work, an attempt is made to give the pupils some definite, reliable infor- mation about the country where the language studied is spoken ; the course further aims to give them a practical working vocabu- lary of travel, or ordinary business transactions, and of every- day life. There is constant practice in hearing and in speaking the foreign language ; and a large amount of composition work is done, including some general practice in letter-writing. At the end of the third year, a boy should know his grammar thoroughly, be able to read average fiction, understand a good deal of spoken language, and be able to express his own wants, if not fluently, at least intelligently. The language training is such, that if he needs to leave school at this time he can go on and acquire and assimilate a large amoiuit of special work un- aided. The fourth year sums up and applies in concrete form what the pupil has learned in previous years. The work consists of a study of the language as used in commercial correspondence, VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 235 advertisements, trade circulars, market reports, and newspapers. If time allows, a good play is read also. There is constant drill in conversation. The course in Spanish includes special drill in the vocabulary and forms of Spanish bookkeeping. At the end of the fourth year, the pupil should be able to read a foreign newspaper or average book with considerable ease, to under- stand well the spoken language, to speak with considerable flu- ency, and to write an ordinary business letter with reasonable accuracy and speed. He should know thoroughly the vocabulary of ordinary life, the ordinary business vocabulary, and have a broad and sound foundation upon which to build. The nature of our course prevents us from paying much at- tention to the history of the foreign literatures. Some attention is paid, however, to the life and works of the principal writers and allusions to political or industrial history are carefully ex- plained. In this way the work in modern languages is able, to some extent, to supplement the work of the other departments. The results attained in teaching American pupils to speak foreign languages are not satisfactory. The chief reasons alleged are : first, the large size of our classes ; second, the greater age of our pupils when beginning a foreign language. Neither of these reasons is valid. The main trouble is that for us the ability to speak a foreign language has no immediate or direct com- mercial or industri'J value. Incentive is lacking. A boy puts his time upon those subjects which he knows will be of use to him. The prospect of making a living out of Spanish or Ger- man is too remote to appeal to a boy, despite the active and vigorous propaganda exerted in behalf of the former. There- fore, in our work we must be satisfied to make the modern- language work a means of careful discipline, a means of impart- ing valuable information, both special and cultural, about our neighbors, to awaken and stimulate in our pupils a healthy in- terest in, and respect for, our neighbors and competitors, and to give the learner the basis upon which to build an accurate speaking knowledge of the foreign languages, if at any time the need arise. Department of Economics and History. The purpose of this department is to give the young men who are going out from the school such a knowledge of present economic conditions that they will be enabled to handle better 236 SELECTED ARTICLES the big problems of modern business. In addition to this we try to stimulate an interest in history which will lead the pupil to do outside reading for himself and take an intelligent interest in all questions which should appeal to good citizens. These purposes we are accomplishing in the following ways : 1. Our course in general history (mainly mediaeval and modern), given during the first two-fifths of the second year, serves as the groundwork of our later study of industrial, eco- nomic, and commercial history. 2. The course in commercial geography, which covers the last three-fifths of the second year, gives an understanding of the products, resources, and commercial possibilities of various countries, laying special emphasis on the United States. 3. During the entire third year every pupil studies the his- tory of commerce. In this course the development of commerce is followed from earliest times, and special efforts are made to show how our commercial institutions have developed from those of mediaeval times. Special emphasis is laid on the de- velopment of means of communication and transportation, deal- ing through exchanges, and the use of credit in modern business. 4. The first half of the Senior year is devoted to a study of economic theory. Our aim is to present this subject in the most simple and direct way with constant references to concrete illus- trations within the range of the pupils' experience. During the second half of the year, the economic and industrial history of the United States is studied as furnishing the best illustration of the various stages of economic development. At the same time, it gives the pupils much useful information about their own country. 5. Courses in civil government and commercial law also come under the Department of Economics. The aim in the first is to give each pupil a knowledge of local, state, and national government which will enable him to fulfil his duties as a citizen intelligently. In commercial law we do not attempt to teach enough to enable a graduate to act as his own attorney. We rather try to show the boy that the subject is so intricate and complex that the intelligent business man will consult a lawyer when anj' legal question of importance arises. We also aim to give enough knowledge of the law to enable our graduates to have an intelligent appreciation of legal opinions given by their attorneys. This brief outline shows in a meager way what the depart- VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 237 ment is doing. In addition to this, by co-operation with other departments, much is taught which adds to the pupils' fund of economic and general information. Trips to business houses and manufacturing plants furnish the best sort of illustrative ma- terial for economic theory. Practically all of the boys in the two upper classes have worked in business houses and can apply the theory learned in the school to their individual experiences. We do not feel that our course is perfect in its present form, and we are constantly looking for ways of improving it. We do feel that as time goes on we shall be able to learn to what extent the work of the department is helping to turn out the kind of business men needed in the community, and that thus we may model our work more directly on the needs of the business world as shown in the experience of our graduates. Salesmanship That salesmanship is not solely an art, but is based upon sci- entific principles, is a fact that is now almost universally recog- nized in the business world. It is the knowledge of this fact that impels such stores as Wanamaker's in Philadelphia and the Jordan Marsh Co. of Boston to maintain schools for the instruc- tion of their employees in the principles of salesmanship. Ac- cepting the contention that, to a great extent, salesmanship may be taught, and alive to the fact that its graduates, for the greater part, are engaged in active selling, and that the same will be true of its future graduates, the school offers a course in sales- manship with a view to pointing out to the boys its basic prin- ciples that must be appHed when their business life begins. When the school was first instituted, and until the present year, the course consisted of lectures by a local business man who addressed the boys upon various matters of business life. This year, however, a new plan is in vogue. One of the faculty who has made a special study in the science of salesmanship, and of psychology and its application to salesmanship, and who, apart from the ideas gained from the literature on the subject, has obtained much information from conferences with business men, has taken charge of the course and is conducting it in both the Senior and Junior classes. Probably the chief advantage derived from the new plan is that the course is more systematized than formerly. Near the close of the last school year, the third-year class 238 SELECTED ARTICLES were given four preliminary lectures on salesmanship, prepara- tory to their summer work. Three of these talks were given by the teacher in charge, while one that dovetailed into the teacher's plan was given by a business man. The elements of salesman- ship was the leading topic of these lectures. Ideals in business were impressed upon the minds of the boys with the hope that they might follow the road to success during their summer and later work and avoid the pitfalls that so often make failures of the novice in business. Other topics discussed in these lectures were : salesmanship, a science or an art ; need of instruction in the principles of business; the classes of livelihood-earners; divisions of business ; the inside salesman ; the traveling sales- man ; steps in a sale ; mail-order business ; summer employment. The final word was an exhortation to the boys to gauge their summer work by the standards set before them in these prelim- inary lectures. In the meantime, these same boys, who are now in the Senior class, have had practical experience in the business world and will have more in connection with the Christmas employment scheme. Then they will be ripe for the six final lectures in sales- manship to be given during January and February vmder the direction of the teacher in charge. Present plans call for a division of these final lessons into four parts : one will assume the form of an "experience meet- ing," at which about a dozen boys will give brief talks on their experiences during their summer and Christmas work ; another will be devoted to talks by a half-dozen graduates of two years ago, who will speak upon the actual conditions in business that await the boys upon graduation ; another will consist of a sup- plementary lecture, a comparison of inside and traveling sales- manship, to be given by an experienced salesman ; the fourth part will comprise three talks on the theory of salesmanship by the teacher in charge. These final lessons will complete the ten in the theory of salesmanship that the school offers its students. Someone may conclude that the course in salesmanship is inadequate for a school with business aims. Let me add that, in conjunction with these lectures, the practical work afforded under the Christmas and summer experience plans is, in reality, a part of the course in salesmanship, since it enables the pupils to apply in practice the theories presented in the lectures. View- ing the course in this light, one can hardly call it inadequate. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 239 Again, demonstrations of salesmanship that are in such favor at present are not provided for under the new plan. Hov\fever, the numerous opportunities that the boys have for studying actual sales vifhile working in business houses more than offset the lack of artificial demonstrations in the school. As a final word, let me say, that, at present, the new course is in an experimental stage. Later thought on the subject may warrant a change. Moreover, while we realize that we cannot produce expert salesmen, and to do so is farthest from our aim, we feel that, by revealing to the boys some of the ideals of busi- ness life that lead to success and some of the obstacles that spell failure, we are not sending forth our graduates into a strange and utterly unknown world to perform tasks for which they are totally unprepared. AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION AGRICULTURE ENLARGES CONSCIOUS- NESS AND HELPS ADJUSTMENT The study of agriculture enlarges consciousness and enables one to see much in what now appears little. Since man must live by the sweat of his brow and be housed, clothed and fed from the products of the soil, and since the amount of land is fixed while population is increasing, it needs no argument to prove that the study of agriculture enables one to become better ad- justed to his environment and gives power to adjust environ- ment to self. Education for culture is a noble ideal, but it is use- less to talk of higher culture for the great mass of humanity unitl they are better housed, fed and clothed, and until they have surplus leisure and are taught to use that leisure rationally. GENERAL INSTRUCTION IN AGRICULTURE' A great fault with the district schools has been an inclination to think that anything close at hand is too mean and common to be considered as subject matter for instruction. The thought has usually been that the school should prepare the learner for some brilliant calling away off where things are better and life is easier and more beautiful. As a result, the country schools have been educating boys and girls away from the farm. The new method is that of educating them to appreciate what is under their feet and all around them, through an intimate knowledge of the processes of nature and industry as carried on in their midst. 1 From "Agriculture and Life," by A. D. Cronwell. Copyright, 191S, by J. B. Lippincott & Co. == From "Farm Boys and Girls," by W. A. McKeever. Copyright, 1912. by The Macmillan Company. 242 SELECTED ARTICLES One of the direct means of educating the boys and girls for a happy, contented Ufe on the farm is to teach them while young the rudiments of agriculture. This method is actually being put into practice in thousands of the rural schools. The state of Kansas recently enacted a law requiring all candidates for teachers' certificates to pass a test in the elements of agriculture and also requiring that the rudiments of this subject be taught in every district school. Other states have similar laws. As a result of this and like provisions, there is now a tremendous awakening in the direction named. The boys and girls in the country schools are finding new meaning and a new interest in the fields and farms upon which they are growing up. It is a comparatively simple matter, that of teaching the young how the plant germinates and grows, how the seed is produced, and how farm crops are cared for and harvested. Likewise it is easy to describe the elements of the various types of the soil and to show how these elements contribute to the life and growth of the plant. The question of moisture in its relation to the plant life, of insects harmful and helpful to growing crops and ani- mals, of the bird life as related to the economic aspects to farm- ing — all such matters can be easily taught to children by the young woman school teacher. It is only necessary for the latter to take an elementary course of instruction herself, to read a number of collateral texts, and to get into the spirit of the undertaking. In a similar manner, instruction in regard to farm animals may be given, the emphasis being placed upon the con- sideration of the types of live stock actually raised and marketed in the home neighborhood. It must be emphasised that these matters relating to elemen- tary agriculture and animal husbandry can be made just as in- teresting and quite as cultural as any of the subjects in the gen- eral curriculum of the schools. Wherefore, the rural dweller who catches the spirit of such instruction should lead out in the securing of public measures and public improvements looking toward an early embodiment of these new subjects within the prescribed course of study. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 243 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION' The pi-incipal purpose of agricultural education is to teach people to think straight on all matters pertaining to agricultural production and rural life, and this applies to the city people as well as to the country people. We fall into an error when we assume that we are the first to have to meet the problem of the high cost of living. The problem is as old as civilization and has intruded itself as a seri- ous factor into every civihzation that has preceded ours. Plenty of food for everyone at a low cost is the newest thing under the sun and it also has been among the most transitory of things. We have dealt with the problem of too few people on the farm and its results, high cost of living, as tho it were a matter 'in which the farmer alone is concerned. In truth, he is the only person in all the country who does not suffer from this cause. A situation in which there are too few producers cannot help being highly satisfactory to those who are engaged in produc- tion, just as a situation in which there were too few grocers would be entirely satisfactorj^ to those engaged in the grocery business. Such a situation would be unsatisfactory to the user of groceries, just as the present situation is unsatisfactory to the consumers of agricultural products, the people of the city. It is therefore the man who buys the products of the farm who is primarily and almost solely interested in having a sufficient num- ber of people on the land. He is quite as much interested also in the kind of people who till the soil as he is in the number of such people. What City People Should Be Taught about Agriculture. It is almost as important that we teach agriculture in the city schools as that we make it a part of the course of study for country children. City children should not be required to study the details of plant and animal production, but they should be so taught that they will have an interest in, and a general under- standing of, these basic industries. City children should be made ^ By Henry J. Waters, President, Kansas State Agricultural College. National Education Association. Proceedings. 1915:193-9. 244 SELECTED ARTICLES to realize that they are dependent upon those who till the soil, not only for their food and clothing, but also for the materials which form the basis of most of the city's industries. Of the raw material used in American manufactures, one-half of i per cent is derived from the sea ; 5 per cent from the forests, 13 per cent from the mines, and 81 per cent from the farm. The children of the man who answers the call of the factory whistle should be taught that not only the clothes which their father wears, and the food contained in his dinner pail, but also most of the ma- terials which provide him a chance to work and afford the family a living come from the farm. Those engaged in transportation should understand that it is the soil-produced material which affords them nine-tenths of their employment Merchants should be taught that nearly all the goods they buy and sell came originally from the farm. The children of the banker ought to know that a large part of the value represented by every dollar which reaches the bank vault was produced in the country. They ought also to know that in the long run it makes as much difference to them how much of each dollar remains in the country with which to build the right sort of family life as it does how much of the dollar reaches the city with which to support a city civilization. The city children ought to be taught that, tho the farmer has undertaken the most important task of any class, that of pro- viding the world with its food, clothing and the raw material for its industries, he never has had, and probably never will have, much to say regarding the conditions under which he will per- form that task. City children should understand that the way in which society determines the conditions surrounding the farmer will determine the standing and progress of both the city and the country. They should be trained to appreciate the limitations of farm production and to realize that conditions which they im- pose that are not to the best interests of the country people will not in the end be for their own best interests. They should early learn that no civilization has withstood the effect of the decay of its rural people. Wastes are a Tax upon the Cost of Living. Wasteful ways of doing business and extravagant ways of liv- ing are a tax upon the cost of living which somebody must paj'. Either the consumer must pay more for what he eats — and he VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 245 already groans under the burdens of the high cost of Uving — or the farmer must take less for his products altho he already is lowest-paid man in the world. The American farmer is a business man and not a mere la- borer. He has invested in land, equipment, and working capital an average of approximately $8,000, an investment such as fairly classes him with the business man of the town. He is entitled, therefore, to an income comparable with that of the average business man — an income which will enable him to support his family as well and to enable him to pay as much toward the support of the school, the church, roads, and the cultures of life as do the proprietors of grocery stores, drug-shops, meat mar- kets, and of other business enterprises requiring no larger in- vestment and no greater intelligence. If society cannot pay the price for food which will yield to the farmer fair income, it is time society was looking into its ways of living and of doing business with a view to effecting such economies as will make this possible. High Acre-yields Go With Low Man-yields. City people have been thinking too much in terms of acre- yields and too little in terms of man-yields. They have not yet learned that as the acre-yield has gone up — the world over and in all ages — the man-yield has gone down. For illustration, the yearly farm income for all the land in cultivation in Japan is $71 an acre, in the United States it is $15, and in Kansas it is $13.50 an acre. The average annual income of the farm family in Japan is $235, in the United States, $1,000 and in Kansas, $1,560. To take another illustration, the average acre-yield of wheat in Ger- many is nearly 31 bushels, in France it is more than 29 bushels, and in the United States it is 14^ bushels. The average yearly income of the farm family in Germany is $580, in France it is $670, and in the United States it is $1,000. Intensive farming, therefore, is not the simple and easily ap- plied remedy for all our present ills. Intensive agriculture is adapted only to conditions where lands are high and labor is cheap. It is essentially hand farming. It uses little labor-saving machinery. It produces comparatively little livestock and has not afforded an income sufficient to provide many conveniences for the farm home. Intensive farming developed to a moderate degree has pro- 246 SELECTED ARTICLES duced the peasant class of Europe, "the man with the hoe." Li Saxony, Belguim, and Brittany, where intensive agriculture is more highly developed than elsewhere in Europe, the farm woman frequently serves as a draft animal and is hitched along- side a dog. Carried to its full limit, intensive farming has pro- duced the Chinese and Japanese farmer, the type that can out- labor and underlive any other type of farmer in the world. Extensive agriculture develops the highest form of rural civilization because it gives an income above the actual physical needs of the family. It affords the means for procuring the broader cultures of life. It is the kind of agriculture that uses much machinery and raises much live stock, and these in them- selves develop the highest type of husbandman. So long, therefore, as society is not made to suffer undue hardships on account of the high cost of living, a reasonably extensive system of agriculture is best for everybody. So long as a country can get along with farms of reasonable size, it is inadvisable to try to force upon that countrj' an intensive type of farming. Indeed, no country has ever adopted this type of farm- ing until forced to do so by the demands of the people for food and for an opportunity to work. Society demands cheap food, and, in so far as cheap food may be provided without imposing burdens upon future genera- tions thru the waste of our resources and without imposing undue burdens upon the people on the land, the demand is a reasonable one. Low cost of living, however bought without permanent capital of soil, mine, and forest, is temporary and wasteful. Low cost of living, purchased with the manhood and womanhood of the rural communities, is dearly bought and destructive of our best asset. A sound system of agricultural education, therefore, stands squarely for high man-yields as well as for high acre-yields and seeks to prevent a rural class from growing up in America, a class that is different from, and antagonistic to, the city class. Every obstacle to the free intermingling and intermarrying of the country and town people must be removed. It must not be true that the town girl would rather marry a drug clerk or a city omnibus driver than marry an industrious young man with a farm. Conditions under which the best women are not content to live will not long attract good men. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 247 Teaching Thrift Agricultural education seeks to put children and the back yards and vacant lots to work, producing food to assist in re- ducing the cost of living, and to teach these children thrift, a quality so lacking in the American people. Agricultural educa- tion teaches the boys in the country how to market their products and should teach the girls of both the city and country how to buy for the family. It should impress upon every housewife the relation her purchases sustain to the development of local indus- tries and should seek to eliminate much of the waste that we commit daily when we eat in Cahfornia food canned in New Jersey and when they eat in New Jersey food canned in Cali- fornia. In Kansas, the leading broom-corn state of the Union, we send our broom-corn to Michigan to have handles made. Apply the Laws of Nutrition to Raising Children Agricultural education is contributing much to our knowledge of how to feed children, for, after all, the feeding of children so that they may reach man's estate well developed and strong follows the same laws of nutrition as have been developed for the feeding of pigs, colts, and calves, only we have worked out the scientific feeding of pigs and colts and calves. Education the Basis of Rural Sanitation The country must be made a more healthful place in which to live. It is of comparatively little importance whether or not city people understand the laws of sanitation and become interested in the enforcement of these laws, for organized society deter- mines the sanitary arrangement of the home and the workshop, and forces the people to keep their premises clean. In the rural community, everything depends upon the education of the indi- vidual. There is no rural lawmaking body analogous to the city council or city commission. There is no inspecting agency cor- responding to that of the city health officer, city dairy commis- sioner, or city plumbing inspector. Thus the one-room rural school, poor as it is, has burdens laid upon it that are larger than are the burdens laid upon the city school, efficient as it is. Important as is the education of the city children in respect 248 SELECTED ARTICLES to their attitude toward country people and country problems, this training is, after all, of secondary importance when com- pared with the education of the future farmer with respect to the methods he shall employ and with respect to his duties and obli- gations to society. He must be made to realize that he has under- taken a most important task and that he must discharge his du- ties efficiently. What the Country Children Should he Taught Consequently, country children will need to be taught how to produce high acre-yields without bringing themselves the evils of the intensive methods of other countries and of other times. They must be made to realize that their right to own land is an artificial right society may withdraw if they till the soil ineffi- ciently or wastefully. They must be taught how deep to plow, when to sow, and when to reap, and how to produce plants and animals that may better serve man's uses. Where Agriculture Should Be Taught It is a narrow view which limits the scope of agricultural education to the field of activity covered by the agricultural col- leges of the country. All such colleges laboring never so dili- gently and efficiently will not be able to train even the leaders required. The other colleges and the normal schools must help. The resources of the high schools of the country must be em- ployed. When all of this is done, the problem will be very far from being solved, because only a few of those who are to farm ever attend a high school, a normal school, or a college. It is only when a satisfactory system of instruction in agri- culture is introduced into the school which the future fanners are attending, the one-teacher rural school, that we shall be planting generally the ideas which will ripen into better systems of farming. But this education must not stop with the farmer's children. It must extend to the farmer himself and to the other members of his family and must continue thruout the farmer's active life. The supreme test of a system of agricultural teaching is made when we apply it to the man on the farm. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 249 Early Attempts to Teach Agriculture Were Unsuccessful It is true that the early attempts at teaching agriculture were not highly successful, altho these attempts were made long after education in other lines had become well established. The fail- ure was principally due to the fact that the farmer himself knew more about farm practice than did the teacher. This quickly led to the establishment of agricultural experiment stations, research institutions in which the application of science to agriculture was studied, where the reasons for the most successful farm prac- tices were discovered, and where new and improved practices were devised. Thus for the first time in the history of educa- tion, a deliberate attempt was made, thru a well-co-ordinated sys- tem of scientific research, to create a body of knowledge in rela- tion to a subject which it was deemed important to teach, but about which so little of a definite nature was known that it could not be taught successfully. It is true that scientific research has been a part of the activ- ity of most institutions of higher learning since the close of the Napoleonic era, or when von Humboldt, as minister of education of Prussia, sought by this means to rebuild Germany's prostrated industries ; but there had not been before an organized, co- ordinated, and compulsory system of research as a definite part of a great educational program. The success of the investigations in agriculture, especially in America, has been a wonderful stimulus to research activity in other lines. Continuation Teaching in Agriculture. As might have been expected, the first result of this suddenly stimulated activity in research was the accumulation of agricul- tural knowledge more rapidly than it could be absorbed by the farmers and adopted into their practices. A way had to be de- vised in which to get the man on the soil, who is largely muscle- minded and eye-minded, to adopt these new methods. As a re- sult, a system of extension teaching, thru farmer's institutes, press articles, and farm demonstrations, grew up. It is only within very recent years — indeed, since the passage of an act of Congress by which the federal government joined with the states thru the agricultural colleges — that the effort to carry this knowl- edge to the people has become general and effective. 250 SELECTED ARTICLES Thus, new as is the system of agricultural instruction, and halting as was its progress at the outset, it has already marked two distinct and important departures from educational traditions — one in the organized system of research thru which a body of knowledge pertaining to the subject was created, and the other in an organized system of extension or continuation teaching thru which parents as well as pupils were reached with this new-found knowledge. Both of these departures have already exerted a large influence upon general educational thought and practice. A Stable Rural People Agricultural education seeks to establish a permanent agri- culture, and it recognizes that the first essential of a permanent agriculture is an intelligent, progressive, and contented people. To bring about such a condition among the rural people, it is necessary that these people have, as has already been stated, an income equal to that of city people in its power to procure the real satisfactions of life. Every attempt to keep up the country stock and to resist the power of the city to call the best the country produces on any other basis than this is unsound. Nearly every civilization that has preceded ours has tried the experiment and has failed. But back of all questions relating to the securing of an in- come either thru greater efficiency as a laborer, or thru securing a fairer share of what that labor brings, stands the equally im- portant question of the utilization of this income or the coining of it into higher standards of family life. Rural people must be brought to realize that the country is not merely a place in which to work while accumulating the means with which to live in town. They must be shown how to expend the farm income in such a way as to give as satisfactory a life in the country as that which the town affords. The occu- pation of farming and life in the country need to be idealized, for it is what a man thinks of himself and his work which counts for most. A people never rises above its ideals. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 251 AGRICULTURAL HIGH SCHOOLS IN ONTARIO' At present there are in the province of Ontario 10 high schools, 6 collegiate institutes and 5 continuation schools con- ducting classes in agriculture and the number is rapidly increas- ing. These schools are located in different parts of the province and represent 19 different counties. The attendance upon the classes is optional at present and the introduction of the courses into the schools is also optional, consequently the establishment of agriculture as a part of the high school course will proceed only so fast as public opinion will permit. The number of stu- dents now receiving agricultural instruction in the high schools is about 800. At the end of the second year of the course there is a de- partmental examination which may be counted as a bonus sub- ject. In 1916 about 190 students took this examination. This work includes experimental laboratory work, relating to the fundamental principles of agriculture, and is made as practical as possible. A course in the middle school is also provided and is arranged for two years, but where conditions are favourable and students are able to carry the work, it is possible to cover it in one year. There is, therefore, practically a four-year course in agriculture arranged for the high schools, and the equipment is paid for by special grants distributed by the Educational Department when the requirements are fulfilled. A further provision is made for agricultural education by the establishment of a "department" in the high school under the management of an Advisory Council composed of men engaged in agricultural pursuits. Such schools as provided the accommo- dation to carry on the department, are intended to be the fore- runners of regular agricultural high schools. Quoting from the regulations we have this statement : "When the public interests necessitate agricultural high schools they will be duly established and liberally aided by the government." At present one high school has organized a department and IQl6. 1 By J. B. Dandeno. Agricultural Gazette of Canada. 3:1002-3. November, 5. 252 SELECTED ARTICLES two others are making arrangements to do so. It should be said here that hberal financial encouragement is given by the Educa- tion Department towards establishing and maintaining not only a department in agriculture but also, on a similar basis, a de- partment in household science. Minnesota has now 175 agricultural high schools and no county agricultural schools. Wisconsin had several county agri- cultural schools, but has now only one. In Michigan the county agricultural schools have not been a success and there is now only one left. These three states are pushing as fast as possible the agricultural high school, which is nothing more than a high school giving a good course in agriculture. We have now in Ontario 21 such schools and this number would be increased enormously if agriculture were recognized as an elective subject for matriculation. In the three states mentioned agriculture has a standing similar to that of other studies and may be offered for matriculation. The influence of agricultural classes is already being felt, for, in several instances, boys passing the entrance are attracted to the high school for a year or two, knowing that they will re- ceive some instruction on the principles of agriculture. In schools where such classes are not yet introduced, boys similarly situated stop school when they pass the entrance, for if they go back to the farm the high school has little to offer. FLATHEAD HIGH SCHOOL, KALISPELL, MONTANA' There is a county high school at Kalispell. It is called the Flathead High, after the aboriginal campers who just recently vacated the site. However, there is nothing peculiar about Kalispell's having a county high school, for all Montana has these places, where graduates from the rural schools are allowed the high-school education which for two centuries "back East" has been largely the special privilege of town boys and girls. Recently I heard Mr. Cummings tell a farmers' convention about the work of the Flathead school. "A school should meet * By Florence Clark. Country Gentleman. 81:467. February 2(), 1916. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 253 the needs of the community to justify its existence" is Principal Cummings' simple statement of the theory he has put into prac- tice during the two years he has been head of the Flathead County High School. Something for Every Student His first efforts were directed toward getting every boy and girl into the high school. This he did, partly by systematic ad- vertising in the papers ; partly by riding 500 miles on his bicycle in a personal farmhouse-to-farmhouse canvass ; partly by pro- viding a high-school curriculum so diversified and so embracing that no student could help finding something in it that would attract him and fit him for usefulness in the world. The usual college preparatory course for the one-seventh of the students who will go to college was retained. Six other courses were added to it for the six-sevenths who will not go : Agriculture, for the boy who will stay on the farm ; normal training, for the girl who will teach the rural school ; manual training, for the trades ; domestic science, for the home ; ac- counting, for the store ; and stenography, for the office. It was found there were a good many boys who had gone through the rural school but were debarred from taking regular high-school work because they were needed on the farm in the spring and fall. For these boys an eighth course begins in No- vember and closes March fifteenth; it includes agriculture, farm arithmetic, manual training and English. There were still some boys and girls who refused to come because they did not want to take all the studies in any course. As a last resort Mr. Cummings said to these : "There are no short cuts to education. You cannot get credit on the school records for work done unless it comes up to the standard ; neither can you graduate from the school unless you finish the required work as laid down in some course. But if there is any study that you want and are capable of carrying, come in and get it." And they came. To help the high-school pupils in their choice of a life work the successful men and women in the various occupations are giving vocational talks at the school. A vocational conference for girls, a county athletic meet and a county eighth-grade spell- 2S4 SELECTED ARTICLES ing contest were held. A thousand people attended the speUing contest. The normal training course as planned will eventually raise the standard of rural school teaching in the count}-. In the in- terval the Flathead faculty and students are making regular Friday and Saturday night trips to the rural schools to give talks and entertainments, dividing themselves into groups for this purpose. Vocational talks are to be added as soon as practicable. Many of the rural teachers are not qualified to teach agriculture. To meet their need the high school has opened its doors Satur- days, and classes in agriculture especially designed for them are held. Fifteen of the teachers are attending. With the cooperation of the city library circulating libraries have been placed in the rural schools and the books are sent out to the homes by the teachers. In the farmers' short course lec- tures on reading in the home were given to stimulate interest in the use of these books. One-lhird more students are enrolled this year than last ; 25 per cent of last year's graduates are back taking special work ; 65 per cent of them, Mr. Cummings says, will eventually go to higher institutions of learning. So far has the Flathead County High School traveled in the evolution of an institution that shall be a clearing house for the needs of the people. STUDENT CREAMERY AT DULUTH CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL' In the fall of 1914 the Board of Education of the city of Duluth, Minnesota, voted an appropriation of $150 for the pur- chase of a creamery outfit such as could be recommended for a farmer with ten cows. The equipment, all hand power models, consists of cream separator, combined churn and butterworker, butter printer, ice box, Babcock tester, acidity test outfit, salt test outfit, moisture test scale, butter print scale, cream scale, cream cans, and minor utensils. The agricultural department, then in its second year only, was already one of the most active divisions of Central High 'By E. P. Gibson. Hoard's Dairyman. 51:698. May 19, 1916. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 255 School ; and the new equipment was received with such interest and enthusiasm that in the 1914-1915 school year the embryo farmers made a total of 2,891 pounds of the best creamery butter in 170 churnings. This record was recognized as a nucleus around which to build creamery practice thoroughly systematized and realistic; and the outgrowth this year was a students' co-operative cream- ery with a bank account, a sinking fund, and typical "articles of incorporation." The Student Creamery Company of the high school is an organization among the boys of the agricultural department, similar on a small scale to the most approved type of farmers' co-operative creameries, for the purpose of obtaining both the manufacturing and the business experience of creamery practice. The student members produce the cream and milk by purchase, and sell to their creamery, profits from which they share in pro- portion to their respective patronage. The idea belongs to Duluth, it being the product of co-opera- tion between the high school instructor and the Bridgeman-Rus- sell Company, local wholesale manufacturers and dealers in dairy products. To reward industry and efficiency, the Bridge- man-Russell Company agreed to furnish the best quality of cream at such price concessions as to enable the creamery com- pany to pay student buttermakers common wages when full churnings are made, as well as to set aside a sinking fund of two cents per pound for the upkeep and renewal of the machin- ery that belongs, of course, permanently tq the school. This makes possible a representative system of cost accounting, which places profits on a definite basis after allowing for cost of ma- terials, labor, upkeep of equipment, etc. In Duluth, cream rather than milk must be bought for the bulk of the churnings, because of the local big demand and high price for fresh milk. At the outset it is admitted that in the city proper the milk business is more profitable ordinarily than the butter business ; and in skimming fresh milk with a view to ripening and churning the cream, it is necessary to produce high quality products and by-products and to market all these sys- tematically if the receipts from buttermaking are nearly to equal those from a milk and fresh cream business. The lesson of the conservation of by-products here taught is a valuable one. The following is the plan of operation for each whole milk 256 SELECTED ARTICLES churning. Two students sell to the Student Creamery Company the required amount of fresh pasteurized milk, which they have produced by purchase through the D. C. H. S. Agricultural Club as agent. The agricultural instructor, who acts as advisory manager of the creamery, assigns these two boys to the churning. The milk is weighed and tested to determine its pounds of butterfat. Next it is warmed and separated, then both skimmilk and cream are tested for butterfat. The skimmilk and cream are promptly cooled, and, for the time being, set in the ice box. Pre- vious to the churning the cream is treated with a pure culture starter and ripened over night to the correct degree of acidity. The combined churn and butterworker is a hand power model of the best factory type, and produces the choicest of creamery butter. Then follow the salt test and the moisture test applied to the butter, and the butterfat test of the buttermilk. Quality of product and losses of butterfat are carefully checked. The butter is molded into pound prints, which are corrected to a net weight of sixteen ounces on an inspected and sealed butter print scale. The butter in neatly printed cartons, and the buttermilk, are in big demand when the supply is greater than the home needs of the student members. The skimmilk is best made into cottage cheese. The students pay retail prices into the company treasury for all the creamery products that they use or sell, and each two are responsible for the sale of and settlement for all the products of their churning. They are employed both as buttermakers and as "salesmen." The Student Creamery Company is a popular organization with membership open to any boy in Central High School. It is entirely self-sustaining and has an ample sinking fund to re- pair and replace all creamery equipment belonging to the agri- cultural department. Each member pays a deposit of two dollars, the total of which "stock" is placed in a local bank to guarantee the credit of the organization. Cash received for butter and all other products is also banked to enable the treasurer to pay all bills promptly by check. A payroll is issued monthly, and there are monthly reports to the student board of directors. At the end of each school year the balance in the sinking fund will be turned over to the agricultural department, dividends will be declared, and the company dissolved and in- dividual amounts of stock refunded. The venture now two years old is an unquestioned success, VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 257 and the Students' Co-operative Creamery Companj^ will each A^ear be organized among the students in dairying for an active period of some two months, with the privilege of occasional churnings throughout the year, long enough to give each member a substantial short course in creamery practice. The creamery, however, is but one of several strong branches in the agricultural department of Duluth Central High School, and is by no means allowed to monopolize the time of the stu- dents in agriculture. WHAT THE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL HIGH SCHOOL IS DOING FOR MISSISSIPPI BOYS AND GIRLS' Forty-one county agricultural high schools have been estab- lished in Mississippi since the passage in 1910 of the law author- izing the establishment of these schools and providing state aid for them. The total enrollment in the four high school grades during the past session was approximately seven thousand, or an average of about one hundred and seventy per school. The en- rollment of boarding pupils during the year just closed was approximately thirty-five hundred. They represent an investment, in buildings and equipment of about $2,000,000, and an annual expenditure for support of about $350,000. Quite a number of new schools are being organized this year. The law authorized any county in the state to establish an agricultural high school, and maintain same by a tax levy up to two mills. State aid is given from $i,Soo to $2,500 to each school, the exact amount depending upon the number of boarders enrolled. The schools may be built and equipped by donations from communities bidding for the location, and by county bond issues. The county agricultural high school is doing distinctly and effectively four things for Mississippi boys and girls. First, it is bringing the blessings and privileges of a good high school education within the reach of every boy and girl, 1 From article by W. H. Smith, State Superintendent of Education- Progressive P'armer. 31:816, June 24, 1916. 2s8 SELECTED ARTICLES even those of limited means. Prior to the establishment of the agricultural high schools, the country boys and girls in Missis- sippi had very limited high school advantages. At the county agricultural high schools tuition is free and board is given at exact cost. In the second place, the county agricultural high school is stimulating the agricultural and home activities of Mississippi boys and girls. The school has been of immense help to the government agents in charge of the boys' and girls' clubs. Through its four year course in agriculture, it is shovi^ing the boys the real importance of farming and teaching them the dignity of labor. Through its four year course in home science, it is teaching the girls how to make and care for a home, and is giving the instruction in all that pertains to home life. Thirdly, the county agricultural high school is training Mis- sissippi boys and girls for service as teachers in the rural schools in the state. Of course, few of the schools are as yet properly equipped to do effective work in teacher training from the pro- fessional standpoint, but by giving a full four year high school course embracing work sufficient to cover fourteen Carnegie units, the county agricultural high school is doing a great work in raising the standard of scholarship of the rural teachers. It is the purpose of the State Department of Education to encour- age the establishment of a two year course in teacher training in the county agricultural high schools as rapidly as the schools are properly equipped for such work. Lastly, the county agricultural school is doing a splendid work in preparing Mississippi boys and girls for college. A graduate of a county agricultural high school is admitted without ex- amination into the freshmen class of any college in the state, including the state university. Thus the county agricultural high school is really the people's high school, and thousands of Mississippi's boys and girls are eagerly embracing the opportunities offered by these splendid institutions of learning. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 259 THE MASSACHUSETTS HO'ME PROJECT PLAN OF VOCATIONAL AGRICUL- TURAL EDUCATION' You are doubtless asking yourself whether the Massachusetts plan of vocational agricultural education has been thoughtfully undertaken and whether it is yielding practical results. It is a big subject. I have over four hundred and fifty slides on it. Those which I am going to show you are a very short set, selected almost at random ; and I hope you will believe me when I say that they are not in any sense the best slides. They are simply a set of slides selected to fit the time assigned. The most I can hope for is to give you a quick flight over the field — merely a bird's-eye view of our plan and some of the results. First, I invite you to consider a little symbolism which I have been using for the past four or five years in the effort to keep my own thinking straight on this subject of vocational educa- tion. Remember, we are considering a type of education pre- sumably for pupils over fourteen years of age, namely, the secondary-school age. We are considering a type of secondary- school training. The typical high school of ten years or more ago was a classical high school, a general school devoting itself to cultural subjects. This we might symbolize by a capital C. We have looked up to it, and justly so. Because that type of school met the needs of relatively few, there were those who thought we ought to have a different type of education of secondary grade for those who desired direct preparation for life. Because, again, there were so many cases where the boys did not go to the high school because they saw in the high-school courses nothing that would be of use to them, as they viewed it, there have been those who have made new ventures in the field of secondary education in what has been called "vocational training." This we may symbolize by a capital V. These vocational ventures in education had a marked effect on the high-school courses. You will scarcely find a high school today which does not show considerable differentiation of courses. The determining factor in this differentiation is the * By Rufus Stimson. School Review. 23:474-8. September, 1915. 26o SELECTED ARTICLES career likelj^ to be followed by the pupil in after-life and the de- sire that the pupil shall receive direct preparation for that career. Several distinct needs are clearly recognized by almost every high school. We have the preparation for the classical college over against the so-called "Latin scientific course" preparing for the higher technical institution. There are the courses in home- making for girls, and the commercial branches for boys and girls. In fact, a fairer symbol to represent the high school of today would be some such modified emblem as a large C and within it a small v. Much attention is still given to the cultural purposes of the high school, but at least some recognition is given to di- rect training for the career the pupil is likely to follow. Similarly, along with the most direct preparation for the career of the pupil in the vocational type of school there have come decided cultural or civic values. So evident is this that I think we must agree that the vocational school of today, in Massachusetts at least, must fairly be represented by a large V with a small c within it. In view of this development there have been those who have urged the desirability of a balanced type of training — not so much time given as in the cultural type of school to general studies, not so much attention given to direct preparation for a calling as in the vocational type of school — a type of school, in short, which might be symbolized by a rather large C superim- posed upon a V drawn to the same scale. So far as the Board of Education is concerned, we erase from consideration this middle type. We recognize two distinctive types of training in the sec- ondary field, one represented by the large C and small v, the other represented by the large V and small c. It is with the latter that we are to be concerned at this hour. The first slides will show you a series of pictures illustrating somewhat the equipment appropriate to the distinctively agricul- tural purposes of the vocational agricultural school. The Petersham High School will interest you because Presi- dent Eliot was one of the most distinguished men at its dedica- tion. This school has a beautiful building, erected in part from funds raised by taxation and in part from funds subscribed by public-spirited citizens. A small greenhouse was provided. The school has at its disposal about ten acres of land, on part of which there are a number of old apple trees that have been reno- vated by the pupils, and on part of which the pupils have set out VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 261 a young orchard. I speak of this greenhouse, however, for the further purpose of saying that this is the only vocational school in the state that has a greenhouse, and because I wish to say at this point that we have instruction in a number of places where the school has not an inch of land or a head of live stock of any description at the school, the work of the pupil and the instruc- tor, in class exercises and individually, being carried out on farms — usually the home farms of the pupils themselves. A greenhouse may be an advantage, but it is not required for state aid. Outwardly the headquarters of an agricultural school or de- partment may appear to be like any other school building. Once you are inside the schoolroom, however, you find yourself in a different kind of a room from the ordinary schoolroom. It cor- responds more to the library-laboratory room or to the laboratory for the study of science. We cannot use ordinary school desks ; we need more elbow room; we have to study pamphlet material, data which are available only in bulletin form. We have to keep accounts. That is, our pupils must have room to spread their material out before them. For this reason small tables allowing for each pupil a surface 21^X3 feet are preferred. In all cases you will find a selected list of agricultural pub- lications and books with an appropriate filing system for ready reference. If you desired to see a good example near Boston of a well-equipped agricultural room, you could not do better than to visit the Concord High School Agricultural Department. There you would find, for example, an apple-packing table, made by the boys and used in teaching the boys. That table was also used at a short course in apple-packing given to twelve adult farmers who applied for it this last winter. In that same room you would find an admirable collection of samples of corn, heads of grains and grasses, samples of grain and grass seeds affording standards for ascertaining the relative purity of seeds available on the market, samples of vegetable seeds, samples of chemicals used as fertilizers, samples of spraying materials, samples of feeds ; you would find spraying implements. Though a school may have no land it may be an advantage for it to have a pretty complete equipment of tools which may be lent to pupils whose money should be carefully husbanded for buying fertilizers or for other needs extending throughout the season, as over against the pruning shears, which may be used but a few hours or a few 262 SELECTED ARTICLES days in a year. In this room, you would find poultry appliances, including incubators, different kinds of brooders, feeding-hoppers, and drinking fountains. Not the least important, you would find a rack for farm papers and an excellent selection of pub- lications of this kind received from week to week or month to month. Of course, "related study" materials include non-book sorts, and these require care and protection ; uniform packages or mounts are an advantage and add to the attractiveness and ap- parent order of the agricultural classroom. Finally, there is a well-kept bulletin board. Now you want to know what the course of study is. That is usually determined by the vocation for which the individual pre- pares. I am now going to deal chiefly with the home-project plan of teaching agriculture. The home projects are graded with reference to the relative risks involved, the younger boys, of fourteen or fifteen, being assigned projects which involve the least risk, those in the later 'teens or in the twenties being as- signed the projects involving the heaviest risks, and the inter- mediate risks being distributed through the intermediate years between those ages. For instance, boys of fourteen or so study the elementary plan projects, such as kitchen gardening and orna- mental planting. Here the big item is labor, and the boys them- selves furnish that. In the next grade, at fifteen or over, they get animal husbandry, dealing with small stock, such as poultry, sheep and goats, swine and bees. In the third year they get ad- vanced plan projects, such as small fruit-growing, orcharding and market gardening, growing fruit and vegetables for sale. In the fourth year they finish with advanced projects in animal hus- bandry, dairying, and general farm management and agriculture as a business. In addition to these supervised projects for any given year a pupil may carry out certain unsupervised projects on his own account, and he usually does. For instance, he car- ries on kitchen gardening, which is a first-year project, through- out the course ; he may continue poultry-keeping, which is a sec- ond-year project, in the third and fourth years; and he may con- tinue fruit-growing and market gardening, which are third-year projects, through the fourth year. Once the boy is started with the easier projects in the first year, he is encouraged and helped with them throughout the four years' course, and all through the four years the other members of his family are encouraged to VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 263 co-operate with him, in the interest of producing the best possible home garden. The training all through is a training for self- help. The agricultural instructors are on duty throughout the sum- mer, some of them riding weekly circuits for forty, sixty, and even ninety miles in going from farm to farm among their pupils. They do a vast amount of "county agent" or "farm bureau" work among the adult farmers along their routes and hold appoint- ments as "collaborators" of the United States Department of Agriculture, have the franking privilege, and work in the closest co-operation with the Massachusetts Agricultural College exten- sion service. The efficiency of the instructors as a unified body is promoted by mid-winter and mid-summer conferences at which they all meet at the agricultural college. At these conferences represen- tatives of the United States Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Education are present, which tends to insure team- work through the instructors for the benefit of practical farmers as well as the boys in the agricultural classes in every locality. One striking feature of the results of the work is that during 1914 the earnings of 235 boys, in connection with good work at school, amounted to over $42,000, all but about $4,000 from farm work. Agriculture, in short, is the big interest of the boys who succeed in the vocational type of schooling. HOUSEHOLD ARTS A BAVARIAN SCHOOL OF HOUSEKEEPING^ As the train pulls into the little station of Miesbach, Bavaria, one of the interesting sights that strikes a stranger is the large red brick building standing on a high slope some distance away, and surrounded by trees and hedges which give it the appear- ance of a stately baronial estate. It is that of the famous School of Housekeeping, which graduates yearly some fifty pupils or more. The inside of this substantial-looking house shows its proximity to Munich, for the simple ornamentation, the tasteful coloring, and the comfortable furniture bespeak its nearness to the art centre. The school is fitted up in the most approved and modern fashion as to heat, light, electricity, etc. The large dining-room, with its soft tints of blue and white, its numerous small tables, covered with spotless linen and the prettiest of silver and glass, looks more like the dining-room of a well-kept hotel than of a school. The kitchens are spacious, immaculate in their white tiling, and fitted up with every possible convenience. The preserve-rooms fairly glisten with jars of strawberries, pears, plums, grape-jam, marmalade, asparagus, beans, peas, tomatoes, sweet and sour pickles, etc., all grown and put up by the pupils of the school. There is a practical and a theoretical course, both of which are obligatory. The practical course includes: (i) cooking, bak- ing, and preserving; (2) washing and ironing; (3) housework, viz., bedmaking, sweeping, dusting, knowledge of the care of hardwood floors, and of blanket cleaning and summer storing; (4) flower, vegetable, and fruit growing; (5) poultry and bee- keeping; (6) sewing, dressmaking, mending, and repairing. The theoretical course comprises an advanced course in botany, chem- istry, physics, political economy, and household-bookkeeping. * By Mary Parkinson. Nation. 94:208-9. February 29, 1912, ., 266 SELECTED ARTICLES The science of nourishment is also taught, as is a proper knowl- edge of the different cuts of meat, their average cost and weight, etc.; also "first aid to the injured" and how to prescribe for the simpler ailments in the ordinary household, and lastly the ele- mentary methods of caring for the health and character of chil- dren. The outdoor life presents equally wholesome and desirable surroundings. Here all kinds of vegetables, flowers, and fruits are grown, tended in the most scientific fashion by the pupils of the school. Lettuce and cauliflower, for instance, are grown under the large glass bells found so useful in the sewage market gardens about Paris, and the poultry, ducks, and geese are looked after with the utmost care and knowledge, the large result of which is a commendable supply of fresh eggs and marketable birds every week. The girls take turns each week in attending to the various household duties ; a certain number taking charge of the kitchen, planning all the meals, buying and paying for all the food, and preparing and cooking it for the whole school. Another set of pupils do all the sweeping and dusting, all the silver and brass polishing, take note of the condition of the floors, and see that fresh flowers are put in their accustomed places. Others, in turn, attend to the bees and poultry, and still others do the gardening. The instruction in sewing, mending, dressmaking, millinery, and embroidery is rich in results, and teaches method and thrift in buying clothes, and care in keeping them neat. Every detail of the daily housekeeping is thought out to a nicety, and as few maids are kept in the school, the pupils are made responsible for the proper and efficient care of the entire household. The indoor life prepares pretty solidly for the subsequent duties of house- wife and mother. It is safe to say that when these girls have their own establishments to manage, there will be neither culpable negligence nor ignorance. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 267 EDUCATING THE CONSUMER' Now, it has been taken for granted through the generations that, since we all do consume things from the moment we are born until we die, consumption must be instinctive, no more needing to be taught than breathing. We see dimly that modern housekeeping has let go of production and concentrated on con- sumption ; but we are, most of us, a little loth to admit that an education in housekeeping must be almost entirely an education in consumption. This was not true in the past, it may not be true in the coming ages, but in the present and the immediate future it is not to be questioned ; for, as Mrs. Ellen H. Richards said, home economics must stand for the ideal home life of to- day, "unhampered by the traditions of the past." Time was when the woman who kept house was expected to be the high priestess of that dire goddess How-to-Save-Money, but her metamorphosis from producer to consumer has shifted her worship to the new deity How-to-Spend. From an all- round producer the American woman has become the greatest consumer in the world. Of the ten billion dollars spent annually in the United States for home maintenance, food, shelter, and clothing, fully ninety per cent is spent by women. Isn't the sci- ence of consumption, then, worthy of special emphasis in the training for home efficiency? Not many schools of home economics have grasped the fact that they should be per se trainers of consumers. They still tend to overemphasize home production ; but the best of them are very generally swinging toward the first and most important work of training the consumer — they are beginning to establish standards. "I am conscious of a standard," writes a pupil of a corre- spondence school from southern Illinois. "I see it in the way I manage my household, in my expenditure, my work. I think a change in my standards is now going on under the influence of my household studies. The change will, I suspect, consist largely in a shifting of emphasis in delivering me from certain traditional ideas." The standards of this lady were the inherited housekeeping ^By Martha Bensley Bruere. Outlook. 102 -.29-34. September 7, 1912. 268 SELECTED ARTICLES standards, the standards which our ancestors established through the long ages when they were building up the home as a factory. Take the matter of food. It is undoubtedl}^ for the advantage of the community that every individual stomach should have enough, and not too much, inside of it. The old standard was to distend its walls by mere bulk; the new school-set standard is to furnish it some two thousand to three thousand food units daily. The schools have worked out this standard of consump- tion through the study of protein and starches and fats, of calo- ries and muscle-builders and heat-producers, till they have found the amount and kind of fuel the human machine needs for the various kinds of work it must do. To build these standards is a question of laboratories and applied mathematics not within the command of any middle-class home. If all of us are to have the benefit of them, thej' must be brought to us by the universi- ties and the public school. I met a Pratt Institute graduate on the Chicago train and led her gently to tell me how much of her domestic science she found useful in her housekeeping. "Well," she confessed, "when the baby is teething, and the cook has left, and there is company to dinner, I don't think much about calories or a balanced ration, but somehow I've got the theory so well digested that I put the right things together with- out thinking about it." Her food standard has become a part of her unconscious mental furniture, like the gauge by which we measure the length of our steps and the focus of our eyes. I looked over some papers on Housing written by pupils of the American School of Home Economics. Says one of the students who lives in the country : "In the matter of house sani- tation the important point is to know exactly what you have to deal with. There is no use in taking country plumbing for granted. You have got to get away not only from the traditional ideas of the man who built the house, but from your own old ideas as well." These old ideas from which she is being freed by new school- set standards taught that a country house did not need an indoor bath-room, that the parlor was a jewel-casket to be opened only on rare occasions, that the children should be "bunched" in one room, that running water on the second floor was a luxury, that sanitary garbage disposal was optional with the individual. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 269 Under the influence of her new standards she has found out where every one of the pipes in her house is located, what they are for, and how they attend to their job. She has worked out for herself a system of out-of-house drainage, a new water system, and a method of scientific ventilation. As a consumer of housing she has put her training in practice. Now, the basis of all these standards must be the ability to recognize quality when we see it. This is so important and so difficult that the Government tries to make it unnecessary. To establish standards — minimum standards, to be sure — has come to be the work of sanitary inspectors, tenement-house inspectors, clean milk commissioners, pure food and drug experts, depart- ments of street-cleaning, and a hundred more. Theoretically, it would be well for the Government to establish standards for all things used by the consumers, and so save the schools from the onerous duty of inculcating them, and the pupils from the travail of assimilation. But how shall a Government that can reason- ably say, "Potatoes below a certain grade shall not be used for human food," regulate the number of up-to-date potatoes a man shall eat? How shall a Government that can, and does, keep printed matter below a certain grade out of the mails say to the voracious consumer of storiettes, "Thus far and no farther?" Besides, an efficient Government without efficient citizens is not a democracy. We don't want to revert to a benevolent despotism, or even to an apron-string bureaucracy. The setting and maintenance of standards is a two-handed business — the establishment of standards by the Government, and the testing and use of these standards by an enlightened citizenship. And in matters where the Government has not yet established stand- ards of quality the initiative must come from the consumer. Consider the consumption of textiles — a job we have been at ever since we progressed beyond the wearing of raw skins. But the quality of textiles is still one of the unguarded frontiers of knowledge. In fact, the general knowledge of quality in textiles is decreasing; for though the specialists have grown wiser, the consumers, who used to know a good deal about cloth they them- selves spun and wove, have grown more ignorant. Have we not, all of us, seen our mothers place a wet finger under the table- cloths they were buying, to see if they were pure linen? That is a perfectly good test with hand-spun linen; but it is a dull manufacturer who can't circumvent a wet finger. We need both 270 SELECTED ARTICLES the training of the schools and the Government guarantee to buy cloth wisely. It is no longer enough that cloth should be all wool and a yard wide — that means little. Even pure wool, when it is short and stiff, or soft and weak, is a poor purchase ; that there are qualities of cloth in which the warp and weft are so uneven in weight that the heavy threads pull the light ones, and the cloth wears itself out; that there are weaves in which certain threads are so exposed that they break and leave a rough surface. All tests of "pure wool" cloth ! But this is only a small part of the study of woolen fabrics, only a preliminary to establishing the standards of quality and price for the benefit of the consumer. Into these standards enter conditions of cloth production in the factory, wages paid opera- tives, taxes paid the Government, "Schedule K," freight rates, and the costs of selling the finished product. Nor is this train- ing in textiles limited to general principles. It applies itself to such definite things as blue serge and black broadcloth, and other standard products. Students of the science of consumption have determined that, under existing conditions of wool production, price of labor and tariff, the lowest cost for blue serge fifty-four inches wide and of efficient quality is a dollar and a half a yard, and that the lowest cost of a similar quality of black broadcloth is nearly three dollars. Will not the trained consumer who has thoroughly assimilated these facts realize that when either blue serge or black broadcloth is offered for a less price it is not all wool, or is wool of poor quality, or damaged, or "mill ends," or remnants? Of course we recognize that both good and inferior cloths have their legitimate uses if the consumer is neither de- ceived as to their quality nor overcharged. There is no reason why the law should prohibit their manufacture as it may well prohibit the manufacture of adulterated foods and drugs. All that the consumer needs is to be protected by an honest label. How could the world get along without "shoddy," for instance, a cloth made from odds and ends of wool fiber, usually fiber that has been used before, when the present production of new wool is not nearly equal to the demand? But the student has got to be taught that even these standards of quality are not absolute things. The perfect buttonhole may be produced at such a cost of time and labor that it is for the general advantage to use the commonplace hook and eye. It is not a question whether we can individually afford to pay in VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 271 money for hand-made lingerie, but whether the community can afford the expenditure of so much eyesight and time and thought to make what is perhaps a superior product, but for which there is an approximate substitute ; for are not things expensive to the community even when we make them ourselves? Besides knowing what is for the advantage of the community and being able to recognize quality when one sees it, it is the work of the consumer to see that what the comunity needs is produced. Can one eat eggs, however wholesome, in a land where no hens are? I listened to one domestic science teacher who seemed to set me right between the covers of "Our Mutual Friend," where Dickens tells how "Mrs. John Rokesmith, who had never been wont to do too much as Miss Bella Wilfer, was under the constant necessity of referring for advice and support to a sage volume entitled 'The Complete British Family House- wife.' But there was a coolness on the part of the British Housewife that Mrs. J. R. found highly exasperating. She would say 'take a salamander,' or casually issue the order 'throw in a handful of- — something entirely unattainable. In these, the Housewife's glaring moments of unreason, Bella would shut her up and knock her on the table, apostrophizing her with the com- pliment, 'Oh, you are a stupid old donkey! Where am I to get it, do you think?" A good many instructors — far be it from me to call them what Bella did — entirely ignore the difficulties of getting the "salamander." Inextricably mixed up with learning how to get produced the things one wants is learning how to secure them after they are produced. The consumer must be trained to remove the ob- stacles between himself and the thing he needs. These obstacles are usually matters of cost — cost and its contributing causes, transportation, the exploitation of public utilities, the smothering of useful patents, and the arbitrary limiting of useful manufac- ture. From all over the country come letters full of the same things that are in the contributors' columns of the papers and magazines. "Eggs cost sixty cents a dozen, so we use rice in- stead." "Electric current for heating is so expensive that we still burn coal." "I would like to send Harold to college, but it costs so much that I cannot afford to." "Do not use butter in making pastry, for, though the flavor is better, the cost is very much more." The consumer and those who advise him take prices as final 272 SELECTED ARTICLES things, as representing the true cost plus a fair profit, whereas in reality — Now the trained consumer knows that there is no fuel like electricity, so clean, so reliable, so easily controlled ; but the better trained she is, the more certainly she knows that she is as much cut off from using it as though it were ambergris. Why? Because it varies in price from ten to nineteen cents a kilowatt-hour. I have just called up the contract department of the Commonwealth Edison Company, of Chicago, and found that the net rate for family use is ten cents, exactly the same as in New York City. But the people of the region have taxed them- selves to build a drainage canal, a property now belonging to the people, which has developed 125,000 horse-power, about 100,000 horse-power of which is available. This, in the form of electric current, at the very lowest estimate, is worth about $2,000,000 a year. Some experts reckon it to be worth ten times that. A small thing, but their own, and what could it not do if turned into the kitchens of Chicago at cost? Does that ten cent a kilo- watt-hour rate have to stand? Is it wise to teach the consumers that it is a Heaven-fixed obstacle to good housekeeping? They broke down the $1 per 1,000 feet gas limit in New York City, the car-fare rate in Cleveland, and the freight-rate limits in V/is- consin ! I was talking with a woman from Sun Prairie, a small Wis- consin town in the midst of a dairy district. "Oh, yes, I cook with electricity," she said. "It does cost a good deal now, because, you see, the plant is just new and we haven't paid for it yet." "Paid for it?" She looked at me for a moment in uncomprehending surprise, then smiled her amusement. "Oh, it belongs to the town, you know. We pay a good price for the current now — almost as much as they do in the city ; but as soon as we have paid for our plant we shall get it at cost, and then it'll be the cheapest thing we could use." This, of course, is on the basis of a municipally owned plant — a small one, that is supposed to be more costly to run than a larger one. The University of Illinois, in a pamphlet written by Mrs. E. Davenport, has worked out the cost of equipping a single coun- try house — one that can be sufficiently lit b}' thirty tungsten burners — with an electric plant of its own. The cost of buying VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 273 and installing this plant is approximately $600, the cost of main- tenance from eight to ten dollars a year, and the cost of the electricity so produced is five cents a kilowatt-hour. Now of course Mrs. Davenport's plan involves electricity at a low voltage to be tised for lighting only; but the country consumer who has refused to consider the kerosene lamp as final may well refuse to let the coal range obstruct her efficiency. Aren't the problems of electric hght and electric heat Siamese twins? Certainly it is part of the consumer's job to perform an eco- nomic steeple-chase over the fences and the ditches and hedges that are between her and the things that it is for the advantage of the community that she should have and it should be part of her education to practice her in economic hurdle- jumping. I have been talking with Miss Snow, head of Household Arts work in the Chicago public schools. "If this instruction in housekeeping," said she, "were nothing but teaching the children to cook and clean and wash and do all the other things that are done in the home, I shouldn't be very much interested in it. As I see it, Domestic Science is a train- ing in the valuation of life relations. It concerns itself with government and politics and business and health and capital and labor and the social setting of them all. It is really training the consumer to live." And to live is to consume ! In the public schools, where the courses are comparatively elementary, the relations between life and the specific studies are not difficult to establish. Housekeeping, even the larger housekeeping which is not pro- duction, is but a small part of this science of consumption which can operate quite as directly upon a memorial statute at Wash- ington as upon a can of beans. Consumption is our one universal function, and through it we have power and happiness and progress, or retrogression and spiritual and bodily death. Some of us already know what we want to consume and how to get it, but it takes an educated social vision to see the needs of the race and how to satisfy them. Is there any bigger work for the universities, the colleges, and the public schools than to train consumers to this end? 274 SELECTED ARTICLES BUSINESS OF HOME-MAKING' When vocational training began to be emphasized in the schools it was inevitable that the business or industry of home- making should be examined for teaching content. It occupies the time and energy of the majority of women, its success or failure has a vital connection with the welfare of us all, and there is increasing discontent with inefficiency in home-making. No longer can we think of homes as independent units, where the family may do as it chooses, but rather the home must demon- strate that the sum total of all the family activities, the final resultant of the family life, is an acceptable share in the larger community life. Modern industrialism has taken most of the gainful produc- tive processes from the family group, forcing the man partner in the family out of the home to gain an income, depriving the woman partner of her former share in these processes, and leaving her a work in the home which has to do with the con- sumption of goods, a work formerly shared by the man. It is important to note how this separation of the two part- ners has affected the home life. The loss to both man and woman of the companionship and interested assistance of the other during the long hours of productive labor is not made up by a companionship during those periods given over mostly to re- cuperation. If division of production and consumption is to remain and both the partners of the home cannot equally partici- pate as producers of income and directors of consumption, it is essential to the continued satisfaction in the partnership, to re- tain this mutuality of functioning as much as the free time of the father partner will permit. Those are the most satisfactory occupations which give him a reasonable freedom for the cultiva- tion of the home life. He must first satisfy the demands of the work producing the income, but where the family is deprived of the father's personal assistance in the home life, it cannot have as great a home spirit and happiness as would result from the combined personality of both parents; in, addition there is the reaction affecting the spirit and efficiency of the mother. * By Mrs. Harvey M. Hickok, Stanley College, Minneapolis. National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education. Proceedings 9th Annual Meeting, 19 16. 1 1 :^ u. 1 — — ■9 /eols-Xiici. /oot/op yjjnqj M jp -s-qn/j loopp ijountjj 9-fU3W^S3AUI 4dfpng: ^^^^vs/ea Spu003£i A/iea SpUODS£L uoifepueg soi^a^aia spooj ^UII^IO/J S3SSSDOJ(j sFuiijSiujnj ■/anj ss-no/-/ >3 4o 5 't^ ^•5-.^^ S^ 1 ^lujej I ss>nof/ ^i^i'iPO S/IS-US^fJ s-uos-Jiy .276 SELECTED ARTICLES American conditions are demanding expert service as relates to the consumption of economic goods. American people have become expert as producers of incomes, but our increasing popu- lation and the lessening of natural resources even before the enormous waste of the great European war, have focussed serious attention on the use we make of the goods produced, we are beginning to make some progress in the economy of spending. The average American family must succeed in demonstrating its family right to purchase goods as it pleases, to direct its own consumption, or it may wake up to find its mem- bers involved in a species of slavery, where the same competent brains of the successful employer, now deciding what rewards are due the workers in production, will also decide how and for what these workers may spend their earnings. Since the father must go outside the family to produce the goods to consume, or their equivalent called income, the mother, left in the home, must adjust the family consumption to modern conditions, if the family is to have a safe solvent basis on which to build its family life. And the woman must be trained for her business. It is no more possible for a woman to manage a household instinctively than for a man to succeed in a business of which he knows noth- ing. Is there a more important subject before the educational world in America today than the type of education necessary to produce the well trained home manager or expert on the con- sumption of goods? Where this preparation is not utilized in the position of home manager of the smaller family unit, an ex- tension or specialization of some part of her training will be found a most acceptable community service and subject her the least to open competition with men now engaged in the usual productive activities. Despite an almost constant opposition of the woman manager in the home to the efforts of the educator to gather teachable material, the secrets of the household have been brought bit by bit into the schools, the material itself has become more and more comprehensive, and man} of the cherished traditions formerly held sacred in maternal conclave have been reduced to scientific formulae or openly disproved. There still remain out- posts of investigation, of course. Among these is the formula- tion of the facts regarding home Finance, actual investigation of which is openly resented by the majority of home managers. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 277 But education, by the schools and the public press, is establishing definite ideas as to what is efficient family living and increasing emphasis is being laid on the economic functions of the mother partner as well as of the father partner, in order to insure family solvency and escape that bankruptcy, termed divorce. Can these functions of the woman partner, the comptroller of consumption, be so formulated as to be a basis of a definite teaching program to fit women for the business of home-making either in the typical family of father, mother and children, or in some form of an "associated group?" One vital condition is that the formulation must also appeal to the experienced home- maker, the woman already on the job; that is, it must include possibilities for continual i an classes to be offered to adults. The following analysis of the work of the woman in the home suggests such a formulation. The chart accompanying this article represents this analysis in a graphic form. No attempt is made to analyze the duties of the father in order to secure an income. The dotted lines on the chart indicate what home duties he can best share considering the time and energy left by his outside work. Preliminary also to the analysis it is important to note what is meant by "family solvency" and "family resources." "Family solvency is that condition arising from a wise adjust- ment of all the family resources where the family is able to meet all its immediate obligations, and in addition is conserving enough capital to warrant a reasonable assurance that future obligations will be met, and is also able to effect such transition into the succeeding generation of families as will insure a continuity of the best in race and family heritage." "It must also be under- stood that family resources include not only the income con- tributed by any member of the family from outside sources, but also all services and differences in value which any member may add to raw material before it is acceptable for family con- sumption, and also all those services and added values to com- munity life contributed by any member and thus discharging family obligations to the community group. Those families, none of whose members assist in the upbuilding of the commu- nity life, beyond the securing of their own safety and comfort, are not meeting all their 'immediate obligations,' and are allow- ing other families to pay their bills to that extent." There are seven main functions to be executed by the woman 278 SELECTED ARTICLES partner in the home. First she must be a good "purchasing agent." She must understand and remember shifting market conditions, the nutritive values and costs of pure food stuffs, the wearing, sanitary, and aesthetic values and costs of fabrics, furniture, utensils, and housing. The family needs are so diversified that expert knowledge of many different goods, milk and shoes, furniture and meat, underwear and fuel, is demanded of the woman home purchasing agent. She must know exactly how much she can spend and for what physical demands of the family can be afforded, a distributed system, where each kind of pur- chase has its own allotment of the total income, will be found to yield the most data for satisfactory comparisons. A tentative budget may be drawn up, combining the past demands of that particular family and the best practice found workable in other similar families. After a conscientious adherence to this budget for a year, or through the seasonal changes, a more permanent budget may be worked for that family. Definite training in pur- chasing is an essential for the woman director of consumption. Where she fails as purchasing agent, extraordinary efficiency must be displayed by the father of the family or insolvency of the family will result. Where the man partner attempts to sup- ply this deficiency, either by trying to earn more than he nor- mally can produce or by being the purchasing agent himself, it may result in using just that amount of energy needed to turn the scale in his business affairs. Second ; the mother partner must be a producer of "Finished Goods" from raw materials. The preparation of foods from food stuffs, of clothing and furnishings from fabrics, the num- berless services connected with an acceptable arrangement of these finished products for consumption, and the continuous cleansing processes demanded in the modern home, constitute most of the physical labor to be accomplished by the home part- ner. A knowledge of the fundamental principles of nutrition in relation to food combinations, is more important than an ex- haustive knowledge of the old time empirical formulae known as recipes. It is not likely that the production of cooked foods will disappear from the household. The physical difficulty of producing heated foods in a satisfactory condition requires the close proximity of the consumer. No such necessity compels the maker of finished clothing or furnishings to be near the VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 279 consumer. Therefore these productive processes have largely left the home. But the cleansing processes we shall have with us always, and where their physical labor can be reduced by household machinery, the woman manager will have more time and energy for other important functions. All the productive processes in the home are facilitated by the application of the principles of scientific management. There are many home-makers who are "forehanded" in their work. All the dozen or so principles of efficiency taught by Mr. Emer- son and others have been practiced for years by the efficient manager in the home, although she may not have called them "standardizing," "routing plans," "time schedules," "dispatching," "efficiency rewards," etc. When one adds that it is the business of the "producer of finished goods" in the home to employ, train, superintend, and suitably reward all domestic labor, an additional emphasis is laid on this part of the home partner's work. Whatever she knows of psychology, and pedagogy, sociology and ethnology, in addi- tion to productive processes, will find an extended field for appli- cation. The solution of the domestic labor problem is a woman's job, and if it is ever to be accomplished in America, the cus- tom and usages, as to duties and privileges of the household worker must be standardized. This means a co-operation and consensus of opinion of the women employing labor in their homes. Standardization is as important in home work as in any outside industry, and I see no reason why it cannot be accom- plished by women. So far women managers tend to make their own laws and customs without regard to establishing standards. Until competent and intelligent women can feel some security and dignity in domestic service, they cannot be expected to enter it, even if the net income and comfort exceeds their present rewards in shop or factory. Third, it is the duty of the mother in the home to conserve the family health. The beginnings of prophylaxis or prevention of disease, includes a conscientious adherence to prescribed food schedules. The close relation between dietetics and food prep- aration is indicated on the chart, also the connection between sanitation and all cleansing processes. Home sanitation will de- termine the limits of family neglect, but within these limits the family is responsible for its own health. Family safety from 28o SELECTED ARTICLES communicable disease demands active interest in all questions of neighborhood sanitation, especially the disposal of waste. It is important that the father in the family lend his interest and assistance in these outside community problems. An important part of the work of the "Home Conservor of Health" is the recording of the regular examinations made by physician and dentist. Although the school is beginning to sup- ply this service for the children, it is just as necessary to take physical inventories of the adult members of the family. The work of the woman as "Home Accountant" is perhaps the least understood and practiced in America: of any of these functions. A family cannot be in a solvent condition with no definite records as to its consumption of economic goods. A system of keeping daily purchase records can be made simple enough to fit any condition of time or skill. But whatever sys- tem is used it is essential to truthfully record the purchases made. The price of a matinee ticket or the extravagance of a useless article of personal adornment must not appear to the eyes of the trusting man partner as an extra bill for meat or sugar. Neither can the man retain the confidence of the woman partner if he makes false expense returns against the family in- come. Such transactions are as dishonest under the family roof as in any more closely watched business house. It is necessary for the complete safety of the family that monthly summaries and yearly inventories, balance sheets and budgets be worked out and agreed upon by both partners. All questions of the standards of the family life must be adjusted to the earning capacity of both family partners, if these ma- terial considerations are not to overshadow continually other phases of the family life. Also both partners should fully under- stand and agree upon the conditions governing all savings, insur- ance, properties, or other investments affecting family welfare. There is no question relating to home-making which is attract- ing more attention in America than that of home finance. What other nations have done, our suddenly realized need for our own savings, and the efforts made by Banks and other financial institutions, have induced a nation-wide campaign for the culti- vation of thrift. The 3'ear 1916 is the looth anniversary of the first Savings Bank in the United States. There is an opportunity for our banks to interest themselves more definitely in home finance as only they have the machinery to cultivate certain capacities of the "Home Accountant." VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 281 The fifth function indicated is that of "Regulator of Social Activities." One of the needs in American home life today is a centralized authority which has the power to regulate the fam- ily behavior as regards social affairs. Although a large share of the details of all plans for recreation must fall on the mother partner, it is practically impossible for her to succeed without the sympathetic support and assistance of the father, familiar with the world of men. The economic waste of over-amusement appears, not only in the excessive proportion of the income claimed by amusements, but also in the waste of time and strength badly needed for important things. A definite amusement program for the family would correlate the necessity for recreation, the conservation of time and health, and the proper budget allotment. Simple pleas- ures, open air excursions, informational trips to many places of interest can be had for the cost of carfare. A simple recreation schedule, alive and interesting, may be productive of invaluable family habits, which so largely determine that complex thing we call social standing. One of the most satisfying functions of the mother manager is the teaching of her children. The mother teacher has a wealth of the most interesting material and the advantage of the first six years in the child's life. It is important that definite working plans be made for the study and play periods. Better direction of the child's home activities would make more frequent the really natural attainments now so often called exceptional and precocious. Both parents are responsible for a complete union of the child's activities in the home with those of the church, school or recreation center. Emphasis should be laid on training the ideality of childhood. The child who has had an opportunity to live in an imaginative world at the time when he was acquiring many of the facts of a material existence and has learned to idealize common things, has an ability to soften the sterner realities of life. Thought habits about fairies and other good invisible forces may also lead to a basic comprehension for religious faith. Also whatever parents desire their children to preserve of family traditions of race and heritage must be taught as a supplementary education to that given in church, school, or civic center. Finally, the woman partner is almost wholly responsible for creating the home atmosphere, that intangible resultant of the 282 SELECTED ARTICLES phj'sical, mental, and moral states, that pulling together of all the family effort to reach the proper home spirit. This crown- ing success of the woman's effort must have the foundation of successful performance, either personally or directed, of all the other functions. The thing which lives the longest in the memories of the succeeding generation is the home atmosphere, a subtle pervading influence, giving confidence and sympathy for living and work, reacting on family ambition and loyalty, and is the outward ex- pression of family happiness. VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE THE FIRST JOB' Nearly all of us have learned to think of vocational guidance dynamically — that is, in terms of growing children emerging into a changing social and economic environment. The many surveys that have been made, and those now in course, need to be converted into machinery for giving continu- ous information about children and about industry, and about the changes taking place. We need to know week by week (and we shall know when we realize the need) the number of children — say, up to eighteen years — who go to work, and the nature of the work; and the number of juveniles discharged from work, and for what reasons. And we need to know what becomes of those who remain at work. The most favorable point for the establishment of such ma- chinery seems to be in connection with the compulsory school attendance laws, or with the juvenile labor laws. In Ohio, Wis- consin, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Indiana, Pennsylvania and some other states it is possible to make the issuance of work- permits a means for the automatic and continuous registration of most significant facts, not only in the regulation of juvenile labor, but in the guidance of educational policies. Pennsylvania last year gave her administrative officers a splendid opportunity; we are waiting for some power to give them the vision to use it. Juvenile placement service should be more directly joined to the schools, on the principle that a child should be under official surveillance until he is safely on his feet; and to the agencies that are cognizant of changing economic conditions, on the prin- ciple that the public must guard its children against exploitation. The more fundamental needs are those that the school has to meet. First of all, it is necessary to reorganize our curricula and our administration into a more flexible system, to the end that the teachers may be able to utilize the conduct and the perform- 1 By Benjamin C. Gruenberg. Survey. 37:370. December 30, 1916. 284 SELECTED ARTICLES anco of tlie pupil day by day, whether in the class-room, labora- tory, shop, studio, gymnasium or extra-curricular activities, as in- dications of the pupil's further needs in the way of opportunity for instruction, or training or self-expression. More and more schools are introducing special activities calculated to develop vocational ideals and vocational purposes. Normal schools and teachers' colleges must prepare teachers with the information and the viewpoint and the ideals required for the successful modification of instruction. Vocational guidance means directed educational evolution of living organisms ; it therefore requires tlie services of men and women who have the experimental intellect, the technique, social vision atid s>nnpathies. VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE' The present time seems to be opportune for taking account of the significance of the vocational guidance movement. If intelli- gently evaluated and directed, it has great possibilities for the improvement of our systems of public education. On the other hand, it may fail in its beneficent purpose altogether if these pos- sibilities are overestimated, if irrational methods are employed, or if impossible results are promised. Like most new movements, its chief dangers lie in the ex- travagant claims of its too-zealous promoters on the one hand, and the unreasoning skepticism of the ultra-conservatives in edu- cation on the other. Somewhere between tiiese two extremes will be found a reasonable vocational gT-iidance program which is receiving the attention and gaining the respect of a large number of progressive educators. For example, there are those who appear to believe that it is easily possible to develop a system of character analysis by means of which marked vocational aptitudes can be discovered or equally marked incapacities can be detected and pointed out. Such advocates of vocational guidance deprecate any attempt to counsel youth until a complete and adequate method has been worked out by trained specialists, and they point out the grave dangers which attend an "unsoientihc" plan of guidance. They * By Frank M. Leavitt. School Review 23:48^-3. September, 1915. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 285 generally demand an equally thorough study of vocations and feel that the information thus gained should be systematized and prepared for use before any vocational guidance should be at- tempted. On the other hand there are those who, seeing the great diffi- culty of carrying out the plans of these extremists, and being quite w^illing to delay action and to justify the schools as they are, deny both the possibility and the necessity of vocational guidance as a school function. Between these extremes will be found many progressive school men who are proceeding on the assumption that the pub- lic-school system should articulate with life at many more points than it now does ; points well distributed between the professions at one extreme and the humblest vocations at the other. While they appreciate the contributions which scientific study can and will make, ultimately, to the movement, these progressive educa- tors see great need of immediate action, and they are proceeding accordingly. Details cannot be discussed here, but, speaking generally, these educators are working on the theory that vocational guid- ance is not a new function of education, but rather an old func- tion which needs liberal extension. This extension, furthermore, lies within two well-defined fields, the first being curriculum en- largement or adjustment, and the second, educational super- vision of those who have left the regular schools. The first leads naturally to the establishment of new voca- tional courses, the revision and adaptation of old ones, and the necessary "educational" guidance which will enable the pupil to choose intelligently from the rich educational offerings. The second leads, quite as naturally, to the establishment or improvement of evening schools, compulsory day continuation schools, and the inauguration of what the English term "regis- tration"; that is, the school employment office or "placement bureau." All this may be designated as employment supervision. We are of the opinion that curriculum improvement and em- ployment supervision, while they cannot solve all problems, will go far to meet the present demand for vocational guidance in the schools. Indeed, as was affirmed some years ago, "vocational guidance means guidance for education, not guidance for jobs," though "jobs" may be the ultimate goal. Therefore school offi- cials, even though they cannot command a vocational survey by 286 SELECTED ARTICLES trained investigators, should take an active part in the vocational guidance movement, for, surely, all who are genuinely interested in the full unfolding of the American system of popular educa- tion are hoping that the movement will prove to be, not a mere eddy in the stream, but a real quickening and broadening of the whole educational current. VOCATIONAL INFORMATION FOR PUPILS IN A SMALL CITY The course in vocational information in the Middletown, Connecticut, High School is divided as follows : the first is a careful consideration of the importance of vocational informa- tion, the characteristics of a good vocation, and how to study vocations ; the second and main part is a detailed treatment of some eighty or ninety professions, trades, and life-occupations grouped under agriculture, commercial occupations, railroading, civil service, manufacturing, machine and related trades, the en- gineering professions, the building trades, the learned profes- sions and allied occupations, and miscellaneous and new open- ings ; and the third and concluding part of the course is a prac- tical, thoroughgoing discussion of choosing one's life-work, securing a position, and efficient work and its reward. Unfortunately, although there are many excellent reference books, bulletins, etc., there seems to be as yet no one suitable book which the pupils can use as a basal text. Here may I be allowed to make a confession? Owing to the difficulties en- countered in assigning the lessons, for two years we suspended our work in vocational information, hoping to find a thoroughly satisfactory textbook, or perhaps to wait for the publication of such a one, but, while we know of a manuscript that we think would just fill the bill, we are through with waiting and are making the best use we can of the texts already at hand. We have found the following books fairly satisfactory as com- panion texts when supplemented by considerable collateral read- ing : Careers for the Coming Men, by Whitelaw Reid and others ; What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living? by Charles F. Wingate; ^ By W. A. Wheatley, Superintendent of Schools, Middletown, Connecti- cut. School Review. 23:175-80. March, 1915. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 287 and Starting in Life, by Nathaniel C. Fowler, Jr. Among the best reference works for the pupils the following are worthy of mention: the vocational booklets published by the Vocation Bureau of Boston and by the Students' Aid Committee of the High School Teachers' Association of New York City; many free bulletins issued by the federal and various state governments and by the International Correspondence Schools ; catalogues, bulletins, and pamphlets of colleges and of trade and professional schools; many trade journals; and a series of ten volumes on Vocations edited by William DeWitt Hyde. In studying each of the vocations we touch upon its healthful- ness, remuneration, value to society, and social standing, as well as upon the natural qualifications, general education, and special preparation necessary for success. Naturally, we investigate at first hand as many as possible of the vocations found in our city and vicinity. Each pupil is encouraged to bring from home first- hand and, as far as practicable, "inside" facts concerning his father's occupation. Local professional men, engineers, business men, manufacturers, mechanics, and agriculturists are invited to present informally and quite personally the salient features of their various vocations. And here, since these experts, not being teachers, would otherwise be likely to miss the mark completely and present phases of their work of little interest or value to the pupils, each speaker has explained to him carefully beforehand the purpose of the course in vocations and specifically just what is desired in his particular address. In order to make this presentation of our course in vocational information just as concrete and understandable as possible, I shall now outline for you two typical lesson plans in two rather separate departments of the vocational field; one is on the poultryman and the other on the mechanical engineer. Also, let me remind you that our work so far has been adapted to the boys only; a little later I shall speak of our recent beginnings for the girls. The lesson plans now follow. A Lesson Plan on the Poultryman Note. — This lesson may be completed in from one to three days, the treatment depending upon the particular locality and the needs and interests of the class. The setting of the lesson. — Before taking up the poultryman, the class has had a good introduction to general farming and has stressed the im- portance of agriculture, the nature of this Sort of work, present social ad- 288 SELECTED ARTICLES vantages, remuneration in money and otherwise, qualifications and educa- tion desirable, and starting and succeeding in agriculture. The pupils have also completed, in specializing farming, the stockraiser and the dairyman and, as soon as they have finished this lesson outlined on the poultryman, they will study the market gardener, the fruit-grower, and, more briefly, other miscellaneous agricultural workers, such as the nurseryman, the seedsman, the beekeeper, the veterinary, etc. Lesson assignments preparatory to the recitation. — All members of the class have been assigned a lesson in their textbook on vocations, or, possibly, in several such books. The class, as individuals or in small groups, has been directed to several farmers' bulletins, issued by the United States and various state governments, to the agricultural yearbooks of the last three or four years, catalogues of agricultural colleges, and if possible to at least one book and one magazine of the following: Down-to-Date Poultry Knowledge, by F. W. DeLancey; Farm Poultry, by G. C. Watson; Principles and Practice of Poultry Culture, by J. H. Robinson; and the monthly periodicals, the Poultry Fancier and the Egg Reporter. Two or three members of the class, especially interested in this vocation, have been directed, as special assignments, to interview any local poultry- raisers or dealers in eggs and dressed poultry in order to report to the class such items of interest as the following: how many hens these men raise or sell in a year; how many dollars worth of business they transact; what breeds they find most satisfactory; whether eggs or dressed poultry pay bet- ter; whether most of the poultry products consumed in town are raised near by or at a distance; whether the poultry business locally is overdone or offers an attractive opening for young men; how much capital would be necessary to make a fair start, etc. From their books, bulletins, and periodicals the pupils get vocational facts of a more or less general character, while from the raisers and dealers interviewed they are able to get first-hand, concrete, localized information. The class exercise or recitation. — The pupils will learn that the eggs produced and the poultry found on the farms by the United States census enumerators in 1910 were worth as much as the ^heat crop, or about $620,000,000; that the great egg-producing section of our country is the Mis- sissippi Valley and that this product is not raised by expert poultrymen at all but by general farmers as an incidental or side production; that the scien- tific poultryman makes his profits by keeping better breds of hens, whether for egg-laying or meat purposes, in more efficient handling, or care, of fowls to secure greater returns, and in wiser methods of marketing his products. Of course, they also learn something of the nature of poultry- raising and what qualities and education are desired of the prospective poul- tryman, as well as how one might enter this work and how succeed in it. In this connection, they will investigate and discuss some of the many advan- tages to be gained from a course in an agricultural college. The class will discuss such topics as these: the advantages and dis- advantages of making poultry-raising a distinct business rather than a branch of general farming; a comparison of eggs and beef in nutritive value and digestibility; the likelihood of poultry products serving as an increasingly important substitute for beef, pork, and mutton; the advis- ability of selling eggs by the pound rather than by the dozen; how to VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 289 produce eggs of the best quality and then how to get the best prices for them; how to test and grade eggs; how to discover the particular hens in one's flock that are the best layers; some of the best breeds for egg-pro- ducing, for meat, for general purposes; the necessary equipment for poul- try-raising, and its cost; the incubator; proper care of laying hens and of poultry for meat purposes; and which is better adapted to a particular locality — poultry-raising, fruit culture, dairying, or general farming. A Lesson Plan on the Mechanical Engineer The place and setting of the lesson. — The treatment of the mechanical engineer in the textbook will be found in the chapter devoted to the engi- neering professions. Before this particular lesson is taken up the class has already studied a general introduction to the whole field of engineering, touching upon the history, the general division into civil and military engi- ineering, and the inestimable services this group of men has rendered and continues to render mankind in relation to inventions, manufacturing, trans- portation, communication, conservation, sanitation, etc., instancing such tri- umphs as the telegraph, the modern printing press, an automobile factory, the Simplon Tunnel, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Panama Canal, reclamation of western land, etc. Next there was considered in brief outline a general scheme of the work performed by each of the following engineers: the civil engineer, the municipal and sanitary engineer, the mechanical engineer, the elec- trical engineer, the mining engineer, the metallurgical engineer, the indus- trial chemist, and the architectural engineer. After completing this general survey of the engineering field, the class treated in detailed fashion the callings of the civil engineer and of the municipal and sanitary engineer. The pupils are now ready to undertake this lesson on the mechanical en- gineer, which we are about to outline, and they will make a similar detailed study of the remaining five engineers, whose general scheme of work we have already surveyed, and thus they will complete the chapter on the engineering professions. Lesson assignments preparatory to the recitation. — So much for the setting of the lesson on the mechanical engineer. In preparation for the class exercise or recitation the whole class is asked to review the general scheme of the work of the mechanical engineer and to study the new sec- tion in their textbook or books dealing with the nature of this special branch of engineering; its advantages and disadvantages as a life-calling; the re- muneration at the start and in a man's prime; the opportunities for regular temployment and advancement; and the natural qualifications, the general education, and the special training required. The entire class, as individuals or in small groups, has been assigned special topics in such free bulletins as Graduates and Their Occupations, pub- lished by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Suggestions concerning the Choice of a Course in Engineering, issued by the Carnegie Institute of Technology; Announcement of the Co-operative Courses of the University of Cincinnati; Mechanical Engineering, by the International Correspondence Schools; in such catalogues as those of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology, Columbia School of Mines, Cornell University, etc. ; in such books as Goddard's Eminent Engineers, and McCullough's Engineering as a Vocation; 290 SELECTED ARTICLES and, if possible, in at least two of the periodicals, Popular Mechanics, Scien- tific American, Engineering Magazine, and Engineerittg News. One or two of the pupils especially interested in this vocation should interview some near-by mechanical engineer in order to report to the class some such items of interest as the following: what work this engineer is engaged in at present; what he considers the greatest piece of mechanical engineering in the neighborhood; how he ranks his branch of engineering with the others; what natural or native qualifications he considers of great- est value to the prospective engineer; what subjects in high school he con- siders of most importance for his calling; would he advise the regular technological course or the co-operative school and shop course; does he consider mechanical engineering an especially attractive profession, etc. While studying this branch of engineering, or some other, it would be well to secure a practical, successful engineer to talk to the class informally about any phases of his profession or experiences he has had that would prove of especial interest and value to the study. The class exercise or recitation. — During the recitation the class might discuss such topics as: which of the three engineers so far studied in detail renders society the greatest service; which one is most necssary to your par- ticular community; which one's work seems perhaps the most attractive; what natural qualifications, what general education, and what special training are absolutely necessary for success in this profession; what subjects should constitute the best high-school course preparatory to this profession; what subjects the best technological schools demand for entrance; what are the advantages and the disadvantages of preparing for this profession in a co- operative school and shop course; what kind of work during summer vaca- tions would serve best in trying out a boy's aptitude for mechanical engineering; what is the difference between an expert machinist and a mechanical engineer; what is a contracting mechanical engineer, etc. We have just introduced a similar course for girls the second half of this year and are using as texts Lasalle and Wiley's Vocations for Girls, Weaver's Vocations for Girls, and Perkins' Vocations for the Trained IVonian, directly supplemented by the dozen or more pamphlets isued by the Appointment Bureau of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union of Boston, Massachusetts. When we consider that such a course in vocational informa- tion is practicable everywhere, that it is inexpensive, and that besides being intrinsically interesting to the pupils it actually gives them greater respect for all kinds of honorable work, helps them sooner or later to choose more wisely their life-work, con- vinces them of the absolute necessity for a thorough preparation before entering any vocation and holds to the end of the high- school course many who otherwise would drop out early in the race, should we then apologize when we urge upon educators and the tax-paying public that this branch of vital human knowl- VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 291 edge be given a place in all our high schools, especially when it will require only as much time as commercial arithmetic or geography, or one-half as much as algebra, or one-sixth as much as German or French, or finally one-eighth as much as Latin? Let us not forget that there are already fifty American cities and towns giving their youth some form of systematic voca- tional guidance. These have done the hard pioneer work; why can we not increase the number to five hundred within a year or two and then make it general within five years? We can easily effect this, if every earnest educator will do his part in his own school system. VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE IN BOSTON^ There is much in our present industrial, social, and democratic environment which emphasizes this function of guidance in the schools. In our present social scheme, among other factors, it is the danger of the omission of the principle which has given the principle no little importance, for in our ills today we are impressed with the necessity of prevention of ailment rather than the curative treatment of it. Specifically illustrated, we no longer wait until a boy has been committed to a penal institution before he is taught a trade, but we teach him a trade, among other reasons, that he may avoid such commitment. Again, there is the influence of the application of scientific principles to human factors as well as to material processes. The choosing of a vocation by the "trial and error" method seems to be as unprofitable here as elsewhere. There is too much staked on one chance, and there are so few chances to try again. The chances are always against the boy, and success means luck rather than merit. Personally, I have often felt the need of emphazing the proper mental attitude on the part of the youth toward his prospective job. Grit and courage, I believe, have more to do with success- ful adjustment to the job than special aptitude. It must be re- membered that special aptitude toward any work is frequently accompanied by painfully evident special inaptitude. The atti- ^ By Frank V. Thompson, Assistant Superintendent of Schools, Boston, Massachusetts. Vocational Guidance Association. Annual meeting, 19 14. In School Review. 23:105-12. February, 1915. 292 SELECTED ARTICLES lude toward the job is ahvajs as important as aptitude for the job. Moral attitude has seemed to count more than fortunate mental and physical gifts. What vocational counseling would have advised the youthful Demosthenes to study oratory? Vocations are less plastic than the individuals who pursue them. Individually in the job was the mark of the handicraft stage ; automatic machiner}', measured time reactions, and stand- ard products make the job comparatively inflexible. The process of adaptation is in the worker, rather than in the work. Compe- tent vocational guidance must induct young workers into the real world as it is, with all its uncompromising facts. We must not allow our boys and girls to believe that there is any royal road to vocational success, any more than to learning. Some of our present school influences are at wide variance with the main tendencies in our industrial society. The unrestricted elective system in high schools emphasizes aptitude and individualitj' out of proportion to our industrial structure, wherein co-operation, social subordination, and standardized tasks are basic principles. The few scientific tests for vocational aptitudes that we now possess give us more of concern than of promise. The voca- tional counselor wishes to know what a boy can do, more than what he cannot do. Our psychological tests are aptly called eliminative tests. They are more negative than positive ; they eliminate but do not evaluate. The practical methods to be at once adopted by vocational counselors are those which are obvious rather than obscure. The school records of pupils, if properly kept and reasonably comprehensive, furnish enough presumptive evidence upon which effective guidance can be tenta- tively based. Joint conference with the youth and his parents will give the counselor enough additional information upon which to give competent advice, for wc must remember that guidance is a different function from placement. In Boston concrete and definite plans for organized work in vocational guidance are gradually taking shape. Faster progress is prevented chiefly by a lack of funds. Most of our work at present is on a voluntary basis and, while well intentioned and often effective, still lacks the force and achievement which is the result of expert and compensated service. Our present organi- zation for carrying on vocational guidance is as follows : Each elementary school has two teachers assigned to act as official vocational counselors ; one of the teachers deals with the pupils VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 293 leaving to go to work, and the other advises pupils and parents regarding profitable choice of high-school courses. Each high school has one teacher and sometimes more assigned as coun- selors, but here counseling is limited chiefly to pupils leaving school to go to work. Several special schools, such as the Trade School for Girls and the Boston Industrial School for Boys, have provision in their organization for the appointment of special teachers known as vocational assistants, who have definite assignment of duties covering guidance, placement, and follow-up work. In the Trade Schools for Girls vocational assistants have been at work for several years past and what they have been able to achieve fur- nishes encouragement as to what may be expected as the result of the extension of the kind of service they are giving. Assign- ment of actual instruction is limited to one period and is for the sole purpose of bringing the vocational assistant and pupil to- gether for more intimate acquaintance. The chief duties of the vocational assistant may be summarized as follows : Visiting the homes of girls who are absent; visiting shops to learn of places; answering calls for employment and placing girls in shops ; fol- lowing up records of girls in shops, assisting in adjustments, and sometimes replacing girls. In addition, these vocational as- sistants are present at the school one evening a week for con- ference with working girls who are unable to appear during school hours, and lastly they keep all essential records of the girls, containing information relating to the school, the home, and the shop. Very recently the High School of Commerce has had incorporated into its organization a department head whose chief function is guidance, placement, and follow-up work. A special instructor is assigned to similar duties in the High School of Practical Arts. A general director for vocational guidance has only this year been appointed, but he is primarily an officer in the Continuation School organization, and, conse- quently, can devote the lesser part of his time to the specific problem of vocational guidance. Some description of the relation of vocational guidance to continuation schools may profitably be given at this point. When boys and girls under sixteen years of age leave school to go to work, they must secure the necessary working certificate. The process of securing the certificate involves an interview with the director of vocational guidance. From the school comes a some- 294 SELECTED ARTICLES what detailed statement covering not only what is conventionally known as the school record,' but, in addition, a detailed account 249 BOSTON PERSONAL RECORD OF PUPIL, PUBLIC CONTINUATION SCHOOLS (1914) SCHOOLS Perponal Record of First name Initial Last name School Home address District ... Suite or floor Sex Color Date of birth Birthplace Years in U.S.. Father's name Occupation Business address Mother's name Occupation Business address If either parent is not living so indicate by placing * before the parent's name Date of this record Date of leaving school Grade on leaving Teacher's name PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: Weight Height Neatness Special physical defects Remarks SCHOOL RECORD: Conduct Times present Times absent Cause of absence Times tardy Arithmetic English Geography Reading Histo y Grammar Music Spelling Drawing Manual training Sewing Cooking Penmanship Science Physical training Physiology HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECTS. Course English History Foreign language Mathematics Science Clerical Arts Domestic Arts Special talents GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS: Reliable Industrious Obedient Cheerful Courteous Has pupil initiative ? Remarks Has pupil indicated any interest vifhich should assist in the selection of an o ccupation ? If so, what interest ? What occupation ? .^^ ( Teacher i think this interest should be encouraged? Do you as J -r ^. , „ , \ ( Vocational Counselor I Parents' reference for child's work ? Previous work record Is the aid of the Placement Bureau desired ? Remarks This Record is to be forwarded to the Employment Certificate Office, 2i8 Trcmont Street, Boston, Mass. ' See accompanying card. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 295 of personal qualities, evident aptitudes or shortcomings, and home conditions. Personal conference enlightened by school information enables the director to give supplementary advice regarding the prospective job and to assign with some basis of presumptive evidence the proper course to pursue in the com- pulsory continuation school. Guidance and follow-up work are essential features of the Continuation School course, and the teachers of the school are given definite time in their progress to attend to these functions. The Placement Bureau of Boston comes indirectly into the problem of vocational guidance. This institution is not an official organization of the pubUc schools. It is conducted chiefly by private enterprise although receiving a small subvention in the way of rental from public school funds. The School Com- mittee of Boston has encouraged co-operation with this insti- tution on the part of the schools. Copies of the vocational infor- mation cards, mentioned above, are given to the Placement Bureau, which is often instrumental in finding suitable places for boys and girls leaving school. The Placement Bureau has rendered effective service in replacing boys and girls who have left positions for one reason or another. The Boston Chamber of Commerce has aided the Placement Bureau freely by urging employers to resort to the institution in looking for juvenile em- ployees. During the past few years the attempt has been made to acquaint our voluntary workers in vocational guidance with sorhe of the most important facts and conditions of industry and business. Our vocational counselors everywhere, except in certain special schools mentioned above, serve without additional compensation and also with no exemption from their regular duties. Consequently, no large demands upon their time can reasonably be expected. Business men, store superintendents, and trade experts have, from time to time, made addresses to gatherings of vocational counselors assembled from all over the city at central points. More benefit has resulted from contact with special private institutions like the Vocation Bureau and the Girls' Trade Education League. The bulletins and mono- graphs of those two organizations have been of value in furnish- ing the specific information about industry and business together with V. ages and working conditions prevailing therein, which the counselors need to know. We have been fortunate in Boston in 296 SELECTED ARTICLES enjoying close association with the Vocational Bureau which has been a central point of organization and information upon voca- tional guidance for the whole country. We owe today our vision of the possibilities and appreciation of the need of vocational guidance to the Vocation Bureau. During the current year we are trying a different method from the lecture system in acquainting our counselors with the problems and duties of guidance. We are carrying on a series of locality conferences under the charge of the director at which discussions take place concerning the way to solve problems as they originate in the schools. The attempt is thus being made to organize the experience of the members of local groups who usually are confronted with conditions rendered more or less uniform by reason of similar prevailing social and economic circumstances. As stated before, the present problems of voca- tional guidance are more obvious than obscure, but organizing the obvious is not an involuntary, automatic process, but re- quires specific and careful attention and needs completion before more developed and complex procedure may be undertaken. The functions of vocational guidance should be more exten- sive than usually conceived at the present time ; in fact, vocational guidance, in its limited sense, cannot be fully effective imless supplemented by personal, moral, and social guidance. Unless the scope of guidance is broadened we may be in danger of having its function looked upon as a sort of sublimated fortune- telling or palm-reading. We feel the need in the schools, as never before, of knowing more of the home environment and limiting circumstances of the boys and girls in our schools. But the schools at present lack organization and the means of as- suming effectively larger burdens. Quite recently one large high school in Boston has accepted the assistance of the social workers of several settlement houses in investigating cases of school delinquency and irregularities. These school visitors have been asked to go into the home to confer with parents about failure in school work, about irregular attendance, and about marked infractions of school discipline. The results have proven of great service to the teachers of the school and to the parents of the children. The teachers, more often than not, have seen that they have misunderstood the causes of failure to respond to accepted classroom standards, that what was supposed to be a moral lack was in reality something very different and VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 297 quite condonable when the real reasons had been secured. The parents, as well, have been led to see that the school is some- thing more than an unsympathetic institution making demands for conformity with regulations more legal than human. The vocational counselor, or perhaps we should say the school counselor, may properly conceive her duties as embracing quite prominently the functions indicated immediately preceding. She should know the child in the school, in the home, and in the workshop, and should be a source of guidance to the teacher in the classroom, to the parents in the home, and to the child in his several relations in the home, the school, and the workshop. It is quite natural that it should be assumed that there is a place in many schools, both elementary and secondary, in our large cities for one or more trained teachers possessing both sympathy and capacity for the problems of the counselor. The principle that vocational schools need this special service is already admitted in Boston and elsewhere. It will be illogical to deny that general schools need similar special service, for the motive today of our secondary schools is largely vocational. A large number of our boys and girls are unable to find places in our special vocational schools and resort to the general schools where they pursue special courses which promise to oifer some of the advantages of the special school. A current study into the state of commercial education in our Boston high schools reveals the fact that from 50 to 90 per cent of our pupils are enrolled in commercial courses. This means that there are in this single field thousands of bo3^s and girls in our own school system who need the special service of guidance, placement, and follow-up work. Our boys and girls are receiving this attention in part and as much as is reasonably possible under the limita- tions of the time and energy of the regular teachers, but the shortcomings of our present achievements simply emphasize the need of additional and more expert assistance if the sound, sen- sible, and long-cherished aim of our schools is to be belter realized in our day and generation. An able and influential monthly magazine contains in the cur- rent issue a bitter and brillant indictment of our American school system, comparing it disadvantageously to the systems of Swe- den and Norway, with their agricultural and technical folk schools. "We are content," our critic says, "to hang the alpha- bet and multiplication table around the child's neck and then 298 SELECTED ARTICLES send the poor thing out to educate itself." The awakening of the people and the teachers of this coun- try to the need of vocational education, vocational guidance, varied and specific educational opportunities of a great variety constitutes the best answer to the above taunt. We have not as a nation failed to hold a noble aim for education, but many will agree that we need to proceed energetically toward the adoption and extension of more effective methods of attaining our aim. THE VOCATIONAL COUNSELOR' There needs to be a man who stands like the signalman in the tower by the side of the railroad track watching for the in- coming trains and setting the switch to turn each train to a clear track. The engineer on the moving engine may know much about his own train, but he cannot know which tracks are clear and which are blocked. The towerman knows not only the needs of the train, but sees the condition of the road ahead. So the vocational counsellor, with a broad outlook upon industrial conditions and a personal acquaintance with the needs and quali- fications of the individual, though he cannot determine the life course of the youth, may help him find a clear track upon which his life trip is likely to be happy. Let me emphasize what I believe to be most important. This task of vocational suggestion is so great, and may be of so much value, that it should be undertaken by a specially qualified person who may be able to devote his whole time and interests to the work. In small communities it may be possible for the superintendent of schools or some teacher to do some of the work which might be expected of a vocational director, but usually those people have enough with their present duties. A vocational bureau, either under private management or as a branch of the public school work might well be established in every city. Such bureaus are in operation in Boston, New York, Cincinnati and in other American cities, some of them under the direction of the school department; others conducted by the Young Men's Christian Association; others under wholly private management. 1 From "Vocational Direction, or the Boy and His Job." By E. W. Lord. Annals of the American Academy. 35:sup. 73-85. March, 1910. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 299 In our schools, there should be systematic and complete rec- ords of the personal characteristics and vocational bent of every pupil. Such a record which may be passed from teacher to teacher as the pupil advances in his course to be available when he is leaving school to go to work, might be of very great assist- ance to the conscientious teacher or a professional vocational director. The vocational bureau should not be considered as an em- ployment bureau, although it may sometimes serve that purpose ; fully as often, however, its function is to prevent the applicant from going immediately to work by pointing out to him the possibilities of greater profit to himself and of greater useful- ness to society which may come from entering some more ad- vanced line of work for which he needs further preparation. It should be remembered that a vocation is not simply a job, that it means much more than that it affords an opportunity to make a living. The great mass of our people succeed in one way or another in making a living, even tho they do work for which they are ill fitted, and in which their enthusiasm and interests are not enlisted. It may sometimes be necessary for a boy to take the first job that comes to hand, even though it be wholly distasteful to him, but in that case he ought to be encouraged in preparing himself for something which will be more in harmony with his abilities and purpose. The idea of thoughtful, personal choice, and of earnest, unchanging purpose should be cultivated in every young person. The boy who has wisely made up his mind regarding the career which he should follow, as he can do after having taken expert counsel and sympathetic guidance, is likely to find an opportunity to enter his chosen vocation and to remain in it successfully; while his companion, who is merely waiting for something to turn up, and is following a purposeless round of uncongenial labor, is pretty certain never to find the chance which he vainly hopes will come to him. I do not present the suggestion of vocational direction with the idea that it will prove a complete solution of the labor problem. I recognize many difficulties in the way. It is impos- sible for us to discern particular talent in case of manj^ young people, and it may be impossible for us to find the opportunity for all to develop talents which they may show. He who under- takes the responsible position of adviser for youth must remem- ber that he is working with human beings and cannot shunt 30O SELECTED ARTICLES them upon this or that track with as little concern as the switch- man turns the freight train. The responsibility, even of advising, is great and must not be lightly undertaken ; yet I believe that we are right in undertaking it if by means of so advising and counseling the young we may be able to save some lives from wreck, and help many to better and more useful careers. THE VOCATIONAL SURVEY* The need of information concerning the vocations, particu- larly the occupations in the trades and industries, in order to plan systems of vocational training for the schools, has led to a number of surveys. The first of these was the study made by the Massachusetts Commission on Industrial Education in 1906, which was followed by similar investigations by state boards and commissions, notably that of the Wisconsin Commission on Industrial Education, and that of the Indiana Commission on Industrial and Agricultural Education. The purpose of these investigations was largely to find the need for vocational educa- tion in these lines and to consider the broad administrative pol- icies upon which through legislation the plan adopted should be based. Within the last two years large cities having the resources to meet the cost of thorough studies have carried on surveys under the direction of persons of experience, to gain the facts which would help them to get the kind of industrial or commercial or household-arts education, particularly the former, best adapted to their conditions and needs. Among these have been the stud- ies made by the Richmond Survey, the Cleveland Survey, and the Minneapolis Survey. The first and last of these were con- ducted by the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education as one of its means of serving the cause in a construc- tive way. The Society is now cooperating with the Indiana State Board of Education, and various local school boards in Indiana cities and counties, in the making of a survey for voca- tional education in various types of communities in that State; while the United States Bureau of Education is investigating the * From introduction by C. A. Prosser in H. Bradley Smith's "Estab- lishing Industrial Schools." Houghton Mifflin Co., 1916. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 301 situation with regard to vocational education in connection with an educational survey it is conducting in the city of San Fran- cisco. These surveys are predicated on the idea that they are not only a good business proposition, but that the facts they gather and the expert opinion they offer are necessary to any intelligent dealing with the many difficult problems to be met in establish- ing vocational education of any kind in the community. No competent American business man would think of estab- lishing a manufacturing concern in a new place without making a survey — a careful study of all the important features of the location of the proposed enterprise. He would want to know, for example, the location of the site with reference to a source for raw material, competent labor, and desirable markets. He would look into the physical conditions of the site, its slope, drainage, and composition. The switching facilities for moving fuel, supplies, and finished product would be carefully investi- gated. Perhaps most important of all, his decision as to locating his business would depend largely upon the desirability of the community as a place to live and rear his family. So in the same way a survey for vocational education is a wise business proposition. The community is soon to be called upon to invest money in site, plant, equipment, salaries, and sup- plies for the purpose of changing raw material in the form of untrained youths into the finished product of young men and young women equipped with the knowledge and skill to become successful wage-earners in their chosen callings. In order that neither the money of the city nor the time of its young people may be wasted, the vital facts about its vocations and its voca- tional needs should be gathered and interpreted by competent people before the school is begun. If there is any field of edu- cation or of human service where the old adage, "Look before you leap," applies with more force than in the establishing of vocational schools, the writer does not know what it is. Every community, before entering upon a program of voca- tional education, should make a preliminary study of the con- ditions to which its plan must be adapted. It may be possible for communities to borrow or copy their school organization and their courses of study for general education from other places, although this usually results disastrously. One of the most pitiable spectacles in education to-day is the rural community 302 SELECTED ARTICLES which has borrowed every feature of its work from that of a nearby city. Its manual training has no relation to country life. Its courses of study give no help to the worker in agriculture and lead away from rather than to the farm. All its work is aimed, not to prepare country boys and girls for rural life, but to prepare an occasional and lonely graduate to meet the entrance requirements of the state university. In vocational education a community cannot transport bodily any scheme from another place, however well it may seem to meet the needs of the latter. Industries differ in kind from one community to another. When of the same kind they differ in grade and therefore in their demands upon workers. They differ in such things as the entrance wage they offer, the health risk to be met, and the opportunities for better wage and promotion presented. They differ in the attitude of employers and their willingness to cooperate with the school by emplojdng its graduates on favorable terms or in employing boys on a part- school, part-shop plan. Likewise communities differ in the attitude of organized labor toward the school and toward recog- nition of the training given by the school as a part of the re- quired apprentice training. Communities vary from State to State in the age and the conditions under which a pupil may leave school to go to work. Even if communities could safely copy their scheme of vocational education bodily after that of another city, they would not get very far. Thus far industrial education for the youth has been established for a very few trades, such as machine shop, carpentry, cabinet-making, printing, electrical work, automobile repair and construction, bricklaying, plumbing, and gas-engine work, in the case of boj-s ; and dress- making, millinery, cooking, machine operating, and junior nurs- ing, in the case of girls. These fourteen lines are, after all, only "a drop in the bucket" when one considers that the last United States Census listed three hundred and eighty-six recognized oc- cupations in the industrial and mechanical industries alone. Not all occupations are worth training for, it is true. Nor can the school train successfully for all occupations, some of which must be learned "under the conditions of the trade." But it seems clear that thus far we have only crossed the threshold of our task of providing training for the vocations in industrial and mechanical lines. Vocations are to-day highly specialized, and any training for them, to be successful, must be correspond- VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 303 ingly highly specialized. The search for common elements in all the vocations, which could be given to the youth as a preparation for each and all of them, has been from the outset as certain of failure under modern conditions as the search of Ponce De Leon for the magical fountain of youth. Without precedent to guide them, upon which they may com- pletely rely in meeting the difficult and complicated and highly specialized problem of providing vocational education for its citizenship, communities must base their programs of a local study of conditions and the suggestions and recommendations of those with most experience in dealing with vocational education. Not all communities can or will provide surveys carried on bj^ outside parties. In such cases the study if made must be con- ducted by the superintendent of schools or some other local per- son. Even if communities desired a survey by so-called "ex- perts," there are few persons at the present time with experience to equip them for the task. Communities are not accustomed to pay for such investigations out of their school budget. It may be that in some States such an expenditure from the school fund is not authorized by law. Too often local self-sufficiency opposes outside interference. In many quarters of every community there is an impatience if not contempt for expert service. While the money which a community would spend for a competent sur- vey before undertaking any plan of vocational education would probably be the wisest investment it could make, communities do not always have, or at least they do not think they have, the money for such an innovation. For all these reasons, and for others that need not be given here, we may expect to see the survey, conducted by persons of experience brought in from the outside, confined, in general, to larger cities where philanthropy or an awakened public sentiment has made the establishment of vocational education on an exten- sive scale possible and imminent, and where the call for an ex- pert study is insistent. Most of the surveys for vocational education, particularly outside the largest cities of the country, will be conducted by local agencies of which in many if not in most instances the superintendent of schools will be the leader. SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL FOR SECOND EDITION WAR WORK IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION ' As the law provides they shall be, the activities of the Fed- eral Board for Vocational Education are largely cooperative. This board administers federal grants in aid of vocational edu- cation in the states, and it is at present largely engaged in providing emergency war training for conscripted men, and in organizing for undertaking national reeducation and return to civil employment of men disabled in the war. Federal grants become available each year, in amounts in- creasing from approximately $1,650,000 in 1917-18, to $7,160,000 in 1925-26 and annually thereafter, and if accepted by the states the federal grants must be matched by equal amounts of state money. In the past ten months, since the board organ- ized, all of the states without exception have accepted grants, matching federal with state money to be expended for promot- ing vocational education in the public schools throughout the country. It is a rare event when our sovereign states elect unani- mously to take any single course even when their own best in- terests point the way clearly, and the event of the forty-eight states taking unanimous action involving expenditure of state money within a brief period of ten months vmder a permissive federal statute is unique in our history. It is in itself con- clusive proof that the federal law in this instance has been wisely conceived by Congress to insure widespread social bene- fits. The law which has been thus unanimously accepted by the states is a law for democratizing our public school education, by adapting it to the needs of those who must prepare to take up the commoner wage-earning pursuits in agriculture, industry, 1 By C. A. Prosser, Director of the Federal Board of Vocational Ed- ucation. Annals of the American Academy. 79:263-70. September, 1918. 3o6 SELECTED ARTICLES or commeroe. Under the law, also, vocational education is pro- vided in continuation part-time or evening courses for those who have already entered upon some wage-earning pursuit. In the past ten months the Federal Board has organized its staff of experts in various lines, and of regional agents for in- spection of schools federally aided; has formulated its policies of federal cooperation covering the entire field of vocational education in the states for agriculture, trades and industries, and home management ; has approved state plans setting up vocational courses in each of the 48 states, and allotted federal money available under these plans for the fiscal year 1917-18; and has maintained inspection of courses as they have been established in numerous local communties. Federally aided vo- cational courses have been set up in agriculture in 41 states, in trade and industrial subjects in 32 states, and in home eco- nomics in 29 states ; 22 states have organized courses in each of these three fields ; in 46 states teacher training courses have been organized. The record of the states in this work is impressive, especially when it is borne in mind that the record covers an initial period of only ten months. In Massachusetts, for example, vocational agriculture is being taught in 19 secondary schools with federal aid; trade and industrial subjects in 36 schools; and home eco- nomics in 29 schools. In New York the number of federally aided secondary schools is for agriculture 69, and for trades and industries 40 ; in Pennsylvania, for agriculture 38, for trades and industries 131, and for home economics 69; in Cali- fornia, for agriculture 12, for trades and industries 14, and for home economics 14; in Indiana, for agriculture Zl, and for trades and industries 21 ; in Mississippi, for agriculture 34, for trades and industries i, and for home economics 3. These states are taken at random merely as illustrations of the wide- spread development of secondary vocational education. The rec- ord for other states is equally impressive. As it happens, the cooperation of the Federal Board during the past ten months has extended far beyond the scope of ac- tivities contemplated in the organic law under which the board operates. The administrative machinery built up for under- taking the joint federal and state enterprise of promoting voca- tional education in the country as a whole has been com- VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 307 mandeered for war service, — or rather, being immediately avail- able for such service, it has been freely tendered to the war ofifices and has been by them freely utilized. Ifnmediately upon its organization, the staff of the Federal Board, in compliance with the general policy approved by the board to render such assistance to the government as it might legitimately do in the emergency of war, began to take on war work. The training of conscripted men for army occupation.s was conceived to be the sort of vocational education which might most properly be promoted immediately. Under supervision of the Federal Board, war emergency training classes for con- scripted men have been organized in the public schools through- out the country. A series of war emergency ti^aining courses for army occupations has been prepared, and these courses have been adopted extensively not only for classes organized under the direct supervision of the board, but as well for classes or- ganized by the War Department among men enlisted in the army and for classes conducted on a commercial basis under private civilian control. The emergency war training bulletins of the Federal Board include emergency training courses in shipbuilding for ship- yard workers ; mechanical and technical training for conscripted men (Air Division, U. S. Signal Corps) ; training for motor truck drivers and chauffeurs ; for machine shop occupations, blacksmithing, sheet-metal working, and pipe-fitting; for elec- tricians, telephone repair men, linesmen, and cable splicers ; for gas engine, motor car, and motorcycle repair men; for oxy- acetylene welders; and for airplane mechanics, engine repair men, wood-workers, riggers, and sheet-metal workers. The prep- aration of these courses and the organization of training classes has been undertaken at the request of, and in cooperation with the Signal Corps and the Quartermaster Corps in the War De- partment, and the United States Shipping Board. Growing out of conferences between officials of the Federal Board for Vocational Education and officers of the General Staff, an arrangement was perfected late in October, with the approval of the Secretary of War, for the utilization of the edu- cational facilities of the United States by the Federal Board in cooperation with the W^ar Department for the purpose of training drafted men in various occupations prior to their re- 3o8 SELECTED ARTICLES porting at the cantonments. An order signed by the Adjutant General of the War Department under date of November 3, 1917, issued to the commanding generals of all departments and to the chiefs of bureaus, reads in part as follows : I. The Secretary of War directs that you be informed as follows: a. The Federal Board for Vocational Education, auifiorized by act of Congress, February 23, 19 17, of which Dr. C. A. Prosser is director, is now organized and is in close cooperation with the vocational schools of the country. This board is prepared to institute a comprehensive system of preliminary training of men of the second and subsequent drafts prior to their reporting at cantonments. . . . It is the desire of the Secretary of War that the chiefs of bureaus maintain close cooperation with this board, furnishing such information as to number of men desired to be trained, necessary courses, etc. For this purpose the chiefs of bureaus will deal directly with Dr. Prosser. This work has continued and the War Training Division of the Federal Board reports that on June 13, 1917, 12,000 men had been trained through the Federal Board and state author- ities for vocational education, and turned over to services — 6,000 in mechanical lines, 5,000 in radio work for the army, navy and mercantile marine, and 1,000 in clerical occupations for Quartermaster Corps work. It estimates that an additional 3,000 men have been trained by private agencies through im- petus given to the work by the Federal Board, using Federal Board courses of instruction. Incomplete reports from state vocational authorities for Maj-, return over 6,000 men in train- ing — 3,370 in radio classes, and 2,508 in mechanical classes, — and it is estitnated, on the basis of April returns, that the com- plete reports for May will show the number in training to be at least 7,500. On June 13, the May reports showed 165 radio classes operated in 38 states, and 172 mechanical classes in 49 communities in 14 states. Almost daily reports of addi- tional classes being formed were coming in from California, Wisconsin, Missouri, New York and Pennsylvania. Since the May letters were sent out urging the establishment of new classes and the continuance of those in operation, renewed activity has been reported in at least 20 states. The Federal Board war emergency training bulletins have become standard courses in corps schools, such as the Quarter- master Corps at Camp Joseph E. Johnston, Jacksonville, Florida. Of these bulletins or course outlines some 25,000 copies have been furnished directly or indirectly to the War Department Committee on Education and Special Training for use in its classes, in which the number reported in training was 7,086 in VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 309 April, 10,685 in May, and 26,666 in June. Contracts in force provided for the training of 100,000 men during the current year. This training under military control has been found necessary to provide for the needs of the army, in addition to the train- ing in voluntary classes under the Federal Board. Vocational Rehabilitation of Men Disabled in the War Even more absorbing in its appeal to the Federal Board, be- cause of the wide range given to vocational education as a means of insuring human welfare, has been the investigation of meth- ods and processes developed in the beUigerent countries for vo- cational rehabilitation of men disabled in the war. Coincidently with its organization the board initiated its inquiries in this field, and it has passed those inquiries continuously during the past ten months. No other agency of the government was pre- pared to enter this field, and the government naturally turned to the Federal Board for expert service. The enactment recently by Congress, without a dissenting vote in either house, of the Smith-Sears Act, entrusting to the Federal Board the vitally important work of reeducation and returning to civil employment men disabled in the war, is a recognition of the services of the board during the past ten months in accumulating data relating to rehabilitation work and in devising a scheme of organization for undertaking this work as our men return disabled from service. Here, also, it is pro- vided that there shall be full and complete cooperation. The several government offices concerned with the future welfare of men discharged from the army and navj^ including the medical and surgical services of the War Department and the Navy Department, the Bureau of War Risk Insurance in the Treas- ury, and the labor exchanges in the Department of Labor, to- gether with the Federal Board, will each render service in re- taining and returning to civil employment men disabled in the war. The Federal Board will act in an advisory capacity in providing vocational training for men during their convales- cence in the military hospitals before their discharge from the army or navy, and will continue such training to finality after discharge, as the civilian agency of rehabilitation and place- ment in industry. The time of the members of the board and of the director 310 SELECTED ARTICLES and his staff has been largely occupied in conferences with repre- sentatives of other federal offices, state organizations, casualty insurance companies, chambers of commerce, the Red Cross, and other associations interested in the restraining of men dis- abled in the war. Out of these conferences the original draft of the Smith-Sears law was formulated. A joint committee of the Senate and House of Representatives conducted public hear- ings upon the bill, which as finally improved passed both Houses of, Congress unanimously. This bill imposes upon the Federal Board new responsibilities which in the immediate future, at least, will be of equal importance with those imposed by the organic act creating the board. The publications of the board in this field embrace several bulletins, one of over 300 pages. In preparation for the assumption of the new responsibilities, the director, a member of the board, and representatives of the staff have visited Canadian institutions for restraining disabled men. The secretary of the Canadian Invalided Soldiers' Com- mission, Mr. T. B. Kidner, who has developed this work in Canada, appeared before the joint committee in support of the proposed legislation, and he has temporarily undertaken to assist the board in the organization of the work in this coun- try under the Smith-Sears Act. Opening a Larger Field of Usefulness A still larger field of usefulness is opened up to the Federal Board and for vocational education in general, since it is in mind that the experience gained in the work of reeducating men disabled in the war, and the administrative machinery and expert service developed for this work shall all be utilized after the war for rehabilitating the victims of industry, as well as the thousands of natural cripples who in the past have been abandoned to hopeless indigence. The Federal Board has thus undertaken to promote voca- tional education in the states, and so to promote the develop- ment of such education in the present emergency as to provide for the special needs of the war and of men disabled in the war. In each of these fields it has appeared as an adminis- trative agency of coordination and cooperation, and it has con- ceived a vision of usefulness in the future which it believes to be in a fair way of realization. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 311 These are the large aspects of the Federal Board's operation and policies during the brief period that comprehends its own organization, its entrance into entirely new fields of vocational education, its extension of service into each of the 48 states, and its preparation for the assumption of new responsibilities in rehabilitating the disabled and crippled. A survey of the past ten months warrants the conclusion that the program of vocational education is in a fair way of being realized even beyond the most sanguine hopes of those who have in the past participated in formulating that program. Education in the public schools is rapidly being democratized and adapted to the needs of our citizenship. In realizing this program the states have responded splendidly. State education authorities also responded splendidly to the appeal of the fed- eral government, through the Federal Board, to demonstrate the practical utility of vocational education in the exacting emergency of war. The institutions providing vocational train- ing for conscripted men have stood the acid test of devising schemes of training to meet the special requirements of waging war. This demonstration of social service in a great emer- gency will stand to the credit of vocational education after the war is won as fulfilling the highest ideals of its advocates, and it may confidently be anticipated that the achievements in the future, when the community returns to its peaceful pursuits, will even exceed those rendered in war time. NEW WINE IN NEW BOTTLES ' Such considerations suggest to me some working principles of organization and method, not all of which will receive unan- imous assent. I. No high school student looking forward to the university should ever be encouraged to believe that our new subjects are not for him. In fact, unless he could show that his home life, as was the case pretty generally during pioneering days, was giving him a substantial equivalent, I should prescribe one or another for him, as a human being, as a future sure-footed 1 From article by Alexis F. Lange, Dean of School of Education, Uni- versity of California. Manual Training. 19:9-12. September, 1917- 312 SELECTED ARTICLES and sure-handed thinker, and as an intelligent, systematic, co- operative citizen in a democratic commonwealth, and should thus assist him on the way toward thorobredness thru action for action. 2. No high school student whose formal schooling ends with high school graduation or before should have his chances to make a life as well as a living curtailed. We commit a crime against him if we regard him as merely an economic de- vice, a means to a livelihood, as a tool for Capital to use and to exploit, and then organize a course of study and training which prevents him from winning possession, as far as he is able, of his rightful heritage, i. e. knowledge of man and nature, art, and thought-out ideals of individual and social conduct. Then, too, unmitigated and too early specialization results in employes not in masters, in dependents, not in free men. More- over, while national progress depends on specialized skill, it depends even more on a people's general social efficiency, i. e. on the height of the plane on which the greatest possible num- ber of citizens are able to meet in thinking, feeling, and hence willing. Specialization alone is the right thing for a despotism that wants to maintain itself. 3. In organizing these new subjects for purposes of in- struction two pitfalls are to be avoided. One of them is that of trying to teach subjects instead of teaching boys and girls. Would so many students feel that the traditional subjects are not worth while if their teachers did not isolate these subjects from every human interest present or to come, except that of the professional specialist? If these teachers kept their eyes on their pupils and on the far goal of all education, would not the physics teacher recall that physics developed out of the use of tools and mechanical appliances, and the chemistry teacher that chemistry had its origin in the processes of dyeing and bleaching, and the mathematics teacher that geometry means earth-measuring? Might it not happen then that each would utilize the pupil's daily life and that of his community, and by problems of knowing and doing make him realize that the physical world is intelligible, and that man by setting thought to work has compelled Nature to serve him? Something anal- ogous to this holds for every other of the traditional subjects, even for Latin. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 313 Teaching boys and girls by means of subjects rather than subjects by means of boys and girls will prevent us from drop- ping into the other pitfall — that of making manual dexterity the Alpha and Omega instead of regarding it as a necessary re- sult or by-product. In the long run, the most practical things are always those powers and qualities that may separate human beings from trick-dogs, such as the ability to get at underlying principles and then to apply them; judgment, imagination de- veloped thru the possibilities of actual situations, courage to say no to one's self, forms of behavior that facilitate social intercourse, etc. Such powers and qualities are truly practical both in making a life and in making a living. We must see, further, I think, that each of the numerous vocations for which the new subjects may serve as foundations, means so much more than technique. Each means a mode of life. Farming, for ex- ample, does not mean raising crops or cattle. According to who and what the farmer is, it means a good or bad or an in- different business. It may mean a home, sanitary, comfortable, and beautiful ; or it may mean a pig-sty. It may mean no re- sources of thought beyond the daily labor ; it may mean a stead- ily increasing participation in the best that is being thought and said and done in the world. And so we are obviously not giving our pupils a square deal if we dissociate technical proc- esses and activities from the life implied, and the life implied from its connection with the inclusive life of the state and the nation. Moreover, while pupils are learning to apply intelligence, under expert guidance, to the arts, until recently acquired thru imitation or a rule-of-thumb apprenticeship, should they not learn also to apply intelligence to traditional or existing economic and social settings for these arts, in order that they may take with them into their vocations better ways of doing better things in the management of life as a whole? One of the special func- tions of those interested in vocational guidance might very legiti- mately and desirably be that of furnishing information con- cerning vocations as modes of life both as to what they now are and what they may be made. Our new wine, as intimated, in order to develop its full potency and characteristic flavor, requires appropriate new bot- tles. Here is a challenge and a great opportunity, be the dif- ficulties encountered ever so great. The nature and setting of 314 SELECTED ARTICLES the new subjects and their appeal to youth are such that we can do more than any one else toward making school life a con- tinuation or expression of adult community life at its best, and the starting point, directly and indirectly for its improvement. We are especially called upon to forge new links between the school and the home, the farm, the workshop, and the best community institutions for social intercourse and recreation. By and by we can perhaps — the hardest task of all — put the fear of the Lord, if not life, into the academic teacher, so-called, and assist thus in making every high school subject and the whole high school community life promote for every pupil the making of a life. The school must form a whole with the rest of life. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD WAR' The social idealism of the young people of our country has not been genuinely touched and called upon in times of peace, and we have, I think, to admit that one of the features of the war system has been that hundreds of thousands of young men have been brought to view their training and their capacity in the light of social needs and demands, in a way in which their college and technical education before that was not calling them out. At present our young people simply do not know how to see clearly the opportunities and the channels, so that their native social idealism gradually flickers and sinks for lack of a field for exercise, or is diverted into fields of business ambition where their energies get an outlet or, still worse, be-- come dissipated in the trivial channels of society pursuits. The younger citizens of our country who have not learned the full meaning of a release from the smaller things, that release which comes from a chance to take part in directing larger social activities, will respond with eagerness to any further appeal and all the more so because it is in line with the tradi- tions and occupations of our reconstructed social relation. It would be, it seems to me, hardly short of a crime if we permit ^ From article by John Dewey, Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University. Vocational Education Association of the Middle West. Bui. 4. January, 19 18. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 315 this newly stirred idealism of our youth to dissipate itself, after the war, in the colleges and beaten channels. My other suggestion is of the same nature, but applies not so much to the younger or human beings as to the branches of learning and science which have gone into the conscious service of the nation. We all know how large the organization is — we all know how large are the organized resources of the sciences of physiology, hygiene, medicine, political economy, psychology, how these sciences have been organized and mob- ilized on a large scale for national use. Now, through this fact, hundreds and thousands of scientific and technical men have learned in an intense way, and a direct way, in which they have not learned before, the lesson of social importance of their particular branch of knowledge and skill. There are for example, over two hundred youths of our country, who have been trained in our schools in the science of psychology who are immediately going to have their activities put to actual national use. That is one illustration with which I happen to be personally familiar, but it merely indicates what is going on in all lines on account of the war throughout this country. They have been given a chance to translate specialized knowl- edge into some direct public and national service. I don't think if many of the men have a chance to use their specialized learn- ing, their scientific knowledge or their artistic skill after the war in some constructive form of national service, they will be compelled to withdraw into their former aloof seclusion and continue to carry on their work in the remote over-specialized, over-technical way in which most of us were carrying it on be- fore. There is the opportunity, one might say, of the censor to gather the resources of men of science, of art in various lines, and concentrate them upon the plan of first working out this scheme and then putting it into actual execution. Surely the needs of health and happiness, of efficiency, of artistic crea- tion, of the enjoyment of leisure in times of peace, cannot be less important than securing and calling out the mobilization of these resources, under the necessities of the war situation. There is one answer, not exactly a reply, but a rejoinder to some such project as I have endeavored here to paint in its large outline, and that is the old answer : It is impracticable, for it has never been done. With respect to its practicability, 3i6 SELECTED ARTICLES I should like to ask one question : Is it practicable to continue our present scheme of social disorder and confusion and con- flict? Is that practicable, and again is it practicable to expect a more ordered and a more harmonious and peaceful type of social life in the future except upon the foundation and sub- structure of an educational system which has been framed on a large scale for this principal purpose? The nations of the world have found the capital and resources, the money by the billion, for the maintenance of the social values and standards of these countries when they were threatened with disintegra- tion by an enemy from without. It is not absurd that the re- sources and the money may not be made available nationally for a positive and constructive development, and ordering all the social values in time of peace? The nations which have been called upon to make the sacri- fices of billions of dollars and of human lives will not, I think, long remain content without demanding the expenditure of public funds on a large scale for making a more secure and a more satisfactory basis of national life. What is needed is the will, the imagination and the trained intelligence to plan that, to execute the plan. And with whatever mistakes or blunders and defects there have been in our preparation in the last four months, I think it has been demonstrated that it is possible to organize and mobilize the intellectual and moral resources of the nation in a period of national stress. Certainly we Americans have prided ourselves upon being an inventive peo- ple, an adaptable people, a people that easily and readily meets new emergencies and new inventions. Are we going to fall down when it comes to the final test of invention, the inven- tion of social methods and of social machinery? Now is the time to begin to consider this question and now is the time to begin the planning of the campaign for our after-war educa- tional activities. Now is the time indeed in which to make out our detailed plans and specifications for this large educational organization. If the educators will take upon themselves the primary responsibility for settling down to consummation and elaboration of the scheme, I am sure that they will find among the men in sciences and the men in art, painting, music, and so on, among statesmen of the country and among the larger- visioned captains of industry, a kind of cooperative assistance VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 317 which will enable a plan to be worked out so that when the days of demobilization and facing the post-war problems come, we shall not be caught inert, unprepared, going on with a policy of patching up and of muddling through till some other social catastrophe, if possible even greater than the present one, shall overwhelm us. THE EDUCATIONAL AWAKENING The idea that training to work is a very essential part of public school education has had a hard struggle to get itself a hearing. "We must not commercialize the schools," say some. "My children will never have to work," say others whose off- spring will probably squander their patrimony and have to work or steal. And schoolmen have discovered that brain work and vocational work travel faster when they go hand in hand. Moreover, the young people who must earn their living can be kept at their books longer when at the same time they are preparing for their future occupations; and the sons of the wealthy will have a saner conception of what it means to be a gentleman and will often be preserved in the ranks of honest men if they know how to earn an honest dollar. The first duty of every one is to earn his own living ; and he who can not or will not do this is a parasite upon society. We shall some daj' agree that no pupil, male or female, rich or poor, shall be graduated until he has earned a little money. And this, in the interest of democracy, self-respect, and eco- nomic independence. Those who did not already know it have learned through this war that Germany is the best organized and most efficient of European nations ; which is because each separate individual in it is thoroughly trained for usefulness. When the Kosminski school in Chicago was opened, people told each other with some surprise, that cooking and sewing were to be taught in that building. Now the school in which these subjects are not taught is the exception. Domestic arts, manual training, evening schools, technical schools,, part-time schools, and trade schools, have come into our educational sys- tem and have come to stay. Our universities now include in By Clara Kern Bayliss. Education. 38:380-4. January, igi8. 3i8 SELECTED ARTICLES their curriculi such subjects as ceramics, agricuUure, library science, civil and electrical engineering, and domestic science; and to men and women engaged in business they give short courses in banking, marketing and credits, business law, invest- ments, accounting, and salesmanship. The Gary schools are open every day in the week to old and young, from 7 a. m. till 9 or 10 p. m., and instruction is given in almost every conceivable line, from children's play to the serious activities of adults. At the Tuskegee Institute the stu- dents study and work on alternate days. At the Cincinnati Tech- nical College they get theory and practice on alternate weeks, one-half of them going each week into the shops, factories, and business houses of the city for practical experience. So general is the educational awakening that business firms are voluntarily establishing schools for their employees ; like the white goods factory in New York which has a school and con- ducts graduations within its walls to improve the efficiency of its workers; or like the telephone company of Chicago which, in a still more philanthropic spirit, has established a school for its employees so that when they become too old for their pres- ent work and its compensation, they may not be too ignorant for other employment. Perhaps nowhere else in the United States is the remark- able change in educational ideals so fully revealed as in the Gary schools and in the varied enterprises of the Los Angeles schools. In the latter the vocational inclinations of the children are observed from the lowest grade by means of what is termed "play vocations." Each little one is allowed to choose a callng and cut out pictures from catalogs and advertising matter to make an automobile scrap book, a rancher one, a dressmaker, an engineer, or a geographical one. All through the grades the tendency of each one is noted so that he may be given advice as to the calling for which to fit himself. In the grades they make baskets, trays, stools, cane chairs, and other reed furniture ; repair books, make iceboxes, tables, tool chests, work benches, fireless cookers, ironing boards ; make and set cement posts ; lay sidewalk ; and cobble shoes. More than five hundred pupils remain after school in the sloyd rooms, and hundreds of outsiders come in the evening for this work. One of the sloyd teachers visits the homes of the pupils and VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 319 directs their attention to repairs they should make in the houses in which they live. They have a school orchestra of one thousand members, and three teachers who give full time to it. They have doctors, clinics, a day nursery, school for mutes, school for defectives, vacation schools, evening schools, kindergarten schools, special drawing school, art school ; schools for agriculture, commerce, domestic science, marine vocations, technical vocations. They teach management of "wireless" apparatus, mail service, depart- mental work at Washington, illustrating and advertising, dra- matic art ; home, maternity, and emergency nursing. In large cities schools are seeing the need of helping pupils to get started in business. New York and Chicago teachers are suggesting that school boards have a vocational bureau to aid graduates and pupils who must help out the family earnings, in finding employment. The Los Angeles schools have a chart showing the pupils the chances for positions and the wages paid for different degrees of preparedness in each of the following occupations : Commercial art, hand wrought metal work, in- terior decorating, leather work, pottery work; general farmer, specialty farmer, truck gardener, landscape gardener, nursery- man, dairy farmer, poultryman, farm mechanic ; multigraph oper- ator, adding machine operator, filing clerk, billing clerk, ofifice assistant, office manager, accountant, auditor, bank clerk, book- keeper, cashier, stenographer, reporter, private secretary, ship- ping clerk, receiving clerk, business manager, postofifice em- ployee, civil service employee, commercial teacher; caterer's as- sistant, teacher, housekeeper, waitress, dressmaker, milliner, seamstress ; boat builder, engineer, merchant marine, naval archi- tect; aquarium attendant, cataloguer, chart designer, curator of museums; fish commissioner, fish expert, fish propagator; as- sa^'er, blacksmith, cabinet maker, chemist, draftsman, foundry- man ; electrical station, sub-station, telephone work, electric light work, electrician, machine shop work, pattern making, and sur- veying. Beside all this, the children go to museums to study the different parts of animals ; to the mountains to spend a day with the oaks and pines ; to fossil beds to watch the excavation of extinct animals ; and to ■ the seashore to study marine animals and algae. 320 SELECTED ARTICLES We have "flowed" a long waj^ since the time when elementary education meant the three Rs, and higher education meant the classics. Book-repairing, cobbling, and boat building taught in the public schools ! Pupils going off — 3,000 in a company — to spend a day at the seashore ! Ye gods ! How the old time sticklers for strictly a literary education must be sitting up in their graves and rubbing their startled eyes at these innovations! OPPORTUNITY SCHOOL AT DENVER' The Opportunity School at Denver is said to be an insti- tution unique in the United States, and is especially interesting as it throws overboard all the formal systems which go to make up educational practice even in a country like the United States, bold as it is in educational experiments. Briefly, this school supplies an educational refuge for all those sorts and conditions of men, women and children who are not catered for by any other institution. It disregards, in admitting students, age, qualifications and even set hours of the day. Boys in offices, young women in service, blind men, cowboys, foreigners, indeed all who can snatch brief periods of time from their ordinary work come here to improve their conditions in life. The writer paid two visits to this school, and noticed the stream of men, women, and children pouring into its doors at all hours of the day. Only started in Sep- tember, 1916, but presided over by a woman of genius, who had already shown her worth in other educational fields, the school has attracted an astonishing number of between three and four thousand students since its inception. The city authorities, who, unhappily for Denver, are said to have checked local educa- tional progress in other quarters through political bias, seem to have agreed in recognizing the wonderful success of this unique institute by supporting it with municipal funds raised by taxation. The Opportunity School certainly opens the eyes even of the formal educationist, who is accustomed to look on educa- tion as a thing confined to youth. It emphasizes the immense gap between the formal education of the past (both in Eng- 1 From "America at School and at Work." p. 97-101. By Herbert Branston Gray. Nisbet & Co., London. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 321 land and in those parts of the United States which have in- herited EngHsh traditions), and the practical training for life- work, which modern vocational instruction attempts to bridge by the introduction of manual training schools, trade schools, corporation schools and the like. But the Opportunity School at Denver has effected an even more surprising revolution. It has visualized the limited out- look of all previous systems as regards age, educational quali- fications, and set hours, and has boldly undertaken to fill the gap. Formal systems, on whatever basis they are founded, do not profess to be responsible for the adult citizen, or for the waifs and strays of life. The Opportunity School on the other hand recognizes no limit in its educational sympathies. It sets out to repair all educational deficiencies, which parental neglect, lack of opportunity, the failure to seize previous opportunities, have left in the life of the citizen, however young, or however old. It helps and cures the educationally lame, blind, halt and maimed. Thus it goes further than foundations like the Pratt Institute, where the principal aim is to render more skillful and efficient the workman or woman already engaged in settled occupations. But this school not only supplies instruction of all sorts for all sorts of people; it also undertakes, and with conspicuous suc- cess, to find employment for its transient citizens. It is in fact a placement bureau, and is sought after by employers of all kinds. Concrete cases will best serve to illustrate this new de- parture in the sphere of educational experiment — cases which actually came under the notice of the writer. It will be seen that they embrace a remarkably wide range. I. A cowboy aged twenty-seven began to attend this school. He had only reached the fifth grade in his elementary school as a boy. He is now taking sixth, seventh and eighth grades, correlating algebra, geometry, English, history, science. He asks his teacher to take walks with him when not in class, and talk to him about subjects he ought to know. 2. A boy aged sixteen, employed in a small grocery store at $3.50 a week, has increased his earning capacity to $12.50 after attending two hours a day for a month, and taking ai'ith- metic, English, and mechanical drawing. 322 SELECTED ARTICLES 3. An Austrian girl, knowing nothing but her native tongue, has taken English, and has now secured a place as nurse in the county hospital. The sewing department of the school de- voted several days to making her outfit. 4. Two blind men have attended the school for some months, one learning salesmanship, the other typewriting and the dic- taphone. 5. There is a class for defective speech — students in this class have been in inferior positions on account of this defect, and have rapidly secured better situations. 6. A large number of men and women attend evening classes in one or more special subjects in order to be more efficient the next day. 7. Many entirely uneducated older people obtained the rudi- ments of an education in the school bit by bit. 8. The citizenship class composed of aliens numbers four hundred and fifty pupils of all ages, and its members are trained to become real American citizens. Free evening meals are provided for boys who work all day for small wages and live a long distance from the school which they attend in the evening. This help enables them to come directly from work to the school without losing time. There is a close correlation, as will be seen, of school work with everyday life. Students "function" their school knowl- edge through its school store — its automobile shop, its adding machine, its typewriters, its cash registers — and in the school. For example, in the school store the pupil dictates to the stenog- rapher who comes from .the commercial department. These letters are criticised in the boys English class. Again the auto- mobile school prepares the student on certain days for prac- tical work in his automobile shop where he is working, by giv- ing him an engineering and mathematical course. The following classes have been organized and others are being formed when demanded: cooking, sewing, millinery, hair- dressing, automobile repairing, electricity, bookkeeping, type- writing, shorthand, salesmanship, dentistry, mechanical draw- ing, woodwork, shop arithmetic, etc. There are of course no school fees. The school is built on the principle, "If you don't see what you want, ask for it." It is re-educational in the best sense of the word, and if the VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 323 old or the young has missed hfe's previous opportunities it gives him the chance of a new start. THEORETICAL GARY ^ Gary frankly accepts the machine as the basis of modern life, and it is with the child from his earliest years. Bourne describes a physics class of twelve twelve-year-old girls and their nine-year-old helpers, studying the motor-cycle. The in- structor began with a spelling lesson on the parts and processes, then explained the mechanism and physical principles involved, finally starting the motor-cycle, while the girls described its action. "The intense animation of that little group was all the more piquant for having as a background the astounded dis- approbation of three grave school superintendents from the East." Taylor saw a class working on ventilation data ; the upper grades, also, are able to enter a house and plan a com- plete heating system. The physics laboratories are elaborately equipped, with three large rooms in Emerson, plus the light- ing and power plant. Chemistry is related to industry, the home, the school lunch room. Graduates of the laboratory are able at once to earn $80 a month in the research laboratories of the Steel Corporation. Coons cites the erection of a crucible by the boys to reduce a sample of bog iron brought in by a curious boy, as a starting point for the steel and iron industries of Gary. Taylor in- stances a class on the basis of whose analysis of coal for the schools, payment was made. The Emerson Laboratory is sim- ply an extension of the municipal chemist's laboratory. Older children act as his assistants testing city water and milk sup- plies ; his children are practically deputy food inspectors, visiting dairies, bakeries and food-shops. Bourne found another class experimenting with soft drinks, studying questions of solution, suspension and crystallization. The bacteriology laboratory is equipped for testing food products and contagious diseases ; while the school physician has his own laboratory, and students are assigned to work with him. Through auditorium, chem- istry and physiology, he explains the laws of health. When a classmate is sick, the children see that quarantine is enforced. 1 From article by William L. Dealey. Pedagogical Seminary. 23:269- 82. June, 1916. 324 SELECTED ARTICLES In the arts, Taylor describes a studio for orchestra, piano, correlated vocal work, and special library. Instrumental music is part of the curricula for six per cent., forming nine school orchestras, inclusive of evening schools. The art work in- cludes jewelry design, pottery design, drawing applied to the shops and laboratories ; in one studio, children were decorating the walls. Probably the most successful solution of the practical arts course is the Gary vocational guidance plan. This extension of the manual training system to Burris is the "best yet devised." Gary places practical instruction, Snedden adds, on a much more satisfactory basis "than anything heretofore existing outside of individual schools." Every bit of practical work for the en- tire school plant is made an educational opportunity, providing prevocational industrial and commercial experiences at small cost. The school thereby organizes itself as a community of children varied in its work. The basis is laid in the elementary school. The first three grades devote an hour daily to simple hand-work, learning to handle materials much as primitive people used them. Fourth and fifth grade children assist the older in shops and drawing rooms. The junior high school organization here extends to the sixth grade, where actual work is begun, as responsible ap- prentices in some shop, utilizing the earlier experiences to defi- nite ends. These small shop classes resemble individual instruc- tion, thus emphasizing the guiding element. The Gary pupil may change his shop every five weeks ; he must change at least twice a year. As a responsible worker, rotating through three shop courses a year, living for two hours a day in the rudiments of many occupations, he tests his abilities. On leaving he has definite attitudes, encouraged by instruction in the possibilities of various trades. Gary averages nearly three hours such train- ing per day for each boy fourteen years or over. These schools are now working toward an advanced part-time system. By re- quiring attendance upon any three of the four quarters in an all school year, the vacation workers may be distributed evenly through the year. This would add a school quarter of practical work, and continuously utilize the shops and industries of Gary as real-life laboratories, at no increased expenditure. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 325 Under such conditions, says Bourne, manual training as- sumes new meaning, interested groups cooperating as in a well- ordered factory. In the carpentry shop Taylor found youngsters so small they could scarcely see the top of the work bench making things either practical or of play utility. Boys making desks or tables or cabinets for the botany collections, or book- racks for the library, send them on to the paint-shop when finished. Only boys of sixteen are allowed in the cabinet shop. The children turn their own baseball bats as well as shop pat- terns. In the turning room, Taylor saw a thirteen-year-old eighth grade pupil turning a laboratory stool, its base cast in the school foundry. In the blacksmith shop, a fifth grade boy was mending his roller skates ; while all forged iron work in the elaborate playground equipment is made here. The Ameri- can Bridge Company manufactured the charging platforms for the foundry from specifications drawn in the drafting room. The Emerson machine shop for children above the seventh grade has some $8,000 worth of ec[uipment. Bourne found boys in the sheet-metal shop hammering zinc for the roof ; they manu- facture the school utensils. Young electricians were repairing. Several of the plumbing shops possess extensive equipment. The shoeless condition of some of the Froebel children has led to a cobbling shop. The printing shop is as well equipped as a commercial printer, teaches the whole art of printing and bookbinding, and does all the school work. Many of the girls in the advanced grades not only study home-making, but are in millinery or arts and crafts or print- ing, others in the school store and school bank, both actual busi- ness departments. The Emerson school office, for example, does all the school accounting, sufficient to keep some ten pupils busy daily, and gives pre-commercial experiences to about 120. The storerooms are included, so that the accurate records of sup- plies and costs are kept. This work includes stenography, type- writing and business methods. These girls also have a serving room, in which to make their own clothes. Another excellent illustration is the school lunchroom of the cooking department, serving real lunches to students who pay a student cashier. The girls do all the planning, buying and accounting. They post daily menus, with prices and food values, based on chem- ical laboratory analyses. i^b SELECTED ARTICLES POINT OF VIEW ' The opportunities for vocational exploration and guidance during the school years represented by the junior high school are so wonderful that it seems a pity to think of manual train- ing and household arts in terms of two periods a week and involving only woodwork, cooking and sewing. It seems to me, in the first place, that over the door of the manual and other arts departments of a junior high school there should be the words "Dedicated to the Spirit of Adolescent Youth." Beyond the door we expect to find a teacher of the Boy Scout leader type. When we see the room, or rooms, we discover a corner for automobiles, another for printing, another for concrete work and a dozen other corners for wireless, air- planes, telegraphy, telephony, electricity, farm projects, simple sheet-metal work, elements of pattern making and molding and so on. The teacher does not think in terms of a tool exercise and then hunt around the universe for a project on which to fasten it. He reverses the process by bringing into the school-room some project dealing with boy life and then weaves in the necessary knowledge and skill to develop the project. The adolescent mind is a project thinking mind; it is an exploring mind ; it is a mind full of enthusiasm and initiative ; it is a mind that wants to see something go. That is why it likes automobile work, wireless, airplanes and bell-ringing electricity. Only recently I saw such a room, such a teacher and such boys. He was a Boy Scout leader on Saturdays and on school days 'he was a manual training teacher. He could tinker with anything and make it go, including a boy's mind, or perhaps I ought to say, that the boys could tinker with his mind and make it work in accordance with their adolescent desires. At one time he had twenty-four manual training benches with twenty-four sets of tools, twenty-four boys and twenty-four models for the twenty-four hours of a shop term. Now he has eight woodworking benches, one for sheet metal, an electrical bench, a bench for pipe cutting and fitting, an enclosed corner for a printing press, a tool room with a boy in charge of the 1 By Arthur Dean, Manual Training. 21:31618. May, 1920. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 327 special tools, used for many activities, and a lot of catalogues, blueprints, magazine articles and books relating to the mechan- ical delights of boys, and finally, best of all, a crowd of boys around him who are as enthusiastic for five days, in a base- ment schoolroom as they are on Saturdays with him in the woods around a campfire and eating baked but burned potatoes. In another school I saw boys and girls in the commercial department were assigned in turn at the school telephone ex- change, at the paying and receiving teller's desks, as guides for school visitors, as managers of the lunch room, etc. They were handling the school reports, taking care of the school grounds, planting bushes and flowers, acting as a sanitary corps for the Jiygienic upkeep of the building, serving as first aiders in time of accident or sickness, and so on. The boys and girls on the editorial board of the school paper, had special English instruc- tion two hours every day, which related to their editorial work. They were devising headlines for submitted articles, shortening articles which were too long, and lengthening articles which were too short. They were reading proof, collecting advertise- ments, taking care of the subscription list, printing the paper, and so on. Furthermore, they were connecting their civics with school government in a sort of joint council idea between teachers and pupils. All the "arts" activities of these schools focused around vo- cational guidance and vocational selection and aroused interests in further education. They brought activity outside of school into activity within the school. The activity within the school functioned with activity without the school. The spirit of the teaching thruout was the spirit of the Boy Scout movement. NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITIES IN ELEMEN- TARY SCHOOLS ' There is another phase of our educational symphony which is as important as our great leit motif, that is the ideal of social service, a motif second only in phraseology. So far we have accentuated but little the altruistic phases of education. We have built up a system which is as care-free, as selfish, as pos- 1 From article by H. W. Schmidt. Educational Review. 59:304-14. April, 1920. 328 SELECTED ARTICLES sible, from the standpoint of the child — that we should ask, nay demand, a return for service rendered, that the state has a right to expect it, has never been made much of a point and, I fear, has been sadly neglected. The war has brought this phase of the matter to the fore as no other cause could have and the time is ripe that we instil in the minds of our youth the idea that participation in the benefits of our public insti- tutions of necessity entails on their part a social service, com- mensurate in a measure with such benefits — that the state ex- pects it and that such service to our fellows is a part of our life's work. Is it not true that satisfaction in life, happiness and all are directly measurable in terms of the satisfaction de- rived from the feeling that one has done something worth while in this world, that he has contributed something to the welfare and progress of society and has been of real service to his fellows ? Children are very susceptible to this argument if the matter is put up to them thru the right kind of training. They certainly react in the measure that this vital social fact is brought before them. Possibly the various forms of handwork which we have in our schools lend themselves most readily to the thought I have in mind, and I will use them freely as examples. We have primary handwork, intermediate handwork, manual train- ing, domestic science and art, but I believe they are not serving us to the extent that they should, that we have not utilized them as means for attaining serviceable, social ends. Under the above main headings we have varied activities such as paper and card- board work, weaving and work in textiles, raphia work, clay modeling, woodwork, cooking, sewing, printing, etc. They too often serve as ends in themselves, not as means to an end which possesses real social significance in the broader sense. Can these not be utilized more fully in the desirable direction? In our work in paper and cardboard there are opportuni- ties to drive home vocational and social facts, facts of an in- tensely interesting character, such as : paper making, wood pulp, sulphite, rag and wood papers, linen ledgers, bonds, news, water marks, plain and laid flats, colored flats, covers, plate papers, cardboards, jute and rope manila, cloth and binder's boards, bristols, enameled and ply boards, weighted and calendered papers. Folio, demy, cap, etc., sizes. Why is writing paper VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 329 cut certain sizes? What is meant by quarto, duo decimo? Why is most of our examination paper cut 8j^" x 11"? How is paper made and tested? Why is it that paper has a grain? How is hand-made paper made? These are all facts which can be demonstrated to fifth-grade children. You can test paper — they can. You can show dozens of kinds of papers by means of samples obtained most anywhere and at all times. Opportunities for arithmetic in cutting and laying out paper for book work are unlimited and represent actualities. Why has paper risen so in price ; is wood pulp imported free ; what does it cost a newspaper for print paper ; are you getting real value when buying paper? These are some of the hundreds of questions which are open for discussion in this one subject alone. How about the work in weaving and sewing and textiles? Do you boys and girls know how ordinary cloth is made? How cotton and linen goods are woven? Do they know what a Jacquard machine is? Do they know that the warp and woof of their little looms are relatively the same as those of the finest linen and silk goods? Do thej^ know that an endless ■variety of textures may be produced by combinations of over- and underweaving? Have they tried this on their little looms? Can they recognize woolens, cottons and linens and test them? •Do they know that the strength of the goods is in a great meas- ure determined by the strength of the warp? Have your chil- dren ever had the opportunity to dissect various weaves in the schoolroom, analyze them and reproduce them on their looms? Do they know how moires and changeable silks are produced? How printed goods are made? Why some ginghams are more expensive than others? How the various raw materials are con- verted into the thread used on the looms? Have they learned all about the silk worm industry? What the difference is be- tween Brussels, Wiltons and ingrain carpets? How oriental rugs are woven and the influence of the rug industry on the peoples of the East? Why are orientals so expensive and why can we not reproduce them? Are your girls using a sewing machine or do they have to wait until they get into the high school before they are officially made acquainted with them? I will wager they use one at home — why not in school? Boys do not take kindly to cooking or sewing as a rule. Have you tried camp cooking or emer- 330 SELECTED ARTICLES gency sewing? They take to these. Have your boys made a real loom large enough for a good-sized rag rug? Maybe you have neglected a splendid opportunity for sociaHzing content. Have you clay modeling in your school? You make sculp- tures in clay, tiles and placques, candlesticks and bowls— you are instiling first principles of art, and that is good and well. But do your children know how bricks are made, how the vari- ous kinds are produced? What is the difference between com- mon and pressed or wire-cut brick? Why the old brick yard is a thing of the past? How bricks were made of old and why we now make bricks without straw? The history of the potter's craft and the making of bricks have within them the elements of historical pathos. Have your boys made a simple potter's wheel and have you made real pottery? What dis- tinguishes good from poor ware and where are the finer wares made? Why can we not make them here in our country? What is Satsuma, Dresden and Haviland ware? What is there about Japanese pottery that excels? Shall I continue? How about basketry and raphia work? Dare I ask what reed is or cane, or splints? How are baskets made commercially? Not a far step to the Indian, Alaskan, Chilean, Oriental or Afri- can basket. Their manufacture is tied up with the history of the nations and reflects the traits of the races. Possibly we could drag in history and geography. Let us look at manual training in the light of the fore- going. I believe we have sinned more imder the guise of man- ual training than years of penitence will make up for — it is not even training of the mind thru the hand. Ye shades of Otto Salomon ! Frankly it is nearly always busy work so far as real ends are concerned and the use of the subject towards real social ends is sadly neglected. The benefits are circum- spectional not directed, and in but few cases is a real end sought after. But what exceptional opportunities are thus lost ! Here is our opportunity for doing real directed work having a tre- mendous socializing value, the desired characteristics of voca- tionalism and one which may be utilized to that end freely and with the hearty cooperation of the pupils. Why have we not seized the opportunity sooner? Possibly because the call has not been heard until of late and possibly because the work VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 331 was still steeped in its traditional aspects and possibly also be- cause its teachers did not fully realize its scope on the side of practicality and real social significance. We know the aver- age teacher considers himself slightly above the vocational as- pects of the work and likes to lean more on the side of educa- tion, pedagogical values, psychological significance, and other stock stuff, while the man of work looks down with supreme contempt upon the work done in the school. Leaving the prac- tical man out of the discussion, why should the manual train- ing teacher be impractical, teach for teaching's sake and seek no particular end which will stand the test of society at large? I do not advocate a commercial standard of production for the school shops, but I do believe that there should be laid the foundation for subsequent work of a more finished character. I would consider the training preeminently socializing, pre-vo- cational. ELEMENTS OF PRACTICAL ARTS FOR GENERAL EDUCATION^ In Teachers College our organization of practical arts grew out of our very liberal conception of technical education, and so to us "practical arts" have come to include all the educa- tional subjects that are based on a technique or special method of doing things. Hence, in this wide sense, practical arts — which would have been better understood if christened "tech- nical arts" — include fine arts, household arts, industrial arts (both agricultural and mechanical), music, nursing, applied hy- giene, and physical education. These may or may not be "prac- tical" or "applied." For example, drawing may be "practical" if applied to house decoration or machine design, but if not applied, it is no more practical (in the usual material sense) than history, literature, or pure science. I realize that some misunderstanding has arisen from the common use of the word "practical." It seems to me that it is a mistake to understand technical arts as practical or useful only because they commonly have a close relation to the physical ^ By Maurice A. Bigelow, Director of School of Practical Arts, Teach- ers College. Teachers College Record. 17:1-6. January, 19 16. 22,2 SELECTED ARTICLES or material affairs of everyday life, or because they may be used vocationally as a means of getting a living. I prefer rather to take Huxley's broader view of "practical" and regard knowl- edge of every kind as useful in proportion as it tends to affect our daily lives. Looking at practical arts from this standpoint, I am forced to regard an understanding of the elements of the technical arts as an essential part of the "practical" educa- tion of men and women, and with or' without regard to pos- sible physical or vocational use of the technical knowledge. Practical arts education should be regarded as closely identi- fied with vocational education only when technical efficiency is emphasized. Those who look at the practical arts with the narrowest vision see its values merely in terms of possible vocational application. This, I believe, is an unfortunately nar- row outlook. The elements of practical arts may be made very important as a phase of general education that is not directed towards vocational ends. Perhaps I can make this point clearer by some illustrations : Music and fine arts deserve to be part of general education because they may be of great significance, or "practical" in the larger sense, to many who do not apply them vocationally. Many of the elementary ideas of household arts, such as the economics of food supply, the principles of cook- ery, the main facts of nutrition, home sanitation, and the prin- ciples of house decoration, should be part of the practical edu- cation of all boys ; but certainly few boys will find their voca- tions in the field of household arts. Similarly, certain elementary knowledge of industrial arts (including elementary agriculture) should be taught to girls without reference to vocational appli- cation. These are illustrations of how the elements of practi- cal arts may be fitted into our daily lives in numerous useful, but non-vocational, ways. The above suggestions as to the desirability of similar ele- mentary training in the practical arts for both sexes leads me to the problem of differentiation for boys and girls. In these days we hear much discussion of sex differentiated education, and it usually refers to the field of practical arts. We do not hear any serious educators advocating one kind of selection of literature or history or mathematics for girls and another for boys ; but we hear many proclaiming that household arts is the proper study for girls, and that simultaneously the boys should VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 333 study mechanical or agricultural arts. Some well-known edu- cators have gone so far as to declare that co-education is a mistake in so far as it means similar education for the two sexes ; and by "similar education" they mean the old-line edu- cation without practical arts. Now, we must admit that the advanced technical aspects of household, industrial, mechanical, or agricultural arts are not of equal interest to both sexes ; and, hence, practical arts educa- tion in its specialized forms must be dissimilar. But note that this refers to the advanced technical or special work and not to the elementary study of the leading facts and principles of practical arts. With regard to these, I insist that there should be no differentiation on sex lines, and I feel sure that we have already gone too far in drawing the line between the elementary practical arts for the two sexes. Let me illustrate : In many schools of the United States we find household arts specified for girls in elementary grades and in the early years of the high school, while parallel work in agriculture or industrial arts is assigned to the boys. The result is that some of the most useful applied science is sex-limited. Elementary lessons in household arts contain important facts and ideas concerning food economics, principles of nutrition, applied chemistry and physics, bacteriology, sanitation, first principles of cookery — all of which should be a part of the practical, but not technical, education of both and boys and girls. It is not fair to the boys that such a train of useful scientific applications should be reserved for the girls under a system of sex-limited in- struction in household arts. On the other hand, the agricultural or industrial arts assigned to the boys deal, in the elementary instruction, with many facts that should not be monopolized knowledge of the male sex. Industrial arts deal with the world's work and modern women should have cultural, if not technical, knowledge of the great industrial relations and prob- lems. Therefore, I advocate that girls should have elementary shopwork instruction, especially since so much of it applies to the home and at the same time will help women to understand industrial life; and they should have at least one year of ele- mentary agriculture in every school which offers it for the boys. These illustrations will make clear my meaning when I de- clare that we have already made some serious mistakes in dif- 334 SELECTED ARTICLES ferentiating certain aspects of elementary practical arts along sex lines. This extreme differentiation seems to have had its origin in the names and definitions given to household and in- dustrial arts. Some committee declared years ago that house- work is not an industry and that industrial arts are primarily of interest to males. Having thus set off household arts ex- clusively for women and industrial arts largely for men, the courses of study in our schools have been developed without regard to the fact that in the elementary facts and ideas of each of these practical arts there is much of value and interest to both sexes. Now, as the solution of this problem, which I believe is the most important one which now affects practical arts for public schools, especially in years below the second of high school : Evidently we can not solve it by advising household arts for boys or industrial shopwork for girls. Boys will not elect courses called household arts, or domestic science, or home economics. A few girls will elect, under favorable conditions, agriculture or mechanical arts. The result is sex-differentiated practical arts. It cannot be otherwise under the names "house- hold" and "industrial." I have come to beheve that we must offer the elementary practical arts of interest to both sexes under new names, and not apply such names as industrial arts, household arts, or agriculture, until advanced technical differ- entiation between the two sexes is natural and useful. In my opinion, a very limited amount of such specialized study is needed in elementary schools. There are two possible arrangements looking towards this end: (i)' Teach the elements of practical arts equally to chil- dren of both sexes in elementary schools; and call such study "practical arts," not household or industrial arts. (2) Involve the elements of practical arts in the other subjects which are fundamentals for practical arts. This means fine arts and the natural sciences (including nature-study and elementary science). I prefer the second suggestion for the beginning because it seems to me most natural and economical. However, the teacher must work from the practical arts point of view, and so it little matters whether the desirable studies be presented as elementary practical arts or as applications of elementary sciences and fine arts. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 335 By teaching the elements of practical arts in connection with the fundamental subjects, I mean that beginning with the earliest nature-study and art work the practical bearings should be de- veloped. For example, the art lessons of the elementary schools might be arranged so as to give both boys and girls the essen- tial knowledge of the household arts applications in home fur- nishings and decoration and costume design. Of course, I do not mean technical training in these lines ; but, for that matter, no very important technical training could be taught in ele- mentary schools even if these applications of art were limited to girls in a class in "domestic art." In a similar manner, all the important facts of hygiene, nutrition, food economics, home sanitation, and even the principles of cookery, can be made interesting to both boys and girls of years equivalent to junior high school, if presented as integral parts of a good course, or courses, in nature-study and introduction to science or ele- mentary science, often misnamed "general science." This also gives numerous opportunities for the mechanical side of indus- trial arts. In like manner, the elements of agriculture (not the technique) should be taught so as to reach both boys and girls, in nature-study and in applied biology. These are some ways of making elementary practical arts essentially the same for both sexes. Summarizing the above points, I conclude that sex-differ- entiated study of elementary practical arts should be avoided (i) because it is highly desirable that education in general should tend to make men and women sympathetically inter- ested in the same problems of life; (2) because it is financially desirable that the values of elementary practical arts be obtained as far as possible without the added expenses inevitably con- nected with new and special classes; and (3) because the pres- ent differentiation between the sexes deprives each of knowl- edge which is important for the practical purposes of every- day life. For these three reasons, I urge that the elementary facts and principles of practical arts should be taught so as to make both sexes understand (but not be experts in) the same practical problems of life. Co-education will deserve to be a failure if it does not give young men and young women similar outlooks on life in all its aspects — practical as well as intellec- tual. Thus viewing the possibility of cultural rather than vo- 33(i SELECTED ARTICLES cational or technical, bearings of the practical arts, I am un- able to believe in sex-differentiated elementary studies in these lines. In closing, let me emphasize the thought already expressed that, while technical aspects of the practical arts are beyond question the foundations of special or vocational training, the leadings facts or ideas, that is, the elements of the practical arts, deserve a prominent place in education for general cul- ture, because they have the larger "practical" bearing on our daily lives. BASES OF LABOR EDUCATION' Labor education is not a training for a vocation. It is rather a development of avocations. Labor education should not transfer unchanged the curricula and aims of accepted schemes of education. I am convinced that the primary bases of labor education rest on the solid realities of our lives. We are members of families, dwellers in or citizens of a com- munity, a state, and a nation ; workers in an industry, and members of a trade union. The personal and social contacts and relations formed in these ways give us the bases on which to erect the super-structure of an educational system suited to intelligent adults. In the past, such haphazard and undirected education as the adult acquired was largely of a theoretic na- ture. We dabbled in "isms" and in political and social "futures." The time has come when we need know the facts of our en- vironment : their social, political, industrial and economic im- plications. The second main prop or support of labor education is our need, as workers, to have a clear knowledge of the entire sweep of our industry. In the garment industries, for instance, we need to study the facts of production and distribution in all the stages from the growing of cotton, through the textile mills, through the final manufactured product in our shops and factories, and the distribution of these manufactured products. * From article "Workers' University of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union," by Louis S. Friedland, Educational Director. School and Society. 11:348-50. March 20, 1920. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 237 For this reason, we are interested in the economics of the indus- trial system rather than in some generaUzed or theoretic type of economics. There is no stage in the gamut of education which can not be based on the facts of an industry. Such a re- basing of education will bring about, among the workers, a new and keener interest in the processes, hitherto somewhat mechanical, of their labor. It will reveal to them all the social and international implications of the work which they do from kiay to day. That such an undertaking of work will help to make it more creative and self-expressive from the standpoint of the individual worker goes without saying. And, when, to this, we add the definite and clear aim of organized labor — to share in the control and management of production and dis- tribution — our daily labor will assume a new dignity and im- portance. It is only by laying such foundations now that the workers will inherit the future. Finally, we can not afiford, in labor education, to lose sight of the human, the personal element. There is no doubt in my mind that the industrial conditions of the last century and more have resulted in a gradual deterioration of human material— a process which has not been stemmed, and for the prevention of which very little systematized effort has been made. We have used our energy, our intelligence, our enthusiasm, our forethought, for the production and perfection of machines and of manufactured material. We have ended by becoming the slaves of our own handiwork. We can work machines, but machines and the conditions of industry have mastered us. If is necessary to regain control of ourselves as human beings, to assume mastery of our bodies and souls, to come to a knowl- edge of the human machine, to regain case and grace of move- ment. For these reasons, health education and physical train- ing and right modes of recreation are necessary ingredients of workers' education. With the acquiring of greater degrees of leisure, we need to learn the right use of leisure. The worker will not translate his free time in terms of idleness, extrava- gance, and riotous living. For the worker, leisure must be filled with activity and self-expression. Whatever powers, talents and faculties have lain dormant in the masses of workers for gen- erations must, through education, be brought to light for the saving of workers, and for the salvation of society. 338 SELECTED ARTICLES COOPERATIVE PLAN' Again, some lessons can be learned only through practical experience in the ways of the world. Some of these lessons in- clude the proper relation between the material and the spiritual phases of life, the meaning and value of money, the meaning of work and wages, and the relation between them, the im- portance of life motives. The learning of these lessons is of as much consequence to one individual as to another, irre- spective of economic, intellectual, or social status. The co- operative plan is a contribution to the solution of some of the problems involved, and hence its advantages should be placed within the reach of all youth. With these considerations in mind, the special advantages of the cooperative plan in the high school may be summarized as follows : (i) The safeguards thrown about the young people in their places of employment, through the supervision exercised by the school and the cooperation of employers, show an almost un- believable improvement over the conditions hitherto charac- terizing the employment of minors in many places. (2) The cooperative plan makes it possible for some boys and girls to continue in school, because of wages earned on half-time. Prolonging the period of active connection with the school, and of contact with sympathetic teachers and advisers, confers an incalculable benefit on growing boys and girls, and should lead to a permanent impetus to better things. (3) The plan will doubtless induce some to remain in school because the school work is thus made more interesting, and the student can see a more direct relation between schooling and the promotion of his own interests. (4) The experience involved promote a more earnest and thoughtful attitude toward work and the responsibilities of life. (5) The plan discourages idleness and unwholesome use of time, since the longer school day and year are fully occu- pied with interesting activities. 1 From "Vocational Education," by William T. Bawden. United States Bureau of Education. Bui. 10 19, no. 25, p. 22-3. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 339 (6) The opportunity to engage in gainful employjnent on half-time, under suitable auspices, has a definite prevocational value, assisting young persons to discover their tastes and prob- able aptitudes. (7) The successful operation of a cooperative school or class affords a convincing demonstration that a reasonable amount of work, under proper conditions, can be made to con- tribute definitely to the development of youth, instead of be- ing, as frequently heretofore, a demoralizing, disheartening, and stunting influence. (8) The plan gives the student, at the very least, a foot- hold in some industry or occupation, so that he does not feel lost when the time comes to leave school and take up the re- sponsibilities of self-support. (9) It should be emphasized that this plan does not neglect the need for general education, but insures to each individual an amount of cultural and liberalizing education sufficient to serve as a foundation for further study if he later finds it pos- sible to continvie his education. He certainly gets more of the cultural side of education than he will if he leaves school en- tirely to go to work. SCHOOLING IN SERVICE^ The stranger in our city was standing on Main Street with two unexpected hours at his disposal. He inquired of two boys coming out of a bank about the city's chief points of interest. They directed him to the new government post-office, the armory, and other places of attraction common to all cities. "Let's ask if he wants to see the school," said one of the boys as he looked back and saw the stranger standing indif- ferently on the curb where they had left him. They returned. Their interest in their school interested him. "Well, boys, I am from the doubtful state and in a doubtful state," laughed he. "Show me the way." At the entrance of the main building of the State Normal School in Fitchburg the visitor was met by a boy dressed in 1 By Willis B. Anthony, Director of Practical Arts Department State Normal School, Fitchburg, Mass. Industrial Arts Magazine. 8:215-19- June, 19 19. 340 SELECTED ARTICLES green livery fronted with brass buttons, who took his hat, coat and belongings, and returned with a check. Thinking the boy was hired for the purpose the stranger offered him a tip. The boy wouldn't take it, saying that he was a school boy in serv- ice, giving his share of time as a messenger. "Upon learning that I was leaving by train," the stranger told us later, after the messenger had ushered him to the office door, "the little lad in green coat and brass buttons offered to telephone and find if my train was on time. He said he would arrange for a taxi and spoke as if I might decide on a later train after I had started looking the place over. Visitors some- times had him look up the next train before they got thru with the school, and he would do it for me." We entered a large room where twelve to fourteen-year-old clerical workers were doing parts of the large amount of busi- ness reading, writing and arithmetic, which is always necessary in running so large an educational plant. The room is divided into three sections. Thirty type-writers almost rattle the glass partitions of the first section. "What's this boy doing?" asked the visitor as he sat down beside a checking machine. "Paying our debts, sir," the boy repHed, as he handed over a pile of official looking papers which he had copied, with an occasional help from his teacher, from a list which she had given him. "What ! Do all of these mean real money?" was asked. "Indeed they do." A few weeks before another boy serving his turn with his checking mate at the machine had made out as part of their regular work a check for $49,500 of real money to be paid to a local contractor for his work on the new dormitory. The little fellow's hand never trembled and it is easy to believe that the decimal points were all in good standing. These points were allowed to carelessly slip neither one or two places to the left or right. The boy knew that such a mistake would make a difference to the contractor and to the State of Massachusetts and besides such a break would "queer" him and the commer- cial department of which he was a member. Years ago we got check writing as a finishing touch before entering high school. Such decimal days caused dismal stays after school. When those checks were finally all done, the the best of them beautified the bulletin board and the rest of VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 341 them beautified the waste places. To the best of our knowledge those in the waste places were more useful than those on the board. They were emptied from the waste boxes into the fire boxes where they helped the janitor start his morning blaze. Shut oflf from the noise of industry made by the typewriters are two telephone booths. One is for private calls. The other contains the school's switchboard. This switchboard is operated by a "hello girl" in her earliest 'teens. She serves her share of time in answering the signal lights which wink on and off. She plugs in connections according to the call for or from any one of the twenty telephones on the property. At the opposite end of the room are five hundred post-office boxes where twelve to fourteen-year-old nieces and nephews serve their Uncle Samuel in sorting and delivering the morn- ing and afternoon mail. Proud of his suit of official gray the postmasterling stands behind the iron grill serving his turn at the delivery window. Between the post-office and the telephone section there is a large counter where paymasters and tellers handle money, ring the cash register, write receipts in duplicate, and sell sup- plies. Visitors cause no distraction. Doing work on a cash and credit basis, operating the filing cabinets and the adding machine, or the posting of loose-leaf ledgers, necessitates business-like concentration. The juvenile workers have become accustomed to strangers just as they have accepted the expressman, the telephone inspectors, and demonstrators of new office equip- ment, as associates in every-day work. There is a welcoming nod of recognition for all and the work goes on. The visitor decided to take the later train and agreed ta speak at assembly after lunch. "I have seen boys doing things today, which I had to play hookey to do when I was in school. I have seen boys using benches and girls using cooking tables, which your earlier boys of nine years ago helped to build. I have seen boys binding school magazines and repairing their school books. I have seen samples of all the printing that has been done. I learn that those tennis courts were school made and saw you learning how to use them." "What do you suppose happens when the faucet leaks in my house? My wife tells me and I tell the plumber. He comes 342 SELECTED ARTICLES out from the city and I pay the price. I understand that when your school pipes freeze and the faucets leak that these boys are guided in locating the trouble and help make things right. "I have talked with tradesmen on your faculty who work with you. I also find there are young journeymen and high school graduates, sixty in all, who have given up their jobs for the sake of being students at this institution. I have seen these young men students at work in their own classes and with their own classes of boys, training to be teachers of this practical arts work with the boys of other towns and cities. I have been laughed at for taking some of the large boys in their overalls and jumpers for these young men and your faculty tradesmen. You all looked alike and acted alike. "When I reached this assembly the hall was dark. Four tremendous big acts were going on in that moving picture booth of yours. The whole plot was as bright as day on this screen before you. I find it hard to realize that I am visiting school. I fail to find where running this place as a business stops and where running it as a school begins." School life is going to give part-time to the introduction of such real life activities as will give boys and girls, long be- fore they become of age, a chance to do the best act expected of a citizen — the doing of better than his bit, the giving of his best. During the habit-making period of their 'teens, boys and girls are going to have personal experiences in Service. These experiences will fix in their consciousness a knowledge of the jogs and joys in the job of giving their share in the work of "world building" which should and must be delegated to them. Hung across the street is a bannered appeal for citizens to subscribe during a Red Cross drive. The next to the last line reads in flaring letters, "Give until it hurts." The author of that slogan characterized with more force than perhaps he knew the glaring failure of the schooling of his youth. We were schooled in the same class with him to strive for the results acquired from the use of ingoing rather than outgoing abilities. Consequently it has hurt to suddenly learn new habits of giving. In our first year at war we learned by heart more lessons in gift-making and in Service than in all our previous years of schooling. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 343 IS THERE A PROFESSION OF BUSINESS AND CAN WE REALLY TRAIN FOR IT ? ' The most satisfactory answer is to be found in the growth and support of commercial education in this country. From what quarter has come the incentive for the establishment of commercial schools and colleges and commercial departments of universities? From enlightened business opinion looking to the future. Again, what has been the moving force for the in- stallation of courses in business administration looking to the training of young men eventually to fill the highest business positions, and again the answer, enlightened business opinion. Is this well founded? If not, how account for the growth of commercial school and university departments since the estab- lishment of the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce in connection with the University of Pennsylvania in 1881 and for the steady increase in numbers of students. How explain the demonstrated readiness of business men to cooperate with com- mercial departments by giving their time to lecturing, opening their plants to students, and the like? Assuredly interest may be stimulated by advertising, by novelty, by attractive conditions, but in the long run the law of supply and demand will assert itself. Universities and colleges will not continue to offer, much less to augment, courses for which there is little demand on the part of students ; nor will students enter courses for commer- cial training indefinitely unless there is a demand for the com- mercially educated in the business world. And it is now only thirty-five years since the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce was founded. Those who doubt and cavil at the value of commercial edu- cation for business have closed their eyes to the extent to which business has become professionalized. They have failed to note the lawyers, the engineers, the chemists, the accountants, the sci- entific managers who from position of consultants only in emergencies have come to occupy positions of heads of de- partments, business managers, partners or chief demonstrators ^ From article by Elliot H. Goodwin, General Secretary United States Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D.C. Pan-American Scientific Con- gress. Proceedings. 1915. v. 4, p. 94-8. 344 SELECTED ARTICLES and owners. They have passed over with singular obtuseness the professionalizing of their own staffs, or of those of their successful competitors, in specializing in advertising, cost ac- counting, salesmanship, handling of industrial problems, employ- ment, and the like. With all the advance for American busi- ness has made, there remain those who refuse to recognize the changed conditions that time has brought, who desire to be let alone to do business in the old way and who spend their time in inveighing against laws and restrictions, supervision and con- trol, the organization of labor, and other conditions that have come to stay. Fundamentally they lack the education and the resulting elasticity to conform to the new and are engaged in butting their heads against the wall. Every now and then a failure in the old-established form of solid reputation calls striking attention to this attitude on the part of American business. There has been and there always will be two schools — and it is really fortunate that it is so — composed of those, on the one hand, who lay main stress on the lesson of actual experience and those on the other, who advocate the previous training as doing away in part the necessity of learning by experience. The one exercises a curb on the other. It is easy to maintain that too much time may be spent in preparation so that the youth is delayed beyond the proper age for taking up the practical end, but it is becoming more and more difficult to understand in the present and growing complexity of business how the youth who enters business as an office boy or brakeman can acquire, through experiences alone, the training which will ad- vance him to the head. Clearly the school of practical experience produces but a small proportion of men with large business capacity. As a method of training it is wasteful. It Is equally clear that the college or university commercial training cannot be expected to graduate only those of marked business ability any more than law schools produce great lawyers or medical schools produce great surgeons. Much remains with the man himself, his in- born capacity and power to expand. Yet professional training for lawyers and doctors is now universally accepted. What is there about business capacity or executive ability that would place them between the pale of those things for which a special VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 345 education is valuable? Is it the power to handle men? Then the training of the army officer or the professor should be equally futile. Is it the imagination, the power to grasp and arrange in an orderly manner and execute? If these can not be trained in part what practical purpose does it serve? To what end the study of history and biography if it does not en- able us to apply the experience and the ingenuity of others to our own problems? In spite of the example of men in all walks of life who have started at the bottom and risen to the highest places, there is nothing so sad in business and industry as the consideration of go per cent, of those who are competent for the positions they fill who lack the education or the almost superhuman will to make up for its lack that will permit them to rise above a certain dead level. In commercial education lies the hope for the future of American business. PROGRESS IN VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION ' In recognizing the nation's interest in secondary agricultural education a fundamental principle in all education for all of the people is all but admitted. More and more we are begin- ning to see that in a democracy the problem of educating all of the people is a problem not for the local community alone, nor for the state and local community, but for the state and community working in cooperation with the Federal Govern- ment. Vocational agriculture as we understand it today has to do with the training of a more efficient and more productive farm- ing citizenship. This means that in addition to learning those things that will make the young men who elect this work bet- ter farmers, they will also receive that training that will enable them to assume the responsibilities of citizenships in a progres- sive rural community. In other words, a course in vocational agriculture is not a so-called "tradesman's" course. It is the best preparation for a productive life on the farm. 1 By W. S. Taylor, Professor of Agricultural Education. Penn State Farmer. 13:131. January, 1920. 346 SELECTED ARTICLES In 1917-18, the first year the Federal Vocational Education Act was in operation, there were 569 schools offering instruction to boys and girls who wanted to become farmers. There were enrolled in these 569 schools 15,187 earnest, enthusiastic boys and girls. Their earnestness is attested by the fact that each student enrolling in vocational agriculture carries an agricul- tural project covering a period of six months or more. In 1918-19 there were 812 schools with an enrollment of 21,033 students. This shows an increase of 43 per cent, in the number of schools and of 39 per cent, in the pupils enrolled. This growth has made during the period of the war, a time when it was difficult to find men available for teaching in this field. PART-TIME EDUCATION IN HOUSEHOLD ARTS' A new note has been struck in education. It may have been sounding for some time past, but in the present world conflict attention has been directed to it so that laymen and educators alike recognize its purpose and its force. This new note is voiced in the press and in public speech as "education for serv- ice." Attention so long centered upon the personal career of the pupil is now bent upon education for the service which each individual must render to human society. It is bigger than the individual, or the family ; than the state or the nation ; it is world service. So deep has this thought been driven into the social consciousness of the people that cooperative measures in edu- cation, merely tolerated less than a decade ago, are today re- ceiving the wholehearted support of laymen, parents, social workers, employees, employers, and educators — a combined force which, if wisely directed, augurs greater advancement in edu- cation in the next generation than has been known in past years. Education for service promises the most desirable develop- ment of the individual; hence the old ideal is merged into the new in a way which promises the best use of the old in the de- velopment of the new ideal. Education is, we believe, dedicated ^ Address delivered before the Home Economics Session of the Na- tional Education Association Convention, New York, July 4, 19 16, by Cleo Murtland. Journal of Home Economics. 9:51-8. February, 1917- VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 347 to flexibility which makes it possible to discover the service in- dividuals may render, and to train them so that their talents may be utilized to their own satisfaction and the good of so- ciety. In this sense, we heartily approve of replacing the per- sonal in education for the impersonal, altruistic ideal which serv- ice to others implies. This spirit of education is to be wel- comed in household arts education if it can eliminate the over- emphasis of the personal which has militated so strongly against its fullest success. Education for service follows so close upon the heels of the movement for education for all boys and all girls, whether rich or poor, well endowed or less fortunate mentally, physically fit or unfit, as to merge them into one. Service is altruism, not commercialism, in the light of this interpretation. There are no longer any mental reservations in the statement "education for all." We all believe in it. There is no longer serious debate as to the inefficacy of one type of education for all. Individual differences are recognized and education is being shaped to meet them as they become defined. Time is no longer wasted upon discussion as to whether the education of the boys and girls who enter the workshops, the stores, the factories, the offices, is completed when they have gained enough information to secure a position. Education be- yond that which may be given in the schoolroom during the ele- mentary school period, the high school period, and in all-day schools, no longer constitutes education according to modern standards. The workshop is being carried into the school and the school into the workshop. The tearing down of school fences, so that the school may spread out into community life, and community activities may enter the school, opens up edu- cational possibilities little dreamed of a decade ago. Household arts education taught by the part-time method will demand teachers of broad social interest, women who can bend their scientific knowledge and specialized training to the development of education for service. The ideals of house- hold arts education will remain high, but will be made suf- ficiently flexible to meet the needs of different groups of women and varying types of homes. At first-hand knowledge of home problems will constitute an important part of their training; the ability to meet the home-making situations intelligently, and to 348 SELECTED ARTICLES impart instruction relative to them, will replace the formal methods we now have. Household arts education under this new order has its great opportunity. THE HARVARD BUREAU OF VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE^ The idea of an organized effort to aid young people in choosing their vocations, preparing for them, and making progress in them, originated with Professor Frank Parsons, of the Law School of Boston University, while he was preparing his book, "The Ideal City." A few successful experiments at the Civic Service House in Boston led to the raising of funds for the support of a central Bureau, of which Professor Par- sons was made Director. In 1908, an office was secured in the heart of the business district and the doors were opened to any who might come for help with their vocational problems. Shortly after the death of Mr. Parsons in 1909, Mr. Meyer Bloomfield, '01, was appointed Director of the Bureau. It was under his leadership that the greater part of the Bureau's con- structive work was accomplished. For some time, the Director and his assistants were occupied almost wholly in the work of counseling with individuals, but as interest in the movement grew, other fields of effort were entered. From modest beginnings a varied and extensive group of activities developed. Nearly every vocation bureau, or vo- cational guidance project now carried on in this country, has profited through consultation with the Boston Bureau. Under its auspices the work was first organized in the Boston schools. Courses in vocational guidance were offered by the Director and his assistant for Boston teachers, and in a number of colleges and universities in various parts of the country. In addition to systematic training of teachers and social workers who de- sired to undertake this work, information, suggestion, and help have been given to committees and individuals sent from other cities to study the Boston experiment. Files of reference mate- rial, comprising the only extensive library of vocational guid- ^ By Roy Willmarth Kelly, Director. Harvard Graduate Magazine. 26:228-33. December, 1917. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 349 ance in the United States, have been collected for the use of parents, teachers, investigators, students, and others. One of the developments of the movement has taken the form of "life-career" classes for students in the intermediate grades and in secondary schools. In these classes, pupils under- take a systematic study of vocations : the conditions of employ- ment for young workers; kinds of work to avoid; opportunities for continuing one's general education after entering upon em- ployment; the extent, relative importance, and stability of oc- cupations ; the necessary training and qualifications for the broad general fields of employment; surveys of typical, industrial, com- mercial, and professional occupations; and other matters af- fecting the choice of a vocation or successful entrance upon work. Where the life-career class cannot be provided, instruc- tion of this nature is often introduced in connection with the usual school subjects. There was in the beginning, and there still is, a lack of the right kind of reading on vocational subjects to place in the hands of students or young persons just entering upon a trade or profession. Just now the Federal Government needs thou- sands of trained men for the shipbuilding industry. There is an abundant supply of books dealing with the technical side of the industry, text-books for marine architects, manuals for engi- neers and builders, theoretical and mathematical treatises on the subject, but nothing has been published which describes the in- dustry in the light of vocational guidance. Nothing is avail- able to which the man engaged in a trade or the school or col- lege graduate can turn for information as to where he might fit into the shipbuilding industry. There is nothing in print that describes the several operations of ship construction in a simple, accurate manner, that lists the typical trades represented, or that points out the usual opportunities and avenues for advance- ment, the hours of work, and the rates of pay. In addition to books dealing with the underlying principles of vocational guidance, the Bureau has from time to time pub- lished special studies giving information of the sort now needed with respect to the shipbuilding industry. "Business Employ- ments" and "The Shoe Industry," recently prepared by Mr. Frederick J. Allen, are of this character. Shorter bulletins in- tended for boys and girls of high-school age have been issued 350 SELECTED ARTICLES on confectionery manufacture, architecture, the department store, banking, and the machinist trade. During the past five years, the Bureau has been actively identified with the movement to estabhsh special departments for labor maintenance and supervision. As Director of the Vo- cation Bureau, Mr. Bloomfield was instrumental in bringing about the formation of the Boston Employment Managers' As- sociation, the first organization in the United States to meet for a systematic study of the selection, promotion, efficiency rating, and discharge of employees, and other vitally important questions of a similar nature relating to personnel. In com- mon with others closely in touch with the industrial world, Mr. Bloomfield recognized some time ago that the hope for effective vocational guidance was futile without the cooperation of those whose duty it was to select employees and who were respon- sible for the conditions of employment. As Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bureau, Pro- fessor Paul H. Hanus of the Harvard Division of Education had been in close touch with its work from the beginning and had aided materially in its development. Moreover, the Har- vard University Summer School was the first institution in the country to undertake a course for teachers in vocational guidance, and the Division of Education had more recently established several regular courses in the subject. For these reasons, it seemed likely that under the auspices of the Division of Education, the Bureau would be assured of sympathetic leadership and an enlarged opportunity for constructive service. The faculty of the Graduate School of Business Adminis- tration has voted to cooperate in the management of the Bureau by appointing two representatives to confer with the Division of Education on all important plans and activities, thus fur- nishing a vitally necessary contact with persons interested in the study of business and industrial problems. The following definite aims have been formulated as the basis of the work for the coming year : To carry on occupational research and to publish material giving information concerning occupations. To continue to promote the movement for vocational guid- ance and to serve as a centre of information on vocational guidance. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 351 To give personal counsel regarding the problems of choos- ing, preparing for, and entering on a vocation. To conduct investigations in schools or other institutions, in various lines of business, and in the industries with a view to determine the need and to suggest plans for vocational guidance. To train vocational counselors for service in schools, in in- stitutions, and in employment departments. To continue, so far as opportunity may offer, the cooperation, begun by the Bureau through its connection with Employment Managers' Associations, in solving vocational guidance problems in industry. To aid and cooperate with other vocational guidance organi- zations. To be of individual and public service in dealing with the questions of vocational guidance arising from the present war. One of the important functions of the Bureau has been to aid school departments and institutions in planning their be- ginnings in vocational guidance. Because of the more intimate connection with the Division of Education, this assistance ought to become more impprtant as time goes on. During recent years the movement has been given consid- erable attention in the leading educational journals and in the lay press. The National Vocational Guidance Association through its meetings and its publications has done much toward clarifying opinion as to the urgent need for better guidance and the proper methods to be followed. Many normal schools and universities are offering courses in the subject and the prob- lem has been thoughtfully considered in scores of educational conferences. In spite of all this, there remain many misconcep- tions as to the real aims of vocational guidance, and rather widespread reluctance on the part of schools to make anything like a thorough-going effort to solve its complex problems. It is quite natural that business men and most educators them- selves should feel that because teachers are out of touch with the "business" world, they are not well qualified to advise pupils in regard to opportunities in vocations. The assumption is easily made that parents ought to provide all the necessary guidance, or that choosing a career is wholly a matter of individual re- sponsibility. A right diagnosis of any person's fitness for a given occupation seems to demand not only an elaborate study 352 SELECTED ARTICLES of an innumerable array of vocations, but likewise a careful analysis of traits of character and personality, and a knowledge of individual abilities and aptitudes. It is beginning to be recognized that the school has neglected many obvious opportunities for directing the pupil's develop- ment in such a way as to make his life decisions surer and easier. Without in any sense becoming "crassly materialistic" or neglecting the aims of general culture, education can offer ways and means for acquaintance with the practical world. The life-career class, community civics, emphasis upon the vo- cational aspects of science, history, geography, and other sub- jects, English compositions on vocational topics, practical ex- perience in shop work and domestic science, in arts and crafts, the Boy Scout and Camp Fire Girl movements, participation in debating, athletics, student self-government, management of pub- lications and other enterprises, are a few of the means for pre- vocational instruction tried and found successful in progressive schools. Indeed, principals have found that the attempt to help in finding employment for their students and the subsequent supervision of the worker was not only practicable, but that it reacted in all sorts of favorable ways upon the administration of the school. Constant emphasis needs to be placed upon the statement that effective vocational guidance must be a personal progressive matter, taking account of individual development and changing interests over a period of years. True guidance can come about only through a continuous adaptation of life in the school, in industry, and at home, designed to help the boy or girl discover his own abihties and limitations and adjust his vocational plans accordingly. The time has not yet come, and apparently never will, when one or two hours with a counselor, who brings to bear his knowledge of human traits and occupational demands and uses some standardized system of tests, can be depended upon as the sole basis for the choice of a calling. Vocational guidance is not synonymous with placement, nor is it concerned with the classification of children according to types. It does seek to help youth to avoid the false guidance of paid impostors, the shackles of narrow environment and one- sided development, uncritical judgments based on the real or apparent success of others, and false conceptions of social ob- VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 353 ligation arising from the prevalence of the ideas embodied in such terms as "getting ahead of the other fellow," or the "race for success." It seems to be fairly clear that by the provision of broad experiences in the school curriculum, a closer coordination of the school and the manifold aspects of social and industrial activity, by effective preparation for and guided entrance upon work, by promoting vocational guidance in industry through properly organized employment departments and enlightened methods of personnel management, much of the aimless drift- ing through school, through life, and through employment can be stopped. It is in these directions that beginnings ought to be made, and it is to help in these efforts that the Bureau of Vocational Guidance exists. FROM SCHOOL TO V^ORK' The first step of any community, according to the commit- tee's program, ought to be to discover how adequately certain basic activities are already being carried on, since it is through these that vocational guidance must ultimately be developed. They include : adequate school census and attendance records ; psychological tests to aid in revealing individual ability; school scholarships ; school social case work as an aid to handicapped homes ; regular physical examination and medical care ; and ade- quate administration of child labor and compulsory attendance laws. With these properly functioning, there should be a care- ful survey of the essential characteristics of the community's industries and of its educational facilities, as well as of exist- ing agencies for vocational guidance and placement. The next step is to set up the machinery foi coordinating the various activities essential to guidance. The committee recommends a central vocational guidance and employment de- partment under the board of education, with a director respon- sible to the superintendent at the head. Within this department there might well be, it thinks, a central advisory committee representing social and health agencies, employers' associations, labor organizations, parents' associations and others as a means 1 Survey. 43:745-6. March 13, ig20. 354 SELECTED ARTICLES of correlating the attendance, census and other school work with that of outside agencies. Within the department there should be the following divisions : permanent census and at- tendance ; educational scholarships ; psychological service ; in- formation, research and training; and guidance, placement and employment certification. Each community would have to settle for itself such questions as size of staff and precise method of administration. The real work of guidance would fall to the last of the di- visions named above. Counsellors, working under its direction, ought to be provided in sufficient numbers to give intensive serv- ice to children approaching the time of differentiation or with- drawal from school. These counsellors should have knowledge of the child based on (i) personal acquaintance, (2) a cumu- lative record including physical and psychological reports, teachers' estimate and school record which should follow the child through school and be filed in the central bureau at his withdrawal, and (3) social facts gathered from the attendance officers, school case workers or other agencies. Familiarity with various educational facilities in the community is also essen- tial for the counsellor. Finally, he should have knowledge of industry based on (i) a general understanding of the factors involved in industrial relationship,, (2) information about local occupational opportunities from the Division of Information, Research and Training, and (3) personal contact with employers and processes. In a smaller community, or even in the high schools of a large community, the counsellors might naturally combine guid- ance with actual placement. There should also be a system of replacement and follow-up for the first few years of the child's industrial life. A certificate for each job is strongly recom- mended by the committee, and medical examination ought to precede each issuance of a certificate. The evaluation of the success of the work should depend more upon its quality than its quantity, and this should be a task of the division of information, research and training. It is not unreasonable to expect, says the committee, that an or- ganization such as is here outlined would (i) increase the per- centage of children who remain in school after the compulsory attendance age, (2) increase the number entering specialized VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 355 vocational schools, (3) make possible the classification of chil- dren for instruction according to their innate ability, (4) stim- ulate the development of additional needed courses within the curriculum, (5) decrease the number of children entering and remaining in jobs which offer no incentive to advancement, (6) increase the number who find opportunity for such advance- ment, (7) increase the demand for vocational information by teachers, students and parents, and (8) stimulate the interest of the entire community in the solution of the problem. VOCATIONAL STUDY' Because naturally the thing that the average individual is most interested in is himself, because I had seen so many young people come to the university and flounder around for several years without finding a real aim or a serious purpose to direct their college work, and because I had seen others waste years in preparation for something for which they were not fitted or in which they were not keenly interested, I decided to abandon many of the conventional rhetoric themes in favor of a voca- tional study. My idea was to have each student make a rather thoroughgoing analysis of some vocation with special reference to himself. The plan for the experiment was comparatively simple. It started with a questionnaire, the purpose of which was to get that background of the student which might affect his vocational inclination. The information included the size and type of his home town, his high school, the subjects studied in order of his preference and his grading in them, vocational training and experience, why he worked and why he quit, the use he made of his earnings, talents and training possessed which might help to support him, the occupations of his father, brothers, mother, sisters, and uncles, his first and second choice of an occupation, whether or not his parents approved and were willing to assist him financially, his physical condition, and interests in sports, amusements, and organizations. Short themes followed, answering such questions as : Why 1 From article "Roast Beef Instead of Hash," by George Starr Lasher, University of Chicago High School. English Journal. 6:664-76. December, 1917. 356 SELECTED ARTICLES did you come to the University of Michigan? What influenced you in your choice of an occupation? What is your purpose in choosing that particular occupation? What do you actually know about the vocation chosen and how did you secure that information? Just how seriously and how thoroughly have you considered the question? What should one know about the profession he expects to enter? A questionnaire was then given in which concrete in- formation about the profession was demanded. This had the double purpose of getting definite facts as to the knowledge of the students with regard to their intended vocations and of mak- ing them realize how little they actually knew concerning the work they purposed entering. The questionnaire covered actual duties at the start, duties when established, the demand for the work, opportunity of getting a start, best location for a start, necessary and desirable training in school and elsewhere, appren- iceship, necessary professional development after graduation, cost of equipment at the start, size of income at the start, rate of increase, size after five years, maximum and average, neces- sary standard of living and the cost, opportunities to earn money indirectly, social compensations, opportunities for civic responsibilities and social service, physical, mental, moral, and social qualities required, demand for executive and initiative abil- ity, working conditions as to hours, routine, exposure, dangers, health and morals, chance for daily recreation, vocations, and avocations, ease of changing business location, opportunity for specialization, advancement, change within occupation or to other similar occupations, restrictions upon expression of per- sonal opinion and ways of living, other disadvantages, qualities possessed favorable to success, personal handicaps that must be overcome, fundamental ethics of the profession, and what has been done by leaders in the profession for the betterment of society. As might be expected, very few had an adequate knowledge of the demands of their vocation, but the questionnaire had the desired effect of directing their investigation. It also aided them in filling the next assignment, which was to make out a course of study to follow during their university life and justify their selections. Next they prepared an exhaustive bibliography in- cluding lists of books, magazine articles, and pamphlets in the library dealing with their professions. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 357 The final assignment in the vocational study was the prep- aration of a long theme discussing a vocation in its relation to the individual writer and carefully analyzing its demands and the individual's ability to meet them. Concrete information along the lines suggested by the second questionnaire was in- sisted upon. The minimum for the theme was 2,500 words. Several weeks previous to the date on which the theme was due a thoroughgoing analytical outline was handed in. This was criticized, corrected carefully, and then used as a basis for the theme. Accompanying the theme was a descriptive or annotated bibliography representing a minimum of fifteen hours of reading. In addition to this reading, the students were urged to talk with leaders in the profession chosen and get informa- tion and assistance from them. I made no attempt to influence their choice or to advise the students, as my knowledge of the various vocations is frankly superficial. I merely directed the work, helping the student to find suitable material when his own efforts failed. My idea was to make each individual feel that he had a special problem and was responsible for working it out. RESTORING CRIPPLES TO THE INDUSTRIAL RANKS ' Congress, in the closing hours of the sixty-sixth session, passed two notable acts. First, in response to a request from the Federal Board for Vocational Education for $90,303,000 for its current budget, an appropriation of $90,000,000 was author- ized, practically the only estimate which was not vigorously slashed by the law-makers in their drive for economy. Sec- ondly, in response to an appeal from the nation at large. Con- gress passed one of the most significant bills of the session ; namely, the Industrial Rehabilitation Bill, and placed its execu- tion with the Federal Board for Vocational Education. In short, the result of a thoro investigation of the Federal Board was to inspire Congress with sufficient confidence in the mem- bers of the Board to place in their hands both the execution of an epochmaking program for training the cripples of indus- ^ By R. T. Fisher, Chief of the Federal Board for Vocational Educa- tion. Current Opinion. 69:534-5. October, 1920. 358 SELECTED ARTICLES try, as well as to give the Board practically the entire amount of the budget they had requested. Rehabilitation of our ex-service men has been rightly insisted upon as a debt of honor ; but do we realize that four or five times as many men are disabled every year in the "battlefields of industry" fighting for a living, as were disabled in the Amer- ican Expeditionary Forces fighting for the principles of democ- racy? After all, is not the right to earn a decent living one of the principles of democracy? The number of persons, a quarter of a million, injured annually through industrial accidents in the United States is appalling. During the nineteen months of war, we had 48,000 men who were killed or died of wounds in France. During that same period, there were killed by accident in Amer- ica 126,000 persons, of which number 35,000 occurred in industry. In point of dollars, re-training the industrially disabled men means an increased productive value to the nation of amounts heretofore little understood. I believe we are easily within con- servative estimates in saying that any seriously disabled man who can be vocationally rehabilitated will have his earning capacity increased by a total of at least $12,500 for the remaining period of his life and that his increased productive value to the nation will easily reach $50,000. .The Federal Board for Voca- tional Education is just now gathering data on this subject; but assuming that not more than one-fifth of the permanently dis- abled require re-training, we would have 50,000 men a year to be trained. If each re-trained man returns to the productive value of the nation an average of $50,000 in the remainder of his life, the increment accruing to the wealth of the nation would amount to two and one-half billion dollars. This enormous figure, be it remembered, is the estimated result of training those persons crippled each year in industry. When the program shall have beeii thorogoing and nation-wide, only the most optimistic prophets can conceive its possibilities. There is no field today where the State or nation can obtain so large an economic return on an investment as in rehabilitat- ing the disabled of industry; so that, instead of having depend- ent consumers and industrial pensioners, we shall have inde- pendent producers and contented citizens. We thus come to realize that the undertaking is a piece of advanced social legis- lation looking to the end that all men shall be producers in VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 359 proportion to their ability, and that neither rich nor poor shall be permitted to become parasites. The Act of Congress approved June 2, 1920 does not pro- vide for the support of the industrially disabled who are under- going vocational training; but purposes to standardize, super- vize and encourage industrial rehabilitation in the various States. The problem must always be largely a State problem, because the number disabled in any State bears a definite ratio to the number of persons engaged in the industries of that State. The State which is responsible for the most industrial cripples is likewise reaping corresponding profits from the industries in that State which are responsible for those cripples. Conse- quently, the funds for Industrial Rehabilitation should come chiefly from sources of State taxation, assuming that the State will, in turn, derive taxes for that purpose from the profits of those industries which are responsible for the accidents. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 019 615 117 5