SB V ocational Guidance IN HARTFORD, CONN. Report of the General Committee AND Vocational Counsellor 1911-1913 REPORT OF THE Vocational Guidance Committee HARTFORD, CONN. JANUARY, 1914 GENERAL COMMITTEE. Oscar A. Phelps, Chairman Dotha B. Hillyer Wilbur F. Gordy Thomas S. Weaver James J. Peard John L. Purcell A. A. Welch Catherine M. Tinker William C. Holden Mary C. Welles, Secretary Rockwell H. Potter John F. Ryan Elizabeth J. Cairns Solon P. Davis Charles L. Ames EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. Wilbur F. Gordy, Chairman Mary C. Welles, Secretary Dotha B. Hillyer Solon P. Davis Thomas S Weaver William C. Holden VOCATIONAL COUNSELLOR. Lillian L. Kane VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE IN HARTFORD The Hartford Vocational Guidance Committee, in- cluding representatives of the public school associations and various other social agencies in the city (1), was formed in November, 1911. The purpose of this com- mittee was to make an intensive study of the conditions surrounding the fourteen to sixteen year old worker. Although in a large way these immature, half-educated children were supervised by legislation, no effort had been made to consider their individual needs or to formulate a constructive program of readjustment for those insti- tutions that specially affected their interests. In Connecticut during 1911-12, 11,978 children be- tween the ages of 14 and 16 were granted employment certificates: 1,163 of these certificates were granted to children in Hartford. (2) In September, 1911, the interests of workers under sixteen were cared for by two laws, one prohibiting cer- tain dangerous occupations and the other requiring the certification of employed children. The latter statute, enforced by the State JBoard of Education, required docu- mentary evidence of age, a mathematical test (fractions and decimals), and evidence of good health before the issuing of a certificate. The taking up and termination of employment by a minor under sixteen was to be re- corded at the State Board by employer. I. The first step in this study was the investi- gation of the local industries employing children under sixteen, the primary purpose of which was to define exactly the work done by these children and to form a (1) Board of School Visitors, Principals* Club, High School Commit- tee, Civic Club, Juvenile Commission and Consumers* League, the last or- ganization having initiated the work in Hartford. (2) Records of the State Board of Education do not define how many of these certificates were given out for work outside of school hours. fairly accurate estimate of its contribution to their physi- cal, mental and moral well-being. No effort was made to study the larger industries as a whole, i. e., in relation to the older workers. (1) The data which was obtained in this investigation was as follows: The number of children working; the physical conditions under which they work ; the processes of work; study of the particular kind of skill required in each process ; health strain of the process on the worker; position of the worker; wages; prospects of ad- vancement for the worker entering at 14; seasonal con- ditions of the industry ; the hours of employment ; over- time and its remuneration ; vacation and conditions under which it is given; educational and welfare work already carried on and a special study of its possibilities in the future. This study disclosed the fact that the average indus- trial opportunity in Hartford open to children under 16 has practically no educational value beyond the discipline imposed by any mechanical task. (2) The skilled trades are almost entirely closed to a child of that age. There are a few boys doing odd jobs in the printing and electri- cal shops. Rarely one finds a boy of this age helping in the drafting, tool-making, machine and pattern-making rooms. The same is true for the girls in dressmaking, millinery, and domestic service. Although some conserv- ative employers say that the apprentice system is still in existence, it positively does not exist in the educational sense of “apprenticeship” for children under 16. The majority of these children are taking up un- skilled odd jobs in factories and stores. In the metal fac- tories, which as a group employ more children than any other type of factory in the city, the younger workers (1) A beginning has been made in studying the trades open to minors over sixteen. The printing trade was completed. It is hoped that this study for the other trades may be continued to completion when there are more workers in the field. (2) This report in outline form appeared in the Report of the Hartford Juvenile Commission, June, 1912. S 4 do errand and truck work, stock boxing, odd jobs about the office, clerical work (rare), inspecting, assorting, as- sembling, light grinding, polishing, feed automatic ma- chines, drilling, testing (chains), foot-press work, wiring, unwiring, transferring, cutting out transfers and clean- ing type in typewriter factories. A few children are scattered through the following factories : Girls do filling and cutting in a gold-leaf factory. One leather-goods factory employs a few boys and girls in such jobs as errand work, opening boxes, cleaning up, snipping threads and strapping bits in bridles. There is the inevitable yeast-cake shop employing a num- ber of girls wrapping yeast-cakes. Three small shirt- waist factories employ a number of girls carrying ma- terials to the workers, ironing, folding, putting on buttons, cutting off lengths, and snipping seams. The tobacco shops employ a few children during the winter shaking out bunches, flattening and measuring leaves. In the summer, when the tobacco crop is full-grown, many children are at work out in the fields stringing the leaves. In the rag shops some foreign children pick over the rags. The department stores and some smaller retail stores employ a large number of children, chiefly girls. The street trade recruiting the majority of the boys, is the messenger service. The exact distribution in per cents of the employed children between 14- and 16 in Hartford in 1911-12 was as follows: Factory 54% Department stores 22% Small retail stores . 9% (1) Street trades 6% Skilled trades 5% (2) Miscellaneous occupations 4% Total 100% (1) Grocery, drug, shoe, jewelry, hardware, clothing. (2) Dressmaking, millinery, electrical work, plumbing and printing. 5 II. The second step in this study was the investiga- tion of the local social and educational organizations that offer training to assist working minors. At the time of this study the only educational op- portunity for an employed minor was the night school. (1) Investigation proved that comparatively few work- ing children under sixteen had made use of this oppor- tunity. (2) The average child of this age does not on his own initiative care to undertake any form of serious study in the evening. Therefore, it is with perfect jus- tice to the situation discovered in Hartford that advanced educational thought practically prohibits the night school under sixteen and even eighteen years of age, because of physical and mental fatigue. The best solution of the problem of the working child under sixteen is the part-time continuation school. Under such a system a child is allowed to work in the shop, receiving full pay, and attend a school specially suited to his needs a certain number of hours a week for a certain period of time. Since the time of this study, the development in Hartford of an interest in this approved form of educa- tion has been perceptible. Under the direction of Mr. William C. Holden at the High School a “Continuation School for Machinist Apprentices and Helpers” has been started. A prospectus for a proposed “Continuation School for Employed Girls” has just been issued under the same auspices. (3) The Board of School Visitors has already under consideration a school for salesman- ship with the approval of the merchants of the city. (4) (1) One boys’ club, the Christian Associations and the public even- ing schools are doing the most pretentious educational work along this line in the city. (2) In the Public Evening School in January in the trade and aca- demic classes (6th to 9th grade) only 8 % of the average attendance of pupils at that time were under, sixteen. The teachers stated that children of this age seldom kept up their attendance through the year. (3) This school will draw girls from the unskilled industries. The instruction is to include domestic science and cultural work. (4) Reference to page 4 statistical table will show that the develop- ment of this experimental system of continuation schools is directly in line with the more pressing needs of the situation. 6 S The various social service organizations in the city offering forms of recreation to working children are effective only to small local groups. Among the two hun- dred children with whom the vocational worker has come intimately in contact there are only four isolated cases (1) wherein the child had on his own initiative associated himself with some form of evening recreation offered by social service organizations in the city. Eight of the organizations have thriving clubs for working minors. Children who have just withdrawn from school have probably not felt the need of special recreation as keenly as the working child. Doubtless many of them would attend these clubs, if they were aware of the work done there. It may be hoped that the vocational worker will guide constantly increasing numbers of employed children to these places of recreation. III. The third step in this study was an investi- gation of the conditions under which the children between fourteen and sixteen years of age leave school. 1. Conference with child as he leaves school. (1) Vocational worker meets the child. (2) Principal meets the child and an investiga- tion by vocational worker follows im- mediately afterwards. 2. Collection of school data. 3. Visit to the home. 4. Follow-up visits extending over a period of at least a year. This work with the children has extended over a period of thirteen months. Children have been met from Districts A, B and C. (2) A group of cases of children dropped from the High School January, 1912, has been studied. A number of irregular cases have come to the (1) Three of these cases have been associated with the special social service organizations since early childhood. (2) District A : 8,932 children of school age, chiefly American. District B : 2,645 children of school age, chiefly Foreign. District C : 2,455 children of school age, chiefly Foreign. 7 vocational worker, the children having been sent by in- dividuals and social service organizations. 494 cases have been recorded. 164 cases of supervision, requiring but one visit or interview. 173 cases of intensive work, demanding from two (minimum) to ten (maximum) visits. (1) 157 transcripts from the school records. GROUP STUDY OF CHILDREN LEAVING SCHOOL TO ENTER INDUSTRY A — Educational Study. Group 1. 286 cases Districts A and B. 185 cases District A. 101 cases District B. a — Sex and District. District A. District B. No. % No. % Boys 122 65.0 50 50.5 Girls 63 35.0 51 49.5 Total 185 100.0 101 100.0 b — Grade finished and age at leaving school. District A. 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th grade grade grade grade grade grade grade Total 14 years 1 5 42 27 9 3 87 15 years 8 15 12 11 2 48 16 years 1 1 5 5 3 2 17 17 years 1 3 3 7 18 years 1 1 Total 1 2 18 64 45 25 5 160 25 cases omitted. (1) Although this preliminary work with the children had as its pri- mary purpose the study of the actual conditions surrounding the child who leaves school between the ages of fourteen and sixteen, efforts were made in each case of intensive work to give to the child some information or assistance that would guide him in his first step out into industry and to provide supervision for him between the ages of fourteen to sixteen. From the information obtained in these three sections of the study, a suggestive program of work has been developed, which may tend to solve the original problem. 8 / District B. 14 years 15 years 16 years 17 years Total 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th grade grade grade grade grade grade grade Total 9 20 19 8 3 59 5 7 7 4 2 25 5 1111 1 1 5 16 29 27 13 5 9 6 cases omitted, c — Scholarship. Of the 286 cases, 146 were selected and analyzed to de- termine the average scholarship. Yearly records from fourth grade on were considered and rated on a scale of 6. 1-3 is good. 3-4 is passable. 4-6 is unsatisfactory. No. Per Cent. 1-3 23 16 3-4 39 26 4-6 84 58 Total 146 100% CO-ORDINATION OF GROUPS ACCORDING TO LENGTH OF TIME IN INDUSTRY B — Vocational Study. Group II. Thirty children from Districts B and C. 1. Enumeration. 11 boys, 19 girls; Total, 30. 32% from District B. 68% from District C. 2. Nativity. f 7 in Russia. 11 Foreign-born -{3 in Italy. 19 American. [ 1 in Austria. 3. Scope of work. All original and follow-up cases. (1) 4. Result of Vocational Conference. [ 9 factory. 10 returned to school. | 5 dept, store. 20 entered industry ^3 retail store. Direct placement cases, 5. | 2 home. [ 1 fields. (1) This group of children had been out in industry on an average • of one year and one month by the time of the last follow-up visit, May 11, 1913. 9 05 — 64% of them leave, having completed only the 6th or 7th grade. c — They begin to withdraw from the 3rd grade. d — Since the normal grade for a child of fourteen is the eighth or ninth, the majority of these children are distinctly retarded. (1) e — 84% of them have not a record of scholarship above passable even in the low grade they have completed. (2) f — 16% leave school because they are restless or dis- couraged in school and want to get to work. 20% leave school because they are in poor cir- cumstances and backward. 26% leave because of economic pressure. (3) g — In the foreign districts the problem is equally divided between the boys and the girls. In the middle class districts the problem is more specifically the boys’, as the people of that class try to protect their girls by keeping them longer in school. (4) These restless, half-educated children, quite uncon- scious of w^hat education or industry means to them, ac- cept the first position offered and then float along with the tide. Yet a child of fourteen to sixteen is at one of the most critical periods of his mental and physical de- velopment. II— HOW VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE MAY SOLVE THIS PROBLEM IN HARTFORD: 1 Executive work. 2 Recommendations. 1 Executive work. (1) Among 145 children in groups II, III, IV, only 8% were retarded because of having come here recently from another country. (2) Ref. pages 8 and 9, group I. (3) Ref. pages 10 to 15, groups II, III, IV. (4) Ref. page 8, group I. ^ 14 A — Theory for Executive Work (1) The real meaning of education and industry should be made clear to the child before he leaves school. If his special difficulty is due to the fact that he is misplaced in the school system, it is the function of the vocational worker to readjust the case as far as the school system will allow. (2) If, after conference, the child still wishes to leave school, the position he takes up should be supervised immediately. (1) Special con- sideration should be given in this investigation to his health and special aptitudes. (2) (3) Shift should be restricted as much as possible unless it means advancement for the worker. (4) Idleness between positions should be strictly prohibited by a thorough, searching enforce- ment of the employment certificate law. (5) With increasing maturity study outside of work- ing hours should be encouraged until educa- tion offers us a better substitute. (6) Wholesome recreation should be stimulated for those who do not seek it on their own initia- tive. (1) This supervision may be carried on through direct placement or by an investigation after the child has considered the position. No attempt has been made in Hartford to establish a placement bureau under the direction of the schools, although some placing has been done. Supervision in a small city may be carried on in other ways. Yet it is hoped as the work develops that the scattered placement work done by social service organizations and the Vocational Guidance Committee may soon be co-ordinated into a local Juvenile Employment Bureau under suitable direction. (2) Dr. George Dawson has carried on some very interesting psycho- logical tests of children in the Henry Barnard School. The results of these examinations have been at the disposal of the vocational worker and have proved very helpful in defining the capacity, physically and mentally, of certain children. 15 B — TENTATIVE Program for Executive Work (1) Co-operation with all the schools in the city. (1) a — Method in Districts A and B. (2) Children who wish certificates for the coming week may report to the room teacher on Monday. These names at the end of the day are to be given to the secre- tary of the school and transferred through her to the vocational worker Monday afternoon or Tuesday morn- ing- At the following times each week the vocational worker will meet all the children passing out into industry in the specified schools. District A. School a — 9.00 A. M. Tuesday. (3) School b — 11.00 A. M. Tuesday. School c — 1.15 P. M. Tuesday. School d — 3.15 P. M. Tuesday. District B. 9 A. M. Wednesday. (3) (4) b — Conference with the child. (5) Data: Name, address, date of conference, mother and father living, father’s occupation, number and ages of children in the family, reason for leaving school. (1) The above method of co-operation, defining a somewhat different mode of procedure for Districts A and B from that used in Districts X (see pages 20-1 B (1) e), seemed the most hopeful way for one worker to meet the largest local need. Intensive work has been going on for over a year in Districts A and B. Although pressure was brought to bear to extend the interests of the one worker beyond these two districts, it seemed unfortunate for her to lose the intensely valuable personal contact with the teachers and principals in these districts. The method defined in B (1) a is undoubtedly the ideal one. As more workers come into the field, it is hoped that the more remote method suggested for District X may be revised in favor of personal contact between the teacher and vocational worker in every case, promoting a mutual 'understanding and interest in. the child that is invaluable in this work. (2) Districts A and B, including the parochial schools, cover 60% of the problem of the working child in the city. (3) In District A, school a, and in District B an interview with the room teacher before the school session is necessary. (4) If the work of District A on any week does not occupy all Tues- day, District B may be handled on Tuesday. . (5) This conference with the child is short and simple, with a slight variation in individual cases from the outline given above. 16 Description of the child: Appearance, personality, health (1), school studies most and least pro- ficient in, industrial ambition, evidences of definite aptitude. Result of Conference : Returned to school. Returned to special school. Placed in industry. Entered industry by personal application, in- dustry immediately investigated by vocational worker. c — Visit to home: (2) Locality. Number of rooms. Condition of apartments. d — Follow-up visits: Date of follow-up visit, changes of employment since last visit, reason for each change, wages in each position, periods of idleness between visits. Present position : firm, address, business, kind of work, advancement, hours of labor, posi- tion at work, wage (tp.), amount contributed to the home, regularity of work, child’s atti- tude toward employment, foremen and work- ers, educational work, recreation, evidences of health, efficiency report from employer or school. e — Method in Districts. (3) When a child asks for a transcript, the principal encloses card in envelope directed to voca- tional worker. (1) Health certificates given either through a doctor’s examinations or a test by the psychologist in the laboratory, invaluable to the purposes of this work if the school machinery permits. (2) A special card is made out in the case of actual economic pressure. (3) District X consists of seven districts, covering 40% of the work- ing children between fourteen and sixteen in the city. 17 Material on card : District, name of child, par- ent’s address, date of entering district, school transferred from, date of request for tran- script, date granted, place of birth, date of birth, yearly average in scholarship and de- portment in each grade, time lost (weeks) each year, studies least and most proficient in. Remarks: .. - These cards filed in order of receipt and cases looked up as soon as pressure of work will permit. Conference with child in school or home: Place- ment or advice. Follow-up work. (1) Report back to principal. II— 2 RECOMMENDATIONS Vocational Guidance, taking a sympathetic interest in the individual as a social unit, brings the public school system directly into the field of social service. It co- ordinates the home, the school and the industry about the life of the child. An innovation of this sort to be effec- tive should receive direct support from the institutions represented, social service, education and industry. (1) Child Labor Legislation. The only effective way to standardize industry ac- cording to the ideas which education holds for the in- dividual is through child labor legislation. Hartford industries are on the whole of a high grade, yet a few of them employ children under sixteen under unfavorable conditions. a — Children under sixteen ought to be excluded from tobacco shops. (2) (1) The burden of follow-up work is automatically lightened by eliminating the majority of cases of children who have passed their six- teenth year. Special cases are still retained for consideration even after the child has passed his sixteenth year. (2) Tobacco shops in Hartford are already on their own initiative excluding children under 16. 13 b — Material in rag shops ought to be sterilized before they are allowed to touch it. c — Hours in mercantile establishments ought to be made still shorter and night work entirely pro- hibited for children. d — Selling newspapers as a full-time occupation be- tween 14 and 16 ought to be prohibited or the boys forced to attend a part-time school. (1) e — The messenger service ought to be regulated in the line of advanced legislation, f — The present certificate law, providing for certi- fication and general supervision, has been help- ful. Yet the problem is so large that such a law is naturally rather difficult to enforce. (2) Thorough-going enforcement will probably de- pend on an increased number of agents for this special purpose and the constantly increasing accuracy and promptness of records from the school and industry to the central authority. Domestic service and outdoor work are not certi- fied. To gain a fair estimate of the working child's problem it would seem necessary to re- tain at the State Board record of these occu- pations even if no examination were necessary for such employment. Certain portions of the school system are going to be readjusted in order to retain children longer in school. (3) Vocational scholarships will be established. (4) Industry is coming to the conclusion that child labor is a bad in- vestment on the whole and therefore is tending to raise the (1) Selling newspapers as a full-time occupation does not employ a boy but a certain number of hours a day. A boy, inclined to be delin- * quent, may sell papers as many hours a day as he pleases and loaf around the street the rest of the day and still act in accordance with the present provisions of the law. (2) In as far as it was possible the State Board of Education has been most conscientious in enforcing the law in Hartford. In spite of its vigilance some important cases have slipped by. > (3) Ref. page 23 (2) a-f. (4) Page 23 (3) a. 19 age limit of acceptance to sixteen. Considering these innovations, the “ forward look’' may wisely be toward raising the age limit of this law to fifteen instead of four- teen and extending the State Board’s supervision up to seventeen years of age. (1) (2) Education. Direct co-operation must be stimulated between edu- cation and industry in favor of the fourteen to sixteen year old worker in the form of vocational education. a — Part time schools for employed minors should be established and attendance made compulsory by law. b — Pre-vocational work, preferably concentrated into a single plant, should be undertaken. (2) c — Backward children from the fourth grade on, who do not seem to respond to the regular ac- ademic instruction, should be grouped into special classes, wherein the instruction in its predominately objective quality, may be more suited to their special needs. (3) d — All mental defectives should be taken out of the regular grades and placed in a special school, wherein the training will fit them for some form of manual efficiency. (4) (1) In many cases that have come to the vocational worker’s atten- tion supervision between the a'ges of sixteen and seventeen would have been more valuable than between fourteen and fifteen. Such a change in the law should come only after the suggested in- novations have been effected. (2) With the development of the experimental continuation school, a certain equipment for trade instruction will be gathered together in a single school which in Hartford happens to be the High School. Without a duplication in plant pre-vocational classes might be started in such a school. These classes will meet the needs of the following groups: (a) Children who are going to enter industry early and would profit by some trade instruction before they leave school, (b) Children who have been in backward classes and have gone as far as instruction there will allow and are so financially situated that they may remain in school longer, (c) Children who are shifting in industry and might return to school if some kind of trade work were provided for them. (3) An interesting experiment in this special form of education is being carried on at the Henry Barnard .School in Hartford. (4) The local School Board has under consideration the establishment of such a school. 20 I e — Ungraded classes should be started. They would meet the needs of the children who drop out of school because they are backward in one or more studies, and of those children who have been in industry for some months and wish to return to school without repeating the work of their previous grade. (1) f — As early as the 6th grade the children’s interest in the industrial environment and their own aptitudes should be stimulated by vocational discussions, which may merely be informal talks between the teacher and her pupils in the class room. (3) Social Service. a — Social service organizations should demonstrate the value of vocational scholarships to be given to poor children with bright minds who would profit by longer training in the grades or in special schools. b — The opportunities for recreation for the working child, especially during the winter months, should be increased. Excellent as is the work of private organizations along this line, they have neither the material nor the capacity to meet the larger needs of the situation. The two immediate needs that this study has dis- closed are the use of the school buildings in the crowded sections of the city as social centres (2) and the establishment of a recrea- tive centre under city control that shall combat .the. .serious diifTuence of the cheap dance hall. ' V ocational Guidance irrTfaftf ord has up to the pres- ent concerned itself only with the fourteen to sixteen (1) Such a class would permit the return to school of a number of children for whom up to the present no provision has been made. (2) In the Henry Barnard School a step has been taken toward the use of the school building- as a social centre. The girls at present in school in the 7th, 8th and 9th grades have formed a club that is to meet in the evenings in the school. 21 year old worker. After studying the problem of these children, it tried to provide wise, practical supervision for them and sometimes material assistance in obtaining positions. When education, social service and industry have readjusted their forces in order to care more effec- tively for these children, the heaviest burden of super- vision will be lifted from the shoulders of the vocational counsellor. Vocational Guidance from that time on will probably take two lines of development. (1) As a piece of educational work it is primarily interested in the individual child. Therefore, it may still provide guidance for children through the labyrinth of vocational and academic courses so their educational and vocational life may be as nearly as possible an ex- pression of their own personalities. (2) It may concern itself with more pretentious and scientific investigation of the occupations open to minors of a more advanced age with the intention of providing guidance for the older workers. We hope that this work at present and in the future by using and helping to develop the city’s resources, will guide the working child so that he may experience a normal and healthful growth to the end that he may be- come a self-sustaining wage earner and a useful citizen. % 22