lish, and science. Study and discuss this condition.
3. Name some of the questions involved in selecting subject-matter for
a given class.
4. If you were looking for a good cook which of the following would you
select: The person who best understands how to select food, the one
who knows best how to cook it, or the one who knows best how to
serve it?
5. The great teacher selects subject-matter wisely, prepares it skillfully,
and serves it invitingly. In which department is the average teacher
poorest? In which department are you strongest?
6. A pupil said: "We had geography soup, fried arithmetic, baked
grammar, and roasted history every day, and as there was hardly any
seasoning, we all got sick of the meals." What did the pupil mean
by this? Is it an unusual condition? In how many ways can you cook
arithmetic?
7. Get the working program of some sixth-grade teacher. Study it by
the table on page 195. Consider time per week, length of recita-
tion, subjects omitted, subject having greatest emphasis, and similar
points.
8. Arrange the following subjects in the order of importance according
to your own judgment: arithmetic, penmanship, reading, music,
drawing, language, history, Latin, science, and literature.
9. " All science is represented in a plant: chemistry, physics, astronomy,
physiology, geography, history, geology." Show that this is true.
10. Read one of the references given at the end of the chapter and give
your views of it.
CHAPTER XII
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
A vocation or a job. It is a self-evident fact that the boys
and many of the girls in our public schools to-day will
eventually engage in some special life-work or vocation, or
they will drift into the great unclassified company of irreg-
ular and unskilled workers. Just what the character of their
work will be depends in a measure upon the inclinations and
the aptitude of the pupils themselves; but it will probably
depend in a still larger measure upon the opportunities
which they will have for selecting and preparing for a voca-
tion and the use which they will make of these opportunities.
Those who make an intelligent and wise choice of a vocation
and fit themselves for it will in the majority of cases become
self-supporting and productive members of society. Those
who do not will sooner or later be forced to join the army
of cheap, inefficient laborers, whose low-productive power
renders them a burden to society.
Skilled and unskilled workers. The working population
of our country to-day might be divided roughly according
to efficiency into two classes, skilled and unskilled workers.
By a skilled worker is here meant one who, by reason of
preparation and experience, can do effectively some special
kind of work, industrial, commercial, or professional. He
may be the owner or manager of a factory or other industrial
plant and direct large interests and have other persons work-
ing under his direction; or he may be one of the op)erators or
artisans working under the supervision of another. He may
be a merchant, the o\\Tier of a store for example; or he may
be a salesman, a bookkeeper, or other employee in the store
222 THE PROFESSION OF TEACHING
or the mercantile establishment of another person. He may
be in one of the learned professions, or he may be a me-
chanic. Whatever his station and his vocation, if he does his
work with intelligence and skill, he may be classed among
skilled workers. The unskilled worker, on the other hand,
is one who has no technical or special knowledge of any vo-
cation and has not been trained for any particular kind of
work. He is not able to compete with skilled workers and
therefore must depend upon the chance jobs and menial
tasks that require no special preparation or skill.
Paupers and criminals recruited from army of tmskilled.
It is from the army of the unskilled that comes the largest
percentage of the paupers and criminals that must be sup-
ported at public expense. These persons do not contribute
to the welfare of society. In fact they are an actual burden
and menace to society. They are parasites, giving nothing
in return for what they exact. A comparison of the tables of
statistics, showing the causes of poverty in any of our great
cities, will invariably prove that the single cause that is
responsible for the largest number of cases is vocational
inefficiency. This is shown by the fact that those dependent
upon charity are persons who are not regularly employed
in the industries because of lack of training for them. They
are in general persons who, because of lack of capacity or of
vocational training and skill, turn from one to another of the
chance jobs that come in their way and hence are out of
employment much of the time. This condition not only
keeps them poor and frequently wholly dependent upon the
charity of others, but it often leads them into crime. The
records of many of our jails and penitentiaries show that
the majority of the inmates are casual and unskilled work-
ers, the number of this class in some instances being as high
as eighty -five per cent of the entire number confined.
Vocational training as a remedy for poverty and crime. If
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 223
a large percentage of the poverty and crime which society
deplores is the direct result of vocational inefficiency, a rem-
edy for this condition would be found in providing the
masses with the means of vocational training. Since society
must provide for its paupers and unfortunates and protect
itself against its criminals who become such from a lack of
the opportunity for this definite training, it would seem to
be for the interest of society to furnish these persons the
means for getting this training. Vocational instruction as
a means of preventing prisoners from returning to lives
of crime after they are released is the reform method now
being employed in many of our reformatories and prisons.
Inmates of these institutions are now being taught trades
and various vocations by which their wage-earning capacity
may be increased in order that they may be able to make an
honest living after leaving prison. To this is added in many
cases practical academic instruction, not alone for its cul-
tural value, but for the purpose of equipping these men for
the new start in life that awaits them just beyond the prison
doors.
One ounce of prevention is worth sixteen ounces of cure,
and if vocational training is a good curative measure for
poverty and crime, it must be a still better preventive meas-
ure for these ills. How much more effective it would be,
then, to use it as a preventive measure, by fitting the young
for self-support and self-respecting citizenship, than it is to
use it as a curative measure after they have become paupers
and criminals. Curative measures are to be commended but
preventive measures are still better. If the latter measure
were used now, the coming generation of workers would
be efficient and would find a ready market for their knowl-
edge and skill before lack of employment, idleness, and
poverty had led them into crime. Thus, much of tliat
pauperism and crime which are the result of lack of voca-
iU THE PROFESSION OF TEACHING
tional training and eflBciency would be prevented, and soci-
ety, as well as the individual, would be benefited. There is,
therefore, a twofold reason why a community should provide
its young with the means for vocational education; the duty
which it owes to its children and the duty which it owes to
itself. These two duties are so closely related that when the
community discharges the one, it also discharges the other;
for by training its members for social efl&ciency, society best
contributes to its own stability. A prominent educator in
discussing the social value of vocational education says: —
Society is deprived of the increased productivity which would
result from developing in each and every one of its individuals the
greatest amount of skill of which he or she is capable; and the
scarcity of skilled workmen who can command good wages, to-
gether with the superabundance of unskilled workmen who can
command only the lowest rate of wages, furnishes a continual
handicap to the increase in the efficiency of production. The result
is twofold. First, the rate of production is kept down and society
is the loser. Second, thousands of human beings, who might be
useful and happy citizens, live and die in poverty and misery, and
again society is the loser.
Place of vocational education in preparation for life. Edu-
cation to be practical must fit for life. Therefore that educa-
tion is best which best fits the individual, through the culti-
vation of all his faculties, for his particular place in life and
enables him to function properly with the civilization of
which he is a part. In order that he may have this kind of
education — this practical preparation for life — his instruc-
tion and training must be adapted to his needs and given
with direct reference to his particular circumstances. It
must be such as to connect directly with life, as it is being
lived at the present, and it must meet the common every-
day demands of American society. The educating forces
should send the individual out into the world with the
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 225
ability to use to the extent of his development and capabili-
ties all that he has learned. An educational system is ade-
quate just so far as it succeeds in doing this. The demands
which the civilization of the present makes upon the lawyer,
the doctor, and the banker are very different from the de-
mands which it makes upon the carpenter, the blacksmith,
and the mechanic. Hence, education of the same kind will
not fit every case, but must be differentiated, according to
the needs of each. The necessity for adapting instruction to
the diversified requirements of society and the individuals
composing it is becoming a directive force in education.
Until recently the same instruction was given to children
in all parts of the country witliout regard to local conditions
or requirements or to the particular needs of the individual.
It is not surprising that this system of teaching did not in
all cases fit for life and, as a result, that there has been an
ever-increasing demand that education be brought into
more intimate relation with the everyday life of the masses.
Since about eighty-five per cent of the children in the schools
are in the elementary grades, it is evident that the instruc-
tion given in the public and other elementary schools should
be adapted to the needs of this large number who will go
out into the world to take up life early, as well as to the few
who are preparing for college entrance examinations. Since
society is largely the result of the organization of the voca-
tional activities which compose it, it follows that the indi-
vidual cannot contribute to the social structure to the full
extent of his capabilities unless he is in possession of special
vocational technique. In other words, he must have voca-
tional education as well as cultural and moral education, in
order to be productive to society in the highest degree. The
relation of society to the vocational education of the young
is not merely a question of duty to the individual. It is a
self-preservation measure.
23(3 THE PROFESSION OF TEACHING
Need of vocational education recognized. If the foregoing
conclusion is correct, then it is evident that during the period
of childhood and youth there should be, in addition to the
cultural and moral preparation for life and citizenship, a
definite vocational preparation. Just how and when and
where this preparation should be made, if not in reality the
most vital, is one of the vital questions in education to-day.
National and state teachers' associations have taken up the
question in an endeavor to formulate plans looking toward
giving this practical phase of education a place in the school
curriculum. Congress and the legislative bodies of many of
the States, cooperating with educators, have considered the
question and have passed legislation with a view to putting
vocational training into the public schools. Boards of educa-
tion in the various cities, in conjunction with superintend-
ents and teachers, are giving tliis important problem their
serious attention and are bringing to its solution their best
thought and effort. Experiments of various kinds are being
made and theories and plans are being thoroughly tested in
the effort to arrive at a satisfactory answer as to how this
instruction can be given. Many of the plans and methods
that are being tested show most satisfactory results and give
promise of great advancement along this line of education.
As a further indication of the popular trend, exi)eriments
that have met with success in certain cities are being
adapted to the conditions and needs of other cities and put
into operation.
Practical education movement result of a popular demand.
The causes of this widespread movement toward a modifica-
tion of the ideals and aims of education and the function
of the school are easily explained. It is a well-known fact
that fully half of the children in the elementary grades drop
out of school before or by the time that they reach the end
of the compulsory school age, this exodus beginning as early
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 227
as the fourth grade. Some of these pupils leave from neces-
sity to become wage-earners; but the larger proportion
leave because the instruction given does not appeal to them
or to their parents as worth while, or as being of value to
them in increasing their wage-earning power. This is a
severe criticism of the schools, but whether justified or not
does not concern us at present. It is the fact and the sig-
nificance of this exodus with which we are concerned.
The Committee on Vocational Education and Guidance,
at the meeting of the National Education Association in
1913, said: —
On every hand now comes the renewed determination to arrive
at a more permanent sokition of many of the questions involved.
The manufacturers' associations, the social and philanthropic
workers, the labor unions, those interested in education, the peo-
ple themselves are all striving to discover the means which shall
bring about the desired result. All are endeavoring to reach a con-
clusion which may be placed before the world as one of the methods
through which better things may be evolved, not alone for the in-
dividual but for society as a whole. This whole movement has re-
sulted in a new demand upon the public schools.
Early attempts at practical education — Manual training.
Life in these latter days has grown away from the school,
and it was an attempt on the part of educators to make the
public schools articulate better with life that led to the
introduction of manual training and domestic science into
the course of study. Manual training, as the name implies,
has to do with the handling or manipulation of materials
with the hands. It is not vocational training as many people
think, but is distinctly educational in its purpose. The
educational argument for giving it a place in the curriculum
of the public schools is based upon the fundamental proposi-
tion that knowledge of material things through actual touch
and manipulation should be possessed by every one. Such
228 THE PROFESSION OF TEACHING
knowledge is necessary in order to make clear those concepts
that can be gained only through actual contact and touch.
Work in manual training, through the handling of tools,
woods, and other materials should be rich in concepts; and
the teacher's aim should be to direct pupils in gaining these
concepts rather than in developing technical skill. As a
means of teaching valuable concepts, manual training has
as much right to a place in the course of study as history,
geography, and science have. All are rich in concepts.
Another important educational result of manual activity
is the opportunity it affords for the exercise of the hands in
the manipulation of materials. Through the handling of
tools and materials, the child gains experience with the uses
of these tools and materials, and the possibilities of the
materials. This knowledge is both useful and broadening.
Besides many children will develop skill in the use of tools
in making things, and to those who may later on find their
occupations or vocations in the manual arts, this will prove
especially helpful in giving them some experience in the
handhng of materials and gaining useful concepts of them.
This phase of manual activity may be made distinctly pre-
vocational, as will be shown later. There is often another
result from manual training which is distinctly practical,
and that is its value as a means to vocational guidance. By
bringing out the inclinations and the capabilities of certain
individuals who have an aptitude for hand work, it often
serves to direct them in the selection of a vocation which
will give them the opportunity for the exercise of their best
powers. The possibilities of manual training in the work-
ing program of the public schools are great, if the work is
properly directed and in such a way as to call out the full
educational value and produce the desirable subjective re-
sponse in tlie child.
Domestic science. As another step in the movement
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 229
toward making the education of the schools more practical,
domestic science was added to the course of study. At first
this took the form of sewing and cooking, to which were
later added instruction in various household arts. The
underlying purpose in this was to give to girls that practical
knowledge of the household arts which they would need in
the discharge of their duties in the home. Incidently it has
served another purpose, the value of which cannot be over-
estimated. It has given dignity to the work of the home and
the duties of the housekeeper and home-maker. The home
is the unit of society. It ministers to the physical needs of
those who direct and control the whole social system, polit-
ical, economical, and moral. The home also nurtures and
rears those persons who will direct and control the social
system of the future. It must feed and clothe them, and it
must, to a large degree, provide for their mental and spiritual
needs as well. The character of the home and the way in
which it ministers to the needs of its inmates will in a large
measure determine the character and welfare of the nation.
The problem of the home-maker is not one to be treated
lightly. She is responsible for giving her family the kind of
food that will best nourish their bodies and thus make pos-
sible the full and best exercise of their physical and mental
powers. She is responsible for the proper kind of clothing
for the younger members of the family, at least. She is
responsible for the wise expenditure of the household funds.
Moreover, she is responsible for the mental and moral
atmosphere of the home. It is she who must set the right
standards, give the true sense of values, and create and keep
alive the spirit that makes the true home. The home-
maker must have the training that will enable her to do all
these things, and instruction in domestic science is given to
provide this training.
Vocational instruction a school problem. Vocational
230 THE PROFESSION OF TEACHING
training as a preparation for entering the industrial and
business world is quite another matter from the basal or
prevocational instruction. The purpose of prevocational
instruction is general. It is the laying of the foundation for
later special vocational education and training. Distinct
vocational instruction has for its purpose the preparation of
a person for a particular vocation, with a view to his making
it his regular occupation and means of gaining a livelihood.
The term " vocation " is not confined to the industries, but
includes commercial pursuits and professions as well; but
inasmuch as the entire course of study of the schools has
long been arranged with the distinct purpose of preparing
for coUege and laying the foundation for the professions,
the new feature in prevocational instruction is concerned
with the industries and with the various departments of
business. Bookkeeping, stenography, and commercial sub-
jects have long been regarded as legitimate school studies,
but it is only within recent years that instruction has been
given that prepares for industrial as well as commercial
pursuits.
Training for the industries was formerly the business of
the shops and the trades, and it was obtained through the
time-honored apprentice system. It is because the modern
factory system and machinery have made this method im-
practicable that the responsibility for this kind of instruc-
tion is being laid upon the public school. Now, when skill
and mastery are more than ever necessary for gaining a
respectable livelihood, and the boy can no longer obtain
his vocational instruction and training through apprentice-
ship, the question of providing him with this instruction
becomes a very serious problem. Just what the relation of
the school to this problem is has not yet been clearly de-
fined, and there is still much diversity of opinion regard-
ing it. Notwithstanding the enthusiastic supix)rters of the
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 231
movement on the part of the public at large there are a
great many educators and others who oppose the school's
undertaking the task. The latter class object either on the
ground that they consider this kind of instruction outside
the province of the school, or because they think that
the difficulties in the way of giving it are insurmountable.
Complex civilization makes educational problem difficult.
This new demand upon the public school, that it equip the
child for his vocational activity is rendered the more diffi-
cult because of the complex character of the civilization for
which this instruction must provide. In fact, the most diffi-
cult problem in all education to-day is how to meet the
requirements of our highly siKJcialized society, in the task
of preparing the child for all around social efficiency. This is
equally true of vocational and of cultural education. Every
department of activity is divided and subdivided to a degree
not dreamed of in the simpler vocational life of the past,
each calling for specialized workers who are experts in their
various occupations. Formerly a workman understood and
could perform all the various parts of the work of his particu-
lar industry. If he were an expert in his trade, he knew how
to do any part of the work connected with it. To-day,
owing to the subdivisions of the productive industries,
trained specialists are required for each part of the work.
The preparation of the highly specialized workmen re-
quired to carry on a printing business furnishes an example.
In the earlier days, a printer could set and distribute type,
set up job work, operate a press, do reportorial work, write
a bit, and in a general way do any part of the work in the
printing and newspaper office. Now, however, the work of
a large printing-plant requires specialists who are skilled in
their respective lines. These consist of pressmen, linotypists,
job printers, monotypists, and other specialists, while for
the work of securing and preparing news and other matter
232 THE PROFESSION OF TEACHING
editors and reporters are also required. The work of each
person is Hmited to a particular department of the business,
in which he must be an expert. Shoemaking is also typical
of many examples that might be taken from the trades. In
the past shoes were made by individual shoemakers, one
man being able to perform all the work of making a pair of
shoes, a trade which he had learned from a shoemaker by
serving an apprenticeship in a shoeshop. He could cut out
and put a shoe together, and when it passed from his hands
it was a finished product. He had the joy of creative work
and each successive pair made a new appeal to him and a
corresponding demand upon his skill. The shoemaker of
the little shop has practically disappeared, for shoes can
now be made much cheaper in great factories, where a large
company of workers are employed in the different tasks con-
nected with the making of a single shoe, each performing
only a special part of the work. It may be merely to operate
the machine which punches the eyelets for the laces or the
one that works the buttonholes. There are no real shoe-
makers in the establishment, only operators of machines of
which they are essentially a part, machines which they have