UC-NRLF B \ educational EDITED BY HENRY SUZZALLO PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON SEATTLE, WASHINGTON THE VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE OF YOUTH BY MEYER BLOOMFIELD DIRECTOR OF THE VOCATION BUREAU OF BOSTON LECTURER ON VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE, HARVARD UNIVERSITY SUMMER SCHOOL WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY PAUL H. HAN US HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO $be ftiuewi&c ptw, Cambridge COPYRIGHT, IQII, BY MEYER BLOOMFIELD ALL RIGHTS RESERVED REPLACING CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. To MRS. PAULINE AGASSIZ SHAW WISE AND GENEROUS FRIEND OF YOUTH CONTENTS INTRODUCTION vii I. THE CHOICE OF A LIFE-WORK AND ITS DIFFICULTIES i II. VOCATIONAL CHAOS AND SOME OF ITS CONSEQUENCES 12 III. BEGINNINGS IN VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE . 25 IV. VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 72 V. THE VOCATIONAL COUNSELOR .... 86 VI. SOME CAUTIONS IN VOCATIONAL GUID- ANCE 101 VII. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC GAINS THROUGH VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 109 REFERENCES 117 OUTLINE 121 INTRODUCTION THREE of the important tendencies in the educational activities of to-day are everywhere engaging the serious attention of thoughtful people within and without the teaching profes- sion. These tendencies are really only different phases of one comprehensive movement for ap- proximating more closely our democratic ideal of individual welfare and social progress. These tendencies are the safeguarding and promotion of bodily health and vigor by an important ex- tension of the work of departments of school hygiene and physical training in our schools; the progressive establishment of public voca- tional schools of elementary and secondary grade, i. e., of vocational schools other than profes- sional schools, for increasing the efficiency of all who must work for wages ; and a wide- spread effort to make the non-vocational schools we already have, of every grade and kind, more vital to make the pupil's school life so signifi- vii INTRODUCTION cant a part of his whole life that it shall be and remain a permanent guiding force, no matter at what point his school life must close. The increased attention to bodily health and strength in school is the natural concomitant of the awakened public interest in physical health and strength, not merely for our physical wel- fare but also as one of our most important social resources. Quite apart from the misery ill-health orphysical weakness usually .entails, it is clear that economic efficiency depends on it. The relation of a youth's physical health and vigor to success and satisfaction in his vocation is clear. If, possessing physical inaptitude or weak- ness, he enters a pursuit that is not adapted to him, only moderate usefulness and perhaps early incapacity must be his fate. Neither he nor society can afford to take such a risk. Hence the necessity of a close relation and ultimate cooperation between all the agencies for promoting the public health and vocational guidance. The establishment of schools at public expense for the training of workers in our industries, on viii INTRODUCTION our farms, and in commerce is making decided progress. Throughout the country such schools are discussed or already actually established, with more to follow. Schools of commerce, of industry, of agriculture, whether day schools, part-time schools, day and evening continuation schools, are a response to the demand for in- creasing economic efficiency, without which in- dividual welfare and social progress are impossi- ble. The opportunities for vocational training thus afforded and the growing demand for more opportunities obviously point to the necessity of wise choice on the part of those who are to profit by them, and hence the close relation between vocational guidance and vocational training. The movement for vocational education has directed attention to the aims and work of the existing public schools with a view to appraising the social significance of that work, and partic- ularly its significance with respect to the voca- tions toward which they point their pupils, and what vocational preparation they should offer. Such an examination of the aims and work of the ix INTRODUCTION public schools is by no means new, it is in fact perennial; but the recent and contemporary interest in vocational education has reenforced it. Hence a conspicuous tendency in educa- tional activity to-day is the effort to make the school a more effective factor in shaping the pupil's career. While enabling him to appre- ciate the spiritual and institutional (political) resources and problems of our age, it shall also render him responsive to our economic resources and problems, and in particular it shall bring home to him the importance and the dignity of work of all kinds as the foundation of all indi- vidual and social welfare. It is clear that with this tendency well estab- lished in the schools the question of vocational guidance is a pressing question. Where this ten- dency is not yet marked, vocational guidance is even more vital, for there the pupil is likely to be quite helpless when he makes the momentous transition from school to work. This transition cannot be safe unless the choice of the pupil's life career is deliberate. Even then mistakes will be made, but we may expect they will be INTRODUCTION insignificant in number and importance as com- pared with the mistakes of random choice or mere " hunting a job." It is clear that much preparation is needed by those on whom the duty of vocational guidance may fall. Information must be had of the young people themselves, their physical condition, their capacity, their ambitions, the opportunities and circumstances of their lives ; similarly, informa- tion is needed about occupations, their advan- tages and disadvantages in view of the natural and acquired equipment for them possessed by their prospective workers ; the kind of prepara- tion required for them, and the extent and qual- ity of the available preparation for a progressive career in them, and what success in them means. To gather this information and make it available for use will require time and effort. And to give satisfactory guidance by properly trained persons to the great body of young people whose life work is now almost inevitably determined by chance, will require an army of devoted workers. It is clear, also, that one important duty of the advisers of youth is to bring home to all who xi INTRODUCTION can be brought to see it the enormous value of more education for every capable pupil, no mat- ter when he leaves school, and no matter whether the chief purpose of the school he at- tends is to give general education or to prepare him for a particular calling. One valuable result of satisfactory vocational guidance ought to be, therefore, to lengthen the period of education for all but the incurably dull or the permanently unambitious. Mr. Bloomfield's work has long required him to study the problems of vocational guidance, and as Director of the recently organized Voca- tion Bureau of Boston he is necessarily brought face to face with those problems in all their variety and complexity. The insight he has gained and the suggestions based on it are made available in the present monograph to teachers, parents, and the general public. He has made an important contribution to the solution of the problems of vocational guidance. The vital need of such guidance is clearly set forth, and the encouraging beginnings of organized effort to secure preparation for discharging satisfactorily xii INTRODUCTION the duty of vocational guidance are described. It is clearly shown, also, that vocational guid- ance does not mean helping boys and girls to find work, but to find the kind of work they are best fitted by nature and training to do well. It does not mean prescribing a vocation. It does mean bringing to bear on the choice of a voca- tion organized information and organized com- mon sense. PAUL H. HANUS, HARVARD UNIVERSITY. THE VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE OF YOUTH THE VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE OF YOUTH THE CHOICE OF A LIFE-WORK AND ITS DIFFICULTIES " HE therefore sometimes took me to walk with him," writes Benjamin Franklin of his father, "and see joiners, bricklayers, turners, braziers, etc., at their work, that he might observe my inclination, and endeavor to fix it on some trade or other on land." The busy age we live in does not seem so fa- vorable for the kindly offices of youth's natural advisers. While many a parent, teacher, or friend spends energy and sympathy to give some girl or boy vocational suggestion and help, the fact is clear enough that a vast majority of the young people in our land enter upon their careers as breadwinners in the trades and professions un- guided and uninformed. Chance is usually given I . ... ,. VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE th -upper hand to make or mar the critical period of working life. At no other time in history have the sons and daughters of the people been turned out to earn their living on so large a scale, or into so complex a social order. Never has there been so great a need as now for intelligent cooperation with the novitiates in the vocational life. Young Franklin on a brief visit to the shop or foundry could probably have seen a whole trade in process. To-day this could scarcely be. Mi- nute division of labor, specialization to a degree that leaves the average worker in ignorance of the steps which go before or follow his own par- tial operations, do not encourage the same per- sonal view of industry. Commerce and the liberal professions are hardly less detailed, and hardly less in the hands of specialists. Spinning, weav- ing, and the making of a coat, the manufacture of nails, watches, and shoes involve scores of opera- tions. Likewise the management of a store, an office, or a factory calls for qualities peculiar to a highly developed age of applied science. A new profession has arisen in the efficiency engineer, 2 CHOICE OF A LIFE-WORK whose business it is to study the costly results of overlooked waste and extravagance in our large-scale production and distribution of goods. Big establishments are working out personal data sheets in order to measure scientifically the value of their employees. One specialty store in Boston has developed a system of personal records which leaves little to guess-work in the employment and promotion of its eight hundred or more people. We are indeed living in the midst of a restless period, impatient with crudeness, and too preoc- cupied to pause over the stumblings and grop- ings of its bewildered youth. Into this arena of tense effort, the schools of our country send out their annual thousands. We somehow trust that the tide of opportunity may carry them to some vocational destination. Only the relatively few who reach the higher training institutions can be said to have their problems at least tempo- rarily solved during the critical period of adoles- cence. What becomes of that young multitude sent out to cope with the new conditions of self- support ? Whose business is it to follow up the results of this transition from school to work ? 3 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE Whose business is it to audit our social accounts, and discover how far our costly enterprises in education, the pain, the thought, the skill and the sacrifice we put forth with the growing gen- eration, are well or ill invested in the field of oc- cupation ? These are vital questions, and perhaps the most vital is how far the work our children turn to is the result of choice, accident, or ne- cessity. The higher training schools are as pro- foundly concerned in this problem as are the elementary schools. The well-to-do are no less affected than the poor. Until society faces the question of the life careers of its youth, the pre- sent vocational anarchy will continue to beset the young work-seekers. Wasting their golden youth, they discover too late how much a helpful sug- gestion at the critical moment might have shaped their destinies. They are unhappy and discour- aged, and hence the pitiful letters written to those who care about these problems, from men and women who realize too late the reason for their futility as workers. Society has been slow to recognize the need of cooperating with its future workers in the 4 CHOICE OF A LIFE-WORK choice of their careers. It has not realized that successful choice of life-work is impossible to the unadvised and the unprepared. Common sense tells us that intelligent selection of life-work is the result of intelligent preparation. We cannot expect youth to find itself vocationally without furnishing it with the raw material for thought- ful selection. In other words, there can be no one detached day or moment for choosing, but rather all one's training is tested by the culmi- nating process of deciding on a vocation. Now real selection is impossible where the range of occupation is a dark continent. Choice, like play, is usually the product of many influ- ences, not the least of which are suggestion and imitation. The children of a neglected neigh- borhood mimic the drunken woman arrested by the policeman, while those of the well supervised city playground have opened to them a world of wholesome activities. A city kindergarten teacher spending her vacation in a Nova Scotia fishing hamlet gathered about her one day a group of the fishermen's children. She tried them at the game of "Trades." They could go 5 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE through the motions only of net-making, hauling in of fish, and the simple household crafts of spin- ning, carding, and weaving which they saw their mothers and grandmothers engage in. The mo- tions of the urban workers, like the plumber, engineer, the merchant, and the newsboy were quite meaningless to these children. The young people of a crowded district imitate the ambulance driver, the fireman, the street- cleaner and the actor of cheap melodrama ; but when older, and the sense of adventure is less keen in their impulse for vocational expression, one finds how much local social ambitions count. The neighborhood doctor who drives about in a shiny buggy, or perhaps in a motor car with con- spicuous red-cross devices; the lawyer and his nonchalance in the dread police court of the dis- trict ; the dentist with his gilt signs across a private dwelling in the tenement district, carry- ing proudly the title of doctor; and the druggist - that master of confections and magic drugs these weigh heavily in the family judgment at the infrequent vocational conferences of the tene- ment home. To be sure, there is the school- 6 CHOICE OF A LIFE-WORK teacher, the civil engineer, and the man on the road, whose rise from the unfavorable environ- ment carries vocational suggestion to the neigh- borhood, but this is feeble compared to the potent example of local social esteem which the above- mentioned personages carry. It is in our centres of population, in the apart- ment and tenement house districts, that the masses of children are to be found. Here is the most need for unfolding the panorama of occu- pations to the quick intelligences of the young people. Parents here are busy day and night, and family relationships often suffer. The teachers preside over large classes, and these neighbor- hoods are filled with a crowd of the unskilled, the poorly paid, the unemployed, and the misem- ployed. It is a place of high lights and deep shadows ; and for thousands of children, life opens unpromisingly. Democracy probably still holds out its opportunities to the child that can avail himself of them. But the gifted as well as the ungifted live here equally doomed to undevelop- ing and cheaply paid labor. Marshall the economist has told us how large 7 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE a proportion of genius is lost to society because it is born among the children of the poor, where it perishes for want of opportunity. We have no plan for conserving the talents of the poor ; no plan for conserving the resources of the immi- grant. Our schools are fettered by routine. Any social experimentation calculated to call forth the gifts of the new peoples is left to private philanthropy. A large proportion of the children in our cities who leave school for work as soon as the law allows are foreign born or the children of foreign born. Surely the hard-driven parent stuggling for a foothold in an alien country must fail as a vocational adviser to his children. The truth is that parents do not tell their children what they should be, but the children tell them what they are going to be. Who shall help such children ? To whom shall they turn for counsel and information about the vocations ? The gathering of helpful occupational information involves painstaking labor and large resources. Such information calls for the corre- lation of a variety of facts from many and often unfamiliar sources. An illustration of the kind 8 CHOICE OF A LIFE-WORK of service needed is to be found in the use made by one vocational adviser of a report on tuber- culosis in the various industries, issued by the Massachusetts State Board of Health. The re- port disclosed the fact that granite-cutting was among the most dangerous occupations. From his experience as a social worker, this adviser knew that many Italians are employed in quar- ries and stone-yards, and that very many Italians return to their own country to die of the white plague. He took pains, therefore, to point out wherever he could, particularly to teachers, that when an Italian boy intended to work at stone- cutting, the parent should see to it that a medi- cal examination gave the boy a pulmonary clean bill ; for the weak-lunged Italian boy who took up stone-cutting would probably be committing suicide. Another illustration of vocational help has been the work of a young woman who some years ago was in charge of a small library in a social settlement on the East Side of New York. Her idea of circulating books was to work out with each boy and girl the kind of book that would 9 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE best minister to his or her needs. And those needs were studied with infinite care. Her quiet ministrations brought to the knowledge of the ambitious and idealistic youth of her neighbor- hood vocations that were unknown to them be- fore. Forestry, social research, library science, neighborhood work, social and civic service were the careers opened to young boys and girls in touch with the library and the other influences which in time clustered about that institution. And those careers are followed to-day with no little distinction by the graduates of that vitaliz- ing influence. The time has gone by for a laissez-faire atti- tude toward this most fundamental of conserva- tion needs. The success achieved by those who have helped to shape a youth's destiny is not fully explained by pointing to gifts of insight and patience of the adviser, or to the exceptional qualities of the boys and girls who could benefit by an interest in their welfare. To content one's self with such explanations is to doom the mass of our children to barren lives, a loss to them- selves and to the community. After all, it is with 10 CHOICE OF A LIFE-WORK the usual and not with the exceptional individual that the community must mainly concern itself, and results that are worth while have attended even modest efforts at vocational guidance of a large group, as of a school, a club, or like organi- zation. The time for doing something to help young people choose their life-work is at hand. Only a backward social conscience will palliate a lack of energy to attempt a remedy, however ten- tative, for the present chaos in the transition from schooling to self-support. II VOCATIONAL CHAOS AND SOME OF ITS CONSEQUENCES EVIDENCE of what the let-alone policy is cost- ing society may be found on every hand. A talk with any intelligent employer or with almost any parent, teacher, or student of social conditions reveals an astonishing abundance of testimony. Indeed, the yield of information is only equaled by the extensive failure to do something about it. Little argument is needed to make out a case in behalf of a plan for the vocational guidance of youth ; and yet, on the whole, no problem has elicited so little effort to meet it in the con- structive way which modern methods of dealing with social problems suggest. Perhaps the most impressive body of facts bearing on the consequences of our failure to face the vocational interests of youth is to be found in the report issued in England a year ago by the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and 12 CHAOS AND ITS CONSEQUENCES Relief of Distress. Nothing has more deeply im- pressed that Commission in the course of its ex- haustive investigation than the wanton pauper- ization of England's energetic youth. In the Majority Report, the Commissioners lay stress on the great prominence given to boy labor not only in the evidence which came before them, but also in the various reports of the special investigators; and the conviction is expressed that this is perhaps the most serious of the phe- nomena which they have encountered in their study of unemployment. Well-trained boys find it difficult enough to secure a foothold in the skilled trades ; but if in addition to this there are the temptations to crowd the occupations which promise no skill, promise no outlook, no future, the fact is clear that such conditions in the British Empire are making directly for unem- ployment in the future. The Minority Report is even more emphatic. It points out the effects of entering " blind-alley " occupations, and states that perpetual recruit- ment of the unemployable by tens of thousands of boys is perhaps the gravest of all the grave 13 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE facts which the Commissioners laid bare. " We cannot believe/' the Commissioners say, "that the nation can long persist in ignoring the fact that the unemployed, and particularly the under- employed and unemployable are thus being daily created under our eyes out of bright young lives, capable of better things, for whose training we make no provision. It is, unfortunately, only too clear that the mass of unemployment is continu- ally being recruited by a stream of young men from industries which rely upon unskilled boy labor, and turn it adrift at manhood without any general or special industrial qualification, and that it will never be diminished till this stream is arrested." Prof. Michael E. Sadler, in commenting on the evidence before the Royal Commission, states that boys and girls are tempted by the ease, the fairly good wages, and the sense of independence in entering occupations that leave them at the time when they begin to need an adult's subsist- ence wholly out of line for skilled employments. They are driven into the ranks of the unskilled. Certain forms of industry squander in this way 14 CHAOS AND ITS CONSEQUENCES the physical and the moral capital of the rising generation. His conclusions are that if no coun- teracting measures are taken, great and lasting injury will befall the national life. An official report some years ago on boys leav- ing the London elementary schools shows that forty per cent became errand and chore boys, fourteen per cent shop boys, eight per cent office boys and minor clerks, while only eighteen per cent went definitely into trades. There is a fairly satisfactory law in England governing employ- ment in factories and work-shops. It is the un- regulated drift from a vast variety of juvenile occupations into the low-skilled labor market that presents grave aspects. In his study of boy labor, Mr. Cyril Jackson points out that few boys ever pick up skill after a year or two spent on errand or similar work. The larger number fall into low-skilled and casual employ- ments. Ample confirmation of the Royal Commission's findings may be found in the report of the Con-. sultative Committee on Attendance at Continu- ation Schools in England and Wales, published VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE at about the same time. The conclusions from its exhaustive investigations and its interviews with scores of employers and others read much like the pages of the Royal Commission's report. The evils of educational neglect during adoles- cence, this Committee finds, are often aggravated by the facility with which blind-alley occupa- tions are entered. Such employments as that of errand boy are not necessarily demoralizing. Many a boy has started in this humble way on a career of success. But callings like this are apt to waste the years during which a boy should make a beginning at a skilled or developing occu- pation. The probabilities are that younger, but trained, competitors eventually oust the untrained workers, and at a time when these untrained workers are charged with adult responsibilities. The necessity of guidance intended to avert the entrance of thousands of boys and girls into a vocational cul-de-sac is appreciated by this Com- mittee. Its conviction is clearly expressed that the most dangerous point in the lives of children in an elementary school is the moment at which they leave it. The investigations have shown 16 CHAOS AND ITS CONSEQUENCES how difficult is the taking of the right step at this stage, and the lamentable consequences of taking a wrong one. This difficulty is due in large measure to the inability of parents to get the necessary information as to the conditions of employment, the wages, and the future prospects of various occupations, as well as a knowledge of the educational opportunities and requirements for efficiency in the occupations. The Committee has found that there are parents who are under no compulsion to send their children to work, and that they would be both able and willing to accept lower wages at first for the sake of sub- sequent advantages in the vocations ; but their ignorance of these matters makes it impossible for them to select wisely for their children. " Unless children are thus cared for at this turn- ing-point in their lives/' says the Consultative Committee, "the store of knowledge and dis- cipline acquired at school will be quickly dissi- pated, and they will soon become unfit either for employment or for further education." l The intervening years, then, between leaving 1 Report of the Consultative Committee, p. 22. 17 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE school, which the great majority do at fourteen years of age, and the entrance into an occupation that promises any development at all are largely wasted. Society gains little by the labor of thousands of its children at the most important period of their growth. It is not that much of this work is not of social value, but with our present neglect we offer no corrective for the in- jury that follows. The reports of the two com- missions on Industrial Education in Massachu- setts; investigations into street trades in Boston, Chicago, and elsewhere; and all the observations of the child-saving societies in this country con- firm the Royal Commission's alarm over juve- nile labor as now performed. The employer is Very often as much a victim of these conditions as the boy himself. The allurement of high wages for uninstructive work is soon understood by many a boy, and his rest- lessness in these occupations, where often, with- out any provocation, he throws up his place, is a constant source of vexation and destroys any plan which the employer might have in view for the promotion of his boys. This skipping from 18 CHAOS AND ITS CONSEQUENCES job to job can only mean for most boys demoral- ization. They become vocational hoboes. They are given work only because nobody else is in sight, and they stay at work as little as they may. Juvenile wages are their portion, no matter what services they render, nor for how long a period. A tragic situation is here disclosed. Not only do we find that modern working conditions "put a man on the shelf" in the prime of his years, because the speed and skill of younger brains and hands are required, but we find, too, a shelving of youth itself before life has given the young workers even an open- ing. They seem doomed to be juvenile adults bound by an iron law of juvenile wages. The "dead end," or "blind alley" occupations, there- fore, with their bait of high initial wages and their destructiveness to any serious life-work motive are breeding costly social evils. Unani- mous testimony on this point by the special in- vestigators of the Royal Commission has led to the opinion that this perhaps is the most serious of all the problems encountered in its study of unemployment. A term of sinister import has 19 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE been coined to describe the products of this vo- cational anarchy the Unemployables. The unemployables are people whom no ordi- nary employer would willingly employ, not ne- cessarily because of their physical or mental in- capacity, but because their economic backbone has been broken. The wasted years have landed their innocent victims on economic quicksands. Attractive wages with no training, the illegiti- mate use of youthful energy, long hours of mo- notonous and uneducative work, have produced at his majority a young man often precocious in evil and stunted in his vocational possibili- ties. It is quite clear that provision for adequate training and systematic counseling at the period of life when boys and girls are most largely thrown upon their individual resources would help cor- rect these lamentable conditions. The movement for vocational education rests solidly on an ap- preciation of the facts. Education has become more practical because it has become more democratic. Preparing youth for a serviceable life is the ideal of the modern educator. This 20 CHAOS AND ITS CONSEQUENCES preparation is also for a life of larger apprecia- tion and wider sympathies than the old-fashioned liberal education alone can give. Neither the home, the common school, nor the present-day conditions of breadwinning can give youth the necessary preparation for efficient living. The stress of competition, large-scale operations of production and distribution, the subdivision and speed of labor, the higher standards of profes- sional equipment, make it well-nigh impossible for youth to get its necessary instruction during the period of work alone. In industry the boys are taken on, not as apprentices, but as " process workers " where, while becoming expert in one minute operation, they learn nothing of the fun- damental principles of the work on which the plastic period of their youth is spent. Where are the boy and girl to find that training which shall reasonably assure them self-support and vocational progress ? Not a few employers con- fessedly expect their competitors to bear the brunt of training employees, who are eagerly ap- propriated when they have become proficient The "learners " in almost every desirable occu- 21 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE pation are expected to know something and amount to something from the very outset in employment. New demands are made upon the public school system as the agency for solving the problem of vocational education. The right of every child to secure the best possible chance in life makes necessary the public control of vocational train- ing. The future development of our industries, the creation of high-grade productive enterprises which pay good wages and demand intelligent workers, call for the training of large masses, such as the public schools alone can reach. Em- ployers demand well-trained youth for their shops and offices, and they take the schools to task for the ill-equipped product turned out. Vocational education is growing into a nation-wide move- ment. Underlying the demand for intelligently pro- ductive youth both in the trades and in the pro- fessions, there is another which the movement for vocational guidance will make insistent. It is proper that those who give employment to boys and girls shall ask for more efficiency. It is whole- 22 CHAOS AND ITS CONSEQUENCES some for any public institution to be measured by concrete tests and be called upon to render account of its work. But it is equally a right and duty of those entrusted with the nurture of the rising generation to make the vocations render account too. What happens to the boys and girls under the new influences in employment is not alone a question between them and their individ- ual employer, nor between them and their par- ents, but it is essentially one for the community. The social protection of the young ceases arti- ficially and arbitrarily when the school working certificate is granted. This ought not to continue so. On the contrary, ought not the few years after leaving school to be the time for most care- ful scrutiny by the public ? While the authorities are given increasing resources to train their charges for the demands of modern vocational life, should they not be likewise empowered to deal with abuse and misapplication of society's expensively trained product ? A searching evalu- ation of occupations must surely be undertaken in order that foreknowledge and forewarning shall be in the possession of the parent, teacher, 23 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE boy and girl. The job, too, should be made to give an account of itself. The desirable occupa tions must be studied and better prepared for; the dull and deadly being classified in a rogue's gallery of their own. Then only can reciprocal purpose mark the relation between employer and employee. For the necessary yet uneducative work which young people are obliged to do, com- pensation is needed in the form of leisure and opportunity for further training in special day classes and schools provided for such workers. Is it too much to hope that the near future will see society join hands with the best employers and the friends of youth to conserve during the decisive vocational years the best of its capabili- ties for service and growth ? Ill BEGINNINGS IN VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE A GROWING interest and an increasing literature indicate a new attitude toward the training of youth. The Convention of the National Educa- tion Association held in 1910 might be said to have found its keynote in the aptly phrased title of President Eliot's address, "The Value, dur- ing Education, of the Life-Career Motive." The thousands of teachers must have departed with the conviction that the success of the coming education will lie in the strength of the intelli- gent purpose it develops in the boy and girl to do the work of the world efficiently. The report of the Committee on the Place of Industry in Public Education is a contribution to the subject of vocational preparation. It grasps throughout the fundamental need of training to choose life- work intelligently. " It is to be hoped," says this report, "that the constructive work and the study of industry in the elementary school will ulti- 25 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE mately be of such a character that when the pupil reaches the age at which the activities of adult life make their appeal, he will be able to make a wise choice in reference to them and be already advanced in an appreciable measure to- ward the goal of his special vocation." 1 The question of training for choice relates quite as much to the selection of the right kind of further schooling as to that of a vocation. It is quite as important to attend the right kind of high school as it is to do the work one is best fitted for. Two illustrations from Boston school experiences show a promising beginning in the new method of helping in the selection of pupils for the various high schools of the city. Both the High School of Commerce and the High School of Practical Arts received applications for en- trance from several hundred more grammar- school graduates than could be accommodated. What pupils were to be given the preference ; on what basis were they to be picked ? The Boston School Committee has authorized the school superintendent to work out with the school prin- 1 Paper by Prof. E. N. Henderson, page 20. 26 BEGINNINGS IN GUIDANCE cipals a plan whereby each school might desig- nate one or more teachers to serve as vocational advisers for the school. Something like a hun- dred teachers have been so designated, and their services to the high schools in question may be told in the words of the officials themselves. The head-master of the High School of Practical Arts writes : " When it became evident that many more girls than could be taken had sent in applications for admission, I wrote the principals requesting them to turn the list over to the vo- cational counselors with the suggestion that the pupils be graded according to their standing in cooking, sewing, and drawing. I also asked that those who could afford only one year for further preparation be directed to the trade schools. Girls without special liking for our work were shown the possibilities of the other schools. " The girls were classed in three groups, first, second, and third, according to standing in the subjects above mentioned, together with the taste and personal adaptability of each. I took all of the first and some of the second, giving personal attention to some special cases. If good judg- 27 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE ment has been shown, our classes will be made up of girls who will take an interest in the work of the school and who will profit thereby." Here is a communication of the former head- master of the High School of Commerce : "The plan of having the vocational counselors of grammar schools select boys for our high school was as follows: 'The problem with the High School of Commerce has been a pressing one for the past two years. Last year we selected by lot, thinking that such a method was fairest and most democratic. This year, when vocational ad- visers were appointed in each grammar school, we thought that we could properly call upon them to solve the problem. Superintendent Brooks readily gave his consent. At a meeting held in the spring, some of us addressed all the voca- tional advisers of the grammar schools, explain- ing the types of school and the kind of boys suitable. Opportunity was given for question. Many of the advisers then visited the schools. They took the matter in earnest, calling in the parents and forming a very careful judgment in selecting the boys. At our school we feel that 28 BEGINNINGS IN GUIDANCE the best method yet has been found, and that the system will improve year by year.'" An organized plan for advising young people as to the continuance of their schooling and the choosing of their life-work is at least a reason- able attempt to meet the vocational situation we have been considering. An experiment with a group of high-school boys shortly before their graduation three years ago revealed a need for vocational guidance which led to what is prob* ably the first vocation bureau in this country. Sixty or more boys were invited to a reception on the roof-garden of the Civic Service House in the North End of Boston, to talk over their future plans with the late Prof. Frank Parsons and several other workers of that neighborhood house. The conference disclosed that about a dozen of the boys were going to college, a third of the rest hoped to be lawyers, almost another third doctors, three or four had definite plans for business careers, while the rest had no plans and were going to take whatever came along. It is a question if those with no plans in view were not better off than the boys who planned for legal 29 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE and medical studies, woefully unprepared, most of them, for the expense, the sacrifice, and the struggles that even moderate success in those callings demanded. Indeed, vocation, literally calling, is not the word to use ; with many of the boys the ideal compulsion to follow some one pursuit above all others was not evident. There could be no doubt that the ambition and perse- verance of some of these boys would overcome the obstacles in store for them ; but unfortu- nately the story of success is more easily told than that of mediocrity or failure. We have yet to learn how to take stock of waste and misdi- rection as well as of achievement in human pur- suits. An office was opened to give those who so de- sired an opportunity to talk over their vocational problems with a sympathetic and skilled econo- mist. Prof. Frank Parsons was put in charge of the Civic Service House Vocation Office, and he was also available for interviews at the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, and the Bos- ton Young Men's Christian Association. Scores of men and women of all ages and conditions as 30 BEGINNINGS IN GUIDANCE well as hundreds of letters came to him from all parts of the country. A pathetic note of self- doubt and helpless drifting was the burden of an amazing number of these communications. Of course nothing could be done for the letter-writ- ers, because vocational counseling could not hon- estly be given except through skilled and friendly personal contact. Prof. Parsons's work is described in the last volume which he wrote, entitled "Choosing a Vo- cation/' 1 The importance of scientific methods in self-analysis and the working out of written personal data to use in the course of a number of interviews with the counselor was emphasized by Professor Parsons in his work for the appli- cant. The counselor, on the other hand, was to be trained according to a definite plan, and equipped with a knowledge of the vocations, of industrial statistics, and of every kind of avail- able educational opportunity. Within a year the interest taken by business men, educators, and social workers in the pos- sibilities of a well-organized vocation bureau, 1 Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. 31 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE located centrally in offices of its own, has given that undertaking a better foundation and a wider scope. The new Vocation Bureau's relations with the Boston School Committee and the work of the School Vocation Committee appointed by the school authorities are perhaps the most im- portant features thus far in its work. Early in the spring of 1909, the School Com- mittee of Boston passed a resolution inviting the Vocation Bureau to submit a plan for voca- tional guidance to assist public-school graduates. The Bureau presented the following sugges- tions : "First, the Bureau will employ a vocational director to give practically his entire time to the organization of vocational counsel to the gradu- ates of the Boston Public Schools during the ensuing year. " Second, the work of this vocational director shall be carried on in cooperation with the Boston School Committee or the Superintend- ent of Schools as the Committee shall see fit. " Third, it is the plan of the Bureau to have this vocational director organize a conference of BEGINNINGS IN GUIDANCE masters and teachers of the Boston high schools through the Committee or the Superintendent, so that members of the graduating classes will be met for vocational advice either by this voca- tional director or by the cooperating school mas- ters and teachers, all working along a general plan, to be adopted by this conference. "Fourth, the vocational director should, in cooperation with the Superintendent of Schools or any person whom he may appoint, arrange vo- cational lectures for the members of the gradu- ating classes. "Fifth, the Bureau believes that school mas- ters and teachers should be definitely trained to give vocational counsel, and therefore, that it is advisable for this vocational director, in coop- eration with the Superintendent of Schools, to establish a series of conferences to which certain selected teachers and masters should be invited on condition that that they will agree in turn definitely to do vocational counseling with their own pupils. "Sixth, the vocational director will keep a careful record of the work accomplished for the 33 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE pupils during the year, the number of pupils counseled with, the attitude of the pupils witl reference to a choice of vocations, the advice given and, as far as possible, the results follow- ing. These records should form the basis for a report to the Boston School Committee at the end of the year. The Bureau cherishes the hope that it can so demonstrate the practicability and value of this work that the Boston School Com- mittee will eventually establish in its regular organization a supervisor of vocational advice." This communication was signed by the Chair- man of the Executive Board of the Vocation Bureau. On June 7, 1909, the School Committee at a regular meeting took favorable action on the Vocation Bureau's propositions and instructed the Superintendent to appoint a committee of six to work with the Vocation Bureau director. For almost a year the committee thus appointed, con- sisting of three masters and three sub-masters, have been holding weekly meetings at the office of the Vocation Bureau. Their report to the Superintendent of Schools is worth quoting in full not only because of the valuable sugges- 34 BEGINNINGS IN GUIDANCE tions it contains, but also as a promising indi- cation of the teachers* attitude toward the in- troduction of vocational guidance in the school system: " The Committee on Vocational Direction respectfully presents the following as a report for the school year just closed. The past year has been a year of beginnings, the field of operation being large and the problems compli- cated. A brief survey of the work shows the following results : "A general interest in vocational direction has been aroused among the teachers of Boston, not only in the elementary but in the high schools. "A vocational counselor, or a committee of such coun- selors, has been appointed in every high school and in all but one of the elementary schools. " A vocational card record of every elementary school graduate for this year has been made, to be forwarded to the high school in the fall. " Stimulating vocational lectures have been given to thirty of the graduating classes of the elementary schools of Boston, including all the schools in the more congested parts of the city. " Much has been done by way of experiment by the members of this committee in the various departments o. getting employment, counseling, and following up pupils* after leaving school. 35 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE " The interest and loyal cooperation of many of the leading philanthropic societies of Boston have been se- cured, as well as that of many prominent in the business and professional life of the city and the state. " A good beginning has already been made in review- ing books suitable for vocational libraries in the schools. "It was early decided that we should confine our efforts for the first year mainly to pupils of the highest element- ary grade as the best point of contact. The problem of vocational aid and counsel in the high schools has not as yet been directly dealt with, yet much that is valuable has been accomplished in all our high schools on the initia- tive of the head-masters and selected teachers. It is safe to say that the quality and amount of vocational aid and direction has far exceeded any hitherto given in those schools. The committee, through open and private con- ferences, and correspondence with the head-masters, have kept in close touch with the situation in high schools, but they feel that for the present year it is best for the vari- ous types of high schools each to work out its own plan of vocational direction. The facts regarding their experi- ence can properly be made the basis of a later report. A committee of three, appointed by the Head-masters' Asso- ciation, stands ready to advise with this committee on all matters relating to high school vocational interests. Once during the year the principals of the specialized high schools met in conference the vocational counselors of the city and have presented the aims and curricula of 36 BEGINNINGS IN GUIDANCE these schools in such a way as to greatly enlighten those responsible for advising pupils just entering high schools. "The committee have held regular weekly meetings through the school year since September. At these meet- ings every phase of vocational aid has been discussed, together with its adaptability to our present educational system. Our aim has been to test the various conclusions before recommending them for adoption. This has taken time. Our most serious problem so far has been to adapt our plans to conditions as we find them, without increas- ing the teachers* work and without greatly increased ex- pense. We have assumed that the movement was not a temporary ' fad/ but that it had a permanent value, and was therefore worthy the serious attention of educators. "Three aims have stood out above all others: first, to secure thoughtful consideration, on the part of parents, pupils, and teachers, of the importance of a life-career motive ; second, to assist in every way possible in placing pupils in some remunerative work on leaving school; and third, to keep in touch with and help them thereafter, suggesting means of improvement and watching the ad- vancement of those who need such aid. The first aim has been in some measure achieved throughout the city. The other two have thus far been worked out only by the individual members of the committee. As a result we are very firmly of the opinion that until some central bureau of information for pupils regarding trade and mercantile opportunities is established, and some effective system of 37 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE sympathetically following up pupils, for a longer or 21 shorter period after leaving school, is organized in our schools as centres, the effort to advise and direct merely will largely fail. Both will require added executive labor which will fall upon the teachers at first. We believe they will accept the responsibility. If, as Dr. Eliot says, teach- ers find those schools more interesting where the life- career motive is present, then the sooner that motive is discovered in the majority of pupils the more easily will the daily work be done and the product correspondingly improved. " In order to enlist the interest and cooperation of the teachers of Boston, three mass meetings, one in October and two in the early spring, were held. A fourth meeting with the head-masters of high schools was also held with the same object. As a most gratifying result the general attitude is most sympathetic and the enthusiasm marked. The vocation counselors in high and elementary schools form a working organization of over one hundred teach- ers, representing all the schools. A responsible official, or committee, in each school stands ready to advise pupils and parents at times when they most need advice and are asking for it. They suggest whatever helps may be avail- able in further educational preparation. They are ready to fit themselves professionally to do this work more in- telligently and discriminatingly, not only by meeting to- gether for mutual counsel and exchange of experiences, but by study and expert preparation if need be. 38 BEGINNINGS IN GUIDANCE "As a beginning of our work with pupils we have fol- lowed out two lines : the lecture and the card record The addresses have been mainly stimulating and inspira- tional. It seems to the committee, however, that specific information coming from those intimately connected with certain lines of labor should have a place also in this lec- ture phase of our work. In a large number of high and elementary schools addresses of this character have been given by experts during the year. The committee claim no credit for these, though carried out under the inspira- tion of the movement the committee represent. The cus- tom of having such addresses given before Junior Alumni Associations, Parents' Associations, and evening school gatherings has become widespread, the various masters taking the initiative in such cases. The speakers are able to quote facts with an authority that is convincing to the pupil and leads him to take a more serious view of his future plans, especially if the address is followed up by similar talks from the class teacher, emphasizing the points of the speaker. This is a valuable feature and should be extended to include more of the elementary grades, especially in the more densely settled portions of the city, from which most of our unskilled workers come. " A vocational record card calling for elementary school data on one side and for high school data on the other, has been furnished all the elementary schools for regis- tration of this year's graduates. The same card will be furnished to high schools this fall. These cards are to be 39 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE sent forward by the elementary school counselors to high schools in September, to be revised twice during the high school course. The value of the card record is not so much in the registering of certain data as in the results of the process of getting these. The effect upon the mental attitude of pupil, teacher, and parent is excellent, and makes an admirabk beginning in the plan of voca- tional direction. " The committee are now in a position where they must meet a demand of both pupils and teachers for vocational enlightenment. Pupils should have detailed information in the form of inexpensive handbooks regarding the vari- ous callings and how to get into them, wages, permanence of employment, chance of promotion, etc. Teachers must have a broader outlook upon industrial opportunities for boys and girls. Even those teachers who know their pupils well generally have little acquaintance with indus- trial conditions. The majority can advise fairly well how to prepare for a profession, while few can tell a boy how to get into a trade, or what the opportunities therein are. In this respect our teachers will need to be more broadly informed regarding social, industrial, and economic prob- lems. We have to face a more serious problem in a crowded American city than in a country where children are supposed to fellow the father's trade. "In meeting the two most pressing needs, viz., the vo- cational enlightenment of teachers, parents, and pupils, and the training of vocational counselors, we shall con- 40 BEGINNINGS IN GUIDANCE tinue to look for aid to the Vocation Bureau. The Bureau has been of much assistance during the past year, in fact indispensable, in matters of correspondence, securing in- formation, getting out printed matter, and in giving the committee counsel based upon a superior knowledge of men and conditions in the business world. 44 The question of vocational direction is merely one phase of the greater question of vocational education. As a contributory influence we believe serious aggressive work in this line will lead to several definite results, aside from the direct benefit to the pupils. It will create a de- mand for better literature on the subject of vocations. It will help increase the demand for more and better trade schools. It will cause teachers to seek to broaden their knowledge of opportunities for mechanical and mercan- tile training. Lastly, it will tend to a more intelligent and generous treatment of employees by business houses, the personal welfare and prospects of the employee being taken into account as well as the interests of the house itself." The vocational record card referred to in the report for use throughout the school years of the boys and girls is here reproduced. VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL VOCATIONAL RECORD CARD Name School and Class Date Birth Parent's Name Residence Parent's plans for pupil Pupil excels in or likes what subjects ? Pupil fails in or dislikes what subjects? Physique Pupil's plan (a trade, a profession, business) Attend school, or work next year ? What school ? Intend to graduate from that school ? After High School, what ? (College Tech. Normal Evg. High Trade Sch. or Spec. Sch ) HIGH SCHOOL VOCATIONAL RECORD CARD FIRST YEAR (OCT. l) Name From School Entered Object in attending High School? ! Normal Technical College Preparing for business trade or profession ? Greatest aptitude THIRD YEAR (OCT. l) Have you changed plans since first year ? If so, what are they ? Apart from its relations with the Public Schools, the Vocation Bureau holds consultations 42 BEGINNINGS IN GUIDANCE in its office with many people of all ages who come with personal problems. It actively cooper- ates with the few but very important organiza- tions that are undertaking special vocational guidance. Of interest are the plans of the Girls' Trade Education League and the Boston Home and School Association, both of which societies are represented in the management of the Voca- tion Bureau. These plans are in process of de- velopment and have been only partially carried out ; but they represent so thorough an under- standing of the problem, so practical and detailed a method of approach, that they are of interest to those who are helping to bring about a move- ment for vocational guidance. PLANS OF THE GIRLS' TRADE EDUCATION LEAGUE OF BOSTON The Girls' Trade Education League proposes to make a thorough study of the variety of diffi- culties and opportunities which confront young girls leaving school between the ages of 14 and 1 8 to become wage-earners. Its purpose will be to try to lessen the misfits, discouragements, and 43 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE failures which are constantly arising, and which seem to be due in large measure to the hit-or- miss fashion in which girls enter an employment, with no knowledge of its requirements and no serious thought of where it will lead them. As these girls form a large percentage of the home- makers of the future it is important to direct them into occupations which do not retard their development, but which tend to increase their general efficiency. By confining its field to the subject of Voca- tions for Girls, the League will supplement the work of the Vocation Bureau. The League has outlined its work as follows : I. To study all sorts of occupations in which young girls are employed, for the purpose of securing information as to conditions under which the work is performed, ability required, wages paid, steadiness of employment, opportunities for ad- vancement, and such other points as would be useful in giving advice. II. Having collected, or rather continuously collecting such information, the League will endeavor to place this at the disposal of the public schools, either through lectures, classes, printed leaflets, 44 BEGINNINGS IN GUIDANCE or in whatever way it may be found most useful to them. III. To conduct a Vocation Office for the purpose of directing girls into employment after they leave school. In this work the endeavor will be made not so much to find work for a girl, as to direct her into that particular work for which she seems best suited. In general, then, the League hopes to be of service in two ways, first, by furnishing the public schools with information about occupa- tions for girls, which will aid them in counseling girls who are plaining to leave school and go to work ; and second^ by continuing the work begun in the schools with a " follow-up system " of the girls as they drop out, directing them in accord with their individual needs. PLAN OF THE BOSTON HOME AND SCHOOL ASSOCIATION For the coming year the plan is to secure in- formation as to the educational and vocational ambitions of parents for their children, and to discover how far those ambitions are based on knowledge and possible opportunities to realize 45 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE them. The following questionaire will be sent out to the parents of children in various schools : QUESTIONAIRE FOR PARENTS OF HIGH SCHOOL PUPILS 1. Are you going to send your boy (or girl) to college? 2. If so, what college, and why ? 3. Have you in view any occupation for which you wish to train your boy (or girl) ? 4. What occupation do you think your boy (or girl) is most adapted to? Has your boy (or girl) received any training in preparation for this occupation ? QUESTIONAIRE FOR PARENTS OF CHILDREN IN THE EIGHTH GRADE 1. Are you intending to send your boy (or girl) to high school ? 2. If so, what high school, and why ? 3. Have you in view any occupation for which you wish to train your boy (or girl) ? 4. What occupation do you think your boy (or girl) is most adapted to ? Has your boy (or girl) received any training in preparation for this occupation ? With the above information in hand, the Asso- ciation will determine the kind of lectures and conferences to organize for the various parents' associations. 46 BEGINNINGS IN GUIDANCE The Vocation Bureau is investigating voca- tions for Boston boys, and expects to furnish, in a convenient form, information to teachers about the demands and conditions of occupations open to boys of the city. The information secured is transcribed on white cards when it presents 'ior- mal conditions, on yellow cards when the occu- pation is undesirable for any reason, and on red cards when objectionable or dangerous. The fol- lowing specimens of the data secured are pre- sented with the identifying facts omitted : THE VOCATION BUREAU, BOSTON VOCATIONS FOR BOSTON BOYS Nature of Occupation. Shoe Manufacture Date of Inquiry. July i, 19/0. Name of Firm Address Superintendent or Employment Manager Total number of employees ( ,% . Number of boys, 7200 / girls, 1000. Has there been a shifting in relative numbers of each ? No. Thei is fixed work for each. PAY Wages of various groups, and ages. Errand boys, counters, carrier *, 14 years old, $330; assemblers, assistants, pattern boys, /6 years, 47 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE j.ja to $6.00 ; tasters, 20 years, $6.00 to $7.00 ; other work, 20 yean or more, $8.00 to $12.00 for young men in early employment. Wages at beginning. $J.J0 to $6,00. Seasonal. By year. Hours per day. j.jo A. M. to 5.30 P. M. To 12 M. on Saturday in summer. One hour nooning, Rate of increase. This is very irregular, averaging $>r.oo per week each year. a. On what dependent. Not at all on age. but on ability and posi- tion filled, or on increase in skill in a certain process b. Time or piece payment any premiums or bonus ? 66% piece payment. Premium on certain lines for quality and quan- tity of -work, neatness of departments, etc. BOYS How are boys secured ? By application to firm, by advertising, and by employees. It is impossible to find enough. Their ages. Fourteen years and up. Previous jobs. Nearly all boys come into this industry from school. A few come from other shoe factories, or from retail shoe stores. Previous schooling. Grammar school, or a certificate of literacy or attendance at night school must be presented. Are any continuing this training ? Yes. Where ? In public evening schools, Y. M. C. A. classes, and Continuation School in Boston. THE INDUSTRY a. Physical conditions. Most sanitary, with modern improve- ments and safeguards, with hospital department and trained nurses. b. What variety of skill required ? Some mechanical skill. The ordinary boy of good sense can easily learn all processes. c. Description of processes (photos if possible). Errand boys, counters, carriers, assemblers, assistants, pattern boys, last- trs, trimmers, and work dieing, welting, and ironing shoes. Also in. office, salesman, foreman, manager, or superintend' ctti. BEGINNINGS IN GUIDANCE d. What special dangers. Machinery. The chief danger arises from carelessness* Dust. Modern dust removers are used. Moisture. Not to excess. Hard labor. Steady labor rather than hard. Strain. Not excessive. Monotony. Considerable on automatic machines. Competitive conditions of industry. New England is a great centre, of the shoe industry. There is extreme competition, but -with a world market. Future of industry. The future of a staple product in universal demand. What chance for grammar school boy ? He would begin at the bot- tom , as errand boy. High school graduate ? In office, or in wholesale department, to be- come salesman, or manager. Vocational school graduate ? Trade school, giving factory equip- ment, would be best. What opportunity for the worker to show what he can do in other departments ? The superintendent and foreman study the boy and place him where it seems best for him and for the firm. TESTS What kind of boy is desired ? Honest, bright, healthy, strong. Boys living at Jiotne are preferred. What questions asked of applicant ? As to home, education, experi- ence, and why leaving any former position. What tests applied ? For office work, writing and figuring. What records kept ? (Collect all printed questionaires and records.) Name, address, age, nationality, married or single, living at home or boarding, pay, date of entering and of leaving. Union or non-union ? Open shop. Comment of Employer. Education is better for the boy and for us. Will he take boys sent by Vocation Bureau ? Yes. Will he attend V. B. conferences if asked? Gladly. Comment of Foreman. Employment bureaus have failed us. We look everywhere for boys, but find few such as we want. The 49 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE average boy can apply himself here so as to be well placed in life. Comment of Boys. We have a bowling alley, reading room, and library, park, and much to make service here pleasant. It is something like school still. We mean to stay. Piece work will give us good pay by the time we are twenty years old. Health Board comments. Inhaling naphtha from cements and dust from leatherworking machines, and overcrowding and overheating workrooms, are to be guarded against in this occupation. The danger of each injurious process may be prevented by proper care. CENSUS BUREAU REPORT ON THIS OCCUPATION, MASSACHU- SETTS, 1908. 4 a Number of Establishrm Capital Invested. 8 m o"5 gl ft Average Earnings. Males Employed. Females. Value of Product. 413 $35,260,028 $104,171,604 *38f959>4*8 46,063 23,187 $169,957,116 Bibliography. The Shoe Manufacturing Industry in New Eng- land. I. K. Bailey (New England States, v. i, 1897), and Massa- chusetts Labor Bulletin, No. 14, May, 1910. School fitting for this occupation. The Boston Continuation School. Investigator This information gathered from these cards has been transcribed into narrative form for the use of teachers, and some specimen bulletins are here given . 50 BEGINNINGS IN GUIDANCE BANKING In the lowest position in banking, that of errand boy, boys receive $4.00 and $5.00 a week. For regular messenger service the pay Pay ^ Position3 begins at $6.00 a week or $300 a and Oppor- year, increasing, on an average, at the rate of $100 a year. Young men as check- tellers, clerks, bookkeepers, and bond salesmen receive from $800 to $1000 a year. The average bank employee in Boston receives $1100 a year. Tellers, who must be responsible and able men of thirty years or over, have salaries ranging from $2200 to $3300. Savings banks pay somewhat higher salaries and offer a better future to one who must re- main in the ranks of the business. Bank officers receive higher salaries now than bank presidents did twenty years ago. Officers and heads of departments in a banking-house are not always taken from the employees; they are often selected by a firm from its acquaintance in the banking world. Rarely are boys employed in the banking in- VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE dustry under sixteen years, which is the more general age for entering. Some firms will not employ them under nineteen years The Boy Qualities and of a g e on account of the great re- Traming sponsibility of the messenger ser- Required vice. Boys must be gentlemanly, neat-appearing, intelligent, honest, business-like, and able to concentrate their minds upon their daily work. The ordinary high-school education is the gen- eral requirement for banking. Some boys enter the business without completing the high school courses, but are consequently often unable to make proper advancement. Courses in business schools are desirable, and one should have fair training in mathematics and bookkeeping and be a good penman. In one banking-house in- vestigated, having 195 employees, there were but three college graduates, one being the cashier. Banking men wish that this condition were dif- ferent, but believe that it is best for those who enter the occupation to do so early in life. A sec- ond reason for this is that the average pay of the bank employee does not appeal to the college man. 52 BEGINNINGS IN GUIDANCE The physical conditions of the occupation are of the highest grade. There is TheBusiness moral danger to young men on Conditions the speculative side of the stock and Fature and bond business, and no broker is allowed to receive orders from a clerk of another firm. There is keen competition among national banks and trust companies in bidding for de- posits, and in the stock and bond business for speculation and investment. There is little com- petition among savings banks and cooperative banks. These have their lists of depositors, and in- terest rates are controlled by business conditions. The business of the future in all lines will be excellent because of the vital connection of the banking business with the money system of the country, and with all lines of activity in the financial and industrial world. " Messenger service is the first stepping-stone in banking. A boy should realize Comments by that here lies his opportunity. The People in , -ni. the Business careless messenger will be a care- less bookkeeper or clerk and an unsuccessful bank man." 53 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE " The chances of a boy are better in some re- spects in the small bank than in the large one. In the small bank one learns all parts of the busi- ness and has a much better future. The success- ful men in such firms are often chosen as officers in the large firms." " Bank combinations in Boston in recent years have given prominence to men who had achieved success in their smaller field, or in their particular form of banking experience." " Service in a bank is educational, even if one does not remain, in methods and mental training. But the person who goes out in middle life finds it difficult to get a position in the business world." " A boy should get into the credit department of a banking house, where he may come in con- tact with the cashier or president." "Savings banks do not generally take boys direct from school. Age, maturity, and some kind of business experience are desired." " Investment in stocks and bonds is a great business and calls for high intelligence." " Character comes first, for banking is a busi- ness of continual trusting in men. Banks are 54 BEGINNINGS IN GUIDANCE willing to pay for honesty, energy, brains, and good judgment." "Banking calls for ability to judge human nature and to carry many details in mind, for accurate and rapid thought, and for clear and firm decision." " Every consolidation brings a search for the best men, and every bank is looking for the right kind of young man." " There is a good future in the banking busi- ness in all its departments, owing to the great development of this country in industrial and commercial lines." CONFECTIONERY MANUFACTURE This study of the industry deals with the man- ufacture of confectionery under modern condi- tions in large establishments which The i ndustrv employ from one hundred to one Conditions , r r , and Future thousand people. The facts and conditions presented are in the main such as pre- vail in the general industry in New England. The health conditions of candy-making are favorable in the large establishments. In the 55 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE smaller and older ones unfavorable conditions prevail. Some rooms in which candies are cooled are kept regularly below normal temperature, while others, in which mixing takes place, are above normal temperature. There is some dan- ger from machinery, and discomfort, if not dan- ger, from steam and heat. In this industry, in various factories, there are employed from three to six times as many girls as boys. The girls perform hand processes in the making of candies, and do the work of box- ing and labeling. The proportion of boys being relatively so small, there is greater opportunity for them to rise to the responsible positions. The big factories employ many boys, because there is so much work that they can do, and be- Pay, Positions, cause men generally are unwilling and Oppor- to work at the wages paid in this tunities . T ., r . occupation. In the factories investi- gated, one half of the male employees were found to be under twenty-one years of age. Pay at the beginning varies from $3.00 to $6.00, according to the age of the boy and the particular work done. Boys act as helpers and S6 BEGINNINGS IN GUIDANCE assistants, shippers, mixers, and boilers ; the more difficult processes are performed by men. Pay in the positions enumerated varies from $3.00, the lowest sum paid at the beginning, to $12.00. The average increase per week each year is $1.25. Young men of eighteen or twenty years who remain permanently in the occupation earn from $12.00 to $15.00 a week. As foreman of a room, a man earns $18.00 or $20.00 a week. In the mixing processes and the general in- dustry very many Italians are employed, because of their quickness and the adaptability of the race to this kind of work. In some establishments a few boys are regu- larly trained as apprentices to learn the entire business ; such become foremen, superintendents, traveling salesmen, and managers. Boys begin at the age of fourteen in this in- dustry. They must be clean, bright, quick, and strong. Most boys entering live at home, as is the case in industries Qualities and paying low wages at the begin- Training Re- ning. While no special education is necessary, one must have the usual attendance 57 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE at the grammar school, or present a certificate of literacy. With some firms a knowledge of chem- istry is an advantage in the manufacturing de- partment. It is an industry in which the educational re- quirement is small, and the most important qual- ities desired are neatness and quickness. " There is a fair chance for the advancement of a boy or young man ; vacancies Comments of People in are regularly filled by selecting the Industry frQm employees who have shown their industry and ability." "From the nature of the business and the number of factories in and about Boston, the chance for steady employment of a fair per cent of young men who have learned the work is very good. One should become acquainted with all departments, serving some time in each if he wishes to become master of the occupation and earn good pay. He should work also in several factories." " It is a good occupation for one who masters it thoroughly. People outside have no conception of the magnitude of the candy business." 58 BEGINNINGS IN GUIDANCE "Boys with push and health may become able to earn a good living; those with fair education may reach the higher positions. A boy must have the quality of perseverance and interest himself thoroughly in his work. There is more demand than ever for mental ability, for mind put into one's work." "A former luxury is becoming a necessity and the candy-making business offers a fairly good future for a boy or young man." THE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT Landscape architecture deals with plans and designs for the laying out of public and private parks and grounds and city planning. It is allied toarchitecture, horticulture, and civil engineering. The health conditions of this occupation are excellent. To his indoor work the landscape architect adds the variety and ex- The Profes- hilaration of working out-of-doors. s { on : Con- He has steadily before him an ideal d j tions and Future of form and beauty in his own un- dertakings as well as continual contact with them in the work of other men. 59 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE Indoor work, which is mainly planning, writ- ing, and drafting, runs quite steadily through the year; outdoor work is done mainly in the sum- mer. Young men must expect little if any field- work at the start. To some the only drawback in the profession is that of travel, a great deal of which is neces- sary for practicing landscape architects. On the other hand, steady confinement indoors is surely a disadvantage. In this industry there is not such keen com- petition as is found in commercial lines. Con- tracts calling for the better grades of work are not awarded as the results of solicitation ; busi- ness comes to a firm mainly because of its repu- tation. Both landscape architecture and civil engineering, allied industries, are steadily in- creasing their fields of activity. The profession of landscape architecture has grown greatly in recent years, yet there are few large firms. It is one of the most modern and promising of occu- pations. While there are neither many nor large firms in the country, in the vaults of one firm investi- 60 BEGINNINGS IN GUIDANCE gated lie copies of 20,000 drawings for work ac- tually done. Success in landscape architecture depends on the individual or firm that can do good work and make it known to the public. The landscape architect bears the same relation to the landscape contractor as the architect bears to the building contractor. The landscape con- tractor executes the plans and designs prepared by the landscape architect, under the supervision of his representative on the grounds, usually a civil engineer or planting superintendent. Older terms for the profession are "landscape engineer " and " landscape gardener." Land- scape gardening now has to do especially with the planting side of the profession, and boys prepare for it by employment with a landscape architect and by field work. Wages for boys entering this vocation range from $4.00 to $6.00 and $7.00. Such wages usu- ally cover the period of learning Pay ^ Position ^ the occupation. A young man who and Oppor- has taken a school course in the profession may enter at $10.00 or more. While 61 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE learning, a draftsman receives about the same pay as in architectural offices, from $9.00 to $12.00 a week, and a planting department clerk $12.00 per week; an assistant in the field from $8.00 to $10.00, and a superintendent of outdoor work $15.00. Beyond those positions when young men have served a period of learning of four or five years, pay increases steadily, quite equaling that re- ceived in building architecture, and averaging from $1000 to $1800 per year. As in all lines of business, advancement and success depend upon personal ability, thoroughness of training, and business conditions. Pay in the profession, while generally stated by employer and employee in the figures given above, is usually computed by the hour, espe- cially for indoor work. The usual age for entering is sixteen years ; a boy younger than this would Qualities and have no opportunity except as Training Re- office boy Q ne must expect to quired give the years between sixteen and twenty to learning the profession, earning 62 BEGINNINGS IN GUIDANCE only enough for living expenses. Most boys found in such an occupation live at home. One should have ability in drawing, taste in design, an accurate mind, good sense, and good eyesight. A boy should be strong, of good habits, and of normal physique. A high-school education is the least require- ment. Most boys entering landscape architecture in Boston and vicinity come from the Mechanic Arts High School, the Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Bussey Institute, and the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. One must be well trained in mathematics, surveying, and draft- ing. A knowledge of plants is an advantage in all cases, and with some firms an essential. Many students use their school or college va- cation for studying the profession with a land- scape architect, thus getting practical field-work to supplement their school courses. " It is a profession demanding hard work with iong hours and much painstaking service for moderate financial returns. Most Comments of who go into it do so for love of the People in the occupation." Industry 63 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE " The work is in part of an advisory nature, necessitating investigation, which is the oppor- tunity of young men They draw up plans and direct the execution of them by contractors." "Teach a boy drawing, no matter what he can do or what occupation he may enter. It trains the mind and hand and is of help always." " Conditions have changed greatly in recent years. The Metropolitan Commissions pay a higher price for a shorter season and sometimes draw young men away from architects' offices." " Better be a first-rate grocer than a second- rate landscape architect. One must think care- fully before entering this profession, so that he may not put in three or four years and find him- self not fitted for it." "This occupation opens the door to a con- genial work and gives one broad views and in- terests in life." One of the methods adopted by the Boston Vocation Bureau to further interest in the work has been a series of informal dinner conferences attended by leading business men and educators. BEGINNINGS IN GUIDANCE The heads of some of the largest industrial enter- prises in the state contributed experiences of great value and by their interest showed that vocational guidance is something which concerns not only the boy and the girl, the family and the school, but commerce and industry quite as much. Courses of lectures have been given in the public school system of Providence, R. I., at Harvard University, Boston University, Tufts College, and elsewhere dealing with the occupa- tions and their requirements. The following par- tial announcement of a course given at the Civic Service House will show the nature of the talks. WHAT ARE YOU FITTING YOURSELF FOR? Vocation Talks by Experts Sunday evening free and frank discussions for the benefit of all who are wrestling with the problems of choosing a vocation. THE TEACHER. THE ARCHITECT. THE JOURNALIST. THE LAWYER. COMMERCIAL CAREERS. PHILANTHROPIC WORK. INDUSTRIAL FOREMEN. A CAREER IN BUSINESS. A CAREER IN AGRICUL- TURE. THE NEW PROFESSION IN FORESTRY. THE DOCTOR. SPECIAL FIELDS FOR WOMEN. CAREERS IN ART, MUSIC, AND DRAMA. SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS. POLITICS AND PUBLIC SERVICE. VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE In the audiences which attended this course there were parents and teachers who found this an opportunity to study the nature of various occupations, young people who came to hear about the particular vocation they had in view for themselves ; and a number of young and old who were laboring with the problem of choice. In Germany for many years, and in Scotland, the law has recognized the need of intelligent direction of the young. The German system of industrial training presupposes a profound in- terest in the wage-earning career of youth, and though in some respects the social organization of that country makes its regulative provisions impossible in ours, there is much to be learned from its intelligent and thorough-going methods of dealing with its young people. In his Dundee address on " Unemployment " two years ago, and in the House of Commons address on Labor Exchanges, in 1909, the Rt. Hon. Winston Churchill emphasized the need of guidance for the vast majority of England's youth cast adrift in the odd occupations open to boys of fourteen years. The consequences of 66 BEGINNINGS IN GUIDANCE present-day conditions may be measured by the grim fact, that out of the unemployed applying for help under the Unemployed Workman Act, no less than twenty-eight per cent are between twenty and thirty years of age. "No boy or girl ought to be treated merely as cheap labor," says Mr. Churchill. " Up to eighteen years of age, every boy and girl in this country should, as in the old days of apprenticeship, be learning a trade as well as earning a living." The Labor Exchange, Mr. Churchill conceives as an agency for guiding the new generation into suitable, promising, and permanent employment, and for diverting them from over-stocked or declining industries. These exchanges are to cooperate with the vocation bureaus of the various educa- tion authorities that are coming into existence in Scotland and in England. A clause in the Scotch Education Act of 1908 permits school authorities to maintain or to com- bine "with other bodies to maintain any agency for collecting and distributing information as to employments open to children on leaving school." Munich has a special department in its Labor VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE Exchange set aside for children, and those other than apprentices are dealt with in the unskilled section. Mr. Frederick Keeling in his pamphlet on the Labor Exchange 1 describes the method by which the cooperation of the school and the Exchange is secured. The head-master assem- bles all the children who are about to leave school and impresses on them the importance of making a careful choice of an occupation. They are then given forms to fill out with the consent of their parents and with the advice of their teacher. After these are returned they are given forms on which they can apply for positions and which they have to take to the Exchange in order to see if a post is vacant. Visits are often obvi- ated by messages from the Exchange to the school. The preliminary steps are taken soon enough to enable the children in most cases to have a situation ready for them the moment they leave school. It should be noted that the Munich continuation schools serve as effective place- ment agencies for their own girls and boys. 1 The Labor Exchange in Relation to Boy and Girl Labor, Fred- erick Keeling. P. S. King & Son, Westminster, London, 1910. 68 BEGINNINGS IN GUIDANCE While the securing of suitable employment is the chief object of the Labor Exchange, and al- though educational readjustment is not in its programme, the Exchange has, nevertheless, contributed important evidence as to the need of vocational training and guidance before the period of employment is at hand. The English Apprenticeship and Skilled Em- ployment Committees have done valuable work, though necessarily on a small scale, in the field of employment. Their indirect influence, how- ever, on the movement for vocational training and the success of their supervision over the progress of the children placed has been considerable. Excellent handbooks have been published under the auspices of these committees, the most use- ful of which have been the pamphlets : " Trades for London Boys and How to Enter Them," and "Trades for London Girls and How to Enter Them." 1 These pamphlets cover such topics as the method of organizing vocational aid associa- tions, the considerations of health and prospects 1 Apprenticeship and Skilled Employment Association, Deni- son House, Vauxhall Bridge Road, London. VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE in the trades, the various openings for boys and girls, and the opportunities for further training. The London County Council and Glasgow School Board have made use of thousands of copies of these handbooks. A score or more of affiliated committees in the city of London and in the provinces are in active relations with the central association for Appren- ticeship and Skilled Employment, each commit- tee working locally for the vocational welfare of the boys and girls in its vicinity. Reports of such committees as the Hampstead Apprenticeship and Skilled Employment Committee show in de- tail the neighborhood treatment of the vocational needs of young people. Through the joint action of these committees relations have been estab- lished with trade-union secretaries and with the officials responsible for the establishment of a national system of labor exchanges. A confer- ence has been held with the Prime Minister and other cabinet ministers in which the experience of those interested in the problem of boy labor was presented with suggestions for improvement through the adoption of a system of compulsory 70 BEGINNINGS IN GUIDANCE attendance at continuation schools up to 17 years of age, a reduction of working hours, a develop- ment of full-time day schools, the raising of the school age, and the modification of the present elementary school curriculum. The Board of Education and the London County Council have shown noteworthy interest in the work of these voluntary organizations. The Children's Care Committees of the Council are instructed to ad- vise parents as to the work to be taken up by their children on leaving school. The extension of such vocational information committees must do much to arouse the interest of parents and children in the future of the boys and girls after they leave school. The follow-up work and the friendly contact with the young workers cannot fail to serve as a check to drift- ing and waste. Probably the most valuable results of the apprenticeship committees' work in Lon- don has been its furnishing continual evidence of the necessity for the readjustment of the work- ing day of young people so as to enable them to attend continuation classes during certain hours of the afternoon and the early evening. IV VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF all community workers the school-teacher is the most frequently called on to counsel with parents and with children as to the aptitudes of the boy and girl and their probable future. Ex- pert knowledge of a difficult nature is expected of the overworked teacher, but there is little opportunity to acquire it. In the boys' club, the social settlement, or Young Men's Christian As- sociation, the man or woman competent to give vocational counsel is eagerly sought for, and this service is energetically secured, oftentimes at large expense. In the school system, on the other hand, we permit the child's inevitable adviser to remain unequipped for the best performance of this vital duty. A change, however, is taking place. In the school systems of several cities, organization is re- placing our present haphazard efforts at guidance. 72 GUIDANCE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS A conspicuous chart at the Board of Educa- tion display in the New York Budget Exhibit of 1910 presents the need for vocational guidance as follows : NEED FOR A VOCATION BUREAU Directing young boys and girls into careers most useful to themselves and to the community is second in importance only to school training. Such direction requires continuous study of the needs of the community and an intimate knowledge of the capacity of \hzpupils. To secure this direction there must be a bu- reau to cooperate with the teachers in the public schools. For several years the initiative of certain New York school-teachers and officials has pointed the way to such guidance. Miss Julia Richman, district superintendent of schools, on the lower East Side of New York, has been employing a young woman who devotes all her time to finding positions suitable for untrained boys and girls who must leave school at fourteen. Application is made by the children direct to this vocational adviser, who interviews each applicant, ascertains 73 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE his or her powers, limitations, and desires, and guides ambition into definite channels. She visits employers, looks after the physical conditions under which the children would be employed, and forms an estimate of the personal influence of the foreman or employer with whom the child may come in contact. Where she is in doubt about a place she does not recommend it. The children come back to her at stated evening office hours for conferences about the work they are doing and the progress they are making. At the Wadleigh High School for Girls, in New York, a group of public-spirited men and women engaged a teacher two years ago to ad- vise with the girls as to their individual voca- tional problems, the occupations open to them, and the further opportunities for vocational training. A valuable work for some years past has been that of the Students' Aid Committee of the High School Teachers' Association, the chairman of which is Mr. E. W. Weaver, of the Boys' High School in Brooklyn. In this work, the high-school students are encouraged before 74 GUIDANCE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS leaving school to define their purposes in life and to consider the occupations best suited to realize them. To this end vocational bulletins have been prepared for the senior classes and their parents. The Association, by printing use- ful pamphlets on the occupations, the wages in various employments, and on special training required for them, has given an impetus to voca- tional help in the school system. Under Mr. Weaver's editorship a dozen or more leaflets have been published, with such titles as " Oppor- tunities for Boys in Machine Shops," "Choosing a Career," "Directing Young People in the Choice of a Vocation," and "The Vocational Ad- justment of the Children of the Public Schools." Of special interest has been the guidance work for immigrant youth at the Educational Alli- ance, by Dr. Paul Abelson, of the DeWitt Clin- ton High School of New York, whose knowledge of agricultural as well as of urban occupations has been of peculiar service to the perplexed youth of a tenement locality. In the preceding chapter the vocational guid- ance movement in the Boston schools has been 75 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE described. At the first national conference on vocational guidance, held in Boston in November, 1910, invitations to which were issued by the Boston Chamber of Commerce and the Vocation Bureau of Boston, organized vocational help in the school system received a support which promises much for the future of this work. In half a dozen Massachusetts cities and towns, vocation bureau committees, representing school and business organizations, have been formed, and in some the work of advising young people has been started. One of the most thorough systems of school guidance is to be found in the Educational In- formation and Employment Bureaus of the Edin- burgh (Scotland) School Board. Specimens of its plans and bulletins are here given, as they illustrate how a school vocation bureau works. Acting under the provision of the new Scotch Education Act, which grants school boards the power to incur expenditure for guidance bureaus, the Edinburgh School Board in 1908 called a conference at which were represented the Cham- ber of Commerce, various labor and employers' GUIDANCE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS organizations, churches and educational institu- tions. Mrs. Ogilvie Gordon, of Aberdeen, an efficient pioneer in this movement, took a lead- ing part, and contributed largely to the plan of work, which was finally adopted as follows: EDINBURGH SCHOOL BOARD Educational Information and Employment Bureau Scheme for the Establishment of an Educational In- formation and Employment Bureau^ adopted by the Board, 2Oth July^ 1908. 1. The Bureau shall be placed under the charge of a Standing Committee of the Board to be called the Educational Information and Employment Bu- reau Committee, and to consist of seven members of the School Board. 2. There shall be associated with the Committee, an Advisory Council, consisting of the Members of the School Board and such representatives of public bodies and trade associations as the Board may from time to time coopt, due regard being had to securing representation of the principal trades of women's occupations. 3. The Advisory Council as representing the various trades and occupations related to the Bureau shall advise the Committee and the Director of the Bureau on all matters connected with the education 77 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE required for such trades and occupations, and on the conditions of employment. 4. Accommodation for the Bureau shall be found in the School Board Offices. 5. The School Board shall appoint a Director who, subject to the Committee, shall organize and super- intend the Bureau. Generally his duties shall be as follows : (a) To interview boys and girls and their parents or guardians, and advise them with regard to further educational courses and most suitable occupations. (b) To prepare leaflets and pamphlets or tabulated matter giving information to the scholars about continuation work. (c) To keep in touch with the general require- ments of employers and revise from time to time the statistics about employment. (d) To prepare and revise periodically statements of the trades and industries of the district, with rates of wages and conditions of em- ployment. ( Longmans, Green TRADES FOR LONDON GIRLS, \ & Co., New York- Two series of booklets published in Leipzig, one published by C. Bange, entitled " MEIN KUXFTIGER BERUF " ; the other by Albert Otto Paul, entitled "WAS WERDE ICH?" VOCATIONAL SCHOOL CHARTS of the Women's Municipal League, Boston. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION: EDUCATION FOR EFFICIENCY, Dr. E. Davenport, D. C. Heath & Co., Boston. THE WORKER AND THE STATE, Arthur Dean, Cen- tury Co., New York, 1910. EDUCATION FOR EFFICIENCY, Dr. Charles W. Eliot> Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston. 118 REFERENCES VOCATIONAL EDUCATION, Prof. John M. Gillette, American Book Co., New York. BEGINNINGS IN INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION, Prof. Paul H. Hanus, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston. THE LABOR EXCHANGE IN RELATION TO BOY AND GIRL LABOR, Frederic Keeling, P. S. King & Son, London. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION, THE PROBLEM OF, Dr. David Snedden, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston. EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATIONS OF TRADE AND IN- DUSTRY, Fabian Ware, D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1901. GENERAL: THE SPIRIT OF YOUTH AND THE CITY STREETS, Jane Addams, Chapter V. The Macmillan Co. New York, 1910. DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL ETHICS, Jane Addams^ Chapter V. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1902. SOCIOLOGICAL PAPERS, Vol. 3, chapter on the Pro- blem of the Unemployed, by W. H. Beveridge and others. Macmillan Co., New York, 1907. UNEMPLOYMENT, W. H. Beveridge, Chap. VI and IX. LIFE AND LABOR OF THE PEOPLE, Charles Booth, (Vol. V and VI), The Macmillan Co., New York. THE TOWN CHILD, Reginald A. Bray, T. Fisher Unwin, London. STUDIES OF BOY LIFE IN OUR CITIES, edited by E.J. Urwick, Dent & Co., London, 1904. Chapter on the Boy and his Work, /. G. Cloete. EFFICIENCY, Harrington Emerson, The Engineer- ing Magazine, New York, 1909. 119 REFERENCES WORK, WAGES, AND PROFITS, H. L. Gantt, The Engineering Magazine, New York, 1910. SELF-MEASUREMENT, William DeWitt Hyde, B. W. Huebsch, New York, 1908. CONTINUATION SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND AND ELSE- WHERE, edited by Prof. M. E. Sadler, Introduction, and Chap. XV, on APPRENTICESHIP AND SKILLED EMPLOYMENT COMMITTEES, by H. Winifred Jevons. University Press, Manchester, England. WASTED LIVES, Frank John Leslie. C. Tinling& Co., Liverpool, 1910. GUIDE TO READING IN SOCIAL ETHICS AND ALLIED SUBJECTS, by Teachers in Harvard University^ Chapter III, Social Service, and Chapter IV, The Ethics of Modern Industry. Edited by Francis G. Peabody, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY (Part II, Chap. X, The Entrance to a Trade), Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Longmans, Green Co., New York. OUTLINE CHOICE OF LIFE-WORK AND ITS DIFFICULTIES 1. A Suggestion from Franklin's Autobiography . i 2. The Natural Advisers of Youth I 3. Present-Day Social Conditions 2 4. The Efficiency Engineer 2 5. The Young Work-Seekers 3 6. What Choosing a Vocation Requires .... 4 7. The Range of Choice 5 8. City Youth and Vocational Suggestion .... 6 9. The Tenement Children 6 10. Vocational Advising 8 11. An East Side Illustration 9 VOCATIONAL CHAOS AND SOME OF ITS CONSEQUENCES 1. England's Experience 12 2. Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws 13 3. Other Testimony 14 4. The Wasted Years 16 5. The Unemployables 20 6. The Problem of Vocational Training .... 20 7. The Problem of Vocational Guidance .... 22 8. The Problem of the Occupation 23 BEGINNINGS IN VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 1. President Eliot on the " Life-Career Motive " . 25 2, Choice of Further Schooling : two illustrations 26 121 OUTLINE 3. Beginning of the Vocation Bureau ..... 29 4. Prof. Frank Parsons's Work 30 5. Boston School Committee and the Vocation Bu- reau 32 6. Communication from the Vocation Bureau . . 32 7. Report of the School Vocation Committee . . 35 8. The School Vocational Record Card .... 42 9. The Girls' Trade Education League 43 10. The Boston Home and School Association . . 44 11. Vocations for Boston Boys 47 12. Three Vocational Bulletins 51 13. Courses on the Vocations 65 14. Vocational Guidance Abroad 66 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 1. The New York Budget Exhibit 73 2. Guidance on the East Side of New York ... 73 3. Advising in the Wadleigh High School for Girls 74 4. Bulletins of the High School Teachers' Asso- ciation 75 5. Mr. E. W. Weaver's and Dr. Paul Abelson's Work 75 6. The Guidance Work of the Edinburgh (Scot- land) School Board 76 7. Examples of Its Literature 77 8. Re-Action on Work and School 84 THE VOCATIONAL COUNSELOR 1. The First Steps 87 2. The New Profession 87 3. Local Cooperation 88 122 OUTLINE 4. Preliminary Investigations 89 5. Differences in Aims 89 6. The Vocational Director 90 7. Beginnings in Counseling Economic Founda- tions 92 8. The Use of Psychological Tests 94 9. Knowledge of Vocational Resources .... 94 10. The Counselor's Duty 96 11. Vocational Literature 96 12. A German Example 97 13. Training in the School for Counselors .... 98 14. The Counselor in the School 98 15. Unpaid Assistants 98 16. Future of the Vocation Bureau 98 17. The Question of Placing in Employment. . . 99 SOME CAUTIONS IN VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 1. Guidance for Revenue loi 2. At What Age Shall Children be Advised ? . . 101 3. Professor Hanus on Vocational Training . . .102 4. Vocational Self-Decision 103 5. The Personal Touch 103 6. Short Cuts to Jobs 104 7. Prevention not Palliation 105 8. The Abnormal Types 105 9. Sane Conservatism 106 10. The Applicant's Responsibility 107 11. Summary of the Dangers 107 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC GAINS THROUGH VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 1. Evolution of the Vocations 109 2. Vocational Idealism An Illustration . . . in 123 OUTLINE 3. Interdependence of the Vocations 112 4. Work as Continued Education 114 5. Social Aims of the Vocations 115 6. Conclusion .*,* 116 RIVERSIDE EDUCATIONAL MONOGRAPHS ANDREBS: The Teaching of Hygiene in the Grades. ATWOOD: The Theory and Practice of the Kindergarten. BAILEY: Art Education. BETTS: New Ideals in Rural Schools. BETTS: The Recitation. BLOOMFIELD: The Vocational Guidance of Youth. CABOT: Volunteer Help to the Schools. COLE: Industrial Education in the Elementary School. COOLEY: Language Teaching in the Grades. COOLIDGE: America's Need for Education. CUBBERLEY: Changing Conceptions of Education. CUBBERLEY: Improvement of Rural Schools. DEWEY: Interest and Effort in Education. DEWEY: Moral Principles in Education. DOOLEY: The Education of the Ne'er-Do-Well. DOUGHERTY: How to Teach Phonics. EARHART: Teaching Children to Study. ELIOT: Education for Efficiency. ELIOT: The Tendency to the Concrete and Practical in Modern Edu- cation. EMERSON: Education. EVANS: The Teaching of High School Mathematics. FAIRCHILD: The Teaching of Poetry in the High School. FISKE: The Meaning of Infancy. FREEMAN: The Teaching of Handwriting. GATES: Management of Smaller Schools. HALIBURTON and SMITH: Teaching Poetry in the Grades. HARTWELL: The Teaching of History. HAWLEY: Teaching English in Junior High Schools. HAYNES: Economics in the Secondary School. HILL: The Teaching of Civics. HINES: Measuring Intelligence. IOVEB) : The Teacher as Artist. HYDE: The Teacher's Philosophy In and Out of School. JENKINS: Reading in the Primary Grades. JUDD: The Evolution of a Democratic School System. KENDALL and STRYKER: History in the Elementary School. KILPATRICK: The Montessori System Examined. Koos: The High-School Principal. LEONARD: English Composition as a Social Problem. LEWIS: Democracy's High School. LOSH and WEEKS: Primary Number Projects. MAXWELL: The Observation of Teaching. MAXWELL: The Selection of Textbooks. MEREDITH: The Educational Bearings of Modern Psychology. MILLER and CHARLES: Publicity and the Public School. PALMER: Ethical and Moral Instruction in Schools. PALMER: The Ideal Teacher. PALMER: Self-Cultivation in English. PALMER: Trades and Professions. PERRY: The Status of the Teacher. PROSBER: The Teacher and Old Age. RUEDIGER: Vitalized Teaching. RUSSELL: Economy in Secondary Education. SHARP: Teaching English in High Schools. SMITH: Establishing Industrial Schools. SNEDDEN: The Problem of Vocational Education. STOCKTON: Project Work in Education. STRATTON: Developing Mental Power. SUZZALLO: The Teaching of Primary Arithmetic. SUZZALLO: The Teaching of Spelling. SWIFT: Speech Defects in School Children and How to Treat Them. TERM AN: The Teacher's Health. THORNDIKE: Individuality. TROW: Scientific Method in Education. TUELL: The Study of Nations. WEEKS: The People's School. HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 2601b THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH DAY AND TO $1.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY OVERDUE. DEC 20 ^, HAH 4 1 10Q? "1 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY