Vocational and moral guidance

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Part One Vocational And Moral Guidance Through

EDUCATION

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Introductory 3

ijr II. The Problem of Vocational Guidance in the Public Schools 6

III. The Problem of Moral Guidance in the Public

Schools • . 13

- IV. The Plan 20

)ir V. Vocational Direction in the Grades 27

VI. The Elements of Character that make for Success in Life • • « • » 46

VII. The World's Work — a Call to Service 62

VIII. Choosing a Vocation 75

IX. Preparation for One's Life Work 85

X. Social and Civic Ethics from the Point of View of

the Chosen Vocation ^99/

• XI. The Vocation ALizED Curriculum 112'

XII. Training for Social Efficiency as a Vocational

Asset 119

XIII. A Word to Parents 130

/ XIV. Vocational Counseling 137

. XV. The Problem OF Placement 152

« XVI. A CuMPRKHENSIVK PlaN OF ^)FGAy .Z.v rr.^.N x i iR CiTIES . 163

Part Two How Some Practical Workers Have Obtained

RESULTS

CONTRIBUTION PAGB

« I. Teaching Vocational Guidance in the Seventh and

Eighth Grades Mary Newell Eaton 177

II. The Essentials of Character that make for Success IN Life Martha E, Clay 193

III. The World's Work — a Study of Vocations v

Anna E. Woriman 198

/ IV. Choosing a Vocation Mary E Murphy 209

V. Preparation for a Vocation and Vocational Ethics

Carrie R, Heaton 220

VI. Social and Civic Ethics from the Standpoint of the

Chosen Vocation Mrs, Cornelia S. Hulst 238

VII. A Vocation Bureau's System of Card Indexes

Helen 7! Woolley^ Child Labor Department, Public Schools

of Cincinnati, Ohio 253

VIII. Application of Vocational Guidance to the Young Men's Christian Association. Educational Department of the Association at Minneapolis, Minnesota 262

IX. The Librarian's Part in Vocational Guidance

Maty E Hall, Girls' High School, Brooklyn, N, K 273

« X. Civic and Vocational Organizations in the Public Schools. Constitutions used in Grand Rapids, Michi"

gan, and Lincoln, Nebraska 286

INDEX 299"

[viii]

Chapter I Introductory

The secret of success in life is for a- man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes. — Disraeli

Why do from fifty to seventy-five per cent of the pupils who enter the high school leave before graduation ? Why do fifty per cent of those who finish the eighth grade or meet the requirements of compulsory education never enter the high school ? What are the causes of failure to do passing work in the high school ? What causes underlie certain conditions made evident in student life by the kind of outlawry and disorder that indicates a lack of loyalty to the school and an antagonism toward authority? These are questions that educators have been asking and discussing for many years. Some will answer that the school does not offet what certain pupils need and, therefore, that they either leave or remain a restless and disturbing factor in the school. This is undoubtedly true as far as it goes, but it does not tell the whole story. The in troduction of voc ational courses in the hio-h s rhool and the establishment of

inrnifitriaLflnfl tmdp srhanis wiU. hold m4aXJQlJthQ3Q.^upils who have heretofore dropped out, and will keep their interest for a time. However, a little deeper study into the answer to these questions will show that the foundation of the difficulty lies in the pro^em of getting the pupil into the right school, starting him in. the right course of study, and giving him an aim that will hold his interest.

In spite of the fact that so large a percentage of our pupils do not enter the high school and that so many drop out before graduation, high schools are universally crowded, and but few cities have been able to erect buildings fast enough to meet the demand for secondary education. This increasing desire for training beyond that of the grammar school is introducing new problems into the field of secondary education. The high school of to-day is a very different institution from that of ten, fifteen, or twenty years ago. The course of study has been revolutionized. Teachers of long experience claim that they cannot maintain the high standards of scholarship that they formerly held. The very composition of the school itself has undergone a great change, and in this fact lies the basis of our difficulty. The high school was originally a preparatory school for college or university. Then, the pupils who attended were from the well-to-do families and were looking forward to the learned professions. To-day, the pupils are from all manner of homes and represent every nationality; they are of varying t3T)es of mentality and are destined to follow widely differing walks in life. The gr eat proble m of the cogmo-

to assimilate this grg^t i;nass of students w^o are sent on every s ix monthsj tojbe prepared, not necessarily for the college or the university, but^ for th e work ra--day world a^SL well. This means, again, the problem of adjusting the individual pupil to the right school, the right course of study, and the right aim in life, accordir-" to his peculiar qualities and abilities.

/4]

INTRODUCTORY

The great demand for vocational guidance has arisen from the evidence of so great a number of misfits in life. Vocation bureaus are doing a noble work in helping these poor unfortunates to adjust themselves and to start over again, in a more fitting vocation. How much more worthy the demand to prevent the existence of these misfits ! Undoubtedly the public schools are guilty of causing many of these unhappy failures in life. The transformation that is at present taking place in our educational system is big with possibility for the future generations, but we must remember that the changes are being made in the interest, not of industry, nor of commerce, nor of professional careers, but in the interest of the individual child, that he may become a self-supporting, contented worker, successful according to his ability, and useful as a loyal citizen in his community.

It is with this great transformation in our public school system in mind that the plan of vocational and moral guidance outlined in this volume is set forth. If by means of the suggestions made, some lives may be led into right paths ; if the methods of the schools may be made to savor less of the middle ages and more of modem life ; and, if the revolution that is bound to come in our system of education may be brought about without upheaval, this volume will have performed its mission.

Chapter II The Problem Of Vocational Guidance In

THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The true teacher finds his crowning opportunity in revealing to his students some appealing career and compelling purpose which shall be to them what teaching is to him. — Anon.

Much of the failure and disappointment in life and possibly much of the crime that abounds may be attributed to the fact that so large a proportion of our youth go out from our public schools imperfectl y prepared to meet the demands of the world in which they find themselves compelled to make some kind of a living. Accepting as sufficient for all purposes the elementary training that the law may force upon them, a vast army of children, several million strong, drop out from our public schools every year to enter the fields of unskilled labor. Drifting about from one occupation to another, they seem to mix themselves up about as unsatisfactorily as if some isuperhuman power had shaken them up in a mighty deal box and had thrown them in every direction. All about us we find men struggling along in occupations for which they have no liking or fitness. \ A mechanical genius is wasting his time at the law, and many a physician would have made a better farmer. The unskilled laborer is chafing at his task and rarely can see that his real need is the education that will lift him out of his thraldom. That the world is filled with

J t

VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE IN PUBLIC SCHOpLS

so because it does not offer them what, in their opinion and experience, they need for the work that they desire to enter or feel that they are called to do. Not having been given a vocational aim, they drift into the first job that offers, and in the school of " hard knocks " they stand or fall without the aid that the schools should have given them. The great majority of men now past middle age will testify that they came into their present occupation almost entirely by chance. Very few can say that they had a definite ambition and planned to reach a certain goal. The history of most men is one of drifting — drifting through school as far as they went, drifting into the first occupation that seemed to offer immediate returns, drifting from one thing to another until some fortune, good or bad, fixed them at one occupation for the remainder of their years. Those who succeeded to a comfortable position in life did so largely as a result of moral character rather than of training — as a result of favorable influence and opportunity rather than of schooling. Those who are living unhappy lives of discouragement and failure were possibly lacking in moral qualities and may not have had an equal opportunity. ^The fact remains that in the lives of most • men there has been a great loss of time and energy in the search for their place in the world's work. The main cause for this great economic loss may be laid at the door of our public schools. I We have failed to inspire our youth I with the necessity for an aim in life.\ We have held out| the ideal of education as a means to professional careers, and have ignored the fact that the right sort of study in preparation for other careers is just as worthy and just as necessary as for those designated by high-sounding titles.

In response to these demands the curriculum is rapidly [undergoing changes that are somewhat revolutionary in character. Colleges and universities are hastening to meet the conditions that secondary schools are placing before them as a righteous demand of the people who support the schools. What the future content of the high school curriculum will be is not yet fully worked out. However, it can be seen that the practical side of life is to have its due consideration. Improved commercial and industrial courses will be evolved, and wider opportunities will be given our boys and girls to choose their training and to prepare for broader fields of service. Yet this will not of itself solve - th^ problem of securing for the individual the particular line of training that may be best for him, for it will be seen at the outset that this very opportunity of immature pupils to make such a choice, brings us face to face with a most serious problem. The so-called "elective** system was^ the beginning of the movement for pupils to follow what ^ seemed most profitable to them, and the success of this system has often been called in question. However, the old curriculum was so dominated by purely academic subjects that a pupil finding himself on the wrong line of study could change about without very serious loss in his

nreparation for his future wprk. But the recent introduction of technical and commercial courses, and in many cities of trade or industrial schools receiving pupils at from • fourteen to sixteen years of age, will force many pupils to make a very positive choice of a career very early in life. Having once decided between an academic course, a business, or an industrial course, the pupil will find that they

liverge more widely as the work goes on, and that the

[lO]

VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

possibility of changing means an ever increasing loss of time and work. Hence, of all the problems that have been placed upon the public schools for solution, there is none more difficult, more fraught with danger, or mpre full of splendid possibility than that of guiding each boy and each girl into the course of study or the kind of school that will best prepare them for that particular field of service in which they may be most truly successful.

Carlton, Frank T. Education and Industrial Evolution. The Maonillan Company, 1908.

Davenport, Eugene. Education for Efficiency. D. C. Heath & Coihpany, Boston, 1908.

Dean, Arthur D. The Worker and the State. The Century Co., New York, 1910.

Dewey, John. The School and Society : being Three Lectures supplemented by a Statement of the University Elementary School. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1907.

Eggleston, J. D., and Bruere, R. W. The Work of the Rural School. Harper & Brothers, New York, 191 3.

Considers the school, in all its phases, as an essential factor in

the upbuilding of the rural community.

*

Euot, Charles W. Education for Efficiency. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1909.

Gillette, John M. Vocational^ Education. American Book Company, 191 2.

Hughes, Robert E. The Making of Citizens. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1902.

A study in comparative education.

Kerschensteiner, George. Education for Citizenship. Rand,

McNally & Company, Chicago, 191 1.

King, Irving. The Social Aspects of Education. The Macmillan

Company, 191 2.

[II]

Leavitt, Frank M. Examples of Industrial Education. Ginn and Company, Boston, 191 2.

MuNROE, James Phinney. New Demands in Education. Doubleday, Page & Company, Garden City, New York, 191 2.

The Educational Ideal : A Business Man's View of the Public Schools. D. C. Heath & Company, Boston, 1909.

O'Shea, M. V. Education as Adjustment. Longmans, Green, & Co., New York, 1904.

Scott, Colin Alexander. Social Education. Ginn and Company, Boston, 1908.

Snedden, David. The Problem of Vocational Education. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1910.

Swift, Edgar James. Youth and the Race. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 191 2.

Training for citizenship and in character development.

YocuM, Albert Duncan. Culture, Discipline and Democracy. Christopher Sower Company, 191 3.

Interesting discussion of the needs for reconstructing the public school curriculum.

Chapter III The Problem Of Moral Guidance In The

PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary for good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged. — Ordinance of 1 787

The first public schools established in America were particularly strong in religion and morals, and from the modem point of view very meager in the field of knowledge. A glance over the records and textbooks of the early days will show the strongly religious trend of teaching. Noah Webster's Spelling Book of the edition of 1843 contains a Moral Catechism, which bases its teaching upon the authority of the Bible, and treats of humility, mercy, peacemaking, purity of heart, anger, revenge, justice, generosity, gratitude, truth, charity, avarice, frugality, industry, and cheerfulness. Selections for reading were chosen for their patriotic or moral sentiment rather than for their literary or informational value. Indeed, every source of information regarding the early history of education in this country indicates that the chief aim of all teaching was moral and religious.

Since the Civil War the entire history of our country has changed in a most astonishing manner. We may be too near, even yet, to see clearly what it all means. But in all walks of life — commercial, industrial, and educational

— we have witnessed great changes. To-day our schools are crowded with such a mass of subjects, such a variety of information — scientific, industrial, and historical — that both teachers and pupils are overwhelmed with its volume. No wonder that we have forgotten religion and morality in our effort to cram the youthful head with all the progress of the most wonderful age of the world's history. Our public schools are not unmoral nor have they entirely eliminated religion from their teaching, but we have given up in a large measure the attempt to develop systematically \. the moral and religious nature of our pupils. Individual teachers are still the inspiration of many lives, but we have not yet brought this most important side of our work up to the scientific standard of all our other teaching. Whether those who go forth from our schools to-day are weaker in moral character than those of the early days can never be proved. Just how much of the immorality and indifference • toward religion of the present age can be charged to the public schools cannot be determined. Nevertheless the standards of moral conduct, the ideals upon which honest living and sound business stand, are the ideals of the public schools. We are, however, coming to realize that something more than an occasional or accidental method of | applying ethical lessons is necessary. / If experience in the schoolroom did not bring about this. ) realization, a closer relationship between the school author- , / ities and the employers who receive their product, would j soon force educators to see that graduates of the public I schools are not prepared for ja uoinooo l if e without having \ QrqmVpfi jffinit 1 iyiaHfii:>o Pripcigals and,Jgacherj^

are constantly being asked to answer letters of inquiry an<^

MORAL GUIDANCE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

to fill out blank forms regarding the qualifications of some graduate or former pupil who has used their names for references in applying for some position of trust or responsibility. Among the questions asked are the following :

Has your acquaintance with the applicant been sufficiently intimate for yoM personally to judge his character and habits?

To the best of your knowledge does the applicant use, or has he ever in previous years used, intoxicating drinks, tobacco, morphine, or opium ?

Does he use vulgar or profane language ?

Is he industrious, careful, thorough, honest, truthful, trustworthy ?

Have you ever heard that the applicant was suspected of intemperance, gambling, speculating, extravagance, dishonorable conduct?

Do you consider the applicant a safe and proper person to be guaranteed by this company, and one whom you would yourself trust?!

The character of these questions indicates the fact that employers and bonding companies are vitally concerned with the moral qualities of applicants. I have often been called upon to find a young man for a certain position. When I asked the employer whether he wished the applicant to know certain things, he invariably replied, "We will teach him the things we wish him to know. What I want you to do is to help me find the right kind of ^ fellow^ Further evidence of the demand of industry and commerce for moral qualities is found in the following questions taken from application blanks :

Are your habits sober and temperate ? Have they always been so ? Do you use liquor or narcotics of any kind ? If so, what ? Do you use tobacco ; smoke cigarettes ?

1 The Personal Record Press of Kansas City, Missouri, has prepared a splendid chart of these questions and others for the use of schools, etc.

"[15]

Have you ever played cards for mon^ or engaged in any other form of gambling ?

Have you ever "played the races" or speculated, and do you now occasionally speculate ?

Have you any tastes or habits which are extravagant in proportion to your means ?

Have you ever been convicted of any crime or misdemeanor or arrested on any charge ?

These application blanks would show from their content that the employer is far more concerned with the character of the applicant than with his record of scholarship. It suggests that we ask ourselves the question, " With which are we more concerned ? "

If it were possible to make a study of the causes of the failures that men make of their lives, — and by failure I f do not mean the mere loss of money, — such an investigation would probably reveal to a startling degree the moral • weaknesses of the human race. Each thoughtful man, from such data as he may have at his command, can estimate that nearly every person who makes a failure of his life opportunities, is at fault in some point of character. This being true, we should expect business men and em-j ployers to be even more interested in the moral guidance of youth. And we certainly should expect the public schools to consider it an essential part of education for efficient^ living, systematically to teach youths the obligations of life, • its moral code, its obstacles and pitfalls, and the necessity ! of rightly adjusting themselves to its social relationships.'

For a number of years there has been an increasing ^ interest in this problem of moral instruction in the public schools. The National Educational Association has a commission at work upon a plan for such instruction; the

MORAL GUIDANCE IKAjm^VBLlC SCHOOLS

Religious Education A^^^Kbn has devoted much of its attention during J^^Hff two years to the problem; and several state a^cBuons have appointed committees to make investigations. Indeed, educators are quite generally awakened to the importance of the question. Yet whenever an attempt has been made to introduce the reading or study of the Bible into the schools as a means of moral instruction, objections have been raised and laws passed to prevent the action.

In some progressive schools more or less formal courses in moral ethics have been introduced with varying success. To work but a plan of moral instruction that would reach all pupils and give time for real development in their lives, that could be applied in concrete form to daily practice, and that was not so formal as to become perfunctory and uninteresting, has been the great difficulty. But light has been thrown upon the problem of moral instruction through close study of the problem of vocational guidance. It is not often that in trying to find a solution for one problem one happens to work oiit a plan that proves to be an equally satisfactory solution of another perplexing question. Yet, upon thought, all will grant that vocational guidance is in itself moral, and that moral guidance without application to life's purpose is of little value — the two are inseparable. Moreover, to young people of this generation, the strongest plea for morality is in its close connection withi their own possible chances for success in life.

In the plan outlined in the following pages it will be seea that the word " guidance ** has a broad significance. • From the vocational point of view, it means the gradual unfolding of the pupil's better understanding of himself ;

it means the opening of his eyes to the broad field of opportunity in the world; it means a selection of and a preparation for his own best field of service as a social being. From the moral standpoint, the idea of '* guidance" is peculiarly essential in the development of the pupil. Ethical instruction that merely informs the brain does not necessarily produce better character. It is of most value when it is in some way applied to the actual 4 thinking and acting of the pupil. In this connection guidance means the pupil's better understanding of his own character ;f it means an awakening of the moral consciousness that will lead him to emulate the character of the good and great who have gone before ; it means a conception of himself as a social being in some future occupation, ^xA from this viewpoint^ the appreciation of his duty and obligation toward his business associates, toward his neighbors, and toward the law.

Bryant, Sophie. Short Studies in Character. The Macmillan Company, 1899.

Cabot, Ella Lyman. Everyday Ethics. Henry Holt and Company, 1906.

Cob, George A. Education in Religion and Morals. Fleming H. Revell Company, 1904.

Dewey, John. Moral Principles in Education. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1909.

Griggs, Edward Howard. Moral Education. B. W. Huebsch, New York, 1906.

Moore, J. Howard. High School Ethics. The Macmillan Company, 1913. ^ ^

Moral Training in the Public Schools. The California Prize Essr- \^ By Charles Edward Rugh, Principal of the Bay Sc' ^iool,

J

MOBAL GUIDANCE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Oakland, Cal. ; Reverend T. P. Stevenson of Philadelphia, Pa. ; Edwin Diller Starbuck, Professor of Philosophy, State University of Iowa ; Frank Cramer of Palo Alto, Cal. ; and George E. Meyers, Principal of the McKinley Manual Training School, Washington, D.C. Ginn and Company, Boston, 1907.

National Education Association. Report of committee on moral instruction in the public schools. (Preliminary report, 191 2.)

Palmer, George Herbert. Ethical and Moral Instruction in the Schools. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1909.

Religious Education Association. Proceedings of Annual Meetings, 1905 to date.

Discussions on moral instruction in public schools.

Sadler, M. E. Moral Instruction and Training in Schools, 2 vols.

Longmans, Green, & Co., New York, 1908.

Sharp, F. C. Course in Moral Ethics for High Schools. University

of Wisconsin.

SissoN, Edward O. The Essentials of Character. The Macmillan

Company, 1910.

Sneath, E. H., and Hodges, George. Moral Training in the School

and Home. The Macmillan Company, 191 3.

A valuable and practical handbook.

L.A.

Chapter IV The Plan

In vocational guidance the school finds its supreme task as the conscious educational institution of a democracy. — George H. Mead

The plan of vocational and moral guidance suggested here is the result of many years of experience in dealing with individual pupils, and of definite experimenting for the past five years. In beginning the work the department of English was selected for several reasons. In the first place, to be effective the work must reach all pupils throughout their course ; the subject of English alone offered this opportunity. In this particular high school, oral and written composition forms about one third of each semester's work. Teachers were often puzzled to find live composition topics that would insure both originality and interest. A sug-j gested outline of subjects involving Jvocational and moral* guidance for each semester was prepared and developed as experience pointed the way. The amount of time to be devoted to these themes was left to the choice of the teacher and to the opportunity to fit the work into the course as previously' prepared. This plan still proves to be better than to prescribe a certain amount to be done ^each week or each day. Teachers will find that it will not do to push any topic beyond the point of real, spontaneous interest. The greatest value to be obtained from this entire plan is serious thought upon the part of the pupil regarding

If ■

THE PLAN

himself and hib future mission in the world. Just enough, then, must be done to make him desire more, and never should he become tired of the subject. Under the inspiration of the wise teacher the day or period set apart for the vocational themes will be looked forward to as the bright spot in the work.

Not all subjects lend themselves to the general discussion of vocational or moral topics as does English composi-f tion. However, every branch has its practical application to certain vocations and often to certain moral issues. These opportunities are always grasped by the earnest

tion in a c ertain sub ject. If the subject is made to serve as ' an instrument in the hands of the teacher for the purpose of molding the life of the pupil, the greater purpose of education will be obtained.

The following story is very much to the point and worth repeating. It is the story of an artist who was sitting in his studio, his eyes fixed in steadfast gaze upon a vision which had risen before him. It was a form of rare beauty — a form more beautiful than his eyes had ever beheld before — a conception so wonderful in its loveliness as to transport his whole being. His frame thrilled with ecstasy as he continued to gaze upon it, and there came to him an overwhelming desire to grasp that form and make it live forever. He seized a lump of clay, and while his fingers were yet trembling with the frenzy of his inspiration, he began to mold. He pressed in here and he pressed out there. He gave a firm touch here, a tender touch there. Day after day he molded on. When the clay hardened he moistened it and molded again. And by and by there grew up from his hands a form so beautiful that* die world heard the fame of it, and came and looked upon him and upon the work of his hands, and said to him, ** Well done."

After a day of toil and worry a teacher once sat alone at twilight, her eyes fixed in steadfast gaze upon a vision that had risen before her. It was the most beautiful, the rarest, the most charming form that had ever blessed her eyes. As she looked she recognized the face of " Him who is the fairest among ten thousand, and altogether lovely.'* Her whole being was filled with the blessed vision. Her heart yearned toward Him. She threw herself at His feet and gave herself, heart and soul and mind, to Him. And when she rose there came into her heart an irresistible desire to mold some life like unto Him. And she took into her hands a lump of living clay — a little child — and trembling with the frenzy of the vision she began to mold. Day after day she taught and trained the little mind and the little heart, pressing in here, and pressing out there ; firmly here, tenderly there. When the child began to grow hard, her love and sympathy softened him and she molded on. And by and by there grew up from her hands a strong, symmetrical, manly man. The world heard not of what she had done, and came not ; but the fame of her workmanship reached the court of heaven, and one day the Lord came down and looked upon her and upon the work of her hands, and He said to her, ** Well done."