^l^iSililitlWI'i^^^^^
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
This book is DUE on the Ir tf ned below
1977
^
EDITED BY HENRY SUZZALLO
PROFESSOR OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
THE VOCATIONAL
GUIDANCE OF YOUTH
BY
MEYER BLOOMFIELD
DIRECTOR OF THE VOCATION BUREAU OF BOSTON
LECTURER ON VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE, HARVARD UNIVERSITY
SUMMER SCHOOL
]V/TH AN INTRODUCTION BY PAUL H. NANUS
3^088
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON, NEW YORK AND CHICAGO
C€t)e Kiberijibe JDrcjSjS, (JEambcitJae
~y^^^|J-.y~.lfJ^JfJ^lfJ^J)J~Jf^~^->^^lJ~Jj^^
COPYRIGHT, 191 1, BY MBYER BLOOMFIELD
ALL RIGHTS RESERVBD
C IT
c «
, c t
< C
£: 0 f,^ /«
HP
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
V; Vocational Guidance in the Public
Schools 72
V. The Vocational Counselor .... 86
VI. Some Cautions in Vocational Guid-
ance lOI
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
or physical 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
lONAL G
OF YOUTH
THE VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
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
the 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 theiremployees. 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 tfie
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 intellisjent selection of life-work is i
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
irnitation. 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
lO
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
15
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
i6
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." *
The intervening years, then, between leaving
* Repoit 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
i8
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 J
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
Ithe 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." ^
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."* 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,
" Secoitd, 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
32
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 with
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 of
getting employment, counseling, and following up pupils
after leavingr school.
35
J3
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.
y*' 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
-J,
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
sympathetically following up pupils, for a longer or a
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 calHng 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 faU. 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 admirable 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 follow 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.
" 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.
41
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
Does intend to graduate ? What School after High ?
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
18 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
pubHc schools with information about occupa-
tions for girls, which will aid them in counseling
girls who are planning 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 nor-
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 /, tqia.
Name of Firm
Address
Superintendent or Employment Manager
Total number of employees [ pg^jjf'j^^g^o
Number of boys, 1200 ; girls, /ooo.
Has there been a shifting in relative numbers of each ? No. There
is fixed work for each.
PAY
Wages of various groups, and ages. Errand boys, counters, carriers^
14 years old, $s.jq , assemblers, assistants, pattern boys, ib years,
47
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
$S-50 to $6.00 : lusters, 20 years, %b.0Q to ^7.00 ; other work, so years
or more, $8.00 to $13.00 /or youtig me7i in early employment.
Wages at beginning, fo.io to $6.00.
Seasonal. By year.
Hours per day. 1.30 A. M. to 5.30 P. M. To i3 M. on Saturday in
summer. One hour nooning.
Rate of increase. This is very irregular, averaging $r.aa per week
each year.
a. On what dependent. Not at all on age^ but on ability and posi-
tio7i 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. Poitrteen 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 fnodern improve-
ments and safeguards, with hospital department and trained
nurses.
b. What variety of skill required? Some mechanical skill. The
ordittary 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-
ers, trimmers, and work dicing, welting, and ironing shoes.
Also in office, salesman, foreman, manager, or superintend-
ent.
48
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 home 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 andfiguritig.
What records kept ? (Collect all printed questionaires and records.)
Name, address, age, nationality, tnarried or single, living at home
or boarding, pay, date of entering and of leaving.
Union or non-union ■* Open shop.
Comment of Employer. Educatiott 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
somethi7tg like school still. We 7nean 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 a7id overheating
workrooms, are to be guarded against in this occupation. The
danger of each injurious process may be prevented by proper
cave.
Census Bureau Report on this Occupation, Massachu-
setts, igo8.
in
c
<u
"r;f:
•o
1(2
T3
2 «
•is
to
tc-o
J) iO
u
> a
ZJ Q.
tn
g
0, 3
4'3
$35,260,028
$104,171,604
$38,959,428
$562.59
46,063
23.187
Si6g,957,ii6
Bibliography. The Shoe Manufacturing Industry in New Eng-
land. I. K. Bailey i^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 1^4.00 and 1^5.00 a week. For
regular messenger service the pay p^^^ Positions
begins at $6.00 a week or 1^300 a and Oppor-
. t unities
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 j^iooo 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 betfer 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-
51
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 age on account of the great re-
Training sponsibility of the messenger ser-
Required . -r^ , i ,
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 jhe Business
moral danger to young men on Conditions
and Future
the speculative side of the stock
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
.„ , 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 Tt, r d t
employ from one hundred to one Conditions
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, ^^use men generally are unwilling
and Oppor- to work at the wages paid in this
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.oo to
$6.00, according to the age of the boy and the
particular work done. Boys act as helpers and
56
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 j j ^ '
People in are regularly filled by selecting
the Industry f j-om 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
to architecture, 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, sion : Con-
He has steadily before him an ideal ^''^^""^ ^"^
-' 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 1^4.00 to $6.00 and $7.00. Such wages usu-
ally cover the period of learning p^y^p^.^^^,^
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
;^ 1 2.00 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 ;^i8oo 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 ;
Th Bo ' ^ ^°^ younger than this would
Qualities and have no opportunity except as
latld^^'' °^^^ ^""y- ^"^ "'"^^ ^^P^c^ to
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
long hours and much painstaking service for
moderate financial returns. Most ^ mments of
who go into it do so for love of the People in the
.. „ Industry
occupation.
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.
64
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. L, 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 NEW PROFESSION IN
FORESTRY.
THE DOCTOR.
SPECIAL FIELDS FOR
WOMEN.
CAREERS IN ART, MUSIC,
AND DRAMA.
SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS.
POLITICS AND PUBLIC
SERVICE.
THE TEACHER.
THE ARCHITECT.
THE JOURNALIST.
THE LAWYER.
COMMERCIAL CAREERS.
PHILANTHROPIC WORK.
INDUSTRIAL FOREMEN.
A CAREER IN BUSINESS.
A CAREER IN AGRICUL-
TURE.
65
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
67
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^ 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.
6S
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." ^ 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.
69
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 neisrhborhood 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
oflficials 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
19 lo 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 continuotis study of
the needs of the comtnimity and an intitnaie
knowledge of the capacity of the pupils.
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
n
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'
76
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, 20th fuly^ igo8.
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.
(^) To prepare leaflets and pamphlets or tabulated
matter giving information to the scholars
about continuation work.
(/) 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.
((?) To keep a record of vacancies intimated by
employers, and to arrange for suitable can-
didates having an opportunity of applying
for such vacancies.
(/) To report periodically on the work of the
Bureau.
7S
GUIDANCE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
If an organizer for the Continuation Classes be
appointed, he might also act as Director of the
Bureau.
Note. — As soon as the Committee and the Director have
been appointed, notice should be sent to all head-masters,
employers, etc., explaining the purposes of the Bureau and
the conditions for utilizing its services. Head-masters
should be provided with printed forms to be given to the
outgoing scholars on which shall be entered the standard
of education attained, habits of punctuality and attendance,
and any general information that would be useful, and a
duplicate shall be sent to the Bureau. The Bureau shall be
open free of charge to parents and pupils wishing informa-
tion as to education or employment.
A large advisory council has been appointed
to cooperate with the bureau, two delegates being
sent by such bodies as the Chamber of Com-
merce, the Building Trades Association, the
Master Printers, the National Union of Women
Workers, and unions of Engineers, Bakers, Book-
Binders, Cabinet-Makers, Joiners and Masons.
A number of prominent employers and educators
are also on the council. In the Bureau's plan for
organizing vocational information it ascertains
facts about the industries, trades, and professions
of the district, the nature of the local demands
for young workers, the qualifications required in
79
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
the various occupations, the conditions of ap-
prenticeship for each trade, the beginner's
weekly wage, and the possibihties of promotion.
Particular effort is made to retain the pupils in
the schools, to trace the progress of boys and
girls from fourteen to seventeen who cannot con-
tinue their schooling, and to secure the em-
ployer's cooperation in establishing needed con-
tinuation schools. The following circular is sent
to parents of children leaving school, and is simi-
lar to those sent to the head-masters and to em-
ployers.
EDINBURGH SCHOOL BOARD
Dear Sir or Madam,
The Members of the Board desire to call your
special attention to the steps which they are taking
to guide and advise young people regarding their fu-
ture careers in life, and to provide for them the sys-
tematic training on commercial or industrial lines
that will best fit them for the occupation they elect
to follow.
( I ) Educational Information and Employment Bureau
The Education Department has recently pointed
out that it has been matter of frequent complaint
80
GUIDANCE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
that through want of information or proper guidance,
children, on leaving school, are apt to take up casual
employments, which, though remunerative for the
moment, afford no real preparation for earning a
living in later life. The temptation to put a child
into the first opening that presents itself is often
very great. Due regard is not always paid to the
capacities of the boys and girls concerned, with the
result that many take up work which affords no train-
ing and is without prospect, while many others are
forced into trades or professions for which they are
unsuited by temperament and education, and for
which they consequently acquire a dislike. The re-
sult is a large amount of waste to the community at
large and misery to the individuals concerned.
The Board are anxious to cooperate with parents
in putting an end to this state of matters, and ac-
cordingly, they have established an Educational In-
formation and Employment Bureau whose functions
may be briefly stated as follows : —
(i) To supply information with regard to the qual-
ifications most required in the various oc-
cupations of the City, the rates of wages,
and the conditions of employment.
(2) To give information about the technical and
commercial continuation classes having re-
lation to particular trades and industries.
(3) To advise parents regarding the occupations
81
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
for which their sons and daughters are most
fitted when they leave school.
(4) To keep a record of vacancies intimated by
employers, and to arrange for suitable can-
didates having an opportunity of applying
for such vacancies.
(2) Continuation Classes
Boys and girls who have gone through the work of
the Day School soon forget much that they have
learned if they have no opportunity of extending the
knowledge which they have already gained. The Board
would therefore impress on parents the importance of
their children joining a Continuation School as soon
as possible after leaving the Day School.
As you are probably aware, children can now leave
school only at certain fixed dates. In Edinburgh these
are ist March and ist September. On 15th July of this
year over 2000 pupils may terminate their day school
career.
The close of the Day School course is probably
the most critical period in the life of children. There
is grave danger of educational and moral waste if
they are suddenly set entirely free from discipline and
instruction. Between the ages of 14 and 18 careful
supervision and training are essential to the forma-
tion of character, the creation of a sense of personal
and civic duty, and the production of skilled and
efficient workmen It is of the highest importance,
82
GUIDANCE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
then, that all parents should realize that there must
be no break between the Day School and the Con-
tinuation School.
For the purpose of increasing the efficiency of the
Continuation Classes and of rendering the instruction
more directly practical, the subjects (other than ele-
mentary) have been grouped into courses, such as
English, Commercial, Technical, and Art Courses for
Boys and Girls, and Domestic Courses for Girls
only. These specialized courses, which have been
allocated among the different Schools in the various
parts of the city, should prove a valuable aid to pu-
pils who enter upon an industrial or commercial
pursuit.
A prospectus giving full information with regard to
the various courses and subjects of study will be for-
warded for your perusal in the course of a few weeks,
and the Board trust that you will do your utmost
to persuade any young people under your care to
enrol in one or other of the Continuation Classes.
The Headmaster of the Day School will be pleased
to grant you an interview on the subject before the
close of the present session, or during the month of
September. Further details and advice regarding the
courses of study most suited to prepare Boys and
Girls for their prospective occupations may be had
by parents or intending students on application to the
Director of the Educational Information and Employ-
ment Bureau,
83
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
The not distant future will see an active ex-
tension of vocational guidance in the schools.
Conscientious teachers desire to be of service to
the boys and girls and welcome every opportu-
nity which strengthens them for increasing use-
fulness. Whether as paid or unpaid advisers,
there will be an increase, both inside and outside
the school system, of vocational counselors. In
the Young Men's Christian Associations, notably
that of Boston, where Mr. Frank P. Speare has
for several years been actively interested in sys-
tematic vocational counsel, in church education
committees, university extension courses, neigh-
borhood centres, as well as in the school systems,
significant beginnings in vocational guidance are
in process of organization. Expert counsel will
be rare, however, and errors common, but the
obligation to deal with the present situation is
insistent. Earnest, humble, open-minded, and
energetic effort to equip one's self or a system
for better guidance than now obtains is impera-
tive.
In the very effort sincerely to meet the present
need of intelligent guidance there is good. The
84
GUIDANCE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
cooperation between the world of work and
school life, the teacher and the employer, the
parent and the counselor cannot fail of genuine
helpfulness, of corrective value, and of mutual
service.
V
THE VOCATIONAL COUNSELOR
Obviously the carrying out of a plan for voca-
tional guidance must centre in some responsible
and competent individual. A committee or an
association can do much in stimulating public
opinion and in the gathering of resources. But
such work done well requires that it be the spe-
cial business, indeed the life-work, of some quali-
fied man or woman.
Undoubtedly, a new profession, that of the
vocational counselor, is developing. The condi-
tions of the time call for it, and whatever the
volunteer may do in inspiring young people for
the serviceable life, it is certain that professional
responsibility can alone achieve the hard-earned
results of this difificult work. The duties of the
person charged with the management of a voca-
tion bureau are many. They cover a wide range
of activity and relationship. They call for per-
sistent study, investigation, and energy.
86
THE VOCATIONAL COUNSELOR
The work of guidance is, at best, delicate and
difficult. Helping to develop purpose, to light the
pathway of pursuits, and to shape the careers of
the doubting, the eager, and the ambitious is a
task that calls for exceptional qualities of intelli-
gence and consecration. In order that the move-
ment for vocational guidance may not suffer, it
is important that standards and ideals for this
work be maintained at the highest possible level.
The best service in the community should be
enlisted in the work. Fortunately, the idea of
vocational assistance to young people appeals
to all thinking men and women, and it should
not be hard with definite plan and energetic
purpose to secure the largest measure of cooper-
ation.
Now it is essential for any community under-
taking the work of guidance to set before them-
selves the steps in the furtherance of the enter-
prise. In a subsequent chapter will be discussed
some of the dangers and pitfalls which may
attend the work of vocational guidance. The
purpose here is to outline some details of organ-
ization and the functions of the vocational coun-
87
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
selor, executive director, or whatever may be the
name for the person in charge.
The first suggestion to those about to open a
city or school vocation bureau is — go slowly.
If the right foundations are not laid before
considerable work in counseling is begun, it is
certain that the best kind of work cannot be
done. At least a year should be devoted to a
preliminary investigation of local resources, of
the environment, and of the social and vocational
problems of the children. Frequent conferences
should be held, attended by the representatives
of all the interests that may be expected to co-
operate. The business man, the manufacturer,
the labor-union official, the school-teacher, the
truant officer, and the social worker are all needed
in such conferences. It should be made the duty
of some committee with a well-paid secretary, who
may be regarded as in training for the eventual
position of vocational counselor, to make a careful
canvass of the professional and wage-earning op-
portunities in the town, city, or county, and get
into personal relation with working children and
their parents in order to understand their prob-
88
THE VOCATIONAL COUNSELOR
lems. Chapters of this vocational survey may
be made the topics for discussion at regular
meetings. One of the main results of these con-
ferences will be a consensus of opinion as to
what is to be sought for in the proposed vocation
bureau. In the beginning views will differ, and
until a definite conclusion is reached the exec-
utive cannot be anything but confused and
hampered in his work. Some will aim for an edu-
cational programme, some for an apprenticeship
arrangement in local industries, and others again
for the placing of boys and girls in shops and
stores. All these views represent elements of
value to the project, but time and patient discus-
sion alone can work out a programme that will
receive general assent.
It may happen that the differences of view-
points are almost irreconcilable, one party aim-
ing for the short haul of immediate results, and
another for the longer haul of social and educa-
tional readjustment. No little skill will be re-
quired to shape a work which, while serving
urgent and immediate needs, yets points unhesi-
tatingly toward the infinitely more important
89
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
task of laboring for the right conditions, the right
education, and the public sentiment that will deal
constructively with the vocational interests of
young people before they become problems.
Little may be expected from a work which be-
gins in a spirit of destructive criticism. Voca-
tional interest in youth is not a new thing. What
is new, however, is the intelligent energy with
which that problem is now being attacked in
various places. No one element is responsible
for present conditions ; least of all may the teach-
ers be charged with neglect, for they have not
been given the opportunity to equip themselves
in a thorough way for the task of vocational
assistance. No body of men and women will be
found more responsive than the teaching force in
any locality ; but obviously those charged with
the responsibilities of guidance must be given
leisure and the resources to prepare themselves
adequately.
The person selected to conduct a vocation
bureau must possess executive ability, initiative,
resourcefulness, and an education which com-
bines both academic and industrial knowledge.
90
THE VOCATIONAL COUNSELOR
A varied experience as a manual worker and in
commercial and professional work is a good re-
commendation. It may well be that a working
man or woman who has earned a college educa-
tion will be found best qualified. It is also likely
that some one occupying a responsible position
in a business or educational institution and pos-
sessing a keen interest in the problems of youth
may be of the type desired and should be in-
duced to accept the appointment. The method
used by the Boston Chamber of Commerce in
selecting men as members or paid secretaries
for committees is suggestive. A terse and defi-
nite plan is laid out for the committee under con-
sideration. The type of man desired and a list
of qualifications that he should possess are
agreed upon. The names suggested are then
marked according to the degree and special fit-
ness for the service in question. A blank form
made up for this purpose is used, and those
who are given the highest rating are invited to
serve.
The type of person best adapted for the posi-
tion of vocational director can only be deter-
91
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
mined by the residents of each locality. A rural
community, the county, or a small town will prob-
ably call for qualifications different from those
which a city vocation bureau requires. The pre-
dominant vocational interests of a community
are an important element in determining the
type of director. It should be remembered that
the committee which chooses its executive is
doing a work of vocational guidance, and it must
apply, in a sense, the principles which are to
guide their own executive in the work.
The argument for caution and careful plan-
ning is not intended to discourage the under-
taking of actual counseling. As early as
practicable interviews may be granted to a small
number day by day. Perhaps the data at hand
are insufficient for good counseling. This fact
should be made known to the applicant. Never-
theless, service is always rendered by stimulat-
ing one to think aloud about one's own prob-
lems. The chief value of any interview lies in
the self-disclosures and the reactions of the ap-
plicant.
The relations between the counselor and the
92
THE VOCATIONAL COUNSELOR
applicant cannot be formal, official, or temporary.
They must be friendly, intimate, and more or less
continuous. What makes the appointment of vo-
cational directors or counselors in schools, settle-
ments, or like organizations so desirable is the
opportunity for long contact with the individuals.
A single interview is seldom sufficient for ser-
vice that is worth while. Parents and teachers
who enjoy years of opportunity for studying the
make-up of a boy or girl find it hard enough to
ascertain the vocational bent of the child. Pro-
longed, earnest effort on the part of the counselor
is imperative, and a corresponding effort on the
part of the applicant, or the service fails of
value.
Of prime importance is the economic equip-
ment of the counselor and the Bureau. Guess-
work and vague generalizations about social
problems, the conditions of employment, and
occupational facts, will discredit the work. An
essential element in the counselor's service is
intimate knowledge of what is going on in the
store, factory, and office. He must investigate,
weigh, interpret, and apply vocational facts.
93
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
At present it is very doubtful whether psycho-
logical tests can be used to advantage by the
counselor. Clues of value may be found in the
elementary tests for vision, hearing, muscular
sense, association time, and the quickness of
perception. Laboratory psychology, however, is
not far enough advanced to enable one to fathom
bent and aptitude. The common-sense tests of
experience are more reliable guides. A color-
blind boy cannot become a locomotive engineer,
nor can a deaf girl be a stenographer, though she
may well be a copyist and typewriter. Medical
inspection for mental and physical defects is use-
ful and should be suggested to the applicant.
Too free a use of laboratory methods and appa-
ratus in connection with bureau work, at the
present time, will confuse and mislead, and the
applicant who becomes excited and apprehensive
is not in the right frame of mind for the relation-
ship desired. The fact must not be lost sight of
that the vocation bureau is neither a laboratory
nor a clinic.
A thorough acquaintance with local and other
resources is needed by the counselor, and his
94
THE VOCATIONAL COUNSELOR
facility in connecting the appropriate resources
with the needs of the individual applicant will
count for much in his work. The Bureau can
only in the course of years and with a large ex-
penditure of money become the repository for
every kind of information that may be called for.
An important part of the counselor's programme
is the skillful utilization of existing sources of in-
formation and service. There are men and women
in almost every occupation who would be willing
to cooperate with the bureau, serving as special
advisers and perhaps employers for selected in-
dividuals. It is not to be supposed that the Bu-
reau director can master the important details of
every pursuit. Thus it may be necessary to con-
sult an architect or physician with reference to
the conditions or changing demands in their re-
spective callings. Problems may arise with refer-
ence to the ability or the circumstances of some
particular young man or young woman, and the
help of a representative of the profession in ques-
tion, acting as a vocational " big brother," will
prove of great value.
The guidance of youth in vocations cannot
95
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
confine its scope to the mechanical or com-
mercial alone. The multiplication of vocational
schools, including those in medicine, dentistry
and law ; the inferior standards and the pecuni-
ary motives of many of them ; and the over-
crowding of the liberal professions by the unfit
and the ill-equipped, give rise to questions of the
gravest character in advising as to these careers.
Prof. Felix Adler has said that one of the diffi-
culties he has encountered in advising some
young men was in impressing them with the gap
between their admiration and their endowments
for a vocation. The counselor's duty of stimulat-
ing is great, but it is primarily his business to
deal with facts, and he must be guided by a sense
of responsibility for the advice he gives.
There is a considerable literature which the
counselor must familiarize himself with, and much
of it he may prescribe for reading and study by
the applicant. Excellent vocational handbooks
such as "Vocations for the Trained Woman,"
published by the Woman's Educational and In-
dustrial Union of Boston, " Trades for London
Boys," and "Trades for London Girls" (already
96
THE VOCATIONAL COUNSELOR
referred to in this book), Mrs. Ogilvie Gor-
don's " Handbook of Employments," Dr. Charles
R. Richards' Report to the New York State
Department of Labor in 1908, and others may
be found in the public libraries and might
well be part of every school library. Unfortu-
nately, we have not as yet in this country a series
of cheap and practical vocational primers dealing
with the occupations similar to those published
in various German cities. One series of tiny
booklets published in Leipzig, and costing not
more than a few cents apiece, covers almost
one hundred different vocations, — the chemist,
the tinsmith, the teacher, the merchant, the
cook, the waiter, the druggist, the farmer, the
sailor, the tapestry-maker, and many others.
"What Am I To Be?" is the title of this
series.
Before long an awakened interest in vital voca-
tional information may yet regard such booklets
as worthy of a place in the school and college cur-
riculum. Until the educational authorities take
up this task it will remain the privilege of far-
sighted philanthropy or private enterprise to
97
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
make available to all such practical knowledge of
the occupations.
The duties of the counselor outhned in this
chapter must impress one as sufficient to absorb
the working hours of any individual. One of the
very first provisions must be for the training of
assistants in research and advising. These may
be paid or volunteer workers. The experiences
gained in a vocation bureau are so valuable that
persons of superior qualifications may be inter-
ested to enlist in this tangible social service.
Eventually the fruits of private initiative in
vocational guidance must lead to the establishing
of school and public vocation bureaus and to
courses of preparation for this specialized service
in our normal and professional schools.
In the fall of 1910, a normal course for school
counselors was opened in the Boston English
High School, under the direction of the Vocation
Bureau, and continued throughout the school year.
It presented to the teacher-advisers the principles
and problems involved in vocational guidance,
and by means of talks by representative business
men, employers, manufacturers, and professional
98
THE VOCATIONAL COUNSELOR
men and women, brought into the pubHc school
a useful working knowledge of the many oppor-
tunities and occupations open to Boston boys
and girls.
A question that will constantly arise in voca-
tion bureau work is its relation to employment
and to employment agencies. Our discussion
thus far should have made clear the fundamental
aims of a vocation bureau. An ofifice for indi-
vidual counseling and for studying the problems
of social and educational readjustment will need
very large resources to superadd an employment
office. This latter is no small business, and
requires far more investigation and study than
are ordinarily given. While a vocation bureau
gladly finds many incidental occasions to suggest
openings for its applicants, it will fail of its pur-
pose if its constructive functions become side-
tracked. A separate department or organization
is necessary for considerable employment work,
but there can be and should be the closest co-
operation between a vocation bureau and place-
ment work of any kind. Employment managers
of large stores and factories should be kept in
99
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
touch with the vocation bureau, not only for the
benefit of those who, under proper conditions,
may be referred to them for work, but chiefly
because the adoption of vocation bureau methods
and ideals in industry may ultimately become
the bureau's largest contribution to social wel-
fare.
VI
SOME CAUTIONS IN VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
The work of vocational guidance cannot reason-
ably be expected to go on free of error and mis-
hap. Differences of opinion as to what such work
should be, as to what are its proper aims and
how to carry them out, will give varied phases to
the movement. Local application of the bureau
idea will differ in different localities, and doubt-
less, there will be much to learn and much to
undo before a sound basis is attained.
Not found wanting will be the exploiter and
the charlatan, advertising such guidance as the
new key to success. Every community will have
to be on guard against vocational guidance for
profit.
At what age shall vocational suggestion and
guidance begin in the school.? Prof. Paul H,
Hanus, who was Chairman of the Massachusetts
Commission on Industrial Education, has with
reference to vocational training answered the
lOI
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
question also for vocational guidance. The years
up to fourteen, he maintains, should be enriched
with all that a broad and liberal curriculum can
give. From fourteen to sixteen years, differenti-
ation, not specialization, in school work may take
place along the lines of the probable occupa-
tions of the boys who are not going to a classical
high school or college, and with regard to the
predominant industries of the locality. This in
order to develop general vocational intelligence.
Prior to the fourteenth year, however, it is de-
sirable that school work include vocational en-
lightenment, for example, talks on familiar trades
and professions, excursions by classes or groups
of children to shops, stores, offices, and vocational
schools, and manual training.
Applying these suggestions to guidance in the
elementary schools, there is first a fundamental
need of stimulating the ideal of vocational pur-
pose. School work inspired by the " Life-career
motive" is the ideal of the progressive educator.
As thousands of children must go directly to
work from the grammar school, the vocational
director or the school counselor, where they are
1 02
SOME CAUTIONS
appointed (as in Boston), should get into touch
with the boys and girls and their parents in
order to work out gradually the question of the
best possible occupation. No small part of this
work will be in the endeavor to find a way to
continue the schooling of these boys and girls.
The vocational decision, when made, should re-
present chiefly the conclusion reached by the
boy or girl, young man or woman, or whoever
the individual advised may be. Decision is not
the business_of the counselor, but that of the ap-
plicant. The counselor is there for suggestion,
inspiration, and cooperation. The over-zealous
school counselor who "prescribes " vocations is
quite likely to commit the error of forcing prob-
lems on children prematurely. He should also be
on guard against mistaking what is probably a
child's play and make-believe for a vocational
bent.
Without a genuine personal touch, the counsel-
or's work with the applicant is not of thebcst. Hu-
man beings, not" cases," are before him, and there-
fore a mechanical treatment of bureau problems
is intolerable. If the possession of accurate vo-
103
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
cational information is desirable, no less so is the
giving it without bias, A counselor prejudiced
in favor of a particular line of pursuits, be they
industrial, academic or what not, is vitiating the
value of his services. No vocation bureau can
fulfill its mission which leans toward one or an-
other of the departments of human endeavor.
Its business is to deal with facts, impartially,
honestly and vigorously. To be suspected of one-
sided sympathy is to lose a chance for large
community service.
An even more serious indictment would be
I the dispensing with the programme of analytical
i work on the part of the applicant, and converting
i the bureau into an office for a short cut to jobs.
I Some employers will be found ready to^ take ad-
vantage of any laxity in the bureau's standards.
When a vocation bureau degenerates into an
agency merely for supplying young people to
employers, the time has come to close it up.
As has been already suggested, the placing of
young people in employment calls for most
careful investigation and organization. Without
a system of supervision, without a plan for the
104
SOME CAUTIONS
definite training of every child it helps send into
uninstructive employment, and without a defi-
nite educational agreement with every employer
who is thus served, the vocation bureau with
other than incidental employment features must
only intensify existing evil conditions of juvenile
labor.
Every adviser has become familiar with the
types who seek occult assistance. They are
morbidly introspective. The relation to their
fellows and to their work is not normal. An un-
wholesome selfishness distinguishes them. The
personal data sheets or printed list of personal
questions, such as the counselor may prepare for
the applicant, cannot be used automatically, and
with reference to the type of applicant here in
question they will usually prove worthless. Per-
sonal analysis is like a drug habit with these
people, and before vocational suggestion of value
can be given, the counselor will probably find it
necessary to deal frankly with their mental and
emotional make-up. The vocation bureau is not
equipped for service in the field of abnormal
psychology. Its rigorous common-sense methods
105
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
should be sufficient to deter the coming of those
who need other than the Bureau's help. The
bureau must ever be on guard against dabbling
in subjects foreign to its powers.
In dealing with the life problems of young
people a sane conservatism in the methods of
analysis must prevail, a sharp sense of responsi-
bility controlling the work of the vocational di-
rector. The methods he uses and the suggestions
he makes are all fraught with serious conse-
quences. No other work calls more insistently
for good sense and careful judgment. Misguid-
ance is a constant possibility in bureau work.
With a number of counselors in the field, and
with the extension of this service through both
public and private endeavor everywhere, the dan-
gers multiply. Good intentions cannot excuse the
lack of care and adequate equipment on the part
of the advisers.
The applicant himself is a factor in the bu-
reau's liability to disservice. To answer a list of
personal questions, either orally or in writing,
honestly and satisfactorily, is a difficult process.
Not many people can face themselves objectively.
1 06
SOME CAUTIONS
Inability as well as unwillingness to do so may
be the reason. Exploring the vocational possi-
bilities of a troubled or discouraged applicant
calls for a large expenditure of thought and en-
ergy. No progress can be made if the applicant
does not meet the director's exertions in a coop-
erative spirit. The margin for error and misjudg-
ment is large at best, and the applicant must
attend faithfully to the reading, the investigating,
and the written work required of him.
There is no royal road to infallible guidance.
Pretentious claims do not belong to the legiti-
mate vocation bureau. What may be confidently
expected during the early years of this work is
mitigation of the prevailing anarchy during the
decisive years of school and occupational changes
through energetic application of science and
sympathy to this problem. To sum up the princi-
pal dangers which the movement may encounter,
attention is directed against forcing children into
premature seriousness, wholesale counseling, too
little personal relationship, absence of research
work, superficial suggestion, vocational bias, job-
finding instead of constructive social service, ex-
107
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
ploitation, pretentiousness, and inferior equip-
ment of the executive and the bureau. Mistakes
are inevitable in this endeavor to help the coming
generation to find itself, but a high standard of
service and of social responsibility can alone in-
sure against their too frequent repetition.
VII
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC GAINS THROUGH
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
The Vocational Guidance movement belongs
to those efforts of our time making for the en-
hancement of individual and social life. Common
action has become more easy ; social insight and
the will to serve have increased. The movement
for husbanding the serving powers of youth is a
practical expression of the deeper motives under-
lying the conservation enterprises of our day.
Closer contact with the life of the struggling,
and revelations of their capacity for better voca-
tional purposes than many now serve strengthen
the conviction that the field of employment in
even its humblest aspect will not long remain
untouched by the reconstructive hand of our gen-
eration. Perhaps a deeper discernment will dis-
close the "one talent which is death to hide" as
the possession of even the humblest, and we
shall no longer find contentment in a quiescent
109
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
pity for the unsuccessful by the fulsome bestowal
of honors on those who have won out. It is a sad
fatalism which regards our waste of human ma-
terial as necessary to the cultivation of the cap-
tains and leaders of men. A finer understanding
of human possibilities refutes this elemental no-
tion.
The vocations themselves are undergoing pro-
found changes. New ideals of their functions are
prophetic of the demands they will make upon
their future practitioners. The new opportunities
belong to those who can apprehend the changing
situation.
Preventive medicine offers departments of ser-
vice as varied as society itself, and specialists in
social health will find modern life eager for their
ministrations. The profession of law, conserva-
tive though it be, is calling for the lawyer with
intelligence for constructive social legislation and
the skill to apply adequate legal principles to
vexed industrial relations; the architect and the
builder are needed in a housing solution for mod-
ern urban congestion ; and the real-estate opera-
tor and the transportation expert are called upon
no
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC GAINS
to contribute their foresight and their skill to the
working out of a city plan. Whatever overcrowd-
ing there may be in the conventional grooves of
the vocations, none has as yet taken place in their
latest and socialized form. It is the privilege of
the vocational counselor to watch for these new
outlets in vocational service, and to guide the fit
into promising avenues of usefulness.
A young Bohemian, undergraduate in a large
university, was preparing himself for the law.
His father is a Pennsylvania coal-miner, and dur-
ing the summer the young man helped him in
the colliery, earning enough in that way to pay
for his board and tuition during the college year.
He came to the Vocation Bureau of Boston with
questions as to what prospects for successful
practice among Americans a young foreigner
like himself could expect. It was clear that this
intelligent and energetic young man would get
along, and he was reassured on this point, but it
seemed important to remind him that very few
of his nationality had achieved the advantages of
life in a great New England university, that his
people had few representatives indeed who could
III
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
interpret them to Americans and America to
them, and that his largest success would lie as
a well-trained lawyer in not detaching himself
from his own, but in serving both them and the
Americans in the opportunities that would surely
be his.
Signs are not wanting in the liberal profes-
sions, in manufacturing, in business, and indeed
in most occupations, of a growing band of prac-
tical idealists who conceive their pursuits in
terms of community service as well as of liveli-
hood.
I> • They are giving new life to old callings and
are stimulating the youth of our land to new
measurements of achievement. We have been
for so long awed by the wonderful subdivision
and specialization in the vocations that we have
forgotten the most impressive fact about them.
This is their social interdependence. As we be-
come more sensitive to social organization, we
perceive how superficial is the barrier of voca-
tion. The scientific classification of flowers and
j trees does not make nature less an organic whole.
So the promotion of special schools and training
112
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC GAINS
courses for the development of skill in particular
vocations cannot make less real the fraternity of
workers. Zones of influence and consequences
reach far beyond the view of the individual
worker who causes them. A fundamental value
in liberal vocational training is the sense it brings
to the student of his relationships. We pursue
our callings in forgetfulness of the essential
"team play" in working life, and the vocational
guidance which brings to light one's interplay of
work with that of his fellows, contributes toward
lifting the daily stint above the commonplace.
The demand upon the vocations each for its
distinctive social contribution carries with it a
corresponding ideal for the vocational career as
a whole. We have been proceeding on an un-
sound assumption that for the many the dynamic
period of youthful growth is intended for a static
period of struggle for the daily bread. The young
worker's pathetic snatches at growth throughout
long days of drudgery, his surreptitious reading
of a book at the bench, the day-dreaming and
the cravings for self-realization, the petty infrac-
tions of rules, continually illuminate the resist-
113
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
ance of young human nature against the prospect
of stagnation.
Only a conception of working life as continuing
education can appease the God-given hungers of
youth. This is not fancy. We find successful
business houses proud of the types of men and
women they develop by the educational oppor-
tunities they afford their employees, and this
not as charity but as fundamental good business.
Developing the intelligence of the employees
and satisfying their instinct for educational ex-
perience in the work they are doing has become
the self-assumed duty of the most enlightened
employers. The socially imaginative business
man, manufacturer, and professional man are
joining hands with the progressive educator in
the call for more educational returns from the
wage-earning career.
Of what use are the sacrifices made in the
training and guidance of youth if the subsequent
conditions of employment nullify their value.'*
The fitting of youth for appropriate life pursuits
cannot proceed without a corresponding fitness
on the part of the occupations themselves. The
114
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC GAINS
readjustments in education will have to go hand
in hand with like readjustments in the avenues
of occupation. Work and school cannot be safely
kept apart in a democracy. Each has a vital
meaning to the other, and they must share in
common the burden of fitting the coming gen-
eration for its best achievements. Alike they
must share this vision and this purpose, or else
vocational chaos will continue its disastrous
course.
Society willingly invests its young blood in the
world of wage-earning, and in return it asks co-
operation in protecting its most valuable assets.
There can be no question that working life under
proper conditions is youth's best discipline. The
demand upon the vocations for social cooperation
is not made in a spirit unappreciative of their
character-building possibilities. Rather is this
social challenge to the occupations a full recogni-
tion of the community's loss in the present abyss
between life and a livelihood.
To these socially efficient ideals, therefore, —
the enriching of school life with vocational pur-
pose and the enriching of working life with edu-
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
cational purpose — the vocational guidance move-
ment addresses itself. Whatever this movement
may in the course of its experience propose to
the people for social correction, there will not be
found wanting the clear aim to serve the best in-
terests of the vocation quite as much as those
of the worker. Education, the professions, indus-
try and commerce all belong to our children.
To conserve their inheritance and to lift them
to their future opportunities, the friends of the
vocational guidance movement join those who
labor for youth and a sound citizenship.
REFERENCES
The following publications consulted in the
preparation of this book may be of interest to
students of vocational guidance and training, and
may well serve as the nucleus of a school voca-
tion library.
REPORTS:
Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, Albany, N. Y., 1909.
Report of the Apprenticeship and Skilled
Employment Association, for 1909, 36 Deni-
son House, Vauxhall Bridge, London.
Report of the Consultative Committee on
Attendance, Compulsory or Otherwise, at
Continuation Schools, Wyman & Sons, Lon-
don, 1909.
Report of the Hempstead Apprenticeship
and Skilled Employment Committee, 15
Lithos Road, Finchley Road, Hampstead.
Reports of the National Society for the
Promotion of Industrial Education, Office
of the Secretary, 20 West 44th Street, New York
City.
Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor
Laws and the Relief of Distress, Wyman &
Sons, London, 1909.
117
REFERENCES
Reports and Bulletins of the U. S. Bureau
OF Labor.
Reports of the Commissioner of Education,
Washington, D. C.
Bulletins of the International Labour Of-
fice, London.
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE:
Handbook of Employments, Mrs. Ogilvie Gor-
don, Aberdeen, Scotland.
The Occupations of College Graduates, Dean
Frederick P. Keppell, Columbia College, " Educa-
tional Review," December, 1910.
Choosing a Vocation, P7of. Frank Parsons,
Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1909.
Vocations for the Trained Woman, other
than Teaching, Women's Educational & Indus-
trial Union, 264 Boylston Street, Boston, 1910.
Trades for London Boys, ") Longmans, Green
Trades for London Girls, \ & Co., New York-
Two series of booklets published in Leipzig, one
published by C. Bange, entitled " AIein Kunftiger
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 Mififlin 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, 1 90 1.
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 atid
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. Urivick, Dent & Co., London, 1904. Chapter
on the Boy and his Work, J. G. Cloete.
Efficiency, Harrington Emerson, The Engineer-
ing Magazine, New York, 1909.
119
REFERENCES
Work, Wages, and Profits, H. L. Ganti, 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
The Natural Advisers of Youth i
Present-Day Social Conditions 2
The Efficiency Engineer 2
The Young Work-Seekers 3
What Choosing a Vocation Requires .... 4
The Range of Choice 5
City Youth and Vocational Suggestion .... 6
The Tenement Children , 6
Vocational Advising 8
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 o . . 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
n. 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 9^
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 . . .111
123
OUTLINE
3. Interdependence of the Vocations 112
4. Work as Continued Education 114
5. Social Aims of the Vocations 115
6. Conclusion .... n6
1
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
Los Angeles
This book is DUE on the last date stamped below.
BEcro COL Lit
SEP 3
^\i6
5 \SJ*
rorm L9-25m-7,'63(D8618s8)444
3 1158 00112 4378
^381
UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
AA 000 71 1 250 i
'■tm^Mm^'mri: