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OFFICE OF EDUCATION SCHOOL LIFE Congress, in 1867, established the Office of Education to "collect such statistics and facts as shall show the condition and progress of education in the several States and Territories"; to "diffuse such information as shall aid in the establishment and maintenance of efficient school systems," and "otherwise to promote the cause of education throughout the country." To diffuse expeditiously information and facts collected, the Office of Education publishes SCHOOL LIFE, a monthly service, September through June. SCHOOL LIFE provides a national perspective of education in the United States. Order its service for one year by sending 50 cents to the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. To foreign countries, 85 cents a year. On all orders for 100 copies or more to be sent to one address, the Superintendent of Documents allows a discount of 25 percent. Enter subscriptions also through magazine dealers. Send all editorial communications pertaining to SCHOOL LIFE to Editorial Division, Office of Education, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C. SCHOOL LIFE Issued Monthly, except July and August, by the United States Department of the Secretary of the Interior: Harold L. Ickes WASHINGTON, D.C. T The Carmel Plan HIS CONCERNS a very unusual but very practical, and almost costless program that aids schools in finding the vocational aptitudes of their pupils and provides an excellent grade of prevocational training. We are calling it "The Carmel Plan" because the small rural town of Carmel, N.Y., is the first one to put the complete plan into operation. Problem After all, it is an important matter. Our great cities, to be sure, can do something constructive about vocational training. They have the means and can provide equipment, although in general our vocational schools are narrow in their scope and highly expensive to equip and maintain. Vocational training of any kind in thousands of small towns and villages is simply out of the question. Very few of these are able even to provide commercial courses. So if the village of Carmel has accepted and put through a plan making a wide range of prevocational training easily possible, then we have a matter of first importance. And it is a fact that practically without cost Carmel children are receiving vocational training in a wider range of subjects than even large municipal vocational schools can care for. How it began This development began last fall when the board of education came to the conclusion that too much so-called education is aimless and planned with little consideration of the various levels of capacity and the many kinds of vocational aptitudes. Their first step was to request the Vocational Research Bureau to make a study of the vocational aptitudes of the pupils in the 10th, 11th, and 12th grades. • Director, Vocational Research Bureau, Kent Cliffs, Putnam County, N.Y. By CHARLES K. TAYLOR* We might say a word or two about this bureau. It developed as a part of the same general endeavor that a few years ago produced the Educational Records Bureau of New York-a schoolservice organization planned to care for objective testing programs at cost. As the Vocational Research Bureau requires, among other things, a carefully reported school record of each pupil, and as schools vary much in their work and in their marking, it seemed well, about 6 years ago, to ease up on the vocational study and to develop a test-marking bureau that would aid in giving judgments concerning academic achievement, based on objective tests, and using "national norms". This testing bureau becoming firmly established, the study of vocational aptitudes continued, and though the general system used had its beginnings in 1919, it was opened to schools in general only last fall. Suggestions The Vocational Research Bureau, then, is also a school-service organization, planned to aid schools in finding the vocational aptitudes of their pupils and to suggest plans for vocational training with the resources of different communities in mind. It charges for its services fees that are as near to cost as possible. IF YOU THINK a friend in education would be interested in one or more specific articles in this issue of School Life, kindly send his name and address to the Office of Education, Washington, D.C. We will gladly send him a marked copy. To date the bureau has not accepted any particular vocational test, as it seems well to await sufficient proof of validity. It makes its recommendations on the basis of an analysis and study of various kinds of information concerning each pupil-the school history of achievement, the history of objective tests, family histories of vocations and hobbies, personal characteristics as noted by several different people, and so on. This information is placed on several data cards and sent to the bureau, which makes its study and returns the cards with suggestions. This work was done at Carmel, among other places, at the instance of the board of education. When the data concerning the pupils in the three upper grades had been studied and their most hopeful vocational aptitudes noted, then the board had a special meeting with the director of the bureau. "It is all very well", said one of the members, "to find these aptitudes. But what can we do about it? We know very well that most of our pupils are wasting a lot of time over things that are not very important and that we are sacrificing the nonacademic majority for the benefit of the academic minority, and that this is even more true of the small school systems than of the large ones. And we are not even training the academic minority according to their special capacities. You have noted about 16 different kinds of vocational aptitudesand we are not able even to give the ordinary commercial course!" England's institute Then was put before them an adaptation of a plan not unknown in England. For instance, in the school town of Bedford they have what they call the "institute." Now, this "institute" uses regular school buildings and some of the teachers are members of the school An staffs. The point is that pupils, who may be boys as young as 14, are here enabled to follow an interest or aptitude for several years, and the courses range all the way from grocery merchandising to architecture and chemistry. And here's the point. Last year this "grocery" class was largely in charge of the proprietor of a large grocery company. architect of my acquaintance gives a couple of long periods each week to classes in mechanical and architectural drawing. And so on. The pupils pay, it is true, a fee, but it is a ludicrously small one 12s per annum, but the thing to remember is that the help of folk outside of the regular school staff makes the broad program possible. Here is an idea for us! The six members of the Carmel board saw the application at once, and with enthusiasm. Incidentally, they repre sented five different kinds of vocations among them. One owned a machine shop and forge. Said he, "Well, if you find any boys with a real mechanical aptitude they may come to my shop once a week, at a regular time, and so learn what this kind of work is really like". Another member who owned a department store made a similar offer. And so did a newspaper publisher. The idea spread. And so it was arranged that pupils showing definite aptitudes and interests could, if invited, put regular periods, during school time, in the offices and shops of Carmel citizens who wished to cooperate. Carmel citizens did emphatically wish to cooperate as soon as the plan was put up to them. So it is that of two or three boys wishing to take up medicine, the one who was found to possess the proper mental and personal qualifications has been taken in by a doctor, for a specified number of school periods per week. It is reported that in a very short time this lad learned the use of all the doctor's instruments, finally taking over the charge of their sterilizing, and, within a week of his beginning, efficiently aided the doctor when two badly injured and mutilated men, victims of an auto accident, were carried into the dispensary. Two girls wished to take up teaching. One was found to have the necessary mental capacities and personality, and she is spending a definite amount of time each week assisting teachers in the lower grades. Two boys spend their weekly vocational periods in the board member's machine shop. A girl has been taken in by the county social worker's office. Three pupils who showed more than a usual capacity for art are cared for by an experienced artist whose studio is in the neighborhood. And so on. Do you see what has happened? As far as we know, and for the first time in the United States, there has developed a community effort to aid a school in giving real pre-voca- Training-no cash After all, what a simple matter it is! Here is a small town of about 2,500 people giving the older boys and girls probably a better and more realistic vocational train ing than is likely to be given even in the benefit even in great cities where the vocational training is likely to be limited to the trades and to no great number even of these. Carmel is doing one or two other interesting things that might well be described one of these days. For instance they have placed the development of a capacity for responsibility as one of the essentials of high-school training and they have decided to reorganize the curriculum of the last 6 years of school-something that many are talking about. As Stanley Cornish, president of the school board, said, "Someone always has to make a start. Most of us know when things should be done and forward steps taken. And we all wait around for someone else to make the start. Well, we were tired of waiting and so decided to go ahead, to see if we could not give these children some training and some education that would have some relation to life, its needs and opportunities." College Student Tide Slacks SLOWING UP in the increase of students above secondary grade in the United States is suggested by reports for 1931-32 received at the Office of Education. Up to November 1, 1932, some 491 universities, colleges, and professional schools (excluding teachers colleges and normal schools) which had made statistical reports for 1930 had also reported for 1932. A summary of these reports appears in the table below. The percent of increase for all institutions reporting is 3.3. For the period 1928-30 it was 6.4 and for 1926-28 it was 13.2. It is quite possible, of course, that the 1930-32 percent will be altered somewhat by the inclusion of reports not on hand at the time of this tabulation, al decreases in enrollment, others reported great increases. Chaffey Junior College (California) more than quadrupled its number of students; the University of Hawaii nearly doubled, and Louisiana State University gained 50 percent. Three State junior colleges in Arkansas reported increases ranging from 89 to 125 percent. Among the private institutions reporting large proportionate increases are Loyola University (Illinois), Birmingham-Southern College (Alabama), Lewis Institute (Illinois), University of Tulsa (Oklahoma), Northland College (Wisconsin), Morris Harvey College (West Virginia), and Campbellsville Junior College (Kentucky). The percent of increase for land-grant institutions is 5, that for other State universities is 2.1, and for municipal universities 12. though more than 45 percent of all Alcohol How changing liquor laws revive a teaching problem HE CHANGE which has come to pass in majority opinion concerning the public sale of alcoholic beverages brings with it some modification of attitude in regard to education concerning the effects of alcohol. There has been, during the past decade, need for schooling along this line, for alcoholic drinks have not been absent, but the legalization of their sale places a stamp of public approval upon them which alters the situation decidedly. Instruction concerning the effects of alcohol will be no new addition to the curriculum, for in all but two States it is required by law. Most of these laws date back to the decade between 1880 and 1890, when a wave of legislation on this subject swept the country. The first State to act was Vermont, which in 1882, added to the branches to be taught in its public schools "elementary physiology and hygiene, which shall give special prominence to the effects of alcoholic drinks, stimulants and narcotics, upon the human system". By 1890 all but 10 States and Territories had passed laws on the subject, practically all of which were mandatory. In 16 States the subject was to be studied by "all pupils in all schools". Whether it was to be studied every day was not made clear. In 21, it was to be taught in the same manner and as thoroughly as other subjects, and in 29, teachers unprepared in this field of knowledge were not to be permitted to hold certificates. Textbooks adapted to both elementary and high-school grades were soon forthcoming. In some States the number of pages, or the proportion of pages, to be devoted to this subject in the textbooks was prescribed, and Mrs. Mary H. Hunt, who seems to have been the chief activator of the movement, recommended as "none too much", four textbook lessons in physiology and hygiene (with due reference to the effects of alcohol and other narcotics) for 14 weeks of the school year, from the beginning of the fourth year of schooling through the first year of high school, or 240 the lessons in all. Then, as now, school course was "overcrowded" and such persistent instillation of truth along this line was rarely, if ever, carried out. In fact these laws, like some more recent ones, were not always fully obeyed either in letter or in spirit. Many of the laws of the eighties have been revised in more recent years and all but two of the States, or then Territories, without them, have add *Consultant in Hygiene-Office of Education, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C. By JAMES F. ROGERS, M.D.* Return of the 10-cent glass of beer in Florida, with special legislation passed by the State House of Representatives, enriches the revenue coffers for school purposes $2,000,000 a year in this State. The schools get tax levies of one-half cent a pint, an annual license fee of $250 from manufacturers, $100 from wholesalers and $15 from retailers. ed such laws to their statutes. The most recent change is in the law of Indiana, which this year specifies that the textbooks on physiology and hygiene for grades 4 to 8 must include material on the harmful effects of alcohol and narcotics and provides for the suspension of licenses of teachers failing to teach this branch. The Bureau of Prohibition of the U.S. Department of Justice published in 1931 a digest of the State laws entitled, "Alcohol, Hygiene and the Public Schools," to which those interested in such legislation are referred. In that publication attention is called to the fact that 13 States have set aside one day each year as Temperance Day, "when, to the exclusion of all other school work, for a period of from one to three hours a standard program is presented, carried out by pupils of all grades, summarizing the teaching of the year and asking pupils to present in different forms their conclusions as to the effects of alcohol and narcotics on the human system." The sweep of legislation mentioned is all too indicative of the amount of intemperance which prevailed a half century ago and of its dire effect upon both the individual and society. A still more for BEER ORDERS TAKEN IN APDVD BEER FEES TOTAL $46,125 fit Fro timore City DEMAND 6 BOTTLES ICE COLD BEER Call MEt. o. $1.10 Wation Finds! cible reminder of the evils of intemperance is the character of much of the material used for instruction on the effects of alcohol. Many of the statements made orally, or by book, to school children were, to say the least, highly exaggerated, but they were exaggerated because of the strong feeling back of the teaching which led to more than mere bias. The instructor meant to teach only what was abundantly proven, but statements without foundation crept into the lesson. The exhibition of extreme examples were too common and must often have had the effect of producing skeptics rather than believers in the classroom. The educators were not wholly to blame for what they taught, for there was, at the time, considerable dearth of sifted knowledge on the effects of alcohol. Experimental pharmacology now furnishes a better foundation of facts, and we have in recent years such sane presentations of the subject as that of the British Medical Research Council, 1924, the more recent symposium, "Review of the Effect of Alcohol on Man" (Victor Goelancz, 1931), and “Alcohol and Man" by Haven Emerson and others (The Macmillan Company, 1932). We have better material for teaching the physiological and psychological effects of alcohol but that on the social and economic features of the subject will hardly need revision. The example of the greatly diminished use of alcohol in medical practice is also a help to the teacher. Always the teacher has the perplexing problem of warning against daily practices permitted by law and established in some quarters by custom. It is difficult for the child to understand why the doings of some "very good people" should be considered unwise or harmful. FOR BEER N.W. rage BEER WILI E SERVED CAPITOL BEER SEEN Tonerted Headlines herald the return of a difficult teaching task. Perhaps, as in all subjects bearing on human behavior, the presentation of the use of alcohol from the historical standpoint places the student in the best position to weigh the value of the information he receives. The trend for a long time has been decidedly and rapidly toward temperance for the reason that there are better things to do nowadays than to benumb one's nervous system or derange his judgment. It is the first purpose of education to arouse in the child the desire to be his best and to do his best and certainly there is little evidence that alcohol has been helpful toward attaining the "good life." It is much more useful in helping us to forget life. |