O

NE EFFECT of the disturbed social and economic conditions of the past few years has been to occasion a searching revaluation of our Vocational programs-as of all educational and, in fact, all other social programs.

During the past year, under the urgent pressure of current conditions, we have been forced to ask ourselves many questions. In what measure, for example, can any responsibility for the development and continuance of unemployment be vested in our vocational programs themselves? Can our vocational training agencies be utilized more effectively, under changing requirements being imposed upon workers, for keeping labor in the terms of our National Vocational Education Act"fit for useful employment", on the general assumption that only labor which is fitted for employment can be employed under any conditions? To what extent can vocational education be utilized for training displaced labor back into such What requirements of employment? training are developing in the new economic and social order upon which we are entering? We must even ask ourselves if maladjustments and unemployment itself may not be in some measure due to the inertia and persistence of instituted, self-perpetuating, inflexible, misfit training programs, adapted not to the practical requirements of our changing economic order but rather to the needs of an age which seems only yesterday but has become archaic overnight. To what extent can our unadjusted youth be graduated by vocational training programs made more flexibly responsive to

their practical needs, into some regular life-career vocation-be graduated into such a status from the casual, unorganized, purposeless, blind-alley jobs which may have been made available to them during the past few years under emergency programs?

That vocational education has a function to play in this most critical economic and social situation cannot be doubted. That its responsibilities as one agency of recovery are of material social consequence is equally certain. Such problems as those now confronting us have, it is true, arisen in the past. Some such problems are in fact always developing, and are always in process of some solution through social efforts. It will be well for us to realize, however, at this time, that the responsibilities which will be confronting vocational education in the coming years are bound to be not only more difficult than those of the past, but, as well, radically different in character and of broader social consequence. That they will be so is already in evidence on the record to date.

Fred R. Kirby

Fred R. Kirby, shown in the above photograph, teacher of vocational agriculture in Hillsville, Va., high school, has in 6 years built up a profitable system of farming in that community on the "4-L" platform, "Lime, legumes, livestock, and labor." Proclaimed master vocational agriculture teacher in his State in competition with 118 others who contested the issue with him last year, he rose to even greater heights when, from a list of master teacher winners from eight States, he

was proclaimed master teacher for the southern region last April.

The agricultural year

Economic conditions of the past year have had a material effect on the program of vocational education in agriculture. It was inevitable, under these conditions, that the program should suffer in some of its phases. Viewed as a whole, however, the progress made is encouraging. Among the conditions which have contributed to the slowing up of the program are: The continuation of the economic depression; the development of new problems of administration as well as a new program of work for the teacher; and the necessity for incorporating a new body of content in vocational agriculture courses. No other move undertaken since the inauguration of vocational education in agriculture has placed a greater responsibility for leadership upon vocational agriculture teachers than the plans put in operation by the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. These responsibilities which they have willingly assumed and efficiently carried out, have been an additional burden upon their time and resources.

At no time in the history of the country has the necessity of a knowledge of economic conditions on the part of all classesthe farmer included-been more emphatically impressed upon us than during the past year. Fluctuation of prices in world markets, supplies, surpluses, carryovers, and lowered consumption are factors which materially affect every farmer. This, then, places upon the agricultural teacher the necessity not only of acquaint

ing himself with this new field of information but also of incorporating this information in his program of instruction relating to the organization of the farm business.

The future of the vocational agriculture program depends largely on an adequate research program as a basis for teaching, adequate machinery through which farmers may continue to be articulate, coordinated programs which recognize the farm family as the unit on which our permanent system of agriculture must be built, and willingness and freedom to venture into new fields and try new methods.

Trade and industry

Under present conditions few lines of employment are open to boys and girls under the age of 18 years. Wage-earning employment for those under 16 has largely disappeared. This has practically eliminated the continuation school, developed to provide training for those who are employed and can give part of the day to instruction, in a large number of the States, and has forced many young workers out of employment. These must either attend some form of full-time school or remain idle.

The fact that thousands of young people who want to work cannot legally be employed sets up a serious problem for vocational education. Under present rulings and policies of the N.R.A. there is only a limited opportunity to learn most occupations on the job. The development of efficient programs of apprentice training in cooperation with industry is, therefore, one of the most important problems in the field of trade and industrial education. The work of the N.R.A. committee on apprenticeship is expected to result in the development of methods for dealing with this problem which will be practical, efficient, and of outstanding importance to the youth of this country and to the Nation as a whole.

In the future, it will be necessary for day trade schools to offer more complete training on a preemployment basis than ever before. This training must, in fact, be the practical equivalent of apprenticeship training. Furthermore, it will be necessary to enlarge the scope of the program to offer more lines of preemployment training which will equip young people for a greater range of employment in industrial occupations.

Homemaking

The fact that the total enrollment of girls and women in vocational homemaking education increased during the year by some 12,000 in the face of serious

economic conditions, would indicate recognition of the need for practical help in meeting the numerous problems which have risen in home and family life. It has been necessary, for example, to present food studies in terms of resources actually available. Where the resources have not provided for adequate nutritional needs, homemaking instruction has led to garden planning and growing of vegetables to supplement these resources.

Through emergency programs in education supported by relief funds homeeconomics supervisors and teachers have helped provide classes in homemaking problems for adults and have cooperated in organizing and carrying on emergency nursery schools and parent education classes. The nursery schools have offered wholesome physical and emotional environment for children from needy families. Parents reached through these schools and in organized parent education classes have been offered instruction in handling the particular problems of their children.

Rehabilitation

The vocational rehabilitation program for training and retraining disabled persons and their placement in remunerative employment has received a decided impetus during the year. Improvement of industrial conditions, as one favorable factor in the situation, has made possible an increase in the number of placements through State rehabilitation departments-in some cases by as much as 50 to 100 percent.

Although a number of the States have received Federal emergency relief funds for the expansion of their rehabilitation programs, the increase in the number of persons applying for rehabilitation service has been so great that the States are not in a position adequately to cope with the problem. Much has, however, been accomplished. Michigan, for example, has reported 1,000 placements during the current year, and Pennsylvania more than 2,000. While some of these were in temporary jobs, a large number received rehabilitation service and are now more or less permanently reestablished in employment.

Upon request the Office of Education's vocational rehabilitation service has been engaged during the current fiscal year in making surveys of State vocational rehabilitation programs. Five of these State surveys have already been completed-in Massachusetts, North Carolina, Michigan, New Jersey, and California. Wisconsin will be surveyed during the month of June. These surveys are being made for the purpose of discovering the more recent trends in development of rehabilitation procedure.

Commercial education

Approximately 21 percent of all people gainfully employed in 1930 were in commercial occupations, according to the United States Census. Recent occupational studies, moreover, indicate that a ployed in industrial and service occupalarge percentage of those gainfully emtions need training in salesmanship and business financing. The vocational division of the Federal Office of Education is now carrying on studies and working with State and city vocational education authorities to assist in reorganizing commercial education programs so that they will better meet the growing need for business training. The studies bear out the contention of such educators as F. G. Nichols, of the commercial education department, Harvard University, and Paul S. Lomax, professor of education, New York University, that commercial education courses provided in the public schools are intended either as (1) general appreciation or informational courses, or (2) as specific vocational courses to equip students for employment. Assuming that commercial education has these two distinct purposes, the necessity for separating the students who take commercial education merely for general information from those who take commercial courses as preparation for employment, is self evident. Instead of the traditional courses in typewriting, stenography, and business administration, the vocational student should be given a commercial course organized around some actual job. The results thus far obtained in this effort to stimulate the setting up of a more practical type of course for those actually preparing for commercial jobs, are gratifying. An article in a subsequent issue of SCHOOL LIFE will outline the achievements made as a result of the study and the work being done by the field agent assigned to the project, in assisting in reorganizing commercial education courses.

Agricultural leaders confer

Vocational agriculture supervisors and teacher trainers from 16 States participated in a 6-day conference held at the Office of Education during the week of May 14. The conference was for the purpose of formulating plans whereby the objectives, the procedures, and the philosophy underlying the adjustment programs set up by the Government for the purpose of assisting farmers, may be emphasized in the instructional programs of vocational agriculture teachers throughout the country. Representatives of the various emergency agricultural organizations addressed the conference.

CHARLES M. ARTHUR

★ Extra-curricular

ANY school activity to which the prefix extra is attached has, during the past year, appeared to the educational economizer as a hydraheaded "monster of so frightful mien as to be hated needs but to be seen."

Consequently extra-curricular activities

supported from the school budget have in numerous instances fallen under the pruning knife of economy. This has taken place, however, largely by the elimination from the teacher's time schedule of extra

curriculum duties and the assignment of more instructional duties. A review of recent literature on extra-curricular activities shows that this attack has become a challenge to sponsors of the extracurricular movement and is resulting in convincing statements relative to the value of extra-curricular activities, for the

realization of educational aims. In fact it is serving to define the place of extracurricular activities in the philosophy and principles of education. Such questions as the following are brought into the open forum of discussion:

What are the comparative values of curriculum and extra-curricular activities for the development of pupil-outcomes significant for the adjustment to present-day society?

Should not the methods and techniques employed in extra-curricular activities be more extensively used in curriculum activities?

Are not extra-curricular activities a means of experimentation for determining whether or not certain activities should be included in the curriculum of subjects? MARIS M. PROFFITT

In an article entitled "The Outlook for the Trained Woman" appearing in the Journal of the A.A.U.W. for April, William Fielding Ogburn surveys the trends and prospects of the employment of women, both professional and nonprofessional.

A symposium entitled "Shall I Go to College in 1934?" appears in Scholastic for April 14. Seventeen noted men and women, including Mrs. Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, and John Dewey, give some excellent advice to the high-school students of today. Another bit of good advice concerning colleges appears in the same issue. Christian Miller, Registrar of the College of Puget Sound, urges a thorough study of the college catalog before entering college. His title is "Know the College by Its Catalog."

Much has been written in favor of basic English. The University of Toronto, in a series of bulletins, is studying the question of languages and has issued as Bulletin No. 2 "A Critical Examination of Basic English", in which some of the dangers of the system are pointed out.

A summer school in a de luxe bus is described in Midland Schools for April. The fourth annual tour for credit will be

conducted by Drake University, covering historic places in the West, with lecturers in attendance.

SABRA W. VOUGHT

HEIGHTENING of levels of preparation of teachers was, and still is, endangered by conditions adverse to the profession. In 1930-31, 1 elementary teacher in 4 had only 1 year or less of preparation above high-school graduation. The average salary of all teachers in 1932 was about $1,417; in 1934 a rough estimate is $1,050. Movements tending to reduce the surplus of legally qualified teachers are slow. Selective admission to teacher preparation institutions is growing but the movement was particularly marked only in the Northeastern States and in city institutions.

Certification requirements were raised or strengthened this year in a few States. In 1934-35, 3 States will require 4 years in college as a minimum for elementary teacher certification, and 8 will require 3 years. Twenty-five States now issue administrative or supervisory certificates, and a growing number issue specialized subject and

grade-level certificates. Length of teaching life and of teacher tenure continues to increase.

Despite occasional efforts to eliminate State teacher-preparation institutions as measures of economy, losses in numbers were confined almost entirely to city and The total number of private institutions. teachers colleges in 1933 was 166; in 1934, 160; of normal schools, 1933, 101; 1934, 97.

Of 91 institutions, 86 reported a decrease in income averaging 19 percent,

and 5 an increase averaging about 5 percent. Indebtedness decreased 16.5 percent.

Elimination of short curricula, and consolidation of courses and curricula continued; there are now only 7 States with teacher-training high schools, and only 2 with county normals.

The total number of staff members in 93 representative teachers colleges and normal schools decreased 3.4 percent; in 10 institutions there was a slight increase.

No great changes in student enrollments were apparent during the year, although the total of 264,257 prospective teachers enrolled in teachers colleges and normal schools in 1931-32 showed a decrease of 8,300 from 1929 to 1930.

Research in teacher preparation continued with very little diminution. More than 600 published references of all kinds on teacher preparation were listed in the Office of Education during the year.

Findings of the National Survey of the Education of Teachers made under the direction of the Federal Office of Education, were interpreted for publication in six volumes to be available from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. Two of the volumes, "Selected Bibliography" and "Education of Negro Teachers", have been published. Manuscripts of three others are in the hands of the printer.

BEN W. FRAZIER

PROGRESS in three significant directions has characterized education for social and economic rehabilitation among our native and minority groups owing largely to the development of wider inter-racial understandings and appreciations and to an increased sense of social responsibility.

Space

1. School organization and curriculum content have undergone changes adapted directly to achieve social goals. permits only two examples; the second units of Puerto Rico, representing an adaptation of the junior high school idea, which are revivifying rural communities of the island, and the new venture in community schools patterned in principle after Mexico's schools of action but adapted to conditions in our Indian Southwest.

A unique feature of the former is the addition to the teaching staff in each second unit of a social worker as liaison officer between the school and the homesa staff member active in cooperating with the practical school program in raising standards of living. The new Indian schools are community projects for adults as well as children, departing from the traditional in organization as well as in curriculum. Shops, gardens, recreational facilities are among the features emphasized.

2. Preservation of native cultures and development of special talents more and

more characteristic of education of these groups is exemplified by the establishment of the Barstow Foundation School in American Samoa. This school will aim to preserve and develop the best in native culture, traditions, arts and crafts while gradually introducing the students to Western civilization. The school is chiefly for the sons of chiefs who will be expected to return to their local communities at least half of the year. This arrangement is designed in order that the school may promote respect for native practices and procedures as well as give practical help in the necessary adjustments which the natives must make to the civilization with which they are more and more coming in contact.

3. Intelligent use of Federal emergency facilities has mitigated somewhat the results of drastic curtailments due to the economic crisis. Procedures in the Virgin Islands present an outstanding example. Through Federal funds education facilities have been made available to a high percentage of the adults of the islands, and nursery schools have been established in a number of communities, where the youngest children have appropriate food, medical attention, and other advantages of such food and medical attention as insure a good start in life.

SEVERAL events having important bearing on Negro education took place during the past year.

Overshadowing all other educational events in scope and financial expenditure have been the emergency educational projects of the F.E.R.A., which have been a great boon to Negro education.

But although many Negro schools were kept open with Federal funds during the year, and a large number of Negro adults benefited through emergency educational projects, discrepancies and inadequacies formerly existing in education for Negroes remained unmet. In fact, inequalities in many instances have been increased. For

KATHERINE M. COOK

example, in 449 counties in 16 Southern States, where the Negro represented 23 percent of the total population, 62 percent of the schools closed because of lack of funds were Negro schools, and of the total number of pupils involved, 43 percent were Negro. And when emergency funds were provided to extend school terms, only 36 percent of those extended were colored schools housing 39 percent of the total number of pupils involved.

By far the most significant event in the life of Negroes this year, in fact in many years, according to qualified observers, was the National Conference on Fundamental Problems in the Education of

Negroes held in Washington May 9-12. Called by Secretary of the Interior Ickes, and under the chairmanship and direction respectively of United States Commissioner of Education, Dr. George F. Zook, and Federal Specialist in the Education of Negroes, Dr. Ambrose Caliver, the Conference registered more than 1,000 delegates, representing 28 States and the District of Columbia.

Preliminary work of the conference was performed by 14 committees which studied various problems in the education of Negroes for several months. At Conference meetings these committees made reports of their findings and recommendations and discussions ensued. One of the most important results of the conference was the adoption of a "Charter" setting forth fundamentals in the education of Negroes. Inquiries concerning Conference proceedings should be addressed to the Federal Office of Education.

In Nashville, Tenn., at a conference on education and racial adjustment held at Peabody College for Teachers, a group of State superintendents of education and other educators representing all the Southern States adopted the following resolution: That "a textbook giving a faithful account of the contribution of the American Negro to the life of our country should be prepared and studied in all public schools, white and colored." It was further " recommended that each State department of education make a careful study of the treatment of the Negro and of inter-racial questions in its public-school textbooks, with a view to such eliminations and additions as may be needed for the building of intelligent, fair-minded attitudes on the part of teachers and pupils."

At the last annual meeting of the National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools plans were made to employ a fulltime executive secretary. These plans have materialized and a permanent office has been established in Washington. This promises to be a forward step in promoting the professional life of teachers of Negro youth.

The continued the appearance of Journal of Negro Education and The Quarterly Review of Higher Education Among Negroes has been a source of gratification and assistance to those working in the field.

Lists of new publications in the field of Negro education during the past year are available from the Federal Office of Education.

Although the depression has left its marks, it is believed that this year marks the beginning of a new era of advancement and growth in the field of Negro education. AMBROSE CALIVER

AS I write this article

the ninth annual meet

ing of the American

Association for Adult

Education is in session here in Washington. This meeting brings together the leaders of thought and action in all phases of adult education in the United States. Their number includes librarians, museum directors, leaders of civic forums,

city and State superintendents of schools, university presidents, deans, and professors, many officers from the various departments of the United States Government whose operations touch upon or vitally affect adult-education interests, and other classifications too numerous to mention.

You will be gratified to know that the work that you are doing now, namely, the C.C.C. educational program, has been the topic for consideration at one general session and at one smaller conference ses

sion. At the general session, a luncheon meeting, three corps area educational supervisors spoke, Mr. C. A. Edson of the fourth corps, Mr. M. G. Little of the sixth corps, and Dr. Nat T. Frame of the fifth corps. They gave to a large audience a vivid and comprehensive picture of the way the C.C.C. education program is functioning, together with an admirable statement of its underlying philosophy. In the smaller conference the several area advisers discussed various major educational interests that enrollees have shown, such as, vocational counseling and guidance or health and hygiene. Two camp advisers were also in the conference and they described some of their individual camp interests and activities. A number of persons in the audience asked questions that revealed a keen interest and sometimes a remarkable comprehension of our work.

The thing I am trying to show you in all of this is that here is a great educational organization giving conspicuous place in the program of its annual meeting to the enterprise in which you are at work. It must be encouraging to you to learn of this enthusiasm for the C. C. C. educational program.

All appointments of camp advisers have been made, and we stand now for the first time at full strength in our educational staff. The six area advisers, corps

1 to 6 inclusive, uniformly report gratifying progress in their areas. Their reports of what you are doing are, of course, not limited to their formal statements before groups, but in a large meet

ing of this sort, they are constantly replying to the inquiries of their many friends concerning what is really going on in the camps.

I am impressed with their confidence in the future. Though we have had discouraging delays, for which nobody is really to blame, and though we have had a heavy turn-over of enrollees, together with a considerable moving of camps to summer locations, the area advisers are confident that you are getting hold of the problems in your camps, that you are mastering a new technique in educational procedures, and that even now results are beginning to show.

You can further the interests of the C.C.C. educational program by helping to interpret it to all who are in any degree interested. I hope you will accept speaking engagements before clubs and that you will in such speeches give vivid and personal pictures of what actually goes on in your camp. Then, too, I hope that you will send articles in to the editor of

"Happy Days" whenever you develop in your camp a particular educational project or a successful technic that will be helpful to other educational advisers. All of us owe a debt to "Happy Days" for the helpful and understanding way in which that paper is giving the right kind

of publicity to what camp advisers are doing.

For

From my own observation of a limited number of camps, and from both the public and private statements of these area advisers, I am convinced that we cannot overestimate the value of your day by day interviews or visits with enrollees concerning their educational interests. thousands of enrollees the most pleasing difference between their camp study and their previous formal school experience will be the personal and informal relations with you as educational adviser. I hope that you will continue to feel, each of you, that you are a vital part of a great and challenging enterprise.

For Adult Education

IN 1932 an inquiry was conducted by the Welfare and Education Division of the United States Bureau of Prisons, on the subject of suitable reading material for native born adult illiterates and nearilliterates. One hundred educators and librarians were consulted for opinions on books suitable for classroom use and for recreational and cultural reading. The results of this inquiry, together with helpful suggestions and lists of books have been compiled by John Chancellor, librarian of the Bureau of Prisons, into a 35page circular. Copies of this circular may be had gratis upon application to the United States Bureau of Prisons, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.