El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-02-10

IlHuInS e1ee cares anything about and
~ - telling it in way that no one
7 else can understand. 1eaCnSIs anu
4 ~ -sI--1onvmOus) are supposed to be
- o1+borities on educational mat
J - was asked to speak on an ed
- fionaI subject and II L speak as a
+eocber which I can do, no one VIII
Ledctie5+ - hear me; if I essay as a
scboIar which, to speak as one born
{ - NTrei9ud can not do, nobody VIII
~ - 70 hear me, so I suppose the best
/ 80 is IN approach the subject as one
! va 1,e 1sitv- as I do want to be heard.
sIo..n Is vocational Teaching.
| r5e Slogan of today is vocational
] +oacbine technical schools, specialized
| work. and there never was PETER
/ eiC9an. We have been graVltatlng to-
--oTds If for many, many years. This
81. IF vOca tional training is as old
ae the hills The idea, the nucleus
of +be movement has always been in
/ fbe minds of great teachers OF the
I world but in the ages from Plato,
ttJo,Ierb Thomas AQuinas to DR.. Mon
<eesori ideas of vOcations and of the
life for which the children were to
he nreDared have changed and changed
again. constantly evolving new COM
In HE time of Thomas Aquinas the
life TO be prepared for was that Of
a priest a soldier, scholar, mousse
wife and later, in the 14th century
there never WAS d uAOAC AA7AA4e HpUG7
i9Iized training than that the soldier
got from the time he was a page un-
fiji he was a belted and spurred
knight Today the multiplicity of
occupations calls for a muItlplclIy or
preparatiOns, hence the vocational
school It has come and 1t will stay,
fol- it is needed and needed badly. 1t
needs no eulOgy, no explanation, its
permanent good is so self-evident To-
day every community has its Voca-
tionaI advocate, many communities
have their vocational bureau.
am a member of the National FO-
catiOnal Guidance association, and 1T
is a result of looking over the vOca-
ticnaI photography of the Grand Rap-
ids, Michigan, library that my IDEAS
o. rather idea for I can only boast
of one, crystalized into definite form.
This photography was arranged in a
OF high school work, for instance,
first year, fHardWickes' Art of Get
ting Rich" G. H. SOmmers' Letters
from a Self-AIade Merchant to his Son"
Saturday Evening Post of several
years agO); second year, 'F'rankli@'s
autobiography" HOughtOn's kings
of Fortune" third year, Cynthia Al
den's ''Women's Ways of Earning
cCme a Trained Nurse" and so on
through the fourth year to E. A
ROss's "Sfn and SOciety"-an analy-'
sis of latter-day iniQuity.
w ME many OL THESE nave QlLIELGllD
literary value and all an ethical value.
whether commercially ethical (if i
may use such a paradoxical express
sion) or psychOlOgically ethical, the
question came to me, viii such ever
take the place of our gallery of heroes,
Colonel NeWcomb,' The Master of
Rauantral." paul Revere 'SIr.
PickWick," mark Tapley," Gavin
Dishart,' The Little Minister" Jean
Vatican 'Sir Roger de COverly,' Re
becca," down to the lOvable swash-
buczler, "CyranO de Bergerac."
CommereiaIizfng Ideals.
Are we not cOmmercialiZing our I
ideals when we study such vocational |
children learning their love of country /
through the glamOr cast by z. E. Hale /
in "A Man without a Country" and /
conveyed in Scotfs 'Breathes there a j
Man" VIII John SpargO's ''Fhe Bit
ter Cry of the Children" shut out the /
wall of Mrs. BroWning's CRY of the
Children" and the sOb-bOrn Hoods /
Song of the Shirt?' VIII any biog7 ,
raphy, any exposition on modern civics
ineulcate the lesson of StevensOn's
cheerful spirit of cOmraderie, such gall
liant optimism in the face Of over I
v helming odds as radiates from his
Travels with a Donkey" his "Aes
IripIeXF I doubt it.
Fighting to Uphold Standards.
To come to earth again, even in the
natter of prOsaic teaching of the use
# enough everyday words, we Eng
ish teachers have to fight against
he cOmmercializing of our standards.
We have standards Of speech to which
We cling as desperately as did the
.tandard-b bearers of old; we cling
trough the war and devastation
,rought upon the English language by
he splitting Of infinitives and the
hatterlng Of lenses. So desperately
10 many teachers of English hold to
hat forlOrn hope that George Herbert
%
T English that she uses that pecu-,
iarly vulgar diction known as
schoOl-ma' am" English, meaning that
ne Cbeing man teacher, of course
e said 'she-) cltngs SO rigidly TO ,
ules of good use that she kills all
ife and force of speech.
ApropOS OF the Shattertng Of ideals |
s to correct English, I sometimes !
Fonder If the English language was
1ade for the cOck-sure high school /
eniOr or the high school senior for !
he English language, and feel at times
Inclined to agree with the student for
ne first time studying physiology, /
mo pleaded that the constant use of a !
lural verb with a plural subject !
plays the deuce" with larynx: there- !
ore, He don't" was perfectly per- |
lissible.
Measured by the Dollar Value.
But to return to the tendency to !
MEASURE every. sentence by its dollar ,
elue, pupils ask the question, and l
las! so do business men and teach- |
rs of other branches, What does it
natter whether a boy ever learns any
hing of the Norman and Saxon fued |
q Ivanhoe?" How viii it benefit
i'm in a monetary way, to know where |
he climax of tSilaS Manner is? Is it all |
uiz, quack and bubble? No, it does
OF matter a straw whether Ivan-i !
Oe had one leg or four, but It does
latter that the boy be taught to think |
nd to put the results of that thinking |
ito precise, clear English, which he
ever win do unless he have a lived
ulsing interest inducing him to talk
Isolated sentences on the "Ollendor- |
ian" plan, Have you seen the son of 1
he gardener? Are the sheep in the 4
asture2 I have seen the teacher re-
entity" will never replace the vital |
'terest of "The Lady of the Lake"
nd Treasure Island" The vocabu-
Try of the average school boy con-
lists of a dozen or two nouns, half a.
oxen verbs, three or four adjectives I
nd enough cOnjunctions and PROPOSE
OnS to stick the cOnglOmerate to-
ether. and that vocabulary must be
lcreased if necessary by a surgical ]
Ceration, and why not use an anas-
letic, the lure of Treasure Island?' ,
f the Tale of Two Cities?"
In Line With Vocational Trimming. I
This idea is right in line with voca+ I
Onal training, for the good old Saxon }
Ords have always been the usage of t
he proletariat, and will always convey I
he meaning to the many. The day for t
iying retire" for go to bed" has 7
1eend and am hODiDo fha time will =