Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1914-12-27
BY WILLIAM WRIT
Vocational Expert and Superintendent.


Schools, Gary. Indiana
y VERY child in the public schools OF New
York City will have definite idea when
he leaves school OF just what vocation he
best fitted Tor ii the new ideals now being
worked out by the Board Of Education at.
aimed.
Under the Old system children are turned out
IL school al the age OF fourteen or fifteen with.
chart or compass steer them through the
is and shoals of Industrial life. The result
nat the average public school graduate sci.
IL settles upon n permanent vocation until
.er he has wasted several years at least try
ns his hand at successive occupations.
1t is now believed that a lot OF this wasted
effort and time may he eliminated by giving the
child while at school an opportunity to learn
the rudiments OF not one but many of the
ordinary trades and occupations. In this way
II is possible to locate early in life latent talent
or aptitude which might otherwise not be dis
covered until the boy has wasted several years
In other directions.
In the industrial world employers are con.
stantly stumbling across latent mechanical
genius In the accounting department and un.
suspected clerical ability in the mechanical
shops. Fsgurativey speaking, tall men are found
struggling at short mems work, and short men
are found laundering at tall mems work-"round
pegs trying to fit into square holes"
But, far more often the fact that n player in
the industrial play is miscast is never discov.
cred. The man goes through life as a mediocre
villain who would have made a very sue.
sands Of bookkeepers to-day who would have
made their mark as architects, lawyers, or doc.
tors, and there are many men in the professions
who are making bare living who would have
achieved untold success III business AS long
as the choice of vocation is left largely TO
chance or destiny such cases as these will con.
iinue to abound
Modern educators believe that IL is the proper
function of the elementary public school to
equip boys and girls for their encounter with
the industrial world when they graduate. 1t is
10, feasible to turn out ut fourteen or fifteen
years Of age finished plumbers. carpenters or
painters, but it is quite feasible TO teach
schoolboy SO much OF plumbing, carpentering
and painting that when he leaves school he will
know that none of them offers a congenia or
suitable vocation for him. In other words, even
If the new public school idea falls short OF
pointing out the exact vocation for which
particular boy is fitted it will have accom-
plished much il it has demonstrate ed to him
number OF vocations for which he is not fitted
Some time ago was requested by President
Churchill, Of the Board OF Education New York
City. to submit report concerning the feas
Utility of securing prevocationa training for all
OF the children in the public schools Of New
York City by means of wider use of present
schooi facilities
For long time the doctrine has been
preached that the school should train the heart
and the hand as we'll as the head that the scho u
should develop social and industrial efficiency
as well as scholarship that the school should
steach the art Of right living as we'll as
5#rithmetlc reading and writing But when the