New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-06-07
Bv HENRIETTA R0DMAN.


Meyer Bloomfield, director Of the
Vocation Bureau in Boston, has come
to New York, at the invitation of the
Mayors Committee on Unemployment.
to help us solve the problem Of adjust
ing children and industries TO each
other.
The problem Of adjusting children
to industries has been solved already
by Germany. Employers want en-
ployes who can do certain things. IN
Germany the government has brought
about a relationship between the
schools and the employers by when
the children are taught what the man
ufacturers want them to know.
Vocational guidance with this sys-
TEN Of vocational training is simply
picking out the particular boy VINO
will best meet the needs OF given
emnlover. The whole subject of voca-
tional guidance and vocational training
is approached from the point OF view
of the interest of the employer.
Frankly, and perhaps mistakenly l
have supposed that this was the type
of work which has been done in Bos-
ton since the death of Professor Frank
Parsons. who established the Noca-
ton Bureau.
These are the questions that we VINO
are interested in the public schools
want to have answered:
First. is the Mayors Committee on
Unemployment to solve the problem OF
vocational adjustment for the oehe"o
Of the employers or Of the employees :
T. tbev want to have picked from the
INST rroduct of the public schools inc
bovs and girls who may reasonably DC
evpected to give satisfaction IN Ger
tain specified jobs, this aim may DC
achieved by a rather superficial stuuy
- tho industries. on one hand, and OF
,bo abilities of the young people As
.bown bv their school records, on the
other. Such work is legitimate e"ef
pency measure and reads well IN re-
ports so many prominent business
mon in active cooperation with the
bureau. so many boys and girls ac-
tually at work, so many families IT,
iieved.
This work may well be done by the
,,ovor,s Committee on Unemployment
hut il has no place in the pubic
schools. For years earnest students OF
vocational guidance in New YORK nave
;.-;.,od that the schools must not ap-
proach the problem Of yocationaI az.
;,,,.,,ont from the employers point OF
view. They have maintained that 'h''
.di,.,mont must be based upon scleh-
,ifc studies Of the abilities OF inc
children ard Of the processes anu 'o'''
ditions Of industry
These people have not accepted Io'
t,eir purposes Professor Munstetoets .
s.rdies Of vocational ability or MI
pioo,ofeld's studies Of industrial con
| L. q,
I,;o,s They have regarded work ior
tho pleasing Of employers ana plae'"s
- children as neither fundamental !"
-. nor scientific in method. fo'
,hose reasons they have indorsed "'
norintendent Wirt's reorganization -
.ha elementary schools as the o"'y
IN method Of testing voca,'on"'
" ,T'," ond discovering vocational ten
rSom have also Endorsed Mrs. Fer
..ndo1,s study Of industry as oo'h
fundamental in aim and scientific IN
method.
The second question that we want
o,swered is this: Does the Mayor
committee intend to ask the Board OF
Education to support plan which,
however satisfactory as an emergency
measure for the relief Of unemploy-
ment. differs radically in aim and
method from that advocated by stu
dents Of vocational guidance in New
York?
And then there's third question
II the Mayors committee does make
such recommendation 20 the Board
Of Education. will the board accept the
Boston plan in preference 10 the voca-
tional survey advocated by Professors
Dewey and Bonser and Superintend-
ents Writ. Schneider and Strauben-
muller?
In short, it is not the business OF
the schools to find boys and girls NJ
to do certain work for certain employ
ers. 1t is the business OF the schools