The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1915-03-25

technique of any one trade or calling,
may even turn out to be better equip
ped to earn living after sixteen than
the one who has been specializing for
the two years in a vocation which he
selected at fourteen.
THE SELECTION OF A VOCATION
Most children could do a number of
different things equally well. Most
children, also, are ready to choose an
occupation at moments notice. The
Younger they are the easier it is for
them to choose. But this is no excuse
for narrowing their outlook, restrict
ing their future opportunities. by asking
them to choose before they have the
basis for doing so.wisely.
There are many students even in
professional schools who have not yet
found themselves, in spite of more
than average opportunity to do so.
Boys and girls who leave school to go
to work as soon as the law allows are
not likely to be more fortunate in their
choice of an occupation than young men
and women in professional schools.
Usually there is not much choice" in
volved. They get job" in any way
they can-through friend or brother
or Sister, hy ANSWERING 4uv"rtI--mar-- =.
or by applying in response to sign
boy Wanted" or Girl Wanted" no
matter for what.
Vocational guidance is, properly
speaking, feature of work rather than
of education, although it is an educator s
and not foreman's function. DR..
Schneider insists that it should ac-
company work and cannot safely pre-
cede it. The Cincinnati plan aims to
keep Young people until eighteen in
touch with those who are interested in
getting them properly placed by requir-
ing them to come back to the school
authorities for a new authorization
every time they change positions. By
the twofold policy of bringing the
graduates of the grammar school into
contact with wide range of activities
when they are actually ready to feel
their way into industry, and requiring
them to justify their plans each time
they take new job until they are
eighteen, they avoid the pitfalls which
lie in any scheme for fitting boys and
girls to particular jobs merely by
physical examinations or by the tests and
methods of experimental psychology.
In adolescence, as In infancy and
childhood, normal, healthy living re-
qulres some conscious attention to
physical defects and diseases. The
teeth require frequent cleaning and
prompt treatment of cavities. Adenoids
may still be there to remove in the
adolescent years, may have come back
after earlier treatment. Spinal curv-
atures and broken arches and organs
which do not function properly may still
require appropriate remedy. Such
conditions may be evidence of earlier
neglect or they may have developed
after an apparently normal infancy and
childhood. Eternal vigilance to detect
them promptly, efficient discipline to
correct them definitely, and not too
penurious provision by parents, or if
necessary by the community, for
medical and surgical treatment, are the
price of normality in adolescence as in
childhood.
THE SOCIAL VALUE OF RECREATION.
Recreation in these years of character
forming is not, think, primarily for
health, but rather for recreation. Ath-
letic sports, causing the young men and
maidens to put forth their strength, to
measure their utmost physical powers
with one another, or with an ideal bo-
gey, giving them experience with team
play in its most developed and suitable
forms, guarding them by the varied at
fractions of the recreation fields from