The Prescott daily news., 1916-06-29
PUBLIC EDUCATION IN ARK
 ANSAS
No. 7. Vocational Education.
By A. M. Jordan, Assistant Professor
 or Education, University of

must be equality of opportunity in school work as well as in any other work What does this mean? It means tlAat all people must have that preparation to live a life socially ef 1cleTat To be socially efficient a man must be able first of all to make a living; second he must have nrenara tion to fulfill his civic obligations and finally must be able to enjoy nis leisure time. Note that in this philo- sophy economic efficiency comes first And indeed why should it not? 4 man who is unable to make a living cannot be a good citizen. Poverty Is directly responsible for a third of the crime in our land, In fact. of the in- mates of the prisons of the United States as whole, 76 per cent have no definite occupation On the other hand those of us who have followed the great reformatOries of our land Know that when these young crimi. nals are taught a vocation along With some other thing of lesser importance
 
 out into the world and make gooo citizens. Nor is that all There are ten million people in the United States who have not enough to eat. nor enough 10 wear, nor a respectable place to live in for all the year This is directly attributable to a lack or training along lines that are neces- sary. Now turning for a minute or two to the second phase of the ques- tion, that of good citizenship. we find that there is little done in the school looking directly to the meeting of this demand. A little text book civics, something about history. and there you have it all. Civic righteousness demands a healthy, moral and inter. ested person. Hygiene community civics. history that shows the present .Qn the background of the past cur rent events; these are some of the things demanded. There is scarcely a turn made looking directly to the broader moral obligations of the com. ing citizen. In the enjoyment of leis. ure time there is needed good music, play a love for good literature srt and other things
 But the case for vocational educa. tiOn does not have to be argued. ii speaks for itself The means of ob- fainlrg these ends IS the trying ques- tion. How is it to be done? Can II be done with the equipment we have- Will it cost more money? Can We get the people interested? Along just what lines will We proceed? Now. vocational education is broader than many people would think It includes professional education, home making. commercial. industrial and agricuI- tural
 Professional education is we'll careo for in our country. The universities throughout the land prepare persons for law, the ministry, medicine. teach ing or for whatever else one needs It is said that America has as good universities as has any country.
 The most important occupation of a great majority of the women of our country is home making, yet up to a few years ago there was little If any thing done looking directly 10 this work Of the children that die an amazingly large per cent die before they reach the end of their first year These deaths are preventable in many cases. If almost all women are to be mistresses of homes sooner or latey and if they are to have the care of children they most certainly should have some sort of direct preparation for this work Most model house wives are very wasteful Many of these things could be corrected bv means of a good course in Home Eco monies. It seems that if the kitchen is to be made a place where drudgerv is not. something of the scientific ana artistic side of cooking must be em- phasized. Sewing, of course, is need ed, for while clothes do not make the man they certainly improve him In many ways. It is said that if vou take dirty "down-and-out" and dress him in respectable clothes he will act quite differently. Then again in sew ing as in cooking, when the aim is a work of art drudgery is 10 a largo ex tent lost. The home is the consumer. the ultimate consumer. Whatever en- ters the home is directly concerned with the woman. Is the food pure which she feeds her baby? Is the milk full of bacteria? HaG the water