The Colorado statesman., 1917-04-21
Uncle Sans Bureau of Educa-
ton Summarizes Important
Feature of Year.
need OF COOPERATION seen
Growing Tendency to Recognize Prob
lem as One Requiring Careful In
vestigaton-Federal Act Ex-
cites Interest.


sees substantial progress made dur
ing the year 1916 in the development
of vocational education in the United
States. The bureau has issued the fol-
lowing condensed summary of the
most significant features which have
been noted as indicating the directions
in which progress is taking place, as
shown by the annual report of the
commissioner of education:
In place of the conception of vo-
cational education as comparatively
simple matter which prevailed few
years ago, there is an evident ten
dency to see in it n very complex
problem, for the solution of which
there must be much patient investiga-
tion and the cordial cooperation of all
possible educational and social agen-
cies.
There appears to be a growing rec
ognition of the fact that vocational ed
ucation will not of itself solve all the
problems of life or of vocation, but
that it must take its part as an essen
tial part of complete plan of educa-
tion that provides for all legitimate
interests and activities of the individ-
ual.
There has been almost unprecedent-
ed interest in the proposed federal aid
for vocational education; it is doubtful
If any other educational bill before
congress ever attracted an equal
amount of popular attention.
The serious objections urged against
vocational education have been stated
in somewhat more definite and tangi-
BILE form, and the answers to these
objections suggested.
There has been noticeably less in
terest in the unit-versus-dual-cOn
controversy, the preponderance of
opinion appearing to be against the or
ganization of special independent
boards for the control of vocational
education.
Day Continuation Schools.
In the states which have organized
departments for the promotion of vo-
cational education on statewide ba-
sis the greatest progress noted during
the year appears to have been in the
development of the day continuation
school for young employed workers.
Recognition of the importance OF
proper machinery for insuring sup
ply of adequately trained teachers, in
cludlng an effective plan of certifica-
tion, is gradually making itself felt,
though there still remains much
ground to be traversed.
The emphasis on language work in
vocational schools, and the high grade
of results of such work as exhibited in
numerous school papers and maga-
zines. written, edited and printed by
students, afford ample evidence that
the cultural possibilities of vocational
education are not being neglected. and
that the necessity of a thorough
grounding in the fundamentals of edu-
cation is clearly recognized.
In the vocational guidance field the
important progress of the year has
been a further development of interest
on the part of the public school, and
the resulting beginning of modification
of school methods and courses of
study.
In convention deliberations and in
magazine articles there has been in
creasing emphasis on the significance
of art in industry, and the great i'm
portance of more adequate attention
to this matter in all plans for educa-
tion.
Careful Studies First Made.
Within the past year or two there
have been several notable instances
of the employment of n trained direc-
tor, with instructions to make a care
I,r I1,,;I
ings or courses of study are planned
in contrast with what has been rath-
er common practice in other types of
school in the past, namely, to erect
and equip the building and then seek
a principal.
The extension of the survey idea to
the field of statewide investigations,
in which the bureau of education has
done pioneer work, has for the first
time been applied to n statewide vo-
cational education survey in Indiana,
where a study has been inaugurated
by group of agencies working in CO.
operation.
There has been much discussion, as
well as actual development, in the field
of so-called prevocational education.
There has been a notable develop
ment of new types of work in the man.
ual training shops, in the effort to
meet the demand for courses that shall
be more practical and that shall have
more real value in preparing the way
for specific industrial education.
There has been noticeable ten
dency in the direction of a more SYM
pathetic and sane appraisal of the
values of the manual arts in the pub
VIC school on the part of the partisans
of so-called real vocational education.
Government scientists in the Philip
pines are studying a shrub that grows