Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1920-07-01
VOCATIONAL TRAINING

VOCATIONAL TRAINING
The passing of the Smith Hughes
Act in 1917 will always be a land
mark in the history of education, for
it is this Act that has played the
greatest part in the shaping of our
present vocational educational sys-
tenn. BY this act $1,850.O00 was to
be distributed among the different
states in 1917-191S, and this amount
was to be increased each year until
1925 when it was to reach $7,367 900.
This money is portioned out to three
great branches of human activity,
namely, Agriculture, Home Econom-
les and Trades and Industries. There
is also a portion set aside for teach
er training in each of the three
branches.
Let us take brief survey of the
workings of the Smith Hughes Act.
The controlling agency of this act is
the Federal Board of Vocational
Education, which consists of the Sec
rotary Of Agriculture, the Secretary
Of Commerce, the Secretary of La
Dor, the United States Commissioner
of Education, and three citizens of
the United States. These citizens
are to be appointed by the President,
with the consent and advice of the
Senate. The duty of the Federal
Board is to lay out such rules and
plans as will be of gneeral impor-
lance to all the states. They also
cooperate in every way possible, in
solving the problems of the individ-
ual State Boards. The State Board
The State Board of Vocational Edu-
cation is composed of the Supt. of
Public Instruction, the President of
the State Board of Education, the
Commissioner of Labor, nine people
on an Advisory committee and the
Directors for the different branches
of the work. The State Board must
carry out to the letter the rules laic
down by the Federal Board, and must
make out complete plans and reports
of the work carried on in the state
Much could be said on eacf
branch of the Vocational work bu
the remainder of this article will b.
confined to that of agriculture.
Iowa is fortunate in having Wilbur
H. Bender for her Director of Edu
cation, for he is recognized as one O
the foremost leaders and organizer
of vocational education in the nation
Practically all the states have beel
following the plans laid down by ou
eastern states several years ago. Il
the east most of the farms are spec
ialized, but Iowa is land of genera
farming. These Eastern states bas
most of their agricultural instruction
on single project study. That is tn
boy or girl taking the work will tax
charge of flock of chickens, COW
pig, acre Of corn, ETC., and the elias
room and laboratory instruction fo
the year will be grouped about this
Mr.. Bender says that in this Ian
of general farming, the pupil need
to understand and study the who'll
farm and in order to do this mos
efficiently he should take part in a
of it's activities. 1t is not enoug
for the young farmer to understan
one or two operations on the farm
but he should understand each OF
! Grafton, and how they should
q worked together to the best adval
tage of all. Instead of studyir
, corn alone it should be studied in i
! relation to wheat, oats, clover ar
alfalfa. The pupil is not the mana
4 err of the farm, but he is, as it wer
J a junior member Of the firm alo1
with the father or manager. 1t
his duty and privilege to make
study Of the farming operations aloi
with his parents and teacher. Ioy
therefore does away with the probe
d system of instruction and takes t
h home farm as the unit Of study.
G The vocational agricultural cours
in our schools are sure to increa:
il in those places where they want
,r struction for the training of far
,r ers. The old text book methods
l. instruction have failed to bring t
desired results, as have also the |
fe of the garden plot. The basis
D, study should be the home farm, wh'