The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1933-05-11

their way. Today a girl may decide
she wants to be a secretary, to-
morrow an attractive dental hy-
gienist gives a lecture in the school
and she is sure that would be the
more attractive career. The truth
is she doesn't know what she is
fitted for, nor does she know the
occupation possibilities open to her
and the advantages and disadvan-
tages of each.
Parents have no problem when
child has some special talent for
drawing, dancing, writing or what
not that he is completely absorbed
in: Such a child has no doubt
about what he wants to do and di-
reefs his own efforts toward pre-
pairing for his chosen work. But
the usual problem is what do I
really want to do?" what can you
do well?" counters the commercial
and professional world, but that is
not always easy for a young per-
son to determine for himself.
What can parents do to help
their children find themselves vo-
cationally? The biggest problem,
perhaps, is to suppress their own
desires of what they want the child
to want to be, and to study him OBJ
jectively. The child's own interests
are usually the best guide to his
vocational aptitude. His personal
ity, his mental ability and his ply
steal condition all help to deter
mine his suitability for particular
career. Has he the physical stam-
ina to go through gruelling per-
iod of training, is he dependable,
president, quick, slow, prompt, can
he stand competition, rebuff, does
he crave excitement or monotony,
has he tenacity or initiative, does
he get along we'll with people, is he
leader?
Glitch your wagon to a star,
Johnny" say well-meaning parents
and poor Johnny who barely man
aged to struggle through enough
academic subjects to admit him to
college, is pushed into a profession
al course when he has neither the
mental ability nor the personality
traits of professional man. At the
end Of his freshman year he
"flunks out" of college, discouraged
and unhappy, and his parents are
bitterly disappointed. He goes to
work and year later enters the
commercial or technical training he
should have had in the first place.
Only less than S per cent of the
people in this country are in the
professional group, yet every year
nearly 60 per cent of the nigh
school students choose to prepare
for the professions. The field is linn
tied, the competition keen, the
training long and hard, the ability
required is great; those who begin
training for a profession and find
they have not the ability for it have
lost valuable time and have become
unnecessarily discouraged; yet we
hate to give up the idea that in
America everyone has an equal
chance of vocational success.
81 don't dare to advise my son
about work nowadays" said one
father. '"The old rule that there
is a job and success waiting for
anyone who has the ability and de-
termination doesn't hold true any,
more in these discouraging times"
We cannot, of course, open closed
oceupational fields, but we can Sc
cure some lists of possible occu-
r>otionc and ,>a;nf ont bau, yoo,u
different kinds of occupations there
are in the world. Then, by writing
to large firms, the Government, or
to schools, we can find out more
about the specific occupations
which interest the child. Then, we
can push the stars down to with
in reach; we can encourage the
child to prepare for a field that is
not hopelessly beyond his ability
and in which his chances of success
are greater. We can help him
choose work which is not likely to
be displaced shortly by new in
vention of some sort. If we are
sending him onto college, we will
want to know his chances of suc-
cess there. A combination of a re-
liable mental test rating, his col
lege ability test rating, and an av-
erage of all the grades he received
in high school is the best means
we have yet found Of predicting
this.
The most important thing is that
a person shah find work which
yields satisfaction and pleasure to
him or which is an outlet for his
creative and expressive impulses.
If a person needs the satisfaction
that comes from helping sick or
unfortunate people, there are many
varied occupations in that line Zone
doesn't need to be a doctor); If a
person likes to contact people, he
will be happy only in work which
provides numerous contacts with
people; if he possesses a large
amount of initiative, he win be un-
happy in routine work, and so on