The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1940-08-29
! COMMENT ON WORLD
: EVENTS
.t.**** $3.50

| American labor, employer and gov.
ernment influence in the international
Labor Organization is bound to be
substantially strengthened by moving
of the organization office from &C.
neva to Montreal. The fact that the
office is on this continent will tend
to bring it's activities closer to the
average American and make them OF
greater interest in this country. From
this, will come increased publicizing
of the work and aims of the LILO.
Moving of the ILO to Montreal is
a step in maintenance of essential &C.
tivities, threatened by growing diff.
culties of communication and trans
portation to and from Geneva, Di-
rector John G. Winant explains. If
these activities can be maintained
even though greatly curtailed, they
will be demonstration in internati-
onal cooperation which the world
needs immeasurably at this time.
The best wishes of American labor
will go to the LILO in it's new home
where American labor's voice will be
heard in clearer tones than when the
office was in Switzerland. Incidental
ly, the moving of the lilo to Montreal
is another indication of the vastly in
creased Importance of the United
States and the North American con.
tinent in world affairs.
X X X
Young people need to learn to work
and work experience should be made
part of the curriculum of high
schools. This is the assertion of ten
nationally-known educators in a re-
port published by the American Youth
Commission of the American high
schools by authorities who have con-
Quoted studies of secondary education
in recent years.
Pointing to the Interesting histor-
ical fact that the early educational
law of the American colonies ex-
plicitly provided that parents should
give their children training in some
useful occupation," the report explains
that in earlier days, parents were
able, especially in agricultural occupa-
tions and in many of the simpler
crafts, to teach work habits without
seriously interrupting their own ac-
tivities." But as industrial conditions
changed, parents could no longer ade-
quately train their children in work. !"
The result, the report charges, is that
manual work is now no longer part
of the education of a great number
Of young people,"
Reviewing efforts of schools to
adapt themselves to new conditions,
the educators assert that vocational
education either cultivates highly
specialized skills for which there is
only limited demand, or provides
other Innovations that are "more in
the nature of patchwork additions than
fundamental reform in the instruction
al program"
The report, calling for "a fundamen-
tai reconsideration of the instruction
al program of secondary schools" +"
was prepared by special committee
headed by Ben G. Graham, superin-
tendent of public schools in Pittsburgh,
Pa. The committee was named by the
American Youth Commission, of which
Owen D. Young is chairman and Floyd
w. Reeves is director.
At present, according to this COM
mittee of educators, work "does not
have the sanction of traditional school
practice" In spite of this, "by the
time young person reaches adoles-
cence he needs to have opportunities
for work if he is to make the transi-
ton into adulthood readily and eff
GENTLY. Work can be advocated as a
much-to-be desired phase of educa-
ton for all classes of young people"
Moreover, "The ability to work stead
lily for eight hours is not natural
possession; it has to be acquired"
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