Evening star., 1941-09-14
BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.

National defense needs have
dramatized the general failure Of our
American public education system
to prepare our young people for
practical living.
Because of the present urgent ne
cessity for speeding up defense work
through industrial skills, belated
emphasis is now being put upon in
dustrial training in many communi-
ties that formerly have neglected It,
More support than ever before is
being given educational programs
furtherins such training on the part
of local communities, the State and
the Nation.
In the past there has been a
tendency on the part of many edu-
Gators to decry stressing industrial
and vocational arts in education
The function of education, 1t was
urged, was not to prepare young peo-
pie to make a living, but a life.
But along came the depression
II taught us, among other things
thst If our young people couldn't
make q living, neither could they
make a satisfactory life.
Skilled Workers in Demand.
Now comes national defense
which brings to the fore the need for
every person in this emergency
to make a contribution toward
strengthening our national life
either through such skills as he has
or such as he can readily be trained
to acquire.
The demand for men and women
in defense industries gains daily in
mounting proportions. Already the
supply is far below the demand.
In the lifetime of our grandpar-
ents the little red schoolhouSe fur
nished an education which was am
pie for the necessities of life. Ours
was then an agricultural country
The essential requirements aside
from food were largely produced by
hand or the simplest machines. II
was a country Of farms and small
towns.
Skilled labor was developed through
apprenticeship. There was but lit
tie training necessary to secure
work. After comparatively meager
schooling or training, our ancestors
took their places in life early and
faced a simple existence which they
were fairly competent to meet
Our world today with its progress
whether 1t is at peace or at war, is
a complex of devices, mechanisms,
technlques and instrumentalities
BY means OF them we live in our
highly complicated environments.
II we 60 to war we must do so in a
highly mechanical way
Use of Vocational Training.
The man behind the gun can no
longer, no matter how superior his
numbers, hold at bay the modern
mechanical fighting forces of sea,
land or air, unless he Is provided
with superior technical equipment,
Is highly trained in the use of this
equipment and is a functioning unit
OF a superior mechanized force.
Behind the man with the gun
there must be a vast army of skilled
workers. to produce this equipment.
thousands Of persons in ma
tional defense jobs, and many other
Americans functioning for defense
service received their basic work
experience and training in the pub
lie. school industrial arts classes
Of our Nation" DR.. Maris M.
ProfIit, United States ONCE of Ed
ucation consultant and specialist in
industrial education, told this
writer. Indeed. the majority of all
vocational school trainees now help
ing 70 build democracy's arsenal
were enrolled in industrial arts
courses in our American public
school systems before they went on
to specialize in the trades or voca-
tionS which now make them so es-
sential for defense"
Hopeful signs in our national
educational policy are, that in
nearly all of its larger public school
systems the curricula in junior high
schools has been broadened to the
point where classes in the industrial
or vocational arts are required sub
jects,
Many Women Trained.
The Labor Supply Committee, DR..