Business Education in Secondary Schools. A Report of the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education, Appointed by the National Education Association. Bulletin, 1919, No. 55
Author: Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education (ED)
Date: 1919-00-00
Type: Historical Materials
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Educational History,Secondary Education,Educational Change,Secondary School Curriculum,Curriculum Development,Educational Objectives,Enrollment Trends,School Business Relationship,Education Work Relationship,Surveys,Questionnaires,Business Education,Business Education Teachers,Vocational Education,Office Occupations,Clerical Occupations,Males,Females,Private Schools,Public Schools,High Schools,Junior High Schools,Educational Trends,Educational Policy,Career Readiness

Sixteen years have elapsed since a committee of the business education department of the National Education Association submitted a report on the commercial curriculum with somewhat detailed treatment of the various subjects of study. Four years ago another committee of the same department made a less complete report. Subsequent changes in education and in business now call for further changes in commercial education in secondary schools. The plan of the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education offered an opportunity for a study of the secondary commercial curriculum in its relation to the other fields of secondary education. Early in the work of the commission a committee on business education was appointed under the chairmanship of Dr. A. L. Pugh, of the High School of Commerce, New York City. This committee made preliminary studies which were a contribution toward the present report. The present committee was organized in 1916, and consisted almost entirely of persons directly engaged in commercial education in secondary schools. Since the organization of the committee two members have been called to superintendencies of schools in large cities, and a third has been selected to assume the direction of commercial education for the Federal Board for Vocational Education. An examination of the report will indicate that, while it has retained and given full credit to the earlier aspects of commercial education in which the aim was the training of bookkeepers and stenographers, there has been an enlargement of the field so that commercial education may take into its purview the preparation of salesmen and of those who are to participate in the broader aspects of business life. The report contained in this bulletin has been approved not only by the committee on business education, but also by the reviewing committee of the commission. It is the belief of the committee, born not only of a study of the problem, but confirmed by observation and experience, that commercial education rightly understood offers an opportunity to give a sound training in the best sense of the word, and to equip young people so that they find a point of contact and begin their life  work with a fair prospect of a useful career. The committee believes that such an ideal is possible of realization and this report has been prepared and submitted in the hope of contributing toward that desirable end. Suggested questionnaire is appended. Individual sections contain footnotes. (The preface was written by Cheesman A. Herrick, and Clarence D. Kingsley.) [Best copy available has been provided.]