280 The Farm Boy's Choice of a Vocation 



his growing years. Here, then, is probably the 

 greatest of all the human-training problems ; namely, 

 the vocational one. 



Roughly speaking, there have been three methods 

 of vocational training. 



1. The apprentice method. First, historically 

 there has been the apprentice method, the youth 

 being "bound out to learn a trade." The chief 

 faults of this traditional way of teaching the boy 

 to be self-supporting were these : it made no allow- 

 ance for intellectual development, and it gave the 

 father too much authority to choose the calling for 

 the boy. 



A modern offshoot of the old-time apprentice 

 course is the trade school which flourishes in many 

 of the big cities to-day. This new institution has one 

 great advantage over its prototype. It offers such 

 a great variety of forms of training that the youth 

 may exercise much free choice. But it preserves 

 one of the serious defects of apprenticeship in its 

 neglect of the intellect of the learner. The modern 

 trade school can never hope to do more than prepare 

 young men and women to make a good living. It is 

 a get-ready-quick institution, and can never be 

 expected to give the student breadth of view and 

 depth of insight into the great problems of human 

 life. 



2. The cultural method. The second-oldest 

 method of preparing men for a vocation is what 



