TRAINING OF PARK EXECUTIVES 1015 



structures, propagation and care of plants, construction activities and others, 

 would be time well spent. 



With a very heavy schedule of subjects to carry in the college or uni- 

 versity it will, of course, be an exceptional student indeed who can find 

 the time or will have the ability to participate largely in extra curricular 

 activities, although even an average student can accomplish a great deal in 

 this respect by proper organization and use of his time. For one whose 

 role in a community is to be that of an executive and an organizer and 

 leader of the people the activities of the university community are in some 

 respects more important as a training than some of the subjects studied in 

 the regular curriculum. 



Field Work During Summer Vacation. 



No amount of university or college training can possibly give the sort 

 of training that experience in actual field work can give. The most that 

 academic study can do is to teach principles, facts, methods of getting at 

 facts and their orderly handling, orderly processes of thought, and give a 

 general vision of one or more fields of human knowledge. The real training 

 of a park executive begins when he is face to face with the actual problems 

 of his profession. 



An ideal system of training would more nearly be approximated if 

 field service and academic and laboratory study could go hand in hand as 

 is practiced in some engineering schools and teacher training colleges, 

 whereby the student spends part time in college or university and part time 

 in shop or classroom. The University of Cincinnati is now offering a five- 

 year course in landscape architecture organized upon this plan. 



In place of this desirable situation or plan it is recommended that 

 candidates for the profession of park executive spend each summer vaca- 

 tion in active service in one major field of park and recreation service. In 

 order to secure as much as possible of this sort of training it might be desir- 

 able to base the granting of a degree upon such performance for at least 

 four summers, which would give approximately a solid year of field work. 

 It is suggested that one vacation period be spent in the landscape divi- 

 sion, one in the construction and maintenance division, one in the organized 

 recreation division and one in the general office. 



This plan would necessitate cooperative arrangements with several 

 leading park and recreation systems throughout the country. 



Postgraduate Work. 



Meagre as the technical subjects are, as presented in the foregoing 

 outline of a general collegiate course of training for park and recreation 

 executives, it is doubtful whether all these subjects, together with the general 



