EDUCATION 



1943 



age of nine, ten or eleven years. This sys- 

 tem also keeps the children of all classes to- 

 gether during the greater part of their ele- 

 mentary and secondary schooling; during the 

 first eight years (or at least during the first 

 six years, if the present proposals are gener- 

 ally accepted), these children are studying 

 practically the same subjects, and to this ex- 

 tent the next generation will have a "common 

 culture"; during the high school years some 

 of the subjects are usually common to all of 

 the pupils, and in any case the children are 

 together in the same school and live the same 

 school life. But in most of the European 

 countries the children of the more favored 

 classes are segregated from the children of the 

 masses; their studies are different; there is no 

 intermingling in a common school life; and 

 there is little opportunity to make the school 

 curriculums represent a basic common culture. 



Whether or not the system these countries 

 have developed really makes for democracy, it 

 is certainly true that we keep together in our 

 schools a larger proportion of boys and girls 

 from all classes than does any other large 

 country. There are to-day in the public high 

 schools of the United States and Canada almost 

 as many boys and girls as are enrolled in all 

 schools of similar grade in all other countries 

 combined. 



Defects in Our Schools. But in certain re- 

 spects, the schools of the two countries men- 

 tioned are not so efficient as are the schools 

 of certain other countries. We do not provide 

 the opportunities that Germany provides for 

 specialized training for bread-winning occupa- 

 tions. Indeed, countries like Denmark, Nor- 

 way and Switzerland probably lead us in what 

 is called vocational education. There is a 

 reason for this; in the European countries 

 society is more clearly "stratified" than with 

 us; one's social "station" is determined largely 

 by birth, and there is little shifting from one 

 level to another. In America, on the other 

 hand, society is more "fluid," so to speak;, 

 there is much shifting from level to level; the 

 child of the humblest citizen may reach the 

 highest positions. Because of this democratic 

 ideal, our school system has been slow to recog- 

 nize the value of a narrowly-specified voca- 

 tional training that would take the boy or the 

 girl at a comparatively early age and train him 

 or her toward a highly-specialized industrial effi- 

 ciency. The slow development of vocational 

 education, in other words, is due fundamentally 

 to the fact that people do not like to think 



EDUCATION 



to a ce.tam calling 



of anyone as "predestined" 

 or occupation. 



It is generally agreed, however, that pres-. 

 ent-day schools must in some way meet this 

 need for occupational training which modern 

 education in other countries has recognized 

 and met. The present tendency is to estab- 

 lish vocational curriculums either in the high 

 schools or in specialized vocational schools 

 paralleling the high school. Students of edu- 

 cation generally favor the former plan because 

 it will not separate the children who go into 

 trades from those who go into the professions, 

 and it is believed that the longer the children 

 of all classes can be kept together, the better 

 it will be for democracy. The present judg- 

 ment of educators is also strongly against at- 

 tempting to "vocationalize" boys and girls prior 

 to the end of the eighth school year. 



Vocational and Continuation Education. 

 Many attempts are being made to provide both 

 general and vocational education for boys and 

 girls who leave school and undertake bread- 

 winning employment at the close of the com- 

 pulsory-schooling period, which usually ends at 

 the age of fourteen. In some cities, these boys 

 and girls are provided for in "continuation 

 schools," which take them from their employ- 

 ment for one or more half-days each week. 

 and attempt to give them instruction that will 

 help them in their work. In general, the prob- 

 lem of caring for these boys and girls who go 

 no further than the compulsory-schooling laws 

 require is recognized as one of the serious and 

 perplexing problems of modern education. At 

 the present time, the number of these boys 

 and girls is probably three times as large as the 

 number of those who go into the high school. 

 These boys and girls go out into the industries 

 between the ages of fourteen and sixteen the 

 period of life most seriously fraught with moral 

 dangers. So heavy is the toll of wreckage from 

 this large group who leave school early that 

 these two years are sometimes called the 

 "wasted years." 



The situation is still further complicated by 

 the fact that apprenticeship to reputable trades 

 and professions cannot commonly be begun 

 prior to the age of sixteen. The result is that 

 most of the boys and girls who leave school 

 prior to sixteen either go into "blind-alley" 

 occupations that lead nowhere, or spend part of 

 their time at "odd jobs" and the remainder in 

 idleness and mischief. It is toward the solution 

 of this problem that the present energies of 

 education are being largely directed. W.C.B. 



