VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 



6107 



VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 



terest awakens and takes definite form is that 

 from about twelve to sixteen or eighteen years 

 of age, when the plasticity of childhood is giv- 

 ing way to the settled habits of the adult. It 

 is a period when watchfulness, interest and care 

 on the part of the parent should be at a maxi- 

 mum, and formal demands, aggressive methods 

 and personal interference at a minimum. More 

 than ever do boys and girls of this age need 

 guidance, but it is an indirect guidance, one 

 that is not continually in evidence. 



The school, the home environment and the 

 social world will all be determining factors in 

 the final choice of a vocation, but that choice 

 must be made by the individual himself; it 

 never can be made for him. A parent becomes 

 a helpful guide in the vocational life of his 

 child to the extent that he makes for him an 

 environment conducive to self-understanding 

 and a better knowledge of his own interests 

 and abilities. 



This environment should furnish informa- 

 tion concerning occupational opportunities and 

 conditions. Some of the books, periodicals and 

 papers that find their way into the household 

 may be selected with reference to the informa- 

 tion they contain, not about one or two voca- 

 tions but about many vocations. A better un- 

 derstanding of the business side of life and the 

 requirements for success in the different voca- 

 tions may be obtained by actually visiting in- 

 dustrial plants and seeing the requirements and 

 the conditions under which they operate. The 

 father of Benjamin Franklin acted the part of 

 a wise parent when he took his son to visit 

 some of the industries in Boston that he might 

 more intelligently make a choice of his life 

 work. 



Conversation in the home and the presence 

 tin re of successful men and women from the 

 vocational world, who may be plied with ques- 

 tions by the young people and with whom they 

 may freely converse on vocational opportuni- 

 ties, will bring to the household a valuable 

 store of vocational information. 



Through the influence of the parent, whole- 

 some forms of amusement and recreation may 

 be provided for the young people of the house- 

 hold. This is the time a boy wants a shop in 

 which to try his skill with tools. He is no 

 longer satisfied with seeing the marvels of 

 steam or the wonders of electricity; he wishes 

 to be more intimately associated with these 

 I ">\vers, to help in some way their mysterious 

 manifestations, and he seises upon every arti- 

 cle about the household or the farm that will 



help him achieve this desire. The parent may 

 make the great mistake of stopping this inter- 

 ference with the smooth routine of the house- 

 hold and offer no suitable substitute, or he may 

 supply so much ready-made equipment that 

 the boy is at no time left to his own resources. 



To the parent, vocational guidance means an 

 intelligent acquaintance with the young people 

 of the household. It means the almost im- 

 possible feat of watching, impersonally, the de- 

 veloping physical and mental traits of his chil- 

 dren, and then of creating a home environment 

 that will enable these children to recognise 

 their own tastes and abilities as a basis for 

 their vocational choice. For such vocational 

 guidance is needed a fund of good common 

 sense and a keener appreciation of the fact that 

 success in life cannot be measured by wealth 

 or by political distinction, but by the accom- 

 plishment of a work that is the full expression 

 of individual interests and aptitudes directed to 

 the service of mankind. 



The Future of Vocational Guidance. Under 

 present school conditions, vocational guidance 

 will continue to function through the agency 

 of special departments for that purpose and 

 special experts trained to direct such work ; but 

 much improvement is needed in gathering ac- 

 curate and important data, choosing from it the 

 minimum essentials and placing these in Mut- 

 able form for school and general use. Better 

 physical and mental tests must be devised. The 

 tests utilized in examining applicants for the 

 army, navy, marine and aviation corps may aid 

 materially in the development of tests to dis- 

 cover vocational aptitudes. Greater care must 

 be exercised in finding people of common sense 

 and tact who understand children, who have 

 industrial as well as pedagogical knowledge and 

 minds capable of constructive research, to un- 

 dertake the work of vocational guidance. 



More and more will vocational guidance per- 

 meate the entire school system, finding expres- 

 sion in every subject taught, and in the work 

 of every teacher. The first use of vocational 

 guidance in the schools was necessarily largely 

 that of placement, but educators have l>< 

 to say that "vocational guidance is not a 

 scheme for finding jobs or of forcing vocational 

 decisions on children;" that "vocational guid- 

 ance is not to hurry children into vocations, 

 but to delay them and train and educate them 

 for their vocations;" that "vocational guidance 

 is a means of teaching -luldn n how to distin- 

 guish between a job and a vocation;" and that 

 "vocational guidance is organized common sense 



