732 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. Ko. 986 



and schools of technology, 66,000. In 

 1912 there were 198,000. That this great 

 multitude of boys and girls crowding into 

 our colleges and universities should not be 

 shunted off from the trades and industries, 

 from a contact with and a knowledge of 

 hand labor, that they should be able to earn 

 a competent living, vocational training 

 was inevitable. In this connection there 

 are at least two things that ought by all 

 means to be considered. In the first place 

 any arrangement of American education 

 that shall lead to stratification of our pop- 

 ulation by which one class is turned per- 

 force in one direction and another in 

 another would be a national calamity. No 

 such stratification as has occurred in Ger- 

 many could be tolerated in America. No 

 teacher or administrator must ever have 

 'the authority to say to one boy that he may 

 :go on into the high school and prepare for 

 ^college and issue with all that the college 

 <or university can give him, and to another 

 boy that he must go into a trade school 

 and issue as a hand laborer. There must 

 be absolute freedom for the choice of the 

 individual and the road must be open from 

 the kindergarten to the university for every 

 boy or girl that has any aspirations for the 

 highest training. Then again, if we are 

 to have vocational training and if we are 

 to deal with this great multitude in an 

 adequate fashion, vocational guidance must 

 go with vocational training. There must 

 he adequate supervision, adequate sugges- 

 tion and guidance by which boys and girls 

 may be made acquainted with the different 

 trades, -industries and professions; given 

 some adequate insight into the purposes 

 and requirements of each so that they may 

 have not coercion but assistance in arriv- 

 ing at the task in life that each desires to 

 perform. I hope to see in the university 

 over which I preside the development of 

 ■competent agencies for investigation into 



the individual aptitude of students and 

 the introduction of courses and other 

 means for vocational guidance and infor- 

 mation concerning trades, industries, pro- 

 fessions and business callings. 



4. There is no aspect of our education 

 whether in the United States or in our 

 own state that is more disheartening or 

 that raises more questions of doubt than 

 the adequate supply and the adequate qual- 

 ity of teachers for our schools of every 

 grade. To overcome this, undoubtedly two 

 things are absolutely necessary. First, the 

 independence of the teacher, permanency 

 of tenure, the respect that is due to a great 

 and dignified calling. No class of men or 

 women of any spirit or ability will enter 

 a profession, or having entered long re- 

 main in it, if their independence, their 

 right of initiative and free speech as Amer- 

 ican citizens is in any way in question. 

 Nor will they enter a profession or long 

 remain in it if their tenure of office is 

 lacking in permanency or subject to any 

 uncertainty arising from the exigencies of 

 politics or too frequent changes in admin- 

 istrative policy. Unless these evils are 

 remedied I fear, from many evidences dur- 

 ing the last few years, that we must look 

 for a decrease rather than an increase in 

 the number and quality of our teachers. 



But perhaps the most vital considera- 

 tion in this respect is the condition of teach- 

 ers' salaries. I refer here to the salaries 

 in all grades of schools, including colleges 

 and universities. The salaries in our col- 

 leges and universities are, so far as rela- 

 tion to purchasing power and living con- 

 ditions is concerned, lower I believe than 

 they have ever been in the history of the 

 institutions. The report of the commis- 

 sioner of education for 1912, page 29, has 

 a section dealing with this point. It gives 

 a summary of the report of a committee of 

 the National Education Association on 



