HEALTH WORK IN CITY AND RURAL SCHOOLS OF THE UNITED STATES

[Footnote:  Adapted from Dr. Thomas D. Wood, in New York times Magazine, April 2, 1916.]

EDUCATION FOR VOCATIONAL FITNESS

It is a part of the business of education to fit every citizen to earn a living, for every efficient citizen must be self-supporting and able to contribute effectively to the productive work of the community.  The interdependence of all occupations in modern industry and the necessity for every worker to be a specialist make training essential for every worker who is to attain success for himself and contribute his full share to the community’s work.  The war emphasized strongly the nation’s dependence upon trained workers in every field of industry.

NATIONAL AID FOR VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

One of the direct results of war needs was the passage by Congress, in 1917, of the Smith-Hughes Act, providing for national aid for vocational instruction for persons over 14 years of age who have already entered upon, or are preparing to enter, some trade.  The instruction given under the terms of this act must be of less than college grade.  Every state in the Union has met the conditions imposed by this law.

The Smith-Hughes Act created a Federal Board for Vocational Education to consist of the Secretaries of the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce and Labor, the United States Commissioner of Education, and three citizens appointed by the President, one to represent labor interests, one commercial and manufacturing interests, and the third agricultural interests.  The law appropriates national funds to be given to the state for the establishment of vocational schools and for the training of teachers for these schools; but each state must appropriate an amount equal to that received from the national government.  Each state must also have a board for vocational education, through which the national board has its dealings with the state.

BREADTH OF PREPARATION FOR VOCATIONAL LIFE

The duty of the regular elementary and high schools is not to cultivate special vocational skills; not to turn out trained farmers, or mechanics, and so on.  But the work of these schools should be such that their graduates will be better farmers, or mechanics, or lawyers, or doctors, or engineers, or teachers, than they would be without it.  First of all these schools should produce workers who are physically fit for the work they enter.  They should educate the hand and the eye along with the brain.  They should cultivate habits of working together, give instruction regarding the significance of all work in community and national life, and by every means possible prepare the pupil to make a wise choice of vocation.  Moreover, the schools should provide a breadth of education that will “transmute days of dreary work into happier lives.”