Excerpt from Daily Lesson Plan Book: For Vocational Instructors

The vocational teacher and the vocational school, as we now know and regard them, are twentieth century products. The old cultural idea of education was that it should exempt one from all form of manual labor and enable its possessor to live without such work. The new idea of education is that it should give one greater capacity for work because it should make him more intelligent and therefore a more efficient and industrious worker - should enable its possessor to practice culture and the arts of life.

Not many years ago the term "culture, " as applied to education, was associated only with the fine arts and with the classics - the fair humanities, No one thought of training in home economics, the manual arts, and applied agriculture as contributing to the cultural side of life. These subjects were considered beneath the dignity of the old-time college professor.

But the times have changed. We are now beginning to realize that the true expression of culture consists in applying art as well as in appreciating it. And so the vocational teacher has invaded the schools and is teaching our boys and girls to make beautiful and useful things with their hands, to study and understand the practical applications of the laws of nature: our girls to apply and appreciate art in the cooking and serving of a meal, in the designing and making of a garment, and in the furnishing and decorating of homes, our boys in designing and making artistic and useful tools and furniture, in building convenient, comfortable and sanitary houses, or, peradventure, it may be in making two ears of corn grow where only one grew before. In other words, our best schools are now in part at least vocational in their aim, teaching art not so much for art's sake as for life's sake, and giving to the youth of the country real culture where formerly the schools gave only something they called culture. We now regard as the greatest benefactor of the human race, not the one who bears our burdens and does our work for us, but rather the one who teaches us to bear our own burdens and to do our fair share of the worlds work. The vocational teacher, if he be a real teacher, holds in his hand the opportunity of performing a great national service - of making himself or herself a real benefactor, not only of this generation but of the generations yet to come.

For a long time industrial instructors, or vocational teachers, were regarded merely as artisans or craftsmen in many schools, both by themselves and by their associates. The boys and girls they instructed were looked upon chiefly as "helpers" rather than as pupils to be taught. The true relationship of teacher and pupil frequently did not exist.

In recent years a sincere attempt has been made to change this conception and to impress upon vocational instructors in our schools that they too are teachers, that the instructor in carpentry or in cooking for example, is just as truly a teacher as is the instructor in English or in history, that in many respects the vocational instructor, by the very nature of his work, comes into closer touch and freer relationship with his pupils than does the schoolroom teacher. For this reason the vocational instructor is charged with even greater responsibility in the matter of setting proper examples, inculcating habits of industry, honesty and correct speech, than is the academic teacher.

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