Excerpt from Vocational Guidance Through the Library

Most leave because they are tired of it, because it does not hold their interest.

Among the poorer classes tens of thousands of our boys and girls are each year sent out from the elementary schools and, as Charles Booth puts it, "pitchforked" into the industrial world with characters unformed and without any definite preparation for work. Many of these drift into the "blind alley" occupations which train for no special work and have in them no outlook and no hope of advancement. At eighteen many of these find themselves unable to earn enough to support even themselves, much less others who may be dependent upon them. With courage gone they lose interest in their work and finally are dismissed and added to the number of unemployed and unemployables. The great majority might have been happy in profitable labor and have had some outlook for advancement, if parents had insisted that they remain in school until they had received some special training for work and were more mature and better fitted mentally, physically, and morally for the battle of life.

Parents are finding it more and more difficult to guide their children into vocations best suited to their abilities. Conditions in our cities are so complex and there is so much need for specialization that it is impossible for the busy parent to have a proper knowledge of the various occupations, the necessary preparation, their opportunities, etc. Many parents give no serious thought to this problem and large numbers are too ignorant to make any careful study of the question.

There has been no organized effort in the past to bring the would be worker and the employer together. Many bright students have lacked the friend who could bring them in touch with the right work and the right employer. Many an employer would prize the services of these promising boys and girls but he has never thought of applying to the school for them.

II. The Aim In Vocational Guidance. Professor Bagley in his "Educative process" reminds us that the ultimate end in education is the development of the socially efficient individual. "That person only is socially efficient who is not a drag upon society, who, in other words, can 'pull his own weight' and earn his own livelihood either in a productive employment or by guiding, inspiring and educating others to productive effort."

The aim in the vocational guidance movement in the schools is to help each student in the schools to find what is for him the "best possible work."

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