5. If you were to attend high school again, to what subjects
would you give special attention in order to make yourself
better fitted for your profession?
The interest that was created by these meetings and the value of the
work accomplished went beyond the expectations of the principal. Many of
the pupils changed their programs for the succeeding term so that they
might select subjects that would fit them better for the vocations they
expected to follow. Other pupils stated that it was through what they
had learned at the meetings they had decided to change the vocation they
had previously had in mind.
Many of the student difficulties are due to the unfamiliarity of the
parent with what the school has to offer. I recall one instance in which
a gentleman called at the office and openly criticized the high school
for not offering work whereby his daughter could learn something that
would be useful to her in earning a living. I listened to his complaint,
and then asked him if he would spend five minutes in going about the
building with me. He refused at first to do so but finally consented to
my request. I took him to the sewing rooms, the cooking rooms, the art
rooms, and finally to the typewriting and office-practice rooms. He was
astonished to see that the very subjects he was criticizing the schools
for not offering were available at any time for his daughter if she
wished to take them. He apologized for his attack on the school and
assured me that henceforth he would give attention to the work his
daughter pursued in school.
A few years ago the mayor of the city was invited to address the pupils
at an assembly. At the conclusion of the program I asked him to spend a
few minutes viewing the work offered in the school. After some
hesitation he accepted the invitation, and before he left the building
he said, "I am ashamed to say it, but I have lived in this city for
twenty years and this is the first time that I have had any idea of the
work that our high schools are offering. I feel very much better
prepared now to champion the cause of education."
It is easy for some patrons to feel that a high school education is
useless because now and then they see a boy or girl fail in a position
who had previously had some high school training. They forget that the
high school of to-day is called upon to serve a much more diversified
group of pupils than ever before, and it is not always able to determine
in every case just the type of work that the boy or girl needs in order
to make a success in life.
The schools are making strenuous efforts to give each individual pupil a
chance to adjust himself to a vocation. The junior high school
organization, classification of pupils according to ability, tests and
measurements, and vocational guidance are all means to this end. The
schoolmaster of tomorrow must realize that there is much good in the
education of the past, but that the changing conditions in our social
and industrial life must be met with similar readjustments in the
program of education.