studying the conditions of society that the lack of practical education is one of the primary causes of social and industrial discontent. Evidence such as that presented by bureaus which are struggling with the problem of unemployment emphasize this need. One of these bureaus states that less than three out of fifty men who apply for work have ever had any sort of trade training or apprenticeship. Most of them have been forced to fit into some particular niche of industry as young untrained boys, have been too readily thrown out with the introduction of new inventions or devices, and help to swell the army of the unemployed. A former State pardon attorney has said that "nearly three-fourths of the persons found in our penitentiaries are persons unable to earn a living excepting at the most rudimentary form of labor." 4. Higher Standards of Living are a Direct Result of Better Education. Better standards of living are in the main dependent upon two important factors namely, an increased earning capacity for the great mass of our people and a better understanding of values. Vocational education aims at both. Where there is intense poverty there is little hope of developing higher standards. The one hope of increasing the family income lies in better vocational training. It is equally true that vocational education enlarges the worker's vision and arouses within him a desire for progress. This is shown by the number of men and women who, by means of further training and education, raise themselves from the ranks of unskilled labor to take positions requiring large directive powers, and responsibilities. Our only hope of progress is in helping the individual to help himself. This is at the bottom of all social uplift. To educate boys and girls to perform their chosen tasks better; to understand the relation of their particular work to the whole; to know what their labor is worth and demand a proper return for it, and to broaden their horizon so that both their money and their leisure time may be spent for the things that are most worth while this is the task of vocational education. II. THE STATE SYSTEM OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 1. Principles and Policies that should Underlie State Legislation for a State System of Vocational Education [From a Tentative Statement of Principles and Policies formulated at a meeting of a Committee of the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education, in Annual Convention, at Philadelphia, December, 1912, and approved by the Board of Managers of the Society, February, 1913, in Annual Report, 1912, pp. 292–297.] 1. State aid is necessary to stimulate and encourage communities to carry on work in vocational education. At the same time legislation should provide that local communities should be permitted to initiate and maintain vocational training, if desired, entirely apart from state support and supervision. 2. Vocational education includes all forms of specialized education, the controlling purposes of which are to fit for useful occupations. 3. The fields of vocational education considered here are industrial education, agricultural education, commercial education and household arts education. 4. Industrial education denotes the field of vocational education designed to meet the needs of the manual wage-worker in the trades and industries and the household. 5. Agricultural education is that form of vocational education which fits for the occupations connected with the tillage of the soil, the care of domestic animals, forestry, and other useful work on the farm. 6. Commercial education denotes the field of vocational education designed to meet the needs of the wage-earner employed in such business and commercial pursuits as bookkeeping, stenography, typewriting, clerical work, salesmanship. 7. Household arts education is that form of vocational education which fits for non-wage-earning occupations connected with the household. 8. Vocational schools as referred to in this document, include all agricultural, industrial, commercial and household arts schools, the controlling purpose of which is to fit for useful occupations, and which deal with pupils above fourteen years of age and below college grade, as indicated below. 9. An all day vocational school is a school giving training to young persons over fourteen years of age who can give one or more years to such preparation before entering employment. 10. A part-time vocational school is a school for persons engaged in useful employment which affords instruction during a portion of the working time of the pupils that is supplementary to such employment. 11. Evening schools or classes in industry or agriculture are schools or classes attended by persons over sixteen years of age, already engaged in useful employment, which provide instruction directly related to such employment. 12. Evening schools or classes in household arts are schools or classes giving instruction in home-making to pupils over sixteen years of age, however employed during the day. 13. The proper expenditure of state moneys for vocational schools should be fully safe-guarded, while, at the same time, the initiative in adapting measures to local conditions should be left to the local authorities. The relation of the state to the community in the matter of industrial education should be that of partners, in which the non-resident partner has the right of inspection and approval in return for partial support of the educational venture. 14. State aid should be sufficient to induce localities to take up the work and to justify reasonable participation on the part of the state in control and administration, but on the other hand, state aid should not be so large as to sacrifice local initiative and support. Experience seems to show that the best results are secured when the local community is required to furnish the plant and equipment and pay approximately one-half of the operating ex penses. 15. Payments to local communities by the state should not be made automatically, but only with the approval and recommendation of the state board of control for work actually accomplished. In passing upon the school, the state board should have the power to approve every feature of its work, including all such items as location, equipment, course of study, methods of instruction, qualifications of teachers, and expenditures of money. 16. Legislation should be so drawn for this purpose that a large amount of discretion is left to the state boards of control in the definition of principles and standards for the inspection, supervision, approval, and reimbursement of the work. 17. Attendance should be free upon a state-aided vocational school for all persons in the state otherwise eligible, whether they are or are not residents of the community in which the school is maintained. In order to meet the case of pupils non-resident in the community, provision should be made for meeting the tuition costs of such pupils by the joint contribution of the community in which the child resides and the state. 18. Administrative and executive functions. For the purpose of this statement of principles, it is necessary to distinguish sharply between the functions of the administrative authority and those of the executive or expert employed by the administrative authorities. 19. Administrative control is that exercised by a board such as a State Board of Education or a State Commission on vocational education or a local educational authority, as to rules and regulations concerning such matters as expenditure of moneys, courses of study, employment of teachers, etc., which in general might be described as legislative as contrasted with executive functions. 20. Executive functions are those exercised by a superintendent of schools, commissioner of education, or the director of an industrial school, in carrying out the decisions of the board of control and other necessary executive work. 21. Effective administrative control, on the part of the state, of both vocational and general education, requires the existence of a State Board possessing sufficient powers effectively to supervise all forms of education receiving financial aid from the state. Should such a board not exist, in any state, or should it be found that an existing board is unprepared to deal effectively with the establishment and promotion of vocational education, then it is expedient and desirable that a special administrative Board of Control for Vocational Education shall be established until such time as a state board properly qualified to deal with all forms of stateaided education shall exist. 22. Effective administrative control on the part of the local community of both vocational and general education requires the existence of a local school board or committee possessed of ample power to establish and maintain, under proper state supervision, general and vocational schools. When the existing local administrative authority for general education does not provide for the establishment and promotion of adequate vocational education, legislative provision should exist, enabling industrial and other occupational interests, under proper restrictions, to procure the creation of a special Board of Control for Vocational Education. 23. To secure effective administrative control of vocational education, wherever practicable representation of employing and employed interests should be provided in administrative boards. In cases where vocational education is carried on by the regular local school board or committee, it is strongly urged that the local authorities give adequate representation on such boards or committees to the employing and employed interests. 24. Effective executive or expert control. The following features should be recognized: (1) The creation by law of a separate department for vocational education, whether under the regular state board of education or otherwise; (2) The placing at the head of this department of a competent deputy commissioner, superintendent, director, or supervisor, who shall be an expert in vocational education and shall be familiar with industrial conditions; (3) A salary sufficient to attract and hold a competent man, and such conditions of tenure of office as would remove him from the ranks of political employees; (4) The delegation to this official of large powers and responsibilities for superintending the work. 25. These same principles should be recognized and applied in the local administration of vocational education. 26. Efficiency in vocational education requires different methods of school administration, different courses of study, different qualifications of teachers, different equipment, different ways of meeting the needs of pupils, and a much greater flexibility in adapting means to ends than is possible of development under the ordinary routine of the public school system. 27. Separation of vocational and general education. For these reasons, whether administered by regular public school authorities or a separate board of control, and whether conducted in a separate building or under the same roof as the regular school, the work in vocational education should be carried on separately and independently from that of general education, so that it may be left free to realize the dominant aim of fitting for useful employment. This requires a separate organization, under a separate head or a distinctive management, and separate equipment, course of study, pupils, and teachers who shall have had extended practical experience in the industries or occupations they are employed to teach. 28. Separate schools best. Experience seems to prove that where conditions admit, this work can be best prosecuted in separate schools, whether under the control of the regular board of education or otherwise. 29. Cities of more than 25,000 inhabitants should probably be required to meet the need of vocational education by separate schools rather than in departments of regular schools. 30. Separateness and dominance of vocational aim. Should the state desire to give aid to vocational departments in the regular schools, such a department should be defined in the law as a department having a separate head or director who should be treated as an expert in dealing with the problem of vocational education, and |