point of view pertinent to the problem of Federal relations to vocational education.

The Nature of the Study

The present monograph was originally drafted as a staff study for the Advisory Committee on Education, for its consideration in developing recommendations with respect to vocational education. In addition to this staff study, the members of the Committee had available the proceedings of the conferences and the statements submitted by various organizations and individuals, as well as their own personal knowledge of the situation in vocational education, which, in the case of a number of members of the Committee, was rather extensive.

This study undertakes to survey in a fairly broad way the whole plan of organization for the federally reimbursed program of vocational education, the outcomes of this service, the needs of the country for occupational preparation, and the manner in which those needs may best be met. The present treatment does not presume to go beyond the presentation and interpretation of the findings from this investigation.

The data and conclusions herewith presented are based in the main upon the series of staff memorandums previously listed. The basic sources used in the investigation have been reexamined, however, and some material has been included which was not available at the time the original staff memorandums were prepared. The factual data, as far as possible, have been brought up to those available January 1, 1938. The author has drawn extensively on the materials of the original staff memorandums, and in reaching conclusions has been greatly influenced by the views of other members of the staff, particularly in those cases where there was general agreement. Final responsibility rests with the author, however, for the content and conclusions expressed in this summary report.

This study is the first attempt at an extensive outside appraisal of the federally reimbursed program of vocational education in the United States. A committee of 52 citizens,

appointed in 1929 by President Hoover and organized by Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur, reported in 1931 on the general problem of Federal relations to education. The report of that Committee, prepared under the leadership of the late Dr. Henry Suzzallo, made considerable reference to the program of vocational education, but did not attempt to survey it extensively. The report of the National Advisory Committee on Education, as that group was designated, has been of great value as a starting point for the present investigation. The attempt in the present treatment has been not only to consider the educational problems involved, but also to consider the social and economic relationships inherent in any program of occupational preparation.

This study of vocational education was conceived primarily as an attempt to collect and interpret the existing factual information and the opinions and attitudes of those who in various ways have had close personal knowledge of the operation of the program. Much of the latter sort of material came to the Committee in a confidential manner. Because of the nature of the inquiry and the kind of evidence considered, it is not possible to document or cite specific authority for each and every conclusion reached in this study, particularly where the attempt is to present a synthesis of the views of many individuals who are in a position to speak from their personal knowledge of the program.

In any report of a study of an operating program, it is only natural that greater space should be given to discussion of the deficiencies and shortcomings than to the points of excellence that need no correction. Care has been taken in this study to mention the many praiseworthy features of the federally reimbursed program of vocational education, but such points do not require so extensive a discussion as the features in which some revision seems to be desirable. It will be understood that this apparent distribution of emphasis does not indicate any lack of appreciation for the many excellent accomplishments of the program.

Certain phases or aspects of vocational education are not treated in this study because attention is given them in other staff publications of the Advisory Committee on Education.

Although the administration of the vocational rehabilitation of physically disabled persons has been closely associated with vocational education, the rehabilitation program has so many distinctive aspects that a separate study has been devoted to it. The Cooperative Agricultural Extension Service maintained through the land-grant colleges is treated fully in a separate study dealing with the land-grant colleges and their associated services.6 Certain problems of vocational education peculiar to the Negro race are treated in a separate study dealing with Federal relations to the education of Negroes."

One of the difficulties encountered in this investigation of vocational education was the relative lack of previous evaluative research studies or even of adequate routine administrative data in form that would throw light on the achievements of the federally reimbursed program. Although every effort has been made to develop materials of this sort for the present study, only a beginning could be made in the limits of the time and finance available. The process of evaluation begun in this inquiry should be continued under appropriate auspices.

Lloyd E. Blauch, Vocational Rehabilitation of the Physically Disabled, The Advisory Committee on Education, Staff Study No. 9 (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1938).

George A. Works and Barton Morgan, The Land-Grant Colleges, The Advisory Committee on Education, Staff Study No. 10 (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1938).

Doxey A. Wilkerson, Special Problems of Negro Education, The Advisory Committee on Education, Staff Study No. 12 (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1938).

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CHAPTER II

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PROGRAM

The social agencies that have assumed the responsibility of preparing young people for participation in productive enterprise vary from group to group and from period to period. For many centuries the home, the farm, and the shop have carried the burden of providing the necessary training for vocational competence. In the past few decades in the United States, however, there has been a pronounced tendency to transfer some of this responsibility to the public school system.

Influences Modifying the School Program

The schools traditionally have been concerned chiefly with education of an intellectual or bookish sort. Basically, however, the school program has always been vocational in the sense of furnishing the foundation of training needed for the professions which require a content of intellectual materials. During the last half of the nineteenth century, as a result of social and economic conditions, there began to be great pressure on the schools to offer preparation for vocations other than the professions. The country was developing rapidly in commerce, industry, and agriculture. Leaders in these fields began to insist that the public schools provide the training required to prepare young people for vocations of a nonprofessional type, such as the skilled trades, clerical and secretarial positions, and agriculture.

The efforts to relate formal education more definitely to the so-called useful and practical activities followed two distinct trends. One type of development led to what is known as practical arts or industrial arts; the other led to what is known as vocational education. It is necessary to distinguish clearly these two types of educational programs, for they are based on differing psychological theories.