the responsibilities of certain key educational groups in connection with such programs, a committee of leaders in home economics recently proposed the following definitions: 24 1. Education for home and family living.—This term designates that part of a total education which equips individuals for effective membership in the family so that each contributes to home and community life according to his capacity. 2. Homemaking education. This term designates that part of education for home and family living which is centered on home activities and relationships and which enables the individual to assume the responsibilities of homemaking. On the basis of these definitions, practically every high-school teacher and department has important contributions to make to a total program of education for home and family living. Home economics departments feel a major responsibility for homemaking education as here defined. But even in this area, contributions from psychology, sociology, biology, fine and practical arts, mathematics, and English are clearly needed. To develop programs of education in home and family living to meet the needs of the students with whom the Prosser Resolution is concerned, it will be necessary to set up procedures for cooperative program development. This probably means (1) committees representing teachers, parents, and students to set up goals, outline general programs, and plan for continuous evaluation; (2) faculty committees within schools to coordinate the contributions of all participating individuals and departments. G. As to administrative arrangements.-The kind of programs outlined in this memorandum depend very much for their success on administrative arrangements to facilitate their organization and development. This means that administrators promoting them would have to understand the special problems which this kind of education creates for teachers. It also means that these administrators would need to be able and willing to go as far as possible in: 25 1. Making the necessary arrangements for many new types of in-school and out-of-school experiences. 2. Interpreting in the community the value of these new approaches and 5. Providing time in teacher schedules for work with parents and contact 6. Providing time and opportunities for teachers to establish the necessary working relationships with persons and organizations or services in communities with a view to strengthening family life education programs. 7. Providing the necessary space and equipment for such programsspace for individual and group activities, opportunities for individual conferences and group discussions, time and transportation to facilitate home and community projects, etc. 24 Vocational Education in the Years Ahead. Op. cit., p. 191. 25 Paraphrased from Vocational Education in the Years Ahead. Op. cit., p. 243. This section on home and family life education is based upon an analysis of certain outstanding studies in secondary education and in vocational education, with the needs of the group defined by the Prosser Resolution in mind. As the content indicates, to meet the needs of this group would be to serve the majority of American homes. To give to those who live in these homes the means of improving their family life would be to make a notable and direct contribution to the solution of many of our most pressing national problems. SELF-REALIZATION AND USE OF LEISURE In its list of 10 imperative educational needs of youth, the Educational Policies Commission includes 2 which relate directly to selfrealization and the worthy use of leisure time, namely: All youth need opportunities to develop their capacities to appreciate beauty in literature, art, music, and nature. All youth need to be able to use their leisure time well and to budget it wisely, balancing activities that yield satisfactions to the individual with those that are socially useful.26 It is implied in the Prosser Resolution that a certain proportion of American youth have interests, educational and economic opportunity, and the necessary drive and purpose to profit through current school offerings which lead to employment outlets necessitating college preparation or certain types of vocational preparation culminating in professional, white-collar, or skilled pursuits. Their eventual employment provides opportunity for varying degrees of creative activity, initiative, advancement, and the exercise of judgment, leadership and other qualities. These characteristics are not so clearly associated with those employed in the semiskilled, routine, and operative types of employment. Persons so employed have no specific training requirement other than a few hours previous to employment or that provided by the job itself. Their work is largely routine in character, and offers few opportunities for creative achievement. In general, this group, which is the chief concern of the Prosser Resolution, has a low earning power. Their hours of leisure are increasing owing to the ever shortening of the work week, advancing age of initial employment, increased mechanization, fluctuating periods of unemployment and an increasingly earlier age of retirement from productive activity. Many members of this group, in common with others, appear incapable of disassociating use of leisure time from the expenditure of money out of proportion to values or satisfactions returned. There is special 26 Education for All American Youth. Op. cit., p. 226. need to develop in these youth an all-powerful sense of the value of time, emphasizing that the individual time allotment is limited, that the bank account of leisure hours is a most precious asset, that it is one of the few assets fully under control of the individual, that it is highly expendable and never recoverable. Leisure hours should represent more than the trading of an excessive number of employed hours that is, money or just time spent for nothing in the way of abiding satisfactions. Probably in no phase of educational endeavor is the need greater to fit high-school programs to the individual than it is in the case of adequate and satisfying use of leisure hours. In no phase of educational endeavor is there need for greater variety; from individual to group activity, from direct participation to intelligent spectatorship, and from art to woodcraft. The needs of youth for education, in better use of leisure time embrace developing and matching of skills in boxing, wrestling, and fencing; games such as checkers, bridge, billiards, pingpong, chess, horseshoe pitching, and a multitude of others; fishing, handicrafts of a vast variety; clubs such as camera, wood carving, and weaving; contests such as teams, fairs, exhibits, and others; sports such as swimming, softball, skating, baseball, tennis, basketball, and skiing; music, vocal and instrumental, group and individual, glee clubs, bands, orchestras, and record playing; literature, including both reading and writing; folk and social dancing; pageants and festivals; drama and theater; painting and sketching; gardening; camping; social such as Red Cross, scouting, and Community Chest; and a host of others. Emphasis should be given to the carry-over value of such leisuretime activities as those listed above, as well as to their value before the pupil leaves high school. The bridge between school and adult values might be built by the gradual induction of the pupil into related community leisure-time activities as he approaches the end of his school life. Too much emphasis cannot be placed upon activities of an individual character as against group activities. Much of our free time is spent as individuals and not as members of a group. Out of all must come a feeling of a pleasurable and satisfying experience. There can be neither failures nor merely passing marks since each fails to convey a true sense of satisfaction. One reason pupils leave school is to experience the reward of successful accomplishment. They find it in the home, factory, store, office, or farm. The school can help them to find it also in the fine and practical arts. Simple courses in woodworking and home economics will not suffice. There should be opportunities for those who like to play musical instruments or draw or dance, even though they have little skill. Youth should have fundamental experience and a knowledge of products of the textile, printing, bookbinding, metal, electrical, woodworking, ceramic, industrial chemistry, and plastic industries. There is satisfying achievement as well as practical value in reading mechanically made drawings and in sketching with a pencil an idea which cannot be as readily expressed with words. Typing, copying or creating art forms, home and interior decorating, gardening, and landscaping are examples of activities which offer the satisfaction of success and help pupils to learn by doing as well as by reading. Considerably more than half of the total youth group are involved under the Prosser Resolution, with approximately one-third of these being out of school. Many of these youth are school drop-outs returned from employment in war industries and the armed services. In normal times a high percentage of youth is out of school with the implication that they are as much entitled to aid as are those remaining in school. To inspire this entire group, both in and out of school, to use leisure time as an asset is a challenge to the secondary schools. The role of the school in preparing youth for wise use of leisure is threefold: 1. To provide a broad program of learning experiences which will give to all youth interests and skills which can be used in out-of-school activities, such as, handicrafts, photography, music, social dancing, sports, and parlor games, and to manage these experiences in such a way that each will d. Relate his interests and skills to the recreational facilities and programs of the community. 2. To sponsor a rich program of group activities in which all have equal opportunity to participate. Student participation in school government intramural sports, clubs, social affairs-these suggest the type of activities envisaged. 3. To make available the resources of the school for a broad recreational program in out-of-school time for all of the youth of the community. The leisure-time activities program of the school fails to make the maximum contribution to the growth and development of youth who are the chief concern of the Prosser Resolution whenever: 1. Marks are used as a screening for participants. 2. The emphasis is on competition rather than wide participation. 3. Small cliques dictate the general pattern of school life. 4. Expensive insignia are used as badges of membership in organized groups. 5. Social affairs are expensive and formal. Many of the implications which have been mentioned and discussed briefly in this section were among the items considered at the regional conferences. Other suggestions have been drawn from publications well known and generally accepted.2 HEALTH AND SAFETY 27 "An educated person understands the basic facts concerning health and disease * * * protects his own health and that of his dependents and works to improve the health of the community." 28 Basic to all the other needs pointed out in this document as desirable and essential for secondary-school age youth is health. Without health, money spent on these other phases of education will render a very small return. Provision for the most basic types of education, involving such tools of learning as language and mathematics, will be of more value if the individual being taught is healthy and is aided in maintaining, safeguarding, and improving that health. Without health, leisure will not be as enjoyable; attempts at the provision of work experience and occupational adjustment will be diminished. Most industries now require that all applicants must pass a preemployment medical examination. Physical, mental, and emotional health are the very warp and woof of satisfactory home and family life, and the expressed rights and privileges of citizenship are little more than hollow platitudes unless the individual is fit to defend and enjoy them. The characteristics of the youth described in this publication indicate that they have great need and they certainly have a right to expect much from the school in the area of health and safety. A comprehensive program of health service, health and safety instruction, and physical education can do much toward mitigating the effects of the factors producing these characteristics. Such a program is envisaged in the following platform: 29 1. As shown by the draft, approximately 50 percent of American youth have disabling defects, HENCE It is necessary to have medical examinations for every young person of school age, the type of examination and the orgainzation necessary to be determined by organized medicine and public health. 27 These references were particularly helpful: American Council on Education. Youth and the Future. Washington, D. C., The Council, 1942. 296 p. Education for All American Youth. Op. cit. Youth-Leisure for Living. Washing(Bulletin 1936, No. 18-II.) U. S. Office of Education. Committee on Youth Problems. ton, U. S. Government Printing Office, 1936. 126 p. 28 The Purposes of Education in American Democracy. Op. cit., p. 60–62. 29 Platform of the American Association for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation. In American Association of School Administrators, Twenty-third Yearbook, Paths to Better Schools. Washington, D. C., National Education Association, 1945. p. 67. |