Vocational Guidance? an Outline
NEWS AND COMMENT.
The Grand Bapids (Mich.) Public Library, co-operating with the Central High School, has compiled a reference list of books on vocational guidance. Mr. Samuel H. Banck, the Librarian, published the list in his Bulletin for October, 1911. In order that his readers “may have a better understanding of the purpose of vocational guidance as carried on in the Central High School,” he includes a brief statement prepared by Prof. Jesse H. Davis, Principal of the school, as follows:
“Vocational guidance aims to direct the thought and growth of the pupil throughout the high school course along the line of preparation for life’s work. The plan is intended to give the pupil an opportunity to study the elements of character that give success in life, and by a careful self analysis to compare his own abilities and opportunities with successful men and women of the past. By broadening his vision of the world’s work, and applying his own aptitudes and tastes to the field of endeavor that he may best be able to serve, it is attempted to stir the student’s ambition and to give a purpose to all his future efforts. Having chosen even a tentative goal his progress has direction. In the later study of moral and social ethics he has a viewpoint that makes the result both practical and effective.
“In order to reach all the pupils in the high school this work is carried on through the department of English, which subject all pupils must take. Brief themes and discussions form the basis of the work. Pupils are directed in their reading along vocational and ethical lines and are advised by teachers who have made a special study of vocational guidance. The following outline is but suggestive of the type of themes and discussions to be used. Each teacher is given opportunity to use her own individuality in working out the details of the scheme.” Outline.
First Year. 1st Semester?Elements of Success in Life. 1. Every Day Problems, (a) The School, (b) The Home, (c) The Athletic Field, (d) The Social Group. 2. Elements of Character, (a) Purpose of Life, (b) Habit, (c) Happiness, (d) Self-control, (e) Work, (f) Health. 2d Semester?Biography of Successful Men and Women. 1. Character Sketches. 2. Comparison of opportunities of and self. 3. Comparison of qualities of and self. Second Year. 1st Semester?The World’s Work. 1. Vocations: Professions, Occupations. 2. Vocations for Men. 3. Vocations for Women. 2d Semester?Choosing a Vocation. 1. Making Use of my Ability. 2. Making Use of my Opportunity. 3. Why I should like to be 4. The Law of Service. Third Year. 1st Semester?Preparation for Life’s Work. 1. Should I go to College? 2. How shall I prepare for my Vocation? 3. Vocational Schools. 4. How shall I get into Business? 2d Semester?Business Ethics. 1. Business Courtesy. 2. Morals in Modern Business Methods. 3. Employer and Employee. 4. Integrity an Asset in Business. Fourih Year. 1st Semester?Social Ethics: The Individual and Society, from the point of view of my vocation. 1. Why should I be interested in (a) Public Schools? (b) The Slums? (c) Social Settlements? (d) Public Charities? (e) The Church? (f) Social Service? 2. The Social Relations of the Business Man. 2d Semester?Social Ethics: The Individual and the State, from thf point of view of my vocation. 1. The Bights of the Individual. 2. Protection to the Individual from the State. 3. The Obligations of Citizenship. 4. The Bights of Property. 5. The Responsibility of Power.
The list of books, which is arranged with reference to the foregoing outline, is very varied and rich in material. It fills eleven columns of small type in the Bulletin, and contains 260 titles, distributed as follows:?Elements of Success in Life, 38; Biography of Successful Men and Women, 51; The World’s Work, 99; Choosing a Vocation, 16; Preparation for Life’s Work, 21; Business Ethics, 8; Social Ethics, the Individual and Society, 13; Social Ethics, the Individual and the State, 14. Mr. Ranck says that he has included in the list books for the teacher as well as for the pupil. Any teacher who acquaints himself with 51 biographies in the course of half a year is doing pretty well, and might be excused from digesting 99 books upon the world’s work; while the ambitious high school graduate who has mastered even as much as the title page and table of contents of each of the 260 volumes will have prepared himself for at least one vocation,?that of a book reviewer.
The list leaves nothing to be desired on the score of completeness and accuracy, and should be in the possession of every high school principal and public librarian, as well as of every teacher of English in high school or college who desires to put vitality into what is too often the perfunctory writing of daily themes.
Miss Margaret Bancroft died January S, 1912.
The subnormal children of the Bancroft Training School at Haddonfield, N. J., have sustained a great loss in the death, on January 3, 1912, of Miss Margaret Bancroft, founder and principal of the school. Twenty-eight years ago Miss Bancroft, who was a teacher in the public schools of Philadelphia, became interested in the backward children of her class. With the encouragement of several physicians, among them Dr W. W. Keen and Dr S. Weir Mitchell, she established a school, the aim of which was to embody, as nearly as possible, every ideal in the training of subnormal children. The school was founded early in 1884. It was thus the first school of its kind in the state of New Jersey* Prom a beginning of but one pupil, without endowment or capital, the school grew and developed. In 1892 the present property “The Lindens was acquired and in 1895 the size of the school became such that incorporation was necessary. In 1904 a property on the Maine coast was purchased to be used during the summer months as a vacation home for the entire school. In the last six years the size of the school has doubled and in 1911 reached the limit of its enrolment. Its founder has left the school in such shape that it will be carried on after her death as it was during her life.
Miss Bancroft’s interest in the subnormal child extended beyond her own school. She was instrumental in getting school authorities to start special classes and to give their attentions to the backward child. She induced the Public Education Association of Philadelphia to inaugurate a department devoted to this phase of education. She also intro298 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC. duced a new method of training, that of having home teachers for defective children. “Within the prison cell of the broken and unresponsive body lies a soul asleep, a personality ready, if its bonds be broken, to expand and grow into beauty and loveliness.” This was the theory on which Miss Bancroft based all her methods of training the subnormal child. Jean Gray Barr.
International Eugenic Congress.
The First International Eugenic Congress is being arranged for by the Eugenics Education Society, to be held in London, July 24-30, 1912. Its objects are, “to make more widely known the results of the investigations of those factors which are making for racial improvement or decay; to discuss to what extent existing knowledge warrants legislative action, and to consider the co-operation of existing societies and workers by the formation of an International Committee or otherwise.”
It may not be generally known that the term Eugenics was coined by the late Sir Francis Galton to denote “the study of the agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations, either physically or mentally.” Papers presented before the Congress will be grouped into four sections: (1) The Bearing upon Eugenics of Biological Research; (2) Of Sociological and Historical Research; (3) Of Legislation and Social Customs; (4) Practical Application of Eugenic Principles, by restriction of the propagation of the unsound and encouragement of the propagation of the fit. In connection with the meetings a small exhibition is being gathered, including relics of Charles Darwin and Francis Galton. The President of the Congress is Major Leonard Darwin, and communications may be addressed to the Hon. Secretary (Mrs. S. Gotto), Eugenics Education Society, 6, York Buildings, Adelphi, London.
Disclaimer
The historical material in this project falls into one of three categories for clearances and permissions:
Material currently under copyright, made available with a Creative Commons license chosen by the publisher.
Material that is in the public domain
Material identified by the Welcome Trust as an Orphan Work, made available with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
While we are in the process of adding metadata to the articles, please check the article at its original source for specific copyrights.