THIRD INSTITUTE.

In making the outlines for the township institutes, the editor of Educational Resources of Village and Rural Communities, omitted several chapters and did not take up the others in the order in which they appear in the book. Some of the chapters omitted in the township institute outlines will be included in the reviews for the Educator-Journal readers. In this month's review Chapter III is included with Chapter IV.

Those teachers who have caught 'he vision of the real purpose of the school will agree with Mr. Hart's statement that "he who would go into a community to serve that community as teacher, minister or physician in any sense, must not forget that his first duty is to investigate and understand the resources that are before him. It is his duty not to destroy those resources and attempt to develop others; it is his business to understand and to cu'tivate the resources that are there."

Of a community's resources none are of more importance than the men, women and children of the community, and of these human resources the children are the most important. They

have their lives to live. The future with all of its possibilities is before them. It is our duty as teachers to free ourselves from the purely academic method of teaching and to make use of the essential facts of human life in the great task of conserving the resources represented in the children of the community. If the influences in the community are such as to destroy ambition, to create discouragement, to foster lethargy, to develop an unprogressive spirit; it is our duty as teachers to counteract those influences in every way possible. Children must be trained to love work. Labor that is constructive and productive must be dignified. Ability to perform service

in the fundamental industries of stock

raising, mining, lumbering, agriculture, and like activities, must be considered worth acquiring. Equal importance must be attached to manufacturing finished products from the raw materials.

Let each teacher ask himself this question, "Am I showing an active interest in the community's human resources or am I confining my interest to books." Why not become informed as to the population of the

community improperly directed children, the occupational possibilities, the tendency to disregard the value of home and social life for the children, the community's contribution of strong men and women to the world's work, intelligent efforts that are being made to conserve and develop child life?

A review of the problems arising on account of the variations in the physical resources of a community and of the problems confronting us in connections with the human resources is naturally followed by an investigation of the economic activities of the community. Inasmuch as the majority of our time is devoted to making a living, it is important that the economic activities of the community be studied in detail. In Chapter IV we have a fairly complete survey of the economic activities of a typical rural community. In this survey the author has included land in farms, size of farms, increase of acreage in farms, land improved, farm labor, value of farm property, live stock on farms, farm crops, purchase of feed, selling of feed, fruit production, vegetables.

The United States Bureau of the Census report shows that on April 15, 1910, there were in Indiana 215,485 farms. The approximate land area of the state at that time was 23,068,800 acres, and 21,299,823 acres were in farms. The improved land in farms amounted to 16,931,252 acres. The average number of acres per farm was 98.8 acres. There were 441 farms under three acres, 11,508 farms from three to nine acres, 11,695 from 10 to 19 acres, 40,161 from 20 to 49 acres, 67,221 from 50 to 99 acres, 57,261 from 100 to 174 acres, 18,081 from 175 to 259 acres, 8,026 from 260 to 499 acres, 949

from 500 to 999 acres and 142 of 1,000 acres and over.

From 1900 to 1910 there was a decrease of land in farms to the extent of 319,800 acres, but during the same period there was an increase of improved land in farms amounting to 250,894 acres, and the value of farm property increased to the extent of $830,518,767. The total value of farm property was $1,809,135,238. This total value is divided as follows: Land, $1,328,196,545; buildings, $266,079,051; implements and machinery, $40,999,541; domestic animals, poultry and bees, $173,860,101. Farm animals are reported as follows: Cattle, 1,363,616; value, $39,110,492. Horses, 813,644; value, $87,118,468. Mules, 82,168; value, $9,678,014. Asses and burros, 1,646; value, $291,217. Swine, 3,613,906; value, $23,739,586. 967; value, $5,908,496. value, $20,905.

Sheep, 1,336,

Goats, 7,290;

Information relative to farm crops, fruits, vegetables, etc., can be obtained from the same report from which the foregoing data were taken. In the same report is given information for each county in the State. Each teacher, with the aid of his pupils, should make a survey of his school district. What are the wealth-producing industries? Is agriculture the leading occupation. or one of the chief industries in your community? The children should report to the teacher the number of farms in the school district, a sketch. of each farm should be made, and full information should be obtained relative to the size of each farm, the kind of crops grown and the acreage of each, the kinds of live stock on each farm and the number of each kind, fruits and vegetables grown and the methods

of preservation used in each case, condition of roads, methods of marketing farm products, problem of farm labor in the community, provisions for recreational and social activities in the rural homes.

Is mining one of the wealth-producing industries? How many fathers are engaged in mining? What is the value of the annual products of the mines? What is the average weekly income of a laborer in the mines, and how is his money used?

ر

Have the children make a complete list of the wealth-producing industries in your community and have them find out how many men, women, and children are engaged in these industries. How many boys and girls and young men and young women between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one ears are neither in school nor engaged in steady employment? Why are they not in school and why are they not employed? How many able-bodied men and women over twenty-one years of age are without employment? What has been the kind and extent of their school training?

It would not be advisable, perhaps, to definitely assign to the pupils the task of gathering information relative to the unemployed, but the wise and tactful teacher can get the desired information by a judicious questioning of the children during those moments when his conversation with them is free from conventionalities and when the casual inquiry will not be interpreted as inquisitiveness.

There should be made a careful study of the manufacturing industries of the community. What is manufactured, the value of the annual output

of the factories, the methods of marketing the products, the markets in which they are sold, the number of women and children employed, sanitary conditions in the factories and shops, the apparent and probable effect upon the citizenship of the community of the employment of women and children in the manufacturing establishments, the average weekly wage of men, of women and of children, the home life of the factory employees.

The children should become informed as to the value of the taxable property in the community, the rate of taxation for different purposes, the method of collecting taxes, the way in which public money is expended, the building of roads, the constructing of public buildings and ditches, caring for the poor and defectives.

A community may be measured by the kind of men and women it produces. Are the people of the community industrious, frugal, contented? Are there in the community evidences of turmoil, strife, jealousy and ill will among the people, or are there indications of good fellowship, co-operation and kindness in the community? With the help of the pupils study the lives of the men and the women of the community who are recognized as leaders in educational and church work, of the farmers who have made a success of their business, of those who have gained more than local distinction in business, or in the professions, or in statesmanship, or in the field of invention, literature or art. Have the people of the community a pride in the fact that they are progressive in spirit, that the standard of their public and private life is high, that their schools

are modern in every particular, that their churches are growing in efficiency and spiritual fervor.

Each teacher should give careful thought to the relation his school ought to bear to the life of the community. The atmosphere of the school should be such as to create in the minds of the pupils a respect for hard work. No boy or girl should get from the school the idea that it is the business of the school to prepare one for a life of ease. The work in the school

should be of such a nature as to prepare the pupils for useful service. No matter what their occupation may be the life work of the boys and girls now in the school of preparation will be affected materially by the economic resources of the community in which they take up their activities. The school should aid them in gaining a knowledge of these resources and in preparing themselves for a proper use of them.

“VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE.”

It should be understood at the outset that "vocational guidance" is by no means tied up with industrial or "vocational education" unless you modify your conception of education in the light of the progressive Indiana law which says:

"Vocational education shall mean, any education, the controlling purpose of which is to fit for profitable employment." Vocational guidance underlies preparation for any career,

The State Uniform Course of Study for the Elementary and Township High Schools takes it as the logical first step. A girl entering high school reaches the decision, through vocational guidance and final choice, that she will teach school. Her subjects of work in high school, college or normal are chosen because they will equip her for her "vocational choice.""

No vocation at the present time presents as much available material and

information (our school system) to our pupils on which to base a vocational choice as does "teaching." Since the vast majority of them must choose other vocations on which little or no information is available, the imperative need of vocational guidance is widely apparent, should be recognized at once and administered as the logical first step in vocational education. The multiplication of elective subjects in the course of study, and the selection of the type of high school and college that will best prepare for the vocation chosen, stresses vocational guidance as the first step, or at the farthest, a contemporaneous step with vocational education. The Grand Rapids investigation of "531" boys referred to in the institute outlines, also their detailed plan for teaching vocational guidance, is well worthy the study of every teacher and especially those of English. It will prove illuminating. The detailed plan with favorable comment

may be found in "Examples of Industrial Education"-Leavitt.

This book, along with all the literature put out on vocational guidance, by Boston and New York, should be in every school library and every public library. These Boston Bulletins, representing surveys and investigations of some "80" industries or vocations, could be immediately put to use in every community. Much progress should be made in our schools before surveys and investigations can be made here. The use of these bulletins will convince everybody of their importance and hasten the preparation of those suited to our own commonwealth.

Vocational guidance is to supply what is now missing, certain experiences and information which shall be of value when the time for choice comes. The pupil with a vocational motive back of his school work, though he may choose two or three different ones during his school career, does more work, gets a view of its broader relations, and does better work.

Says Paul H. Hanus, of Harvard: "It is shown that vocational guidance does not mean helping boys and girls to find work, but to find the kind of work they are best fitted by nature and training to do well. It does not mean prescribing a vocation. It does mean bringing to bear on the choice of a vocation organized information and organized common sense."

Thousands of children leave school as soon as the law permits. They drop out, not because they need to; they hunt a job that pays the most, not one they are fit for, nor will prepare for. These children don't know whether they are getting the work they want

to do, they are not on their way to their life career. They are gambling in their own future. The employer does not get the kind of boy that can serve him best, who will stay, who will care. The complaint is a familiar one. The parents do not know what is happening to their children, know where they will come out two or three years hence.

What attracts these boys to the job? All kinds of reasons-except the one vital one-that in this particular work is the promise of their best future development and success. A want "ad," the suggestion of a comrade, or a street acquaintance, and popular

rumor.

Now those who study the field of employment know that the occupations which are most developing for a young person often pay beginners, if anything, a fraction of the wages . which do those that hold out little or no future at all.

The result is that thousands begin a restless career of adventure from job to job and at 18 or 20, when the responsibilities of manhood should begin, they are out upon the streets, discouraged, unfit and unemployed. This army of idle and undeveloped youngsters is the logical feeder of that army, daily before the courts, arrested for felonies of various kinds. This state of affairs represents sheer economic loss, and because largely preventable, is a social crime.

Certainly no act in one's lifetime is more important than the choice of a career and none deserves more careful thought. No step in life unless it be the choice of a husband or wife is more important. Yet the vast majority of our people drift into this or that voca