A fortunate situation

D

EMAND for graduates of vocational training courses is increasing, according to reports from various States. The latest news from Massachusetts, for instance, is that "young men and women who have had the benefit of vocational training are in a happy position at the present time." This report comes from Walter B. Dennen, president of the Massachusetts Vocational Association, who states further: "Since 1935 employment has been obtained for 250 graduates of the Worcester Boys' Trade School, 85 percent of whom were placed in the trade for which they were trained. One hundred and seventy-five of these students graduated with the class of 1935, the remainder having completed training during the depression years. All through the period of business activity it was possible to place the majority of those who had satisfactorily completed courses in skilled trades." In addition President Dennen reports that "800 men are receiving training in evening school sessions in Worcester" and that "not one graduate of our metal trades need be out of employment today." What has been said of Worcester, Mr. Dennen declares, "is equally true of the entire vocationaleducation program throughout the State of Massachusetts. The present need is for an expansion of vocational activities as a means of helping people obtain employment. Our position is fortunate in that the demand for trained men in many fields exceeds the supply."

Minnesota diversifies

The variety of vocational training in the trade and industrial field carried on in Minnesota during the year is indicated in brief notes set down in the annual report from that State. Employees in the tailoring business in Minneapolis were in need of training in extension classes. A group of 14 men in this trade were reached in part-time classes. An advanced class in welding reached 31 men who needed such training. Through the cooperation of the city board of education and the garment industry, girls in this occupation were trained to an

employment level. New evening vocational classes were organized at Elyone in stair construction for carpenters and one in welding and forging for new mechanics. Blue-print reading classes were operated at Sleepy Eye and Hastings. Part-time store and office training at East Grand Forks is progressing satisfactorily, the Minnesota report shows. A new idea was introduced into the instructional program of these commercial

A future tailor in the Peckham Vocational High School, Buffalo, handfinishing a garment.

courses. Each week a representative local business man talked to the 24 students enrolled in the course on the scope and opportunities of the business or trade in which he was engaged. This plan not only resulted in vitalizing the instruction but also brought about a closer correlation between class work and actual work on the job.

A bargain

An adaptation of the "floating university" plan will be carried out during the summer by the farm crops and animal husbandry divisions of Iowa State College for the benefit of college agricultural students and teachers of vocational agriculture. The plan calls for a trip of

approximately 4,500 miles through 11 States. Those who enroll for the "course" will have opportunity to observe erosioncontrol projects in Missouri, large-scale wheat farming in Kansas, cotton farming in Texas and Mississippi, sugarcane and rice growing in Louisiana, tobacco culture in Tennessee, and sorghum growing in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Livestock problems will be studied on farms in Missouri, the tall-grass regions of Kansas, ranches of west Texas, and the bluegrass region of Kentucky. A stop will be made at the Texas Centennial Exposition, Fort Worth, and a trip will be made up the Tennessee River Valley. The cost of the entire course, exclusive of registration fee, will not exceed $95 for each student, including all expenses for food, shelter, and transportation. The 8-hour credit which will be allowed for completion of the course may be applied on graduate credit.

Practical relief

Along with their practical training in homemaking pursuits, vocational home economics students all over the country have, during the depression period, been experiencing the satisfaction which comes in rendering service to needy families. Here is one illustration: A mother and six children ranging in age from 1 to 12, were on the relief rolls in a given community. A vocational home economics class in the local high school undertook to help this family. Menus were planned, and through the cooperation of Red Cross officials and county commissioners, arrangements were made for the class to do all the family buying for 1 month. The mother had never cooked by directions, so specific directions for preparing the meals were given by the teacher. This project was taken over on April 1. The teacher made visits to the family two or three times a week, and with the help of the class bought the family food supplies and planned the menu for 2 months. In the meantime the family was moved into a clean, well-built house, and the mother and children were given help in planning a garden. Gradually the mother was able to take over all the responsibility. In July, when the teacher of the homemaking class left town, the family was

managing its food buying and menu
planning without the help of teacher or
class members. Local merchants re-
ported that the mother was distributing
purchases over the month much more
efficiently than before. She continued to
use the work sheets provided by the class.
Of further interest, also, is the fact that
she acted as an adviser and consultant to
other women on relief and has been help-
ing them with recipes and menus. Even-
tually she became a leader among those on
relief, and her attitude changed from one
of discouragement to one of hopefulness.

Retail selling course

To meet the increasing need for training in store service and selling occupations, an effective plan for a cooperative parttime class in retail selling has been worked out by the board of education of Des Moines, Iowa, and the local retail merchants bureau. Instruction in retail selling, which will cover a period of 2 years, will be open to twelfth-grade pupils. To teach the course an instructor, especially trained and experienced in store and teaching work, is to be employed. Those who enroll will devote their mornings to instruction in the schoolroom and their afternoons to work in the stores, which will be varied and on an apprenticeship basis. Beginning compensation will average about $3 a week. An effort will be made to insure experience in both the office and distributive phases of store operation. One semester of general salesmanship training is to be a prerequisite for those who enroll in the course. A maximum of 30 pupils, to be selected on a merit basis, will be admitted to the course. Seven or eight leading merchandising establishments have agreed to cooperate in the plan. Part of the salary of the teacher will be paid from State and Federal funds. The Iowa State Board for Vocational Education is cooperating in this project.

Local responsibility Disabled persons are citizens of local communities and are in large measure a responsibility of these communities. It is right, therefore, that the local community should participate in the vocational rehabilitation of such persons. Examples of the effectiveness of local cooperation in rehabilitating disabled persons are to be found in a number of States. Three counties in the State of FloridaDuval in which Jacksonville is located, Hillsborough in which Tampa is located, and Dade in which Miami is located-are now cooperating with the Florida State Department of Education through its rehabilitation division, in the vocational rehabilitation of their disabled citizens.

Each of these counties-the county is the educational unit in Florida-through its board of education allotted funds for rehabilitation purposes and named a local rehabilitation agent. Funds made available by the county are matched by funds from the State.

The county rehabilitation agents work under the direction of Mr. Claud M. Andrews, State supervisor of rehabilitation, and conduct their programs in accordance with principles and policies promulgated by the State rehabilitation service.

It is planned to enlarge the territory of each of the three local agents by adding adjoining counties to his territory. Counties thus added will participate financially in the program. This grouping of counties will enable the local supervisor to serve the handicapped in a total population of 250,000 or more, and in a much more effective way than was possible when each community endeavored to carry on a separate program.

Modifications of the plan here described are now in operation at Gary, Ind., and at St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minn. This plan lends itself to any community with a population of 200,000 or more.

Dimmitt appointed

Roy Dimmitt, who until recently was teacher-trainer in industrial education at Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind., has been appointed special agent for trade and industrial education for the vocational education division, Federal Office of Education. Born in Shelbyville, Mo., Mr. Dimmitt received his early educational training in the elementary and high schools of that city. He holds a bachelor of science degree from the Uni

Roy Dimmitt.

versity of Missouri and a master of arts degree from the University of Indiana.

Mr. Dimmitt has had broad experience in the fields of general and vocational education. Among the positions he has filled since his graduation from college are the following: Director in industrial education at Birmingham, Ala.; State high school inspector for Alabama; agent trade and industrial education for southern region, Federal Board for Vocational Education, now a division of the Office of Education; State director of vocational education and State supervisor of industrial education for Maryland; director of student activities and executive secretary, Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Auburn, Ala. He began service with Purdue University in 1927. As regional agent for the Southern States, Mr. Dimmitt was a member of the original staff of the Federal Board for Vocational Education, when it was organized under the provisions of the Smith-Hughes Act.

Mr. Dimmitt takes the place made vacant by the appointment of C. F. Klinefelter as educational consultant of the Vocational Education Division of the Office of Education.

Patience and caution Vocational agriculture students learn among other things how to make practical experiments in raising farm crops. For illustration, there is the experimental work in fertilizing tomatoes, conducted by Jack Fletcher in the Redland district, Florida. At the suggestion of his agricultural teacher he made an experiment to determine whether salt applied to his tomato plants as a fertilizer would act as a deterrent to aphis. No aphis attacked the crop in the first year of the experiment, so that no conclusions could be drawn concerning the deterrent effect of the salt. Observation showed, however, that the tomatoes from the salted rows were more firm and heavier than from unsalted rows. Impressed with the results of the first year's test, Fletcher is making a second test this year. Incidentally, he is checking his results with tests being made by other vocational agriculture students, farmers, laboratories, and commercial fertilizer concerns, with a view to getting a cross check from the composite experiments. He isn't jumping at conclusions, either, until his and other tests have demonstrated conclusively the effectiveness of salt as a fertilizer or as an insect deterrent. His statement with regard to the results of his experiments indicates that he is developing the curiosity as well as the patience and caution of the true researcher.

CHARLES M. ARTHUR

To have or not to have teachers' oaths? Considerable discussion revolved around this matter at the recent Department of Superintendence meeting in St. Louis. Somebody dug up a doctors' oath with a B. C. date the Hippocratic oath. William McAndrew, former Chicago superintendent, therewith produced his suggested teachers' oath with an A. D. date the McAndrean oath (he did not name it, we did that).

Hippocratic Oath. The New International Encyclopedia says that the Hippocratic oath was "an oath taken by young men in the early days on entering upon the practice of medicine. cient times the oath was ascribed to Hippocrates and is probably authentic.

"It runs as follows:

In an

"I swear by Apollo, the physician, by Esculapius, by Hygieia, Panacea, and all the gods and goddesses, that according to my ability and judgment I will keep this oath and stipulation: To reckon him who teaches me this art equally dear with my parents; to share my substance with him and to relieve his necessities if required; to look upon his offspring upon the same

footing as my own brothers; and to teach them this art if they shall wish to learn it, without fee or stipulation; and that by precept, lecture, and by every other mode of instruction I will impart a knowledge of this art to my own sons, to those of my teachers, and to disciples bound by a stipulation and oath, according to the law of medicine, but to no others. I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my best judgment, I consider best for my patients and abstain from whatever is injurious. I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked nor suggest any such counsel. Furthermore, I will not give to a woman an instrument to procure abortion. With purity and holiness will I pass my life and practice my art. I will not cut a person who is suffering with stone, but will leave this to be done by those who are practitioners of such work. Into whatever houses I enter I will go for the advantage of the sick and will abstain from every voluntary act of mischief and corruption, and, further, from the seduction of females or males, bond or free. Whatever in connection with my professional practice, or not in connection with it, I may see or hear, I will not divulge, holding that all such things should be kept secret. While I continue to keep this oath inviolate, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and the practice of my art, respected always by all men; but should I break through and violate this oath, may the reverse be my lot.""

Some medical colleges of today impose a simpler obligation in the form of an admonition and an affirmation, to which the graduating class assents.

McAndrean Oath. The teachers' oath suggested by Dr. McAndrew is:

"I swear to defend the equal rights of citizens to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

"I swear in accordance with American right and duty to favor a change in government when government fails to secure these rights.

"I swear that I will aid teachers to secure for the people of this Nation a more perfect union, justice, domestic tranquillity, general welfare, and the blessings of liberty.

"I swear in accordance with the promise of our Constitution that I shall resist all efforts to abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, including teachers.

"In furtherance of this, my solemn oath, I pledge my life, my fortune, and my sacred honor."

National Commander Ray Murphy in a current issue of the National Legionnaire. His statement is:

"The American Legion has never as an organization opposed academic freedom. It does not oppose dissemination of knowledge relative to communism, fascism, or any ism, but it believes that the study of such isms in secondary schools and colleges should be approached with care, and with certainty that information relative thereto is not the product of any school of anti-American propaganda. The American system of government can well afford to stand comparison with others, and Americanism will stand any test in competition with the various other isms, such as communism and fascism. If the study of such isms is from an American angle, well and good. If not, why not invite the agents of such isms to chairs in our colleges instead of taking their doctrines second hand?

"I am for academic freedom, which is more secure in America than elsewhere, generally speaking. I am not for the study of such isms under the guise of academic freedom, if in fact the direction of such study is in the hands of special advocates. Let loyal Americans give unbiased information, and American institutions will not be undermined.

"I have doubted the value of a teacher's oath as a means of combating subversive influences. Probably the agents of such influences could take such an oath with mental reservations without batting an eye or without a qualm of conscience. Nevertheless, I fail to see where an oath to support the constitution of State and Nation is an abridgment of academic freedom. Public officers, from notaries public to the President of the United States, take such an oath. Men who enlist in their Nation's defense do likewise. What harm can there be in teachers taking such an oath in America, where academic freedom is supreme and guaranteed by the charters which, under such an oath, they would swear to support? It is my opinion that an oath of that type is an oath to support academic freedom, and all of the freedom which is prevalent in America under American institutions.

"What is academic freedom and what is anti-American propaganda is another thing. The freedom of America is derived from American institutions. It does not exist in like degree elsewhere. 'Freedom' that does not recognize the fact may well be tainted with suspicion. I am happy in the belief, however, that American secondary schools and colleges as a class are loyal, and the very cradle of true American citizenship."

H

AS a tendency developed among the States for the governor to assume greater influence over the State universities and colleges through the control of the amount of State funds to be given them for their support?

1

In recent years, and especially during the past decade, practically every State has established an executive budget system which confers the right on the governor or an agency under his immediate direction to recommend to the legislature the biennial appropriations to be made to each of the institutions. A still greater instrument in the hands of the governor, however, is the power provided for in many States to veto items or parts of items in the appropriation bill after it has passed both houses of the legislature.

In all States, with the exception of Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Vermont, the governor possesses this power. Since the governor is enabled to select for veto any items or parts of an item he so desires from the appropriations for the State institutions and since his veto can be overcome only by a two-thirds vote of both houses of the legislature, it is possible for him to exercise a potent influence over the educational policies and academic program of the universities or colleges.

In a number of States the governor from time to time has vetoed items or parts of items of appropriations for other offices, bureaus, or departments of the State government. The present information is limited to cases applying exclusively to State institutions of higher education.

The most outstanding example occurred at the 1935 session of the Ohio Legislature. After the legislature had enacted the appropriation bill for the biennium of 1936-37, the Governor vetoed a large number of items included in the appropriations made for the State's six universities. In the following tabulation are shown the institutions by name,

The legislatures of five States meet every year and make annual appropriations. One State legislature meets quadrennially.

John H. McNeely, Research Assistant, Division of Higher Education, Points Out Trend Toward Greater Influence of Governors Upon Colleges and Universities

the number of items or parts of items vetoed, and the amount of the appropriations eliminated for each:

Another example is found in the State of Missouri. Although not on such a large scale, the Governor of this State vetoed items in the appropriations for the support of seven institutions made at the legislative session of 1935 as shown by the preceding tabulation.

Individual items or parts of items vetoed by the Missouri Governor varied in amount from $250 to $55,000. A considerable proportion of the items dealt with the educational work of the institutions, such as salaries for staff members, summer session, agricultural and home economics extension service and agricultural experiment station investigations. General lack of funds was attributed by the Governor as his principal reasons for eliminating or reducing the items. In the case of one item for the agricultural experiment station investigation, the Governor stated that it duplicated work already being done by the United States Department of Agriculture.

New Mexico is another State where the Governor exercised this veto power. Below are shown the results of the Governor's action in the case of the 1936-37 appropriation bill passed by the legislature in 1935.

Amount of items of approvetoed by priations governor eliminated

Spanish-American

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