For Youth's Sake Student Employment Planning School Buildings • Observation and Rating of Behavior Difficulties Vocational Education in Review CCC Camps Make Summer Plans Preparing to Teach Exceptional Children Official Organ of the Office of Education WRITE TO: The Office of Education, Nursery-Kindergarten- Secondary Education Colleges and Professional SCHOOL LIFE Congress, in 1867, established the Office of Education to "collect such statistics and facts as shall show the condition and progress of education in the several States and Territories"; to "diffuse such information as shall aid in the establishment and maintenance of efficient school systems"; and "otherwise to promote the cause of education throughout the country." To diffuse expeditiously information and facts collected, the Office of Education publishes SCHOOL LIFE, a monthly service, September through June. SCHOOL LIFE provides a national perspective of education in the United States. Order its service for 1 year by sending $1.00 to the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. To foreign countries, $1.45 a year. On all orders for 100 copies or more to be sent to one address, the Superintendent of Documents allows a discount of 25 percent. Enter subscriptions also through magazine dealers. Send all editorial communications pertaining to SCHOOL LIFE to Editorial Division, Office of Education, U. S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D. C. The printing of SCHOOL LIFE has been approved by the Director of the Budget. For Youth's Sake SURELY we owe to the next generation the kind of education that will release its fullest intellectual powers to grapple with the problems of its day. Our own ideas and doctrines have not solved our own problems. They have not done so in any generation. But we only store up trouble for our children when we use our schools to pass on to the younger generation doctrines which may already be obsolete or doctrines which we can merely calculate will fit some future day. No generation can see clearly the demands of the future. I do not believe that youth should be indoctrinated with our own prejudices or our own hopes. Instead, I believe that youth should be taught how to think clearly; how to reason; how to weigh evidence; how to be constructively critical. This is the major task of education. Young people thus trained should be better able to meet new situations, because they have learned not what to think but how to think; not what to believe but how to earn a belief; not what an answer is but how to find an answer. They will be prepared to build finer communities than we have built, if they are thus taught. The very idea of "a finer community" suggests changes-improvements of the present over the past; improvements of the future over the present. The question mark boldly written across the horizon today concerns not whether change is coming but how it will come and what course it will take. Will the processes of democracy, of group decision, enable society to move forward in a peaceful way? The answer to that question depends largely upon how soundly we are able to strengthen the educational foundations of a democratic society. And for the sake of youth-home, school, and community should cooperate toward that goal. Vocational Education in Review E XPERIENCE has demonstrated that solutions to many problems which arise in connection with a publicly supported program of vocational education cannot be found by school administrators alone. A number of States are making effective use of both State and local advisory committees in setting up and conducting vocational education programs. These committees are composed of employers, employees, and educators. States overmatch funds Under the provisions of the SmithHughes Act, States receiving Federal grants for vocational education are required to match them dollar for dollar. During the first year in which the act was operative, 1918, the States as a whole contributed $2.65 for every dollar of Federal money. This matching rate climbed steadily until it reached a peak in 1934, when $3.06 of State and local money was contributed for every dollar of Federal money. Due to the depression period, the rate dropped and in 1935, the States contributed $2.13 for every dollar of Federal money. Last year, however, the States increased their matching rate, contributing $2.43 of State and local money for every dollar of Federal money allotted to them for Vocational education. Enrollments increase The enrollment of 1,381,701 persons in vocational classes in agriculture, trade and industry, and home economics, reported by the States for 1936, represents an increase of 134,178 over the previous year. Of the total number enrolled, 391,168 were farmers, employed industrial workers, and homemakers receiving instruction in subjects relating to their daily employment; 334,513 were employed youth enrolled in part-time classes; and 656,020 were youth enrolled in full-time classes, preparing for employment in agricultural, trade and industrial, and homemaking pursuits. Agricultural education For the fourth successive year, an exceptional load has been placed on teachers of vocational agriculture in C. M. Arthur, Research Specialist, Vocational Education Division, Office of Education, Reviews Services of That Division and Presents Statements From Chiefs J. C. Wright, Assistant Commissioner for Vocational Education, "The growth of the vocational education program is measured not only by enrollments but by its effectiveness in fitting the individual for work, in the factory, in the office, on the farm, and in the home."-J. C. WRIGHT, Assistant Commissioner for Vocational Education. acquainting farmers with recovery programs promulgated by recovery organizations, and in helping them to adjust their farming operations to meet new economic and social conditions. The greatest expansion ever recorded in part-time instruction for out-of-school farm youth, 16 to 25 years of age, in agriculture and such related subjects as economics, civics, and sociology, took place in the States last year. The resignation of many well-trained and experienced agricultural teachers who have accepted higher-salaried positions in emergency and recovery agencies has created a difficult replacement situation in many States. A glance at the reports from the States in the four regions-North Atlantic, Central, Pacific, and Southern-shows that commendable progress has been made during the year in activities included in the vocational agriculture program. Among the outstanding developments in these regions are: Adoption by many agricultural teachers of the cross-section program under which instruction in major farming enterprises is distributed through the 4-year course; focusing attention upon the supervised farm practice program of students as the nucleus for permanent farm business; formulation of plans for placing vocational agriculture graduates; development of a consciousness among agricultural graduates of a need for continuation training after they have left school, to meet specialized problems in their farming operations; expan sion of "live-at-home" instruction programs for both whites and Negroes; development of self-sufficient community programs under Works Progress Administration education funds, involving the organization of cooperative associations, canning centers, sawmills, curing houses, and forums. F.F.A. and N. F.A. activities The farm and community improvement projects, thrift banks, public-speaking contests, pest-control programs, and various other projects carried on by the local chapters of the Future Farmers of America and its counterpart, the New Farmers of America, composed of Negro vocational agriculture students, have done much during the year to advance the cause of agriculture and to focus attention upon the effectiveness of vocational agriculture departments. Trade and industrial education Continued efforts have been made by the States during the year to provide training for those whose vocational skill |