Part 4 (1/2)

Where this work for girls is at its best in Cleveland, it appears to be of a superior character Those who are in charge of the best are in a position to advise as to further extensions and developments It is not difficult to discern certain of these It would appear, for exa should find sorades The girl who does not go on to high school is greatly in need of iven in the sixth grade Each building having a household arts roo h schools are now planning to offer courses in doh schools, all of this work should involve as large a degree of normal responsibility as possible

We o of women, since this is handled in other reports of the Survey

When we turn to theof the boys, we are confronted with problereater difficulty Women's household occupations, so far as retained in the home, are unspecialized Each well-trained household worker does or supervises ive the entire range of household occupations to all girls is a sireatly specialized throughout There is no large remnant of unspecialized labor coive sie and important But in the case ofof labor to give to boys except that which has becoive boys access to a variety of specialized occupations so that they h responsible performance, with the wide and diversified field of ive them some less specialized sample out of that diversified field so that they e of the things that make up the world of productive labor?

Cleveland's reply, to judge frole sample will be sufficient for all except those who attend technical and special schools The city has therefore chosen joinery and cabinet-ins in simple knife-work for an hour a week under the direction of worades it becoht by a special h schools the courses in joinery and cabinet-reatly extend the course in width

Much of this work is of a rather for toward thatof eye and hand,” instead of consciously answering to the deular teachers look upon the fifth and sixth grade sloyd[sic] which they teach with no great enthusiasreatly value the work

The household arts courses for the girls have social purposes in view

As a result they are kept vitalized, and are growing increasingly vital in the work of the city Is it not possible also to vitalize theof the boys--unspecialized pre-vocational training, we ought to call it--by giving it social purpose?

The principal of one of the acadeh schools e for vocational guidance--a social purpose It permitted boys, he said, to try themselves out and to find their vocational tastes and aptitudes The purpose is undoubtedly a valid one The li cannot help a boy to try hi, or couidance is to be a controlling social purpose, theill have to be made more diversified so that one can try out his tastes and abilities in a number of lines And, moreover, each kind of work must be kept as much like responsible work out in the world as possible In keeping work nor is that the pupils bear actual responsibility for the doing of actual work This is rather difficult to arrange; but it is necessary before the activities can be lifted above the level of the usualwill naturally be upon what is little ive free rein to the constructive instinct and to provide the fullest and widest possible opportunities for its exercise But if boys are to try out their aptitudes for work and their ability to bear responsibility in work, then they must try the actually look toward vocational guidance; the social purpose involved will vitalize the work

There is a still more comprehensive social purpose which the city should consider Owing to the interdependence of hureat world of productive labor Most of our civic and social problems are at bottom industrial probleraphy asyouth a wide vision of the fields of man's work, so must we also use actual practical activities ashim familiar in a concrete ith materials and processes in their details, with the nature of work, and with the nature of responsibility On the play level, therefore, constructive activities should be richly diversified This diversity of opportunity should continue to the work level One cannot really know the nature of work or of work responsibility except as it is learned through experience

Let theadopt the social purpose here mentioned, provide the opportunities, means, and processes that it demands, and the ill be wondrously vitalized

It is well to ested is a complicated one on the side of its theory and a difficult one on the side of its practice In the planning it is well to look to the whole program In the work itself it is well to reood way to avoid stuht well be added to the raht well be considered as desirable portions of theof all They lend themselves rather easily to responsible perfors that a school can print for use in its work In so doing, pupils can be given so, supervised for educational purposes, it is possible to introduce normal work-s it will have at the sa more difficult problems

ELEMENTARY SCIENCE

This subject finds no place upon the prograue of the school system of a e the children who do not go beyond the elementary school--and they constitute a e of the rudiments of science if they are to make their lives effective

The future citizens of Cleveland need to know so about electricity, heat, expansion and contraction of gases and solids, the mechanics of machines, distillation, cos about science that are bound to come up in the day's work in their various activities

Considered from the practical standpoint of actual hulect of elementary science is indefensible

The e lessons for coible The topics are not chosen for their bearing upon human needs There is no laboratory work