A Plan of Vocational Guidance

Abstract

This article is contributed with the view that it may suggest a way to handle the problem of vocational guidance in the high school. At present there seems to be no clear or definite agreement on this matter. The situation is muddled. No tenable theory is at hand. Some literature is available on the subject, but we are short of examples. The plan presented in this paper is offered as an example merely. It has not been written up because the plan has been brought to a state of perfection, or the problem solved and fixed; quite the contrary, it lacks detail, and on account of the brief time that it has been in operation, or rather in process of evolution, it is seriously deficient in any statistical confirmation. Nevertheless the plan has been a marked success in its working out, and can be defended from a practical administrative standpoint. The organization of vocational guidance as carried out in the Mishawaka High School includes the following steps: I. A vocational survey of the city. 2. Differentiation of the high-school courses for vocational guidance purposes. 3. A collateral reading-list on the vocations for use in the English department. 4. Frequent use of the assembly periods for talks on the vocations by men and women engaged in them. 5. Conferences with the members of the graduating class upon what they expect to do after leaving high school. 6. Talks to the eighth grade on the vocational value of the high-school courses. 7. Having students express their vocational expectancy and choice of course on their enrolment blanks. 8. A course on the vocations is offered for credit.