Vocational Aspirations, Intelligence, Problems and Socio-Economic Status of Rural Negro High School Seniors on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Their Implications for Vocational Guidance

Abstract

The vocation problems and adjustments of Negro youth are similar in general to those of other American racial groups, but there are several factors which operate to make satisfactory and intelligent adjustment more serious for them. In the states which operate upon the philosophy of the separation of the races, the Negro youth are exposed to many inequalities in the educational, economic and social life of the several communities. Schools and job opportunities in many instances are not on a par with those of other racial groups. These factors have a tendency to differenciate the function of vocational guidance, especially for the Negro in Southern rural areas. According to the records the percentage of rural Negroes who pursue training beyond high school is very small and mortality in the high schools is large. It is evident that over three-fourths of the high school graduates do not continue their education beyond high school and that these same graduates are forced to find employment in the local communities. Job opportunities based upon the type of labor engaged in by the majority of Negroes particularity in Marylands rural areas are limited to unskilled labor (farm and factory), and domestic service occupations.' Guidance services and techniques have been neglected along with other phases of education resulting from existing segregated schools. An examination of the literature shows that studies dealing with the dynamics which