Vocational Guidance in High School

Abstract

The importance of giving some direction to the youth of today in his very difficult task of finding for what occupation in life he is suited, and the necessity of keeping him, if possible, from drifting into work unintelligently, have led us, in the DeKalb Township High School, into a definite scheme for vocational guidance. This paper presents suggestively the outline we have used for this work. For purposes of description we may divide our work in vocational guidance into three departments: first is what might be called the general survey work with a class of pupils; second, the investigation of industrial conditions in the community; and, third, detailed work with the individual pupil in the endeavor to make as definite as possible the conditions, requirements, and opportunities in a given occupation. Let us take up our work in DeKalb along these three general lines. In the survey work, the principal meets a class in the morning assembly once a week and presents the problem to its members with the following aim: namely, to impress upon the student the importance of a careful choice of his work and the necessity of an accurate knowledge of the various occupations, both that he may decide whether he is fitted to succeed in the particular line of work that he selects, and also that, before plunging into a given occupation, he may fully understand the social conditions which will surround his work, his opportunities for advancement, and the social position into which he would necessarily be brought. The outline as given above may cover two or three talks. The plan is to give the student next, as it were, a bird's-eye view of modern industry considered as related groups, and to discuss these various groups with reference to their fundamental characteristics. This general view corresponds to what might be accomplished by taking a boy through various typical industries and pointing out