Excerpt from Vocational Guidance: The Teacher as a Counselor

The school is an industrial school in fact as well as in name. It could justly be called a vocational school, for many of the boys obtain here the guidance and training for their life work. The great majority of the four hundred boys are from twelve to sixteen years of age, the right age for guidance. One half of their day is spent in the schoolroom and one half in manual training in the shops or in outdoor work. A short daily period and Saturday afternoon are given to play. In the free life of the school the new boys soon learn by conversation with their older and more experienced cottage mates, or with their masters or teachers, and by personal observation in the various shops, the kind of work which they would like to do.

Instruction in agriculture was given once a week in all the sc'hoolrooms. A school garden plot was planted and cared for by each boy in school hours. Two cottages also had garden plots for the boys. Instruction in dairy ing was given to about twenty-five boys in connection with the practical work of caring for the herd of sixty milch cows. Opportunities for driving the school teams were open to four or five boys.

For five months all the boys were given a half day's work each day in manual training. Then forty boys showing good mechanical ability were advanced to five months' work in wood turning and in forge work. A few of these were advanced to machine work. Twenty other boys showing good mechanical skill in the sloyd classes were advanced directly into the carpenter shop to learn the trade.

Fifteen boys were at work in the shoe shop, repairing and making shoes. Thirty boys mended and made the shirts, overalls, and suits worn by the pupils. Ten boys worked in the bakery and twenty in the laundry.

One of the best vocational departments, the printing shop, was directly connected with the grade schools. Here forty boys received excellent training for one of the best of the high-skilled occupations. A school paper was published once a week, and in it were printed the best articles and essays written by the boys in school. Superintendent Chapin had some very definite ideas on education. He allowed no formal grammar to be taught in the school, but debates, letter writing, reports of ser mons and addresses, stories of excursions and all other experiences interesting to boys were made the basis of literary work. The printing department proved of in valuable service in all the school work.

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