The above clause in the Hawaiian School Law might be changed to one permitting a child who has failed to make a certain grade after attending school a given number of years, to take industrial training plus a certain number of days of school attendance, as this is undoubtedly its intent.
The clause permitting a child to leave school at the age of fifteen and go to work, regardless of what grade has been reached, is also not in accordance with the most progressive laws in force elsewhere.
Cincinnati has approached the German continuation school plan by passing a law making it compulsory for a child to be either in school or at work after fifteen, a day’s attendance at school each week being required until the eighteenth year if the child goes to work at the age of fifteen. A certain grade rating must have been reached, however, before working papers can be obtained on this basis; and the child must also pass a medical examination which proves him to be in fit physical condition to become a wage-earner.
Before working papers are issued, moreover, a position must be obtained, a signed card from the prospective employer being the basis on which permission to work is given. Each time a position is changed these papers are re-issued, and no employer is permitted by law to engage a boy or girl under eighteen on papers issued to any other employer. A physical examination is made each time the working papers are re-issued in order that it may be noted what effect if any an occupation is having on a child’s health.
A careful record is kept of the child’s family history, as well as of the occupation in which he is engaged; and his working history if more than one position is held. This latter gives the reason for changing, and helps in the study of a child’s capabilities.
At the time of graduation parents of each child are sent a circular by the Board of Education in which are described the further educational advantages offered by the city or state—high schools, trade schools, etc.—and the time necessary to be spent in each; also the probable advantages accruing from each course. The parents are asked to consult with the vocational bureau, which receives also the report of the teacher in charge of vocational matters in each school.
With the help of such a bureau boys and girls have been prevented from entering occupations offering no chance for advancement, and have been placed in line to earn an adequate livelihood. Where mental equipment justifies it, children who would otherwise be obliged to become wage-earners are granted scholarships enabling them either to take training in a trade school or to continue their studies in high school. This aid is given in Cincinnati in the form of a loan granted by the Charlotte Schmidlapp Foundation. In New York the scholarships are supported by a philanthropic committee, connected with the Henry Street Settlement.
Dean Herman Schneider, of the School of Engineering in the University of Cincinnati, has been working out a continuation school plan whereby instead of a trade school with expensive equipment the students in the School of Engineering are given their shop training in the factories, their instructors giving part time to factory work and part time in the University. In this way not the least valuable lesson learned is the knowledge gained by the University itself of what methods of instruction are actually of value as applied to business practice.
Mr. Schneider is also giving much attention to the question of temperaments suited to various occupations. A highly organized nervous temperament cannot permanently engage in enervating work—i.e. work done over and over again by each worker in the smallest number of cubic feet of space—without making for the breakdown of the individual unless the period of work is shortened sufficiently to permit this worker to engage in some other form of activity which will counteract the effect of his daily occupation. This prescription of vocation and avocation Mr. Schneider conceives to be the real function of vocational guidance; and he freely confesses that he is as yet far from a solution of the problem.
In his analysis of work he says: “It is fundamental that mankind must do stimulating work or retrogress. This is the bed-rock upon which our constructive programs of education, industry, sociology—of living, must rest.... One may safely propose as a thesis that only that civilization will prevail whose laws and life conform most nearly of Natural Law. The worth of our education, our laws, our scientific management will be determined by the extent to which they will make clear, conform with and supplement the laws of work. Their test will lie in the degree to which they are useful in leading us safely forward to better, brighter condition of work and their basic idea must be service to the mass.”