The interest that was created by these meetings and the value of the work accomplished went beyond the expectations of the principal. Many of the pupils changed their programs for the succeeding term so that they might select subjects that would fit them better for the vocations they expected to follow. Other pupils stated that it was through what they had learned at the meetings they had decided to change the vocation they had previously had in mind.
Many of the student difficulties are due to the unfamiliarity of the parent with what the school has to offer. I recall one instance in which a gentleman called at the office and openly criticized the high school for not offering work whereby his daughter could learn something that would be useful to her in earning a living. I listened to his complaint, and then asked him if he would spend five minutes in going about the building with me. He refused at first to do so but finally consented to my request. I took him to the sewing rooms, the cooking rooms, the art rooms, and finally to the typewriting and office-practice rooms. He was astonished to see that the very subjects he was criticizing the schools for not offering were available at any time for his daughter if she wished to take them. He apologized for his attack on the school and assured me that henceforth he would give attention to the work his daughter pursued in school.
A few years ago the mayor of the city was invited to address the pupils at an assembly. At the conclusion of the program I asked him to spend a few minutes viewing the work offered in the school. After some hesitation he accepted the invitation, and before he left the building he said, “I am ashamed to say it, but I have lived in this city for twenty years and this is the first time that I have had any idea of the work that our high schools are offering. I feel very much better prepared now to champion the cause of education.”
It is easy for some patrons to feel that a high school education is useless because now and then they see a boy or girl fail in a position who had previously had some high school training. They forget that the high school of to-day is called upon to serve a much more diversified group of pupils than ever before, and it is not always able to determine in every case just the type of work that the boy or girl needs in order to make a success in life.
The schools are making strenuous efforts to give each individual pupil a chance to adjust himself to a vocation. The junior high school organization, classification of pupils according to ability, tests and measurements, and vocational guidance are all means to this end. The schoolmaster of tomorrow must realize that there is much good in the education of the past, but that the changing conditions in our social and industrial life must be met with similar readjustments in the program of education.