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The appropriation for teacher training was $546,000 in 1917–18, and increases yearly to a maximum of $1,090,000 for the year 1920–21, this latter sum being the annual appropriation thereafter. Not more than 60 per cent nor less than 20 per cent of the appropriation for the training of teachers for any year shall be expended for the preparation of teachers, supervisors, or directors of agricultural subjects.

The first year during which the act has been in operation promises well for the future. The machinery for carrying out the provisions of the act has been set up. Agricultural education thought has been stimulated throughout the country. The quality of much of the work previously initiated has been improved because of the recommendations and requirements of the newly created State and Federal boards for vocational education. New work has been started along approved lines. Investigations as to agricultural education. have been instituted, of which some are already completed and others are in progress.

TEACHER TRAINING.

Previous to the passage of the act the States had established and were maintaining, partly through Federal aid, institutions of college grade equipped to prepare practical farmers and specialists in agricultural science. These institutions had not, however, except in a very few instances, established training departments for teachers of vocational agriculture, nor was such training offered in other educational institutions, except in an incomplete, inadequate way. Since the passage of the vocational education act every State has, through its State board for vocational education, set up plans for the training of these teachers, and has designated institutions where the work is to be carried on. (See statistical report, Tables 5, 6, 7, and 8, pp. 95 to 101.)

The importance of this advance is evident. The quality of the teaching is the pivotal fact in any system of schooling. High quality in teaching can be secured only through careful preparation and training. This is especially true with regard to agricultural teaching because of the wide scope and special demands of such work.

The formulating and promulgation of high yet sane ideals as to the qualifications of vocational agriculture teachers, the establishing of standards as to their training, the designating of institutions which shall be federally aided in carrying on such training, and the starting and developing of teacher-training departments in these institutions, furnish a sound foundation and safe insurance for the future betterment and continued success of instruction in vocational agriculture in our public high schools.

STATE SUPERVISORS.

Before the passage of the act very few States had supervisors of Vocational education, and still fewer had special supervisors of agricultural education. Due to the vocational education act, practically every State has now formulated plans for the supervision of the teaching of vocational agriculture in secondary schools. They have set up qualifications for State supervisors and have prescribed duties for the supervisors of agriculture who have been appointed.

The significance of this move will be more fully appreciated in future years. The agricultural supervisor is destined to be no mere holder of an "educational job," but a vital factor in the success of the agricultural education system of his State. It is his duty to inspect, check up, and report on the agricultural work done in the schools; but his supervisory work is inadequately done if it does not result in an improved quality of instruction. It is his duty to discover and point out individual weakness and strength in teachers, to supply them with information as to the work expected from them and the standards to be reached. The professional improvement and training of teachers in service are also included in the work with which he must, in cooperation with the vocational teacher-training institution, concern himself.

If he is thoroughly equipped for his work he will do work of incalculable value in promoting agricultural education in his State. If he is not adequately qualified for his work he may do much harm. In such a case he will, at the least, quench the enthusiasm and ambition of his teachers and prove a distinct bar to progress.

STANDARDIZATION UNDER THE FEDERAL LAW.

In the promotion of vocational agricultural instruction in the public schools, the outstanding advance of the year is not the introduction of agriculture in a large number of schools. It is that Federal aid is being given to qualified schools, standards have been set up for the work, and the trend in high school instruction in agriculture has been definitely and permanently turned toward practicality and vocational efficiency, not merely in a few States but in all.

TRADE AND INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION.

CONDITIONS IN THE COUNTRY AT THE TIME OF PASSAGE OF THE NATIONAL VOCATIONAL EDUCATION LAW.

For the last quarter of a century there has been growing up in the United States a sentiment in favor of a more practical education. The term "vocational education" came prominently to the front after the report of the Douglas Commission in Massachusetts in 1906.

This term, however, had various meanings in various States and among educators themselves. The term "industrial education" was applied to many phases of vocational work which could be called in no sense vocational. The term "vocational," however, very quickly became popular, and without regard to the true meaning of the word "vocational," any form of practical education, such as manual training in elementary and secondary schools, certain subjects of study in the high schools, such as machine-shop work, pattern making, mechanical drawing, certain courses of study in which some phase of industrial work was offered, even certain attempts at welfare work, came to be called "vocational."

At the time of the passage of the Federal act only 7 of the 48 States could be said to have developed State systems providing State aid for vocational education. These were Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Wisconsin, and California. These States had laws which provided for the participation of the State in financially assisting vocational schools, and most of the acts in these States fairly well provided for various types of vocational education. These States also had men who were charged with the responsibility of the administration of the vocational act.

To a certain extent, out of the experience of these schools, there came to be recognized certain types of schools which were known as the all-day, the part-time, and evening schools, and the Federal act, shaped somewhat in accordance with the experience of these States, provided for these three kinds of schools.

The tendency among school men has been to think largely in terms of their own experience-that is, the all-day school-and during the period in which the idea of vocational education has been growing much of the time and attention and much that has been written has been concerning the all-day school. In this thinking it has been difficult for school administrators to really feel that vocational education was for persons who had definitely selected a vocation for which, definite preparation was being made or upon which the person who was to receive vocational training had entered.

Here the influence of the colleges and universities upon the secondary schools was very evident. Secondary schools in their development had come to be run primarily to provide preparation for higher institutions, and due to this influence almost any secondary school had to formulate its course of study in terms of college entrance.

The attempt to compromise with this requirement and the growing demand on the part of the public for a more practical education, technical high schools and manual training high schools were organized and maintained, not always with the idea of giving a complete preparation for a vocation, in fact seldom giving complete prepara

The course of study in these institutions had, of necessity, to be patterned somewhat after the classical course with a substitution of practical shop work for ancient and in some cases modern languages. The courses were generally organized to extend over a period of four years, and since the idea of the equating of the practical work in terms of college entrance prevailed, the whole idea seemed to be to give a general education in the technical and manual training school rather than specific preparation for any one vocation.

During the four years of a manual training high-school or technical high-school course, the boys would have experience in various kinds of practical work in shops, sometimes engaging in as many as a half dozen different kinds of industrial work. It was apparent, however, that secondary schools giving this kind of education did not meet the real need of the very large proportion of boys who must of necessity leave school to engage in industrial work.

The schools, however, as they developed had provided for a large number of boys who were not fitted by native capacity or by inclination for classical work, and doubtless have been of great value in keeping many young people in school who otherwise would have gone to work without the valuable education they have received.

In the seven States above mentioned, however, and in a number of cities in other States, there have been organized schools which gave a preparation for one trade or industrial pursuit. In most instances, however, these schools were not organized on a four-year basis, and in many cases the majority of pupils in these schools had not completed an elementary education.

The situation in regard to part-time schools may be summarized in a few words. While there had been a rather general acceptance of the desirability of organizing part-time education, two States only, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, had given the subject serious enough attention to provide for the compulsory part-time schools for young persons over 14 years of age.

Some of the other States had provided for permissive part-time education, but, with the notable exception of Boston, few cities had taken advantage of this provision of the State act. Scattered here and there throughout the country there were part-time classes, usually on the week-about basis, for boys employed in industrial pursuits.

At least five of the States above mentioned had made provision for evening industrial classes to provide instruction supplementary to the day employment of the persons taking this instruction, but the storm of protest had hardly died down in some of the States concerning the undesirability of providing a form of public education which excluded any one until the term "supplementary" was understood, and, until the differences between trade preparatory and trade extension were understood, it was difficult to get many school administra

tors and others to see that it was disadvantageous to attempt to prepare people for particular trade or industrial pursuits in evening classes and to give instruction to persons already engaged in these trade or industrial pursuits.

In the conduct of evening schools in general, no clear distinction or division was commonly made between classes to promote efficiency and classes designed to extend general education.

It would be difficult to catalogue all of the activities which have been carried on in evening schools. Evening classes were conducted to give instruction in elementary-school subjects to persons who had not completed these subjects in the day schools-algebra, geometry, chemistry, Latin, French, German, were taught in evening schools. These classes were attended by persons who desired to complete a highschool education, either for the purpose of qualifying for entrance upon the preparation for a profession or for the purpose of extending their general knowledge and information.

Evening-school classes had been organized to teach English to foreigners in order that we might have a more loyal and effective citizenship. Evening-school classes in candy making, hand crafts, tatting, pyrography, leather work, weaving, basketry, and clay modeling had been successfully conducted. Cities with public-school gymnasiums have thrown them open that men and women might secure physical education. There were evening classes in dancing, military drill, calisthenics, classes in dramatics, amateur theatricals, training in orchestral work, chorus singing, evening piano lessons, and voice culture. There were classes organized to teach such subjects as stenography and typewriting, machine-shop work, electrical work, plumbing, machine operating, and dressmaking.

There had been generally, however, no clear differentiation between the classes which were to provide for general education, skill in one of the arts, and vocational education. In many of the cities there were privately endowed schools giving some form of trade or industrial education. Much credit is due to these institutions in showing the way to give effective evening-school work.

TEACHER TRAINING.

In the field of teacher training only two of the seven States above mentioned could have been said to have entered upon any program of providing trade or industrial education, and in these two States the work could be said to have only been fairly begun. As a whole, the States had almost no experience in training teachers for any kind of service in trade or industrial schools, either day, part-time, or evening.

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