The secondary schools of America are becoming more and more cognizant of their responsibility to youth after they have left school. The ending of the formal academic stop does not, or at least should not sever the school\u27s relationship with the student. This growing cognizance is causing the secondary school to become more concerned with life out of school. Definite efforts are being put forth in all parts of the United States to make the work of the school more meaningful in the lives of students after they leave school. This effort on the part of the secondary school to become more effective in the lives of individuals in their post-school life is being accelerated because of the evaluation being made on the basis of the behavior of youth after they leave school either as graduates or as dropouts. This evaluation is being made whether the schools like it or not and the extent to which youth are able to adjust to adult life will determine the rating given to the work being done in our secondary schools.
Chisholm has this to say about the follow-up step in the guidance programs:
The school can no longer wash its hands of its responsibility to youth after formal school days are over. Such a procedure might have been somewhat acceptable in the school of the pioneer days. If so, this at least is certain: The modern school should not follow this blind pattern set by the school of past generations. When the student leaves school today, he should not be left to shift for himself with whatever success chance may bring.
If the chief aim of the school is to give the individual the type of experience or training that -will enable him to live a full life at the time and also contribute the maximum to his continued happiness and success as he meets the problems of life, it must continue its relationship with the student or at least try to do so until the student has made reasonable adjustment to life\u27s problems. Therefore the guidance program does not end when an individual has been placed in a vocation, no matter how carefully and how wisely the vocation has been chosen. It is the duty of the individual or individuals who have spent limitless time and effort in carrying on the preceding steps in the guidance program to see to it that the individual, graduate or drop-out, functions successfully in the chosen vocation
