Boehmer, Florence E.

English

James Madison University

January, 1933] THE VIRGINIA TEACHER 7 ed interests. Just recently I heard speak Miss Jeanette Rankin, the first woman in the United States to be elected to Congress. One of the chief points which she empha- sized was that after a person was sent to Congress so few of his electorate ever let him know that they are interested in his ideas on current matters. After all, public opinion is the real executive of any nation and world opinion is the international ex- ecutive. Is it not time for us, the teachers of this great dominion, the state which produced those independent progressive thinkers in our glorious historic past, to let the world know that we are not merely marking time but that we are moving forward along with a host of other big-spirited educators, to bring about a freer, more democratic and happier world? In the future, let the poli- ticians, if they will have our support, appeal not to our fears but to our courage, not to our narrowness but to our greatness of pur- pose. "For there is neither East nor West nor North nor South, Border nor breed nor birth, When two strong men stand face to face, Though they come from the ends of the earth." Virginia Sydnor Retrenchment should be creative, not de- structive. In the last analysis the people will secure just as good schools as they are willing to pay for. The teaching profession on its part must show the public that better salaries actually do purchase better teaching service.—David E. Weglein Tomorrow's program for American edu- cation will focus on the educational process. Organization and administration of schools are auxiliary and will be reconstructed so as better to facilitate the training of raw humans into more fully civilized Americans Henry Suzzalo GUIDANCE AS AN OCCUPATION THIS period of financial difficulty and uncertainty is making many of us acutely job-conscious. We have taken for granted our positions, our oppor- tunity to work for a living if we wished to do so. Now, with jobs becoming increas- ingly scarce, with many of the old, well known occupational fields such as teaching showing an unmistakable surplus of job hunters over available jobs, we are looking to new sources for livelihood and for satis- fying occupations. One comparatively new occupational field is that referred to under the general term guidance. Meaning and Scope of Guidance Basic to any consideration of the occupa- tional offerings of the activity called guid- ance is an understanding of the meaning and scope of the term. Guidance is prob- ably as old as the human race. It is dif- ficult to conceive of an older generation which has not attempted—often unwisely and short-sightedly—to determine the direc- tion in which the younger generation should go. Certainly guidance is as old as organ- ized education. Through all the various forms which the educational process has taken and in spite of—or because of—var- ious educational philosophies, teaching has remained largely a matter of guiding the learner. As a consciously organized activity, how- ever, guidance is of recent origin. A fairly satisfactory definition of organized guid- ance is help consciously given to individuals which will enable them to solve problems and malce decisions in times of crisis. Al- though a vital part of any modern educa- tional program, guidance is not confined to school situations. Business and industry, social service agencies, and the church, all employ certain officers whose main function is giving guidance of some kind. The problems which demand solution and 8 THE VIRGINIA TEACHER [Vol. 14, No. 1 the crises which arise do not all have to do with the choice of a vocation. It follows that not all guidance is vocational guidance. For convenience in thinking, guidance is divided into a number of specialized activi- ties on the basis, not of what is done in giving the guidance, but of the ends in view. Various classifications on the basis of ends, or objectives, can be made. One classifica- tion which is simple and fairly logical and which includes the kinds of guidance most generally administered by machinery specifi- cally set up for the purpose is (1) voca- tional guidance, (2) educational guidance, (3) health guidance, (4) social-civic-moral- ethical guidance, which frequently is thought of as a unit for character guidance. Vocational guidance has as its aim voca- tional success and includes such widely diversified activities as giving information about occupations, helping the individual choose a vocation, helping him plan his preparation for it, making possible his en- trance into it, and, through follow-up, helping him make adjustments and prepare for and take the promotional steps which will ensure success. Educational guidance aims at success in formal education. It deals with choice of subjects and schools, pupil-teacher and pupil-subject matter adjustments, detection and correction of study difficulties, and counsel regarding the advisability of re- maining in or dropping out of school. Health guidance aims at physical and mental health and deals with such prob- lems as knowledge of physical and mental handicaps, wholesome attitudes toward health, and the formation of good health habits. Social-civic-moral-ethical guidance has as its end the development of character and personality traits which will enable the in- dividual to make the most satisfactory pos- sible adjustment to the social groups of which he finds himself a part and to exper- ience a reasonable measure of the satisfac- tion which derives from genuine respect of self. These various kinds of guidance overlap and reinforce each other to such an extent that no sharp separation of one from the other is possible in actual practice. Voca- tional guidance is perhaps more clearly de- limited than are the other kinds. It has a definite body of knowledge which is pecul- iar to it, detailed information about occupa- tions and about certain physical and person- ality traits which will help or hinder an in- dividual in a given occupation. For this reason vocational guidance has made a place for itself somewhat distinct from other kinds of guidance. It has developed its own national organization and its own body of literature. But at one point voca- tional and educational guidance become one and the same, when the individual is re- ceiving guidance in preparation for his chosen vocation. Frequently also health guidance must be given when counselling with an individual about his life work. Even more frequently guidance in personality de- velopment becomes a vital part of voca- tional guidance. In much the same way the other kinds of guidance overlap, both in theory and in practice. With this preliminary explanation of the meaning and scope of guidance out of the way, we are ready for a consideration of the vocational opportunities offered in the field of guidance. Increased understanding of the meaning, purpose, and value of guid- ance, increased appreciation oMhe import- ance of individual differences, and a grow- ing objection to mass treatment of individ- uals, have opened up new kinds of positions for those who are fitted for them by tem- perament and training. Even those enter- ing some of the old fields of work are be- ing more and more expected to understand the principles of guidance and to put them into practice in their work with individuals. The present bad financial condition has temporarily put a stop to the addition of January, 1933] THE VIRGINIA TEACHER 9 many new guidance positions, but it has by no means abolished those positions which had been established before the depression began to make itself seriously felt. With the gradual easing of financial tension, ex- pansion in this particular field of work is likely to be rapid because these troubled times have taught us, among other things, the importance of expert guidance of the young. Although much of what follows is appli- cable to men and women alike, it is written with women workers in mind partly because of the writer's interest in vocations for women and partly because this article will undoubtedly be read by many more women than men. No attempt will be made to list all the types of positions growing out of guidance work or all the occupations which will be affected by the increasing emphasis on guidance. Onl}1, those kinds of work which are fairly well established and par- ticularly those kinds which will be of in- terest to persons having training and ex- perience in the field of education will be considered. Guidance Positions The teacher as a guidance officer. In any guidance program which may be set up in a school or school system, the teacher is necessarily an important factor. Whether she wishes to or not, she guides her pupils, wisely or foolishly, for good or for ill. She comes into more intimate daily contact with them than does any one else in the school. She has more frequent and more varied points of departure for guidance than does any one else in the school. In the small rural schools she is the one person who can give whatever guidance the child receives. In larger schools teachers serve as sponsors for various clubs and extra- curricular activities and as home-room teachers. In these capacities they have op- portunity for giving guidance over a wider field than that which might grow out of their regular classroom work. In many schools there is a central guidance officer or a committee of experts who direct and supervise guidance, but the individual teach- ers are expected to co-operate with these experts, to carry out their directions for guidance of individuals or groups, to or- ganize programs and set up procedures which will provide the "weighted environ- ment" which will make possible develop- ment in the desired direction, to counsel individual students, and to detect those cases which may become problems and which require specialized, skillful treatment. In the area generally referred to as discip- line, a knowledge of the principles of guid- ance will help prevent mistakes which might easily result in serious character and personality handicaps for the child. To the modern educator discipline no longer means catching law breakers and punishing them; it means instead character building or character guidance. Every teacher is di- rectly responsible for a large amount of dis- ciplinary work, and should hold herself re- sponsible for doing that work in accord with modern educational principles. So important is the place of the teacher in any good guidance program within the school that some progressive school systems and individual schools are placing as much em- phasis on skill in guidance as on ability to organize and present subject matter when they select new teachers. With competition for teaching positions growing sharper, no teacher can afford to be inadequately pre- pared to carry her share of this phase of educational activity. In Virginia at the present time vocational guidance is receiving state-wide recognition. High schools are required to offer a course, generally known as vocational civics, de- signed to present information about occu- pations. There is an increasing demand for teachers who have had specialized training for this course. Reference to the analysis of vocational guidance given in an earlier paragraph will show that this occupational 10 THE VIRGINIA TEACHER [Vol. 14, No. 1 information course is only a small part of vocational guidance, although it is basic to all the other parts. The opening wedge of a course about occupations will undoubtedly lead to an enlargement of the vocational guidance program. This, in turn, will re- quire teachers who have had special train- ing in personal counseling and in guidance methods. In Virginia, as in other states, the individual teacher will carry an in- creasingly heavy load of guidance work. Vocational guidance director. The di- rector of vocational guidance may work either in a single school or as the head of a city or county or state vocational guid- ance system. He has the responsibility for planning, organizing, and directing the work of subordinate counsellors or of classroom and home-room teachers. The number of such directors depends on the funds avail- able and the importance attached to voca- tional guidance. No body of teachers, how- ever much interested and well trained they may be in general principles of guidance, can be expected to be expert in this field as well as in their other specialized fields. It is safe to assume that the number of full time vocational counsellors and direct- ors of vocational guidance will grow rapid- ly in Virginia and in other states which, like her, have just recently become con- scious of the importance of vocational guid- ance and have taken the first steps toward installing a program for giving such guid- ance. Colleges and universities also employ vocational counsellors, provided their staffs are large enough to warrant the employ- ment of a specialist in this one phase of guidance. Deans of girls and of women. Another guidance specialist found in a large propor- tion of colleges and universities and in a smaller, but increasing, proportion of high schools is the dean of women in colleges and the dean of girls in high schools. While the position of dean of women has had a somewhat checkered and at times inglorious career, ranging from dormitory matron and petty disciplinarian through various grada- tions of responsibility for the administra- tion of all the affairs pertaining to the in- terests and welfare of the women students of the institution, it appears that it is be- coming gradually a general directorship of guidance activities affecting the women of the college, with the major emphasis pos- sibly on social-civic-moral-ethical guidance. The position of dean of girls, being of much more recent origin, has from the be- ginning had much of the character of gen- eral directorship of guidance of girls, not infrequently including educational and vo- cational guidance when special officers for these kinds of guidance are not employed. It is entirely possible—probably desirable— that the title of this officer will change. Director of guidance may be much better than dean of girls. But it is highly prob- able that, as the emphasis on guidance work in high schools increases, more and more schools, cities, counties, and states will rec- ognize the need for some officer who will co-ordinate all the guidance activities being carried on. A recent study by Sturtevant and Strang1 shows that in some states ap- proximately fifty per cent of the high schools with an enrolment of 150 or more employ deans of girls or other officers who do a similar type of work. Virginia has at present almost no deans of girls, but in the neighboring state of North Carolina thirty- seven per cent of the high schools enrolling 150 or more employ deans of girls. Since any program emphasizing one type of .guid- ance will gradually force provision for giv- ing other types of guidance and since this in turn will necessitate the employment of some officer to integrate and co-ordinate all the guidance work, it is reasonably safe to prophesy that the next ten or fifteen years will see the employment in many Virginia high schools of a dean of girls or director of guidance. In the past this officer has M Personnel Study of Deans of Girls in High Schools, Bureau of Publications, Teachers Col- lege, Columbia University, New York, 1929. January, 1933] THE VIRGINIA TEACHER II been recruited almost entirely from the ranks of teachers who have shown some aptitude for guidance and have had some specialized training for it. Director of personnel. Personnel work and guidance work in its most progressive form are practically identical. The person- nel worker has as his aim the adjustment of the individual through counselling based on a careful, objective study of him and his needs, as such study is made possible by the use of accurate records, case material, and the application of various tests and meas- urements. The modern trained director of guidance secures his information in the same way. In educational institutions the two terms are now interchangeable; in the busi- ness world, the term personnel director is the one generally used. The personnel director in a business or industry is con- cerned primarily with the employment of persons who are best fitted for the jobs for which they are employed and with eliminat- ing maladjustments among those already employed to the end that efficiency may be increased. Personnel directors and mem- bers of personnel departments have made for themselves a position of authority and importance in the business and industrial world, as well as in the school world. Visiting teacher. The visiting teacher is a combination of teacher and social worker. She must know schools and classroom prob- lems and she must be trained in family case work. She visits in the homes of mal- adjusted pupils in an effort to determine whether the source of the school difficulty may lie in bad home conditions and to ef- fect a change in those conditions whenever that is possible. She, in common with other social case workers, must understand the principles of guidance and be skilled in the techniques of guidance. Other kinds of guidance work will un- doubtedly develop in time, still further en- larging the occupational field. Already this type of work has added to available posi- tions, because it offers a new service in ad- dition to other services which were being, and are continuing to be, performed. The guidance expert in schools and colleges does not replace a teacher. He is an addi- tional officer on the staff. The same thing is true in business and industry; the per- sonnel director and his staff are additions to the total force of workers. Furthermore, guidance offers an opportunity for satisfy- ing occupation for those who like to work intimately with individuals, and who have a strong bent toward sociology and psy- chology, as well, possibly, as toward educa- tion. Florence E. Boehmer RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY VIRGINIA EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, NOV. EMBER 25, 1932 1. Public education is a fundamental necessity in a democratic society. Upon it depend the stability and perpetuation of our most cherished political and social institu- tions. Impairment of the schools weakens the rights of all citizens and endangers our democratic social order. In this time of economic emergency, the necessity for proper maintenance of public education is especially urgent. 2. The proper maintenance and develop- ment of the public school system of Vir- ginia is seriously threatened at this time of special need for strengthened, improved and enlarged opportunities of free public educa- tion. Intelligent inquiry into the costs of public education and a sincere effort to re- duce them to the lowest point consistent with efficiency are desirable. The Virginia Education Association not only welcomes, but also initiates and encourages, such in- quiry and effort; but it insists that the pub- lic school system must not be weakened or destroyed by blind and unreasoning attacks not justified Iw the economic emergency. 3. It is the solemn duty of the Virginia Education Association to warn the people 

Guidance as an Occupation

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Guidance as an Occupation

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