THE BULLETIN OF THE 
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF 
~ SECONDARY-SCHOOL 
PRINCIPALS 


OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 


Issued Eight Times a Year. 
Monthly October to May Inclusive 


April, 1940 
Serial No. 90 








BULLETIN NO. 90 


YOUTH AND WORK OPPORTUNITIES 
A MANUAL containing descriptions of a number of selected school-aid 


projects and a few resident centers sponsored by the National Youth Ad- 
ministration, and giving information on the youth problem and its rela- 


tionship to secondary education. 


Compiled and edited by 


PAUL B. JACOBSON 
Principal, The University High School 
The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 


THE CONTENTS OF THIS BULLETIN ARE LISTED IN “EDUCATION INDEX” 








Published by 
THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF 
SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 
OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 


H. V. CHURCH, Executive Secretary 
5835 Kimbark Avenue, Chicago 





YOUTH AND WORK OPPORTUNITIES 


By PAUL B. JACOBSON 


A MANUAL containing désctiptions of a number of selected school-aid 
projects and a few resident centers sponsored by the National Youth 
Administration, and giving information on the youth problem and its 


relationship to secondary education. 


CoMMITTEE ON CoopEeRATION AMONG YOUTH AGENCIES 


Will French, Professor of Education, Teachers College, Columbia Univer- 
sity, New York City 

Charles H. Judd, Educational Consultant, National Youth Administrauon, 
Washington, D. C. 

Paul A. Rehmus, Principal, Grosse Pointe High School, Grosse Pointe, 
Michigan 

Paul B. Jacobson, Principal, University High School, The University of 
Chicago, Chairman of the Committee 


& 


Published by the National Association of Secondary-School Principals, 1940 





Foreword 


Tue Nationat Association of Secondary-School Principals has pre- 
pared Youth and Work Opportunities—an issue of THe BULLETIN in 
which are presented selected practices in inaugurating and supervising N.Y.A. 
student aid in individual secondary schools—in the expectation that high- 
school principals may find among these practices examples which may be 
used locally in administering the N.Y.A. program. In some instances, the 
illustrated practices may be even more desirable for the schools and com- 
munities in which similar projects will be carried out than have been some 
of those completed in the past. In addition, certain materials which bear 
on the problems of youth and their induction into employment are in- 
cluded in order to show the close relationship of the N.Y.A. program 
and the problems of secondary education. It is to be hoped that in the 
future the National Youth Administration will be considered more as an 
educational agency than merely as an agency to alleviate human want, im- 
portant though that function is. 

The school has a responsibility to train youth to understand and cher- 
ish the democratic Nation in which they live. In addition, it has the re- 
sponsibility of preparing them for self-supporting citizenship in society. In 
many instances this demands facilities for work experience which the 
schools do not now possess. At the present time the Federal Government 
through the N.Y.A. is supplementing the school’s offering with work experi- 
ence for thousands of young people for whom society at the moment has 
no place. This program may be considered entirely educational in that 
it helps prepare youth to take their places as economically self-sufficient 
citizens, 

As the educational possibilities of the N.Y.A. program, both in student 
aid for high-school pupils and works centers for out-of-school youth, are 
more generally recognized, it is desirable and inevitable that the National 
Youth Administration and the school administrators should work more 
closely together in performing their complementary functions. 


AvuBrREY WILLIAMS, Administrator 
National Youth Administration 








Acknowledgment 


Youth and Work Opportunities was conceived at a conference of high 
school principals and state administrators of the National Youth Admin 
istration called by Aubrey Williams and Charles H. Judd to meet in 
Chicago in December, 1939. 

Mr. Judd, director of Related Training in the N.Y.A., furnished the 
major inspiration for this issue of Tue Buttetin. He fired all who at- 
tended the conference with the importance of a work program for youth, 
both in and out of school. In addition, he contributed a chapter. Also many 
other people contributed to THe Butterin. Floyd W. Reeves and his col- 
leagues in the American Youth Commission, Howard M. Bell and Kenneth 
Holland, provided two chapters. The state administrators, listed below, and 
their assistants were most codperative in supplying information: J. W. Hull, 
Arkansas; Robert W. Burns, California; D. B. Lasseter, Georgia; Lawrence 
J. Schmidt, deputy administrator, Illinois; Anne Laughlin, Kansas; Robert 
K. Salyers, Kentucky; Charles G. Hewitt, Maine; Orin W. Kaye, Michigan; 
Chester B. Lund, Minnesota; Harold C. Bingham, New Hampshire; Karl 
D. Hesley, New York State; S$. Burns Weston, Ohio; Ivan Munro, Oregon; 
J. C. Kellam, Texas; Wilford G. Frischknecht, Utah; Walter S$. Newman, 
Virginia; and John Lasher, Wisconsin. 

In addition R. B. McHenry supplied information about the program 
in North Carolina. A description of the codperative program in Detroit 
was supplied by W. E. Gleason. Superintendent Ben G, Graham forwarded 
a description of the program in Pittsburgh. Assistant Superintendent John 
J. Cory furnished the information on the Civilian Conservation Corps 
enrollees who are carrying courses in public high schools in Colorado and 
Wyoming. Acknowledgment to individuals who contributed information 
on specific resident centers is made throughout Chapter VI. Aubrey 
Williams, administrator of the National Youth Administration, gave 
generous support to the undertaking and prepared the Foreword. 

Thelma McKelvey, special assistant in the N.Y.A. office in Washing: 
ton, was most helpful in furnishing the statistical materials in Chapter IV. 
She also furnished financial data and made the original contact with the 
state administrators. Jessie Thomas, office of the executive secretary of the 
National Association of Secondary-School Principals, furnished valuable 


editorial assistance. Paut B. Jacosson 


April 1, 1940 







































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Contents 


FOREWORD 


ACKNOWLEDGMENT ............. 


CHAPTER I 
The Needs of Youth in Modern America 


Cuaprer II 
Federal Youth Services and the Schools 


Crapter IIT 
The Implications of Work Camps for Secondary Education ........................ 29 


Cuapter IV 
The Student-Aid Program 

Distribution of Youth by Type of Work 0.0.0....0.0...0.cc00-:ccseseseceseeeeseseceseeeeee 

The Selection of the Illustrations 

Area B—Construction and Maintenance .... 

Area C—Clerical Assistance and Service 

Area A—Departmental Assistance Projects ............ 

Area D—Semiprofessional Projects 

Area E—Miscellaneous 
“ne CHAPTER V 
roit Some Opinions about the School-Aid Program 
ded 
yhn Cuapter VI 


rps N.Y.A. Resident Work Centers 


“a Cuaprer VII 


108 A Coéperative Program of Vocational Training 


rey ; 
. SUMMER CONVENTION PROGRAM 


rave 
WINTER MEETING 1941 
Let Your Scuoor’s Licur Sune . 


IMpoRTANT NOTICE ............ 


Inside Front Cover 


SECRETARIES OF STATE ORGANIZATIONS .....................--.. Inside Back Cover 








CHAPTER I 


The Needs of Youth in Modern America 


FLtoyp W. Reeves and Howarp M. BELL 


THE DEVELOPMENT and administration of a program capable of meet- 
ing the needs of youth in modern America demand the active and sympa- 
thetic participation of all agencies, both public and private, that are con- 
cerned with the welfare of young people. In the achievement of this goal, 
no force can be more powerful and no influence more constructive than 
that which can be exerted by the Nation’s twenty-five thousand secondary 
schools. 

For the past five years, the staff of the American Youth Commission 
has been studying this somewhat nebulous thing known as the youth prob- 
lem. This study has resulted in the definition of specific problem areas, 
each of which represents an urgent need which is not being adequately met 
by existing agencies and programs. 


EMPLOYMENT 


So far as young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four 
are concerned, the outstanding need is unquestionably one of finding jobs. 
It is true, of course, that the misfortune of enforced idleness has been 
visited upon persons of all ages, both old and young. It is equally true, 
however, that the incidence of unemployment is considerably higher among 
youth than it is among the. older workers in the labor market. While only 
20 per cent of the Nation’s available workers were, in 1937, classified as 
totally unemployed or engaged in emergency work, 30 per cent of the 
youth in the Nation’s labor market were similarly classified. Not because it 
is unique, but because of its relative intensity is unemployment rightly con- 
sidered a youth problem. 

No individual! or agency seriously concerned with the welfare of young 
people will be impelled to wish these facts of arithmetic away. There are, 
at present, about four million youth in America for whom neither private 
industry, the work program of the National Youth Administration, nor 
other public work programs have found a place. There seems to be little 
prospect, at least in the near future, that private industry will be able to 
absorb them, especially so long as millions of adult workers remain un- 
employed. This leaves us with two alternatives: we can either provide these 
young people with socially useful and educationally valuable types of work 
at public expense, or we can ignore their needs and take the inevitable 
consequences. 








[ April 


National Association of Secondary-School Principals 










To speak dogmatically on the nature of these consequences would be 
both dangerous and presumptuous. It is neither dangerous nor pre- 
sumptuous, however, to suggest that frustration and bitterness are not the 
kind of feelings which generate a faith in democratic institutions or an 
eagerness to support and defend them. Yet frustration and bitterness are 
the inevitable consequences of enforced idleness. A person can ignore, for 
a time, the suggestions that he is unneeded and unwanted. Sooner or later 
he begins to believe it. When he does, it is natural that he should look 
hopefully to social nostrums and the rosy promises of political medicine 
men. In fact, ne will, in time, welcome any change, political, social, or 
economic, which promises him an escape from the spiritual disintegration 
of idleness. Our investigations have shown that he may even prefer the 
bitter and wasteful stimulation of war to the hopeless apathy of a park 


bench. 


















The members of the American Youth Commission are united in their 
conviction that time, effort, and money spent in alleviating the severity of 
the problem of unemployment among youth will pay gratifying high 
returns, both now and in the years to come. They have recommended, there- 
fore, that local and state governments collaborate with the Federal Govern- 
ment in providing useful, productive, and educationally valuable employ- 
ment opportunities for the four million American youth who, at present, 
are unable to find jobs in either private enterprises or existing public work 
programs. These recommendations are briefly presented in 4 Program 
of Action for American Youth which can be had by addressing the Com- 


mission's central office in Washington. 















EDUCATION 


A little over a century ago the American people took their initial step 
toward the realization of the splendid ideal of universal free education. 
Since assuming this unprecedented public obligation, great progress has 
been made. On the elementary level, the obligation has been all but ful- 
filled. As a national average, 65 per cent of our youth of high-school age 
are enrolled in our secondary schools. This is progress to which we, as a 
Nation, can point with justifiable pride. 









Yet, despite this progress, a careful examination of the situation reveals 
facts which are capable of putting an end to any smugness or complacency 
we may have. For example, we still have in this country nearly a million 
children of elementary-school age who are not enrolled in any school. We 
have, as citizens, more than three million adults who cannot read or write. 
Half the young people who have left school have not finished the ninth 










grade. 






















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1940] The Needs of Youth in Modern America 


There is a good deal of dubious logic in the assumption that nine 
years of schooling can prepare youth for effective living and give them what 
they need to participate effectively in the activities of a democracy. So far 
as logic goes, it is on a par with the assumption that hard work can be done 
on a subsistence diet. 


To bring about a more reasonable equalization of educational oppor- 
tunity for all youth, regardless of the state in which they live or the station 
to which they were born, many constructive steps have already been taken 
and others are proposed. Noteworthy among those already taken is the 
student-aid program of the National Youth Administration. This pro- 
gram strives, with a wholly inadequate budget, to provide modest financial 
assistance without which thousands of our poorer boys and girls would be 
unable to take advantage of existing educational facilities. Such a pro- 
gram is wholly consistent with the , ose of those who originally con- 
ceived the ideal of universal free education for American youth. It tends, in 
a small way, to introduce intellectual capacity, instead of economic ad- 
vantage, as the selective principle which should operate to fix the character 
of our secondary-school and college populations. 


The eradication, or at least the lessening, of inequalities of educational 
opportunity among the boys and girls of all economic levels constitutes 


only a part of the job of bringing democracy to education. We must also 
face the task of lifting the quality and amount of schooling now being 
offered by many of our less prosperous states and certain of the areas within 
each state. So long as intrastate and interstate mobility remains one of the 
outstanding characteristics of our people, the quality of schooling received 
by the youth in any part of the Nation becomes the concern of Americans 
everywhere. 


It would thus seem well worth our time to consider every acceptable 
step which might lead to an increase in the quantity and an improvement 
of the quality of schooling in all the areas of the Nation, particularly those 
whose tax resources are exceptionally inadequate. One of these steps might 
well be one which leads eventually to the combination of small independent 
local school districts into larger and more effective units. More than half of 
the one hundred twenty thousand local school districts in the Nation support 
and administer only a single one-teacher school. The American Youth Com- 
mission strongly believes that if the total number of school districts in the 
United States were reduced to a few thousand at most, the quality of school- 
ing for millions of children could be vastly improved. 


The difference in the capacity of various school districts to provide 
adequate educational facilities from their own resources are dramatically 
illustrated by the conditions existing in at least one state. In some of the 

































10 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [April 





districts in this state the amount of money that can be raised and spent per 
pupil is one hundred times as much as other districts can afford. 


One way to escape the social consequences of these unjust and in- 
jurious inequalities is to provide state aid for the districts of relatively small 
resources. In state aid as it is now administered, however, there are two 
outstanding needs which must be met. First, the distribution of state funds 
should be made not only on the basis of population but also on the basis of 
a district’s tax resources. Second, in many states the funds available for 
state aid should be substantially increased. 


In view of the great differences in the financial capacity of the several 
states to support education, the Commission believes that a certain amount 
of federal aid will be necessary if we are to approximate our ideal of equal 
educational opportunity for all. It is recognized that such aid should be 
utilized for local needs and jealously guarded against federal interference. 

It is unrealistic to think of the provision of such aid as largess from 
the rich to the poor. As previously suggested, many of the children edu- 
cated and reared in less prosperous areas will later live, work, and vote in 
states and cities far from their places of birth. Their education is clearly a 


national concern. 








OCCUPATIONAL ADJUSTMENT 


While it is possible and, for purposes of discussion, highly desirable, 
to break the youth problem down into its several aspects, it is important to 
keep in mind the fact that these “problem areas” are all parts of a single 
whole. They are inseparably related to each other. This close relationship 
becomes particularly obvious in any consideration of occupational adjust- 
ment. 
The problem of adjusting individual interests, abilities, and aptitudes 
to the requirements of occupations or occupational fields is one which all 
workers must face. For many reasons, however, it is essentially a problem 
of youth. 

For almost two years, the American Youth Commission collaborated 
with the United States Employment Service in exploring the whole field of 
occupational adjustment. This codperative project produced a large body 
of information which has been exceedingly valuable to us in our efforts to 
understand the essentials involved in the planning and development of 
community adjustment programs. A report on this project is now being 
prepared and should be available about June of this year. 

Among other things, we learned that the overwhelming majority of 


young people (97 per cent of the sixteen-year-olds) could not, as new 
applicants in the public employment service, be given any kind of occupa- 


























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1940] The Needs of Youth in Modern America 11 


tional classification based upon work done or training received. As they 
graduated or withdrew from their schools, only a small minority left with 
a knowledge of their basic occupational potentialities. And an equally small 
minority had anything like a clear understanding of the economic and oc- 
cupational realities of this “world of work.” As they appeared in the junior 
divisions of public employment offices, or on the various work projects of 
the National Youth Administration, their behavior was slightly reminiscent 
of Ferdinand when, for the first time, he was confronted with the hard- 
boiled realities of a bull ring. 


The need for developing adjustment programs capable of facilitating 
the young person’s crucial transition between schooling and full-time em- 
ployment is a permanent and continuing need. It is independent of peaks 
of prosperity or troughs of depression. And it will stay with us so long as 
we have individuals with varying patterns of vocational endowments and 
occupations which require varying combinations of aptitudes and abilities. 


In the development and operation of adjustment programs it is essen- 
tial to proceed on the principle that the job to be done is large enough to 
admit the participation of all the agencies properly concerned. We need, for 
example, a vast expansion in the quantity and a real improvement in the 
quality of the guidance, particularly vocational guidance, which is now be- 


ing provided by our secondary schools. When last analyzed for the pur- 
pose, it was found that fewer than 6 per cent of the Nation’s high schools 
employed counselors or guidance officers. Moreover, only about 20 per 
cent of our public employment offices provide the services of counselors 
and interviewers particularly trained to deal with the vocational problems 


of the young, inexperienced applicant. 


Once the full extent of the unmet need for occupational adjustment 
services is realized, one begins to appreciate the lack of justification for any 
dispute between different agencies as to which one should assume the re- 
sponsibility for meeting them. In providing all our youth with realistic 
vocational counseling, appropriate vocational education and training, and 
adequate placement services, there is quite enough work to engage the 
increased attention of our schools, the public employment service, the Na- 
tional Youth Administration, and all the other private and public organiza- 
tions concerned with occupational adjustment. 


“In the development of an adjustment program, it is equally important 
to realize that the process of adjusting potential workers to eventual jobs 
is a long-time and continuing process. Ideally, this process begins with the 
counseling of students in the early years of school, and continues until, as 
workers, they are placed on the jobs which they are clearly qualified, by 
aptitude, interest, and ability, to perform. 











[ April 





12 National Association of Secondary-School Principals 






To give occupational adjustment the character of a continuing proc- 
ess, it is necessary, among other things, to develop close working rela- 
tionship between the agencies which assume the responsibility for provid- 
ing guidance and those which provide placement services. Specifically, this 
involves a systematic transference of data on the individual student acquired 
by the school counselor to the placement interviewer. This transference may 
be between the school guidance officers and the school placement office or 
between the schools and the local public employment office. In any case, 
the vital importance of systematic transference of vocationally significant 
information remains the same. By means of such a procedure, the referral 
of a young applicant to a job can become what it should be—a logical 
culmination of the long-time guidance process begun in the early years of 



















school. 






No consideration of the subject of occupational adjustment, however 
brief, should ignore the vitally important matter of occupational research. 
Within the scope of such research, we would include the continued develop- 
ment and wider use of valid vocational predictors, a greatly increased dis- 
semination of the descriptive data currently available on occupations and 
industries, and increased activity on the part of local communities, or labor 
markets, in the study of occupational patterns and trends. 












An adjustment program can offer no real promise of success unless it 
is built upon the factual foundation which occupational research can pro- 
vide. Such research can contribute much toward adjusting the number of 
students trained to the probable number of employment opportunities in 
specific occupational fields. It can provide the counselors and guidance 
officers in both the school and the placement office with essential infor- 
mation about job requirements and employment opportunities. And it can 
also provide teachers and administrators with data which should be taken 
into account in the revision of curriculums. An adequately staffed program 
operating in the light of locally meaningful occupational research is the 
best insurance against the frustration and waste of vocational maladjust- 


ment that the youth of a community can possibly have. 


















HEALTH 





Although youth is a period that is relatively free from many of the 
diseases of body and mind, there are several scourges which prey most 
heavily upon the young. Tuberculosis, venereal disease, rheumatic heart, 
and death of mother in childbirth levy exceptionally heavy tolls upon our 








youth. 





Less acute disorders exact even greater tolls from the health and happi- 
ness of young people. Nose and throat infection, decayed teeth, poor hear- 








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1940 | The Needs of Youth in Modern America 13 


ing, bad posture, malnutrition—these and other ills tend to lessen the 
capacity of the young to face successfully the problems and responsibilities 
of adult life. Only six youth in a hundred receive regular physical examina- 
tions every year. Often those most in need of medical care receive the least. 


The strength of a nation lies in the strength of its people. The health 
of youth is particularly important because it is in these formative years that 
we acquire the health habits and basic constitution that stay with us 


through our lifetime. 


Our task is to put to more general use our greatly expanded knowl- 
edge of sanitation, hygiene, and medical care. We need to bring the fruits 
of modern science, modern equipment, and modern medical service to the 
whole population. To accomplish this end, both local and state resources 
must be drawn upon, and some aid from the Federal Government will be 
necessary. Federal assistance is likely to be needed in working out an ac- 
ceptable form of equalization by means of which medical services in less 
prosperous areas may be brought closer to a decent minimum level than 


would otherwise be possible. 


The American Youth Commission is convinced that, in the long run, 
the cost of neglect is greater than the cost of prevention or cure. A more 
complete statement on the type of health programs it believes in will be 
found in the pamphlet previously referred to. Emphasized in this statement 
is the necessity of an adequate health program for all children and young 
people in our schools. Specifically, this program should include regular 
physical examinations for all students, from primary grades through college. 
Comparable facilities should also be provided for youth who are out of 
school. Illness and physical defects should be detected early so that prompt 
treatment may be given. Sport and athletic programs in schools should be 
developed not only for the athlete but for the whole student body, to the 
end that youth without unusual ahletic abilities will receive the benefits 
of regular exercise. In the school curriculum, increased attention should be 
given to instruction in physiology and mental and physical hygiene. 


RECREATION 


The essential objective of a good youth program is to provide our 
young people with useful and productive things to do. For a large segment 
of our youth population this means jobs. For another segment it means an 
opportunity to receive an adequacy of meaningful education. For all youth, 
regardless of station, it means the chance to participate actively in some 
form of personally satisfying and socially constructive recreation. 


Much has been said and written about the capacity of satisfying recre- 
ation to serve as a kind of sponge for those youthful energies which may 

















14 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [April 





otherwise find an outlet in delinquent behavior. The social therapeutic 
values of constructive recreation have been demonstrated over and over 
again. Dynamic youthful energies somehow refuse to be talked out of ex- 
istence. The extension of recreational opportunities is clearly one of the 






answers. 





Studies made by the Commission have thrown considerable light on 
the paucity of satisfying recreational opportunities in most of our American 
communities. These studies have revealed, among other things, the great 
possibilities of neighborhood youth centers, such as those which have been 
developed in many communities by the National Youth Administration. In 
setting up such a center, the matter of space is often the most difficult 
problem. In the solution of this problem of space, the Nation’s schools have 
resources which, to date, have hardly been tapped. 










After almost five years of intensive study of the needs of young people, 
he American Youth Commission feels that it has acquired a sufficiently 
large body of valid information to justify certain conclusions as to the types 
of action which should be taken in the development of a comprehensive 
youth program. It believes that nothing can be gained and much may be 
lost by proceeding on the assumption that the problems that are confronting 
the young people of our Nation will somehow solve themselves. 











The types of action publicly recommended by the Commission have all 
been inspired by an eagerness not only to strengthen the social economy of 
to-day, but to insure the health and vitality of the democratic institutions 
or to-morrow. It has been a source of genuine assurance to know that this 
saime eagerness has been shared by those who function in the field of secon- 









dary education. 


































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CHAPTER II 


Federal Youth Services and the Schools* 


Cuares H. Jupp 


THE sociAL MovEMENTS which take place on a small scale in local 
communities are seldom fully understood and are often not even recog- 
nized until they gain sufficient momentum in many quarters so that they 
take on national rather than limited local significance. It was so with re- 
spect to unemployment of young people. Parents knew in years past and 
know now that their children have a hard time securing employment. 
They know that the same is true of the children of their neighbors. That 
these facts are of major importance for the economy of the United States 
did not become clear, however, until the Federal Government was forced 
to take cognizance of the very extensive unemployment of present-day 
youth. 

In 1933 the Federal Government discovered that there were a great 
many boys wandering up and down the land, looking in vain for jobs. 
Some of these boys were graduates of high schools; some of them had left 
school before graduation. They were hitchhiking or riding on freight 
trains. They were getting food as best they could by devices that, to say the 
least, were irregular. The situation was not one that had come into exist- 
ence in a day or a week or a year. No phenomenon of social life is with- 
out its background of slowly accumulating stresses and strains. The dis- 
covery of a social situation is often sudden while the movements leading 
up to it have been slow and unobserved. So it was in 1933. As we look 
back, it is now seen that obstacles had been accumulating for a long time 
in the way of boys who were seeking opportunities to secure employment. 
The year 1933 was not the year when unemployment of youth began. It 
was the year when unemployment became so conspicuous that it could 


not be overlooked. 


THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHES OPPORTUNITIES 


What did the Federal Government do? It borrowed money, organ- 
ized the Civilian Conservation Corps, put the boys in camps, and set them 
to work planting and tending forests, making roads and trails, conserving 
the soik and constructing bridges and other public works. The work which 
the boys did can very properly be described as work which the Nation 
needed to have done and could well afford to pay for. 

The statement that the work was worth all that it cost does not, how- 
ever, explain the motives back of the organization of the C.C.C. camps. 


*An address delivered before the American Association of School Administrators in St. Louis, 
Missouri, February 28, 1940. 


15 




















16 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [April 









These camps were emergency measures. Their cost was, in fact, the price 
which the Nation paid for lack of foresight. The United States paid for 
the camps in order to gain time to consider what plans it should and could 
adopt to provide properly and permanently for its boys. No one thought of 
the camps as the solution of the youth problem. Indeed, even after the 
camps had been organized there was no clear recognition of the magnitude 
and urgency of the youth problem. That national evolution had reached the 
point where the ancient social machinery for taking care of young people 
was no longer adequate was only vaguely apprehended. The camps were 
set up by the government and accepted by the people as temporary means 
of meeting what was very generally thought of as a passing emergency. 















Two years went by and new discoveries were made. It was found 
that there were unemployed girls as well as unemployed boys. It was 
found that camps involved a high per capita expenditure and that they 
detached boys so completely from the communities to which they belonged 
that it was difficult to bring them back into those communities at the end 
of their camp residence. In short, the national youth problem became 
more and more evident. The government took a second step. It organized 
the National Youth Administration. This new agency was a branch of 
the country’s general relief organization. It was looked upon as another 
temporizing device. A great many people thought and said that the de- 
pression would soon be over and that the nation would go back to its 
former ways of dealing with young people. It was believed that the Na- 
tional Youth Administration would shortly disappear, living only in 
history as a memory of a means of curing a temporary ailment of the 
body social. it takes a long hard experience to make people aware of the 
demands that result from social evolution. 


















The confidence that many people had in the ancient and well-estab- 
lished methods of dealing with young people is strikingly illustrated by 
certain facts which are well known to educators. The accepted method of 
keeping young people off the labor market has long been to send them to 
schools and colleges. In these institutions they are taken care of, kept 
warm in winter, and, by being given sundry tasks that consume time and 
energy, are kept out of mischief and, it is hoped, profitably occupied. The 
American people have long thought well of their schools. They have in- 
vested large sums in commodious school buildings. They have been proud 
of the fact that young people stay in school longer than their fathers and 
mothers did and longer than do the young people of other nations. 














It was natural enough that in 1935, when the National Youth Ad- 
ministration was organized, the idea should suggest itself that as many 
as possible of the unemployed young people of the country should be kept 
in college. So it was arranged that colleges should be given some of the 









1940] Federal Youth Services and the Schools 17 


Nation’s borrowed relief money to pay young people a small wage in com- 
pensation for work done under the lenient supervision of members of the 
faculties. Thus, the number of young people kept off the labor market 
was increased, and the tradition that education is a satisfactory substitute 
for employment was reinforced. Later the plan of sending young people 
to school was expanded and pupils were kept in secondary schools by 
being given work under the supervision of members of the faculties of 
these institutions. 


That was not all. The National Youth Administration hunted up so- 
cially useful jobs for young people who were not kept off the labor market 
by being sent to schools and colleges. It found that cities needed to have 
their public parks cleaned up and that recreation centers needed to be con- 
structed. It found that public officials in city and county buildings could 
advantageously use more clerks than they had; that hospitals and public 
libraries needed assistants; that public-welfare agencies could use garments 
made by girls, who, in making the garments, learned to sew. In short, the 
National Youth Administration found work for a considerable number of 
young people who were not able to secure jobs in private enterprises and 
were not in school. In 1939 the number of such out-of-school workers was 
two hundred seventy-five thousand. 


YOUTH NEEDS WORK AND SECURITY 


The experience of the National Youth Administration has been reveal- 
ing in many ways. It has been found that the young people of this country 
have had only meager opportunities to cultivate habits of manual work. 
The change from an agrarian civilization to a technological civilization 
and the transfer of the majority of the population from the open country to 
urban centers have produced fundamental changes in the environment in 
which most young people grow up. These changes have led to modes of 
life that are totally different fram those of the pioneers of earlier days. 


The experience of the National Youth Administration has also revealed 
the fact that the consuming desire in the minds of young people is for 
what is known in current parlance as “security.” Boys and girls who came 
to the threshold of adult life in former times felt sure that, with the back- 
ing of their families and of the communities in which they lived, they 
could establish homes of their own, rear children, and prosper in the land. 
Thert was no general haunting fear of destitution and of inability to find 
a safe footing in the social order. The young people of to-day want the 
security that earlier generations had. 


To understand young people of to-day, one must think of the con- 
trast between the economic outlook of a boy and girl of the present day 
and the outlook of young people in those days when America was described 





18 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [Apml 


as the home of unlimited opportunity. One must think of the fact that a 
few short decades ago anyone could go West and grow up with the country. 
Farms were to be had for the asking. The satisfaction of ownership could 
be enjoyed by anyone who was willing to work. The National Youth Ad- 
ministration finds young people just as eager as were members of the 
earlier generations to gain independence, to become self-supporting and 
secure. 


Finally, without any attempt to enumerate all the lessons that the 
Nation has learned through the experience of the Civilian Conservation 
Corps and the National Youth Administration, it may be said that the 
discoveries of 1933 and 1935 and of subsequent years have brought into 
sharp relief a problem which has been maturing for a long time but is only 
now fully realized—the American youth problem. This problem has been 
covered up and consequently overlooked because the natural resources of 
this country have been abundant and the democratic institutions under 
which the people of the United States have lived have been so generous to 
the individual that there has been no necessity of giving attention to the 
subtle changes which step by step have brought us to the present situation. 
So long as the machinery of society kept moving we yielded to the tempta- 
tion of neglecting minor repairs. We taxed to the utmost the strength 
of the social engine. We rode roughshod over obstacles in the highway 
regardless of wear and tear. It was only when repairs became imperative 
that we admitted that social mechanisms need to be examined from time 
to time and that worn parts have to be replaced. 


ATTITUDE OF EDUCATORS 


It is quite impossible to discuss intelligently the C.C.C. camps, the 
program of the National Youth Administration, and their relations to the 
schools without taking account of the attitudes with which these federal 
agencies have been regarded by educators. There was practically no objec- 
tion on the part of school people to the organization of the Civilian Con- 
servation Corps. There was some objection on the part of organized labor. 
Labor feared that the country was drifting into military regimentation and 
into the danger of exploitation of poor boys. The fears of labor were met 
by associating with the army in the management of the camps a labor 
man. It was pointed out that the army was the only branch of the govern- 
ment which could quickly provide shelter and food for a large number of 
young men. Therefore, the camps were organized under army control. 
With the appointment of a labor man as administrator, the country seemed 
to be satisfied that there would be no harm to enrollees. 

The then Commissioner of Education called attention to the fact that 
provision ought to be made for continued education of enrollees as well as 
for their subsistence and employment. The wisdom of this contention has 





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1940] Federal Youth Services and the Schools 19 


become clearer and clearer as time has passed. The concept of relief gmploy- 
ment is not adequate when the Nation is dealing with young people who 
have long futures ahead of them. The lack of clear understanding of the 
youth problem in 1933 is evident in the emphasis which was laid on relief 
and the inadequate provision that was made, in spite of the suggestions of 
the Commissioner of Education, for an educational program in the camps. 


By the time that the National Youth Administration became a recog- 
nized necessity in 1935, the educational people of the country were vaguely 
aware of the fact that young people were in need of something more than 
was provided in the schools. The awareness was not very clear and had not 
taken the form of a conviction that the schools themselves needed to be 
changed. Anxiety was manifested about certain jurisdictional complications 
that it was believed would arise if there were set up in the states and in local 
communities agencies other than the schools, for the care of young people. 
So long as the Federal Government organized camps remote from centers 
of population and took boys away from communities, questions of jurisdic- 
tion did not seem to be acute; but with direct participation in community 
life by federal agencies, educators became agitated. The Office of Educa- 
tion, many heads of state departments of public instruction, and some local 
school administrators took the position that the administration of relief 
money for young people should have been entrusted to the schools. It was 
held, on the other hand, especially by the welfare workers, that the schools 
had never exhibited any interest in young people out of school and had only 
in a feeble way and in very few centers attacked problems of employment. 
Without attempting to pass on the merits of either contention, one may 
safely say that the discussion has had the advantageous result of bringing 
to public attention the fact that there is a national youth problem. Hereto- 
fore, there were family youth problems, educational problems, and economic 
problems of individual adjustment, but there never was such intensive 
thinking about the youth of the Nation as there has been in recent times. 


YOUTH AND UNEMPLOYMENT 


In order that the seriousness of the youth problem may be clearly in 
mind, it may be well to review some of the facts with regard to the popu- 
lation of the United States. In the year 1936, the last year for which re- 
liable statistics are available, there were per thousand of the population 16.7 
births and only 11.5 deaths. This means an excess in the year of 5.2 indi- 
viduals per thousand of the population. In other words, there were added 
to the population of the country as a whole 665,562, or about two thirds of 
a million, individuals. This addition means that by the end of 1936 there 
were two thirds of a million new mouths to be fed, two thirds of a million 
new human beings to be clothed and provided with shelter. The ratio of 
increase was much less in 1936 than it had been in earlier years. Thus, 


















20 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [April 












while the excess of births over deaths per thousand of the population was 
5.2 in 1936, it was nearly twice as large in 1916, or 10.2; and was 8.5 in 
1926. 
The absorption into the social order of two thirds of a million individ- 
uals more than are subtracted by death is a tremendous undertaking. It 
would be a staggering task even if the national income were at a high 
level. In 1933, there was an excess of births over deaths of 739,126, while the 
national income, as everyone knows, was cut to nearly one half what it was 
in 1929, 

When the number of births exceeds the number of deaths, employment 
becomes more and more difficult at the lower age levels. The same fact can 
be stated in other words. When the older part of the population persistently 
occupies the places in industry, as it does when the annual death rate is 
low, the openings for young people at the level of entrance into em- 
ployment are comparatively few. 

If society has difficulty in absorbing young people who are born in a 
given period, what does it do with them? The answer is well known to 
school people. Society takes care of the major part of its surplus youthful 
population by sending anyone who cannot be employed to schools. During 
the decade from 1921 to 1930, there was a marked increase in enrollments 
in the upper grades of the elementary schools and in the high schools, The 
pupil population of the seventh and eighth grades of elementary schools in- 
creased by seven hundred ninety-one thousand, and the pupil population 
of public high schools increased by two million two hundred thousand. 

Even these enormous increases in school population do not account in 
full for the surplus young population. The exact number of young people 
out of school and unemployed is not available in any of the census reports 
prior to the special census of unemployment that was taken in 1937. It was 
then shown that unemployment among young people from eighteen to 


































twenty-four years of age inclusive was far in excess of unemployment for p 
any other age groups. The unemployment census of 1937 put unemploy- S¢ 
ment among young people of the ages mentioned at three million nine es 







hundred thousand. 
In considering the figures of unemployment, one should not lose sight 


of the fact that all figures relating to the lower age groups are seriously 
distorted because the schools enroll a large number of young people who 
would be on the labor market seeking jobs, if there were any remote possi- 
bility of their securing employment. Just how many of the pupils in high 
schools are there, because they have nowhere else to go, is wholly beyond 


the possibility of determination. 
















THE PROBLEM NECESSITATES COOPERATION 


The facts presented make it evident that the problem is not one oi 
jurisdiction. The question is not so much who is to administer aid to 





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1940 | Federal Youth Services and the Schools 21 


youth as it is how are young people to be cared for by all the agencies 
working together. The upper schools where employable young people 
are enrolled are full to overflowing. The federal agencies that deal with 
youths cannot provide for even a third of those who are out of school and 
in need of work. The National Youth Administration has a waiting list o/ 
youths certified as in need that is as large as the list of out-of-school 
youths whom it now employs. 


If the schools were charged to-morrow with the administration of al: 
available funds for the care of youths, it is quite certain that they would not 
know what to do. Teachers and principals are complaining even now that 
they are overburdened with pupils who ought not to be in school. Teachers 
have large classes. It is difficult to secure proper supervisors for the work 
projects on which federal agencies employ youths. Certainly, teachers could 
not leave their classrooms to do what the federal agencies are trying to do. 
Schools never have had the organization which is necessary to pay subsist- 
ence wages. Schools do not have the organization to deal with out-of-school 
youths. 


Since the inadequacy of all the measures which have been taken up to 
this time is evident and since it is clear that the efforts of everyone who has 
anything to contribute to the solution of the youth problem can advantage- 
ously be used, it seems wise to secure, if possible, a pooling of the energy 
and intelligence that can be turned to the solving of the youth problem that 
is now urgent. 


The steps taken by the Federal Government in 1933 and 1935 are 
only recent examples of what it has frequently done when the needs of the 
country and its people became national issues. In 1917 the Federal Govern- 
ment saw the necessity of introducing vocational courses into the programs 
of secondary schools, and Congress took action contributing to the sup- 
port of such courses. In 1862 when agriculture needed the assistance of 
scientific studies, the Federal Government made grants of land for the 
establishment of the land-grant colleges. In 1785 before there was a Federal 
Constitution, the representatives of the states in Congress saw the ne- 
cessity of education for the children of the pioneers who crossed the 
Allegheny Mountains and gave land to the new territories and states for 
the support of common schools. 


In the effort to attack the problems of youth without the partisan bias 
in fa¥or of any particular agency, it is essential that some phrase be adopted 
in describing these problems which is comprehensive enough to ensure the 
broadest possible consideration. The problem of youth when described from 
the point of view of the young people themselves is that of making a suc- 
cessful transition from childhood to adulthood. The problem of any agency 
that has to do with young people is that of inducting them into adulthood. 




















22 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [April 





” 


The phrases “transition into adulthood” and “induction into adulthood 
are broad enough to include everything that is done by the young people 
for themselves and everything that is done by the family, the church, the 
community, industry, the school, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and 


the National Youth Administration. 













Induction into adulthood involves certain adjustments. One does not 
become in a true sense an adult until one gains a certain independence, 
until one is in some measure self-supporting, until one takes up certain 
responsibilities, until one has certain intelligent insights gained by thought- 
ful contemplation of experience and by absorption vicariously of the ex- 
perience of others, until one has a balanced control of one’s emotions and 
a power of concentration on tasks voluntarily undertaken as leading to 
clearly recognized goals of individual achievement. Some of the personal 
qualities enumerated are those which have long been recognized as quali- 
ties which the school aims to cultivate. Some are qualities or at- 
tainments which are not aimed at directly by education. The most im- 
portant concept with which the school has never been equipped to deal 
is the economic concept of self-support. The school may hope to contrib- 
ute to the preparation of the individual to become self-supporting, but the 
productive labor which makes him self-supporting is not a part of the 
educational program. Even the few educational institutions which have 
adopted productive work to be done by students as a part of their pro- 
grams have treated this work as something outside the class instruction, 
organized as a supplement to the true purpose of the institution, which is 
intellectual training. For the most part, self-support when made a supple- 
ment of the educational program is provided only in colleges and universi- 
ties. Until the National Youth Administration came into existence, working 
by pupils for a wage was not thought of in public schools. 





























In contrast with the schools, the C.C.C. camps and the projects of the 
National Youth Administration have as their first and primary aim the 
supplying of opportunities to earn subsistence wages. Where these agencies 
offer instruction, they do so for the purpose of increasing the employability 
of their enrollees. There can be no slightest doubt that in the thinking of 
the Congress the two federal agencies which have been discussed in this 
paper are agencies to supply subsistence. They are thought of as relief 
agencies. The term “need” is the term which describes the purpose of the 
federal appropriations made to the two agencies. The money is voted for 
needy young people. The young people must be certified by competent 
judges to be in need. Even when federal money is used to keep boys and 
girls in school, someone must be responsible for the statement that they 
could not attend if they were not provided with opportunities to earn a 


wage. 





















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1940 | Federal Youth Services and the Schools 


EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT 


Certainly, the contrast between education and employment by federal 
agencies justifies the recognition of two distinct aspects of the process of 
inducting young people into adulthood. The one aspect can be designated 
as intellectual adjustment, the other as economic adjustment. 

A second contrast between the programs of schools on the one hand 
and the C.C.C. camps and the National Youth Administration out-of-school 
projects on the other hand is that the federal agencies emphasize manual 
labor as the schools never have. Manual labor among young people is far 
less common than it was in earlier times. The farms provided many a boy 
and girl of earlier generations work opportunities which have disappeared 
with the movement of the population into urban centers. By and large, the 
schools turn the expectations of young people toward white-collar jobs. The 
C.C.C, camps and the work projects of the National Youth Administration 
give work experiences that are designed to prepare young people for physical 
labor. Even the vocational courses offered in secondary schools keep pupils 
occupied in labor only a few hours a day, while the federal agencies require 
hours of manual work directly comparable to those demanded by industry. 


Anyone who has observed what labor does for young people in the 
C.C.C, camps and on the work projects of the National Youth Administra- 
tion cannot escape the conviction that manual work is so beneficial that 
there should be a pooling of the experiences of the federal agencies with 
those of the schools if a sound program is to be developed for the future 
of the young people of this Nation. 

What is here said can be turned into criticisms of the one agency or the 
other. It is true that the C.C.C. camps and the work projects of the National 
Youth Administration are far behind the schools in the training that they 
give to the minds of young people. It is equally true that the schools do 
not adequately cultivate work habits or pay a wage to young people who 
want jobs and crave financial independence. Mutual criticisms, however, 
do not solve the problems of youth. Is it not far better to recognize the im- 
portance of all the contributions which all the agencies have been able to 
make to the induction of young people into adulthood and see whether a 


comprehensive program can be devised? 


A comprehensive program will undoubtedly involve more than in- 
tellect, work habits, and economic security. It will provide for health, socia! 
adaptability, and many of the other qualities that are essential to sturdy 
adulthood. Attempts are made by some agencies more than by others to 
secure one or another of these desirable qualities. The main point for 
the purposes of the present discussion is that no program will be complete 
that does not take into account all that is necessary to a safe and successful 


transition into adulthood. 





National Association of Secondary-School Principals — [April 


FACTORS WHICH FAVOR COOPERATION 


Fortunately, competent authorities have in recent times taken steps to 
develop the kind of comprehensive program which takes advantage of all 
the contributions which the various agencies of the Federal Government 
and local communities can make. In 1937 the President of the United 
States created an Advisory Committee on Education which made the most 
complete study that has ever been made of the educational problems of this 
country. The report of this Committee makes clearer than it has ever been 
made before the necessity of federal aid to the states if there is to be 
equality of educational opportunity for the children of the Nation. 


Coérdination of the forces which can contribute to the better care of 
young people was greatly facilitated by a step taken by the President in 
1939. In his first plan of reorganization of federal agencies he created the 
Federal Security Agency and placed in that agency the Office of Education, 
the Civilian Conservation Corps, the National Youth Administration, the 
United States Employment Service, and the Social Security Board. The uni- 
fication of national efforts for the betterment of youth thus made possible 
has already affected the educational and social systems of the Nation. One 
item is of special interest to this assembly. The United States Office of 
Education and the National Youth Administration have agreed to codperate 
and are actively engaged in coéperating in a number of centers where they 
have secured the consent of local school systems to receive into schools 
for continuation courses the young people who had left school and are now 
being given work by the National Youth Administration. The instruction 
provided by the schools contributes what has been referred to in earlier 
paragraphs as the intellectual factor in the program of induction into adult- 
hood. The work and wages provided by the National Youth Administra- 
tion supplement the instruction given in the schools in ways in which the 
schools cannot contribute directly to induction into adulthood. 


The arrangements thus made are experimental in several respects. 
It is not altogether clear what kind of instruction the schools should give. 
Many of the young people who are enrolled by the National Youth Ad- 
ministration in work projects were so far alienated by their earlier ex- 
periences in school that they do not want ordinary school courses. It is 
recognized for other reasons also that the conventional school courses will 
not serve in this situation. The ordinary curriculum of schools leads away 
from manual work into the so-called white-collar jobs. Vocational courses 
lead into particular trades. The enrollees of the National Youth Administra- 
tion belong for the most part to that group in the population the members 
of which will spend their lives in the ranks of the semiskilled or unskilled. 
The regular courses of the conventional school curriculum are not what 
these young people need. It becomes, therefore, the duty of the schools 





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1940] Federal Youth Services and the Schools 25 


which receive the enrollees of the National Youth Administration to de- 
vise new types of instruction. These new types of instruction, if they are to 
serve their purpose of properly inducting young people into adulthood, 
must take cognizance of the need for what the Smith-Hughes Law calls 
“vocational and civic intelligence.” A large opportunity is presented in this 
cooperative enterprise for the exercise of inventiveness on the part of the 
schools in opening up to young people new views about their personal and 
civic obligations and possibilities. 
REORGANIZATION OF SECONDARY EDUCATION NEEDED 


There has long been a feeling which amounts to more than a suspicion 
that the courses taught in the schools of this country are not suited to many 
of the young people who for want of other places to go attend schools. 
It is to be hoped and confidently expected that the schools will learn in the 
course of the experiment which is being inaugurated what to do with the 
pupils who have sometimes been described by the term “nonacademic.” 
No one can observe the great influx into the upper grades of the elementary 
schools and into the high schools of a class of pupils who have never before 
continued their schooling to these higher levels without realizing that not 
only do enrollees of the National Youth Administration require new types 
of instruction but so do also a host of those who are in full-time attendance 
on schools. 


The schools of this country have been slow in discovering that there 
is a youth problem. As pointed out earlier in this paper, the Federal Govern- 
ment discovered the problem in 1933 and 1935 before its outlines were 
clearly recognized. Now that the schools begin to see the problem it is 
becoming evident to even the most traditionally minded educators that far- 
reaching and radical changes are necessary in the contents of school in- 
struction. 


The combined efforts of the United States Office of Education and the 
National Youth Administration are promising in the emphasis which they 
lay on work and wages. Privately conducted industry has not found any 
way of keeping all the people of this country employed. If general de- 
terioration of the Nation is to be avoided, opportunities for work and wages 
must somehow be found. The government has in recent times found ways 
of keeping people at work on tasks which improve the land and promise 
large national dividends for the future. There has been much debate about 
the dangers of prostituting the young people of this country by giving 
them what some people call “federal handouts.” The answer to the ob- 
jections to the program of federal employment is to be found in serious 
consideration of the disastrous consequences of idleness. It is quite certain 
that a happy, prosperous people fully provided with work will need fewer 
jails than are now maintained at public expense. It has been shown that 














26 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [April 





security of the type ensured by a sound work program promotes health, 
both physical and mental. There is no saner, safer, national investment than 
that which is provided by a program of conservation of the resources of the 


Nation through properly directed labor. 


There would be some advantages if private industry could furnish 
work and wages sufficient for all people. In the long run industry has to 
support all the people either through the wages that it pays directly or 
through public works or relief. The necessity of organizing the industrial 
system so that it can cope with the problems of youth is perfectly clear. 
Whatever the jurisdiction or method, the one outstanding fact is that work 
—productive work—must be supplied. 


This discussion will not be complete without emphasis on the unique 
function of wages as a reward for the labor of young people. The ordinary 
school program sets up incentives which are either remote or abstract, not 
to say artificial. When teachers urge pupils to write compositions, telling 
them that some day they will have to express themselves clearly and effec- 
tively in order to persuade their business associates or the public, the goal is 
remote. When a pupil is rewarded with a mark of ninety-seven or ninety- 
eight, and has his name entered on the school roll of honor, the reward is 
abstract. 

Young people of the adolescent age want to be self-supporting and 
economically independent. Remote rewards and abstract honors do not 
satisfy them, especially if they belong, as many of them do, to families that 
have an annual income of less than a thousand dollars. Any social order 
that denies to an adolescent boy or girl some measure of economic security 
and financial independence is badly organized. 


This is not the place for a discussion of the details of a new national 
program for the induction of young people int» adulthood. The American 
people have drifted along these many days. They have been blind to the 
changes which have little by little matured into a serious situation. It will 
perhaps require time and harsh catastrophies to convince some people that 
the Nation is not going in some miraculous way to slide back into the ancient 
type of economy when somehow the family and the individual youth suc- 
ceeded in bridging the chasm between childhood and adulthood. Rather 
than hold tenaciously to the traditional program of instruction, it would 
certainly be far more intelligent to analyze the new social order that has 
evolved and to concentrate on the invention of new methods of fitting 
young people and the new order together. 


This paper does not propose the new program, which is here declared, 
to be essential to the solution of the youth problem. It reviews what is 
happening for the purpose of presenting a plea for constructive thinking. 
If a program were offered, it would be criticized by some as too radical. 














acti 

















1940 | Federal Youth Services and the Schools 27 
Some may say that a mere plea for consideration of the problem is wholly 
inadequate. It is certainly incumbent on some intelligent group to answer 
questions about the program that is to be adopted. By way of indicating 
the direction in which such an intelligent group should move, it is proper 
to point out that the youth problem can be solved only if advantage is 
taken of the experiences of all the agencies that are now dealing with young 
people. The Federal Government cannot solve the youth problem without 
the codperation of local communities. The schools have not solved the youth 
problem and cannot solve it by present-day methods of instruction. It is 
reasonable to ask that the schools look beyond their classrooms and play- 
grounds and become a part of a national movement that is codperative and 
comprehensive. It is reasonable to ask that educators codperate with federal 
agencies and take full advantage of the experience which these agencies 
have accumulated with regard to work and wages. It is equally reasonable 
that school people, who are perhaps more responsible than any other group 
in the Nation for the proper care of young people, insist that the problems 
of young people require vigorous, prompt, and effective consideration and 
action by governments, local, state, and federal. 









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CHAPTER III 


The Implications of Work Camps for 
Secondary Education 


KENNETH HOLLAND 


A coMMiTTEE of secondary-school administrators who were studying 
and evaluating secondary schools throughout the United States met in 
Washington a few years ago. It occurred to some of us that if we could 
lunch with them, an excellent opportunity would be provided for an in- 
formal discussion of the place of Civilian Conservation Corps camps and 
other types of work projects among the established educational institutions 
in the United States. So, with high expectations, a luncheon was arranged. 


As soon as we had selected what we hoped by the grace of our 
lumbering, amiable, and absent-minded waiter would be our gastronomical 
fare, I launched into an explanation of the intellectual menu for the day, 
“We are hoping, gentlemen, to hear from you some comments on C.C.C. 
camps and other projects of this type, and their implications for secondary 
schools. Should the C.C.C. ultimately have a place among the established 
educational institutions of the country? It so, what place? Should they be- 
come part of the school system or should they be federally financed pro- 
grams paralleling existing institutions? What relationships have you as 
investigators of secondary education seen existing between C.C.C. camps 
and high schools, in your extensive travels? What do high-school ad- 
ministrators generally think and say about the C.C.C.?” 


Our group sat back in anticipation, expecting to be greatly enlightened. 
But there was only a pained silence, broken by a few murmurs. Soon it 
became evident that they knew practically nothing about C.C.C. camps. 
Apparently none of them had investigated or even considered the relation- 
ship existing between the high schools they visited and the C.C.C. camps 
located near by. 


Fortunately, our beaming waiter appeared at that moment. The work 
of untangling his well-meant placing of assorted soups and juices furnished 
an ¢xcuse for dropping C.C.C. implications for a time. I hoped that as the 
luncheon progressed, our friends would have time to think over my ques- 
tions. But even after it was over, no answers were forthcoming. The con- 
sensus seemed to be that they knew little about the C.C.C,. but were sure 
that the school system could take no responsibility for the boys that went 
into these camps. They understood generally that the enrollees had not 
liked school and had probably caused their teachers no end of trouble 


29 















zn National Association of Secondary-School Principals -{ April 





by either doing poorly in their studies or questioning the value of what 


they received. 


These secondary-school administrators said they already had more 
youth than they could care for properly and that they could not assume ad- 
ditional burdens. They had neither facilities nor teaching staffs for such 
p’ograms and, besides, they were not interested in these boys. They 
sunded as if they were glad to be rid of this rather annoying group that 
dd not fit into their standard courses. True, they opposed federal control 
o* education. But in this case it seemed an excellent idea for the govern- 
ment to take care of the boys under strict army control. The wilderness 
areas were safe and good places for them. “Schools of the woods” had a 
splendid ring, particularly if the woods were a long way off. 


GROWING APPRECIATION OF WORK 


I do not blame these or other administrators for this attitude. After 
all, it is a little disturbing, when one is finding difficulty in providing an 
educational program for a greatly increased high-school population, to be 
interrupted with questions about the relationships between high schools 
and projects for planting trees or building roads. Nor do I mean to imply 
that all secondary-school administrators take this attitude toward work 
camps, which are a recent development in American life. For instance, 
John A. Sexson, superintendent of schools in Pasadena, California, made 
the following statement at a meeting of the American Council on Educa- 
tion in 1938: “. . . I know of nothing that has done so much to awaken 
the faculty of one secondary school as has the location of a C.C.C. camp 
almost upon its campus. These teachers, as they taught their daily classes, 
with their academic isolation, looked out upon the barracks of the C.C.C. 
camp with its military flavor, and saw under the care and tutelage of a 
competing agency the students they had permitted to slip out of their 
classes and away from the school. 


“The effect was challenging, and issues which could not have been 
brought up for discussion prior to this experience became matters of daily 
conference. The interchange of services between the C.C.C. camp and the 


secondary school was mutually beneficial.” 


Another educator prominent in secondary-school education who has 
recognized the significance of the work camps is Dr. Charles H. Judd. As 
early as May, 1937, he wrote that there would be “a great gain for society” 
if “the present secondary schools could have access to well-equipped insti- 
tutions of the camp type, to which they could assign cases of the kind not 


suited to the secondary-school organization.” 





1Sexson, John A., The Educational Record, Vol XIX, No, 3. (July, 1938), pp. 347-348 
“Judd, Charles H., The Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. XIX, No. g (May, 1937), p. 300. 
































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1940] The Implications of Work Camps 


EXTENT OF WORK CAMPS 


The work camp movement is world-wide in its scope. New as it is, 
beneficial or harmful as it may be, temporary or permanent as its status 
may prove, it is to-day affecting the destiny, or at least controlling the 
time, of more than a million youth throughout the world. In the United 
States alone, about two hundred fifty thousand young men_ between 
seventeen and twenty-three are currently enrolled in Civilian Conservation 
Corps camps, and since 1933 nearly three million have participated in work 


camps of one kind or another. 


In addition, the work camps enter more fully into the lives of partici- 
pants than do school programs, which ordinarily are restricted to from five 
to seven hours daily of direct contact with pupils, and play little or no part 
in their outside activities, living conditions, economic status, or social 
grouping. Both in Europe and the United States, enrollees in work camps 
live in the camps and are under the influence of their environment for 
twenty-four hours a day and in many cases, seven days a week. Besides 
this, the camps provide work experience, some quantity of training, room, 
board, clothes, and, in most cases, a small payment of money. 


In Europe the movements have taken different directions, due to 
differing needs and concepts in various countries. Basically, however, they 
are all outgrowths of the World War and its aftermath of disillusionment 
and dislocation of the former employment status of young people. 


The origins of the work camp movement go far back in history to 
such philosophical bases as the realization of the values derived from being 
close to nature, of the dignity and benefits of labor, of the efficiency and 
inspiration of group effort, and of the necessity for community effort to 


conserve and develop natural resources. 


The specific idea of work camps dates back to the nineteenth century, 
when contemplation of armies and their work of death and destruction 
aroused in thinkers a vision of somewhat similar groups that might be 
dedicated to constructive work. In England, both Carlyle and Ruskin 
put this vision into words, the former advocating “regiments not to fight 
the French or others, who are peaceable enough toward us, but to fight 
the Bogs and Wildernesses at home and abroad. . .”* Ruskin would have 
had the regular army, when not employed in warfare, engaged in works 
of peace side by side with civilians.‘ At one time he organized a dozen 
Oxford students into a private unit to build a road, as an experiment, per- 
haps the first, in voluntary, privately operated work camps. 


8Thomas Carlyle, Latter-Day Pamphlets (New York: Harper, 1850), pp. 42-3. 
*Munera Pulveris (New York: Wiley, 1872), pp. 142-43. 











| April 





National Association of Secondary-School Principals 







Just before the war, in 1912, three proposals were made of a more 
concrete nature. In the United States, William James, developing the idea 
of a public works army paralleling a war army, wanted “A conscription 
of the whole youthful population to form for a certain number of years a 
part of the army enlisted against Nature.” In Germany, a Heidelberg 
group headed by Dr. Rosenstock-Huessy, now at Dartmouth College, 
prepared a memorandum suggesting an “army of public peace.” Both pro- 
posals emphasized the value of bringing together the different classes of 
youth. The third proposal had in mind chiefly the provision of a mini- 
mum subsistence to all citizens. It was made by Joseph Popper-Lynkeus, 
Austrian engineer and socialist, and urged a universal compulsory labor 













service.’ 





ORGANIZATION OF EUROPEAN CAMPS 


In general, European work camps have followed four organizational 
forms: privately operated camps, government-aided camps, government- 
operated voluntary camps, and government-operated compulsory camps. 
In Germany, the movement has run the gamut of the four forms, each a 
step toward the next form; its present work camp movement is part of the 
war machine. The movements in Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, 
due in large part to conquest by Germany, have run somewhat similar 
courses. Among the remaining European nations, Bulgaria is the only one 
maintaining a compulsory labor service, but its service, at least in intent 


and appearance, has had no military aspects. 













The privately operated camps were born in 1920, through the efforts 
of Pierre Ceresole, a Swiss pacifist, who obtained the backing of the 
Fellowship of Reconciliation and the Society of Friends in the organiza- 
tion of young men, some of whom had fought on the opposite sides during 
the World War, to help in the rebuilding of the devastated areas of north- 
ern France. Spreading to other countries, this movement is now known 
as the International Voluntary Service for Peace. Its emphasis is on fellow- 
ship, mutual understanding between nations, and substitutions of peace 











projects for army service by conscientious objectors to war. 






A few years later student work camps were organized in Switzerland, 
Germany, and other nations, and as they developed and expanded in num- 
bers, government agencies saw in the work camps idea an opportunity to 
aid all types of young people. In some cases this led to government assist- 
ance to private camp organizations, in others to the formation of govern- 












ment-operated camps. 
SWilliam James, Memories 
“Werner Picht, and Eugen Rosenstock, 
Quelle & Meyer, 1926), S. 2-9. 


and Studies (New York: Longmans, 1912), pp. 290-91. 
“Bin Landfriededn,'’ Im Kampf um die Erwachsenen 
dildung, 1912-26 (Leipzig 


‘Die Allgemeine Nahrpflight Als Losung der sozialen Frage (Dresden; Reissner, 1912). 

















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1940 | The Implications of Work Camps 33 


With the relatively smaller populations of European nations, the num- 
bers of enrollees in work camps there indicate in some cases a larger per- 
centage of the youth participation than in the United States. The current 
enrollment of three hundred thousand young men in Germany, for ex- 
ample, is, in proportion to population, more than twice the enrollment here. 


The “dislocation of the former employment status of young people,” 
named above as a condition leading to the birth of the work camp move- 
ment, was neither as pronounced nor as apparent in the United States 
as in Europe, during the years following the World War. Indeed, it was 
recognized as a major aspect of our economic and social problems only 
when the depression beginning in 1929 brought it to the fore. When 
definite action by the national government was decided upon, a form of 
work camps sprang full-grown into being almost overnight, so that the 
stages of development passed through by European movements was skipped 
completely in the United States. 

CAMPS IN THE UNITED STATES 

The Civilian Conservation Corps founded in March, 1933, was con- 
tinued by yearly appropriations until 1937, and then was given a three- 
year term of existence, until July 1940. In 1939 it was continued for an 
additional three years, until 1943. Thus the camps have not yet been 
made a permanent part of the training program of American youth, but 
the present attitude of Congress and of the general public seems to as. 


sure their indefinite continuation. 


When the camps were first established, the aims of the program 
were (1) to assist the needy and the unemployed; (2) to provide young 
men with constructive work and at the same time food, snelter, work 
clothes, and a small salary; (3) to conserve the natural resources of the 
United States and develop additional recreational facilities in connection 
with state and national forests and parks. When the camps were continued 
in 1937 for a period of three years, greater emphasis was placed on the 
educational and training aspects of the camp. The law under waich the 
C.C.C. operated from July 1937 to July 1940 states “That at least ten 
hours each week may be devoted to general educational and vocational 
training.” At the same time, that law made it possible for an enrollee to 
attend an “educational institution of his choice” on leave of absence from 
the camp. It and the law continuing the camps from July 1940 to July 1943 
thus place greater emphasis on the training and educational aspects of the 
C.C.C. camp than did the legislation establishing the C.C.C. 

The activities of the camps are conducted, at the present time, by 
three major departments of the Federal Government, coérdinated by a 
director's office with headquarters in Washington. The three departments 





34 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


are the Department of War, the Department of Agriculture, and the De- 
partment of the Interior. Until the C.C.C. camps were placed in the Se- 
curity Agency in July, 1939, the Department of Labor was responsible for 
the selection of the C.C.C. enrollees. When the C.C.C, was placed in the 
Security Agency the activities of the director of selection were transferred 
to the offices of the director of the C.C.C. 


The War Department is in general charge of the administration of 
the camp. Except for a few regular army officers in important administra- 
tive positions the activities of the War Department in connection with 
C.C.C. are carried on by reserve army officers, who are responsible for the 
feeding, housing, clothing, and discipline of the enrollees while they are 
in the camp. The representatives of the Department of Agriculture and the 
Department of the Interior supervise the work of the boys during the 
forty hours each week that they are out on the work projects. The third 
group of individuals who have a major responsibility in connection with 
the program are the educational advisors, who are selected and employed 
by the United States Office of Education, now part of the Security Agency. 


THE ENROLLEES IN THE CAMPS 


The enrollees who participate in the C.C.C. program must be between 
the ages of seventeen and twenty-three at the time of enrollment. As a 
group they are somewhat like the youth described in the well-known 
report “Issues of Secondary Education” prepared by the National Associa- 
tion of Secondary-School Principals under the chairmanship of Thomas 
L. Briggs, which states that: “a very considerable proportion of the enroll- 
ment in secondary schools since the depression is comprised of pupils of 
a different type—boys and girls who are almost mature physically, who 
are normal mentally in the sense that they are quite capable of holding their 
own with the ordinary adult, but who are unable or unwilling to deal 
successfully with continued study under the conditions which even the 
best secondary schools impose. The fact that many of these pupils would 
far rather be out of school at work than in school . . . makes their problem 


the move difficult of solution. . .” 


The average grade completed by the C.C.C. enrollees is about the 
ninth.” Fifty-five per cent of the enrollees have not completed more than 
the traditional elementary school course, and this level represents the 
highest mortality in educational progress. Eleven per cent of the enrollees 
have graduated from hi: h school, while less than two per cent have gone 
beyond high school. Further light on the educational experience of the 
C.C.C. enrollees is derived from the fact that the average enrollee has at- 


*The information on the enrollees contained in this and the next paragraph was obtained by the 
American Youth Commission in its study of a sampling of about ten thousand enrollees. 





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1940] The Implications of Work Camps 35 


tended school eleven years, whereas he has completed only about the ninth 
grade. Seventy-six per cent of the enrollees have attended school more 
years than the comparable grades completed. Eighty-three per cent of 
those who stopped at the end of the traditional elementary school were 
overage, and only one and five-tenths per cent were underage. 


The C.C.C. enrollees on the whole have not had very much occupational 
experience before entering the C.C.C. Seventy per cent of the enrollees 
report that they have had a job of some kind before entering the C.C.C. 
Of these, forty-six per cent say they have not had more than one job. The 
average duration of the job held by the enrollees was two and two-tenths 
months and only two per cent held a job nine or more months. For boys 
who had had jobs before entering the C.C.C., a period averaging four and 
one-half months elapsed during which they were unemployed. The jobs 
which enrollees had held before entering the camps were generally of an 
unskilled type. 

EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCES 


Those who differ on the scope of education will find much ground 
for animated debate in attempting to define what part of a C.C.C. enrollee’s 
life can be considered educational. Even the period devoted to sleep may 
well be thought to have educational implications by some educators, with 
iis compulsory retiring and rising hours, its replacement of the home 


atmosphere with that of barracks. As for the waking hours, there are few 
periods when an observer could say flatly: “This is not a phase of educa- 
tion.” Oddly enough, this is true in spite of the fact that formal instruction 
in classes according to regulations is voluntary and takes place outside the 
forty hours each week devoted to work projects. 


While the camps were set up as an emergency project very largely 
to give physical assistance to the young men and their dependents, the 
leisure of the boys was not entirely forgotten. In the original penciled 
diagram which President Roosevelt used to sketch the C.C.C. organization, 
an assistant to the director of the C.C.C. camps was provided to have charge 
of the welfare activities of the camps. But this plan for an assistant to the - 
director was not carried out, and instead the welfare officers of the United 
States Army were given charge of the leisure of the young men. There is 
a strong American tradition of public education, however, and from the 
time the camps were first considered the educational possibilities were 
often discussed by officials both inside and outside of the government. To 
many educators, the original Civilian Conservation Corps was a disappoint- 
ment since it did not provide for an adequate educational program. There 
developed a general feeling that these young men should be given an 
opportunity to continue their education since many of them had been 
forced to leave school because of the serious economic conditions. 





National Association of Secondary-School Principals | April 


During the first few months of the C.C.C. the army officers, besides 


providing athletic equipment and sending a few fiction and nonfiction 


books into the camps, purchased a limited quantity of textbooks in the 
fields of arithmetic, geography, and history. On May 9, 1933, the War 
Department in Washington sent out an order which read in part: “In- 
struction will be given in forestry by members of the Forestry Service, and 
classes in general and vocational educational courses will be conducted, 
when practicable, by the Army for all members of the Civilian Conservation 
Corps who so desire it. The basis for this instruction will fellow in general 
the lines authorized for the enlisted men of the Regular Army as pre- 
scribed in Army Regulations 350-2505, a copy of which is enclosed.” This 
resulted in an attempt on the part of the army officers and the project 
superintendents to develop a training program in the camps. With few 
exceptions, however, neither the army officers nor the technical super- 
intendents were trained as instructors. They also felt they were paid only 
to perform their regular duties. Interest lagged on the part of both officers 
and enrollees, and very little was accomplished in developing an educa- 
tional program in the camps. 

The governmental officials administering the camps soon came to 
see the need fer a comprehensive educational program of some kind to 
utilize the leisure of the enrollees. Educators and social workers felt that 
the camps should be more than a place for the young men to eat: and 
sleep, and that something more definite should be done to provide an 
opportunity for them to continue their education and utilize their leisure 
time constructively. In December, 1933, nine months after the camps 
were started, the War Department called upon the United States Office ot 
Education to organize and administer an educational program for the 
camps under the general supervision of the Director of Emergency Con- 
servation Work, Robert Fechner. A national director of education with 
headquarters in Washington, nine corps area educational advisors, and 
approximately fifteen hundred camp educational advisors, about one for 
each camp, were appointed. Each educational advisor was provided with 
an assistant to be selected from the enrollees in the camps and paid thirty 
six dollars a month. 

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM VOLUNTARY 

The enrollees are required to work forty hours a week, so the educa- 
tional program, except for instruction given on the work projects, is con- 
ducted during the evenings. On week ends the program for the enrollees 
who do not go home consists mostly of recreation and a few field trips. 

Since there is universal compulsory education in the United States 
the question may be asked, “Why should the educational program in the 
C.C.C. camps be voluntary?” The following are the arguments most fre- 





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1940 | The Implications of Work Camps 


quently heard: In the first place, the enrollees are required to work for 
forty hours a week; and to force them to participate in an educational 


program after work hours would antagonize them. 


In the second place, it is hoped that it will be possible to develop such 
a desire for knowledge on the part of the enrollees that they will continue 
to read and study after they leave camp. If they are forced to study in 
camp after work hours, it is not likely that they will enjoy their experience 
sufficiently well to cause them to continue studying when they leave camp 


and the compulsion no longer exists. 


In the third place, most of the boys in the C.C.C, have reacted against 
the schooling they were forced to take prior to enrollment in the camps, 
and they would undoubtedly resent a compulsory program of education. 


In the fourth place, a compulsory program would probably mean that 
those advisors who have used imagination and initiative in developing 


their programs and making the subjects vital and interesting to the en- 
rollees would lapse back into stereotyped, formal classes conducted with 
textbooks. Thus the informal techniques of voluntary adult education 
which may become the outstanding contribution of the C.C.C. to American 


education would be lost or seriously impaired. 


It seems clear, however, that in a thoroughly democratic country like 
the United States, which assumes a certain degree of intelligence on the 
part of every citizen, a compulsory program for illiterates and young men 
deficient in the basic subjects such as reading, writing, and arithmetic 
can be justified. In actual practice such subjects are compulsory or nearly 
so since an enrollee must be able to write his name and fill out certain 


forms. 


During the years that the C.C.C. educational program has been in 
existence, special methods and procedures have been developed which 
seem to be adapted to the conditions of the camps. While the methods 
described below are not used by all educational advisors, they are coming 


to be used by many of them. 


There is an unfortunate tradition in the United States which holds 
that if the first generation is a dirt farmer, the second should be a small 
shopkeeper, and the third a member of a profession. This tradition some- 
times forces individuals to attempt to carry on work for which they are not 
prepared or capable. The educational program in the C.C.C. tries to give 
‘the enrollee a philosophy of life which will permit job satisfaction regard- 
less of the type of work chosen. 

The first responsibility of the educational advisor is to assist in the 
orientation and adjustment of the enrollee to the camp environment. This 
















[ April 





38 National Association of Secondary-School Principals 








is partially accomplished by conducting visits to the work projects, garage, 
mess hall, infirmary, and the offices of the project superintendent and com- 
pany commander, where explanations of the various phases of camp life 







are made. 

His next duty is to discover the needs and interests of the enrollees 
and, through conferences with the project superintendent and foremen, to 
arrange assignments to work projects that interest the enrollees and seem 
to ofler the greatest training possibilities for the type of employment that 
they will seek after leaving camp. 

Usually enrollees are found who are illiterate or semi-literate. The ad- 
visor immediately attempts to develop courses to reduce these deficiencies. 
Such courses are not the only formal instruction given, however, for 
classes also are held in vocational subjects, health, and current affairs, 
attended during leisure hours. Besides these educational activities for those 
enrollees interested in continuing their academic education, courses that 
make it possible to obtain elementary or high-school diplomas are fre- 


quently provided in camps or near-by schools. 

















The whole educational and training program within the camps is 
becoming more and more work-centered. In connection with this the ad- 
visor assists the foremen and project superintendent in providing instruc- 
tion on the work projects. In addition, he arranges field trips to near-by 
industries, shows the enrollees pictures of industrial processes, provides 
books and magazines containing vocational guidance information to 
assist enrollees in understanding the requirements for various types of 













jobs, and carries on related activities. 





In addition to the program outlined above, a competent advisor 
arranges for a wide variety of recreational activities which include athletics, 
arts and crafts, reading, dramatics, and music. In the development of the 
entire program, the more alert advisors do not limit their activities to 
classroom work, but use imagination and initiative to develop the edu- 
cational possibilities inherent in all phases of camp life. 














EDUCATIONAL AIMS OF THE C.C.C. 
It was not until nine months after the Civilian Conservation Corps had 
been established that educational advisors were appointed to help in the 
development of the educational program. George F. Zook, then United 
States Commissioner of Education, appointed a committee, headed by Fred 
J. Kelly, chief of the Division of Higher Education of the Office of Educa-’ 
tion, which drew up the following list of aims for the educational activities 
in the C.C.C. camps: 


1. To develop in each man his powers of self-expression, self-entertainment, 









and self-culture. 





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The Implications of Work Camps 


EDUCATIONAL AIMS OF THE C.C.C, 


To develop pride and satisfaction in codperative endeavor. 
To develop as far as practicable an understanding of the prevailing 
social and economic conditions to the end that each man may codper- 
ate intelligently in improving these conditions. 
To preserve and strengthen good habits of health and of mental develop- 
ment. 
By such vocational training as is feasible, but particularly by vocational 
counseling and adjustment activities, to assist each man better to meet 
his employment problems when he leaves camp. 

6. To develop an appreciation of nature and of country life. 

These aims are still used by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Various 
other statements of aims have been developed by individuals responsible 
for the C.C.C, education program since that time, but none have so 
well expressed them. 


While it can truthfully be said that progress has been made in the 
development of the training and educational aspects of the C.C.C. camps, 
the program is far from realizing the possibilities of the corps. Because 
the present educational program is largely administrative in character, it 
lacks thinkers and planners of long experience in the field of education 
who can see the Civilian Conservation Corps in perspective and bring to 
it the experience and intelligent insight of the best minds in the field of 
education in the United States. 

THE CAMP PROGRAM SHOULD NOT BE IGNORED 

In the beginning of this chapter it was pointed out that at least some 
secondary-school administrators are not familiar with work camps and 
seem to have no inclination to become familiar with them. Since secondary 
schools have greatly increased their enrollment in recent years and are 
therefore having some difficulty in providing educational opportunities for 
their students with their somewhat limited plants and teaching staffs, i 
is only natural that they should not want to take responsibility for addi- 
tional youth without assurance that they can provide an adequate educa- 
tional program. Yet what are the alternatives, if administrators in the 
field of educaion do not take this responsibility even to the extent of se- 
curing more funds for the development of additional facilities and the 
hiring of larger numbers of teachers? 


First, these underprivileged youth can be left without any additional 
preparation for life. Occasionally, it is stated that the American people 
suffer from too much education. Only recently the nationally syndicated 
columnist, Westbrook Pegler, recommended that someone “come aut 
with a fearless declaration of this type.” Granting that our educational 
system has not brought the abundant life to all people, this does not mean 
that we should abandon the ideal of free universal education at least 











40) National Association of Secondary-School Principals | April 






through secondary schools. Instead, we should intensify our efforts to 
expand and improve our educational facilities. Even with about 65 per 
cent of our youth of high-school age receiving the present secondary-school 
education we have not yet achieved anything like universal training for 






citizenship. 

The compulsory public educational system of this country is based 
on the premise that universal suffrage requires universal education to a 
sufficient degree to permit each individual to vote intelligently and take an 
active part in community life. If an elementary school education was 






necessary during the nineteenth century, it certainly can be argued that 
the equivalent of a secondary-school education is needed in the twentieth 
century, and we cannot risk the existence of large groups of dissatisfied, 







disillusioned youth poorly prepared for adult life. 

A second alternative would be to let the employers of these youth 
give them such training as they needed after they were employed. Assum- 
ing for a moment that they will eventually find jobs, which is doubtful, 
many employers state that they prefer to hire youth of general ability and 







then give them such specific training as they need in connection with 
what they actually do in industry. It does not require much imagination 
to visualize the type of training that most of the youth would receive 
under this hypothetical plan. Whereas they might learn some technical 
skills and a few safety habits, it is doubtful if they would receive any 
intellectual stimulus, learn anything about using their leisure construc- 
tively, or be encouraged to study social and economic problems. 

A third alternative would be to let these federal youth projects go 
through the same process of militarization that the work camps did in 
Germany and Poland, where they were first originated by social welfare 
agencies but gradually became a definite part of the military training pro- 
gram of the country. If this seems beyond the realm of possibilities in this 
country, study the resolutions of such militant organizations as the Daugh- 
ters of the American Revolution, the American Legion, and the Reserve 















Officers Association. 
When the country first recognized the problem of unemployed out- 


of-school youth in the United States back in 1932 and 1933, several bills 
' were introduced in Congress and given considerable support which would 

have opened the Citizens’ Military Training Camps to these boys, enlisted 
them in the Army, or placed them under army officers. To put all the 
unemployed out-of-school youth into the Army or Navy would be a very 
simple solution of the problem, however detrimental such a plan would 
be for the future of American democracy. About all that could be said 
for this plan would be that under the authoritarian control of army officers 
and under rigid army discipline the youth would be safe from any training 
or educational program that might shake their confidence in the America 
























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1940 | The Implications of Work Camps 41 


of to-day and result in action to change the conditions that thwart the 


hopes and aspirations of American youth. 


In the fourth place, these youth could continue to be provided for 
by the existing federally financed and controlled training and vocational 
projects. This hardly seems desirable, since experience with these agencies 
indicates that they very definitely need the guidance, the assistance, and 
the coéperation of the administrators of the existing educational institu- 
tions. In the development cf the educational program in the C.C.C. 
camps there has been a great deal of floundering, inefficiency, and lack of 


coordination. 
COOPERATION OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS NEEDED 


The National Youth Administration program, while still far from 
perfect, now has the active assistance and guidance of Charles H. Judd, 
who is director of related training, Lynn A. Emerson, who is a consultant 
to the National Youth Administration on vocational training, and C, A. 
Prosser, director of The William Hood Dunwoody Industrial Institute, 
who is also a vocational advisor to the National Youth Administration. 
Already great progress has been made under the leadership of these men, 
and if they continue in their present capacity considerable improvement in 
the program will undoubtedly result. 


The names of Judd, Studebaker, Kelly, Emerson, and Prosser are 
listed to show the influence that a few men prominent in the field of 
secondary education have already had on these new programs. But the 
C.C.C. and N.Y.A. need not only the assistance that these few men 
with headquarters in the nation’s capital can give to the program. They 
need also the active support, guidance, and assistance of the secondary- 
school administrators and teachers who live or work in the vicinity of a 
C.C.C. camp or N.Y.A. project. Close codperation between the adminis- 
trators and teachers of the existing schools and the administrators and 
teachers in these new agencies will be mutually stimulating and helpful 
and may answer the need or show the way for a comprehensive program 
for the training and education of youth which will integrate the C.C.C. 
and N.Y.A. with the existing educational institutions. Even if it were 
desirable in the early stages of the development of the C.C.C. and N.Y.A. 
for them to be administered separately from the established educational 
institutions, the time is fast approaching when these two governmental 
agencies, if they are to continue, must become an integrated part of the 
comprehensive training program for the care and education of American 
youth. This does not mean that the C.C.C. camps should become part of 
the established school system. They will probably continue to be financed 
by the Federal Government, since the majority of the work projects are 











42 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


on state- or federally-owned land, and the youth need economic assistance 
as well as training. The educational aspects of these projects, nevertheless, 
should more and more become integrated with, if not amalgamated into, 
the state school systems. 

In addition, schools, especially on the secondary level, should develop 
camp projects of their own that combine work and education. The Pro- 
gressive Education Association, in coéperation with the American Friends 
Service Committee, has already demonstrated by several years of experi- 
mentation that summer work camps provide desirable experiences for 
youth on the secondary-school level. 

It, therefore, behooves all administrators and teachers on the secondary- 
school level to become familiar with work camps in Europe and the 
United States, for these projects, which combine work and education and 
provide youth of limited means with board, room, and clothing, may be 
required for many years to prepare a segment of our youth population for 


adult life. 





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CHAPTER IV 
The Student-Aid Program 


Distribution of Youth by Type of Work 
Academic Year 1939-40’ 


Each institution participating in the student work program is re- 
quired to submit to the National Youth Administration at the beginning 
of the academic year a schedule of the work to be carried under its quota 
of N. Y. A. funds. These work plans include a description of the work 
to be undertaken and the number of students to be employed on each type 
of work. The following information on the distribution of youth employed 
under the student work program was summarized from a representative 
sample of the work schedules. 


SCHOOL WORK PROGRAM 


Two fifths of the three hundred twenty thousand high-school 
students were assigned to teachers on jobs involving assistance in the 
regular school departments. Almost fifty thousand of these students per- 
formed general classroom and laboratory assistance in fields of instruction 
closely related to their own school work including the preparation of 


exhibits and visual aid materials. About forty thousand students renovated 
library books or were assigned to the school libraries to perform library 
service that so many schools were unable to undertake under their budgets. 
Also employed on departmental assistance projects were twenty-six thou- 
sand girls doing work in the home economics departments including sew- 
ing, nursery-school work, and preparation of school lunches, and fourteen 
thousand students were assigned to printing and reproduction jobs where 
they acquired skill in operating mimeographs and other duplicating 
machinery. 

School projects for the construction and renovation of school property 
and facilities and maintenance work outside the regular school budget 
employed ninety-two thousand or 29 per cent of the high-school students. 
Eighteen thousand students worked under skilled supervisors on projects 
for constructing, repairing, and remodeling school buildings, athletic fields, 
bleachers, and, in several instances, stadiums, recreational equipment, 
various school apparatus, models, and equipment. Fifteen per cent of the 
total “number of high-school students receiving N.Y.A: aid—forty-eight 
thousand—were employed at nonbudgeted maintenance of buildings, and 
twenty-six thousand or 8 per cent on the improvement and maintenance 
of school grounds. 

Clerical assistance and service projects employed sixty-nine thousand 


1This section and Table I were furnished by Thelma McKelvey, special assistant, National Youth 
Administration office, Washington, D. C 


43 








44 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


or 21.6 per cent of the total N.Y.A. secondary-school students at work 
consisting principally of typing, filing, stenography, and the revising and 
bringing up to date of old records. 

Projects for professional and technical assistance employed twenty 
thousand or 6.4 per cent of the students. Over half of these were recrea- 
tional leaders or assistants to the school recreational directors, about five 
thousand worked on music, arts, and crafts projects, almost two thousand 
gave assistance in health and hospital work, and one thousand on research, 
statistical, and survey projects. 

COLLEGE WORK PROGRAM 

Schedules received from 1,684 colleges and universities showed that 
work enough had been planned to keep one hundred and twenty-three 
thousand undergraduate students at work during the entire school year. 


More than forty-eight thousand college students or 39.3 per cent of 
those receiving employment under this program were assigned to the 
heads of departments and to instructors for various types of assistance in 
the departments, preparing models and exhibits, mounting and arranging 
specimens, and other visual aid materials. Almost fifteen thousand of 
these gave assistance in libraries in cataloguing, collating reference ma- 
terial, preparing bibliographies, repairing and renovating books, or getting 
practical experience in other phases of library operation. 

Clerical assistance and service projects including filing, typing, and 
stenography employed thirty-four thousand or 27.7 per cent of the college 
students. 

Fifteen per cent—nineteen thousand—of the students were employed 
on sub-professional or technical work closely related to their college work. 
These included eight thousand students carrying out research, statistical, 
or survey projects and six thousand employed as recreational leaders on 
and off the campus under the sponsorship of public and private welfare 
agencies. Arts and crafts, music, and writing employed four thousand 
college students, and more than a thousand gave subprofessional assistance 
in clinics, hospitals, and other health work. 

Projects for constructing and repairing college buildings and facilities 
and for the improvement of grounds provided employment this year to 
nineteen thousand undergraduate college students, about 15 per cent of 
the total. Almost seven thousand of these students engaged in the actual 
construction or repair of small college buildings or extension of recreational 
facilities and apparatus under the supervision of the skilled workmen 
employed by the college. Twelve thousand students were assigned to 
various jobs in the improvement of grounds; their work included planting, 
seeding and sodding, pruning and tree surgery, landscaping, and the 
maintenance of the physical plant of the college. 








194 


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1940} The Studednt-Aid Program 


GRADUATE WORK PROGRAM 


The work plans submitted by universities called for the continuous 
employment of twenty-nine hundred students during the 1939-40 school 
year. 


Thirteen hundred or 44 per cent of the graduate students were 
assigned to professional or technical work including more than one 
thousand on research, statistical, and survey projects, and two hundred 
as recreational leaders, performing health or hospital work, or being em- 
ployed in arts and crafts, music, and writing. 


One third of the graduate students are assigned to the college depart- 
ments to give assistance in the laboratories and classrooms, museums, art 
galleries, and libraries of the university. 


Only five hundred of the graduate students were employed in clerical 
or service work, and about one thirtieth on construction and maintenance 


projects. 
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PROGRAMS 


The most striking difference between the types of work to which 
high-school, college, and graduate students were assigned was in the sub- 
professional and technical group. Nearly half of the N.Y.A--assisted 
graduate students were employed on these projects compared to 15 per 
cent of the college undergraduates and only 6 per cent of the high-school 
students. Within this group, research, statistical, and survey projects alone 
employed 36 per cent of the graduates, but only 7 per cent of the under- 
graduates and three tenths of one per cent of the high-school students. 


Construction, repair, and maintenance projects employed a much 
larger proportion of N.Y.A. high-school students than of college students. 
Projects of this nature employed 29 per cent of the N.Y.A.-assisted 
students in secondary schools, but only 15 per cent of the college under- 
graduates and less than 4 per cent of the graduates. 


Clerical assistance and service projects were more important in the 
undergraduate college work program, than in the other two programs, 
employing 28 per cent of N.Y.A.-assisted college undergraduates com- 
pared to 22 per cent of secondary-school students and 17 per cent of the 
college graduates. 


The variation in the proportion of N.Y.A.assisted students assigned 
to departmental assistance between the programs is small. In high schools, 
41 per cent of the N.Y.A. students were assigned to these projects, com- 
pared to 39 per cent of the college and 34 per cent of the graduate students. 





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Administration. 


National Youth 


the 


The Student-Aid Program 


The Selection of the Illustrations for 
the Student-Aid Program 


IN THE OPINION of the editor, high-school administrators could well 
use more student-aid time on research, health, and hospital work, on 
recreational leadership and assistance, and on arts and crafts, music, and 
writing. All the best examples collected in the semiprofessional area 
(Area D) are included in the descriptions which follow. These total nearly 
one fourth of the number of illustrations in the chapter; in practice semi- 
professional projects employ one sixteenth of the high-school N.Y.A. 
aided youth. 


Construction projects, in the editor’s opinion, are much more desirable 
than building maintenance. Consequently, a considerable number of con- 
struction projects are included for purposes of illustration, whereas only 
three maintenance projects are described, although building maintenance 
employs 48,259 N.Y.A. aided youth in the secondary schools. It is be- 
lieved that through construction and repair, more permanent values can 
be secured for the school and the community than through custodial 
service, important though such services may be in many communities. 


There is no implication intended that the projects represented herein 
are better than many other projects which were in progress, but on which 
reports were not available. The seventeen state administrators who codper- 
ated, selected the schools to submit material. Undoubtedly the state ad- 
ministrators selected those schools which, in their’ opinion, would furnish 
good examples. No doubt many superior examples were not made available 
for THe Buttetin. Those which are included, totaling about 120, are the 
best illustrations from a much larger sample submitted by the state admin- 
istrators. 


It is hoped that the many excellent projects which are described, from 
widely varying sections of the United States, will inspire school adminis- 
trators to conceive and carry through even better projects than those de- 
scribed. Not every school has a gifted artist who can paint murals for the 
corridors, but every school has clerical, statistical, and historical research 
problems which are worth doing. In many states ski trails are impracticable. 
But other recreational facilities, such as picnic grounds or six-man foot- 
ball fields, may be the solution. In many communities it may prove feasi- 
ble t6 make much greater use of public offices as an outlet for clerical 
service. 


Public school buildings and grounds are frequently the most im- 
posing and best-kept of any in the community. They are rightly objects 
of civic pride. But many of them would profit from. furthe: landscaping 





48 National Association of Secondary-School Principals | April 


and beautification, such as are described in this chapter. There is scarcely 
a community which could not use more assistance or facilities in the 
recreational program provided for young people. In the hope that the 
examples included would be of value, this issue of THe BuLLETIN was 


undertaken. 

Table I divides the fifteen types of work activity sponsored by the 
National Youth Administration into five areas: (A) Departmental Assist- 
ance, (B) Construction and Maintenance Projects, (C) Clerical Assistance 
and Service, (D) Semiprofessional Projects, and (E) Miscellaneous. 


These will be treated in the following order: 
AREA B—CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE: 
Group I. Constructing, Repairing, and Remodeling Buildings 
Group II. Constructing, Repairing, and Remodeling Facilities other than 
Buildings 
Group III. Construeting, Repairing, and Remodeling Apparatus, Models, 
and Equipment 
Group IV. Improvement and Maintenance of Grounds 
Group V. Building Maintenance 
AREA C—CLERICAL ASSISTANCE AND SERVICE: 
Group VI, Clerical Assistance and Service 
AREA A—DEPARTMENTAL ASSISTANCE PROJECTS: 
Group VII. Library Service and Book Repair 
Group VILL. Reproduction Work 
Group IX. Departmental Service 
Group XI. Home Economics 
AREA D—SeMIPROFESSIONAL PROJECTS: 
Group X. Research, Statistical, and Survey Projects 
Group XI. Health and Hospital Work 
Group XIII. Recreational Leadership and Assistance 
Group XIV. Arts and Crafts, Music, and Writing 
AREA E—MISCELLANEOUS: 


Group XV. Miscellaneous 


The secondary school has been interpreted to include the junior college. 
This does not agree with the National Youth Administration’s interpreta- 
tion which includes the junior college as part of the college program. There 
is no necessary conflict between the two points of view. The junior-college 
student is eligible to earn a larger wage if he is classified as a college stu- 
dent. The secondary-school administrator is quite justified in considering 
any training which is part of general education (as opposed to specialized 
education in the upper divisions of colleges and universities) as secondary. 
The descriptions of student-aid projects in secondary schools follow. 





CRO 


Contents 


ArEA B—COoNSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE PROJECTS 


[Projects in this area account for 28.9 per cent of the youth employed 
in the school-aid program during the academic year 1939-40.] 


Grover]. Constrectixe, REPAIRING, AND REMODELING BUILDINGS: 


9 


A Lunch Room and a Recreational Hour 
(Alexandria, Minnesota) 

A Garage, School Equipment, “Landscape Gardening 
(San Diego, Texas). , ial niat ania 
A Home ‘Economics Laboratory (Tropic, Utah) 
School Furniture and Equipment (Rhinelander, 
Wisconsin) 

A Library, a Home Economies ‘Room, and a 

Shower and Locker Room (Machias, Maine) 


Grovur IT. Construction, REPAIRING, AND REMODELING FacrLitres OTHER 
THAN BUILDINGS: 


Developing a Playground (Madison, Wisconsin) .......... 53 
Constructing Bleachers (Claremont, New Hampshire) .. 54 
Repairing School Furniture (Lawrenceburg, 

Kentucky ) 

Preparing Skiing Facilities (Lebanon, New 

Hampshire ) 

Improvement of Tennis Courts (Detroit, Michigan) . 
Installing a Football Field and Track (Mt. 

Pleasant, Utah) ; 

Installing a Six-Man Football Field on a 

School Playground (Lakeport, California) 

The Construction of a Bus-loading Area (Pleasant 

Grove, Utah) . on AE CERI OTe pnt x 56 


Group III. Consrrucrine, Reparrinc, AND REMODELING APPARATUS, 
MODELS, AND EQUIPMENT: 


1. 


2. 
3 


- 


Constructing and Repairing Playground Equipment 
(Way nesburg, Ohio) 

The Renewal of School Desks (Kenedy, Texas) 
Construction of Musie Stands, Miscellaneous 

Repair (Kingsley, Michigan) . ws 

The Repairing of School Equipment 

(Waycross, Georgia) ee ’ 

Maintenance of a Loud Speaker System 

(Antigo, Wisconsin) sas 

Construction of Equipment for Recreation 
(Dixfield, Maine) ons 
The Constructing of Apparatus. (Emporia, Kansas) 
The Construction of a Six-Inch Reflecting 
Telescope (Payson, Utah) .... ican aiceengiebeed 
The Construction of an Adobe Wall (Los 

Angeles, California) 

Storage for Dangerous Gases (Fullerton, California) 


Group IV. IMPROVEMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF GROUNDs: 


1. 


” 


” 
o. 


Improving Grounds and Recreational Facilities 
(Bemidji, Minnesota) 

The Preparation of a Playground '(Emporia, 
Kansas) - 
Care of Grounds and of Basketball and Tennis 
Courts (Waycross, Georgia) 


49 








National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


Contents (Continued) 


4. Grading and Draining School Grounds and Planting 


Trees (Duchesne, Utah) . 
Maintenance of School Gardens (Salinas, California) .... 
6. Riprapping a Creek with Rock (Randolph, Utah) 

7. Landscaping the School Grounds (Santa 


Barbara, California) 


5. 


Group V. But_pING MAINTENANCE: 
1. (Fullerton, California) 
2. (Redwood City, California) 
3. (Geneseo, New York) 





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1940 | Student-Aid Program: Area B—Group I 


Area B—Group I. Constructing, Repairing, and Remodeling 
Buildings 
1. A Luncn Room anp A RecreationaL Hour 
High School, Alexandria, Minnesota 

Because of a great influx of rural youth from outside the district as a 
result of the extension of certain bus lines, a problem existed as to what 
to do to provide adequately for the noon-hour supervision of those who 
brought their lunches to school. A study of the problem resulted in the 
decision that, in effecting a solution, it would be advantageous to organize 
various N.Y.A. groups to work under the supervision of the domestic 
science teacher, the recreational director, and the high-school principal. 

The first necessity was that of space. Arrangements were made to 
vacate one of the larger rooms for use as a lunch room. The room was re- 
paired, painted, and decorated by N.Y.A. workers. All the equipment, 
such as serving tables and dining tables, was built by N.Y.A. workers 
assigned to the industrial arts department. 

After the completion of the physical facilities, a number of girls from 
the home economics unit assisted in preparing and serving hot lunches. 

The third phase of the program was that of recreation. A definite 
schedule of games was inaugurated and executed, in the main, by N.Y.A. 
pupils under the supervision of the physical education department. 

The boys received direct benefits from the practical experience of 
building the equipment which correlated with their industrial arts work. 
The girls were given more experience in practical work in domestic 
science than they would have been able to receive through the regular 
classroom program. 

2. A Garace, ScHoo. EquipMENT, LANDscAPE GARDENING 
High School, San Diego, Texas 

Under the N.Y.A. school work program at the San Diego High 
School, a frame building (24 feet by 30 feet) and a library counter, shelves, 
trophy cabinets, magazine racks, bookcases, massage tables, footbaths, 
jumping standards, and hurdles were constructed for the use of the school 
and the students. Although the construction of such items was outside of 
the regular budget of the institution, the materials were furnished by the 
school board and other interested persons. 

The frame structure was built to house the two school buses operated 
by the district. The other apparatus was constructed to supplement equip- 
ment already in use in the building. 

Six boys assigned to N.Y.A. school work jobs and enrolled in voca- 
tional agriculture and manual training classes were employed on the 











52 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


project. Both the planning of the work and the actual construction were 
performed by the pupils under the supervision of the vocational agri- 
culture teacher and the superintendent of the school. The project afforded 
the boys the opportunity of putting into practical use many of the things 
learned in the classrooms. Some of these boys are now undertaking the 


erection of frame buildings on their home farms. 


After the garage was built the pupils undertook the landscaping of 
the school grounds; shrubbery was planted around the building, and 


irrigation and drainage ditches were laid out. 


3. A Home Economics LABoRATORY 


High School, Tropic, Utah 


An old but well-built powerhouse was moved to the campus of 
Tropic High School where it was placed on a new foundation and re- 
modeled. The ceiling and walls were lathed, plastered, and papered; 
the floors patched, sanded, and painted; and the grounds around it were 
graded and graveled. 

Under the direction of the faculty, a carpenter, and a paperhanger, 
six girls and twelve boys from three communities planned the project 
and worked together on it for four months. The school administrator 
feels that the work has lasting value not only to a rural school in which 
such expansion and improvement would have been impossible without 
N.Y.A. funds, but also to the pupils who thereby received training and 
the opportunity to develop skills and improve attitudes which will remain 
with them after their period of school attendance is ended. 


The building will be used as a home economics laboratory. 


4. Scnoot Furnirure AND EquipMENT 
Vocational School and Junior College, Rhinelander, Wisconsin 


In expanding its facilities to include a former grade-schoo] building, 
the Rhinelander Vocational School employed student workers in con- 
structing and remodeling many items of school furniture and equipment, 
items which otherwise could not have been obtained, at least not for a 


much longer period of time. 


Eleven boys spent the allotted time for five months in building 
partitions in plasterboard finish and in making work benches, tool racks, 
and similar adjuncts to a vocational shop. In as much as all eleven stu- 
dents were taking woodworking as a major subject in the full-time 
vocational school, this work provided a tremendous extension of their 
regular class work. By reason of the N.Y.A. project the experience of the 
students was widened, and the types of construction were increased over 
that possible with the ordinary facilities available in the school. 





194 


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1940 | Student-Aid Program: Area B—Group Il 53 


5. A Liprary, A Home Economics Room, AND A SHOWER AND LocKER Room 


High School, Machias, Maine 


At the Machias High School a work program of two years’ duration 
was begun in the fall of 1938. The program called for the renovation of 
two rooms and the basement. One room was made into a library, and the 
other was prepared to provide quarters for a home economics department. 
The basement was converted into a shower and locker room. 


The pupils who were not adapted to clerical or research work were 
assigned to the rough labor. Those in the clerical, library, and home 
economics units were put in charge of the refinishing of the rooms and 
the arranging of clerical details, such as cataloguing and record keeping. 
Instead of scattering books from the principal’s office through every class- 
room in the building, the pupils now have a neat-looking room to use 
wholly for library work, a room in which every book is catalogued and 
kept in place. This stimulated interest in reading, not only in the better 
types of books and magazines, but also in subjects related to classroom 
studies. 


An unused section of the school attic was converted into a home 
economics room, making possible the establishment of a home economics 
department. 

Previously, the basement was an ugly-looking, unkept spot where 
school idlers congregated both during in- and out-of-school hours; as a 
result of the N.Y.A. project, pupils participating in athletics now have 
clean and comfortable dressing quarters, whereas formerly they had to 


dress at home. 


Area B—Group II. Constructing, Repairing, and Remodeling 
Facilities Other Than Buildings 


1. Devetopinc a PLAyYGRouND 


Central High School, Madison, Wisconsin 


Central High School is located one block from Lake Mendota in a 
downtown area in which there are no playgrounds. Adjoining the lake 
there stood a large ice house which was recently removed by the city. 
This provided a site for the development of a playground for outside 
physital education classes and other activities. After the dangerous de- 
molition work was done by other agencies, fifteen N.Y.A. boys were 
employed in cleaning activities, in leveling the grounds, and in marking 
off the field for playground activity. 


The relationship between the work and the pupils’ academic interest 
was not great, but the tasks provided a manual work experience having 











54 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 








a definite objective. The principal of the school took a personal interest 
and did a great deal of the supervision of this job, although the high 
school is a large one. The direct supervision was in the hands of the 






assistant coach in the high school. 





The satisfaction of the work experience was further increased by the 
realization on the part of the youth that they were doing something 
definite for their schoolmates, for the city, and for their younger brothers 






and sisters. 







2. Constructinc BLEACHERS 





Stevens High School, Claremont, New Hampshire 





Recently, a citizen of Claremont gave to Stevens High School the 
sum of five hundred dollars with which to purchase athletic equipment. 
The money was spent for lumber, iron, and other materials, and ten boys 
on the N.Y.A. program were assigned to construct bleachers, The neces- 
sary iron parts were made in the metal shops, the lumber was cut in the 
wood shops, and the bleachers were assembled and painted. 









The boys were proud of their work which was directly correlated 
with their shop courses. Of the ten boys who worked on the program, 
about half were usually on the Honor List, and the remainder were en- 
couraged to keep up their work. One educational value was an improved 
attitude toward work in general. The boys valued the money earned 
because they realized it was for worth-while work which could not have 
been done without the N.Y.A. program. Also, they realized that scholar- 
ship was necessary in order to gain the privilege of working on the project. 











With the money earned in this way, the boys were able to take part 
in the extra-curriculum activities of the school, and they could purchase 
much-needed clothing, which increased their self-confidence and gave 
them the feeling that they amounted to something around the school. 







3. Reparrinc ScHooLt FurNITURE 












Anderson County High School, Lawrenceburg, Kentucky 





The pupils in the Anderson County High School come from farm 
homes. Two boys were assigned to an N.Y.A. project repairing school 
furniture, replacing broken window glass, and other similar tasks. 








The workers received valuable training in the use and care of tools. 
They purchased the materials needed for repair jobs, first comparing 
prices and determining which firms offered relatively the best values. 
They salvaged such parts as might be used later and learned not to discard 
furniture because it was old. This training was of particular value to them 
in the maintenance of their own homes. 













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ing | 
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1940} Student-Aid Program: Area B—Group Il 55 


The boys gained experience similar to that of a real work situation, 
and if they wish to continue in this occupation, the training fitted them 
somewhat with the fundamentals of the vocation. Their interest in fine 
woodwork was aroused, and they read all available material on antique 
furniture and on cabinetmaking. They were proud of their association 
with a craft which has gained such renown, and the level of their school 
work was raised. They came to realize the equal values of academic 
achievement and manual dexterity, and their skill gave them prestige 
among their fellow pupils. 

4. Prepartinc Sxuno Facitities 
High School, Lebanon, New Hampshire 

Since Lebanon is located in the winter sports region, a full program 
of winter sports is carried on at this school. Four boys were assigned to 
build and maintain skiing facilities. Their duties included cutting brush 
from trails, clearing out trees downed by the recent hurricane, removing 
dangerous stumps and rocks, marking the trails by name, and building 
small ski jumps. This work was done all during the year. Although the 
N.Y.A. boys took charge of the work, they were frequently assisted by 
volunteer workers from the school. 

The boys developed a knowledge of better ways to forestall accidents 
by removing the causes and learned what makes a safe trail and play- 
ground for winter play. 

The work of these boys was of value to the whole community, which 
derives much benefit from winter sports. 

5. IMPROVEMENT OF TENNIS CourTs 
Edwin Denby High School, Detroit, Michigan 

The tennis courts at Denby High School were of different elevations. 
Whenever it rained, there being no adequate drainage system, the courts 
of lower elevation suffered from washouts caused by water draining from 
the higher courts. To remedy this situation, workers on the N.Y.A. 
program were assigned the task of building a stone retaining wall extend- 
ing around the lower court boundary. Old concrete, secured from the 
wreckage of a closed street near the school, was used in this construction. 
Standing three feet in height, the wall measures approximately 160 feet 
in length. 

N-Y.A. workers followed this wall construction by leveling and 
surfacing the courts. A woven wire background was then erected to stop 
the high balls. Hollow pipe constituted the framework to which was 
attached a braided wire fence. 


The boys accomplished this work under the supervision of a field 
caretaker employed by the board of education. They not only earned 











56 National Association of Secondary-School Principals | April 







sufficient money to make possible their continuance in school, but also, 
some of them at least, experienced their first lesson in genuine manual 
labor. The school profited from the improvement, in as much as it now 
has a series of tennis courts which can be maintained for almost continual 
use. The student body is proud of the courts, and to the boys who per- 
formed the work the courts hold a personal sentiment. The level and 
well-kept condition of the courts is more than a little responsible for the 
increasing popularity of tennis, for now the courts need no longer be 


closed for extensive repairs after every heavy rainfall. 













6. INnsTALLING A FoorsBaLt Fiecp anp Track 
North Sanpete High School, Mt. Pleasant, Utah 
On ground purchased by the school board, the N.Y.A. students at 
Mt. Pleasant High School installed a football field and cinder track. The 
pupil workers surveyed the track, leveled the field, and moved the sod 
and shrubbery. In addition to the mathematics involved, there were edu- 
cational experiences in cutting and watering the sod and in the preparation 











of the seed bed. 












7. INsraLt~inc a Stx-Man Foorsatt Fietp on a ScHoot PLAYGROUND 


Clearlake Union High School, Lakeport, California 






Two N.Y.A. boys were employed filling in low ground, leveling it, 
and setting sod. The boys assigned to this project were partially following 
their vocational interests. They were supervised by the coach and the 
gardener of the school. This project improved the recreational facilities of 








the school. 





8. THe Construction or a Bus-Loapinc AREA 
High School, Pleasant Grove, Utah 

Three N.Y.A. boys were employed to clear weeds and debris from 
a piece of ground one-half acre in area. They leveled and graveled the 
ground to make it a safe place for loading school buses. The boys assigned 
to this project were interested in practical work activities. Since the project 
was of practical and social value to the school, it developed in these boys 
a sense of pride in their accomplishment. The loading area tends to 
prevent serious traffic accidents, for previous to its construction school 
buses were loaded and unloaded on the public highway. The project was 
supervised by the principal of the school and by the custodian. 














Area B—Group III. Constructing, Repairing, and Remodeling 
Apparatus, Models, and Equipment 






1. CoNnstTRUCTING AND REPAIRING PLAYGROUND EQuipMENT 

High School, 

A project concerned with the development of the school playground, 
with special attention given to repairing and constructing needed equip- 





Waynesburg, Ohio 











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ove 
sm 
bac 
pla 
pro 
the 
Sch 





1940 | Student-Aid Program: Area B—Group Ill 57 


ment, was undertaken at the Waynesburg High School, Waynesburg, Ohio. 


Eight boys, under the supervision of the custodian of the school, 
were employed on the project. These workers studied the needs of the 
playground and determined the type of equipment that could be built 
from available materials. Having obtained a quantity of old pipe and 
pipe connections from various local shops, the boys worked out plans for 
making frames for seesaws and frames and chain parts for horizontal 
bars, for reconstructing and installing a set of six swings, for building 
benches along the baseball diamond to be used by the players, and for 
building backstops. 


The pupils were enrolled in the manual arts class and were majoring 
in shop and mechanical drawing; therefore, the N.Y.A. work was 
closely related to their academic interests. These boys were more or less 
“hand-minded,’ and they will probably work with their hands in later 


life. 


Through their work on the project, the boys derived distinct educa- 
tional values by applying in a direct way their school studies, such as 
mechanical drawing and woodworking. The practical experience in 
planning and constructing thus supplemented their class work. It de- 


veloped initiative and resourcefulness, as well as certain skills. 


The project has provided the school with much-needed playground 
equipment which otherwise could not have been purchased, and which will 
be used extensively by school children and the community generally. 


2. THe Renewat or Scoot Desks 
High School, Kenedy, Texas 
Two hundred old and badly abused desks were renovated and put 
back into service through an N.Y.A. school work project at Kenedy High 
School, Kenedy, Texas. 


Nine boys assigned to N.Y.A. school work jobs were employed in 
this work. The boys planed down the tops of the desks and then went 
over them with an electric sanding machine. After the desks were 
smoothed and refinished they were varnished. Some of the desks were so 
badly damaged that general repair to the framework and the use of 
plastic wood was required. The equipment and materials used on the 
project were furnished by the school. All the work was done in a shop on 
the campus under the supervision of the principal of Kenedy High 
School. 


Most of the boys were enrolled in vocational agriculture and manual 
training classes and were interested in this type of work. The training 

















58 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 





which they received on this project will be of much benefit to them in 


related construction problems. 


The principal of the school feels that, because of this work, these 
boys now take greater pride in the care of school furniture and that they 
have transmitted this beneficial attitude to other students in the school. 


3. Construction or Music STanps, MisceLLaANgous Repair 
High School, Kingsley, Michigan 

Kingsley High School is typical of Michigan’s one-time white pine 

area, now merely a cutover district where farming as an industry is a 

poor successor to the fabulous fortunes derived from lumbering. This 

year the high-school enrollment in grades nine to twelve was eighty-eight. 


The work of two boys included the constructing of music stands for the 
orchestra, the installing of bulletin boards in classrooms, the repairing of 
maps and their cases, the removing of broken locks from classroom doors 
and replacing them with new ones furnished by the board of education. 
Whenever possible, old locks were repaired. Towel racks were made and 
placed in the dressing rooms. A radio aerial was erected and a radio in- 
stalled in the assembly room. The gymnasium floor was reconditioned, 
light switches repaired, and stage scenery and props made for school 
plays. 

4. Tue Reparrinc or ScHoot EquipMENT 
Center High School (Colored), Waycross, Georgia 

The school and the pupils benefited greatly from the N.Y.A. work 
program in the construction and repairs project at this school. Three 
girls and three boys worked at the repairing and upkeep of tools and 
equipment. 

Under the supervision of the instructor, the pupils put back into use 
many of the laboratory facilities thought of as discards. Bunsen burners, 
ring stands, and pneumatic troughs were repaired and made usable through 
soldering, sanding, gauging, and painting. The pupils referred to a 
chemistry manual which gives the different parts of the burner, shows 
how to assemble them, and explains the function of each part. They used 
this as a guide and, under the instructor’s supervision, repaired the parts, 
re-assembled them, and adjusted them for use again. 


Several pupils on this project supplemented their study of chemistry 
with laboratory experience. Those who were mechanically inclined found 
this a useful experience. Besides practical training, pupils gained on this 
project a development of their senses of value regard for the property 
rights of others, utilization of resources to the fullest extent, all of which 


encouraged ingenuity and thrift. 















1940] Student-Aid Program: Area B—Group Ill 59 


Pupils enrolled in vocational agriculture were taught to repair hoes. 
This was done in the blacksmith department of the shop, under the super- 
vision of the instructor. The boys cut the handles, fitted them to the once 
discarded hoes, and sharpened the implements, which were then pressed 
into service again. 

The school administrator felt that the benefits accruing from such 
projects were far-reaching. Youth were taught not to be extravagant. 
There was the lesson of utilization of one’s natural resources. Such train- 
ing is likely to carry over into community life and to help toward better 
social adjustments on the farm and around the home. 


5. MAINTENANCE OF A Loup-SPEAKER SysTEM 
High School, Antigo, Wisconsin 

Among the fifty pupils employed at the Antigo High School, there 
were two who did specialized work in the maintenance of the loud- 
speaker system recently installed there. 

This project furnished experience in electricity and in the fundamentals 
of transcription which these pupils could have gained in no other way. 

The maintenance of the loud-speaker system, supervised by the 
physics instructor, furthered the education of the boys and was a means 
of keeping in operation a radio diversion system, which is an important 
item in a school housing hundreds of pupils who come from rural areas, 
and who stay at the school at noon and often for a considerable period in 
tne afternoon. 

As a result of this chance for unusual work, these two senior stu- 
dents are ready to go into this field of work upon their completion of the 
high-school course, which was made possible by their N.Y.A. employ- 
ment. 


6. ConstRUCTION OF EquipMENT FoR RECREATION 
High School, Dixfield, Maine 
In Dixfield High School a particularly fine program for development 
of athletic facilities was organized under the direction of the principal 
of the school. Before N.Y.A. assistance was given, the pupils had only the 
most makeshift equipment and facilities with which to work. 


The N.Y.A. program consisted of constructing indoor equipment, 
ping-pong tables, a trophy room, and an out-doors shelter house for the 
hockey rink. The shelter house was a much-needed convenience and pro- 


tection. 

In addition to the regular hockey rink, a larger rink for skating pur- 
poses was constructed, and a baseball field remodeled, which conformed 
with standard regulations and provided a vastly improved playing area. 











60 National Association of Secondary-School Principals | April 


Dixfield High School, with an enrollment of ninety-eight, is located 
in a small town where people had been accustomed to getting along with 
the most improvised conditions for high-school recreation. When the 
principal outlined his plan to the school officials and the townspeople, his 
idea was met with considerable skepticism, but now the results attained 
have changed the whole attitude toward what can be done with N.Y.A. 
assistance under well directed and imaginative utilization of the workers. 


7. THe ConstructinG oF APPARATUS 
Roosevelt High School, Emporia, Kansas 

Apparatus, models, and other equipment for the departments of 
mathematics, physics, and psychology were constructed by five boys as- 
signed in the Roosevelt High School. The equipment was planned and 
constructed under the direction of the heads of the departments. As nearly 
as possible, the pupils were assigned to make apparatus for the depart- 
ment in which they were specializing. 

The educational value derived by the pupils was considerable, since 
it afforded them a working knowledge of the equipment, and a greater 
familiarity with the laboratory. Moreover, it provided a general work- 
shop experience in the actual construction of the apparatus. The value 
of the project to the school is in furnishing the departments with models 
and classroom instruction. 

In the mathematics department, the work consisted of preparing wood, 
plaster, wire, and glass models of the more important three-dimensional 
figures and surfaces of the second order. Besides making new equipment 
for the physics and science departments, the youth repaired all old 
apparatus, also. 

8. THe Construction oF A Six-INcH RerLectinc TELEscopE 
High School, Payson, Utah 

The construction of a telescope by four boys at Payson High School 
involved the grinding of a six-inch pyrex glass mirror and the mounting 
of the mirror and the prisms. The boys had mechanical ability and an 
interest in physics. The project gave the boys work experience which 
correlated closely with the principles of optics taught in physics. It was 
sponsored by the principal and the instructor of science. The telescope 
is to be used by the classes in elementary astronomy that are to be or- 
ganized. It will also give the community an opportunity to use an 
unusual piece of apparatus. 


9, THe ConsTrRUCTION OF AN ApoBE WALL 

Englewood High School, Los Angeles, California 
Ten unskilled boys, the majority of whom were Mexicans, were as- 
signed to construct an adobe wall which encloses a part of the school 








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1940 | Student-Aid Program: Area B—Group III 61 


grounds. The enclosure is used during the lunch hour by the pupils and 
at other times for recreational purposes. The wall which was constructed 
according to strict specifications is made of adobe, secured locally at no 
cost. The equipment and materials necessary for the project were furnished 
by the school and the community. Supervision was provided by competent 
persons on the custodial staff. 

This project has much to recommend it as work experience for a 
group of unskilled boys, for they gained experience on a manual labor proj- 
ect in line with future employability. Also they had the opportunity to 


perfect their skill in a native craft. 


10. Storace ror Dancerous Gases 
Junior College, Fullerton, California 
Eight boys were assigned to install fixtures which permit the storage 
of dangerous welding gases outside the school shop. A fifty-foot pipe line 
running from the storage shed to the shop was laid. Check valves and 
outlet valves were installed. The boys laid the pipe, installed the valves, 
and gained experience in constructing a high-pressure pipe system. Since 
these boys were all interested in industrial work, the experience was 
closely related to their instruction in industrial arts. The shop instructos 


supervised the work. 


Area B—Group IV. Improvement and Maintenance of Grounds 


1. Improvinc Grounps AND RECREATIONAL FAcILITIES 


High School, Bemidji, Minnesota 

Prior to the building of a new addition to the high school at Bemidji, 
Minnesota, it was necessary to extend the school grounds in order to af- 
ford adequate space for the building and for the school playground. 
The only land available for this purpose was a wooded area which could 
not have been used immediately by the school for playground purposes; 
therefore, it was determined that the school would secure the assistance 
of a limited number of out-of-school N.Y.A. workers and, codperatively 
with them and the N.Y.A. pupils of the school, prepare the area for its 


intended use. 

The trees were cut and the ground leveled and sodded or graveled, 
so as to create an improved lawn and extended playground. In order to 
expand the recreation facilities of the school, the workers developed a 
new ball diamond, running track, volleyball court, and an outdoor 
basketball field. The trees that were felled were utilized in building the 
backstop for the ball diamond and were cut and finished into posts 
which were installed along the front of the building so as to protect the 
lawn. The N.Y.A. workers also constructed new bleachers on the athletic 














62 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


field. In addition they repaired the old bleachers both in the gymnasium 
and on the athletic field. The entire bleacher construction program as 
well as the finishing work was done by the pupils. All of the workers 
were enrolled in the industrial arts department and had expressed their 
interest in this field. Only those pupils who indicated a definite interest 
in this type of work were assigned to the project. 


Upon the suggestion of one of the pupils it was thought advisable 
that, on the far end of the playground in the wooded area still remaining, 
the boys build tables where pupils might enjoy the out of doors during 
good weather. The tables were extensively used by rural pupils as a noon 
lunch place. 


Although not related in all instances to the academic interest of the 
individual, this practical type of work had much educational value. It 
demonstrated what pupils might do in improving and expanding their 
facilities. It taught the pupils how to work in a practical manner. One 
of the outstanding results of the project is the apparent increased respect 
for public property upon the part of the youth. The work was conducted 
under the direction of a supervisor employed for the duration of the oper- 
ation of the project. 


2. Tue PreparaTioN oF A PLAYGROUND 
Roosevelt High School, Emporia, Kansas 


A construction project on the grounds of the elementary school was 
carried out in Emporia, Kansas. Inaugurated for the purpose of preparing 
a playground, this project included the demolition of one house and the 
moving of another. A street was closed, and the surface of the ground 
was graded and new walks constructed. Playground equipment and ap- 
paratus was built, and a residence for a campus recreational hall was 


remodeled. 


This project employed twenty-five boys who were chosen in so far as 
possible because of their interest in industrial arts courses. The work was 
under the supervision of the assistant to the superintendent of buildings 
and grounds. Combining the use of both hand and power tools with 
general shopwork, the playground project offered valuable experience to 
the pupils, as well as a distinct contribution to the school. 


3. CarE oF Grounps AND OF BASKETBALL AND TENNIS CourTs 


Center High School (Colored), Waycross, Georgia 


On the improvement and maintenance of grounds project, three boys 
and three girls secured experience that will be useful to them in employ- 
ment at odd jobs in season and as a carryover into the home. The pupils 
cared for the grounds and shrubbery and the basketball and tennis courts. 


194 


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1940] Student-Aid Program: Area B—Group IV 63 


This work emphasized the importance of clean and beautiful surroundings 
and tied in with citizenship, health, and sanitation. 

The N.Y.A. pupils on this project were taught how to care for and 
how to beautify grounds. Laying off walkways, pruning shrubbery, 
fertilizing and leveling the grounds, and balancing the effect of planting 
were among their duties. 

The pupils were shown the effect of clean environments. To some 
extent this will be carried over into the home, thereby eliminating barren, 
unattractive grounds and freeing the community of tin cans, rubbish, and 
litter, which not only spoils the appearance of a place, but also is conducive 
to the spread of disease. How to beautify grounds, offset erosion, and utilize 
the natural humus, is in keeping with the conservation of natural resources. 
This practical work tied in perfectly with the training in vocational agri- 
culture given the boys. 


4. GRADING AND Dratninc ScHoot Grounps AND PLANTING TREES 
High School, Duchesne, Utah 


A new school building was recently built in Duchesne; but the ad- 
jacent grounds were low and marshy, and there were neither trees, fences, 
flowers, nor shrubs. Faced with the job of cleaning up the loose rock and 
debris that had accumulated through building operations, the school 
devised an N.Y.A. work program which employed twelve boys. After 
burning as much of the debris as possible, the boys scattered the remainder 
over the grounds and covered it with eight inches of soil. Manure 
from a sheep ranch was hauled in and spread, and a lawn was planted. 
An entire block of new fence was built, each post of which was made se- 
cure by a concrete base. The fence was made of iron pipe. 

With a government ranger, the boys went into the mountains and 
brought down young trees and shrubbery with which to beautify the 
campus. Several dozen loads of shale were spread in front of the fence to 
provide safe parking for cars. The shale ensures proper drainage. Several 
new culverts and ditches were built, in order to provide water for the 
trees that had been planted. An unsightly place was thus transformed into 
a beauty spot in the community. The work was supervised by the principal 
of the school, a contractor, and a government ranger. 

In addition, two driveways were built by ten boys under the direction 
of the principal and the janitor. One of these roadways is used to gain 
access to the rear of the school plant and for unloading coal; the other is 
used as an outlet to the main highway by people living in a secluded alley. 


5. MAINTENANCE OF ScHooL GARDENS 
Junior College, Salinas, California 
Salinas Junior College has available one-half acre for a vegetable garden, 
one acre for a pansy garden, and one acre for a sweet-pea garden. Eight 












64 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 






boys were employed in planting, weeding, and irrigating these gardens and 
in experimenting with the growth of flowers. Also they prepared vegetables 
for marketing and delivered them. This work was very closely related to 
the vocation interests of the boys, as they were studying agriculture and 
plan to continue in this field after graduation. In addition, the results of 
|} their work will be published and made available to the agriculture workers 








in the community. 







6. Riprappinc A Creek with Rock 





South Rich High School, Randolph, Utah 

Four boys were employed in beautifying what had been an ugly creek. 
The boys hauled the rock, leveled the ditch bank, and skillfully laid the 
rock. There was close relationship between the work and the vocational 
training which these boys were receiving in school. In addition, it helped 







to beautify the community. 











7. LANDSCAPING THE SCHOOL GROUNDS 
High 








School, Santa Barbara, California 








Fourteen boys were employed to landscape several acres of school 

) grounds which had recently been terraced and graded. The boys completed 
the slopes, grades, and plats. They planted lawn, shrubs, and trees. Also 
; they acquired experience in the plant nursery propagating plants, shrubs, 
and trees for the project. There was a direct relationship between the 

N.Y.A. work experience and school interests because all of the boys ex- 

pect to continue in gardening or in some kind of agricultural work as a 

life career. The supervision of the project was supplied by the teacher of 










gardening. 






Area B—Group V. Building Maintenance 


1. Junior College, Fullerton, California 





Nine boys were assigned to help the plant engineer in the operation 
of the school power plant, heating plant, and telephone system. The boys 
assisted in the maintenance of the public address system, the school bell 
system, and the internal telephone system. Also they secured experience 
with school plumbing and lighting. Other experience was provided them 
as sheet metal workers, tin smiths, and as painters. The work was closely 
related to the school interests of the workers, as all of them are majoring in 
industrial arts. The experience was, therefore, practical, and later it will be 











of great value to the boys in seeking employment. The work was supervised 





by the plant engineer of the school. 










2. Sequoia Union High School, Redwood City, California 


Two boys were employed under the direction of the school engineer, in 





repacking valves, cutting pipe, and rethreading pipe. Also they have had 








1940 | Student-Aid Program: Area B—Group IV 65 


experience in vacuum cleaning the swimming pool and assisting with 
the circulation, filtration, and sterilization processes, and in making bacter- 
ial tests of the water in the swimming pool. There was close interest be- 
tween the N.Y.A. assignment and their school work, as the boys were 
majoring in industrial arts. 


3. High School, Geneseo, New York 
Six boys formed the staff to help maintain and operate a fine new 
school building in the farming area of western New York. Assistants to 
the janitor, they kept the floors, desks, walls, and walks clean, and did 
other things which made the building attractive. Their work was under 
the direction of the principal and the janitor. 

















Contents 


AreA C—CLERICAL ASSISTANCE AND Service Progects 


| Projects in this area account for 216 per cent of the youth employed 
in the school-aid program during the academic year 1939-40.) 


Grove VI. CLERICAL ASSISTANCE AND SERVICE: 


11. 


12. 
13. 


PAGE 
Service in the Community (Waupaca, Wisconsin) .......... 67 
Service to the Board of Education (Cleveland, Ohio) .... 67 
Club Opportunities for N.Y.A. Workers (Kenosha, 
WURIOIRD seeticesenccssnicesacesuincevscccesivtacsniocbbamessckpibaiaiiamenan aa 
Service in a Junior High School (Louisville, Kentucky) 68 
A Study of Graduates (Ortonville, Minnesota) ................ 69 
Occupation of Graduates; County Tuition Records 
Cie! TY anc soca pivkciictaidnecennictabccsngncensathiclliveenclina 70 
Keeping School Records (Victoria, Virginia) .................. 70 
N.Y.A. Timekeeping (Ann Arbor, Michigan) .................... 70 
Selling School Supplies (Blue Island, Illinois) ................ 7 
Work in a Junior College Office (Cicero, Illinois) ........ 7 
Secretary to a Public Health Nurse (Lancaster, 
ee ID screens sens ceiiteinrsantaintierrrinecnicsenvnmmeninennsnten 71 
Service in the Registrar’s Office (Ventura, California) .... 71 
72 


Telephone Operator (San Jose, California) ...............+--.--+ 





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1940 | The Student-Aid Program: Area C—Group VI 67 


Area C—Group VI. Clerical Assistance and Service 


1. SERVICE IN THE COMMUNITY 


Waupaca University Extension Center, Waupaca, Wisconsin 


Waupaca is one of twenty localities in the state in which the University 
Extension Division has set up extension centers for first- and sometimes 
second-year college work. 


Seven first-year college students—six young men and one young 
woman—were engaged in this clerical project. Each was assigned to a 
public office in Waupaca to do clerical, accounting, or general office work. 


The relationship between their work and interests was close. For in- 
stance, one student who planned to go into agricultural extension fields 
was assigned to the county agricultural agent, doing clerical work, assist- 
ing in soil tests, and so on. A youth taking accounting as an extension 
course did similar work for the city clerk. 


The supervision, as in similar off-campus projects, was largely by the 
public officials in whose offices the students worked. The timekeeping was 
certified by the officials and recorded through the regular school time 
report. 


Very practical training accrued to the student, while long-needed as- 
sistance was provided the officials. 


In the opinion of the editor it would be well for school officials to can- 
vass the community to find more opportunities for codperative efforts be- 
tween the school and other public agencies. 


2. SERVICE TO THE BoarD OF EDUCATION 
West High School, Cleveland, Ohio 


Six girls receiving N.Y.A. assistance at West High School, Cleveland, 
Ohio, were assigned to off-campus clerical projects in the placement office 
ot the Cleveland Board of Education, and the principal’s office in various 
elementary and junior high schools. 


The work performed by the pupils consisted of filing, typing (tran- 
scription, statistical, and form letters), answering the telephone, and assist- 
ing the clerk in general office duties. Since the pupils were taking com- 
mercial courses and expected to do this type of work upon graduation, 
there was close correlation between their N.Y.A. assignments and their 
academic and vocational interests. In the two elementary schools, the 
principals supervised the workers, whereas the civil service clerk in the 
junior high school and the head of guidance and placement bureaus pro- 
vided direct supervision on the other projects. 

















| April 


68 National Association of Secondary-School Principals 
The practical experience on the projects enabled the pupils to apply 
their classroom training. The standards of performance maintained ap- 
proached those of competitive employment, so that the workers learned 
what is required to hold a job. They gained experience in meeting people, 
answering the telephone correctly, and following instructions. They learned 
the general, routine, office duties of clerical workers, and developed tactful- 
ness, poise, and a sense of responsibility. 


The services provided by the N.Y.A. pupils increased the efficiency of 
the offices in which they worked and was of considerable value to the 


schools. 


3. Cius Opportunities For N.Y.A. WorKERS 
Kenosha Senior High School, Kenosha, Wisconsin 


Although this was another of the large classroom assistance proj- 
ects in which thirty-two boys and forty-seven girls were not yet meeting 
the entire demand from overworked teachers for all types of general as- 
sistance, it was especially unique because of its benefits to the pupils. 


The work consisted of marking extra papers, keeping records, and be- 


ing generally helpful in the classroom; the N.Y.A. supervisor in Kenosha 
Senior High School noted that this extra work precluded the possibility 
of these N.Y.A. workers’ joining the school clubs and extra-curriculum ac- 
tivities. She therefore held monthly meetings for the organization of clubs 
for these working pupils, clubs in which the pupils gained experience in 
self-expression, parliamentary procedure, and social activities. 


Because of special interests the clubs were divided into those for boys 
and those for girls. The clubs offered guidance in the chosen vocational 
field, provided educational guidance, and offered some social activities. 
Seventy-five per cent of these pupils did not participate in any other ac- 
tivity. Movies were shown, and personality development was discussed. In 
addition the clubs aimed to develop leadership, good citizenship, and school 


spirit. 
4. Service IN A JuNior HicH ScHooL 
Barret Junior High School, Louisville, Kentucky 


Barret Junior High School serves a section of Louisville in which the 
majority of the children will later find their life work in commerce and in 


business. 

Three boys and one girl were assigned to the school office to work for 
the principal, the counselor, the secretary, and for faculty members. The 
girl did typing and filing, and helped in keeping records. She assisted in 
operating a small circulating library of college catalogues and vocational 
publications for the counselor. Two boys operated the mimeograph ma- 





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1940 | The Student-Aid Program: Area C—Group V1 69 









































chine, running all stencils required by the faculty of thirty-two teachers. 


e The third boy had charge of locker keys and sorted and distributed in- 


coming mail. 


ed 
ile, Three of these workers were taking commercial courses in junior high 
ed school and expected to continue this work in senior high school. Through 
Ful- their employment on the N.Y.A. school work program, they gained some 
knowledge of the use of office equipment, and had good experience in office 
- practice and in meeting and serving the public. This assignment was par- 
he ticularly valuable to two pupils who, having lived in orphanages, were in 
need of outside contacts. A marked development in their personality was 
observed after their employment as N.Y.A. workers. 
5. A Stupy oF GrapvuaTEs 
£0}- High School, Ortonville, Minnesota 
ring Because of the interest of the Ortonville High School in what further 
as- might be done to expand its vocational guidance program for the best 
interests of all the pupils, the decision was made that it would be ad- 
be- vantageous to determine what had become of the high-school graduates of 
at the last five-year period. 
ility A project was initiated under the direction of the superintendent, as- 
| ac- sisted by three N.Y.A. workers, to determine the whereabouts of past 
lubs graduates. After a discussion meeting, each pupil prepared a form letter 
e in explaining the reason for the study. At the second meeting the best letter 


was selected, and this form, together with a quesionnaire made out by the 
boys superintendent, was mimeographed by N.Y.A. workers and forwarded to 
the former students. At first there was little difficulty in reaching those 


— graduates who were in the vicinity or in the state, but as the project pro- 
-_ gressed it was necessary for the pupils to write to a number of individuals 
1. In to learn the whereabouts of previous graduates. In so far as it was possible 
baal the pupils were placed on their own initiative in the writing of letters. 
The workers received valuable experience and training in clerical work 
and in compiling the data which was returned by the graduates. The 
workers were very much interested in learning about the wide variety of 
sin work in which local high-school graduates were employed. 
| 
d in A question raised by the pupils as a result of the study was whether or 
not it Was going to be possible for them to find employment in their own 
i community. The survey revealed that many of the graduates were required 
The | seek employment outside of the community. This led logically to the 
din discussion of employment possibilities in the community, the net result of 
aie which will undoubtedly be to determine in so far as possible the local 
possibilities of employment. Such a program will then have revealed to 

















70 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


the community the placement of its graduates and the need to assist them 
in finding employment after graduation. 


One advantage of this project to the workers was that they received 
considerable practical experience which correlated with their commercial 
and English courses. The school benefited by learning the extent of employ- 
ment of its graduates. They also learned the percentage of youth in the 
community who were going on to school for further training. 


The students themselves brought out a number of pertinent questions 
relative to problems that could profitably be discussed in counseling groups. 


6. Occupation oF GrapuaTEs; County Tuition Recorps 
High School, Atchison, Kansas 

Project No. 1 

One boy was assigned to check the occupational file of the graduates of 
the high school. The duties consisted of filing, checking, and analyzing 
questionnaires. The project had occupational value for the pupil assigned 
and contributed valuable information to the guidance counselor, concern- 
ing the graduates, as well as concerning the need for curriculum change. 


Project No, 2 

This project consisted of recording attendance for county tuition and 
school records. Also, materials were filed for the guidance record. General 
clerical work was given to four boys and seven girls. Pupils from the higher 
scholastic brackets were assigned to this type of activity. The projects were 
under the personal supervision of faculty members, and training value was 
largely for those desiring to become secretaries. 


7. Keepinc Scuoot Recorps 

High School, Victoria, Virginia 
Two girls were assigned to help teachers keep pupil records. They 
brought the files on school activities up to date. In addition, they made 
studies of graduates. These pupils were selected because they were taking 
the commercial course in the high school. The commercial teacher and 
principal shared in the supervision. Pupils having gained experience on 

such positions secured good jobs after graduation. 


8. N.Y.A. TIMEKEEPING 
Senior High School, Ann Arbor, Michigan 
One boy and one girl were assigned to the teacher of stenography and 
to the N.Y.A. timekeeper. The pupils did typing and filing in addition to 
getting out the weekly N.Y.A. time reports. The girl did her apprentice- 
ship work in an office. The boy will probably go into accounting work in 


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1940] The Student-Aid Program: Area C—Group V1 71 


industry. Thus, their N.Y.A. experience was closely related to their voca- 


tional interests. 


9, SELLING ScHOoL SUPPLIES 
Community High School, Blue Island, Illinois 


Two girls were assigned to selling school supplies. These pupils were 
commercial pupils interested in securing selling experience. It was felt 
that they learned to deal with the public, to make change rapidly and 
properly, and to develop a business-like attitude in dealing with the public. 
The work was supervised by the commercial teacher at all times. 


10. Work In A Junior CoLLEGE OFFICE 
J. Sterling Morton Junior College, Cicero, Illinois 


Foar girls were assigned to work in the college office. One assisted in 
making the college catalogue and getting out all notices concerning it. The 
second girl, who was assigned as attendance clerk, handled all attendance 
records in the college. The other two worked on transcripts of students and 
took dictation. These girls were all taking secretarial courses in the Junior 
College. They are securing training in the kind of work which they hope 
to do later. The college secretary supervised the work of all four girls. 


11. SecreTARY To A Pusiic HEALTH NursE 


High School, Lancaster, New Hampshire 


One N.Y.A. girl was assigned to do secretarial work for the public 
health nurse. She tabulated statistics, filed case material, and typed re- 
ports. She assisted the public health nurse in keeping records up to date and 
learned how to run an office efficiently. There was close relationship be- 
tween the N.Y.A. assignment and the pupil’s interest, as upon graduating 
she intends to be a clerk or secretary. The work was supervised by the pub- 


lic health nurse. 


12. Service 1N THE RecistrRar’s OFFICE 
Junior College, Ventura, California 
Six girls were assigned to the registrar’s office. These students had 
access to all office equipment. Assignments were rotated so that each could 
gain experience with a number of clerical techniques, such as alphabetizing, 
filing, routine checking of records, stencil making, copy typing, and making 
duplicator master copies. The girls were planning to become office secretar- 
ies and were therefore regularly registered in the commercial cirriculum. 
Constant supervision was the responsibilities of the secretary to the regis- 


trar. 











National Association of Secondary-School Principals | April 


13. TELEPHONE OPERATOR 


High School, San Jose, California 


Experience with the PBX switchboard seems to assist girls in securing 
positions. One N.Y.A. girl was assigned as a switchboard operator and was 
given complete control of the switchboard. After school hours, she took 
over the switchboard and operated it until the office closed. The girl was 
a commercial pupil who was interested in office work. The pupil operator 
was trained and supervised by the secretary to the principal. 





GROUI 


Contents 


ArEA A—DepPARTMENTAL ASSISTANCE Projects 


[Projects in this area account for 40.7 per cent of the youth employed in 
the school-aid program during the academic year 1939-40.] 
PAGE 
Group VII. Liprary SERVICE AND Book REPAIR: 
1. Service in a County Normal School (Kaukauna, 
Wisconsin ) 
Vocational Agriculture Library (Smithville, Texas) 
Assisting the School Librarian (Hamilton, Ohio) 
Service in Senior High School (Dodge City, Kansas) .... 7 
Repairing Books (Delta, Utah) 
Service in the Town Library (Milton, New Hampshire 
Library Service Throughout a School System 
(Riverside, California) . edits ae 
Library Service in a Parochial School (Gin Brunei isco, 
California ) 


Group VIII. REpropucrion WorK: 
1. Daily Notices and Tests (Cleveland, Ohio) 
2. Map Reproduction (Atascadero, California) 


Grour IX. DEPARTMENTAL SERVICE: 

Working in the Dark (Binghamton, New York) 
Visual Aids for Science (Syracuse, New York) 
Laboratory Assistance (Paducah, Kentucky) 
Visual Aids for Social Science (Louisville, Kentucky ) 
Preparing a Conservation Exhibit (Antigo, Wisconsin) 
Shop Assistance (Cleveland, Ohio) 
Science Department—School Greenhouse 
(Minneapolis, Minnesota) 

8. Social ory mentees Service Ww est Allis, 
Wisconsin) . a alban add 

9. Insect Chateal (Venta, California) 

10. Weather Bureau (Santa Ana, California) 

11. Botany—Smoke Pictures (Claremont, New 
Hampshire ) 

12. Native Shrub Garden (Santa Rosa, California) 

13. Art (Jacksonville, Illinois) 

14. Social Studies—Slides (Atascadero, California) 

13. Agriculture Library (Filmore, California } 


Groupe XII. Home Economics: 

1. Making Clothing for the Albertina Kerr Nursery 
Home (Portland, Oregon) 

2. Making Dresses for Orphans (Louisville, Kentucky 

3. Cafeteria Service (Superior, Wisconsin) ‘ 

4. Supervision of High-School Freshmen 
(Cicero, Illinois) 

5. Operating a Sandwich Shop (Cairo, Illinois) -.... 


73 








National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


Area A—Group VII. Library Service and Book Repa.r 


1. Service tn A County NorMat ScHOooL 


Outagamie County Normal School, Kaukauna, Wisconsin 


The thirty-five rural Normal Schools, two-year collegiate institutions 
for the training of rural teachers, have been one of the educational units 
most appreciative of the N.Y.A. student work program. 

The school at Kaukauna has a library project in which four cf the 
potential teachers—all young women—are active. The young women took 
over the duties of librarians on a formerly badly neglected library This 
work included waiting on students wishing books, keeping the library 
cards, keeping records, making displays, repairing books, and like duties. 

In as much as these students are training to be rural teachers, the 
familiarity with the books and their use will be very valuable. The teacher 
in charge of the library was the supervisor in this instance. The lack of 
funds available to the smaller schools made the social utility of the work 
great also, as student materials can be produced which would otherwise go 
unnoted and unused. 
























2. VocaTionAL AGRICULTURE LIBRARY 
High School, Smithville, Texas 


One boy assigned to an N.Y.A. school work job at the Smithville High 
School, initiated and maintained a library for vocational agriculture classes. 
He classified bulletins pertaining to vocational agriculture, properly cata- 
loguing them, and keeping them in order when not in use. Many govern- 
ment agriculture bulletins and other literature coming to the school, which 
were heretofore lost or discarded, are now preserved in a permanent library 
through this project. Complete inventories and records pertaining to the 
equipment and the material in the library were maintained by the worker. 
This boy lived on a farm and was interested in the farmer and in farm 
problems. He was enrolled for vocational agriculture classes in the Smith- 
ville High School and performed his work under the supervision of the 
teacher of vocational agriculture. The library he maintained was used ex- 
tensively by all agriculture students in the school. 

















3. AssIsTING THE SCHOOL LIBRARIAN 
Hamilton High School, Hamilton, Ohio 


Six girls and four boys who participated in the N.Y.A. work program 
at the Hamilton High School were assigned to various types of work in 
the school library. Their duties consisted of checking library permits. 
attendance, and reading shelves, stamping magazines and books, and assist- 
ing with circulation. Since the library is an integral part of this school’s 
program there exists a close relationship between library work and each 


































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accor 
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1940} The Student-Aid Program: Area A—Group VII 75 


department of the school. A full-time librarian gave constant supervision, 
teaching each worker the job to be done and shifting him to different work 
to give him varied experience. 

The work is of considerable value to the entire school, since it frees 
the school librarian from small routine tasks so that she may devote more 
time to assisting pupils in using the library. The school librarian states that 
this type of project usually appeals more to youth who like detailed clerical 
work and to the more scholarly pupils who find real adventure among 


books. 


4. Service 1N SENIOR HicH ScHoot 
Dodge City High School, Dodge City, Kansas 
Eight girls were assigned as assistants to the librarian. They did 
mechanical work in replacing book pockets, cards, and date slips. They 
cleaned the books, indexed shelves, and clipped papers and magazines. 
They also checked out books and replaced them on the shelves when re- 
turned. All assistants were chosen from those who showed an interest in 
library work. A number of former students on this project have found they 
wish to enter this kind of work and others are working in college li- 


braries. 


5. Repairinc Books 
High School, Delta, Utah 
Two girls were assigned to repair and bind textbooks and library 
books. These girls checked over all books to find which ones were in need 
of repairs. They then tore down and rebound such books as were in need 
* of repair. The school reported that more pupils would like to be assigned 
to this project than can be accommodated. The work was under the super- 
vision of the school librarian. 


6. SERvicE IN. THE Town Lisrary 

Nute High School, Milton, New Hampshire 
One girl and one boy were assigned to cataloguing the library and 
putting in a new charging system in the school and town library. They 
classified approximately six thousand volumes according to the Dewey 
decimal system. Also they inserted in each book a pocket, a card, and a 
date due slip. In addition, the workers arranged the books on the shelves 
according to the Dewey system. Supervision of the project was furnished by 
a member of the state public library commission, the school librarian, 


and the headmaster of the school. 


7. Lrprary SERVICE THROUGHOUT A SCHOOL SysTEM 
Riverside Junior College, Riverside, California 


Eleven girls were assigned to catalogue, index, repair, and maintain 








76 —~ National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


the libraries of the Junior High School, Senior High School, and Junior 
College. Also they kept an accurate inventory of the library books in these 
schools. The girls assigned to this project were intensely interested in this 
work and intend to become librarians after graduation. Supervision was 
supplied by the librarian in each of the schools which has an N.Y.A. 


worker assigned to the library project. 


8. Liprary SERVICE IN A PAROCHIAL SCHOOL 


St. Ignatius High School, San Francisco, California 


Nine boys were assigned to the library project which consisted of cata- 
loguing, repairing, and arranging displays of books and magazines. Two 
of the boys were preparing to be librarians. Four of the others were Eng- 
lish majors who will profit considerably from their library experience. 
Supervision was provided by the librarian of the school. 


Area A—Group VIII. Reproduction Work 


1. Datty Notices anp Tests 
South High School, Cleveland, Ohio 

A project involving the mimeographing and printing of daily notices 
and tests was undertaken at South High School. Three boys were assigned 
to running stencils off on the mimeograph machine and printing cards 
and notices used in the school. Tests and other materials used by the 
teachers in their classes were duplicated by the N.Y.A. workers. 

The pupils were taking printing in the course of their study; the ex- 
tra practice helped to improve their class work. They were supervised by 
the office clerk, who made a complete checkup of their work and the con- 
dition in which they left the equipment. The workers gained experience 
which will be of value to them when they graduate. Also the project met 


a real need in the school. 


2. Map ReEpropucTIon 


High School, Atascadero, California 


One girl was assigned to reduce a large map of precincts and to 
reproduce each precinct about one third size on eight and one half by 
eleven inch paper. These precincts, showing all roads and streets, were 
made on a master copy. Fifty copies of each precinct were run off. These 
reproductions were particularly useful in the Red Cross roll call of 1939. 
Copies were available for other community needs. The girl who worked 
on this project had exceptional ability to do tedious and exact work of 
this kind in reducing size and reproducing copies. She was a student in- 
terested in commercial art. The direction of the project was in the hands 


of the commercial teacher. 








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1940 | The Student-Aid Program: Area A—Group IX 





Area A—Group IX. Departmental Service 


1. WorKING IN THE Dark 
North High School, Binghamton, New York 


Two workers, employed in this school, worked in the dark room and 
photography laboratory. They washed prints, dried prints, cared for sup- 
plies, and cleaned and kept in order the dark rooms for instructional pur- 
poses. 

Their work was directly in charge of the teacher of photography, 
under whose supervision they not only earned needed money but also 
learned technical details and practical methods in the field of photography. 
They assisted the instructor particularly in producing prints for the high- 
school annual and in general laboratory operations. 

The study of photography offered in this school is one of the few 
courses in the state of a similar nature. The laboratory and photographic 
work rooms are unusually well equipped and provide exceptional op- 
portunities for practical work experience. 

The school reports that youths employed on this work assignment 
enjoyed their experience, which also increased their interest in school and 
provided, in addition, exceptional vocational training for young people 
who may enter the photographic or printing industries. 


2. VisuaL Aips FoR SCIENCE 
Blodgett Vocational High School, Syracuse, New York 


In this large high school, the teaching of science through the visual 
method is a feature. The preparation and maintenance of accurate, “read- 
able-in-the-back-of-the-room” visual charts for chemistry, physics, health, 
and ninth grade general science is a regular, continuing work assignment 
for qualified workers. The number employed varies but averages about 
four, all of who must have exceptional mechanical drawing ability. 

Under the close supervision of members in the Science Department, 
especially in the planning and ‘drafting of trial layouts, the pupils produce 
India ink charts in color on five-ply 22x28-inch cardboard. The charts 
themselves are kept in special cases made by other employed workers. 
These cases are placed in various classrooms and laboratories where they 
are immediately available for instructional purposes. 

An instructor in the Science Department said of the work: “All of 
the pupils employed in this work realize the training which they are re- 
ceiving not only in drawing but in enriched understanding of and interest 
in science. Three of the pupils who have helped in this continuous work 
are known to have obtained jobs upon graduation from school in con- 
sequence of this training in school. The pupils are not exploited, but the 








78 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [April 


value of their work to the school is extraordinary, for over two hundred of 
these technical charts have been made and are now in daily use. In general 
they are better than could be purchased because the charts themselves 
are drafted in detail according to the needs of our school.” 


3. LaBoraTory AssISTANCE 
Lincoln High School, Paducah, Kentucky 


One boy in Lincoln (Colored) High School, hoped to continue his 
education in chemistry. This pupil was permitted to earn his N.Y.A. wage 
by working as an assistant in the laboratory under the supervision of the 
chemistry teacher. 

His work consisted of setting up apparatus and materials for experi- 
ments, and in putting them away after laboratory periods. He also helped 
in the biology and physics laboratories, keeping equipment in order. 


The extra time spent in the laboratories made it possible for the 
teacher to give him better training in the use and care of equipment. He 
secured much useful information on handling dangerous chemicals, and 
he laid a better foundation for his professional career. 


4. Visuat Alps ror SoctaL ScIENCE 
Shawnee High School for Girls, Louisville, Kentucky 


The Shawnee High School for Girls planned to enlarge its library 
of teaching materials to be used in all social study classes. One N.Y.A. 
worker was assigned to help in promoting this aim. This girl mounted 
materials, prepared captions for bulletin board displays, arranged materials 
on bulletin boards, and prepared hectograph outline maps. She scanned 
periodicals and newspapers for suitable clippings for the files and bulletin 
board. 

This assignment gave her experience in the selection, arrangement, 
and filing of visual aids. The work provided an outlet for creative ability 
calling as it did for lettering and choosing artistic mountings. Relief from 
a fraction of financial strain seemed to make this pupil more alert; she 
showed greater interest in her class work, and her grades improved. Her 
work habits improved and she became more systematic. She expressed 
herself as being happy in her ability to do a variety of things well. 


5. Preparinc A CONSERVATION EXHIBIT 
Langlade County Normal School, Antigo, Wisconsin 


At the teachers’ preparatory school in Langlade County, two young 
men and two young women are preparing conservation exhibits of all 


kinds of woods, leaves, barks, and shrubs. 





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1940 | The Student-Aid Program: Area A—Group IX 


The selecting, preparing, cleaning, varnishing, and mounting of ma- 
terial for display purposes is the main work activity. The relationship is 
not direct between teacher training and conservation except as the teach- 
ing of conservation in Wisconsin is a required subject, and these potential 
teachers are getting a special preparation under the supervision of an in- 
terested principal. 

Since the state has become so conservation-minded, the public derives 
great benefit from the display and use of these varied materials. The ex- 
hibits are used in many public places and conservation meetings. 


6. SHop AssIsTANCE 
West Technical High School, Cleveland, Ohio 


A shop assistance project at West Technical High School employed 
thirty-nine boys and four girls, and involved work that was required by 
the heads of the technical departments, woodworking shops, drafting shops, 
machine shops, auto mechanics, and horticulture. 

The duties of the N.Y.A. workers consisted largely of general work 
in the woodworking rooms, cleaning of typewriters, taking attendance, 
cleaning the auto shop, general repair and maintenance of equipment, 
running motion picture machines, backstage maintenance, oiling and 
sharpening tools, minor electrical repairs, washing of blackboards, and help 
in the stock and mill rooms. Most of the workers assigned to this project 
were selected from the classes under the various department heads, and 
every effort was made to correlate the interest and adaptability of the 
students to the particular type of work. 

The supervision of the work was similar to that of classroom in- 
struction. Since it was done by the teacher in the shop and since the stu- 
dents are not released until the work is completed, effective results were 
secured. Pupils became familiar with a larger amount of equipment in re- 
lation to its application and use, and the work gave them a greater inter- 
est in school because it associated them with all the problems which came 
up before the teacher. When the N.Y.A. worker could make the repair or 
render the service needed at the time, new knowledge and new interests 
were awakened. The shop teachers reported that such boys grew in de- 
pendability and some of them showed initiative and completed or intro- 
duced new types of service. 

The work performed by the youths was very valuable to the school 
in that it relieved the teachers of routine duties and enabled them to carry 


maximum teaching loads. 
7. ScteNcE DEpARTMENT—ScHOOL GREENHOUSE 
West High School, Minneapolis, Minnesota 
This project operated in codperation with the Science Department in 











80 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


the school greenhouse. Fifteen boys were employed in a work unit. The 
work performed was under the supervision of the teacher in the depart- 


ment. 


The duties assigned to the youths included the general care of the 
greenhouse plants. Specific duties were watering and potting plants, pre- 
paring and planting slips and cuttings, fertilizing soil and plants, pruning, 
soil testing, seed treating, root growth experiments, and insect control. 


The work gave the boys specific responsibility in the field of their 
academic interests and afforded them a practical experience in this type 
of work which they could have received in no other manner; therefore, it 
served as an exploratory vocational experience. Generally speaking, the 
assignment to this type of work stimulated and broadened the academic 


interests of the workers. 


In addition to these broad benefits, the youths learned specifically to 
care for soil and plants. Also they learned the importance of ventilation, 
bacteria, insect, and disease control; and it is believed that their appreci- 
ation of flowers and plant life was greatly improved. 


The school benefited through the expansion of its work in con- 
nection with the greenhouse, which made possible the utilization of a 
larger number of plants in the various classrooms. In addition flowers 
were made available as decorations for offices, library, and lunch rooms, 
which, in general, toned up the aesthetic setting within the school. 


8. SociaL SclENCE—CLIPPING SERVICE 
West Allis High School, West Allis, Wisconsin 


In this city, which is an industrial suburb of Milwaukee, a group of 
three girls performed a useful service clipping and mounting news- 
paper and magazine articles dealing with the social problems of to-day, a 
most important piece of supplementary instruction in any locality. 


The faculty in the social sciences supervised these workers. The 
school considers this one of the valuable services which could not have 
been received without the N.Y.A. The reference library built up from this 
clipping service is an inspiring piece of work. 

9. Insect ConTROL 
Ventura Junior College, Ventura, California 

Five young men were assigned to the project conducted by the Agri- 

culture Department in the laboratories, field, and greenhouse on the 


campus. The work involved cooperation on an insect control program 
being conducted by local and federal officials in Ventura County. The 








19+ 


weatl 
equif 
ity, a 
signe 
meml 
youth 
count 
ments 


T 
makin 
moss s 
mount 
terial i 
was su 


planted 
result, ; 
develop 
the dev 


were gi 























1940 | The Student-Aid Program: Area A—Group 1X 81 


specific purpose of the pest-control program was to build up an insect col- 
lection and to do practical work on economically significant insects in the 
community. Actual work was done in the handling and mounting of in- 
sects, in the eradication of insects, and in the rearing of parasites of in- 
sects. The youths assigned to this project were majors in agriculture and 
planned to go into this field after completing their educational programs. 
Supervision was provided by three instructors in the Department of Agri- 
culture. Most of the activity was on the campus, although field trips were 
taken for instructional purposes. In addition to the benefits to the youths, 
pest control and insect study was of vital concern to an agricultural county. 


10. WEATHER BurEAU 


Santa Ana Junior College, Santa Ana, California 


Four boys were assigned to the maintenance and operation of a 
weather bureau for community use. They kept in repair the weather 
equipment; they checked hourly on temperature, wind velocity, and humid- 
ity, and they maintained a chart of weather phenomena. The youths as- 
signed to this project were all physics students who were supervised by a 
member of the Physics Department. In addition to the benefit to the 
youths this activity filled a community need by furnishing weather data to 
county newspapers and daily weather reports to various county depart- 
ments. 


11. Borany—SMoKE Pictures 


St. Mary’s High School, Claremont, New Hampshire 


Two girls were assigned to prepare materials for use by a class in 
making smoke pictures, in mounting these pictures, in collecting fern and 
moss specimens, and in preparing the specimens for laboratory work. They 
mounted leaves and preserved them for future classroom work. The ma- 
terial is kept on exhibition where it can be seen at any time. Supervision 
was supplied by the instructor in science. 


12. Native SHrus GARDEN 


Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa, California 


Six boys, students in the Botany Department, were assigned to 
gather flowering shrubs in their native environment. They catalogued, 
planted, and tagged for location the shrubs which they gathered. As a 
result, a native shrub garden containing around six hundred varieties was 
developed at the school. The campus was considerably beautified through 
the development of this project. In addition students interested in botany 
were given excellent practical experience. 














National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


13. Art 


High School, Jacksonville, Illinois 
A very gifted art student was assigned to assist an art instructor in 
the junior high school. She directed a number of small groups of junior 
high-school pupils in various projects. In addition she helped redecorate 
the high-school art room. The Board of Education furnished the materials, 
and the N.Y.A. pupil carried out the work. This work was of value not 
only to the pupil but also as a permanent addition to the beautification of 


the building. 


14. Soctat Stupres—S ives 
High School, Atascadero, California 
One boy was assigned to make a series of maps and charts which were 
drawn and then photographed. The films were made on film slides two 
inches by two inches for projection in the classroom. The N.Y.A. worker, 
under the direction of the teacher of social studies, drew the maps and 
charts, shaded and cross-hatched them, and prepared the drawings to be 
photographed. The work was of value to the boy since he was interested in 
mechanical drawing and statistical work. Also it was of great value to the 


school. 


15. Acricutture Lisrary 

High School, Filmore, California 
One boy was assigned to organize materials and equipment in a new 
department of Smith-Hughes vocational agriculture. He numbered and 
labeled fifty-four thousand bulletins for class use. These bulletins were ar- 
ranged according to the Dewey decimal system and placed in a cabinet in 
the classrooms. Publications and periodicals received at the department 
were also placed in the cabinet and properly labeled. When this was 
finished, the youth was assigned to collecting and classifying subtropical 
plants. The pupil assigned to this project had elected the vocational agri- 
culture course. In addition to being of value to the youth, it was of direct 
benefit to the community, as the facilities of the school were used by those 


interested in agriculture. 


Area A—Group XII. Home Economics 


1. Maxine CLoTHING FoR THE ALBERTINA Kerr Nursery Home 
Girls’ Poltytechnic High School, Portland, Oregon 
Thirty-one girls were employed on this project under the supervision 
of a trained sewing instructor. They were majoring in home economics 
in the Girls’ Polytechnic High School; most of the girls planned to be 


seamstresses after graduation. 
This group met after school for one hour each day in the sewing 





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girls 
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orph; 


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were 
ment, 
skills. 


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and si 
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theref 
T 
coming 
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It 


1940 | The Student-Aid Program: Area 4A—Group XIl 83 


room of the school. The girls were employed in making garments for the 
inmates of a nursery home in which the children ranged from infants to 


the age of five years. 


The materials, furnished by the nursery, were of good quality, and 
the finished products represented garments: of real value. Codrdinated 
with the work of the nursery home, child care was included in the courses 
in homemaking taken by the girls, which gave them the added incentive of 
personal interest in the children. 


The pupils on this project developed good work habits, were quick 
to learn, eager to excel, and showed decided improvement in their work. 
There was no doubt that the social aspect of the work made a strong 
appeal to the girls. Their interest in the work was manifested by their ap- 
pearing for the classes when not required to do so during the mid-term 


recess in January. 


2. Maxine DressEs For OrpHANs 


Presentation Academy, Louisville, Kentucky 


Presentation Academy is a small private high school conducted by 
the Sisters of Charity. As one of the N.Y.A. school work projects four 
girls were employed at sewing. They made curtains and linens for use in 
the cafeteria, towels to be used in the Foods Department, and dresses for 
orphaned children who are under the supervision of the Sisterhood. 


These pupils were chosen for this assignment because of the interest 
which they had shown in sewing during their regular clothing course. They 
were under the supervision of the head of the Home Economics Depart- 
ment, whose personal direction helped in the development of the workers’ 
skills. The experience which they secured helped to fit them for voca- 


tions in the sewing trade. 


3. CAFETERIA SERVICE 
Central High School, Superior, Wisconsin 

In the largest high school at the northern tip of the state, four boys 
and six girls from the 174 N.Y.A. workers in the school cooked and sold 
hot lunches to students who come from miles around to attend and must 
therefore stay at noon. 

This small group was chosen from those who were interested in be- 
coming cooks or in engaging in similar occupations. The work was super- 
vised by the cook, and the timekeeping was done by a faculty supervisor 
of the cafeteria. These students learned to cook, to serve, and to manage 
kitchens and cafeteria lunchrooms. 


It was certain that a hot dish at noon was quite essential in this most 
















84 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 








northerly clime. Students, even though they live in the elongated city of 
Superior, may have walked eight or ten miles to reach their classes at 
Central High School. 

[Epiror’s nore: There is considerable doubt in the minds of some 
i! secondary-school administrators about the advisability of using N.Y.A. 
students in the cafeteria. Certainly it is desirable to furnish hot lunches 
where they are not provided. Equally certainly the students should not be 
used to fill positions which could be filled by full-time employees, merely 
to decrease the cost of food to pupils. ] 














4. SUPERVISION OF HicH-ScHooL FRESHMEN 





J. Sterling Morton Junior College, Cicero, Illinois 





i Two girls were assigned to the supervision of the high-school Fresh- 
man girls who may earn their laboratory fees if they are unable to pay 
them. The junior college girls supervised the ninth grade girls in the 
food laboratory in such work as doing dishes, cleaning kitchenettes, keep- 
ing containers filled with supplies, and making toast, cream sauce, etc., 
for special occasions. The young women who had this experience found 
it helpful after leaving the junior college. It is of considerable help to the 
school since a large number of girls must earn their laboratory fees. 












5. OPERATING A SANDWICH SHOP 





High School, Cairo, Illinois 





Ten girls and three boys were assigned work in the sandwich shop 
which is operated for the benefit of those pupils who live at some distance 
from the school. One of the pupils acts as buyer, two serve as cooks, three 
serve as porters, and four as waitresses. Three are assigned as cashiers. 
In a school which does not have a cafeteria and which draws a considerable 
number of pupils from some distance, such a project is undoubtedly 
valuable. The supervisor of the Home Economics Department is in charge 


of the project. 














CRE 








Contents 


AreEA D—SEMIPROFESSIONAL PROJECTS 


| Projects in this area account for 6.4 per cent of the youth employed in 
the school-aid program during the academic year 1939-40.] 


PAGE 


Group X. RESEARCH, SURVEY, AND STATISTICAL: 

Success of Athletes (Hurley, Wisconsin) 

Magazine Analysis (Littleton, New Hampshire ) 
Research on School Records (Dodge City, Kansas) .. 
Experimental Orchard (Ontario, California) 

Indian Study (Sacramento, California) 
Questionnaire to Pupils (Grantville, Utah) 


oe 


Group XI. HEALTH AND HospPITAL: 
Care of the Sick (Lincoln Ridge, Kentucky ) 
Service in a School Medical Office (Cincinnati, Ohio) 
Service for the School Nurse (Elmira Heights, New York) 
Assistance at a Dental Clinic (Cicero, Illinois) 
Eye Clinic—Sight Saving (San Francisco, California) 
First-Aid Room (Bay City, Michigan) -0....0...0....0...0..ecccceccesseseseeeeeeee { 


XIII. RecREATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND ASSISTANCE: 
Intramural Activities (Dalas, Texas) 
Record Keeping for a Recreational Program (Dodge City, Kansas) 
Directing a Recreational Program (Litchfield, Minnesota) 
Recreational Leadership in a Migratory Labor Camp (Marys- 
ville, California) 
Recreational Leadership in a City School System (Riverside, 
California ) 

Recreational Leadership for an Indian Group (Monrovia, 
California) 











Group XIV. ARTS AND CRAFTS: 
Dramatics (West Liberty, Kentucky) .... 
Mural Decoration (Grand Rapids, Michigan ) 
Decoration of a Recreation Room (Mondovi, Wisconsin) 
Designing a Plaque of, the Head of Jane Addams of Hull House, 
After Whom the School Is Named (Portland, Oregon) 
Making Costumes (Sheboygan, Wisconsin) : 
School Paper (Madison, Wisconsin) 
Directing Handicraft in the Community (Washington Court 
House, Ohio) 
. Helping Produce Grand Opera (Riverside, California) 
%¢ Mural Decorations for a School Corridor (Atascadero, California) 
10. Art Service in the Community (Brea, California) ................... antes 96 




















National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


Area D—Group X. Research, Survey, and Statistical 





1. Success oF ATHLETES 
High School, Hurley, Wisconsin 








This project was a research survey to gain information regarding 
present activities, especially in private employment placements, of high- 
school graduates who participated in athletics. 










Four boys under the supervision of the city superintendent and the 
coach sent out questionnaires and tabulated the results. The workers were 
school athletes and were therefore interested in the success of former 
athletes as well as in getting practice in the securing of information and in 








tabulating. 





The school authorities intend to use this survey as an indication of 
whether or not consistent participation in school athletics tends to help or 
hinder persons in their after-school life. The school intends at least to 
modify its own athletic program as a result of this comprehensive survey. 













2. MaGazINE ANALYSIS 
High School, Littleton, New Hampshire 







One boy was assigned to collect data concerning New Hampshire. This 
material was filed and made available for the teachers who have found it 


to be very helpful. 


This work gave this pupil the opportunity to become acquainted with 
the elementary principles of research. Part of his work consisted of filing 
by countries and by subject the materials contained in the National Geo- 
graphic magazine and in other periodicals. 













The work was worth while and contributed to this pupil’s general 


knowledge. 







3. RESEARCH ON ScHooL REcorDs 
Senior High School, Dodge City, Kansas 













These projects were handled mostly by two out-of-school N.Y.A. 
workers who worked in the office of the Senior High School; however, 
high-school N.Y.A. pupils were assigned to help them. 






a) Last year achievement tests were given to all of the senior high- 
school pupils. These tests were graded by the teachers, and the scaled score 
was put on the tests. The N.Y.A. workers took these tests and, with con- 
siderable help from the office, put the results in statistical form and made 
duplicates of it. 















learn 
to fil 
artifa 





1940 | The Student-Aid Program: Area D—Group X 87 


b) Intelligence tests were given and graded by the teachers. The 
N.Y.A. workers recorded the I.Q.’s and treated them statistically. In a 
school of five hundred is known the range of I.Q.’s, the mean, median, 


the average deviation, etc. 


c) Each pupil in the Senior High School was required to fill out an 
information sheet. N.Y.A. pupils aided in checking these for completion, 
in transferring information to permanent records, and in tabulating the 
information that was required, that is, the religions of the various pupils, 


birth dates, etc. 


d) The state N.Y.A. office requested a study of the graduating classes 
of the past several years and asked that a recommendation be made to 
their office of those who were from marginal families. Two N.Y.A. pupils 
have aided in formulating this report. They were responsible for getting 
as muca help as possible from people around town who would know the 
pupils in question. 


¢) The next project was the formulation of cumulative inventories, 
something that was sadly lacking in the high school. These inventories 
show not only what is on hand, but also the date of purchase, its price, and 
a rather detailed description. Also the date of dropping from the inventory 
and the reason—whether lost, discarded, broken, worn out—is recorded. 


4. EXPERIMENTAL ORCHARD 
Chaffey Junior College, Ontario, California 


Six boys were assigned to work in an experimental orchard in the 
development of fruits through cross-pollination. They hope to perfect a 
peach tree which will withstand any kind of weather. The boys gained 
experience in pruning, cross-pollination, and as general assistants in the 
upkeep of an orchard, as well as in agricultural experimentation. All of 
the boys assigned to this project were majors in agriculture and were 
vitally interested in their assignments. The work was directly under the 
supervision of the school pomologist. A few of the students who were as- 
signed to this project have obtained part-time employment as a result of 


their experience. 


5. INDIAN Stupy 


Junior College, Sacramento, California 


rd 


Twenty boys were assigned to dig up Indian graves for the purpose of 
learning the cultural development of the Indians. They excavated ground 
to find specimens; they sifted the ground for artifacts; they restored the 
artifacts, and cleaned, assembled, and photographed them. Boys who were 











88 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


specializing in science were selected for this project. They were supervised 
by the administrative head of the junior college. 


6. QUESTIONNAIRE TO PupPiILs 
High School, Grantville, Utah 


Five girls were assigned to tabulate the results of a questionnaire to 
junior and senior high-school pupils. The questions concerned how the 
pupil spends his leisure time, the language spoken in the home, amount 
of time used in home study, tasks required at home, and the time of 
retiring. In addition the school secured information on the number of 
homes which have electricity, which take a newspaper, which have a radio. 
On the basis of the answers to these questions and a number of others, 
the school administrators will have a basis for the reérganization of the 


curriculum. 


Area D—Group XI. Health and Hospital 


1, CARE OF THE SICK 
Lincoln Institute, Lincoln Ridge, Kentucky 


Lincoln Institute is a Negro high school which draws pupils from all 
sections of Kentucky. With practically all pupils living in the dormitories, 
the school has an excellent opportunity for a health project as a part of 


its school work program. 


Two girls were employed under the supervision of the home economics 
instructor to assist in caring for the sick, in checking and dispensing pre- 


scribed medicines, and in preparing diets. 


These girls, chosen because of their particular interest in nursing, 
thought of their N.Y.A. employment as a steppingstone to a professional 
course in nursing or dietetics. They make many practical applications of 
lessons learned in home economics and in chemistry. The work made them 
conscious of the importance of health and sanitation. This project was 
valuable both in the service it contributed to the pupils in the school and 
in the vocational and cultural growth it afforded the werkers. 


2. Service IN A ScHoot MeEpIcaL OFFICE 
Western Hills High School, Cincinnati, Ohio 


Three girls receiving N.Y.A. aid at the Western Hills High School 
were assigned to the school doctor’s office to assist the nurse and undertake 
clerical assignments. Their duties consisted of making appointments for 





uo 
en 


fel 
for 
of 


abi 


nur 
valt 
whe 


in B 
servi 
Berw 
file, | 
made 
room 
social 
valual 


work | 
eye cli 
needed. 





1940 | The Student-Aid Program: Area D—Group XI 89 


pupils, sending summons, removing cards from the file and refiling, mak- 
ing surveys of vaccination status from health cards, and making special 
studies as requested. One of the pupils was interested in nursing and in the 
routine and management of the examinations. The other girls were inter- 
ested in office work and thus were provided with general office experience. 


3. SERVICE FOR THE SCHOOL NursE 


Thomas A. Edison High School, Elmira Heights, New York 


One girl was assigned to assist the school nurse in routine examina- 
tions, interviewing, filing of office records, notification of teachers and par- 
ents of the physical defects of students, and other necessary details. 


The superintendent reports, “Because of this girl’s interest in her 
fellow pupils, she has been a great help in planning the health program 
for our school. In work with younger children, for instance, at the time 
of their eye examinations, she was exceptionally helpful and proved her 


ability to get along with others.” 


The pupil was pursuing an academic course and hoped to become a 
nurse. The training she received in this work helped her to learn the 
value of accuracy and, above all, the necessity of personal interest in people 


whom she meets and desires to help. 


4. AssisTANCE aT A DentTaAL CLINIC 


J. Sterling Morton Junior College, Cicero, Illinois 


Three girls were assigned to the dental clinic which was established 
in Berwyn for the benefit of students and adults who cannot afford private 
service. Patients are referred to the clinic through the high school or the 
Berwyn case worker. The girls acted as receptionists, kept the case card 
file, kept the daily work sheet, kept the perpetual inventory of materials, 
made appointments, assisted the dentists, and kept the office and waiting 
room in order. These three girls hoped to become teachers or go into 
social service work. In either case it is felt that their experience will be 


valuable to them. 


5. Eye Cuirnic—SicuHt Savinc 


Polytechnic High School, San Francisco, California 


Five girls and three boys were assigned to the health and hospital 
work project which was divided into two parts. The first part was the 
eye clinic where pupils were tested for eye fixedness, scotoma, etc. If 
needed, a corrected course was recommended. Regular re-tests were given. 











90 National Association of Secondary-School Principals | April 


Diagrams were made to show the individual's defects, and charts were 
made to show the pupil’s progress. The second part of the project rendered 
immediate service for pathologic cases. Posters, bulletins, and texts were 
prepared for special classes for pupils who had defective eyes, or had been 
assigned to sight-saving classes. The pupils assigned to these projects 
helped to make diagrams and charts. They also helped to prepare statistics 
on the research work that had been done. Four of the girls on this project 
hoped to become nurses and believe their experience will be valuable. The 
fifth girl, who did statistical work, was majoring in mathematics. Two 
of the boys who prepared bulletins and posters were from the art depart- 
ment. The third boy, who typed on a special typewriter, was from the 
commercial department. 


6. First-Ai Room 


Central High School, Bay City, Michigan 


Two girls were assigned to take charge of the first-aid room at 
Central High School. They were on duty during the day in the first-aid 
room and gave attention to first-aid cases of girls. Girls having special 
interest in first-aid work were assigned to this project. They were under 
the direction of a teacher of physical education. In addition to being of 
interest to the girls, the project provided constant and continuous first-aid 


service for all of the girls in the school. 


Area D—Group XIII. Recreational Leadership and Assistance 


1. INTRAMURAL ACTIVITIES 


Booker T. Washington High School (Colored), Dallas, Texas 


Five boys employed on N.Y.A. school work jobs at Booker T. Washing- 
ton High School, Dallas, Texas, assisted in coaching and in officiating at 
intramural athletic contests at the institution. Various groups in the school 
organized teams for competition with each other in seasonal athletic con- 
tests—football, basketball, baseball, volleyball. The N.Y.A. workers assisted 


faculty members in this work. 


The recreational equipment of the institution was used, and the con- 
tests were conducted on the campus. Such splendid spirit and enthusiasm 
was developed among the pupils that this project has become a part of 
the regular physical education program at the institution. 


The N.Y.A. workers were for the most part participants in varsity 
sports and therefore had knowledge of the fundamentals of the games. 





for 
eff 
boy 


thr 


lars 
pro 
star 
the 
don 
play 
in 3 
pair 


gran 
eatel 
wou 
take 
are a 


were 
and | 
care 


perm 


/ 
advist 
After 

school 
assista 
gram. 
educat 





1940 | The Student-Aid Program: Area D—Group XIll 91 


These young men developed qualities of leadership and were deeply in- 
terested in recreational pastimes and in physical development. 


2. Recorp KEEPING FoR A RECREATIONAL PRoGRAM 


Senior High School, Dodge City, Kansas 


This project was carried on at Senior High School, where there were 
four teachers actively interested in recreational projects. Through the 
efforts of these four teachers an extensive intramural program both for 
boys and girls was set up. This program started in the fall and carried 


through the spring. 


The N.Y.A. youths who were assigned to these four teachers were 
largely responsible for the major part of the work connected with the 
program. There was considerable bookkeeping in the way of scores, records, 
standings, and such. This was handled largely by N.Y.A. workers. During 
the basketball season the score keeping and some of the officiating were 
done by N.Y.A. workers. The basketballs were checked in and out, the 
playing equipment was kept in shape, and the gym clothing was checked 
in and out by N.Y.A. helpers. Any damage to apparatus was usually re- 
paired by N.Y.A. youths assigned to the project. 


Outstanding among the recreational activities was the noon hour pro- 
gram. Until last year, the only thing that a pupil could do after he had 
eaten his lunch (and about one hundred students eat their lunch at school) 
would be to go over to the neighboring soda fountain, go down town, or 
take a walk. Now, however, pupils may go to the gymnasium where there 
are a large number of recreational activities available. 


Three workers under the direct supervision of one faculty member 
were in charge of all games and equipment. This apparatus was issued 
and returned at the close of the.noon hour. If the apparatus was not taken 
care of carefully, N.Y.A. students saw to it that those pupils were not 
permitted to use it. 


3. Directinc A RECREATIONAL PrcoGRAM 


High School, Litchfield, Minnesota 


At Litchfield, Minnesota, the decision was reached that it would be 
advisable to expand recreational facilities for the pupils of the high school. 
After a conference between the athletic director and the superintendent of 
schools, a plan was devised to expand the recreational program with the 
assistance of four N.Y.A. boys especially interested in athletics. The pro- 
gram of physical education was under the direct supervision of the physical 


education director. 











92 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


At first the director questioned the boys’ ability to conduct the program 
on their own initiative and without a great amount of supervision. The 
workers were first used as assistants. They helped in preparing schedules 
and assisted in supervising some of the simpler low-organization activities. 
After the boys demonstrated their ability on group leadership, the program 
was expanded to include track, basketball, volleyball, and other sports. The 
boys were able not only to organize the various activities, but were suc- 
cessful in directing the program under limited supervision. The plans for 
the operation of the program were worked out in co6peration with the 


athletic director. 


The educational benefits derived by the workers were excellent. It 
was apparent that the boys improved in promptness, in personal appearance, 
leadership, and initiative. Another value of this type of work that occasion- 
ally is overlooked lies in the field of vocational exploratory experience and 


guidance. 


The practical value of the work lies in the fact that it made possible 
the extension to all high-school pupils of a supervised recreational pro- 
gram, which otherwise might not have been possible on such an extensive 


basis. 


4. RECREATIONAL LEADERSHIP IN A MicratTory Lasor Camp 
Yuba County Junior College, Marysville, California 


One boy was assigned to develop the recreational and social programs 
for underprivileged children in the Migratory Labor Camp. He directed 
the play of the children after school and on Saturday. There was close re- 
lationship between the assignment and his interests since he intends to 
become a professional social worker. The supervision of the work was 
under the direction of the manager of the Migratory Labor Camp. In 
addition it provided excellent training for a prospective social worker and 
for children who otherwise would have been left to their own devices. 


5. RECREATIONAL LEADERSHIP IN A City ScHOOL SysTEM 


Junior College, Riverside, California 


Eight boys and four girls were assigned to recreational leadership and 
supervision in the city school system. They supervised the play of young 
children after school; in addition they furnished leadership for leisure-time 
activities on the junior college campus. The students assigned had an in- 
terest in physical education or recreational activities as a life career. Super- 
vision was furnished by the W.P.A. vocational supervisors for play 
activities off the campus; the physical education teachers provided super- 
vision on the college campus. 








Sup 


the 
of | 
hel; 


usu. 








1940] The Student-Aid Program: Area D—Group XIV 93 


6. RECREATIONAL LEADERSHIP FOR AN INDIAN Group 
Monrovia-Arcadia-Duaite High School, Monrovia, California 


Through the Y.M.C.A., two boys were assigned to furnish leadership 
and assistance for an Indian group. The boys directed the social and recrea- 
tional activities of the Indian group. They were assigned because of their 
ability rather than interest in social work. 


Area D—Group XIV. Arts and Crafts 


1. Dramatics 


Morgan County High School, West Liberty, Kentucky 


Morgan County High School is located in the foothills of the moun- 
tains of eastern Kentucky. Among the projects operated on the N.Y.A. 
work program was one designed to assist in promoting dramatics. Four 
girls were employed under the supervision of the dramatics coach. They 
made posters and stage costumes and assisted in executing the settings. 


Mountain people enjoy music which tells a story; these pupils assisted 
in dramatization and adaptation of mountain ballads. 


This work was in line with the interests of the youth. The special 
supervision which they received furthered the development of their talent. 
The increased responsibility which they felt and the contribution which 
they made to the school program were important factors in the growth 
of their personality. The training afforded by their N.Y.A. work will 
help them to improve the recreational facilities in a community which is 
usually drab. 


2. Murat Decoration 
South High School, Grand Rapids, Michigan 


Under the skilled tutelage of the head of the art department, pupils 
at South High School in Grand Rapids—pupils well supplied with talent 
but short in money—were assigned the task of preparing a series of murals 
characterizing a variety of historical events. These portrayals showed the 
advance of industrial progress, depicted by the comparison of various 
representative inventions and events. 


The murals are of a size and character suitable for practical use within 
the school. Importance in the application of detail as it is taught in class 
was impressed upon these young people as they acquired valuable skill 
and knowledge in the use of colors. The quality of the murals is amazingly 
good, and people viewing the work are greatly impressed by the finished 
professional appearance of the painting. Many persons are surprised to see 
the quality of work performed by high-school pupils. 








































a 














94 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [| April 


3. Decoration oF A Recreation Room 
High School, Mondovi, Wisconsin 

The Mondovi High School, a new building, now has an attractively 
decorated recreation room (approximately 120x30 feet) in the basement as 
the result of an arts and crafts project made possible by N.Y.A. funds. A 
talented young man was assigned to do the painting of a series of ten or 
twelve Mexican murals. This young man considered his high-school course 
as general preparation for painting. He was assisted in the choice of mate- 
rials by faculty members who also supervised the work. This was his first 
chance to put an outstanding talent to work in a place where it is certain 
to be noted and judged by the public. 


4. Desicninc A PLague oF THE Heap or JANE AppamMs or Hutt Howse, 
Artrer WHoM THE ScHoot Is NAMED 
Jane Addams High School, Portland, Oregon 

One girl was assigned to design and model in clay a plaque of the 
nead of Jane Addams. She worked from photographs of Miss Addams, 
spending two hours every day on her project. The first plaque was a com- 
mendable piece of work, but after studying it seriously and discussing the 
product with her teacher, the girl decided to do it again. The now finished 
plaque has met with wide approval. Cast in bronze, it will soon be installed 
over the entrance of the school with appropriate ceremonies. This plaque 
will stand as the permanent memorial to Miss Jane Addams, and as a 
public testimonial to this N.Y.A. worker, who was voted the most out- 
standing member of the graduating class of January, 1940. She was pre- 
sented with a set of modeling tools in recognition of her accomplishments. 


This girl’s background, the story of her adjustment to society and the 
assistance she received from the N.Y.A. work, is inspirational. The princi- 
pal of Jane Addams High School writes: 

“The story of her development during the three and a half years which 
she attended this school has given the faculty of Jane Addams more satis- 
faction than that of any other pupil, I think. She came to us in the fall 
of 1936, an extremely unattractive girl who had been for several terms 
in ungraded classes. She was fifteen years old and had but one ambition and 
that was to quit school when she was sixteen. She had not been interested 
in any of her school work, and that first term it was difficult to find any- 
thing that appealed to her. She did elect, however, to take art. Her work 
in her academic subjects was very unsatisfactory because of the fact that she 
put no life into her work. However, she did rather well in art from the 


beginning, although she was in no way unusual. The first remark that was 





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1949 | The Student-Aid Program: Area D—Group XIV 95 


made on her advisory card was that she had outstanding ability in the use 
of her hands. It also noted that she was very cross and sullen.” 

Due to her interest in art and the assistance of her N.Y.A. checks this 
girl ultimately became a very well adjusted pupil and an outstanding citi- 
zen in the school. 


5. Makinc CostuMEs 
Central High School, Sheboygan, Wisconsin 


A program, in which the home economics department joined the art 
department, employed ten girls at a Sheboygan high school in making 
costumes for school plays and, in general, keeping the costumes in order. 
Actually more than ten girls had the advantage of this experience, as 
Central High School is one of the several schools in which the youths are 
necessarily rotated from month to month. 

Teachers give the work unusually close supervision because of the 
nature of the work, and because it is one of the new extra-curriculum 


functions in the school which is highly popular with the pupils and public 
alike. 


6. ScHoot PAPER 


Vocational School, Madison, Wisconsin 


The N.Y.A. pupils in Vocational School at Madison, Wisconsin pro- 
duced a newspaper, an undertaking which had previously been impossible. 
In this case both the publishing and printing of The Vocational News, the 
school paper of the Vocational School, was led by three N.Y.A. boys. 

One boy was editor of the paper, and the other two were among those 
who did the typesetting and the printing. The young editor was taking 
a journalism course at Vocational School, and the other two were enrolled 
in printing and had elected printing as their life work. 

The project was supervised by two members of the faculty, one in 
journalism and the other in printing, so there was direct value to the youth. 
As the school is large and is comprised of many departments which might 
otherwise fail to know much about one another, the news was of especial 
value. 


7. Directinc HanpicraFt IN THE COMMUNITY 
- High School, Washington Court House, Ohio 
Washington High School assigned two boys and three girls to an off- 
campus project under the supervision of the general secretary of the local 
Y.M.C.A, 
The project consisted of assisting and directing handicraft classes for 
boys and girls as well as adults. These classes were part of the Y.M.C.A. 

















96 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


community program, for which no membership fee or other charge is 
made. Each worker had the responsibility of seeing that all equipment for 
the craft class was in readiness, and that all materials were out and avail- 
able for members. Also the workers advised and assisted the participants 
and were responsible for maintaining order and keeping the work moving. 


There was considerable relationship between work on this project and 
school work. One boy was specializing in industrial arts and the other in 
auto mechanics, while the girls were interested in home economics. The 
workers received valuable experience in leading and managing groups and 
directing their activities toward a worthy end. The project stimulated the 
initiative and ingenuity of the students and gave them practical experience 
in making useful objects for the home. By enabling the agency to extend its 
services in the community, the project had considerable social value. 


8. Hetpinc Propuce Granp OPERA 


Riverside Junior College, Riverside, California 


Thirteen boys were assigned to a project to help produce grand opera 
in English with complete costuming, orchestra, chorus, and stage settings. 
Students assigned to this project worked in the box office, served as ushers, 
were responsible for stage property and costumes, and prepared proper 
lighting for the productions. Students were assigned to this project who 
had an interest in stage management. Through their efforts it was possible 
to offer improved performances of opera for the benefit of the community. 


9. Mcurat DecoraTIONs FOR A ScHOOL CorrIDOR 


High School, Atascadero, California 


One girl was assigned to make a mural nine feet by nine feet on one 
of the walls in the main corridor of the high school. This was one of a 
series of murals planned to depict the history of San Luis Obispo County. 
The mural was designed, drawn, enlarged, and painted in oil on celotex 
sheets. Afterward these sheets were glued to the corridor wall. The girl 
did all the work except the mounting on the corridor wall. Since she in- 
tends to be an artist after graduation, there was close relationship to her 
N.Y.A. assignment and her life interest. The murals, incidently, will add 


very much to the beauty of the school. 


10. Art SERVICE IN THE COMMUNITY 


Brea-Olinda Union High School, Brea, California 
Three girls were assigned to prepare posters, programs, and place 
cards for school and community use. They designed and prepared cos- 
tumes and stage settings for plays and parties. They arranged flowers in 
classrooms to beautify the rooms. This project was under the direction 





1940] The Ssudent-Aid Program: Area D— Group XIV 97 


of the art instructor. There was close relationship in the N.Y.A. activities 
and the girls’ interests since they are all enrolled in art classes. In addition 
to the value for the individuals assigned to the project, there was value in 
serving the community and in beautifying the school. 











Contents 


ArEA E—MiIscELLANEOUS 


| Projects in this area account for 2.4 per cent of the youth employed in 
the school-aid program during the academic year 1939-40.) 


Group XV. MISCELLANEOUS: 


tw 





PAGE 
Kindergarten Assistance (Madison, Wisconsin)  ......-.........--.--s0000 99 
Reduction of Truancy (Waco, Texas) .......... = sg aunilaigicaiicaiieamgtedti 99 
Testing and Recording Butterfat Content of Milk (Durand, 
WHERE) ccnescnceecceesenseccercssacceconcensiicnrsstutléennensmnencnmcsensaitenacsaatetainntantreress 100 
Museum and Nature Study Project (Aurora, Minnesota) ..............-- 100 
Student Exchange (Cleveland, Ohio) .................-.-.- 101 
Operation of Diesel Engine and Electrie Lighting System 
(Oakdale, Kentucky) -..............-.:-c-cesseessesseeeeeeseeneseneererseneenenensesenenenenensnees 102 
Vests for the Football Team (Portland, Maine) ............--..---.-+-+++ 102 
Remedial Reading (Wichita, Kansas) ..103 
Reader for the Blind (Oakland, California) -....................:c.:ce<-:+200+- 103 
Noon Movies (Biggs, California) ..103 
Sight Saving (Quincy, Hlinois) .. scsindsiSeiesceciadiitelaagisdeoiclessiniaitialies 103 
Vocational Guidance and Employment Bureau ( Victoria, si 


VIP BIRIR) — ..n.q.nccsecsnsocrseoressensesossonenestesscentostesenenenereseseseuessscersasweseweneesc 


98 








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1940] The Student-Aid Program: Area E—Group XV 





Area E—Group XV. Miscellaneous 


1. KINDERGARTEN ASSISTANCE 


Edgewood High School, Madison, Wisconsin 


An example from one of the parochial high schools and also one of 
several similar projects for girls, was the work of assisting in the kinder- 
garten instructional work at the Edgewood High School. 


Three girls assisted in the kindergarten of the grade school and when 
the children played out of doors. As each of these girls intends to become a 
kindergarten instructor, the work was fine experience. This school does 
not specialize in the training of teachers, but the girls here received an 
advance training before high-school graduation. The teachers say that the 
girls absorbed the many extra duties caused by the needs of small children. 


2. RepucTion oF TRUANCY 


Baylor University and Waco Public Schools, Waco, Texas 


The attendance problems in the Waco Public Schools have decreased 
considerably as a result of a project initiated last year under the N.Y.A. 
college work program at Baylor University. Ten young men employed 
on college work jobs were assigned to principals in the Waco public 
school system to visit in the homes of underprivileged children of school 
age who had been absent from school and who were maladjusted both in 
the home and in the school. These students reported each day to the 
principal of the school to which they were assigned and secured a list of 
the absentees for that day. They. then made contact at the home both with 
the child and his parents in an effort to determine the reason for the pupil’s 
absence or lack of interest. 


Remedies for the correction of each child’s problem were recom- 
mended by the students to the principal or to the probation judge in Waco. 
Detailed reports were made daily to the judge; once each month the stu- 
dents met in conference at Baylor University with the judge to discuss 
the most serious cases encountered that month. Of the 1,849 cases handled 
by the young men only one youth was later sent to the Juvenile Training 
School. 


Most of the young men employed on this project were enrolled in 
sociology. The contact work of these students gave them an insight into 
social problems not to be gained in classroom study. Many decided upon 
a career in social service work. The college reports that the personality, 
tact, courtesy, sympathetic interest, and grasp of home environment 
developed by the students would ensure their success in the field of social 
work. 











100 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


3. Testinc AND Recorpinc Burrerrat Content oF MILK 


High School, Durand, Wisconsin 


A three-year project at Durand consisted of the testing and recording 
of data of the dairy stock owned by Dunn and Pepin County farmers. 


Ten boys and two girls tested and recorded the milk butterfat con- 
tent of five hundred head of dairy stock, and had the job of maintaining 


the records in an orderly manner. 


Most of the youths in this high school, which commands quite a 
large area in northern Wisconsin, are from farms and want this specific 
assignment so that they can learn a useful skill. The teacher of agricul- 


ture in the high school supervised and trained the workers. 


Dairy producers found this a service which they could not have ordi- 
narily, and which therefore was of very specific value. The high school 
provided the equipment for the testing laboratory and all necessary sup- 
plies, thus again bringing education, the farmer, and the youths into 
coordinated effort. 


4. Museum ano Nature Srupy Project 


High School, Aurora, Minnesota 


In 1934 the Aurora schools organized a number of pupil interest 
groups, each with a faculty sponsor. The largest of these groups was 
developed under the sponsorship of a teacher of biology and originally 
was christened the Outdoor Club. The groups collected and mounted 
specimens of various types of plants and cones of various species of conif- 
erous trees of the region. As winter weather came on, the group devoted 
their interest to taxidermy. 


After the inauguration of the National Youth Administration pro- 
gram about twelve N.Y.A. pupils and a number of out-of-school young 
people on N.Y.A. developed this hobby activity on an extended work basis. 
From the outset, three N.Y.A. workers were assigned as assistants in the 
taxidermy shop. Others collected plant specimens, insects, and materials 
of many kinds. Another N.Y.A. worker was assigned as assistant in the 
plaster casting department where casts were made of foliage and, in many 
cases, of the trees and shrubs of the region. These were all painted their 
natural colors and are very difficult to distinguish from the plants and 
animals they represent. 


At this point the activity of this group of youth that started as an 
Outdoor Club began to grow into a large museum project supplemented by 
additional workers and a grant of funds approximating ten thousand dollars 
for the proper continuance of the work. Asa result a museum project showing 
the creation of miniature replicas of an early Minnesota Iron Range farm 





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1940 | The Student-Aid Program: Area E—Group XV 101 


as developed by Finnish immigrants, a logging scene, and an open-pit iron 
mine was completed. This part of the museum project was carried through 
to completion by the exclusive use of high-school pupils receiving N.Y.A. 
assistance. Under the supervision of an adult member of the museum staff, 
the project provided the finest plan imaginable in the way of educational 


benefits to workers. 


To the visitor, the plaster casts seemed to hold the most interest. “How 
did you do it?” was the question asked by all. Here was the answer: 
Spread some plasticine out on a table and, with a round bottle or rolling 
pin, roll it out smooth. Lay the leaf or flower, face down, upon the plasti- 
cine and press down firmly with a pane of thick glass or smooth board. 
Remove the leaf or flower and build up a low wall of plasticine of the size 
and shape desired, around the impression in the mold and pour in plaster 
of paris and allow to harden; after this, paint in natural color with water 
colors, poster paint, or oil colors. Modeling plaster is better than plaster 
of paris as it has less tendency to retain air bubbles. Snakes, frogs, and the 
like are cast in either plaster or “Form-All” when making the negative; 
and the final cast of either plaster or beeswax. For work requiring delicate 
or frail parts the wax is better, as it is not brittle. Insects of all kinds are 
easily mounted if properly spread while drying. A butterfly board can be 
made for this purpose out of scrap material without the necessity of any 
monetary outlay. 


Splendid herbariums were built up on this project and required no 
outlay beyond pressing frames, which can be made by any boy or girl who 
is at all handy with hammer and saw. Any school, regardless of how poorly 
equipped, can build up a very fine collection of specimens for study pur- 
poses by the use of its pupils, its N.Y.A. pupils, or even through its science 
and nature-study classes. 


5. Srupent ExcHAaNce 
Central High School, Cleveland, Ohio 


The Exchange at Central High School was organized to take care of 
most of the business connected with extra-curriculum activities. There, 
pupils bought their tickets for football, basketball, track, school dances, 
and plays. There, also, weekly streetcar passes were sold, fees received, 
deposits on band uniforms made, and payments for senior cap§ and gowns 
taken in. A small part of the exchange business consisted in selling paper, 
pencils, and incidentals to the pupils. In fact, except for the lunchroom, 
most of the money spent by the pupils at the school was handled through 
the exchange, so that in a sense it was the school store and ticket office. 


Ten N.Y.A. girls were employed in the Exchange. Their duties were 
those of sales persons. The Exchange offered an excellent course in applied 











102 National Association of Secondary-School Principals — | April 


mathematics where the need for accuracy and honesty is paramount. Last 
year these girls handled in excess of fifteen thousand dollars for the school 
with negligible loss. Their work was rapid, efficient, and satisfactory 


in every way. 

The workers were usually quite busy serving pupils during the inter- 
vals between periods, following which they made out a report of their 
business on a form provided for that purpose. The stock remaining was 
counted and recorded on an inventory sheet, which enabled the girls to 
keep a detailed account of the items for which they were responsible. The 
manager of the Exchange used the inventory sheet to fix the responsi- 
bility of any errors. The two girls in the last period of the day made a 
checkup of the whole day’s business. This was carefully examined by the 


faculty exchange manager. 


The workers received valuable sales experience and learned how to 
meet and deal with people. The service provided was also of value to the 
school in helping to meet some of its operating needs. 


6. Operation or Dieser Encine anp Execrric Licntinc System 
Vocational School, Oakdale, Kentucky 
Oakdale Vocational School is a private institution which serves needy 
boys and girls in Breathitt County, Kentucky. Located in the mountains 
far from commercial electric lines, the school is provided with lighting 
facilities by means of a Diesel plant. Under the direction of the work 
supervisor, one N.Y.A. boy was given the responsibility of the care and 


operation of this system. 


This boy started the engine that charged the batteries, saw that gas 
and water were provided, and looked after minor repairs. Caring for the 
Diesel enabled the pupil to become acquainted with engines and gen 
erators. His assignment permitted him to make a practical application ot 
the theories he had learned in physics. He became intensely interested in 
electricity. One boy, because of the experiences gained in this assignment, 
has decided to become an electrical engineer. 


7. Vests For THE Foorsatt TEAM 
Deering High School, Portland, Maine 
In Deering High School one N.Y.A. youth having unusual originality, 
designing talent, and organizational ability proposed that the project 
workers design and make vests for the football squad. Eight pupils were 
assigned to this project, with the originator in charge. The material was 
cut and vests were assembled by the group of N.Y.A. workers. 


The athletic coach of Deering High School, stated to the N.Y.A. office, 
“It may sound funny to say that vests were made for the football squad, 





1940] The Student-Aid Program: Area E—Group XV 103 


but believe me they were a great help in keeping the squad protected from 
the severe cold. These are worn over the usual sweat shirt.” 


8. RemepiaL READING 
Wichita High School, East Wichita, Kansas 

Three pupils were assigned to a clerical assistance and service project, 
consisting of aid to a teacher in remedial reading work. Their duties were 
to check papers, prepare material for class use, and assist the teacher in 
conducting the class. The workers assigned to this type of work were all 
able students who may enter the teaching profession. They profited 
greatly from the responsibility given to them and developed their own 
initiative in teaching correct reading. 


The project was of value to the department in two ways: (1) in di- 
rectly assisting backward pupils; and (2) in offering an opportunity to 
determine the value of remedial work in reading. 

[Epitor’s Nore: Whether or not pupils should be used to check papers 
is a moot point. In the opinion of the editor pupils should not be so used. 
Rather under guidance they may prepare materials—a very worth-while 
project but time consuming—which are needed so badly in any remedial 


program. | 


9. READER FOR THE BLIND 
University High School, Oakland, California 
One girl was assigned to read to a blind person off the campus. The 
school kept in constant touch with the student to determine how much 
time was spent. There was very little relationship between the interest of 
the pupil and the work assignment, except that most of the reading was 
of such character that it was interesting. 


10.. Noon Movizs 
High School, Biggs, California 

Two boys who showed an aptitude for working with motion-picture 
machines were assigned to show movies semiweekly during the lunch hour. 
These movies were open to the community as well as to the pupils and 
were operated on a nonprofit basis. The boys assigned not only gained 
technical experience but also were in charge of organizing the work so 
that they received experience in business practice. Needless to say, the 
project was of value both to the school and the community. 


11. Sicut Savine 
Senior High School, Quincy, Illinois 
Three girls were assigned to the sight-saving room as readers and 
typists. They cared for children during part of the noon hour. The as- 

















104 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


signment had very little relationship to the academic interests of the 
pupils, but was of great social benefit to the school and probably resulted 
in an appreciation of the needs of children in sight-saving classes. 


12. VocationaL GuipANcE AND EMpLoyMENT Bureau 
High School, Victoria, Virginia 

The N.Y.A. pupils were assigned to maintain and improve the voca- 
tional and employment bureau for pupils. They prepared special interest 
charts, corresponded with colleges and with men in the professions, secured 
a list of speakers, and attempted to assist seniors in finding employment 
after graduation. These pupils worked directly under the supervision of 
the principal. The project assisted several pupils in choosing a college or 
a trade and helped to bring the school and community closer together. 








CHAPTER V 









Some Opinions about the School-Aid Program 


Opinions about the school-aid program are not difficult to secure. 
They vary widely among individuals in society, but in general they are 
very favorable. The following statement by E. W. Jacobson, taken from 
the Foreword of Evaluation of the School-Aid Program 1938-39 in Cali- 
fornia is probably typical of the opinions of high-school principals: 








Granting differences of opinion upon methods of administering the Na- 
tional Youth Administration program in the various schools, it is significant 
indeed that virtually all high-school principals in California agree upon the 





general need for the program and upon its effectiveness. They are almost 





unanimous in the conviction that financial aid for students must be con- 
sidered apart from relief to families. They also agree that the N.Y.A. program q 
should and does afford students certain opportunities to become more em- 













ployable as a result of their work experience.* 









Opinions of youth who have been recipients of N.Y.A. aid also have 
a bearing on the problem. The following were selected from Basic In- 
formation on N.Y.A. Workers in Kentucky.’ The benefits to youth who 
had received N.Y.A. assistance were classified as (1) Improved Standards 
of Living, (2) More Schooling, (3) Rehabilitation of Family, (4) Im- 
proved Social Viewpoint, (5) Improved Skills and Attitudes, and (6) 
Renewed Determination to be Self-supporting Citizens. 













1. Improved Standards of Living 

S - is a crippled boy who began a course in accounting with a cor- 
respondence school, Financial troubles have placed him in a cottage in an alley amid 
the most sordid surroundings. But the opportunity to do clerical work on an N.Y.A. 
project has given him a renewed interest in that type of work, and having a regular 
income has given him the hope that he will soon be able to complete his course and 
take his place in a business office. (6-J-2)—Jefferson County.* 













2. More Schooling 






M——~——— is from a home of moderate circumstances. Her people are hard 
workers, but through unfortunate circumstances have been reduced at many times to 
want, M—--—-——— lived three miles from the high school, Her parents did not keep 
any horses and were not able to pay for her board or transportation, but M 
walked the three miles to school for three years, At this time her father and older 
sister were thrown out of work. Clothes, food, and books could not be bought, so 
the girl was out of school one year. During this time she became very despondent 
and Jost interest in her studies and associates. However, the next year, the principal 
secured N.Y.A. student aid for her. She assisted the home economics teacher. Re- 






















Ruth MacFarlane, Evaluation of the School-Aid Program. Prepared for the Subcommittee on 
School-Aid of the State Advisory Committee. National Youth Administration for California, San 
Francisco, Calif., 1939, (mimeographed), pp. vi*37. 

*Ibid., iii. 

8Division of Educational Aid, National Youth Administration for Kentucky. Basic Information on 
N.Y.A Workers in Kentucky, National Youth Administration, Louisville, Ky., 1936, (mimeographed), 










47. 
‘Ibid., p. 27. 


105 








106 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [April 


turning to school with renewed interest she took an active part in student activities 
including the glee club, dramatic clubs, and literary societies, She was president of the 
Senior Class when she was graduated. She is planning to go to college this fall as 
she understands she can get the student aid, She has taken renewed interest in her 
education and plans to major in home economics and prepare to teach in that field. 
Her father has been placed on a W.P.A. work project, and the entire family has been 
uplifted and benefited by the N.Y.A. (2-Cl-1)—Clinton County.® 


3. Rehabilitation of the Family 

L——_—_——-. is a girl seventeen years old, and the oldest in a family of eight 
children. She lives in a log cabin in the woods, a mile and a fourth from the 
public road. School has always been a long way from her home, She could go only 
when the weather was warm, as her poor clothes would not keep out the cold. She 


finished the fourth grade, and could seldom get a book of her own. 





Her father could hardly keep half what his family needed, so as soon as L 
could, she had to help with the work in the fields and get whatever work she could 
from the neighbors. 

Often for her work she got old dresses and maybe a pair of old slippers. She 
helped in the cornfield or dug potatoes or washed or did anything possible to bring 
home some meal or anything they could use to eat or wear. 

Now she is learning to sew. She wears the neatest of dresses made mostly by 
hand. She has altogether a different look. She feels that as she will soon learn to do 
all kinds of fine sewing, her work will be in demand, and she will never have to 


work again for what she can get, at anything she can find. 


She is helping her family to buy the food and clothes they need and plans to 
help her father buy a cow. (4-Cla-1)—Clay County.° 


4. Improved Social Viewpoint 

When C— —— was ten years of age, his father died and his mother was 
left with a family to support. For the past two years his mother worked on W.P.A. 
making enough to buy food for the family. When the depression came, the boy 
could not find a job and in order to get whatever money he needed he resorted to 
petty thievery. This led him to poor company, and he spent most of his time drink- 





ing and in poolrooms. 


When the N.Y.A. Recreation Center started, C had already been in 
jail once, and the first week (you remember it was a full month after the work 
started before the employees received a check) he was put in jail for stealing junk 
iron. The supervisor, knowing the circumstances, went to the police judge, who agreed 


to let C out of jail on his work days if the supervisor would escort him 


to and from the jail. 

Since then C——~———— has become one of the better workers. He has charge 
of the playgrounds and center on his work days. He has shown diplomacy in handling 
children. He no longer haunts poolrooms and part of his check goes to his mother. 
His personal appearance is better. He has a part-time job repairing automobiles when 
he is not working at the center. (4-Cl-1) Clark County. * 


5Ibid., p. 30. 
*Ibid., p. 34. 
TIbid., p. 36. 





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1940] Some Opinions about the School-Aid Program 





5. Improved Skills and Attitudes 


—E-—_—, twenty years old, was a very studious girl, finishing high school 
with high honors and the intention of going to college. Due to financial trouble she 
was unable to do so. She did, however, manage to take a course in commercial work 
for three months and then had to give it up. 

She was assigned to N.Y.A. as an apprentice seamstress. After working two 
weeks and finding N.Y.A. had an interest in her other than giving her employment, 
she began to improve in her work. 

When taking N.Y.A. individual record cards, she indicated she would like to do 
secretarial work. 

She has now been placed to do typing for the superintendent at the high school 
where she can take her commercial studies after she has worked the two hours of 
N.Y.A. time each day. 

With a promise of a steady position as secretary when she has completed the 
course, needless to say she is happy and has a different outlook on life. (1-U-1)— 
Union County.® 


6. Renewed Determination To Be a Self-supporting Citizen 

V———————— is eighteen years of age. Her father died several years ago, leaving 
to her mother the care of two badly afflicted brothers, a small brother, and_her- 
self. It seemed that something had to be done for this family. V—-——-— was 
unable to remain in school as she was in very poor health, needing her tonsils re- 
moved and glasses fitted. 

V obtained work on the N.Y.A. and was placed in the county health 
doctor's office. This work enabled her to go to the hospital and have her tonsils 
removed; it enabled her to get glasses and to clothe herself, all of which lessened the 
burdens of her mother. V—— herself is a changed girl having regained her 
health and taken interest in her work and community social activities again. (3-G-1)— 








Grant County.’ 

The cases which are cited above came from local and resident centers 
in Kentucky rather than from the school-aid program. Undoubtedly simi- 
lar values would be mentioned by school-aided youth if cases were collected. 
It should be pointed out, however, that youth who have benefited most 
may be vocal in their appreciation, whereas others who have received less 
benefit remain silent. In no sense could the opinions of a few individuals 
be considered as conclusive evidence. Rather it is indicative that for the 
individual cases cited the results have been very much worth while. 


OPINIONS FROM PRINCIPALS 

The only evaluation of the school-aid program which has come to 
the editor’s attention is the one in California, previously referred to. From 
that document this chapter draws heavily. In no sense can the evaluation 
be considered conclusive, nor do those who compiled it so consider it. 

A questionnaire on policy was sent to all the high-school principals 
who were administering an N.Y.A. program in California. Over 350 
replies from a total of 460 which were sent out were returned and sum- 


marized. 


SIbid., p. 39. 
%Ibid., p. 43. 




















108 National Association of Secondary-School Principals | April 


The principals felt that a youth living at home should be able to 
earn ten dollars per month (six is allowed) in order to have an acceptable 
youth standard of living. They felt that a sum of twenty-six dollars was 
needed by the pupil who boarded away from home, and that forty-three 
dollars was needed by the pupil who was on his own entirely.” The sum 
of ten dollars for the pupil who lived at home was interpreted to pro- 
vide: lunches, three dollars; clothing, three dollars; dental-medical care, 
one dollar; school expenses (including transportation), two dollars; and 
spending money one dollar." In contrast to this the average N.Y.A.aided 
youth in California high schools earned $4.77 which he spent as follows: 
food, 85 cents; clothing, $1.55; dental-medical care, 22 cents; transportation, 
36 cents; supplies, 40 cents; fees, 13 cents; graduation, etc., 64 cents; family, 
39 cents; and spending money, 23 cents.” If the principals are right, and 
few would dispute that ten dollars is too large a sum for the items listed, 
then the school-aid program which in 1939-40 was alloted $13,707,534 
would of necessity be approximately doubled to furnish an adequate stand- 
ard for these youth who were aided. That the youth who received aid in 
California were in need is attested by the median income, $815, of the 
families of all N.Y.A.-aided pupils in secondary schools.” Nor is there 
reason to believe that the median income of N.Y.A.-aided families in other 


states is higher. 


In November 1938, 3.5 per cent of the total enrollment in California 
secondary schools has applied for N.Y.A. aid.’* Nearly twice as many 
youth had applied for N.Y.A. assistance as could be assigned. The princi- 
pals who answered the questionnaire estimated, however, that 15.2 per 
cent of the school enrollment in the schools in which they served as ad- 
ministrators were in need of assistance to achieve an acceptable youth 
standard of living estimated at ten dollars per month.” If these opinions 
are accepted, it is readily apparent that a very much larger sum than is 
now available is necessary to meet an acceptable youth standard of living. 
The consensus of the principals was that, “. . . the Federal Government 
brought into the picture by the emergency born of the depression, was 
meeting the problem only half way for a limited age group.” 


In addition to the N.Y.A. school-aid program, 185 California high 
schools reported that they had available funds to assist young people 
through part-time employment. The following quotation sums up the 


situation neatly: 


“Ruth MacFarlane, op. cit., p. 5. 
YIbid., p. 6. 

MacFarlane, op cit., p. 6. 
Ibid., p. 7. 

MIbid., p. 9. 

Wibid., p. 8. 

Ibid., p. 15. 





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1940 | Some Opinions about the School-Aid Program 109 


There were a few schools, particularly in southern California, which had well- 
developed programs of student employment other than routine cafeteria assistance paid 
for from district funds. These work programs represented definite contributions to 
the maintenance of the school and to the students’ vocational future. Some of the 
schools reported that from their own funds they employed more than twice the 
number employed by the N.Y.A. 


The following types of projects are favored: bus driving and bus maintenance, 
janitorial service and building maintenance, ground maintenance. A few schools in 
this group depend entirely on student labor to maintain the plant, except of course 
for necessary skilled supervision. One high school went so far as to set aside three 
thousand dollars to provide for student employment over the summer months.” 


Information received from Robert T. Hill, director of Student Aid 
in New York State, indicated that 14 per cent of the 747 principals who 
answered (814 questionnaires were sent out) indicated that they had local 
funds which were used to employ youth in addition to the N.Y.A. allot- 
ment. A total of $19,416.84 was available; $12,245.53 was furnished by 


boards of education. 


Certainly a strong case can be made for including budget items 
to subsidize youth for the performance of socially desirable work ex- 
perience when precautions are taken to ascertain that youth are not ex- 
ploited. It is to be hoped that an ever-growing number of schools will 
provide local, socially desirable work experience for youth. However, in 
an even larger number of communities it will be necessary for some years 
to come for the Federal Government to furnish the funds necessary to 
subsidize youth in their first work experience. 


The principals in California were also quite certain that school aid 
was particularly desirable for students who are forced to stay in school 
until they are eighteen years of age. Many of these pupils had no appreci- 
ation of, or tradition for, academic success. However, the earning of a small 
sum of money seemed to have a wholesome effect on school conduct and 


success. 


Of the principals who answered the California question, 82 per cent 
felt that the N.Y.A. program had made the recipients more employable.” 
The specific values claimed by the principals were principally (1) through 
vocational training received on the assignment, 151; and (2) through the 
development of good work habits, 110. In this connection the report says: 


- 

Many in this first group (vocational training) pointed out specific instances where 
private employment resulted from the N.Y.A. assignment. . . . Such results were 
possible, it was explained, since serious efforts had been made to place N.Y.A. students 
on work for which they were fitted and in which they might obtain the maximum of 
educational training as well as perform satisfactory service to the school. 


1[bid., p. 12. 
W8]bid., p. 18. 














110 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [April 


The program was felt to provide an especially effective means of training young 
people for employment, since it offered a kind of responsibility not available through 
other types of student activities. It was found also that students learned more quickly 
when placed in a situation resulting in compensation for work than when they merely 
worked for the experience only, Moreover, the opportunity to help himself tended to 
make the student enthusiastic toward employment.” 


In New York State over 70 per cent of the high-school principals 
who answered the questionnaire referred to above said that one half or 
more of their N.Y.A.-aided youth had profited because: (1) range of in- 
terest hac increased, (2) attitude toward school had improved, (3) train- 
ing for a vocation was provided, (4) desirable character or personality 


traits had been developed, (5) social responsibility had been increased. 


OPINIONS OF PUPILS 


The committee which made the evaluation in California secured re- 
plies from 1,483 pupils who were recipients of N.Y.A. assistance. This 
was 71.4 per cent of the youth to whom the inquiry was sent. Eighty-five 
per cent of the 1,483 felt that they were better fitted to hold a private job 
because of the N.Y.A. work experience.” This agrees closely with the 
opinions expressed by the principals (82 per cent) commented on above. 


Over 90 per cent of the youth felt that someone in the school really 
took an interest in what the worker was doing, how well his work was 
done, and how he was getting along. Nine tenths of the responding work- 
ers felt that the assignments were in line with the individual worker's 
abilities, that they were really learning something, and that the work as- 
signed required some responsibility and initiative. Only one youth in ten 
felt that his job had been developed just to help him keep busy.” 


The reports from the youth indicated that “. . . more than twice the 
number of students were engaged in routine janitorial work than were re- 
ported on the work plans” which were submitted by the schools.” The 
percentage reported by the pupils, 13.9 per cent, was slightly less than the 
percentage approved nationally for 1939-40. The subcommittee on evalu- 
ation further reported . . .“that approximately five per cent were correcting 
papers, a definitely ineligible activity in view of the provisions of the 
School Code and one repeatedly pointed out in rules and regulations.”” 
These reports tend to cause one to wonder whether the youth had really 
considered the adequacy of the supervision. Perhaps their replies indi- 
cated rather that they wholeheartedly endorsed the opportunity to work 
for a wage. 


Mbid., p. 19. 
*bid., p. 34 
*bid., p. 34. 
2Ibid., p. 22. 
SIbid., p. 23. 





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1940] Some Opinions about the School-Aid Program 111 


In New York State, opinions about the program were received from 10,- 
255 of a total of 13,098, or 78 per cent, of the N.Y.A.-aided youth outside 
New York City. These youth were just as enthusiastic as those in Cali- 
fornia. Ninety-two per cent had enjoyed the work and felt that it had not 
interfered with their studies. Sixty-one per cent felt that the N.Y.A. ex- 
perience was as valuable as a school subject. Over 94 per cent felt that they 
earned the money they received; 98.5 per cent experienced satisfaction in 
helping support themselves. The endorsement of work experience for pay 
so overwhelmingly approved by those who have had experience with it 
is a factor contributing to its educative values which cannot be overlooked 
by school administrators. 


IMPROVING THE PROGRAM 

The subcommittee on Evaluation of the School-Aid Program in 
California sought suggestions for the improvement of the program. They 
report, “The degree to which the program was accepted as a valid educa- 
tional technique was usually reflected in the amount of teachers’ time 
allotted one or more individuals within the school for the operation of the 
program.” In choosing illustrations for inclusion in this Buttetin, which 
it was hoped would influence local practice, it was a policy to include 
those for which it seemed likely, from the description submitted, that 


adequate and competent supervision had been provided. Certainly a 
school administrator cannot claim to believe in the value of the work ex- 
perience provided by the N.Y.A. unless he provides such supervision either 
personally or by delega'ing it to someone else wao will supervise it care- 
fully and competently. 


It can scarcely be questioned that the work experience should be 
correlated as closely as possible with the skills and aptitudes of the youth 
who are employed. The work opportunities should also be such that 
similar employment is available in the community. Certainly the possibil- 
ity of finding janitorial work for 15 per cent of the N.Y.A. youth in the 
community is very remote. Similarly the use of a considerable number 
of youth in routine cafeteria work may be questioned. Many of the better 
projects reported in Chapter IV were clearly the result of an informal, 
in many cases perhaps even of a careful, survey of work opportunities in 
the community. In this connection the subcommittee in California sug- 
gested: 

A“survey of community needs and job opportunities should therefore be pre- 
liminary to development of project activities. 

There should be at all times closer coérdination with community activities and 
thinking. The program should be publicized, and there perhaps should be an ad- 
visorv committee of citizens. Community groups, such as service clubs, should be kept 


*Ibid., p. 24. 
*bid., p. 25-26. 




















112 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [April 


informed about the program and the type of training resulting from the work ex- 
perience made available to the students; students, moreover, should be urged to sur- 


vey job opportunities in the community.” 

In addition, it was emphasized that adequate guidance service must 
be provided by the local school. The subcommittee also felt that white- 
collar jobs should not be overemphasized. 


That many projects have value to the individual, and that they are 
looked on with favor by the student body and the community was stated 
explicitly or was implied in many of the examples which were furnished 
for this Buttetin. That community planning and resources had been 
provided to facilitate the program in many communities was obvious. 
However, in many others the reports seemed to indicate that insufficient 
initiative had been taken to find desirable activities, particularly in the 
community. One can scarcely believe that many of the reports submitted for 
this BuLLeTIN (but not printed) could have been undertaken had there 
been codperative planning between the school and community agencies. 


The two paragraphs which follow, taken from a letter by C. B. Lund, 
state adminstrator in Minnesota, indicate one way in which greater cooper- 
ation between the schools and the state administration may be achieved. 

We have in this state a committee composed of the officers of the Council of 
School Executives which includes superintendents and, in a few instances, secondary- 
school principals, as well as a college committee. This committee assists the admin- 
istration in reviewing projects and in forwarding definite recommendations as to the 


operation of the program in the field. 

Another unique structure of this administration is the supervision of the school 
program, The school superintendents assist us by spending two, three, or four days at 
a time in the field visiting other schools in their immediate territory, thereby giving 
us first-hand information as to the operation of the program. 

| Eprror’s Nore: It is encouraging to note that school administrators 
are spending time in such activities. Undoubtedly they learn, as well as 
supervise, and increase the usefulness of the program throughovt the 
state.” | 

What has been said in this chapter is indicative rather than con- 
clusive. It indicates that, on the whole, there are considerable benefits from 
the N.Y.A. program. There is indication, too, that there are defects in the 
operation of the plan which could be obviated within the existing adminis- 
trative framework of the local school. It is much to be desired that an 
objective and thorough evaluation of the entire N.Y.A. program should be 
undertaken in the near future by some independent organization such as 


the American Youth Commission. 





*The state N. Y. A. office in Minnesota has also issued a mimeographed bulletin, Sradent-Aid 
Work Activities, which lists many desirable projects which a local school may undertake, N.Y.A. 
Administration in Minnesota, St. Paul, Minn., (mimeographed), p. 31. Other interesting bulletins 


describing specific projects are Park Improvement Project, Compiling School History, and Preparation 
0} Plaster Casts. These were all prepared by the N. Y. A. Administration in Minnesota. 








Contents 
CHAPTER VI 
N.Y.A. Resipent Work CENTERS 


N.Y.A. Resident Work Centers 

Quoddy (Passamaquoddy, Maine) Regional Center 

Batesville (Arkansas) Resident Training Center .... 

“Porta Village” (Arkansas) Resident Training Center ............. 
Resident Training Program in Georgia 

Salem (Oregon) Girls’ Resident Center 

Carbondale (Illinois) Resident Training School _........0.22....002.0020.-.--2.-0- 124 
Joliet (Illinois) Residence Training Center 

Peru (Illinois) Resident Training Center -...0....220.....0.0...0:.-ccececcssescceeeeeees 
Rockford (Illinois) Resident Center 

Resident Centers in Kansas 

Cassidy Lake (Chelsea, Michigan) Resident Center ............. 

East Lansing (Michigan) Resident Center 

Richmond (Kentucky) Resident Center ‘ 

Lincoln Ridge (Kentucky) Resident Center 0.0......0.0..0.0.0000.000.ccceceecoseeeeeoee 
Fairmont (Minnesota) Resident Center ; 

Scioto (Ada, Ohio) Resident Training Center .0.0.0.0000000000000.ccccc-ee. 
Berlin (New Hampshire) Resident Center .2....0.000000000000.0c0ccc0ccccccesesseeeeeed f 
Shakopee (Minnesota) Resident Work Center .... 

Wilberforce (Ohio) Work Experience Center 

Resident Centers in Virginia 

Resident Centers in Wisconsin 














CHAPTER VI 


N.Y.A. Resident Work Centers 


Tue Nationa, YoutH ApMINisTRATION has attempted to care for 
needy youth in two ways: (1) in the school- and college-aid program and 
(2) in the out-of-school work program for unemployed out-of-school 
youth, eighteen to twenty-four years of age inclusive. 


For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1940, $28,084,092 was allotted to 
the student work program, illustrations of which are given in Chapter IV, 
and $67,155,000 was allotted for the out-of-school work program described 


in this chapter. 


The out-of-school work program consists of (1) resident centers for 
youth who are removed from their home communities to gain work ex- 
perience and related training and (2) local centers which provide work 
experience and related training for youth remaining at home. Even though 
the sum available for the out-of-school work program was large, not all 
certified youth were assigned. On January 5, 1940, there were 339,602 
young people who had been certified; approximately 285,000 were em- 
ployed. 

The resident centers described in this chapter are educational un- 
dertakings of continuous nature rather than relief projects of temporary 
duration. No inference is intended that local centers are not educational. 
In fact, a brief survey of several in the Chicago area leads the editor to 
believe that local centers have educational implications about which school 
administrators should concern themselves, and in which they should help 
to provide leadership. In all probability THz BuLLetin would have profited 
by the inclusion of descriptions of local centers as well as those of resident 
centers; unfortunately, information on the local centers was not collected. 


Many excellent centers, both local and resident, are in operation, and 
it is almost certain to be true that others could be improved. However, the 
program is so new that it has not yet been evaluated properly. In the 
opinion of the editor it is now desirable for an independent agency, such 
as the American Youth Commission, to undertake an objective evaluation 
of the entire National Youth Administration program, so that the pro- 
gram of the Federal Government may realize its full potentialities in pre- 
paring youth for adulthood. 

Accounts of the resident centers are presented because, in many if not 
in most instances, they are clearly significant educational undertakings. 
The greatest difficulty encountered in compiling this chapter was that of 
deciding which centers to include and which to reject, for the material 
supplied so promptly and cheerfully by the fifteen state administrators 


114 





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1940] N.Y.A. Resident Work Centers 115 


who were asked to contribute, would have filled a large volume. If the 
centers described are less significant than those excluded, either in the 
minds of the school administrators or the state administrators who fur- 
nished the material, the fault lies in the decision of the editor. In his 
opinion the descriptions which follow are the most representative of the 


total number which came to his desk. 


All the resident centers provide work experience which youths desire. 
Almost all of the centers provide related training. Some of them provide 
academic training of a type similar to that furnished in the secondary 
school. (The secondary school is here interpreted to include the period of 
school attendance terminated by the junior college.) Quite a few resident 
centers provide extra-curriculum activities, such as athletic teams, news- 
papers, student (or center) councils, and social affairs appropriate to youth 
from eighteen to twenty-four years of age. Such centers are real educa- 
tional institutions even though their enrolled personnel does not remain 
four years, and even though the curriculum varies markedly from that of 
the conventional secondary school. One of the marked differences is that the 
youths are paid cash wages for performing socially desirable tasks. 


In general, youths at resident centers earn twenty-five or thirty dollars 
a month by part-time work. After paying subsistence costs, each youth has 
from eight to twelve dollars a month for personal expenses. 


It seems clear to the editor that the National Youth Administration, 
both in its student-aid program and in its out-of-school work program, 
is becoming more and more an educational agency to meet the needs of 
young people. School administrators cannot afford to remain aloof to the 
problem. They have a background and experience which is needed in im- 
proving the program. Many have realized the possibilities of serving the 
needs of youth by codperating with the National Youth Administration in 
providing facilities or training. Many more will undoubtedly do so in the 
near future. 


Serious students of the American high school are convinced that a 
significant reorganization of secondary education is at hand. School people 
are offered an opportunity to share in this reorganization, and it is earn- 
estly hoped that they will do so. If they do not, it is altogether likely that 
another educational agency will develop in America in the decades which 


lie immediately ahead. 


Quoppy (PassaMaquoppy) RecionaL CENTER 


Quoddy Village, Maine 


The following account is adapted from a much more complete state- 
ment furnished by Harry V. Gilson, director of the project. 




















116 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [April 


The Federal Government in 1935 began, as part of its relief program, 
the Quoddy Center, in which a project is in operation primarily designed 
to utilize the high range of tides in the vicinity of Passamaquoddy Bay for 
the generation of electric power. 

After the project had been under construction for about a year, the 
work was discontinued, leaving idle the facilities erected and the equip- 
ment supplied for its prosecution. 

The National Youth Administration saw in this idle property an ideal 
opportunity for the experiment it was contemplating. The necessary main- 
tenance activities would provide the work requisite to its program; a well- 
selected staff would provide vocational guidance and technical instruction. 
Consequently, the necessary formalities were expedited, and an advisory 
board representing education, labor, and industry was created and given 
the responsibility of defining suitable objectives for the Quoddy Center. 


The Quoddy program in its present stage embraces in its essential as- 
pects staff orientation and training, testing, individual and group counsel- 
ing, work experience, related information bearing directly on the work 
experience, supplemental remedial and review classes in basic skills, such 
as English, mathematics, directed and diversified leisure-time activities, 
and medical care. 

A great many of the present coordinators and foremen had never had 
any experience in teaching nor any training in teaching methods, The 
desirability of correcting such a condition and thereby increasing still 
further Quoddy’s contribution to youth and improving Quoddy’s func- 
tioning resulted in the establishment of a weekly in-service training period 
for staff members. Here the foremen and co6rdinators receive instruction 
in acceptable teaching methods and practices, modes of presentation, and 
educational psychology. The class is conducted by the supervisor of related 
information. Advanced instruction in English and mathematics is also 
provided for staff members by means of evening classes. Although attend- 
ance is voluntary, many staff members have taken advantage of the op- 
portunities offered by the Quoddy Administration to improve themselves. 

Approximately 10 per cent of the five hundred enrollees are known 
as junior leaders, while the remainder are junior workers. Junior leaders 
are youth who have served at least one full five-month period at Quoddy 
and have been selected to return for further exploration on the basis of 
outstanding ability and performance to aid foremen and coérdinators 
in instructing new youth. Junior leaders receive eighteen, dollars per month 
in cash and complete subsistence and medical care during their stay at 
Quoddy. Junior workers receive five dollars less in cash. 

After the enrollee has been tested and the resulting information has 
been analyzed and digested by the counselor, the worker is interviewed for 





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1940 | N.Y.A. Resident Work Centers 117 


the purpose of guidance and assignment to a unit in keeping with his 
abilities and aptitudes. Once assigned, the worker finds himself doing a 
real job under normal conditions. There is no made or unnecessary work 
at Quoddy. The work experiences at first were mainly those involved in 
the upkeep and maintenance of the village. However, at the present time, 
a considerable amount of work is done for other agencies. The reproduc- 
tion and map-making units, for example, do a great deal of work on a fee 
basis for other N.Y.A. projects and government agencies. 


The work experiences offered at Quoddy include aviation. This unit 
provides instruction and training in aerodynamics, motors, instruments, 
fundamentals of flight, airplane construction, weather influences, inspection 
and maintenance of airplanes and engines, rules and regulations pertaining 
to air commerce and shop maintenance. Assignment to this unit is restricted 
to those workers who have completed a five-month enrollment period at 
Quoddy with an above-average work record and those with previous, 
acceptable experience in aviation. In all cases, candidates must in addition 
indicate the possession of mechanical aptitude and a satisfactory grasp of 


basic skills. 


Workers completing this course will have the background necessary 
for passing examinations for mechanics’ or riggers’ licenses. Also, upon meet- 
ing the physical requirements, such workers are eligible for enlistment in 
army and navy air schools. In this connection, it may be interesting to note 
that Quoddy is experimenting with the idea of using the Aero Club, a 
purely avocational activity at Quoddy, for exploratory purposes in doubt- 
ful cases. Those individuals whose past records do not seem to indicate any 
definite aptitude or real interest in aviation are advised to participate for a 
preliminary period of time in the work of the Aero Club in order to 
determine for themselves whether or not they are really interested in this 
type of work and possess the necessary aptitude. In practically all cases this 
suggestion has been well received by the prospective enrollee. 


It should be noted that actual training is provided in only one of the 
units, namely, aviation. Although actual training is not provided in the 
other units, experience is provided in cafeteria, carpentry, commerce, 
drafting and planning, electricity, garage, landscaping, library, machine 
shop, map making, medical care, painting, pipe trades, public welfare 
(police and fire), recreation, reproduction, sheet metal, warehouse, and 
woddworking. 


After working for part of the day in the shop, the worker attends a 
related information class. Here he receives specific information related to 
the job he is doing in the shop, the instructor being called a coérdinator. 
General trade information intended to supplement this specific information 








118 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [April 


is also given. Thus theory is continually linked up with the actual work 
being done. Subject matter unrelated to the actual job in process is avoided, 
and the worker benefits maximally from his work experience. 


With the realization that a considerable number of workers were weak 
in basic skills and that such weakness limited the benefits which they 
could derive from work in trade units, special classes in English and 
mathematics have been set up. These classes are scheduled after working 
hours, and attendance is wholly voluntary. The results are surprising. 
Apparently workers early begin to realize the relationship of a thorough 
knowledge of basic skills to success in the trade. This realization is reflected 
in the attendance and interest displayed in these classes. At this time such 


classes are a regular part of the program. 


Quoddy attempts in other ways to contribute toward the worker's 
general and technical education and awareness. The citizenship and coun- 
seling classes and the library illustrate these efforts. For example, one hour 
each week is devoted by the coérdinator to the library. Workers are taught 
how to use its facilities intelligently and effectively and are asked to com- 
plete assignments based on material available in the library. Youth are 
encouraged by the staff to do independent reading in their trades as well 
as for recreation. Reading habits are thus developed and interests enlarged. 
The library is open from eight o’clock in the morning until ten in the 
evening, allowing those interested ample opportunity to make use of its 
facilities. The library at Quoddy is conceded to be one of the best and 
most comprehensive of any operated by the N.Y.A., providing as it does a 
wide variety of technical and recreational reading matter. 


One hour in the week is spent by the youth in a citizenship class. 
Here the worker is offered the opportunity of studying and discussing 
current events of national and international significance. The functioning 
of government is described, and the benefits and responsibilities devolving 
upon citizens in a democracy are carefully analyzed. General discussions on 
such matters as labor, unions, poverty, crime, social legislation, and un- 
employment promote desirable social awareness and supplement the 
knowledge gained in the shop, in the related information classroom, and 


in the library. 


Student government provides another method of inculcating a richer 
understanding of democratic government, its processes and responsibilities. 
Within the first few weeks after arrival, workers elect a mayor and a 
council. These officers constitute the village government. This body, with 
the aid of various committees, discusses and attempts to solve problems 
and grievances affecting the junior personnel. Its activities touch every 
aspect of the Quoddy program. The suggestions and recommendations it 





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1940] N.Y.A. Resident Work Centers 119 


has made have immeasurably benefited the staff in its attempt to promote 
the welfare of the resident youth and to establish a more understanding 
and harmonious relationship between senior and junior personnel. 


The junior personnel edits and publishes its own newspaper, the 
Quoddy Eagle. News centering around the work and recreational life of 
the project is disseminated in this fashion among senior and junior per- 
sonnel, tending to create an esprit de corps and loyalty toward the project 
of inestimable value in promoting desirable attitudes toward the program 


and its objectives. 


Group counseling provides an opportunity for the workers to acquire 
industrial awareness. In the weekly hour spent in this class, an attempt 
is made to study industrial conditions and trends in the various home 
states of workers; to discuss the functioning and reason for creation of 
agencies affecting the work life of the individual, such as the Social Security 
Board, the Wages and Hours Act, the United States Employment Service; 
to study the extent of employment in various occupations; to consider the 
effect and importance of technological changes; to study wages, hours, and 
working conditions in trades being explored at Quoddy; and to study the 
union in its relation to various occupations and industries as well as other 
related matters. Through questions and source material, the worker is 
encouraged to obtain this information for himself. Every effort is made 
to promote a broad understanding of matters affecting work life and choice 
of vocation so that intelligent selection embracing all the facts will become 


possible. 


At least once during the five-month period, every worker is called in 
for individual counseling and vocational guidance. At this time his test 
records are interpreted to the worker, and profitable vocational fields are 
indicated. All the information available on the worker, including existing 
work records at Quoddy, is used by the counselor. The attempt is made to 
present the facts to the worker in such a manner that he will be enabled 
to make an intelligent decision for himself. 


In addition a comprehensive program of directed activities exists at 
Quoddy. Archery, baseball, basketball, ping-pong, band, dramatics, dances, 
movies, radio and camera clubs, newspaper, village government, and a score 
of other activities provide the necessary diversification and permit everyone 
to do something he likes. Quoddy early recognized the value of an ade- 
quate recreational life in maintaining desirable attitudes and removing cer- 
tain emotional maladjustments. An accurate record is kept of each indi- 
vidual’s participation in the leisure-time program, and special attention is 
given to those individuals who do not participate. An attempt is made to 
discover reasons for lack of interest and to promote participation. In this 























120 National Association of Secondary-School Princtpals [ April 


way the recreation department has proved invaluable in promoting per- 
sonality adjustment. Self-consciousness, inferiority complexes, and various 
phobias have been corrected by encouraging participation in the activities 


program. 


BATESVILLE RESIDENT TRAINING CENTER 
Batesville, Arkansas 


J. W. Hutt 


The N.Y.A. Resident Training center for young women was officially 
opened on October 3, 1938. There are one hundred and fifty-three girls in 
the center, which is housed in a large fireproof brick building known as 
Independence Hall. Seventy-five of this enrollment are attending college, 
fifty-eight are taking a business course which is given at the center, and the 
remainder are enrolled in classes in secondary education, also given at the 
center. The girls are required to spend five hours each day in work pro- 
duction and three hours in related training. The training projects of the 
center are divided into seven units which are homemaking, work produc- 
tion, clerical, commercial, secondary education, college, and recreation. 


Much emphasis is placed on homemaking in which there are organized 
classes in child care, recreation, habits, food and clothing for children, room 
improvement, building maintenance, laundry, care, selection and repair of 
clothing, weaving, manufacture, drafting and altering patterns. In addi- 
tion there is a five-room furnished apartment in which four young women 
live for one month. In the four-week period, each one serves for one week 
at a time as hostess, cook, housekeeper, and as manager of Dorothy, an 
eleven months old baby who has been on the project since she was two 
wecks old. Her maintenance is sponsored by the local Kiwanis Club. All 
meals are planned, prepared, and served by the young women, under the 
supervision of the home economics instructor. An old-fashioned handloom 
has been set up, and weaving of draperies, luncheon sets, and towels is 


done. 


In the commercial department, classes in shorthand, typing, filing, and 
other secretarial courses are offered. The young women receive experience 
in this work by acting as receptionists, stenographers, bookkeepers, and 
through the making of various forms necessary to the operation of the 
project and other forms used in the district office. The library is managed 
by a regular enrollee who is especially interested in this type of work. There 
are over four hundred volumes which include information on homemaking, 
history, travel, fiction, health, child development, and many other subjects. 


Those workers who attend college take part in all activities, and no 
distinction is made on the campus between the N.Y.A. students and the 


sle 


1940] N.Y.A. Resident Work Centers 121 


regularly enrolled college students. The number of hours which each N.Y.A. 
student takes is determined by her grade average while in high school 
or for the previous college year. Over twenty-five per cent of last year’s 
N.Y.A. college students from this project are now teaching school. 


Recreation is provided in the way of various sports such as tennis, 
softball, croquet, horseshoes, and other outdoor and indoor games with 
occasional planned evening entertainments. There are regular date nights, 
and on Sundays each young woman is encouraged to attend the church of 


her choice. 


Rules and regulations are made and enforced by a governing body 
whose members are elected by secret balloting of the entire enrollment. The 
voting is a very serious matter with the group. 


The young women on the project are sincere in their efforts, apprecia- 
tive of their opportunities, and grateful to those who are responsible. 


“Porta VILLAGE” ResipeENtT TRAINING CENTER 
Magnolia, Arkansas 


J. W. Hut 


One of the most unique units operated by the National Youth Adminis- 
tration of Arkansas is the mobile resident training center located at Mag- 
nolia, Columbia County. This resident training center is designed to 
remain in one location for the duration of a construction job and then 


move to a new location. 


This center has been appropriately called “Porta Village” and was 
built to accommodate eighty enrollees and an adequate supervisory staff. 
Portable housing units were built by N.Y.A. youth enrollees at a training 
project located at Dierks, Arkansas, in the latter part of 1938 and the first 
half of 1939. In August, 1939, “Porta Village,” with youths formerly 
attached to the Dierks project, was transported to Magnolia. 


The center is housed in units which are transported from one job to 
another on specially designed trailers built in the N.Y.A. resident training 
shops at Magnolia Agricultural and Mechanical College. The Magnolia 
College project has no connection with Porta Village, which is located in 
Magnolia for the purpose of constructing a brick grammar-school building 
containing fourteen rooms and an auditorium. This building will be valued 
at approximately eightly thousand dollars when completed. 


The physical plant of Porta Village consists of ten housing units or 
sleeping quarters, 20 feet by 8 feet. These cottages are designed to combine 
the maximum of strength, comfort, and utility with the minimum of 
weight and space requirements, The units, which have individual lockers, 











122 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [April 


bunks, and writing tables, will accommodate eight youths. The kitchen 
and dining hall, built in five sections, each section nearly the size of a 
sleeping quarters unit, is bolted together to make a comfortable and at- 
tractive dining room. The kitchen is equipped with butane stoves, and 
all storage facilities are built-in to conserve space. A recreation hall, built 
in five sections, also houses a commissary or canteen which is operated by 
the youth. Other units include a project office, a portable bathhouse with 
showers and sufficient individual wash basins, a portable toilet unit with 
ample, modern toilet facilities and modern plumbing, and a construction 
office and tool and material house. 

All of the units are heated by butane gas and are lighted with elec- 
tricity furnished by the Magnolia Light and Power Company. Plans are 
made for an individual electrical power unit to be used in the event the 
center should be moved to an area where electric service is not available. 
Plans have been made for an independent water system and sewage disposal 
plant for communities where water and sewage service do not exist. 

The youths receive actual on-the-job-work experience in the various 
construction trades, such as bricklaying, concrete work, electrical wiring, 
ventilation, painting, and plastering. 

It is believed that the most intensive and desirable type of training 
can be offered a youth by providing a situation where he can learn the 
principles or the why concerning a job or operation, and then make use 
of those principles in doing the actual work. For this reason each youth, in 
addition to the time spent in actual work, is required to attend regularly 
scheduled group discussions in related information, the subject matter be- 
ing directly related to the work which is being done in his work experi- 
ence unit. For example, if in his work period a youth is assigned the job 
of painting walls, he would be given information as to how to prepare the 
surface, how to remove stain, how to mix and apply putty, how to mix and 
apply the different types of paint, under which circumstances to use each, 
how to select and care for brushes, and similar related matter. 

In addition to the group discussions in related information, all enroll- 
ees are required to attend weekly courses in practical citizenship and 
government, health and safety, and occupational guidance. 

A well-rounded intra-village athletic program is carried on. Regu- 
larly scheduled contests in softball, baseball, touch football, horseshoes, 
track, and other sports are arranged so that all may participate. Even 
physically-handicapped youth participate as timekeepers, judges, etc. A 
library is provided containing trade and occupational books as well as 
books and periodicals for recreational reading. 

When a youth is enrolled at the resident center, he is interviewed by 
a counselor who, with the youth, attempts to decide which of the types 





1940] N.Y.A. Resident Work Centers 123 


of work available the youth is best fitted for by temperament, inclination, 
and ability. After this interview, and with the benefit of advice from the 
counselor, the youth is permitted to select from among the work experiences 
available the type of work to which he would like to be assigned. 


REsIDENT TRAINING ProGRAM IN GEORGIA 
D. B. LassETER 


The National Youth Administration of Georgia has established twelve 
full-time resident training centers in codperation with educational institu- 
tions of the state. Youths are in actual residence at the centers for an en- 
rollment period of from six to twelve months, according to the type of 
training offered and the individual needs of the youths. 

The Carrollton Center 

The Carrollton Center is operated in connection with the West Georgia 
College at Genola. It enrolls forty-four young men and thirty-five young 
women. In the main an effort is made to assign youths with a high-school 
background, since academic courses are on a college level. A further effort 
is made to assign rural youths because of the emphasis given to agricul- 
ture and related pursuits. 

The center emphasizes the fact that the N.Y.A. enrollees do not, and 
should not, vary widely in personal traits from the regular junior-college 
students. The two groups mingle socially and participate in all the class 
and extra-curriculum activities on the campus. However, the N.Y.A. group 
is required to concentrate on one vocational subject which may be sup- 
plemented with one or two regular academic courses offered in the col- 
lege. 

The Toccoa Falls Center 

The Toccoa Falls Resident Center is codrdinated with the Toccoa 
Falls Institute located in Toccoa Falls, Georgia. There is no requirement 
as to minimum formal education. The youth who seeks training to fit him 
for occupational adjustment or who wishes to explore his potentialities is 
particularly welcome. 

At the present time seventy-five young men and forty young women 
are enrolled. This is one of the outstanding projects in handcrafts; the 
young women are taught to make colonial bedspreads, towels, rugs, 
baskets. Particular emphasis is placed on the electric welding shop, in 
codperation with a large factory which has recently been established near 
Toccoa Falls Institute. 

The resident youths are permitted to select both vocational and general 
courses in the secondary school in accordance with their desires and abil- 
ities. Also they are eligible to participate in the extra-curriculum activities 
of the school under such restrictions as are ordinarily applied to the regu- 
lar day-school students. 




















124 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [April 


SaLtem Grrcs’ ResipENT CENTER 
Salem, Oregon 


I. G. Munro 


The N.Y.A. Work Experience Center in Salem is located in a small 
two-story frame dwelling well suited to the needs of ten girls. There is a 
large backyard with garden space and a small table for out-of-door sup- 
pers. The house has been newly decorated and painted. 

This center operates on a part-time basis and is designed to give young 
women training in all phases of homemaking. Enrollees are assigned for 
a two-week period each month. Approximately four hours of instruction 
a day is given in the care and operation of the home, marketing, meal 
planning, food preparation, meal service, laundry, dishwashing, care of 
equipment, hospitality of the home, and family life. This instruction, 
combined with that given on the work projects, offers enrollees a well- 
rounded program in homemaking, work experience, and personality de- 
velopment. 

Young women are assigned to the local sewing project four hours a 
day, Monday through Friday. This project is located in the Old High 
School Building about two blocks from the center. The project provides 
good work experience and training in the fundamentals of sewing, com- 
mercial dressmaking, tailoring, alteration, and repair. 

Classes in related subjects, such as personal appearance, clothing se- 
lection and care, consumer education, textiles, meal-planning, family rela- 
tionships, and many other phases of homemaking are available to the girls 
through various agencies in Salem. Adult education, recreation, and the 
Continuation School classes are open to girls who are interested in addi- 
tional training and study. 

The evenings are spent in the center with the exception of Friday and 
Saturday nights. Interesting and worth-while programs are planned by the 
girls with the assistance of various outside agencies. An N.Y.A. youth 
center offers the girls an opportunity to hold an occasional party outside 
the home. Local churches and clubs make it possible for the enrollees to 


meet other young people. 


CARBONDALE REsIDENT TRAINING SCHOOL 


Carbondale, Illinois 
J. HENERY SCHROEDER 


Although the Southern Illinois State Normal University is primarily 
a teachers’ college, it tries to serve its region (southern [Ilinois) as effectively 
in other ways as possible. Notable is the establishment of a vocational 
school for southern Illinois’ impoverished and unemployed youth. 





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This vocational school, known as the N.Y.A. Resident Training 
School, established and supported jointly by the Southern Illinois Normal 
University and the National Youth Administration, offers to certified 
N.Y.A. youths between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four a program of 
study and activity especially designed to train its students socially, physi- 
cally, and vocationally for employment in southern Illinois industries. 


A home for these young men is operated on a coéperative basis; com- 
mittees consisting wholly of students are organized for the purpose of op- 
erating the home in an economical, healthful, wholesome, and pleasant 
manner. A resident manager 1s employed to guide and to instruct them 
in such problems as arise. 

The home economics department codperates by supervising the plan- 
ning of meals for the men. 

All social and entertainment features of the college are open to these 
men so they may get all the social advantages of college life. A man who 
lives at the vocational school residence is employed to give part of his time 
to the promotion of social activities and to help the men make personal ad- 
justments that are necessary. The man employed for the promotion of 
social activities also takes charge of the athletic program. Many forms of 
games or athletics are open to these men. 

The medical and hospitalization service regularly established for col- 
lege students is extended to the students of the vocational school. All men 
in this school attend classes four hours a day. The following courses are 
offered: 

A course in vocational fundamentals, which includes the basic oper- 
ations in the wood-working trades, metal-working trades, and agriculture, 
is taken by everyone. 

The woodwork class is taught in the regular shop of the college. In- 
formation about woods, tools, and other materials is given. Actual shop 
work teaches them the proper use of woodwork tools and machinery. 


The metalwork class is taught in the regular shops of the college. In- 
formation as to the production and manufacture of iron, steel, and other 
metals is given. Actual shop work teaches them the fundamental tool op- 
erations and processes encountered in the metalwork trades. 

The agriculture class studies about the agricultural pursuits that are 
best adapted to the purpose of supplementing the home income. Actual 
work in four such pursuits is provided by agricultural projects carried out 
in connection with their coéperative home activity. 

A milch cow, a brood sow, a flock of chickens, and a garden are owned 
and cared for under advice of an agricultural advisor. Only purebred 
animals of excellent quality are used in these projects, Modern profitable 











126 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [April 


methods of care and feeding are taught the men who take turns caring 
for these animals. Modern methods of planting, fertilization, and cultiva- 
tion are taught in connection with the home garden. 

The pigs produced are farmed out to men who have left the school 
and who are interested in raising pigs. This is an expanding program, as 
purebred young pigs are taken by the school in payment for the original 
animals, which become the property of the men to whom they were farmed 
out. In this way the men can afford to get started raising purebred animals, 
and the distribution of such purebred stock will soon contribute largely 
to the quality of animals bred in this region. 

A choice of additional vocational subjects, either practical electricity 


or auto mechanics, is given the men. 

These subjects are pursued two hours each day in shop and classroom. 
The widespread use of electricity and automobiles made these subjects of 
great value to men seeking employment in this region. A new modernly 
equipped shop for this work is now being planned. It will without doubt 
be built within the near future. 

In order that these men may be more thoroughly prepared in this 
social-physical-vocational program, they are required to spend four hours 
a day for five days a week at actual labor on various projects set up for 
the purpose of providing training in actual work under actual employment 
conditions. A variety of such projects are in operation at all times. A few 
jobs that have been done are: building of walks, constructing jumping 
pits, rebuilding farm buildings, general farm work on state experimental 
farm, and landscaping and beautifying grounds. This work is overseen by 
a competent man who understands the various types of work and who un- 
derstands the management of men. 

Near the end of each term the manager of the residence confers with 
each man in an effort to teach him how to make contacts with employers 
and how to present himself in an acceptable manner. A very fine record of 
private employment for men trained in this school has been maintained. 


Jotrer Resipence TRAtntnG CENTER 
Joliet, Illinois 


C. L. Jorpan 


The Residence Training Center in Joliet is maintained for under- 
privileged youths in the Chicago suburban area. At present approximately 
thirty-five are enrolled. 

A large old residence is rented for a dormitory and living quarters. 
Adjacent to the grounds is a garden intended as part of the work program, 
but the larger portion of the work is done for the park board in the parks 


of the area. 





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1940] N.Y.A. Resident Work Centers 127 





One half of the enrollees work on the job while the other half attend 
school. At school the majority are enrolled in technical subjects, but a few 
with some high-school training continue with academic subjects. 


The preference for machine-shop practice and electric welding has 
been so pronounced that separate late afternoon and evening classes are 
operated expressly for workers. Out of their savings they pay a fee for these 
special classes. The money is used to pay the teacher. 


It is not intended that the enrollees will eventually become employed 
in this area. It is expected that they will return to their homes and obtain 
work there or perhaps some other place. A fair percentage have learned 
enough of a technical occupation here to give them a start. 


Peru ReEsipeNT TRAINING CENTER 
Peru, Illinois 
Frank A, JENSEN 


The N.Y.A. Resident Training Center of Peru is located in a brick 
and stucco building occupying the center of a half city block in Peru, 
Illinois. This building had been idle for three years prior to the N.Y.A. 
occupancy on September 6, 1938. Extensive repairs, reconditioning, and 
landscaping were necessary before the place gave much of an appearance 
that would lend credit to the neighborhood or to the program, but by mid- 
summer of 1939 it was one of the show places of the community. 


The enrollment, starting at twenty-two, has been gradually built up 
to forty youth employees. Of this group twenty-eight are enrolled in 
junior college and the other twelve are enrolled in high-school courses as 
follows: in junior college—eight in pre-education; four in precommercial 
and business administration; four in pre-engineering (chemical and ma- 
chine); two in pre-legal; six in pre-liberal arts; one in pre-medical; two in 
pre-theological; one in pre-journalism. In high school—two in art, four, 
machine shop; five, commercial work; one, general course. 


In June, five will graduate from junior college and one from high 
school. The grade ratings of this group are somewhat above average. Some 
of those in junior college are of such outstanding ability that they have 
frequently acted as substitute teachers when the regular instructors 
were ill. 

Each youth in addition to attending to his regular school work must 
work eighty-eight hours per month on some public tax-supported property 
or service. A sincere effort is made on the part of the management and the 
school authorities who act as sponsors to place these young men in work 
that will offer them some related training as well as practical work experi- 
ence and habits. We have been exceptionally fortunate in this respect due 
to the splendid codperation of our sponsors. 

















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128 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [April 


The group is distributed as follows: five are attendants at the junior 
college social room; six assist the instructor in the metal shop; one assists 
the instructor in the wood shop; two assist the instructor in mechanical 
and general engineering drawing; two assist in the print shop; one assists 
in the electric shop; two assist in the art department; two assist in the 
physics laboratory; two assist in the chemistry laboratory; three assist in 
the high school and junior college offices; two assist in the library; four 
assist in the Hygienic Institute Laboratory and Office; two are reception 
clerks at the Illinois State Employment Service Offices; one assists the 


Peru city engineer. 


The remainder are used as a maintenance crew at the quarters keep- 
ing up the house details, such as laundry, cleaning, repairs, food prepara- 
tion and service, secretary to the manager, bookkeeper and inventory 
clerk. At times there is a surplus crew which has done landscape work in 
the city parks, skating-rink construction, building wild-life feeders and 
quail-holding pens for the State Department of Conservation. Others have 
officiated at the high-school intramural basketball games. 


Nearly all the work about the center is done by the youths them- 
selves. Only the cook and the resident manager are on the administrative 


pay roll. 


During the summer months an extensive gardening program is 
carried out. Last year about two acres were planted in foodstuffs. In 
addition to having all the fresh vegetables needed twelve hundred quarts 
of surplus were preserved for winter use as well as thirty-five bushels of 


root crops held over in storage. 


Leisure-time activities are stressed. Last summer there were two 
softball and two hardball teams. Throughout the winter there were two 
basketball teams representing the N.Y.A. recreational teams of Peru in 
the Peru Recreational League. Also one team represents the center in the 


junior college intra-mural league. 


A few weeks ago a first-aid course for all enrolled youth was inaugu- 
rated. It will provide a sixteen-hour course in first aid as approved by the 
State Department of Mines and Minerals in co6peration with the United 
States Bureau of Mines. Each youth will receive a state as well as a fed- 
eral certificate of instruction at the end of this course. This is the first resi- 
dent training center in the state to offer such training to the youth em- 
ployees. 

Since the camp was opened there have been ninety-three youths en- 


rolled. Thirty left for private employment in their home communities, 
ten were transferred to other projects, four left giving no reason, three were 





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1940] N.Y.A. Resident Work Centers 129 


dismissed for disciplinary reasons, one for scholastic reasons, two because 
of ill health, two because of deaths in the families. Twelve of the original 
group are still here; nineteen have been here one year or more. It appears 
as if the turnover is much lower here than in similar groups. 


Rocxrorp REsipENT CENTER 
Rockford, Illinois 
L. J. Scumipt 


The Rockford Resident Center is designed to offer commercial train- 
ing to young women, eligible for assignment to the N.Y.A. program, from 
communities where such training is not readily available. The training is 
provided through an arrangement made with a Rockford business col- 
lege. The course extends over a period of twenty-six weeks with the young 
women attending the same training given all regular students of the col- 
lege. This training includes instruction in typing, spelling, business English, 
bookkeeping, accounting, business arithmetic, and office machinery, for 
example, comptometer, addressograph, mimeograph, adding machine, and 
dictaphone. While not absolutely required, high-school graduation has 
been considered almost essential because the majority of office positions in 


private industry demand it. 


The work units to which the young women are assigned are designed 
to give them practical experience in office work. Arrangements were made 
with various federal, state, county, and city officials to place girls in offices 
where they will receive such experience. Specifically, they work in offices 
of the old-age assistance, county superintendent of schools, city school 
board, Works Projects Administration, Federal Farm Security, Illinois 
Emergency Relief Commission, Township Relief Supervisor, and the Na- 
tional Youth Administration. In these offices the young women are con- 
sidered as regular employees and are assigned tasks which comprise a part 
of the regular routine of the office. In this manner they are able to put 
into actual practice their training in typing, shorthand, bookkeeping, 
dictaphone operation, and other subjects. It is felt that through this method 
of combining instruction with actual practice the young women will re- 
ceive a training which will enable them to receive private emcloyment with 


little difficulty. 


“There are numerous recreational opportunities. In the Resident Center 
itself, one large room on the third floor was made into a recreation room. 
Here the young women may play ping-pong, cards, various board games, 
dance, and have other such forms of amusements. There is a library in 
the house and the facilities of the public libraries are available. 


In addition to these regular forms of recreation, parties are given in 

















130 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [| April 


the house to celebrate various occasions. Radios and a piano provide the 
music. Then, too, hikes, picnics, and other outings are planned quite fre- 
quently. No one lacks recreational opportunities either from the stand- 
point of facilities or time; in fact, participation is encouraged. 


ReEstipENT CENTERS IN Kansas 


ANNE LAUGHLIN 


Two full-time resident centers, located on the campuses at Fort Hays 
Kansas State College at Hays and at Kansas Wesleyan University at 
Salina, provide an opportunity for youth to make practical application of 
special vocational instruction. In each case, youths earn their own ex- 
penses by work on a project where activities are closely correlated with 
classroom instruction. In addition, high-school graduates are given a chance 
to take a limited number of college credit hours. 


The unit at Fort Hays permits youths assigned to earn twenty-five 
dollars a month for their work, young women doing survey and statistical 
work and young men doing construction, caring for the college livestock, 
and performing general farm work, including the preparation of soil, 
planting and harvesting crops, and repair of machinery. Girls then at- 
tend vocational classes in commercial and secretarial training, and spend 
two hours or more a week in homemaking training and codperative work 


in their dormitory home. 


Boys may be assigned to one of three projects. One group is in charge 
of the college livestock, a second group is assigned to do general farm work 
including the preparation of soil, planting and harvesting of crops, and re- 
pairing of machinery, while a third group is building a low-cost dormitory. 
In addition, each boy is required to take a minimum of one hour a day 
for five days a week of vocational class work including livestock manage- 
ment, crop production, operation and repair of machinery, or carpentry. 
Facilities for room and board are provided on the campus at a cost of 
fifty cents a day, which is deducted from the monthly earnings of the 


youth. 


The project at Kansas Wesleyan University, sponsored by the city 
of Salina, is open to young men only, who are employed in the construction ot 
a rock stadium for the city and receive vocational instruction in applied 
electricity, engineering drawing and design, mathematics of construction, 
etc. Each youth earns twenty-four dollars and fifty cents a month and may 
secure board and room for about four dollars a week. High-school gradv- 
ates are permitted to take a limited number of hours of college work at 
the university, and youths who have not completed high school may take 
high-school courses. 





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Cassipy Lake ReEsip—ENT CENTER 
Chelsea, Michigan 
O. W. Kaye 


This center is located five miles northwest of Chelsea, Michigan, on 
the eastern tip of what is designated as the Waterloo area—a National 
Park Service Project for the reclamation of submarginal land. The site 
consists of approximately one hundred and eighty acres of wooded hills 
which completely enclose Cassidy Lake. 


The school board of No. 14 Fractional Lindon Township, Washte- 
naw County, is the official cosponsor of the center. Codperating agencies 
are the National Park Service and the Ann Arbor Rotary Club. 


At the present time approximately two hundred youths are in resi- 
dence at the center. 


The present building program provides eight groups of cabins ar- 
ranged in clusters of four. Each group is serviced with a unit latrine 
equipped with hot and cold water, shower and lavatory. Each cabin accom- 
modates twelve youths and a counselor or cabin leader. Space is arranged 
to provide each youth with desk space, a lamp, a chair, and a reasonable 


amount of privacy. Each youth has a large built-in drawer for linens and 
personal effects, as well as a closet for clothing. Cabins are of rough ex- 
terior finish and constructed for winter use. They are heated by large air- 
circulating heaters. 


The administration group of the center consists of a large dining hall 
with a seating capacity of one hundred fifty people, a first-aid building 
with a four-bed ward, an isolation room and dispensary, a large craft shop 
of split stone and steel construction, an industrial building to house the 
sheet metal shop and additional machine shop, a laundry and central la- 
trine building, a general garage, an administrative office building, a 
director’s home, and a recreational building with space adequate for 
basketball and hand ball, a stage for dramatics, and a pleasant library with 
a large fireplace. 

Work Experience 

The work program is designed to provide real work situations under 
practical conditions for the type of job that a youth may enter at a later 
date. Work experience is provided in different fields. As far as possible 
the workers are given an opportunity to work in several of the following 
units: aviation mechanics, garage, machine shop, sheet metal woodwork- 
ing, carpentering, painting, electrical operation, plumbing, ground im- 
provement, landscaping, gardening, agriculture, cafeteria, laundry, ware- 
house, office, and photography. 














132 National Association of Secondary-School Principals | April 


Related Training 
This program is divided into three phases: 


1. Specific information related to the job on which the youth is working, 
which information consists of facts that the worker should know in order to 
perform correctly the operation to which he is assigned. It covers the how 
and why of operation and is presented as each specific job is performed in 
the shop. In this connection a general description of the various operations 
involved in a work unit is presented prior to beginning the job. Explora- 
tory courses in the several shops are also carried out. 


2. General classes, such as citizenship, hygiene, safety, Red Cross 
(first aid), employer-employee relations, are offered on a discussion group 
basis. 


3. Correspondence courses. Arrangements are made with the Exten- 
sion Division of the University of Michigan in codperation with the 
W.P.A. Education Division whereby correspondence courses are avail- 
able to all youth workers enrolled on the project. 


Recreation 

A comprehensive intramural athletic program covering many types 
of sport is carried out, such as football, basketball, volleyball, horseshoe 
pitching, ping-pong, boxing, and wrestling. In addition, well-planned pro- 
grams of entertainment are provided. Each Tuesday evening a motion 
picture is presented. Plays are produced and presented by the dramatics 
club. Social events and dancing are arranged for at regular intervals, in- 
troducing youths on the project into the social life of the community. 


A student council, elected by all the youths, serves as an advisory 
body for the center. This council, through its officers and committees, 
operates in conjunction with the administrative heads in outlining and 
planning rules and regulations covering the operation of work projects 
of the center. 


East Lansinc ReEsipeNtT CENTER 


East Lansing, Michigan 
O. W. Kaye 


This center is operated on the college campus at East Lansing. The 
Michigan State College acts as cosponsor. The house used as a residence 
for youth workers was formerly a country home which was later used 
as a fraternity house. The second floor is set aside for sleeping quarters. 
These quarters are supplemented with a dormitory on the ground floor 
which provides adequate accommodations for thirty youths. The reception, 
social, and study rooms, the mess hall, and the kitchen are also on the 


ground floor. 





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1940} N.Y.A. Resident Work Centers 133 


The workers engaged on this project are registered in the Short 
Course Department of Michigan State College. Attending classes given 
by members of the regular staff of Michigan State College, they receive 
each morning four hours of classroom and laboratory work on the cam- 
pus. The youths return to the house at noon for lunch; in the afternoon 
they report to various departments of the Agriculture Division of the 
College where they work under the supervision of the foreman of the 
project to which they are assigned. They are rotated on work assignments 
approximately every four weeks so as to gain more varied experiences. 


The health service of Michigan State Colllege is available to all 
youth workers enrolled on the project. The gymnasium swimming pool, 
the softball diamonds, and other necessary physical equipment are avail- 
able without cost to the youth workers. Also the college library is open 
to them during evening hours. 


Social events are scheduled, and in so far as possible youths in residence 
are invited to take part in the social activities of the college. 


N.Y.A. workers on this project have their evenings free except those 
serving on the evening work committee. The membership of this com- 
mittee changes every two weeks so that all the youths have equal privi- 
leges. Saturday afternoon is also open to them, and the privilege of week- 


end leave is also provided. 

A student council, elected by all the youths, serves as an advisory 
body for the project. Through its officers and committees this council 
operates in conjunction with the administrative heads in outlining and 
planning rules and regulations covering the operation of the resident work 
center. Through the codperation of the Michigan State College a four- 
year student has been assigned to this center to assist with co-curriculum 
activities of the youth workers. 


RicHMoND REsIpDENT CENTER 


Richmond, Kentucky 


R. K. Saryers 


The Richmond Center for young men is located at Camp Lake Reba. 
Maximum facilities will care for one hundred fifty youths. This project 
is sponsored by, and operated in connection with, Eastern State Teachers 
College, Richmond, Kentucky. Types of work available are shop work, 
agriculture, construction, remodeling of buildings, landscaping. 


It is so arranged that any youth who desires may take a certain amount 
of related college work not to exceed three fourths of a regular college 
load in any field, provided he has the scholastic requirements. Tuition 
costs are worked out between the youths and the college. No particular 




















National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


134 


educational requirements are necessary, although youths with a minimum 
of sixth grade will be better prepared to take advantage of the opportuni- 
ties offered. 

A complete and competent supervisory staff presides in this center. 
Related training and vocational guidance are given in so far as possible 
in the appropriate fields of work. An interesting recreational program un- 
der the direction of a specialized leader has been arranged. Youths are 
allowed to participate in all college activities, such as athletics, chapel 


exercises, lectures. 


Lincotn Ripce REsipENT CENTER 
Lincoln Ridge, Kentucky 


R. K. Satyers 


. 

The Lincoln Ridge Resident Training Center for young Negro 
women between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four is conducted on the 
campus of Lincoln Institute in codperation with that institution. The 
young women are selected from the various counties of the state of Ken- 
tucky in accordance with usual N.Y.A. employment procedures. 


The Lincoln Ridge Center is planned to accommodate a maximum of 
thirty enrollees. The constant aim is to select and assign those young 
women who are capable of profiting by the types of work and training 
to be offered. Although it is preferred that they have at least sixth-grade 
level of training, none are rejected on the basis of school training alone. 


Work consists of making curtains, draperies, table linens, bed linens, 
and similar articles for use in a new dormitory under construction at the 
Kentucky State College for Negroes. 

Also, making rugs and doing other forms of handicraft activities of 
use in homemaking and home service are engaged in, and training in 
preparing and serving meals and in other forms of homemaking and 
home-service activities is given. 

Schedules of work are so adjusted as to permit those interested to 
take some classes in the high-school department of Lincoln Institute, for 


which the institution gr-nts academic credit. 


Fa'rmont Restpent CENTER 
Fairmont, Minnesota 
C. B. Lunp 
The Fairmont Resident Center for young women is located about 
four and one-half miles north of the town of Fairmont, Minnesota. The 
success of this project to date has been made possible largely through the 
codperativeness of the civic and service groups of the city. 


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1940] N.Y.A. Resident Work Centers 135 


An outline of the objectives and requirements for a project of this 
type was discussed in detail with representatives of the above-mentioned 
groups and with the county board. The fact that considerable planning 
was done before the project itself was inaugurated helped considerably in 
the manner in which it grew. 

The county board had a large, modern, fire-proof building located 
on a farm site north of town that was used partially by persons on relief. 
Because ,of the several types of assistance given to people in the old-age 
groups, it was found much more economical to house these people in 
other types of dwellings. This made it possible for the N.Y.A. to use the 
building. This assistance, together with the codperation of the people of 
Fairmont who donated and loaned a considerable amount of household 
equipment and supplies, made possible the physical facilities, one of the 


necessary requirements of a resident center. 


The ten counties in the vicinity of Fairmont agreed to furnish materi- 
als and supplies for work projects, such as sewing, toy repair, etc. This 
made possible the second requirement of a resident center, that is, a 
work project program. 

The third feature of this particular resident center, and perhaps the 
inost important, is the related training that has been made possible through 
the codperativeness of the people of Fairmont. When the center was 
originally planned, it was determined that after a young woman had 
spent four of her scheduled six months at the center, she would be eligible 
to select almost any type of trade or occupation within the scope of those 
offered in the village of Fairmont in which she could get actual ex- 
ploratory experience. Such fields as clerking in dry goods stores, drug 
stores, and grocery stores; working in clinics, hospitals, etc.; catering in 
private homes; and working in restaurants; as well as other types of oc- 
cupational activities would be open to her. 


As a result of this training the thirty or more young women enrolled 
at the center are living in surroundings conducive to good household and 
home training. Part of the excellency of the surroundings is due directly 
to the work that the young women themselves have put in in the way of 
sanding and varnishing the floors; painting and decorating the rooms; re- 
finishing chairs and davenports; making hand-designed drapes, and other 


types“of household improvements. 


During the first four months in residence, the workers receive addi- 
tional training and exploratory experiences in the fields of marketing, 
budgeting, household methods, social civics, personal health and hygiene, 
laundering, cooking, dramatics, and other vocational and avocational sub- 


jects. 











136 National Association of Secondary-School Princtpals [ April 


A complete recreational program is in operation and it has been in- 
strumental in giving the young women on the project an opportunity to 


mingle socially with the desired groups in Fairmont. 


As stated previously, at the end of the four months’ period the young 
women select a type of occupational exploratory experience that they feel 
would be of greatest interest and help. They are assisted in this selection 
through previous counseling and vocational testing. They devote ten 
hours a week for eight weeks to vocational exploratory experiences in 
Fairmont and receive twenty-five cents an hour for the work performed 
during the exploratory experience training. Complete records are kept 
both here and at the resident center concerning attitudes, accomplishments, 
industry, personality, codperativeness, and other traits and abilities that 
are at all measurable. At the end of the six months’ period, each one is 
able to leave the project with added skills and knowledge, in addition to 
a complete record of herself and her activities while in attendance. When 
a young woman goes home to her local community and there is an open- 
ing in the local grocery store or other field of private employment, she is 
then in a position when asked, “Have you had any previous experience?” 
to say, “Yes, I worked at and in Fairmont, and 
I have attended the Fairmont Resident Work Center for young women, 





and here is my record.” 


To date eighty per cent of the young women have been placed in 
private employment. The fact that twenty per cent have not been placed is 
due in part to the necessity of their remaining at home or because of 


marriage. 


Scioto Reswent TRAINING CENTER 


Ada, Ohio 
S. B. Weston 


The Scioto Resident Center is the only resident center for young 
women operated by the N.Y.A. in Ohio. It is located at Ada, Hardin 
County, in the heart of the marsh area, an area widely known for the 
growing of onions and potatoes and for the poor economic conditions of 
the marsh workers. 

The center was planned to provide training in homemaking primarily 
for young women from the marsh families and from homes of a !ow 
cconomic level in near-by counties. Since the center was planned princi- 


pally as a means of helping young women to improve their own homes, 


the housing equipment and training have all been geared toward this 
end. Rather than use the best equipment and the nicest materials, the 
most economical equipment and methods are used with emphasis on 





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1940] N.Y.A. Resident Work Centers 137 


learning how to make the most efficient and economical use of limited 


facilities in operating a home and making it attractive. 

The center accommodates fifty young women, twenty-five at a time 
on a two-week alternating basis. This group lives two weeks at a time in 
the residence under the supervision of two home economics supervisors 
who also live at the house. Work consists of sewing for the local relief 
agency and maintaining the residence. Training consists largely of learn- 
ing, under close supervision, how to perform the various functions of 
managing and maintaining the home. In addition there is opportunity 
for training in music, dramatics, and crafts. During the two weeks be- 
tween periods in residence, the enrollees have an opportunity to apply 
in their own homes the things they have learned while in residence at the 
center. 

A major factor in this type of training center is the experience of living 
with other young women previously unknown to one another. The group 
is under the supervision of older persons who can by example and by 
direction help these young women learn how to become better home- 
makers. 

The center is sponsored by the county commissioners and receives 
considerable assistance, both material and advisory, from various agencies 
in the community. An advisory committee consisting of individuals in 
the community who are interested in the needs of young women provides 


constant aid in the operation of the center. 


Bertin Resipent CENTER* 
Berlin, New Hampshire 
J. F. Suttivan 


New Hampshire youths who show an interest and aptitude in the 
construction trades are sent to Berlin. Living quarters are in the residen- 
tial section of the city and consist of two large neighboring houses. 


The program of the Berlin Center may be divided into three parts: 
work experience, related training, and leisure-time activity. 


Work experience is provided by work on several projects for the city 
of Berlin. The city acts as sponsor of the center and, with codperative 
agencies, supplies the material and equipment for the project work. The 
projects must meet two tests to be acceptable: they must offer (1) genuine 
work experience for youths and (2) worth-while improvement to the 


community. 
One of the first work projects in which youths of the center were 


*A bulletin entitled Guidance Information for the Young People of New Hampshire, National 
Youth Administration, Manchester, N. H., (mimeographed) pp. 114, 1939, is of considerable interest. 
It does not, of course, deal specifically with resident centers. 























138 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


engaged was the completion of the giant ski jump at Berlin which is said 
to be the largest of its kind in the world. The city of Berlin and the 
Nansen Ski Club furnished skilled supervision for the varied experience, 
principally in carpentry and cement work, which this project provided the 


youths. 


The youths are now building a trade school. The stone structure is 
to be one hundred fifty feet long, fifty feet wide, and two stories in height. 
The workers are supervised by journeymen. The granite being used in this 
building was quarried by the youths. Included in the experience gained 
thus far is mixing cement, running lines, spacing windows and doors, 
mixing mortar, and applying rock for the walls of the structure. Greater 
variety of work will be offered before the building is completed. 


A unit of the center composed of young men with mechanical in- 
terests takes care of the trucks which are used in N.Y.A. projects in the 
city. They work on the repairs of these trucks at the city garage under the 
supervision of a skilled mechanic. A few of them are getting their work 
experience by assisting the engineering department of the city of Berlin. 


Related training is given both on the job and in the classroom. On 
the job, supervisors give the youths the instruction necessary to perform 
specific tasks and also train them in the desirable work habits which the 
future employer will want to find in them, 


Until recently, related training classes were held in the shops and in 
the mechanical drawing room of the high school. At present these classes 
are held at the resident center buildings. Woodshop, shop math, drafting, 
blue-print reading are some of the subjects related to the work of the 
youth which have been offered. The boys also have classes in citizenship, 
first aid, and English. 

Prominent citizens engaged in interesting vocations have been fre- 
quent dinner guests at the center and have led forum discussions on vo- 
cational citizenship. 

Educational movies are shown regularly at the center. In addition 
the center provides a varied program of recreation. Its location in one of 
the great recreation regions of New Hampshire means opportunities for 
hunting, fishing, and mountain climbing. The young men have a free 
membership in the Berlin Community Club where the use of swimming 
pool, gym, reading rooms, and pool tables is available. In addition socials 
are frequently held for them and their guests at the center building. 


The N.Y.A. does not aim to give complete trade training in the few 
months that the youths are engaged in the center program. It does aim, 
however, to develop in the young men some of whom have never before 
worked, such work habits as are essential for successful participation in 





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1940] N.Y.A. Resident Work Centers 139 


industry. Also it gives them a chance to learn something about the trade 
in which they are interested by actually performing work and receiving 
training which is directly related to that work. 


SHAKOPEE RESIDENT WorK CENTER 


Shakopee, Minnesota 
C. B. Lunp 


The Shakopee Resident Work Center for boys is located in the 
historical Minnesota River Valley on a twenty-seven hundred acre 
tract of land a mile and a half east of Shakopee, Minnesota. 


Through the codperation of the Minnesota State Department of Edu- 
cation, the State Highway Department, and the State Historical Society, 
the National Youth Administration for Minnesota established a resident 
center which in addition to having housing accommodations for about 
two hundred youths, has a large number of shops and other buildings. 


The purpose of this project is to make possible a program of explor- 
atory experiences and related training in such fields as auto mechanics, 
welding, body and fender work, carpentry, machine work, agriculture, 
cooking, radio, shoe repairing, electricity, and a ground school for air- 


plane mechanics; in addition to certain more or less academic fields such 
as shop arithmetic, social civics, first aid, and hygiene sanitation. 


The fact that there is a large number of unemployed youths in remote 
and more or less isolated parts of the state of Minnesota prompted in part 
the establishment of this project. These youths who are eligible for the 
N.Y.A. out-of-school work project program do not have the opportunity 
to explore vocational fields during those important years between the ages 
of eighteen and twenty-five. The program is designed therefore to make 
it possible for them to work a half day on work projects and spend the 
other half of the day in the shops, nursery, or kitchen, depending upon their 
interests. 

The educational program for each enrollee is laid out by the educa- 
tional director. This program begins with an interview and testing pro 
gram which helps the youth to determine those fields in which he seems 
to have particular aptitudes. A complete record is kept of activities, ac- 
complishments, work habits, and other factors during the entire residence 
at the center, which for the average youth is six months. 

A recreational and social program has been developed to promote 
those phases of good social conduct which are considered acceptable in the 
community. Therefore each youth attending the resident center is able, in 
addition to the training and experience he receives in his work project 
program, to receive exploratory experiences in at least two or three of the 




















140 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


above-mentioned vocations which will make him better qualified when he 
leaves the center to choose a field of endeavor in which he wishes to con- 
centrate, and also gives him certain basic skills that will help him gain a 
foothold in private industry. This, together with a well-rounded program 
in social and civic participation, makes possible an experience which cer- 


tainly makes him a better potential citizen. 


Witperrorce Work ExpertENCE CENTER 
Wilberforce, Ohio 
S. B. WeEsTon 


A training center for Negro youths is operated at Wilberforce Uni- 
versity, Wilberforce, Ohio, in coéperation with that educational institu- 
tion. It accommodates seventy-five youths, who are considered a part of 
the whole campus group and participate in campus social and recreational 
activities. By careful selection of project activities, the youths are offered 
work experience along the lines of clerical work, landscaping, construc- 
tional labor, bricklaying, building, carpentry, custodial work, plastering 
and allied trades, and plumbing. 

Having completed the construction of a field house, which now 
serves as a dormitory for the center, the projects upon which the N.Y.A. 
workers are engaged include the following: improvement of the athletic 
field and track, building wings on the field house, reconstructing an old 
power plant, construction of a swimming pool, welding beds, laying 
telephone lines, landscaping, custodial and maintenance work, tool supply 
work, and clerical duties. 

Placement on projects and in training classes is made by a personnel 
supervisor through conferences with the individual youth, and in line 
with the load each type of activity can take. The shop facilities of the 
combined Normal and Industrial department of the University are avail- 
able to the N.Y.A. group for training and instructional purposes, under 
the supervision of the educational staff. In the training program major 
emphasis is based upon trade training. Occupational training and ex- 
perience are offered in printing, journalism, auto mechanics, carpentry 
and woodwork, machine shop practice, forge and sheet metal, plumbing, 
and electricity. A plan is also in operation which gives any youth the 
opportunity for beginning or continuing high-school work, and a few may 
participate in the academic work of the college itself, for both of which 
a fee is charged by the University. 


REsIDENT CENTERS IN VIRGINIA 
R. E. Bass 


The Richmond Center 
The Richmond City Hospital Aid Center for young women fur- 


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Su 


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1940} N.Y.A. Resident Work Centers 141 


nishes work experience and training for seventy-five N.Y.A. enrollees. 
The Memorial and St. Philips Hospitals furnish the facilities and com- 
petent supervisors of the young women, It is the purpose of this center to 


provide sufficient training to prepare the N.Y.A. group for practical 


nursing. 

Work for which the young women are paid consists of making beds, 
cleaning rooms, arranging flowers, carrying trays, feeding and moving 
patients. Under the direct supervision of graduate nurses and hospital 
superintendents they observe other phases of nursing but do not give 
medicine nor perform those duties which only a graduate nurse is 
competent to perform. In addition to the work program, the young 
women engage in a program of training which consists of classroom 


work and study. 


This project necessitates an annual expenditure from N.Y.A. funds 
of approximately fourteen thousand dollars. The sponsor contributes ap- 


proximately three thousand dollars. 


The Petersburg Center 

Petersburg Resident Center for Negro youths is operated by the 
National Youth Administration in codperation with the Virginia State 
College for Negroes, located at Ettrick, near Petersburg. The center pro- 
vides practical work experience and correlated training in trade and agri- 
cultural classes adapted to the needs of the thirty Negro youths. 


The facilities of the college, operated under the supervision of the 
State Board of Education, are made available to the N.Y.A. youths the 
same as to regularly enrolled students. Their time is divided about half 
and half between work and training. The work consists of minor con- 
struction and repair of school buildings, the installing and repairing of 
electrical equipment, woodworking and cabinet making, making and re- 
pairing of clothing for public agencies, auto mechanics, and agricultural 
work in the feeding and care of swine, dairy cattle, and poultry, and in 
gardening and the repair of farm fences and buildings. The training con- 
sists of classroom instruction, which is correlated with the work pro- 
gram. N.Y.A. youths are assigned from all sections of Virginia. One 
supervisor of the project is paid from N.Y.A. funds. The college furnishes 
the part-time services of an educational director and ten members of its 
faculty. The center involves an annual expenditure from N.Y.A. funds 
of approximately nine thousand dollars. The college contributes approxi- 
mately nine thousand dollars for instruction, equipment, materials, and 


supplies. 

















142 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


Resiwent CENTERS IN WISCONSIN 


J. W. Ropewarp 


The Greendale Center 


The Greendale Center, situated near Hales Corners in Milwaukee 
County, is an excellent illustration of integration between the work proj- 
ect experience and related training. The work program consists of land- 
scaping and tree pruning in the village of Greendale, care of arborescent 
species of plants at Whitnall Park, and the care of an extensive apple 
orchard at the center. Provision is further made for the carrying on of 
truck farming on a fifty acre plot, for boys who desire to make specialized 
agriculture their future life work. Experiments designed to determine the 
merit of such activities as squab raising, turkey smoking, and the pack- 
aging of cheese and maple sugar, are also conducted at the center. The 
related training program consists of courses in horticulture, forestry, and 
agriculture, offered by two center supervisors, who are graduate specialists 
in their respective fields. The related training is supplemented by weekly 
lecture programs arranged by the Farm Security Administration. In addi- 
tion, a class in the study of government in the United States is provided, 
so that it will be possible for the young men to become familiar with 
civic duties and responsibilities, as well as being the recipients of train- 
ing that fits them to be economically self-supporting. 


The Platteville Center 


The department of agriculture at State Teachers College is the princi- 
pal source of related training for youths who are enrolled at the Platte- 
ville Center. The educational opportunities embrace such subjects as plant 
and animal husbandry, general farming, woodworking, laboratory testing, 
and courses in soils, eradication of noxious weeds, and cattle judging, also 
special studies in evaluating the finer qualities of other farm animals are 
emphasized. The correlative program, as well as cultural opportunities, 
are also given careful consideration through the academic department of 
the college. Courses in English, history, geography, geology, and civics, 
and in public speaking, debating, music, and art, are open to interested 
and qualified youths, Experimentation and research in the development 
of profitable occupations for tenants of submarginal land, construction 
of equipment for experimental laboratories, and campus improvement 
are the principal features of the work projects that offer opportunity for 
a practical application of the related training program. 


All centers in Wisconsin enjoy a lecture program which provides 
education as well as diversion. Athletic teams, appropriate to the season, 
are organized at the centers for men. An inter-center basketball league 





1940] N.Y.A. Resident Work Centers 143 


is provided, and games are arranged wherever travel facilities permit. In 
addition, public-school gymnasiums are set aside one night a week for 
the use of N.Y.A. youths, who are supervised by qualified instructors of 
physical education. 


What was said at the beginning of this chapter may well be repeated. 
The resident centers sponsored by the National Youth Administration are 
educational agencies. Many school administrators have seen the educational 
possibilities of the program and are participating in its development. It 
is to be hoped that an increasing number of school men will bring their 
experience to bear on the development of a significant educational experi- 


ment, 

















Contents 


CHAPTER VII 


A CoéperaTive ProGraM oF VOCATIONAL "TRAINING 


Tie Codperative Plan of Vocational Training 


Detroit Vocational ‘Training Program 
Pittsburgh Veeational Training Program 


North Carolina Vocational Training Program 


Colorado-Wyoming Vocational Training Program 


144 


PAGE 


145 





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publ 


CHAPTER VII 


A Cooperative Program of Vocational Training 


[Sponsored by Local Schools, the Office of Education, and the National Youth 
Administration ] 

A COOPERATIVE PROGRAM was approved in 1939 by the Office of Edu- 
cation and the National Youth Administration. Two cities, Detroit and 
Pittsburgh, and two states, North Carolina and Indiana, were invited and 
elected to participate. The National Youth Administration subsidizes the 
youth for work done on socially desirable projects. The schools have at- 
tempted to reorganize both the curriculum and the time schedule to 
accommodate the needs of youth. The Office of Education has codperated 
in furnishing assistance and in underwriting some of the instructional 
costs under authorization of vocational education legislation. 


These descriptions are not offered as finished products. Rather they 
are examples of educational pioneering to fit local schools to the needs of 
youth. No doubt other school systems will wish to study and to visit 
the centers which are in operation. Undoubtedly other pioneers will wish 
to inaugurate similar programs which fit specific local needs. Lest anyone 
be deterred by the possible cost involved, it may be said that it is not 
large, since the instruction may be made eligible for subsidization as 
vocational education. The remaining cost can easily be justified as an 
essential service for unemployed youth to help fit them for financial com- 
petence as citizens. 

The program in Indiana is not described since it was undertaken very 
recently. Descriptions for the cities of Detroit and Pittsburgh and the 
state of North Carolina follow. In addition a description is included of 
the high-school facilities provided for youth enrolled in the Civilian Con- 
servation Corps camps in Colorado and Wyoming. 


Detroir VocaTIONAL TRAINING PRoGRAM 


[Local Schools in Coéperation with the National Youth Administration and_ the 
United States Office of Education] 


W. E. GLeason 


An extension of the policy and practice of meeting the educational 
needs of all the citizens is a recent action of the board of education per- 
mitting N.Y.A. out-of-school youth to enter evening classes at half the 
regular fee. Through this arrangement, thousands of N.Y.A. young peo- 
ple are availing themselves of the educational opportunities offered in the 


public schools of Detroit. 
145 











146 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


However, there remain, despite this arrangement for study in the 
regular evening-school classes, approximately 30 per cent of N.Y.A. youth 
who are not availing themselves of school opportunities. When this con- 
dition became evident to the school administration, Detroit accepted the 
invitation to collaborate with the National Youth Administration and the 
State Board for Control of Vocational Education for the purpose of 
developing a type of instruction more appropriate to the needs and 
interests of this group. At the beginning of the current calendar year 
(1939), a program of instruction for these young people was launched. It 
is set up as general continuation part-time classes in conformity with the 
regulations of the State Board for Control of Vocational Education. This 
state arrangement required those pupils, aged fifteen and sixteen, whose 
home circumstances have compelled them to seek employment early, to 
attend school a certain number of hours each week. Since continuation 
classes are for employed persons, the state setup was modified so as to be 
applicable to N.Y.A. out-of-school youth of the ages eighteen to twenty- 
four inclusive. This procedure not only gave the administration legal 
authority to put this program on a vocational training basis but also, by 
establishing the N.Y.A. as an employer, qualified Detroit for reimburse- 
ment for teachers’ salaries from federal and state trade and industrial 


funds. 
THE PURPOSE OF THE PROGRAM 


The venture is experimental in nature, and will terminate June 30, 
1940. The scope of the program is limited to ten teachers paid on a sub- 
stitute basis and will involve at the peak of its history five to six hundred 
youths eighteen to twenty-four years of age inclusive. Students receive a 
maximum of fifteen hours of instruction each month, and are required to 
attend class daily for three hours. The fifteen hours of instruction are so 
distributed that the students are in school for one week and out of school 
for three weeks. N.Y.A. work assignments govern whether they attend 
a morning or afternoon class. Every teacher has charge of two classes each 
day—one in the forenoon and one in the afternoon. The teachers are 
required to be on duty six clock hours a day. The classes meet in N.Y.A. 
work centers or in other accessible or available space. 


Although the program was formulated in conjunction with the N.Y.A. 
and the Michigan State Board for Control of Vocational Education, the 
Detroit public schools are charged with the sole responsibility of operating 
the classes and supervising the instruction. The chief function of the 
N.Y.A. is to provide work projects for the youths concerned and to assist, 
through the state department, in financing the educational program. 
The N.Y.A. youth are given fifty-six hours of employment a month, for 
which wages of $17.50 to $21.50 are paid. 





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1940] A Coéperative Program of Vocational Training 147 


Administratively, this project was set up under the secondary-educa- 
tion program; it is in charge of the director of vocational education in 
Detroit. He supplies the executive leadership and accepts the responsibility 
for establishing the general policies of the instructional program. He 
appoints the teaching staff, the principal, and the supervisor. In direct 
charge of instruction is the principal, who assists the supervisor in develop- 
ing suitable instructional material, implements the policies of the director, 
and is liaison officer coérdinating the work of the N.Y.A. with the class 
activities. Codperating with the director of vocational education in develop- 
ing the project is a large advisory committee representing local N.Y.A. 
and civic organizations. Development in the N.Y.A. youths of those 
attitudes essential to effective social and economic adjustment in Ameri- 
can democracy constitutes the core of the training program. Attention 
is centered on the formation of valid civic habits and of attitudes that will 
perpetuate the ideal of democracy. Manipulative and operative skills and 
trade training are eliminated from the instructional program, although 
much attention is given to guidance that will place the students in a 
situation where manipulative skills may be developed. 


THE SCOPE OF THE PROGRAM 


The first step in organizing the instructional program involved the 
selection of a teaching personnel qualified to meet satisfactorily the edu- 
cational needs of N.Y.A. youth. Selection, a codperative matter involving 
the local school administration, the State Board for Control of Vocational 
Education, and the N.Y.A., was based upon rigid requirements. The 
first two qualifications essential to acceptance were state certification, 
including approval by the State Board for Control of Vocational Education 
and registration on the Detroit placement list with satisfactory substitute 
teaching service in Detroit schools. A third prerequisite concerned the 
range of occupational experience of the individual candidates. Especially 
desirable did it seem that the candidates should have had personal ex- 
perience in securing employment. The fourth involved the candidates’ 
ability to use effectively the conference technique as a method of, in- 
struction. 

Gradual growth has marked the organization and development of 
the project. At this writing (February, 1940), five centers have been estab- 
lished, and approximately three hundred students are enrolled in twelve 
classes, under the instruction of six leaders. As the program develops and 
enrollment increases, more teachers will be selected and new centers will be 
opened until the limits set by the experiment are reached. 

The classes are ungraded, the educational level ranging from ele- 
mentary school to college. All degrees of the mental scale are represented. 
While of course the majority of students are unskilled laborers, some are 




















148 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


semiskilled, while a few are proficient in some trade. For the most part, 
the employment experience of these youths, is, as would be expected, 
limited. Having foreseen these conditions in the various conferences prior 
to the inception of the project, the administration and the instructional 
staff have set up an educational program that is informal and flexible in 
nature. Every effort is being made to avoid a schoolish atmosphere in the 
classes. The conventional course of study with its subject matter arranged 
in logical sequence has been ignored. Gone are such fixtures as textbooks, 
lesson assignments, credits, and marks. The educational principle in- 
forming the entire program of instruction is the vital interests and needs 


of the individual students. 
VOCATIONAL TRAINING AND GUIDANCE 


Since the classes exist for them, the students, under the direction of 
their leaders, create their own vocational training. Their own initiative, 
imagination, and codperation are depended upon to supply the instructional 
material. As these classes now function, the instruction centers around 
topics of current and vital interest. Assembled around a table in con- 
ference fashion, the students select the topics which they wish to discuss. 
Samples of topics which have yielded fruitful discussions include: The 
Creation of Jobs, Occupations in a Changing Society, Laws Affecting 
Employees, Wage Plans, Making a Job out of Getting a Job, Agencies 
Providing Leisure-Time Activities, Advantages under the American Sys- 
tem, Money Management for a Household, The Value of Your Name 
and Signature, and Thrift~Time and Money. As the discussion progresses, 
the conference leader records the responses of the students on the black- 
board. This procedure has the advantage of encouraging individual par- 
ticipants and focusing critical thought on the responses, and of stimulating 
the members to modify their ideas in the light of the group discussion. 
Such discussion cuts across subject-matter fields integrating a large variety 
of human experiences. Partly because of the instruction policy adopted, 
and partly because the student personnel is continually changing as mem- 
bers leave to accept permanent employment, each class session is con- 
sidered as a complete and independent unit. No attempt is made to relate 
each day’s lesson with the preceding one. Supplementary to the group 
discussion is the provision for widening the mental horizons of the stu- 
dents through the use of visual aids. Pictures, both motion and film slide, 
are used to show industrial methods of production and modern office and 


store methods of operation. 

Since the immediate objective of the training program is employment 
in the ranks of industry and commerce, a large part of the leaders’ time 
is devoted to individual guidance. Approximately one third of the class 
period is reserved for this purpose. The aim of this period is, in an edu- 





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1940] A Codperative Program of Vocational Training 149 


cative manner, to improve the employability of each individual, and 
through suggestions and information to help him secure suitable employ- 
ment. Effort is concentrated upon developing in each individual a sound 
vocational outlook, and habits of seeking employment in an organized and 
intelligent manner. Through tactful suggestions, he is led to examine his 
appearance and behavior and to study ways of making such modifications 
as will increase his acceptability to prospective employers. Practical hints 
are given concerning a clean and neat appearance; courtesy in speech and 
manner; avoidance of fussiness in dress, excessive make-up, smoking, or 
chewing gum or candy; clear enunciation of words; avoidance of awkward 
posture while standing or sitting; and the like. Counsel in filling out 
applications for employment accurately and completely, help in composing 
letters of application in accordance with accepted standards of modern 
business correspondence, and guidance in the intelligent use of local 
employment agencies are given. In the latter connection, information is 
supplied regarding the availability of the services of the Detroit public 
schools’ guidance and placement department to youth sixteen to twenty- 
four years of age. Those sixteen to twenty years old are referred to this 
department’s junior consultation service, where further aid is given 
through tests and interviews to help individuals determine their special 
aptitudes and interests. The leaders suggest the occupational niches which 
individuals might possibly fill. Or they advise the students of the educa- 
tional opportunities available to them in the public evening schools. If a 
student entertains thoughts of pursuing his education through correspon- 
dence, the leader helps him to think the matter through, examining the 
feasibility of such a step in the light of the student’s specific needs and the 
opportunities available in the vocational field for which training is con- 
templated. The student is advised as to where he may obtain information 
concerning the correspondence school under consideration. 


Continuous improvement in the entire educational program through 
codperative effort is the constant effort of both the administrative and the 
teaching personnel. 


PittssuRGH VOCATIONAL TRAINING ProcRAM 
[Local Schools in Codperation with the National Youth Administration and the 
United States Office of Education] 
B. G. GraHaM 


“ During the past four years the Pittsburgh public schools have been 
codperating with the National Youth Administration in conducting a 
unique vocational education extension program for underprivileged youths. 
The program has grown from seven hundred forty-one youths studying 
eighteen courses to more than eighteen hundred youths enrolled in forty- 
seven courses. 

















150 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


Classes are held one day each week from half past three o'clock in 
the afternoon to half past nine in the evening, with the exception of the 
new experimental classes which are in session from half past three in the 
afternoon to half past six on Mondays and Tuesdays. Three training centers 
—Bellefield Girls’ Vocational High School, the Clifford B. Connelley Voca- 
tional High School for Boys, and the Fifth Avenue High School—hold 
classes for thirty-five weeks. 

During the half-hour supper period from six to half past six, lunches 
are served in the school cafeterias at cost. A serving of each food costs 
five cents. Pupils may bring part or all of their lunches with them and eat 
in the cafeteria with the other youths. 


As the families of these youths are on relief and are unable to help 
them in furthering their desire for occupational training, this extension 
program offers them a chance to become more or less self-supporting citi- 
zens. This plan aids in relieving the family burden, reducing relief costs, 
and improving the morale of the young people. These youths, between 
eighteen and twenty-five years of age, are employed on government proj- 
ects forty-eight hours a month at wages of $18.24 to $21.12, under the 
supervision of the National Youth Administration. 


The program is conducted on the theory that these young people are 
at the point in their lives where every minute should be devoted to a 
program which might make them self-supporting, and the sooner this can 
be accomplished the better it will be for the youths and for the public 
welfare. It is interesting to note that on being removed from the relief 
rolls and on entering private employment, many of them have requested 
special permission to continue their vocational or commercial training in 
the same course of study. 

The average age of the youths enrolled in this work is twenty and 
one-half years. About thirty-eight per cent have graduated from high 
school and have been idle from two to five years. The mean intelligence 
quotient of the group, with the exception of the experimental classes, is 
ninety-two. About fifty per cent of them have foreign-born parents. 


These youths have a great variety of preferences for the various 
courses offered. Their interest is shown by good attendance and enthusiasm. 
They realize that no time must be lost in preparing themselves for private 
employment, and they are definitely interested in making the best use of 
their abilities and opportunities. 


The National Youth Administration program is designed for two 


purposes: 
1. To provide unemployed young people between the ages of eighteen 
and twenty-five whose families are certified for public assistance an 





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1940 | A Codéperative Program of Vocational Training 15) 


opportunity to earn one third of the Works Progress Administration 

wage, thereby increasing the family income and giving the youths job 

experience to enable them to become more employable in private in- 
dustry. 

To promote vocational training for these youths, to further increase 

the possibility of their employment in private industry by improving 

the skills they had previously obtained, or by training them in new 
fields for which there is need in the community. 

For the youths who have not had the advantage of vocational train- 
ing, the interest taken in their welfare by the National Youth Administra- 
lion is a real opportunity. Many of this group discontinued schooling in 
the seventh or eighth grade, while others had academic courses in high 
s hool but no vocational training. 

The training program offers to those youths having had vocational 
work while in school the opportunity to brush up and improve their 
technique, as well as to secure knowledge of new methods. This training 
enables them to be ready when job opportunities are available. 


THE COUNSELING PROGRAM 


The services of experienced counselors are available to all National 
Youth Administration youths attending the training centers. The board 
of public education has extended its guidance and placement services to 
include these evening training programs. During the past two years, 
three evening-school counselors have been in charge of the guidance 
program cf the Pittsburgh public evening schools for students enrolled in 
the National Youth Administration classes. While the program is varied 
somewhat in each of the three training centers, an attempt is made to 
make the guidance service a dynamic factor in the training of these 
young people. 

In each school the counselor interviews all individuals and classifies 
them as to their job possibilities, taking into consideration personality, 
previous education, and work experience, as well as the type of training 
being taken in the school. A series of tests is given by the department of 
curriculum study and research which aids in making placement selections. 
These records are jointly available for the counselor and the Pittsburgh 
public schools’ junior employment office. The numerous employment 
contacts made by the counselors and the junior employment-service enables 
many young men and women from National Youth Administration rolls 


to secure employment. 


During the year a questionnaire is distributed to the youths at the 
training centers. This questionnaire seeks information concerning the 
student’s educational experiences, employment records, types of occupation 











152 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


in which he is interested, and a check list indicating the group conferences 
that he would like to attend. Also opportunity is given the student to 
suggest subjects for group conferences and data gathered from this 
questionnaire are used in planning them. During 1939 about fifty-two 
per cent of the youth indicated a desire to attend each of the fourteen 
group conferences. The subjects for discussion included specific phases 
of the following subjects: Choosing an Occupation, Occupational Prepara- 
tion, Occupational Information, Studying Ourselves, Improving One’s 
Personality, Health, Working with Others, How to Keep a Job. 


Attendance at these group discussions is entirely voluntary. However, 
the number of students attending each conference checks very closely 
with the number of students who express such an interest on the ques- 
tionnaire. The students respond enthusiastically to these group discussions 
and are eager to present their own views. Mimeographed information and 
work sheets are distributed at most of the group conferences. At intervals 
during the year, representatives from business speak to the groups. Motion 
pictures dealing with the various group discussion subjects are also utilized. 

The guidance counselor’s time, three hours a week, is distributed in 
two ways. One and one-half hours’ time each week is spent contacting 
local employers to secure occupational information and employment oppor- 
tunities. The remaining one and one-half hours are spent in the schools. 

Although many pupils attending the National Youth Administration 
classes are not employable, there has been a marked increase in the 
number who are eager to attain permanent employment, and who realize 
and appreciate the opportunities that are afforded by the instruction 
received in the classes. 

The following courses are offered in the National Youth Adminis- 


tration classes: 


Expression 





Acetylene welding 


Arithmetic Facials 
Art Fitting 
Hairdressing 


Auto mechanics 
Beauty culture 
Bookkeeping, advanced 
Bookkeeping, beginning 
Business English 
Business mathematics 
Cabinet making 
Calculating machines 
Carpentry 

Consumer education 
Cooking 

Current events 
Cutting from patterns 
Dictation 

Drafting 

Electric 


Health and Hygiene 
Horticulture 

Machine shop 
Manicuring 

Millinery 

Mimeograph 

Music appreciation 
Occupational guidance 
Office machine practice 
Oral expression 
Painting 

Paper hanging 


Power machine operation 


Printing 
Radio 





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1940] 


Recreational and social 
leadership 

Remodeling 

Salesmanship 


A Coéperative Program of Vocational Training 


Shorthand, beginning 
Transcription 
Typing, advanced 
Typing, beginning 
Waitress training 


Sewing 
Shorthand, advanced 


BACKGROUND OF THE ENROLLEES 


A study of the accumulated work experience in private employment 
by the youths in the vocational training courses shows a general lack of 


experience. The data are given below: 


Work EXPERIENCE 
Per Cent of Cases 
oat 36.6 
wieleas, glace a 
bo 11.7 


Length of Time 

None .... fimdigiiet 

Less than one year ae 

One year to 23 months 0. 
More than two years .. 


On the average these same youths have completed the tenth grade. 
About thirty-one per cent have not had schooling above the eighth grade, 
while twenty-six per cent are high-school graduates. A distribution of the 
pupils having completed the various grades follows: 


EpucaTIon 
Per Cent of Cases 
wanes 


10th grade Sidiaselaipibilesast’ nme 


lth grade _.. acetic ahah 
I ARIES ens ninesinrprcincnlialgisip etl seh cic ililedhdlditaieeestlcinals a 
An interesting experiment was started at the Fifth Avenue High 
School on January 15. The general purpose of the program is to provide 
underprivileged youth with general education for living and working. 
The group, for the most part, are those who are apparently adapted only 
to semiskilled and unskilled work and whose past experience indicates 
lack of adaptability to traditional school curricula. The program of work 
and education is adapted to the needs and abilities of the individuals and 
is intended to increase their civic responsibility and vocational ability. No 
textbooks are used; each youth receives a mimeographed copy of each unit 
of work. The youths enrolled in these classes attend school two afternoons 
each week from half past three to half past six. 
The Allegheny County National Youth Administration suggests en- 
rollees, Upon entering, each youth is given a mental ability test and is 


Grade Completed 
8th or less 
9th grade _.. 











154 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


placed in one of five ability groups according to his score. This grouping 
allows the teacher to vary class procedure and subject content according 
to the abilities, interests, and needs of the pupils. Size of classes range 
from seventeen to twenty-one youths. 

Data relative to the intelligence quotient, chronological age, and 
grade completed in school by the youth in these special classes are as 


follows: 


INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT 


Mean intelligence quotient 79.5 
Range of intelligence quotients 53-102 
CHRONOLOGICAL AGE 
Mean chronological age 20 years 
Range of chronological ages . 18-24 years 
EpucaTIon 
Last grade completed (mean) 8th 

Sth-10th 


Range of last grades completed 
Exceptional care has been exercised in the choice of teachers to in- 
struct these youths. It was realized that they should be teachers experi- 
enced in the field they were to teach, that they should have a knowledge 
of occupational problems applicable to these types of youth, unusual 
ability to work with underprivileged groups, and a sympathetic nature. 
It is necessary to avoid the appearance of formal education in planning 
and conducting the classes. 


Our experience to date leads us to believe that the degree of success 
that can be expected from this type of program, while dependent some- 
what upon the adaptability of the plan, will ultimately be determined by 
the ability of the teachers to visualize the needs of the groups they meet 
and to adapt subject matter content and methods of presentation to the 
abilities, needs, and interests of the individuals enrolled, 


DESCRIPTION OF SELECTED COURSES 
A list of the subjects offered and a brief description of the content 


follows: 


Consumer's Arithmetic 

The objective of this course is to meet the demand for arithmetic 
especially planned for the consumer. This course meets such a demand by 
first introducing business and social situations and then presenting arith- 
metic problems incident to those situations. The course includes such 
phases as making change, computing simple interest, making loans, 





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1940] A Codéperative Program of Vocational Training 155 


making our money work for us, installment buying, cash discounts, and 


how to furnish a home on a budget. 


Consumer Education 

This course acquaints the pupil with planned expenditures, the mean- 
ing of the various grades of foods, the importance of noting the amount 
of content in relation to price, planning of purchases according to actual 
needs, misleading advertisements, and such qualities of various kinds of 
cloth and clothing as wearing, fading, comfort, and use. 


Current Events 

As in the case of the other courses offered in this experimental pro- 
gram, the problem here is to present worth-while aspects of the subject by 
discussions carried on at the level of the pupil. The youths discuss freedom 
of speech, citizenship responsibilities, political, social, and economic aspects 
of life, and personalities in the news. Use is made of the popular picture 
magazines, diagrams showing the cost of crime, disease, etc. 


Expression 
The expression class might well be called a problem-solving class. 
The series of lessons that have been planned were the outgrowth of a self- 


inventory of each member of the class. Poise, self-confidence, and a better 
command of simple English is gained by such problems as to the following: 
introductions, applying for a job, telling of one’s experiences while on a 
vacation, and general conversations and discussions. 


Health Education 

This course is divided into small, self-contained units including 
social-recreational games, activities in the gymnasium, guarding against 
disease, and promoting cleanliness. Normal contacts in wholesome situa- 
tions which emphasize proper social behavior for mixed groups are in- 
cluded. We are here interested in mental health as well as physiological 


health. 


Occupational Guidance 

Occupational guidance at best presents many conflicting problems, 
but when applied to these maladjusted youths the problem is indeed most 
difficult. These youths must not only gain a knowledge of various occupa- 
tions for which they are fitted, but many of them must have their interest 
in securing a position and retaining it stimulated. Students are encouraged 
to tell of their occupational experiences, listing favorable and unfavorable 
aspects of each occupation. The instructor is careful to interest these 
underprivileged youths in occupations for which they are or may become 


qualified. 

















156 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [April 


It is the desire of the National Youth Administration and the Pitts- 
burgh public schools in conducting these special classes to give these 
underprivileged youths an opportunity to adjust themselves economically 
and socially, and also to formulate a plan of conducting such courses 
which, if successful, may be used in other centers of National Youth 
Administration work where the problems arising from maladjusted youth 
are comparable to the local situation. 


NortH Carotina VocaTIONAL TRAINING PROGRAM 


[Sponsored by the Office of Education and the National Youth Administration in 
Coéperation with the State of North Carolina] 


R. B. McHenry 


An experimental educational program sponsored jointly by the Office 
of Education and the National Youth Administration is now being con- 
ducted in the State of North Carolina. Seven N.Y.A. resident centers 
with a total of 338 youth ranging in age from eighteen to twenty-five 
years are included in the experimentation. These youth spend the entire 
month at the resident center and do production work approximately 
eighty hours a month. Each enrollee attends approximately forty hours of 
organized instruction each month, given by teachers employed by the divi- 
sion of vocational education of the North Carolina state department of 
education. 

The entire program is based on the plan for the general continuation 
type of instruction included in the Smith-Hughes Act. Two centers, one 
for white youth and one for Negro youth, are so organized that the work 
experiences of the youth are in agriculture. Three centers, two for young 
white women and one for young Negro women, are organized to give 
work experiences in home living and related work activities. Two centers 
for young white men furnish work experience in building construc- 
tion, metalwork, auto mechanics, aviation mechanical work, clerical work, 
cabinetwork, and food preparation and services. 

The preliminary planning work with the individual teachers included 
the following items: 

1. The general objectives were determined for the educational pro- 
gram in relation to the educational needs of the individuals in the resident 
center. 

2. The implications of the general objective were developed. 


3. The implications of the general objective were broken down into 


suggestive lists of teaching units. 

4. Methods of instruction and teaching devices to use were estab- 
lished. 

5. A simple record system was devised. 


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1940] A Coéperative Program of Vocational Training 157 


6. The evaluation procedures to be used in relation to the experi- 
mental work were prepared. 

The units of instruction included were those dealing with personality 
problems, simple practical economics, essential problems in civics, health 
and safety study, instruction to eliminate illiteracy, simple business prob- 
lems, elementary technical information applicable to the work job, simple 
mathematics and science of practical nature, and occupational adjustment 
instruction. 

The youths spend the entire twenty-four hours at the resident 
centers, and the recreational program is so organized that it provides 
worthy use of the leisure time beyond the work job and educational pro- 
gram. 

The National Youth Administration is codperating by furnishing 
employment for the youths, in some cases the plant and equipment, and 
an advisor from the Washington office. The United States and the North 
Carolina state department of education and the local public schools are 
furnishing the instructors, supervision of the instructors, advisory assist- 
ance from the United States Office of Education, and for some groups local 
school equipment, transportation, and plant. 

A somewhat more complete report will be available about July 1, 1940. 


CoLorapo-WyYoMING VocATIONAL TRAINING PRoGRAM 
[Local Schools in Codperation with the Civilian Conservation Corps] 
J. J. Cory 


At the present time, sixteen camps in the Colorado-Wyoming District 
of the Civilian Conservation Corps send enrollees to local schools through- 
out these states, where they are taught by regular teachers at night ses- 
sions. The courses offered at the present time include algebra, biology, 
blueprint reading, bookkeeping, business correspondence, cabinetwork, 
chemistry, civics, commercial law, cooking, English composition, English 
literature, general science, geology, geometry, American history, lathe 
work, music (vocal and instrumental), physics, psychology, public speaking, 
shorthand, sociology, Spanish, typewriting, welding, woodworking, and 
World history. 

A number of these courses are being studied by other enrollees in the 
camp under the camp instructors. The class work is offered five days a 
we€k, before and after work hours, and for a minimum of two hours a 
day. Regular class work is offered in composition, letter writing, grammar, 
algebra, geometry, American history and civics, and current events; 
individual instruction is given those having special interests or needs. 

Upon the completion of the courses offered, enrollees take an examina- 
tion prepared by the camp or by the school, or they are given credit upon 














158 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [ April 


certification of the time spent, the work covered, and the quality of 
achievement. 

Last year the high school at Craig, Colorado, gave credit to ten en- 
rollees in American history. In Colorado, Denver, Grand Junction, 
Montrose, Durango, Hugo, and Springfield, and in Wyoming, Cheyenne, 
Casper, Gillette, and Basin, high-school credit was given for work done in 
camps under the direction of educational supervisors. Recently one en- 
rollee was issued a diploma from a Denver high school for the com- 
pletion of graduation credits under the educational supervisor in the camp 
at Morrison, Colorado. Credits were accepted in psychology, geology, and 
sociology. 

The University of Colorado, through the board of regents, has author- 
ized the awarding of five scholarships to C.C.C. enrollees for the current 
year, becoming effective January 2, 1940. This offer has caused many 
enrollees to plan to continue their high-school study in camps. 





Summer Convention Program 


National Association of Secondary-School Principals 
of the N. E. A. 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 


July 1-2, 1940 
GENERAL THEME: That All May Learn 


MONDAY Topic: Guidance in Secondary Educa- 
July 1 tion 
2:15 P. M. Presiding: Herbert Helble, Principal, 
' Walker Hall : Appleton High School, State Codrdi- 
Milwaukee Auditorium nator, National Association of Second- 
ary-School Principals. 


Address: “Present-Day Challenges to 
Guidance in Secondary Education,” 
Francis C. Rosecrance, Professor of 
Education, Northwestern University. 


Address: “The Social and Emotional 
Development of the Secondary-School 
Student,” R. W. Tyler, Chairman of 
the Department of Education, Univer- 
sity of Chicago. 
TUESDAY Joint session of Secondary-School Princi- 
July 2 pals and National Association of Teach- 
2:15 P. M. ers of Speech 
Shorewood 


High School 
Auditorium Presiding: Oscar Granger, President, Na- 


tional Association of Secondary-School 
Principals. 


Address: In a Recreation Area, “Leisure 
Time Activities,” Dorothy C. Enderis, 
Assistant Supt. in Charge of Depart- 
ment of Municipal Recreation and 
Adult Education 

Address: In a Subject Area, “What the 
Secondary-School Administrator May 
Expect of the Speech Teacher,” Rex- 
ford Mitchell, President, LaCrosse State 
Teachers College 


159 


Topic: Meeting the Youth Problem 








Dinner 
5:00 P. M. 





Address and Demonstration: “Speech 
Throughout the High School,” Jean- 
ette Ross, Shorewood High School 
Demonstration with high-school _ stu- 


dents. 

Shorewood Auditorium Dining Room 

Presiding: Oscar Granger, President, Na- 
tional Association of Secondary-School 
Principals. 

Address: “Continuing Education,” Ed- 
ward Landy, Director of the Occupa- 
tional Adjustment Study of the Na- 
tional Association of Secondary-School 
Principals. 

Price per plate: one dollar. 








The 1941 Winter Meeting 


National Association of 
Secondary-School Principals 


Atlantic City, New Jersey 
(Hotel Headquarters not yet assigned) 


ANNOUNCEMENT 





February 22-27 


of the 


will be held in 











160 











LET YOUR SCHOOL’S LIGHT SHINE 
IN STUDENT LIFE 


What can Stupent Lire do for your students? 


As the official magazine of Student Councils and of National Honor 
Societies, SrupENT Lire is, for secondary schools, not only the medium of 
exchange of outstanding extra-curriculum activities, but also an outlet 
for the creative work of all students in writing, art, and photography. 


And what can your students do for Srupent Lire? 


Your students can write articles covering the extra-curriculum activ- 
ities in your school, and they can write book reviews, original short stories, 
poems, editorials, and plays. They can supply photographs, action pictures. 
They can provide pen and ink drawings to illustrate special features. They 
can poll the student body on questions pertinent to the interests of students. 


It is suggested that student contributors be selected by the principal 
or a member of the faculty; or that some means be devised whereby the 
students themselves may choose the authors, artists, and photographers 
whom they wish to represent their school. 


Articles may run three or four hundred words in length; they should 
be supplemented by action pictures showing students engaged in the 
activities described. Original humorous feature stories may also run three 
or four hundred words in length; they may be supplemented by pen and 
ink drawings. All other original compositions—essays, editorials, stories, 
poems, and plays—should be moderate in length. Subjects may be drawn 
from the lives of famous artists, authors, musicians. Articles based on 
tolerance, propaganda, international good will, better speech are suggested. 
Subjects which lend themselves to humorous treatment may also be 
chosen. 

All manuscripts should be typewritten, double spaced, and written on 
one side of the page. A short biographical sketch and a picture of the 
author should accompany each contribution. Photographs must be glossy 
prmts. Complete information for credit and identification should be writ- 
ten on the back of each. Manuscripts and photographs should be securely 
wrapped and placed in flat envelopes for mailing. 


Ali materials prepared for a particular issue should be received by the 
editorial office at least a month prior to the publication date of the issue 


for which such is intended. 


161 














Sample copies of Srupent Lire will be sent upon request. Please ad- 
dress your suggestions or requests for further information to SrupenT Lire, 


5835 Kimbark Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. 


USE THIS BLANK 





Srupent Lire, 5835 Kimbark Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 
Please send a sample copy of Srupent Lire (1); further information about 
student-written material desired for publication (J. 


Please enter my subscription for one year to Srupent Lire [) (members 
of the National Association, 50c a year; non members, $1.00). 


I am placing Srupent Lire on the mailing list of my school paper (1). 


Name 


Address 


162 











Important Notice 


In order that members may be informed of the books tentatively se- 
lected for the Book-of-the-Quarter Club, a list will be published in each is- 
sue of THe Buttetin. The books now being considered by the Reviewing 


Board are listed below: 


Myers and Kirer: Problems in Public School Supervision. Prentice-Hall, 


Inc. 


Wirnam: Problem Studies in School Administration. Prentice-Hall, Inc. 


Noste: Practical Measurements for School Administrators. International 


Textbook Company. 


Crarke: Life Planning and Building. International Textbook Company. 


Morrison: The Curriculum of the Common School. The University of 


Chicago Press. 














Calendar 


American Federation of Teachers, Buffalo, New York, August 19-23. 


American Home Economics Association, Cleveland, Ohio, June 23-27. 

American Library Association, Cincinnati, Ohio, May 26-June 1. 

Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, New York, June 29-August 24. 

Conference of Administrative Officers of Public and Private Schools, 
University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, July 15-19. 

Conference on Business Education, University of Chicago, Chicago, 
Illinois, June 27-28. 


Eleventh Annual School Administrators’ Conference, George Peabody 
College for Teachers, Nashville, Tennessee, June 18-20. 


Fifteenth Annual League College sponsored by the National League of 
Teachers Associations, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, July 


8-19. 

National Association of Secondary-School Principals, Milwaukee, Wiscon- 
sin, July 1-2. 

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 
July 1-3. 

National Education Association, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, June 30-July 4. 

Silver Anniversary of The Association for the Study of Negro Life and 
History, Chicago, September 9, 1940. 


Workshop Conference, Department of Supervisors and Directors of In- 
struction, NEA, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, July 8-19.