CHEMISTRY AND VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE Bnuce H. GUILD, SENIOR HIOHSCHOOL. IRON MOUNTAIN, MICHIGAN
Every high-school stUdebt will eventually enter some vocation. It is a well-know fact that an alarming number of individuals drift into occu@tions for which they are neither fittea! nor pre@red. This article tells how the chemistry course may be an aid in helping the individwcl find a vocation to his liking and for which he isfitted. Chemistry touches every person's life, no matter what his calling. The food we eat, the clothes we wear, the car we ride in, and the film we view a t the theater all are touched by the wand of the chemist and have their beginnings in some chemical process. The work of every man and woman is dependent partially or wholly on a knowledge of some chemical operation. There is an intense need in our schools today of more and better vocational guidance. More than fifty per cent of all boys graduating from high school drift by chance into some occupation for which many of them are neither suited nor trained. Worse than that, many remain there indefinitely, discontented, unhappy, and unfitted for their work. In a study made in our high school of the vocational preferences of two hundred eighty boys, one hundred fifteen had not the slightest idea or plan concerning their vocation, thirty-six expressed a preference for engineering, and eighteen for aviation. The interests of the remainder were centered in thirty-three other lines of work. A careful study of the data and a questioning of several individuals indicated that their choices were based on very superficial considerations. The glamor and romance of the engineer in trackless wilds and the exhilaration of soaring through the clouds were the main causes for the choices of the vocations of engineering and aviation. The knowledge that engineering required considerable skill and talent along mathematical lines was a serious disappointment to several who had flunked their algebra. No thought had been given to the basic principles involved, the physical and mental fitness for the work, the opportunities for advancement, and the length and cost of the training. True, some of the larger and better-equipped schools have experts, who through group and individual contacts give vocational guidance and stimulate students to choose a vocation and evaluate i t in terms of their fitness for it. The number of such schools is limited, however, and in the majority of high schools vocational guidance is given very little consideration or is neglected entirely. Modem pedagogy has revealed to us the relative unimportance of subject matter as an end. Rather the subject matter is the means toward the end of developing the student along the lines of the seven cardinal principles with which every student of education is familiar. Far from the least important of these objectives of secondary education is the choosing of and 1353
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JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
JULY.
1931
training for a life work. One should first become acquainted with many occupations, then choose one, then prepare for it. The school should play a leading part in the first two phases as well as the third. If high-school chemistry is to be conceived as a study to be developed along practical and cultural lines and not as a subject taught merely for the accumulation of abstract chemical information, what an opportunity we have here for making it of use in helping ow students solve this perplexing problem of deciding what they are to do when they finish school! I t is not inferred that the author advocates turning the chemistry course into a course on vocations, but no one can gainsay the fact that the contacts made with so many industries and lines of work cannot but be of value in assisting the student to consider the possibilities of finding his life work. The wide-awake chemistry teacher will keep in mind the part that the study of the various phases and applications of chemistry can play in assisting the student with the solution of this important problem. In formulating objectives for ow course in chemistry let us not forget the one that will reveal to the student, through the many ways in which chemistry affects our lives, possibilities for choosing a vocation that will make him of more value to society and himself than he would be otherwise. As a concrete example, in an ordinary course of high-school chemistry, taught with the aid of a very well-known and widely used text, different parts of the course dealt with practical information directly connected with many vocations, which with a few words of comment by the teacher was of great value to the student in the way of giving him information concerning them. Here are some of the vocations referred to; commercial and engineering chemistry, medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, electrical and mining occupations, plumbing, printing, photography, bricklaying, masonry, papermaking, painting, and decorating. To the teacher keeping this objective in mind many more might be noticed. In every town and city there are usually one or more large industries that well warrant any time spent in making a special study of the chemical aspects of them. The author has in mind a wood distillation plant operated by the Ford Motor Company in his own town to which he takes his class for an annual field trip. To many of the boys their knowledge and liking for chemistry distinctly attracted them to this plant and several will work there and be willing to forego other opportunities until they can find the work of their choice. The teacher might well keep in mind when making such studies the opportunities of pointing out the characteristics of some of the occupations to the students. The concienti'ous chemistry teacher, vitally interested in his job and in the future welfare of his pupils, will not pass up the opportunity to be of service in assisting them to find their places in the sunlight of happiness and contentment rather than in the shadow of discontent and failure.
