Chemical Engineering WALTER J. MURPHY, Editor
News The M a n p o w e r Shortage—Causes, Effects, and Cures JL H E s u b j e c t of v o c a t i o n a l g u i d a n c e is one that is r e c e i v ing c o n s i d e r a b l e attention at the p r e s e n t t i m e . W e h a v e a t t e n d e d m a n y p a n e l d i s c u s s i o n s o n the scientific a n d t e c h n i c a l m a n p o w e r p r o b l e m . W e h a v e presided at several, b u t the first o n e to our k n o w l e d g e to include a repres e n t a t i v e of t h e teachers of e l e m e n t a r y a n d s e c o n d a r y s c h o o l s w a s o n e c o n d u c t e d by the Scientific A p p a r a t u s M a k e r s A s s o c i a t i o n at its m i d y e a r m e e t i n g , H o t S p r i n g s , Va. W e w e r e i m p r e s s e d w i t h t h e c o m m e n t s of S. G. S t e w a r t , director of instruction, C o u n t y S c h o o l Board, A u g u s t a C o u n t y , S t a u n t o n , V a . , a n d w e are q u o t i n g liberally b e c a u s e in our o p i n i o n h e s u m m a r i z e d very succinctly t h e salient e l e m e n t s of t h e p r o b l e m : As a professional public school man I say quite candidly that I and many of m y colleagues feel that w e are not doing too good a job of guiding youth into the scientific professions. T h e reason for this is that most guidance personnel, like most of the rest of the teaching profession, and the public generally, have a liberal arts background. T h e result is that these guidance personnel, w h e n working with bright students, tend to guide their thinking toward the arts and humanities rather than toward the sciences. Frankly, not enough training is required of guidance personnel, and the training they have is not sufficiently comprehensive. Furthermore, there are no means at present whereby w e can ascertain that guidance personnel will receive correct information as to present and Future occupational opportunities. W e need some means of collecting and channeling information to these people. There are manpower shortages in many fields today because so many people are maladjusted to their possibilities. Most of us know of several individuals who, for varying reasons, are not happy in their work, are not challenged to their c a p a c i t y people who simply have not found for themselves, nor have they been g u i d e a into, the right job. I lerein lies a huge manpower waste, and an outstanding cause for low production. Like it or not, w e are in a modified wartime economy with its attendant urges and attitudes. Youth is confused and uncertain of the future. Ou the part of many of high school youth there is a realism as opposed to the idealism I mentioned earlier. Many embrace the practical and seek jobs in industry now, accepting the high wages they can get today, rather than face the long years that college and graduate school require. Girls especially are aware of the manpower shortage and most of them readily will trade a career for a husband. T h e high cost of a college education today makes many 'outhful idealists bitter realists. Many of die best minds simply uive no hope of raising the funds for college and graduate school. W e need to make high school teaching more functional. In too many cases instruction is based entirely o n the textbook. Granted that laboratory facilities are generally inadequate; at the same time too little use is made of the environment whicli is a natural laboratory. T h e experiences of many teachers in college did little to prepare them for realistic approach to the problems of teaching the high school sciences. College courses which require little but rote learning, and perfunctory laboratory manipulations, have not encouraged inspired secondary school teaching. T h e quality of science instruction in the high schools ranges from excellent to poor and is determined jointly by the teacher and facilities provided him. There is strong evidence that most high school students have less than an average opportunity for effective science instruction. Many experienced teachers of science, and an even greater number of potential science teachers, are drawn into industry because of higher salaries and more frequent service increments.
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VOLUME
3 0,
NO.
46» NOVEMBER
17,
I would estimate that not over 2 0 % of our elementary teachers include anv .science instruction at all in their program, but they have good reasons for so doing. Aside from personal limitations in this area, they are presently faced with an overcrowded elementary curriculum which leaves little or no time lor anything beyond the required texts and subject matter. Furthermore they are faced with heavy professional and lay pressure lor a more effective job in the 3 R's, and in history, civics, and geography. Only the most talented teachers can find opportunity for additional work in science, or, indeed, for many or the desirable activities which should b e included in the basic elementary school curriculum. In addition, there are, of course, individuals and groups vociferous in their demand that we curtail the public school offering to minimum academic essentials in order to save taxes. The effort to secure adequate scientific instruction in the elementary and high schools must be encouraged at xwery level in the public school system. A concerted movement beginning in our state departments of education is essential. At all levels work needs to be done especially in the areas of curriculum content, materials of instruction, and improvement and expansion of facilities for science instruction. But in many states, like my own, authority must b e granted to officially include such instruction in the curriculum! I am well aware of the opposition of many to a federal scholarship program, and I am not advocating one. Nevertheless we need some kind of new and different scholarship program from any existing today. W e need some kind of program that will seek out the best minds regardless of locality or background—a program that will make it possible for us to encourage more of our youth, regardless of origin or circumstances, to hitch their wagons to a star and to seek to use effectively, and to the limits of their capacity, all of their talents. It is apparent that the colleges, universities, and great foundations generally have worked only the richest and most obvious veins when it comes to getting out the manpower potential in the scientific and engineering fields. They have encouraged, in most cases, only the very ablest of s t u d e n t s only those with almost unlimited capacity—to do graduate work, and, in some cases, even to stay in the field. Most of you, I dare say, have in your plants many positions whicli do not require top-flight technical personnel. Your personnel men know how to utilize men to varying capacities effectively. But, to date, little is being 'done at the pre- and post-college levels to recruit or to retain what I shall call working scientists and engineers. Mr. Stewart, in concluding, offered s e v e n s u g g e s t i o n s worthy of serious consideration. T h e y are ( 1 ) i m p r o v i n g public u n d e r s t a n d i n g and a t t i t u d e s ; ( 2 ) b e g i n n i n g s c i e n c e education for all y o u t h in the primary and e l e m e n t a r y schools; ( 3 ) p r o v i d i n g a d e q u a t e facilities for t e a c h i n g the sciences i n t h e h i g h schools; ( 4 ) securing and retaining adequately p r e p a r e d s c i e n c e teachers; ( 5 ) improving facilities for g u i d a n c e of y o u t h ; ( 6 ) u n d e r t a k i n g recruitment ou a m u c h broader scale; ( 7 ) d e v e l o p i n g a n e w scholarship p r o g r a m w h i c h will o p e n opportunities to youth not r e a d i e d b y present programs. It is our c o n s i d e r e d o p i n i o n that the d r o p i n enrollment, for example, of t h o s e training as chemists, is d u e very largely to the uncertainties that face our y o u t h . M a n y youngsters are asking t h e m s e l v e s the q u e s t i o n , " W h y e m bark on s e v e n l o n g years of difficult s t u d y a n d large financial outlay, w h e n I m a y h a v e s u c h a career interrupted by several years o f military service?" Youngsters also are looking hard a t t h e comparatively high w a g e s paid skilled and unskilled lahor. T h e temptation is strong to f o r e g o a professional c a r e e r under these c i r c u m s t a n c e s .
1952
4821
