34, for trades and industries, 1, and for home economics, 3. These States are illustrations of the widespread development of secondary Vocational education.

The chief handicap in the promotion or introduction of vocational instruction was the lack of qualified teachers. This was due largely to the war emergency, many of the teachers being drafted or volunteering for service in the Army.

THE SMITH-SEARS ACT.

In June, 1918, Congress passed the Smith-Sears Act, providing for the vocational rehabilitation and return to civil life of disabled persons discharged from the military or naval forces of the United States. The act delegates to the Federal Board for Vocational Education the responsibility of reeducating the disabled men in some useful employment, after their discharge from the Army or Navy, and provides for a plan of cooperation between the board and the Surgeon General's Office, covering the work done in hospitals, in order that the men may have the advantage of a continuous and coordinated plan.

It is provided that there shall be full and complete cooperation of the several Government offices concerned with the future welfare of men discharged from the Army and Navy, including the medical and surgical services of the War Department and the Navy Department, the Bureau of War Risk Insurance in the Treasury, and the labor exchanges in the Department of Labor, and the Federal board. Each will render service in retraining and returning to civil employment men disabled in the war.

The Federal board will act in an advisory capacity in providing Vocational training for men during their convalescence in the military hospitals, before their discharge from the Army and Navy, and will continue such training to finality after discharge, as the civilian agency for rehabilitation and placement in industry.

THE STUDENTS' ARMY TRAINING CORPS.

The Students' Army Training Corps represents a unique educational undertaking on the part of the Government. The work was under the direction of the Committee on Education and Special Training of the War Department. A circular of information issued by the committee stated the purpose in view as follows:

The primary purpose of the Students' Army Training Corps is to utilize the executive and teaching personnel and the physical equipment of the educational institutions to assist in the training of our new armies. Its aim is to train officer-candidates and technical experts of all kinds to meet the needs of the service. This training is conducted in about 550 colleges, universities, professional, technical, and trade schools of the country.

The corps was divided into two sections-the collegiate or "A" section and the vocational or "B" section. Of these the former is discussed elsewhere in this report under higher education.

Concerning the latter, it is to be noted that the experience of three years of war in Europe demonstrated the need of large numbers of skilled mechanics and technicians of many kinds. When the United States entered the war, therefore, and undertook the organization of an army, it soon became apparent that a plan must be devised to train mechanics quickly and in large numbers. To accomplish this result the War Department did not depend on the establishment of new schools, but utilized existing institutions which had the necessary facilities. The men, in uniform, were assigned to institutions in units of 200 to 2,000, where they were housed and fed under military discipline for periods of two months each. Military drill and industrial instruction, including shop practice, were provided in an intensive form as the regular daily routine. The initial assignments of men began work on April 1, 1918. Some idea of the magnitude of the undertaking is conveyed by the announcement that on August 1, 1918, there were 52,025 soldiers under instruction, in 35 different trades or occupations, in 144 institutions, located in 46 States and the District of Columbia. It was estimated that by the close of the fiscal year, June 30, 1919, if the plans had been carried out, more than 300,000 men would have received instruction in these courses, sufficient to make them definitely serviceable in some mechanical or technical duty in addition to their training as soldiers.

EFFECT ON EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM.

Without question the work of the Section B units of the Students' Army Training Corps will prove to have been the most significant experiment in vocational education thus far undertaken under a democratic form of government. It is too soon to appraise the results in full, but as soon as adequate reports are available, educators, and especially students of industrial education, are urged to examine them with the greatest care. It is believed that our public-school system may with profit learn a number of valuable lessons from the experience of these Army training units.

In this connection it is possible to refer briefly to two points only, but these will serve to suggest others that will develop later: (1) The experience of the Army training units seems to demonstrate the futility of short shop periods; that is, shop periods too short for the student to see work processes in complete wholes. The amount of ground that can be covered in a short course, eight weeks in length, consisting of daily periods of six or seven hours in shop, drafting room, or laboratory, proved to be greatly in excess of all expectations.

Numbers of competent observers have predicted that the results of this experience will revolutionize educational practice, not only in trade instruction classes, but in colleges and universities as well.

(2) Experience seems to indicate also that small classes, with a reasonable amount of individual instruction, are essential to accomplish the best results. Individuals vary greatly in capacity and performance, and can not be instructed efficiently in mass.

VOCATIONAL TRAINING IN ARMY HOSPITALS.

The subdivision of education in the division of physical reconstruc tion under the Surgeon General, United States Army, was begun in October, 1917, for the purpose of devising plans for providing educational facilities for disabled soldiers and sailors during the period of hospital treatment and convalescence. On May 20, 1918, Dr. James E. Russell, dean of Teachers' College, Columbia University, New York City, was appointed chief of the subdivision.

The work undertaken has been practical, so far as possible, and has included work needed for the hospitals. Activities include, besides repair work of various kinds, basketry, typewriting, telegraphy, academic studies, agriculture and gardening, bookkeeping, free-hand and mechanical drawing, auto repair, carpentry, cobbling, and other handicrafts. In all, more than 100 different activities have been introduced into the hospitals. Sixteen general convalescent and reconstruction hospitals have been provided for, or one in each of the 16 military districts.

The records of 516 cases which have been treated in four hospitals show 134 men able to return to full military duty, 210 fit for return to limited service, and 172 who are eligible for discharge.

In the last group, 12 are classed as helpless or institutional cases; 121 are able to return to their former occupations; and 39 will need further training to fit them for earning a livelihood.

These figures show the division of responsibility in the work of reconstruction. The task of fitting men for further military service is at present the most urgent need, because wherever an able-bodied man behind the lines can be replaced by one less fit physically but vocationally capable, a soldier is gained for active duty. SPECIAL TRAINING IN THE SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY.

In October, 1917, a comprehensive project of the greatest interest and importance, looking toward the training of instructors and skilled mechanics for the shipbuilding industry, was undertaken by the Emergency Fleet Corporation of the United States Shipping Board. For this purpose, an industrial training section was organized, and at its head was Egbert C. MacNary, who obtained leave of absence from his position as director of industrial education in Springfield, Mass.

The object in view was to organize a training department in each shipyard, at the head of which was placed a director in full charge of all matters pertaining to the training or breaking in of workers and general supervision of the training department. It was understood that it would be necessary to allow the director and his staff of instructors to be free from the usual duties of production foremen, in order to devote their entire time and energies to training men.

It early became apparent that the necessary expansion in the shipbuilding program depended absolutely on the creation of increased forces of skilled and semiskilled men. The country was scoured for men having knowledge of any branch of shipbuilding, and yet the supply of mechanics proved utterly inadequate to meet the demands of the Shipping Board. It was decided, therefore, that the necessary increases of working forces must be made through training men, and that the task must be undertaken immediately and on an unprecedented scale.

EXTENT OF DEMAND.

The extent of the demand for skilled workers in the shipbuilding industry was not at first generally appreciated by the public. Until recently the largest shipyard in the United States was one containing five ways. When running at full capacity each way provides employment for approximately 1,000 men, including the contributing shops and drafting rooms. At the time this training plan was undertaken, there was under construction at Hog Island, near Philadelphia, one shipyard consisting of 50 ways. The Emergency Fleet Corporation announced in October, 1918, that fully 60,000 additional men would be required within a few months in the Philadelphia district alone.

The solution of the problem evidently was to take skilled and semiskilled men from kindred trades, in large numbers, and give them short intensive courses of instruction in selected fragments of the shipbuilding trades. Since the typical foreman possesses no special skill in giving instruction to the men who work under him, the first step was to organize for the entire chain of shipyards a source of supply of trained directors and instructors.

For this purpose an instructors' training center was established in the plant of the Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., Newport News, Va. Associated with Mr. McNary and in charge of this training center was Charles R. Allen, of Massachusetts.

To this center the cooperating shipyards sent relays of selected men for courses of instruction six weeks in length. In most cases the yards sending the men paid their wages and expenses while in attendance. For one-half of each day the men were instructed in the methods and devices of teaching. During the other half they were employed in

actually instructing groups of workers in the yard, under the supervision of the training staff. When the men completed this preparation they returned to their yards to set up training classes for breaking in new men and for advancing employees from their present jobs to those requiring greater skill.

Students of industrial education will await with great interest detailed reports of the means and methods employed in this project and the results achieved.

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN THE NAVY.

The section on education in a recent report of the Secretary of the Navy presents a phase of activity not generally appreciated by the civilian. The following passages are quoted:

Every man in the Navy is a student, from the Admiral in the War College to the midshipman at the Naval Academy and the apprentice in the training station and afloat. The beneficial result of the whole educational system in the Navy is that theoretical knowledge is almost immediately put into practice. * The man who does not wish to go to school ought not to knock at any door in the naval service. The Navy is the greatest educational institution in America, and in it theory is valued only as it is put into practice.

men.

*

The Navy offers a wide variety of industrial courses to ambitious young * In the electrical schools at the Brooklyn and Mare Island Navy Yards the course of instruction comprises machine-shop work, reciprocating steam engines, steam turbine engines, internal-combustion engines, magnetism and electricity, dynamos, motor generators, alternating currents, and the like. In the radio group there is thorough practice in the radio mechanism for receiving and sending. In the Artificer School at the Norfolk Navy Yard men are taught to be shipwrights, shipfitters, blacksmiths, painters, and plumbers. Both at Newport, R. I., and San Francisco are yeomanry schools, where the men are perfected for the clerical work of the Navy, to become expert stenographers, typewriters, bookkeepers, etc.1

In addition, there is the Hospital Corps, with schools at Newport and San Francisco. Schools for musicians are located at Norfolk and San Francisco. There are schools for machinists and coppersmiths at Charleston, and commissary schools at Newport and San Francisco. The school of aeronautics is located at Pensacola, and the gunners' school at Newport. Referring to the outlook for the bluejacket, the report well says, "He has the fourfold opportunity of serving his country, learning a trade, improving his mind in study, and travel."

CONFERENCES ON SPECIAL PHASES OF INDUSTRIAL

EDUCATION.

During the period under review the Bureau of Education has conducted a series of important conferences of specialists in indus

1Annual Report of the Secretary of the Navy for the year ending Dec. 1, 1916.