I,5W<, HIGH SCHOOL CONFERENCE PERSONNEL WORK IN M6U SCHOOL I n 1 ■ xrftsfcKp UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS BULLETIN Vol. XXIII Issued Weekly April 27, 1926 No. 34 [Entered as second-class matter December 11, 1912, at the post office at Urbana, Illinois, under the Act of Aueust 24, 1912. Acceptance for mailing at the special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized July 31, 1918.] PERSONNEL WORK IN HIGH SCHOOLS Addresses Delivered at The High School Conference at the University of Illinois, 1925 PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/personnelworkinhOOuniv THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY By Professor W. W. Charters, University of Chicago (Given at the Friday evening session) Ladies and gentlemen: I appreciate the words of welcome of President Kinley and Dean Chadsey. I am glad to be back home again. The development of character in high-school students is equally as im- portant as is the gaining of information. This has been recognized by everyone for generations, and by no one more than the teacher; but we have not given character the major attention which it demands because of the fact that we are committed in America to the incidental teaching of character by indirect methods as the occasion calls for attention to traits of character. Personally, I do not feel that the schools have made a failure of their part of the task of developing character in the youth of the nation, nor do I feel that the youth of this generation is less stable and strong than were the children of my generation. I do feel, however, that the youth of all generations could be better, and that this improvement lies very largely in the power of the home and the school. We need therefore to be inquiring constantly about effective methods of developing character and personality. Proceeding at once to a consideration of the factors which are essential for the development of personality and character in the high school, we find that there are four conditions which need to be met. In the first place, the develop- ment of traits of character is dependent upon desire on the part of the student. No trait will be developed by a student unless he wants to improve. Character is an internal matter which cannot be externally impressed upon the individual. It is possible to give a student some information about algebra without his wanting it very badly, but it is impossible to teach him self-confidence or industry unless he desires to develop these traits. As a consequence of this fact, instruction in manners and morals must have an inspirational element if it is to be effective. The second condition that must be met is that advice must be specific. High-school principals and teachers frequently feel that they have done a good piece of work when they have given the students an inspirational talk upon the value of honesty or of unselfishness. The students may also feel that the advice has been very inspiring, but unless the principles are applied to specific situations, the desire will disappear. It is not enough to teach children the Ten Command- ments and the Golden Rule. These are easy to learn and memorize. A nation becomes moral only when it applies the principles of right living to specific situations. This is an extremely difficult task. A high-school student may know that he ought to be honest and yet may be dishonest in specific situations because he does not know what to do in those situations. On Sunday the pastor in his pulpit may talk to a boy and his mother about the principles of right living, and his advice may be of very great benefit to both; but the mother rather than the minister is the instructor who develops the boy into an effective man. She does this because her advice is specific. As each situation arises, she discusses with her son exactly what should be done in that situation and point by point teaches him how to live a good life. The third condition is this. In the high school advisors must be available who take pleasure in personal contacts with the boys and girls and who have the ability to inspire confidence in their opinions and advice. This confidence arises from three major traits — friendliness, strength of conviction, and resource- fulness. Any counsellor, as any doctor, has first of all to establish in his clientele the feeling that he is friendly, strong, and resourceful. The students must look up to the teacher, and the teacher must have a deep interest in the students, [3] It is obvious therefore that not all teachers can be developers of character and personality. They may not be particularly fond of boys and girls; they may have no strength of conviction; or they may lack in resourcefulness. It is my impression that at the present time not more than half of the faculty of the typical school have the interest or the ability to guide students in the intimate and fundamental problems of adolescent life. Consequently, the administrator — the high-school principal — cannot install a wholesale system of character develop- ment and expect it to be successful. He does not have enough teachers who are prepared to make such a plan possible. Rather, his program for character devel- opment must be built around those individuals on his faculty who are fitted, either by nature or through education, to carry on this work. The fourth condition is this. Training in personality and character is dependent upon the full cooperation of all the individuals concerned. When a case of maladjustment arises, it usually happens that its cure requires the cooper- ation of other teachers, and frequently, of the home and the community as well. If, for instance, a boy decides to be more industrious, all the teachers must cooperate in watching for signs of improvement. Sometimes the boy's difficulty lies in the fact that he is an only child with the consequent result that the mother and father are the ones who need to be trained. On other occasions the difficulty may lie in bad associates, and only when this condition has been cleared up will improvement be found. These are four conditions which need to be met if character and personality are to be effectively developed in the high school. The student must have the desire, or be stimulated to have the desire, to improve his conduct; the advice given must be specific; satisfactory advisors must be available; and cooperation between all the agencies that effect the boy must be secured. When these conditions are met, we find three methods by which personality is developed in the high school. These may be called indirect class instruction, direct class instruction, and individual instruction. Indirect class instruction is the most common of the three. Through the subjects of the course of study and through extra-curricular activities, it is possible to develop those traits of personality which are necessary in order that the work may function properly. For example, in mathematics, speed and accu- racy and ability to reason may be developed; or in history, openmindedness, scholarliness, and ability to memorize may be improved. In addition to this, instruction may be given indirectly. For instance, in Boston, Massachusetts, and Elgin, Illinois, courses in the development of char- acter, morals, or manners have been constructed with definite class periods assigned for instruction in connection with general topics. A rather surprising number of cases in which state and city systems use this direct attack have been collected. It must be remembered that in this direct attack upon problems of char- acter, all the conditions that we have heretofore laid down must be met. If the student does not have the desire to develop the trait, class instruction will be futile. If the advice is not specific, if the teachers are not sympathetic, or if cooperation cannot be secured, conditions will be worse through the application of the direct attack than if it were not made at all. If, however, these conditions can be met to a reasonable degree, much is to be gained from the systematic and direct attack. Attention is thereby called at least to the necessity for certain virtues, and time is saved in the dissemination of information by talking to a group rather than to an individual. The third method of character development is widely used and extremely interesting. It has to do essentially with the problem of the maladjusted child. Specifically, the boy or girl has gotten into trouble. Sometimes this difficulty has [4] advanced so far that the courts have been called upon to intervene. More fre- quently, the maladjustment is very much simpler. This is a field in which a great deal can be done without in any way modifying the present machinery of the schools. For the use of this method much valuable information can be secured from juvenile delinquency agencies, as described in Healy's "The Ju- venile Delinquent" and "Honesty" and in the Judge Baker Foundation "Cases." These agencies present us with a quite thorough-going technique which can be used to the extent that it is needed in the high school. Specifically, in studying problem cases in the high school the following factors should be considered in so far as each has a bearing upon the case. The ancestry °f the child may be of importance; his developmental history must be considered in some cases; the home and neighborhood conditions and influences are frequently contributing causes; the interests and companions of the student need examination; and always his school history should be examined to deter- mine whether it can throw any light upon the causes of his maladjustment. Frequently, the trouble may be physical rather than mental or moral. It is also extremely important that one should know his mental characteristics through certain formal or informal psychological examinations. (If, for instance, the child is a high-grade moron rather than a superior student, the method of treatment will need to be varied. His emotional stability is likewise a significant element in the situation.) Traits of personality must be taken into account and are conditioning factors in the method of cure. Finally, the student's own story should be secured in order to get his side of the case. With all the facts obtained from these sources before the adviser, it is then possible for him to reach a diagnosis and develop a method of cure. A thorough- going diagnosis is absolutely essential to intelligent therapeutic methods. Snap judgments concerning the cause of the maladjustment are not only futile but may be damaging to the character of the student. It is necessary to bore into the boy or girl in order to find out just what the specific difficulty is. In conclusion, the gist of what I have to say is this. It is within the power of the high-school principal and teacher to lay greater emphasis upon the devel- opment of the personality and character of adolescent boys and girls. Teachers of special subjects can do this by emphasizing traits and ideals in connection with the work of the course. The faculty should consider the advisability of installing a systematic course in manners and morals. Particularly, the faculty should be stimulated to make extremely careful studies of problems of individual maladjusted children. In all of this work, however, it is of special importance that the four conditions mentioned should be borne in mind. The children must be inspired to develop high traits of character; the advice given them must be very simple and specific; advisers with an interest in the development of children must be secured and trained; and finally, the cooperation of the school, the home, and the community must be secured. The problem of character development is so important that any school which does not consider it and develop effective plans is thereby placed upon the defensive. Those faculties that attack the problem enthusiastically and intelli- gently will leave an indelible imprint upon the social and political character of the next generation. PERSONNEL WORK WITH GIRLS An address given by Maria E. Leonard, Dean of Women, University of Illinois (Given at the Friday evening session) Mr. Hollister has asked me to speak on my methods of dealing with young women. The thought comes to me that methods like blessings cannot be [5] bestowed but, as the poet said, must be evolved. So I am speaking individually to each teacher tonight to tell you that they cannot come from the outside or from some other person, but must come from the inside of yourself. There are many things which I wish to say tonight, but time forbids more than pointing the direction as it were. Odds Against Which We Are Working Looking at the world outside let us look for a moment at the odds against which we are working. When I say "we" I mean both teacher and pupil. The youth of today, we are all agreed, are overstimulated. Remember, this is not their fault. We are responsible for this. They were born into our world, yours and mine, which you and I have created. The world for the past quarter of a century has been creating nerves instead of nerve. Life with some of our youth toda}' has ceased to be a steady progression. When to a youth at the age of sixteen too much stimulus has come, too much life has been lived for sixteen tender years, life as a whole ceases to be a progression and there are dull dis- appointing days ahead. Your job and mine is to keep youth in steady progress, to teach them to differentiate between speed and progress. We cannot blame them if they get confused and bewildered at times with the world today. We ourselves do. A friend of mine said that his grandfather came from the East to Illinois behind an ox cart, making the unbelievable speed of ten miles a day. He knew where he was going; he made ten miles each day; and he got to Illinois. That was real progress. Our youth of today can step into a car; can step onto the gas; go sixty miles per hour and perhaps go up a tree or down a gully. That is speed. So I repeat your job and mine is to see that their progress is steady; is to see that life for them is a constant progression from youth through middle life to the three score years and ten. Another thing against which you and I are working is the ever increasing leisure of America. We are rapidly eliminating time and space. To "Save time" seems to be the slogan in America. What are we doing with this time which we save? America has already been brought from a twelve hour day to eight, and there is discussion of bringing it down to four. Are we training our youth to meet this great leisure time which the American Republic is forcing on its people? Thirty-six million hours a day, statisticians tell us, are spent in the movies. America's greatest concern at the present time, as one of her statesmen has said, is to guard her civilization from degenerating from too much leisure. How are we meeting this trend in our industrial and social life today? How are we preparing our youth to meet this trend of life today, which your generation and mine are creating? Another great disadvantage against which youth is flung is our shrinking home life. The American home is shrinking. Hot overheated apartments are taking the place of backyards and the red barns. The street, the movie, and the automobile are the plaj^ground today of our American youth. Nay, even more tragic than this is the disintegrating home life of our country. It is needless for me to quote recent statistics relative to fewer marriages and more divorces. Out of every four marriages there is one divorce. Does this account in any small way in your mind for the restlessness of the young people today? Roger Babson our great business expert and statistician says — these are his figures not mine — that more money has been spent in the last three and one-half years for automobiles than has been spent for homes in the last one hundred fifty years. That is what we as teachers are working against today. This is the cause in my mind of the restless reflex we feel in the lives of the school aged child. [6] The great mortality of the high school is another one of the odds we are striving to overcome for one-half to four-fifths of the youth who enter the high school never finish. What becomes of this vast group of young people who are turned out into the world with less than a high school education? Do we expect too much of the youth? I fear we do. We expect a boy of sixteen to set up a radio and tune in on California or Australia at the most untimely hours. We expect him to drive his own car and repair it. We expect him to go to school and many times to earn his way, holding two positions. That is more than we are doing. Again let me ask, are we crowding the life of our young people too full in this present age? I fear we are. Our Working Material "Youth" I want to describe to you teachers here this evening the intensity of the "teen" time. This is the time of life which is the most misunderstood because of the following reasons: A youth at this age has shot up all at once into a "looming individuality." He has evolved as it were into a new personality. He does not understand anyone, much less himself. He is a new individual born in a new world. He is awkward, self-conscious; he does not know what he thinks, and he does not believe what anyone else thinks. The world is a new place to him. Let me remind you again that this change comes suddenly. At this time he is antagonistic to his teacher; he is antagonistic to his parents. This is the most baffling period of his whole life, this sudden change into manhood. This is the time when he needs someone to be infinitely firm and infinitely gentle at the same time. The spirit of wondering, of solving mysteries comes to him at this age when discounting others opinions he is ready to try the world for himself. It is with this budding manhood and womanhood that you and I have to deal. This is the impressionable age, when the impressions of life are likely to become permanent. He has suddenly awakened to the fact that he lives in a social world, but he does not know how yet to make his human contacts on a high spiritual plane. I never approach my desk any morning with other than a prayerful attitude in my heart that I do not mar with a human touch any life that may cross my threshold this day. Who am I that I undertake to direct a human soul? We cannot afford to think in numbers. Even at the State University here where we see hundreds daily and number our student body over ten thousand, I repeat we cannot afford to think in numbers but must think in personalities. I had a young girl come to me the other day. She said, "I have been waiting over a half-hour for you. I know you are busy, and I feel I must not ask you to stop for something unimportant." I said it is of great importance to me if it is to you. The question was, shall I or shall I not join a sorority. To her perhaps no question more serious will ever come to her in her life, not even that of choosing a husband. Education's Task Now with this task given you and me to direct this baffling "teen" age between thirteen and twenty, what is the task of education? First, let us ask what is education? Education is a process and not a goal. "It is a process whereby youth is brought to his best self-realization." One of our late statesmen has said, "The object of college is not scholarship but the intellectual and spir- itual life. I mean by the intellectual and spiritual life, that life which enables the mind to comprehend and make proper use of the modern world and all of its opportunities." "It is the duty of each generation," as one philosopher has said, "to place mind above senses in each succeeding generation." Education should [7] be a recreating force, a recurring process if you will. It should be a process whereby each human being is brought to the blossom stage. I have met some young people at the age of sixteen or seventeen, whom I considered in full bloom. I have also met some Ph.D.'s on University faculties still in the "bulb" stage. The task of education is to strengthen the inside braces. A senator once voted for a measure which was against the public welfare. Meeting a friend on the streets of Washington next day he was asked why he had voted for a measure which was detrimental to the welfare of the people at large. He answered, "The outside pressure was so great." The minister asked, "Where were your inside braces?" Education's task then, its raison d'etre is to build character, and I mean by this to teach youth to see, to choose wisely, to act with his best judgment at all times, to strengthen the inner reserves, to meet an emergency with calmness and self-control, to implant in the heart of youth the greatest moral fact; namely, that "when life degenerates its highest function, its highest capacities are sacri- ficed first " What Must a Teacher's Life Reflect? Having in mind this manifold task of education, what must we as teachers have in our lives to meet this obligation, if all this be true? First, we must have an unbounded faith in folks. When you have faith you do not fear, and when you have fear you cannot have faith. I have no fear of youth, but I must acknowledge that sometimes in my heart I have a great fear of the parents' capability of directing youth. Secondly, a teacher must have a boundless love for his work which returns a boundless joy in his life. He must take life both seriously and joyously. Enthusiasm is the best hill climber that I have 'ever found in my fifteen years experience as dean. Thirdly, there must be within the teacher's heart a creative force for creating these ideals in the hearts of the youth; the force that will awaken the student to his own realization of the fact that he alone is responsible for his life success whether he becomes a fit or a misfit in the world. Lastly, the teacher should have, besides the enumerable things which I cannot enumerate, sincerity. His life should be "sine cera" without wax. When I was visiting in Florence I found a beautiful marble table in a garden of a Florentine gentleman's home who was my host at that time. When I asked why there were large cracks in the beautiful slab top, he said the Roman marble cutters when making a table oft times chiseled too deep causing the marble to crack. They filled the cracks with wax, polished the tops and sold them. The Roman people discovered this and they began to ask for tables "sine cera," without wax. From this you readily see we inherit our word sincere. What can we as teachers do? Nay, what must we do? We must not only make youth do right, we must make them love to do right. We must inspire students to effort. "Effort is the price of everything." We must instill in them the right attitude to work, law and obedience. Secretary Jardine, the Secretary of Agriculture, says, "Don't give the child a lickin', give him responsibility." This is finely "directed expression rather than repression." It is as one lover of boys has said, this harnesses his energy into positive lines rather than quells it. So in summing up our task, yours and mine, with all the odds against which we are forced to work, with the intensity of treacherous "teen" time, with this subtle process which we call education, — the most that any teacher can do is to never touch a life of a young person carelessly or hurriedly. Always connect him with one or more fundamentals of right living, such as truth, justice, honesty, fairness of the game, tolerance, and reverence. Pray as Soloman prayed for an understanding heart, that he may never mar a growing personality with a human touch. — "Think on these things." [8] PERSONNEL WORK Abstract of an Address by Dean C. E. Chadsey (Given before the Administrative Section} One who is fairly well informed in the history of education, particularly in the development of public education in the United States, is apt to receive with a certain degree of skepticism and possibly with some amused cynicism the vari- ous "new ideas" presented from time to time, and not infrequently securing a large following in educational circles. As he considers things which have happened in the past, he is apt to be influenced by analogies which educational theories or practices emphasized in the past and which have long since ceased to be empha- sized bear to new propositions prominent in educational discussions and prac- tices. Not infrequently he remembers that similar suggestions proved complete failures. In other widely advertised reforms he fails at first to see any new features sufficiently significant to warrant their renewed emphasis. While this attitude is inevitable and while sometimes the facts justify this cynical or skeptical attitude, in many other cases even where striking analogies may be discovered, a more comprehensive understanding of the situa- tion reveals the fact that these things really have elements of strength and desirability when compared with conditions existing in earlier periods. I am one of those who question very strongly whether our educational system at the present time prepares young people for their responsibilities in life and their duties as citizens more effectively than the simple educational system of earlier decades. In fact, there is not infrequently room for serious question as to whether the product of the school systems can be said on the whole to be quite as well prepared for their future lives and careers as was true in the past. All things considered, however, I am not prepared to admit the correctness of the last assertion. My belief is that our public school systems have met their increasing responsibilities with willingness and intelligence despite the flood of adverse criticism which particularly in recent years has been launched against them. The fact is that economic and social conditions have increased in com- plexity so rapidly during the last century that our public school systems have had an almost impossible task in trying to reorganize their curricula and atti- tudes toward their work with sufficient rapidity to meet effectively the new demands made upon them. It necessarily follows that elaborate curricula and complicated systems of administration and specialized activities and agencies must be developed if our public school system even maintains the former efficiency, much less advance in effectiveness. What I have been saying, in my judgment, applies to the whole subject of personnel work. One would be foolish to insist that in the periods before the subject of personnel work began to find a place of prominence in educational gatherings, nothing had been appreciated by public school teachers and admin- istrators as to the importance of giving attention to the individual needs of the child. In the earlier years of the 19th century, education was very largely an individual matter. While the Lancaster monitorial system did emphasize the practicability of educating students in large groups with uniform work for all, this system was introduced only in a few of the larger cities. As far as the United States as a whole is concerned, it was not until the general acceptance of the modern graded school system that serious danger developed that those in charge of the education of the young might forget the individual in the effort to educate the mass. Almost immediately the danger to the individual incident to mass instruction began to be discussed and various devices to lessen the danger of losing sight of the individual have been put into operation in most of our school systems. Thirty years ago, coexistent with the emphasis which was laid upon [9] child study, school people everywhere were asking themselves "how can we so adjust and modify our work that the peculiar abilities and needs of the pupil may be met and he be prepared best to become a reputable self-supporting citizen?" Again, a similar attention to the varied abilities, habits, and attitudes of school children was made when we began seriously to consider the problems arising out of the adoption and use of standardized tests, the various forms of educational, measurement, intelligence and achievement tests. All of these efforts to give prominence to the fact that the child was an individual with a future somewhat different from that of any other child can be considered as akin to personnel work of some kind. This is true in spite of the fact that many of the discussions centering around these difficulties of graded school systems, the need for individual instruction and the significance of educational and intelligence tests gave little attention to the specific work for which the individual was destined, and that the phrase "vocational guidance" received really little emphasis. Perhaps this long extended discussion arose in part through the fear that many economic thinkers felt that the United States was destined to lose ground in the struggle for industrial and commercial supremacy if more attention were not given to a type of training which would result in an ample supply of skilled workmen leaving our schools from year to year to meet the demands of industry and commerce. At any rate, as a result of the serious consideration given to these problems, the need for specific vocational training began to receive more careful thought, both on the part of the public school administrators and of the public at large. This, of course, again is connected very remotely with personnel work. In fact, one might say with propriety that the type of arguments used during that period of educational reorganization might have resulted in an elimination of the needs of the individual in favor of the emphasis upon the needs of industry and commerce. In actual application, however, all discussions on voca- tional education made by schoolmen were bound in the long run to have this problem considered from the educational rather than from the economic point of view. Recognition of the need for vocational guidance developed concurrently with the recognition of the need for vocational or technical training. A better enforcement of compulsory education laws is another factor which has emphasized the need for some kind of intelligent guidance of a large group of young people who are being retained by the public schools up to and beyond the point where vocation begins to be significant. School people have not been slow to realize that the presence of these children brought a decidedly new responsibility to them. So frequently they discovered that no intelligent thought was being given either by the children or their parents as to the relative value in terms of the future of the occupations into which the child might enter. The more thoughtful among administrators, together with citizens who have developed a sense of responsibility for the welfare of the younger generation, have joined in the study of the problems of employment and have begun to develop vocational guidance bureaus, placement agencies and other devices designed to prevent so far as possible the terrible wastage so often resulting from the carelessness with which young people enter into the self-supporting age. All of the resources of sociology, economics and psychology have been drawn upon in the effort to develop genuinely effective methods of assuring as efficient and as worthwhile* employment for the young person as his ability and training permit. Many of the ideas are still being played with. There remains danger that' some individuals may place altogether too much confidence in specific methods designed to determine vocational adaptability and therefore assume responsibilities greater than he has a right to assume in the task of directing the future activities of the young person. [10] The enormous increase of attendance in the high schools of our cities has resulted in magnificent institutions for boys and girls in the adolescent age. In perfect harmony with the modified social life due to greater labor saving devices and other modern conveniences these large groups have developed a social com- plexity requiring new methods of treatment and bringing new kinds of responsi- bilities to those in charge. Various methods of meeting the problem "how can we most wisely guide these young people in their social and intellectual develop- ment" have been devised. It is perhaps too early yet to predict as to the fully perfected administrative organization adapted to meet these new responsibilities. We now have in most large schools a dean of girls. Only a few years ago no high school assumed that there was need of such an official. Her tremendous value in guiding these girls and directing them along worth while lines is recog- nized everywhere. A similar officer for boys is being found with increasing fre- quency. Whether an organization as formal as this will be found in the long run to be more effective than plans centering responsibilities of these kinds for smaller groups with larger numbers of personnel work as merely an effort to systematically perform under extremely complicated conditions the duties which in earlier years were effectively met by the intimate relationship existing between principal, teacher and students, we will have, I think, the true key to the attitude which we should assume toward the whole question of personnel work. Certainly we can do better with large groups by having our work systematically and scien- tifically organized. Certainly individuals who by personal aptitude and specific training have fitted themselves to be genuine experts in carrying on this personnel work will accomplish more that is worth while than is secured by the sporadic efforts of the teacher untrained in personnel work and the superin- tendent and principal overwhelmed with administrative duties. PERSONNEL WORK AS A FACTOR IN BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN SCHOOL AND INDUSTRIAL LIFE Arthur H. Carver, Chicago (Read before the Administrative Section) There is a gap between school and industrial life. This results in maladjust- ment when young people leave school to enter industry, whether they are grad- uates or not. The fact that such maladjustment really exists on a large scale is demon- strated by the heavy labor turnover which all branches of commerce and industry show among young men and women up to twenty-five years of age. It is further shown by the individual histories of young applicants for positions, many of whom hold from three to five or more different jobs during the first two years after leaving school. This condition presents a serious problem to industry because of the cost of training which labor turnover involves and the generally impaired morale which results among young employes. It presents an equally serious problem to the young people themselves because it causes them to lose time in getting started upon settled careers, develops a habit of instability, creates discourage- ment, and frequently results in failures or only partial successes being achieved where real successes might have been possible. Maladjustment between schools and industry is due in a large measure to incorrect mental attitudes held by young people at the time when they leave school. Too often they have an inadequate comprehension of the industrial environment which they are about to enter which leads them to expect things which they do not find and to find other things which they do not expect. A [11] more or less unsatisfactory period of disillusionment follows which creates discon- tent and frequently serious consequences both to individuals and to society. The necessity for such disillusionment may be largely avoided by careful personnel work both in our schools and in industry itself. Systematic effort, based upon accurate knowledge of actual conditions in the business world, should be made by our schools to prepare young people for the transition they are about to make, and similar efforts should be made by commercial and industrial firms to continue this process from the moment the new employe enters service. This is a major function of personnel work and can only be accomplished satisfactorily by the joint efforts of educational institutions and industry. Effective personnel work in our schools and colleges demands that it be placed in charge of properly qualified people, that it be conducted in the right way, and that it be done at the right time. In any educational institution, personnel work should be placed in general charge of a mature person whose character, personality, and past achievements are such as to command the respect of boys and girls. Preferably it should be a man rather than a woman, but it is essential that it be one of broad human sympathies and well balanced judgment who is a good organizer. He should be a person of large vision who will realize that every scholar who enters the school is legitimately to be regarded as a product of that school whether he continues until he completes his course or not. Such a personnel officer will not conceive the field of his labors as being confined to the graduating class or to those who are taking any particular course but will include the whole student body within the scope of his activities. If anything, he will pay even greater attention to those who seem likely to drop out by the wajr and hence must be thrown on society without the full educational advantages which the school might otherwise afford. Moreover, the ideal personnel officer in a school will realize that he is not alone in this work, but will rather regard himself as the head of a staff which includes every one of his fellow teachers on the faculty. He will insistently drive this thought home at every opportunity, demanding that every instructor be his assistant. He will be an eternal apostle of the idea that it is the true function of every teacher to teach boys and girls rather than to teach subjects. No small or easy part of his job will be that of showing his faculty associates that every subject, whether it be English or History where the relation is easy to see or Algebra, French, and Stenography where it is more difficult, is but a tool whose greatest value, after all, lies in the opportunity which it affords for inculcating the great fundamental truths of life into the youthful mind. The methods by which personnel work can be most effectively conducted will naturally vary in schools of different type, size, and location. There are, however, a few general principles which are more or less applicable in all cases. First, personnel work must be primarily personal work if it is to achieve anything approaching maximum results. There is a great tendency to over em- phasize the use of forms and card files. There must, of course, be records sufficient in amount and nature to enable the director of personnel to keep well posted at all times regarding the whole situation which confronts him. It is easy, however, to allow the number of these to become excessive so that keeping them up re- quires undue time and attention and interferes seriously with the real purpose whose accomplishment is sought. It must be borne in mind that neither the keeping of records nor even their analysis is personnel work itself but only a more or less necessary preliminary to the performance of the true personnel func- tion. It has often happened that this function has become obscured through the well meant but ill advised development of statistical data to such a point that the whole procedure has become cold, lifeless, and devoid of any genuine human [12] contact with the boys and girls whose vital problems of every day living have called it into existence. It is tremendously important that the personnel director shall be a human being first and a statistician afterward. The most effective tool of the personnel worker is the personal interview. Through it the boys, girls, and their prospective employers become real people to him instead of mere names. Through it he impresses his personality upon them and they impress theirs upon him. In the small school it is usually not difficult to make the necessary number of contacts with pupils to insure intelli- gent handling of each one's individual case. In larger institutions a more serious problem is presented. It is here that the personnel director must make large use of the other teachers on the staff of instructors, often working through them in the first stages and having referred to himself only the more pressing and unusual cases. Group contacts offer a valuable means whereby friendly relations may be established and much wholesome advice imparted. The personnel director should be a member of the local Chamber of Com- merce or Board of Trade and should cultivate a wide acquaintance among its members. It should be a definite part of his program to visit at least occasionally the industries, mercantile establishments, and other places of business in his community where pupils from his school are frequently employed. Such visits should not be left until near the close of the year when the necessity for placing large numbers is close at hand but should be kept up all through the year. Only in this way can business executives be convinced of the fact that the school is interested in the successful performance of the product which it puts out as well as in the mere problem of getting jobs for each new crop that matures. Such visits to industrial and commercial firms should not be mere aimless contacts but should be conducted according to a carefully arranged plan of pro- cedure. The time should not all be spent in the office of the employment manager. A considerable part of it should be devoted to a thorough inspection of working conditions. Much good may be done if the mode of introducing new employes to their work is inquired into and discussed. The personnel director should not hesitate to make it plain that he bases his estimate of the value of a job not so much upon the initial salary that is paid as upon a number of other factors. A really good opportunity for a boy or girl who seeks to enter upon a business career demands that the firm offering it be engaged in a reputable business, that it be stable in its organization and reasonably conservative in its policies, that it follow the practice of developing its own executives and promoting them from within, that it have a definite system of seeking out and finding prospective ability at an early stage and training it for the assumption of greater responsi- bilities, and that the working conditions in general show a due regard for the health and comfort of its employes. When employers once realize that young people are being taught in our schools to place a high valuation upon all of these things in choosing a vocation, they cannot in self defense do otherwise than give close attention to the establishment of sound practices in these respects if they hope to attract into their working forces the most intelligent and most capable young material. All this can and, indeed, must be done in a spirit of friendliness. It is neither necessary nor desirable that the personnel director should appear to be dictating terms to the employer. A frank statement of the type of position in which the school likes to see its pupils employed is sufficient. All of the things which we have mentioned are generally regarded today as sound business policies and cannot lay the school official open to the charge of being impractical or visionary on the part of any real progressive business man. [13] One of the foremost aims of personnel work should be to create among young men and women right mental attitudes toward the new phase of life which they are soon destined to enter. The personnel director can do much along this line himself both in personal interviews with pupils and in talks to groups of them. The ideas which he desires to inculcate should be explained and, to use the business man's own term, thoroughly sold to every member of the teaching staff so that they may be alert to pass them along at every opportunity. Among the most vitally important of these ideas which influence the atti- tude of young people toward their part in the world's work is that of the per- manent satisfaction that comes from service well rendered in a vocation that benefits society. Money is not everything. Indeed, it is very little so far as the genuine joy of living is concerned if its acquisition is not accompanied by the consciousness that it has been received for value delivered in a worthy cause. In these days there is a dangerous tendency, not only among young people but among some of their elders as well, toward the doctrine that one of the chief purposes of education is to enable the person who possesses it to make more money in return for less effort than would otherwise be necessary. The doctrine is fatally wrong. The practical aim of education is to render the one who receives it capable of larger service. The student who completes his course should regard his diploma not as a certificate entitling him to a life of ease but as a sentence to a lifetime of hard labor. Only in so far as our young manhood and woman- hood becomes filled and thrilled with this ideal may we feel that our American institutions are destined to survive. Again, the attitude of young people needs intelligent shaping with respect to the responsibility which they owe to their employers when they have once entered their service. As soon as such a relation has been established the young employe's time during working hours belongs to his employer. It is his duty to set aside all private and social interests during the hours when he is employed and devote all of his energies to the performance of his work. Tardiness, unnec- essary absence, unduly prolonged lunch hours, and the making or discussion of social engagements all represent time stolen from the employer. It is as much the laborer's duty to be worthy of his hire as it is the employer's to see that he is properly recompensed for his services. A third point upon which the mental attitude of many of our youthful recruits in industry is at fault is in regard to the true basis of promotion and salary increases. The idea is quite prevalent that these things are related pri- marily to the calendar. It is a common experience for every Employment Man- ager to be asked by applicants for positions, "How long will it be before I will get a raise?" or "Will I get an increase in salary at the end of six months?" Their idea seems to be that length of service is the all important factor. Now, employes are not given salary advances merely for hanging around. Length of service is, of course, taken into consideration, but the determining factor is and quite properly should be the value of the service which is being rendered. (Story about being underpaid.) There is food for thought in that incident. A principle is involved which is vitally important. It should be brought home to every young man and woman while still in school that when they get out into the business world their progress will depend upon their ability to keep themselves underpaid. The moment a person in any position reaches the point where he is unable to render his services worth more than the salary which he is then receiving, progress stops. The ambi- tious boy who realizes this fact from the start will set about the task of putting [14] himself in the ranks of the underpaid as quickly as possible each time promotion comes to him. To be overpaid is fatal to the youth who hopes to get ahead. Perhaps we might sum it all up by saying that it is the duty of every per- sonnel director in our schools to keep overlastingly at the job of training young people to take the long look ahead. Youth is so prone to take the short look. An immediate temporary advantage is so likely to obscure their vision. This is the natural result of the psychology of childhood. For many people this tendency persists through life. Teachers, above all others, must possess far sighted vision and keep constantly in mind the fact that this is a quality which belongs to few people naturally but must, in most instances, be developed through education. Finally, there is the question of what is the proper time at which personnel work should be done in order to secure maximum results. I have already said thatj it should be continuous throughout the school year. There are, however, certain times which are more suitable than others for doing some phases of the work. This is particularly true in the case of personal interviews both with business men and with pupils in the school. Choose the psychological moment and the psychological setting. Visits to industries and commercial houses should be made by appointment in order to insure the undivided attention of those with whom contacts are to be made. Afternoons are usually more suitable than forenoons. Saturday mornings are especially objectionable. In general, every reasonable effort should be made to arrange for such interviews at times when the employer will not be so involved in other duties as to make it necessary for him to hurry through with the matters which you have to take up with him. All this is fairly obvious. It is not, however, always regarded by personnel workers as being equally necessary to choose the psychological moment for per- sonal interviews with boys and girls in the school. It is not infrequently the case that pupils are summoned for conferences at times that interfere seri- ously with their preparation for recitations or even during recitation periods. When this is done, the pupil cannot be in the most receptive frame of mind for receiving advice nor is he likely to unburden his mind of his own problems and anxieties as freely or completely as he would if the interview was arranged by appointment well ahead of the time when it actually takes place. Particularly difficult are those cases where pupils are severing their connec- tion with the school because of low grades and general inability to fit successfully into the school regime. These are the misfits in school life, and they are very likely to become misfits in industrial life as well unless very carefully handled. It is of the utmost importance that the personnel director should follow the scholastic records of all pupils from the beginning of the year so as to be in a position to anticipate these cases before the situation becomes extremely acute. Vocational guidance work should be begun early with them rather than delayed until the actual crisis is reached, for when this time comes the departing pupil usually feels that he has made a failure in the eyes of his teachers and is often none too well disposed toward them. On the other hand, if friendly, sympathetic relations with the personnel director are of long standing, much may still be accomplished to make his transition into the business world more satisfactory. Let us bear in mind, in closing, that the records of industry show that many young people have eventually risen to positions of honor and responsibility whose school records did not seem to warrant the prediction of success while, on the other hdnd, others who entered industry with the highest recommendations have failed to make good. These facts indicate that the qualities which make for success in business are not identical with those that produce high grades in school. The assumption is sometimes made that the later business successes of those who were failures in school are due to the fact that after leaving school [15] these young people have completely changed their habits over what fchey were during their school days. Doubtless this may be true in some cases, but the fact remains that many instances can be explained only on the supposition that busi- ness success depends upon factors some of which are not measured in the grading systems ordinarily in use in educational institutions. This situation offers a fruit- ful field for personnel research. How may these factors be identified, discovered, evaluated, and measured? Until these questions can be answered with some degree of scientific certainty, personnel workers should be very conservative about predicting either success or failure for school pupils on the mere basis of scholarship and deportment records. THE STUDY OF MENTAL AND PHYSICAL GROWTH BY REPEATED MEASUREMENTS Dr. Edward A. Shaw, Harvard University (Read before the Administrative Section) The study of mental and physical growth by repeated measurements which I am to report is called the Growth Study and is in charge of Dr. Walter F. Dearborn of the Graduate School of Education of Harvard University. The study really began to take shape back in 1905 when repeated marks of the same children were recorded over a period of ten years in Wisconsin under Dr. Dear- born's direction. Wissler and others applied this principle to physical measure- ments. In 1909, at Dearborn's suggestion, Baldwin began to make repeated physical measurements on a group of children. In 1912 Dearborn started to gather material for an intelligence test, a reading test, and an arithmetic test, and because he intended to use them in a series of repeated measurements, he took particular care in their standardization. For this purpose he selected several towns which might be called representative American towns, and gave these tests to all the children in each town. The standards thus obtained have needed very little adjustment up to the present time. In the spring of 1921 the Commonwealth Fund of New York City gave a subvention to Dr. Dearborn for a study of the growth of children by repeated measurements. In the fall of 1921 the work was organized and it was planned to include in the study the mesaurement of 1000 children, estimating that the mortality during ten years might be around 50%. That would leave 500 pupils to go through the study. At a later date, however, it was decided to increase the number of children involved and finally three towns were chosen together with the State School at Waverly, as a basis of the study making about 3500 children in all. Our three years' experience already has shown an average mortality of 10% each year. If this continues, we should have about 39% of the children with us at the end of the ten year period, that is at least over 1000 pupils. After the Staff had been chosen, the members were trained to make the following measurements and observations: Intelligence, by means of group and individual tests. School accomplishment by means of standard tests checked by teachers' judgments and observations. Ossification of the carpal bones, by measurement of x-ray pictures. Height, weight, body proportions, and general physical condition, etc. The task of procuring the material brought forth many interesting situations, but school boards and superintendents were found who were willing to co- operate with us. At first we had to be satisfied with 20 or 30 x-ray pictures in one day, and when we made a record of 70 by working five or six hours, it seemed [16] as though we could improve it but little in the future. In the physical measure- ments on the day that we had succeeded in measuring 40 children we felt quite satisfied with our record, and the same applied to the dental work. But after two years' of careful attention to the development of a technique in the various departments we found that it was possible, working on a carefully planned Schedule, to take 1054 x-ray pictures in 3^ hours, and to establish a general average time of 7 seconds to one child. In making the physical measurements, when each man became skilled in his particular task, the measurements of 450 children were completed in 4}£ hours. For instance, in a school which we examined last week, we found the children on the three-platoon basis. By taking the physical measurements on the first platoon and then the x-ray's on the first and second platoons, then the physical measurements on the second and third platoons, and then the x-ray's on the third platoon, we fund it possible to x-ray and measure 150 children in about two hours without asking the Principal of the school to change the time schedule. By means of a rather complicated system of tracing the children, at the end of the measurement period the group is able to return to the office with every child accounted for. In the office the various derived measurements are obtained and checked, and then everything is recorded on master cards, one for each child on our list. Starting with half a dozen people, our corps has developed in numbers until now we require 25 workers in order to gather the data and record them on the master cards. This group consists of the regular members of the Staff of the Psycho-Educational Clinic, Research Assistants, an experienced roentgenologist, an experienced dentist, and volunteer workers from among the student body. All of these people have been "tried by fire" before being selected for the group. Certain special studies have already been made of the material which has been gathered, and while they do not represent the final answers to the questions with which the Growth Study was started, they do point to certain very interest- ing and valuable final results which may be expected. A monograph and an unpublished article by Dr. D. A. Prescott show the following results: "Of the 55 individuals below 80 in I. Q., only 16, or 29%, had anatomic indices above the medians proper for their ages and sexes while 71% had anatomic indices below the median. On the other hand, of the 110 individuals having I. Q.'s above 110, 70, or 64%, had anatomic indices' above the medians of their ages and sexes, while only 40, or 36%, had anatomic indices below the median. Again of the 532 children in the normal group with I. Q.'s between .80 and 1.10, 301, or 51%, had I. Q.'s above the norm, and 291, or 49%, had anatomic indices below the norm. This seems to show that when an individual deviates from the normal in mental development, he also tends to deviate from the normal in anatomical development, and that the deviation is in the same direction." "The anatomic index follows mental age more closely than it does chronological age." An as yet unpublished monograph by Dr. H. F. Latshaw, dealing with the results of the physical measurements, indicates that for the chronological years six and seven, at least, physical growth is fairly constant without respect to mental development, and shows a method of appraising at least five different components of growth through data already obtained by the repeated annual measurements of the same individuals, e. g., "A person of symmetrical superior physical development who early enters the adolescent period tends to have superior mental development." "Of all the physical measurements, leg length seems to be one which most closely follows the line of mental development." [17] An unpublished monograph by Dr. Mary M. Wentworth presents the results of 1001 individual mental examinations. (Case studies.) An unpublished monograph b} r Dr. E. A. Lincoln discusses interestingly sex differences in mental and physical development. In preparation is a study of the mental and physical development of twins by Professor J. C. Page of the University of Maine. This is based on the measure- ments of about 40 pairs of twins which have thus far been discovered in the investigation, and bids fair to show some extremely interesting results. A study of the so-called Bogue's test, involving more than 1000 cases has not yet revealed important relationships A study of dentition by Miss Psyche Cattell has already revealed extremely interesting relationships between mental and dental growth. Incidentally, we have found upwards of 20 bifid uvulas, a condition that has been said not to exist. In more than 50 cases a supernumerary tooth has been discovered and in one case two extra teeth were found to be present. On extraction, these teeth have proved to be peg-shaped with their roots as hard and white as their crowns. Mr. G. E. Estabrook has in preparation a study of race characteristics. An unpublished study by Mr. G. P. Davis has already revealed an interesting relationship existing between I. Q. and teachers' marks in arithmetic and reading. Another study in preparation by Mr. S. M. Stoke deals with the economic and social influences which surround the children of the Growth Study. Several other studies of different aspects of the main enterprise are well started, and a monograph, soon to be issued by Dr. Dearborn, will summarize all results thus far obtained. We are now in the fourth year of our work and have succeeded in establish- ing methods of procedure through which we expect, at the end of the ten-year period, to establish the answers of practically all of the questions which we set at the beginning of the Study. The vision was Dr. Dearborn's. In making the vision come true, he has developed a technique which will be extremely valuable in other enterprises which may in the future be carried on on this same large scale. [18] ■ UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA