Central High School - Prospectus Yearbook (Flint, MI)

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Where the Schools Fail The older theory of school work was that if a man received a some- what general education, the matter of his particular vocation in life would take care of itself. Emerson somewhere pays tribute to this capable, all around man as one who “teams it, farms it, peddles, keeps a school, edits a newspaper, goes to Congress, buys a township, etc. etc.” There is much in it. Given a thorough general training with the re- sulting ability to work efficiently, and to think exactly, a young man can safely be left to find his own especial vocation. There may be a slight hiatus at the end of his general course, while he is finding his work, or selecting his profession with its special training, but there is no cause for anxiety. He will find himself in time to far out-distance his untrained neighbor. In practice, however, two difficulties present themselves. In the first place, not ten percent of our young men and women stay in school long enough to get anything that can by any stretch of the term be called a general education, and (second) these modern times offer a multitude of vocations that were not known to the men of Emerson’s generation. The old task of fitting round pegs for round holes and square pegs for square holes has been supplanted by the modern Herculean labor of fitting thousand-sided pegs for thousand-sided holes, and finding suit- able holes for pegs of all kinds of shapes. Of course most persons, and most positions are somewhat plastic, and mutual adjustment often takes place without injury to either, but yet the task is apalling. The Occupa- tional Index of the United States Census gives 9,326 gainful occupations in the United States and several of these could well be split into several sub-divisions. Many of the occupations listed are practically unknown to teachers and psychologists. For example open the index to the letter “S.” Between “shooter” and “soldier,” which seem fairly close together, we find no less than twenty-three listed occupations. More than this, while we might form some idea of what is meant by a “shoveler,” a “singer,” or a “smelter,” what possibly is a “skiver,” a “sleever,” a “slubber,” or a “snapper”? Of course, not all of these occupations are open to the youth of every locality, but with the modern ease of transportation that amounts to little. When it is remembered that the best economic adjustment of society as well as the happiness and well-being of the workers depend on each man finding his own work, the problem lumps large. Yet, to date, in the United States, its solution is left largely to chance. Not one boy in twenty even in the high schools knows what he can do or what he wants to do, and, if the observations of a certain New Jersey superintendent of schools are correct for the country at large, not a fifth of those who

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few tears in behalf of the class and himself in regard to leaving “The dear old school” and going into the cold stern world—all right, the deed is did, and we all feel better. But seriously, it is a vast change that will come and one that will influence our lives decidedly. The great question now arises, “What are we going to do?” Some few have already planned. They will go to college to take up an engineering, a literary or a medical course. Others not so fortunate will start in the business world immedi- ately, and still others will get into the housekeeping game. All wish to make a success and all can, but a great number will not, for the simple reason that their prime occupation will be in having a good time. How often is heard in the class room, “Aw! I can’t study today, I guess I can bluff it through.” This is the lack of spirit which makes failures of so many men (and women). Get that and some of the feeble minded non- sense out of the system and put will and perseverence in their place and no one will need to worry whether they Ccin be successful or not. In looking back through old numbers of the prospectus we find in- stances of editors trying to stir up a little interest along the lines of a new high school building. They don’t seem to have done much, and it is with failure staring us in the face that we take up this fight, but there is positively no reason why a building that has stood the strain of forty- one years of service, whose floors and walls shake with the passing of pupils between hours, and which has the name of Noah’s Ark firmly affixed to it should be allowed to stand any longer. It is the custom of the seniors to leave some token of their regard for Flint High School, and we would suggest that the money used for this purpose be turned over to the school board as a nest egg for the foundation of a new build- ing. We have a fine corps of teachers who are seriously handicapped by existing conditions, and contrary to Emerson and others we think that environment has a great deal to do with the spirit and enthusiasm of a school in general. Our editorial attention has been called to a communication in the Flint Daily Journal written by an indignant gentleman, (whose name by the way rhymes with liar). His automobile had been demolished by rowdies, and he writes in a simple forceful style, pleasantly alluding to our high school as a hot bed of “crime.” He gracefully inquires, “Shall we con- tinue to teach our boys nothing but Crime in our high school?” For the benefit of the reading public let us proceed to give a brief word or two concerning the matter. We find of the two hoodlums who committed the aforesaid depredation only one had been a member of the high school at all, and he had apparently learned all the crime necessary in his freshman year, since he has not remained to complete his studies. What a pity! Of course the freshman course in crime is good as far as it goes, but why not give some of the teachers of the upper grades a chance to polish it off? The following departments of our school are worthy of mention: First, the laboratories, the botanical and geological rooms afford vast fields of exploration for crime seekers. Here it is that our boys learn desperate secrets about poisonous plants, one drop of whose juice is warranted to kill at forty rods. Here is stored a veritable arsenal of fossils, pre-historic rocks specially adapted for hurling through French plate windows. Here we find lofty glass cases containing—Oh! dread fact!—Human Bones. A sink is conveniently near with running water to afford facilities to our boys for washing the tell-tale stains from their bloody hands; Secondly: the physical laboratory in charge of a hypocritical Continued on Page 79.

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 think they know, take up eventually the occupation that they had in mind when in school. It is easy to see that some boys are eminently unfit for some callings. A boy without mathematical ability should not study engineering, a boy with no taste for science should not study medicine, a boy hopelessly filthy in his personal habits should scarcely study dentistry, but such observations as this only scratch the surface. What kind of a boy should become a “skiver” or a slubber”? For what occupation are nine out of every ten boys in our schools suited? The honest teacher can only admit that he does not know. This is where the schools, as at present constituted, fall down hard. Can anything be done about it? Perhaps the best answer will be to point out what has been done in a few places, not, however, in the public schools. Mr. S. E. Thompson has used re-action time tests in selecting girls for the work of inspecting steel balls used in ball-bearings. He measured the re-action time of all girls and eliminated those who showed a long time between stimulus and the resulting action. The final out- come was that thirty-five girls did the work formerly done by one hun- dred twenty; the accuracy of the work was increased 66 per cent; the wages of the girls were doubled; the working day was cut from lO1 hours to 8% hours; and the profits of the factory were increased. Doctor Munsterberg of Harvard worked out two very interesting tests; one for street car motor men, and the other for telephone girls. The motor men were examined by means of a somewhat complicated piece of laboratory apparatus for the purpose of testing their powers of sus- tained attention and correct discrimination with respect to a rapidly changing panamora of objects, some moving at different rates of speed parrallel to the line of vision of the subject and others crossing it from right to left. The results showed that the tests were fairly accurate in sorting out the better motor men as demonstrated by actual experience. The conclusion was that the application of these tests to all men now em- ployed in driving sreet cars would eliminate about twenty-five per cent of them and doubtless greatly decrease the number of accidents. Dr. Munsterberg’s second experiment was undertaken at the request of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. This company employs about 23,000 operators. Applicants for positions are given three months’ preliminary training in the company’s schools during which time they are paid a salary. Even with this training, more than a third prove unfitted for the work that they drop out within six months. The request was that some effort be made to find a mehod of sorting out the unfit without the great expense of giving them this preliminary training. The girls were examined with reference to memory, attention, general intelligence, space perception, rapidity of movement, accuracy of movement, and association. The girls who showed best in the tests were the most efficient in actual service, and girls who stood low in the test were those who stood low in the company’s list,—who failed and left later. It seems