Maple Avenue Evening High School - Progress Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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Adult Education Essential By WILLIAM GIBBS McADOO Former Secretary of the U. S. Treasury Y experience in life convinces me that, no matter how long a man may live or how much he may learn in schools and colleges and in practical affairs, he can never get too much education The world is so vast in area and diversification, populations are so great and of such varied races, social, economic and political problems are of such com- plexity and magnitude, that human brains of increasing power and know- ledge are required to deal with them. These brains cannot be developed with- out constant application and study and even the most powerful brains, at the end of a long lifetime of strenuous and intelligent effort, will know little at best, in comparison with the vast storehouse of knowledge which a superman would have to possess to contend successfully with the greatest problems that are inseparably connected with human life and progress. It therefore behooves every man al and Woman to acquife 311 the know- Underwood 8: Underwood Studios ledge, theoretical and practical, that they can possibly get if they want to add to their effectiveness and increase their chances of success. Life is a continuous school and there is an unconscious and constant absorption of knowledge by the intelligent individual, in addition to the conscious knowledge he gains from actual and direct effort. Adult schools, especially of the vocational character, supply, I think, Page Thirty-three L

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Problems of the Vocational School N O one can come in contact with employers in many cities, in dealing with apprentices particularly, without observing how badly informed they are on the functions of the Vocational School. Of this the average employer, superintendent, or foreman, has only a hazy idea. Usually he is prejudiced against them and this prejudice is often strengthened when he asks a vocational school pupil what is being taught him and receives an unsatisfactory reply. Here again Los Angeles has come to the front, and in her Part-Time Vocational classes has given to the average employer an excellent chance to find out to just what extent the public school can be of service to him. Vocational schools and vocational departments of our public schools are still in their infancy. Few realize what a multitude of problems the director has to face. His is a big job. There is as much difference in handling vocational students and students of the regular High School as there is between day and night. Results call for assistance from employer and employee, and one of the greatest problems lies here. Vocational classes in the public schools are for the purpose of furnish- ing employees with more or less general and less specific training than say-a corporation school, and in this way they lay the foundation for that later specialization. Preparatory vocational classes in industrial, trade and commercial work give elementary preparation to young people before they go to work. These classes have certain distinct and well-recognized values. They serve as a selective process, helping young people to find out before they go to work what are the things in which they are interested, and what are the things at which they are likely to be most proficient. This is helping a great deal in the more intelligent choice of a career and better fitting of employes to their work. These schools are rescuing from the scrap pile many boys and girls who are not interested in the re- gular public school work of the high school type-who find their best ex- pression in dealing with things concretely and learn best by doing-and who see things better when they are related to what they are doing. This is distinct salvage. Such schools are laying the ground work for a broader understandingand an appreciation of quantities, of problems, and of ap- plication of knowledge to industrial fields. Page Thirty-two

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one of the most admirable possible means of increasing the knowledge and power of those who use them and I can think of no advice I could give that would be more useful to the average man and woman of ambition and high purpose, than to gain all the benefit they can from this adult educational Work. It is not, of course, given to every man or woman to be great, in the sense that we ordinarily use that term but it is given to every man and Woman to become useful citizens through demonstrated character, ability and service and to become great in this respect, in the work that is allotted to them in life. ' It is the sum of the effort of citizenship of this character which lifts democracy to higher levels and makes a people, in the noblest sense, the leaders of an advancing civilization. .1 'W d'Jewelry'Class 'I H V E Page Thirty-four