THIS special supplement to SCHOOL LIFE is a product of 6 months work by many people. Here in the un- of vocational education prompts this special presentation.-Editor. Foreword Camera Reports 1. More than 100 volunteer workers making war on weeds in a community potato field at Elwood, Ind. Community and individual "relief" gardens, in the planting and cultivation of which the townspeople of Elwood and the teacher and students of the vocational MILLIONS UNEMPLOYED! Like huge letters on billboards agriculture department have cooperated during the these two words-MILLIONS UNEMPLOYED have confronted every American and every American institution at every turn during the past 5 years. past 3 years, have yielded a large quantity of food for distribution to the needy, much of which has been canned. 2. Canning fruit, vegetables, and meats MILLIONS UNEMPLOYED. That is the hard, inescapable fact. for home consumption in Leslie, Ga. And with those two implacable words has gone an unwritten The more than 25,000 cans of food preserved under the second line-a challenge to every American supervision of the vocational agriculture teacher, for and every American institution: "What can home consumption, kept a number of families off relief rolls in this community. Canning centers of this type, open to relief families without charge, have been established in over 100 communities of the State and more than 2,000,000 cans of food have been prepared. 3. Rubber workers being retrained as silk workers in a vocational school at Williamsport, Pa. Vocational education has faced this central fact in American life during the past 5 years. Vocational education had to because those two words, MILLIONS UNEMPLOYED, stand like a barricade across the road to the goal of vocational education, which, in nontech- weaving, other unemployed girls and young men nical terms, is to help individuals "to get a job, hold a job, or get a better job." The President of the United States in signing the GeorgeEllzey Act making funds available for vocational education expressed the wish that the additional funds be used so far as possible for the relief of unemployment. While this course was planned for unemployed rubber workers, and 54 such workers were trained in silk enrolled and were successfully trained as silk weavers. 4. A vocational sewing center in Athens County, Ohio. One of several such centers in this county, in which 100 women, sole supporters of their families, received pay for making clothing for the needy, and at the same time were given instruction in sewing, nutrition, and health. Vocational class, building their own school in New Mexico. How vocational education has mustered its strength to help in the national drive to reduce unemployment is briefly reported in 5. Unemployed persons enrolled in a this special supplement. It is published to encourage renewed and unceasing efforts by vocational education in the battle against unemployment. This supplement follows up an earlier taught native crafts-spinning, weaving, woodwork mimeographed State by State summary of vocational education and unemployment. It is a record of which we may be justly proud. It is a record which shows that we can rely on vocational education to be a trustworthy friend to American citizens in time of need-a practical and helpful friend to help us meet many difficult personal problems created by the surging economic and social changes of our day. In this school these unemployed persons are now being ing, leather working-in which there is a shortage of skilled workers. 6. A vocational class in placer mining and prospecting for unemployed men. Hundreds of unemployed men in the States of Colorado, Idaho, and Oregon were enrolled in vocational classes in placer mining and prospecting, and enabled activity in which there is no danger of overproduction. to make a living producing precious metals-a field of 7. A class at the Washburne Continuation and Apprentice School in Chicago. There were not many vacant seats in this class. The "training and placing of victims of the depression" has been the most important work of this school during the past few years. Some 50 short-unit courses of from a month to 2 months duration are offered. 1931 1932 1933 1934 ་་་་ ་་་་ ་་་་ ་་་་ ་ Each figure stands for 500,000 unemployed persons.-From Report of the Committee on the period of unemployment the larger the odds against the worker. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION HELPS THE UNEMPLOYED By retraining him for a new job in his old field of employment. By training him for a job in a new field of employment. By finding a new job for him. By providing instruction to safeguard his morale during unemployment and to prevent his becoming permanently unemployable. FACT: By 1932 the depression had reduced farmers' purchasing power to one-third of what it was in 1929. And yet millions of unemployed city workers returned to farms. Successive droughts west of the Mississippi drove farmers to other sections of the country. Decrease in exports of agricultural products-particularly cotton and wheat-closed markets and threatened to liquidate farmers. Emergency agricultural legislation has introduced totally new conditions in American farming. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION HELPS THE FARMER: By helping farmers through adult classes to become intelligent about the new agricultural programs; agricultural adjustment, soil-erosion control, farm financing details, rural rehabilitation programs, reforestation, and subsistence homesteads. By aiding farmers who have lost their farms to become reestablished. By organizing nursery schools to care for the children of the unemployed. By instructing them in the proper feeding, clothing, and health-care of the family. By teaching them how to make over old rather than buy new garments and household articles. By organizing community centers for canning and preserving surplus food products for themselves and for distribution to the needy. By training unemployed girls and women for wage earning household employment. FACT: More than 12,000,000 young people-a number exceeding the total population of 11 far Western Stateshave reached the age of 18, the age of employability, since the October crash of 1929. A recent survey in one city disclosed that 1,300 out of 2,000 young persons 16 to 24 years of age seeking work were unemployed. This By assisting unemployed city workers Vocational Education: Its task, to make citizens Employabl going back to the farm to learn farming. 1917 Vocational Education Inaugurated FACT: There were 28,400,000 women VOCATIONAL EDUCATION HAS HELPED By organizing consumer education to |