Public opinion polls have shown that freedom in general, or in specific application, such as freedom of the press or of worship, repeatedly is mentioned as one of the most cherished advantages of the American form of government. Most Americans are proud to member freethinkers, such as Walt Whitman, Emerson, Thoreau, and others, and endorse the principles of freethinking -- however, usually only in abstracto. When it comes to concrete instances, "free thought" rapidly declines in stature and favorable appraisal. It is often said that America is a land of freedom of religion, but hardly from religion. For example, one who admits being an atheist generally meets with suspicion, rejection, and often active intolerance. This conflict between "free thought" and Christian piety has been visible in the long-drawn-out battles and polemics concerning prayer in public schools. Many parents are afraid that their children will suffer confusion at the hand of this open conflict. As one indignant mother put it:
What sort of country is this becoming! My son asked me the other day: "Mother, why can't we pray in school anymore?" I didn't know what to tell him. This nation has a great Christian heritage and should insist upon teaching and showing it in the class room. How can I make my child understand that he is living in a God-fearing country, if at the same time he is not allowed to pray in class rooms?
Work vs. Leisure
The Puritan tradition gave secular occupational activities religious sanction and viewed successful work as a sign of divine grace. This metaphysical compulsion to work was especially prevalent in the older rural culture of America and still is explicit in rural areas and certain subcultures that have not yet fully assimilated the more recent culture of leisure and conspicuous consumption. This, however, is not to say that work as a value in itself has vanished from the American scene; it merely has been diminished and now runs parallel with the new values of leisure and consumption. Thus, another typical Americanism can be observed: the seeming paradox of people engaging in hard work all year, only to spend their earnings in one or two grandiose gestures.
Competition vs. Cooperation
One of the central themes among American values is the stress on personal achievement, especially in respect to occupational achievement. The "success story" outlook and the esteem accorded to the "self-made man" are distinctly American traits. The American society maintains the value of fierce competition and glorifies "winners" -- whether this be the queen of a beauty contest or the farmer raising the finest cattle. Perhaps what has been said about American life is true, namely, that the values of the businessman dominate and permeate national life. Economic success has been so heavily stressed as to impose a widespread and persistent strain upon institutional regulation of permissible means for the attainment of this goal. In some extreme instances, only questions of technical effectiveness have entered into the choice of means for the success goal, and slogans such as "business is business" have been the apology of the "Robber Barons," much of organized crime, vice, and racketeering.
On the other hand, the proverbial generosity of the American people toward individuals, collectivities, and other countries facing catastrophes such as earthquakes, floods, famine, and epidemics is sincere and almost exaggerated. It is a real index of the religious or philosophical theme of the brotherhood of man. This polarity of competition and cooperation can be found to be a part of many specific situations in American life, including recurrent situations that involve young people. For example, in American schools, which are largely coeducational, boys and girls become aware very early that they are competing with one another, presumably for academic achievement, although it is probably more often for social prestige. The typical American grading system, the "on-the-curve" method, automatically converts boys and girls into competitors. Yet, on the other hand, they are expected to show mutual cooperation and helpfulness when it comes to other aspects of interaction, such as dating, courting, and marriage. The necessity of frequent abrupt switches from one style of interpersonal relation to another and the unclarity of when and how to do so introduce a high degree of stress and confusion into the boy-girl, and later the man-woman, relationship.
On the other hand, the proverbial generosity of the American people toward individuals, collectivities, and other countries facing catastrophes such as earthquakes, floods, famine, and epidemics is sincere and almost exaggerated. It is a real index of the religious or philosophical theme of the brotherhood of man. This polarity of competition and cooperation can be found to be a part of many specific situations in American life, including recurrent situations that involve young people. For example, in American schools, which are largely coeducational, boys and girls become aware very early that they are competing with one another, presumably for academic achievement, although it is probably more often for social prestige. The typical American grading system, the "on-the-curve" method, automatically converts boys and girls into competitors. Yet, on the other hand, they are expected to show mutual cooperation and helpfulness when it comes to other aspects of interaction, such as dating, courting, and marriage. The necessity of frequent abrupt switches from one style of interpersonal relation to another and the unclarity of when and how to do so introduce a high degree of stress and confusion into the boy-girl, and later the man-woman, relationship.
The All-American Dichotomies of Cultural Values
It has been said that whatever one may consider a truly American trait can be shown to have its equally characteristic opposite. Although dualism in value patterns can be observed in most present-day larger societies, American society appears to subject its members to more extreme contrasts than is normally the case. Americans are faced during their lifetimes with alternatives which frequently represent such polarities as harsh competition and kind cooperation, a virtual fanaticism for hard work and a craving for leisure time, a pious-religious orientation and generous free thinking. These dynamic polarities complicate role definitions, make the smooth flow of a uniformly patterned life cycle impossible, and disturb the individual with a number of value discontinuities.
It would require an involved historical treatment to explore the roots of these dualisms in the American ethos and to arrive at a valid explanation for their development. Such elaboration is obviously not possible here, and brief reference to a number of historical antecedents must be sufficient. First, the Judeo-Christian heritage, so abundant in basic dualisms, has exerted one of the strongest influences. Second, some schisms and inconsistencies in American culture can be explained by the heterogeneous background of the United States' population. Unlike the cultural development of other countries, the American ethos did not evolve from one homogeneous group but from a conglomerate of ethnic and racial groups, each with its own convictions and mode of life. Third, a number of value dichotomies have evolved out of a unique interplay of social forces, including the American experience of opening up the New World and the adherence to certain moral and humanitarian principles. The challenge of the new and vast continent and the tasks of mastering it called for a sense of pragmatism, efficiency, and prompt style of problem-solving that often violated equally accepted moral and humanitarian principles such as cooperation, kindness, honesty, and respect for individuality. As a result of these divergent cultural themes, there is frequent value conflict or evasive compartmentalization of incompatible attitudes.
Among the manifold value schisms, some deserve specific mention because they cause confusion and uncertainty for Americans in general and for youth in specific. One must not lose sight of the fact that for a young individual who is in the process of forming his identity, there are not many conditions as exasperating and vexing as conflicting norms and values. Conflicting norms and values on the societal level normally have their lasting counterparts on the personal level. The following are examples of the prevalent polarities in American culture.
It would require an involved historical treatment to explore the roots of these dualisms in the American ethos and to arrive at a valid explanation for their development. Such elaboration is obviously not possible here, and brief reference to a number of historical antecedents must be sufficient. First, the Judeo-Christian heritage, so abundant in basic dualisms, has exerted one of the strongest influences. Second, some schisms and inconsistencies in American culture can be explained by the heterogeneous background of the United States' population. Unlike the cultural development of other countries, the American ethos did not evolve from one homogeneous group but from a conglomerate of ethnic and racial groups, each with its own convictions and mode of life. Third, a number of value dichotomies have evolved out of a unique interplay of social forces, including the American experience of opening up the New World and the adherence to certain moral and humanitarian principles. The challenge of the new and vast continent and the tasks of mastering it called for a sense of pragmatism, efficiency, and prompt style of problem-solving that often violated equally accepted moral and humanitarian principles such as cooperation, kindness, honesty, and respect for individuality. As a result of these divergent cultural themes, there is frequent value conflict or evasive compartmentalization of incompatible attitudes.
Among the manifold value schisms, some deserve specific mention because they cause confusion and uncertainty for Americans in general and for youth in specific. One must not lose sight of the fact that for a young individual who is in the process of forming his identity, there are not many conditions as exasperating and vexing as conflicting norms and values. Conflicting norms and values on the societal level normally have their lasting counterparts on the personal level. The following are examples of the prevalent polarities in American culture.
Climbing the Economic Factor - Adjustment of Youth
In our contemporary open-class society, which permits shifting from one socioeconomic level to another, occupation tends not only to determine social status but also informal types of association. Interest groups and informal association groups in urban society are for the most part made up of those engaged in similar occupations rather than of those who live near by, as is true in rural societies. For this reason, people who differ rather decidedly in background are likely to be thrown together in informal social participation.Youth, as they climb upward through our open-class society, find themselves thrown from one sociooccupational group to another. There is, as a consequence, the necessity of adjustment to the standards, codes, and social ideologies of the new social groups. The farm youth, for example, who enters the professions will find his life patterns and group associations vastly different from what they would have been had he stayed in the parental occupation. George Bernard Shaw play Pygmalion described some of the difficulties of this process of social climbing strikingly. Higgins, professor of phonetics, takes Eliza Doolittle, a flower girl, from the streets and decides to reeducate her in speech habits, dress, and manners so that she can pass for a refined lady. After six months of experimental coaching, the great test came when she appeared as a guest at a garden party. She is "a triumph of art and the dressmaker," but gives herself away in every sentence she utters and, in spite of all her coaching, did not naturally come by all of the niceties that were required by the level of society which she was supposed to represent.The setting of this play was in English society, where lines between the classes are more clearly drawn than in America, but the play does illustrate the difficulties of acquiring new behavior patterns as young people climb the ladder from one occupational class to another.
Work and Status
Personal worth is rated in our culture to a considerable extent by the kind of job one holds and by the amount of money it returns in the way of salary or wages. Different jobs have different prestige values as well as different money values. It is not always true that the job that produces the most money rates the highest in prestige. Almost the opposite is true with many jobs in America. The professions are rated relatively high from the standpoint of prestige and yet do not produce so large an income as certain other occupations. Many skilled workmen, for example, make considerably more money than the average teacher or even the college professor in the lower academic ranks.
It seems likely that youth's vocational interests are too much influenced at the present time by the prestige value of a job. During the great depression several studies of the vocational interests of youth showed that a much higher proportion wanted to get into white-collar and professional jobs than society could expect to have in these positions. The prestige values of these jobs are probably reflected in these choices. In wartime, on the other hand, this scheme of values changed very radically. Welders and other overall workers in shipyards, airplane factories, etc., were highly regarded, so that not only men but women flocked to these jobs by the thousands, proud to come home on the streetcars in dirty clothes with their identification badges pinned to their overall bibs or cap bills. So it is that in different periods social pressures tend to modify group evaluations and, consequently, youth's vocational desires.
Many times these social pressures are distorted and have little relationship to the actual needs of society for workers in a given field. It would seem that the school has a responsibility in this regard, trying to give adolescence and youth more realistic views of the kinds of jobs which the majority of them can expect to enter.
It seems likely that youth's vocational interests are too much influenced at the present time by the prestige value of a job. During the great depression several studies of the vocational interests of youth showed that a much higher proportion wanted to get into white-collar and professional jobs than society could expect to have in these positions. The prestige values of these jobs are probably reflected in these choices. In wartime, on the other hand, this scheme of values changed very radically. Welders and other overall workers in shipyards, airplane factories, etc., were highly regarded, so that not only men but women flocked to these jobs by the thousands, proud to come home on the streetcars in dirty clothes with their identification badges pinned to their overall bibs or cap bills. So it is that in different periods social pressures tend to modify group evaluations and, consequently, youth's vocational desires.
Many times these social pressures are distorted and have little relationship to the actual needs of society for workers in a given field. It would seem that the school has a responsibility in this regard, trying to give adolescence and youth more realistic views of the kinds of jobs which the majority of them can expect to enter.
Occupations and Personality
We too seldom think of the profound effect of occupation upon personality. The writer was never sufficiently impressed with this fact until one day when he was walking down the street of a large city and noticed a man in a laundry truck drive up to the curb and climb out to unload packages. The figure bore a striking resemblance to a widely photographed monarch whose picture appears in the presses of all literate nations of the world. He had about the same stoop of shoulder, the same profile, the same smile. Whether the men were of equal ability as well as of similar appearance is not known, but men in equally divergent occupations could, if circumstances in their lives had been different, readily have been in each other's places, carrying on each other's occupation. In America there are many drivers of laundry trucks who have ability equal to that of monarchs who rule great empires, but their life organizations are entirely different. The personality of each is shaped by his task. The code of conduct for each is prescribed by his different social role.
Vocation in adulthood becomes one of the most significant keys to personality in a complex society, for the vocation is, in fact, a personality former. One's vocation determines in a major sense the core values of one's life, the kind of things one rates most highly. Vocation becomes a key to mental processes, to the routine of life habits, time of rising and retiring, kind of reading matter, lack of reading matter. Associations are largely within the vocation.
Vocation has much to do with a man's happiness. A psychiatrist of unquestioned reputation in lecturing to a group told of cases that had come to him with hysterical symptoms. Among them none was more interesting than that of a wealthy Jewish attorney of New York City who, when he came to the clinic, described his pains as centered for the most part in his digestive apparatus. A thorough examination proved that there was nothing wrong organically. Upon questioning it was learned that the attacks always came after a strenuous court case. Further questioning revealed that the man hated his work and had never wanted to enter it. His father was a man who told his children what they were to do and saw that they did it. It soon came out that he disliked and dreaded his work and that he had always wanted to live an outdoor life. Under the advice of the psychiatrist he called his father, told him that hereafter he was going to live his own life, and then made arrangements to go into a lumber camp with a friend. For the first time he faced the future of his dreams, and his days at the clinic were ended.
It is for these reasons and not for economic reasons alone that the choice of a vocation is of critical importance in the life of the modern individual. In fact, it is for these reasons primarily, rather than for economic reasons, that the choice of one vocation over another is of utmost importance. No amount of money can make a vocation compatible to one's temperament, interests, and habit system.
The fact remains that many parents are inclined to consider the choice of a vocation primarily from the standpoint of economic security or status of the position, overlooking the fact that for the youth the vocation must, first of all, satisfy his basic interests and emotions. Happiness and satisfaction in life are likely to be determined as much by the job as by marriage. This is as true for the woman who spends her life in a gainful occupation as it is for the man.
The job is a means through which the male acquires not only a considerable part of his social status, but also the prime avenue through which he expresses creative energy. Through its routines and habits, he achieves the basic satisfactions that come from accomplishment. In the kinds of relations it inevitably imposes upon him, he makes many of his most important adjustments to social groups.
It is for some of these reasons that vocational choice takes on great significance in the life pattern of the adolescent and youth. It is for these reasons, also, that some degree of choice on their part and some degree of experimentation are desirable.
Vocation in adulthood becomes one of the most significant keys to personality in a complex society, for the vocation is, in fact, a personality former. One's vocation determines in a major sense the core values of one's life, the kind of things one rates most highly. Vocation becomes a key to mental processes, to the routine of life habits, time of rising and retiring, kind of reading matter, lack of reading matter. Associations are largely within the vocation.
Vocation has much to do with a man's happiness. A psychiatrist of unquestioned reputation in lecturing to a group told of cases that had come to him with hysterical symptoms. Among them none was more interesting than that of a wealthy Jewish attorney of New York City who, when he came to the clinic, described his pains as centered for the most part in his digestive apparatus. A thorough examination proved that there was nothing wrong organically. Upon questioning it was learned that the attacks always came after a strenuous court case. Further questioning revealed that the man hated his work and had never wanted to enter it. His father was a man who told his children what they were to do and saw that they did it. It soon came out that he disliked and dreaded his work and that he had always wanted to live an outdoor life. Under the advice of the psychiatrist he called his father, told him that hereafter he was going to live his own life, and then made arrangements to go into a lumber camp with a friend. For the first time he faced the future of his dreams, and his days at the clinic were ended.
It is for these reasons and not for economic reasons alone that the choice of a vocation is of critical importance in the life of the modern individual. In fact, it is for these reasons primarily, rather than for economic reasons, that the choice of one vocation over another is of utmost importance. No amount of money can make a vocation compatible to one's temperament, interests, and habit system.
The fact remains that many parents are inclined to consider the choice of a vocation primarily from the standpoint of economic security or status of the position, overlooking the fact that for the youth the vocation must, first of all, satisfy his basic interests and emotions. Happiness and satisfaction in life are likely to be determined as much by the job as by marriage. This is as true for the woman who spends her life in a gainful occupation as it is for the man.
The job is a means through which the male acquires not only a considerable part of his social status, but also the prime avenue through which he expresses creative energy. Through its routines and habits, he achieves the basic satisfactions that come from accomplishment. In the kinds of relations it inevitably imposes upon him, he makes many of his most important adjustments to social groups.
It is for some of these reasons that vocational choice takes on great significance in the life pattern of the adolescent and youth. It is for these reasons, also, that some degree of choice on their part and some degree of experimentation are desirable.
Income As A Factor In Freedom From Parental Authority
The elimination of child labor was essential at the beginning stage of the industrial revolution. There are many situations in which the exclusion of adolescents and youth also from the work world is desirable. On the other hand, it would seem that there are many points at which urban-industrial society has gone to an extreme in this direction.
Work has many values aside from the purely economic. It is important that young people be introduced gradually into the work responsibilities and attitudes of adulthood. With work and a separate income also comes a growing sense of independence. Without earning power there can be little independence from the family. The saying, "He who pays the piper calls the tune," is as true in the average family as elsewhere. As long as the parent pays the bills, his authority is likely to overshadow the activities of his child. With economic self-sufficiency, the child begins to evade parental authority and to make independent decisions. Adulthood in the community is measured by the ability to make one's living. Handicaps in the way of adolescents and youth earning part of their way and learning to handle money and make decisions involving the spending of it are crippling factors in their development.
In WPA days of the thirties many youth could not take a job without seeing the parent dropped from his job, and thus were denied the opportunity to move out from under parental authority and achieve economic maturity. In contrast was the experience of other youth who succeeded in finding nonrelief jobs but whose parents were unemployed. On them was thrown the economic responsibility of the family so that they were forced to shoulder the full burdens of economic adulthood without being able to marry and establish independent families of their own. Both of these situations create difficulties for youth.
The Maryland youth study of the middle thirties showed that about one in five youths, sixteen to twenty-four years of age, was helping support or completely supporting his parents. In only about a third of these cases was the help considered necessary. Boys were more often helping to support their parents than girls. Twenty-five per cent of the boys, as compared with 13 per cent of girls, were contributing to parents' support.
The extent to which the group sixteen to twenty-four years of age assumed financial responsibility depended a great deal on the occupation of the family. Only 9.3 per cent of those in professional and technical families were contributing to them. At the other extreme, a third of the children in farm-labor households made financial contributions to the families.
In the modern urban environment the need of the young adolescent for money in connection with school, recreation, transportation, etc., is a constant drain on the family budget, even in middle-class families, to say nothing of families in the low-income classes. The Lynds point out that in Middletown children in all occupational classes carry money earlier and carry more of it than their parents did when they were young. Middletown high-school boys and girls indicated that spending money was a source of disagreement between them and their parents. Thirty-seven per cent of 348 high-school boys indicated this was a point of friction and 29 per cent of 382 girls.
In the urban young person's quest for status in the peer group and for recognition by and association with the opposite sex, pecuniary values are likely to rate very highly. The ability to own an automobile or to drive their parents' car, to have money for the show and soda fountain, for the dance, plays, athletic games, and other recreational activities, most of which are now commercialized, makes money important to school youths long before they are able to earn it for themselves. In a peer group the boy's rating among the girls is determined in part by the amount of money he is able to spend, and the favors of a girl's association are likely to be most accessible, other things being equal, to the young man whose parents are able or willing to provide a liberal cash allowance.
In all these situations one must take into account, then, that spending money is an important status-gaining device.
It is true that money as a status-gaining device does not always accomplish the end desired. This is especially true when the youth tries to use it as a means of compensating for feelings of inferiority in other lines and goes to a snobbish extreme that fails to bring him the favorable attention he seeks. A college youth, analyzing his experience in using money as a device for compensating for his lack of ability in sports and group play, used money in an attempt to gain status but, failing, was driven to seek introverted satisfactions.
Because I was the only child and my dad was making a fairly good living, I was able to afford a better bicycle and spend a little more money on candy and such things than my playmates. This separated me from them all the more, and being in a small community I could not change my play group. Thus I developed several defense mechanisms against what I thought was a hostile attitude. I became independent and kept to myself, read books for recreation, and attempted to make playmates jealous by a new bicycle, clothes, and extra money. That this was wrong and did not work can easily be seen.
Work has many values aside from the purely economic. It is important that young people be introduced gradually into the work responsibilities and attitudes of adulthood. With work and a separate income also comes a growing sense of independence. Without earning power there can be little independence from the family. The saying, "He who pays the piper calls the tune," is as true in the average family as elsewhere. As long as the parent pays the bills, his authority is likely to overshadow the activities of his child. With economic self-sufficiency, the child begins to evade parental authority and to make independent decisions. Adulthood in the community is measured by the ability to make one's living. Handicaps in the way of adolescents and youth earning part of their way and learning to handle money and make decisions involving the spending of it are crippling factors in their development.
In WPA days of the thirties many youth could not take a job without seeing the parent dropped from his job, and thus were denied the opportunity to move out from under parental authority and achieve economic maturity. In contrast was the experience of other youth who succeeded in finding nonrelief jobs but whose parents were unemployed. On them was thrown the economic responsibility of the family so that they were forced to shoulder the full burdens of economic adulthood without being able to marry and establish independent families of their own. Both of these situations create difficulties for youth.
The Maryland youth study of the middle thirties showed that about one in five youths, sixteen to twenty-four years of age, was helping support or completely supporting his parents. In only about a third of these cases was the help considered necessary. Boys were more often helping to support their parents than girls. Twenty-five per cent of the boys, as compared with 13 per cent of girls, were contributing to parents' support.
The extent to which the group sixteen to twenty-four years of age assumed financial responsibility depended a great deal on the occupation of the family. Only 9.3 per cent of those in professional and technical families were contributing to them. At the other extreme, a third of the children in farm-labor households made financial contributions to the families.
In the modern urban environment the need of the young adolescent for money in connection with school, recreation, transportation, etc., is a constant drain on the family budget, even in middle-class families, to say nothing of families in the low-income classes. The Lynds point out that in Middletown children in all occupational classes carry money earlier and carry more of it than their parents did when they were young. Middletown high-school boys and girls indicated that spending money was a source of disagreement between them and their parents. Thirty-seven per cent of 348 high-school boys indicated this was a point of friction and 29 per cent of 382 girls.
In the urban young person's quest for status in the peer group and for recognition by and association with the opposite sex, pecuniary values are likely to rate very highly. The ability to own an automobile or to drive their parents' car, to have money for the show and soda fountain, for the dance, plays, athletic games, and other recreational activities, most of which are now commercialized, makes money important to school youths long before they are able to earn it for themselves. In a peer group the boy's rating among the girls is determined in part by the amount of money he is able to spend, and the favors of a girl's association are likely to be most accessible, other things being equal, to the young man whose parents are able or willing to provide a liberal cash allowance.
In all these situations one must take into account, then, that spending money is an important status-gaining device.
It is true that money as a status-gaining device does not always accomplish the end desired. This is especially true when the youth tries to use it as a means of compensating for feelings of inferiority in other lines and goes to a snobbish extreme that fails to bring him the favorable attention he seeks. A college youth, analyzing his experience in using money as a device for compensating for his lack of ability in sports and group play, used money in an attempt to gain status but, failing, was driven to seek introverted satisfactions.
Because I was the only child and my dad was making a fairly good living, I was able to afford a better bicycle and spend a little more money on candy and such things than my playmates. This separated me from them all the more, and being in a small community I could not change my play group. Thus I developed several defense mechanisms against what I thought was a hostile attitude. I became independent and kept to myself, read books for recreation, and attempted to make playmates jealous by a new bicycle, clothes, and extra money. That this was wrong and did not work can easily be seen.
The Bearing of Economic Forces on the Adjustments of Adolescents and Youth
First has been the long-time tendency in American life to shift from an agricultural to an industrial economy, from rural self-sufficiency to the commercial orientation of all economic activity. This trend has continually reduced the number of selfemployed persons in the economy and has made an increasing proportion of the population dependent upon others, primarily industrial corporations, for jobs. Increased emphasis on invention, technology, and mass production, as developed under the American system of corporate industrial management, has characterized this development. Efficiency of operation demands the concentration of wealth, human energy, and management into large units of production. In these great industrial organizations employment is dependent upon the needs of the corporation which, in turn, reflects market conditions. The welfare of the individual employee is of secondary concern.
Second has been the bringing to a climax of the long period of agitation against child labor. The early factory systems exploited children, youths, and women. A socially minded society had to develop protective devices to guarantee the health and education of its citizens. The general tendency has been to increase the age level at which adolescents can enter so-called "hazardous" occupations. Once it was fourteen, now in most cities it is sixteen, and, for certain kinds of highly mechanized industries, eighteen. This purposeful exclusion of adolescents and youths from the labor market by social legislation has been matched by a comparable increase in ages of compulsory schooling which in many states have risen from fourteen to sixteen.
Third has been the growth of labor unions which have come to control entry to occupations according to the number of jobs available. Emphasis upon seniority rights, which employers have come to recognize, gives the established experienced worker an advantage over youth.
Fourth has been the general trend of American industry and agriculture to replace man power with machine power in the interest of economy, safety, and general efficiency. These normal trends, which have been continuous over a period of a century, were given great impetus by the First World War and again by the Second World War, when man-power shortages were felt. With this trend of development in the industrial culture, jobs have not been adequate for periods when the demand for industrial products was low. As a consequence, large employers of labor have felt it necessary to exclude some group from the labor market. The inexperienced youth group without family responsibilities and without particular value to the industrial machine has been the easiest to exclude, even easier than the aged to whom industry acknowledged a responsibility in some cases because of a long term of service.
It is because of these major social forces and others which are closely, related to this whole complex of urban-industrial civilization that many more youth in peacetime have been reaching the point in life where they are ready to work to find no jobs forthcoming and have also been unable to go out on their own and create jobs for themselves. The American Youth Commission, in summarizing a series of studies, reports that they become more certain, as their studies progressed,
. . . that the major causes of youth unemployment are to be found in basic economic trends rather than in social and educational institutions for youth. Very, few youth are so unemployable that they cannot be employed when jobs are available. . . .
Second has been the bringing to a climax of the long period of agitation against child labor. The early factory systems exploited children, youths, and women. A socially minded society had to develop protective devices to guarantee the health and education of its citizens. The general tendency has been to increase the age level at which adolescents can enter so-called "hazardous" occupations. Once it was fourteen, now in most cities it is sixteen, and, for certain kinds of highly mechanized industries, eighteen. This purposeful exclusion of adolescents and youths from the labor market by social legislation has been matched by a comparable increase in ages of compulsory schooling which in many states have risen from fourteen to sixteen.
Third has been the growth of labor unions which have come to control entry to occupations according to the number of jobs available. Emphasis upon seniority rights, which employers have come to recognize, gives the established experienced worker an advantage over youth.
Fourth has been the general trend of American industry and agriculture to replace man power with machine power in the interest of economy, safety, and general efficiency. These normal trends, which have been continuous over a period of a century, were given great impetus by the First World War and again by the Second World War, when man-power shortages were felt. With this trend of development in the industrial culture, jobs have not been adequate for periods when the demand for industrial products was low. As a consequence, large employers of labor have felt it necessary to exclude some group from the labor market. The inexperienced youth group without family responsibilities and without particular value to the industrial machine has been the easiest to exclude, even easier than the aged to whom industry acknowledged a responsibility in some cases because of a long term of service.
It is because of these major social forces and others which are closely, related to this whole complex of urban-industrial civilization that many more youth in peacetime have been reaching the point in life where they are ready to work to find no jobs forthcoming and have also been unable to go out on their own and create jobs for themselves. The American Youth Commission, in summarizing a series of studies, reports that they become more certain, as their studies progressed,
. . . that the major causes of youth unemployment are to be found in basic economic trends rather than in social and educational institutions for youth. Very, few youth are so unemployable that they cannot be employed when jobs are available. . . .
The School's Vocational Responsibility
The old school program was basically a one-track program. Its aim was academic training for further education. Some schools today are still of this pattern, although the two-track program is now more common. One curriculum aims toward academic advancement, and the other aims directly at vocational training. Even a more diversified program is needed in the average school system. Guidance loses a considerable part of its effectiveness if the school program is not versatile enough to train the student in the direction of his aptitudes. The school must also be equipped to follow up guidance and training with actual placement in the labor market. Studies of the American Youth Commission show clearly that young people sense a vital need for help in locating the jobs for which they are best fitted. They resort to everything from palm reading to blind trial and error in finding their way toward suitable vocations. Bell made the following indictment of education's failure to meet adequately the needs of youth in both fields. He indicated that they had found youth trying
. . . to find adequate satisfaction in such things as a secondary education that still prepares them for colleges that most of them will never see, in a system of vocational training that continues to train them for jobs that most of them will never find, and colleges of "liberal" arts that develop cultural tastes that a larger society refuses to satisfy . . . .
Three tendencies are operating to relieve the schools of the responsibility of providing young people with specialized vocational training. First, the limited extent to which modern occupations require such training. Second, the important role industry is playing in the provision of this training. And finally, the possibilities of the unfortunately slow but clearly obvious tendency to expand programs of apprenticeship, so that the schools' responsibility should be increasingly limited to the provision of part-time instruction related to the apprentice's needs.
. . . to find adequate satisfaction in such things as a secondary education that still prepares them for colleges that most of them will never see, in a system of vocational training that continues to train them for jobs that most of them will never find, and colleges of "liberal" arts that develop cultural tastes that a larger society refuses to satisfy . . . .
Three tendencies are operating to relieve the schools of the responsibility of providing young people with specialized vocational training. First, the limited extent to which modern occupations require such training. Second, the important role industry is playing in the provision of this training. And finally, the possibilities of the unfortunately slow but clearly obvious tendency to expand programs of apprenticeship, so that the schools' responsibility should be increasingly limited to the provision of part-time instruction related to the apprentice's needs.
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